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New Yorkers see Spanish as essential skill(posted
12/1/99)
BY MIRTA OJITO
New York Times
NEW YORK-Sitting on their mother's laps, six small children wait
quietly
in a second-floor school room on Manhattan's Upper East Side.
The oldest
child is 2; the youngest just turned 1. One sucks his thumb.
Another plays with her belly button.
"¿S(acu), quién está aqú?"
asks teacher Veronica Noguera, a furry puppet on each hand. "Buenos
d(acu)as, niños. Buenos d(acu)as."
When Noguera's students start talking, their first language will
be English.
But their parents, who don't speak Spanish, have sent their children
here to
learn what they are sure is becoming an essential skill in this
increasingly bilingual city.
"I don't want my child to lag behind," said Linda Hughes,
who commutes
an hour each way to take her son, Lucas, 3, to Spanish lessons
once a
week. "This city is so bilingual already, you can no longer
ignore Spanish."
Latinos have been woven indelibly into the city's fabric for
generations-
Puerto Ricans began arriving in the 1930s, followed by Dominicans,
Cubans
and, lately, Mexicans. Today, half the Bronx's residents are
Latino; one of five New Yorkers speaks Spanish at home. In the
last 10 years, the city's Latino presence has grown by 400,000
-- the population of Atlanta. At 2.2 million, Latino New Yorkers
outnumber every other minority group.
Move out of enclaves
Once, Latino immigrants tended to live and work in enclaves
like
Washington Heights, the Lower East Side, the Bronx and parts
of Queens-
but today they are moving far beyond.
And non-Latino New Yorkers are responding to the trend in practical
ways.
They are signing up for Spanish lessons-at home, at work and
in schools.
In the past two years, Spanish has become the most requested
language in
the city's private language schools, where registration has doubled,
forcing
many schools to add classes or find bigger buildings.
Additionally, speaking Spanish is beginning to pay. Workers in
businesses
like the St. Regis Hotel, Metropolitan Hospital Center and various
news organizations have signed up for Spanish classes financed
by employers. The city police department will soon begin offering
language programs. Churches and schools, often unable to fill
positions that demand Spanish proficiency, bring in priests and
teachers from Spain and Latin America.
Family Court need
Judy Richler, a former judicial referee on Manhattan's Family
Court, realized about three years ago that about a third of the
people in her courtroom primarily spoke Spanish. Although interpreters
were always available, Richler decided she had to be able to
match the words to the facial expressions of the people whose
fates depended on her rulings.
She signed up for night classes and joined an evening Spanish
conversation
group. Now, Richler can understand intricate cases and dispense
legal advice in Spanish.
"In court, I know what the clients are saying the moment
they say it, and they know that I know," said Richler, 60.
Anastasio Sanchez, language program director at the Cervantes
Institute, said that in the past two years the number of students
at his school had almost doubled. Last year, 1,440 students registered
for classes; the year before, 850. The school recently bought
a bigger building.
At the Spanish Institute, about 1,700 students registered for
classes last year, double the number two years before, said Ana
Menendez, language program director.
The number of students taking Spanish in the city's Berlitz language
schools
has grown by 37 percent. Last year, Spanish surpassed English
as the most
popular language at one of two Manhattan Berlitz centers. More
than half the students said they needed it for work or to move
to another job, said Dawn Liles, marketing associate.
Suspected Colombian Drug Capo Extradited
to U.S
By Jaime Acosta
BOGOTA (Reuters) - The suspected head of a heroin smuggling
mob was bundled aboard a U.S. plane in Bogota
amid tight security on Sunday to become the first Colombian extradited
to stand trial in the United States in nine
years, authorities said.
Jaime Orlando Lara Nausa, arrested in Bogota late last year,
was whisked by helicopter from a police barracks in
the south of the capital to the police airport around 7 a.m.
EST.
Colombia banned the extradition of its citizens in 1991 after
Pablo Escobar, the late kingpin of the notorious
Medellin drug cartel, waged a bloody campaign of bombings, kidnappings
and murders. The last Colombian was
sent to the United States for trial in late 1990.
But Congress lifted the ban in December 1997 after intense U.S.
pressure, which included blacklisting Colombia for
failing to cooperate in the international fight against drug
trafficking.
"We are acting as we should to combat a crime that affects
all humanity. We cannot allow Colombia to become a
paradise for crime," President Andres Pastrana told reporters
late on Sunday afternoon.
In a statement released in Washington, White House anti-drug
leader Barry McCaffrey said, "Actions such as today's
extradition to confront the traffickers will send a powerful
and helpful signal. President Pastrana must be
commended for his courage and dedication. He is making a sincere
effort to confront drug trafficking."
Lara was led handcuffed and with his head bowed across the runway
to a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration
(DEA) Beechcraft Superking aircraft under the watchful gaze of
more than 50 heavily armed Colombian police.
An armor-plated police truck escorted the plane a short distance
as it began taxiing for takeoff.
A DEA spokesman said later on Sunday that the plane had landed
briefly in Miami but Lara did not leave the
aircraft.
"They simply serviced the plane and changed the pilot and
he continued to New York, which is where he is
wanted," DEA spokesman Brent Eaton said in Miami.
If convicted in a U.S. court, Lara faces a much stiffer sentence-including
the possibility of a multiple life term-
than in Colombia where penalties for drug trafficking are still
relatively lenient.
A New York federal court requested Lara's extradition, shortly
after his capture, on charges of trafficking heroin to
the United States. U.S. authorities have so far requested the
extradition of some 50 alleged Colombian drug
smugglers since the end of the constitutional ban on the practice.
Colombia's Supreme Court approved the request two weeks ago and
Pastrana and a handful of his Cabinet
members met late on Saturday to reject a final appeal by Lara's
lawyers.
Colombian officials never specified what quantity of heroin Lara
allegedly shipped to the United States.
Colombia is currently estimated to produce some six tons of high-grade
heroin a year, much of which is destined to
cities on the U.S. East Coast. The DEA also estimates Colombia
is responsible for 80 percent of the world cocaine
supply.
Senior police commander Gen. Ismael Trujillo declined to comment
on the possible threat that the country's violent
drug gangs could launch a wave of bomb attacks in retaliation
for the resurrection of extradition.
Traffickers, led by Escobar, waged a virtual war against the
state in the late 1980s and early 1990s in a successful
bid to ban the practice under the slogan, "We prefer a tomb
in Colombia than a jail cell in the United States."
Ten days ago a powerful car bomb exploded in northern Bogota,
killing seven people and maiming scores more.
Police said drug traffickers or Marxist rebels may have been
to blame for the blast.
Prior to that attack, Pastrana had threatened to immediately
extradite all Colombia's drug capos wanted in the
United States if there was a resurgence of the drug-related violence
of 10 years ago.
"The government and Colombian authorities will continue
to fulfill the law," Trujillo told reporters.
Pastrana has also approved an extradition request for a Venezuelan
and a Cuban, currently being held in Colombian
jails on charges of smuggling drugs to the United States. It
is not known when they will be flown out.
Last month, Colombian police arrested more than 30 people accused
of shipping some 30 tons of cocaine per
month, worth some $1 billion, to the United States and Europe.
U.S. authorities have called for the entire gang, including Fabio
Ochoa a notorious Colombian drug lord, to be
extradited.
Shock TV King Sentenced in Organ Trade
Dispute
SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazil's king of shock television has been
sentenced to seven months in jail for slander
because of accusations of organ trading on a show, according
to court documents.
Criminal Judge Jonatan Marcos Carvalho ruled last Friday in favor
of Dr. Orlando Sanches, who had sued Carlos
Massa, whose nickname "Ratinho" (Little Rat) is also
the name of the show, over the accusations in Massa's 1997
show, according to a copy of the court verdict obtained by Reuters.
The doctor said he had been falsely accused of stealing organs
from poor patients for resale and publicly
humiliated.
The court document, obtained this week, quoted Massa as calling
the doctor "devil in white" on his program,
which runs on the popular SBT channel.
The court, in the southern city of Curitiba, said "news
sensationalism" was the motive behind Massa's remarks.
Massa was convicted to seven months in a work-release program
where he would sleep in jail and work during
the day.
But in other cases of Brazilian celebrities sentenced to prison,
few have spent much time in jail because their
lawyers immediately appeal the rulings.
Massa's lawyers were not immediately available for comment, but
Agencia Estado news agency quoted his
program's legal department as saying it would also appeal the
sentence.
The ruling came only a month after a Sao Paulo court barred Massa
from airing programs showing "scenes
offensive to human dignity". His programs often feature
people suffering from physical deformities.
Massa climbed to fame by inundating audiences with images of
skin diseases, cleft lips, supposedly pregnant men
and in-studio brawling. He encourages arguments by slamming around
his trademark billy club.
Massa, for his part, says he is defending the down-trodden. As
part of the program, he doles out huge donations
to pay for surgery on his guests to treat their deformities.
Anti-Corruption Chief May Face Trial
ASUNCION, Paraguay (Reuters) - Paraguay's senior anti-corruption
official should face corruption charges for
alleged money laundering and extortion, the country's attorney
general said on Thursday.
"My opinion is that there exist reasons for impeaching
the chief auditor so he can be put on a criminal trial,"
Attorney Anibal Cabrera told reporters.
Cabrera said he would ask for Chief National Auditor Daniel
Fretes Ventre to be impeached by the lower house
of Congress, which must vote by a two-thirds majority to strip
him of his immunity from prosecution.
Opposition Congressman Marcelo Duarte presented 100 documents
Thursday in the chamber which he said
implicated Fretes Ventre in "maneuvers to clean out banks
and launder money."
Fretes Ventre denies the charges against him, and says they
come in reprisal for his own fight against corruption.
The 66-year-old has run the government's auditing office since
1995, and has made fraud accusations totaling $7
billion. The principal accused was former President Juan Carlos
Wasmosy, who led the country from 1993-1998.
The landlocked nation of five million people, whose economy
is swollen by massive smuggling but most of whose
people are poor, has been ruled for half a century by the Colorado
Party, including 35 years of dictatorship by
Gen. Alfredo Stroessner.
Stroessner was overthrown in a palace putsch in 1989, and
President Raul Cubas was expelled from office after
civil unrest earlier this year, to be replaced by another Colorado
-- Luis Gonzalez Macchi.
Paraguay, where it is considered normal to own a car stolen
in Argentina or Brazil, was rated the second-most
corrupt nation in the world by German-based watchdog Transparency
International in 1998. But it improved in
the 1999 report to be ranked only eighth-most corrupt.
La vida latina hits the Web
By Jennifer Mack, ZDNet News
This week, while thousands of tech-heads have converged on
Las Vegas for the
Comdex tradeshow, more than 100 international Internet leaders
are huddled in
Miami, strategizing over the hottest growth market on the Web-Latin
America.
With increasing attention being paid to skyrocketing Internet
use in Europe and
Asian-Pacific region, Latin America has, so far, played primarily
only a sideline role.
But that's about to change, according to industry leaders and
leading analysts.
Research firm International Data Corporation estimates Latin
American Web commerce will surpass $8 billion by
the end of 2003.
Moreover, Latin America shows the fastest growth anywhere in
Internet usage-from 4.8 million users in 1998
to an estimated 19.1 million by 2003, a fourfold increase.
"Latin America is definitely one of the faster growing regions,
but it has some natural roadblocks in place that
need to be resolved before it can really blossom," explained
Annika Alford, program manager for IDC Latin
America.
Tackling roadblocks Those "roadblocks" promise to be
hot topics at this week's invitation-only "eCumbre"
conference (in Spanish, cumbre means "come together at the
top, exchange ideas, gather"), which runs through
Tuesday at a resort just outside Miami.
Business leaders and researchers point to the relatively high
cost of computers and Internet access as a major
problem to expanding the Web audience beyond its current, mostly
upper-middle-class base.
"The typical user in Latin America is spending more than
any other region, which isn't a good thing because
they're at the lower end of the gross domestic product, per capita
wealth scale," said Alford.
There is some encouraging news. The average cost of a desktop
PC in Latin America was $1,340 in the final
quarter of 1998, down from $1,500 at the beginning of the year.
PC shipments up slightly More recently, IDC predicted the shipment
of PC's to the region would increase 1.5
percent in the first quarter of 1999 -- despite earlier predictions
that shipments would fall because of the
weakened Brazilian real.
Many experts believe that problems with telecommunications companies
that charge by the minute for Internet
access are unlikely to remain an issue for long.
They predict Latin America will follow in the footsteps of Europe
and Asia and leapfrog many of the access
issues that have plagued modem-bound users in the United States.
"In Argentina, cable modems are becoming increasingly popular,"
explained Clive Cook, former chief operating
officer for the Latin American financial portal Patagon.com,
and now a partner in South Beach Venture Partners,
a venture capital firm specializing in Latin American Internet
companies.
"In Mexico City, we're seeing wireless technology you don't
even see in the U.S."
Dream come true But not everyone thinks the elite status of Latin
America's users is a problem.
For many companies, the ability to communicate directly with
a highly educated, wealthy audience in a market
with comparably little competition is a dream come true.
"In Latin America, about 10 percent of the population controls
all wealth and knowledge. We're targeting that
group. They're a premium group," explained Radames Soto,
executive director of Wall Street Journal Interactivo,
the online Latin American edition of the Wall Street Journal.
Unlike its English-language counterpart-which is one of the most
successful subscription-based sites on the Web
o WSJ Interactivo does not charge for its content. But Soto says
that may change.
The site will roll out subscription-only areas over the next
1 1/2 years, he said. "(We'll) see how the culture reacts
to subscription-if it doesn't work, we'll continue to be free."
Opportunity knocks "The opportunity really lies in Latin
America, where none of the big companies have
established themselves. Which means a small brand with lots of
money actually has an opportunity to become a
major market shareholder," agreed Kyle McNamara, CEO of
Spanish e-commerce portal, Espanol.com.
With an estimated 392 million Spanish speakers in the world,
McNamara's hope for an open playing field isn't
likely to remain a possibility for long.
Already, such major brands as Yahoo! (NASDAQ:YHOO) and America
Online (NYSE:AOL) have established a
strong presence in the region.
And when Spanish portal darling StarMedia debuted on the Nasdaq
last May, its initial public offering netted the
company $105 million at an offering price of $15 a share. Shares
hit a high of $70 on June 30.
E-commerce barriers remain Not everything about the Latin American
Internet scene is quite so rosy.
Significant barriers still remain preventing the easy execution
of e-commerce transactions. The use of credit cards,
a key ingredient in buying things online, isn't nearly as widespread
as in the United States.
Tariff barriers and customs regulations make shipping items in
between countries a logistical nightmare. And
customers are still hesitant to put their trust in making online
purchases.
"Consumer confidence is a big issue there," said David
Taggart, partner in South Beach Venture Partners.
"Consumers just don't have a hell of a lot of rights there.
Compound that with not being able to interface with
them and compound that with having to put your credit card online-most
companies are trying to figure out
how to clear that major hurdle."
"The companies that are going to be successful have to really
invest in logistics," reiterated McNamara of
Espanol.com. "You're either looking at a partnership or
a warehousing strategy."
The multilingual Web Establishing those strategies early on will
be a major part of the discussions during the
eCumbre conference. With millions of Spanish-speaking Internet
users at stake, it's an area companies aren't
willing to ignore.
"As 392 million Spanish speakers really come up to speed
and get online, they're really going to make an
impact," said McNamara.
"I think you'll see over time as the Web becomes multilingual,
you'll see people demanding that it be in they're
own language," predicted Cook.
Latino cops win fight over uniforms
The Associated Press
NEW YORK-The First Amendment protects the rights of a group of
Latino police officers who want to wear their uniforms in parades,
a federal appeals court decided. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals noted in a 20-page ruling dated Wednesday that people
do not give up their First Amendment rights when they agree to
work with the government. That applies in the conflict between
the Police Department and the Latino Officers Association, the
appeals court found. The 1,500-member association has not been
formally recognized by the Police Department since it was formed
in 1996 by a dissident faction of the Hispanic Society, a fraternal
organization recognized by the department.
Although the Hispanic Society has only 250 members, police officials
have said they refuse to recognize the new organization
Outrage at Bus Deaths
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Bus riders and officials heaped scorn
on Mexico City's notoriously reckless bus drivers
on Thursday after accidents killed five people in two days.
"Killer buses," ran a headline in the leading daily
Reforma, while a cartoon in Uno Mas Uno newspaper showed a
bus with a warning label: "Dangerous to your health."
A 38-year-old bus driver sped through a red light on Wednesday,
flipped his bus over and crushed three passengers
to death, including 30-year-old Rocio Meneses, who was two months
pregnant and heading across town to visit her
fiance.
Her wedding was scheduled for Friday.
"If her family gets here they will lynch the driver. That's
what he deserves," Meneses's neighbor Jose Luis Morales
told Reforma newspaper at the crash scene. Police arrested the
driver.
Earlier on Wednesday, another bus driver fled the scene after
he ran into and killed a motorcycle delivery man. A
day earlier, a speeding bus driver ran onto a sidewalk, hitting
two schoolchildren and killing one of them, a
seven-year-old boy.
"Today and yesterday we have seen very serious accidents
that we cannot tolerate," Mexico City mayor Rosario
Robles told reporters Wednesday.
On Thursday several people were seriously hurt when two buses
crashed into each other head-on.
The familiar green and white "microbuses," smallish
buses designed to seat 20-30 but often stuffed with 50 people,
weave at fast speeds through heavy traffic in the clogged streets
of Mexico City, home to 3.2 million vehicles.
Because drivers of the city's 23,000 "microbuses" make
money based on number of passengers, they often leapfrog
past each other, racing to the next stop to beat the competition
and grab more riders
Protesters to Target U.S. Army School(Posted
Nov 22nd)
By Mike Cooper
ATLANTA (Reuters) - Thousands of people were expected to gather
this
weekend for protests at a U.S. Army training school for Latin
American soldiers that critics charge is a "school of assassins"
that prepares dictators and torturers.
The protest against the School of the Americas, at the army's
Fort Benning in Columbus, Georgia, has been held every year to
commemorate the murders on Nov. 16, 1989, of six Jesuit priests
and two women who worked with them in El Salvador by the Salvadoran
army. A United Nations truth commission found that 19 of 26 soldiers
it identified as being involved in the massacre were graduates
of the school, which was moved to Fort Benning from Panama in
1984. "We are not going away until this school is closed,"
said Roy Bourgeois, co-director of School of the Americas Watch,
an organization which has long sought to close the school. Organizers
predicted about 10,000 protesters would come. Bourgeois, a Maryknoll
priest, said the army is operating a "school of assassins"
that has been "consistently linked to crimes against humanity."
Over the years, the school has trained a number of Latin American
officers and units who have been implicated in atrocities and
repression in counter-insurgency wars or military dictatorships
throughout Latin America. Former students include the late Roberto
D'Aubuisson, organizer of the military-backed death squads in
El Salvador's civil war, former Argentine dictator Leopoldo Galtieri,
and former Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega, who is currently
in prison in Florida for drug convictions.
Protest organizers predict that more than 5,000 demonstrators
will risk arrest by entering the main gate of the sprawling military
base about 85 miles (140 km) southwest of Atlanta on Sunday.
About 2,000 of last year's 3,000 protesters, including actor
Martin Sheen, entered the base and were put on buses and driven
to a nearby city park without being arrested. In previous years,
demonstrators have been arrested and charged with criminal trespass.
About 600 were arrested in 1997. Army officials would not say
whether they planned to make arrests this year.
"We have a number of plans that we could implement. Our
course of action will be determined by what the protesters do,"
base spokeswoman Monica Manganaro said on Friday. SOA Watch co-director
Carol Richardson said that as recently as 1997 and 1998, Colombian
military officers who graduated from the SOA were implicated
in the deaths of 30 peasants and the murders of three human rights
workers. Army officers say the school, which has trained more
than 55,000 officers and soldiers from 22 Latin American countries,
has helped advance democracy and has reformed its curriculum
to stress respect for human rights. School commandant Col. Glenn
Weidner said the school does not teach criminal conduct and "includes
more training in democratic principles and respect for human
rights than any other U.S. Army School."
Army Secretary Lewis Caldera said last month that the army has
begun a review of the school, which has survived repeated efforts
by Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives to cut off
its funding, most recently early this year. The annual protest
has been an economic boon to Columbus, located on the banks of
the Chattahoochee River. Tourism officials estimate that demonstrators
will spend about $6.8 million this weekend, or about 3.5 percent
of the total spent by tourists in the city every year.
Future Bright for Increasingly Bilingual
Hispanics(Posted Nov 22nd)
By MARCELO WHEELOCK
Hispanics in the United States will enjoy more economic opportunities
due to their increased bilingualism and the fact they are assimilating
more easily into the mainstream culture than other minorities.
"One of the surprises in the report this year is that the
Hispanic market is much more bilingual than in previous years,"
Rick Tobin, president of Strategy Research Corporation (SRC),
told EFE.
In its study titled "2000 U.S. Hispanic Market Study,"
SRC found that some 64 percent of Hispanics do not have a strong
preference for one or the other language and are equally proficient
in English or Spanish. The study found that 32 percent of Hispanics
have no preference as far as the language used for advertisements.
However, 14 percent prefer bilingual advertisements and 30 percent
want them in Spanish.
"The most important facet of the study is that Hispanics
now understand English better. Therefore, they will have a better
future in this country," Tobin said.
Hispanic purchasing power is expected to grow from $273 billion
to about $325 billion, which translates from a current median
family income of $32,600 to $34,900. Due to this, more and more
Hispanics are turning to technology. The study found that 30
percent of homes have computers, 19 percent have access to the
Internet and 35 percent own and use a cellular telephone.
The study, whose results were published Thursday, interviewed
1,600 Hispanics living in the 10 main Hispanic markets. By the
end of this century, the Hispanic population will have reached
34 million inhabitants to comprise an estimated 12 percent of
the total United States population (276 million). Demographic
data is based on information from the Census Bureau.
This means that one of every eight people in the country will
be Hispanic by 2000 and by 2015 the total population in the United
States is expected to double to 62.7 million. The forecast in
the study indicated that persons of Mexican descent will comprise
63.3 percent of the Hispanic population. Those of Central and
South American descent will make up 14.8 percent, Puerto Rican
descent will make up 10.5 percent, Cuban descent will make up
4.5 percent and descendants from other Latin countries will account
for 6.9 percent.
Sixty percent of all Hispanics will live in ten cities: Los Angeles
will have 6.9 million; New York City will have 3.8 million; Miami
will have 1.5 million; San Francisco and Chicago will each have
1.4 million, and Houston will have 1.3 million. The Hispanic
population in San Antonio will reach 1.2 million, while Dallas
and McAllen, Texas will each have 900,000. San Diego will have
800,000 Hispanics.
The study also found that in 2000, seven U.S. states will have
a Hispanic population of over one million inhabitants. In those
states, Hispanics will comprise 34 percent of the total population
of California; 19.2 percent of the population in Texas; 8.6 percent
in New York; in Florida 7.3 percent; in Illinois 4 percent; in
Arizona 3.5 percent; and in New Jersey, 3.2 percent of the total
population will be Hispanic.
FBI had studied journalist slain in '70(Posted
Nov 22nd)
Los Angeles Times
LOS ANGELES-More than 200 pages of documents released by the
FBI this week reveal that agents investigated award-winning Los
Angeles Times journalist Ruben Salazar on several occasions as
he reported on Cuba during the Cold War, but the records shed
no new light on the questionable circumstances of the journalist's
1970 slaying by a Los Angeles sheriff's deputy.
The Salazar documents, which include previously classified material,
were released Tuesday in response to a Freedom of Information
Act request filed by the Times more than five years ago. Some
portions of the released records were blacked out, often for
what officials cited as national security reasons. A Times columnist
and television news director at the time of his death, Salazar
was killed instantly by a sheriff's tear gas projectile while
he sat in an East Los Angeles bar. The journalist was taking
a break from covering the National Chicano Moratorium rally against
the Vietnam War, which had exploded into a riot along Whittier
Boulevard. Salazar was the most prominent Mexican-American journalist
of his time and has become an icon in the Latino community. From
New York to Los Angeles, parks, schools and scholarships have
been named in his honor.
All available evidence shows that Salazar's killing was a tragic
mistake. Sheriff's officials have said that the deputy was operating
under emergency conditions when he fired the wall-piercing tear-gas
missile through the curtained doorway of the Silver Dollar cafe.
A coroner's inquest found that Salazar "died at the hands
of another," but the deputy was never charged with a crime.
However, Los Angeles County did pay $700,000 to Salazar's family
to settle a lawsuit.
Many activists and some of Salazar's friends believe that the
journalist was killed because of his hard-hitting columns and
TV coverage regarding police relations with the Mexican American
community. Raul Ruiz, now a Chicano studies professor at California
State University-Northridge, took photographs as deputies swooped
down on the bar.
"Why out of all those thousands of people would Ruben be
killed under very peculiar circumstances?" Ruiz said. "To
me that seems too coincidental."
Love him or leave him Anglos may tire of
Ricky, but Latinos will stay loyal forever(Posted Nov22nd)
By Randy Cordova
The Arizona Republic
Maybe Bette Midler said it best.
"Ricky, beware of the Macarena syndrome," the Divine
Miss M cracks in her concert act. "Just between me and you,
haven't we lived about enough la vida (expletive) loca?"
In the case of the ex-Menudo member with gleaming white teeth
and bronzed skin, an intriguing situation is occurring. Overfed
Anglo audiences seem to have had enough of his charms, while
Hispanic fans are hungering for more.
For example, Karla Ramirez and her sister, Mayra Martinez, shelled
out more than $100 apiece to a scalper to get tickets for tonight's
sold-out show at America West Arena.
"It's frustrating," said Ramirez, a longtime Martin
fan. "We had to pay $175 to get seats and we've been fans
for years. The Anglo audience only knows three songs by him."
To mainstream America, Ricky Martin was born on Feb. 24, 1999,
the night of the 41st annual Grammy Awards. Sporting close-cropped
hair and even closer-fitting leather trousers, Martin shaked
and swiveled and brought the house down with a spirited rendition
of the Spanish-language tune La Copa de la Vida (The Cup of Life).
It's a cliche, but it's true:
On that night, a star was born. But maybe "reborn"
is a better word,
because Hispanic audiences had been watching the singer for years.
They knew the Puerto Rican performer from his stint in the '80s
in the seminal boy-band Menudo. After that, he had success on
telenovelas - Spanish soap operas - and recorded four big-selling
pop en espanol albums. He even appeared on Broadway in Les Miserables
and on English-language TV in General Hospital. So, although
he made a dent in Anglo pop culture, he still was little more
than a blip on the entertainment radar. But it was different
for his Latin fans.
"When he was in Menudo, my sister and I used to love him,"
says Maria Elena Gaiser of Mesa. "Then, he was on General
Hospital when I was in college, and I started watching it to
watch him."
That kind of loyalty seems intensified among the Latin community.
When Hispanics embrace a performer, they embrace for life.
"There's a big difference between the way the Latin audience
treats its stars," says Gilberto Romo, program director
for KVVA-FM (107.1). "We are more loyal than the Anglos.
That's the way we are. That's part of our cul ture, to be like
that."
Although Ricky Martin is nothing new to the Hispanic community,
this type of wide-reaching fame is. There have been crossover
stars for years - ranging from Andy Russell in the '40s to Gloria
Estefan in the '80s - but it's hard to think of anyone else who
has hit these heights so forcefully. With Martin, it's not an
overnight fame. If he appeared in concert a few years ago, there
would have been plenty of excited fans. But it's doubtful the
Anglo population would have picked up on the frenzy, the same
way a Juan Gabriel concert doesn't pique its curiousity. To top
it off, Martin is credited with igniting an explosion of Latin
talent that includes Marc Anthony, Enrique Iglesias and Jennifer
Lopez. But as Gaiser's sister, Monica Linda Gaiser, puts it,
"We've been around forever.
"I think that it's nice that the Anglo culture is embracing
this," says Monica, who is of German and Hispanic descent.
"But this is something my sister and I grew up with: We
heard everything from Elvis Presley and Roy Orbison to all the
Latin singers. "It's nice that other people are getting
into this kind of music, but this is nothing new. We've always
had such wonderful music."
The thing that worries Martin's loyal Latino following is just
how fleeting fame in the Anglo world can be. What is white-hot
one minute often is completely unfashionable the next.
"Oh my God, look at the Spice Girls," Martinez says.
"First, they're so big and everyone likes them. The next
thing you know, they're being ridiculed. I think the same thing
could happen to Ricky."
Already, there are signs of that happening. The abundance of
magazine covers adorned with his hunky visage has cooled since
the general public seemed to overdose on his charms. Martin is
the butt of jokes made by everyone from Chris Rock to the morning
team on KDKB-FM (93.3).
"I think he's set with the Hispanic community," Maria
says. "I don't think he has anything to worry about. He's
got staying power. But with Anglos, all you hear is, 'I'm so
sick of La Vida Loca. I've heard it so many times.' Well, you've
heard it so many times because the Anglo market saturated it."
Her sister agrees.
"A lot of the times with the Anglo population, they just
seem to be jumping on the bandwagon," Monica says. "It's
not a lasting admiration. With the Hispanic culture, we're very
loyal. Look at people like Vikki Carr and Juan Gabriel. They're
always going to be stars. "I feel that when Ricky's popularity
dies down with the Anglo population-and it will-he will just
keep going strong with his original fans."
Programs aims to teach boys: Sense of responsibility
stressed(Posted Nov 22nd)
By Suzanne Hoholik
Express-News Staff Writer
Society gives boys a false idea of manhood, one that pushes an
aggressive, controlling notion of sex, an expert in family strengthening
told a roomful of men Wednesday who plan to mentor to teens here.
"We teach that in order to be a man, you have to have sex.
We teach that it's not about the relationship, it's about the
sex," said Jerry Tello, a clinical psychologist and director
of the National Latino Fatherhood and Family Institute in Los
Angeles.
"Society teaches men that manhood is sex, control and violence,"
he added. "These are falsehoods of society. We do nothing
to teach them that in spite of what they see, they need to be
respectful."
Tello was explaining his curriculum, called "Chicano/Latino
male rites of passage," to local program facilitators. He
bases it on traditional Hispanic teachings, including respect
of women and children, and making the family the center of a
man's life.
His program is called El Joven Noble, or the noble young man.
It's designed to teach teen-age boys how to become responsible
adults while avoiding high-risk behavior that can lead to drug
abuse, teen pregnancy, and family or gang violence.
The 18 men attending the four-day training session at the University
Center for Community Health represent various agencies in Bexar
County that work directly with young men, including Communities
in Schools, Methodist Healthcare Ministries, the Good Samaritan
Center and Head Start. During the male-only sessions, Tello shares
childhood stories as a teaching method. On Wednesday, he spoke
of his own father, who wasn't always able to give his family
the attention it needed and who died when Tello was 13. He talked
about how he wore his father's hat when he was told not to, and
never got caught.
"I learned that you can get by with a lot of things, but
you can never get away with everything," he told the group.
Tello, who has taught his curriculum for about 15 years, said
programs directed at teen-age girls are common, but similar projects
aimed at boys are hard to find. Jesus Sanchez, coordinator of
the Young Dads program at Methodist Healthcare Ministries, agreed.
"When it comes to young fathers, society has dropped the
ball. They need to know they're valued and can make a difference
in someone's life," Sanchez said.
Tello's curriculum draws on aspects of Hispanic culture he says
have gotten lost in U.S. society. He points to the traditional
definition of "machismo" as an honorable state, that
of protector and provider for a family. Its modern meaning has
evolved into an authoritarian style of masculinity that dominates
women. "There is a falsehood of what our culture is about,
that it's patriarchal," he said. "In our indigenous
past, the women are the focus of the family. The first step of
manhood in our culture is respect for women."
Jesus Reyes of the American Indians in Texas at the Spanish Colonial
Missions, a group working to instill an understanding of indigenous
cultures, hopes to use Tello's methods in his own instruction
of youth. "We lost that culture and we then learned the
Spanish way," he said. "Then we learned the Mexican
way and that leads up to today and the many different cultures
of Western society."
Tello said teaching adult men how to support their younger counterparts
is the only way to save a generation that will otherwise be lost.
"We need men that stand up in the community for the boys,"
he said. "If not, there are already a lot of men standing
up on the (street) corners and in the bars ready to teach them
what they know."
STOP THE UNSAFE APPLICATIONS OF A DANGEROUS
CANCER-CAUSING PESTICIDE(posted Nov 22nd)
News from the Farm Worker Movement(www.ufw.org):
E-mail the Department of Pesticide Regulations
today!
On Nov. 13, 1999, a cloud of gas from the soil fumigant metam
sodium, sold as sectagon, rolled over the San Joaquin Valley
farming community of Earlimart. Parts of the southern Tulare
County farm worker town were evacuated. Approximately 150 people
were forced to leave their homes; 24 persons were transported
to the hospital.
Metam sodium is a highly toxic chemical used to kill weeds and
pests in the soil. It is listed under California Proposition
65, an initiative passed by the voters in 1986, as causing both
cancer and birth defects in laboratory animals. The pesticide
has partially replaced methyl bromide-one of the most toxic substances
in use today-for fruits, vegetables and orchard crops.
A mid-1990s train wreck near Dunsmuir in Northern California
dumped metam sodium into the Sacramento River, killing all fish
for miles downstream. Later, a state study found elevated rates
for both new and more severe cases of asthma among residents
in the area of the spill.
In May 1999, students were evacuated from New Cuyama elementary
school in the Santa Maria, Calif. area after exposure to the
pesticide. These events are not isolated incidents. They stem
from sprinkler applications of metam sodium. A previous poisoning
occurred at the New Cuyama school in 1992. And in 1996, there
were two major incidents in Stockton and in Fresno where metam
sodium drifted from fields where it was applied, resulting in
a total of 41 reported probable poisoning cases.
Metam Sodium is a dangerous cancer causing pesticide. There have
been
enough poisoning incidents-and enough lives put at risk-to demand
the
re-evaluation of the use of this dangerous cancer-causing pesticide
and
a thorough investigation into the short- and long-term impacts
of
exposure by Earlimart residents, both from the Nov. 13 incident
and from
continuing application of this dangerous pesticide over time.á
E-mail Paul Helliker, director of Cal-EPA's Department of Pesticide
Regulations, at phelliker@cdpr.ca.gová
Urge Director Helliker to:
Re-evaluate use of the dangerous cancer-causing pesticide metam
sodium in light of its health effects on farm workers and other
rural residents; and Begin a thorough investigation into the
full health impacts from the Earlimart community's exposure to
this dangerous chemical.
Link to UFW Statement:á
http://www.ufw.org/releases/earlimart.html
Link to Newspaper articles:
Bakersfield Californian: 11/16/99-http://www.bakersfield.com/top/i--1269423364.asp
Fresno Bee:
11/16/99-http://www.fresnobee.com/localnews/story/0,1724,115319,00.html
Associated Press: 11/15/99-
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/1999/11/15/state0225EST0119.DTL
Fresno Bee:
11/15/99-http://www.fresnobee.com/localnews/story/0,1724,115138,00.html
For more information on the Farm Worker Movement visit our
web site at http://www.ufw.org
and/or subscribe to the Farm Worker Movement list serve by sending
an e-mail to UFW-subscribe@topica.com.
Think Tanks, Researchers No Longer Ignore
Latinos(posted 11/16/99)
By ARMANDO ACUNA, Los Angeles Times
Staff Writer
Refugio Rochin, the director of the new Smithsonian Center for
Latino Initiatives in Washington, D.C., remembers the early 1970s,
when research about Latinos, then a fledgling endeavor, was frowned
on by the academic hierarchy.
"My area of interest was migrant farm workers and Chicano
economics, but looking at poverty wasn't considered valued research
and was discouraged," Rochin recalled of his days as a UC
Davis professor. "I was told it would be better for my career
if I focused on something else."
Today, Rochin notes with dry understatement, things have turned
around. The nation's fastest growing minority group is being
examined as never before.
From think-tank academics studying immigration patterns and educational
attainment to profit-seeking companies tracking buying habits,
Latinos' attitudes and tastes are under the corporate and government
microscope.
That's what comes with rising purchasing power estimated at $383
billion this year and expanding political muscle that solicitous
Democrats and Republicans feel can sway elections.
"The reason is simple demographics," Rochin said.
"As a growing number of Latinos climb the career ladder
and gain more
power and responsibility in their jobs, they become interested
in bigger global issues . . . and that makes us mainstream players,"
he said. "Yes, we're interested in seasonal farm workers,
but in other things too. There is growing recognition of that."
The number of think tanks devoted exclusively to researching
the nation's 31.5 million Latinos remains small, though leaders
say they are busier than ever. But there is a growing network
of new and revitalized Latino research centers largely connected
to colleges and universities throughout the United States. Many
of them are in California.
In addition, independent research organizations are devoting
more resources to evaluating the impact of the state's 10 million
Latinos on a wide range of cultural, political, educational and
economic issues. They include the Public Policy Institute of
California, a San Francisco-based nonprofit think tank founded
in 1994 to study the forces shaping the state's future.
"We're here to provide policymakers with high quality research,"
said Abby Cook, the institute's spokeswoman. "You can't
track the phenomenal change at the state level and the effects
of that . . . without solid analysis of Latinos."
The new information is being used by government leaders to make
public policy in areas such as education and economic development,
and by politicians vying to capture votes. It also plays a role
in litigation on immigration and political redistricting and
in exploring border issues between the United States and Mexico.
The data are also being employed to dispel stereotypes and to
highlight ethnic differences often overlooked under the rubric
"Latino." Businesses are using research to launch new
products or to document marketplace trends.
Aided by marketing research, the Gateway computer company is
launching a major program targeting Spanish-speaking Latinos,
which it sees as a rapidly expanding pool of potential customers.
The program, which started Oct. 1, is the first of its kind by
a major personal computer manufacturer. In addition to having
ads on Spanish-language TV and radio, the company is providing
Spanish-speaking customer service and technical support, along
with Spanish software and keyboards featuring Spanish characters.
A spokesman for the San Diego-based company said the research
shows that the Latino computer market is where the general market
was two years ago, but is growing twice as fast.
Also capitalizing on Latino marketing research is Fernando Diaz,
co-founder of OYE magazine, whose research showed there was a
market for a magazine targeting second-generation, upwardly mobile,
college-educated Latino men ages 21 to 39. The quarterly publication
is set to go bimonthly next year.
In the area of public policy, the William C. Velasquez Institute
in San Antonio has a long record of providing information that
has been used to win more than 80 voting rights lawsuits and
gained Latinos increased political access in California, Texas
and New Mexico.
The Internet plays a large role in the Latino research emergence.
The virtual universe has dozens of sites on Latinos ranging from
research on health care to chat rooms exploring what it means
to be Chicano.
"There is a more recognized need at all levels for this
information, the kind that isn't readily available" without
the Internet, said Richard Chabran, who runs the Chicano/Latino
Net on the Web and is director of the Center for Virtual Research
at UC Riverside.
Chabran pointed to a research paper about Latinos and AIDS presented
at a UCLA conference that in the past would have been ignored
by mainstream publications. "We took the bilingual proceedings
and put them on the Web," he said. "This is information
that wouldn't normally go out or be widely disseminated."
In just the past few years, several policy centers have been
created or planned across the United States.
They range from the National Latino Research Center at Cal State
San Marcos to a fledgling center at the University of Indiana
in Bloomington.
Attracting the most attention is the University of Notre Dame's
Institute for Latino Studies, which opened this fall. The institute
aims to provide academic support for Latino-focused faculty as
well as national community service and original research, said
its associate director, Allert Brown-Gort.
Notre Dame also has taken over as headquarters for the Inter-University
Program for Latino Research.
Begun in the early 1980s, the program has grown from a consortium
of four research centers to 16 spread throughout the country.
It serves as an information clearinghouse for research on Latinos,
and brings scholars together.
When it comes to old-line Latino think tanks, few rival the Tomas
Rivera Policy Institute, which is affiliated with Claremont Graduate
University and the University of Texas at Austin.
Founded in 1985, the center-which is funded by more than 50 corporations
and foundations-primarily focused on education and public policy.
But it broadened its scope in 1997.
The center also now looks at the impact of information technology
on Latinos, the role of Latinos in U.S.-Latin American relations
and how Latinos fare in the entertainment industry.
Harry Pachon, Tomas Rivera's president, said the institute receives
queries for information nearly every other day, as well as requests
to initiate research.
"Latinos just emerged in the last 30 years [in the nation's
consciousness] . . . and there's complete ignorance and a clamoring
for information," Pachon said. Though one of 10 people in
the United States is Latino and, in California, 20% of the growing
Latino middle class earns at least $50,000 a year, there are
still significant "misconceptions and myths out there,"
he said.
Some of them, he said, include the perceptions that Latinos can
be reached only through Spanish, that Latinos have no allegiance
to the United States and are here temporarily, and that poverty
in the Latino community mainly consists of single women with
young children. All these, the research shows, are false.
Pachon cautions that despite the increased breadth of new Latino
research, some studies are of poor quality, due to small sample
sizes and advocacy masquerading as objectivity. Some say there
also is an element of political correctness at play in the new
attention.
"Yes, there is additional research on Latinos, but are we
getting reliable and credible findings?" asked Fernando
Soriano, director of the National Latino Research Center, which
mainly looks at health and drug abuse issues. "There is
tremendous variability among Latinos, and we have to be careful
what we say."
Extensive data collection on Latinos is relatively new. It wasn't
until 1980 that the U.S. Census Bureau created a separate category
for Latinos to identify themselves. The lack of comprehensive
information is well-known to commercial interests.
Rick Leibert, president of San Pedro-based Events Marketing Inc.,
publishes Hispanic Confidential, a monthly newsletter for corporate
clients that is a smorgasbord of Latino demographic factoids
intended to persuade retailers and manufacturers to invest in
Leibert's projects.
"At first, it was tough to find stuff, but now more and
more information is out there," Leibert said. "We can
read the [population] numbers like everyone else."
The numbers are familiar to Jeff Vitucci, researcher and economist
for Santa Barbara-based Hispanic Business Magazine, which tracks
Latino entrepreneurs and business owners. "The appetite
for information is insatiable. We get calls all the time from
ad agencies and finance institutions," Vitucci said. "They
are asking us things like, 'What's the credit card debt of Hispanics
aged 25 to 30 in the U.S.?'
"Over the next 50 years, half of the net population increase
will be of Hispanic origin," Vitucci said. "If you
missed jumping on the bandwagon with baby boomers, don't blink,
because another bandwagon is coming."
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