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... More articles on page 2... Three Messengers Of Truth, (posted 2/25/99) FROM UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE This month, indigenous people throughout the Americas will commemorate the 500th anniversary of the birth of the "Great Speaker" Cuauhtemoc, the last leader of what is commonly referred to as the Aztec empire. His feet were burned by Spaniards in search of legendary gold, and he is honored as "the great spirit of resistance," says Chicana elder Enriqueta Vasquez. His enduring message will be commemorated, along with his birth, on Feb. 23. Cuauhtemoc left a mandate to the people of Mexico to hide their "sun," or knowledge, inside their homes and hearts until it was time to once again reveal it. The treasures the Spaniards had heard so much of was not gold, but the wisdom and traditions of the people. Now there is a rebirth of indigenous language and culture throughout the Americas, and the families and elders charged with preserving the traditions are revealing the teachings. For instance, in the United States and Mexico there is a phenomenal rebirth of the Nahuatl language and culture. It is now time to move beyond the "spirit of resistance" to the spirit of creation. It is also a time when "we project our hidden knowledge into history," says Noble Peace laureate Rigoberta Menchu. In today's flourishing of indigenous cultures stands another messenger, the late Hopi elder Thomas Banyacya, who was sent by his own elders to warn the United Nations of prophecies of dire consequences for the world. He was finally allowed to address the U.N. in the early 1990s. The elders saw that the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were a fulfillment of their ancient prophecies about the "gourd of ashes falling on the Earth two times." Following a historic gathering of Hopi elders, the mission of bearing the message of peace and the warnings to humanity was bestowed on Banyacya. Many indigenous people, including Chicanos, turned to him to "strengthen our traditions," said Vasquez. "Just to be around him was to be absorbed by his knowing." These messengers are often the seers of a community, or are sent by the seers, or they bear the collective memory of people as seeds of both the past and the future-in the hopes of avoiding destruction. The knowledge of Cuauhtemoc, Banyacya or Menchu is not found in books and often contests what has been considered truth by most anthropologists. Their knowledge is memory and knowing passed on from elders and families, through prayer and around sacred fires. It is a collective and historical memory held inside songs and stories, and often contested by many scholars and scoffed at by scientists. And it's the kind of collective ownership of memory that would lead some "experts" to call Menchu a liar. Recently, anthropologist David Stoll disputed facts in Menchu's 1983 book, "I, Rigoberta Menchu," her testimonial of the civil war in Guatemala, which spanned roughly 30 years from the '60s through the '80s, that claimed 100,000 lives. Also, 40,000 people were "disappeared" as result of this civil war, and millions were either displaced or were emotionally and physically violated. Menchu recently told us that her book was a document written under the duress of the war; thus, she omitted certain names and assumed those memories as her own to protect others from being killed or disappeared. She also plans to rewrite the book, which will include witnesses to corroborate her account. Both of us interviewed her during those times when she was exiled to Mexico from Guatemala, clandestinely traveling back and forth to her homeland and still openly shedding tears for her family. "I escaped, carrying those living testimonies." "This is not a personal individual memory," she said. "They are fighting against collective memory." The "They" she refers to are those who would argue that Menchu's account as a messenger of collective memory erases the credibility of the 25,000 survivors who have testified before Guatemala's truth commission over the past several years to the atrocities that eliminated a generation of elders, leaders, women and dreamers. We believe that the story of one person, who is recounting from memory, does not invalidate what has happened to an entire country. And to those who would subject Menchu to hypercritical questionings, we would ask: Where were those tough questions for Presidents Bush and Reagan, who warred upon Central America based on continual lies told to Congress and the American people? It smacks of a selective and convenient morality with a harshness that is better deserving of our own elected officials. This month, Guatemala's truth commission will release the testimonies of thousands and the memories contained within. And this time, says Menchu, the perpetrators will not rewrite history. "It is written in history ... the truth of collective memory," she said. The bringing forth of that memory and knowledge is what Cuauhtemoc spoke of. This time, the feet of those who bring it forth will not be burned. COPYRIGHT 1999 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 87194-7904, 505-242-7282 or XColumn@aol.com Gonzales's direct line is 505-248-0092 or PatiGonzaJ@aol.com Texas Universities Chancellors Reveal Shocking Failure of K-12 Education, (posted 2/25/99) by Nicole Vargas (2/18/99) Yesterday, before the Texas Senate Finance Committee, six major Texas universities revealed the shocking failure of Texas public education in preparing students for college. For example, a study conducted by the U.T. Austin Office of Student Affairs Research revealed that there were 93,145 Hispanic 18-year-olds in Texas in 1996-97. Of those, only 54,167 were high school graduates. Thus, the potential pool of Hispanic college applicants was reduced by approximately 40,000, or 50% by failure to graduate from high school. Then the pool of college-eligible applicants was further reduced by approximately another 40,000 students because only 13, 529 Hispanic students took the SAT test. Of these, only 5,870 scored above 900 and were the top 40% of their class, which would mean that they are well prepared for college. In total, out of 93,145 Hispanic 18-year-olds, only 5, 870 or 6.3% were ready for college. This leaves approximately 90,000 Hispanic students in the state that are not ready for college. The same goes for African-American students. T he study revealed that that there were 39,071 African-American 18-year-olds in Texas in 1996-97. Approximately 22,844 graduated from high school. Of those, only 7,427 took the SAT test. Only 2,226 students scored above 900, putting them in the top 40% of their class. So according to these results, only 2,226 students out of 39,071 African-American students were ready for college. For Anglo-American students, the numbers weren't much higher. The study showed that there were 156,180 Anglo-American 18-year-olds in Texas in 1996-97. Of those, only 98,899 were high school graduates. Only 41,373 of the high school graduates took the SAT, and 27,706 scored above 900, leaving 128,474 students unprepared for college. Chancellors representing the universities included Barry B. Thompson, of the Texas A&M University System, Lamar G. Urbanovsky, of the Texas State University System, John T. Montford, of the Texas Tech University System, Arthur K. Smith, of the University of Houston System, Alfred F. Hurley, of the University of North Texas System, and William H. Cunningham, of the University of Texas System. Could This Mean Massive Failure of Education in Texas? Allan E. Parker, Jr., President of the Texas Justice Foundation, a non-profit public interest litigation group, calls on the Hispanic Caucus of Texas to do something to reform public education. Education insiders will tell you that even if the amount of money spent on education is doubled, no progress will be made if we do not change the way we are currently operating, and these massive failure tests will not improve. The Texas Justice Foundation Raises Questions How can the Coalition for Public Schools say that its protecting children when 95% of Hispanic children are not ready for college by the time they are 18? School vouchers cannot "destroy public education" because it is already destroying the lives of children. According to the Texas Justice Foundation, if the current trends continue average household incomes in Texas are expected to decline by $3,000 in constant dollars by the year 2030. It could also provide for the emergence of a growing proportion of unskilled, under-educated citizens who cannot meet the demand of a technology-based workplace, more public spending on prisons, welfare, and Medicaid, and overall, it will put Texas in the backseat in the highly competitive global marketplace. Perpsective On the Military, (posted 2/25/99) A Sound Recruitment Plan Proposal to open Army service to high school dropouts would ease way for many young Latinos. By FRANK DEL OLMO Secretary of the Army Louis Caldera has never met a smart ex-Marine I know named George Gutierrez. They share similar personalities, though. Both are among the most earnest, hard-working men I've encountered. But if you'd met them in the 1980s, you'd have concluded they were headed in completely opposite directions. A native of Boyle Heights, Caldera was a stellar student at Monte Vista High School who went on to West Point and, after military service, to both the law and business schools at Harvard. In 1992, he was elected to the California Assembly, serving five years in the Legislature before resigning to take a job with the Clinton administration. The president appointed him Army secretary last July. Gutierrez, on the other hand, dropped out of Canoga Park High School in the early '80s. He started hanging around with a street gang, got into trouble and wound up in the custody of the California Youth Authority. But Gutierrez is no loser. He turned his life around and today would fit almost anyone's definition of a model citizen. He is, in fact, precisely the kind of young person Caldera had in mind last week when he proposed a potentially controversial change in the U.S. Army's recruiting practices. Caldera is concerned about a recent drop in Army recruitment. The service fell 2,300 recruits short in the quarter that ended last Dec. 31, and if the trend continues, the Army will fall short of its annual recruitment goal of 74,500 men and women. To avoid future shortfalls, Caldera wants to make it easier for young people who don't have high school diplomas to join the service. Among other things, he figures that change would make it easier for a growing population of young Latinos to volunteer for the Army. Latinos have a long and honorable history of military service to this country. The example most often cited is the 37 Latinos who have been awarded the Medal of Honor. An evermore revealing statistic, I think, is that during the Vietnam War, when so many young Americans tried to avoid the military, almost 20% of our troops had Spanish surnames. At the time, Latinos made up only 5% of the national population. Young Latinos still consider military service an attractive option, according to surveys conducted by the Pentagon. But despite their interest, Latinos are underrepresented in the armed services, comprising roughly 7% of active-duty personnel compared to 11% of the population. Some Pentagon personnel specialists worry that part of the reason is that new, higher recruitment standards-particularly the requirement that 90% of Army and Navy recruits have high school diplomas-work against Latino youngsters. Latinos have a higher dropout rate than the general population, roughly 40%. Some in Congress and the Pentagon worry, not without reason, that a young man or woman who can't finish high school is also at risk to not complete a two-year hitch in the service. But Caldera replies that "the Army is an institution that should not write off young people," and points out that for Latinos, cultural factors may play a role in dropout statistics. Many, for instance, leave school early not from lack of interest, but to help their families by going to work. That is what Gutierrez, who is 37 now, did when he left Canoga Park High at 16. But he didn't give up on school. Even while in CYA custody, he continued to study for a high school diploma. But his real break came when he joined the Marines in 1986. "The experience did a lot for me," he says of a four-year stint that included duty on Okinawa and the Marine Corps Air Station at El Toro. He not only earned the equivalent of a high school diploma, but got a bachelor's degree in business while in the service. "There were just so many opportunities that opened up for me because of my service experience," Gutierrez says, including the chance to work for Michelin's North American division after he left the Marines. "They look for people with military backgrounds. They believe the discipline you learn carries over into future work habits." Today, the former street kid from the Valley has a comfortable middle-class home in Greenville, S.C., where he is a sales manager for Michelin. And he's as good a reason as I can think of to back Caldera's plan to get the Army to take a chance on school dropouts who have potential. I can't pretend to be objective about Gutierrez, of course. He's my brother-in-law. But even if we weren't related, I'd be proud of him. He's a living example of the young men and women who could-if given the chance-use military experience to turn their lives around. Frank Del Olmo Is an Associate Editor of The Times and a Regular Columnist. Three Messengers Of Truth, (posted 2/25/99) FOR RELEASE: WEEK OF FEBRUARY 19, 1999 This month, indigenous people throughout the Americas will commemorate the 500th anniversary of the birth of the "Great Speaker" Cuauhtemoc, the last leader of what is commonly referred to as the Aztec empire. His feet were burned by Spaniards in search of legendary gold, and he is honored as "the great spirit of resistance," says Chicana elder Enriqueta Vasquez. His enduring message will be commemorated, along with his birth, on Feb. 23. Cuauhtemoc left a mandate to the people of Mexico to hide their "sun," or knowledge, inside their homes and hearts until it was time to once again reveal it. The treasures the Spaniards had heard so much of was not gold, but the wisdom and traditions of the people. Now there is a rebirth of indigenous language and culture throughout the Americas, and the families and elders charged with preserving the traditions are revealing the teachings. For instance, in the United States and Mexico there is a phenomenal rebirth of the Nahuatl language and culture. It is now time to move beyond the "spirit of resistance" to the spirit of creation. It is also a time when "we project our hidden knowledge into history," says Noble Peace laureate Rigoberta Menchu. In today's flourishing of indigenous cultures stands another messenger, the late Hopi elder Thomas Banyacya, who was sent by his own elders to warn the United Nations of prophecies of dire consequences for the world. He was finally allowed to address the U.N. in the early 1990s. The elders saw that the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were a fulfillment of their ancient prophecies about the "gourd of ashes falling on the Earth two times." Following a historic gathering of Hopi elders, the mission of bearing the message of peace and the warnings to humanity was bestowed on Banyacya. Many indigenous people, including Chicanos, turned to him to "strengthen our traditions," said Vasquez. "Just to be around him was to be absorbed by his knowing." These messengers are often the seers of a community, or are sent by the seers, or they bear the collective memory of people as seeds of both the past and the future-in the hopes of avoiding destruction. The knowledge of Cuauhtemoc, Banyacya or Menchu is not found in books and often contests what has been considered truth by most anthropologists. Their knowledge is memory and knowing passed on from elders and families, through prayer and around sacred fires. It is a collective and historical memory held inside songs and stories, and often contested by many scholars and scoffed at by scientists. And it's the kind of collective ownership of memory that would lead some "experts" to call Menchu a liar. Recently, anthropologist David Stoll disputed facts in Menchu's 1983 book, "I, Rigoberta Menchu," her testimonial of the civil war in Guatemala, which spanned roughly 30 years from the '60s through the '80s, that claimed 100,000 lives. Also, 40,000 people were "disappeared" as result of this civil war, and millions were either displaced or were emotionally and physically violated. Menchu recently told us that her book was a document written under the duress of the war; thus, she omitted certain names and assumed those memories as her own to protect others from being killed or disappeared. She also plans to rewrite the book, which will include witnesses to corroborate her account. Both of us interviewed her during those times when she was exiled to Mexico from Guatemala, clandestinely traveling back and forth to her homeland and still openly shedding tears for her family. "I escaped, carrying those living testimonies." "This is not a personal individual memory," she said. "They are fighting against collective memory." The "They" she refers to are those who would argue that Menchu's account as a messenger of collective memory erases the credibility of the 25,000 survivors who have testified before Guatemala's truth commission over the past several years to the atrocities that eliminated a generation of elders, leaders, women and dreamers. We believe that the story of one person, who is recounting from memory, does not invalidate what has happened to an entire country. And to those who would subject Menchu to hypercritical questionings, we would ask: Where were those tough questions for Presidents Bush and Reagan, who warred upon Central America based on continual lies told to Congress and the American people? It smacks of a selective and convenient morality with a harshness that is better deserving of our own elected officials. This month, Guatemala's truth commission will release the testimonies of thousands and the memories contained within. And this time, says Menchu, the perpetrators will not rewrite history. "It is written in history ... the truth of collective memory," she said. The bringing forth of that memory and knowledge is what Cuauhtemoc spoke of. This time, the feet of those who bring it forth will not be burned. COPYRIGHT 1999 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 87194-7904, 505-242-7282 or XColumn@aol.com Gonzales's direct line is 505-248-0092 or PatiGonzaJ@aol.com Hispanic Leadership Emphasized Prepare to be Majority, Speaker Tells LULAC, (posted 2/22/99) By GUY H. LAWRENCE On the verge of becoming a majority in Texas in the next century, Hispanics need to be ready to assume more leadership positions, a political activist told an audience Friday. Based on U.S. Census estimates, Hispanics will become the majority population in Texas by 2008, said Jose Angel Gutierrez, a founder of La Raza Unida Party and now a political science professor at University of Texas at Arlington. "We have this bright future because we have the critical mass," Gutierrez said. "We have the means now to take government and to lead. We have to get busy to work on our skills, our abilities, our competency to build that social capital, so we can be excellent leaders." Gutierrez was the keynote speaker at a League of United Latin American Citizens banquet at Omni Bayfront Hotel that honored outstanding community leaders. Census estimates say Hispanics already are the majority population in California, Gutierrez said. Gutierrez said Hispanics have to rise to excellence rather than sink to mediocrity, and to address the problems of the Hispanic community in areas such as education. "We have had problems for a long, long time - problems that others have not been able to solve," Gutierrez said. "Now it is our turn and we will solve it. It is our future." The banquet was the culmination of National LULAC Week, which celebrates the civil rights organization's 70th anniversary. LULAC, which was founded in Corpus Christi in 1929, has become the oldest and largest Hispanic organization in the country. Gutierrez, who also is a lawyer, said La Raza Unida Party worked off the success of LULAC in pushing for bilingual education, early childhood education, scholarships and school desegregation. La Raza Unida Party was formed in 1970 to challenge the state Democratic Party. "The 70 years of struggle that they carried on, we stand on their shoulders, to move their agenda a little further," Gutierrez said. Staff writer Guy H. Lawrence can be reached at 886-3792 or by e-mail at lawrenceg@caller.com Slave Labour Not Uncommon in Richest Country on Earth, (posted 2/22/99) You don't have to look too far to find abuse of domestic workers in the US
WASHINGTON-Maria is about 60 years old and comes from Brazil. The last 19 years she has lived in a roomy villa in the affluent Washington D.C. suburb Chevy Chase - and was treated like a slave. All that time, Maria was working as a maid for a Brazilian businessman and his family. They beat her, provided bad food, forced her to wear shabby clothes and refused to let her off the property. Yeshehareg is from Ethiopia. A compatriot who was working at the headquarters of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) brought her to Washington D.C. eight years ago to work as his maid. He forced her to work seven days a week, isolated her from other Ethiopians by threatening her with violence should she contact them, and when she complained, he beat her. Her salary: 3 cents an hour. Another Maria, from the Philippines, found her way to Washington three years ago with the help of a friend. She was supposed to work as nanny for a family of Filipino diplomats, earning 20 dollars for a 40 hour week. The family forced her to work a 116-hour week and paid her 1.70 dollars an hour. These are just three examples of modern slavery in the United States, as investigated and uncovered by the Washington Post. According to various civil rights organisations, churches and lawyers, such cases are not rare. Each year, thanks to a special Immigration and Naturalisation Service (INS) regulation some 3,800 domestic servants are brought into the United States every year by diplomats and employees of organisations like the World Bank and IMF. Many of these servants are treated well by their employers. Others are not. What they all have in common is that they are totally dependent on their employers, to whom their own visas and work permits are tied. So if they ever manage to complain to the police such people are almost always deported. The IMF and World Bank pretend to be helpless: They can only request that their employees treat and pay their servants properly, but have no way of checking whether such requests are met. The same is also true - only more so - of diplomats, who are immune from prosecution in their host country, regardless of the charges. But the problem of slave labour is by no means limited to the cities of Washington and New York, home to the IMF, the World Bank, the United Nations and numerous embassies. Scandals about abused domestic servants regularly make the newspaper headlines in the United States. In Los Angeles, police released 70 Thai women, who were chained up and forced to work in a sweatshop where they made clothes. In New York, authorities arrested the ringleaders of a gang that imprisoned 60 deaf and dumb Mexicans in two apartments only letting them out to go and beg for money. In Florida, authorities broke up a Mexican gang that used false promises to lure some 20 young Mexican women to the United States, where they were put to work as prostitutes in migrant worker camps. Some of the women were just 14. They were treated like slaves, raped and beaten. The United States has to banish such cases of modern slavery from the front pages of the newspapers and from the history books, Attorney General Janet Reno said after the scandal became public. But such appeals are not much good. Only recently, attorneys have filed lawsuits claiming exploitation against leading clothes manufacturers such as Tommy Hilfinger, Gap and Oshkosh and leading U.S. department stores. The attorneys are acting on behalf of 50,000 men and women from China, the Philippines, Bangladesh and Thailand who are forced to work 70 hours a week in crowded camps set up on the Mariana Islands, a U.S. dependency in the Pacific. Protests against such production methods are increasing in the United States. Students at George Washington University in Washington D.C. and Duke University in North Carolina recently protested that the colleges business partners did not always reveal where the popular T-shirts and baseball caps bearing the universities' seals are made. "But that's important to know, so we can be sure that no one is exploited in the name of our university," said Kyle Crafton, who helped organise the protests. Reno takes a similar view and has set up a task force to focus on the issue of modern day slave labour. Latino Lawmakers Study Their Spanish, (posted 2/22/99) Some were fluent as kids but stumble today BY HALLYE JORDAN SACRAMENTO-Elected to state office in historic numbers, pursued by Spanish-language media and exalted as they accompanied Gov. Gray Davis on his fence-mending trip to Mexico, Latino lawmakers have been thrust into a spotlight that leaves some a little uneasy about shortcomings in their Spanish-speaking skills. The products of public school systems that emphasized English, and immigrant parents who wanted their children to assimilate, many of these legislators grew up speaking Spanish as preschoolers but now find themselves wrestling with rusty phrases and verb conjugations. As a result, some Latino lawmakers are scrambling to brush up on their espanol by immersing themselves in Spanish courses in Mexico or surrounding themselves with aides fluent in the language. 'It's part of your culture, your ethnicity," said AssemblyRepublican leader Rod Pacheco of Riverside, the first Latino GOP leader in the Legislature-and one who does not speak Spanish. "The fact you speak it, or don't, doesn't define you, but I think the pressure to know it is stronger with the growing number of Latinos in California." Harry Pachon, president of the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute in Claremont, calls the language of Latinos educated in the United States "espanol de casa," or "house Spanish." 'It's what people like myself and some of the elected officials spoke," Pachon said. "We spoke Spanish at home. But it's the Spanish of 'Pass the salad' or 'Mom, I don't want to go to bed.' " Now, all grown up and sitting in positions of power, some of these Latino lawmakers are struggling to discuss complicated policy issues such as health care. Immersion course Assemblyman Gil Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, headed to the border shortly after the November elections to immerse himself in an intensive, two-week Spanish course at the Center for Bilingual Multicultural Studies in Cuernavaca. Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, California's first Latino elected to a statewide office since 1871, will head to the same school for a one-week course later this month. Neither lawmaker is using state funds to pay for the trips. In between courses and time spent poring over Spanish-language publications or listening to Latino radio and TV stations, several lawmakers have surrounded themselves with Spanish-speaking aides who help them perfect pat phrases when speaking to Latino audiences. "There is a concerted effort," said one longtime Democratic Latina aide. "All of the members are looking around and seeing they need to have a bilingual staff person, whether it is here in the Capitol or in their district office. That person takes on the role of providing some translations, tidbits and insight into the Spanish-speaking audience." The Assembly Republican Caucus has a full-time translator on staff and a Spanish-language Web site. Michael Bustamante, Davis' spokesman, says the governor relies on staffers for key Spanish phrases-although Bustamante concedes he himself is rusty. Skills run the gamut Xochitl Arellano, a reporter for the Univision Spanish-language television network's Sacramento affiliate, said Spanish skills among Latino lawmakers run the gamut, just as they did in 1988, when there were only five. "It was the same story then: Some could speak, some couldn't," she said. "But now that there are 24 of them, there is an array of them that want to and need to, especially if they are in a high-profile position." Armando Botello, a reporter for the Los Angeles-based La Opinion newspaper, said he prefers interviewing Latino legislators in English because they are more at ease and more eloquent. But he said the Spanish skills of most lawmakers have noticeably improved during the two years the newspaper's Capitol bureau has been open. Both reporters said they doubt Spanish-speaking audiences are offended that some Latino lawmakers cannot speak Spanish. "Of course they expect you to speak Spanish if you have a Latino surname," Arellano said. But (they understand) . . .you can't just all of a sudden speak it just because it's something you need today." Several Latino lawmakers have consciously worked to retain their Spanish: Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa, a former Los Angeles labor organizer, "never fully let it go back when he was a kid," said spokeswoman Elena Stern. Some, such as Assemblywoman Denise Moreno Ducheny, D-National City, took Spanish immersion courses in college to retain the language of their grandparents. Others, such as Sen. Hilda Solis, D-El Monte, kept her Spanish skills current by constantly conversing with her family in their primary language. 'The advantage was my parents still speak Spanish to me", Solis said. The importance of speaking Spanish isn't lost on non-Latinolawmakers, either. Assemblymen Peter Frusetta, the folksy Republican rancher who represents Hollister, and Mike Honda, a San Jose Democrat, speak fluent Spanish. "It has served me well," said Frusetta, who learned Spanish from his rancher father. In a district in which half the voters have Spanish surnames, "I probably wouldn't be in this office today if not for that." Honda learned Spanish when he joined the Peace Corps in El Salvador in 1965, and stuck with it. But he understand too well why many Latino lawmakers may not have Spanish skills: He regrets that he cannot speak fluent Japanese, the language he spoke as a child. "Each language is a world," Honda said. "So, if you know more than one, you walk in more than one world." Luis Arteaga, associate director of the Latino Issues Forum in San Francisco, said Latino lawmakers are trying to improve their Spanish because Spanish-speaking voters are flocking to the polls in record-breaking numbers. In the past four years, 1 million new Latino voters have registered to vote. In the November general election, Latinos made up 13 percent of the voter turnout. 'I think, pragmatically and politically, many Latino legislators are having to reach into non-English-speaking voting bases that traditionally they did not have to reach out to," Arteaga said. "That's true for all candidates, but I think Latino legislators are under an intense scrutiny." Pressure mounting The pressure to perfect Spanish skills has been mounting since 1996, when Cruz Bustamante became the first Latino Assembly speaker in California. The rise of a Latino to such an important post sparked a drive by Spanish-language media to cover the Capitol, set up Sacramento bureaus and assign full-time reporters to the beat. The emergence of Latinos as a major voting bloc was most apparent last November. Not only did candidates for governor hold the first-ever bilingual debate, but also non-Spanish-speaking candidates turned to bilingual family members to convey their message to an important segment of voters. GOP candidate Dan Lungren's daughter did a campaign ad in Spanish, as did the wife of Democrativ primary candidate Al Checchi. "In the precious scramble for votes, if you have two legislators you kind of like and one speaks forcefully in Spanish, that may separate you from the other candidate,' Arteaga said. And politicians know that. The Spanish-speaking skills of Texas Gov. George W. Bush, a likely candidate for president in 2000, are not lost on other politicians who know they need to court California's growing Latino population if they want to win in this key state. Predicted Arteaga: "Al Gore is probably practicing on his Spanish right now, too." JSRI Home | Community Connections | Latino News Archives
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