Mexican President Felipe Calderon and his wife Margarita Zapala arrived in Washington, DC, for President Obama’s second official state visit.

Voto Latino was on the grounds of the South Lawn of the White House for the welcoming ceremony. Both presidents touched upon issues related to immigration, Arizona, the economy, and the environment.

Later in the afternoon, Mrs. Obama and Ms. Zapala visited an elementary school in a DC suburb.  While there, the First Lady was asked by a worried student if her mom will be deported.

The President also hosted Mexican dignitaries to an official state dinner.  On Thursday, President Calderon was the first international leader to call out the hateful and discriminatory Arizona bill in front of a joint session of Congress.

To view transcripts of all events, check out the following links:

• Remarks by President Calderón of Mexico at Official Arrival Ceremony

• Remarks by President Obama and President Calderón of Mexico at Joint Press Availability

• Remarks by The Vice President at a State Luncheon in Honor of President Calderón of Mexico and Mrs. Margarita Zavala

• Remarks by President Obama and President Calderón of Mexico in an Exchange of Dinner Toasts

• Mexican President Calderon Address to Joint Meeting of Congress

This past Tuesday was a mini Super Tuesday of sorts.  Senator Arlen Spector, who has served 5 terms, lost to a Democratic challenger, while former Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul’s son, Rand Paul, won in Kentucky’s GOP primary.

What does this mean?  Voters are taking a hard look at incumbents and are holding politicians accountable.

As VLers, primaries are just as important as the actual election.  Get your vote on!

You can download a schedule of the upcoming primaries in your state here!

19 year-old Cecilio M. wasn’’t ever too much into politics. Even though people had always told him he’d be a good politician because he’s outgoing and charismatic, it really wasn’t his thing.

But the hip hop norteño music of Akwid was his thing.

Cecilio came to Voto Latino’s Be Counted concert in LA just to see Akwid, and ended up being the winner of Voto Latino’s custom-print Epiphone guitar.

While at the concert, Cecilio was so into the music that he didn’t even hear his name called as the winner. “My girlfriend was yelling at me, ‘Babe, baaaabe, you won!!’ so loud that I swore it was my mom,” he recalls. “Then I got up on stage, and Jesus Malverde told me that we have to vote for a better future and, I agreed.”

And there you have it – another Latino voting in the City of Los Angeles!

Below is a list of cities who have passed (or are considering passing) boycotts on business in Arizona or have condemned SB 1070.  Please comment and leave a source on this story if there are more cities not listed that have (or are considering) resolutions.

San Francisco

• San Francisco supervisors, on a 10-1 vote, approved a nonbinding resolution that calls for a boycott of Arizona-based businesses. It asks for, but does not demand, that city departments refrain from entering into new contracts or extending existing ones with companies headquartered in Arizona, unless severing those ties would result in significant costs to the city or violate other laws. (via SF Gate)

Los Angeles

• The Los Angeles City Council voted 13-1 to stop doing business in Arizona unless the state’s tough new immigration law is repealed.  The city does about $52 million worth of business with Arizona companies, but it’s likely that only about $8 million worth of contracts can be terminated. (via NPR News)

Milwaukee, WI

• The Milwaukee Common Council Tuesday (5/4) failed to act on a resolution calling for the city to boycott companies based in Arizona.  The council sent the measure back to committee. Alderman Robert Puente said his colleagues need to further study the Arizona law. (via WUWM)

Austin, TX

• The resolution, proposed by Council Member Mike Martinez, calls for ending all business-related travel to Arizona by city employees, unless it is related to police investigations, providing humanitarian aid or protecting Austinites’ health and safety. (via Austin American Statesman)

West Hollywood, CA

• The council voted 5-0 Monday night to approve the boycott. The action immediately suspends official travel to Arizona and calls for developing official sanctions. (via CBS2)

Boston, MA

• As the City Council passed a resolution urging that Boston cut business ties with Arizona, Menino said it was important to send “a message’’ that the city disagrees with that state’s response to illegal immigration. (via Boston.com)

Oakland, CA

• The council voted 7-0 Tuesday in favor of the boycott. It calls on city officials to review existing contracts with Arizona-based businesses and not enter into any new ones. It also says staff should not travel to the state on official city business. (via Fresno Bee)

St. Paul, MN

• Mayor Chris Coleman is ordering city departments to no longer travel to conferences in the state of Arizona. (via My Fox 9)

Washington D.C.

• Responding to Arizona’s new immigration law, the resolution requests that the city government and the employee pension fund “divest’ from all Arizona state and municipal bonds and ban city workers from traveling to that state on official business.  The resolution, which will be voted on at a later date, does not appear to prevent the city from doing business with Arizona-based companies, as some Hispanic activists had proposed. (via Washington Post)

New York City

• New York’s City Council will consider a resolution calling for a boycott of all things Arizona. Ydanis Rodrigues, a Manhattan Democrat, filed the non-binding resolution Wednesday, a council aide confirmed. (via WSJ)

Boulder, CO

• Employees of the City of Boulder will no longer be traveling to Arizona for business, City Manager Jane Brautigam announced, as a show of the city’s opposition to the recent immigration legislation passed in that state. (via Examiner)

Seattle, WA

• Seattle’s City Council unanimously passed the Boycott Arizona Resolution, directing departments not to send employees to the Grand Canyon State and to refrain from doing new business with firms in Arizona in protest of the tragic new law. (via Examiner)

Brownsville, TX

• During their Tuesday evening meeting, the city commission voted unanimously to pass a resolution against Arizona’s Senate Bill 1070. (via Valley Central)

Hartford, CT

• That until the repeal of SB 1070, the City of Hartford shall not engage in any discretionary travel to Arizona and when applicable and without conflicting with any laws, the City of Hartford shall not engage in any contract for goods or services with any Arizona-based company. the Court of Common Council urges all public and private universities with campuses in Hartford to decline invitations to any sports tournaments in Arizona (via L. E. Cotto and City of Hartford Resolution)

Coachella, CA

• The Coachella City Council formally opposed Arizona’s new immigration law Wednesday night. (via Desert Sun)

El Paso, TX

• The city’s resolution only condemned Arizona, but counselors added a boycott at last minute and approved the measure. (via News Channel 9)

Columbus, OH

• Mayor Michael B. Coleman has banned city workers from traveling to Arizona on government business, a decision that plunged Columbus yesterday deep into the nation’s emotional debate over illegal immigration. (via The Columbus Dispatch)

Sacramento, CA

• The city council voted 6-1 Tuesday to forbid city employees from attending conferences in Arizona, or doing business with companies based there. (via Mercury News)

San Jose, CA

• Arizona companies pick up commercial waste in San Jose and arm the city’s cops with stun guns. But such dealings could be upended if the City Council joins other local governments in boycotting Arizona over the state’s new immigration law. (via Mercury News)

Voto Latino Executive Director Maria Teresa Kumar was recently quoted in the Financial Times talking about the political ramifications of passing SB 1070 in Arizona. The article, entitled, “US immigration: Flagged up”, explores how SB 1070 politicized Latinos and what that might mean for both political parties.

In it, Maria Teresa states, “There is an opportunity here [for both parties] to work actively to introduce immigration reform – unless they don’t want to win future elections.”

To read the whole article, click here.

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer is on a roll. Not only has she given police the ability to pull over and arrest Latinos and banned teachers who speak heavily accented English, but she now has now passed House Bill 2281, which bans ethnic studies from state curriculum.

Brewer seems to be into legislating Arizona, abbreviated. (That is, Arizona, minus Latinos.)

Let It Bleed

HB 2281 added insult to injury. The fight to have more complete, inclusive versions of U.S. history taught in schools started in the 1960’s, and has continued for decades thereafter. The creation of academic disciplines in which to understand and experience a diverse America was one of the most effective, and long-lasting, accomplishments of the civil rights movement. The disciplines of American Studies, Women’s Studies, African-American Studies, Asian Studies, and Chicano Studies all emerged from there.

Despite some heated debates during the 1980’s “Culture Wars”, most national curricula have since been revised to include the experiences of people of color and women.

Lo Nuestro

Ethnic studies, or community-specific anthropology studies, are sometimes referred to as area studies. And Chicano Studies in Arizona are just that: studies of an area.

For those from the American Southwest, this law is, to repeat Obama’s depiction of SB 1070, “misguided.” The history of the Southwest is defined by a mixture of Native and European populations; called New Spain, or Mexico, or Arizona, it was Latino, and vaquero. Cowboy, and buckaroo. In the Southwest, the flat tops of canyons are called mesas, and canyons derived their name from the word cañon.

How can you tell a state that is one third Latino, with towns that are 80 percent Latino, that they can’t learn their own history? That their contributions to the area simply don’t matter?

You can pull Latino heritage out of the Southwest about as easily as you can pull light particles out of sunlight.

And the Southwest is a very sunny place.

Ourselves, Abbreviated

Brewer’s issue is that students in ethnic studies classes learn that Arizona was once part of Mexico. (I.e., her issue is with students actually learning history in history classes.)

What’s next, having students in Louisiana not learn that it was once part of France, or that have students in New England not learn that it was once part of…England?

The less we know about ourselves, the less of a country we are. With bills like HB 2281, we become abbreviated Americans, unaware of who we really are, and unappreciative of our greatest asset: our diversity.

Piñata photoshoot with Demi Lovato, Jorge Garcia, Ana Ortiz