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Group Says Hate Crimes Against Hispanics Rising, (posted 7/29/99) July 26, 1999 HOUSTON (AP) -- Hate crimes against Hispanics are on the rise, underscoring a troubling pattern of harassment against the nation's fastest-growing minority group by law enforcement and extremists, the National Council of La Raza said Monday. "It seems that open season has been declared on our community," President Raul Yzaguirre said at the annual convention of the nation's largest Hispanic civil rights group. "Private citizens and law enforcement officials feel they can harass or attack Hispanic Americans with almost complete impunity." A report released by the group, "The Mainstreaming of Hate," chronicles allegations of hate crime violence, church burning and law enforcement abuse. Although the authors rely heavily on anecdotal evidence, they say the study gives a first-of-its kind look at an emerging pattern of hate activity against Hispanics. In 1993, the first year federal hate crime statistics were reported, there were 472 anti-Hispanic incidents reported. The numbers increased to 516 in 1995 and 564 in 1996. In 1997, the last year reported, anti-Hispanic hate crimes exceeded 600 incidents. Yzaguirre said attacks against Hispanics are being overlooked. "It was clear that most of the incidents that came across our desks involving Latinos were simply being ignored by the media and policy-makers," Yzaguirre said. "To the extent we are data invisible, we will continue to be policy invisible." The authors said "numerous cases" of illegal and inappropriate seizures, traffic stops based on ethnic appearance and physical abuse have been reported and instill in Latinos a sense of fear and mistrust. The report said Hispanics themselves seem to be committing more hate crimes. Using numbers principally from incidents reported in California, the only state where such numbers are collected based on national origin and ethnicity, preliminary numbers showed an increase in Hispanic-committed crimes, said Carmen Joge, a La Raza policy analyst. La Raza advocates the passage of the Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 1999 and extensive training of law enforcement officials in identifying and responding to hate violence. Copyright 1999 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Latino Convention Marks 'Coming of Age', (posted 7/29/99) July 16, 1999 CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (CNN) -- More than 6,000 delegates are expected at this week's convention of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) in what organizers describe as a "coming of age" for Hispanics. High birthrates and immigration have increased the Latino population in the United States by 41 percent in the last nine years, according to estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau. Some 31 million Latinos comprise 11 percent of the U.S. population. With a median age of just 26, Hispanics have also become a dream demographic group for marketers, advertisers, and yes, politicians. As a result, the current Republican and Democratic front- runners for the 2000 presidential nomination-Texas Gov. George W. Bush and Vice President Al Gore-have hit the campaign trail speaking Spanish. "They all know the Hispanic vote will be very important next year in the elections and I think they're getting the message," said LULAC President Rick Dovalina. The message is that most Latinos live in eleven key presidential election states with a combined clout of 217 electoral votes. But savvy voters are likely to be more interested in the content of the message than the language it's delivered in. "The question is going to be how each one attacks the issues appropriately, not how they speak Spanish to us," said Nelson Diaz of the Democratic National Committee. For Corpus Christi resident Alex Ramirez, the new-found political clout translates into the respect many Hispanic voters have deserved for years. "A lot of it will be pride---recognition that their grandparents and great-grandparents and their parents probably didn't have the opportunity to receive," he said. Farmworker Housing Coalition Files for Incorporation , (posted 7/27/99) Naples Daily News Organizers of a new coalition aimed at improving farmworker housing throughout Florida say they have filed papers with the Secretary of State's office to become an incorporated non-profit organization. The Florida Farmworker Housing Coalition Inc., an offshoot of a task force consisting mainly of Southwest Florida commercial growers, will focus on bringing as much as $100 million in housing money to the state. The group is working closely with the office of Gov. Jeb Bush, who earlier this year issued a housing initiative following his own visit with farmworkers in Immokalee. Bush maintains the coalition will play an important role in efforts to keep Florida farmers competitive and the state's economy healthy. Attorney Fernando Roig of Fort Lauderdale said the incorporation papers were filed with the Secretary of State's Office late Tuesday and are expected to be approved quickly. He said the incorporation would be delayed only if another group seeks to incorporate under the same name. "Now it's in the hands of the state. I hope to get it back soon," Roig said, noting that the incorporation process includes acquiring a corporate seal and an identification number. Bush, in written statements about farmworker housing issues earlier this week, said the coalition's efforts are part of what he envisions as an inclusive housing initiative involving average citizens as well as state, local and federal governments. The governor said solving the migrant housing problem in Florida is crucial to the state's economy. He said residents throughout the state need to understand the automatic link between the workers' need for housing and the impact of farming on Florida's financial health. "This is an area of housing that has traditionally been underserved," Bush said. "If more Floridians can appreciate the link that farmworker housing has to economic development, then I think anything is possible. The greater the buy-in by local communities, growers and not-for-profits, the greater our chances for success." Bush said that with Florida ranking second nationally in the value of its vegetable crops, the coalition could help preserve the state's position in the global market. Housing for workers is vital for farmers to remain competitive. "A solid housing initiative will help Florida's farmers compete against other industries, states and nations," Bush said. The governor, who helped intervene and win higher wages for some Immokalee farmworkers earlier this year, pledged to remain aggressive on improving housing for farmworkers. "I'll continue to elevate Floridians' awareness of this issue using the bully pulpit and the resources of government," Bush said. "The plight of our migrant farmworkers is a story that needs to be told, and not just in whispers." Although a definitive study on migrant housing is lacking, it's become apparent that single, male workers are those who most need places to live, he said. Often they are paying as much as $1,000 monthly for shared quarters in cramped and dilapidated trailers. Citing those "inflated rents and poor housing conditions," Bush said the goal of the housing coalition is to eventually replace substandard housing. Bush stressed his recent farmworker housing initiative, which aims to improve housing by using Florida inmates as construction crews for rental and ownership properties. He said inmate builders could reduce the labor costs by as much as 50 percent. The coalition, as an informal broker for bringing housing money to Florida, aims to lure as much as $100 million in funds to Florida over the next three years. As written in its bylaws, the coalition wouldn't contribute money, but only help raise cash. Bush said that as the coalition forms its leadership team, the focus should be on finding a director who serves as a "coalition/consensus builder" and who can encourage cooperation among the diverse parties involved in farmwork housing issues. J. Luis Rodriguez, an informal adviser to Bush on agricultural issues, said Wednesday that the next step after the incorporation is approved will be to form a board of directors. He said organizers already are acquiring names of interested would-be board members, although a director probably wouldn't be chosen until that board is firmly established. Jose Montoya: Elder Of Flower and Song, (posted 7/27/99) FROM UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE Poet. Musician. Artist. Performer. Educator. Orator. Organizer. Rebel. Philosopher. Elder. Human being. All of these describe Jose Montoya of Sacramento, Calif. He embodies the ancient indigenous Nahuatl concept of the toltecatl, or consummate artist, who is "abundant, multiple" and "dialogues with his heart." The Nahuatl teachings said great painters paint "the colors of all the flowers." For Montoya the poet, "the words and flowers have opened." And his songs are solid as "rocks." Montoya is all that, yet to this day he is a street "vato" -- a homeboy pachuco who is the antithesis of a Hispanic media darling intellectual type. He says little that the mainstream media want to hear. He doesn't preach assimilation or the virtues of being middle class, nor does he try to dazzle crowds with numbers and percentages about how Americanized people of color really are. He doesn't brownnose power brokers, or feign correctness of any sort, political or otherwise. What he does is believe in street youth-that none are throwaways. He believes that gangs and drugs are a virtual creation of government, part of a counter-political strategy to decimate the barrios, ghettos and reservations of this country. In all that he does, he defends these youngsters, saying that they are the modern-day pachucos or zoot-suiters- youths who are marginalized and attacked by everyone in need of a scapegoat. He also refutes charges that he romanticizes them, asserting that in the face of cultural onslaught, they are embattled youths, at the forefront of resistance. They've been criminalized by a society that places more emphasis on gluttonous corporations than on the needs of its young. As part of an art collective known as the Royal Chicano Air Force (RCAF), he helped uncover proof, through forgotten World War II-era government documents, that pachucos were attacked and vilified as unpatriotic hoodlums by government and media. In June 1943, thousands of white military personnel-with the assistance of law enforcement-attacked zoot suit-clad youngsters, primarily in Los Angeles-"accusing them of being part of a fifth column," he says. The media labeled the several days of rampages as the "Zoot Suit Riots." Subsequent to these disturbances, Eleanor Roosevelt headed a commission that issued a damning report, "The Government Riots," laying the blame of the disturbances squarely on the government and the media. In the 1970s, the RCAF operated a barrio art school for street youths. Because not all the youths were interested in art, the RCAF sent the other youngsters to the state library where, through archives, they helped uncover the searing report. They also found that during World War II, state legislators had plotted to open up concentration or "work" camps for pachucos. "After uncovering these documents, the youths began to ask whether the government was behind drug-running," says Montoya. "The answer was yes! A few years later, we found out that Ollie North was (complicit in) selling drugs to fight a war against Nicaragua." Just as these different youth programs around the country were proving to be successful, they were defunded by bureaucrats who raised the white flag in the war against poverty, asserts Montoya. "We were reversing the dropout problem. ... Many had previously been on the road to Folsom prison." To this day, Montoya believes that education, history and culture are the keys to turning street youths around. "I'm serious that people need to pass down our history-the history of Mexicans in the United States, who didn't leave our lands to get here." This desire to pass on knowledge triggered his creative spirit. Not everyone wanted to hear poems. That's why he also became a musician and artist. As a member of the RCAF, Montoya's signature became his aviator's cap, goggles and jacket. He was a master at "tortilla art" -- he painted using tortillas as his canvas. "If you don't exploit your sense of humor, you're going to be defeated," he says. And singing resonates because "in the barrio, everybody sings. You bring joy to despair. It's the best therapy." Long ago, his ancestors wrote that great people of action and thought became singers and poets and created flor y canto, the "flower song," the beauty and wisdom of the people. To be a human being is to be a creative being-one who sings and paints and creates goodness, much like Montoya, elder of flor y canto. COPYRIGHT 1999 UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE Montoya is a member of a musical trio called "Casindio" and has a classic CD titled "A Pachuco Portfolio"-which can perhaps be categorized as indigenous Chicano barrio sounds. If there's interest, the CD will be reissued. Unfortuantely, Montoya intentionally resists the computer age so he has no e-address or a pachuco website. If there's interest, we will pass on the messages to him. Gonzales & Rodriguez can be reached at PO BOX 7905, Albq NM 87194-7905, 505-242-7282 or XColumn@aol.com The Theory and Practice of Chicanismo, (posted 7/23/99) by Octavio Romano, Ph.D. The Case of Ema Tenuayuca. The most singular characteristic that reveals the highest degree of assimilation and acculturation among people of Mexican descent in the U.S. is exhibited by those who dismiss their past as being inconsequential. Currently, this is the hallmark not only of those who speak with a note of disdain toward their camaradas of the 1960s, but it is also applies to those who truly believe that nothing of importance occurred before the UFW, MALDEF, LULAC, and the BROWN BERETS. Certainly, there are a number of academics who are seriously doing research about the history of the Mexicanos, Mexican Americans, Chicanos and Hispanos (MMACH). But, and this is central to the current thesis of this presentation, these academicians are mainly engrossed in the THEORY of Chicanismo. Few, if any, however, are engrossed in its PRACTICE. Among those who PRACTICED Chicanismo is Emma Tenayuca. Though she was born in 1916, her life embodied the concept of Chicanismo. In other words, she was a Chicana long before any one thought of the term. Emma Tenayuca, as a young girl, was jailed many more times than Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta in her struggle for justice for all of us. Few of us today have her courage, her determination, and her vision. In other words, she was a Chicana/Chicano long before we gave ourselves this title. She knew the theoty. Emma put it to practice. This, then, is for you, Emma Tenayuca. And thank you. The last I heard of you, in the late 80s, you were in the throes of AlzheimerÆs disease. But, Emma, though you were having trouble remembering things in the corporeal world, please know that today we remember things, and you are among the most important ones that we remember. Emma Tenayuca 1916-1990(?) Labor organizer and strike leader. San Antonio, Texas There is such a thing as wanting to do the things I want to do. It's so easy. If you had the support, to be given a nice job somewhere and be assured of food until you die. But that was one thing I could not accept. I could not go down to the establishment. Now there is some recognition about that. And there is some recognition (of me) by those who did take money and make a nice little niche for themselves. These things everybody was feelng. But how many people got out there and did something about it? I think personally I feel that I have contributed something and I've talked to members of COPS and so forth, and I have been invited to march with the farm workers. I was arrested a number of times. I don't think that I felt exactly fearful. I never thought in terms of fear. I thought in terms of justice. De-Springerizing the News, (posted 7/23/99) FROM UNIVERSAL SEATTLE-At the last Unity conference five years ago, thousands of journalists of color met in Atlanta and debated the role of race and ethnicity in relationship to all aspects of the news media. This time, we came not content with asking questions about numbers, percentages or images. We already know the answers; there are still very few people of color in the profession, and the images of people of color are still negatively distorted or nonexistent. This time, we pondered purpose and relevance. We've already learned that if a person of color follows the same mainstream formulas for covering news stories, the result will be sensationalist sound bites-with a little bit of color. And we already know that desegregating the profession is not enough, just as expanding coverage on white criminality is not the antidote to the criminalization of people of color by the media. Virtually every news outlet seemingly has the same news formula-violence, transportation mishaps, natural disasters, weather and sports. If there's no local violence or tragedy to report on, a national one will do. We've long asked, How does society benefit from this? How are we enlightened, and what do we learn from a steady diet of carnage? In advertising, we know the result: more customers. In effect, we are all customers of news. Being constantly force-fed this diet of violence shapes our consciousness. It forces us to fear our neighbors, to be distant and distrustful. It teaches us to racialize crime and to think of other problems in a similar vein. As a result, our fears are attributable to someone dark, and so it becomes easy to scapegoat and to build moated communities and minds. People of color are often portrayed as victims and problems. Consequently, this is how they are viewed by many in society. As news consumers, we must insist that the news media profession change its definition of news. In responding to demands for change, news executives have traditionally held that they are in the business of providing information, not propaganda. Yet, like objectivity, information is in the eye of the beholder. Currently, what defines news is the idea of conflict. However, the media often provide a superficial treatment of conflict, omitting context and its deepest roots. More often than not, resolutions are ignored. The tragedy in Littleton, Colo., becomes a story about gun bans as opposed to how society fails to give youth a sense of purpose. Black/Latino conflict is portrayed as only racial animus without examining how poverty and lack of opportunity are factors in discord. American Indians are reported as rioting at a peaceful protest in Nebraska, without showing the deeper relationship to racism, violence and how non-Indian "wet" towns and the alcohol industry profit and contribute to the despair on reservations. On the international front, Russians continue to be portrayed as obstacles to peace, and the Chinese are the new spies and the new threat to world peace. "We have to take control over what the dialogue is about and what is covered," says Winona LaDuke, an Anishinabe Indian and author of "All Our Relations: Native Struggles for Land and Life" (South End Press, $17). "Absent of historical context, media do a huge disservice because they don't show relationships." Just sound bites. The antithesis to this news formula is not fluff, nor artificially created "good news." It is to report news that adds value and enriches our lives. More than anything, it should replenish the human spirit and help rehumanize society. It should demystify the culture of fear that suffocates democratization in this country. All this reminds us of when Jerry Springer was recently asked, if the fights on his program were staged, in effect, wasn't his program a fraud? Perhaps media executives should also be asked the same question. To produce the same nightly/daily dose of violence, all that's required is the positioning of cameras on the usual street corners-or on a fast helicopter. The challenge to news consumers is to become involved in improving news coverage and to suggest alternatives to the current news formula. In doing this, we should keep in mind that the news media should serve to bridge communities and make us more trusting and more learned of other peoples and cultures. It should connect us all to one humanity. Anything less is status quo and the incomplete story of the world we live in. Or as Kara Briggs, president of the Native American Journalists Association, says in talking about our present era, "We have the greatest human stories evolving. It's time to right them." COPYRIGHT 1999 UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE Gonzales & Rodriguez can be reached at PO BOX 7905, ALbq NM 87194-7905 505-242-7282 or XColumn@aol.com Sessions at Capitol Give Achievers a Chance to Develop Their Talents, (posted 7/22/99) By Holly M. Sanders Alexsandra Adame has been governor for less than two days, and already she must address the Legislature. Other freshman politicians might crack under the pressure. But after taking the House floor in the Texas Capitol, Adame gave a rousing speech that drew a standing ovation. The 16-year-old high school junior-much like a seasoned politician-took it all in stride. "I knew I could be a strong leader and handle the job," she said. Adame's poise and confidence are common among the 250 high-achieving Latino students who were selected to participate in the National Hispanic Institute's Lorenzo de Zavala Youth Legislative Session. Students gathered Sunday at Southwestern University in Georgetown, where they honed their leadership skills before heading to the state Capitol for the mock legislative session. On Wednesday, some of the state's best and brightest filled the House and Senate chambers, researching policies, debating the issues and enacting legislation. The college-bound achievers-who must earn a minimum 3.2 grade-point average and participate in community service to be accepted into the program-challenged the notion that Latinos are destined to struggle in society. "We come from a position of strength," said Ernesto Nieto, the institute's president and founder. "We want Latinos to focus on the possibilities rather than the limitations. . . . We think they are shaping society for the 21st century." The National Hispanic Institute, a nonprofit educational agency, was founded in 1979 with the goal of grooming Latino students for leadership roles. Since then, more than 40,000 students have graduated from the institute, which sponsors a variety of programs that target youths of all ages. The Lorenzo de Zavala Youth Legislative Session, the largest of the institute's programs, is geared toward sophomores and juniors. Every year the eight-day event is held at five sites around the country, including Southwestern University. This year, the institute is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the youth legislative session. And Nieto, who has kept track of the program's graduates, says an impressive number have gone on to pursue careers in medicine, politics and law. Eva-Dina Delgado, a recent graduate of Wellesley College, participated in the youth legislative session six years ago. Now a law student at DePaul University in Chicago, Delgado said she jumped at the opportunity to serve on the institute's summer staff. "Rarely do you get a chance to work with such an amazing group of young people," said Delgado, who coaches students on the political process. "I know the program encouraged me to aim high." The application process is competitive. This year, more than 10,000 students nationally applied for the program, and only 1,000 were accepted. In addition, students must pay a $455 tuition fee. But for Latino achievers such as Adame, the opportunity to meet their peers and participate in politics is worth it. "I really want to get more involved in the Latino community," she said. Indeed, the newly elected governor has set the top item on her agenda: designating July 20 -- the anniversary of the youth legislative session-National Latino Youth Day. StarMedia Gobbles Up Another Spanish Site , (posted 7/22/99) By Reuters NEW YORK-StarMedia chief executive Fernando Espuelas said today that his Spanish and Portuguese Internet company is like a newborn baby-it keeps him up at night and needs to be fed constantly. "We have a newborn here," he said. "I think I've slept maybe ten hours in the past week." As for feeding the hungry newborn, the latest company to be swallowed up is LatinRed, a Spanish-language operation that provides free email, chat, and home page creation and electronic greeting cards. LatinRed, which will continue as its own site, provides a stronghold in StarMedia's battle with Spain's dominant telecommunications company, Telefonica de España, to be the premier provider of Internet services there. Operating in markets such as Spain, Argentina, Mexico, Colombia, and the United States, LatinRed is the first company bought by StarMedia that is, like itself, geared toward Spanish speakers across borders. "On the broad strategic front, we're buying the No. 2 Spanish-language site after us," Espuelas said. The acquisition is the fourth since StarMedia's initial public offering in May, which afforded the company the wealth to go on its buying spree. Last week, StarMedia announced its acquisition of Chilean company Servicios Interactivos, owner of the portal and search site Openchile and Panoramas, a local directory. StarMedia also bought Cade and Zeek, online directories in Brazil, which is considered an attractive online market due to the widespread use of credit cards. Chase Manhattan today cited StarMedia as an investment that raised the bank's revenues. The company's overall success has made Espuelas something of a poster boy for the Internet in Latin America, casting a glow of celebrity on the native of Uruguay. "It is a very interesting process on a personal basis," he said. "There is a lot of pull on me, and it is more pronounced in Latin America. I just try to ignore it and stay focused." Story Copyright © 1999 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Eat to the Beat of Latin America, (posted 7/22/99) Today's Calendar Stories By ERNESTO LECHNER, Special to The Times all it a pan-Latino multicultural experience. As part of a Los Angeles trend that includes the popular Conga Room, the newly opened La Isla del Mambo has restrained itself from identifying with the tradition of any specific Latin American country. Instead, the Melrose Avenue restaurant-club borrows elements from different regions, creating a mood that underscores the most hip elements of Latino culture. Like the Conga Room, La Isla del Mambo makes good use of its fragmented space. You enter into the main dining room, where a rich mix of Cuban cuisine and dishes from the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico is served up. The food from both these regions is overwhelmingly sensuous and, fortunately, the prices are just right, offering a good value considering the sophisticated combination of different flavors and textures. The dining room is decorated with artifacts and folk art that owner Rudy Escamilla has collected on many trips south of the border. The predominance of colorful, mismatched objects gives the space a casual atmosphere. In the dining room, guitarist-singer Guillermo de Anda, a veteran of the local Latin music circuit, usually performs, accompanied by Costa Rican singer Iliana Garcia. Keeping with the aesthetic of the place, De Anda offers his listeners an eclectic mix from the Latin American songbook. Musically, though, the real action takes place upstairs on weekend nights. A tiny room covered with mirrors that looks like a neighborhood dance studio has been turned into an impromptu salsa club. The stage is barely big enough to accommodate Rudy Regalado's 10-piece house band, but the intimacy of the space appears to infuse the Venezuelan bandleader with renewed spice. On a recent night, Regalado sounded better than ever, adding to his usual repertoire of originals a few classics from the golden age of Cuban salsa, like the blistering "Que Bueno Baila Usted." If you are not well versed in the art of the syncopated salsa step, this awkward space might help you loosen up. You are likely to feel you are in somebody's living room rather than in a club. And if you just want to listen to the music, a few leather chairs are sprinkled casually around the room. You won't get thirsty, either. Hidden in the darkness of a corner is the bar. Should you want to retreat from the noise for a quiet conversation, the restaurant has a small patio on the back of the building. Escamilla has big plans for La Isla. His dream is to see the venue become a sort of Latino social club, where people from all walks of life can get together and enjoy the quintessential elements of every Latin American party: food, music and a game of dominoes. In fact, he plans to hold domino contests, and he will also use the room upstairs for exhibitions of works by promising Hispanic artists. BE THERE La Isla del Mambo, 7174 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles. Food served daily from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Live music on weekend nights. (323) 937-7346. Copyright 1999 Los Angeles Times. All Rights Reserved TV in Black and White - and Brown, Red and Yellow, (posted 7/22/99) WILLIAM WONG WHEN THE NAACP speaks, the TV networks listen. Or do they? Kweisi Mfume, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, last week criticized the four major TV networks for not having enough African American lead characters in their shows. Faster than you can say "must-see TV," network bosses said, "Yeah, that's right," or words to that effect. CBS said: ". . . Those of us in the entertainment industry need to make sure the characters on our screen reflect the diversity of our population as a whole." NBC said: "Although we are proud of the minority representation in many of NBC's dramas . . . we realize that there is still work to be done." ABC said: "We are making improvements in this area, and we understand the need to do more. We are very sensitive on this issue." Or, as Seinfeld might say, "Yada, yada, yada." In fact, this exchange is like a bad rerun - warmed-over platitudes in the ongoing American cultural wars. Mfume certainly has a point, but here's another perspective: The representation of African Americans on network TV shows, while pathetic in some respects, is a lot better than that of, say, Latinos or Asian Americans. What major TV cop drama, current or past, has not had a black lieutenant or captain in charge of a squad room mostly populated by white actors? This character has become a cliche. Think "NYPD Blue," "Law & Order," "Martial Law" and "Homicide." If not the top-billed star, these characters are at least among the top-tier of the ensemble casts of these shows. On network comedies, Mfume is right on. Comedies are much more segregated than dramas on TV. Images on TV shows may seem a trivial matter - after all, it's just TV - but they carry symbolic weight in our nation's continuing psychodrama over racial and ethnic issues. One theory holds that American culture should reflect the nation's variety of people. Whether we like it or not, TV is a major American cultural form. So if TV shows have all-white or almost all-white casts, that must mean that black, brown, red and yellow Americans and multiple shades in between don't count. A sub-theory is that TV and the movies should reflect the reality of the nation's racial and ethnic diversity. If that were so, however, then I wonder whether having African Americans as high-ranking police officials truly reflects the reality of police hierarchies. Following this line, why don't major TV medical dramas like "ER" and "Chicago Hope" feature Asian American characters as doctors, nurses and medical technicians? Neither of those shows do, when in fact if you walked into a Chicago hospital (the locale of both dramas), you could hardly avoid seeing an Asian American doctor, nurse or technician. Latinos have legitimate gripes as well. Jimmy Smits and Benjamin Bratt, two Latino stars, had leading roles in cop dramas, but have gone on to other things. Few other shows have Latinos in lead parts. The bottom line, of course, is the bottom line - money. TV shows aren't on the air for art's sake or to make us feel good about ourselves. They are vehicles to sell cars, computers, phone service, soft drinks, beer and other goods of our materialistic system. TV advertisers shy away from shows that have too many minority characters because, they say, these shows aren't watched by affluent white suburban audiences. I once asked an Asian American who held a prominent entertainment executive job why TV cop dramas had to have a black lieutenant and why Asian Americans aren't depicted as regulars on medical shows. "Simple demographics," was his simple answer. More than any civil rights group, money talks, especially on TV. William Wong is an independent journalist and Examiner columnist. ©1999 San Francisco Examiner Page A 21 Big Gift to Hispanic College Fund, (posted 7/22/99) $50 million grant for scholarships for fastest-growing ethnic minority
After watching her Honduras- born parents struggle through life in low-paying jobs because they dropped out of school after eighth grade, Karla Solis pledged to earn a college degree. But just getting to college was a challenge. Having worked long hours after school to help her parents make ends meet, the San Francisco 18- year-old knew she couldn't ask them to pitch in for tuition. Now, with help from the Hispanic Scholarship Fund, she will start at the University of California at Santa Cruz this fall, becoming one of the few Hispanics from her high school and the first in her family to attend a four-year university. Money "is one less thing that I have to worry about," Solis said. "A lot of people don't get that extra money to give them the boost to go to school." Thousands more students will soon get a helping hand from the San Francisco-based Hispanic Scholarship Fund, which this month received the single largest grant ever given to promote education for the nation's fastest growing minority. The $50 million grant from the Indianapolis-based Lilly Endowment Inc. means that, for the first time since its inception in 1975, the fund is not starting the year with its ledger at zero and scraping together small donations for scholarships. "You brace yourself for it, but actually hearing somebody say, 'We believe in your kids and we believe in what you are doing' is overwhelming," said Sara Martinez Tucker, president and CEO of the Hispanic Scholarship Fund. "We are going to be able to quadruple our support in one year." Last year, the fund awarded $3.52 million to 2,600 students across the country based on financial need and academic achievement. This year it will be able to give $12 million to 6,000 students, with the remainder of the $50 million grant spread out over the next four years. The fund is receiving in one grant more than it has awarded since its inception a quarter century ago. Since 1975, the fund has helped about 36,000 Hispanic students across the country with awards totaling more than $38 million. Martinez Tucker said the grant was desperately needed to catch up with the dramatic growth in the country's Hispanic population- which has risen from 22.35 million in 1990 to 30 million today. The Lilly Endowment, one of the largest philanthropic foundations in the country, has long given money to black colleges and the United Negro College Fund. Now the rising need in the Hispanic community has caught its eye. "We have become aware of this large, young Hispanic population in this country. You look at the figures and they really are compelling," said Gretchen Wolfram, spokeswoman for the Lilly Endowment. "They present a very demonstrable need for scholarship aid since finances seem to be the major barrier for Hispanics both to go to college and stay in college." The Lilly Endowment, created in 1937 by heirs of the Eli Lilly and Co. pharmaceutical fortune, traditionally has supported religion, education and community development-mostly in Indiana. The donation to the Hispanic Scholarship Fund marks the single largest gift given to a non-Indiana entity in the history of the Lilly Endowment. And it is only the second time it has given as much as $50 million to a single entity-matching the $50 million given last year to the United Way of Central Indiana. $5 MILLION IN MATCHING FUNDS The Hispanic Scholarship Fund will get $45 million from the grant now and has two years to raise $5 million to get the last $5 million in matching funds. The combined $10 million will be used to start an endowment to fund scholarships in perpetuity. About 80 percent of the $45 million will go to scholarships. The remaining money will support programs to educate parents about college admission requirements and to rally the Hispanic community to raise additional money and encourage students to attend college. Rene Juarez, 17, a San Francisco resident who was born in Mexico and moved to the United States when he was 4 years old, said that the Hispanic Scholarship Fund not only provides the means for students to get to college, but also offers motivation. "It really encouraged me," said Juarez, who will start at the University of California at Berkeley in the fall with a $1,000 scholarship. "And now that people are watching me, I have something to live up to." That's important, Martinez Tucker said, because many Hispanic students who do not go to college or who drop out say that they are discouraged by low expectations for their community and a lack of academic support. LOW EXPECTATIONS, DERISION Maria Torres, 17, said that as early as elementary school she had to struggle to get into programs for gifted students because her teachers figured Hispanics just couldn't cut it. She faced derision from her friends later when she got into the prestigious public Lowell High School in San Francisco, even though she scored far above average on the entrance exam and got in on her own right. "Some people would say, 'She got in because she is Latina,' " Torres said. The encouragement she got from the fund was critical. Torres said she would not be starting at UC Berkeley this fall if it weren't for a woman she met at the Hispanic Scholarship Fund's awards celebration. Initially rejected by UC Berkeley, Torres had settled on attending UC Santa Barbara. But an admission's officer she met at the celebration told her to appeal UC Berkeley's decision, emphasizing that she would have to give up her community work if she had to go away to school. She is on the board of directors for La Raza Centro Legal, which provides legal counsel to underrepresented groups, and she volunteers with the Anti-Defamation League. The woman's advice worked, and Torres was admitted to Berkeley. 97% EARN 4-YEAR DEGREES Overall, the fund has already enjoyed considerable success. Ninety seven percent of scholarship recipients have earned bachelor's degrees and another 2 percent received two- year degrees from community colleges. Before receiving the grant, the little-known organization had set an ambitious goal for itself: doubling the percentage of Hispanics nationwide earning college degrees from 9 percent today to 18 percent by 2006. The new grant will help the organization get there, partly through new scholarship programs for community college students and partly by supporting 15 urban public school districts, including San Francisco and Los Angeles, with $50,000 in matching funds for scholarships for college-bound seniors. Martinez Tucker says one challenge will be enlisting other organizations in the cause. "Directly, immediately, so many more students will be allowed to have their dreams come true," she said. "The challenge to this organization is to find other partners to take care of the students in the future." For more information about scholarships, call (877) HSF-INFO. ©1999 San Francisco Chronicle Page A1 Workplace Briefs , (posted 7/22/99) Prescription costs expected to rise Employers' prescription-drug benefit costs are expected to climb an average 11.5 percent for workers and 15.7 percent for retirees over the next year, a poll of 35 major employers by consultant Watson Wyatt Worldwide, Bethesda, Md., and the Washington (D.C.) Business Group on Health shows. Executive searches grow by 28 percent Executive searches booked during the first quarter jumped 28 percent from the previous quarter and were up 7 percent from the year-earlier period, according to the Association of Executive Search Consultants, New York. It says the retail sector has been notably strong, as new electronic retailers, or "etailers," seek seasoned strategists while traditional retailers seek techno-savvy executives to help their e-commerce efforts. Hispanic magazine favors U S West Latina Style, a Washington, D.C., magazine for Hispanic working women, picks U S West, a Denver regional telephone company, as its No. 1 employer for Latinas' professional opportunities. The magazine's list of top-50 companies is based largely on surveys of more than 500 CEOs, looking at factors like mentoring and the presence of Latina board members. Changing Face: Yuba-Sutter, (posted 7/15/99) The Changing Face project explores the impacts of immigration and integration in the agricultural areas of California. In many of the state's major agricultural counties, farm sales increased in the 1980s and 1990s, and so did the number of immigrants, residents in poverty and persons receiving welfare assistance. Seasonal farm jobs were a major attraction for immigrants, so that the interaction of agricultural expansion, increased immigration, and rising poverty and welfare use could be termed poverty amid prosperity. The Sacramento Valley is different. These counties tend to be smaller, more dependent on largely mechanized agriculture, such as rice and tomatoes, and with agricultural sectors that are not rapidly expanding. Most residents are non-Hispanic whites; some are descendants of the Okies and Arkies who migrated to California in the 1930s, and established relatively small farms on low-cost land in the Sacramento Valley. Further north, shrinking timber industries reduced employment and population over the past 20 years as relatively high-wage blue-collar jobs disappeared. Poverty and welfare indicators are among the highest in the state, e.g. Yuba county often leads the state in the percentage of residents who receive cash assistance, and Colusa county often has the highest unemployment rate. What explains the contrast between Sacramento Valley, which has poverty despite farm mechanization and little immigration, and the San Joaquin Valley, where an expanding agricultural sector is linked to increased immigration and poverty? Are integration prospects for the Hispanic immigrants moving into the Sacramento Valley better or worse than in other parts of the state? Will a rising tide of economic development lift all boats, so that long-time residents and newcomers alike enjoy more rapid job and income growth, or will migrant networks funnel newly arrived immigrants into entry-level jobs? What are prospects for the Hmong and other refugee populations that have moved to the area? Population. Yuba (60,000 residents in 1999) and Sutter (77,000 residents) counties are two of the southernmost counties of the Sacramento Valley; they are near but not part of the Interstate 80 corridor that connects Sacramento to the Bay Area and Reno. The two major cities in the area, Yuba City (in Sutter county), with 35,000 residents, and Marysville (in Yuba county), with 13,000, face each other across the Sacramento river. Yuba City is considered the growth node of the area. Yuba county is the poorer of the two counties that comprise the Sutter-Yuba MSA-it has only two incorporated cities-Marysville and Wheatland. Yuba county has poorer farm land, some of which was subdivided in the 1930s, and attracted small farmers from the midwest; their descendants, as well as Hmong migrants, are concentrated in the unincorporated areas of Olivehurst and Linda. The federal government owns much of the remaining land, giving Yuba county a relatively small tax base. As retailing expands in Sutter rather than Yuba county, Yuba's tax base remains limited. The largest employer in Yuba County is Beale Air Force Base, followed by the Marysville Unified School District. Yuba county's only retail mall, the Peach Tree Mall in Linda, was destroyed by floods in 1986; the 1986 floods caused 40,000 people-about 60 percent of Yuba County's population-to evacuate. Much of Yuba County is in a flood plain, which limits the growth of Marysville, surrounded on all sides by levees, and pushes much of the area's population growth into Sutter County. Both southern Sutter and Yuba counties are becoming bedroom communities for persons employed in Sacramento. The changing face of rural California is less evident in the Sacramento Valley than in the San Joaquin Valley. In 1990, the population of Sutter and Yuba counties was 73 percent white and 13 percent Hispanic, and there were more Asian Indians (4,600) than either Blacks (3,400) or Native Americans (2,600). In Yuba county in 1997, 57 percent of K-12 students were non-Hispanic white, and 16 percent each were Hispanic and Asian; comparable percentages for California were 49 percent, 41 percent, and 5 percent. However, the growth of Hispanic and Limited-English Pupils has been very rapid in the 1990s, often doubling in Sacramento Valley counties. Higher education rates are also below state averages: 10 percent of Yuba county students took the SAT test, compared to 20 percent in California, only one percent took advanced placement courses, compared to 13 percent, and 33 percent planned to attend college, compared to 60 percent statewide. About two percent of Yuba county graduates attend UC, versus 7 percent of all California high school graduates; almost five percent attend CSU, compared to nine percent statewide; 27 percent attend community colleges, compared to 35 percent statewide. These data suggest that many of the non-Hispanic whites in Yuba county complete high school, but do not go on to college. However, local employers complain that many do not have appropriate work attitudes, so that some employers prefer to hire Hispanic and Asian immigrants who may lack a high school education, but who are believed to have better attitudes to work. Labor Market. The Sutter-Yuba MSA (both counties) had an average labor force of 57,600 in 1998, and an average unemployment rate of 14.5 percent; unemployment varied from a low of 9.7 percent in September to a high of 19.4 percent in February. In June 1999, there were 59,000 persons employed in the two counties, including 7,500 military personnel. There were 51,500 civilians employed, and 7,500 unemployed, for an unemployment rate of almost 13 percent. For more information: http://www.calmis.cahwnet.gov/htmlfile/msa/yubacity.htm Excluding self-employed persons, there were 44,000 persons on payrolls in Yuba and Sutter counties in June 1999, including almost 8,000 or 18 percent employed on farms; 11,000 employed by government; and 9,000 employed in trade; there were 3,000 manufacturing workers. Training program staff sometimes note that the hardest persons to retrain are men who had high-wage jobs in e.g. timber; their homemaker wives entering or re-entering the labor market proved more willing to learn new skills. Colusa county, which borders Sutter county, typically has one of the highest unemployment rates in the state: an average of 21 percent in 1998. Colusa, a leading rice producer, is one of the most agriculturally dependent counties of California. Settled by immigrants from northern Italy, Colusa county offers many seasonal farm jobs, which helps to explain the high unemployment rate. Welfare. In 1996, per capita income in California was $25,400, $20,000 in Sutter county, and $15,000 in Yuba county. One measure of poverty is the percentage of residents who are eligible for MediCal services: in 1997, about 16 percent of California residents were eligible for MediCal services, but 17 percent of Sutter county residents and 31 percent of Yuba county residents were eligible. Yuba county vies with Merced county as the California county with the highest percentage of residents on welfare-an average of over 14 percent of residents received cash assistance (AFDC/TANF) in 1998, versus just under 14 percent in Merced county. In 1998, an average 8,800 Yuba county's residents, 2,300 adults and 6,500 children, received cash assistance under the Aid to Families With Dependent Children (AFDC) or Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) programs. An average 9,600 Yuba county residents received Food Stamps in 1998. In neighboring Sutter county, an average six percent of residents received cash assistance, and there were an average 4,700 welfare recipients, including 1,400 adults and 3,300 children, and 5,800 Food Stamp recipients. Of the 3,100 AFDC/TANF recipients who were 16 or older in 1998 in Yuba county, about 81 percent were women, 70 percent of whom were ages 21-44, and 70 percent of whom were non-Hispanic whites. The next largest group of adult welfare recipients were Asians, 15 percent; followed by Hispanics, 11 percent. In Sutter county, women were 81 percent of adult recipients; 71 percent were ages 21-44; and 65 percent were non-Hispanic whites, followed by 24 percent Hispanics. The fact that most welfare recipients in the Sacramento Valley are non-Hispanic whites has led to several theories, including arguments that urban residents receiving cash assistance move to the Sacramento Valley for lower costs of living. Some observers believe that education has historically not been highly valued, and that some AFDC/TANF recipients moving to the Sacramento Valley are children of residents who decided to return. Some local observers note that Mexican immigrants seem to be moving into the Sacramento Valley to take jobs that long-time residents shun, including reforestation. Agriculture. The 18-county Sacramento Valley economy, as defined by EDD, is based on agriculture. The most recent EDD data are for 1996, when there were an average 29,300 wage and salary workers employed in the Sacramento Valley, including 26,700 agricultural production workers. Employment peaked at 33,000 in August, and reached a low of 16,000 in January-February. Average weekly earnings of production workers were $296 in 1996, or $6.49 an hour. For comparison, the 1996 statewide annual average employment level for agricultural production workers was 349,400; it ranged from a low of 262,700 in January to 413,500 in September. Statewide, there was one manager or office worker for each 13 production workers. In 1997, peach growers in Yuba and Sutter counties produced 216,000 tons of peaches worth $48 million, or almost 40 percent of the state's 572,000 tons of peaches. About 30 percent of Yuba-Sutter peaches are picked by machine, at a cost of about $15 a ton; the other 70 percent are picked by hand, at a cost of about $30 a ton. Canneries, which pay about $200 a ton for the peaches grown in the area that are processed, discount machine-picked peaches by $15 a ton. Most hand pickers earn $11 per 900-1000 pound bin (4x4x2.5 feet). UC Extension in 1998 estimated the cost of producing cling peaches in the Sacramento Valley at $3,800 an acre, including $600 an acre to thin the peaches, and $900 an acre to hand pick and haul cling peaches. With a yield of 22 tons an acre and at a price of $210 a ton, revenues are $4,600 an acre, and profits about $800 an acre. Yields in the Sutter-Yuba area were 16 to 17 tons an acre in the mid-1990s. Hourly labor costs were put at $8 for skilled labor (tractor drivers, etc) and $5.75 for unskilled labor, the minimum wage. UC Extension estimates that payroll taxes and benefits add 34 percent to these hourly wages, bringing total labor costs to $10.69 and $7.71 an hour (one grower says that, in tree fruits, 40 percent overhead over hourly wages is standard). Development. Sutter and Yuba counties are committed to economic development, and the hope for an economic turnaround rests on a race track and concert site. Bill Graham Presents plans a $20 million, 20,000-seat concert amphitheater in rural Yuba County near Wheatland, next to a $65 million-motor sports speedway, the Yuba County Motorplex, which is projected to cost $100 million and to create 1,200 jobs. A local initiative, Measure R, was approved by 86 percent of voters in January 1998, eliminating extensive environmental reviews so the projects can proceed on a fast track. If both projects are built and attendance at events meets expectations, tourism is projected to generate $558 million in 2010, compared to a projected $548 million for agriculture. The Sutter-Yuba area, which currently has 750 hotel rooms, expects to add more. Guest Workers: Advocates Change, (posted 7/15/99) Growers began their 1999 push for a new guest worker program at a May 12, 1999 hearing before the Senate Subcommittee on Immigration. The theme suggested by many witnesses was that growers should have easier grower access to legal foreign workers and that some currently illegal workers should be legalized or receive a probationary immigrant status. Most witnesses cited the NAWS estimate that 37 percent of farm workers were unauthorized in 1995-96, and that the unauthorized percentage is climbing. Grower advocates such as Senator Larry Craig (R-ID) said that the question is: will farm workers "be legally authorized to work in America or not," and suggested that, unless a new guest worker is approved, a rising fraction of farm workers will be illegal. They also cited the Social Security Administration's Enumeration Verification System, which threatens to fine employers who report false SSNs or SSNs for which names and numbers do not match; some farm employers report that 50 to 80 percent of worker SSNs are not valid. However, Bruce Goldstein of the Farmworker Justice Fund said "No valid justification exists for a new agricultural guestworker program." In June 1999, Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) inserted an amendment into the FY 2000 Ag Appropriations bill that would enact into law the DOL regulatory change to reduce the time employers must apply before workers were needed from 60 to 45 days, and require DOL to certify farmer needs for H-2A workers at least 30 days before the employer-specified need date, up from the current 20 days. DOL, in its revised regulations, proposed that reducing 60 to 45 days the application period should also reduce from 20 to seven days the time employers have to receive certification in order to preserve a period of time for employers to recruit US workers. Over 95 percent of employer applications for H-2A farm workers are approved. Many of the new ideas to deal with foreign farm workers were offered by traditional farm worker advocates. Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA) urged a legalization program for currently unauthorized farm workers: "There are probably hundreds of thousands of undocumented agricultural workers who the growers already depend on to bring in the crops... Why not allow these undocumented workers to establish legal status?" Berman and Senator Diane Feinsten (D-CA) are exploring proposals to extend at least probationary immigrant status to some unauthorized farm workers. Florida Senator Bob Graham proposed a probationary immigrant status for up to 500,000 unauthorized farm workers. If they did at least 180 days of farm work in each of five consecutive years, they could become immigrants. Senators Spencer Abraham, (R-MI) and Gordon Smith (R-OR) said they will introduce legislation after a compromise has been reached. Abraham said that he wants any compromise to keep farmers competitive in the global markets, to acknowledge often poor farm worker conditions and to be legal in the US. Growers may have created momentum for a compromise by hiring the past executive director of the National Immigration Forum, Rick Schwartz, to seek a compromise guest worker proposal. Schwartz and his successor, Frank Sharry, favor an expanded guest worker program for farm workers, and the Mexican government has repeatedly called for a program to legalize the seasonal movement of Mexican workers to the US. Registry and AEWR. There are two key ideas at the heart of grower interests for a new guest worker program: registry and AEWR. The Agricultural Worker Registry is an employer proposal that would eliminate DOL-supervised recruitment of US workers, that is, workers would register with the Employment Service and employers would request workers from the registry. Only legally authorized workers could register and employers registering job vacancies would have to satisfy revised H-2A recruitment criteria. Any gap between employer "needs" and registry workers would be presumed to be a worker shortage that needs to be filled with new entrants. The second key concept is deciding whether there should be an administratively enhanced wage that reflects the fact that the past presence of foreign workers may have depressed wages, a so-called Adverse Effect Wage Rate. The growers' proposal would require payment of the prevailing wage or a new AEWR, which would be the prevailing wage plus five percent, with employers in some cases being able to determine prevailing wages. Other issues include whether employers must provide housing to US and legal temporary foreign workers, or simply pay the workers a housing allowance, and whether farm workers admitted under the program could become US immigrants. Under one version of the growers' proposal, guest workers could earn an immigrant status by working for at least six months a year for four consecutive years. The Carnegie Endowment jumped into the debate by offering a version of a guest worker program that includes most of the proposals advanced by growers over the past five years, including a registry, a farm worker trust fund to encourage returns and housing vouchers in lieu of providing housing. The paper offers "six observations" each about: (1) US agriculture; (2) the farm labor market; and (3) the H-2A program. It then suggests three "general principles" that should guide the development of a new temporary farm worker program: developing a proper balance between grower and worker interests, encouraging growers to hire US workers, and providing targeted federal services to US farm workers, their families and their communities. The paper advocates offering at least probationary immigrant status to some illegal workers who sign up for a new guest worker program. The Carnegie paper embraces the registry idea, and complicates it with the possibility of separate US-run and local government-run registries in countries of origin. The paper also advocates the employer-proposed farm worker trust fund to which farmers would contribute the payroll taxes that would otherwise be due on farm worker earnings, such as Social Security and UI. The Carnegie paper notes that many unskilled foreign workers prefer the security of contracts, as under the H-2A program, but nonetheless argues for "mobility within US agriculture," that is, foreign farm workers would be allowed to switch employers without violating their work visas. The Carnegie paper endorses the key grower proposals for a registry and is full of assertions of the need for zero unauthorized migration, honest efforts to resolve workplace disputes, renewed efforts to build farm worker housing and effective enforcement. However, there is little prospect that any of these efforts will be implemented or successful. Most analysts agree that the farm labor market is deteriorating, as indicated by flat or decreased hourly and annual earnings, fewer fringe benefits and non-productive "specialization," the notion that orange pickers who lose their jobs because of a freeze cannot be hired or trained to be pruners. The data suggest that a combination of more seasonality, which means more unemployment between jobs, and the shifting of costs for housing, rides to work, etc., from growers to workers as growers hire workers when needed through FLCs, has increased the pace at which experienced farm workers seek and find nonfarm jobs, creating farm labor shortages that lead to calls for guest workers. Many worker advocates favor another SAW-type amnesty. The median age of those legalized under the SAW program in 1987-88 was 28, which means that most SAWs have now left the hand-harvest labor force; many of their replacements are unauthorized younger workers. A SAW-2 program could legalize workers (and their families) who replaced exiting SAWs, but it is hard to see how legalization alone would set in motion the fundamental changes in farm labor markets that would be needed to avoid a SAW-3 legalization program in the future. The SAW program, by legalizing unauthorized workers, was supposed to empower and embolden them to demand increased wages and better fringe benefits, and these higher labor costs, it was hoped, would encourage farmers to adopt a mutually beneficial labor management strategy, including creating area-wide fringe benefits so that workers retained eligibility as they moved from farm to farm within a region. However, illegal immigration continued, SAWs and their children realized that upward mobility lay outside the farm labor market, and most SAWs left the farm work force rather than pushing for changes. A SAW-2 program with continuing illegal immigration may have the same fate. In July 1998, the US Senate approved the Agricultural Job Opportunity Benefits and Security Act of 1998 or AgJOBS on a 68-31 vote, but the House did not act, so no new agricultural guest worker program was approved. The major features of the 1998 AgJOBS H-2A program included: 1) the creation of DOL-operated registries that would include only workers legally authorized to work temporarily in the US; workers would be dropped from the registry and deemed unavailable for US farm jobs if they rejected three registry requests for workers from farmers; 2) employers could apply to DOL for registry workers at least 21 days before they are needed, and DOL would have to refer registry workers or certify the need for foreign workers at least seven days before the employer-specified need date; 3) if sufficient workers were not available in the registry, DOS/INS would issue up to 10-month renewable H-2A visas and admit foreign workers to fill vacant farm jobs; foreigners could remain in the US continuously for up to three years; 4) employers would pay federal FUTA and FICA taxes to a trust fund rather than to UI and SSA on the wages of the foreign workers, about 8.3 percent of their earnings, and this trust fund would be used to reimburse DOL and INS for their costs of administering the program. Most migrant and seasonal farm workers do farm work for about 1,000 hours a year; at $6-$7 an hour, employers would pay $500 to $580 a year per worker into the trust fund, so that every 10,000 AgJOBS foreign workers would generate $5 million; 5) if the Attorney General found that a significant number of AgJOBS foreign workers were remaining in the US, 20 percent of their earnings could be paid into the trust fund, and returned to the worker after he surrendered the visa-ID, which would include a photo and biometric information; 6) AgJOBS H-2A foreign workers who do at least six months of farm work in each of four consecutive calendar years could become third-preference immigrants; this provision is similar to the probationary immigrant plan of the never-used RAW provisions of IRCA, but there is a lengthy wait for immigrant visas for unskilled workers; and 7) There was no limit on the number of AgJOBS foreign workers who could be admitted. Kentucky. A Kentucky tobacco farmer being sued by three Texas workers was profiled June 28, 1999. In the early 1990s, the farmer began using H-2A workers. In 1996, three Texas workers appeared in response to mandatory US worker recruitment by his agent, the now-closed Murray Employment Agency, which used to be the largest migrant-labor broker in Kentucky. The farmer complained that they were poor workers and, after one week, he drove them to Laredo. The three workers complained to Texas Rural Legal Aid, which sued the farmer for $65,335, contending that he made them live in poor housing. The AEWR for Kentucky in 1999 is $6.28 an hour. Virginia. Shores and Ruark Seafood, Inc. of Urbanna, Virginia agreed to pay $103,000 in missing minimum wage and overtime pay to 51 Mexican workers imported under the H-2B program. Alex Pulaski, "Move to legalize farm workers takes root on Capitol Hill," Oregonian, July 4, 1999. James Malone, "Farmer decries suit by migrant workers," Courier-Journal, June 28, 1999. US Senate Immigration Subcommittee. 1998. The H-2A Program: Is It Working? June. Farm Labor Data, (posted 5/17/99) QALS. USDA's April 1999 farm labor survey reported that 844,000 hired workers were employed on US farms during the week of April 11-17, 1999; 657,000 or 78 percent were expected to be employed for 150 or more days on the responding farm. Another 154,000 workers were employed by agricultural service firms, down sharply from 202,000 in April 1998. About 87,000 of the total one million hired Farm & Service Workers were migrants. About 265,000 directly hired workers were in California, followed by 54,000 in Florida; 229,000 and 46,000 were expected to be employed on the responding farm for more than 150 days. Average hourly earnings were $7.84 in April 1999, up five percent from $7.40 in April 1998. Field workers averaged $7.23 and livestock workers $7.36; the overall average was pulled up by supervisors and others. Field workers averaged $7.22 in California and $7.40 in Florida. FELS. The Farm Bureau affiliated FELS released its 1999 wage and benefit survey in June 1999, and reported that average hourly wages for entry-level general labor were $6.39 an hour, rising to an average $7.05 for experience general labor. There was considerable variation around these averages: standard deviations were $0.89 and $1.52 for the over 300 farms responding. Entry-level tractor drivers averaged $7.28 hourly, irrigators $6.75 and milkers $8. Most responding farms provided no benefits to seasonal workers such as medical insurance, vacation or holiday pay, or housing; about 25 percent of responding employers provided bonuses to at least some seasonal workers. Ag Wage Systems. There are many different ways to pay farm workers. Farmers often pay piece-rate wages to motivate workers to work fast under conditions when it is hard to monitor their pace of work. A 1985 survey of grape growers found that pruners paid on a piece-rate basis pruned an acre in 19 hours at a cost of $115 or $6.05 an hour, while pruners paid on an hourly basis took 26 hours at a cost of $158 or $6.08 an hour. Growers who paid piece rates were more satisfied with speed than quality; growers who paid by the hour were more satisfied with quality than speed. For more information: http://www.cnr.berkeley.edu/ucce50/7research/7rsearch.htm Southeast, (posted 7/15/99) Georgia. The INS in mid-April 1999 apprehended 27 unauthorized migrants in southeastern Georgia who were living in squalid conditions; they had been brought to the area for the Vidalia onion harvest by Glennville labor contractors who were held on harboring aliens charges. An estimated 5,000 to 10,000 workers are employed during the six- to eight-week harvest, and 1,000 H-2A workers are expected to be admitted in April-May 1999, up from 50 in 1998; the 1999 Vidalia onion crop is estimated to be worth $65 million. The AEWR for Georgia is $6.30 an hour in 1999; most onions are harvested for piece-rate wages of $0.60 to $0.70 for each 50-pound bag; most workers can harvest about six bags an hour. In 1998, after INS raids disrupted onion harvesting, the INS agreed to stop raids and in 1999 focus its enforcement efforts on labor contractors. Farmers agreed to provide Social Security numbers to INS for all their workers. Bland Farms, the nation's largest Vidalia onion grower-shipper, will harvest 40 percent of its onions by machine. Georgia is one of 13 states that do not require farmers to obtain workers' compensation insurance for farm workers. The farm employer of a migrant killed by lightning in May 1999 paid the $4,000 cost of returning his body to Mexico. Florida. The families of seven Guatemalan sugar cane workers killed in October 1991 when their borrowed car flipped into a western Palm Beach County canal won $5.6 million in a lawsuit settlement with the Okeelanta Sugar Co in July 1999. The settlement is the largest award ever under the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act. The workers, including a 15-year old, were employed by Okeelanta, and the canal ran next to a company-owned road leading to the Okeelanta sugar mill in South Bay, Florida. The workers came from Aguacatan, a village of 10,000 people in the Guatemalan highlands. Each family member will receive about $180,000 under the agreement. The University of South Florida's College of Public Health used NAWS data to study farm worker characteristics, and found that 86 percent of the state's farm workers were Hispanic and that 62 percent of Florida farm workers have incomes below the poverty line. About 42 percent were under 27. Only six percent of surveyed workers had employer-provided health insurance. About 66 percent were migrants, defined as traveling more than 75 miles to obtain a job in U.S. agriculture, compared to 47 percent of all US farm workers [many of these workers travel from a home in Mexico to one area of the US]. A study by the University of Florida and the Southwest Florida Regional Planning Council of five Southwest Florida counties - Charlotte, Collier, Glades, Hendry and Lee - concluded 3,511 homes are needed to house 17,956 migrant farm workers in those counties. North Carolina. The Toledo-based Farm Labor Organizing Committee founded by Baldemar Velasquez in 1967 has 7,000 members and 61 contracts with cucumber growers and processors in Ohio and Michigan. FLOC has a $325,000 annual budget, and collects about $100,000 a year in dues payments from members. FLOC fears that if it does not organize workers in southeastern states, production will move there for lower wages. FLOC is boycotting North Carolina-based Mount Olive Pickle Co., the largest pickle company in the south, which buys 100 million pounds of cucumbers and peppers each year, 35 percent of them grown in North Carolina. Mount Olive employs a peak 900 workers, and says it pays its nonfarm processing workers an average $10.12 an hour. Mount Olive says that its growers are the employers of farm workers and that it cannot dictate wages to independent growers. FLOC is trying to do in North Carolina what it did in Ohio, that is, put pressure on processors to require farmers to sign contracts with the union in order to sell their produce to the processor. After a seven-year boycott, Campbell Soup Co. signed a three-way agreement with FLOC and its growers. The FLOC boycott is attracting support: Bishop F. Joseph Gossman, head of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Raleigh, endorsed the boycott. Ohio vegetable farmers are complaining of labor shortages. The Ohio Bureau of Employment Services estimates that about 8,000 migrants arrive every year, primarily to harvest cucumbers and tomatoes. Many farmers assume that workers will show up when needed, and complained that in 1999, the farmers are not assured that enough workers will show up. The OES reports that most migrants today are single men: http://www.obes.org/ The Ohio House and Senate have passed a bill that would repeal a 1910 law that required a farmer to pay the medical bills of an illegal farm worker who was diagnosed as having tuberculosis while living in the farmer's labor camp. The 1910 law requires operators of "work camps" to pay for their employees' treatment of contagious or infectious diseases. In 1998, a worker in a licensed farm labor camp contracted tuberculosis, received $10,000 in treatment at a local hospital and returned to Mexico. The hospital used the 1910 law to force the farmer to pay the worker's bill. About 145 Ohio farms have licensed farm labor camps. Amy Driscoll, "Families win $5.6 million settlement," Miami Herald, July 8, 1999. Lori Henson, "Migrant workers at risk," Savannah Morning News, May 16, 1999. Migrant Housing, (posted 7/15/99) The US Department of Housing and Urban Development in June 1999 announced that $81 million would be distributed to 81 agencies or organizations in rural communities in 29 states and Puerto Rico to build housing for migrant and seasonal farm workers. In June, the US Senate approved an increase from $20 million to $25 million in USDA Section 514 funds, which are used to make loans to farmers and nonprofits to build farm worker housing. USDA received an additional $20 million in disaster relief funds for farm workers in Florida and California. California. As the state's 26 migrant centers opened in April 1999, many local papers carried stories of migrants. The Madison migrant camp rents two- to four-bedroom apartments with kitchens and an array of on-site services to families for $5.50 to $8.50 a day, with preference given to families that derive 71 percent or more of their earnings from farm work. Local schools go to the camps to enroll the children, many of whom come from south Texas, into California schools for the rest of the academic year, which ends in mid-June. Families line up when the camp opens, show their farm work earnings and apply for apartments-those arriving early often rent motel rooms for $30 to $40 a day. Local food banks and social service agencies are on hand to sign up clients: the presumption is that virtually all those attempting to move into a migrant camp are eligible for benefits. Madera has one of 26 centers in California constructed by the US Department of Agriculture and operated with funds from the California Office of Migrant Services. Built in 1997, the Madera Housing Authority has 50 two-, three-, and four-bedroom apartments that can serve about 600-700 people during the season. Apartment rents are calculated by the day -- $7.50 for a two-bedroom; $8 for three bedrooms; and $8.50 for four-bedroom apartments. To qualify for the housing, workers must certify that their permanent homes are more than 50 miles away and that they earn at least $2,950 of their income from agricultural employment. A family of five must earn less than $43,000 a year to remain eligible. Housing applicants must also show that they are in the US legally. California has an $81 billion state budget for FY00, including $26 billion for K-12 education, raising spending to $6,035 a pupil, or about $1,500 under the US average. About 42 percent of expenditures will be for K-12 education; 26 percent ($17 billion) for health and welfare; 13 percent ($8 billion) for higher education; and seven percent ($5 billion) for prisons. Governor Davis reduced from $17.5 million to $10 million state funds for housing assistance and rehabilitation of housing for farm workers and other low-income people. Washington. As the cherry harvest began in June 1999, the Washington Department of Health approved tent housing for cherry pickers, despite warnings from the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration that camps with small pup tents violate federal farm worker housing regulations, and threats from the UFW that it would sue participating growers. The uncertainties caused many growers not to participate: only seven of the state's 250 cherry growers applied for permits for tent camps, down from 25 in 1998. In some cases using airplanes to spot unlawful camps, at least five were shut in June 1999. The state Department of Health gives workers who are displaced emergency-housing vouchers, which pay for a week's worth of motel rooms. Many migrants competed for camping spots at campsites in state and county parks. An estimated 16,000 workers are involved in the three- to four-week cherry harvest; most cherries are grown on relatively small parcels of 10 to 15 acres by 1,900 growers. Cherry production is expected to increase by 50 percent during the next four to five years, as prices of cherries rise while prices of apples fall: acreage has doubled in the past two decades to 21,200 acres in 1997, with another 1,000 acres planted in 1997. Oregon growers provide regular housing for cherry harvesters, but pay lower wages and have taller trees, which lowers earnings by about 30 percent. Gov. Gary Locke in June 1999 opened a migrant workers' camp site called La Esperanza in 2,300-resident Mattawa, on the bank of the Columbia River. Families will pay $10 and single workers $3 a day to stay in one of 26 40-foot-long stainless-steel shipping containers that were refurbished and outfitted by prison inmates with plumbing, heating and cooling equipment. Locke has pledged $32 million to build 10,000 new units of both permanent and temporary farm worker housing in the next 10 years; $8 million was approved in 1999. Washington State's first union contract in agriculture was signed in 1995 between Stimson Lane/Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery and the United Farm Workers (UFW). Attorney Rob Carrol, of Littler, Mendelson, Fastiff & Tichy, said that the contract provided wage increases that wewre "less than what the company had planned to grant." Charles Mccarthy, "Madera program offers migrant workers reasonable housing," Fresno Bee, June 7, 1999. UFW Loses at Coastal, (posted 7/15/99) The UFW lost three elections at Coastal Berry, the largest strawberry grower in the US, with a peak 1,500 farm workers. In the decisive election held June 3-4, 1999, the Coastal Berry Farm Worker Committee won 688 to 598, with 92 of the 1,378 ballots challenged. The Committee needs to win on three of the challenged ballots to achieve a majority vote. The UFW filed 234 objections to the election. The Committee said that it won because strawberry workers did not want to pay two percent of their average $8 hourly and $8,500 annual earnings to the UFW for dues (most growers pay $4.50 to $5.15 an hour plus $0.70-$0.75 for each 12-pint box of berries picked). However, there seemed to be a clear difference between workers in Oxnard and Watsonville. In the May 1999 election, for example, 576 votes were cast in the Oxnard area: the UFW got 309 votes; the Committee got 230 votes; and there were 37 no votes. In Watsonville, by contrast, the UFW lost to the Committee by a vote of 268-416. In the June 1999 election, the UFW won in Oxnard 311-266, with 30 challenged ballots. The Coastal Berry Farm Worker Committee won its first election in July 1998 by a vote of 523 to 410. That election was overturned in May 1999 by the ALRB on a 4-1 vote, with three newly appointed ALRB members agreeing with an Administrative Law Judge decision that the failure to notify 162 of Coastal's Oxnard-based workers required a new election-the Committee won by 113 votes, and thus the uninformed voters could have affected the outcome. The UFW and other unions were prohibited from taking access to Coastal workers between July 1998 and May 1999. The first 1999 election was held May 25-26, 1999; the Committee received 646 votes to 577 for the UFW, with 79 votes for no union and 52 challenged ballots. In order to be a certified bargaining representative for farm workers, a union must win a majority vote. Before all of the challenged ballots were resolved, the Committee and the UFW agreed on a run-off election. Coastal Berry was "neutral" in the organizing campaign. However, one of the company's leaders sent a letter to workers in 1998 saying that they would be better off with a union. Analysis. The loss was a severe defeat for the UFW. Arturo Rodriguez said that the UFW would not give up: "We've been around for well over three decades now and we've proven that we're here to stay. We're not going to abandon the strawberry campaign." The UFW launched its strawberry organizing campaign in 1994, and sponsored marches in 1997 that prompted AFL-CIO President John Sweeney to call the UFW's strawberry campaign the largest union-organizing drive in the US. The UFW targeted Watsonville-based Coastal Berry Co., the largest US employer of strawberry pickers. Coastal hires a peak 1,500 workers to harvest 850 acres of strawberries in Santa Cruz and Monterey counties and 330 acres in Ventura county. Coastal Berry president Ernie Farley said that the company in 1999 is paying a minimum $7.50 and an average $8.40 an hour, plus medical and dental benefits for workers and their families as well as life insurance. In response to the UFW campaign, several grower-worker committees were established to oppose the UFW including, the UFW charged, the Coastal Berry Farm Worker Committee. The UFW sued several worker committees and the growers who supported them in 1997, charging that they were fronts for growers trying to avoid unions-the UFW discovered $56,000 worth of canceled checks that linked some worker committees to growers. In May 1999, the UFW suit was settled, with 20 growers and industry groups promising to stop funding such groups. Many commentators noted that the work force has changed since the UFW was active in the fields in the late 1970s. In 1970, about half of all California farmworkers were born in US. In the mid-1990s, over 90 percent of California's hired farm workers were born abroad, and over 40 percent were unauthorized. The median age of farm workers has been about 28 for the past three decades, with about 10 percent exiting the farm work force each year. Since the overall number of farm workers is stable at an average monthly employment of 350,000 to 400,000, and with about 800,000 persons doing farm work for wages some time during the year, this means that every year about 80,000 workers exit the labor force, to be replaced by 80,000 newly arrived workers from abroad. One observer said: "when you mention Cesar Chavez [to young farm workers], they think you're talking about Julio Cesar Chavez, the boxer." It is clear that many farm workers are more loyal to a particular foreman or contractor then to an employer or union: the crew leaders who often recruit and usually supervise crews of 30 to 50 farm workers are often Mexican-born, sometimes from the same village or region in Mexico as the harvest workers. The UFW said that especially Coastal supervisors fought hard against the UFW. The UFW noted that a "tombstone leaflet" that included the logos of growers who have gone out of business after interactions with the UFW made many workers fearful of voting for the UFW. Workers at VCNM Farms voted 332-50 on August 17, 1995 to have the UFW represent them. VCNM responded by disking under the remaining strawberries in September 1995. In October 1995, the ALRB ruled that VCNM deliberately destroyed the remaining berries in retaliation for the pro-UFW vote, and ordered VCNM to provide $113,000 to workers made unemployed. Some commentators said that the UFW made too many mistakes, including using outside professional organizers instead of local worker-organizers. There were reports that the UFW had spent $90,000 a month since 1996 on its strawberry organizing campaign, or $2 million over the past three years. The UFW has one strawberry contract among its 33 to 35 active contracts, with an organic grower who has 15-25 workers. The UFW loss at Coastal is a sharp contrast to other union victories among immigrant workers. "Some of the most significant victories labor has seen in the past 10 years have been among immigrant workers," said Kate Bronfenbrenner, director of labor education research at Cornell University, citing the 1999 victory of the Service Employees International Union to represent the 75,000 home-care workers in the Los Angeles area, many of whom are immigrants. The UFW filed an unfair labor practice charge in July 1999 on behalf of 96 strawberry workers who lost their jobs at Green Valley Farms in the Santa Maria Valley after protesting for a wage increase May 27, 1999. Most of the workers are Mixtec Indians from the state of Oaxaca. They demanded $2 to pick each 20-pound tray of berries destined for canning and freezing, and were offered $1.90 a tray, with a $0.10 end of season bonus. The workers rejected this offer, and sheriff's deputies were called in to tell striking workers to work or leave. There were several strikes over wages in the Santa Maria Valley in 1999. About 45 Boavista Harvest strawberry workers said that they too were fired for striking to reinforce their demand for a $2.50 a tray piece rate for processing berries; when they returned to work after their protest, they were told that they had been replaced. UFW History. UFW membership peaked in 1973, when the UFW said that 67,000 workers were employed sometime during the year on the 180 California farms with contracts. The UFW had over 500 organizers in 1975-76, just after the ALRA was signed, and won most of the over 400 elections held in the last five months of 1975. In 1980, the UFW reported that 50,000 workers were employed sometime during a typical year on the 150 farms with UFW contracts. In the early 1980s, the number of UFW organizers fell to a handful, the UFW moved its headquarters from Delano to a mountain-top location called La Paz, and Cesar Chavez fired many of those who had helped to establish the UFW. The ALRA was enacted in 1975 under a Democratic governor, and in 1983, a Republican took office, changing the composition of the ALRB. The UFW said that it was impossible to organize farm workers under a Republican-dominated ALRB, so it launched a high-tech, wrath-of-grapes boycott that used direct mail to urge shoppers not to patronize stores that sold grapes. It failed; grape consumption rose from six pounds a person in the mid-1980s to seven pounds in the early 1990s. The UFW had no table grape contracts when Cesar Chavez died on March 31, 1993. (However, Von's, a southern California grocery chain, said that the UFW's 1984-94 grape boycott, plus rapid integration of Hispanic immigrants, led to the demise of its nine Tianguis stores, which were created to appeal to Hispanic immigrants. Von's CEO said that "The UFW's efforts were eminently successful, and volume reverted to free-fall." Most Tianguis stores were converted into regular Vons.) On March 31, 1994, the UFW ended its ten-year-old, high-tech grape boycott. One year after Chavez's death, the UFW marched 330 miles from Delano to Sacramento, and announced that it would once again organize farm workers and negotiate contracts with growers. Since 1994, the UFW won 15 elections with 3500 votes cast. Most articles on the demise of the UFW focused on the changes in UFW leadership and the switch from Democratic to Republican governors. Thus, when Chavez' son-in-law, Arturo Rodriguez, assumed leadership of the UFW, and a Democrat was elected governor in 1998, many assumed that the UFW would once again become a major force in the California farm labor market. However, continued illegal immigration and the switch of many farmers to hiring workers via labor contractors has made it harder for any union to organize farm workers and negotiate durable contracts with growers. The UFW reported $1.5 million in dues income on its 1997 LM-2 report filed with the US DOL; UFW leaders say the union has about 26,000 members. The UFW charges members two percent of earnings as dues, which would imply an average of $3,000 earnings for 26,000 members. Many UFW members are year-round employees of nurseries and mushroom operations, earning $15,000 to $20,000 a year; the 26,000 total seems to include 5,000 to 10,000 associate members who do not work under UFW contract but who do pay about $20 a year for UFW services, and other workers who were under UFW contract, but are currently employed on farms on which the UFW is re-negotiating contracts or contesting decertification votes. By some estimates, the UFW has fewer than 15,000 dues paying farm workers under contract, which would make it the smallest union represented on the AFL-CIO's Executive Council. Other UFW. Bear Creek Production Co., a Wasco, California rose grower with a UFW contract covering 1,300-1,400 workers that was renegotiated in Fall 1997, opened a new $5 million rose-packing plant in Kern county. Bear Creek owns Jackson and Perkins, which is developing a Cesar Chavez rose. Bear Creek is reportedly the largest single UFW contract. On June 18, 1999, the UFW was decertified at San Clemente Ranch on a 135-69 vote; the UFW filed numerous election objections. In July 1977, the UFW won an election at Highland Ranch, which was sold to Oxnard-based Deardorf-Jackson and renamed in November 1977, before a contract was negotiated. There was only one employee at the time of the sale, but the ALRB held that, since San Clemente produced the same crops with the same equipment as Highland, San Clemente assumed Highland's duty to bargain (Highland Ranch and San Clemente Ranch 5 ALRB 54 (1979). A contract between the UFW and San Clemente was apparently never reached. A campaign is underway to put Cesar Chavez on a US postage stamp; the Postal Service requires that a person be dead 10 years before it will consider a commemorative stamp. Chavez died at age 66 in 1993, so a stamp could not be issued before 2003. The UFW's Juan de la Cruz Farm Workers Pension Fund has $100 million in assets, up from $50 million in 1990, and the UFW in May 1999 gave 2,000 retired farm workers $1,000 bonus checks and surviving spouses $500, because of the surge in assets. The UFW pension plan is named for a 60-year-old worker who was shot to death during a 1973 Kern County grape strike. The UFW pension fund is paying an average $160 a month to 1,900 retired farm workers. Other Unions. Many US unions are attempting to organize immigrant workers: in February, 1999, the Service Employees International Union won the right to represent 74,000 home-health-care workers in Los Angeles, half of them immigrants. The US health care industry, with 12 million employees, is expected to be a focus of union organizing efforts in the next decade. During the 1940s, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, under the leadership of Harry Bridges, attempted to march inland, using its power on the docks to organize truckers, packing and warehouse workers, and in Hawaii, farm workers (the ILWU was formed after West Coast longshoremen broke away from the New York-based International Longshoremen's Association in 1937). ILWU membership has fallen from 50,000 in 1960 to 40,000 in 1999, including fewer than 10,000 longshore jobs that pay an average $99,000 a year. Secretaries in firms on the docks average $28 an hour. To maintain its membership, the ILWU in 1997 committed one-third of its $3 million annual budget to organizing, and began a second march inland. ILWU organizing director Peter Olney says that the ILWU wants to add at least 4,000 new members by 2002. The United Auto Workers, with 396,000 auto members, opened contract talks June 14-16, 1999 with the Big Three automakers-General Motors Corp, Ford Motor Co., and Daimler Chrysler. The UAW will bargain with all three auto makers over the summer and choose one company to fashion a master contract in the fall that would serve as a guide for the other two automakers. Eric Brazil, "At anti-union tomato farm, workers dump UFW," San Francisco Examiner, July 10, 1999. Melinda Burns, "Pickers file unfair labor charge," Santa Barbara News Press, July 8, 1999. Maria Alicia Gaura, "Why Strawberry Fields Have Been Barren for UFW," San Francisco Chronicle, June 7, 1999. Eric Brazil, "UFW labors to find growth," San Francisco Examiner, June 6, 1999. Fred Alvarez, "UFW, Rival Committee Jockey for Strawberry Pickers' Votes," Los Angeles Times, June 3, 1999. Vicki Adame and Oliver Garcia, "UFW marches ahead on sixth anniversary of Chavez's death," Bakersfield Californian, April 22, 1999. Elliot Zwiebach, "Vons cites UFW in Tianguis demise; United Farm Workers blamed for failure of Tianguis concept," Supermarket News, April 25, 1994. California's Central Valley, (posted 7/15/99) The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development surveyed 539 US cities and reported that many San Joaquin Valley cities have high unemployment and poverty rates. In 1998, Porterville's unemployment rate averaged 18.5 percent; Madera, 18.3 percent; Merced, 15.2 percent; Tulare, 13.4 percent; and Fresno, 12.5 percent. The estimated poverty rate in Fresno was 28.1 percent; Madera, 33 percent; Merced, 33.9 percent; Porterville, 31.8 percent; and Tulare, 25.2 percent. Six of the eight metro areas with unemployment rates of at least 10 percent in May 1999 were in California, led by Visalia, with a 15.6 percent unemployment rate. Profiles of San Joaquin Valley counties are available at: http://www.greatvalley.org/focus/index.htm Freeze. There were conflicting signs about the need for aid for victims of the December 1998 freeze. The director of Tulare County FoodLink said that the needs of freeze victims were being met, which prompted a protest march by the UFW, which argued that there were still unmet needs. The Federal Emergency Management Agency reported that it had distributed $4.6 million in mortgage and rental assistance to more than 2,700 workers; men not registered with selective service are not eligible for emergency aid, which means that many of the male pickers were ineligible. The Fresno Workforce Development Board in April 1999 considered but did not return $640,000 in emergency funds set aside to hire jobless farm workers because its agent, Proteus Inc., a Visalia-based job-training agency, could not find enough eligible workers from the December 1998 citrus freeze. There were about 125,000 acres of navel oranges and 9,000 acres of lemons in the four San Joaquin Valley counties most severely affected by the December 1998 freeze in California: almost 60 percent of the navel oranges and 45 percent of the lemons were in Tulare county. Navel oranges usually yield about 11.1 tons an acre, so the expected total yield in the four counties-Tulare, 72,723 acres; Kern, 27,456; Fresno, 20,571; and Madera, 4,281--would have been 125,000 acres times 11.1 tons an acre, or 1.4 million tons. Workers are assumed to harvest an average 500 pounds or 0.25 tons an hour, or 20,000 pounds or 10 tons for each 40-hour week, which means that there would have been 140,000 40-hour weeks of navel orange harvesting in a normal year. EDD estimated that 78,000 40-hour work weeks would be lost because of the freeze, leaving 5,000 navel orange pickers without work and costing orange pickers $26 million in lost wages. Similar calculations resulted in an estimated loss of 19,000 40-hour work weeks lost in lemon harvesting and 2,400 harvesters losing $6 million in wages. There are normally 12,000 to 15,000 workers employed in the winter-spring navel orange and lemon harvests of California: about half of them lost their jobs in 1999 due to the freeze. About half of the navel oranges were lost, as well as 80 percent of the lemons that had not been harvested before the freeze. Governor Gray Davis in April 1999 stopped in Sanger to celebrate the 25,000th family to be assisted by the state's 18 disaster service centers. According to Davis' aides, between January and April 1999, $100 million in government aid went to citrus growers and $11 million went to farm workers. Changing Face. The Los Angeles Times on April 20, 1999 ran an article on the settlement in the US of migrant farm workers who used to shuttle between Mexican homes and seasonal US jobs. The article cited several of the major reasons for settlement: the 1987-88 SAW legalization program gave immigrant status to about 550,000 unauthorized Mexican men in California, Mexico reduced farm subsidies and changed its land tenure policies in ways that weakened links to land and homes, and California agriculture changed, offering longer seasons in some cases and requiring workers, in most cases, to find housing in cities, which also facilitated family unification. The result is rapid population growth in many of the cities in rural and agricultural areas of California. A two-parent family with three children and a husband in the US for ten years reported that the husband earns $6,000 to $7,000 a year picking oranges, and the wife receives welfare assistance for the three US-born children. Anthropologist Juan Palerm emphasized that, even in rural areas of California that offer low-wage seasonal farm jobs, some settled immigrants are achieving the American dream, buying small fixer-up homes in the $50,000 to $65,000 range, based on a couple's earning $12,000 to $15,000 a year. Three themes emerge from the interviews with Mexicans who have settled in California: (1) it is better to be poor in the US than in Mexico; (2) there are so many fellow villagers in rural California that settling in the US means living with friends and neighbors from home; and (3) the children of Mexican immigrants educated in the US shun seasonal farm work. There is widespread agreement that immigration and high birth rates are increasing the number of poor Latino residents in rural and agricultural areas, as defined by US poverty standards. However, there is disagreement about appropriate policy responses. Farmers want to encourage migrants to remain farm workers via a new guest worker program that enforces returns, thus slowing settlement and the issues that arise with integrating poor immigrants, from education to housing to health and welfare. At the other extreme are those who call for higher taxes to fund more generous and effective education, welfare and other assistance programs, so that poor immigrants and their children can quickly climb out of poverty. There are opportunities and tensions as immigrants settle in fast-growing and poor Latino-majority cities. As Latinos achieve majority status and political power, soccer replaces football in high schools and Spanish may replace English in some public gatherings. In some cases, established residents resent the arrival of poor newcomers encouraging, in one case, the demolition of shanty housing used by migrant workers. Labor Market. In March 1999, when California's unemployment rate was 5.8 percent and the US rate was 4.2 percent, Kern county's unemployment rate was 14.7 percent, and the rate in many Latino-majority cities was over 30 percent-McFarland had a 38.3 percent jobless rate; followed by Delano, 32.2 percent; and Arvin, 30.5 percent. Unemployment rates were highest in rural and agricultural counties. Colusa county had the highest rate at 26.1; and was followed by Tulare at 20.9; Fresno county's jobless rate was 17.1 percent. In March 1999, there were 15.6 million Californians employed, including 13.9 million nonfarm wage and salary workers. Taxes. The IRS arrested two tax preparers in the Fresno area after discovering that 96 to 98 percent of their clients received tax refunds; the IRS says that 40 to 60 percent of most tax preparer firm clients receive refunds. Most of the clients of the raided preparers were low-income Hispanics with little knowledge of the US tax system; in many cases, preparers tell them to inflate the number of dependents they have in order to obtain Earned Income Tax Credit refunds. Voting. There were 1.5 million votes cast in the Central Valley in the November 1998 general election, slightly fewer than in November 1994. The state of California also had a decline in votes cast, from 8.9 to 8.6 million million. The US Supreme Court ruled 8-1 in January 1999 that Monterey county should have obtained federal permission before it changed to an at-large system for electing judges. The Supreme Court agreed with Latino voters, who argued that at-large voting dilutes their strength; Latinos are one-third of county residents. Monterey County is one of four California counties required under the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to obtain federal approval before making changes to election procedures. In 1995, in a special district election, Monterey voters elected the first two Latino Municipal Court judges in the county. Dale Kasler, "State's Agricultural Revenue Plunges," Sacramento Bee, June 8, 1999. Bettina Boxall, "Migrants' New Roots Transform Rural Life," Los Angeles Times, April 20, 1999. Welfare Reform: Rural California, (posted 7/15/99) The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PL 104-193) ended welfare as a federal entitlement, limited most recipients to a maximum five years of cash assistance and required states to develop welfare programs that achieve certain targets in order to receive federal welfare funds, such as having a certain percentage of recipients participating in work activities. PRWORA replaced the 61-year old Aid to Families with Dependent Children program (AFDC) with the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, which in California became the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids Program or CalWORKS, signed into law August 11, 1997. Each of the state's 58 counties developed plans to implement CalWORKS by January 1, 1998. Most welfare recipients live in urban areas, but recipients in rural and agricultural counties in California differ from recipients in urban counties in several important respects: 1. A higher percentage of residents were receiving assistance and had below poverty-level incomes in rural counties when CalWORKS was implemented. In 1994, for example, over 18 percent of the residents of Merced and Yuba counties received AFDC, as did 16 percent of Fresno and Tulare county residents. In many rural and agricultural counties, 25 to 35 percent of children were on AFDC, and over half of the births in these counties were paid by Medi-Cal, suggesting low-income mothers. (Poverty lines for 1999 are $8,240 for one person and $16,700 for four). 2. Welfare recipients in rural and agricultural counties tend to face higher hurdles to stable employment due to: (1) their personal characteristics (a higher percentage are not high-school graduates, lack English or skills, or lack transportation); and (2) the nature of the economies in which they live (higher unemployment rates, more seasonality and fewer jobs that offer benefits such as health insurance). 3. There is a different context for delivering services in rural and agricultural areas. For example, there are fewer opportunities for economies of scale or experiments involving competition between public and private providers, since many private providers are not willing to serve low-density rural areas. There are several major evaluations of CalWORKS underway . The largest evaluation, conducted by Rand, had four first-round conclusions: 1. County human service departments have changed from a focus on determining eligibility for cash assistance to getting clients into jobs-the ABC strategy is widespread-A job, a Better job, a Career. The message is that work is necessary, and that eventually a recipient will obtain a job that pays more than cash assistance and related benefits. 2. Many recipients are not complying with requirements to participate in job search (job club) activities. There is a debate over whether noncompliance reflects rational decisions (the five-year clock stops, and recipients lose only the adult portion of the cash grant, about $118 of $616 a month or about 20 percent of the grant for a mother with two children) or the fact that many counties have not yet fully implemented sanctions. 3. Counties have adequate funds to implement welfare reform, especially because noncompliance (over half of the clients simply disappear after not showing up for required job search and other activities) means that there are relatively few clients needing support services for drug abuse, etc. 4. It may prove to be far easier for cash welfare recipients to get jobs than to achieve above-poverty level incomes. Rand estimates that a combination of the four major sources of income for those making the transition from welfare to work-earnings, cash assistance, the earned income tax credit, and Food Stamps-provides most California welfare recipients with some cash assistance until their earnings reach $8.36 an hour, $1,447 a month, or $17,364 a year (in addition, welfare recipients are entitled to MediCal health insurance). Very few recipients in past welfare-to-work programs have achieved this level of earnings. CalWORKS operates on the basis of contracts between clients and county human service departments. A person seeking welfare goes to an orientation and appraisal session, and signs a first welfare-to-work contract that spells out her rights and responsibilities under CalWORKS. At this initial session, the eligibility worker: (1) can, but rarely does, "divert" the actual/potential recipient from the welfare system by, for example, making a loan to buy a car or overcoming another obstacle to self-sufficiency; or (2) refer the actual/potential recipient to support services, for example, drug abuse or mental health. The first welfare-to-work contract requires participation in up to four weeks of job search or job club activities, during which persons receiving cash assistance are required to learn skills such as how to interview and search for jobs. Those who do not find jobs at the end of the job club are assessed, and then sign a second welfare-to-work contract that: (1) starts the 18- or 24-month clock ticking on their eligibility for cash assistance without work (this clock begins ticking even if the client refuses to sign); and (2) requires enough hours of work or community service to meet the work-hours requirement. Welfare reform could potentially add 10 percent or more to the work forces of many rural and agricultural counties in California. In most of these counties, agriculture is a major employer, for example, 20 percent of the wage and salary jobs in Fresno county are production farm jobs. Black Latina, (posted 7/8/99) March 1999 Black Latina by Delina D. Pryce <deli@mail.utexas.edu I always thought of former major-league baseball player Ruben Sierra as the sexiest man in the world. His dark, chocolaty skin, spicy Puerto Rican accent, and cocky attitude-together with his home runs and $6 million contract-always made for an enjoyable day at the ballpark. But during my monologue of praise, nothing dampened my mood quicker than hearing, "Ruben's not black; he's Puerto Rican." It was a grim reminder of the ignorance that I've had to deal with ever since I was old enough to fully understand the truth. If I received a dollar for every time I heard " You're not black you're Hispanic" or "You're not Hispanic your black." I'd be well on my way to equaling Ruben's small fortune. To a lot of people, and to the majority of the people I've met, "black" and "Latino" are mutually exclusive terms. Reality couldn't be further from the truth. Many people don't realize that slave ships dropped Africans off not only in the United States but also in the Caribbean, Mexico, Central America, and South America. Blacks in this country share a common history with those in the Caribbean and Latin America. Yet, because historical circumstances have created a variety of cultures within the black community in the Americas, people, including blacks themselves, are quick to make distinctions. It saddens me that those with an obviously African ancestry refuse to acknowledge it, clinging instead to a lone term, "Hispanic" or "Latino". Being labeled "black" in the United States carries a heavy burden of stereotypes that many black Latinos would rather not deal with. In my view, if you're being followed in a store or beaten by the police, it doesn't really matter what you check on a census form. To a racist you're still a nigger. Because I was born in Costa Rica, people want me to choose. "What are you?" they ask. When I was growing up, sometimes I'd check "Hispanic" sometimes I'd check "black" sometimes I'd check both. Administrators at my school I was told, didn't like that. It made their statistics a little less scientific. I was born in Costa Rica, moved to Mexico when I was two years old, and have been living in Texas for almost fourteen years. Yes, my upbringing was unlike most of my black friends in the States. Still, I am more like them than I'm like my Hispanic friends from various countries. We listen to the same music, enjoy the same churches, use the same hair stylists, and experience the same strain of racism. In a lot of ways it's easier for my black friends to comprehend that there is an African Diaspora. They see the fact that I speak Spanish as an asset ("Can you help me with my Spanish homework?"). If anything has been harder for me to explain to them, it's that I'm not "mixed with Hispanic." On the other hand, my Latino friends see my race as a liability. "You're not black, like the African Americans in the United States," one told me recently. It bothers me that to accept me they want to distance me from being black, which carries negative connotations in the Americas. Some even have the audacity to tell me why they despise "those black people." They even wait for me to agree. In Peru, blacks are still being used as ornamental images-chauffeurs, pallbearers, valets, and servants. In Brazil, blacks are considered marginal members of society. In countless other Latin American countries, blacks are shut out of government and positions of power. Television shows, news programs, and beauty magazines omit dark faces. The denial of racial diversity in the media, government and business is much like what the United States faced 30 years ago. "We are looking for ways to improve our self-esteem because the society conveys to blacks that we are nothing We want to let people know that we are not only there to cook and play football "[soccer]" said Piedad Cordoba de Castro, the first black woman to become senator in Colombia, in a 1995 Dallas Morning News article. This is why I think it is foolish for black Latinos to overlook their blackness and believe they are Hispanic like their countrymen of European ancestry." The effort to build a black consciousness movement in Latin America has been hobbled by the low level of racial identification among blacks," Cordoba de Castro said. A hierarchy exists within Latin American countries. Those of European ancestry are at the top and those of African heritage are at the bottom, one notch below indigenous people. Those of mixed race-mestizos (indigenous and Caucasian) and malattos (indigenous and Negroid)--fall some where in between. Many blacks are eager to point out their Indian blood thus elevating themselves above black. I realize the inaccuracy and silliness of racial and ethnic categories in this day and age. Contrary to neo-Nazi belief, no one is really any one thing anymore. What still remains, inequality and power, all over the world, is defined and determined in racial terms. For this reason, racial identification should be used to unite and struggle together for equality. The stupidity of useless racial identification stems from the ignorance of racism. Black Latinos, who don't identify themselves as such, try to be exceptions to the rules and stereotypes that govern blacks. But racists don't care if you're bilingual and international. The very nature of prejudice does not allow for exceptions; it looks at group traits, not at individuals. Racism is prejudice combined with power. Until black Hispanics believe this, they will continue to be happily oppressed, and not even realize it (and even deny it). It's time to know and celebrate who you really are. I know black culture in Costa Rica. I know black culture in the United States. I also know they both stem from the same place. Being Latina and black are not mutually exclusive, but mutually complementary. Being black and Latina has influenced and shaped my views, my thoughts, my experiences-who I am. Never would I deny either because they're both me. And I like me. Why don't others agree? Copyright © 1999 HISPANIC Magazine. All rights reserved. Assimilation: The Melting Pot Survives, (posted 7/6/99) Los Angeles THERE are few stranger alliances in America*s culture wars than the one between nativists and multiculturalists on the subject of assimilating immigrants. Nativists such as Pat Buchanan, a perennial presidential contender, argue that the great American assimilation machine is broken beyond repair. Immigrants arrived in such quantities in the 1980s and 1990s that they can seclude themselves in ethnic enclaves rather than merging into the mainstream. And the growing ease of communications means that they have no need to loosen their ties with their old countries. The Italians who passed through Ellis Island at the turn of the century had little hope of seeing their motherland again; the Mexicans who these days get off the bus in downtown Los Angeles can watch Mexican television, keep in contact with their relatives by telephone or even, on special occasions, video conference, and return home for several weeks a year. The multiculturalists who dominate the country*s universities and pressure groups agree with the nativists* premise but go on to draw radically different conclusions. Mainstream America was never anything more than a codeword for racial oppression, they argue. The arrival of millions of unassimilated immigrants is requiring America to abandon the old notion of a melting pot and turn itself instead into a gorgeous mosaic in which distinctive ethnic groups still manage to make a whole. A brief visit to Huntington Park, a small city south of central Los Angeles, suggests that there is something to this argument. In 1960 Huntington Park was such a white stronghold that blacks in nearby South Central used to say that they had to cross the Mason-Dixon line in order to visit it. But now it is almost entirely Latino. The main street, Pacific Boulevard, looks as if it has been flown in ready-assembled from Mexico. Record shops blast Latin crooners into the street. Toy shops sell Mexican party games called piñatas. A huge number of shops specialise in bridal gowns and children*s clothes. In El Gallo Giro, a huge fast-food joint, crowds of women make tortillas behind the counter. But take a closer look at Huntington Park, and you begin to see signs of assimilation. Street vendors sell hot dogs as well as tamalitos. The hottest-selling piñatas look like Teletubbies. One of the newest additions to the high street, Solano*s Shoes, caters to youth sub-cultures rather than ethnic tastes: 20% of its customers are black. Most of the houses in the residential districts are immaculately kept, suggesting that they are owned rather than rented; the schools offer adult classes in English, citizenship and parenting. The city mayor, Rosario Marin, even acted as a spokesman for the former Republican governor, Pete Wilson. So which is the real Huntington Park? Gregory Rodriguez, a fellow at the New America Foundation whose earlier researches have decisively changed the understanding of Latino experience in the United States, has added a new element to the assimilation debate: facts and figures*. These facts and figures are mostly drawn from the 1990 census, which remains the best available snapshot of the American population, but they are also supplemented by later data. Mr Rodriguez says it is wrong to measure assimilation against impossible standards. Immigrants have always taken time to move into the mainstream, both geographically and culturally. And assimilation has always been a two-way process, with each new wave of immigrants contributing something to what it means to be American, from Jewish humour to German beer. The proper measure of assimilation is not whether ethnic groups have cut their ties to their homeland completely, but whether they have put down roots in the United States. Mr Rodriguez argues that if you look at the four most important measures of *roots**citizenship, home ownership, language-acquisition and intermarriage*then assimilation is going on much as it always has. American citizenship has never been an automatic choice for immigrants: only about half of the people who arrived in the United States at the turn of the century chose to become citizens. In 1990, 40% of immigrants were naturalised. But this proportion is likely to rise. The longer immigrants stay in the United States, the more likely they are to become citizens: only 23% of those who arrived in the early 1980s were naturalised by 1990, compared with 41% of those who arrived in the late 1970s. And the recent anti-immigrant campaigns in California and Congress have, paradoxically, inspired the greatest rush to naturalisation in the history of the country. In 1996, there was a 212% increase over the previous year in the number of Mexican immigrants who became citizens. Home ownership is another powerful symbol of attachment to American life. Half of all immigrant homes were owner-occupied in 1990. This is a much lower figure than the one for native-born Americans. But the longer immigrants stay in the country, the more likely they are to join the home-owning classes. In 1996, 75% of immigrants who had been in the United States for at least 25 years owned their own homes, compared with 70% of native-born Americans. The figures for intermarriage and language-acquisition are equally heartening from an assimilationist point of view. By the third generation, a third or more of Latino and Asian women are marrying outside their ethnic group (see chart). In 1900, a quarter of immigrants could not speak English; in 1990, the figure was only 8%. More than three-quarters (76%) of immigrants spoke English with high proficiency within ten years of arriving; and almost all their children spoke English either well or exclusively. Almost half the children of Asian immigrants can speak only English. Much of what Mr Rodriguez has to say is common sense. The United States is the most culturally powerful nation in the world, striking terror into chauvinists from Paris to Tehran; it is hardly surprising that it should be able to absorb people within its own borders, particularly since most people come to the United States with the express purpose of getting ahead. It is perhaps not surprising either that nativists should ignore common sense: at bottom, much of their objection to immigration is based on race. But why multiculturalists should seek to deny the obvious is a subject worthy of study in itself. **From Newcomers to Americans: The Successful Integration of Immigrants into American Society*. National Immigration Forum, 220 I St NE, Washington, DC, 20002. Columbus Bishop Endorses North Carolina Pickle Boycott, (posted 7/6/99) FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE JUNE 29, 1999 The bishop of Ohio*s largest city announced his support today for a migrant farmworker union*s national boycott of the Mt. Olive Pickle Company. Columbus Bishop James A. Griffin said he is backing the union*s effort because of the Catholic Church*s teaching on the dignity of the human person, and because the company has rejected negotiations with the union. He added, *We must never forget the fact that the economy exists to serve the human person, not the other way around.* The bishop also cited a 1998 statement issued by Ohio bishops, Life on the Land: A Call to Reflection and Action on Agriculture in Ohio, that supported policies *which assure all persons working in the agricultural system fair wages, unemployment compensation and protections including the right to organize. The president of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee, AFL-CIO (FLOC), Baldemar Velasquez, called the bishop*s action *an important milepost on the road to justice for North Carolina farmworkers. The Columbus diocese has a population of 1.5 million people, including 220,000 Catholics, and this is the first diocese beyond Raleigh and Toledo*the ones directly connected with our campaign in North Carolina*to urge its members to boycott Mt. Olive Co. pickles.* Velasquez observed that *our state capital is rapidly becoming a *Mt. Olive Pickle-free zone,* since Ohio State University dropped the company as a sponsor of its sports programs, and now Columbus Catholics will be scratching Mt. Olive Co. pickles off their shopping lists. I believe Bishop Griffin*s endorsement will get CEO Bill Bryan*s attention.* In 1986 FLOC won a seven-year boycott against the Campbell Soup Co. with a contract to increase wages and improve housing, pesticide protection, and day care for migrant children. *That*s what this fight is all about*improving the lives of the people who put the food on our table. Sooner or later Mr. Bryan will realize th |
