Hello querides, this newsletter was long due, but here we are. After a lot of reading, after a lot of writing is done.

It is a heavy reading so take your time, I will include a few links to articles if you’d like to have a little more context at the end of it. I got really sad and depressed working on it, so I recommend taking breaks.

Also, after this intro I will write about some stuff im working, that you might be interested. This is events, and parties.

Thursday 8/6 @ Trans Pecos ICE DETENEES FUNDRAISER PARTY 11-LATE (This is a party + little market in support of two friends of close friends who got aprehended by border patrol during the weekend of July 4th in New York State, it will be ass throwy and great techno. With Via App, Hardkore, Salem x, Sepulchra and Moi, all the funds go directly for the homies affected).

Friday 8/21 @ address to confirm PANEL ON CULTURE THE UNDERGROUND VISIBILITY AND OTHER BS for Arthur K curation for ABC NO RIO (This is a panel where we will discuss the idea of underground, we will challenge the notion of visibility regarding experimental culture and the posibilities for culture when the eye escape it, with iconic art outlaws, experimental freaks, and people who was there when the eye was not: Gavilán Rayna Russom (Black Meteoric Star, Voluminous Arts), GENG PTP, Brandon English (Blackberry Knuckleduster). Come talk and nerd our with us, and lets imagine places to escape this hyper vigilant world).

Flyers for both are coming!

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On Argentina, cyber xenophobia and the tricks of Imperialism:

I started working on this newsletter on Sunday when the world cup ended, and as I was verifying info, consulting with dear friends I became very sad and depressed for the people in Argentina.

We are living at really scary times, and it has been like this for a while. I always joke with my friend Arthur that it doesn’t get better, at least in regards to the world. For a bunch of us who grew from war, to war, with the stories of our parents, for some of you here in America, immigrations from the global south, that for me, are always, always political. And for some of us in the global south, stories of parents, uncles, great parents who endure military dictatorships, who believed in utopias beyond capitalism, who survived torture and exile.

We’ve been observing, some not so passive, the annihilation of the Palestinian people, that because of social media has been happening in real time. We’ve been observing the potential of destruction of colonial powers and its deep roots to western modern democracies, we’ve observe the potential of their technology in regards to mass surveillance, and mass murder. And we’ve become numb, and shaken again, and numb again.

We are in full experience, all around us of the kidnaps and disappearance of neighbors. Talking about immigrants, as any other group in lack of privilege in a settler country always feels abstract. If you are not immigrant, if you are not undocumented, if you haven’t been undocumented, or love an undocumented person you can’t be fully aware of the terror or what it means to be snatched. At your house, on the way to you work, at the park, in the grocery store. The city changes its physicality, and the experience of it becomes a stressor, you gotta change your ways, you gotta scan, there’s places you stop going because ice has been popping off. This is happening here in real time. But we’re numb.

Before the persecution of people, there’s always an agenda, that creates an idea around people and dehumanize them. We’ve seen that in our lifetime with swana people, with the idea that middle eastern are terrorists and barbaric, the western pushed for decades the idea that they were misogynistic and religious fanatics, and then Afghanistan happened, Iraq happened, Palestine happened, among some other terrible massacres in that part of the world. We saw it happen with black people in our life time, specially here in America, where whenever they create some culture deeply rooted in their experience in this painful part of the planet it becomes a caricature, it becomes coopted, the narrative shifted, and their experience of pain and multigenerational violence gets erased. Some of these ideas around blackness, that have born here create pains that in many cases end in jail or death. And so we also have the mass propaganda and idea around undocumented people, to me the whole idol building around narco culture, Tony Montana, Pablo Escobar, El Chapo, created this idea of gun violence and criminality around it, in some cases very subtle, in others very explicit. I can’t remember who coined the term of “porno-miseria” (porn misery) to refer how the first world liked to observe our experience, the fetishization of our poverty, of our violence, of our criminality; that in many cases came as a direct consequence of the intervention of America or the colonizer of the moment.

And so, before always the persecution or before something really bad is gonna happen to a group of people always comes to create a base layer that justifies what’s about to happen. So there’s no resistance because “they are all terrorists”, because “they’re all misoginists”, because “they’re all violent”, because “they are criminals”. When this base collective thinking against a part of the world that has been violently impoverished starts, I always try to think: “Who actually benefits from this kind of thought? From this belief?”. And so today we arrive to Argentina, the world cup, and all this intertwined.
Collective catastrophes start with othering.

Gotta mention that world cups (soccer specifically) is a moment of shared collective sentiment, that has been becoming more important as us, humans, become more alienated and separated from one another. Everyone together under an idea of nation. I am not a nationalist, I think identifying under a flag of a settler country is corny as fuck, I understand a flag of the country in the country is different that a flag of the country far away; I understand the sentiment of belonging when you’re away of what you know. I understand too, that being away, and missing your culture can be confusing and a flag is usually an easy way to show you’re proud of that culture, that part of the planet, etc. I also understand that a flag can mean resistance (huipala, wallmapu, palestine, sudan, haiti, black nationalism, etc).

During this world cup we all have seen or being part of the hate towards Argentineans. A sentiment that existed before the world cup, but during it has grew to really crazy levels. Stuff like Argentina is a white country, all argentineans are racist or Argentina is the Israel of latinamerica has been repeated unstoppably. I’ve literally heard white cubans say “argentineans are the most racists” - like be for fucking real! You are a miami white cuban!

I think we all have encounters of racists argentineans on this side of the planet, and if you’re from here you’ve probably have met argentineans in Miami, white as rice.

Let me break it down to you, but even if the white argentineans are the loudest, Argentina is not a white nation. Argentina is a settler project of nation, like the US, but different than the US. Argentina is not an empire, has not been an empire, and has resisted imperialism many, many times. First against the spaniards, second the British and last but not least since the 40s, the United States of America. This has cost them some pretty heavy economical blows. Still tho, not a socialist country, they still have stuff that the united stated dream like universal free education for all in some of the best colleges of latinamerica, and when I mean for all that includes immigrants and also undocumented immigrants, also has free healthcare in public hospitals with great doctors, and I mean free even plastic surgeries. The state, before Javier Milei, also checks the prices of food, so supermakets can’t sell food over certain prices. I could keep naming stuff.

Their history is complex, and as any settler newish nation has flaws and its embedded in colorist and racist bullshit. This by any means is an attempt to say “Argentina is not a racist country”, because you can’t say that from any country in the so called west. But is definitely NOT the MOST racist country, that is unthinkable speaking from here, the United States of America, that literally has still KKK, that has concentration camps for immigrants of color, that has racially motivated mass shootings, and those things to name a few.

How can a country so impoverished, with 100% inflation. Be worst than the empire?

And yet you’re gonna blame it in the attitude of the argentineans you met in Miami (literally the Tel Aviv of Latam, where all war criminals and capitalism fanatics of latinamerica migrate), or in Tulum, or in Europe or during the world cup here. But the truth is that to enter the first world there’s many economical barriers you have to jump to be granted a visa, traveling tickets are mad expensive, and skin color and passport does count when entering the so called first world. Truth is that the majority of these argentineans you’ve encountered are chetos, the argentinean racial oligarchy, that feels closer to their European roots than anything else.

To me this hate towards Argentina is less of a anti racist impulse, or out of care for indigenous, black and brown argentineans. It is deflective.

When the world cup was happening under no doubt I thought Argentina was gonna be the winner, because of the match between Egypt, and FIFAs long story of political tool for different agendas. To think FIFA is woke is like thinking that the United Nations are woke, or idk who are the people behind basketball (?) are woke.

I had many reasons to believe Argentina was gonna win, when I wrote my draft on this newsletter. Peter Thiel, Israel, Netanyahu, Milei, the crisis, etc.

Argentineans in latinamerica because of their education, at least in the past. Have a long standing story of violent riots, and making their presidents to quit. As I mention in my cumbia villera newsletter in 2001 they made the in law of Shakira by making him fly in a helicopter (I keep repeating this because I think is a pretty sick anecdote lol), and that same week they made quit 5 different presidents.

Thinking about their history and what is going on right now in the country, I thought that this is where things were going. To another national revolt. And if they were celebrating a win of the world cup they wouldn’t have time or energy to revolt, because fuck inflation, we are the worlds winners, and for a country that takes futbol so seriously that’s huge. Also for their nationalist ego (the thickets street In the world, the thickest river in the world, blah blah).

I was wrong. After checking some of my sources for my last newsletter I became very depressed of what is cooking by the tech-oligarchs of the world. I must say that I can’t fully comprehend it, but out of gut feeling I feel a deep feeling of rage, sadness and profound grief.

So basically the day after the world cup in the congress of Argentina was being voted this law that allowed foreign powers to buy land, because of their history with colonialism Argentina has laws that protect their land, their rivers, water, nature etc. The law not only allow foreign powers but allow countries to buy land.

A few months ago the anar-cap government of Javier Miley, related via family to Netanyahu, opened an embassy in Jerusalem, when checking my sources I did checked the webpage of the embassy in Jerusalem and I found a lot of promoting of Argentina as a safe, tech paradise, there was a lot of promoting to invest in lands and businesses. This checked with all the complaints from people from Puelmapu (the “argentinean” side of wallmapu) of Israeli “tourists” burning down lands, stuff that also has been happening in Patagonia, in Bio Bio region in Wallmapu (on so called Chile) and now recently in Cuzco, Peru.

The icing of the cake was the news last week about Israel opening a consulate in Ushuaia (the most south city in Argentina), to “manage” Patagonia and Antarctica. Places that have some of the biggest reserves of sweet water in the planet.

And Peter Thiel, what is he doing in Argentina? Well, it isn’t new that Peter Thiel has a very specific ideology, homie has been doing meetings with other rich fucked up people to push for his vision board of the world that keeps stuff running like a business. Peter Thiel already has buyed lands to create their hyper corporate neocolonial cities, like Prospera in Honduras. Argentina’s current presidency, and changes in their laws will allow other projects like Prospera to exist in their territory, with the difference that unlike Honduras, Argentina has not only huge reserves of sweet water, also (specially on the south), oil and gas.

Of course I don’t think it ends there, Peter Thiel means other surveillance technology projects being put in places where people had a large history of resisting not only the state but also Neo colonialism…

I’m losing my train of thoughts, and I feel very tired after writing all this. You can do with this information whatever you want, you can keep choosing hating and spreading hate against people who are not just oppressed by the economical sanctions the united states has put on them via the world bank, you can choose to keep spreading that hate against poor people in the global south from your first world seat. This to me is a choice.

Not that a while ago, there was people with clout at raves saying shit about immigrants as “jokes”, I wonder if they think is funny now.

I think is fried that some people were rooting and celebrating for Spain, like lets be for fucking real! We’re talking about this Spain:

The only people who benefit of us hating each other is rich fucks, who see us as nothing as ants in whatever twisted dream they have in their deformed inhuman brain. This is our time to be as educated as we can be in regards one of each other.

One last thing I will mention, is a few days after the world cup ended, different sources in Argentina started denouncing that two Israeli companies of bots (one based here in New York City), where behind the push of anti Argentina sentiment by using AI to fuel negative sentiments that started to appear on social media. Those companies are Team Jorge, and Blackcore, companies that already have been denounced for influencing the campaign of Petro, in Colombia and other elections, in Africa and America.

I’m fried and tired of writing I might have forget something, hopefully not much. It took me almost two weeks to digest all this information. And after it I got really depressed regarding to the future of latinamerica. Fascism thrives on disinformation, on shock and on people not remembering their history. Think about this next time you root for spain and say dumb shit like, argentina is more racist than spain (lol europe literally invented racism and spread it around the world, spain for centuries thrived on the rape, slaughter, loot and mass murder of indigenous people, changed the order of the world!).

I hope you’re giving yourself time to rest and recompose in these times of fascism.
If you got all the way down here, thanks for reading.

This newsletter is dedicated to my beloved brown argentinean friends, existing and resisting in that territory aswell away from it, Leo - super cool indigenous arg kid who has a crazy taste on bass music who organizes really cool shit, Jaquelina my coya friend from Jujuy who is a nurse an anti racist baddie. Lucra, leather dyke and insane writer existing and resisting in S-pain, with some of the most briliant anti colonial queer minds from Abya Yala. International indigenous and maroon solidarity and resistance forever!

Much love

R.

Some sources:

La estigmatización de la argentina no es antirracismo

En las últimas semanas se ha profundizado en los medios de comunicación y en las redes sociales la circulación de contenido en el que se califica de forma insistente y vehemente a la argentina como un país racista, incluso siendo calificado como “uno, sino el país más racista del mundo” en un posteo de la SEC Black Alumni Network (Red de exalumnos negros de la SEC) y reposteado en sus redes sociales por al actor afroamericano Samuel Jackson.

Mercenaries of digital disinformation

Purposefully spreading false information is their business model: Dubious companies and consultants like “Team Jorge” are trying to influence elections around the world. They rely on armies of fake social media accounts, cyber espionage and AI.