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Anti-Chicano Movement Revealed, (posted 6/28/99) COLUMN OF THE AMERICAS by Patrisia Gonzales and Roberto Rodriguez When did the secret law enforcement campaigns against civil and human rights movements in the United States finally cease? Some will argue that they never did. And others will argue that these campaigns ceased being secret when it became respectable and socially acceptable to be a bigot once again. Some will mark that date of retrenchment sometime in 1978 when prospective medical student Alan Bakke charged that the University of California had discriminated against him because he was white. Others say it was when Ronald Reagan was elected president. Several new books from the University of Wisconsin Press deal with one of those movements-the Chicano movement of the 1960s and 1970s -- and the secret war against it. These books should interest not simply history buffs, but also those who long suspected governmental foul play. "The Crusade for Justice: Chicano Militancy and the Government's War on Dissent," by Ernesto Vigil, is certain to stir up bad memories and debate over the propriety of government infiltrating social movements. Of course, those familiar with social movements of that Cold War era know that the governmental war against dissent targeted anyone with a voice who was struggling for human rights. One could argue that the war against dissent is long forgotten, except that the chaos it left behind still lives, not the least of which is a trail of suspected assassinations, including the killings of many activists. Even today, speaking on the subject and dealing specifically with names and incidents will cause people's hair to rise. That legacy can be paralyzing, but it can also be used as a "teaching moment." Vigil writes about one of the most respected civil rights organization in the country, Crusade for Justice, and about how it was wracked by extralegal violence and eventually decimated by the strain of constant violence, court trials and infiltration. What was the government afraid of? The reclaiming of the Southwest by Chicanos? The unification of people of color and all the social movements? Or was it simply afraid of the Constitutional right to dissent? In the case of the Crusade for Justice, it appears from the secret government files that Vigil uncovered that the government was most afraid of an alliance between Chicanos and American Indians. A generation later, it seems that those concerns are still there, but are no longer secret and are not restricted to the government. A generation ago, people in high places generally did not speak publicly about their disdain for nonwhites. The 1980s reversed that reality, creating an environment that made it acceptable to publicly blame the victim. In another University of Wisconsin book, "The Making of a Chicano Militant: Lessons from Cristal," author Jose Angel Gutierrez, founder of the Texas La Raza Unida Party (The United People's Party), notes that when the people rebelled in Texas, they did so to empower themselves as actors of history and change, rather than as victims. Both books detail how the movements in the Southwest rose up as a result of Jim Crow conditions and extreme violence. In Colorado, the Crusade for Justice was instrumental in crafting a nationalist philosophy that fought for self-determination. In Texas, La Raza Unida Party was instrumental in giving lessons to the country about electoral successes and community control. California contributed to this movement by being home both to the farm worker's and immigration rights struggles. There was so much in-fighting within each organization and between each state-beyond the three states mentioned here-that to this day, it is argued whether the fighting was instigated or was a natural process of trying to bring disparate movements together. Again, Vigil shows that these conflicts were exacerbated by infiltrators. Some people think that the Chicano movement died or was killed in the 1970s. We've long maintained that it never died, but that even if it did, something else was reborn-something much stronger, with more hope and faith after the death of farm-worker leader Cesar Chavez in 1993. Perhaps the hopelessness of a movement decimated by extralegal forces gave way to a sense of renewal. Hard feelings still exist, memories are long, and there are still many unsolved cases that will never be closed. However, the movement by people of all cultures and colors toward peace, justice and human dignity is alive and well throughout the world with no signs of abating. That's a great legacy of optimism and hope. COPYRIGHT 1999 UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE Other recent books by the University of Wisconsin Press include: "The Cristal Experiment: A Chicano Struggle for Community Control, Armando Navarro (also the author of Mexican American Youth Organization: Avante Garde of the Chicano Movement) Both writers 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 McConnell Reform of H-2A Temporary Foreign Worker Program in FY 2000 Agricultural Appropriations Bill Would Harm U.S. Farmworkers Who Need Jobs, (Posted 6/28/99) Tell Senators to Strike the McConnell H-2A Amendment from the Agricultural Appropriations Bill On June 18, 1999, Senator Mitch McConnell successfully slipped into the agricultural appropriations bill an amendment to eliminate United States farmworkers* access to jobs and make it easier for growers to hire foreign guestworkers even when US workers are available. The bill, S. 1233, will come to the Senate floor shortly, possibly at 1 pm on Monday, June 21, with a vote late on Monday or on Tuesday (but it could be delayed). The McConnell amendment would amend the H-2A temporary foreign agricultural worker program, 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(15)(H)(ii)(a), § 1188. Senators should be told that the McConnell guestworker amendment on the agricultural appropriations bill must be stricken from the bill on the Senate floor. Representatives should be told that it must be prevented from appearing in the House bill. The amendment is brief but would be devastating in its impact on migrant farmworkers. Farmworker advocates vigorously oppose this proposal because: McConnell*s amendment would drastically shorten the period of recruitment of U.S. workers prior to the time that the Department of Labor determines whether there is a shortage of farmworkers available for the job. McConnell*s amendment would push the recruitment period for U.S. workers
closer to the first day of work. In contrast to such last-minute recruitment
inside the U.S., H-2A employers could (and do) use labor contractors who
recruit for several months before the season in foreign countries. The amendment is completely one-sided. It contravenes the 1997 US General Accounting Office report on the H-2A program and ignores the pro-worker H-2A reforms recommended in the report. Current Law: 28 to 33 days of recruitment of US migrant farmworkers before certification of labor shortage and permission to obtain visas for temporary foreign workers Proposed McConnell Amendment: 3 to 8 days of interstate recruitment of US migrant farmworkers. Comparison of H-2A Law, the McConnell Amendment and the GAO Recommendation 1. Employer applies for foreign workers Current law (*CL*): 60 days before work begins 2. DOL accepts or rejects wages and other job terms within 7 days. If job terms violate the law, employer may correct within 5 days without disadvantage or extension of recruitment period CL: 48-53 days before work begins 3. Interstate recruitment of US workers begins. USDOL and state agencies begin to circulate job offer through interstate Job Service to locate U.S. migrant farmworkers. Employer also engages in private recruitment. CL: 48-53 days before work begins 4. DOL issues labor certification, stating number of jobs not filled by U.S. workers that may be filled with guestworkers CL: 20 days before work begins 5. Number of days of interstate recruitment of US workers (box 3 minus box 4) before certification CL: 28 to 33 days The McConnell proposal contravenes a recommendation made by the U.S.
General Accounting Office, *H-2A Agricultural Guestworker Program: Changes
Could Improve Services to Employers and Better Protect Workers,* GAO/HEHS-98-20
(Dec. GAO said that the deadline for applying for H-2A workers could be sped up from 60 days before the date of need to 45 days before the date of need but only if the certification date was changed (closer to the date of need for labor) to keep the recruitment period adequate. It said: to ensure that agricultural employers have sufficient time to positively recruit for domestic workers, obtain inspections of farmworker housing, and show proof of workers* compensation coverage, it will also be necessary for the Congress to modify to 7 days the statutory requirement that applications be approved 20 days before the date of need. Without modifying this requirement, employers will not have sufficient time to meet their duties as required by the program and domestic workers will not have ample opportunity to compete for agricultural employment. GAO Report at p. 65. The McConnell amendment does precisely what the GAO recommended against shortening the time period for recruiting US workers. Once H-2A employers receive approval to hire temporary foreign workers, the employers are more likely to disregard their obligation to recruit and hire U.S. workers, many of whom will be rejected or discouraged from applying for the job. Employers prefer guestworkers due to the control they possess over such workers. Guestworkers may only work for the one employer that secured the visas and must leave the country when the job ends. In addition, employers do not pay Social Security on unemployment taxes on guestworkers* wages. In addition, the GAO found that several labor protections were not being enforced adequately. McConnell*s amendment does nothing to improve worker protections. The McConnell Amendment would make two changes in the H-2A law: 1. Change the words 60 days to 45 days in 8 U.S.C. 1188©(1), which concerns the deadline for an employer filing an H-2A application. 2. Change 20 days to 30 days in 8 U.S.C. 1188©(3)(A), which concerns the Secretary of Labor*s deadline for issuing labor certification, allowing temporary visas Sen. McConnell*s staff person said that the Senator is working with the growers on a broader guestworker legislative effort but because it is not clear that it will be enacted this year, he wanted to ensure that demands of H-2A growers in Kentucky would be met by a legislative action that could be passed this year. For more information, contact, Bruce Goldstein, Farmworker Justice Fund,
Inc., 202-776-1757. President Bill Clinton Vice- President Al Gore Senator Ron Wyden Washington, D.C. Office Eugene Office E-Mail: senator@ wyden.senate.gov The Web en Espanol-a Growing Market, (posted 6/28/99) Major businesses and corporations are finding ways to bring the minority population online. Prodigy Communications Corp., among other web servers, is planning initiatives to provide services for the Spanish speaking communities in the United States to accommodate the increasing numbers of Hispanics in this country. Currently, the U.S. Hispanic population accounts for 11 percent of the U.S. total, and is growing at a rate of 53 percent faster than the total population, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Of the speculated 60 million regular Internet users worldwide, 4 million are Latinos, and 53 percent of that group lives in the U.S., according to the Journal of Commerce. In a recent study by Forrester Research, 36 percent of Hispanics who have computer access do go online. Companies such as Prodigy are hoping that through the new service they are providing for the Spanish-speaking community, the number of Hispanic consumers taking advantage of the Internet will increase. This new service includes: access to a technical staff who speaks Spanish fluently; Cyber Patrol software (which allows parents to watch over what their children have access to online); e-mail accounts and the option to create their own web page; and most importantly, access to the World Wide Web. According to MCI Technoguia, a Web site focusing on Hispanic issues, Hispanic-focused Web sites began to be developed about five years ago, but are now beginning to take off in greater numbers. A recent article in The New York Times, reported that several Spanish Web sites have seen significant jumps in their Internet responses, resulting in upticks in their stock prices as well. Starmedia Network (starmedia.com) offers a Web site for those who speak Spanish and Portuguese, and has grabbed much of the Hispanic communities' attention. In the first day of trading in its initial public offering in May, Starmedia's share price nearly doubled. Internet giants in the U.S. are also looking to serve this niche of the population, as companies such as Bloomberg announced it would be initiating a bilingual financial Web site in the near future targeted to the Hispanic community. Internet providers are recognizing the power in the numbers of Spanish-speaking consumers in the U.S. as well as in Latin America. For example, America Online will soon begin offering its customers in Mexico and Argentina Spanish language services. Population Reference Bureau: Immigraion Ignites Debate, (posted 6/14/99) U.S. Newswire WASHINGTON, June 9 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The following was released today by the Population Reference Bureau: On an average day, the equivalent of a "small city" is created by visitors to the United States. Some 70,000 foreigners arrive in the United States daily. Most are welcomed-as tourists, business visitors, students, immigrants, or foreign workers. But about 5,000 are unauthorized aliens. About 4,000 are apprehended every day, but at least 1,000 elude detection. Philip Martin and Elizabeth Midgley, authors of "Immigration to the United States," a new report by the Washington, D.C.-based Population Reference Bureau, write that, "Immigration changes society, and it raises fundamental questions for Americans. Who are we? Whom shall we welcome? How should we deal with those who arrive uninvited?" There are no simple answers to these questions, which explains Americans' ambivalence toward immigration. Immigration Generates Controversy Americans often celebrate their immigrant heritage, but immigration has always provoked strong sentiments from those already established in the United States. There is no consensus about how many and what kinds of immigrants we should admit, or from which countries they should come. Many Americans fear that the growing immigrant population is undermining the dominant culture and language of the United States and is depressing wages and job opportunities. The current debates about immigration are similar to controversies raging at the beginning of the century, when impoverished immigrants from eastern and southern Europe streamed into a society dominated by people of western and northern European ancestry. Martin and Midgley review the most recent evidence on whether immigration hurts or helps the U.S. economy and find that immigrants themselves probably benefit most-especially those with higher educational attainment. The authors also explain why immigration is likely to continue at a high level, despite efforts to curb both legal and illegal immigration. Immigration is Changing the U.S. Population: Immigration accounts for about one-third of U.S. population growth. More than 8 million immigrants were legally admitted to the United States between 1990 and 1997, and at least 1 million more settled here illegally during those years. The numbers entering have increased steadily each decade. Foreign-born residents make up nearly 10 percent of the U.S. population. About 82 percent of immigrants are from Latin America and Asia; Europeans account for about 13 percent. These newcomers are changing the ethnic and racial makeup of the country. Hispanics are projected to account for 24 percent of the U.S. population by 2050, up from 11 percent in the 1990s. The Asian percentage is likely to grow from 4 percent to 8 percent; while the non-Hispanic white share of the U.S. population is projected to fall from 72 percent to 53 percent between 2000 and 2050. The authors point out that immigrants are more likely to fall into the high end or low end of the educational spectrum than the U.S.-born population. The education levels of immigrants entering the United States have changed as well. Thirty-five percent of immigrants ages 16 and older who entered the United States between 1900 and 1998 had not finished high school, compared with 29 percent of those who entered in the 1970s and 19 percent who entered before 1970. In comparison, only 9 percent of the U.S.-born population ages 16 and older had not finished high school in 1998. New Laws Target Immigrants: The report highlights the effects and implications of recent welfare and immigration reform legislation on immigrants. Three laws passed in 1996 restricted immigration and reflected the public's concerns: the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, and the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act. These laws were designed to fight terrorism, put an end to perceived abuses of the welfare system by immigrants, and help contain illegal immigration. According to Martin, these changes in immigration policy reflected an important U.S. consensus: Foreigners in the United States who support themselves and do not commit crimes are welcome, others are not. "Immigration to the United States," by Philip Martin and Elizabeth Midgley, is available free of charge to writers and members of the press. For copies, call PRB's publications department at 202-939-5417; e-mail: rsilvis@prb.org. Racial Segregation Growing In Public Schools, Study Finds, (posted 6/14/99) Richard Lee Colvin, Los Angeles Times Racial segregation in U.S. public schools is accelerating, with the trend particularly notable among Latinos in California and elsewhere in the Southwest. As a result, 45 years after the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed segregation, minority students are increasingly likely to attend class in racial isolation and under "profoundly unequal" conditions, a study to be released Monday finds. At the same time, the effect of those conditions on students' futures is being magnified by state policies-such as California's, which put a premium on test scores, high school graduation tests, less remedial education and the end of affirmative action for college admission. Nationwide, nearly 70 percent of African American students and 75 percent of Latino students attend predominantly minority schools, according to the report, based on 1997 data, from the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University. More than one-third of the students in each group are in schools where 90 percent or more of their classmates are minorities. Meanwhile, the average white student is enrolled in a school where more than eight in 10 of his or her classmates also are white. In California, racial isolation is even greater, with more than 40 percent of Latino students and 35 percent of African American students attending schools that are 90 percent or more minority. Authors of the report said the state is approaching the "hypersegregation" that has characterized schooling in the Northeast. One of the most intriguing trends in the federal enrollment data analyzed by the researchers is the increasing segregation of schools in suburbs. In large metropolitan areas such as Los Angeles, 30 percent of Latinos and 20 percent of African Americans are enrolled in suburban schools. Yet, even in the suburbs, the average Latino or African American attends a school that is 60 percent or more minority. Gary Orfield, a professor at Harvard's Graduate School of Education, said educators could take a regional approach to such enrollment trends and help suburbs "avoid the sorry experiences of the intense segregation of the inner cities." Desegregation of city schools is no longer feasible, he said. "But there's lots of places where it is and it's important to think about it." Some observers say the supporters of desegregation, among whom Orfield has long been one of the most well-known and articulate, want schools to undertake the almost hopeless task of stopping or reversing the effects of immigration, economics and housing patterns. Orfield "wants us to believe that the schools are doing this deliberately," said William Arthur Valentine Clark, a University of California at Los Angeles professor of geography. "In fact you've got a huge increase in the young Latino population, so how is it segregation if they're all going to school together. Whites are an aging population and they have opted out of the schools, if they can afford it." "Is it necessary to have a white child and a Latino child and a black child sitting next to each other to deal with the basic educational issues?" asked Clark, author of a new book on immigration called "The California Cauldron: Immigration and the Fortunes of Local Communities." But Orfield and others argue that the trends toward resegregation must be reversed because along with racial isolation, such schools often have concentrations of poverty. ©1999 San Francisco Chronicle Page A3 Minority Numbers Are Increasing in Public Schools, posted 6/14/99 But report shows a trend toward resegregation BY ANJETTA MCQUEEN WASHINGTON-Minority enrollment in America's public schools is climbing, but most students still attend schools dominated by others of their own race and income level, a Harvard University report says. Since 1968, enrollment of Latino students has increased 218 percent, and nearly 75 percent of them attend predominantly minority schools, according to the report by the Civil Rights Project, a research and advocacy organization run by the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Harvard Law School. Enrollment of black students has risen 22 percent, and 69 percent of them attend schools where at least half the students are from minority groups, the report, titled "Resegregation in American Schools," said. White enrollment in public schools nationwide has declined 16 percent in the same 30 years, and most of those students attend schools that are 80 percent or more white. That remains so even when white students live in generally non-white areas, said the report, which was based on a study of Education Department enrollment data from the late 1960s through the mid-1990s. At the same time, black and Latino students generally remain in black- and Latino-majority schools even when they live in the suburbs. Economics a factor The study attributes much of the trend of minority- or white-dominated schools to economics and housing patterns. As for the trends in minority and white totals, it notes increases in Latino immigration and births and a decrease in native white births. Schools with mostly black and Latino students also were 11 times as likely to be in areas with concentrated poverty as their peers in predominantly white schools. Researchers say that, too, can be damaging because poverty is linked to lower classroom performance and achievement. A trend toward resegregation of the races in school is proceeding fastest in the South, though the races are now most separate in schools in other regions, the report indicated. It reported that in 1970 the typical African-American student attended a school in which 32 percent of the students were non-Latino whites. That white percentage peaked at 36 percent in 1986, and fell steadily to 32.7 percent in 1996. For the typical Latino student, the proportion of non-Latino whites in the same school dropped steadily from nearly 44 percent in 1970 to 33 percent in 1980 and fell to 29.9 percent in 1996. Black students are most likely to go to majority-black schools in Michigan, Illinois, New York, New Jersey and Maryland. The top states for Latino student concentration are in California, New York, Texas, New Jersey and Illinois. White children are also less likely to attend schools with minorities in these states. Problems in schools In general, the researchers say, the schools with many poor children lack advanced courses and teachers with credentials for their subject areas. Such schools are more likely than others to have children who drop out, suffer from untreated health problems and forgo college. Whatever the reason the nation's public schools have higher percentages of minority students, so-called "white flight" to private schools apparently is not a major one. In 1996, about 11 percent of all U.S. schoolchildren were in private schools, compared with 15 percent in the mid-1960s and 12 percent just before the 1954 Supreme Court decision effectively ended legally segregated schools. School Districts Struggle to Find Minority Teachers, (posted 6/9/99) By Nicole Bondi and Gordon Trowbridge / The Detroit News DETROIT-Ed Tomlin is the education equivalent of striking gold. As an African American, he's a highly sought minority teacher. As a math and science teacher at Cass Technical High School in Detroit, he specializes in a tough-to-fill need. And as a Detroit Public Schools graduate with loyalty to the district, he's one small piece of the solution to the district's chronic shortage. "I've interviewed at other districts," he said. "The money was more, the conditions maybe nicer. But our kids can compete with any kids." The need for minority teachers in Metro Detroit and nationwide is big and getting bigger, as the U.S. minority population balloons into the next century. Nationally, 90 percent of urban districts have an immediate need for minority teachers. The shortage of minorities at the head of the class means a shortage of role models for minority children and a shortage of diverse perspectives in schools. The hiring challenge in Detroit is especially daunting. Kathleen Smith, an associate superintendent, must fill by fall about 1,000 vacancies with teachers and staff who reflect the diversity of the district. The district is hiring the teachers as part of the state-ordered school reform effort just under way. Smith offers an example of the need for minority staff: Of hundreds of district security guards, Smith said, only one is Hispanic. Members of the Arab-American, Hmong and Bengali communities all have told her they feel unwelcome. "Nobody talks to them in their language," she said. African Americans feel more at home in the district, but teaching is far down the list of career choices for many of them, Smith said. Cassandra Book, associate dean of education at Michigan State University, acknowledges that minority enrollment in the college's teaching program is down, despite increased recruitment. The school sent recruitment brochures to 1,500 minority freshmen and sophomores on campus this year, Book said. Incoming minority students are invited to receptions, where they're encouraged to think of a teaching career. "But, obviously, we have a lot more to do," she said. Concerns about the diversity of teaching and support staff don't end in Detroit. Margaret Forbes, a first-grade teacher at Eagle Elementary in Farmington Hills, said she once had a class with students who collectively spoke eight different languages at home. "I wasn't sure what to do," she said. The Oakland Human Resources Consortium established a task force to look at recruiting minorities. Early discussions show minority candidates, especially African Americans, feel uncomfortable working in the suburbs, where most teachers and administrators are white. "Schools need to help these people adjust and feel welcome," said Duane Lewis, coordinator of the consortium. "In many of our communities, it's not African American or Hispanic. It may be Chaldean. It may be Asian." The consortium plans to work with historically black colleges and universities to recruit more minority teaching candidates to Oakland County. Once the teachers get here, support systems and orientation programs would be in place. Finding minority teachers is a problem even in districts such as Pontiac, where the majority of students are African American. Pontiac's faculty has a lower proportion of African-American teachers than students. But the district is working hard to recruit more African-American teachers, Lewis said, "so we have models for our students." Copyright 1999, The Detroit News More Black and Brown Picket Fences, (posted 6/9/99) It's one of the hidden success stories of the Clinton era. In the great housing boom of the 1990s, black and Hispanic homeownership has surged to the highest level ever recorded. The number of blacks owning their own homes is growing nearly three times as fast as the number of non-Hispanic whites; the number of Hispanic homeowners is growing nearly five times as fast as that of non-Hispanic whites. These numbers are dramatic enough to deserve more detail. When President Clinton took office in 1993, 42 percent of blacks and 39 percent of Hispanics owned their own homes. By this spring, those figures had jumped to 46.9 percent and 46.2 percent respectively. That's a lot of new picket fences. This trend is good news on many fronts. Homeownership stabilizes neighborhoods and even families. Research shows that homeowners are more likely than renters to participate in their community. The children of homeowners even tend to perform better in school. Most significant, increased homeownership allows minority families to amass assets and transmit them to future generations. What explains the surge? The answer starts with the economy. Historically low rates of minority unemployment have created a larger pool of qualified buyers. And the lowest interest rates in years have made homes more affordable. But the economy isn't the whole story. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Andrew Cuomo says: "There have been points in the past when the economy has done well, but minority homeownership has not increased proportionally." Case in point: Despite generally good times in the 1980s, homeownership among blacks and Hispanics actually declined slightly, while rising slightly among non-Hispanic whites. All of this suggests that Clinton's efforts to increase minority access to loans and capital also have spurred this decade's gains. Bank regulators have breathed the first real life into enforcement of the Community Reinvestment Act, a 20-year-old statute meant to combat "redlining" by requiring banks to serve their low-income communities. The administration also has sent a clear message by stiffening enforcement of the fair-housing and fair-lending laws. The bottom line: Between 1993 and 1997, home loans grew by 72 percent to blacks and by 45 percent to Hispanics, far faster than the total growth rate. Lenders also have opened the door wider to minorities because of new initiatives at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac-the giant federally chartered corporations that play critical, if obscure, roles in the home-finance system. But for all that progress, the black and Hispanic homeownership rates, at about 46 percent, still significantly trail the non-Hispanic white rate, which is nearing 73 percent. Much of that difference represents structural social disparities-in education levels, wealth and the percentage of single-parent families-that will change slowly. For many builders and lenders, serving minority buyers now is less a social obligation than a business opportunity. But with discrimination in the banking system not yet eradicated, maintaining the momentum will require a nudge from Washington. One key is to defend the Community Reinvestment Act, which the Senate shortsightedly voted to retrench recently. Clinton has threatened a veto if the House concurs. The priority may be to ask more of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The two companies are now required to devote 42 percent of their portfolios to loans for low- and moderate-income borrowers; HUD, which has the authority to set the targets, is poised to propose an increase this summer. Although Fannie Mae actually has exceeded its target since 1994, it is resisting any hike. It argues that a higher target would produce more loan defaults by pressuring banks to accept unsafe borrowers. HUD says that Fannie Mae is resisting more low-income loans because they are less profitable. All signs point toward a high-velocity collision this summer between two strong-willed protagonists: HUD's Cuomo and Fannie Mae CEO Franklin D. Raines, the first black to hold the post. Better they reach a reasonable agreement that provides more fuel for the extraordinary boom transforming millions of minority families from renters into owners. ©1999 The Los Angeles Times Give Them Some Credit, (posted 6/9/99) by Richard H. Levey Hispanics carry fewer credit cards than average consumers. How can issuers reach this market more effectively? There is an analogy ethnic marketing consultants love to trot out: At just over 30 million individuals, the Hispanic population in the United States is larger than the entire population of Canada. That's a substantial marketplace. And given some of its characteristics-on average, seven years younger than the general populace, with larger families (3.4 members per household, as opposed to 2.5), and more likely to have young children-they comprise a prime market for just about everything. Yet a primary purchase mechanism-the credit card-is underrepresented among this population. According to Simmons Market Research Bureau's 1998 Hispanic study, slightly less than 50 percent own a credit card, compared with 72 percent of the general U.S. population. The market certainly is affluent enough. More than 20 percent of the Hispanic population have household incomes in excess of $50,000; 15 percent earn between $35,000 and $50,000. Another 15 percent report incomes between $25,000 and $35,000. It is a community wide open for credit card issuers with specially targeted offers. But there are nuances to offering credit cards to Hispanics, and ignoring them can turn a campaign sour. Beyond simply translating offers into Spanish, there are cultural and demographic factors to consider. The '80s and '90s saw an influx of adult immigrants entering the United States. According to Marvin Shaub, president of Princeton, New Jersey-based Teletienda Inc., a consulting firm specializing in direct marketing to the Hispanic community, 37 percent of all Hispanic Americans were born outside the United States. Before designing promotional material aimed at these recent immigrants, marketers should understand the factors that brought them to the United States. Economic advancement is often the chief reason, although not among the more affluent Cuban and South American populations, both of whom, along with Central Americans, mention war and political pressure, Shaub says. Those citing economic concerns often come from disadvantaged backgrounds. Their knowledge of financial products is minimal, so the uses and benefits of a credit card need to be spelled out. "The issue is how, for a foreign-born recent arrival, you do an introductory communication strategy," says Isabel Valdés, president of Cultural Access Group in Los Altos, California. "Assume people have never seen a credit card before. You have to not only give them information, but dispel misinformation [such as] when people steal your card, you can lose your possessions, and that interest rates can be 25 percent." Felipe Korzenny, president and CEO of Hispanic & Asian Marketing Communication Research in Belmont, California, agrees. "Many of them do not understand what minimum payment [on their statement] means," he says. But if the rules of credit cards are explained, experts agree, Hispanics seem to be more responsible about paying off their debt than other consumers. In fact, the Hispanic consumer comes with an attitude that not being in debt is a sign of status, and often large-ticket items-even houses and cars-are paid for with cash. Just as owning a credit card is a status symbol, says Alex López Negrete, president of Houston-based López Negrete Communications, being rejected is demoralizing for the Hispanic customer. He advocates not soliciting the Hispanic market unless the credit card issuer has a secured card product to offer potential targets who fall below the cutoff for the credit scoring system. "The last thing we need is to fill out a form [for a credit card] and get back a letter saying 'You are not good enough,'" he says. Telemarketing has potential for missteps as well. When calling Hispanic consumers, telemarketers should be prepared to spend more time on the phone. "You have to warm the customer up differently," says López Negrete. "First, establish that you have the right to call me. Pronounce my name correctly. Screen for language preference-and make the financial screening process more discreet." Spending the additional time pays off. "We give [targets] a chance to get educated," says Arleen Garza, senior vice president of affinity marketing for Bank of America. "In one of our first telemarketing programs [to the Hispanic community], we contracted with a vendor that had worked with us before. He came to us and said his firm had an average time-per-call limit to make calls cost-effective, and that he was spending twice as much time [on calls]." Garza told him to take whatever time was necessary to make sure the consumer understood the program. Regardless of whether your direct marketing campaign is through the phone or the mail, should you approach this population in English or Spanish? A higher-and growing-percentage of the community lists itself either as entirely or predominantly Spanish-speaking at home. But determining the appropriate language of a target has pitfalls. Marketers should not rush to provide English-language pitches, even if they learn that a consumer speaks English. According to the Yankelovich Hispanic Monitor, two-thirds of all Hispanic adults in the United States were born abroad. Of those, 66 percent say they get more information when a product is advertised in Spanish, and 56 percent cannot understand commercials in English. López Negrete usually hedges his bets by recommending bilingual offers. Surnames are a poor qualifier for single-language use. "What if a non-Hispanic wife [of a Hispanic individual] is being targeted?" he asks. Database Management, New York, a division of Stevens-Knox & Associates, distinguishes between its "Hispanic" lists, which consist of English speakers, and its "Spanish-speaking" lists, which are culled from respondents to Spanish-language promotions. The market for Spanish-language lists is relatively new, coming into its own only within the past ten years. Both Univision and Telemundo, two national Spanish-language media consortiums, also have lists of respondents to Spanish-language sweepstakes and product offers. Use of lists like these is increasing. "More success is achieved with Spanish-speaking lists," says Rick Blume, president of Database Management. "The English-speaking Hispanics have been reached before, but the Spanish-speaking consumers have not. The same marketer can expect to receive a 50 percent to 400 percent increase in the Hispanic market." This is largely because, in addition to being underprospected by the credit card industry, the market is overlooked by mailers. In a DraftWorldwide study of 1,700 Hispanic consumers, 40 percent reported that they receive just ten direct mail pieces a year. Nearly three-fourths said they always read direct mail, and 39 percent want to get more. And it's not that this market is adverse to financial products and services: Both Western Union and MoneyGram appeared, as numbers 12 and 30, respectively, among a list of the top 50 advertisers to the Hispanic market, as compiled by Hispanic Business magazine. American Express, at number 49, was the only other financial-related company to crack the list. American Express was probably not pushing credit-related offers. According to spokesperson Judy Tenzer, American Express does not market cards to specific ethnic groups. Instead, it prefers to offer products based on lifestyle needs, such as business or travel use, or "life stages," with different card packages tailored to college students and senior citizens. Other issuers seem to be following American Express. According to Competitive Media Reporting in New York, none of the major credit card companies-American Express, Visa, MasterCard, or Discover-purchased network advertising last year on Telemundo or Univision, two major Hispanic TV outlets. A few financial institutions advertised their own branded card: Banco Popular, for instance, spent $2.1 million to air commercials that promoted its Visa card on Univision. Given the receptiveness of the Hispanic population, why are credit card issuers sluggish in marketing to them? Consultant Shaub hazards that since credit cards are among the most profitable areas within banks, decisions to alter marketing strategies are often made at the board level-and bank boards may not have the exposure to the community, nor is change something they necessarily embrace. Maybe they haven't heard that, by 2040, the Hispanic population is anticipated to reach 80 million from its current level of 30.5 million. The credit card issuers with loyal consumers 40 years from now will be the ones making inroads into the community today. Copyright 1999 Intertec Publishing Corporation, A PRIMEDIA Company. All rights reserved. More American Demographics E-mail: WebMaster@demographics.com Builders Adapt to Spanish-speaking Work Force, (posted 6/9/99) June 7, 1999 Leslie Williams Johnson Contributing Writer When work at the site of a successfully progressing construction project came to a sudden slowdown around Christmastime, Donald Ratajczak had to wonder, what happened? Ratajczak, director of the Economic Forecasting Center at Georgia State University, saw this as one example of how the construction industry is being affected by a wave of new workers. He found that many Mexican workers on the project had returned to villages in their country for the holiday. In Georgia and elsewhere, immigrant workers have flooded the construction work force. People originally from Mexico are leading the trend, say employers, industry watchers and experts in the state. "What we now have is a new class of migrant workers. These are not the grape-picking migrants. These are the ones with hammer and nail, and they make decent wages," Ratajczak said. Locally, there are about 200,000 Mexicans, and a total Hispanic population of about 300,000, said Bernardo Mendez, press attaché at the Mexican Consulate in Atlanta. He said 30 percent to 35 percent of the local Latino population works in construction. "I think construction is becoming the most important branch where they are working," Mendez said. These workers help to keep the construction labor pool from dwindling further than it already has in a booming economy. Nationwide, there's a shortage of 250,000 construction workers per year, said Bill Anderson, executive director of the Associated Builders and Contractors of Georgia Inc. "Frankly, [Latino workers] are filling a void that would be there otherwise," said Mike Dunham, executive vice president of the Georgia branch of Associated General Contractors of America Inc. Downside for workers, contractors Contractors have to do their homework before hiring. "There's quite a bit of documentation. You have to make sure everything is legal," Dunham said. That includes "paperwork required of everybody and anybody. In doing that, it's supposed to verify citizenship." On the other hand, immigrant workers have to be watchful that they are not taken advantage of, some observers said. "What I hear is, they never get the same pay as the other people do," said Winston Garcia, Atlanta-area publisher of Nuestro Semanario-"Our Weekly" in English. Garcia recently wrote in his newspaper about alleged employer abuses against the Hispanic population. It's going to take education on the part of the workers, their employers, and the community at large before changes can be made, Garcia said. "It's going to take a while," he added. The language barrier The main challenge for contractors remains the language barrier. Some companies are making a concerted effort to communicate through bilingual supervisors and training classes, and some workers are honing their English skills. "You go on the sites and virtually all the written instructions are in Spanish," Ratajczak said. Most agree more can be done, however. Dunham's group is increasing its use of Spanish-language safety videos. At United Forming Inc., an Atlanta-based contractor that erects high-rise concrete structures, weekly safety meetings are conducted in English and Spanish. Tom Owens, president and chief executive of the company, estimates that about 10 percent of its supervisory ranks are Hispanic. He said 80 percent of the firm's superintendents can communicate on a very basic level to workers who have minimal English skills, often pointing them in the direction of a foreman who knows Spanish. "We're making the best of a difficult situation," Owens said. More than one approach The company's new carpentry skills class is taught in English, but there is also a bilingual superintendent there. The process of teaching the class is at once cumbersome and exciting- cumbersome to accommodate the students who need some instruction in Spanish, and exciting to see the group as a whole learning additional skills, Owens said. "The jury's out on whether we might split these classes apart," he said. Figuring out how to best communicate to this new wave of workers, through classes, for example, "is a big, big issue," said Scott Shelar, executive director of the Construction Education Foundation of Georgia. For instance, do you translate the curriculum into Spanish? What if some workers are illiterate in Spanish? "We're going to figure it out, but we haven't figured the best way to do it," Shelar said. Latino Producers Work to Open Channels of Communication, (posted 6/9/99) Television: Filmmakers and advocacy groups gather to brainstorm about representation. By KEVIN BAXTER, Times Staff Writer AN FRANCISCO-Lisa Navarrete stood outside an overcrowded ballroom on the third floor of San Francisco's downtown Holiday Inn and proudly proclaimed the weekend's independent Latino producers' conference a rousing success. Never mind the fact it hadn't started yet. "Just the fact that everyone's here is a success," said Navarrete, deputy vice president of the National Council of La Raza, the nation's largest constituency-based Latino organization and one of six groups that convened the convention. "Some of these people have never been in the same room together. Some of these people have never seen each other." By early Sunday afternoon, however, the 250 delegates to "The Future of Latino Independent Media: Public Television and Beyond" had more to celebrate than just togetherness. After three days of sometimes raucous debate, frequent pointed discussions and numerous tense exchanges, they emerged united behind the call for the creation of a first-of-its-kind national advocacy group "to promote the advancement, development and funding" of Latino programming in television and film. "The conference was a tremendous achievement," said Chon A. Noriega, an associate professor of film and television at UCLA and one of the driving forces behind the meeting. "We had to show we could get beyond those tensions and conflicts. This is the first step toward building a Latino producer constituency." The national community of Latino producers-which is divided by geography, genre and a wide range of long-simmering personal disputes-hasn't staged a national convention in more than 20 years. And while the participants at this weekend's convention were overwhelmingly young-more than half were under 35--they made up an eclectic group, including Gregory Nava, who has directed big-budget theatrical releases such as "Selena" and "My Family/Mi Familia," experimental Super 8 iconoclast Willie Varela and many others who have never presented a frame of film outside a college classroom. Meeting Timed to CPB Gathering in Town But the unity broke down along old, worn battle lines when it came to who should represent Latinos before the tax-supported Corp. for Public Broadcasting, the largest single source of funding for programming on public television. The producers' group intentionally scheduled its convention for the same weekend as CPB's annual meeting, which took place 12 blocks away and featured an agenda heavy on networking and the transition to digital television. But there was limited interaction between the two conventions, with CPB President Robert T. Coonrod making a brief appearance before the Latino producers and actor-producer Edward James Olmos giving an impassioned luncheon speech before the CPB. And while the Latino producers' conference was ostensibly convened to discuss larger issues, such as the underrepresentation of Latinos in mainstream TV and the world beyond public television, the real impetus behind the meeting was the CPB's controversial decision 15 months ago to cut off funding for the National Latino Communications Center, the main liaison between the CPB and the Latino programming community and one of five minority consortiums approved by the government to disburse public money to support diverse programming. The CPB made that decision, as well as the decision to form the Latino Public Broadcasting Project, headed by Olmos, as an interim replacement, without consulting the producers who depend on both groups to help develop their work. While the CPB awards just $650,000 a year in programming funds to each of the five minority consortiums-less than 0.3% of the nonprofit corporation's annual budget-the imprimatur of a CPB grant can make it easier for a producer to shake loose funding from other sources. Public Television Both a Boon and a Frustration And while public television has historically provided a home for independent producers, it's increasingly become a source of frustration-if not irrelevance-to many filmmakers. Only six producers present said they have received financial support from CPB, and there have been no CPB-funded Latino projects in the two years since the funding was halted. Nevertheless, the ability to control those funds and decide who gets the grants carries a great deal of power in the producer community, and the conference was split over who should get that power. After failing to reach a consensus, the Olmos-led Latino Public Broadcasting Project and the newly formed Latino Programming Coalition-composed of the Assn. of Hispanic Arts of New York, San Francisco's Cine Accion, the Washington-based National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts and the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center of San Antonio, Texas-promised to file competing proposals to CPB for the right to direct the Latino programming consortium. Other groups, including some from within the Public Television Network, are also expected to file applications for the three-year contract during the next month. The CPB is scheduled to award the grant by September, and while the producers' sentiment could play a factor in that decision, a popular vote won't determine the winner, said Coonrod. "There's got to be somebody that takes the responsibility," Coonrod said. "And there's got to be somebody who says we're going to evaluate the performance too." Two hours after the conference formally ended, Coonrod appeared at an unscheduled and hastily called meeting of some 30 Latino producers-including Olmos and representatives of the Latino Programming Coalition-to endorse the creation of the advocacy group and to pledge a new relationship with the Latino producer community. "We've been trying to get to this day for a long time," he said. "We will have our differences and we will have our disagreements. But if we can resolve our differences in the spirit that you displayed here today, we can move forward." Although some organizers cautioned it may be three to five years before the newborn advocacy group begins to effect real change, the unanimous call for its formation was seen as an important first step. Many conventioneers pointed to next fall's prime-time network television lineup-which on the four major networks of ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox includes 26 new shows but none with leading roles or plot lines featuring people of color-as evidence that Latino producers have to move beyond public television and into other arenas, including network television, cable TV and even politics to truly impact the status quo. "There is no Latino Jesse Jackson. There is no Latino NAACP," argued Harry P. Pachon, president of the Claremont-based Tomas Rivera Policy Institute. "So this organization needs to fill a void." Copyright 1999 Los Angeles Times. All Rights Reserved Fewer TV, Movie Roles are Going to Hispanics, (posted 6/9/99) By MIMI WHITEFIELD Herald Business Writer Does it seem like the Taco Bell Chihuahua is the most visible bilingual star on network television? It's not your imagination. A recent study commissioned by the Screen Actors Guild shows that the percentage of film and television roles going to Hispanics last year declined from 1997. Despite a U.S. Hispanic population of more than 30 million about 11 percent of the total population-Hispanics were cast in 3.5 percent of the roles in TV and theatrical productions in 1998, down from 4 percent the year before. "It's a long-term trend and unfortunately it comes at a time when our population has been tripling," said Raul Yzaguirre, president of the National Council of La Raza, the largest constituency-based Hispanic organization in the nation. To highlight the achievements of Hispanics in film, television, and music videos, La Raza established the American Latino Media Arts (ALMA) Awards, which will air on ABC at 8 Thursday. Just getting the ALMA awards on the air was a struggle. La Raza had to buy the time for the special-at a cost of about $1.4 million-from ABC, sell the advertising itself and get performers to appear for free. "We had to do a lot of fancy footwork to put on this show and take all the risks. The economics don't work particularly well," Yzaguirre said. "Last year, we lost money. Hopefully we'll break even this year." Beyond celebrating Hispanic successes, Yzaguirre said, the two-hour special is also designed to "tell America who we are as a community. We hope folks will watch if they're concerned about having a pluralistic America and will be writing the network and writing the sponsors if they enjoy it." Underrepresented Although big screen and television roles for African-Americans and Native Americans also declined last year, the SAG report-Missing in Action: Latinos In and Out of Hollywood-found the fast-growing Hispanic population is the most dramatically underrepresented minority compared to its proportion of the population. For example, African Americans comprise 12.7 percent of the population, and were cast in 13.4 percent of the roles in TV and theater. Ironically, with the popularity of TV Westerns in the 1950s, more Hispanics were being cast in television roles-albeit in minor parts -- 40 years ago than today, according to Chon Noriega, one of the report's authors and a professor at the University of California Los Angeles. Indicative of the problem: no ALMA awards are being given in two categories-best picture and outstanding actress in a comedy series-because there weren't enough nominees. Yzaguirre finds that development "depressing," but says La Raza is determined to fight a long-term battle if necessary to assure that the faces on television and movie screens also reflect Hispanic America. "This is a civil rights struggle for us," he said. Although the show has attracted a constellation of big-name advertisers-including Allstate, American Airlines, AT&T, Coors, the Fannie Mae Foundation, Frito-Lay/Pepsi Cola, GM, J.C. Penney, Johnson & Johnson, Kraft Foods, Miller Brewing, NationsBank, Prudential, State Farm, UPS, Western Union, and the U.S. Armed Forces and the U.S. Marines, not all of them were eager to pitch in money. "Some of them were real hard sells; others were more supportive," Yzaguirre said. When La Raza pitched the show to advertising agencies, they told the organization, "This is a Hispanic show, go to the Hispanic agency of record. When we went to the Hispanic agencies, they said, 'We only do Spanish-language advertising.' " A push for roles Meanwhile, Hispanic groups continue to push for more Hispanics in positive roles in movies and television. When they do appear on network TV shows, they are "consistently portrayed more negatively," said Clara Rodriguez, professor of sociology at Fordham University's College at Lincoln Center. She was in Miami recently for a meeting of the Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility. "They are stick figures in secondary roles or stereotypically cast as lazy, devious, not to be taken seriously or dangerous," she said. Some Hispanics, incidentally, also have complained that Taco Bell is guilty of stereotyping with its Chihuahua ads. Hispanics suffer from the same invisibility and marginality in contemporary films made after 1980, said Rodriguez. In New York, for example, Hispanics comprise roughly 27 percent of the population. Yet, she said, few have been included, or properly cast, in major movies filmed in New York. Ghostbusters, Home Alone and Fatal Attraction lacked Latino representation while in Three Men and a Baby and Ghost, Hispanics were cast as villains or spiritualists. The ALMA awards are only presented for positive portrayals of Hispanics. No gang banger or drug trafficker roles, for example, are considered. "One thing we lack is a Hispanic farm system to produce better and bigger stars," said Yzaguirre. "We've told the networks they should cast more Latinos in secondary or tertiary roles so they'll have a base of people ready for starring roles. They say yes but they don't do it. They want to have the Hispanic audience without having to work for it." Lucrative market There are compelling economic reasons why the movie and TV industry should be paying attention to the Hispanic market, according to the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute, which did the study for SAG. Latinos spend more than $500 million a year on movie admissions, and they say they attend movies with a Hispanic star or Hispanic theme more frequently than other mainstream box office features. The research showed Hispanics were more than six times more likely to watch The Mask of Zorro, which starred Antonio Banderas, than a similar genre film without the Hispanic theme. "When you see the explosion in Latin music-with Ricky Martin on the cover of Time magazine- you have to ask why isn't the television and film industry waking up to this?" said Augusto Failde, president of New York's TropiX Media, which develops media ventures for U.S. Hispanic and Latin American audiences. "In America, so much has to do with money and the numbers," he said. "Taking away the pride issue, this just doesn't make business sense." Meanwhile, Yzaguirre said La Raza is taking its message about the underrepresentation of Latinos on the big and little screen to anyone who will listen. "We are talking to Congress, the FCC [Federal Communications Commission], and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission," said Yzaguirre. "Employing Latinos in executive roles in the entertainment industry is a key. If we're not there making decisions we're not going to get the type of programming we deserve." Herald business writer Cynthia Corzo contributed to this report. e-mail: mwhitefield@herald.com ACLU: End Traffic Stops Based on Race, (posted 6/9/99) By ANDREA ROBINSON Herald Staff Writer Targeting what it considers a growing national problem, the American Civil Liberties Union on Wednesday called for an end to traffic stops of black and Hispanic motorists based solely on race. The ACLU issued a report, largely a collection of case studies from 23 states-including Florida- charging that law-enforcement officers use ethnicity as a grounds for suspicion. And to prepare people for "a police encounter," the state ACLU office is distributing wallet-size cards advising black and Hispanic motorists how they should act. The report adds to the debate across the country regarding a practice called racial profiling, also known as Driving While Black or Brown. The report said the escalating war on drugs across the United States was a principal culprit in the increased stops. As an example, the report notes 1985 guidelines issued by the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles for troopers to be suspicious of rental cars, "scrupulous obedience to traffic laws," and drivers wearing "lots of gold" or who do not "fit the vehicle," and "ethnic groups associated with the drug trade." Officials within Miami and Miami-Dade Police departments deny that a problem of profiling exists in their agencies. Departments are criticized Both departments came under criticism after a bitter confrontation between Miami Police at the Coconut Grove substation and Miami Police Officer Leon Leonard, who was concerned about his son's treatment during a traffic stop. That incident enraged hundreds of black Miamians, who grumbled that his son, Leon Leonard Jr., had been stopped because he is black. This week, the ACLU began airing ads on black-oriented radio stations in South Florida alerting listeners to a toll-free hot line for complaints about traffic stops of minorities. The 60-second spots can be heard on WMBM-AM and WLVE, WHQT and WEDR on the FM dial. Also, officials with the state ACLU office have printed more than 3,000 of the wallet-size cards in English and Spanish. They're hoping to get enough funds to print cards in Creole. Among the tips offered: be polite, don't flee, don't touch the officer. The tip cards are a first for the Florida office, said state ACLU President Howard Simon. "This is a lot of what we do. It's public education of people's constitutional rights," Simon said. "This is the handiest thing that you can carry around. They can keep with them and consult quickly when they're stopped by a police officer." Day-to-day experience? Simon said evidence indicates that racial profiling is part of the day-to-day experiences of American's racial minorities. "Racial profiling of minority motorists is restoring Jim Crow justice in this country," he said. The report released on Wednesday specifically pointed to a 1986 Drug Enforcement Administration program called Operation Pipeline, which has trained at least 27,000 law enforcement officers on how to spot drug couriers on the highways. That program has unfairly created a perception that blacks, Hispanics and other minorities are more likely to possess drugs, said national ACLU Executive Director Ira Glasser. Earlier this year the ACLU instituted a Web site and a toll-free national hot line number where people can report incidents of questionable traffic stops. The hot line number is 1-877-677-6345; the Web site is www.aclu.org/profiling/ e-mail: arobinson@herald.com Building Bridges, (posted 6/9/99) Latino chamber reaches for corporate America Published Tuesday, June 8, 1999, in the San Jose Mercury News Santa Clara County is home to more than 20,000 Hispanic-owned businesses, generating annual sales of $3 billion, according to the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce-Santa Clara County in San Jose. Wednesday, the chamber kicks off the third annual Bridge '99 -- a business and technology conference designed to bring corporate America and Hispanic businesses together. Mercury News Staff Writer K. Oanh Ha spoke with Alex C. Torres, the chamber's president and chief executive. An edited conversation follows. Q How would you characterize the majority of Hispanic-owned businesses in the county? A The majority are small businesses, in the range of 10 to 15 employees or less. There's also a large, growing portion of Hispanic-owned businesses with between 30 and 100 employees. Q What are some of the key issues for Hispanic-owned businesses in the county right now? A Accessibility. We need access to procurement contracts, particularly when it comes to government contracts, so that we have better opportunities to not only bid but have a fair chance of being awarded some of those contracts. A few years ago, a disparity study was done with the city of San Jose. Of all the contracts that had been awarded during that study time period, only 3 percent went to women/minority-owned businesses. The other area we need to improve on is getting access to private industry. Hispanics-and minorities in general-need to be given a fair chance to be able to bid and compete for some of these contracts and not just be given a one-, two- or three-day notice to submit bids. Private industry needs to be more diligent and put bids out there in a timely manner so that smaller firms, particularly minority-owned firms, have a better chance to bid on those contracts. Q How has Proposition 209, which eliminated affirmative action in the government sector, affected minority businesses? A The study I mentioned before where only 3 percent of San Jose's city contracts went to women/minority-owned firms-that was with Proposition 209 in place. Our concern is now that there's no such net to ensure fairness and equality, that number will only decrease. Now there's no real incentive for public or private industry to really go out there and do due diligence. Q What is the purpose of Bridge '99? A To bring corporate America and Hispanic small businesses together so they can exchange ideas, information, programs and services. Primarily, it's also to let people in the general community know there's a thriving Hispanic business community out there. Q The workshop topics at Bridge '99 are ones you'd find at most mainstream business conferences. There's nothing there that leaps out and says it's a conference for Hispanic businesses. Why is that? A The reason for that is very intentional. In order for us to continue growth within our particular business community, we have to inform ourselves as to what works, what are the pitfalls, what are some of the things that you can use in order to increase your business, the steps you have to take to grow your business. Those are just smart business strategies regardless of ethnicity, regardless of whether it's mainstream or not. They are essential business tools that any business owner would want to know about and find out. Q Your keynote speakers include Mayor Ron Gonzales, Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante and two other male business executives. Where are the Latina businesswomen and what's their role in the Hispanic business community? A Last year, we had a woman keynote speaker, Linda Alvarado, owner of Alvarado Construction Company. She's one of the few Latinas who's in construction and is very successful. This year we extended invitations to several female business and political leaders. Unfortunately, their schedules didn't permit them to be with us. But that doesn't mean that Latinas aren't active in the business community. In fact, Latina-owned businesses are the fastest growing group of minority businesses in the nation. They're also growing at almost twice the rate of male Hispanic-owned businesses and their success rate is much, much higher than that of their male counterparts. They're a very powerful up-and-coming group. Q Why is that? A The Latino population in the United States is a very young population. Nearly 70 percent of the population is under the age of 35. Women comprise a large portion of that. Not only that, these are the first generation of Latinos who are able to access educational and economic opportunities with very little barriers. They're feeling empowered. And women are no longer regulated to the traditional sense that they don't belong in business. Now that some of the barriers are being knocked down, women are taking it head-on and being very entrepreneurial. IF YOU'RE INTERESTED The conference will be held Wednesday at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose. For more information or to register, call (408) 467-9890 or see www.hispanicchamberonline.com/bridge99.htm Magazines Mine $20 Billion in Latino Teen Spending, (posted 6/9/99) American Demographics, May 1999 by Rachel X. Weissman First it was radio, then television. Now magazines are the latest medium to catch the Hispanic youth wave. In the last six months, two books have launched: Latingirl, a fashion and beauty publication for teenage girls, and SuperOnda-which translates as super wave-a career magazine for young adults of both genders. "There was nothing that served this audience directly," says Latingirl advertising director Cristina Altieri-Martinez. And that is counterintuitive, she suggests, given current demographic trends. Hispanic teens now make up 13.6 percent of all teens--4.3 million-and by 2005, they'll comprise 16 percent, the largest minority teen group. In addition, the number of Hispanic teens will grow at more than three times the rate of the general teen population within the next six years; they are projected to grow 25.8 percent by 2005, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, while the overall teen population is projected to grow 7.3 percent during that time. Hispanic teens are also big spenders. They fork out an average of $375 a month, 7.8 percent more than the average teen does, according to Teenage Research Unlimited. And girls spend 60 percent more on makeup than all female teens; 50 percent more on acne products; and more than twice as much on hair products. Overall teen spending was a whopping $140 billion in 1998, and Hispanics contributed $20 billion of that, or 14 percent of the total. If current spending ratios remain the same, Hispanic purchases will account for 17 percent of all teen spending in 2005, according to TRU. Armed with the demographics and the spending data, Latingirl, targeting 12-to-19-year-olds, was launched in January by Morristown, New Jersey-based MicroMedia Affiliates. Currently, a bi-monthly, Altieri-Martinez says Latingirl will eventually go monthly, when the readership has grown and there is sufficient advertising support. "We conducted surveys with 600 girls in the three major Hispanic markets: L.A., New York, and Miami," says Altieri-Martinez to explain how MicroMedia decided that the magazine was a viable concept. "We spoke by phone with girls of different origins, some U.S.-born, and some immigrants, all attending English-speaking schools." Although language didn't present a problem with reading a magazine like Seventeen, interviewees said such magazines didn't reflect their physical appearance and lifestyle. Latingirl hopes to fill that void. For Anna Santiago, it already has. The suburban Chicago 16-year-old has read magazines like Teen and Seventeen since she was 12. But like those surveyed, she missed seeing pictures of girls who looked like her, and she didn't find stories in these magazines on cultural issues close to her heart. Recently, she heard about Latingirl on television, and found it in a bookstore. "I like Latingirl," says Santiago. "It has stories about teen girls with strict parents, trying to break out of that. I can relate to it." And MicroMedia is hoping that young Latinas in the other top ten Hispanic cities-including San Francisco, San Antonio and Houston-will relate to it as well: Seventy-five thousand copies of Latingirl are being sold on newsstands in these cities, and 75,000 copies are being distributed by Scholastic, Inc. in high schools, where they are available for free. SuperOnda, published by Santa Barbara, California-based Hispanic Business magazine, is also distributed in schools, but because the publication targets 16-to-22-year-olds, it goes to both high schools and community colleges. The magazine's focus is on educational and career success, with a bit of lifestyle coverage thrown in. Jesus Chavarría, editor and publisher of SuperOnda as well as Hispanic Business, says, "Young readers of that age are at an impressionable stage when they're making important decisions, both about education and future career choices. The underlying concept of both magazines is to provide readers with information in the economic sphere and about professions, to permit Hispanics to compete more effectively in today's market place." One-hundred-thousand copies of the premiere issue of SuperOnda were distributed for free to southern California schools in March, and this month, Chavarría says the magazine will also be distributed in Texas, Florida, New York, and parts of Illinois, increasing its circulation to 150,000. Eventually, he'd like to see half the circulation paid and half controlled. With the tagline "The new magazine for young adults with purpose," SuperOnda has regular profiles on Hispanics who have succeeded in professions such as entertainment or business. Advertisers include the U.S. Armed Forces, Reebok, and Ford Mustang. The Ford ad, placed by Zubi Advertising, was complimentary. And there's the rub. While these magazines are serving a growing population with unique editorial contents, their success will ultimately depend on selling advertisers on the idea. So far, Latingirl advertisers such as Neutrogena and Skechers USA are enthusiastic, though they admit they're being offered very good advertising rates. "This is the first time we've targeted Hispanic teens," says Cindy Zielinski, marketing director at Neutrogena, who says teens are a core part of the brand's business. "Until six months ago, there really weren't places to reach them." Gary Patrick, president of Patrick Media, is equally upbeat about the demographics of Latino teens. Still, Patrick, who buys media for Skechers, wonders whether acculturated Hispanics will be interested in reading magazines that target them as Hispanics. "I think the jury is still out as to whether Latingirl will be a successful magazine," he says. His skepticism may be misplaced: In viability studies for the magazine, conducted by Coral Gables, Florida-based Behavioral Science Research, 85 percent of the interviewees said they would buy a magazine like Latingirl. Ultimately, even if these magazines become must-reads for young Latinos, advertiser support will make or break them. The widespread practice of discriminating against ethnic radio by requiring "minority discounts," as revealed in a recent FCC report, certainly isn't a good sign for any Hispanic media. Christy Haubegger, who launched the highly successful bilingual magazine Latina, which boasted 48 ad pages in its April issue, says, "I hope Latingirl does incredibly well, but it's a long row to hoe. The stereotypes about Hispanic women are bad enough, and I think they're probably exacerbated for teens. I've had great information on buying power for years, but when people close their eyes and picture Hispanic women, they picture someone who cleans up their office at night. We don't get to do a sales job in this market, we do an education job." Copyright 1999 Intertec Publishing Corporation, A PRIMEDIA Company. All rights reserved. More American Demographics E-mail: WebMaster@demographics.com Meatpackers Hire Lobbyist for Guest Workers, (posted 6/9/99) Nelson says INS operation draining state's labor pool June 4, 1999 GRAND ISLAND (AP) -- Former Gov. Ben Nelson is representing a group of meatpackers and livestock producers upset with a federal crackdown on undocumented workers at the state's packing plants. Nelson said a "loosely knit" group of processors, producers and feeders first approached him last month about problems they have with the Immigration and Naturalization Service's pilot program, called Operation Vanguard. "I don't know if there are any fans of Operation Vanguard," Nelson said Thursday. "There has been an adverse economic impact on agriculture because of this." Under the program, INS officials have subpoenaed employee records at packing plants across the state, looking for discrepancies between Social Security and driver's license documents. Employees then were investigated on an individual basis. In all, more than 700 workers have been interviewed and 18 were arrested. Meatpackers and livestock producers have complained that the INS program has led to a labor shortage at packing plants, which in turn has led to lower bids or slower bidding on livestock for slaughter. "It was ill-advised for Operation Vanguard to start out in a state with such low employment and an already big problem with a shortage of labor," Nelson said. Nelson on Wednesday first disclosed that he was helping the meatpacking group at a news conference in Grand Island prior to a speech before a local leadership group. Nelson, who left office in January after two terms as governor, has not decided if he will seek public office again. An Omaha attorney and a partner in a Washington lobbying firm, Nelson refused to say Thursday if he was paid to represent the meatpackers. Nelson said he has contacted the state's U.S. senators and congressmen to discuss possible changes in the INS program. Nebraska's members of Congress have all expressed concerns over the program's impact. "The approach has been to not just simply bad mouth Operation Vanguard but to find some positive way to deal with the bigger labor shortage it is creating," Nelson said. Nelson said he thinks the INS should start a separate program that would allow temporary visas for undocumented workers. Nelson said he plans to work with INS officials and members of Congress to allow for the special visas "Anything that can be done to get more people qualified to work rather than running them from their jobs is going to benefit the entire state," Nelson said. Nelson said even legal employees are afraid to go to work if they know INS agents will be there. "They don't want to have to go through all that," he said. Operation Vanguard targeted 450 workers at Grand Island's Monfort plant, but only 100 of them remained on the job when INS agents recently showed up for interviews there. INS plans to expand the program to Iowa, Missouri and Kansas in the coming months and include other industries, but Nelson said he feels Nebraska was singled out. Truth In The New South Africa, (posted 6/8/99) FROM UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE FOR RELEASE: WEEK OF MAY 28, 1999 (This week's column is a first-person account by Patrisia Gonzales.) CAPE TOWN, South Africa-Just for a moment, I stood locked inside the jail cell of Nelson Mandela, the place where he spent many of his 27 imprisoned years. I experienced the same screech of the lock, the same cold in the thick walls, the same weight of the door, and just for a moment, the truth of a place. No matter what his tormentors did to his body, they could not capture his spirit nor imprison truth. I was part of a delegation that explored the building of a new South Africa. I did a lot of praying in Mandela's cell and along the rocks and shells of Robben Island. I faced the ocean and prayed never to fear and never to walk away from change because the conditions for change do not yet exist. I prayed for young people fighting injustice and for suffering people as they search for the truth of their lives. In the new South Africa, ex-political prisoners give tours of the island. They have changed the meaning of this place and of their suffering. It's a place where they prevailed. The bus driver, an ex-political prisoner, tells of how comrades were tortured with rape and sodomy. It's truth-telling. His voice trembles, shaking out the honesty of the moment. "This will never happen again," says an African-American civil rights elder as we all silently watched the island disappear into the wash of the sunset. I wanted to understand the role of truth in restoring a country, where the call to heal the nation is written into the constitution. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission has accomplished more than any other around the world, despite an unrealistic mandate. How can reconciliation of hundreds of years of colonialism and 30 years of brutal apartheid be accomplished with limited time and resources? There were transformative moments where survivors forgave so that perpetrators might become human again, and others where people could not be legislated to forgive, heal or speak truth. And yet just to know what happened is healing, said one white South African we met, who experienced repression because he supported the black majority during apartheid. And what of injustice by omission, acts not taken that helped sustain apartheid? Where does one confess that? Needed is a deeper healing, a deeper knowing of the hurt that touched everyone's lives. "People are used to taking a lot of pain. What apartheid did, what colonialism did, was take away our belief that we were human," said Simanga Sithebe, who works in trauma healing. And there is the ongoing tension between peace-making and justice. "We compromised justice to achieve truth and on the basis of truth hope to rebuild South Africa," said Hugo van der Merwe at the Center for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation. Some mediators believe South Africa wasted the opportunity for reconciliation among blacks and whites. Others, such as Thabo Mbeki, who will likely be elected as the country's president on June 2, say real reconciliation cannot occur until there is democracy and economic justice. Laurie Nathan, at the Center for Conflict Resolution, spoke of truth and recognition: "The TRC managed not collective healing, but collective recognition of the past." And a former South African exile noted, "What matters now is what is done with the truth." People must be part of the process of truth to understand their country, writes Antjie Krog in "Country of My Skull" (Times Books, $27.50) -- something the United States has yet to experience in such an intentional way. Many believe truth-telling can construct a shared moral narrative to rebuild a country. It is a process in which victims, the survivors, write history. In keeping with the idea of "ubuntu"-a communal humanism that says people are formed by their community and in relationship to others-let's hope that South Africa, in its monumental task of rebuilding democracy, does not neglect the spiritual foundation of healing from structural violence. Archbishop Desmond Tutu calls Robben Island a place of reconciliation. There, I understood the reconciliation with myself that occurs before any reconciliation outside me. Some of us were so struck by Mandela's ability to forgive his jailers, to befriend them, to not dehumanize them as they had he, that we wrote letters of forgiveness. We offered them to the ocean, which swept them out to sea. More than forgiveness, I understood the power of releasing, the freedom in releasing my spirit from oppression's grip while still believing in the potential humanity of those who commit such wrongs. I understood that someday we can face truth together. COPYRIGHT 1999 UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE Gonzales & Rodriguez can be reached at PO BOX 7905, Albq NM 87194, 505-242-7282 or XColumn@aol.com Gonzales can be reached diectly at 505-248-0092 or PatiGonzaJ@aol.com Indigenous Women Building Community, (posted 6/8/99) FROM UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE FOR RELEASE: WEEK OF JUNE 4, 1999 In indigenous societies, women are regarded as the transmitters of culture. Without an indigenous perspective, noted Sara Mendoza, community organizer and a student of ceremonial "danza Azteca," many women of Mexican origin do not believe they have a right to be in the United States, and they pass this on to their families. It becomes a legacy of oppression. She recently helped organize the four-day "Cihuatlatokan in Aztlan" gathering in a forest in Southern California. Its purpose: "is to build a newtwork of Indigenous Xicana women and to discuss issues affecting our barrios from an indigenous perspective." The work of the Cihutlatokan is to create a collective voice on issues affecting our communities and barrios locally and globally. The women that Mendoza, 25, works with-whether with the collective or with elders discovering their indigenous roots-"fight for sovereignty, with love of the Creator," she added. Native people from North, South and Central America are today no longer responding to attacks against them defensively. Instead, they are creating a consciousness within these communities of their connectedness to the land. "That's the foundation for organizing," Mendoza said. "It builds a spirit of righteousness." In the indigenous Mexican/Aztec language of Nahuatl, Cihua means woman, Tlatokan means place of dialogue, and Aztlan refers to their northern homeland. At last month's Cihuatlatokan gathering, a group of women, from elders to teen-agers, explored how to build their communities as strong indigenous women. Approximately 70 women gathered from Mexico, Peru, Guatemala, El Salvador, and of course, "Chicanas from Aztlan," said Mendoza. "We broke down borders of exclusion." It was also an attempt to understand the process of globalization. "Economic globalization is a form of control over nature, people and culture," she said. At the gathering, they agreed, said Mendoza, that Cihuatlatokan will be "a network/union of free pueblos (peoples), communities and organizations." The Cihuatlatokan gathering was also a prelude to the third international conference of indigenous women in Panama in August. The collective will be sending 7 delegates to attend and represent the cihuatlatokan and present a human rights report regarding Xicana Indigenous women in Aztlan. "Through the Cihuatlatokan, we're trying to be human beings again," she said. Intense political scapegoating this past decade against these communities has dehumanized and thrown these populations off balance. Only by building community, by reintroducing them to their original cultures can they heal and regain their spiritual balance, Mendoza believes. Despite hundreds of years of cultural colonialism, many of the people from these communities do indeed yearn for what was once theirs, said Mendoza. This past year, Mendoza helped bring back the Aztec tradition to one of Los Angeles's historic Eastside neighborhoods, the Aliso-Pico housing complex. There, seniors and children learned the dance tradition of their ancestors, culminating with a community-wide ceremony on December 11 and 12. "The community asked to be taught the danza," she said, noting that they each created their own Aztec ceremonial dress. Mendoza points out that her work "is to listen and to work to give 'palabra' (voice) to her community. That's the key to community work -- understanding that knowledge is already in people. The objective is simply to bring it out. "When you bring women together," she continued, "they share their strengths and begin to heal. The culture of a woman is defined by interconnectedness. When we taught danza to them, you never had a woman dance alone; they brought their children. We're all interconnected. That's the indigenous view. We reject individualism. We believe that sovereignty is within every individual and that our spirits are sovereign." In explaining the importance and relevance of ancient indigenous ceremonies, Mendoza related: "In the struggle to bring new life into our communities, we reflect upon the wisdom and knowledge of our ancestors to guide our journey." All this is done with love, she said. And for her, the highest form of love is transmitting her knowledge to her 4-year-old daughter Kelatztli. "The Cihuatlatokan and all the other ceremonies I attend are for all the babies in our community. We are laying a foundation for them to grow from. We are redefining what a community is for us, since we have lost much of that basic knowledge. "One day my daughter will continue to redefine the Cihuatlatokan for her generation and as an indigenous woman take a little more of our Aztlan back." COPYRIGHT 1999 UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE This is our prayer and honoring song for the women of Cihuatlatokan. We encourage readers to support their most important efforts, particularly as they prepare to travel to Panama. To be part of the collective, Xicana/Indigenous women are encouraged to contact them at: SMTeenLC@aol.com Gonzales & Rodriguez can be reached at 505-242-7282 or XColumn@aol.com Gonzales can be reached directly at 505-248-0092 or PatiGonzaJ@aol.com Guestworkers Legislative Update & Alert, posted 6/3/99 CAUSA GUESTWORKER LEGISLATIVE UPDATE & ALERT >From Bruce Goldstein Agricultural employers continue to want the reform of the H-2A guestworker program that they demanded in 1996 and 1998: (1) remove most of the H-2A programís (and Bracero programís) modest protections for wages, housing, working conditions, U.S. worker recruitment, government oversight, and (2) affirmatively authorize wage schemes and other practices that are abusive and/or illegal. No guestworker bill has been introduced yet. The delay probably arises from the poor results of the hearing the growers demanded and secured on May 12, 1999, in the Senate immigration subcommittee. Senator Abraham, the subcommittee chair, indicated that, absent a compromise, the growersí efforts probably would not succeed. Senator Dianne Feinstein announced that not only did she oppose a weakening of the H-2A program, but that she could support a carefully drafted program to provide lawful permanent resident alien status (ìgreen cardsî) to certain undocumented farmworkers who are already in the United States. She also expressed interest in taking action to improve wages and other job terms. Her opinion is helping to shift the debate to a more reasonable platform. The employers are likely to announce, as they did last year, that they could support some kind of a legalization program but that it is not politically feasible to pass legislation to legalize a sufficient number of immigrant workers, and that therefore they need their ìreformî of the H-2A program. Presumably, they would pursue a strategy in the Senate on an appropriations bill. We should continue to send the message to Congress and the President that farmworker supporters are united in their opposition to a weakening of standards under the H-2A program or a new guestworker program. We should support a legalization program that provides real immigration status, not an alternative form of indentured servant status. We must oppose any proposal that would undermine H-2A labor standards. We should insist that any immigration program be accompanied by policies that will improve wages and working conditions for farmworkers. The growers frequently claim that the status quo is unacceptable. Providing true immigration status to undocumented workers would be very helpful to those workers and would answer the growers demand for access to more authorized farmworkers. But legalization, by itself, does not improve farmworkers wages and working conditions. (At the National Organizer's Alliance conference on May 19-22, immigrant rights organizations from all over the United States stated their opposition to the Bracero Bill. Thanks, Noa!) What Should You Do 1. Write letters, individually and on behalf of as many organizations as possible, to your Senators asking that they strongly oppose the agricultural guestworker legislation being sought by agricultural employers. Of critical importance are members of the Senate immigration subcommittee (Republicans Abraham, Specter, Grassley and Kyl, and Democrats Kennedy, Feinstein and Schumer) and the agricultural appropriations subcommittee (Cochran, Specter, Bond, Gorton, McConnell, Burns, and Kohl, Harkin, Dorgan, Feinstein and Durbin), Sen. John McCain (R.-Ariz.) (who is running for President), Sen. Robert Byrd (D.-W.Va., ranking Democrat on Appropriations Committee), Sen. Patrick Leahy (D.-Vt., ranking Dem. on Judiciary). Senate addresses are all U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C. 20510. If you can fax the letter, even better. 2. Write letters to President Bill Clinton and Vice-President Al Gore, thanking them for opposing the agricultural guestworker legislation last year and asking them to announce that they will veto a new guestworker bill or amendment if it were to pass this year. Address: White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, Washington D.C. 20500. Fax: (202) 456-246, E-mail: president@whitehouse.gov and vice-president@whitehouse.gov Sample letter to Senators or President Clinton (U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C. 20510) Dear Senator ----- We write out of our concern for this nation's migrant farmworkers who harvest our fruits, vegetables, tobacco and other horticultural crops. We ask that you oppose the agricultural guest worker legislation that agricultural employers intend to have introduced again, possibly as an amendment to an appropriations bill. [State who you are and what you do.] America's farmworkers are underpaid, often ill-housed and frequently lack access to adequate health care.Wage rates remain quite low. Unemployment rates and underemployment in areas where migrant farmworkers reside remain very high, as explained in a recent General Accounting Office report that concluded there is no farm labor shortage. Farmworkers are still not entitled to many of the legal protections that we grant to other workers, yet they are more in need than most workers: farmworkers are the poorest of the working poor. It is long past the time for American agricultural businesses to modernize their labor practices to attract and retain its work force.Our government must end its long history of supplying growers with an oversupply of vulnerable foreign workers in undocumented or semi-documented status. The U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform*s report in 1997 concluded that a new guestworker program would be a grievous mistake. There already is an agricultural guestworker program, the H-2A program, which has approves 99% of agricultural employers* applications for guestworkers, according to the U.S. General Accounting Office. Farmworker advocates have repeatedly asked the Department of Labor to improve its implementation of the worker protections under that program, but abuses continue. The employers* new program would be even worse than the current situation and the old bracero program, removing most of the longstanding protections for wages, working conditions, housing, benefits, and law enforcement. A new guestworker program would do nothing to reduce the number of undocumented workers in the country, and, consequently, the labor surplus would increase under a guestworker program and the wages and working conditions would decline still further. If we need more farm laborers in this country, they should be invited as immigrants who have the right to switch jobs if the employer mistreats them or if another employer offers a better deal, who have the opportunity to become citizens with the right to vote, and who could raise a family here. Edward R. Murrow's Harvest of Shame has continued for almost 40 years. We ask that you not perpetuate the mistreatment of migrant farmworkers into the next century. We feel very strongly that you should oppose any efforts to create a new guestworker program for agriculture. Sincerely, For more information please see WEB site on Guest Workers: JSRI Home | Community Connections | Latino News Archives
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