In an effort to increase Latino voter participation in 2012, a national movement formally kicks off its national tour in Tucson tonight — the Tequila Party.
Makes sense that Baja Arizona gets to host the first of a national tour. But if you need a reason to celebrate the Tequila Party, think about Citizens for a Better Arizona’s recent success in gathering more than 18,300 signatures to recall State Senate Peesident Russell Pearce.
The bipartisan Citizens for a Better Arizona, co-founded by Randy Parraz, filed the signatures late last month with the Arizona Secretary of State’s office. Only 7,756 signatures are needed. If enough signatures are verified, it looks like Pearce could be up for re-election in November or March.
Head over to La Cocina (201 N. Court Ave.) tonight. Mariachi Luz de Luna starts the show at 6 p.m. At 6:30 p.m. national Tequila Party leader DeeDee Garcia Blase and State Sen Steve Gallardo will speak. Also on schedule is Danza Mexica Cuauhtemoc, Three Sonorans’ David Abie Morales and Cuban music from Duo Libre.
From the Tequila Party website:
In the short future we will be letting you know which artists will be performing in the 28 cities we are visiting in 20 states across the nation.
There will be heavy concentration with regard to concerts being held before 2012 primary election day for each state. We will kick off our first tour in the State of Arizona which is recognized as Immigration Ground Zero.
We will also ensure our tour includes the State of Georgia because they recently signed an Arizona-style harsh anti-immigrant law. Carlos Santana played for the Atlanta Braves and was booed for his immigration remarks. We applaud Carlos Santana for speaking on behalf of the immigrants who are often demonized.
The Tequila Party was featured in this recent report on CNN:
National Tequila Party leader Belinda “Deedee” Garcia-Blase told CNN that the movement “is a platform for us to position ourselves as consistent voters.”
“This is not a movement in place to endorse any politician whatsoever,” she said in a phone interview from Tucson, Arizona, where the movement is based. “We’re not going to bash politicians like the Tea Party does. This is about voting and why we’re in the situation we’re in.”
The goal is to influence the 2012 elections, Garcia-Blase said. The group is now in the final stages of organizing a national tour of concerts, events, dinners and rallies in 20 states that will “encourage a massive Latino ‘Get Out The Vote,'” she said. The kickoff event is June 4 in Tucson, Arizona. …
Garcia-Blase is also head of Somos Republican (We Are Republican), the largest Hispanic GOP group in the nation. She says the genesis of the Tequila Party grew out of frustration with the Obama administration’s failure to pass comprehensive immigration reform and legislation including the DREAM Act, Garcia-Blase says. But she is quick to clarify the movement is not “anti-Obama, but pro-social justice.”
The DREAM — Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors — Act would offer a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants who came to the United States as children. In December, it failed to pass the Senate during a lame-duck session of Congress.
“The immigration issue is the number-one concern to Latinos right now,” Garcia-Blase says. “We’ve witnessed over 800,000 Latinos get deported. We’ve heard the cries and the pain and the suffering from families who are being forced apart. Now is a time for us to become better voters.”
Garcia-Blase concedes the idea for the Tequila Party was not originally hers. She credits Fernando Romero as being the inspiration behind the movement. Romero is president of the nonpartisan Nevada group Hispanics in Politics.
“The movement is important because it unites efforts from the two major parties and others who want to get involved on issues that their party is not dealing with or their party may be in disapproval of,” Romero told CNN from his office in Las Vegas. “This is a collective resolution for the Hispanic community. To this moment I have not received any negative feedback.”
Romero first got involved in politics more than 30 years ago as a volunteer for now-Sen. Harry Reid’s campaign for lieutenant governor of Nevada.
“The principle thing for the Tequila Party movement is border education,” Romero said. “Everything else will come through once we accomplish a good community empowerment movement that will allow us to be as effective as we can. The challenges may be that non-Hispanics may try to make an issue of this as a third-party movement. That’s a misinterpretation of what we’re trying to accomplish.” …
Garcia-Blase, a sixth generation Mexican-American whose parents worked in the potato fields of Idaho when she was a child, says that for now, 100% of her focus is on the pro-Latino movement.
The pro-immigration reform advocate says she plans on changing her political affiliation to independent so that she can be taken seriously by critics as a legitimate social leader.
“I used to be a rah-rah Republican. To heck with that,” Garcia-Blase said. “This isn’t about politics. It’s about people. I’ve always maintained I’m a real Republican, but I’ve been called names because I defend my community and put people before party. I still get attacked for that.”
This article appears in Jun 2-8, 2011.
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Good name for this group,because you all must be drunk if you think there is going to be any amnesty granted,or that you can stop the enforcement of our nations laws!
I really like your comment about 800,000 Latinos being deported. The reason they were deported is because they were in the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA illegally. This means they broke the immigration laws. The blame for this is the individual that came here illegally. People of the UNITED STATES welcome immigrants such as the parents of Dee Dee Garcia-Blase. Her parents, and their parents, were legal citizens of the US. This makes all the difference in the world. We are a country of laws. We have in effect immigration procedures that dictate how to enter this country legally. Millions and millions of people have entered this country legally. Is it too much to ask of the Latino community to have them enter legally?
Illegal is illegal, as in criminal, nothing to do with immigration !
800,000 huh? Too bad we couldn’t get ’em all. I am 4th generation Mexican-American. ALL of my family tree came here LEGALLY. If you are illegal, then you deserve whatever you get.
Interesting that Obama is criticized for not getting immigration reform and the Dream Act accomplished. He vigorously supports both of these issues but the deadhead Congress will not move on it. If you want progress, vote out the deadheads, and there are a lot of them in each party.
The United States of America is long overdue to immigration reform. Im game because legislation bears fruit only when people care enough to work for it.
“800,000 huh? Too bad we couldn’t get ’em all. I am 4th generation Mexican-American. ALL of my family tree came here LEGALLY. If you are illegal, then you deserve whatever you get.”
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Bravo! I salute and respect you. If I were a legal hispanic immigrant, I would do everything in my power to identify myself as having nothing whatsoever to do with these demanding parasites. These people want to control this nation when they have no right to be opening their mouths about anything.
AH! The liberal so-called progressives and purportedly Democrats should all be evicted from Washington? No matter how they try, they cannot make the legal distinction between the right terminology of a foreign national who breaks our law, and a real immigrant? A real, bone fide immigrant comes to America packing an entry visa in their passport from the State Department, whereas an illegal alien slips past the poorly undermanned border fence agent in the dead of night or lies to a immigration inspector at any port of entry. THIS IS HOW TO DIFFERENTIATE BETWEEN AN IMMIGRANT AND AN ILLEGAL ALIEN. Which really isn’t the real border fence anyway, as it’s been concocted by a number of Texas Republicans and a whole bunch of Senators in Washington. Ask Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) how his law, enacted as the 2006 Secure Fence Act was destabilized and underfunded? If you went down at the Southern border, you wouldn’t be looking at the originally designed Rep.Hunters two main 15 foot fences adjacent to each other, with fast tracks in between for vehicles. All you would see is a single strand fence or perhaps nothing at all, except for some rusty barbed wire.
Today it’s one fence that in itself is nowhere near completed? The Liberal Progressives in the media and even in Washington or State Capitols, are brain washing the American people, which is a misleading formula they have invented, to alienate Hispanics against patriotic Americans of all races.? It is untrue that Hispanics are in the cross-hairs as any illegal alien no matter their country of origin and who is in the US unlawfully, is subject to deportation. YES! By far the majority of illegal aliens come from South of the border, but 40 percent arrive via aircraft or ship; even the Northern border is not exempt? Annually thousands of Hispanics say the pledge of allegiance to the sovereignty of America, and they too have no love for people who break our timid laws. Indigenous Hispanics are against the economic invasion and also see it as a menace to their jobs, special the Latino-Americans who have always been here through generations, or only in the last 30 years? The Tea Party will stand and fight any form of Amnesty, under any misnomer name as with Immigration Reform. There cannot be any reward of a path to legalization for anybody breaking the laws,offering citizenship rights just further encourages millions more to try and reach here.
Those States that comply enacting policing laws such as E-Verify, Secure Communities, will have to prepare for the consequences. As it’s no longer just people from other countries that are arriving here for jobs, but illegal aliens with economical intentions? They have tutored in immigration law, knowing once on American soil the taxpayers will pay for their every need. If a pregnant woman has her baby here she is guaranteed welfare and public services and the baby/babies collect entitlements and citizenship paid for by you. States that do not vote in policing laws, will soon adversely benefit from the hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of aliens deserting states that are no longer friendly and have realized the billions of dollars their spending on this economic parasites.
Here is the ongoing facts about Presidential Wanabee’s, as Stated by Tom Tancredo: (I have added the immigration Grading system as of 05/18/11 from NumbersUSA.)
President Barach Obama (F-) has gravitated to the Liberal left on illegal immigration, although it has transpired he has done more on interior enforcement than the previous president. However the border fence is still wide open in thousands of miles along the border region.
Rep. Ron Paul (F-) has taken a sharp left turn on immigration, which I highlighted in a recent column, and refuses to back meaningful immigration enforcement measures such as mandatory E-Verify for all employers. Gov. Mitt Romney (D) supported the McCain-Kennedy amnesty plan, before he was against it, and has avoided the issue in all of his campaign statements. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (D) supports a “robust” guest-worker program and a comprehensive amnesty. Sen. Rick Santorum (F) voted against creating a voluntary E-Verify system and has consistently stated America needs to increase immigration to fix Social Security. Gov. Sarah Palin (D-) has outlined a pathway to citizenship for illegal aliens. Former Gov. Tim Pawlenty, (C+) who has a respectable but limited record on the issue in Minnesota, has consistently ignored it on the campaign trail. Herman Cain (D+) in NumbersUSA grading as he is committed to interior enforcement and apposes amnesty legislation.
If Rep. Michele Bachmann (B+) enters the presidential race, as she has consistently apposed illegal immigration and any kind of amnesty up to this point.
The TEA PARTY see this law as the most expensive aspect of illegal immigration and it will only be cured in the courts, insisting that one parent must be either a naturalized citizen or birthright citizen. The TEA PARTY is building a better America, without government being a mass interference in all of our lives and returning more management to states. By reducing illegal immigration the burden of ever higher taxes should stop accelerating. Another future issue that must be reduced is overpopulation growth. This is yet another accelerating issue, which is draining our energy supplies, the crumbling of our infrastructure, and the ongoing need for more oil, timber for more housing and the need for drinking water. The oath by all politicians to protect the American people means nothing, if our borders are not secured, with “Boots on the ground” of 5000 national guardsman. The final aspiration is that illegal aliens are voting and demeaning citizen’s ultimate rights, through intentional or by error. This has been condoned by Acorn or mostly carefully contrived be organizations, to alter the direction of any election and must be seen as a serious menace to our sovereign nation.
My goodness. You listen to Brittanicus and you would think that this was Berlin, 1939. The hymn of hate is still being sung even in these modern times.
Tom Tancredo? Giggle, snort, guffaw, titter and a BAW-HA-HA!! You’re so 2005 Brittanicus! Tom Tancredo has reeked of rancid-grave-like smells for years. Can you possibly perhaps pull someone more recent out of the garbage can to present to the world please?
Joel, And how’s about you stop with YOUR hate comments. First you take a poster to task and then you pull the same thing. You might not realize it but it puts you in the same boat.
If we want to keep this on the up and up, keep in mind the man who is on your side without pandering to ridiculous demands. MEALER 2012 at least as far as being on the ballot…
Let’s try to keep this next appearance of the Tequila Party from becoming a political production ….
Mealer Economic Plan will solve Arizona problems with jobs, and the national version will solve the entire nation’s lack of jobs and business expansion.
If you take the time to Google Mealer trillion Dollar Coins, you will see the ultimate solution to pay the debt.
http://mealercompanies.com/?p=739
By the way, friends, we do not have a Baja Arizona…. Just Arizona and in our great state, the undocumented workers are reduced to misdemeanors rather than federal illegal alien felons…