MONDAY, DECEMBER 31.
PROGRAM # 6862 12:00 PM PT
THE YEAR IN REVIEW. This special year-end program provides a review of some of the most memorable news events of 2012, as reported on Línea Abierta. Program excerpts include the election of President Obama with a record number of Latino voters, the Affordable Care Act survived a chalenge before the Supreme Court, and the Mexican poet Javier Sicilia brings to the U.S. the quest of Mexico’s victims of drug violence for gun control.
Guests: Audio clips from various Linea Abierta programs.
TUESDAY, JANUARY 1.
PROGRAM # 6863 12:00 PM PT
LAS HERMANAS PADILLA. This Holiday special program features an exclusive interview with María Padilla, from the legendary duet Las Hermanas Padilla. Beginning their career in the 1930s, Las Hermanas Padilla broke ground popularizing the bolero ranchero genre and impacting canción ranchera with their unique singing style. The Padillas was the first Mexican duet from the U.S. who earned wide recognition in Mexico and internationally. This program also includes historic Hermanas Padilla recordings from Arhoolie Foundation’s Strachwitz Frontera Collection of Mexican and Mexican American Recordings.
Guests: María Padilla, singer, Las Hermanas Padilla, Los Angeles, CA; Margarita Padilla, singer, Las Hermanas Padilla, Ciudad de México, México (interview excerpt).
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 2.
PROGRAM # 6864
12:00
PM PT
FISCAL
CLIFF VOTE. After a prolonged and intense battle, the U.S. Congress approved an
agreement to avoid tax increases for most Americans and postponed the debate on
multimillion dollar cuts to the Pentagon and other programs, the so-called
“fiscal cliff.” This new bill, President Obama announced e will sign into law,
will raise taxes for the wealthiest 2 percent of residents, while maintaining
tax cut extensions for middle class families. This deal will also extend
emergency unemployment benefits for a year. Some are criticizing the pact as
not enough.
Guests: Rafael Fantauzzi, President and CEO, National Puerto Rican Coalition, Washington, DC, http://www.bateylink.org; Leticia Miranda, Senior Policy Advisor, Economic Security Policy, National Council of La Raza, Washington, DC, www.nclr.org; audio excerpts of President Obama’s remarks on the deal.
THURSDAY, JANUARY 3.
PROGRAM # 6865 12:00 PM PT
NEWTOWN AND GUN CONTROL. In the wake of the Newtown school massacre, there is a public outcry for tougher gun control laws and to stem gun violence. Sen. Dianne Feinstein pledged to introduce gun-control legislation, including banning assault weapons, as soon as the new congress is back in session. What are the chances Congress will act on gun control? Will President Obama use his executive powers to close gun-sales loopholes?
Guest: Dana Sanchez-Quist, Spokesperson, Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, Ft. Lauderdale, FL; Larry Pratt, Executive Director, Gun Owners of America, Springfield, VA, http://gunowners.org.
FRIDAY, JANUARY 4.
PROGRAM # 6866 12:00 PM PT
MEXICO EDITION. After Mexico's Congress reformed the labor law in 2012, many remember with longing the days of the labor movement in 1931, when workers, employers, and the Mexican government came to consensus about Constitutional Article 123. Those were post-revolutionary times, and a young dock worker named Valentín Campa Salazar was beginning to organize railroad workers in Ciudad Madero, Tamaulipas and take them to the first general strike in 1927, which would be repressed by the Mexican Army. The work of organizing railroad, cement, textile and steel workers cost Campa 15 years in jail. A character of his time, promoter of Mexico's Worker Central (CTM) and the Block of Proletarian Defense, who would support President Lázaro Cárdenas to nationalize oil industry, Valentín Campa is narrated by his biographer and remembered by his daughter, in the context of a campaign in Mexico City to put his name on the Buenavista metrobus station, where trains used to arrive in the capital city. Martha Elena Ramirez hosts Voz Publica from Mexico City.
Guests: Rosalío Hernández Beltrán, President of the Center for Law and Union Advice, Valentín Campa Salazar, Mexico City, Mexico; Geóloga María Fernanda Campa Uranga, daughter of Valentín Campa, Mexico City, Mexico, geoatea@hotmail.com, Campaign to collect signatures to add the name of Valentín Campa to the Buenavista Station.
Funds for Línea Abierta are provided in part by The National Endowment for the Arts, The California Endowment, the Evelyn and Walter Haas Jr. Fund, The Ford Foundation, The California Wellness Foundation, the James Irvine Foundation, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.