Ephemera from the Las Fronteras: Sueños, Commadres y Manos or The Borders: Dreams, Godmothers and Hands exhibit I curated for the Santa Barbara County Arts Commission, at a young age. It was such an honor to work with this group of talented Latina Artists, depicting their lives, culture, memories and relationships with one another, hence Commadres. The glyphs beside the text are from Mayan culture, the land my father was born.
Building my website has been an exercise in many disciplines.
Apart from viewing my professional history through my photographs, more and more I realize them for what they are: a record, a document and a mirror of our society.
One of the questions I have been asking myself recently is, how much have we grown as a nation? How forward thinking, have we become as a country?
We call ourselves the greatest democracy in the world, yet we are willing to destroy our natural resources, sell our democracy to lobbyists whose only consideration is their own profit, and undermine our constitution, all in the name of progress?
Progress for whom?
This progress guarantees no future for our children and in the name of this progress we give permission to take their lives prematurely in an epidemic called gun violence.
Not only is Congress giving permission and guaranteeing a shorter life span for children they are starving our children and working families while feeding the insatiable belly of corporations. Corporate greed and religious intolerance galvanizes and energizes the chasm dividing our nation, through a violence that especially targets the most vulnerable populations, children. As George Zimmerman said: “I was doing God’s plan.” His justification rooted in a moral ethic that is supported by lobby espoused religious zeal, dressed up as law, entitling him to take the life of Trayvon Benjamin Martin.
Have we really become a nation that settles for watching “reality TV” while dismissing, denying and refusing to participate in our own democracy?
Why are these same themes repeating themselves?
The life of an African-American males continues to be devalued and discounted, around the country and especially in the very same regions that would take our right to vote.
Women are still fighting, clamoring for our right to own our bodies, to choose, to access healthcare.
The sentinels screaming the religious indignation of ‘Right to Life‘ are the very same guardians obstructing health care outside the womb. The very same group body opposing the collective body of citizens in the right to vote, in equality for all people, of all colors and races, in life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and in our inalienable right in freedom of speech.
In love thy neighbor as thyself, where is the love to feed those who do not have enough to eat because the appetite of corporate greed exceeded their neighbors?
These guardians, the very same sentinels whose right to bear arms will stand their ground in ‘Right to Life.’ Right to whose life?
We are in peril of losing one of our most precious pillars of democracy, and that is our right to vote. It is our collective voice. Our mandate. The navigation that guarantees our waters of democracy.
Our guarantee of an even keel for all, not just the few.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then I have written a few toward this sum today.
These photographs, my copyright, were recorded while on assignment for the Los Angeles Times and will be available via my archive
Today is World Refugee Day, and this begs the question, how many of us will become refugees as a result of climate change? This Haitian woman, is a hurricane survivor who was relocated to a camp in the Dominican Republic at the border with Haiti. TWO PERCENT of Haiti is forested. Simple math tells that the remaining 98 percent is DEFORESTED.
Soil erosion is the result of deforestation, which makes the island nation vulnerable to landslides and floods during hurricane season.
Where there is no soil, there is no food; which leads to hunger.
Deforestation has led to Haiti to depend on other nations, agencies, ,and NGO’s for food.
According to a report published on June 10th, 2015, by the United Nations Internal Oversight Services, “over 200 women were forced into sexual acts with UN peacekeepers in exchange for basic necessities”
Think about the number of displaced persons as a result of hurricane Katrina.
Were they not climate refugees?
This week the Guardian published an article on American’s First People who are now America’s First Climate Refugees.
The people of Newtok, Alaska, like the people of Haiti are, literally, losing the ground below their feet.
Photograph and text copyright Ana Elisa Fuentes
International Womens Day 2013
Recent press of my Women’s Empowerment: A Global Perspective exhibit at the Holocaust Memorial & Tolerance Center of Nassau County, in honor of Women’s History Month. Prints from the exhibit are available here. Thank you Soundcliffwritingspa, New York Newsday, PortableExhibit UK & CUNY
In the summer of 1964 three young men, James Chaney, Michael Schwerner, and Andrew Goodman campaigned in Neshoba County Mississippi to register, educate and inform African-American in their right to vote. Their volunteer efforts were part of the civl rights movement taking place that summer known as the Freedom Rides, and/or Freedom Summer.
Chaney then a 21 year-old African American from Meridian, Mississippi, Andrew Goodman a 20 year-old Anthropology student from New York, and Michael Schwerner, also from New York, a 24 year-old social worker and CORE (Congress on Racial Equality) organizer.
It was during this summer that the three young Civil Rights workers were slain by members of the Ku Klux Klan with the assistance of the local police authorities.
Their disappearance and loss spread quickly throughout the country and an immediate investigation was called by the FBI. Their loss of life galvanized the country and was pivotal in the creation and passage of the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Above is Carolyn Goodman, the mother of slain civil rights advocate Andrew Goodman, with an unidentified woman during a memorial to the Freedom Rides, Freedom Summer and the lives of the Andrew Goodman, James Chaney, and Michael Schwerner.
In 1988 the film Mississippi Burning was released.
Photographs from this freelance assignment were recorded on color negative film, published in the Washington Post and will be featured in my upcoming exhibit, “Women’s Empowerment: A Global Perspective.” Photographs are copyright Ana Elisa Fuentes, and are maintained in my personal archive
The focus of International Women’s Day 2012 is rural women. In honor of this day, I’ve posted one of my favorite photo essays on a women’s cooperative in rural Haiti.
The Mouvman Peyizan Papay or the Peasant Movement of Papay is the oldest and largest peasant movement in Haiti. The cooperative is nearly 40 years-old with over 60,000 plus members and an education facility located in the heart of Haiti, the Central Plateau. No individual may join MPP only collectives.The goal of MPP is to educate and empower.
The collective offers their members instruction in women’s health and advocacy and gender equality while providing sound economic and work alternatives to the people of Haiti. The cooperatives are trained by licensed Agronomists in environmental and sustainable farming methods.
Pictured here is KOPA Mache Lakay or home market cooperative. The cooperative owned and operated by three women is a roaring success. Their cooperative provides the employment alternative to the bateys in the Dominican Republic. Their secret double roasted butter is sold throughout Haiti. Their cooperative and MPP at-large provides the humanitarian means to financial independence in Haiti while contributing to a healthy and stable family environment.
The images above were recorded using a Canon 10-d camera while on assignment with Direct Relief International and the American Jewish World Service.
A selection from this set of photographs will be featured in my exhibit “Women’s Empowerment: A Global Perspective” at the Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center of Nassau County.
This exhibit with support from the Holocaust Center, I am dedicating to my mother Eduvigen Fuentes, my friend, compañera and source of strength. She never let me give up.
Thank you for reading.
This is a something I ought to have written years ago. But for various reasons, I have kept it under wraps. Reasons of “deer in the headlights” syndrome come to mind, along with feelings of despair, numbness. Retaliation. Stigma. Part of me wanted to see how long it would continue and to give the persons involved the opportunity to reveal themselves, because in crimes like this, it’s always someone close.
Cybercrime is a contemporary phenomena. Five years ago when the cyber-stalking began no one knew what it was.
It had no name.
All I knew was that I was the recipient of pages and pages of vitriol, slander, threats, defamation, and character assassination by persons unknown for reasons unknown.
The impact was felt emotionally, mentally, physically and decimating financially. The only core it could not touch was my spiritual center. I’ve been a practicing Tibetan Buddhist for a very long time.
I was happily married to a German citizen, living in Bavaria. Our morning ritual included a pre-dawn walk, candle light breakfast over tea and toast. As time went on this cozy ritual would be interrupted by the glow of a twelve-inch laptop monitor. Dream imagery, discussion and meaning replaced by strings of turbulent keywords. And the only replies echoed via email to the GOOGLE search address , asking, demanding, imploring them to remove the vitriol from their search engine that invaded our lives.
Imagine waking up in the morning, over tea and toast, querying your name via the GOOGLE search engine and finding something like this:
— HOMEMADE VIDEO SEX —- click here – alt.parenting.solutions …
– [ Diese Seite übersetzen ]
thong ana elisa fuentes brain pop living with schizophrenic codependency komatsu 830 fire essential health jane lee nd horses …
groups.google.lk/group/alt.parenting…/f909c61345dbf399 – Im Cache
We’ve received your spam report for
HYPERLINK “http://porn-youtube-8.com/freemovie/Video – ana+elisa+fuentes|Special Archive – ana+elisa+fuentes/725/6/”http://porn-youtube-8.com/freemovie/Video%20-%20ana+elisa+fuentes%7CSpecial%20Archive%20-%20ana+elisa+fuentes/725/6/
big game hunting north dakota, free painting estimating software setting up a non profit organization big game hunting north dakota,emily child model auschwitz concentration camp history, ana elisa fuentes
internet …
お名前：Deep Throat Cock 題名：Deep Throat Cock [2008年5月3日 6:30 … –
[ Diese Seite übersetzen ]
16 Beiträge – 13 Autoren – Letzter Eintrag: 3. Mai 2008
… phenylpropanolamine HYPERLINK “http://forfors.com/i/gold-nugget.html”http://forfors.com/i/gold-nugget.html gold
nugget /forfors.com/i/ana-elisa-fuentes.html ana elisa fuentes …
What is still infuriating and wounding is that these allegations, the defamation and character assassination of homemade sex videos, pornography etc … DO NOT exist. They are all lies.
These are just a few examples. I have nearly 100 pages in my archive.
Now, imagine your name and you characterized and/or described as such, and these variations cited ten times per GOOGLE page, 3 or 4 pages deep into the GOOGLE search engine.
Ask yourself:
1. What are the chances of you landing the desired employment interview when all prospective employers conduct a google search?
2. Do you think this would impact upon your current or future employment status?
3. Do you think it might impact upon your social relationships. Your standing in the community?
Absolutely.
This phenomena occurred solely via the GOOGLE search engine.
I filed a complaint with the GOOGLE. They ignored it.
In fact, I came to find that GOOGLE does not honor their own abuse policy. What GOOGLE did however, was to issue a warning highlighted in red of the citations that might harm your computer.
Then the stalking became more aggressive.
daniel pearl killing video, important historical figures …
Fastest rap in the world padagonia, blondie nude daniel pearl killing video=
, ski report scotland retarded burger king guy, ana elisa fuentes what does=
a …vmlfddc.angelfire.com/tcfexpresscom.html – 14k – Cached – Similar pages – Note
When I saw the citation above I began to worry. Not only was this cyber-stalking directed at me, but it in my same breath, it also mentioned the life of former Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. The date this citation appeared coincided with the opening date of the film ” A Mighty Heart” in New York. I double and triple checked.This was deliberate. Someone knew what they were doing.
I went to the ICANN website. Filed a complaint against GOOGLE. Informed GOOGLE ABUSE that I had filed this complaint. It all disappeared in 20 minutes. Over breakfast.
Now, that is what I call responsive.
GOOGLE regarding your architecture & ADWORDS FOR ADVERTISING – which is a keyword based technology – if this technology can be used to identify keywords to target advertising, why can’t this same technology and architecture apply in locating keywords that identify abuse, defamation, hate, violence human-trafficking/slavery ? There is a current petition circulating via Change.org requesting GOOGLE to stop GOOGLE ADWORDS that contribute to the trafficking of women and girls and sex tourism.
The petition is here
Racism, sexism, misogyny, violence and hate are inherent and integral in your architecture. You provide the means and are thus complicit.
One of the most common questions asked of me is, “How do you know this is directed toward you?
Fair question.
My reply is, very few people knew that one of my best friends in Germany is from the Dakotas, or that I had been photo-documenting a denkmal or art memorial based on the holocaust, and even fewer people knew of my emergency room hospital visit in Bavaria.
My German friend from the Dakotas, her Facebook avatar is of big game, native to the Dakotas. The bison.
big game hunting north dakota, free painting estimating software …
… setting up a non profit organization big game hunting north dakota, emi=
ly child model auschwitz concentration camp history, ana elisa fuentes inte=
rnet …
eqruqkg.angelfire.com/howdoesahydraulicpresswork.html – 16k – Cached –
Similar pages
Ana elisa fuentes emergency room case management copepoda leaf , pink floyde maury.com, bluebook value of vehicles shockinggaysites.com, transcona credit …
ukdbvqs.angelfire.com/mcmastercarrcom.html –
13k – Cached – Similar pages – Note this
The cyber-attacks continued. During their zenith, my husband separated from me. I lost my prospective employment. I nearly lost my life. All within ten days. I’m sure this fabricated ground contributed to my past and current legal tug of war with the German Ausländerbehörde over my legal right to work and reside in Germany.
In my anguish and despair, some of my colleagues advised me to, “Ah just ignore it.” “Ignore the cyberstalking.” Most of this advice came from men.
What they fail to recognize is this – the truth – which is when you are an independent freelance photojournalist and a woman, life is already challenging enough. With the plethora of garbage published about me on the most utilized search engine in the world, defamation like this is injurious to one’s reputation and thus pocketbook. I’m sure editors thought twice or thrice before hiring me or using any of my photographs with my byline. After all, as journalists, our bylines, our reputations are our currency – worth their weight in gold and more important than money.
Prolonged threats like this make one feel vulnerable and can contribute to isolation. Vulnerable in concern for one’s safety and livelihood. Isolation because of the toxicity. I remember distinctly the cues dropped by some of my colleagues. The look of bewilderment on their faces. “Why would anyone do this?” “All those things said about you.” As if I were contagious or that it might contaminate them, or rub off on them. “Why would someone do this?”
Because they can. Because they are hiding behind a computer screen and it is very difficult to hold people like this accountable. Why did Rush Limbaugh publicly attack Georgetown university student Sandra Fluke? Because he can, he has, and no one would hold him accountable .. Until now. Listen to Sandra Fluke’s reply here
In 2010 I returned to Germany for my divorce. This time a little wiser and smarter, only telling a handful of people of my return when I arrived. Literally, only five people knew where I was and that I was back in Germany. Within ten days of my return the cyber-stalking began. It looked like this:
C diff infection – [ Diese Seite übersetzen ]… the USs projection country in which Ana elisa fuentes insecurities onto Haiti from the nineteenth century contemporaneous legislation and suppression. …trewq14.no-ip.be/UoCcOq.html
Ana Elisa Gison Low rate small business credit– [ Diese Seite übersetzen ] 25 Ago 2010 … Mel Gibson Has Come Under Fire For Being Hard On Jews In His Film The Passion Of The Ana Elisa Fuentes Getty Images File …mycreditcardlist.co.cc/tagged/ana–elisa-gison.html – Im Cache
housingsecurity.com <a href= http://automotivetoolforsale.opaxxxl.info/ >automotive tool forsale</a > <a href= http://anaelisafuentes.opaxxxl.info/ >ana elisafuentes</a> … www.hosungsecurity.com/board/view.asp?db=boarddong&num…
Later I noticed my name starting to appear in guest books with “members only” requirements.
Careful not to jeopardize my employment opportunities, I filed another complaint against GOOGLE with ICANN and INTERPOL. This time, the spam was gone in 24-hours. In a few days I was interviewed and hired.
Most police stations are ill equipped or trained to handle the sophistication of this type of crime. I have contacted and filed police reports on both sides of the Atlantic and more.
For clarity’s sake and for the record I do not have a criminal background nor do I participate in online dating sites nor in chat rooms. No one is deserving of this kind of violence. No one including me.
In 2011 due to the numerous unfortunate circumstances of teen suicide in connection to cyber-spamming/hate and stalking, the media, the press, therapists, celebrities, talk-show hosts have started to take this a lot more seriously. Good thing.
To reemphasize, this is/was injurious to me on all levels – emotionally, physically, and mentally, it devastated me financially. The only part of me it did not decimate was my spiritual center. Just like any violence directed toward women the repetition of the crime is reliving the crime all over again. In my case speaking, reading, and in the beginning the need to convince and educate was reliving it constantly, and this consumed a lot of my creativity, resolve, and energy.
Please see this link -specific to
cyber-stalking sections 113 – 115
And finally,
“It is not fair to ask of others what you are not willing to do yourself.”
― Eleanor Roosevelt
Truthfully, if this happened to a friend, or another woman, I would encourage them to take action, stand up and speak up for themselves. So I’ve decided to be my best friend and to do the same for me.
My heartfelt love and gratitude to my friends new and old, and my colleagues who have stood beside me, supported me, and encouraged me. Thank you.
If you wish to read an update to this post, please go to this link http://wp.me/s12Vav-untitled
Below is a chronology of the cyber-spamming reports filed vis-á-vis Google Webmaster tools. Page one of two.
Messages
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1-20 of 30 
Portrait of Dr. Endesha Ida Mae Holland, scholar, playwright and novelist. Dr. Holland received literary accolades for her play and novel, “From the Mississippi Delta,” a memoir. Her life transformed and liberated by the civil rights movement; she later brought these same activist qualities into the classroom, where she became the first faculty professor at the University of Southern California to receive a joint appointment in the School of Theater and Gender Studies.
The historical photograph of Dr. Endesha Ida Mae Holland, depicts her and others marching for civil rights in Greenwood, Mississippi. Photograph courtesy of Dr. Holland’s personal collection and archive.
These photographs will be featured in my exhibit at the Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center of Nassau County.
AnaElisa 