Global Voices

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The world is talking, are you listening?

Blogger and feminist lawyer Verónica Rivera Torres writes [es] about the piece of legislations that seeks to extend the Law Against Domestic Violence (Law 54) in Puerto Rico to same sex couples:

Since our Supreme Court ruled that the Law of the Prevention and Intervention in Domestic Violence, known as Law 54, did not apply to same-sex couples, individuals and human rights groups have been waiting for the historic moment we are witnessing today.

Finally, after ten long years, the legislator Luis Vega Ramos has filed a measure to clarify what for many people was clear since Law 54 was created: the protection of all victims of domestic violence, regardless of their sexual orientation, marital status and gender identity.

Alternative blog Puerto Rico Indie reviews [es] the recent Puerto Rican film “I Am a Director,” which was partially financed through Kickstarter:

The film, made in the ‘mockumentary’ style or fictitious documentary, follows the steps of Carlos (Carlos Marchand), first-time filmmaker who longs to make a Hollywood-style film, but in Puerto Rico. Besides being a genuinely funny comedy, ‘I Am a Director’ succeeds in satirizing the mental process of many who believe that making films is to meet the artificial standards based on the immense American productions.

On occasion of the celebration of Mother's Day, tomorrow Sunday May 12, feminist activist Amárilis Pagán writes about the experience [es] of telling her mother she was in love with another woman:

The day I told my mom I was in love with a woman, she delivered a long and heartbreaking scream. It was as if someone had told her that her daughter had died… and to some extent I think that something like this happened. Something inside me died, and something inside her died too. She never accepted my relationship, and that love that filled my life for so many years is still unknown to her.

Blogger Yasmín S. Portales comments on the challenges of mapping the Cuban blogosphere, including everything and anything written in blogs. This is her most recent project:

A directory is a map: you have the swamps of glorious battles swamps and the mountains of infamy. You include it all, or it's not a map. In other words, there is yet to be a map of the Cuban blogosphere.

The worst: The Cuban blogosphere is chaotic. Luckily I do not pretend to make sense of it, only reveal its current demographics.

Detail of the official poster of the VI Conference against Homophobia in Cuba. “Family is love, respect, inclusion.”

Cuban blogger and LGBT activist Francisco Rodríguez announces the events [es] of the VI Cuban Conference Against Homophobia to be held during the month of May in the island.

Journalist and Global Voices author, Leila Nachawati, writes an open letter [es] to Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez, who has been touring the United States, Latin America and Europe talking about Cuban technopolitics. Sánchez has been embraced by some, and criticized by others during her voyage. In her open letter, the Spanish-Syrian blogger Nachawati refers to some of Sánchez's comments on the Spanish state and society:

I was struck by your admiration towards the policies and institutions of this country [Spain]. I cannot deny that you may value aspects that pass unnoticed to many of us who live live here, but the truth is that our reality is far from a mirror to want to look into. I think we are far from being a model to follow or a formula to imitate.

After the explosions at the Boston Marathon on Monday April 15, Twitter became a primary source of breaking news, and also of misinformation. Conversations were curated around the hashtags #bostonmarathon and #bostonexplosions the first days. On Thursday night, one of the suspects, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, was killed during a police persecution in Cambridge, and the city of Boston and close communities were on lockdown on Friday during the search (#manhunt) of Tamerlan's younger brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19.  Dzhokhar was found wounded Friday evening in Watertown (#watertown). A debate has ensued after it was announced that he will be questioned without being Mirandized (#mirandarights). Many are also worried about how this will affect immigrants in the U.S. due to the Chechen ethnic origin of the Tsarnaev brothers.

The academic and blogger Ted Henken offers his year in review of the Cuban blogosphere.

The online petition asking for the pardon of Puerto Rican political prisoner Oscar López Rivera is rapidly getting close to its objective of 3,000 signatures. López was arrested in 1981 and sentenced to 70 years in jail for “seditious conspiracy” for participating in acts in favor of the independence of Puerto Rico. He is now 68 years old and is considered one of the longest held political prisoners.

In recent days, journalists Sandra Rodríguez Cotto and Wilda Rodríguez [es] have a had an interesting debate on journalism, objectivity, and censorship following the boycott of Puerto Rico's popular TV show “La Comay.”