Rosa Lopez had her 39thBirthday Party recently
at
Calle Doce in Oak Cliff Texas.
It was fun, lots of friends, lots of food & booze and best of all lots of laughs.
Photos by Jesus Chairez, 214-826-8869 ChairezStudio [at] gmail.com
Gay Nicaraguan man goes into hiding after refugee bid denied
A young Nicaraguan man who says he fears he will be killed in his home country because of his sexual orientation has gone into hiding in Toronto after his latest bid to stay in Canada failed.
Alvaro Orozco, 22, has been holed up at a friend's place since Thursday, when his refugee claim was denied, but came out briefly over the weekend to speak to CBC News.
"Most of the time, I'm hiding because I'm not supposed to be anywhere. I feel like a fugitive. It's really bad," said Orozco.
His case made headlines in Canada and Nicaragua in February when the Immigration and Refugee Board denied him asylum saying they didn't believe he was gay.
His lawyer filed a motion to reopen the refugee claim. Again, he was denied.
He based his refugee claim on the fact that it is against the law to be gay in Nicaragua, where an anti-sodomy law was enacted in 1992.
Canada’s board of citizenship and immigration has ordered a gay Nicaraguan man to immediately return to his native land after two years of living in Toronto while trying to seek asylum.
Alvaro Orozco, 21, said he fled Nicaraga when he was 12 because of harsh sodomy laws and abuse from his father for being gay.
“I was so scared,” he said in the May 22 issue of The Advocate. “I remember going to church—my family is Catholic—and many times I heard the priest say that gay people will go to hell. It was then I knew I had to leave, that I couldn’t grow up here. I
couldn’t wait until I was 18.”
Orozco hitchhiked through Central America, Mexico, and then to Texas after swimming across the Rio Grande. When he reached the United States, he was detained and then transferred to a Catholic Charities facility. He eventually fled and lived in the U.S. for five years but was drawn to Canada because of its less stringent immigration laws.
In 2005, Orozco’s request for asylum was rejected because a member of the Canada's Immigration and Refugee Board did not believe he is gay.
His attorney, El-Farouk Khaki, told The [Toronto] Globe and Mail that he will continue to fight the decision. (The Advocate)
The pair shot to fame with 2001 road movie Y Tu Mama Tambien
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Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal held a gala dinner as a way of raising money to support human rights causes.
And they promised to make documentaries raising awareness of issues such as the unsolved murders of more than 300 women in the border city of Ciudad Juarez.
"Each day it's harder to live in this country," said Luna.
And Garcia Bernal described how "documentaries show us the injustices in the country where we live, that this problem exists".
He added: "We can't escape it."
Tickets for the dinner, held on Saturday evening in Mexico City, were sold for $300 (£149) each.
Proceeds will go to Mexico's Commission for the Defence and Promotion of Human Rights.
They will also be given to Witness, an organisation founded by singer Peter Gabriel which promotes the use of video and film to document human rights abuses.
The actors have publicly supported other social and political causes, such as Mexico City's new law making gay civil unions legal.
Garcia Bernal also criticised a proposed border fence between Mexico and the United States, saying last year that the idea was "absurd".
