By Diego Graglia, FI2W web editor

Tired of waiting for advances on immigration reform to occur? Want to take the pressure off from considering the pros and cons of e-Verify, 287 (g), the border fence, Real ID, and legalization of the undocumented?

If you’re in New York, Los Angeles and a limited number of other cities, you can head to the movies this weekend to distract your mind –well, not really– for a couple of hours with a tale of undocumented immigrants who reach the U.S. in a harrowing trip through Central America and then get separated after arriving in Queens.

Telling the story of Marlon and Reina, a Colombian couple who migrate together to New York, Paraíso Travel was a huge hit in Colombia last year. The film won praise and awards at festivals in the U.S. and Europe.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3FcjVZ-8HU]

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By Rima Marrouch, FI2W contributor

Despite the internal divisions in the Arab world, Arab-Americans came together recently in New York City to celebrate their heritage and to offer a fresh portrait of the Arab-American community in the post 9-11 era.

Arabs, Americans, and Arab-Americans –with roots in Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Tunisia, Morocco, Iraq, and the Palestinian Occupied Territories– gathered during the Annual Arab-American and North African Street Festival on Great Jones Street in Downtown Manhattan. The event was part of the 5th Annual Arab-American Heritage Week, first proclaimed in 2005 by Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

The street festival evoked the atmosphere of a bazaar with traditional foods including tabouli, grape leaves, falafel, and spinach pies, as well as street stalls selling Middle Eastern books, jewelry, and music. The participants danced debka, a form of line dance widely performed at weddings and joyous occasions.

Watch a video of the festival:

Non-profit group Haiti Outreach, based out of St. Blase Church on Detroit’s east side, sends physicians and medical supplies to Mirebalais, a remote town in Haiti.

In a new piece for Detroit public radio’s Detroit Today show, Feet in 2 Worlds and WDET reporter Martina Guzmán reports on the group and its missions to Haiti, where people “will do anything to see a physician,” including standing in a mile-long line, say members Dominique Monde and Soledad Nelson.

“The relationship between both communities is mutually beneficial –reports Martina–. By helping a town in Haiti, Haitian-Americans help themselves maintain their identity.”

You can hear the piece below or visit Detroit Today’s webpage.

[audio:http://www.jocelyngonzales.net/FI2W/wdet_haiti_martina_070809.mp3]

By Aditi Anand, Feet in 2 Worlds

As turmoil continued in Iran over last month’s contested presidential election, several hundred people gathered in New York City’s Union Square last Wednesday for a vigil in support of those protesting the vote’s results. The vigil was organized by the NYC arm of Where is My Vote, an Iranian diaspora organization, largely over Facebook and other social media sites.

Participants dressed in green or wearing green armbands lit candles, stood behind large swaths of green fabric and held signs reading, “Where is My Vote?” and “RIP Neda”— the latter in reference to Neda Soltan, whose gruesome death was seen around the world after she was reportedly gunned down by pro-government forces during protests in Tehran.

Many in the crowd chanted “Down with the dictator” in English as well as other slogans in Farsi.

Watch video footage of the vigil:

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Sheriff Arpaio has arrested 248 immigrants in raids allegedly aimed at unlawful hiring, but no employer has been penalized.

PHOENIX, Arizona — Katherine Figueroa was playing outside her home Saturday morning when she overheard the news coming from a nearby TV. The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office had just raided the car wash where her father and mother worked.

She rushed to see her dad’s image on television. His expression looked worried, his hands were tied with plastic cuffs.

Her eyes filled with tears, the 9-year-old made a plea to President Barack Obama to return her parents home in a video produced by Arizona activists and reports on the Univision network.

“I want my parents back, is not fair for me to be alone,” said Katherine who was born in the U.S. and is a U. S. citizen.

Listen to Katherine in an interview with Feet in 2 Worlds:

[audio:http://www.jocelyngonzales.net/FI2W/fi2w_valeria_katharin.mp3]

Although the federal government has announced changes to its policies regarding work-site immigration raids, not much has changed in the Phoenix area, where Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is implementing what critics call “his own brand of law.”

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By John Rudolph, FI2W Executive Producer

For many Americans, May 1, 2006 was when they first began to comprehend the power of the nation’s Spanish-language media. Hispanic radio and TV played a key role on that day, urging Latino immigrants to take time off from work to demonstrate for immigration reform. Millions participated in the protests in cities across the country.

But while Hispanic media was credited for its role in bringing out the masses on the “day without immigrants,” most people remain unaware of the long history of the Spanish-language press in America, and its tradition of advocating for Latino interests.

The first U.S.-based newspaper for Spanish-speaking readers – El Misisipi – made its debut in New Orleans in 1808, nearly two centuries before the historic marches of 2006.

By the mid-19th Century Spanish-language newspapers were editorializing and covering news in New York, California, Texas, New Mexico and Pennsylvania. Among the causes they supported were independence for Mexico and Cuba, which at the time were Spanish colonies.

The nation’s oldest continuously-published Latino newspaper, – La Prensa – was founded in New York in 1913, and exists today as the daily El Diario/La Prensa.

“We’ve been around for years. We’re not a new media,” said Juan Gonzáles, who chairs the Journalism Department at the City College of San Francisco.

Gonzáles is producing a film that tells the story of America’s Spanish-language media, Voices for Justice: The Enduring Legacy of the Latino Press in the U.S. Along with fellow filmmaker, Félix F. Gutiérrez, a professor of Journalism at the University of Southern California, Gonzáles recently showed a preview of the film to an audience of ethnic media journalists in Atlanta.

Gonzáles told Feet in Two Worlds that the film intends to dispel myths about Latinos both among Hispanics and in the wider society. ” Through the pages of our newspapers we really get an impression of what Latinos are like,” he said. “Mainstream media always shows negative stories (about Latinos) — about gang activity and crime.” Gonzáles noted that many Latinos don’t know the history of the Spanish-language press. “We’re feeling a big gap of knowledge,” — he said — “the film is going to fill a void in telling the story of a people.”

The film project is also a way for Gonzáles and Gutiérrez to prod the Hispanic press to be more aggressive in the way it reports the news.

Today there are hundreds of Hispanic newspapers and magazine across the country. Spanish-language radio is a huge business, and Hispanic TV networks Telemundo and Univision have become as mainstream as their English-language counterparts.

Despite the numbers, Gonzáles, who founded El Tecolote, a bilingual community newspaper in San Francisco, laments that there’s “a lot of fluff” in journalism aimed at Latino audiences. “It does a disservice to the community,” he said.

“When it comes to hard stories, it’s something I continue to push for,” he said. “However much you don’t want to do it, you have to do it. Your simple existence is not enough. You need to help the community change conditions through your solid reporting.”