'Sleep Dealer' stars Luis Fernando Pena, Leonor Varela

REVIEW

Rating: 3 stars (good)

By Michael Phillips | Tribune critic
June 5, 2009

Present-day Tijuana is one of the most compelling places on earth. It's a symbol of the push-pull co-dependency of America and Mexico, a city defined by a fence that runs straight into the Pacific Ocean.

Alex Rivera's overstuffed but intriguing feature debut, "Sleep Dealer," takes a speculative leap into Tijuana's near future, imagining the next evolution of cheap labor. Its protagonist, Memo (Luis Fernando Pena), comes from a farm in Oaxaca. The region's water supply is controlled by a federalized, heavily armed dam, and the price of a jug of clean H{-2}O has skyrocketed.

A born hacker, Memo's homemade radio surveillance activities attract the attention of the military. After tragedy strikes, in the form of remote-controlled bombers, he sets off for Tijuana. En route he meets an aspiring writer (Leonor Varela) who sells her diary entries and computer-visualized memories on the Internet. So much remarkable technology; so many dubious results.

The writer introduces Memo to the underground world of node implantation -- he must decorate himself with metal thingies to plug into the global workforce grid. Memo operates a robot, via virtual-reality gizmos, high atop a skyscraper under construction in San Diego. Finally! America has solved the undocumented worker problem: work without the workers.

It's dizzying, this premise, and Rivera doesn't always make it easy on his audience. Conceived and filmed in the Bush era, Rivera's film is a despairing one. It is, however, pretty effective science fiction, with one foot in its imagined world, and the other in the one we know.

Rivera creates a neon-soaked Tijuana that grabs the eye without settling for pretty pictures. One drawback: Even when Rivera sets up an elegant composition, often he undercuts it with antsy editing. Leave that manic edge to Robert Rodriguez. If a budding filmmaker can fashion a detailed, low-budget vision of the near-future, an adventurous audience can afford to spend more than a second or two with an individual shot.

MPAA rating: PG-13 (for some violence and sexuality).

Running time: 1:30. Opens: Friday at the Landmark Century Centre Cinema, 2424 N. Clark St. Chicago.

Starring: Luis Fernando Pena (Memo Cruz); Leonor Varela (Luz Martinez); Jacob Vargas (Rudy Ramirez); Tenoch Huerta (David Cruz)

Directed by: Alex Rivera; written by Rivera and David Riker; produced by Anthony Bregman. A Maya Entertainment release.

Help Stop the Closure of California State Parks

Here's our San Diego letter below. Please help by forwarding this letter to your contact lists. Thanks!

Many of you are concerned with the state proposal to reduce the budget of California State Parks by $143 million. And, many of you will be directly impacted since Border Field State Park, the Tijuana Estuary, Silver Strand, Torrey Pines, and Carlsbad State Beach are slated for closure.

You can help by sending letters to your legislators no later than Monday of next week. THE MORE LETTERS THE BETTER. PLEASE FORWARD THIS EMAIL TO YOUR CONTACTS.

Attached is a letter which highlights the main reasons Border Field State Park and the Tijuana River Natural Estuarine Research Reserve should not close.

Since Sacramento will be making decisions on Monday, we need you to FAX letters to the legislators NO LATER THAN MONDAY!!

Emails will not work for some legislators. They don't want their staff spending time making copies of emails

IF YOU DON'T HAVE ACCESS TO A FAX MACHINE, YOU CAN SEND A FAX FROM YOUR COMPUTER. HERE'S HOW YOU DO IT:

1. Highlight and copy the proposed letter narrative (with any additions or changes YOU want to do)

2. go to http://ga3.org/campaign/budget_may09 which is the State Parks Foundation Website.

3. Highlight and paste the letter narrative over the existing letter on the site.

4. fill in the individual info on the right.

5. click on "Send this message"

A fax will then be automatically sent.


SEND A COPY OF YOUR SIGNED LETTER TO:

FAX (No cover sheets necessary)

619-409-7688 Senator Denise Ducheny
619-462-0078 Assemblyman Marty Block
916-323-2232 Natural Resource Committee (Senate)
916-323-8386 Budget Committee (Senate)
916-319-2107 Budget Committee (Assembly)
916-319-2196 Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee (Assembly)


EMAIL


senator.kehoe@sen.ca.gov Senator Christine Kehoe
rachel.gregg@asm.ca.gov Assemblywoman Mary Salas

If you don't have time to send a letter to all of the above, please at least send one to your Senator and Assemblymember.

Thank you!

HERE's a TEMPLATE LETTER

RE: OPPOSE CLOSURE OF BORDER FIELD STATE PARK/TIJUANA ESTUARY – IMPERIAL BEACH

We are writing in support of Border Field State Park/Tijuana Estuary, which is also a National Wildlife Refuge, a National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR), and a Wetland of International Importance under the RAMSAR Convention.

Border Field State Park, a part of the Tijuana River NERR, should not be closed because:

1. State funding for Border Field State Park is $319,000, which is approximately 26% of the operational costs to run the park. These funds serve as a match to leverage non-state funding of approximately $906,000. Without a State match, these funds will be in jeopardy. Over the past 50 years the public has invested over $500 million in the Tijuana River Valley, and it is imperative that this investment be protected.

2. Tourism is the third largest industry in San Diego County. Without our State Parks we will lose jobs in hotels, restaurants, retail shops, and the recreational industry. In general its been found that State Parks return $2.35 for every dollar received from the state General Fund. Ultimately, closing state parks to save money may cost the state many, many times more in state tax revenue.

3. Over 1.8 million people live within a 30-minute drive from Border Field State Park. Over 70% of this population is non-white and low-income. Border Field State Park serves many of San Diego’s disadvantaged population by providing outdoor educational opportunities in partnership with local school districts.

4. Because of severe economic impacts nationwide, studies have shown that more and more people are vacationing locally. Without Border Field State Park there will not be recreational opportunities for local citizens.

We encourage you to oppose the closing of Border Field State Park, as well as the rest of the Parks in the State. Furthermore, we are in support of your efforts to find new revenue sources, including a dedicated DMV fee to support State Parks. This fee is especially attractive because it will provide free state park access to all Californians.

Distant Neighbors: Homeland Security should reopen Friendship Park at border

EDITORIAL

San Diego Union-Tribune

June 2, 2009

If the United States had a rational immigration policy, there would be no need for costly fences and other invidious barriers along the Mexican border. Illegal immigration could be curtailed far more effectively, and cheaply, with a secure worker identification system and tough sanctions against employers who hire undocumented immigrants. Take away the jobs magnet, and the flow of illegal immigrants across the border would dry up.

Yet, because large sectors of the U.S. economy benefit from the cheap labor of illegal workers, Congress has stalled for decades on implementing sensible immigration reforms. Instead, lawmakers beat their chests and appropriate billions and billions of dollars to expand the Border Patrol and erect physical obstacles along the nearly 2,000-mile dividing line.

All that this has accomplished is to move the problem to more remote stretches of the border without decreasing the overall number of immigrants who enter the United States illegally. Consider that 40 percent or more of America's 12 million illegal immigrants entered the country legally and simply remained here after their visas expired. All the fences in the world will not address this huge chunk of the problem. Indeed, the current recession has done far more to curb illegal immigration than the many billions spent on sophisticated sensors and obstacles along the border. This is because the recession has eliminated (temporarily) a big part of the jobs magnet.

We offer this overview of the immigration problem to bring needed perspective to the Department of Homeland Security's hasty decision to bar public access to Friendship Park, a tiny swath of land straddling the border where it meets the Pacific. A century and a half ago an obelisk was erected on the site to pinpoint the new U.S.-Mexico border (one Spanish league south of the southernmost tip of San Diego Bay), as provided by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, ending the 1846-1848 Mexican-American War.

For decades families living on opposite sides of the border have gathered at Friendship Park for picnics and other events. Even after a huge steel fence built by the Border Patrol cleaved the gathering spot down the middle, families continued to meet there and socialize through the fence. In December, however, the Department of Homeland Security barred access to the site as part of a larger operation to build multiple layers of fencing along the border.

Alan Bersin, the Obama administration's border chief, says he is open to the idea of restoring public access to Friendship Park. The symbolism of such a move, coming at a time when the border is being reinforced like a hostile demilitarized zone, would be a powerful reminder that the United States and Mexico are not the combatants of 1846-1848, but rather are friends and neighbors.

--Union-Tribune

Federal officials create opening over border fence public access

San Diego Union-Tribune

by Leslie Berestein, Union-Tribune Staff Writer

2:00 a.m. June 1, 2009

SOUTH COUNTY — Less than five months after federal officials pulled the plug on public access through a new border fence to a historic monument at Border Field State Park, the possibility is back on the table.

Speaking at a luncheon in downtown San Diego last week, Homeland Security border czar Alan Bersin told the audience that immigrant-rights groups have been discussing prospects for public access with department officials.

“It is a dialogue under way,” said Bersin, who was recently named the department's assistant secretary for international affairs.

In January, two weeks before the Obama administration took office, U.S. Border Patrol officials announced a decision to permanently close access to a popular cross-border meeting spot within the state park, where a marble obelisk dating to 1851 marks the U.S.-Mexico border.

Until late last year, the area surrounding the monument – accommodated within a cutout in the steel mesh fence separating the two countries – was easily accessible. On weekends, it was common for U.S. visitors with family in Baja California to bring picnics and chairs to the area, known as Friendship Park, and spend the day chatting with relatives through the fence.

The area was declared off-limits in December, shortly before construction began on a secondary fence through Border Field State Park. That barrier, which is mostly completed, is north of and runs parallel to the main border fence. State and federal officials discussed public access to the monument, and until January there were tentative plans to allow visitors to use a gate in the secondary fence to get to a 40-foot-wide space that flanks the obelisk.

This changed after local Border Patrol officials concluded it would be too difficult for agents to monitor a public gathering place between the two fences. At the time, an agency official in Washington, D.C., said that while visitors frequently pass innocuous items such as food back and forth through small openings in the fence, they could also pass fraudulent documents or drugs.

Bersin said last week that while security would not be compromised, the idea is to rethink the access issue in hopes of being able to have both security and controlled interaction.

On Friday, a Homeland Security spokesman said the only thing that has changed so far is that the discussion is back on.

“This certainly doesn't mean a shift in policy. It is simply dialogue,” agency spokesman Matthew Chandler said. “It is about senior Border Patrol leadership continuing a dialogue with local stakeholders.”

Since the decision was made to bar public access, a coalition of local community, immigrant-rights, environmental and religious groups have lobbied federal officials and policy makers to reconsider.

John Fanestil, a United Methodist minister and one of several local proponents of maintaining public access to Friendship Park, promoted the issue in Washington, D.C., last month. He and other Southwest border activists traveled there to show support of legislation that would require the government to adhere to environmental laws when considering border security.

Last week, Fanestil was at the luncheon where Bersin spoke, and Fanestil said he was encouraged by Bersin's comments.

“I was really pleased, as you can imagine,” Fanestil said. “Our suspicion is that this decision was taken in haste, and that over time, what we think of as a saner view of things will prevail. They are perfectly capable of controlling the public at that venue.”

Pedro Rios of the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker-affiliated human rights group that has also lobbied to preserve visitor access, said there have been a series of informal talks with policymakers and federal officials over the past few months. He said a formal meeting to discuss access is in the works.

However, access to the monument and the fence could be compromised by the state budget crisis. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed cutting more $213 million from state parks over the next two fiscal years, resulting in the possible shutdown of more than 200 state parks, among them Border Field.

The park has been closed to vehicles since winter rains caused flooding but has remained open to hikers and equestrians. Park Superintendent Clay Phillips said vehicle access should be restored within the next few weeks.

In the Union-Tribune on Page B2

San Diego Style: Playful Entryways, Classic Streamline Moderne Bunglows

This article kicks off a new column at The San Diego Border Observer: San Diego Style will document both innovative and classic architectural styles in the mid-city neighborhoods of San Diego.



Here's a lovely entryway in North Park/Normal Heights: a classic Spanish style bungalow. Notice the elegant entryway, painted a contrasting burnt orange to accentuate the depth and dramatic curvature of the interior walls of the entrance.

Classic Arts and Crafts designs are a clever way to add ornamentation and historical reference to a plain residential building.

In the 1930s, residental architecture picked up on the sleek curving lines of Streamline Moderne, a late development of Art Deco style. The style reached its peak in 1937, and we see lots of these homes in the older neighborhoods of mid-city San Diego.




Here's a classic Streamline Moderne with the smooth curving line accentuating the flat roof. Streamline moderne draws upon futurist design and doctrine, emphasizing speed and efficiency, metallic trim celebrating the machine age.

Art Deco on Meade

US-Mexico Border Wall Slicing through Fragile Ecosystems

Amy Goodman interviews Isabel Garcia of Derechos Humanos, and Sean Sullivan of Sierra Club Borderlands Team, and Dan Millis of No More Deaths, on the Border Wall. "We take a look at the environmental impact of the 600 miles of barricades along the US-Mexico border. The wall slices across fragile ecosystems in public lands, parks and refuges, threatening rare species and disrupting wildlife migration. We speak with the chair of the Sierra Club Borderlands Team in Arizona." [includes rush transcript]

Grijalva Introduces Legislation to Protect and Conserve Public Lands along Border

News From Representative Raúl M. Grijalva
7th Congressional District of Arizona

April 23, 2009



Contact:
Natalie Luna (520) 622-6788 office
(520) 904-0375 cell
Ruben Reyes (520) 940-7752 cell

Grijalva Introduces Legislation to Protect and Conserve Public Lands along Border

Washington, D.C. – Today, Congressman Raúl M. Grijalva introduced legislation that will help secure and conserve public and tribal lands along the international land borders of the United States.

The Border Security and Responsibility Act of 2009 will secure and conserve federal public lands along the international land borders of the U.S. and provide the highest protection possible while ensuring that all operations necessary to achieve border security are undertaken.

The legislation will also help mitigate damage to federal and tribal lands from illegal border activity and border enforcement efforts by increasing coordination and planning between the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), federal land management agencies and local, state and tribal governments.

The legislation will also correct existing policies and allow flexibility for a local approach to border security, instead of mandating an unrealistic and harmful wall.

“Current policy has driven crossing activity to remote isolated areas along the border which, in Southern Arizona, represent significant public and tribal lands,” said Grijalva. “Many of these lands have suffered extensive environmental degradation as a result of unauthorized activity and border security efforts. This bill is the first step in preserving our unique natural heritage while we protect our borders.”


The Border Security and Responsibility Act of 2009 will:

1. Require the Department of Homeland Security to consult with federal land managers and state, local, and tribal governments in creating a Border Protection Strategy that supports border security efforts while also protecting federal and tribal lands.

2. Provide for flexibility, rather than a “one size fits all” approach, to border security by allowing experts at DHS to decide upon best strategies for border security.

3. Allow land managers, local officials, and local communities to have a say in border security decisions, requiring full public notice and participation.

4. Ensure that laws intended to protect air, water, wildlife, culture, and health and safety are fully upheld.


Under the Bush Administration, the passage and implementation of the Secure Fence Act and REAL ID ignored environmental, health and safety laws that had been in place for decades. The Border Security and Responsibility Act amends the current law, which pursues a “one fence fits all” solution. The legislation ensures that local experts are part of the planning and evaluation of security measures that would be more effective and have a lower impact on the border environment.

“This multi-disciplinary approach is the correct path for addressing a growing crisis in a rapidly changing geopolitical reality,” stated Grijalva. “The Border Security and Responsibility Act will strengthen border security, protect the environment and uphold the health of the border community by allowing all agencies to work together cooperatively.”

Explanation of triple border fence at Friendship Park, San Diego

April 1 at the beach near Friendship Park

Confronted and Detained by Border Patrol at Friendship Park Feb 21

Here's a YouTube Video focusing on our actions of civil disobedience at Friendship Park and the border patrol's heavy handed tactics, intimidation, and excessive use of force, preventing us from approaching the fence to join our fellow musicians.

Border Patrol Seals off Access to Friendship Park

February 22, 2009

"Today I Took a Stand": Stopping the Bulldozers in Friendship Park

San Diego--On Wednesday, April 8, Daniel Watman bravely stood in front of the bulldozers to stop the construction of the border wall in Friendship Park. Watman, who succeeded in expressing his message of friendship and nonviolence, was detained and cited for trespassing.



A contested site for months now, Friendship Park was closed to the public on January 6, 2009 by the San Diego Sector Chief of the Border Patrol, Mike Fisher. Friends of Friendship Park, a coalition of 40 local religious, human rights and environmental groups, have been working closely with local political leaders to persuade the Department of Homeland Security to restore public access to this historic park.



Daniel Watman circulated a public statement following the action:

Hola todos,

First of all I'm fine and thank to everyone for the supportive emails. It felt really good to know I had people to support me. I feel like my mission of sending a message of the importance of friendship was accomplished. Construction was stopped for a total of about an hour. Officials were mostly professional with me. I was not arrested. I was given a citation for trespassing on Federal property and will receive a court date in the mail (no amount was specified on the citation).

There are more pics coming. Unfortunately, the person taking video had his video card confiscated by officials on the scene. We're not sure if/when he'll get it back and if it'll still have the video on it. I'm working on a detailed written account that i'll probably put on facebook that I will send with more pics over the weekend.

Please stay tuned to Friends of Friendship Park website (friendshippark.org) or the Facebook cause (http://apps.facebook.com/causes/180793?m=92eea645&recruiter_id=34323909) for upcoming actions to save the park.

Amistad sin fronteras,

Daniel


Photo Credit: Maria Teresa Fernandez

SECRETARY NAPOLITANO TO VISIT SOUTHWEST BORDER & MEXICO April 1-3

PRESS RELEASE

March 31, 2009
Contact: DHS Press Office, 202-282-8010

WASHINGTON—U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano plans to travel to the Southwest border and Mexico April 1-3 to meet with Mexican leaders to work together on ways to combat drug violence and tour U.S. ports of entry to observe border protection operations at the ground level. The trip will highlight Secretary Napolitano’s recent announcements that DHS will shift resources to the U.S.-Mexico border to better support ongoing efforts to quell the southbound gun and money trafficking that fuels cartel violence.

Secretary Napolitano’s tour will begin Wednesday in San Diego, with a tour of border operations at the Otay Mesa port of entry, situated across the border from Tijuana. She will then spend Thursday in Cuernavaca, Mexico, where she will join U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to attend the Arms Trafficking Prosecution and Enforcement Strategy Executive Session and meet with Mexican leadership.

Following the conference, Secretary Napolitano will make her way to Mexico City on Thursday evening, to continue meetings with Mexican officials, including President Felipe Calderón. Her final stop will be Friday afternoon in Laredo, Texas she will meet with U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at the Laredo Port of Entry.

Details of Secretary Napolitano’s Visit to California, Mexico and Texas

Wednesday, April 1
3:30 PM PDT Press Conference at Otay Mesa Port of Entry
9777 Via De La Amistad
San Diego, California
OPEN PRESS*

* Media wishing to attend must provide press credentials for entry. The exit from Highway 905 heading south is Siempre Viva Road (last exit before Mexico).

Thursday, April 2

3:00 PM CDT Press Conference with Invited Moderators
Arms Trafficking Prosecution and Enforcement Strategy Executive Session
Camino Real Sumiya
Int. de Fracc. Sumiya s/n
Jiutepec, Morelos Apdo Postal 138
Cuernavaca, Mexico
OPEN PRESS

Friday, April 3

4:00 PM CDT Press Conference at Laredo Port of Entry
World Trade Bridge
Laredo, Texas
OPEN PRESS

Hey Paul Krugman

by Jonathan Mann

Requiem for a Park

By Jill Holslin

SAN DIEGO | On Saturday, Feb 21, US Border Patrol forcibly denied US citizens access to Friendship Park, an historic plaza overlooking the Pacific Ocean on the US-Mexico Border. At noon, a group of 150 of us--local church choir members, university students, professors, human rights advocates, and environmentalists--gathered to hold a service and concert, joined by friends in Tijuana, including members of the Tijuana Opera.

Upon our arrival, Border Patrol agents with PepperBall stun guns and tear gas canisters at the ready forcibly pushed us back and threatened to arrest any who would approach the fence.

This video captures much of the chaos of the day's events, along with some of the sheer, astonishing loveliness of the Faure Requiem--the strains of our music rising up into the clouds gave us a tremendous sense of power and strength.


We performed the Faure Requiem Mass in harmony with the musicians on the Tijuana side. Here I am, singing side by side with Enrique Morones of Border Angels.

The men barking into our faces with bullhorns and whistles, shouting slogans about illegal aliens coming across the border with drugs, were five San Diego Minutemen, one wearing a t-shirt from NumbersUSA, a registered white supremacist hate group. A good portion of this video follows John Fanestil and Dan Watman as they are being led away by Border Patrol--they were both detained briefly that day, and then released without charge. John Fanestil, our leader, and a methodist minister was detained while attempting to serve communion to celebrants on the Tijuana side of the fence. Dan Watman was also detained, leader of Border Meetup, a group that hosts social gatherings at the border including yoga, salsa dancing, kite-flying festivals and park and beach cleanups.

Video Credit: TravelGayle, YouTube
Photo Credits: Pedro Rios, Scott Bennett

Border Patrol confronts park patrons at Friendship Park

San Diego Union-Tribune Sunday, February 22, 2009



Meeting place sealed off
Border patrol agents prohibit access to Friendship Park

by Penni Crabtree



SOUTH COUNTY — In the end, immigration activists never made it to the site of yesterday's planned demonstration, a plaza dubbed Friendship Park that sits on a bluff overlooking the ocean at Border Field State Park.

For the first time, Border Patrol agents formally sealed off access on the U.S. side to the plaza, for years a popular meeting place on the U.S.-Mexico border for families to visit through the fence.

The Department of Homeland Security announced late last year that it will prohibit all public access to the park where a secondary wall is under construction. Since then, the plaza has become a symbolic touchstone for those who debate border enforcement policies.

Until recently, federal officials had planned to have a gate in the secondary fence that would have allowed people on either side to visit.

“This is a treasured piece of the San Diego landscape where people meet for peaceful reasons,” said John Fanestil, executive director of the Foundation for Change, a nonprofit social-justice group involved in immigration issues. “The fencing will change that landscape.”

In recent weeks, Fanestil and others formed the Friends of Friendship Park Coalition to save the park and have received support from elected officials, including Reps. Bob Filner and Susan Davis, both San Diego Democrats. Filner, Davis and other federal lawmakers from border states sent a Feb. 8 letter to President Barack Obama asking him to revisit the construction plans.

Yesterday, about 125 park supporters marched the mile or so on muddy roads and along the beach to Friendship Park. A handful of people opposed to illegal immigration also were there.

A phalanx of Border Patrol agents in off-road vehicles blocked access to the plaza entrance, causing demonstrators on both sides of the issue to gather below the bluff.

The spot was not without poignant symbolism, a strip of beach pierced with metal pilings that form the existing border fence, which runs into the ocean for a few feet before giving way. A child could easily swim between the two countries.

On the south side of the pilings, Mexican families strolled on the beach, bought roasted ears of corn from a vendor and leaned against the fence to watch happenings on the other side.

On the north side of the pilings, Friendship Park supporters held an ecumenical religious service, complete with a choir. Opponents of illegal immigration tried to disrupt it with a siren-blasting bullhorn and shouted slogans such as, “Go home, illegals!”

One wore a cap with the logo of the Minutemen, an anti-illegal-immigration group.

Since the ban on public access to Friendship Park was declared, a few dozen immigration activists have continued to gather there weekly to hold religious services and other activities.

Yesterday, two activists were detained and later released without charge after they tried to approach the fence against orders from Border Patrol agents.




“This is the first day they've chosen to enforce the ban on public access,” Fanestil said. “Before, they tolerated our presence. Clearly they will tolerate us no more.”

Fanestil said he and other members of the park coalition plan to meet and discuss plans for future park actions.

Mark Endicott, public-affairs officer for the U.S. Border Patrol, said no public access will be authorized between the primary and secondary border fences.

The decision to impose the ban is “based on our border security mission and to assure the safety of border agents and the public,” he said.

Penni Crabtree: (619) 293-1237; penni.crabtree@uniontrib.com

Photo Credit: Eduardo Contreras/Union Tribune