Saturday, May 18, 2013
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
My Interview on NY1's "Road to City Hall"
8:14 PM
NY1 Online: Councilman Offers Proposal To Expand Voting Rights
http://www.ny1.com/content/politics/road_to_city_hall/182093/ny1-online--councilman-offers-proposal-to-expand-voting-rights
My articles on immigrant workers in American Prospect
A look into the life
of female cab drivers in New York City, the last story in a three-part series.
Dolores Benitez
A look into the life
of female cab drivers in New York City, the second in a three-part series.
A look into the life
of Latino construction workers in New York City, the second in a three-part
series.
Sujatha Fernandes
A look into the life
of Latino construction workers in New York City, the first in a three-part
series.
Tom D. Wu
It’s 11 a.m. on a
brisk Friday morning. In the middle of a short block of 40th Road, just off
Main Street in Queens, where colorful signs stand out against the densely
packed four-story buildings, a handful of Chinese delivery workers dismount
from their motorbikes. The dry pavement here is a welcome sight; much of the
downtown area was buried under a foot of snow earlier in the week. The men,
dressed in sneakers, blue jeans and puffy jackets, gather in a circle at one of
the few empty parking spots.
Monday, May 6, 2013
My piece on Cuban media culture and activism
Cuban journalists exposing injustice merit more attention
12:38 PM on 05/06/2013
Cuban dissident blogger Yoani Sanchez is famous worldwide, but there are many other journalists within Cuba making a difference, writes Queens College professor Sujatha Fernandes. (TIAGO QUEIROZ/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images)
Dissident Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez recently completed a multi-city tour of the United States, speaking at major universities and even visiting the White House. Sánchez, who became internationally celebrated through her Generación Y blog, which won her a place on the Timemagazine list of 100 most influential people in 2008, Sánchez was awarded theInternational Women of Courage Award by the U.S. State Department in 2011.
Yet despite being hailed overseas for her dissident activities in the blogosphere, Sánchez has little impact inside Cuba, probably because of the difficulties most Cubans still have in accessing the Internet. Instead, the overzealous western media attention to a few prominent dissidents like Sánchez tends to obscure the highly critical culture that has developed within Cuba over the last ten to 15 years.
Much of the media coverage of Sánchez presents her as a lone critical voice in a climate where the Cuban state does not tolerate dissent and where—as Cuban-American novelist Oscar Hijuelos claimed in the Time magazine piece—journalists and others cannot practice freedom of speech. While it is true that there is censorship in Cuba, and journalism has always been under the supervision of the Communist Party-controlled Department of Revolutionary Orientation (DOR), there is a vigorous culture of criticism and internal debate in Cuba. But often, because many artists, journalists, and activists are not calling for the downfall of the government, they tend to go ignored or sidelined within western media coverage.
Digital filmmaking has been one way for young Cuban filmmakers to develop a new skills in investigative journalism, often outside the structures of the state film industry and government-controlled media. Ariagna Fajardo’s 2009 independent film “Where Are We Going?” looked at the massive exodus of farmers from the Sierra Maestra mountains due to an absence of opportunities for them to making a living. Armando Capo explored the resignation to daily life in his film “Inertia,” released in 2008.
At the Young Directors festival held in Havana earlier this month, Marcelo Martín premiered his new film, “Elena,” about the collapsing old residential buildings in Central Havana. Martín conducted interviews with workers and residents who show him their deteriorated homes—plagued by leaks and contaminated with raw sewerage from broken pipes. One older resident walked on blocks throughout his house to avoid stepping in sewerage, and after undergoing major surgery he slept on a park bench while recuperating.
The brigades sent to repair the homes left their work unfinished. The filmmaker calls the vice president of Popular Power to ask when the homes will be fixed, and she lies and tells him the work will resume on Monday. He closes the film with a snapshot: nearly half of the housing stock in Central Havana is in bad shape, and two hundred and thirty buildings in the neighborhood collapse every year.
This kind of investigative journalism–exposing official lies publicly and presenting the realities of people’s lives–has found fertile ground among young documentary filmmakers, but it often runs up against the problem of financing and dissemination. Crowdsourcing abroad has been one solution for funding. The US non-profit organization Americas Media Initiative has been crucial in selling the films in the US and organizing university tours for the filmmakers. Films are also copied onto flashdrives and then passed hand to hand.
Afro-Cuban activists form another key critical movement within Cuba focusing on racial discrimination. The issue became hotly debated after Casa de las Americas publishing house editor Roberto Zurbano was demoted for including the institution in his byline for a recent New York Times op-ed piece on racism in Cuba that was given a controversial title by the editors: “For Blacks in Cuba, The Revolution Hasn’t Begun.” (Zurbano says that his original title read:“Not Yet Finished.”)
Among the flurry of articles from the United States and Cuba about the article and its outcomes, the newly-created Havana-based organization Regional Afro-Descendent Articulation of Latin America (ARAC) defended Zurbano’s critique of racism in Cuba, saying that the black population suffers overwhelmingly from poverty and a lack of social mobility.
In response to those who objected to his talking about racism in Cuba, Zurbano affirmed the “emerging and heterogenous spaces of people, organizations, and alternative media that are taking on the present and future of the country.” The media culture at large should follow Zurbano’s example.
Sujatha Fernandes is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Queens College and the Graduate Center and author of Cuba Represent! Cuban Arts, State Power, and the Making of New Revolutionary Cultures. She was a guest on “Melissa Harris-Perry” on April 14. See the video from that discussion below.
Sunday, April 14, 2013
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
My interview on MSNBC about Venezuela
March 10: Hugo Chavez, Latin America, how the rules get made in Washington
2:10 PM on 03/09/2013
File Photo: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez speaks at a press conference in Miraflores Palace December 5, 2006 in Caracas, Venezuela. Chavez was officially declared the re-elected president by electoral authorities today after defeating challenger Manuel Rosales in the December 3 election. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images, File)
On Sunday’s Up w/ Chris Hayes, we’ll examine the death and complicated legacy of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Then we’ll zoom out, to reflect on the state of Latin America in the wake of Chavez’s death. And finally, we’ll examine how the rules get made in Washington — and who makes them. Regulators are still at work promulgating many of the rules that will determine whether some of President Obama’s signature initiatives, such as the Dodd-Frank Wall Street form bill and the Affordable Care Act, succeed.
Joining Chris at 8 AM ET on MSNBC will be:
Deepak Bhargava, executive director, Center for Community Change.
M. Victoria Murillo, professor of political science and international affairs at Columbia University, author of “Labor Unions, Partisan Coalitions & Market Reforms in Latin America.”
Michael Shifter, president of Inter-American Dialogue.
Alejandro Velasco, professor at New York University and author of “We Are Still Rebels: The Challenge of Popular History in Bolivarian Venezuela.”
Michael Moynihan (@mcmoynihan), cultural news editor for Newsweek and The Daily Beast.
Sujatha Fernandes, associate professor of sociology at Queens College and the Graduate Center at the City University of New York, author of “Who Can Stop the Drums?: Urban Social Movements in Chavez’s Venezuela.”
Greg Grandin, professor of history at New York University and author of “Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford’s Forgotten Jungle City.”
Former Ohio Republican Congressman Bob Ney (@bobney), author of “Sideswiped: Lessons Learned Courtesy of the Hit Men of Capitol Hill.”
Raj Date, former deputy director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Alexis Goldstein (@alexisgoldstein), Occupy Wall Street activist.
Watch the show here: http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/03/10/beyond-good-and-evil/
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Venezuela after Chávez
Books on Chávez and Venezuela
What lies ahead for Venezuela after the death of president Hugo Chávez? To understand Venezuela's history, culture, and politics at this crucial crossroads, check out these books.
In Who Can Stop the Drums?: Urban Social Movements in Chávez’s Venezuela, Sujatha Fernandes also looks at Chávez’s poor supporters in the barrios of Caracas. Her widely-praised book portrays everyday life and politics in the shantytowns of Caracas through accounts of community-based radio, barrio assemblies, and popular fiestas, and the many interviews she conducted with activists and government officials. Listen here to a recent interview with Fernandes and Miguel Tinker Salas on KALW's "Your Call."
In Who Can Stop the Drums?: Urban Social Movements in Chávez’s Venezuela, Sujatha Fernandes also looks at Chávez’s poor supporters in the barrios of Caracas. Her widely-praised book portrays everyday life and politics in the shantytowns of Caracas through accounts of community-based radio, barrio assemblies, and popular fiestas, and the many interviews she conducted with activists and government officials. Listen here to a recent interview with Fernandes and Miguel Tinker Salas on KALW's "Your Call."
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