Annotations for Subject-headings: Civil Rights

This is news from Latino USA. I am Maria Martin. Several congressional house members led by Democratic representative Xavier Becerra of California are calling for legislation to investigate human rights abuses by federal agencies along the US-Mexico border. From Washington, Franc Contreras reports.

Widespread allegations of abuses by the US Border Patrol, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, and Customs have prompted this legislation. It would create a commission with the power to recommend, not mandate disciplinary actions against those three agencies. Currently, people with complaints must either go through the agency they're complaining against or go through the Inspector General's office. The problem is that most complainants are not familiar enough with the system to use it. This proposed bill would address those problems, say congressional supporters. The panel would have seven members appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate. This legislation has support from Representative Jose Serrano, chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, and representative John Conyers, chairman of the Government Operations Committee. Since the commission would have no enforcement powers, the legislation is expected to pass easily. For Latino USA, I'm Franc Contreras in Washington.

Everybody out here keep the strength going because we need all the support for all of our brothers and sisters. There's about 90 of them in jail.

Mexican-American students at the University of California at Los Angeles continue to demand a Chicano Studies department, one demonstration protesting budget cuts for the Chicano Resource Center. And UCLA Chancellor Charles Young's opposition to an independent Chicano Studies department resulted in over 90 arrests as students occupied the campus faculty center and allegedly caused over $50,000 in damages. UCLA student Benny Madera was among those joining the protests. He spoke with Latino USA's Alberto Aguillar.

It's been too long that they've kept our history from us. It's 1993 and they're still trying to keep our history from us. They don't want to give us a Chicano Studies program. We've been asking for it for years.

What does it do for you, Chicano Studies?

First of all, it tells me who I am, where I came from. It gets rid of that low self-esteem that the gabacho puts us through. You know that gabacho grinder system were put through growing up in this society, but without finding out who we are, where we came from, we don't have that amor proprio.

UCLA Chancellor Young has said keeping Chicano Studies an interdisciplinary program gives it intellectual vitality. Young was in Japan and unavailable for comment, but Vice Chancellor Andrea Rich says the protest would not make the chancellor change his mind.

You're listening to Latino USA.

In Orlando, proceedings are underway in the retrial of Miami policeman William Lozano, whose shooting of an African American in 1989 sparked three days of disturbances in Miami. Losano was convicted of two counts of manslaughter in an earlier trial, but that verdict was overturned when an appeals court ruled it may have been influenced by fears of inciting racial violence. The volatile case was moved from Miami to Orlando, then to Tallahassee and then back to Orlando, which has a larger percentage of Latinos than Tallahassee. A recent national survey says Hispanic parents differ from other ethnic groups in their support for the public schools. From Washington, Patricia Guadalupe reports.

According to a survey released May 11th in Washington DC by the National Parent Teachers Association, Hispanic parents are more confident than Anglo parents at the quality of public schools will improve. The survey, commissioned by Newsweek Magazine for the PTA, found that close to half of the Hispanic parents surveyed believe schools will improve over the next five years as compared to a third of Anglo parents. Carlos Sarsed, Director of News Stats in Austin, Texas compiled and analyzed the survey's Hispanic data.

Hispanic parents are feeling very responsible for the education of their kids, and interestingly, even Hispanic parents who were interviewed in Spanish who are primarily Spanish speakers, help their kids a lot in school. In many respects, the parents are learning themselves.

The survey also found that Hispanic parents, more than others, believe funding for schools is inadequate. For Latino USA. I'm Patricia Guadalupe in Washington.

According to the US census, more than 4 million Latinos voted in last year's presidential elections. Analysis of the data by NALEO, the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, indicates Latino voter registration increased by 12%, nearly double the national average. Latino voter turnout is still well below the national average. I'm Maria Martin. You're listening to Latino USA.

An international labor union has begun a series of meetings nationwide to involve its Latino retirees in national healthcare reform. From Miami, Emilio San Pedro reports.

About 40% of the retired members of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union, the ILGWU, are Latinas. That's why the union decided to create a series of nationwide meetings on Latino healthcare called Acceso or Access. At the first such meeting held in Hialeah, a primarily Hispanic industrial city northwest of Miami, about 100 retired Latinas expressed their healthcare concerns to a panel made up of national and local union representatives as well as representatives from the local congressional offices of Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Lincoln Diaz Ballard.

The kickoff will be for our retirees, our Hispanic retirees across the country, to highlight the fact that for them the key issue, for our Spanish-speaking retirees, it's the access issue because they have the additional difficulty at times of not having linguistic access to this care, and particularly for women.

The retirees say they're concerned with how a new healthcare system would impact their ability to seek medical care from Hispanic doctors. For Latino USA, I'm Emilio San Pedro in Miami.

Latino journalists continue to debate the relocation of this year's NAHJ conference from Denver to Washington. The new site was chosen because of the controversial passage of Amendment Two in Colorado, a law which allows employers to fire employees solely on the basis of sexual orientation. Betto Arcos reports.

Lesbian and gay Latino journalists and activists confronted reporters in Denver via satellite about the decision to cancel the conference scheduled for April in Colorado. Some NAHJ members from Colorado were still angry about the decision, saying it could have been more effective to fight the amendment in that state, but other members who supported the relocation defended their decision. Rosemary Arce, a TV producer in New York, said that the relocation decision served as an educational experience for the NAHJ members.

One of the problems with the debate that we had over this issue is that I think that they kept ignoring the fact that there are gay lesbian members of NAHJ that were very upset about our organization going into the state where they felt threatened, they felt under attack. And what ultimately happened, I think, is that the organization decided to respect their wishes. And it's been a good process. It's been a strengthening process for NAHJ.

Arce said that for the members to become engaged in the cause of Hispanic journalists, the organization has to commit itself to making people more politically aware. For "Latino USA," this is Beto Argos in Washington.

I'm Maria Hinojosa. Latino journalists were hoping they would get a chance to share their views with President Bill Clinton, but a rumored White House reception with the President was scaled down to just a small briefing with two of his assistants who apologized that the President couldn't make it. It was a big letdown for those who attended this year's conference. And as Patricia Guadalupe reports, although President Clinton has appointed two high-profile Latinos to his cabinet, many feel that small number of appointees is also a disappointment.

Latinos applauded the president when he appointed former Denver Mayor Federico Peña as Transportation Secretary and former San Antonio Mayor Henry Cisneros as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. However, almost five months later, Latinos around the country are disappointed more Hispanics aren't part of the Clinton administration, particularly in high-profile policymaking positions. The National Hispanic Leadership Agenda, a coalition of Latino agencies, says that Hispanics hold less than 5% of the positions requiring Senate confirmation. One of those who wants to see more Hispanics working inside the Clinton administration is Democratic Congressman Esteban Torres of California.

We have asked the president to consider the numbers of the percentages based on former administrations and, again, with his commitment that he was going to seek for a more diversified administration and more diversified White House. And while the numbers are beginning to show up in percentages, we still see Hispanics as a very low-level number of appointments, and this should not be so.

One of Clinton's most vocal critics is Dolores Huerta, former vice president of the United Farm Workers Union, but her disenchantment with the administration reaches beyond the issue of appointments. Huerta has been promoting the idea of forming a new political party with other prominent Latinos to give Hispanics an alternative voice. She's also critical of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, which she feels is not applying adequate pressure on the Clinton administration.

And I think that they have to do more. They have to be a lot more assertive, like the Black Caucus has been. The Black Caucus made up their own budget. They're not afraid to come out and blast the president and tell him he's wrong, right? And I don't see the same kind of thing coming from the Hispanic Caucus. I think they've got to talk more about issues and talk more about programs and take more leadership than what they're doing now.

But others are willing to give Clinton more time. One of them is Chicago City Treasurer Miriam Santos, the first Latina to oversee the budget of a major city. Santos says she is also disappointed, but she feels it's still too early to pass judgment.

I think the process has been very slow and cumbersome. I'm hoping that the administration rectifies that. In fact, I mean, we should be delighted that we have Henry Cisneros and Federico Peña. There have been a few other Latino key appointments, and I think that most of us -- and I'd certainly like to see more Latino appointments, and we're hoping that that's going to be corrected. We're still sending resumes. We're still working with them. It's a little disappointing, though.

However, the White House defends its appointment record, saying there are 15 Hispanics in high-level positions. Meanwhile, an administration source says the problem is not a lack of commitment to the Hispanic community but more an issue of disorganization within the office in charge of appointments. In fact, Latinos are not the only group complaining. Others also say the White House has been very slow in getting its team in place. For example, the administration took almost half a year to name a Commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Director of Presidential Personnel, Jose Villarreal, acknowledges the appointment process has taken longer than expected. Nevertheless, he says President Clinton hopes to name more Hispanics soon. For "Latino USA," I'm Patricia Guadalupe in Washington.

In a narrow five-to-four decision in a case challenging the North Carolina Congressional District, which for the first time since Reconstruction has selected an African American, the US Supreme Court has ruled that minority districts drawn with widely separated boundaries may violate the rights of white voters. Reaction to the ruling by minority voting rights organizations was universally negative. Patricia Guadalupe has this report.

Latino reaction was highly critical of the Supreme Court decision, allowing challenges to congressional districts that were specifically drawn to increase Black and Hispanic representation in Congress. Steven Carbo of the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Educational Fund in Washington DC.

It's been recognized that in order to overturn what historically has happened, that legislatures would have to be race-conscious and maximize political opportunities by creating majority-minority districts. The decision by the Supreme Court seems to question that whole framework. Frankly, if we can't be race-conscious in things like drawing majority-minority districts, then how do we make the Voting Rights Act a reality?

Two of the congressional districts that could be affected by the Supreme Court decision, one in New York and one in Illinois, have a majority population of Latinos and were created only recently to represent that majority. Democratic Congressman Luis Gutierrez of Chicago represents one of the districts.

It's 65% Hispanic, but only 40% of the voters are Hispanic so that non-Hispanics make up the vast majority and indeed are the single largest group. I never believe in an electoral process that you guarantee any ethnic or racial group a seat in the Congress of the United States. But you do have to guarantee us a fair and equitable opportunity.

Even though Latino groups said they were surprised and caught off guard, all are mounting legal fights around the country to challenge the Supreme Court decision. For Latino USA, I'm Patricia Guadalupe in Washington.

In the intense anti-immigrant climate of California artists, David Avalos, Lewis Hawk and Elizabeth Cisco wanted to make a statement. They came up with a project called Arte Reembolso, Art Rebate in which the artists distributed marked $10 bills to undocumented day laborers to show how the immigrant's money circulates and contributes to the area's economy. That project though proved to be very controversial, so much so that the National Endowment for the Arts recently withdrew their funding with us to speak about the project is one of the artists. David Avalos is a longtime activist for immigrant rights and a professor at California State University at San Marcos. Now, some people might see this as a piece of art that was basically handing out money, giving away free money to undocumented immigrants. Can you tell us a little bit about what was the conceptual background behind this piece?

Well, interestingly enough, in the past, many projects that I've worked on have been criticized as a waste of taxpayer dollars. So Louis, Liz and I came upon the idea of taking the money for an art project and returning it to taxpayers who would think that anyone could criticize us for that? The only twist was that the taxpayers we chose to return the money to were undocumented workers, and that seems to be the problem in most people's eyes.

What exactly did you want to show by giving these undocumented immigrants money, though?

I think it's a very simple gesture. Louis, Liz and I pay taxes and we recognize that we're part of a tax paying community and we recognize the undocumented worker in the United States as part of that tax paying community. Many of them have taxes deducted, federal income taxes, for example, deducted from their payroll checks. Others pay taxes in a variety of ways whenever they fill up their car with a tank of gas, whenever they buy a pair of socks or a bar of soap in a Kmart. This is something that's been forgotten in all the hysteria and all the hatred that's been whipped up by politicians like Pete Wilson against the immigrant. So we think it's ridiculous when people criticize the undocumented for using taxpayer dollar supported services. Hey, they're taxpayers too. That's all we're saying.

Well, is this really an art project? Or is this more of using art to make a very definitive statement about immigrants' rights in this country?

It's definitely an art project. I think if you look at the $10 bill as a material of this project, instead of using bronze or marble or oil paints, we used as a material for this project, this $10 bill, I think it's pretty easy to realize that the monetary value of the bill has been replaced in the public's mind with a symbolic value of the bill. $1,250 is what we're talking about in terms of the NE's portion of the $5,000 commission.

We're talking about a molecule in the bucket, not a drop in the bucket, but what people are reacting to is not the monetary value, they're reacting to the symbolic value and I think they're reacting because it is so painful for many of us who want a simple answer to the economic problems in this country. It's so painful for many people to recognize, "hey, the undocumented are part of our community." Like it or not, they're part of the tax paying community like it or not. So we're dealing with symbols. Unfortunately in this country, the quote illegal alien has become a media symbol, a media celebrity. The hard-earned tax dollar is another cultural symbol in this country, and we put those two symbols together. We juxtapose them just as artists, juxtapose symbols and images all the time, and the reaction that we've seen is a reaction that is all out of proportion to the amount of money that we're talking about.

Pues, muchas gracias. Thank you very much. David Avalos, who along with Louis Hawk and Elizabeth Cisco have come up with a project called Arte Reembolso, Art Rebate in San Diego. Muchas gracias.

[Guitar music, transition] I'm Maria Hinojosa. 75,000 people descended on the nation's capital on a train August Saturday to commemorate a historic civil rights march, which took place on another hot August day 30 years ago.

[Archival sound] Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee. Let freedom ring from every hill and all hill of Mississippi.

Although some things have changed for the better in the three decades since Dr. King articulated his vision for equality and justice, this year's march found many people, including many Latinos, seeking to improve their situation in this country. Latino USA's Patricia Guadalupe was at the march and filed this report.

When Martin Luther King Jr. stood on these steps 30 years ago today, he challenged people of goodwill across our nation to rise up and live out the true meaning of his creed.

Coretta Scott King, widow of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., addressed a much smaller crowd in that which heard her husband 30 years ago. She spoke of the same things he did, the need for more jobs and into prejudice and a more peaceful world. Many at the recent march acknowledged that progress had been made in those areas, but they said much remains to be done, especially in improving the lives of Latinos. Carmen Gonzalez of New York City said she came to the march to fight for more jobs.

Things are not going too well for many people. There are too many unemployed. They're not jobs. There's nothing out there really. There's a lot of college grads who are looking for jobs. They can't find anything.

Do you think that this march is going to change things?

We're trying. We're trying to enforce something by being united. We're trying to see, we're trying to foresee if the President will do something for us.

According to the Joint Center for Political Studies in Washington, living conditions have gotten worse for Hispanics in the last 30 years. Since 1963, there has been a 10% increase in Hispanic poverty levels, particularly in urban areas where figures show 60% unemployment among Hispanics.

Almost 10% more Hispanics and Asians live in poverty today than did in 1963. More poor whites drop out before high school graduations.

Young people were strong presence at the march, and while most of them marched for the same things as their older counterparts, a young Latina from Rhode Island took it one step further. Ana Rodriguez said she came to make a statement about Puerto Rico.

Since the plebiscite is going on in Puerto Rico now and they're going to decide the statehood of Commonwealth. And Puerto Rico has been oppressed for 500 years, first by the Spaniards and now by the Americans and everybody else. And the Puerto Ricans here in the United States see the worst part of it.

[Natural sounds of march] Even though a majority of the marchers declared that little has changed in the 30 years since the first march, there was a feeling of optimism for the future in the air. Henry Cisneros, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, said his optimism comes from faith that this administration will help out those who have been in need for so long.

For children who grow up in a development where they have no prospects or jobs or hope, for young people who get drawn to the only life around them which is drugs, you could only say that things were worse. But what we have to do is capture the momentum of what is possible and luckily, we have a president. We have an administration that is willing to go out on a limb and I think today is an important reminder of the job ahead.

Most Latinos at the march were as hopeful for the future as Secretary Cisneros, but some expressed disappointment that President Clinton was not there and that Latino participation in the march was relatively small. For Latino USA, I'm Patricia Guadalupe in Washington.

Hundreds of sign carrying protestors marched through the streets of downtown San Diego recently protesting what they say is a growing anti-immigrant hysteria. Commentator Guillermo Gomez-Peña says it's fitting that the anti anti-immigrant march should have taken place in the city of San Diego. He recently went through an experience there that convinced him that a backlash against immigrants and perhaps against all Latinos is alive and well in San Diego.

I am the proud father of a four-year old boy, Guillermo Emiliano Gomez Hicks, who happens to be half Mexican, perfectly bilingual and blonde. He has asked me several times, "Papa, how come you are brown and I am pink?" He finally learned what that means.

My son, my ex-wife, and I were having lunch at Café Chez Odette in Hillcrest. I vaguely remember two blonde women looking intensely at us from another table. A few hours later, we were suddenly stopped by a Coronado policeman. He asked if I had been at a cafe on Fifth avenue at noon. He then spok into his radio and said, "I have the suspect." He said he was just cooperating with the San Diego Police and that all he knew was that it had something to do with a kidnapping. I understood right away that I was being accused of kidnapping my own child. For 45 minutes, my son and I were held by the Coronado policeman waiting for his San Diego colleagues to arrive. I was furious and completely devastated. I held Guillermito's hand tightly. "If the police try to take my son away from me," I thought to myself, "I will fight back with all my strength."

Guillermito kept asking me, "How come we can't go? What is happening, Papa?" And I kept on answering, "It's just a movie, don't worry." I was able to control my feelings and politely asked the police officer to let me identify myself. He agreed. Very carefully I pulled out my wallet and showed him my press card, an integral part of my Mexican survival kit in the US. The cop turned purple. "Are you a journalist?" He inquired. "Yes," I answered. I asked the policeman to explain to me why I was suspected of kidnapping my own son. He told me the following story:

At 12:10 PM the police received a 911 call from a woman who claimed that a Latino man with a mustache and a ponytail and a woman who also looked suspicious were sitting at a cafe with an Anglo boy who didn't look like he belonged to them. She said that the boy was clearly being held against his will. She emphasized the fact that I was speaking to my son in a Spanish, and despite the fact she didn't speak or understand the Spanish herself, concluded that I was trying to bribe the kid with presents and talking about taking him to Mexico. As we left the cafe, the woman and a friend of hers followed us and watched us take my son's suitcases out of his mother's car and get into the cab. They called the police again and told them that I had forced the kid into the taxi. I asked the police officer if there had been any reports of missing children that encouraged the police to believe the woman who phoned from the cafe. He said, "No." Then I asked, "How could there be a kidnapping without a report of a missing child?" He replied that, "Many foreigners kidnap kids and take them across the border. Once you cross that border, you never know."

When I finally came out of my shock, I realized that what had just happened to my son and me wasn't that strange or unusual. Everyday, thousands of "suspicious looking" Latinos in the US are victims of police harassment, civilian vigilantism, racial paranoia, and cultural misunderstanding. If I had been blonde and my kid dark, the assumption would have been quite different. "Look, how cute. He probably adopted the child." If I had been a Latina, perhaps the assumption would have been, "She's probably the nanny or the babysitter." But the deadly combination is a dark-skinned man with a blonde child. The representations of evil and innocence in the American mythos. My son Guillermito has learned a very sad lesson. His teacher told my ex-wife that since the incident, he has been omitting his father's last name when signing his drawings. He's also falling asleep wherever he goes. His tender mind is unable to understand what exactly happened and why. All he knows is that to go out with daddy can be a dangerous experience.

Commentator Guillermo Gomez-Peña is a performance artist living in Los Angeles. His new book, Warrior for Gringostroika has just been published by Gray Wolf Press.

I'm Maria Hinojosa. Since the death of farm labor leader Cesar Chavez, there's been a growing movement to name parks, streets, and libraries after the Mexican American leader. But in Fresno, California, the city council there has revoked an earlier decision to change the name of California Ventura and Kings Canyon Boulevard to honor the founder of the United Farm Workers. The decision came after a heated special session attended by over 1000 people.

Mexican American people, Scotch Irish people, Europeans, Middle Eastern people, people from Asia, people from all over the world came to this valley and built this valley, and I'm tired of hearing that Mexicans built this valley. It didn't happen that way.

The vote by Fresno City Council was four to three in favor of overriding their earlier decision regarding Cesar Chavez Boulevard. In Austin, Texas however, a similar effort has been much less controversial. In that capital city, East 1st Street was recently inaugurated as Cesar Chavez Street, with a march and other festivities.

[Background--natural sound--march] Led by a motorcycle policeman flying the red and black farm workers flag, and by a parade of low rider cars and Aztec dancers, about 1000 people marched to inaugurate Austin's new Cesar Chavez Street.

[Highlight--natural sound--march] ¡Viva la Raza! ¡Que viva!

[Background--natural sound--march] There were activists and politicians, farm workers from the Rio Grande Valley, members of the NAACP, and a very large number of young people.

[Highlight--natural sound--march] ... themselves can come and-

We're from Southwest University and-

... participate.

... and we can from San Marcos to celebrate this day. We're really proud and we really like to support this.

!Viva Cesar Chavez!

[Highlight--natural sound--crowd]

[Background--natural sound--crowd] These young students were not even born when Cesar Chavez began his efforts to organize farm workers and provide them a more humane existence in California, and here in Texas. Still, says Juana Nieto, he set an example that means a lot to young people.

We see him as a role model for us so when we grow up and we have our kids, we can teach them what we learned from him, to fight for what we want and for what we believe.

Unlike the controversy in Fresno, changing the name of Austin's 1st Street to honor the farm labor leader was a smooth process and, the vote, says City Councilman Gus Garcia, was unanimous.

It's appropriate that if any place would be the first place to have a street named after him, that it would be Austin because this is where the muscle of Latino politics is going to be flexed.

Members of Cesar Chavez's family, including his sister-in-law and the new President of the United Farm Workers Union, Arturo Rodriguez, joined the Austin inauguration.

For all of us, it shows us that we're not alone. We know that there's a lot of people that support it, the efforts of Cesar. When 50,000 people joined us in Delano, California on April 29th for Cesar's funeral, that gave us the spirit and encouraged us to continue right then on. All of these re-namings of schools, of streets, of libraries, of parks and so forth continue to give us that strength and courage, and show us and demonstrate to us that we're not alone by any means, and that there's millions of people that continue to support this movement.

[Highlight--natural sound--crowd]

This is Maria Hinojosa.