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Axios Latino is the newsletter that summarizes the key news for Latino communities in the hemisphere every Tuesday and Thursday.
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1. The theme to highlight: The 'lowriders'
Women are debunking the myth that
lowriding,
the Mexican-American culture around classic cars with low-slung suspension and bright paint colors, is a man's game.
In the US they are creating women's
lowrider
clubs and
tuning
their cars to show that they too can lead in that tradition.
General overview
: Women's clubs have emerged in recent years
from California to New Mexico, countering the sexism that many say is pervasive in this culture.
They have popular channels on YouTube and Instagram where they fix up their cars and show off how they bounce around on the hydraulics.
They hold fundraisers, travel together, attend car shows, and participate in community events.
A 1948 Chevrolet Impala car done up in a lowrider style.
The detail on the front grille reads "Dueñas Car Club". Courtesy of Angel Romero
Current Situation
: Women have always been a part of
lowrider
culture , but they were often sidelined, considered just the driver's "girlfriend" or a passenger, explains Jennie Luna, a professor of Chicano Studies at California Channel Islands State University, to Axios Latino.
"Creating our own lowrider
clubs
is countering the misogynistic and patriarchal nature that exists not only in
lowriding
, but in all aspects of Mexican communities that deny women expression," she said.
In her own words:
"I've made enemies [who] don't think we should get involved in
lowriding
," said Debbie Tigerina Martin, 62.
She founded the group Lady Lowriders United to support and encourage other women.
Angel Romero of Sunnyvale, California founded the Dueñas Car Club in June 2019 for women to feel empowered and share their love for cars like her 1965 Chevy Impala.
"
Lowrider
culture and, I think, Latino culture in general, makes it seem like women just sit in the back seat or take care of the house while supporting the man," Romero lamented.
"But we women are showing what we are made of and that we do belong here."
Background
: Mexican-Americans, after World War II in the 1940s, began customizing their cars using skills they learned in the Army.
A member of Lady Lowriders United Courtesy of Debbie Tigerina Martin for Axios Latino
In the 1950s, several cities passed measures banning low and cruiser cars.
The cops said
lowriders
were connected to gangs and crime;
for activists, the officers discriminated against them.
Lowriders reacted
by
adding hydraulics that lift parts of their cars, to circumvent laws that prohibited cars from being too low to the ground while maintaining their defiant style of showing off the tricked-out vehicle while
cruising
at constant
speed
.
Partly because of that history,
lowriding
became an activity with a political tenor around the 1970s, during the civil rights protests of the so-called Chicano Movement.
These cars were used at various community events and marches.
Between the lines
:
Lowriding
clubs in Los Angeles County are pushing for the removal of these ordinances against these cars, saying they are racist because they focus on a very Mexican-American culture, some told CBS.
Several California cities have recently lifted the bans, including San Jose, which removed it at the end of 2022.
2. Brazil focuses on suspicious officers
Following the coup assault in Brasília on January 8, Brazilian authorities are targeting both those who broke into official buildings and public officials who may have helped plan, incite or allow the attack to happen.
In his own words
: "Those who invaded knew about the buildings, they knew what the floor plans were like," Ricardo Cappelli, appointed by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, said yesterday at a press conference to direct the temporary federal intervention of capital security.
Capelli announced that they are especially investigating the military police unit that patrols the Congress buildings, the Planalto presidential palace and the Supreme Court.
A former Justice Minister of Jair Bolsonaro is arrested in Brazil
Jan 15, 202300:22
More details
: This weekend the former security secretary of Brasilia, Anderson Torres, was arrested, accused of conspiring to allow the attacks (he says he acted "ethically and legally").
Bolsonaro, who had been in Florida since before the assault, has also been designated as a person of interest in the investigation, on suspicion of inciting violent groups.
His lawyer said Friday that the former president "vehemently repudiates the acts of vandalism and depredation of public property by those who infiltrated the protests," without providing evidence that there were actually infiltrators among his followers during the assault.
The commander of the capital's military police and three employees of the capital's Ministry of Health are among the 1,400 people detained or released on bail.
The commander has not commented on the charges, but previously said he followed protocol during the attack.
It also came to light that members of the military tried to help some suspects in the assault avoid arrest, officials told The Washington Post.
Meanwhile
, Lula's government —which had barely been in power for a week when the attacks occurred— tries to continue with its political plans while the investigation continues.
The health authorities yesterday revoked a rule from the Bolsonaro era that forced doctors to report abortions to the police even when they were legal (which in Brazil they are in case of rape and health dangers of continuing the pregnancy to term for pregnant person or fetus).
Sônia Guajajara, who took office on Thursday as first minister of Indigenous Peoples, yesterday abolished a Bolsonaro-era rule that allowed logging on native community reserves.
3. Serious political attack in New Mexico
Police in Albuquerque, New Mexico, have arrested Solomon Pena, a former Republican candidate for the state House of Representatives who lost the November election and is now accused of organizing shootings at the offices and homes of Democratic elected officials.
News Push:
Pena was arrested by a special SWAT team, an Albuquerque city spokesperson told Axios.
Solomon PeñaRoberto E. Rosales/Albuquerque Journal
The building where he was detained is the same one where he located his campaign address, according to the Albuquerque Journal.
Authorities had arrested another suspect on January 9 for six shootings against state Democratic officers.
To Watch:
Pena is accused of conspiring with and paying four men to shoot up the homes of two state commissioners and two state legislators, Albuquerque Police Department Chief Harold Medina said on Twitter.
Background
: The Albuquerque police began investigating the shootings on December 4, when the first was recorded against Adriann Barboa, Bernalillo County Commissioner.
A week later there were shots at the home of former Commissioner Debbie O'Malley, and the following week two more attacks: on January 3 at the home of State Senator Linda Lopez and on January 5 at the offices of State Senator Antonio
Moe
. teachers.
In December, attacks were also reported against the campaign headquarters of Raúl Torrez, the new state attorney general of New Mexico;
and Javier Martinez, who is expected to be the new leader of the state House of Representatives.
Peña lost the election by a wide margin, but tweeted that he was not going to recognize the results.
The police have indicated that they visited three houses of the officials attacked at other times, accusing according to him that the election was fraudulent.
4. The impact of MLK on Latinos
Hoping to organize a popular march against poverty, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was working with Mexican-American civil rights leaders in Texas and California a few months before his assassination in 1968.
A mural showing Martin Luther King Jr. in an area of Los Angeles next to a Latino-owned seafood restaurant, in 1998.David Butow/Corbis via Getty Images
Coretta Scott King, the widowed MLK activist, followed up on that idea;
a decade after the reverend's assassination, she marched with Chicano activist César Chávez.
And in more recent years, MLK has been celebrated by Hispanic farm workers, who wear clothing with his face, and by newly naturalized Latinos.
Judith Escobar, a native of El Salvador, poses with her naturalization certificate in front of the MLK Jr. monument, in 2015Alex Wong/Getty Images
As we commemorate Martin Luther King Jr. Day this week, we're putting together some other photos that show how many Latinos in the US and Latin America have been inspired by the late activist.
See all the photos by clicking here.
5. Summary of key news in Latin America and the Caribbean
1. A record 328,443 Nicaraguans
fled their country last year, according to a report by the International Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights (Raza e Igualdad).
Mass emigration, mainly to Costa Rica and the United States, coincided with the Daniel Ortega regime redoubling repression against anyone considered a dissident.
2. Uruguayan authorities extended
a declaration of agricultural emergency due to drought until April.
Under the emergency, first established in October, funds are being given to farm and livestock workers.
Uruguay's cattle industry is key to its economy.
6. 💃🏽 Joys of the sauce
An all-female salsa band that formed during the pandemic is making a splash in the music scene.
This all-female salsa band is conquering people across the United States
Dec 22, 202202:03
Details
: New York-based Lulada Club, named after a Colombian fruit drink, has performed on big venues like the Lincoln Center Atrium.
The band is made up of nine musicians and a dancer on stage.
They are all from different Latin American origins.
In her own words
: “It has been especially important to play in schools and similar venues because girls and other women come up and tell us how great it is to see someone like them on that stage,” says saxophonist Katherine Ocampo.
Thanks for reading us!
We return on Thursday.
Do you want to read any of the previous editions?
Why teaching about diversity in schools will be a big battle this year
The political consequences of the coup assault in Brazil: "Everything is a few degrees more difficult for Lula"
Prospects for 2023 in Latin America: elections, uncertainty and climate change
The secret history of violence of the Texas Rangers: this group wants to reveal it