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From Minority to Mainstream, Latinos Find Their Voice, (posted 1/26/99) By Gregory Rodriguez The Washington Post LOS ANGELES. Latino Americans have never fit neatly into the civil rights mold. To begin with, the wildly heterogeneous population of Mexicans, Cubans, Puerto Ricans and other Central and South Americans does not have a shared history or common American experience to draw on. For three decades, Latino advocacy groups and first-generation politicians tried in vain to squeeze this burgeoning population into the guise of a single racial-interest group. The Chicano movement of the 1960s sought to imitate the successful strategies of black leaders. And, as recently as 1996, Latino activists organized a march on Washington that was deliberately reminiscent of the civil rights era. But their attempts have always appeared little more than derivative. Their political style wasn't forged from the Latino experience, which was never as starkly defined as that of African Americans'. But now that a growing electorate has given them greater clout, Latino politicians-foremost among them local politicians in states with large Latino populations such as California and Texas-are developing their own style and agenda. While in the past, their adherence to minority-style politics brought them into direct competition with other minorities over set asides or federal "minority dollars," more and more Latino officials are choosing to highlight broader concerns, many of which they share with mainstream America. Last December, the most influential Latino official here in California declared that it was time to move beyond 1960s-style confrontational politics. During his swearing-in for his second term as speaker of the California State Assembly, Antonio R. Villaraigosa, who was once a militant campus activist, went out of his way to reject what he called "the politics of protest." He quoted his late mother's admonition that it is "not enough to always be against. When you grow up, you must also be for something." Within the past few years, Latinos have indeed made historic strides in California. In addition to Villaraigosa, the lieutenant governor, the assembly minority leader and the senate majority leader are Latinos. The number of Latinos in both Houses of the state legislature--24 and growing-has changed the nature of Latino politics. No longer content to vie for special attention, Latino officials are assuming responsibility and leadership for the entire state. And while the demographic shifts that have led to this political transformation are local, there are now signs of this new, more confident Latino leadership all the way across the country in Washington. This shift in Latino politics is a sign of maturation. The new Latino leaders represent the second generation in elected offices. It's hard to believe when you look at the 17-member Hispanic Congressional Caucus that it was just over 20 years ago, in 1977, that Edward Roybal, California's first Latino congressman, approached House Speaker Tip O'Neill with the idea of forming a caucus. "Where are you going to hold the meetings," the speaker teased Roybal, "in a telephone booth?" The bipartisan caucus began that year with only five voting members-four Democrats and one Republican. But the path of those Democratic members is instructive. The changes in Latino politics are clearly symbolized by the generational shift from Henry B. Gonzalez, an irascible Texas liberal, who retired this year after 37 years in the House, to his son and successor, former judge Charles Gonzalez. The younger Gonzalez calls himself more of a consensus builder than his father. "The era that my father grew up in, in which his principles and values were formed, was totally different than my own," says Charles Gonzalez, who represents San Antonio. "He was a product of a time when discrimination was open and obvious. We are products of a different process." Another House member from the 1970s made the transition out of old-style minority politics within his own lifetime-by switching parties. Last year, New York Puerto Rican member Herman Badillo, who served in the House from 1971 to 1977, declared that he was joining Republican Party because, he argued, the Democrats have taken minority groups for granted and held them to a lower standard of excellence. Likewise, E "Kika" de la Garza, who represented Texas's Lower Rio Grande Valley from 1964 to 1996, has been succeeded by Ruben Hinojosa, a fellow Democrat but a stridently pro-business candidate who also happens to be one of the wealthiest members of the House. So perhaps it is no surprise to find that this year, Roybal's daughter Lucille Roybal-Allard, who is taking the helm of the Hispanic Congressional Caucus, is hoping to redefine its image and to convince Washington that "Latino issues and American issues are one and the same." For instance, in the past, when the Caucus weighed in on education issues, they focused almost exclusively on the preservation of bilingual education. This year, however, the caucus will put new school construction and class-size reduction near the top of its agenda. In the words of the Los Angeles Democrat, who is now in her fourth House term, "We're going to deal with broader issues and not be so narrow." That's a sentiment that can be heard more and more among Latino officials. "Part of the old agenda-bilingual education, affirmative action or equal opportunity-are still issues, but less high-profile," says Armando Gutierrez, a political consultant to the Democratic National Committee. What you see now, he explains, is a new "generation looking for new cutting-edge issues. We are at the stage of trying to figure out where we are." And that means putting aside some of the old agenda. For the past few years, immigration has been at the core of the caucus's agenda. Not by choice, but as a reaction to the anti-immigrant sentiment on Capitol Hill. The immediate past chair of the caucus, Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.), did an admirable job of calling attention to immigrant issues and defending Latino rights and benefits in the Republican-controlled House. Yet while gaining greater visibility for the caucus, Becerra and caucus immigration chair Luis V. Gutierrez, the Puerto Rican representative from Chicago, ended up pigeonholing themselves as ethnic activists-and thus undermining the caucus's credibility among other House members on immigration issues. According to one Washington-based immigrant advocate, "The caucus was building a reputation-fair or not-as a bunch of lefties who want to open the border." Becerra further weakened the caucus by provoking the departure of its only two Republican members with his ill-timed trip to Cuba and then refusing to make a public call for free and democratic elections on the island. Now that the caucus has a new chair, the two Cuban-American members, Reps. Lincoln Diaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, are considering rejoining the fold. In fact, for Latino politicians, balancing ethnic and mainstream concerns has often been the key to success. A case in point is Rep. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), a Cuban American who has refused to be typecast by politics or ethnicity, and who was recently elected as vice chair of the Democratic Caucus. Indeed, the greatest irony of Latinos playing civil-rights-style politics for so long was that it never seemed to get them very far. Groups such as the National Council of La Raza, a Washington-based Latino advocacy group, seemed bent on pushing Latino politicians to compete with African Americans for the status of most-discriminated-against minority. And they succeeded largely in including Latinos in the perverse federal game of showcasing their dysfunctions-with the spoils going to the loser. It seems clear that Washington has not yet gotten over the skewed image of Latinos that this sort of minority politics perpetrated, and therefore has been slower than some local communities to recognize the true diversity of the group that will soon become the nation's largest minority. Roybal-Allard says that she intends to broaden the image of Latinos beyond victims. She hasn't succeeded yet. "In Washington, the image of Latinos is based a lot on stereotypes," says Georgina Verdugo, former regional council at the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. "Washington is so removed from Latinos themselves that everything becomes an ideological argument here." That may be so, but Latino politicians are becoming increasingly uncomfortable with old-style minority politics, particularly those who come from regions in which Latinos are the emergent majority. With so many Latino assemblymen, judges and local mayors in places such as San Antonio and Los Angeles County, it is increasingly difficult for Latinos in those regions to continue to see themselves as members of a marginalized group. In short, these recent political successes have altered the way Latino officials see themselves and their constituencies. Ironically, the Latinization of these areas has helped to undermine the strictly race-based approach to social ills. "We're beginning to see that Hispanic issues are more class issues than ethnic issues," says political consultant Armando Gutierrez. Many of these districts suffer from significant poverty and other social problems, but the presence of a viable Latino middle class and a political infrastructure suggests that the answers to problems do not lie in a civil rights approach. Of course, as the numbers of Latino officials at the national level increases, so does their diversity. In 1996, an overwhelmingly Latino congressional district in El Paso County, Texas, shocked political observers by electing Silvestre Reyes, a former ranking official of the U.S. Border Patrol and architect of Operation Hold the Line, the INS strategy to prevent illegal immigration along the southwest border. The new generation of Latino officials comes from a wider variety of backgrounds than the old. They are also better trained and more able to hold their own in Washington-even though they are still very much in a minority there. But the transition of Latino politics is not quite complete. The new generation seems to know that they must move beyond the old approaches, but they still cannot fully articulate a new agenda. They may agree that they would like the caucus to become more mainstream. But not one of them is willing to admit the possibility that the diverse group of 30 million Americans from a variety of national origins may not share any given agenda. "I'd like to think that we as Latinos are just as interested in health care, retirement security and our place in the world as any other American," says Menendez, the first Latino to win an elected congressional leadership position. "We should be going beyond the issues we're forced to deal with by necessity, and into other issues where we can make a difference. We are coming into our own." As national Latino officials gain greater comfort with the diversity of their political voices, they could very well help reshape America's stale politics of race. Gregory Rodriguez, an associate editor at Pacific News Service, is a fellow at the New America Foundation and the Pepperdine Institute of Public Policy. © Copyright 1999 The Washington Post Company Next In Series of Town Hall Meetings on Hopwood Set for Monday, (posted 1/26/99) January 24, 1999 - For immediate release AUSTIN, Tex. - The next in a series of town hall meetings on the aftermath of the Hopwood decision will be held on Monday, January 25 at 7:00 PM in the Jester Auditorium at the University of Texas at Austin. The meeting will be preceded by a student rally and march from the south side of the UT Tower at 6:15 PM. Monday's forum, entitled "Solutions in the Wake of Hopwood," will bring together UT officials, including UT President Larry Faulkner, and a panel of students and supporters arranged by the Anti-Racist Organizing Committee (AROC), the student group which called for the overnight sit-in of the Tower on October 22 and 23, 1998. Panelists for the students' side will include student and faculty representatives, a counselor from Reagan High School in Austin, community activist Nicole Eutsey, and State Representative Lon Burnam of Ft. Worth, who will discuss legislation pertaining to higher education he plans to introduce this session. The series of town hall meetings came into being as a result of students' demands for open discussion during the sit-in last fall. In the two meetings held since then, students grilled UT administrators and lawyers on their decision to quickly dismantle all vestiges of affirmative action at UT despite questions about whether the Hopwood court ruling compelled them to do so. AROC members stressed their concern that UT officials have not been acting in good faith, and cited as evidence a story from the Austin American-Statesman this month on the ending of a program aimed at recruiting minority faculty even though former Attorney General Dan Morales had opined that Hopwood does not pertain to faculty. "There has been a lot of pressure from those who believe that we should be using our energy to come up with solutions for increasing diversity," said Carl Villareal, a sociology senior at UT and an AROC member. "Affirmative action remains our primary solution to the problem of inequity in higher education. Since we firmly believe the policies which used race and ethnicity could be easily reinstated today, we find this solution is one of the simplest." School Board Member's Public Fight Can't Compare to Private Battles, (posted 1/25/99) LIFE TESTED: School board member's public fight can't compare to private battles THE FLINT JOURNAL By Dave Murray JOURNAL EDUCATION WRITER Flint - Lily Tamez Kehoe probably will find the room more than a little chilly when she attends a Board of Education meeting this week. Kehoe has supported a proposed charter school for Hispanics and American Indians - a move that has outraged colleagues, divided the Hispanic community and drawn offers of help from national organizations. Board members - who say that the proposed school could drain between $3 million and $7 million from the district - have demanded her resignation. Kehoe, 50, appears unfazed. "This is peanuts," she said. "So some guy is trying to force me off a board. Big deal. I've endured far, far worse." She has lived through a challenging childhood as a migrant worker and survived a marital breakup that forced her to pack up her two kids and start all over in a new city. But Kehoe said it was a 1986 battle with cancer that changed her life, giving her focus and a big promise to keep. "I had nothing - no money, no real home and I didn't even have my health," she said. "I reached out to the Lord. I said, 'Do with me what you want. But please, please give me three or four years to see that my children are old enough to be on their own. In return, I will give whatever is left of my life to helping others.' " Aside from her position on the school board, she has been the director of the Spanish Speaking Information Center - a clearing house for educational, social and health programs aimed at Hispanics - since 1994 and has been president of the Greater East Side Community Association for two years. Kehoe's support of the proposed school angered Flint school board members, district administrators, teachers union leaders and some Hispanics not only because of the financial threat: Some see an ethnic school as a means of further segregating the community. It also could destroy the Flint School District's bilingual program, which employs a number of Hispanics. Critics, especially those on the school board, said Kehoe comes on too strong and will have trouble pushing her causes if she is constantly butting heads with other members. "She seems to be kind of a renegade," board Treasurer Joan E. Evans said. "Team work is not one of Lily's strong points. She might do better in a situation like a charter school, where she can be the boss and not have to work with anybody else." Attacks on Kehoe have drawn fire from state and national groups such as Midland's School Choice YES! and the Washington, D.C.-based Institute for Justice, a public interest law firm that advocates school choice and other personal freedoms. Leaders of those groups said they are as impressed with Kehoe's resolve as they are angered by her attackers. "The public education bureaucracy bullies have picked on the wrong lady this time," said Gary Glenn, president of School Choice YES!, a group that advocates educational choices for parents. Friends say Kehoe is tireless and uncompromising - and blunt - as she fulfills her pledge. "What always amazes me about Lily is her ability to come out and speak her mind," said Aurora Sauceda, who was chairwoman of the Spanish Speaking Information Center board in 1997. "If she believes in something, she won't back down." Migrant child Kehoe's parents were the children of Mexican immigrants who migrated to Michigan each summer to pick crops. Her father, Macedonio Tamez, worked for Heinz and later managed two camps for migrant workers, making sure that they had food, a place to live and other services. Kehoe - the oldest child - and her four brothers worked in the fields with their mother, Guadalupe. Her parents never finished school because they frequently moved. Kehoe herself missed the start and end of every school year, but she said she always loved learning and reading. Kehoe said the family was poor, but the children did not realize it. "There was always a lot of love and togetherness, and this helped me," she said. "As I got older, I gradually realized that other kids had more material possessions, but they didn't have the closeness that we had. Now I think of those other students as being deprived." Macedonio Tamez died in 1981, but the rest of the family remains close. Everyone gathered at Guadalupe Tamez's home in La Villa, Texas, during the holidays. Kehoe said she married a dentist in Texas and had two children, living "what I consider to be high on the hog." But the marriage went sour. Kehoe said that in 1986, she packed up her then-high-school-age children, Robin and Andrea, and brought them north. "I just needed to get away and I didn't really know any other place," she said. "Some of my best summers were in Michigan and I had a cousin in Flint. We were going to stay two weeks. But at the end of the two weeks, my children said, 'Why don't we stay here?' " Kehoe's cousin offered her a place to live and a job as a hostess in her restaurant to help the family get settled in the area. Cancer scare That December, Kehoe said, she was not feeling well and suspected something was wrong. She was diagnosed with cancer in the lymph nodes of her left breast. Kehoe said the prognosis was poor. After a mastectomy, she worried that traditional treatments involving radiation and chemotherapy would do more harm than good. Her brother, Gilbert Tamez, a police officer in Miami, learned about an experimental treatment practiced in the Bahamas by a doctor from New York. "Gilbert said to me, 'Lily, do you want to do this?' I found out what it cost and told him that my insurance would never pay for out-of-the country, nontraditional treatment," she said. "But he said, 'Lily, I didn't ask you if you could afford it. I asked you if you wanted to do this,' and he put a second mortgage on his house to make it happen." Tamez said he believes that Kehoe, who then weighed less than 100 pounds, had given up and was ready to die. "She had already made up her mind, but I panicked," he said. "I could not accept what she had accepted. I was not going to let my sister die." Tamez said he investigated the doctor and the treatments as best he could, then begged the doctor to examine his sister. The treatment included frequent blood transfusions and serums injected over 12 weeks, then additional treatments every six months. Kehoe said the treatment marked a turning point. "I asked for three years - I got more than I bargained for," she said. Building a new life During her recovery, Kehoe said, she was too weak to work and lived on Social Security benefits of $400 a month. She said she realized that she would need more schooling to be successful and enrolled in part-time classes at Mott Community College. As her strength returned, she was able to work up to a full-time schedule. She eventually transferred to the University of Michigan-Flint, earning bachelor's degrees in foreign language and social sciences. Working in a cinnamon roll bakery until graduation, Kehoe was hired at the Spanish Speaking Information Center as summer youth coordinator in 1992, a move that she hoped would help her fulfill her pledge to assist others. In 1994, she was named the agency's executive director. The agency has offered translation and health services, food and shelter assistance and employment training since 1970. It serves the 4,520 Hispanics in Flint and 10,895 in Genesee County, according to 1998 population projections by Claritas, a national research firm. Like Kehoe, most local Hispanics are the descendants of migrant workers. Kate Fields, a member of the agency's board of directors, said Kehoe revitalized the program. "Lily's word is gold," Fields said. "She took an organization with probably $50 in the bank and had lost its United Way rating and turned it around." Fields said one of the center's largest successes is a diabetes program. Kehoe, who loves to cook, translated a cookbook for diabetics into Spanish as part of a statewide program. The center also offers health screening, referrals and provides information about the disease, which strikes Hispanics at a disproportionately high rate. Fields also works with Kehoe on the Greater East Side Community Association, a group aimed at improving living conditions in eastern Flint. Among its projects is a partnership with Hurley Medical Center and land-use assessments to guide demolition projects. School board bid Through her work at the Spanish Speaking Information Center, Kehoe said she saw many young people struggling in school and dropping out, a move that she knew would make it difficult for them to find good jobs. In July 1995, she saw that the school board was going to appoint someone to fill a vacancy. She said she thought that Hispanics were under-represented on the board and believed that she could help. "I can really relate to what these children today are going through," she said. "For many Hispanics, they might want their children to do well in school, but they have no formal education themselves. They can't understand what it's like for the children." Board members instead appointed William A. Tipper, a black male and retired community school director. After the vote, one board member angered many Latin-Americans by saying that African-Americans on the board could adequately represent Hispanics. The appointment and the remark drew protests from leaders in the Hispanic community, and the cries grew louder later in the year when the board had to fill another vacancy. Members selected Vincent Lewis, a black male, over Kehoe and Ralph Arellano, a retired Flint teacher and university professor who is Hispanic. Kehoe vowed to take her case to the voters and ran in the 1997 election, one of six candidates chasing three seats. Saying that she would represent all children, not just Hispanics, Kehoe collected the second-highest vote total, bouncing Lewis, who finished fourth. On a school board in which virtually all decisions were unanimous, Kehoe is often the lone dissenter. At her first meeting, she voted against electing Pamela Y. Loving - the board's most visible leader - as vice president and against re-electing Bobbie Ann Wells as secretary. This year, Kehoe voted against re-appointing Lewis to the board, accusing members of backing away from a pledge to consider diversity when filling seats. The board worked out the plan with Hispanic leaders after the 1996 appointments. She also has criticized the sale of the district's radio station - "We got taken!" she said - after members learned that the buyers did not create scholarships and internships, as the contract required. Evans, who was president during the first year of Kehoe's term, said Kehoe got off to a rocky start with her colleagues and the situation has not improved. Evans said Kehoe needs to sit back and learn how the system works and recognize what the board and administration has accomplished. "She never gave us a chance and doesn't give us credit," Evans said. "Lily has to take the time and see the things we've already done. But she wants to jump in and do things. We're trying to be a policy-making board, and she wants to be a hands-on person." Charter involvement This fall, Kehoe was approached by a group of east side activists working with a Boston-based school management company to open Flint Advantage Academy. Catherine Davids, one of the proposed charter school's directors, said that given the school's targeted enrollment of Hispanics and American Indians, it was natural to ask for support from the head of the Spanish Speaking Information Center. Charter schools are independent public schools that cannot charge tuition. Flint administrators and board members said Flint Advantage Academy would pull students from city schools and hurt programs by costing the district millions in state aid. In a letter to the media and board members, school board President Randall G. Talifarro said Kehoe's support of the proposed school displays an "utter disregard" for her duties and she should no longer serve on the board. The leader of the district's teachers union, George Wingfield backs Talifarro, saying that he probably will call for Kehoe's resignation at Wednesday's meeting. Evans said Kehoe's support of the charter school was "like a slap in the face." "She never once came to us and said the bilingual program is not meeting the needs of the Hispanics," Evans said. "If Lily had come to us over a period of time saying there was problems, then it would be different." Talifarro's request for Kehoe's resignation caught the attention of The Institute for Justice, which recently claimed a victory when the U.S. Supreme Court let stand a school choice case argued by the group in Wisconsin. "Any action taken by that board to punish Mrs. Kehoe for her interest in a charter school, we would view as troublesome and will be prepared to act on her behalf," said Clint Bolick, vice president and litigation director. "This is very typical of the tactics practiced by the educational establishment when someone speaks their mind on a topic such as charter schools. They'd rather suppress the debate than let the facts get out." Hispanic reaction Kehoe's involvement has also angered some in the Hispanic community, especially those loyal to the district's bilingual program, said Lee Gonzalez, chairman of the Hispanic Caucus of Genesee County. "I like her as a person," he said. "In fact, she's pretty charming as an individual. She works hard. But there are a lot of people who think she painted a very pessimistic view of Hispanics in the area. She could have spoken about the many successes of Hispanics, who are a valuable part of the country." Gonzalez said that while caucus members oppose Kehoe's support of a separate school for Hispanics, they are angry at the way the rest of the school board has treated her. "That board needs to be more tolerant of people who have opposing views," he said. "What they did to Lily - in a football game, you'd call that piling on." The caucus's vice president, David Solis, said he questions many of the statistics included in the proposed charter school's application, such as a 65 percent national dropout rate for Hispanics and American Indian students. Solis, who is also assistant principal in Flint's Whittier Middle School, said his goal is to promote the district's bilingual program rather than attack the proposed charter school. He said the local dropout rate for Hispanics is about 9 percent. Solis said many in the Hispanic community are pleased with the bilingual program, which is offered in Washington Elementary School, Whittier and Central High School. "I don't know if Lily is aware of the history of the bilingual program, that the people who started the Spanish Speaking Information Center were among the people who created the bilingual program in the Flint schools," he said. "She's still new to the area and maybe she didn't know these things." Solis also serves on the Spanish Speaking Information Center board, and said board members were not aware that Kehoe had sent the support letter for the proposed school. Kehoe said she does not like to anger people, but she will endure the slings if it helps others. "I try to take it one day at a time and follow God's lead," she said. "In the end, it will be rewarding. There will be gratification from the job if we can get it done." Gilbert Tamez said family members were a little worried when they heard about the controversy. But he is confident that she will come out on top. "My prediction is that Lily will make her stand and eventually the people around her will start to wonder where they went wrong," he said. "They'll look back at Lily and see she's standing right where she started. "That's just the way it's always been with her." Dave Murray covers education. He can be reached at (810) 766-6383 or by e-mail at dmurray@tir.com. Meeting Focuses on Border Violence, (posted 1/25/99) Officials from the United States and Mexico met in a closed session in San Diego to discuss ways to reduce the number of deaths and injuries along the border. The meeting was spurred by the shooting last year of several migrants by U.S. Border Patrol agents, Immigration and Naturalization officials said. The thrust of the meeting was more cooperation along the 2,000-mile border, from policing to information-sharing. However, Mexican officials primarily wanted to talk about an escalation in shootings and violence by border agents against Mexicans trying to cross into the United States illegally. INS Commissioner Doris Meissner and Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder agreed to have Mexican consuls-general in San Diego and El Paso meet with INS regional directors in California and Texas to find ways to reduce clashes. Officials from both governments also agreed to publish a joint report on any border violence incidents in the future. U.S. authorities said they would begin keeping statistics on all border deaths. From Mercury News wire services. Ethnics Outspend in Areas, (posted 1/25/99) by Tom Maguire Consumer goods marketers who wonder where their growth will come from in the future should explore multicultural markets. While sizable population increases among non-whites are a given, many marketers haven't awoken to ethnic buying-power growth. The New America Marketbasket Index points out that household expenditures among multicultural families will grow faster than white households. The study, developed by New America Strategies Group and DemoGraph Corporation, looked at 13 different key areas of consumer spending, such as entertainment, clothing, vehicle, and home purchases, by race. It offers projections from 1995 to 1998 based on purchase behavior trends from 1992 to 1995. The Index documents the accelerating purchasing power, financial strength, and upward mobility of African, Asian, and Hispanic Americans consumers by analyzing household spending, and tracks their per-household spending growth based on a weighted average of multicultural household expenditures compared to that of white households. In 10 of the 13 categories, minorities posted stronger growth than white households. Only in restaurant expenditures, public transportation, and rent did white growth exceed that of minorities. Expenditures from multicultural households exceeded white households in five categories-groceries, entertainment, personal care products, clothing, and education. Why the greater increases from minorities? Laura Teller, chief executive officer of Miami-based DemoGraph, attributes it to a strong economy, near full employment, and minorities having more money to spend. "A rising tide lifts all the ships," she said. "The economic expansion has more money flowing into those communities." The study forecasts healthcare outlays and entertainment spending growing nearly three to three-and-a-half times faster in minority households compared to white families. Electric utility expenditures grew twice as fast in minority households. "Grocery and clothing expenditures are higher due to the size of the households," Teller said, citing the fact that minorities have more family members in average households. Multicultural households also have more people contributing to the family income, especially in Hispanic homes, she added. The study projected Asian Americans to increase average spending 17.7 percent from 1995 to 1998. African Americans were close behind at 17.6 percent, while Hispanic expenditure growth was 15.5 percent. Whites, meanwhile, spent only 13.7 percent more over the three-year period. DemoGraph projected expenditure increases through extrapolating data from the 1995 U.S. Consumer Expenditure Survey, U.S. Center for Educational Statistics, the National Auto Dealers Association, and the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies. The company didn't factor out inflation since it believed that it affects all groups equally. While some of the gains occur in smaller-ticket items, such as groceries and clothing, multicultural families tend to outspend whites in more expensive goods, such as cars and homes. Minorities plan to increase spending on vehicles by 37.2 percent, while growth for whites is about 13.4 percent between 1995 and 1998. Minorities will boost their spending on home ownership by 16.9 percent, compared to 12.4 percent for whites. The study said 40 percent of all first-time home buyers between 1995 and 1998 are multicultural consumers. "Multicultural families are becoming part of the burgeoning middle class," Teller said. "Their first purchase is a car, and they also have a high desire to own their home." Most of the expenditure increase from African Americans can be attributed to increased spending on clothing, entertainment, and health care. Hispanics are expected to have large increases in vehicle purchases, clothing and entertainment, while gains in Asian expenditures are in restaurants, vehicles and education. Whites spent more of their dollars in restaurants, clothes and public transportation. For several demographic categories, expenditures on rent are expected to decline, due to those families moving into their first homes. Spending by African Americans on rent is projected to decline 13 percent, and 20.2 percent for Hispanics. Both whites and Asian Americans plan to increase average spending for rent by 6.3 percent. African Americans are expected to decrease spending on public transportation. "Multicultural consumers are purchasing the good life," Teller says. However, an economic recession could definitely curb spending. Teller said that while Asian Americans save more than other minorities, African Americans and Hispanics have a smaller savings and income cushion if the economy falters. "Losing jobs would be a big shock to their systems," Teller says. The Moral Right To Challenge Unjust Laws, (posted 1/25/99) COLUMN OF THE AMERICAS by Patrisia Gonzales and Roberto Rodriguez The impeachment process has made many people conscious of the "rule of law." When we wrote about this subject recently, many people misconstrued what we meant, believing that we had made a defense of the president and that we had weighed in as being in favor of lawlessness. Quite the contrary. He can fend for himself. What we argue is that truth without wisdom can lead to foolishness. Similarly, enforcing laws without wisdom can lead to inquisitions and McCarthyism. Yet the principal point we were making was not actually about the president's problems. Rather, we posited that laws, in and of themselves, are not sacred. History is replete with instances of entire classes of people being denied their humanity on the basis of the rule of law and the unequal application of the law. Our argument, however, is based on the reality of 1999, not events from previous centuries. A decision last week by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals regarding the freedom of movement allows us to accentuate our position regarding the rule of law. Most Americans take the right to free speech and the right to travel freely for granted. Indeed, they are as sacred as our right to religious freedom. Yet those rights are violated on a daily basis under the cover of the rule of law. The "crime" of "Driving While Black" is a reality that many African-Americans are subjected to, which many Americans are aware of. However, less known and even more insidious is the practice of stopping individuals for "Driving While Brown"-immigration officers questioning the right of people who "look Mexican" to be in this country. Looking Mexican actually means "looking Indian," and the more Indian one looks, the more suspect one is. Quite a historical irony, particularly when one considers that there's no state apparatus in place to hunt down people who "look European." Nor should there be. These discriminatory interrogations take place not just on our nation's roads, but also at businesses, on streets, in homes and even churches. And they take place not just on the border, but also hundreds of miles from any international boundary. The supposition for these interrogations and detentions by immigration officers isn't simply that a red-brown person may be a potential criminal, but that he or she may not have the right to be in this country at all. In effect, these selective and dehumanizing interrogations give the appearance that the agency is involved in a subtle form of ethnic cleansing. For example, just as most African-Americans who are stopped for "Driving While Black" are U.S. citizens, most people interrogated for "Driving While Brown" are also U.S. citizens, or have the legal right to be in the country. The message here is not ambiguous. Last week's court decision reinstated the right of Latinos and others mistaken for Latinos to file class-action lawsuits for such practices in Arizona. Those sworn to uphold our laws along the border have apparently been selectively violating the constitutional rights of thousands of U.S. citizens, without an adequate recourse for those targeted. A few months ago, we wrote a column about how one of us (Roberto) was recently subjected to a similar interrogation at the Las Cruces, N.M., Border Patrol station, which resulted in the disassembling of our vehicle. One of the reasons given for the search and detention was that traveling from Los Angeles to Tucson to Albuquerque constitutes a "suspicious route" -- even if one doesn't travel to the border. A recent letter to Roberto from the U.S. Border Patrol regarding his search and detention reaffirmed that the path constitutes a "nondirect route." The letter also directed him not to laugh while in their presence. We spoke to U.S. Representative Lucille Roybal from Los Angeles regarding the stop, and she stated: "In this country, we have the right to drive around in circles or backwards." That this federal agency believes in the existence of direct and nondirect routes should be a concern to every U.S. citizen. That it also believes their agents have the right to stop and interrogate any U.S. citizen on these "nondirect routes"-without an articulable suspicion-should be a signal that they have clearly overstepped their bounds. As another example, the case of U.S Border Patrol agent Armando Ayala should convince those who have doubt. Ayala, who has 19 years on the force, was recently stopped by a fellow officer near Animas, N.M., while he was off-duty-allegedly for speeding. He was asked his citizenship, his trunk was searched, and he was told he would be detained further if he didn't cooperate. Incidentally, border patrol agents are not authorized to make "traffic" stops. Ayala has filed a complaint, and the agency has six months to respond. These are the kinds of situations that we alluded to in our column on the "rule of law." It is not laws or lawmakers that are sacred. What is sacred is the moral right to challenge laws that deny people their rights and denigrate the dignity of all human beings. 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 NASA Looks To Native Elders To Help Save the Earth, (posted 1/21/99) COLUMN OF THE AMERICAS by Patrisia Gonzales and Roberto Rodriguez The Nome Eskimo elder lamented that nowadays his homeland in winter is too warm for the life system to sustain itself-only 20 degrees below zero instead of 70 below. His people have learned to live in balance with the ice and cold. But now the Bering Strait is sick. Sea ice is forming later, affecting the animals who breed on it. The sea pups aren't ready to leave when the ice melts, so they die or are abandoned. The hunters say the walrus are skinny, and they have to hunt farther into the tundra because the caribou know the thin ice won't sustain their weight. In the old days, the elders in Alaska could forecast the weather by watching the stars. But now, says one Siberian Yupek elder, "The Earth is so fast now. We can't predict the weather anymore." Many native prophesies warned of a time when the people would be confused, and the old and the young would die first. The prophesies said the trees would die from the tops down and the world would be in danger. Using "eyes" from space, NASA officials have seen that the elders are right. Its officials conclude that the "Earth is a living system that is distressed." So now, NASA has turned to native elders for counsel as it examines the effect of climate change on the U.S. population, environment and economy. NASA brought together a gathering of several hundred elders for a five-day climate-change workshop in Albuquerque, N.M., last fall. NASA is seeking to merge the knowing and wisdom of people who understand the responsibilities that humans have to the Earth with the knowledge of nonnative scientists. The elders who attended the conference, called the Circle of Wisdom Native Peoples/Native Homelands Climate Change Workshop, stated: "It is this spiritual connection to Mother Earth, Father Sky and all Creation that is lacking in the rest of the world. ... We call upon the people of the world to hold your leaders accountable." According to documents issued by the workshop, temperatures will become warmer in the Northern Hemisphere by 5 to 15 degrees Fahrenheit within the next 20 years. The primary source of human-induced climate change is the burning of oil, gas and coal. The melting of sea ice "affects the exchange of energy continuously taking place on the Earth's surface," according to NASA. While it might seem a distant problem to many people in the United States, all life is interconnected. We have long said that native prophesies are misunderstood. They not only are spiritual visions, but often also come from a life-science observation of the natural world. When people understand that they are not separate from the natural world, they will seek to honor and understand it. This is why Chief Joseph said long ago that the Earth was part of his body and they were of one "mind." Native people traditionally have understood that the Earth and universe have a mind and a spirit, a cosmic intelligence that in fact responds to us, to our intentions. "Earth is a living mother, an organism. I know none of us would think of abusing our birth mother. She is a spiritual woman ... that gives life. Through our ceremonies, we honor her life-giving power so that she can continue to nourish us," says Cheyenne elder Henrietta Mann. When people no longer live and learn from the land, their disconnection to it leads to the abuse of Mother Earth. Along with the land, native people's traditions die: their food, their ceremonies, medicinal plants, their fibers for making sacred baskets. And much of it has been through the greed of market economies and the perversions of science and technology that have claimed or contaminated the land, particularly native lands, through deforestation, pesticides, industrial waste, radioactive poisoning and mining. "What good is an economic system if our children die anyway?" asked a Kanaka Maoli elder from Hawaii. A nearby flip-chart read, "There is no post-environment economy." There are myriad things to be done, including requiring companies to factor the environmental impact of their projects into their businesses, and demanding that all public projects invest in clean and renewable forms of energy. But most of all, we must begin to value life in all its manifestations. Corbin Harney, a Shoshone elder, says the spirits of the land and the ancestors are waiting for people to recognize their responsibility to Mother Earth. "They want to hear us pray so that they can work with us, so everything can heal." 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 "Maquiladora" Zone Firms Violate Women's Rights: Report, (posted 1/21/99) WASHINGTON, Dec 29 - International companies operating in a special Mexican industry zone violate women's rights by forcing them to take pregnancy tests, a human rights organization said Tuesday. Women have been asked to produce urine samples for pregnancy exams, undergo abdominal examination by company doctors, or provide information about their menstrual cycle, birth control or sexual activity, according to the report by New York-based Human Rights Watch. The report said leading companies in the so-called "maquiladora" zone-along the border with the United States-engage in the practice in order to weed out job candidates who may be pregnant. The list includes companies such as the Samsung Group, Matsushita Electronics, Siemens, Lear, Sanyo, Tyco International and Johnson Controls. "This is flagrant sex discrimination that these corporations would never dare to defend or practice in their own countries," said Regan Ralph, executive director of the Women's Rights Division of Human Rights Watch. In the report entitled "A Job or Your Rights: Continued Sex Discrimination in Mexico's Maquiladora Sector," the group said that in some cases the discrimination persists on the job. German-based Siemens and the US-based Lear Corp and National Processing Company have even required women to produce used sanitary napkins as proof that they are not pregnant. The group calls on the Mexican government to "take immediate action" to end discrimination in the hiring process and on the job and to punish those companies that screen job candidates in this way. But it is highly critical of the state's track record on the issue, in particular its claims that pregnancy testing does not violate its laws and its habit of falling back on "weak legalisms" to defend the practice. "The Mexican government's defense is weak and phony," said Ralph. "It is reinterpreting Mexican law to suit its case." In consultations with the United States under the labor rights side agreement to the NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement), Mexico has argued that the existing prohibitions against sex discrimination do not cover pregnancy testing. It also maintained that the provisions against sex discrimination apply only to job holders, not to job applicants. "The Mexican government has abandoned women workers to the discriminatory employment practices of maquiladora operators," explained Ralph. "Women are left having to choose between a job and their rights." To Send Protest Emails/Eletters To Rogue Corps: SANYO CORP WORLDWIDE LINKS: http://www.datacomm.ch/hahn/shp.html TYCO International Page: http://www.electrostar.com/ JOHNSON CONTROLS PAGE: http://www.jci.com/ Matsushita Electronics U.S. Company Page: http://www.hoovers.com/capsules/57076.html SAMSUNG GROUP U.S. HOMEPAGE: http://www.samsung.com/ Siemens Worldwide Links: http://www.sea.siemens.com/overview/links.html Lear Corporation Homepage: http://www.lear.qpg.com/ Controversial White "Mexico Baiting" Radio Host Removed Off San Diego, CA News Station, (posted 1/21/99) By Stephan Archer San Diego's No. 1 talk show host, Roger Hedgecock, has been suspended from his contract with KUSI-TV, San Diego, for giving favorable publicity to Steve Vaus' nationwide "Dear Mr. President" ad campaign. Hedgecock, who is under contract with KUSI to provide political commentary twice a week, received a call Wednesday night from the independent news station saying he was suspended "indefinitely." The reason given to Hedgecock was that he had violated his contract. Hedgecock refutes the notion that he violated his contract with KUSI because the contract states he is to provide conservative political commentary twice a week for the station. This, Hedgecock says, is what he was doing. "I guess I'm a casualty of this 'Clinton' media because I tried to put this ("Dear Mr. President" campaign) on the air," Hedgecock said. At KOGO, Hedgecock hosts a daily talk show as well. During his talk show yesterday, Mike McKinnon, owner of KUSI, called Hedgecock's show from his car and announced over the air that Hedgecock had violated his contract with KUSI. In reply to McKinnon's statement over the air, Hedgecock said that he had promoted many things before, and had always received approval for them. He says he had also received approval to air a supportive commentary of the "Dear Mr. President" campaign. In response, an indignant McKinnon told Hedgecock to "clean out your ears." Vaus, a singer and songwriter, and the creative driving force behind the "Dear Mr. President" campaign, witnessed the production of the show and said that he could see "steam" coming out of Hedgecock's ears. "This is censorship plain and simple," said Vaus. "What it is, is a news station daring to censure me because I would dare to criticize the president," said Hedgecock. The "Dear Mr. President" campaign features kids reading letters to the president asking him for help and advice after being caught lying or cheating. The spots are currently airing as paid commercials in New York City and Washington, D.C. In addition, hundreds of other stations have donated airtime. Two stations, though, have refused to sell any airtime to the campaign-the No. 1-rated WHUR in Washington, D.C., and WFAN, the flagship station of the "Imus in the Morning" program. However, based on letters that the "Imus" computer bulletin board received, it may be a bad idea not to sell airtime to the campaign. The program's bulletin board received hundreds of letters asking producers why they hadn't aired the "Dear Mr. President" campaign on the show. Commenting on the many people that have sent letters to various radio stations demanding the campaign be aired, Vaus said, "People are saying that they haven't had a voice. They say that they look at the polls, but the polls don't reflect any of their feelings. 'Finally, here is an opportunity for me to be heard,' they say." Vaus said that he's averaging about 20 radio interviews a day due to the campaign. He's also receiving about the same number of people requesting free copies. The campaign is being funded by donations -- and out of Vaus' own pocket. More information is available on his Website. A.G. Vows to Make Difference, (posted 1/21/99) By Kristen Go Jan. 13 - Ken Salazar, Colorado's new attorney general, thanked a packed room full of family, friends and campaign volunteers at the Denver Performing Arts Complex on Tuesday night and promised to help Coloradans build the dream of creating a better life for future generations. "I want to make a difference in the lives of the people in this state . . . the same way (my parents) Henry and Emma made a difference," Salazar said at his inauguration party. Salazar, who began his four-year term as Colorado's attorney general Tuesday, was the only Democrat to win statewide office. He's also the first Hispanic elected to statewide office. He succeeds Republican Gale Norton. "This, my friends, is history in the making, is it not?" said Anne Trujillo, a local television anchor. Salazar was greeted by hoots, hollers and whistles. Salazar spoke briefly to thank volunteers and re-emphasize the issues confronting Colorado: growth, gang violence and consumer protection. "I look very much forward to the four years ahead," Salazar said. "I was elected as attorney general for all the people in Colorado . . . and I will represent the values of what is a Colorado agenda." The crowd filling the Donald R. Seawell Grand Ballroom gave Salazar standing ovations when he was introduced and when he finished speaking. "I'm very glad that he won," campaign volunteer Rosie Romero said. "He's Hispanic, and we're very happy. We're like family, so we stick together." Romero and her friend Frances Ortega, both of Denver, spent countless hours stuffing envelopes, calling voters and walking neighborhoods on Salazar's behalf. They even helped prepare his inauguration party - with a mariachi band for entertainment. "Ken was very personable and knew everyone," Ortega said. "We told him if he ever needs anything, call us." Guy Kelly, a former University of Colorado regent, said that Salazar and his family are good role models for others. "He represents the Democrats well. . . . I think he's an example for all Democrats and citizens," Kelly said. He added that as a native Coloradan, it's nice to see someone like Salazar in a statewide office. Salazar's family has lived in the San Luis Valley for nearly 150 years. ©1999 The Denver Post Man Testifies of Alleged Beating, Racial Slurs by Somerville Police, (posted 1/21/99) By Patricia Nealon, Globe Staff, 01/14/99 The second of two men suing eight Somerville police officers for violating their civil rights says he was hit in the head and eye by one officer after being dragged out of a local nightclub and taunted with racist slurs by another while cowering in a holding cell at the police station. German Alfonso, 28, an aspiring actor who now works in a group home for troubled youth in Los Angeles, told jurors yesterday in federal court that he and his friend, Christopher Mittell, had done nothing to warrant the beatings they claim they got one October night in 1994. Like Mittell, who preceded him to the witness stand, Alfonso said he was yanked out of the Holiday Inn nightclub by plainclothes officers who pummeled him without explanation or warning, tearing his clothes, ripping a gold chain from his neck, and bashing him on the head. In Alfonso's case the alleged assailant was Sergeant John Aufiero, one of the eight officers being sued, who Alfonso said grabbed him from behind as he ran to help Mittell, entangled in his own struggle with officers inside the club. Mittell testified Tuesday that he was simply going outside to check out some flashing police lights when he was jumped by two plainclothes officers, Detectives James Hyde and Christopher Ward, and dragged outside. Hyde, he said, held him in a headlock as he and then Ward punched him in the head. Alfonso said it wasn't until he was handcuffed and told he was under arrest for assault and battery on a police officer that he realized the men who had grabbed him and Mittell were policemen. When Mittell began demanding the badge numbers of officers, Alfonso said Sergeant Michael Cabral, a supervisor who had arrived at the club, replied, "Do you see these stripes? That means that I don't have to give you my badge number." Then, according to Alfonso, "he turned and laughed." Earlier, under cross-examination by Cabral's lawyer, Joan E. Langsam, Mittell acknowledged that Cabral had not struck him, had not seen anyone else hit him, and had not used racial epithets. He said the same was true for two other defendants, uniformed patrolmen Timothy Doherty and Joseph Blair. Indeed, Mittell testified yesterday that only two of the eight officers being sued, Ward and Hyde, had hit him. Alfonso accused two other officers of hitting him, Aufiero and now-retired Lieutenant John Bossi. He also accused Bossi of using racial slurs. But in an effort to discredit Mittell, the attorney for Ward, Hyde, and a third detective, Patrick Irving, revealed that Mittell himself had pleaded guilty in December 1991 to three counts of assault and battery in an unrelated incident and was sentenced to a year's probation. The same attorney, Austin Joyce, also highlighted medical records from the emergency room at Mount Auburn Hospital that showed no "grip marks" on Mittell's throat and no "unusual soft tissue swelling" in his neck. Mittell claims that Hyde grabbed him by the throat several times. Alfonso testified that an angry Bossi confronted him in the holding cell at the police station and announced, "There you are, you little spic, disco fever. I've been watching you all night." Alfonso testified that Bossi, who had been inside the nightclub earlier, had glared at him as he danced near the dance floor. While inside the cell, Alfonso said Bossi repeatedly asked him if he had any cocaine or weapons on him. Then, after seeing a tattoo on his ankle that said, "Made in Cuba," a reference to Alfonso's parents' home until a month before he was born, Bossi demanded to know what Alfonso was doing in this country. "I'm defending this country," replied Alfonso, then a member of the Army National Guard. Bossi's response, according to Alfonso: "He slapped me." This story ran on page A27 of the Boston Globe on 01/14/99. © Copyright 1999 Globe Newspaper Company. Sovereignty, Not 'Rule Of Law,' Is At Stake, (posted 1/18/99) COLUMN OF THE AMERICAS by Patrisia Gonzales and Roberto Rodriguez Rather than enjoy the holidays, we've had to keep an eye on the political shenanigans of our elected officials in Washington, D.C. As such, while talk of censure by the U.S. Senate gains momentum, we are still baffled by this thing called the "rule of law." >From kindergarten through college, we were taught that the United States was the land of freedom and democracy, and that it was our sacred duty to defend the U.S. Constitution and the U.S. Bill of Rights, with nary a word about the rule of law. To all of a sudden be told by politicians that the almighty "rule of law" is the foundation of this country worries us; it sounds "Big Brotheresque" -- something intransigent and totalitarian. That's what the Republican leadership apparently doesn't get. Of course, this country is a nation of laws, but the "rule of law" as a rallying cry doesn't quite resonate with the majority of Americans. It's not laws that are sacred, for laws once permitted land theft, slavery, Jim Crow, and denied women the right to vote. What instead is sacred and is the engine of U.S. history is our evolving quest and pursuit of justice, equality and humanization. In the impeachment proceedings, the rule of law turned out to be a slick parliamentary maneuver called the "rule of germaneness"-a trick that prevented censure of the president from being considered by the House, apparently contrary to the consciences of a majority of representatives. The president's detractors still don't get it. In their eyes, truth is sacrosanct. Most people, we believe, agree with that precept. Where the Republican leadership failed is in its apparent inability to understand that truth without wisdom does not necessarily lead to justice-or compassion. It's reminiscent of the King Solomon parable; some Republicans (and perhaps 30 percent of the U.S. population) would tear apart the nation just to punish the president. We actually agree with most of what Republicans say regarding character, truth and dignity: These qualities do indeed count. The Democrats' conduct this past year is similar to that of U.S. Rep. Bob Livingston. He demonstrated honor by resigning his post only after he was exposed. Similarly, most Democrats were not demanding that the president be censured until it became obvious that most Americans preferred that option and that the Republicans-because of superior numbers-would impeach even if Moses himself said no. We expect that the Democrats also will boldly step forward and explain- not just to children, but to us all-the importance of truth and of honoring oaths and vows. Of all the phrases bandied about in this process, the one that intrigues us most is "sovereignty." Republicans continue to point out that all U.S. citizens are equal under the law and that the president doesn't enjoy "sovereign immunity." We agree, for that is precisely what Chile's former dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet continues to claim as a defense for his crimes against humanity. That both stories have been evolving at the same time may be a reason why most people don't want Clinton removed. His transgressions do not amount to "crimes against humanity," nor do they threaten the security of our nation. Sovereign immunity absolutely has no place in a modern society. Sovereignty-which is not simply about foreign affairs, but about how our nation is governed-belongs to "We the People," not to presidents nor despots. We live in a republic, a representative democracy: a system that has, in a relative sense, served us well historically. Representative democracy, as Lani Guinier has eloquently pointed out, is designed to thwart the "tyranny of the majority." In other words, it is there to prevent mob rule. That seems to have happened here. By the slimmest of margins, the Republicans in "the People's House" simply outvoted the minority, while disregarding the will of the majority of the people. Perhaps history will judge that the Republican leadership did not give in to mob rule; yet their refusal to allow a meaningful debate on censure may in itself be interpreted by historians as mob rule. The juxtaposition between sovereignty and mob rule is a powerful one. Are the people sovereign, or are their representatives? In this case, it's fair to turn the question around: Are the representatives the mob? Separate from Senate action, in the end, Clinton will be dealt with by his family and history. What remains to be seen is whose sovereignty will triumph, the people's or their representatives'. 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 87194-7904, 505-242-7282 or XColumn@aol.com Gonzales's direct line is 505-248-0092 or PatiGonzaJ@aol.com Rehumanizing Society, (posted 1/18/99) COLUMN OF THE AMERICAS by Patrisia Gonzales and Roberto Rodriguez The beginning of the year is not only a time to look toward the future, but also a time to celebrate the birthday of one of this century's greatest human beings: Martin Luther King Jr. It's also an opportune time to ponder on how we can all humanize society. There are some people who actually dread Jan. 15, possibly because they've not come to terms with a black or multiracial America. Unfortunately, some use this occasion to attempt to instill a collective guilt in white America, as though every white person was directly responsible for the sins of every bigot that ever walked this land. But as anti-racist educator Chris Clarke, who is white, of New Mexico State University recently told us, "Most white people don't have guilt; they have resentment." Others view this day as a time of "racial healing." That perhaps is a better alternative, but in order for there to be healing, there has to be agreement that there's hurt. And when there's resentment, those who feel resentful feel that they're the aggrieved parties-that they're the ones being hurt. As an example, those who resent MLK day seem to believe that American society is in danger of being physically and culturally overrun by nonwhites. Their angst is misguided, though it's real nonetheless. That's why King's commemoration should be used to promote what scholar Antonia Castaneda in the history department at St. Mary's University in San Antonio calls the "rehumanization" of society. This has little to do with guilt. If we all go far back enough in our ancestry, there's plenty to be resentful about. World history is replete with genocide, conquest, slavery and discrimination. But resentfulness, of course, is not the route to rehumanization. That route can begin only by acknowledging that the principal problem we face is that most of us have historically been dehumanized, and that some of us continue to be dehumanized. So the objective is not to determine who we blame; rather, our objective should be to determine how we can all help rehumanize society. In this realm, we all have to determine our specific role in the rehumanization process. Because of continued racial inequality here in the United States, many people assume that people of color are the ones most in need of rehumanization. We don't agree. Many whites (not bigots) have themselves been dehumanized to the point where they no longer recognize what is civil behavior. Every weekend, parents take their children-in "war paint" and with tomahawk in hand-to root for sports teams with names such as "Indians," "Braves" and "Redskins," seemingly oblivious of the extreme denigration this causes native peoples everywhere. The children (mostly whites, but of all colors) are taught that this is normal behavior. Similarly, in the area of college admissions, many white students are convinced-on the basis of misapplied standardized tests-that they are intellectually superior to people of color. The exams, according to the test-makers, were designed, not as intelligence tests, but as predictors of success in the first year of college. Despite this misuse and mistaken belief, many whites, and increasingly some Asian students, zealously fight for exclusive admissions, believing that most people of color aren't qualified to be on college campuses. Of course, some intellectuals believe that all the historical wrongs of society and the rampant racial hostility and inequality gives permission to people of color to live in a permanent state of anger-and that they are incapable of having racial hatred because they have no institutional power. Not true. And even if it were true, a permanent state of anger is not good for anyone's human condition. These are but a few examples of how all of us have been dehumanized. One way to rehumanize society is to fight for the right of all to be educated (or at least to create a fair college admissions process as in Texas and as is being proposed in California by Gov. Gray Davis), rather than permitting the proposed $100 billion increase to our already bloated military budget. Individually, perhaps we can all additionally learn and appreciate each other's histories and culture. Next, we can actually listen to each other. Then perhaps we can chart a course not on how to rehumanize others, but on how to rehumanize ourselves. Once rehumanized, perhaps we can be in the position to help point others toward their own path to rehumanization. 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 The Story of Texas' Independence Continues to Unfold, (posted 1/18/99) The Story of Texas' Independence Continues to unfold and now includes Hispanics' contributions to the cause 12/25/98 SAN ANTONIO - Her father adored John Wayne, she says. He especially loved the Duke's movie about the Alamo. "I must have seen it 20 times," she says. "I knew all the dialogue by heart." Twice every year, her father loaded up his 12 children and took them on a pilgrimage to the shrine. "We came for three days in March, and in the summertime we were here for a whole week," she says. "It's not true that all Hispanic Texans are embarrassed by the Alamo." But back home in Laredo, where she was studying Texas history in elementary school, she and some of her friends sometimes felt uncomfortable. "The presentation of it was so one-sided," she says. "The Anglo heroes were so great, and the Mexicans were all butchers." And for more than 100 years after the events, many histories, poems and novels portrayed the Texas Revolution as a triumph of a superior Anglo civilization over an inferior Hispanic culture. Now Mary Alice Pena-Lopez is one of the lecturers who interpret the Alamo, its heroes and their foes to the 3 million to 5 million visitors who mill through it every year, gazing at the names of its defenders on the bronze plaques, studying the old documents and guns and swords in the glass display cases. Working from memory of a script provided by the Daughters of the Republic of Texas - the custodians of the Alamo - Ms. Pena-Lopez passionately recounts the story of the 13-day siege, of the 189 Texas revolutionaries who defied the dictator Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna and his army of thousands, and died. She tells of the line that legend says Col. William Barret Travis, the Texans' 26-year-old commander, drew in the dirt when he finally acknowledged to his men that the Alamo was doomed. And of his exhortation: "Those of you who are prepared to give your lives for freedom's cause, cross over this line and come stand by me now." Many historians say Travis probably never drew that line nor said those words, but myth doesn't die so easily. "Every single man crossed that line that day," Ms. Pena-Lopez tells the tourists, "except for one." A few changes have been made at the Alamo, the most popular tourist attraction in Texas, since Ms. Pena-Lopez used to go there with her father. The picture of Davy Crockett that looked just like John Wayne is no longer on the wall. Neither are the old paintings of larger-than-life Anglos bashing Mexican soldiers with their rifle butts. Ms. Pena-Lopez's script is careful to identify the dictator Santa Anna, not the Mexican nation nor the Hispanic people, as the villain of the tale. For along with Travis, Bowie, Bonham and Crockett also died Esparza, Abamillo, Fuentes, Badillo, Guerrero and Losoya in the fort's defense. Although toppling heroes from pedestals where myth and legend have placed them is common practice among historians these days, the story told by Ms. Pena-Lopez and the other Alamo interpreters has changed only slightly from generation to generation. The message and myth of the Alamo, she says, are bigger than mere history. "People need inspiration and motivation," she says. "There's so much sadness and grief and tragedy in the world today. People need to be reassured of the values that we stand for. Freedom. Justice. Democracy. And the Alamo is an excellent place for them to reflect on these things." Sometimes visitors challenge her. "People have asked me, 'Why do you make such a big deal about these men? They were drunks and crooks.' And I say, 'Because they died for us. They weren't perfect in the way they lived, but they were perfect in the way they died.'" Stepping into Mexico When Stephen F. Austin led the first Anglo colonists into Texas in 1821, he had his first name legally changed to Estevan. He and his followers became citizens of Mexico, and so did the other colonists from the United States and Europe who followed other impresarios into the Texas wilderness. According to Mary Austin Holley, a cousin of Austin who published a book in 1836 promoting his colony, the non-Indian population of Texas had grown to about 50,000 by then. Only 5,000 were native-born Mexicans. Many of the Anglo majority were rough, independent-minded frontiersmen, always ready to fight anything or anyone. "Having lived mostly free from the restraints of law," Mrs. Holley wrote, "they are not apt to pay implicit obedience to its dictates, when contrary to their own views and feelings." But when these frontiersmen took up arms against the Mexican government in 1835, they weren't alone. Theirs was only one of five similar rebellions in various parts of Mexico. Many Mexicans elsewhere were fighting Santa Anna, who had repudiated their country's liberal Constitution of 1824 and had abolished the rights of individuals and states that it guaranteed. In the beginning, most of the Texan revolutionists saw themselves as loyal Mexican citizens fighting to rescue their country from the dictator. Branch Archer, who presided over the settlers' first meeting to discuss the situation, described their rebellion as"laying the cornerstone of liberty in the great Mexican Republic." When Austin called the Texans to arms, the first organized troops to respond were a company of Tejano volunteers led by Col. Juan Seguin. "Few people today know about those Mexican roots of the Texas Revolution," says Larry Spasic, director of operations at the San Jacinto Museum of History, which stands on the battleground near present-day Houston where the Texans finally defeated Santa Anna. "They don't know about the liberals of Mexico and their fight for a democratic government. They don't know the Texas Revolution was part of that larger struggle. It happened to be the one rebellion that succeeded." Santa Anna put down the other revolts with cruel and devastating reprisals, especially in Zacatecas and Yucatan. As he turned his attention toward Texas, expecting an easy victory there, both Anglo and Hispanic settlers rallied to oppose him. And when Santa Anna's army laid siege to the Alamo on Feb. 23, 1836, the flag its defenders raised was the red-white-and-green of Mexico, with "1824" in place of the eagle at its center. But soon the aim of the rebellion shifted. Even as the Alamo battle raged, 59 representatives who had convened in a raw new village called Washington-on-the-Brazos repudiated Santa Anna's rule and on March 2, 1836, declared Texas an independent nation. Among the signers of their declaration were Francisco Ruiz and Jose Antonio Navarro, the only Texas natives among the delegates. Lorenzo de Zavala, born in Yucatan, was named vice president of the new nation's provisional government. As subsequent generations retold the saga of the revolution in books and movies, however, those names often were forgotten or ignored and the struggle for freedom became strictly an American-vs.-Mexican affair. Only in recent years have efforts been made to restore the Hispanic patriots to the Texas pantheon. "I don't remember hearing anything about Juan Seguin or Lorenzo de Zavala when I was growing up," says Carolynne LeNeveu, 47, who taught Texas history to fourth-graders at Spring Creek Elementary School in Richardson before she became a school counselor this year. "But we're more culturally aware today," she says. "Some people try to make an issue out of race in the Texas Revolution, but it was not about race at all. I did not teach my kids that the Alamo was about Americans fighting Mexicans. It was about people fighting for justice and their constitution. I taught my children to say, '*No rendirse, muchachos!' It's a Spanish phrase meaning, 'Don't give up, boys!' The defenders yelled it at the Alamo." Ms. LeNeveu, a Daughter of the Republic of Texas, says she learned her history first from her grandfather. And, of course, she learned it again in the fourth and seventh grades, when state law requires that Texas history be taught in the public schools. Last month, The Dallas Morning News published an article about a recently auctioned document purported to be the diary of a Mexican officer who was at the Alamo on March 6, 1836, when it fell. The diary says Davy Crockett and a few other defenders didn't go down fighting in the bloody final assault, as every Texas schoolchild has been taught, but that they were captured at the battle's end, and that Santa Anna ordered them executed. Ms. LeNeveu sent a letter to the newspaper, addressed "To my precious fourth-graders:" "Do not be dismayed . . . ," she wrote. "The fact cannot be disputed that Mr. Crockett, alongside a few others - both Anglo and Hispanic - made a commitment to face tyranny and dictatorship against all odds! Do not forget that their ideals of liberty, of patriotism, and of all that we hold dear to the American character are free to Texans today because of these brave men and women who chose to remain inside those walls." Partners "Anglo and Hispanic neighbors went through a lot together during the revolution," says Mr. Spasic at the San Jacinto Museum. "They helped each other and had respect for each other. They had a common bond. Some who came afterward didn't have that bond." The museum is part of the San Jacinto Monument, a 570-foot stone shaft rising above the battlefield where on April 21, 1836, Sam Houston and his ragtag troops - including Col. Seguin's Tejanos - surprised Santa Anna's army and, in only 18 minutes, routed it. A half-hour, multiprojector slide show in the museum tells the story of the battle that changed Texas, Mexico and the United States forever, and its bitter aftermath for some of its Hispanic participants. After independence was won, new settlers flooded into Texas from the United States and Europe. The Anglo majority grew larger. The Hispanic minority shrank. Some of the newcomers were adventurers and land-grabbers who used crooked bankers, politicians and courts to rob Hispanic Texans of their lands. Many of the Tejano families who had helped finance and fight the revolution lost everything. Some were now laborers on land they had owned. Others - among them Juan Seguin - crossed the Rio Grande and settled in Mexico, feeling betrayed by the young nation he had helped create. Anti-Hispanic prejudice and distrust increased with the U.S.-Mexican War, which broke out after the 10-year-ol Republic of Texas was annexed into the United States. And, since history is written by the winners, much of Texas history, fiction and poetry published during the following century was written with a distinct Anglo slant. "There were population shifts after the revolution," says Mr. Spasic. "And when a shift brings people with different histories and heritages and languages and religions together, there's going to be conflict. That will always happen. It is continuing to happen in the United States today. There will always be adjustments." Of the nearly 17 million Texas residents recorded in the 1990 U.S. Census, almost 4 million were of Mexican ancestry - a much larger percentage of the population than native Mexicans represented at the time of the revolution or at any time since. This, says Mr. Spasic, is one of the reasons that the history of early Texas and its revolution is being reinterpreted at San Jacinto, at the Alamo and in academic and popular histories. As the population of the state grows and becomes more diverse, it has become imperative that all sides be presented fairly. "The goal in our life together is to get to the point where tolerance is the predominant view and the yardstick by which we act and react," he says. "And as new information becomes available," he says, "it should be included in our interpretations. I don't think any interpretation of history is finalized and completely truthful. "There's probably a little bit of truth in everybody's view." English-Only Policy for Tenants Upheld, (posted 1/18/99) BY HOWARD MINTZ, Mercury News Staff Writer In a case described by a federal judge as being on the "cutting edge of the law," a San Jose jury Wednesday sided with a local landlord who refused to rent a house to a Latino family because of their failure to speak adequate English. After more than two days of deliberations, a U.S. District Court jury voted 7 to 1 to reject a lawsuit brought by Joaquin and Delia Veles, a San Jose couple who accused the landlord of violating federal housing discrimination laws by invoking an English-only policy. Jurors concluded that landlords Carl and Mary Lindow did not discriminate against the Veles family, and that the English requirement did not specifically discriminate against Mexican-Americans. The Lindows, landlords since the 1970s, enforce a policy requiring prospective renters to speak what they consider to be adequate English before they can rent one of their properties. The suit alleged that the policy discriminates on the basis of national origin-particularly in a place like Silicon Valley, where there are many potential Spanish-speaking renters who might be affected. But the jury disagreed, concluding that anti-bias laws were not violated. Civil rights lawyers representing the Veles family have vowed to appeal the case because the courts have not specifically addressed whether federal fair housing laws apply to such language restrictions. "We're very disappointed, but things happen," Joaquin Veles said. "We're going to try to appeal." The couple sued in 1996 after the Lindows told them their English was not sufficient to rent a house on Ella Drive in San Jose. The Lindows insisted their policy was not discriminatory, noting that they rent to minorities. Instead, they defended the policy as a business necessity to ensure communication links with tenants. Among other things, Joaquin Veles, a Mexican national who has been in the United States for 20 years, said he spoke adequate English, and that the rejection amounted to an insult to his family. U.S. District Judge James Ware, in a ruling earlier this year, found that the English rental policy "in and of itself is insufficient to give rise to an inference of unlawful discrimination." The judge also found that the policy does not discriminate against any particular nationality. The trial then focused solely on the factual question of whether the Lindows intended to discriminate with their policy. The judge's pretrial rulings are expected to form the basis of an anticipated legal challenge in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Ware told both sides in the case earlier this week that they were making new law with their competing positions. "The 9th Circuit will agree with Ware's interpretation of the law," said Lance Burrow, the Lindows' attorney. "If they don't, it could put our business dealings in chaos." JSRI Home | Community Connections | Latino News Archives
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