[altroots] Re: Jose Torres Tama's

Dear national arts communities and New Orleanians "in exile":
A month ago, I evacuated or rather fled my beloved city of New Orleans as it 
was engulfed in the social storm that followed Katrina. Today, in a few hours, 
I will make my mythic journey back to my wounded pueblo for the first time to 
check on my home/art studio and to collect stories of the Latino 
community--which has been rendered invisible by the mainstream news media. 
Below is my most recent essay and analysis of the "brown-out" in the wake of 
Katrina, and how we, Latinos, have become "los invisibles" an unaccounted 
factor of evacuees in the aftermath of so much misinformation. 
PLEASE CIRCULATE FREELY. 
PLEASE CIRCULATE FREELY. 
Gracias,
Jose Torres Tama 
www.torrestama.com 
504-232-2968 
 
The Invisible Latino Community in the aftermath of Katrina in Nuevo Orleans
From 1762 to 1801, New (Nuevo) Orleans was the Capital of the Spanish Colonies 
which stretched to Mobile Bay, across the state of Florida and the island of 
Hispanola?currently known as Cuba. It is well documented that during the 40 
years of Spanish rule the port of Orleans prospered and was actually rebuilt by 
the Spaniards after two fires wiped out most of the French wooden colonial 
structures of the original city. As such, New Orleans has a deep-rooted Spanish 
legacy, and its more modern ties to Central and South America in the 20th 
Century proclaimed the city as a "gateway to the Americas" because of its 
geographical position as a major port between the continents. The Colombian 
master fiction writer Gabriel Garcia- Marquez has called it "the most northern 
point of the Caribbean." 
Remnants of its hybrid Latin culture are evident in a variety of signature 
characteristics such as the food with red beans and rice a traditional staple, 
a celebratory culture that had its first "Carnival/Mardi Gras" in 1766 while 
under Spanish rule, a people who love to dance even in the face of oppression, 
a tropical weather pattern of heat, humidity and rain storms, street names 
after South American visionaries such as Simon Bolivar and a pace of life that 
clearly exhibits its close proximity to the Equator as people are less hurried. 
Like in many Latin cultures, a simple walk to "make groceries" may take longer 
because the culture of "la calle/the street" is vibrant with folks sitting on 
their stoops and balconies, and it would be considered rude not to stop and 
chat. In addition, unlike the North and most parts of the U.S., where strangers 
don?t dare speak to each other, we, New Orleanians, have a common Latin habit 
of talking to strangers and will actually look you in t
 he eyes when exclaiming the colloquial greetings of "where ya at" and "yeah ya 
right." These are sort of local versions of "que pasa" and endearments such as 
"baby" and "darling" normally precede any opening sentence when addressing some 
one?even a stranger. 
Population wise, the New Orleans metropolitan area is home to the largest 
concentration of Hondurans in the country with nearly two-hundred-thousand?some 
of which are second and third generation home owners whose great migration 
numbers date back to the days of the United Fruit Company in the 40?s and 50?s. 
Most of the Honduran community resides in the suburb of Kenner, which is west 
of the city and was badly flooded by Katrina?s water surges and rain. To date, 
it has not been determined as to how many Hondurans actually fled their homes 
and where most of them evacuated to. Also, the Latino Diaspora of New Orleans 
exemplifies the variety of cultures that can be found in most urban centers in 
the U.S. with communities of Mexicans, Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, El 
Salvadorians, Guatemalans, Nicaraguans, Costa Ricans, Ecuadorians and a recent 
influx of Colombians. Almost all of the South and Central American countries 
have consulate representation in the city. 
Yet with all these cultural ties and a diverse population that is continuing to 
gain in numbers, I have been absolutely dumbfounded by how invisible 
(totalmente invisible) the Latino community of New Orleans has been rendered in 
the news coverage of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. We have been 
practically nonexistent as the numerous stories of post-Katrina survivors have 
been filling newspaper columns, National Public Radio reports and TV airtime. 
Our absence is as astounding as the casualties are catastrophic, and our 
non-existence has unfolded without much concern in the television eyes of the 
nation and the English language press. It is only in the Spanish language press 
and Latino television channels that you will find our stories of paramount 
losses and courageous survival?some of which are as harrowing as any of the 
personal accounts documented in the five days of the social storm that engulfed 
New Orleans after Katrina.
And you may ask yourself, "How does this happen in a multiracial society where 
Latinos are the fastest growing minority?poised to demographically outnumber 
not just African Americans but the dominant culture itself in the very near 
future?" We, the big enchilada of the future, seem to be missing in action. 
This is not just a "day without a Mexican," but a total television and news 
media "brown out" of our communities and collective investment in a city where 
Latinos also play a major role in shaping its sacred cow tourist industry. If 
you were to believe everything you read and saw in the world according to 
mainstream news peddlers, you, the national and international audience, would 
not have any idea of the Latino plight or that we were even part of this mess. 
This is just another social disaster within a natural disaster that has spawned 
so much misinformation.
Where is the story of my artist friend Maurice Alvarado, a glass sculptor 
living uptown, who transformed the second floor of his house into an immediate 
response shelter offering relief to a number of stranded neighbors?keeping them 
safe and dry while he waded in the waist high waters of his flooded kitchen 
downstairs to prepare a few meals for them? Initially, he had waited out the 
storm by himself, and once the electricity was knocked out, the fright of 
silence in the dark of his only dry floor had gripped him. He told me that the 
most daunting challenge was the sheer loneliness he experienced as the storm?s 
fury passed through while he was in the dark and the first floor was flooding. 
Eventually, he managed to escape the city by serving as a Spanish to English 
language translator for a Cuban lady in her 70?s who needed emergency 
evacuation on an ambulance because of her life-threatening asthma condition. In 
a mythic per chance encounter, we saw each other at the Baton Roug
 e Airport on the Saturday after storm. All he had with him were the clothes on 
his back and a plane ticket to Atlanta. I have not heard from him since. 
Another friend and neighbor of mine in the Fabourg Marigny, Nicolas 
Castellanos, had to beg the Gretna Sheriff Police to be able to cross the 
Crescent City Connection?the only bridge that offered passage to safety out of 
the city and could be employed as an evacuation route by simply walking across 
it. You might have heard something about these good ole? boys of the South 
acting to protect their so-called "bedroom community" from "dangerous evacuees" 
by keeping people from walking across "their bridge" to safety. Google the 
Gretna Police and get a good look at the head honcho Sheriff. The visual clues 
are all there and will tell you that when the Confederacy has an opportunity to 
show its true redneck colors its rebels with badges are surely there to protect 
and serve. 
Can you imagine having to beg a Sheriff, a "public" servant with a sworn duty 
to protect the "public," to allow you to cross a "public" bridge away from a 
city that is submerged in lawlessness and desperation? This is what my friend 
had to do?plea for his life as the Sheriff?s men had cocked their weapons in an 
obvious act of police terror against a U.S. citizen looking for safety. 
Absolutely criminal and criminals they are and as criminals they should be 
tried! Not only should we hold national hearings for the FEMA punters and their 
incompetence, but in the same vane, the Gretna Sheriff and his whole department 
of racist cops should be tried for homicidal negligence. In all fairness, the 
Gretna Police Dept. are equal opportunity obstructionists: They did apply their 
sinister and righteous might across the social spectrum keeping African 
American evacuees and even white paramedics and tourists from crossing "their 
bridge"---forcing them to retreat down the concrete ramp with 
 very loud and clear warnings of rifle shots above their heads. Oh, the glory 
of your tax dollars at work. They must have thought it was the fourth of July 
and were setting off their guns in an early display of abuse of power. 
In other accounts of the Latino evacuation, New York City?s "El Diario/La 
Prensa" newspaper reported that some undocumented individuals who sought help 
from official authorities were immediately processed for deportation. Thus, 
many seeking refuge have done so through Latino community networks and support 
systems that avert the "federales" who seem to have joined with INS officials 
to use this tragedy as an immigration sweep. Generally speaking like most 
communities of color, Latinos have very little trust in the police and 
authorities and putting oneself in their hands is never a comforting situation. 
Again, there are few chronicles in the mainstream press of the Latino 
evacuations, and certainly stories of deporting undocumented persons, who are 
some of the most vulnerable refugees, will incriminate FEMA?s supposed 
well-intentioned rescue efforts "for all" even further. The post 9/11 "soft" 
press in this country is only now gaining its "cojones" and journalistic 
courage bac
 k, and you can?t really expect them to cover such severe dark truths so 
quickly after four years of spineless silence and threats from a rogue 
administration that has insidiously "Karl-Roved" patriotism as a form of 
control. 
As for our general absence in the media analogs, I can only conclude that the 
traditional Deep South divisions of race between blacks and whites became a 
more highly-rated TV reality story-line to exploit and dramatize for viewing 
purposes, and we, Latinos, were vanquished to play less than supporting roles. 
Why? Because this country?s extreme racial polemics of a black and white 
struggle due to its? abhorrent legacy of slavery have always diminished its 
oppression of other people of color and minority cultures?even when its near 
genocidal strategies against native Americans are another well-known historical 
atrocity of tax dollars at work.
Please note that this analysis is not too diminish the necessary news coverage 
that had to be reported as thousands of African American?s without cars to 
evacuate freely were sequestered and dying at the hands of local, state and 
federal bureaucracy. But if you were to review those quick CNN scans of people 
at the convention center--waiting for water and food that never came--in slow 
motion, a more revealing picture of diversity would show itself. In that 
replay, you could identify some Latinos, some Middle Eastern and even Asians 
among the crowds being left to the torturous sun. 
New Orleans is a multiracial port city of intrinsic social tolerance for a 
"live and let live" way of life, and we are certainly used to bad government. 
Official incompetence comes as no surprise to us. In fact, the bombastic 
theater of local politics are an art form in a city where the First and Third 
World converges at the mouth of the mighty Mississippi. What makes the city 
special is its hybrid communities of African Americans, Latinos, Vietnamese, 
Middle Easterners, Turkish, Italians, Irish, and "general gringos" that all 
contribute to the genuine characteristics of this grand dame of the Old 
South---its gumbo culture. 
Let all of our stories come out and let us not wait for some one from some 
official "news" racket to deem as worthy of coverage. Let?s tell our own 
stories and make our full voices heard in a new rainbow coalition of invested 
residents of New Orleans. Let?s make sure that we all have a voice in 
re-building because the vultures of capital and property are already salivating 
in the wake of a so-called "clean slate" proposal that really means "ethnic 
cleansing" and greater riches for the already perversely wealthy. We, the truly 
diverse communities of New Orleans, need to second line into the city across 
the Crescent City Connection--with ACLU protection against the Gretna Sheriffs 
to guard our rights on a public thoroughfare--and demand to sit at that "power 
table" where decisions of our beloved fragile city in mourning are being 
sculpted. We are certainly owed that much! 
---Ashe and gracias,
Jose Torres Tama
"in exile? on a goat farm in Gainesville, Florida
Friday, September 30, 2005 
cell # 504-232-2968
e-mail jose@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx or poetafiego@xxxxxxxx

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