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ARTICLES POSTED APRIL 1999 SPANISH FOR ALL?, (posted 4/23/99) By Domenico Maceri. Domenico Maceri teaches foreign languages at Allan Hancock College in Santa Maria, Calif. April 15, 1999 As the most populous American state, California influences what goes on in the rest of the country. Except in Texas, where people like to go their own way. California dumped bilingual education; Texas clings to it. And now a new proposal in the Texas state assembly would increase the divide between these two major states' educational language policies. Some Texans want to do more than just tolerate bilingualism. They want to make every kid who comes out of the school system bilingual. Texas Rep. Rene Oliveira proposed a bill that would require Texas high school students to take two years of Spanish to graduate. The plan recognizes that we live in a global market and that Texans who speak nothing but English can't compete. The same ought to apply to Californians and, in fact, to the rest of the country. Oliveira believes that since Texas does business with 19 Spanish-speaking countries, it's logical to have its students study Spanish. In addition, by 2030 Hispanics will become the majority in Texas and knowledge of Spanish will translate itself into dollars. The advantages of speaking Spanish in Texas, California and many other parts of the country are obvious. First, there are economic benefits. A study conducted by researchers at the University of Miami reveals that linguistic knowledge among Hispanic families drastically affects family income. Families who spoke only Spanish had an average income of $ 18,000; those with only English, $32,000; and those with Spanish and English, $50,376. The figures were culled from 1990 census figures. In addition to the dollar signs, studying Spanish (or some other language) will also make students better learners of all their subjects while they are still in school. Bilingual/bicultural kids have many advantages over monolingual ones because they possess what researchers call a "plasticity" of the brain. This trait is apparent in learning other languages. It's the first foreign language that is difficult. Learning Italian, Portuguese or French is relatively easy for someone who knows Spanish because they are related languages. This ability to learn new languages translates itself into other domains. Bilingual/bicultural individuals internalize that just like there are two ways to say the same thing, there are two ways to learn new things or solve problems. Bilingual students develop a mental agility and flexibility about learning that monolinguals lack. This flexibility is vital in today's world, where employees are constantly expected to acquire new skills to stay abreast of technological changes. Standardized tests confirm the intellectual advantage of students educated in two languages. A 14-year study by researchers at George Mason University found that students in dual-language schools that teach half the day in one language and the other half in a second language did better than students in other types of bilingual education programs and also outperformed native English speakers in English-only schools. Although English and Spanish bilingualism may be easiest to achieve and most desirable, the practical and intellectual benefits of bilingualism may be reached with another language. French, Japanese or some other language could easily take the place of Spanish in some parts of the country. Other countries understand very well the importance of languages. With an economy aimed primarily at exporting, the Japanese firmly believe that in order to sell their products they have to know the customers-and that means the customers' language. In Japan, English is a basic subject from the earliest grades on. The Japanese know that learning languages requires a long time and they give their students all the time it takes. Learning about the customers is not just a matter of learning their words. The study of culture-history, geography, politics, traditions-goes hand in hand with language. Languages and cultures are an essential component of an outwardly looking education system typical of Japan as well as that of major industrial countries. In today's world, events in Iraq can have dramatic effects in California. A slide in Asian stock markets can trigger one in New York. To understand these events and be able to influence them we need linguistic and cultural knowledge that goes beyond English. Every American deserves that edge. Reorganizing Labor Certification, (posted 4/16/99) Employers requesting permission to employ temporary unskilled foreigners or to sponsor permanent immigrants must receive certification from the US Department of Labor that US workers are not available; certification is DOL agreement with the employer that foreign workers are needed to fill the job vacancies. Labor certification is currently done by the Employment and Training Administration, the largest of the DOL divisions, and the one that most closely works with local ES offices. Currently, allegations of employer violations of labor certification rules are handled by the Wage and Hour Division of the Employment Standards Administration. The President's FY00 budget proposes that labor certification be moved from ETA to ESA. This would transfer about 98 FTE and $35 million from one DOL agency to another, and employers seeking to have their need for foreign workers certified would have to pay for DOL certification services with a new set of fees. DOL proposes to provide both services and enforcement within ESA in a redesigned labor certification process called the PERM system for: (1) permanent immigrants; and (2) H-2B workers. PERM would substitute a quasi-attestation process for the current certification process, for example, employer applications would be scanned and applications with answers that exceed critical thresholds would be pulled out for audit; applications that did not trigger pre-admission audits would be audited randomly. In switching to this IRS-type audit model, DOL hopes to greatly reduce the 300 state ES staff who supervise the recruitment of US workers for jobs that US employers want to fill with foreigners, spend more time on questionable cases and speed up a now lengthy process. ESA would conduct post-admission enforcement to ensure the assurance provided to secure certification were in fact being provided to the foreign workers. Most employer groups favor the substitution of what DOL calls attestation and expedited processing. However, most employers do not favor the consolidation of enforcement and services in ESA/WHD, nor new employer paid fees. Worker advocates protest that DOL will no longer monitor the recruitment of US workers, but DOL responds that most recruitment of US workers by US employers requesting certification of their need for foreign workers is a sham, since the US employer wants the foreign worker, not the US worker. If implemented, the PERM system would go into effect October 1, 1999. RURAL MIGRATION NEWS Mexico Wants Guest Workers, (posted 4/16/99) After a March meeting between the US and Mexican labor secretaries, former Mexican Labor Secretary Jose Antonio Gonzalez said that Mexico would ask the US for another guest worker program to permit a "legalized exchange of workers from Mexico to the United States." Gonzalez said that "We have been thinking about analyzing what occurred between the United States and Mexico years ago, when there was a regulated interchange of workers." He mentioned the Mexico-Canadian agricultural program as a model that Mexico would like to see developed with the US. President Clinton in 1995 said he strongly opposed a new guest worker program that would admit unskilled Mexican workers: "When these programs were tried in the past, many temporary guest workers stayed permanently and illegally in this country. Hundreds of thousands of immigrants now residing in the U.S. first came as temporary workers, and their presence became a magnet for other illegal immigration." The Canadian program is based on a government-to-government memorandum of understanding. Canadian farm employers initiate the process of importing Mexican workers by placing an order which specifies labor needs, wages paid, etc. with Human Resources and Development Canada at least eight weeks before workers are needed. These job orders must offer at least 40 hours of work per six-day week for at least six weeks, free housing and meals or cooking facilities, and the minimum or prevailing wage, whichever is higher. Canadian workers are sought to fill these job orders. If none are found, then three to four weeks before the employer's specified need date, the employer's request for foreign workers is approved by HRDC, and the farm employer sends the order to a private organization, called Farms in Ontario and Ferme in Quebec, which charges the farm employer a fee for notifying Mexican officials in Canada and Mexico about the vacant jobs. The Mexican Ministry of Labor recruits workers, who are processed at the Canadian embassy in Mexico, receiving a letter of introduction that enables them to enter Canada. Employers advance the cost of round-trip transportation between Mexico City and Canada, and most employers recoup about a third of the transportation cost in deductions from wages. Employers may also deduct from wages the cost of health insurance payments made to the Mexican insurance company that provides coverage, as well as up to C$6.50 a day for meals. Four percent of worker pay, up to C$425, is deducted to cover the costs of administering the program. There is no limit to the number of foreign farm workers who can work in Canada. The program is small but expanding; 4,908 Mexican workers were admitted in 1994; 4,886 in 1995; 5,215 in 1996; and an estimated 5,500 in 1997. US. The U.S. Senate's Agriculture Committee held a hearing in Bowling Green, Kentucky in April 1999. In 1998, about 2,700 H-2A workers were admitted to Kentucky, which represented about 10 percent of the peak tobacco harvesting work force. One grower with 80 acres of tobacco reported hiring 10 H-2A workers and paying $75 to $150 a worker for a firm to prepare the applications for him. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), criticized the H-2A program, saying that "A farmer shouldn't have to hire a lawyer in order to hire a farm worker." Senator Spencer Abraham (R-MI) is likely to hold a hearing on agricultural guest workers in late April or early May 1999. Former director of the National Immigration Forum Rick Swartz has been hired by farmers wanting a guest worker program to forge a compromise proposal for a streamlined H-2A program. A national Latino summit against guest workers is scheduled for May 3-6, 1999 in Washington DC. Colby, Catherine. 1997. From Oaxaca to Ontario: Mexican Contract Labor in Canada and the Impact at Home. Davis. California Institute for Rural Studies. http://www.cirsinc.org RURAL MIGRATION NEWS INS: Raids, Do Not Hire, (posted 4/16/99) Fewer Workplace Raids. The INS announced in March 1999 that it was adopting a new interior enforcement strategy, de-emphasizing workplace raids, and instead concentrating on removing criminal aliens and cracking down on alien smuggling rings and document counterfeiters. INS officials say that their top priorities are: (1) to remove criminal aliens from the US; and (2) to find and prosecute alien smugglers. INS plans to evaluate the effectiveness of its new interior enforcement strategy by examining: (1) trends in wages in industries that typically hire illegal immigrants; (2) local crime rates; and (3) trends in the cost of smuggling aliens or obtaining fraudulent immigration documents. The INS has been reducing the number of workplace raids, especially after controversy arose over the actions of some INS agents. For example, on April 23, 1998, a raid at First Paragon Floral in Miami resulted in the arrest of 23 workers, but three were found to be legal immigrants and another eight were eligible for work permits. During the raid, some workers were held in cold storage facilities. The resulting furor over inhumane treatment led to requirements that each INS office develop a written plan for each worksite raid and direction from INS headquarters to emphasize anti-smuggling rather than employer sanctions enforcement. Workplace raids tend to unite employers, unions and migrant advocates against the INS, and do not result in the removal of many aliens, or in changes to employer or worker behavior. In FY98, 44,474 foreigners were apprehended in workplace raids; the US unauthorized work force is believed to be four to five million. The new INS philosophy was expressed by Joe Greene, INS district director in Denver and author of the new interior enforcement strategy, who said that "80 to 85 percent of employers really want to comply with this law [employer sanctions], so let's help them do that." There continue to be workplace raids. A workplace raid in Delmarva, in March 1999 removed 46 poultry workers from Chestertown Foods Inc.-the workers were provided to Chestertown Foods by a labor contractor, Chester Labor Servicing Corp.--34 of the unauthorized workers were Mexican and 12 were Indonesian. The owners of the Blue Mountain Stone Quarry in Larimer County, Colorado were among the first US employers who face up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 for harboring and employing undocumented migrants. A Colorado farm labor contractor was sentenced to 15 months in prison in February 1999 for smuggling and hiring unauthorized workers. However, no Florida farmer has been fined for hiring illegal workers for the past three years, and no Florida farm labor contractor has been fined in the past decade. A senior INS field manager said "We basically have ceased worksite enforcement" in response to a lack of political support. Workplace raids often produce complaints from agricultural and business groups and their lawyers, ethnic lobbies and civil rights groups. Do Not Hire. The INS is also attempting a new do-not-hire strategy in Washington and the Midwest. The INS in Washington subpoenaed and checked the I-9 information of employees of 13 Yakima-area apple packing plants in January-February 1999, identified about 1,700 unauthorized workers and ordered the plants in February-March 1999 to fire about 562 workers unless they can clear up discrepancies in their status-the other workers quit or were let go in seasonal layoffs. The percentage of unauthorized workers varied from 10 to 70 percent at the packing plants checked by INS. There are about 15,000 apple-packing workers in Washington, most of whom earn about $8 an hour-many are Mexican-born women. By issuing do-not-hire letters, the INS is hoping to get employers to fire illegal workers, but avoid the cost of detaining and deporting the unauthorized workers. It is not clear whether the workers who are fired will leave the area; INS Commissioner Meissner said that the INS is trying to "really change the dynamics, change the climate, and change the decision-making process of these migrants." Some local residents criticized the INS for not apprehending and deporting the illegal workers, rather than simply ordering employers to fire them. The INS effort to get employers to fire unauthorized workers was criticized by employers, the Teamsters, the union trying to organize apple-packing workers and migrant advocates. In January 1998, the Teamsters lost elections at Stemilt Growers Inc. and Washington Fruit and Produce. If there is consistent INS pressure on the apple industry to screen workers for legal status, it is likely that there will be more labor-saving automation. Bob Mathison of Stemilt Growers Inc. was quoted in the Seattle Times on January 4, 1998 as saying: "We are blessed with a bountiful labor supply. If there is something we want done, we throw bodies at it and they cost $7.50 an hour...You saw those people turning apples in the same direction? If we have to pay $12 an hour, those people are gone," replaced by apple-sorting machines. In the fields, apple growers would likely increase the mechanization of pruning, and explore the use of chemicals to thin apples, for example, eliminate some buds so that the apples that are produced are larger. Research on both labor-saving technologies has been slowed by an ample supply of labor. The Yakima Chicano/Latino Coalition: (1) urged the plants to defy the INS and not fire the workers; (2) urged Congress to give illegal apple workers amnesty; and (3) opposed suggestions to replace the fired unauthorized workers with nonimmigrants who might receive H-2B visas. There are about 67,000 Latinos in Yakima County, which has a population of 220,000. Latinos are over 70 percent of K-12 pupils in towns like Sunnyside, Toppenish and Grandview. Yakima's Catholic bishop, Carlos A. Sevilla, said "I find that to release 700 individuals from employment within a week's time is not only devastating to the families, which will be impacted severely, but also to the civic community as a whole." Democratic Governor Gary Locke said, "I don't support what the INS is doing." An INS spokesperson countered that the protests reflect "a significant erosion of respect for federal immigration law. It is to the point where individuals and certain business interests and other special interests have adopted an attitude that it is their right to violate these laws, and that the federal government is conducting some sort of persecution for simply now enforcing what is the law of the land." Washington asparagus farmers, who begin the six-week harvest of 22,000 acres with 6,500 workers in mid-April, worried that INS raids or do-not-hire letters would lead to labor shortages. Washington and California each produce about 40 percent of the US asparagus crop. The INS has used the do-not-hire strategy in Washington before. In 1998, the INS used the do-not-hire strategy to have 513 workers fired from Seattle-area restaurants and hotels. In the seven-state Western INS region in FY98, employer audits resulted in 21,217 workers being fired, with 3,929 arrested and subjected to deportation proceedings. Washington employers did not have an experience-rated unemployment insurance system between 1972 and 1984; all employers paid three or 3.3 percent of base wages. Beginning in 1985, a federal law required all states to have a maximum UI tax rate of at least 5.4 percent, which in Washington changes UI tax rates to 0.4 to 5.4 percent. An analysis of employer responses to these payroll tax changes found that employers: (1) were less likely to lay off workers in seasonal downturns to avoid higher taxes; and (2) were more likely to contest what they regarded as invalid worker claims for UI benefits. Since 1996, the INS has offered employers the opportunity to participate in the employment verification pilot program, which permits employers to check the Social Security numbers of newly hired workers. Two apple warehouses are participating. In the midwest, the INS announced that it is expanding the Basic Pilot employment eligibility confirmation system to Nebraska, where Operation Vanguard is using do-not-hire letters to keep illegal workers out of the work force in beef and pork processing. Under Basic Pilot, employers may submit information on newly hired employees to the INS and Social Security Administration to verify the right to work in the US. The Basic Pilot currently operates in five states: California, Florida, Illinois, New York and Texas. Employers who request excess documentation are subject to fines and the requirement that they pay back wages to unauthorized workers they did not hire. A Los Angeles-area garment firm, Aztec Productions, that demanded an INS work authorization document from a Latino US citizen, paid $27,000 to settle a charge that the firm unlawfully discriminated in hiring, including $5,000 in back pay. The man presented a driver's license and Social Security card, and was told to return with an INS work authorization document. When he returned with proof of US citizenship, he was told that all vacant jobs had been filled. The Department of Justice's office of immigration-related unfair-employment practices, which is not part of INS, administers the anti-discrimination provisions of IRCA. The offices says that it has collected about $1 million in civil fines for discrimination and nearly $2 million in back pay for would-be workers who were not hired by employers who demanded excess documents. In 1996, the law was changed to require DOJ to prove that an employer intended to discriminate before the employer could be fined. Sam Howe Verhovek, "New I.N.S. Tactic on Illegal Workers Puts Many Out of Jobs," New York Times, April 2, 1999. Wendy Harris, "Warehouses Must Fire Illegal Workers," Yakima Herald-Republic, February 14, 1999. Kim Murphy, "Growers Struggle to Make Fruit the Apple of America's Eye," Los Angeles Times, January 24, 1999. RURAL MIGRATION NEWS MSFW Programs: $858 Million in FY00, (posted 4/16/99) The President's FY00 budget includes a proposed seven percent increase in funding for the major MSFW assistance programs, bringing their funding from about $800 million to $860 million. Over 85 percent of MSFW assistance funds go to the "Big Four" programs: 1. Migrant Education, $380 million in federal grants to state educational agencies to provide services to the children of migrant farm workers; 2. Migrant Head Start, $211 million in federal grants to state agencies and nonprofit organizations to provide early childhood education to the young children of migrant farm workers. 3. Migrant Health, $85 million to nonprofit organizations to provide free or subsidized health care services to migrant workers and their children; 4. Employment and training, $71 million to state agencies and nonprofit organizations to provide employment and training services to adult migrant and seasonal farm workers Federal MSFW programs have eligibility criteria, i.e., participants must do (or have parents who do) qualifying farm work and satisfy mobility, income and other requirements. In addition, farm workers receive assistance under other federal, state, and local assistance programs. A history and analysis of federal MSFW programs is in: Martin, Philip L. and David Martin. 1993. The Endless Quest: Helping America's Farm Workers. Boulder: Westview Press. RURAL MIGRATION NEWS North Carolina: FLOC, Legal Services, (posted 4/16/99) FLOC. The Toledo-based Farm Labor Organizing Committee in March 1999 began a boycott of North Carolina's Mount Olive Pickle Co., with rallies at supermarkets in cities where Mount Olive Pickles are sold. FLOC says that 2,000 North Carolina workers have signed cards indicating that they want FLOC to represent them. In February 1999, the AFL-CIO endorsed FLOC's boycott of Mount Olive Pickle Co. at its annual meeting in Florida: "The AFL-CIO union label and service trades department has been asked to assist the Farm Labor Organizing Committee ... in publicizing its boycott of products of this company in order to help the members of FLOC achieve a fair contract." Mount Olive, a privately held company based at the corner of Cucumber and Vine in Mount Olive, North Carolina, is the fourth-largest US pickle processor and the largest in the South. Mount Olive says: "Our company does not employ farm workers - farmers do - and it is unfair for our company to influence farmers or farm workers to sign labor contracts... We do not want to interfere in the relationship between employer and employee." FLOC claims 7,000 members in Ohio and Michigan, where it has three-way contracts between food processors such as Campbell's, farmers and workers that guarantees workers a minimum $6 an hour. FLOC president Baldemar Velasquez asserted that strawberry and citrus workers in Florida want FLOC to represent them. A University of South Florida study based on interviews with 3,000 workers between 1989 and 1995 found that two-thirds earned less than $7,500 annually for eight to nine months of farm work. Legal Services. Legal Services of North Carolina has been charged with illegally recruiting Mexican H-2A farm workers to sue North Carolina farmers in January 1998. Legal Services attorneys were videotaped in Mexico, in apparent violation of a Legal Services Corporation regulation that says that LSC funds can be used to serve H-2A workers only when they are "present in the United States." The North Carolina Growers Association, which employs 10,000 H-2A workers on behalf of nearly 1,000 farmers, wants Legal Services of North Carolina defunded for providing services to H-2A workers when they were not physically present in the US. The NCGA was formed in 1990, and charges growers $498 for processing each H-2A worker. Farmworkers Legal Services, the migrant arm of Legal Services of North Carolina sued NCGA in 1991 for providing housing only for solo males, thus, the suit contended, NCGA was discriminating against women and families. NCGA agreed to provide housing for women, but not families. FLS won favorable settlements for farm workers in four of six additional cases filed. FLS argues that it must travel to Mexico to talk to H-2A workers because farmers restrict their access to H-2As in North Carolina, and workers are freer to discuss their problems with farm employers at home. In Chapulhuacan, 85 percent of the 350 people who turned out to greet the FLS team had reportedly been employed in North Carolina. A recruiter for NCGA was among the workers who met with the FLS attorneys and filmed them. The tape was shown at a Congressional hearing, LSC investigated and concluded that FLS attorneys had "provided legal services to 26 non-U.S. citizens who were never present in the United States... a violation of the [Legal Services Corporation] Act and regulations." The LSC ordered Legal Services of North Carolina to repay the costs of the trip, and to dissolve the FLS unit. The Legal Services Corp plans two hearings in April 1999 to review in more detail the meaning of "present in the US." The issue is whether H-2A and other workers who want LSC-funded representation must be "present" simply during the employment that gave rise to their complaint, or in the United States throughout the entire process of LSC-funded representation. Health. The Association of Healthcare Workers Serving Farm Workers, affiliated with FLOC, was formed to organize the doctors, nurse practitioners, and physician's assistants who serve farm workers at federally designated migrant health centers or in community health care centers. The purpose of the union is to unite health care providers in standing up for their patients' rights, not to protect their own wages or privileges. The doctor organizing the union was fired from a Migrant Health clinic. Motoko Rich, "Legal-Services Unit Draws Fire for Its Migrant Work," Wall Street Journal, February 17, 1999. RURAL MIGRATION NEWS UFW: 1999 Campaign, (posted 4/16/99) The UFW is poised to renew its effort to organize strawberry workers. Growers increased acreage planted to 24,600 in 1999. Strawberries are harvested year round, but production peaks in April and May. Leading varieties are Camarosa and Selva; 3,500 acres of strawberries are planted to proprietary varieties. Coastal Berry Co. in Watsonville, where an election was held in 1998, has a new president, Ernie Farley. In Ventura county, 40 of the 60 workers at specialty vegetable grower Muranaka Farms demonstrated in March 1999 to protest the slow pace of negotiations; the last contract ran from 1994-97. Chavez. Cesar Chavez in March 1999 became the 22nd person inducted into the Department of Labor's Hall of Fame. Labor Secretary Alexis M. Herman said that Chavez "was a visionary and a man of courage who fought for the dignity of all workers." In celebration of Chavez's March 31, 1927 birthday, there were street and school name changes in honor of Chavez throughout the US. Texas made March 31 an optional state holiday, Cesar Chavez Day; March 31 has been an optional state holiday in California since 1994. A bill has been introduced in the House of Representatives to make March 31 a federal holiday, analogous to the January 17 federal holiday for Martin Luther King Jr, approved in 1983. UFW President Arturo S. Rodriguez, interviewed in January 1999, quoted Cesar Chavez's 1979 eulogy for a farm worker killed in the Imperial Valley lettuce strike. Chavez said that "the human beings who torture their bodies, sacrifice their youth and numb their spirits to produce this great agricultural wealth-a wealth so vast that it feeds all of America and much of the world. And yet the men, women and children who are the flesh and blood of this production often do not have enough to feed themselves." Lionel Steinberg, the first table grape grower to sign the historic initial contract, died in March 1999 in Palm Springs. Steinberg's David Freedman & Co., based in Thermal signed an agreement with the UFW on April 10, 1970. Unions. Miguel Contreras, a former UFW organizer is head of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, the umbrella organization for 400 unions with a claimed membership of 700,000 workers. Contreras said that "Cesar always told us that the imaginary shackles you have to your employer are always there unless you as a worker have a feeling of self-worth, [unless] you know that you can go get a job somewhere else and still make a living. Cesar taught us to break those imaginary shackles. That's the greatest lesson I've learned, clearly. " Contreras was arrested 18 times for violating antipicketing injunctions in the summer of 1973. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the number of US union members was 16.2 million in 1998, or 13.9 percent of the labor force, down from the peak 35 percent in the mid-1950s. Some 37.5 percent of public sector workers were union members, compared to 9.5 percent of private sector workers. The number of NLRB-supervised union elections rose nine percent to 1,611 in the first half of 1998, and unions won 52 percent of these elections, compared with 1,479 elections with 49 percent won by unions in 1997. Union workers on average earn 27 percent more than nonunion workers in 1998; the union wage premium was 40 percent in 1983. California gained 87,000 union members in 1998, including 80,000 in the public sector; about 16 percent of California workers are union members. The AFL-CIO has 72 national union affiliates, including the UFW. Michael Doyle, "Chavez holiday bill stirs strong feelings," Fresno Bee, April 8, 1999. Ted Rohrlich, "Miguel Contreras. A Boss for a New Generation Broadens Big Labor's Appeal," Los Angeles Times, January 31, 1999. RURAL MIGRATION NEWS Midwest: Hispanic Immigrants, (posted 4/16/99) The INS is using Operation Vanguard to eliminate illegal workers from the meatpacking industry by subpoenaing and comparing I-9 information with other data bases. In its review of 26,000 employee records at 40 meatpacking plants, 4,500 or 17 percent had discrepancies, such as Social Security Numbers that were invalid or not assigned to the person who used it; there were no discrepancies at 26 other packing plants. At IBP's Gibbon, Nebraska plant near Grand Island, 322 or 68 percent of the 471 employee records reviewed had a discrepancy; two other plants had three percent discrepancy rates. The INS plans to visit meatpacking plants in Fremont, Hastings, North Platte, Sioux City, Iowa; Dodge, Schuyler, Crete, Denison, Omaha, Dakota City, Gibbon, Lexington, Madison, Westpoint, York, Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Grand Island, Gering, Mitchell and Scottsbluff, Nebraska and interview and detain workers who are still employed in May-June 1999. The unemployment rate in the midwest was the lowest in the US for the eight consecutive year, 3.7 percent, including 2.5 percent in Minnesota and 2.7 percent in Nebraska. The midwest also has higher than average labor force participation rates: about 70 percent of those 16 and older are employed or looking for work, compared to 67 percent in the US-a record 73 percent of Nebraska adults are in the labor force. More US residents moved to the midwest than left in the 1990s; the peak years of net domestic out-migration were in the mid-1980s, and the peak years of net domestic in-migration were in the early 1990s. Iowa. Postville, a city of 1,500 in the northeast corner of Iowa, is being transformed quickly by immigrants attracted to two packing houses. A kosher packing house, AgriProcessors, attracted Hispanic migrants, many of whom live in a trailer park on the edge of town. The number of Hispanics in Iowa is about 53,000, up sharply in the 1990s; most are in the 30 cities with meat packing plants. There is a debate over the role of immigrant meat packers in drug marketing and use in the midwest. Police do not accuse most Mexican-born workers of being meth users or dealers, but they say that immigrant laborers in packing towns provide a camouflage for Mexican crime families and their drug-peddling helpers. The US attorney in Nebraska, Tom Monaghan, said that dealers go to those towns [Lexington, Grand Island, Norfolk and Columbus] where they are able to blend into the communities much better." Midwest meth comes from Mexican traffickers operating out of Southern California. The US Supreme Court in February 1999 upheld a decision of the Iowa Supreme Court that struck down Iowa's right to farm law. A 1998 state constitutional amendment in South Dakota outlawing corporate farming received 59 percent of the vote. Arkansas. Arkansas is attracting Hispanic immigrants to work in poultry processing. There are about 30,000 chicken growers in the vertical integration poultry system, with the processors generally writing the terms of the growers who raise chickens for them. The largest US poultry processor is Arkansas-based Tyson Foods; the second largest is Atlanta-based Gold Kist Inc, owned by 2,200 poultry grower-members. In 1996, the Census State Data Center at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock reported 14,000 Hispanics in eight cities in Benton County and all of Washington County; other estimates are that the Hispanic population for the two counties could be 20,000. The city of Rogers had a 12 percent Hispanic population, Springdale had 11 percent and Fayetteville had five percent Hispanic residents. Bankers report that two-earner families in this chicken processing area have average incomes of about $33,000, reflecting 2,000 hours of work at $8 an hour. Kentucky. There are a peak 25,000 hired farm workers in Kentucky, including 10 percent H-2A workers from Mexico; 20 percent local workers; and 70 percent other workers, including many Mexicans with false documents. Most work for one of the state's 45,000 tobacco growers, which are often located near small cities: 80 percent of Kentucky cities have populations under 5,000. Cigarette companies have set up a $5.15-billion trust fund to help farmers adjust to less production. President Clinton has demanded that farmers and tobacco-dependent communities get some of the $206-billion settlement that the state attorneys general won from the tobacco companies. Michigan. The number of migrants in Michigan has been falling; only 12,785 registered with the Michigan Jobs Commission in 1997. The drop in migrants has been attributed to more nonfarm jobs, including at golf courses or in nurseries. Mike Sherry, "1 in 5 at Plants Checked May Be Undocumented," Omaha World-Herald, April 13, 1999. Jennifer Dukes Lee, "Meatpacking towns seen as key funnel for meth," Des Moines Register, March 7, 1999. Stephanie Simon, "Heartland Riven Over a Corporate Hog Agriculture," Los Angeles Times, March 2, 1999. Stephanie Simon, "In Insular Iowa Town, a Jolt of Worldliness," Los Angeles Times, January 26, 1999. RURAL MIGRATION NEWS Rural Housing, (posted 4/16/99) The year 1999 may be a watershed for rural and farm worker housing. In Washington state, a compromise that lets short-season farm workers live in tent cabins is likely to be accompanied by more state funds to build permanent housing. In California, a foundation announced a major new grant program to improve farm worker housing, and in Florida, the newly elected governor met several times with farmers and farm worker representatives to make more farm worker housing available. Washington. In mid-January 1999, the Board of Health, at the request of Washington Governor Gary Locke, reversed an August 1998 decision to ban temporary tent camps for the cherry harvest. This means that in 1999 some of the 16,000 cherry workers will be able to pitch tents on growers' property for up to 21 days if growers provide electricity, refrigerators, cooking stoves, hot water for hand washing, dry food storage containers and garbage collection; the tents can be provided by workers or employers, but they must be store bought, and have sewn-in floors. Between 1995 and 1998, the program licensed 80 tent camps that served roughly 5,600 migrant workers. Locke requested $8 million from the Legislature in 1999 to begin a $40 million, 10-year plan to construct permanent, low-income housing-subsidized and managed by the state-for seasonal farm workers who live in Washington year-round, as well as community-based housing for migrants. In Mattawa, a city of 2,300 on the Columbia River whose population doubles during harvest season, the county housing authority is coordinating a $323,000 project to use big shipping containers, outfitted with plumbing, air conditioning and heating systems, to create temporary farm worker housing. Housing authority director Ken Palek needs 20 acres to set up two dozen containers, along with support units for extra bathrooms and laundry facilities. A 1996 study by the state Department of Health estimated that 37,700 of the state's peak 62,300 farm workers-about 60 percent-work without employer-provided housing. The Washington Ecology Department wants the state Department of Health to test the water from the 1,600 wells that serve migrant labor camps and campgrounds. California. The California Endowment has pledged $20 million in zero-interest loans and $11 million in grants to the Rural Community Assistance Corp. of Sacramento to build housing and provide health care for farm workers. RCAC plans to have a Visalia-based organization called Self-Help Enterprises build 1,000 rental units and health clinics for farm workers. Assembly Bill 1505, introduced on March 11, 1999, would permit farmers to retain their Williamson Act tax breaks on five-acre parcels of land they donate for up to 50 units of farm worker housing in rural areas, up from the current 20-unit limit (in urban areas, with at least 1,000 people per square mile, the limit would increase from 45 to 100 units). Each unit can be a single-family dwelling or a barracks, so that several hundred workers could be housed in 50 units. Farmers would donate up to five acres to a nonprofit or similar group, which would be responsible for securing financing, constructing, and operating or selling the housing. The bill would also make it harder for local communities to use the California Environmental Quality Act to block permanent housing for migrant workers by exempting such housing from environmental reviews. The 1997-98 state budget included $4.5 million in grants to local governments and nonprofit groups to build or rehabilitate homes owned or rented by farm workers. Governor Gray Davis in his 1999-2000 budget proposed $2 million for the housing grant program and another $5.9 million to rehabilitate state-owned farm worker housing in camps for migrant families. California gets about $8 million a year in federal money to provide rental units for farm workers. The state of California operated 27 centers in 1998 that provide housing for migrant families, up from 13 centers in 1966, and 25 centers in 1986 (two centers were closed for reconstruction in 1998). Most migrant centers are open from May 1 to October 31, and 2,000 to 2,100 units served 12,000 migrant workers and their families in 1998: during the mid-1980s, they served an average 2,400 families each year. In December 1998, Riverside county cracked down on illegal trailer parks in the Coachella Valley, affecting an estimated 2,000 families, including many farm workers. County authorities said that none of the 91 trailer parks in the Coachella Valley had proper permits. In summer 1998, two people, one in Mecca and one in Thermal, died after being electrocuted by faulty wiring and two others were seriously injured in other accidents in the parks. Most tenants pay $200 to $225 a month to park their trailers on a lot. Many owners live in trailers on-site, and they complained that they could not afford the average $80,000 in repairs and upgrades demanded by the county. After protests that those facing eviction had no place to move, the county stopped its aggressive enforcement. Florida. Florida's newly elected Governor Jeb Bush met with some of the state's largest growers to discuss ways to expand and improve housing for farm workers. Bush would like to obtain federal funds to produce 450 new farm worker housing units around the state. Three southwest Florida tomato growers, Six L's (Lipman family), Taylor & Fulton Inc, and Gargiulo Inc. provide free or low-cost housing for workers. Taylor & Fulton Inc. charge each adult worker $14 a week for housing, but does not charge for children in two-earner families; Six L's houses 500 workers who are employed on a 4,500-acre tomato and vegetable farm in East Naples. Tomato growers put the total costs of labor at 35 to 38 percent of gross costs of $7,000 an acre. The prevailing piece rate is $0.45 a bucket. Farm worker advocates want the housing to be built and operated by public agencies or nonprofit groups, not by growers. One complained: "It [grower-provided housing] gives the big growers control over the labor supply." The Clinton administration proposed $6.3 billion for the USDA Rural Housing Service in FY00, up from $5.7 billion in FY99. In testimony to Congress, USDA proposed reducing Section 515 rural rental housing by $14 million and increasing Section 502 single family direct loans to $1.1 billion; the president's budget provides $25 million for farm labor housing loans and $15 million for farm labor housing grants. Mike Lewis, "Bill would benefit farmers, farmworkers," Fresno Bee, March 12, 1999. Jennifer Maddox, " Bush to meet with growers to discuss improving migrant housing," Naples Daily News, March 11, 1999. Mark Arax, "Foundation to spend $31 million on farm worker housing, health care," Los Angeles Times, February 26, 1999. RURAL MIGRATION NEWS Bridging a Language Barrier, (posted 4/13/99) Albertville schools deal with growing Hispanic presence
ALBERTVILLE - Seven years ago, three Hispanic youngsters stood out among the student body in the practically all-white schools of Albertville. Now, Latinos make up 15 percent of the students in this Sand Mountain system and nearly half the students in one school. A two-year federal grant has provided extra money to help the school system adjust to language needs and cultural differences that accompanied the Hispanic immigration. Join the Education forum Some of the milestones the system can count off as the bilingual enhancement grant nears the end of its second year include: An after-school tutoring program in a trailer park where many Hispanic families live. A Spanish summer school. A Spanish orientation for preschoolers. An effort to teach Spanish to all children in kindergarten through the second grade. School officials are proud of their progress. "There is kind of an excitement when you walk in the door," said administrative assistant Linda Taylor. "These kids are so excited about learning." With 499 Latinos in its 3,300-student population this year, the Albertville school system has the largest percentage of limited English students of any Alabama system. Before 1992, it had three such students. Last year, two Hispanic students were the first to graduate from an Albertville high school. This year, school officials expect four Latino graduates. The system has become multi cultural largely because of the $150,000-a-year grant administered through the University of Alabama. It helped pay for an English-as-a second language curriculum and hired a professor from Mexico to work full-time as a liaison between the school system and its Hispanic parents. "It's really meant a lot to the system," Mrs. Taylor said. "These students are going to be part of the community. They're going to grow up and be citizens in the community, and we want them to be educated like everybody else." Rene de Leon, a UA doctoral student who soon will return to teaching in a Mexican university, serves as the project director for the grant. His diverse duties have included setting up an after-school tutoring class in a trailer park heavily populated by Hispanics and arranging festivals and parties to observe Mexican tradition and folklore. De Leon also was the force behind forming brand-new soccer teams at the high school. "My impression is that the system is working as hard as possible and that parents are working as hard as they can," he said. "But there are a lot of things still to do." As a Hispanic, de Leon has been able to identify and bridge some gaps between the two cultures. Helped with homework Albertville schools had an extended day program for children who needed supervision after classes, but it was rarely used by Latino children. Suspecting transportation was a problem, de Leon set up a similar program in the Shady Oaks mobile home park. The makeshift classroom is in a concrete block building housing a Laundromat, and every afternoon a teacher and two aides help 20 to 30 children with homework. He also helped the trailer park's owner put up a volleyball court and a basketball goal. Modern wood playground equipment nearby, which was donated by the local Episcopal church, contrasts with the deteriorated trailers and rough, barren grounds of dirt and gravel. De Leon's wife, Myrna, does similar odd jobs for West End Elementary School, where she works as a teacher's aide. On a recent day, she was asked to translate into Spanish a letter being sent home with children reminding them to bring Easter eggs to school. She also helped the family of a boy with a broken arm make arrangements for surgery. The school gave Mrs. de Leon a pager because she was being called over the intercom so often it was interfering with classwork. "I'm the only one who speaks Spanish," she said, though more than 40 percent of the school's students know little English. De Leon persuaded Maria Lopez to volunteer in the school's library while she looks for a job. She reads in Spanish to children who speak only English, letting them feel what it's like for their Latino classmates to hear a language they don't understand. "I like it and I'm learning from the kids," Mrs. Lopez said in her limited English. Latino students are expected to reach 50 percent in the upcoming school year at West End, which has been named a distinguished school and was selected to participate in a statewide reading initiative. A summer school attracted 160 Hispanic students last year and a six-week orientation for Spanish-speaking preschoolers has helped reduce their fear of school, Mrs. Taylor said. She also hopes a summer exchange program between Mexico and the United States will bring Spanish speaking teachers to work for a year in Albertville. But Mrs. Taylor said she wants to do so much more. Last month, she applied for a grant that would allow the system to teach Spanish to all its primary students. Spanish-speaking students would help their classmates learn the new language, and vice versa. "You can see the potential there," she said. "Spanish students wouldn't lose their language, and it would draw the children closer together. We've come a long way, but we've got a long way to go." University of Michigan Study Says Diverse Colleges Help Graduates Have Diverse Lives (posted 4/8/99) By LEO REISBERG The University of Michigan is releasing a study today arguing that students who attend racially diverse institutions are more likely to live, work, and socialize with people from a variety of backgrounds. The report was prepared as part of the university's defense in an affirmative-action lawsuit, and lawyers who are representing the plaintiffs immediately denounced the new study as irrelevant. The university asked Patricia Gurin, a psychology professor at Michigan, to conduct the study in preparation for her testimony on behalf of the university, when it defends its admissions policy this year against two lawsuits. One suit is aimed at the undergraduate admissions policies, the other at those of the law school. "The overall big finding is that students with experiences with diversity during college become more active and thoughtful learners and more prepared to participate in a heterogeneous society," said Ms. Gurin, the lead researcher of the study. "What this study has done is take a hard, systematic look at the assumption that diversity is positive, and it's amazingly supportive of that assumption. I rarely have seen research that confirms or supports hypotheses so clearly as this does." But Ms. Gurin, whose report does not discuss the pros and cons of affirmative action, says that the research is an objective scientific study and "uses the best statistical analyses that should be used with all the kinds of controls that one should use." The research team analyzed several sets of data to come up with its conclusions, including survey results of 9,316 students at nearly 200 colleges, collected by the University of California at Los Angeles's Higher Education Research Institute, [and information gleaned from the Michigan Student Study, which asked 1,321 students on the campus about the educational dynamics of diversity, first when they entered the university in 1990 and again at the end of their first, second, and senior years. The U.C.L.A. data indicated that undergraduates at the most-diverse institutions were two and a half times more likely than those at the least-diverse institutions to have friends who were racially diverse, and after graduation, nearly twice as likely to live in diverse neighborhoods and have diverse co-workers, Ms. Gurin said. "That's saying that institutional diversity can really have an effect on college graduates and leaders in the future in making us a less racially divided society." Terence J. Pell, senior counsel for the Center for Individual Rights, the non-profit Washington law group that sued Michigan, said the study is not relevant to the court case. "The legal question that the court has to consider is whether intellectual diversity is a compelling state interest, and this report goes to the question of whether racial diversity may or may not be educationally valuable," Mr. Pell said. "Neither this report nor anything else the university has said to this date refutes our contention that race plays a predominant and unconstitutional role in the admissions process." The Chronicle of Higher Education Migration Trails Are Ancient, (posted 4/6/99) FROM UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE FOR RELEASE: WEEK OF APRIL 2, 1999 COLUMN OF THE AMERICAS by Patrisia Gonzales and Roberto Rodriguez MIGRATION TRAILS ARE ANCIENT After an arduous five-mile mountainous hike, we arrive 1,000 feet above the confluence of the Green and Colorado rivers in Utah. The awe-inspiring view of the two rivers merging appears to be "Concepcion," which is adjacent to the "Ancient Homeland of the Aztecs" site on the 1847 Disturnell map. Witnessing the beauty of these two rivers merging amid green, brown and red-orange land and waters, it's no wonder that the ancestors of Mexicans (Mexicas, Aztecas or Nahuatl peoples) once called this Four Corners region of the United States "Huehuetlapallan" (old, old, colorful land). Finding Concepcion-which seems to mark the confluence, rather than indicating a lost village-signals the beginning, rather than the end, of our search for the ancient homeland site. It began several years ago when we came across the map that is attached to the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo. This trip also took us to nearby Sego Canyon, which scholars Cecilio Orozco and Alfonso Rivas Salmon have visited for the past 20 years. Glyphs there, dated back to 500 B.C., they posit, correspond to the Venusian calendar- markings that are central features of the Aztec calendar. In this recent trip, we sought evidence that some of the Mexicans' ancestors once inhabited Huehuetlapallan. We've also recently ventured to other ancient sites (Chaco Canyon, Mesa Verde, Anazasi Heritage Center and the National Navajo Monument) and to research and archival institutions. What we've found are older maps and documents that refer to the homeland of the Aztecs-a place called Teguayo, near Lake Copalla (purported to be Utah Lake). In "Explorers, Traders and Slavers," the author, Joseph P. Sanchez, cites various documents, including one from 1686 that refers to Teguayo as being the homeland of the Tigua and Tewa peoples and the ancient peoples of Mexico, Guatemala and Peru. These journeys have exposed us to many rich oral and written native traditions, including those of the Hopis, that speak to ancient migration stories. One even speaks of Moctezuma I as having been born in Huehuetlapallan. Attesting to the ancient belief that Mexicans originated from this region- prior to the famed Aztlan of the Aztecs, which is purportedly farther south- some indigenous groups are planning a pilgrimage this summer, commencing in Mexico City and concluding in the Four Corners region. What's missing from these beliefs, however, is a time line regarding these ancient migration trails. What is known is that the old "Spanish Trail," which spans the entire Southwest, is actually an assortment of old Spanish mining trails that are superimposed over ancient indigenous trade routes. Research conclusively debunks the racist mantra of telling Mexicans and Central Americans to "go back to where they came from." The Southwest is where they come from. It also shows the need for further research, particularly migration studies of the Americas. Vine Deloria Jr., a well-respected native scholar, has pointed out that most indigenous peoples in the Americas do not accept the Bering Strait theory that all native people came across that northern route beginning at about 12000 B.C. Most have migration stories that speak to different origins. Even many scientists now acknowledge that there was human habitation in the Americas at least 40,000 years ago. Additionally, in Veracruz, Mexico, the state museum there shows a collection of ancient indigenous statues of people from the world over-seemingly a testament to pre-Columbian contact between all peoples. The call to study the origins and migration of humanity in the Americas should not exclude indigenous scholars. In fact, they should lead these studies, lest we get sidetracked by controversies such as that of the 9,200-year-old Kennewick Man. In this controversy in the Northwest, some archeologists claim he's actually Caucasian. Missing from our basic knowledge of the Americas is a coherent narrative of where each indigenous group migrated to and from, even after the arrival of Europeans. Interestingly, we are familiar with stories (the work of University of Houston professor Emilio Zamora) of Nahuatl-speaking peoples fleeing from Spaniards in all directions upon first contact, with some winding up in what is now Texas. We are confident that a migration-studies discipline of the Americas will enrich humanity. Ultimately, we'll learn that all human beings are indeed connected, to each other and to the Earth, and that there are no such things as aliens anywhere on this planet. One needs only to go to the colorful confluence of the Green and Colorado rivers to understand this connection. COPYRIGHT 1999 UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE The maps we have found are too numerous to mention, though we can say that many of them-from the 16th-19th century-show or allude to the ancient migration of Mexicans or their ancestors from the Four Corners region and many of them specifically point to Utah. Apparently, this was common knowledge to map makers. The reason the Disturnell Map s important is because it is in fact part of the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo-a living treaty. Much more research needs to be done on this subject, though one thing needs to be made clear is that virtually all maps of the Americas attained most of their original knowledge from native people. If anyone is doing research on this subject, please contact us. Roberto Rodriguez & Patrisia Gonzales are authors of Gonzales/Rodriguez: Uncut & Uncensored (ISBN 0-918520-22-3 UC Berkeley, Ethnic Studies Library, Publications Unit. Rodriguez is the author of Justice: A Question of Race (Cloth ISBN 0-927534-69-X paper ISBN 0-927534-68-1 Bilingual Review Press) and the antibook, The X in La Raza II and Codex Tamuanchan: On Becoming Human. They can be reached at PO BOX 7905, Albq NM 87194-7904, 505-242-7282 or XColumn@aol.com Gonzales's direct line is 505-248-0092 or PatiGonzaJ@aol.com Discussion Paper for Americanos Exhibit, (posted 4/1/99) DISCUSSION PAPER FOR AMERICANOS EXHIBIT by Refugio I. Rochin, DISCUSSION POINTS Who are Latinos? Are Latinos the same as Hispanics? How do you recognize a Latino? What differentiates the "Latino population" from others? Why should we raise these issues to begin with? BACKGROUND U.S. Latinos have been described as a "sleeping giant," the largest ethnic and cultural minority in the U.S., "a growing commercial market," a "neglected community" and "a complex population." Of course, all of these depictions are correct. They reflect the fact that Latinos have grown by about a million each year since 1990 and now number about 40 million (including Puerto Rico's population). The comments allude to a Latino gross purchasing power of about $360 per annum and a growing demand for durable and material goods like cars, furnishings, homes, etc. Also, it is widely known that Latinos are a relatively young population, spreading across the United States, increasing the enrollment in public schools and becoming more prominent in community activities. No one denies these depictions of Latinos. And increasingly we see the terms Latino and Hispanic used with topics covering voter behavior, bilingual education, immigration, the working poor, farm workers, educational reforms, etc. But such references to Latinos or Hispanics still beg the question, because few Americans know who is a Latino, what makes a Latino different from others and what constitutes Latino culture and tradition. Not only that, Latinos are also faced with questions of their own identity. Many will accept the Latino concept for themselves, but a large part of the Latino population prefers to identify itself according to national origin (e.g. Mexican American, Cuban American, Salvadoran American, etc) and by provincial terms (like Chicano, Hispano, Tejano, Boricua, etc.) So, how do we know a Latino when we meet one? How does a Latino self identify when questioned? REGARDING LATINO IDENTITY Anyone can self identify as a Latino and there is little that can be done to challenge a person's self assertion of being "Latino." Essentially, a "Latino" is not defined by public law, standard criteria or traditional practice. On the other hand, the label "Hispanic" is defined by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget Directive 15 as "... a person of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Central or South American or other Spanish culture or origin, regardless of race." Whether people chose to self identify as Hispanic or not, the essential criteria for being Hispanic is that a person be of Spanish culture or origin. Most academics would say that "Latinos" are persons of Latin America or persons of Latin American descent who live and work within the United States. The issue with the term Latino is that it can include persons of Latin America in general, including persons of Portuguese and Spanish culture or origin. Although "Latino" and "Hispanic" refer to generally to the same people, the terms convey different and, in some cases, opposing notions of identity. Clearly Hispanic implies an affiliation with Spanish cultural roots; Latino signifies a more inclusive view of Native-American, Spanish, Portuguese, African, Asian and other groups who live in Latin America. Thus, Latinos are not a racial group or an ethnic group, they are far more complex in nature and origin. THE TIES THAT BIND Although Latinos have been present in the United States since the settlement of Spanish conquistadores and settlers, the Latino population continues to be renewed by immigrants from Latin America. More than two-thirds of the Latinos residing in the United States today are immigrants or the children of immigrants. One-third of domestic Latinos are U.S. born of U.S. born parents. Some of the later group can trace their U.S. family tree to the original Spanish explorers. A language - Spanish - bonds the Latino population. Spanish is first language of immigrant Latinos, about a third of the Latino population. U.S. Latinos with at least one immigrant parent tend to speak Spanish and English, they represent another third of the Latino population. Usually the Latinos of the second and third generations (and more) speak English almost exclusively of Spanish. Nonetheless, because nearly two thirds of the Latino population converses in some Spanish, the United States is the 5th largest Spanish-speaking nation in the world. But generally, English is the preferred language of the majority of U.S. Latinos who see English fluency as the way to earn a living and to contribute to the nations' strength. Other common and ascribed traits of Latinos are that they are relatively more: (a) allocentric, group-oriented and less individualistic and competitive; (b) sympathetic, congenial, relatively respectful of the needs and behaviors of others; © familistic, showing a relatively strong attachment to and solidarity to extended families; and (d) socially close, liking personal associations and close distance in conversation. Some social scientists also add that Latinos have a unique characteristic of "trust" (or confianza) between themselves and others. This "trust" is supposedly imbedded in baptism in the Catholic Church and the selection of Godparents, a practice called compadrazco. To an increasing degree, U.S. Latinos are practicing other religions based upon evangelism and protestant faiths. Some Hispanics have strong roots to Judaism dating back centuries. Such Spanish speaking Jews are known as Sephardics and/or Ladinos. Within the Latino community, building and maintaining close family relationships is not only common, but a source of mutual economic support, cooperation and advancement. As a result, Latinos work closely, develop community organizations and assist each other in cultural and social events. MIXED BLOOD AND LATINO IDENTITY The traits mentioned are being studied and challenged by scholars of Latino studies. It is increasingly difficult to say that Latinos can be distinguished from others in terms of social and cultural characteristics. What is increasingly evident is that the Hispanic/Latino label clearly obscures an enormous diversity among Latinos who come from or whose forebears came from dozens of countries. But derived from this diversity is a common trait and irrefutable characteristic of Latinos. They are mixed-blood in nearly every individual case. Latinos refer to this inter-mating/intermarriage as mestizaje. In addition to Spanish-Indian blood, Latinos also include mixed-blood African descendants whose ancestors were slaves on the sugar plantations of Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Brazil, and the Dominican Republic. Some Latinos are also descendents of Chinese immigrants whose forebears went to Cuba and Central America as contract laborers. Within this assemblage of Latino heritage is the proud feeling that mestizaje is good. Mexico's famed artist Diego Rivera, was reputedly of Spanish, Indian, African, Italian, Jewish, Russian and Portuguese descent. Millions more Latinos have such mixtures. Today, U.S. Latinos also include a growing number of what I refer to as Transnational Indigenous "Native-American" Latinos, such as the Maya of Guatemala and the "Mixtecos" of Mexico who speak Spanish as a second language. That means a Mexican Indian with no Spanish blood (as we understand that term) in him or her, but who speaks Spanish and has amalgamated or internalized Spanish culture, is also a U.S. Latino, just as an Indian of the United States who speaks English and has amalgamated or internalized Anglo culture is an American. Such racial and ethnic mixes have bearing on the way Latinos relate to others. In general, Latinos tend to identify cross racially and culturally, depending on the community they live in. LATINO COMMUNITIES Despite the label Latino or Hispanic, who are these people whose presence in the American population will have such a major force in the future? Essentially, Hispanics may be grouped into five categories: 1) Mexican Americans/Chicanos, about 64% of the population; (2) Central and South Americans; about 16%; (3) Puerto Ricans/Boricuas, about 12%; (4) Cuban Americans, about 5%; and (5) Other Hispanos or Spanish-Americans, about 3%. Latinos are becoming increasingly diverse, making for many different Latino sub-groups. An article in U.S. News and World Report put the number at 17 different culturally distinct populations of Latinos: A. Californians: including Immigrant Mexicans, Middle-class Mexicans, Barrio Dwellers, and Central Americans of Pico Union; B. Tejanos: including, South Texans, Houston Mexicans and Texan Guatemalans; C. Chicago Latinos: including Cubans, Chicago Mexicans and Chicago Puerto Ricans; D. Miamians: including Cubans, Nicaraguans, and South Americans; E. Newyorquinos: including , Puerto Ricans, Dominicans and Colombians; F. Other: including New Mexican Hispanos and Migrant Workers and Beltway Latinos of DC area. WHY MAKE ISSUE OF LATINO IDENTITY AT THE SMITHSONIAN? We are witnessing a major transformation of the American population and community. Demographically, Latinos are increasing all over the nation and concentrating in numerous communities, industries, schools, etc. Economically, Latinos are generating income and spending in consumer markets at unprecedented rates. Commercial enterprises are molding the Latino market in new and important ways. How the nation perceives and accepts Latinos is critical to the future well being of all. Self perceptions depend on accurate representations, educational materials and community programs. Latinos are an important part of U.S. history and culture. Spanish-speaking people have lived in North America for over 500 years. Music, art, language, cuisine and cultural celebrations owe much to Latino influence. Hispanic-American history has deep roots in Iberia (present day Spain and Portugal), connecting American traditions to Spanish values, beliefs, laws and cultural practices. Many Latinos have become prominent business executives, artists, entertainers, sports heroes and public servants. They bring new ideas and creativity to the national economy. Latinos also hold a relatively high number of Congressional Medals of Honor and military awards for valor in defense of America and its ideals. They want to be recognized as Americanos and treated accordingly. The questions today are: How will Latinos be presented and represented in America today and tomorrow? How will the Smithsonian Institution portray and enhance its exhibits, collections and educational initiatives on Latinos? How will Latinos enjoy the best of two worlds; i.e. their languages, customs and traditions based on Latino roots and American heritage? // RIR April 1999. On the Power of Forgiveness (posted 4/1/99) by Roberto Rodriguez My own frame of my mind on the subject of forgiveness is that of a survivor of police violence-a survivor of a vicious attack against me twenty years ago by four or five club-welding Los Angeles Sheriff*s deputies. This attack- which was precipitated by my witnessing and photographing the brutal beating of another young man-resulted in a cracked skull, hospitalization, my jailing and criminal charges that I attempted to kill the officers that almost killed me. My frame of mind is that also of someone who survived threats to my life, several dozen subsequent detentions and arrests and two trials that lasted seven-and-a-half years. The initial incident involved receiving perhaps 30-40 blows all over my body, with the most serious ones to my head, including a headstrike to my forehead. As a result of all this, the officers never went to prison and to my knowledge, they were all promoted. By law, I am prevented from finding out if any of them were ever disciplined. As for myself, to this day, I am diagnosed as suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The upside is that I write a nationally syndicated column and that I've written several books. To this day, I remember the words of Hugh Mane, a Los Angeles attorney specializing in police brutality cases. At a conference years ago, regarding people who receive headstrikes from riot sticks, he said: "Lucky are the ones who die." I can absolutely attest to this because my life became hell after the attack. I was but 24 years old then, and more than anything, I believe my youth and youthful years were robbed from me. And the subject here is forgiveness? Have I forgiven, or do I need to forgive the deputies who almost took my life, the ones who threatened me, the ones who in the middle of the night made me believe they were driving me to my final destination? Have I forgiven the other officers who constantly pursued me and falsely arrested me, or the district attorney who filed charges against me or the prosecutors who tried to put me away? Have I forgiven the politicians who literally created this environment and who would not touch me with a ten-foot pole when I pleaded to them for help, or the media who painted me as a criminal? How about my own lawyer who abandoned my case seven years after the incident and two days before trial? Have I forgiven him? The answer is no. But I don't feel like I need to, at least not publicly. Maybe it's something I should do. I've never really dwelled on all these tormentors. I've moved on. To be truthful, if I was asked to forgive them in a public forum, I would, because it wouldn't take much from me. It's not a burden on me because in all these years, I have discovered that my healing can only take place when I embark on a road to my own re-humanization. Rehumanization. That's the antithesis of dehumanization. Rehumanization for me is something bigger than forgiveness, yet forgiveness - which I believe I have done so within my spirit - I see as absolutely one critical element in the rehumanization process. We can not be fully human if we have hate within us, if we are consumed in anger, bitterness and harbor resentment. These emotions actually define our lives. They deprive us of truly living as full human beings. So for those who have been brutalized and dehumanized, getting rid of these debilitating emotions is fundamental to our healing. But leaving them behind must be accompanied by a search of what it actually means to be human. I can truly say that 20 years after I was nearly killed, I have finally begun that search. I have begun to live, smile, laugh and love life once again. I arrived at this life- condition, partly through prayer and meditation, and always through the pursuit of justice. I have always been politically active. When I was nearly killed, I fought back politically and I fought back in the legal arena - winning both trials. But I did not know how to fight back in a spiritual sense. I was simply concerned with winning politically and in the courtroom, without tending to my physical, mental or spiritual health. I didn*t begin to take care of myself until about 17 years after the nightmare began. One evening, while speaking to a group of youngsters about my trials and tribulations on the streets and in the courtroom, my vocal chords literally froze on me, rendering me unable to speak. I knew then that whatever was wrong with me was more serious than I had ever imagined. I can't describe here the long road to my recovery and healing, other than to say that that's what finally led me to get diagnosed with PTSD. Additionally, I began to meditate at that time. On my birthday in 1998, a friend prayed over me and within minutes of leaving, I began to sing. I hadn't done that in 29 years. A few months later, I started to paint. That*'s when I first started to feel that I had finally begun to regain my humanity. Nowadays, I sing at rest homes and senior centers. (I recently held an Agustin Lara concert in Albuquerque, which was a tribute to the elders of our community). I'm not completely recovered from my traumas, yet I can say I smile and laugh more and I also make others laugh and smile. This is a far-cry from when I hated virtually everyone, particularly whites and cops. All this has happened with little regard to all the tormentors I previously mentioned. They seem irrelevant to me. I harbor no hatred or desire no ill-will toward them. But truthfully, I do not know if they continue to torment or brutalize others. Yet, the reason I have no discernible hate toward them is because hate previously defined, controlled and consumed my life... not theirs. If I saw any of them today, I don*t know how I would react to them. They mean little to me. Yet, at one level, part of my recovery process does in fact allow me to forgive them, for if not for their actions, I*m not sure where my life would have taken me. If I hadn't lived these traumas, perhaps today I would not be writing, singing or painting and I would not have met all the special people in my life, people that were not part of my life, previous to the attack. Can others in my life-condition forgive? I don't know. I'm not in anyone else's shoes. If my sole question was whether to forgive or not, perhaps I would say I wouldn't forgive unless they repented first, unless they apologized first. Yet, the question of forgiveness is not my biggest concern. It*s my own rehumanization path that concerns me more. Sometimes that path is difficult and other times it's exciting. I would gladly forgive them in public if it would help me become a better human being and if it would help them become more human or good human beings. But again, I don't know that I would do it just to do it. It has to be part of my rehumanization process. And I do believe now that my rehumanization does not require an apology from any of them. Sometimes I wonder where my bitterness and hatred have gone? Are they gone because I emerged victorious in the courtroom, twice? Sometimes I feel that the hatred and bitterness are filed away somewhere in my subconsciousness, where bad memories are reposited. Actually, they probably reside somewhere even deeper. It's odd. I feel like I actually am one of the lucky ones. After all, I indeed was victorious in my criminal and federal civil rights trial. The deputies were in fact found to have violated my civil rights. Unfortunately, I know and have met lots of people who have been brutalized. For some of them, their only consolation is that their charges were dropped. Many more, from America's barrios and ghettos, are viciously beaten and sent to hospitals, jails and prisons under the pretext of assaulting officers. Their consolation? That they weren't killed? This happens daily and helps explain what happened in Los Angeles in 1992, after the Rodney King verdict. Because these abuses have not stopped, there's lots of bitterness out on America's streets, especially when those who have been brutalized and falsely imprisoned return to the streets. Some are zombies. Others are walking time-bombs, untreated and filled with hate, ready to explode. And they do explode. Sadly, they usually explode against people closest to them, particularly, family, spouses, friends and neighbors. Can they forgive? Are they in a position to forgive? More than forgive, they need to be treated. But part of the treatment should require a societal apology in the manner of justice. But justice alone will not suffice nor will it medically heal those in need of psychological help. Today, that*s what we have out on the streets - tens of thousands of young wounded brothers and sisters without justice and without medical treatment, roaming the streets - full of anger and in a predator mode... usually one step removed from prison or death -t heir own or someone else's. Brutality and injustice breeds anger, hatred and resentment. I would argue that it also leads to the killing of the spirit. In effect, total dehumanization. I dwell on this because this is not not a personal tragedy, but a societal one, equivalent to an out-of-control disease. The drive to build more prisons creates the pressure not to treat people, but to incarcerate as many and as long as possible. Forgiveness in this realm appears to be something not even relevant. At best, it seems to be a luxury. It seems not possible to have forgiveness without justice, and in these cases, without physical, mental and spiritual healing. Without justice, it's like victory without satisfaction. Yet, precisely because there is injustice and precisely because these conditions will continue to exist into the foreseeable future, those individuals who have been brutalized and dehumanized need to heal on their own without waiting for a governmental apology or assistance. They need to be treated and need to find their own path to their own rehumanization. Of course, those who can assist in this process, have a duty to step forward. Otherwise, they're condemned to a perpetual hell of torment and bitterness. Like forgiveness, rehumanization requires no apologies, nor does it require justice. Of course, it doesn't preclude the need to struggle for justice. Rehumanization in this context is about those who have been brutalized. It's for their own spiritual health - not the health of the brutalizers. If forgiveness helps those who have been brutalized - and I believe it does then it should be incorporated into their rehumanization process. Yet, to forgive can not mean to fold one's arms and go merrily home. It simply means that as one struggles to regain one's humanity and as one continues to fight for one's rights, one can do so without the anger, hate and bitterness. As people who who have forgiven know, it's more peaceful to live life with the ability to laugh and smile, then to live a life of total resentment. But in all this, as people who know about trauma, you don't simply treat the person who has been brutalized or traumatized. You also must treat the brutalizers - the perpetrators. As a a society, we have learned this from war veterans who have killed - and from soldiers who have tortured. The torturers and the brutalizers can be forgiven by all of us, and that can help us to regain our own humanity, but given the reality we live, it is fair to ask, when will they be treated? When will they get on their path to their own rehumanization process? If they never repent and never apologize chances are they will continue to be out on the streets, continuing to wreak more havoc, continuing to destroy more spirits in the process. Forgive? Absolutely. We can do this while we attempt to take them to court and while we seek treatment for them - so they can be treated for their dehumanization. JSRI Home | Community Connections | Latino News Archives
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