An Extraordinary Time

Mariachi Mi Tierra / September 24, 2005 / White Center

In Seattle, only 5.3 percent of the city’s total population is Hispanic.  This is much less the national average of 13 percent.

 

Mexicans are the largest group of foreign born people living in Washington state.  constituting almost a quarter of all the foreigners living here.  This is followed by Canadians at 7.7% and Filipinos at 7.6%  according to the Migration Policy Institute.

 

In the Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act of 2002,

Section 101 (a) provides for additional training and staff to increase security on both the northen and southern borders.  These positions are in addition to the threefold increase in staffing provided for in the USA Patriot Act signed by President Bush on Oct. 26, 2001.

 

The number of people granted legal permanent residence in the United States in 2003 dropped 34 percent. according to the Migration Policy Institute.

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bass player Alberto Leyva,59, (left side of frame)

We were playing a wedding.  That’s what we do for a living.  We play weddings and birthdays and private parties.  We are 7 in the group.  The name of the group is Mi Tierra.  (means) My Land.  Because that’s where we come from.  We come from Mexico.

In 1988 we come here from LA because the atmosphere here is better for our children.  Because of the gangs.  We didn’t want them to grow being that way.  So it’s a better environment here.

guitar player Filiberto Alfaro, 32, (right side of frame

We play with the heart you know because we like it.    We like when the people looks happy.  You have to feel what you play, what you sing.  Mi Tierra is “My Land” in Spanish.  So Mariachi Mi Tierra is a … for Mexico. 

violinist Gabriel Leyva, 70

We make a movie in 1960 with Elvis Presley. The name of the movie was Fun In Acapulco. They call us.  We give an audition. We have mariachi suits and sombreros.  They like the way we look and they hire us to be in the movie.

Bride and groom, Aracely De Dios, 24 and Jimmy DeDios,23

Its really common in our culture, I guess the way the music is played it’s a little bit more romantic, and we just thought it would be a lot nicer for our church rather than the usual. something different and something from our culture.

We are Mexican.  We go all out when we have a party.  We have all the Mexican food.  … I’ve attended many weddings and a lot of the weddings had mariachi in it.

My Mom definitely influenced me into getting married by church.  I wanted to do it just by court and they said I’m the only girl and they wanted their only daughter to get married the right way and get married by (Catholic) church.

Even though I grew up here, I’ve been here all of my life, you still carry your culture from your parents everything that they’ve influenced, you still carry it on.  Whether you like some stuff or not its hard not to bring it with you ‘cuz you’ve been listening to it all your life. 

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina thousands of animals were abandoned in New Orleans by owners fleeing floodwaters caused by a break in the city’s levee. Compelled to help, a small group of people from Pasado’s Animal Rescue, based out of Sultan, WA. went to New Orleans determined to rescue as many animals as possible.  They broke into houses, carried pets to safety through contaminated waters, and treated the injured.  They cleaned cages and sheltered animals turned away by the LASPCA.  More than a thousand animals facing certain death were saved through their efforts.

The federal government does not have an animal rescue plan in disaster areas.

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Larry Brothers,  Bothell, WA   55     

C’mon out of there you little man.  C’mon Sweetie.  Yes, Let’s go. C’mon out.  C’mon out.  We’ll go out.  That’s a good boy.  Yeah.  Good boy.  There ya go.  He’s a sweetie.  No place to stay. On a shelf in a closet for 2 weeks.  Its no good.  Lets put you in a bigger cage you little love bug.

I’m a volunteer at Pasados.  Everyday we go out in several vans and we go into areas that have been flooded.  Sometimes there’s still water, 3 or 4 feet deep.  Sometimes its dry.  We go house to house looking for dogs and cats and any animals that are trapped inside.  Animals that are stray and wandering the streets.  We bring them back.  We hold them.  We try and ship them out to places all over the country so that they can be adopted.  These animals are generally in pretty pathetic condition.  They haven’t eaten or had water, now its going on 2 weeks.  Many of them were obviously abused and neglected before the hurricane.  People have chained them into the houses.  Taken off without them.  Sometimes, I think often because they thought they’d be back in a couple days, And then the levees broke and the dogs are left without food or water.  Cats as well.  Dead, decomposing bodies.  Its just a horrible. Overwhelming situation.  There’s thousands and thousands and thousands of these animals.

We had just set up at a particular place in New Orleans and got a call from some of the police who said there was a bull mastiff, vicious, snarling, snapping bull mastiff who was trapped on a shelf in a closet in a house.  Nobody else would come and get him and if we couldn’t get him out, they’re gonna shoot ‘em.  So a couple of us jumped in a van and went down there, went into this demolished house, just reeking, full of some kind of toxic waste, 5 or 6 inches.  And found this snarling, horrifying bullmastiff in the closet who turned out to be a little Sheba Innu mix, about probably 25 or 30 pounds.  He was acting like a crazed Tasmanian devil.  Wouldn’t let anyone get near him and was crouched on a shelf in a closet.  I knew that if I spooked him he’d probably just jump past me and run out of the house and the police would shoot him.  And I have to say it was kind of interesting to have all these, 8 or 9, big strapping cops standing outside afraid of this little Sheba Innu.  Though to be fair to them he could’ve torn their face off. 

So now he’s my buddy.  He’s no longer a crazed Tasmanian devil.  Now he’s just mildly insane.  He’s just a sweet boy.  I think he’s really typical of the animals that are here in general.  They’ve been horribly traumatized.  A lot of them probably didn’t have the greatest life to start with with.  They’ve been left alone.  They’ve been scared, lonely, hungry, dying of thirst. They come in with their ribs sprung, they’re pelvis showing.  This dead look in their eye or else.  They’re either completely stunned or so scared that they curl up in a little ball in the corner.  Bite out of fear or sometimes become aggressive but its amazing what happens after just a day or two of some care and some sweetness and some food and some safety. 

I think he can be adopted.  He’s extremely adoptable now.  He’s incredibly cute. 

UPDATE:  The Dog on a Shelf was sent to an animal rescuer’s in Arkansas after his rescue by Pasado’s.  His rescuer, Larry Brothers returned to his home in Bothell, Wash. a few weeks later after being bitten by a different dog during a rescue in New Orleans.  

Four months later, haunted by memories of the dog on a shelf, Larry Brothers inquired about the fate the dog, but the dog couldn’t be accounted for.

Immediately afterwards, the Dog on a Shelf was returned to the animal rescuer’s in Arkansas by an elderly lady who said the dog wasn’t good around her grandchildren.  Recognizing the pooch as the Dog on a Shelf, Larry Brothers was called and he flew down to claim him.  The two live in Bothell, Washington with four other dogs and Larry’s fiancee Amanda Brothers.

In addition to a new family, the dog got a new name:  Lucky

To see more pictures from the Pasados’ Safe Haven rescue effort after Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans click on the link: http://karenducey.com/main.php

Last weekend, 2,500 artists performed at Bumbershoot over four days including Dan Goods, an artist who works in NASA’s jet propulsion lab in Pasadena, CA. Good’s installation “Light and Shadows” was meant to teach people how NASA is going about finding planet’s around other stars than our own sun.

Good’s installation uses a powerful spotlight that shines against a big screen. At the same time he projects a movie against that screen which you can’t see because the light is so bright. But when people walk in front of the bright light, they can see the movie inside of their shadow on the screen.

Dan Goods, 30, Pasadena, CA.
“NASA’s going to have a mission in about 10 years that will look for earthlike planets around other stars and that’s really difficult because stars are really big and bright and the things that you’re looking for are really small and dim.

“I had a feeling people would originally just be intrigued by the bright light and their big shadows and then once they see the movie inside of their shadow try to figure out a little more what its about. As soon as the light is turned on its like a bunch of moths congregate around it and play around in the shadows and do all sorts of different types of things. Some of the people don’t care. They just want to see their shadow and other people, once they see the movie inside of their shadow they are intrigued a little bit more and they read the sign and they try and figure it more, and there are some people that will stay here for an hour or so playing with it and they seem to be really into it.

“To me this whole idea of trying to find planets around other stars is analogous to every person’s desire for community. Ever since the beginning of time there have been people who have gotten into tribes and into cities and organizations and its all because we all need community. In the same way if you’re alone inside of this installation you’ll only see a little tiny bit of the movie but as you grab your friends and get more people in there you see the whole of it. A lot of times it brings people together that would never normally associate because they notice if one person is standing in one part then they stand a little bit closer to them and another person stands closer to them, then they can see the whole image.

“The basic idea of , there’s a lot of things that are right in front of our face that we can’t see and that’s what this sort of shows is that there’s a light that we just can’t see it. And in the same way we’re trying to find planets and to me, that blows me away, that we’re trying to find a planet like earth around another star. From what we can tell they should be all over the place we just can’t see them. That’s because we just don’t have the right technology. Hopefully in the next 10 or 15 years we’ll have that technology and one day we’ll find another place we could possibly call home.

“Over 150 planets have been found around other stars already but all of them are Jupiter sized planets.”