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Latinos May Hold The Key to Power In Election 2000 BY WILLIAM BOOTH LOS ANGELES TIMES LOS ANGELES-Gloria Molina knows they are out there. Millions of them. The fastest-growing, hottest demographic in American politics. And it is Molina's job to help deliver them-the Latinos-in vast numbers to Vice President Al Gore in his quest for the White House. But how to connect? What to sell? "These people are not automatic anything," warns Molina, a Los Angeles County supervisor, Latino power broker and Gore adviser. "They are certainly not automatic Republicans and they are not automatic Democrats, either." Which is too bad for Molina and Gore. Because hot on Molina's heels are competitors such as Gary Mendoza, a Republican lawyer and former deputy mayor of Los Angeles, who is convinced he can cast a net and pull in large numbers of Latinos for George W. Bush, the Spanish-speaking governor from Texas who is popular among Latinos, seemingly as much for his personality as for his politics. Mendoza understands that no candidate-Republican or Democrat- can win a vote-rich, immigrant-rich state like California, New York or Texas without capturing at least a third of the Latinos at the polls. As the thinking goes: To take the White House, a candidate has to win California, and to win California, you need Latinos. "Nobody is taking anything for granted," Mendoza says. "This is a fight for every Latino vote." Years ago, every political operative was talking about Reagan Democrats. Then it was the Angry White Males. Then Soccer Moms. Now it is Latinos who are dominating the political conversation and the minds of strategists eager to collect their vote. Today almost 32 million people in the United States call themselves, or are labeled by the government or pollsters, "Hispanic" or "Latino." Many are not yet citizens or registered voters, but millions are, and many more are the target of aggressive registration drives. In states such as California, the Latino electorate has doubled in less than a decade-from 7 percent of the state's total in 1990 to 14 percent in 1998. Nationally, their numbers at the polls have increased by about 20 percent. No other group is experiencing this kind of growth. And while Latinos voted solidly Democratic in the 1990s, in this presidential election, given the candidates and the changing dynamics of the Latino vote, they can no longer be counted on to turn out for Democrats. A new national poll by The Washington Post, the Henry Kaiser Family Foundation and Harvard University shows that Latino voters still heavily favor the Democratic Party, by more than 2-to-1, with 44 percent saying they are Democrats, compared with 16 percent who identify themselves as Republicans. Latinos also are generally more trusting of Democrats to solve the nation's problems, and as important, they believe Democrats care more about Latinos than the Republicans. Yet if there is good news for Democrats, there is much to convince Republicans that Latinos are not hostile to their ideologies or candidates. "My whole family were Democrats, and now they're all turning into Republicans," said Eddie Canales, 30, a medical billing worker who lives in East Los Angeles. "A lot of Latinos are really Republicans, but they just don't know it yet." Support for Gore is particularly soft. While President Clinton carried 61 percent of the Latino vote nationwide in 1992 and 72 percent in 1996, the Post-Kaiser-Harvard poll showed Gore and Bush in a virtual dead heat. THE FEAR OF 'PATRIA POTESTAD' by Patrisia Gonzales and Roberto Rodriguez One of the greatest fears of many Cubans immediately after the 1959 revolution on their island nation was "patria potestad"-the fear of the state taking guardianship of the nation's children. This fear transformed into Operation Pedro Pan, a clandestine program that sent close to 15,000 Cuban children to the United States. The book "Operation Pedro Pan" (Routledge, NY), by Yvonne Conde, documents this human tragedy. As to why parents would send their children alone to another country, she writes, "The fear of communist indoctrination and fear of 'patria potestad.'" She adds: "Patria potestad comes from patria potestas, a concept codified in ancient Roman law referring to the power, the 'potestas,' exercised by a father (pater familias) over his children. The two dreaded words conjured a rumor that the government was going to take over the legal guardianship of children from Cuban parents. It presupposed that the state would become the children's legal guardian." Conde, a Pedro Pan child herself and a staunch anti-Castro Cuban-American journalist, believes that the operation had mixed results. Some children became the better for it; others lived tragic lives. Regardless, because of their experiences, most of them would never part from their children, she notes. In great irony, the case of Elian Gonzalez conjures up "patria potestad." Distant relatives are arguing that they can give Elian a better life here than his father and grandparents can in Cuba. And many Congressional leaders agree, as they prepare to grant him U.S. citizenship. All this is supposed to be for the good of the child. Cuban-Americans cite human-rights conditions in Cuba as a primary reason for wanting to ensure that Elian does not return there. Indeed, the Human Rights Watch World Report 2000 does not spare Cuba for its human-rights violations. (Rare is the country that is spared in the majority of human-rights reports, including the United States). If that was the prerequisite for taking children away from parents, the United States could perhaps claim tens of millions of children living under similar conditions worldwide-and some other country could invoke a similar claim while taking a child away from a U.S. parent. In this case, if there were an imminent threat to Elian or if the father and grandparents weren't alive, perhaps he might be better off here. But that's not the case. In the name of what's good for the state, anything is possible. In Peru, for example, president Alberto Fujimori has decided that running for a third presidential term-in clear defiance of the constitution-is good for the state. This constitutional prohibition exists because of the history of dictatorships in the Americas. Some countries don't even allow re-election. Cuban Americans, of course, will argue that this is precisely why they're fighting Fidel Castro, who has been in power for 40 years. Arguments pro and con can be made about this subject; however, as human decency dictates, not at the expense of a 6-year-old child. If Fujimori goes through with his plans, chaos can be expected. An uprising similar to what has happened in Ecuador may be what's in store for Peru, though the social/political conditions are not quite the same. The uprising in Ecuador, which led to the removal of its president, Jamil Mahuad, was led by a nonviolent and well-organized indigenous movement (Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador). Currently, the former vice president, Gustavo Noboa, has assumed the reins of power. Apparently, the military decided that his elevation to president was good for the state. The United States agrees and considers this development as good and helpful in restoring normalcy. However, normalcy is what prompted the insurrection in the first place. The indigenous movement there, which came to prominence in a mass rebellion in 1990 and has inspired indigenous peoples across the Americas, considers Noboa's ascendancy a betrayal. Additionally, the U.S. State Department has condemned the indigenous insurrection and their military supporters, characterizing them as "seeking to establish an unconstitutional regime." That the former regime toppled so easily actually shows that the insurrection was quite legitimate. Noboa has for the moment rejected the dollarization of Ecuador's currency-which triggered this latest uprising. But that's not quite enough to placate the indigenous movement-or its many allies-who in the tens of thousands have demonstrated what is good for the people. COPYRIGHT 2000 UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE Immigrant Farmers Grow Unusual Crops By MARTHA MENDOZA, AP Business Writer PACIFIC GROVE, Calif. When Efren Avalos left his home in Mexico for a better life in the United States, he brought more than his farming skills. He brought seeds. Today, Avalos, who farms in California's lush Salinas Valley, grows a breed of red corn common in his homeland but unavailable in local supermarkets. He also grows small, unique tomatoes called tomatillos, an edible cactus called nopales and special fava beans that are cooked in the pod. Avalos wouldn't be growing these crops if there weren't a market. In fact, business is booming. "Although a lot of American people don't recognize my crops, we have so many Latinos living in my area that I sell out," he said. Avalos is one of hundreds of immigrant farmers making a good living growing fruits and vegetables from their homelands. For Avalos, it's not just immigrants snapping up his produce. This year, he sold 100 pounds of organic purple tomatillos a week to Whole Foods markets, charging about $1 a pound. Whole Foods resells the tomatillos to customers for twice that price. "I wasn't sure I was going to find a market, but now I think I should plant even more," he told farmers last week at Eco-Farm 2000, the nation's largest annual gathering of organic farmers. While Avalos grows primarily for the burgeoning Latino population in his region, Central Valley farmers - including thousands of Southeast Asian immigrants - are growing and marketing their own array of ethnic specialty crops. "Lemon grass, winter melon, red basil, bitter eggplant, lotus roots - maybe you never heard of this stuff, but this is what we love to grow and eat," said Michael Yang, a Hmong immigrant who works with farmers in Fresno through the University of California's cooperative extension program. Yang said there are more than 850 Southeast Asian families farming in Fresno County, including Hmong, Loa, Mien, Cambodian and Thai. They sell their produce through wholesalers and at farmers' markets, renting land from large property owners. Because their crops are uncommon, Yang said they sometimes have a hard time convincing brokers to buy it. However, as these items become mainstream, the farmers have a distinct advantage over traditional farmers because they've been growing the crops for generations, he said. Lemon grass, for example, is traditionally used by Southeast Asians for tea, medicine and flavoring meals. In recent years it's become a high-end product in specialty markets, and Yang said Fresno growers are selling their lemon grass for $180 for a 40-pound box. "This has become a very good way to make a living off a small farm," he said. It's not just immigrants cashing in on ethnic produce. Glen Johnson, who runs Shady Glenn Farm in Nipomo said "dumb luck" led him to the "yellow lime" market in the Latino community. "I took a bucket of green limes to the farmers market and the Hispanic customers picked through them and grabbed the ones that had already turned yellow," he said. "Now I leave all my limes on the trees until they turn yellow and they sell out." U.S. timber companies sued over migrants' wages TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (Reuters) - Three of the largest U.S. timber companies were accused in lawsuits filed Thursday of paying some 6,000 foreign workers in the United States less than the federal minimum wage and failing to pay overtime. The class-action lawsuits were filed in U.S. District Court in Tallahassee against International Paper Co., Georgia-Pacific Corp. and Champion International Corp. . The plaintiffs, from Mexico and Central America, were granted U.S. visas under an immigration law allowing them to work temporarily in jobs for which U.S. workers are in short supply, said James Knoepp, an attorney for them. They worked an average of four months each planting trees and thinning timber stands, mostly in the southeastern United States, Knoepp said. The lawsuits allege that the timber companies paid them less than the legal minimum wage, failed to pay them for all the hours they worked and failed to pay them overtime pay as required by law. The lawsuits also allege that the companies failed to reimburse workers for transportation costs and equipment purchases. "You can't charge people for things that are for the benefit of the employee if those charges drop their wages below the minimum wage," Knoepp said. "They didn't receive the minimum wage in the first place." The workers got $100 to $200 a week for 60 or 70 hours of work and had to use part of that for transportation, housing and work tools, the lawsuit alleged. "ALL THEY HAD TO SHOW WAS SUFFERING" "They are basically left with nothing," Knoepp said. "They certainly worked hard, but all they had to show for it in the end was a lot of suffering and a tiny fraction of the money they should have been paid." Officials from International Paper and Champion were not immediately available for comment. A spokesman for Georgia Pacific, Ken Haldin, said the company would need to review the allegations but as a matter of policy did not comment on litigation. He added, however, that "as a responsible company, we follow all applicable regulations and adhere to labor law." The lawsuits seek back wages for all foreign workers hired in the United States by the three companies from 1996 to the present, about 6,000 people. Most spoke little or no English and were unaware of their legal rights, Knoepp said. They were recruited in their home countries by labor contractors, who handled the actual hiring and distribution of wages. Still, the lawsuits said, the timber companies were aware of the abuses and "turned a blind eye." The lawsuits were filed on the migrants' behalf by the Florida Legal Services Migrant Farmworker Justice Project. International Paper is the largest pulp and paper company in the United States and the country's largest single private landowner. It owns and controls about 8.5 million acres of timber and other land. Georgia-Pacific and its affiliates, the nation's No. 2 pulp and paper company, own or control 4.8 million acres of timberland, while Champion owns or controls 5 million acres . Wells serving migrants are sub-standard
By HEATH FOSTER SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER An exhaustive inspection of the water systems serving 10,000 migrant farm workers across Washington has found that three of every five do not meet public health standards. Perhaps most disturbing, the state health department tests at 189 labor camps found that 20 percent had levels of nitrates that violate safe drinking water standards. High levels of nitrates in drinking water can cause a sometimes fatal blood disorder called methemoglobinemia, also known as blue baby syndrome. Left untreated, it can lead to lethargy, mental retardation and even death in unborn children and infants. The state's review also discovered two Franklin County water systems contaminated with ethlyene dibromide, a now-banned pesticide that has been shown to cause cancer in animals and mutations in human sperm. The inspection of the wells was prompted by a Seattle Post-Intelligencer investigation last March that documented that the state had failed to protect Whatcom County residents from EDB in drinking water. Migrant workers who had been hired by local farmers to pick raspberries and strawberries had received markedly different treatment from the state than full-time residents of the community, who were supplied with bottled water at state expense. And though EDB had been found in some Whatcom County farm wells 10 years ago, none of the wells had been retested by the state despite new concerns about contamination because the federal Safe Drinking Water Act didn't require it. Under the act, water systems serving transient populations are not monitored for pesticides because people use them for fewer than 180 days a year. The exposure limits set by the federal Environmental Protection Agency assume that people will be exposed to contaminants daily over a 70-year period, and the risks are far lower for those exposed sporadically-as the act assumes seasonal workers are. But advocates for migrants have argued that farm workers move from one labor camp to another during the long harvest months, potentially being continuously exposed to pesticides. Gov. Gary Locke, concerned that Washington migrants are facing serious health risks, last March ordered the state departments of health and ecology to take steps to ensure that drinking water for migrants is safe. Over the spring and summer the state Department of Health used a team of nearly a dozen inspectors to check water quality at all farm labor camps. In all, 101 of the 179 water facilities inspected and tested were found to be in need of some repairs, ranging from minor improvements to complete replacement. And inspectors discovered 94 facilities that were operating without licenses and had not been tested for basic water safety, as state law requires. Guadalupe Gamboa, the state director of the United Farm Workers, said he is pleased that the state health department finally seems to have begun aggressively monitoring farm workers' drinking water. "But it should not have taken exposure by a major Washington newspaper and an order from the governor to get the health department to do its job," Gamboa said. "The dangers they found, such as nitrates and the EDB contamination, make it clear that there has been differential treatment of farm workers." Greg Grunenfelder, director of the health department's drinking water division, said yesterday he was relieved that inspectors found pesticide contamination to be relatively rare. But he said the testing underscored the need to educate farmers on the benefits of limiting the use of nitrate-laden fertilizers that build up in ground water. He said a pilot project in Thurston County in which farmers restricted fertilizer use to certain times of the year led to dramatic reductions in nitrate levels. The state hopes to duplicate that success in Whatcom County and Eastern Washington, he said. In the meantime, the owners of nitrate-laden wells will be required to provide bottled water to farm worker families that have pregnant women and babies as members, he said. Grunenfelder said the recent passage of Initiative 695, which cut funding to local health departments, makes it unlikely that a planned study examining nitrate levels in the bloodstreams of babies in farming communities will be completed. But he said the state does plan to begin including warnings about nitrates in a health information packet sent to all new parents. And the two Franklin County farmers whose wells were contaminated have been required to provide workers with bottled water and to hire engineers to fix the problems. Grunenfelder said the 23 antiquated systems that will have to be replaced are mostly wells that were dug decades ago, consisting of nothing more than deep holes with lids. These primitive systems were banned long ago because they can be easily contaminated by a dead rodent or run-off from nearby fields. |
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