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More Articles on Page 2... Medicine For the World, (posted 8/28/98)
The Mayan elder and medicine man prayed to Heart of the Sky, the celestial space with all its elements and energy that keep the universe in equilibrium. He prayed to Heart of the Earth, honored as the female energy that feeds us. He prayed to Heart of Water and Heart of Fire. To the four directions he prayed: Let there be no more violence, no more nuclear bombs, no more illness, no more science that destroys life and plants and Earth. May the children live long and the women be strong for seven generations. And he prayed for the four colors of the Earth, that they might change their hearts. When the people are ill, the land will be ill. Don Alejandro Cirilo Perez Oxlaj (cq) is a 13th-generation Quiche Maya High Priest. He is the head of the Council of Elders of the Americas whose members represent indigenous peoples from Argentina to Alaska. He travels the world over with the palabra, or sacred wisdom, of the elders to foretell the prophesies of what awaits us if Mother Earth is not respected. Recently, we attended ceremonies and workshops with him at the XII International Congress of Traditional and Indigenous Medicine in Albuquerque, N.M., an academy of scientists, physicians and traditional healers and medicine people. Don Alejandro was honored with the Martin de la Cruz award, named after a Nahuatl Indian doctor who wrote one of the several codices of Mexico following the Spanish invasion. While Don Alejandro spoke of cures and illness, his primary message was of the elders' concern for the land, as the guardians of the natural world and the original environmentalists. "Medicine will be nothing if the environment is polluted," he said. "Los sabios, the wise people, struggle to protect nature." The congress's scientific members have been "proving" as valid the ancient knowledge of medicine people and curanderos. Elders have long said they too practice science-the science of life. And what may seem mystic is only so because our minds cannot yet understand the power of prayer nor the forces that lie in the unseen world. It is a science and way of life passed down from elders and within families and medicine societies, maintained in secret and sacred traditions. Don Alejandro said his elders were also the trees-he lamented their destruction. "They are the authorities of tradition. They are the administrators of the natural world," he said. "If you are asleep, wake up. Raise your eyes. Look at your volcanoes; look at your mountains. Look at your lakes, your springs-they are drying up." He asked where were the tigers and lions. They can be seen only on TV. Where are the birds that sing to the dawn? "We have one sun that shines, one water, the same Mother Earth for rich and poor, white and black, Indian and non-Indian." He said poverty and ignorance weren't the only causes of illness. "Violence is a product of inequality, a product of injustice. The illness of violence can create diabetes or limit the potential of people." Don Alejandro is responsible for taking care of 200 widows and children in his village in Guatemala, which has been ravaged by war and the violations of men. Many elders spoke of another kind of medicine long ignored by the medical profession, the spiritual medicine, or power, that each of us carries within. Persons are honored when it is said that they have "good medicine." Plants used for healing and ceremonies are also revered as medicine. The grandfathers and the grandmothers, as elders are called, prayed that humankind bring out the medicine from within to heal the people and the land. Another Mayan elder counseled people to live with the vision of seven generations, that our actions and our prayers are for generations to come. It is now that we must think of ourselves as the ancestors of our future. Whenever Don Alejandro speaks, his words are the prayers of the Creator: "May the dawn appear. May the aurora arrive so people will have peace and be happy. Play my melodies large and small. Let loose my dancers. May my prisoners be free. They are my valleys. They are my mountains." Just as the shadow cannot be severed from the body, healing cannot be fissured from the spirit, nor the body from the mind, nor the delusions of the mind-such as avarice and hate-from their consequences upon the Earth. COPYRIGHT 1998 UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE 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 87194-7905, 505-242-7282 or XColumn@aol.com Gonzales's direct line is 505-248-0092 or PatiGonzaJ@aol.com Anti-Immigrant Petition in Lexington, KY, (posted 8/28/98) By Valarie Honeycutt A petition reading: "We the people of Cardinal Valley subdivision are against funding or having an Hispanic Center in Cardinal Valley Shopping Center and against making Lexington a Safe City for Hispanics," has been circulated in Lexington, KY and will be brought up for discussion by the Vice Mayor at the council's next work session. Some advocates in Lexington have been pushing for the city to follow "Safe City" policy adapted in Austin, TX in order to provide services to persons without regard to immigration status. Nearly 150 residents of the Cardinal Valley subdivision, the area with Lexington's largest Hispanic population, have signed an anti-Hispanic petition and sent it to the Urban County Council. Vice Mayor Teresa Isaac, who received the petition this week, said she would bring it up for discussion at the council's work session Tuesday. On Wednesday, the Mayor's Task Force on Hispanics also will discuss the petition and receive the results from a city government staff analysis of what percentage of the neighborhood is represented in the petition. "They're here illegally," said Jeff Patrick, a resident of the northwest Lexington neighborhood who signed the petition. "That's breaking the law, but there's a lot of people in town that think that's OK. There shouldn't be some laws you can break and some you can't. If they are here illegally, they should round them up." The petition contained only one sentence, which said: "We the people of Cardinal Valley subdivision are against funding or having an Hispanic Center in Cardinal Valley Shopping Center and against making Lexington a Safe City for Hispanics." Central Kentucky's Hispanic population has increased dramatically in recent years because the tight job market has made it hard for employers such as farms and restaurants to find enough other workers. Many Hispanic immigrants have settled in Cardinal Valley's apartments because of their proximity to horse and tobacco farms. No comprehensive figures on Lexington's Hispanic population have been collected, and published estimates often are disputed. But one recent survey showed that 5,000 to 7,000 permanent Hispanic residents live in the Cardinal Valley area. Even more migrant workers may be living in the area right now, because August and September are prime tobacco-harvesting months. Both the Fayette County schools and the city are trying to offer services to the immigrants, who have earned a reputation among employers as good, hard workers. The Cardinal Valley Neighborhood Center opened earlier this summer with a mission of offering programs for the entire neighborhood. But some neighbors are objecting to the center because officials have made a point of offering bilingual services there, and because the center houses the Lexington Hispanic Association. In late May, after Immigration and Naturalization Service officers raided a Lexington tobacco company and arrested more than 80 illegal immigrants, association President Ben Figueras asked Mayor Pam Miller to follow the lead of Austin, Texas, and develop a "safe Hispanic policy" for Lexington. Paul Saldana, executive assistant to Austin Mayor Pro Tem Gus Garcia, explained the "safe city" policy this way: Illegal immigrants seeking services from that city must meet all of the qualifications required of legal citizens. But their immigration status alone does not prevent them from receiving help. Moreover, Saldana said, illegal immigrants who get in trouble with the police in Austin are subject to the same laws as anyone else. "But the police officer does not take it a step further and report them to the INS," he said. Fayette County officials haven't decided whether such a policy is appropriate for Lexington. Isaac, who is on the mayor's task force and on the Migrant Network Coalition, said she has received complaints for two years about Cardinal Valley's growing Hispanic population. The complaints include "too many Hispanics in one housing unit, too many loud parties late at night, and some reports say alcoholic beverages are in the hands of minors," she said. Isaac said she thinks neighbors don't want the city to pay for Hispanic programs at the center. Urban County Social Services Coordinator Janet Eaton said some neighbors have the mistaken impression that the Cardinal Valley Neighborhood Center is solely for Hispanics, but that is only part of the population the center serves. At this point, she said, the center is focusing on activities for all teens because that's what residents have requested. Discussions that Hispanic immigrants need help with health care and child care-and that some of the those services might be provided at the neighborhood center-have upset some Cardinal Valley residents. "We have Hispanic friends and most are hard workers. I don't feel like they are taking away jobs, and I think people take advantage of them," said Dena West, who signed the petition. "But this is a lower- or middle-class neighborhood and most of the people are hard workers, too. "We have to pay for our health care and child care," she said. "We don't feel like they are entitled to that just because they are a minority." However, other Cardinal Valley residents said they oppose the petition drive. And officials of the Cardinal Valley Neighborhood Association have said they don't endorse the petition, Eaton said. "I think it's awful," resident Cathy Price said Wednesday night as she and her husband, Ben Price, strolled through the neighborhood with their young daughter. "We wouldn't have signed it. They are human beings just like anybody else." Rebecca Miller Rittenberry said she thinks her Hispanic neighbors should have access to bilingual services at a neighborhood center. "A lot of people are making things up on them," Rittenberry said. "We haven't had any problems. My little children play with their little children." Figueras said Hispanics are in Cardinal Valley to stay. "They are not moving out because of a petition. (The petitioners) unfortunately are so narrow-minded ... in their perceptions that I'm not even going to deal with it," Figueras said. "If the city responds, then the city is wrong." Despite the controversy, Eaton said she thinks it is healthy that these issues are being discussed openly. "We're finally going to have a discussion about it instead of pretending like it's not there." Images Are All That Are Left of Quest for a Better Life, (posted 8/26/98) by Mark Henry Kin, friends mourn for Julio Cesar Gallegos, others found dead in desert. LOS ANGELES.-Julio Cesar Gallegos came to the United States to find a better life, and he died for it. All that remains are the videotapes, photographs and memories that his widow will share with their 2-year-old son and an unborn child he will never see. "They will know who their dad was," said Jacqueline Murillo after returning home from her husband's funeral Mass in East Los Angeles. Murillo, who is eight months pregnant, buried Gallegos, 23, Thursday-one week after authorities found his body in the scorched desert near the Salton Sea. Authorities believe he crossed the border on June 30 in a group of up to 22 people, including a niece and a nephew who were under his care. U.S. Border Patrol agents found the bodies of eight immigrants and two smuggler guides in the same desolate area. They discovered the first body, on July 3, another body on Aug. 12, seven bodies on Aug. 13 and another Wednesday. The dead included Gallegos' niece and nephew. Autopsies showed they all died from heat and lack of water. Agents plan to resume their search today but said they think the entire group died. Record numbers of people are crossing the border into Imperial County this year as immigrants skirt Operation Gatekeeper in San Diego County. The Border Patrol program has more than doubled the number of agents, causing an 18-year low in illegal immigration in the county. The deaths near the Salton Sea have caused confusion, rage, anger and depression in the Mexican-American and immigrant communities, said the Rev. Rafael Casillas, who celebrated the funeral Mass at the Church of the Resurrection in East Los Angeles. "To me it is a sad situation that people who are struggling for a better life may die because they face so many hurdles, so many barriers," said Casillas, a Mexican national, to about 175 mourners. The community feels rage toward smugglers who abandon immigrants in the scorching sun, he said. They're depressed by the loss of so many loved ones. And they're angry at the Mexican government for allowing Mafia-like groups to flourish along the border, the priest said. Murillo, whose second child is due on Sept. 16, cried softly in the church's front row. Her 2-year-old son, Julio Cesar Gallegos Jr., climbed into the arms of his grandmother, Maria Rodriguez. Sitting nearby were Gallegos' father, Florintino Gallegos, who came from Mexico, and other relatives and friends. At graveside, mourners wondered if Gallegos and the others were kidnapped, and murdered, despite the autopsy findings. They exchanged rumors but worried about saying too much because they feared vengeance from the smugglers. After attending the burial at Resurrection Cemetery, family members and friends returned to Murillo's split-level apartment. Grownups sat in the small living room, its walls adorned with large color photographs of Murillo and Gallegos. Other adults and children preferred the tree shade out front. It was quiet inside and out. They ate homemade chicken tamales and rice and tortillas and soup and sipped soft drinks. A teary-eyed Murillo spoke softly about the man she loved. Gallegos had grown up in Mexico but crossed the border illegally to California five years ago because he wanted more than his hometown, Juchipila, could offer, she said. The couple met at a local carnival where she sold corndogs and popcorn and he ran a coin-toss booth. It didn't matter that she was a native Californian and he was "illegal." It was love at first sight, and they were soon married, she said. He got a factory job in Los Angeles making Chinese food. She found work in a dentist's office, helping with insurance forms. They had a baby boy. Her doting husband dreamed of buying a pickup and moving their growing family to a new house. They talked about his getting U.S. citizenship but found it would cost $1,600 to process the forms and pay the penalty for his illegal border crossing. They did not have the money. He returned to Mexico for the first time in Janaury to see his ailing father. He missed his family. He asked Murillo to play family videos so their son would not forget him. Gallegos called home at least every week, sometimes every day. During this separation she told him she was pregnant. He longed to return to her and their son but could not raise the $1,500 smuggler's fee. She sent him $50 twice, but that was it. Finally, one of his four brothers offered to help with money if Gallegos would take a niece and nephew under his wing for the journey. Gallegos called for the last time on June 23, saying a "coyote" had robbed them in Tijuana. He said he would find a different smuggler to take them across the border. She never heard from him again. Relatives went to Tijuana to post photographs and talk to officials. They learned nothing. It's hard enough not to know what happened, Murillo said. "What's worse is the way he died," she said. "I hope they catch the smugglers, not for revenge but so they won't do it to someone else." Illegal Border Crossings Drop After 10 Bodies Found in Desert, (posted 8/26/98) by Mark Henry SALTON SEA.-The Border Patrol is seeing fewer illegal border crossings in Imperial County since the recent discovery of 10 bodies in the desert, Thomas L. Wacker, chief agent for the agency's El Centro office, said Friday. Although he is not certain why the numbers are down, Wacker speculated that smugglers are wary of the publicity and the weeklong Border Patrol search for more bodies. On Friday, agents caught 368 undocumented immigrants in an area that extends from Riverside to Imperial County and the 75-mile border with Mexico, he said, compared with an average of 512 captures a day before the recent deaths. "I think maybe we're scaring them out just a little bit because of the publicity," said Wacker. The Border Patrol will end its search for more bodies southwest of the Salton Sea today unless more bodies turn up, he said. Aircraft from the agency, the military and Civil Air Patrol have scoured hundreds of square miles of desert while agents searched on the ground. It would be difficult to check every bush and salt cedar tree in the vast area to rule out the possibility of more dead, he said. Agents found one body July 3, one Aug. 12, seven Aug. 13 and another Wednesday. The dead included eight Mexican immigrants and two smugglers. The group is believed the largest to die crossing the desert together since the 1970s, when 14 Central Americans died in Arizona. Relatives in Mexico told authorities the group contained up to 22 immigrants, who crossed the border June 30. But Rita Vargas, head of the Mexican Consulate in Calexico, expressed hope there were only 10 people in the group, despite what relatives believe, because the Border Patrol has found only one more body in the past week. The size of the group may never be known, Wacker said. He believes the immigrants either hiked through the desert after their vehicle broke down or were dropped off and died in the sweltering heat when smugglers abandoned them. No one could have survived the trek without water in temperatures that can exceed 120 degrees, he said. Agents found no water or food with the bodies. So far this year, a record 64 immigrants have died trying to cross the Imperial Valley. Most drowned in irrigation canals or collapsed in the desert. Smugglers are taking their human cargo on routes through the desert into Riverside County to skirt Operation Gatekeeper, a program that has flooded the San Diego County border with federal agents. Groundbreaking Cuban Exhibition - ASU Art Museum, (posted 8/26/98) FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE TEMPE, Ariz. - Americans will have a unique opportunity to glimpse a hidden world when a groundbreaking exhibition of contemporary Cuban art opens at the Arizona State University Art Museum in September. 'Contemporary Art from Cuba: Irony and Survival on the Utopian Island,' will provide a window through which Americans can view art created in a society that is closed to most of them. It is the first major exhibition in the United States dedicated entirely to the work of the new generation of Cuba artists and will present work by approximately 20 artists working on the island today. The exhibibition will open to the public on Sunday, Sept. 27 and run through Sunday, Dec. 13. Many of the artists will attend the opening of the exhibition and create installations and other artwork in the galleries during the opening week of 'Contemporary Art from Cuba.' They will interact with the public at the museum and give talks to public groups, school classes and university students at other locations. A presentation by two artists, followed by a question and answer session with the audience, is planned for the evening of Friday, Oct. 2. Without taking sides on issues, 'Contemporary Art from Cuba' will include work that reflects various views of the revolution and the realities of life under the United States' embargo. The artists speculate on Cuba's complex past, its love/hate relationship with the United States and its combination of African, European and Asian cultures. "Contemporary Art from Cuba' represents an unparalleled milestone for Cuban art and awareness of that art in the United States, according to its curator, the director and chief curator of the ASU Art Museum, Marilyn A. Zeitlin. "This is a Golden Age of art in Cuba," Zeitlin said. "Cuba's isolation has produced an artistic output that is fresh and independent. Nothing seems jaded or self-indulgent, but rather full of vitality and relevance to the core issues of living." The artists in this exhibition are young, ranging in age from 24 - 39. The majority is Afro-Cuban and many have been educated at art school for as long as 12 years. "The extraordinary intelligence of these artists is made available to us through the high skill they all have," Zeitlin said. "They draw like masters, not like young people, with control and verve at the same time." Aware of Cuba's unique situation, the artists use their finely honed skills and knowledge of art history cleverly. They exploit metaphor to circumvent the censor and comment on shortages, surveillance, incipient racism, Miami and the tragedy of the "balseros" (boat people) who left on makeshift rafts. "Cuban artists of the '90s generation have forged a vocabulary that expresses to an amazing degree what cannot be said outright, resulting in work that is always in a tension of double of triple meanings," Zeitlin said. Yet while they are part of a generation that voices skepticism about the pieties of the socialist revolution, they remain loyal Cubans. "The artists explore the contradictions between revolutionary rhetoric and Cuban reality, but they also express their pride at being part of a historical experiment and that they are survivors," Zeitlin said. Among the Cuban artists whose work will be featured in the exhibition are KCHO, Los Carpinteros and Pedro Alvarez. The artists featured in the exhibition explore irony as a strategy for psychological survival and oblique commentary. Embedded in their art is the notion that when political and personal problems are inescapable, humor may be one of the few outlets for frustration and anger. Their work also exemplifies the concept of "inventando," the improvisation and creative resourcewfulness required for everyday survival in Cuba. "Inventando" is one of three major themes that emerge again and again throughout 'Contemporary Art from Cuba.' It demonstrates the creativity and inventiveness of the Cubans, a skill that helps them solve problems, deal with poverty and simply survive. The second theme found in the artwork, "the special condition of being an island," focuses on the sea, boats, bridges and isolation, addressing the separation created initially by geography and augmented by politics and the economic embargo. The final theme, "the rhetoric of history," addresses the difference between the promises and the realities of societies and political systems in both Cuba and the United States. Works in this catagory attempt to peel back the lies of history. "These are persistent concepts that I saw recurring again and again in the artwork," Zeitlin said. "They are three strands the run throughout the exhibition, with many of the pieces featuring two or even all three of these concepts." ASU Art Museum enjoys an impressive reputation for organizing and presenting ehibitions of international significance, including the 1995 Venice Biennale featuring the work of Bill Viola and 'Art Under Duress: El Salvador 1980 to Present.' 'Contemporary Art from Cuba' will open to the public with a free reception from 2 - 4 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 27. A special preview followed by Club Tropicana, a party on the plaza, will commence at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday, September 26. Salsa music combined with Cuban-style food and drink will create the mood for dancing and mingling with the Cuban artists. Tickets for the preview and party will cost $50. After its inauguration in Tempe, 'Contemporary Art from Cuba' will begin a national tour that is being developed by Independent Curators International (ICI), New York. ICI is a non-profit organization that specializes in circulating challenging and innovative exhibitions of contemporary art in the United State and abroad. For further information regarding the exhibition's tour, please contact ICI at (212) 254-8200. 'Contemporary Art from Cuba' has been organized in collaboration with the National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC), Havana. Publications and education programs related to this project have been generously supported by The Rockefeller Foundation, Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation and Arizona Commission on the Arts. For more information on 'Contemporary Art from Cuba: Irony and Survival on the Utopian Island,' please contact Arizona State University Art Museum at (602) 965-2787 or visit the website at: http://asuam.fa.asu.edu/cuba/main.htm
To Live and Die In the Southwestern Desert, (posted 8/24/98) COLUMN OF THE AMERICAS FROM UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE Hundreds of people completed a four-day desert march in August heat from their border cities of El Paso, Texas, and Juarez, Mexico, to Sierra Blanca, Texas, 90 miles away. It was not a pilgrimage; it was a protest. Unless Texas Gov. George Bush intervenes, this small tumbleweed town could become home to the latest national nuclear waste dump. Sierra Blanca is already the site of the nation's largest sewage dump, where weekly, 250 tons of semitreated New York sludge is spread across the mountain range as twisted "range land revitalization." New York had to stop dumping its sludge in the Atlantic because it was contaminating the ocean. >From Washington, D.C., or even the state capital of Austin, the 90 miles between El Paso and Sierra Blanca no doubt seems to be a safe distance in the event of nuclear contamination. Yet marchers, under the banner of Operation Backbone, left their footprints in the desert sand-on both sides of the border-because 90 miles is not a safe distance when speaking of water and a dump that would contain nuclear waste with a radioactive life of hundreds of thousands of years. Texas State Rep. Norma Chavez, who partook in the march, said that if the nuclear waste were to contaminate the precious water beneath Sierra Blanca, it would spell an environmental and nuclear nightmare for the nearly 3 million people who live in the cities of El Paso and Juarez- communities that will eventually depend upon the water underneath the proposed site. "The bottom line is that it's not safe. It's a threat to the environment," Chavez said. The proposed dump lies on top of a confirmed seismic fault with a potential for a major earthquake. The irony of this impending environmental disaster is that it's a "run from and for the border." At first, it will involve bringing nuclear waste from the U.S.-Canadian border to within 16 miles from the Rio Grande river and the U.S.-Mexican border. The placing of nuclear waste within 100 kilometers (60 miles) on either side off the U.S.-Mexican border is also in clear violation of the 1983 La Paz Agreement, said Chavez. The agreement calls for both countries not to contribute to pollution along the border. While the nuclear industry likes to guarantee the impossibility of spillages and contamination, opponents point out that the six other nuclear waste dump facilities in the country are fraught with major environmental problems. One site in Kentucky has been designated by the EPA as a "superfund" site-meaning the government will have to sink many millions of dollars into cleaning up the contamination. Initially, the agreement to bring the nuclear muck to this part of Texas was supposed to involve nuclear waste only from Vermont and Maine. Now, due to Congressional shenanigans, the facility would have to accept waste from the entire country. Opposing the location are the entire Texas Democratic Party, the state's Mexican-American Legislative Caucus, 20 counties and 13 cities in Texas, five states, two cities in Mexico and the Mexican Congress. Opponents of the dump believe that a final decision by Gov. Bush will not be made until after the November elections. However, they have given him until Sept. 15 to affirm the decision of the two state administrative judges who recommended denying a permit for the dump. (After several months of hearings, the judges cited geological dangers and environmental racism as problems with the site.) The Sept. 15 deadline, according to Carlos Gallinar, a student at the University of Texas at El Paso and a march organizer, is a "citizen's deadline for Bush to come out against the dump." The governor and potential presidential contender is on record saying he would oppose the site if it is shown to be unsafe. The decision to affirm the judges' ruling is actually up to Bush's appointees at the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission. Mexico's Congress is particularly sharp in its criticism, believing that the dump and the decision to ignore the La Paz Agreement is both a racial matter and an affront to the national dignity of the Aztec nation. Much of the impetus for the Aug. 6-9 march came from young students who grew tired of having their communities stepped upon and neglected by both state and federal government. College student Melissa Barba said their action was named Operation Backbone "so as to put a spine into El Paso." COPYRIGHT 1998 UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE 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 87194-7905, 505-242-7282 or XColumn@aol.com Gonzales's direct line is 505-248-0092 or PatiGonzaJ@aol.com Officials Say Killings Were Drug-Related, (posted 8/24/98) By Jodi Bizar Special to the Express-News CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico-The bodies of three men-one a wealthy rancher-were found stuffed in the trunk of a car in what police here said Friday were drug-related killings. Their deaths brought to seven the number of people in this border city who have died this week in drug-related killings. "They have the signature of a drug-related execution," said Jorge Lspez Molinar, a Chihuahua state prosecutor, said. The bodies were found late Thursday, but Lspez said: "They appear to have been dead about 24 hours by the time we found them." He identified one the victims as David Daniel Rammrez Rodrmguez, owner of several ranches. The three appeared to have been strangled, Lspez continued. They were wrapped in dark-colored sheets, with plastic bags around their heads, and their mouths were sealed with duct tape, he said. They were found in the trunk of a car reported stolen in El Paso, just across the Rio Grande from this city. The car was in a parking lot, and police searched it after neighbors complained about smelling something rancid coming from it. At least 50 people have been killed in drug-related violence since July 1997 -- when Amado Carrillo Fuentes, who headed a drug cartel based here, died in Mexico City while undergoing plastic surgery to change his appearance. Carrillo's death touched off a struggle over who would control his empire and battles over unpaid debts. Police made another grisly discovery Monday when the bodies of four businessmen from Chihuahua City were found in the trunk of another abandoned car on the outskirts of town. The men, all telecommunications experts, had been hired to help police here develop a system to eavesdrop on suspected narcotics traffickers. However, other details of their deaths were not made public. Arturo Chavez Chavez, state attorney general, said he had asked the FBI and the El Paso Intelligence Center, a multi- agency organization that collects and distributes information on drug trafficking, to help solve the deaths of the four communications experts. Signs of Change, Latino-Oriented Shops Join General Store, (posted 8/21/98) Since the influx began there, signs of change have cropped up everywhere. Shiny new Massey-Ferguson tractors still stand outside the Clapp Brothers farm equipment dealership and old-timers still swap gossip at the Farmer's Alliance general store. But these establishments are joined by Tienda Gabriel, La Popular and Tienda Guerrero-bodegas where Latino families stock up on tortillas, religious candles and cowboy boots. Testerman's insurance agency has posted an aseguranzas sign in its window, advertising its services to Latino customers. The Hair World beauty parlor has hired a new stylist who specializes in Latin styles. And a half-dozen churches now offer Spanish services. One of the first to do so was St. Julia's Catholic Church, where Latino parishioners come from San Jose, Los Gatos, Salinas and many other California cities. Alejandro Uresti, a member of St. Julia's who used to live in Monterey County, suggests a new name for the town: "Nueva California." Latinos have also been coming from Florida and Texas. But these days, the greatest numbers are California transplants. When they first started arriving, Latinos took jobs at local poultry plants. Today they work in virtually every industry in town, from construction to timber to textiles. Marta Zaragoza, who lived in Southern California for 14 years, found work at the Charles Craft textile mill. Just five years ago, the workforce at Charles Craft was made up entirely of blacks and whites. Now 60 percent of the workers are Latinos. The work at Charles Craft is monotonous-changing and sorting hundreds of spools of industrial thread. The spinning machines roar at a deafening pitch, and cotton dust fills the air. Still, Zaragoza has thrived at Charles Craft. She has worked her way up to a supervisor's job and oversees a crew of 30 -- all but one of them Latino. As she moves around the plant in her blue uniform, a look of pride on her face, Zaragoza points out a half-dozen other workers who came from California. "They've given me a lot of opportunity here," said Zaragoza, who earns $30,000 a year. "I've worked very hard to get where I am." She lives directly across the street from the sprawling red brick plant in an old mill village of small single-story bungalows. Hers is one of the last ones still owned by the company, and she rents it for just $250 a month. Not long ago, the neighborhood was virtually all white; now Latinos live in almost every house. Zaragoza's 23-year-old daughter, Veronica, wasn't sure she wanted to start her life over in Siler City. "I was actually very scared about coming here," Veronica Zaragoza said. "North Carolina had never had any immigration, and now that they were starting to have some, they didn't want it." She's found it difficult to adjust to life in a community that had consisted of just blacks and whites since the days of slavery. "In California, I didn't view a person as black, white or Asian," said Veronica, an instructor at a bilingual Head Start program in Siler City. "I didn't define them by race. They were just people. Here, it's different." Leaving California, Forces Converged to Divert Latinos, (posted 8/21/98) Published Sunday, August 16, 1998, in the San Jose Mercury News Latinos started seeking new destinations in the early 1990s, when several forces converged. First, California's economy became mired in recession, forcing many to seek work outside the state. Meanwhile, changes in the poultry and meat-processing industries had created a huge demand for new workers in the Midwest and Southeast. Many companies started recruiting in California, South Texas and other places that had high unemployment rates. Those developments occurred just as many Latino farmworkers had become eligible for year-round work under a provision in the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act, which allowed more than 3 million to become permanent legal residents. By the time California's economy recovered in the mid-1990s, many Latinos had already settled out of state and invited their friends and relatives to join them. A worsening economic crisis in Mexico gave Latinos an even greater incentive to cross the border and seek opportunities in the United States. And with a rise in the anti-immigrant sentiment in the 1990s, the California departures accelerated. "That exodus to other places happened, for the most part, after Proposition 187," said Marco Antonio Tovar, an official with the Mexican Consulate in Denver, which serves Nebraska and four other states. The initiative, which would have denied public education and most other health and social service benefits to illegal immigrants, has since been struck down by a federal court judge as unconstitutional. Shortly after voters approved the measure in 1994, a small but noticeable surge of Latinos began arriving in North Carolina and other states. "There was kind of a scare back then," said Bill Lail, director of the Family Resource Center, a public health center that serves many Latinos in Siler City. Plan Would Tie Grades to College Admission, (posted 8/21/98) By Jeanne Russell A San Antonio lawmaker plans to suggest legislation to admit students with certain grades into Texas universities automatically as a way to encourage more minority students to attend college. State Sen. Frank Madla said he will propose during a special Senate hearing today that community college students with above either a 3.0 or 3.5 grade-point average could transfer automatically to the state's top universities. The hearing will be at the University of Texas at San Antonio Downtown Campus. Madla sits on a special Senate committee on Hopwood, state contract and employment practices headed by Bob Lanier, the former mayor of Houston. "I'm trying to sell the idea to the Hopwood committee as one of its recommendations, and if that does not work I can draft legislation in January," Madla said. The 1996 federal appeals court decision Hopwood vs. Texas led to an affirmative action ban in state college financial aid, scholarships and admissions. The Senate committee is studying ways to get more Hispanic and African-American students in state universities and colleges without considering race in decision-making. It is scheduled to submit its report to the lieutenant governor in December. Madla's suggestion of automatic admittance for community colleges could be seen as a corollary to a 1997 law allowing students in the top 10 percent of their high school classes automatic admission to any Texas university. Both bypass standardized tests, in which minority students historically have performed worse than Anglo students have. "I think it's definitely a step forward if it's similar to the 10 percent law. Ultimately, it's not a cure, but it's a step forward," said Javier Maldonado, staff counsel for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Maldonado is one of a number of San Antonio educational leaders scheduled to testify before the committee today. "Historically a lot of Mexican- American students have attended community colleges along the border because we didn't have four- year universities there," Maldonado said. Madla's proposal would have the greatest effect on elite schools such as the University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M University at College Station. There is no automatic GPA for a community college transfer to UT, admissions officials said, but students should have at least a 3.0 to be considered. The number of Texans enrolled in community colleges has shot up in the last 10 years, rising from 329,921 in 1987 to 422,099 students last year. In the same period, enrollment at the state's public universities plateaued at 396,265 students. A report by state comptroller John Sharp found that students along the South Texas border tend to study close to home. Educators have speculated that cost and close family ties might contribute to this decision. The South Texas Community College in McAllen, founded in 1995, is one of the fastest-growing in the state. Rudy Ortiz, a counselor at San Antonio College, suggests that most community college students in San Antonio and throughout the region juggle work, school and sometimes family. He called Madla's proposal a hand-up rather than a hand-out for an underserved and hardworking student group, provided they can prove their worthiness. "When it comes time for community college students to apply for college, they're looked down on," Ortiz noted. "Let's give them a hand up. Let them have an opportunity to go to college." More Minorities Enroll at Boalt Hall: Sharp Increases Among Blacks, Latinos, (posted 8/21/98) Bee Staff and News Services The University of California's prestigious Boalt Hall School of Law at UC Berkeley, which attracted national attention by sharply reducing minority enrollment after ending affirmative action, said Monday that its newest class of 275 includes 85 minority students, an increase of 37 percent over the 1997 incoming class. Just one African American and no American Indians were in last year's incoming class. This year there are nine African Americans and two American Indians. Latino enrollment increased from 14 in the 1997 group to 24 who began legal studies this week. The number of Asian Americans increased from 47 in 1997 to 50 in 1998. Dean Herma Hill Kay attributed the increases in part to new admissions policies putting more emphasis on character and somewhat less on test scores. She said the figures still are below those for minority enrollment before affirmative action ended in 1995. "The most significant thing that happened is we seem to have overcome the feeling of hostility that some folks out in the community had about us," she said. "I think that people are understanding that we are doing the best we can to cope with these changes," she said. UC regents voted in 1995 to drop race and gender as factors in admissions, a change that took effect for graduate students last fall and undergraduates this fall. At Boalt Hall, the new era was ushered in with a stunning set of statistics. Of 14 African American students invited to enroll, zero had responded. By comparison, 20 African Americans enrolled in 1996, the last class taken with affirmative action. This year, the law school made a number of changes in admissions procedures. Among other things, Boalt dropped a formula giving extra weight to averages at elite private universities and downgrading averages from public schools outside the UC system. Committees reviewing applications also read so-called "hardship essays," describing how students overcame personal or socioeconomic disadvantages. Overall, Boalt admitted 857 applicants to yield a class of 275. Boalt, which was criticized for not doing enough outreach last year, had stepped up recruiting with faculty and students calling prospective students to encourage them to enroll. The school also distributed an eight-minute video titled "Welcome to Boalt Hall," and held a number of receptions. In addition, the Bar Association of San Francisco and the Wiley Manuel Law Foundation created private scholarships to support minorities admitted to Boalt and other law schools in the San Francisco Bay Area. Officials Challenge Dump Report, (posted 8/21/98) Document targets examiners' findings 08/20/98 EL PASO - Radioactive waste disposal officials prepared a lengthy document Wednesday challenging the findings of two state hearings examiners who opposed licensing a proposed West Texas dump. The document was to have been filed at day's end with the state environmental agency. The report targets findings that disposal officials failed to adequately study a fault beneath the proposed site and to adequately address the dump's potential negative socioeconomic impacts. "The information is there [in testimony before the examiners] that we have adequately studied the fault and that the socioeconomic study was entirely adequate," said Lee Mathews, general counsel for the Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Authority. The examiners, who heard months of testimony on the site, concluded in July that the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission should not license the dump proposed in Sierra Blanca, 90 miles southeast of El Paso. The facility, which is opposed by many West Texas residents and environmental groups, would hold tons of radioactive waste generated by state utilities, hospitals and universities. The U.S. Senate is also expected to vote next month on a compact that would allow Maine and Vermont to ship their low-level waste to Texas. The House has already approved the agreement. Mr. Mathews said the disposal authority will have a chance to argue its position in the coming months before the conservation commission. Dump opponents will also have an opportunity to respond. The conservation commission can decide whether the authority's arguments support overruling the examiners' nonbinding recommendation and vote for the license. They can agree with examiners and deny the license. Or they can have the examiners gather more evidence and testimony. Disposal authority spokeswoman Adriana Rhames said her agency is already conducting further studies on the site fault as a result of the examiners' findings. She said the authority is gathering the information in case it is requested. The agency cannot submit it otherwise. Another Man's Body Found in Desert Area, (posted 8/21/98) by Mark Henry SALTON SEA.-The Border Patrol discovered another body Wednesday in the same desolate area where nine others have been found from a smuggling operation that went awry. A Mexican consular official fears that like the others, the dead man belonged to a group of up to 22 people that crossed the border into Imperial County on June 30. Authorities found one body from the group on July 3, another on Aug. 12 and seven more on Aug. 13. All died about the same time from heat exhaustion and lack of water. The dead included seven Mexican immigrants and two smuggler guides. Rita Vargas, head of the Mexican consulate in Calexico, said authorities still need to determine the time of death of the man found shortly after noon Wednesday. His body was decomposed like those of the others, who died in early July, she said. Mexican officials are distressed because immigrants are dying in record numbers as they try to swim canals and cross the desert in Imperial County. Of the 64 dead this year, 16 have been found in the last week, she said. Vargas and U.S. officials attributed the deaths in part to Operation Gatekeeper in San Diego County. The program has more than doubled the number of agents, resulting in an 18-year low in illegal immigration there. The illegal flow has increased to record levels in neighboring Imperial County as migrants try to skirt the crackdown. Authorities worry about the fate of the rest of the group that crossed June 30. Up to 13 more migrants in that group have either died in the desert or eluded the Border Patrol and reached safety, said Thomas L. Wacker, senior agent in charge of the agency's El Centro office. Authorities speculate the group either lost its way or was dropped off and waited for another smuggler's van that never arrived. Smuggler guides are the low rung of such operations. They typically drive immigrants across the border or lead them on foot past Border Patrol checkpoints, Wacker said. The nine deaths confirmed from the group so far are believed to be the most people to die crossing the desert together since the 1970s, when 14 bodies were found in Arizona, authorities said. Authorities will resume their air and ground search for more bodies this morning. The Border Patrol is trying to find the leaders of the smuggling operation and has offered a $5,000 reward for information leading to their conviction. Federal officials have declined to elaborate on the scope of their probe, except to say it extends into Mexico. Immigrant Risked Heat of Desert for Work, (posted 8/21/98) THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE He vowed to send money for shoes, said the wife of one of the Mexican men found dead last week near the Salton Sea. Florina Zacarias Salguero begged her husband not to leave their small Mexican village to find work in the United States, but he was determined. Fernando Salguero Lachino, a 48-year-old peasant from Charo and veteran of many border crossings, said goodbye to his wife and six young children on June 26 and took a bus 1,2000 miles north to Tijuana. "He said he wouldn't take long," his wife said. "He said he would send money soon to buy shoes for one of the boys who didn't have any." She never heard from her husband again. Lachino's badly decomposed body was one of eight found last week in the Imperial Valley near the Salton Sea. Authorities believe he was part of a group of 22 people that crossed the border June 30. From the group, federal officials have found nine bodies, including one discovered July 3, but do not know what happened to the 13 others. The 13 not accounted for either died in the parched desert or eluded Border Patrol agents, said Thomas L. Wacker, the patrol's chief agent in El Centro. Border Patrol agents in the air and on the ground searched a 50-square-mile area of the desert Tuesday south of Highway 78 and east of Highway 86 but found nothing, he said. They planned to resume their search at dawn today. The dead included seven Mexican immigrants and two smuggler guides. On Tuesday, the Border Patrol eliminated its most hopeful scenario-that agents had caught the 13 migrants and sent them back to Mexico in early July. A review of agency records showed that did not happen, he said. Rita Vargas, head of the Mexican consulate in Calexico, said immigrants risk dangerous border crossings over irrigation canals and the desert because they are desperate for work. Jobs are hard to find in Charo, a village of about 1,000 people in the state of Michoacan west of Mexico City, said Antonio Gil, a 36-year-old store clerk who helps oversee the town's three public telephone booths. Hundreds of people like Lachino leave the village every year to find work in the United States, Gil said. So many go, it's hard to find people to work the fields in Charo, he said. Once they reach the United States, villagers contact family by calling one of the public phones, and messengers pass the word to loved ones that they have a call, he said. Salguero, 42, said villagers had all heard stories about the dangers of desert border crossings. She said her husband "never told me that they went through the desert." Each of the last four years, her husband left home to find jobs picking apples, cherries, pears and other crops in California, Oregon and Washington, she said. Lachino would stay six to eight months, sending $300 every other month, before returning home. Lachino told his wife of getting caught by the Border Patrol in earlier crossings. When that happened, he would borrow money and try again, Salguero said. He usually left in the cooler winter months and complained to his family about the dangers, she said. "They had to walk a lot when he crossed," she said. "He said the cold temperatures were very intense and they didn't take anything to cover themselves." But he took the risk because he felt he needed the job. Mexican officials called last week to tell her of his death. The family plans to have his body returned to Charo for an all-night vigil and Catholic burial Mass, she said. Fear Raised for Companions of Nine Desert Trek Victims, (posted 8/20/98) Mark Henry 13 Immigrants In Group Still Missing, Officials Say SALTON SEA.-Authorities have linked the deaths of seven Mexican immigrants and two smugglers near the Salton Sea to a larger group, raising questions about the fate of 13 more migrants from the group. Twenty-two people crossed the border into Imperial County on June 30, according to interviews with their families, said Ralph Smith, an Imperial County coroner's investigator. The Border Patrol found seven people dead under a grove of salt cedar trees Thursday. A day earlier, they found another body nearby. On Monday, they linked those deaths to the body of a teen-ager found in the area July 3. "I assume that the rest of the group made it through, but we're going to keep looking for bodies," said Thomas L. Wacker, chief agent for the Border Patrol in El Centro. The nine deaths are believed to be the largest group of undocumented immigrants to die while crossing the desert since the 1970s, when 14 Central Americans died in Arizona, authorities said. Today, the Border Patrol and Civil Air Patrol will launch an air search for more bodies, Wacker said. Relatives on both sides of the border are worried about the rest of the group, Smith said. "The families keep tellling us there were 22 in the group, and they have given us their names," he said. At first, authorities did not draw connections between the bodies found last week and a body found in early July. But autopsies showed the seven bodies found Thursday and the body discovered a day earlier died about the same time. None carried food or water for a journey through the harsh desert, where temperatures reach 120 degrees in the summer. Autopsies showed they died from heat and lack of water about six weeks ago. That matched the time of death of a teen-ager found in the area July 3, Smith said. He was identified as Juan Morales, 16, a Tijuana resident who had been dead about one or two days when the Border Patrol found him, Smith said. "He had a pager on him. We found out that he was involved with smuggling," Smith said. "His partner apparently gave him his beeper. We found his partner among the seven." He believes the group may have set out after their vehicle broke down in the maze of dirt roads in the open desert. Border Patrol agents have not found any disabled vehicles. It's possible another police agency seized the vehicle, or the group may have been dropped off to wait for another van that never arrived, authorities said. The original group of 22 included four friends traveling together, Smith said. Three were among the seven bodies found Thursday. The fourth, a woman, has not been found, nor has she called or written relatives to say she reached Los Angeles, Smith said. Authorities have identified another person in the original group who was not among the dead and has not contacted anyone since, Smith said. Authorities and the Mexican consulate in Calexico have speculated the Border Patrol may have stopped a van carrying the group in early July. It's possible agents rounded up 13 immigrants and sent them back to Mexico while the other nine ran into the desert, Wacker said. The Border Patrol is checking its records to see if that happened, he said. Authorities found airline ticket stubs and hotel receipts among the dead showing some had flown to Tijuana and spent the night there before crossing the border, Smith said. The bodies will be transported to mortuaries beginning today he said. Many are going to their families in Los Angeles and one is bound for New York, he said. The Immigration and Naturalization Service has offered a $5,000 reward for information leading to a conviction of smugglers found responsible for the deaths. The names of seven of the dead have been released. They are: Irma Estrada Gutierrez, 16, and Everardo Garcia Estrada, 18, both of Morelos; Julio Cesar Gallegos, 26, of Zacatecas; Antonio Morales, 22, and Evaristo Carrasco Luna, 17, both of Puebla; Felipe Lopez Rodriguez, 27, of Sinaloa; and Fernando Salguero Lachino, 48, of Michoacan. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Stash of $1 Million Seized at the Border, (posted 8/19/98) Express-News Border Bureau LAREDO-U.S. Customs Service inspectors seized almost $1 million in cash as part of Operation Robin Hood when they searched a van headed from Roma to Mexico, officials said Thursday. The money was stashed in a side panel covering the air conditioning and a false compartment in the gas tank, according to Customs. The discovery Wednesday was said to be the largest seizure at the international bridge in downtown Roma and brought to almost $40 million the amount seized all along the U.S.-Mexico border since February. Operation Robin Hood is a Roma-based initiative that concentrates on searching for cash and narcotics being sneaked across the Rio Grande, Customs supervisor L. Garcia said by phone. The driver of the vehicle, Gerardo Moreno, 35, a Mexican living in Houston, was arrested and taken before a federal magistrate in McAllen. Inspectors grew suspicious of Moreno, who regularly drives a commuter van from Houston to McAllen, but Wednesday he had no commuters, Garcia said. He reportedly was caught earlier this summer with slightly more than $10,000. "He knows the laws and procedures," Garcia said. It is illegal to cross the border with $10,000 or more without declaring it to Customs. The Supreme Court ruled in June that the government may not keep all the money seized from people who are trying to take it out of the country illegally, but Customs officials are still reviewing the decision before changing procedures on the border. "Customs is continuing to do business as usual," agency spokesman Bill Anthony said from Washington. A sharply divided Supreme Court struck at the heart of Customs operations when it ruled that people forfeiting all their money amounted to an excessive fine and was, therefore, unconstitutional. Going Back To Where We Came From, (posted 8/17/98)
After years of being hounded by extreme right-wingers who regularly request that "we go back where we came from," we have finally decided to respond. One reader recently sent us this message: "Your op-ed piece is a laugh. Adios to illegals. Shut the border, round 'em up, send 'em back to Aztekia." One reader constantly refers to us as Aztlanistas. Aztlan, or Aztekia in their minds, is a mythical homeland of the Aztecs. Regarding the physical location of Aztlan, we've personally never located it. However, we can affirm two things: We are Americans in every sense of the word, and we are fairly certain that at least one of the original homelands of the Mexican (Aztec) people lies somewhere in the present-day United States. As proof, we offer the 1847 Disturnell map, the official map of the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo-the treaty that ended the U.S. war against Mexico. Most U.S. residents most likely never saw this map in their junior high geography class. There, in the area along the Colorado river, above "Apacheria," between the Jaquesita and Navajoa rivers (in what is today Arizona) is a site called "Antigua Residencia de los Aztecas." This translates to "ancient homeland of the Aztecs." Apparently, those who signed the treaty did not contest this fact or the validity of the map. So if all Mexicans are to go back to where they came from, apparently Arizona, or as some scholars and native elders posit, the four corners region of the United States should be their destination. Today, all the rivers, mountains and valleys depicted in the Disturnell map are all still where they were hundreds of years ago. Lest our detractors believe that some "Aztlan skinhead" created this map in the 1960s, they can rest assured that the original 1847 map is in the National Archives in Washington D.C. Frank Gutierrez, an East L.A. College counselor and Chicano studies instructor, picked up his copy of the map from the Hopi a generation ago. He told us that in giving him the map, the Hopi told him that they had at one point been part of the ancient Mexica, or Anahuac, confederation and acknowledged Mexicans/Chicanos as blood relations. When our readers tell us to go back where we came from, we assume they are specifically referring to our Mexican heritage. Taking this map into consideration, how far back-in history-do we go? For the record, we (columnists) are of Nahua (Mexica or Aztec), Chichimeca, Kikapu and Comanche heritage. In other words, our roots to the Americas, like most Mexicans and Central Americans, go back at least 30,000 years. One reader actually acknowledges our 30,000-year American roots, but still claims we're immigrants from Mongolia. Perhaps that helps explain the long wait to get naturalized. One prominent American Indian historian, Dr. Jack Forbes of the University of California at Davis, notes that today, "most children in California schools are descended in whole, or in part, from indigenous peoples." For those who were raised reading U.S. history books, even demographers, this statement must come as a shock. This pre-eminent native scholar is referring to Mexican-American, Central and South American children-kids often referred to by society as Latinos or Hispanics. Few will accuse Forbes of not being knowledgeable about this subject. So what he's telling the world is that, yes, those red-brown children who are vilified as aliens have roots that go back thousands of years, long before the Pilgrims set up shop on the East Coast. To "foreignize" these children, he says, is part of the culture wars, the attempts to narrowly define what is America and who is an American. Because most people were taught that America is the United States, they believe that the history of America is about the history of white westward expansion, rather than about two continents, the land and its peoples. The real history of America begins tens of thousands of years ago, not with the 13 colonies, said Forbes, noting that there were hundreds of metropolises throughout the Americas-Teotihuacan, Mexico; Las Haldas, Peru; and great urban centers in what is today the Mississippi Delta and Midwest-at least a thousand years before any Europeans (including Vikings) set foot in the Americas. "Americans" can't conceptualize history from the eyes of native people, said Forbes, lest they come to truly identify as part of the indigenous Americas, rather than a European-birthed America. COPYRIGHT 1998 UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE We would like to acknowledge the assistance of our associate, Francesca Hernandez Prewitt, in writing this most important column. Anyone interested in obtaining a copy of this most important map, please write to us at our e-address. Also, we will be on the East Coast the 1st week of Nov. Please contact us if you would like us to visit your campus/community center, etc. Thanks 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 California Court Strikes Down Regulation Denying Health Benefits, (posted 8/14/98) By Jordan Lite SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A state regulation that turns away certain immigrants who seek prenatal and emergency care has been struck down by an appeals court that said it wasn't properly created. The State Department of Health Services cannot continue to implement the policy because it did not follow state law requiring public comment on proposed regulations, the California Court of Appeals ruled. The policy, implemented in April 1997, required county health agencies to turn away immigrants who could prove their residency but had border crossing cards prohibiting non-residents from traveling farther than 25 miles into the United States. The court, in a ruling Tuesday that was released Wednesday, said the regulation was not consistent with state law mandating emergency care for undocumented residents. The opinion reversed a San Francisco Superior Court decision. California pays for prenatal care for all needy women in the Medi-Cal program, and has covered illegal immigrants with state funds since 1988. The state says the cost of prenatal care for illegal immigrants was $83.7 million in 1996-97. At least 70,000 undocumented women receive prenatal care annually in California, and thousands more get emergency care, said John Affeldt, an attorney for the Latino Coalition for a Healthy California, which sued to challenge the policy. "It's vital for the thousands of undocumented immigrants who are living in California who are entitled to prenatal or emergency care," he said. "People who suffer heart attacks (and) give birth are entitled to care and they haven't been getting it." State health officials were not available for comment late Wednesday afternoon. Translators Ready to Aid Mayas Immigrants, (posted 8/14/98) Translators Ready to Aid Mayas Immigrants: Activists begin language service to assist Indians who speak limited or no Spanish as they seek asylum. By PATRICK J. MCDONNELL With a date pending in immigration court, Roberto Perez worries he will not be able to convince a judge that he fled war-ravaged Guatemala fearing for his life. The Los Angeles resident is a Maya. His native language is Mayan. He speaks no English and limited Spanish. Thus he will find it hard to explain to the judge why he left Guatemala during the civil war of the 1980s. His father and cousin, he said, were killed by left-wing guerrillas. "I need to be able to tell what happened to me in my own words," explained Perez. Perez, a 44-year-old asylum seeker, is among the Maya immigrants seeking the expertise of a singular interpreter service that was formally inaugurated Wednesday in Los Angeles. The nonprofit service, known as the Maya Various Interpretation Services and Indigenous Organization Network (MAYAVISION), is an association of 30 interpreters trained in various Mayan tongues. The group hopes to serve the estimated 20,000 Maya Indians in Southern California, especially in their dealings with immigration and other courts. The need is clearly there. Since they began arriving in large numbers in the early 1980s, Maya immigrants have faced a huge translation gap. Latinos and non-Latinos alike assume that they are fluent in Spanish, but many speak only limited Spanish. Community leaders say many Mayas have been deported or thrown in jail because they don't understand the Spanish translation and can't plead their cases adequately. "Sometimes our people are too proud to say they cannot express themselves well in Spanish," explained Victor Lopez, a flower-picker-turned-professional-interpreter who heads the association. He has already served as an indigenous interpreter in cases from Florida to Nebraska to California. Making matters worse are the Mayas' general poverty, their lack of education and their unfamiliarity with the U.S. legal system. Typically, they work in the fields or in apparel sweatshops. A huge need for indigenous translation is anticipated in coming months, as Perez and thousands of other Guatemalans complete their political asylum applications under the special terms of a 1997 law. A growing awareness of the translation gap prompted community activists to begin establishing a system of indigenous interpreters. Oxfam America and the California Consumer Protection Foundation chipped in with grants for training and other costs. Eventually, a core of 30 qualified translators in various Mayan tongues- almost two dozen Mayan languages are spoken in Guatemala-came together. Since few have mastered English, most use the two-translator "relay" technique-with one person interpreting from Mayan to Spanish and another providing Spanish-to-English translation. Many of the indigenous translators have been tested and deemed qualified by Berlitz, which has a contract to provide interpreters to immigration courts nationwide. Judges in criminal and civil cases may also order the use of indigenous interpreters when needed. A major hurdle, activists say, is that many immigrants don't know about the interpreters. The new association hopes to publicize them. The interpreter service can be reached through El Rescate, the Central American social service group, at (213) 387-3284. 7 Dead in Van in California Desert, (posted 8/14/98) Thursday, August 13, 1998; 3:05 p.m. EDT SALTON CITY, Calif. (AP) -- The bodies of seven people believed to be illegal immigrants were found in a van in the desert north of the Mexican border today, apparently killed by heat exhaustion. The people-five men, a woman and a teen-age boy-appeared to have been dead for at least three days, said Bill Strassberger, spokesman for the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Daytime high temperatures have been well over 100 degrees in the area; the high Wednesday in nearby Indio was 107. The van was found near a remote two-lane highway that runs beside the Salton Sea, a route used increasingly by "coyotes´´ who smuggle illegal immigrants in to the country for a fee. Someone phoned authorities after finding the bodies today off California Highway 78 near a row of utility poles, Strassberger said. "The assumption was they died of heat exposure,´´ he said. © Copyright 1998 The Associated Press Special Committee On Decolonization Reaffirms Inalienable Right Of People Of Puerto Rico To Self-Determination and Independence, (posted 8/13/98)
Resolution Adopted by Roll Call Vote of 10-0-6 The Special Committee on decolonization this morning reaffirmed the inalienable right of the people of Puerto Rico to self-determination and independence, in conformity with the 1960 General Assembly resolution 1514 (XV), and the application of the fundamental principles of that resolution. That action was taken through the adoption by a roll call vote of 10 in favour to none against, with 6 abstentions (Antigua and Barbuda, Chile, India, Indonesia, Russian Federation and Venezuela), of a resolution under which the Committee expressed its hope, and that of the international community, that the Government of the United States would assume its responsibility of expediting a process that would allow the Puerto Rican people to fully exercise that right in accordance with that Assembly resolution and the Special Committee's resolutions and decisions on Puerto Rico. Statements in explanation of position were made by the representatives of Cuba, Russian Federation, United Republic of Tanzania, Bolivia, Venezuela, Iraq, Papua New Guinea and Cote d'Ivoire. Earlier in the meeting, statements on the question of Puerto Rico were made by representatives of the following organizations: National Committee of the Socialist Workers Party in the United States; Estadistas ante la ONU; President of the United Statehooders Organization of New York, Inc.; El Congreso Nacional Hostosiano; University Students of San Sebastian, Puertorriquenos Pro-Estadidad; Cidrenos Pro-Autodeterminacion; Puerto Rico Mi Patria; New York City Chapter of the National Committee to Free Puerto Rican Prisoners of War; Liga de Ciudadanos Latinamericanos Unidos; National Advancement for Puerto Rican Culture; United States Statehood for Puerto Rico, Inc.; and General Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church. Slain Teen's Family to Receive $1.9 million From Government, (posted 8/13/98)
EL PASO-The federal government will pay $1.9 million to the family of a teen-ager shot to death by a Marine last year on the U.S.-Mexico border, the family's attorney said this morning. The family of Esequiel Hernandez Jr. signed the settlement agreement with the U.S. Justice Department and the Navy, according to a written statement from attorney Bill Weinacht of Pecos. Hernandez's older brother, Margarito Hernandez, said he felt the settlement showed the government had acknowledged the shooting had been wrong. The military has always maintained the incident was justified. "If they accepted the deal, they accepted it was a wrong thing that happened," Hernandez said. He added the money did not ease the family's loss. "It's pretty hard. Nothing is going to bring him back. But at least it will help my parents," Hernandez said. "It will help them financially, at least. I'm glad something was done." Hernandez referred questions about the settlement's details to Weinacht, who did not return a phone call this morning from The Associated Press seeking comment. The Navy also did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment this morning. Justice Department spokeswoman Chris Watney had no immediate comment on the settlement, which is covered by the federal privacy act. Hernandez, 18, was killed May 20, 1997, in Redford, 200 miles southeast of El Paso, after crossing paths with a four-man Marine patrol conducting anti-drug surveillance on the Rio Grande at the request of the Border Patrol. Military officials said Hernandez, who was herding his goats, fired twice at the Marines with his .22-caliber rifle and had raised the gun a third time when the Marine team leader shot him once with an M-16. Hernandez's family and civil rights activists have long disputed the military's account of the shooting, which prompted a national outcry and led to the suspension of armed military patrols on the border. Family members said the teen, who had no criminal history, would never knowingly have shot at anyone. They said he carried the rifle only to protect his livestock from wild dogs and occasionally to shoot targets. The Rev. Melvin LaFollette, a Redford activist, said the settlement was "one more piece of evidence that there was total wrongdoing in this case by various arms of the government." "Innocent parties don't pass out millions gratuitously," he said. Federal and state grand juries that investigated the incident declined to indict Cpl. Clemente Banuelos, who fired the fatal shot, or any of the other three Marines. An investigation by Joint Task Force 6, an El Paso-based federal agency that coordinates anti-drug missions between the military and civilian authorities, also concluded the Marines acted within mission guidelines. © Copyright 1998, Cox Interactive Media, Inc. 76-mile Trek to Block Nuclear Dump Ends in Texas, (posted 8/13/98) SIERRA BLANCA, Texas (Reuters) - About 1,500 U.S. and Mexican citizens ended a four-day, 76-mile walk Sunday to fight the building of a low-level nuclear waste dump in this small west Texas town about 30 miles from the border. The dump, which could be licensed by the Texas Radioactive Regulatory Commission by Sept. 15, would receive mostly medical waste from Texas and at least two other states. "If the radioactive material leaks into the Rio Grande, it could affect the water that we use in this entire region," said Socorro Castio of El Paso, about 90 miles to the west. "I have sore ankles, sore feet, but the issue motivated me to keep going for the sake of future generations." Opponents say the dump would be located on a fault line and radioactive material could leak into the Rio Grande and underground water used in both the United States and Mexico. Supporters say the waste would be safely sealed into leakproof containers. Joel Reyes of Ciudad Juarez, which faces El Paso across the Rio Grande, said protesters saw the planned dump "as a racist matter" directed against poor and badly informed Hispanics. "But (people in Mexico) are starting to learn," he added. "All the small towns in northern Mexico-when we were arriving, the people received us, offering us water, fruit. The bells of the churches tolled. It was very stimulating to us." Some in Sierra Blanca favor the dump. "It will bring jobs, certainly. Scientists have told us it will be safe," said Angel Natera, one of the town's fewer than 1,000 residents. The local unemployment rate is about 10 percent, and studies have shown the region to be among the poorest in the nation. Chicano/a Studies Coalition Launches Counter Offensive Against UCLA's Onslaught on Chicano Studies, (posted 8/11/98) Where: Press Conference, Front Steps of Murphy Hall, UCLA Main Campus When: August 12, 1998 @ 10:30 a.m. In response to the onslaught of regressive legislation that amounts to a Mexican community place under further siege, a stronghold of community based people, comprising high school and college students, school teachers and professors, labor and community organizers, have mobilized to challenge assaultive policies and resulting inequities in educational access. The Coalition for Chicana/o Studies (C.C.C.S.) is actively organizing to advance the educational attainment of the increasingly young majority of Mexican people in Los Angeles county and throughout the greater state. Five years after the monumental hunger strike for Chicano Studies at UCLA, C.C. C.S. intends to breathe life back to the unfulfilled hunger strike agreement that gave way to the Cesar E. Chávez center for Chicano Studies. As present conditions at UCLA are far worse that those initially served as impetus for the massive mobilization of 1993. Once again faced with closure of the Chicano Studies library, with no director permanently appointed, and confronted by an unrelenting facade of repititous disparities. The Coalition for Chicana/o Studies will hold a press conference on August 12th at 10:30 am on the steps of UCLA's Murphy Hall. This press conference is the foreground to a newly formed and strategic movement, that will propel educational social justice and overall equity for the viable demographic majority in Los Angeles and beyond. Further information can be access at our website: www.chicanostudies.org.
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