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ARTICLES POSTED JUNE 1998
Carlos Castaneda, champion of New Age, drug-induced mysticism, dies, (posted 6/26/98) Friday, June 19, 1998 Breaking News Sections (06-19) 06:51 EDT LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Best-selling author Carlos Castaneda, whose books about a sorcerer and drug-induced mysticism attracted millions of New Age followers, has died of liver cancer. He was believed to be at least 66. Castaneda died April 27 at his Westwood home, attorney Deborah Drooz said today. No funeral was held and his cremated remains were taken to Mexico. For more than three decades, Castaneda claimed to have been the apprentice of a Yaqui Indian sorcerer named Don Juan Matus. His first book, "The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge," described peyote-fueled journeys with the sorcerer who could bend time and space. Castaneda argued that reality is a shared way of looking at the universe that can be transcended through discipline, ritual and concentration. The sorcerer, he said, can see and use the energy that comprises everything-but the path to that knowledge is hard and dangerous. While his 10 books sold millions of copies worldwide and continue to sell in 17 languages-critics doubted that Don Juan existed. Castaneda always maintained that his experiences were real. "This is not a work of fiction," Castaneda said in the prologue to his 1981 book, "The Eagle's Gift." "What I am describing is alien to us; therefore, it seems unreal." Castaneda was obscure on such matters as his birth. Immigration records indicated he was born Dec. 25, 1925 in Cajamarca, Peru, while various resource books place his birth exactly six years later, in Sao Paulo, Brazil. "He didn't like attention," Drooz told the Los Angeles Times. "He always made sure people did not take his picture or record his voice. He didn't like the spotlight." Castaneda, who held a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of California, Los Angeles, said he met Don Juan in Arizona in the early 1960s while researching medicinal plants. He followed when the shaman moved to Sonora, Mexico. His first book was a best seller when it appeared in 1968, as were several sequels that purported to track Castaneda's 12-year apprenticeship. The books were critically praised-author Joyce Carol Oates called them "remarkable works of art"-and even debunkers liked his heady visions of mysticism. "It is a con touched by genius," one critic wrote in the Saturday Review. In recent years, Castaneda's disciples offered seminars and books on "Tensegrity," a discipline composed of martial arts-like movements that Castaneda once said allowed ancient Mexican shamans to "perform indescribable feats of perception." He claimed that Don Juan recommended it as a way for him to lose weight. "The movements force the awareness of man to focus on the idea that we are spheres of luminosity, a conglomerate of energy fields held together by a special glue," he told the Times in a 1995 interview. Castaneda himself rarely made appearances and never allowed himself to be photographed or tape-recorded. "A recording is a way of fixing you in time," he once said. "The only thing a sorcerer will not do is be stagnant." While Castaneda contended that Don Juan did not die but rather "burned from within," he had no doubt about his own mortality. "Since I'm a moron, I'm sure I'll die," he told the Times. "I wish I would have the integrity to leave the way he did, but there is no assurance." Mario Obledo- A National Hero!, (posted 6/25/98) Peter H. King: A sign of victory- Offending billboard is gone (Published June 24, 1998) As late as Monday afternoon, Mario Obledo-however old, however frail-nonetheless was a man ready for action. For too long, the 66-year-old civil rights activist said, he had remained outside the fray, occupying an unmarked office with an unlisted telephone number in Old Sacramento, nursing bad kidneys and a painful spine, but living what he called "a very peaceful life." Now he was mad. The object of his wrath was a huge billboard erected down in Blythe, on the California-Arizona border. He read about it last May in the newspaper, and at once began to seethe. The work of Orange County immigration "reform" advocates, the billboard had been designed to resemble an official California state road sign. "Welcome to California," it announced to northbound motorists on Interstate 10, "the illegal immigration state. Don't let this happen to your state." The way Obledo decoded it, the sign was not so much a complaint about illegal immigrants as it was a slur against immigrants in general- and brown-skinned immigrants in particular. He saw it as more of the same, a sequel to those ominously intoned "they keep coming" commercials of the Prop. 187 campaign. The billboard's message, he would conclude, is "racist, one of hatred and divisive, and it has no place in America." For weeks Obledo waited for someone to step forward and do something about the sign. The state ordered a repainting, so that it would not look quite so official, but beyond that, nothing happened. Obledo decided he could wait no longer: "I appointed myself to the task." On June 4 he issued a rather bluntly worded press release: "The billboard will be set on fire or de-faced on Saturday, June 27, 1998, at 2:00 p.m., in Blythe, California." Obledo did not appear to be kidding. He urged the governor to alert the National Guard. He researched vandalism and trespassing laws, anticipating arrest. Arrangements were made to rent a hydraulic lift-or cherry-picker-that would hoist him to the sign. The idea of setting the billboard ablaze had been abandoned early on. A sheriff's official called >from Riverside County, warning that a natural gas plant was situated nearby. "I would have blown up the whole town of Blythe," Obledo said. "Instead of McVeigh, they would have been talking about Obledo." He decided to paint his own message on the billboard: "Welcome to the land of opportunity," or something similar. Something "patriotic," Obledo said, something optimistic. His point was that it was not merely coincidence that the state with the highest number of illegal immigrants also was the most prosperous. In no small measure, California's wealth was created with the sweat of the very sort of people the billboard demonized. Anyway, Obledo figured, the right words would occur to him as he rose next Saturday afternoon in the cherry-picker, spray paint in hand, a frail old man framed against what he considered California's latest monument to racial hatred. That was Monday. On Tuesday, everything changed. Obledo was giving yet another interview, this time to a television crew, when the communique from the Riverside County sheriff's captain squirted from the facsimile machine: "Dear Mr. Obledo," it began, "please be advised that the billboard sign . . . has been removed." The billboard company, Martin Media, had made the decision. As a company official would explain, it was "caught in the middle." While an advocate of free speech rights, it also felt obligated to look out for the property owner who leases the billboard site and also the companies-Burger King and Best Western-that shared space on the flip side of the immigration billboard. And so early Tuesday the vinyl sign simply was removed and returned to Orange County-along with a refund check. Law enforcement officials were relieved, but the billboard sponsors were livid and surprised. They had been selling bus seats at $25 a pop for a trip to a counter-demonstration Saturday. "It's been fairly traumatic," said Barbara Coe of the California Coalition for Immigration Reform. She was hurriedly composing a press release for today. She wasn't sure of the text yet, but the title was set: "Terrorists One, Citizens Zero." She vowed that the sign would rise again . . . As for Obledo, there seem to be two ways to view the anticlimactic outcome. One would be that the activist was cheated out of his moment in the desert sun. The other is this: Not only did the unblinking 66-year-old bring down the billboard, but he did so without having to mount any cherry-picker. Only in victory would Obledo concede the point. Bravado aside, the notion of riding that wobbly contraption to the heights had made him more than a little nervous. PETER H. KING's writes a regular column in Sacramento Bee. NOTE: This article is being made available to the AZTLAN-L Mailing List for discussion and analysis only under the "fair use" provisions of the US Copyright Laws. Institute Appoints Temporary Director, (posted 6/23/98) By Stephanie K. Bost Just over a month after the director of the Julian Samora Research Institute announced he would leave MSU for one year, temporary replacement has been appointed. Jorge Chapa, an associate professor at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at University of Texas, has been appointed interim director of the institute. In May, the institute's currnet director, Refugio Rochin, announced his plans to work as director of the center for Latino Initiatives at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C., for one year. The institute, established in 1989, is a Latino research center focusing on social-historical Latino issues in the United States. It is the only one of its kind in the Midwest. "JSRI has really established itself in the last 10 years,"
Chapa said. "I just plan to listen and learn. It's a question
of seeing how we can take advantage of advances that have already
been made." Chapa is scheduled to arrive at MSU in late July and will work with Rochin until he leaves in August. Rochin said he is confident that Chapa is the right candidate for the position. "He's a nationally recognized social scientist," Rochin said. "He's going to be challenging others with new ways of doing things. He has a lot to offer." Chapa said the move is an exciting step in his career. "I have experience as a researcher and administrator," Chapa said. "One of the accomplishments I'm most proud of is getting groups of faculty to work together in a constructive manner." Rochin said he is optimistic about Chapa's ability to maintain and expand the institute's network of researchers. "That's the future of research," Rochin said. "It's crucial to broaden the base of support nationally, because universities aren't self-contained powerhouses. They should all be connected." Some institute employees say they are saddened to see Rochin move on, but they are confident that he established a firm base for them to work with. "The transition should be an easy one," said Danny Layne, hardware and software technician at the institute. "Dr. Rochin endorses (Chapa), and his credentials speak for themselves. I know he'll start out on the right foot." After a year at the Smithsonian, Rochin will decide between returning to MSU or staying in Washington, D.C. The Aftermath of California's Proposition 227, (posted 6/23/98) By Michael Genzuk LOS ANGELES. Parents, policy makers, advocacy groups and the media will be paying close and critical attention to how the stateís public education system fulfills the task of teaching Californiaís 1.4 million English-language learners now that the scapegoat of bilingual education has been thrown out. Passage of Proposition 227, the anti-bilingual education initiative, will have both short-term and long-term effects on schools and students across California. Short-term costs will likely include large-scale reassignment of students across the state with some confusion locally for parents and students about program implementation. The more dramatic effects from Proposition 227 more than likely will come, however, in the second and subsequent years when the academic effects of the initiative begin to show. Both the financial and human costs could escalate substantially as more and more students fall further and further behind in their mastery of subject material. As this happens, the state may be faced with a choice of implementing costlier remedial programs or doing nothing. The more expensive remedial programs would ultimately take scarce education dollars away from the regular program, thereby further undermining political support for the public schools. The price of ignoring the problem of so many students falling behind is a permanently two-tiered educational system, which is not likely to attract business or workers to the state let alone provide quality educational opportunities for all students. There is a high probability that many English-language learners in the state will end up in remedial, special education or alternative classes where expectations are lower rather than in mainstream classes as the proponents of Proposition 227 have suggested. Treating language needs as mental handicaps has been a common practice. Latino children have often been diagnosed as ìslow learners,î ìlearning disabled,î or ìmentally retardedî simply because they spoke Spanish. Without costly professional development, underprepared teachers may find themselves overwhelmed by increasing numbers of students who not only do not know the subject matter, but also do not have the academic English proficiency needed to learn exclusively in English. The result could be a tracking system substantially worse than the one about which the opponents of bilingual education now complain. In addition, Proposition 227 will ultimately make it impossible for the state to attain any semblance of ethnic parity in admissions to first-tier colleges and universities. Already low, the numbers of students who were once limited in their English proficiency, particularly Latino students, but who attained college admission would likely stagnate, as more and more students fall behind in their coursework. Finally, instead of improving the quality of public education across the state, Proposition 227 could actually weaken it, thereby continuing the downward slide in Californiaís educational rankings nationwide. Proposition 227 will more than likely result in punishing Californiaís students, as well as the public with more taxpayer liability. (Genzuk is an assistant professor at the University of Southern California. E- mail genzuk@rcf.usc.edu or visit www.usc.edu/dept/education/CMMR)
California: 227, Politics, (posted 6/15/98) Prop 227. President Clinton in May opposed Proposition 227, saying that it set rigid and unrealistic deadlines for the learning of English by non-English-speaking children. The Clinton approach to Proposition 227 is similar to the approach taken on Proposition 209, the initiative that ended affirmative action in California. In both cases, Clinton agreed that there are problems, but argued for "mend, not end" reforms. Governor Wilson, on the other hand, vetoed a bill that would have increased the flexibility of local school districts in teaching children who are not proficient in English. Wilson also endorsed Proposition 227, saying that "Bilingual education in California has been a serious failure." However, the four major candidates running for governor in the June 2, 1998 primary, including Republican Attorney General Dan Lungren, oppose Proposition 227. Ron Unz, who launched the 227 initiative, said "It is very unfortunate that the governor has chosen to endorse our initiative." Unz fears that Wilson's endorsement of 227 will add to speculation that 227 is the "third strike" against Hispanics, after Propositions 187 and 209. Supporters and opponents of Proposition 227 ran Spanish-language ads in May. Even though Latinos are expected to cast only 10 percent of the vote on June 2, 1998, about 80 percent of the 1.4 million limited English proficient children affected by Proposition 227 are Latino. May 1998 polls suggested that Proposition 227 was supported by likely voters 63-23 percent. A 1989 UC report complained that many bilingual programs are in fact English-immersion programs: http://clnet.ucr.edu/challenge. Bilingual programs tend to be found in schools with the highest concentration of poor kids, schools that often have trouble educating children in English or other languages. The Los Angeles Times on May 18, 1998 surveyed the research supporting bilingual and English-immersion approaches to teaching limited English proficient children. In 1997-98, some 5,800 California schools had at least 20 LEP students and only seven percent of those classified as LEP were reclassified English proficient; 1,150 schools classified no LEP children as English proficient. However, many of these LEP children were already being taught in English; only about one-third of the 1.4 million LEP children in California are in some type of a bilingual or ESL program. The article noted that California policies discourage reclassification as English proficient. Schools receive extra funds for students classified LEP, and suffer no penalties if they do not reclassify children English proficient. Santa Barbara has decided to do away with bilingual instruction while Lone Pine offers no bilingual instruction and few bilingual aides for children who do not speak English. According to the article, the rapid increase in LEP children makes the status quo unsustainable. There are too few bilingual teachers: as of 1997, California had about one bilingual teacher for every 92 limited-English students, and 220,000 students classified as LEP got no extra help in 1997-98. An additional 21,000 bilingual teachers are needed to cover them. The article concluded that bilingual education is an emotional issue because it reflects a larger ambivalence about Mexican immigration. The Latino civil rights movement in California early on linked discrimination with English-only instruction in schools, so that attacks on bilingual education are seen as an affront: Let them do your menial labor; don't let them speak their language. The Calexico Unified School District was profiled in the Los Angeles Times May 18, 1998. Raul Yzaguirre, president of the National Council of La Raza, says that Calexico is an example of bilingual education that works: "Calexico, the poorest school district in California with the highest rate of farm workers and most Latinos, is graduating kids at a higher rate than Beverly Hills!" In Calexico, average family income is less than $12,000 a year; one-fourth of the students are the children of farm workers and 75 percent are classified as LEP. Skeptics note that most of the children who graduate go to a local community college. In 1997, over 70 percent of the 380 seniors said they intended to go to college, most to community colleges. In the nation's fourth largest public school system, 340,000-pupil Dade County, bilingualism is official policy, and is widely supported. Coral Way Elementary pioneered dual language instruction in 1963, and the Miami business community has supported the expansion of such instruction in the 1990s. A 1995 survey of businesses in Miami and surrounding Dade County found that more than half did at least 25 percent of their work in Spanish, and that knowledge of both English and Spanish was associated with an average of $3,000 higher income. A poll in Texas found that most Texans favor one year or less of transition to English-only classes. Older respondents were most in favor of eliminating bilingual education, while 44 percent of the Hispanics polled favored putting LEP children in three years or more of bilingual education. About 13 percent of the 3.8 million K-12 pupils in Texas are LEP. --
A general practice, concentrating in Employment Law, Personal Injury and Civil Rights. Proposal to Give Priority to Highest Educated Immigrants, (posted 6/15/98) Rep. Lamar S. Smith (R-TX) held a hearing April 21, 1998 that featured witnesses urging the US to give priority in the admission of immigrants to persons with the most education. Under Smith's proposal, foreigners seeking to immigrate would get priority if they had at least a high school diploma: "A rational immigration policy would not flood the job market with low-skilled immigrants to compete for the comparatively stagnant number of low-skilled jobs, while depriving the economy of the skilled immigrants needs." The Smith proposal is available at: http://www.house.gov/judiciary/6091.htm Fewer than six million US workers were jobless in April 1998, making the unemployment rate 4.3 percent, the lowest rate since 1970. The unemployment rate for Hispanics was 6.5 percent, the lowest rate since data began being collected in 1973, and the 8.9 percent rate for Blacks was the second lowest since 1973. The unemployment rate for high school dropouts fell to seven percent, and the unemployment rate for workers with only high school degrees and those with some college was 3.9 percent and 2.7 percent-these three groups include 60 percent of US workers. At the same time, a record 64 percent of US residents are employed or looking for work, and average hourly earnings of production and non-supervisory workers rose to $12.67. Almost half of the Hispanics 25 years and older did not have a high school diploma in 1996. Julia Angwin, Laura Castaneda, "The Digital Divide, High-tech boom a bust for blacks, Latinos," San Francisco Chronicle, May 4, 1998. William Branigin, "House Republican Wants Immigration Policy to Favor the Educated," Washington Post, April 22, 1998 Hispanics Underrepresented in High-Tech Companies, (posted 6/15/98) Migrant News PLM <migrant@primal.ucdavis.edu> A San Francisco Chronicle analysis of hiring in 33 leading Silicon Valley firms found that Blacks and Hispanics are underrepresented in high-tech companies. Blacks make up eight percent and Latinos 14 percent of the area's labor force, but are four and seven percent of the labor force at the 33 firms. Asians, who are 21 percent of local workers, are 28 percent of the work forces of the 33 firms. According to the analysis, (1) many Blacks and Hispanics do not have the education needed to be hired; (2) discrimination is rampant and affirmative action laws are not enforced; (3) many firms do not recruit at schools with large numbers of Blacks and Hispanics; and (4) there are few high-ranking Blacks and Hispanics, and thus few anchors for the networks through which most hiring is done. At Sun Microsystems, a manager said that "about 60 percent of our jobs are filled by referrals by employees." Recent Publications of the Julian Samora Research Institute, (posted 6/12/98)
Seeing the World in Red and Brown, from Universal Press Syndicate, week of June 5, 1998, (posted 6/9/98) FROM UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE
In keeping up with the news, we find ourselves monitoring all the major TV news networks. The one thing they share in common is that among their anchors, red or brown faces are nowhere to be found. The other thing they have in common is that there is no shortage of rationalizations for this situation- including that they can't find any qualified Latinos. At a time when mainstream news has seemingly gone tabloid, many people wonder whether the color of anchors or reporters actually matters. We know that race and culture do indeed play a role in selecting, gathering and presenting the news. Most often, local TV stations do a better job of presenting people of color as reporters and anchors; however, on a national level, people of color are underrepresented, especially Latinos. A recent study by the Oakland, Calif.-based advocacy group Children Now confirms that children often see people of color on television in a negative light, if they see them at all. This is all the more reason why seeing positive and intelligent faces of all colors is empowering for individuals who feel disenfranchised. Carla Aragon, a TV anchor in Albuquerque, N.M., recently told us that her duties go beyond simply presenting the news. Anchoring gives her visibility in her community, which in turn inspires young students who see their possibilities in her. "A lot of students don't have role models," she says. Marty Guerrero, a nine-year veteran producer at CNN, says that she recently asked a top-ranking executive at CNN why there are no Latinos anchoring the news there. He responded by saying, "We can't find any qualified Latinos." He later clarified that none can be found who would be willing to move to Atlanta for the salary CNN pays, Guerrero says. In contacting CNN for comments regarding Guerrero's statements, we were referred to Bonnie Anderson, managing editor for CNN's Spanish network. Anderson said, "I know CNN makes a greater effort. CNN, as well as other networks, needs to do much better." We pay special attention to CNN because it delivers the news around the world on a 24-hour basis, and perhaps it is on CNN where the omission appears most glaring. Carla Aragon said that when she left Los Angeles several years ago, she would have taken a job at CNN in an instant. Precisely because of the very real glass ceilings that exist, many TV and print journalists of color are leaving the profession in record numbers, she says. One of the reasons they leave is because they are often relegated to weekend jobs with little chance of promotion or professional development. "Network Brownout," a study to be released during the annual conference of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) in late June, confirms what Aragon says: Latinos, who number more than 30 million, are barely visible within the broadcast profession. None are network anchors. Diane Alverio, one of the co-authors of this third annual report, says that future reports will explore the relationship between the lack of Latinos in the profession and how Latinos are perceived by mainstream America. Alverio, a former New York broadcast journalist and past president of the NAHJ, said that the reported statements by the CNN executive show "negligence and ignorance." But she doesn't solely fault the profession. She said that until Latinos become more aggressive in confronting the networks, nothing will change. In addition to the lack of network anchors, Latinos are also rarely presented as experts. One news executive at a network recently and incredibly stated that the reason was that there isn't a large pool of Latinos to choose from. Minerva Perez said that as a TV reporter in Los Angeles, viewers and her supervisors constantly insisted that she Anglicize the pronunciation of her name. She refused and is now anchoring in Houston, where she pronounces her name correctly. Federico Subervi, communications professor at the University of Texas at Austin, says that biases against Latinos also include color. And ironically, that bias is also no stranger to Spanish-language television, where light-skinned anchors are preferred to anyone who looks Indian/mestizo or African. The idea that there are not enough trained people of color trained is partially true, says Subervi. "Schools of journalism fail miserably in recruiting students or faculty of color." However, the notion that news executives can't find any "qualified" Latinos is complete nonsense. They simply continue to hire through the old-boys network. It's still not unheard of that the industry will hire whites with no experience, while holding people of color accountable to a higher "qualified" standard, he says. Demographics seemingly have nothing to do with this situation either. Many Asian women anchor the network news, which is laudable. Perhaps it is simply the color red and brown that news executives seem to have an aversion to. COPYRIGHT 1998 UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE Both writers are authors of Gonzales/Rodriguez: Uncut & Uncensored (ISBN 0-918520-22-3 UC Berkeley, Ethnic Studies Library, Publications Unit. Rodriguez is the author of Justice: A Question of Race (Cloth ISBN 0-927534-69-X paper ISBN 0-927534-68-1 Bilingual Review Press) and the antibook, The X in La Raza II. They can be reached at PO BOX 7905, Albq NM 87194-7904, 505-247-3888 or XColumn@aol.com Hispanics: What's In a Name?, (posted 6/8/98)
To begin with, the word "Hispanic" is one of those large rubrics, like the word "Catholic" or "Protestant." By itself, the word refers to all Hispanics (persons whose cultural and/or linguistic heritage derive from historical origins in Hispania-Roman name for Spain), attesting to a common denominator, conveying information that the individual is an off-spring or descendent of a cultural, political or ethnic blending which included at its beginning at least one Spanish root either biological or linguistic or cultural. That means a Mexican Indian with no Spanish "blood" (as we understand that term) in him or her, but who speaks Spanish and has amalgamated or internalized "Spanish" culture, is an Hispanic, just as an Indian of the United States who speaks English and has amalgamated or internalized "Anglo" culture is an American. I know that talking about people in terms of labels can bed misleading. For example, a person may be an Hispanic in terms of cultural, national, or ethnic roots. Nationally, Colon (Columbus) was a Spaniard, though born in Genoa; Werner Von Braun became an American national, though born in Germany. In Argentina there are Hispanics who have no "Spanish blood" but who, nevertheless, consider themselves Hispanics, speak Argentine Spanish and are fluent in Italian or German, the languages of their immigrant forebears to the country. Put another way, the term "Hispanic" is comparable to the term "Jew" which describes the religious orientation of people who may be ethnically Russian, Polish, German, Italian, English, etc. There are also Chinese Jews, Ethiopian (Falashan) Jews, Indian Jews, et al. So too the term "Hispanic" describes a cultural-linguistic orientation of people who may be Mexicans, Nicaraguans, Cubans, Venezuelans, Chileans, Argentines, Spaniards. Additionally there are Afro Hispanics, White Hispanics, Asian Hispanics, Indian Hispanics and a congeries of other mixtures. There is an array of Chinese Hispanics, Lebanese Hispanics, Pakistan Hispanics, Hindu Hispanics, Jewish Hispanics (Sephards), et al. This all points to the fact that Hispanics are far from a homogeneous group. In the main, though, their common characteristics are language (Spanish), culture (Hispanic), and religion (most are Catholic). There are large exceptions of course. To avoid confusion between Hispanics who are citizens of countries other than the United States and Hispanics who are U.S. citizens, we refer to the former as Hispanic Americans and the latter as American Hispanics, that is, U.S. Hispanics with roots in one or more of the 21 Spanish-language countries of the American hemisphere-and eslewhere. The United States has the largest Hispanic population in the world exceeded only by Mexico,. Spain, Colombia, Argentina, and Peru. In 1970, close to 2 million American Hispanics who reported themselves as such to census takers lived in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, another 1 million in New York city. By 1980, the American Hispanic population of both cities doubled, as did the entire U.S. Hispanic population. During this same period, Mexican Americans increased their population numbers by 93 percent-almost twice their size. American Hispanics are growing 5 times faster than the overall population. Since 1980, the nation's Hispanic population has grown by 39 percent compared to 7.3 percent for the overall population. The 1987 Advance Report of the Census Bureau projected the number of U.S. Hispanics by the year 1990 at 24.5 million, not counting the 3.9 million Hispanics who live in Puerto Rico. That puts the projected total of U.S. Hispanics to well over 28 million by 1990. This figure doesn't take into account census errors like the one in 1970 which failed to count some 3 million Mexican Americans. Nor does it include "undocumented" Hispanics in the country. One of the reasons for so much difficulty in counting American Hispanics is that a significant proportion report themselves as White or Black, not Hispanic. At present growth rates, the American population is expected to be 325 million by the year 2020. Projecting the U.S. Hispanic figures per their growth rates, they could number well over 60 million by the 2020. That means that about 1 in 5 Americans could be American Hispanic, roughly 20 percent of the U.S. population. By the year 2050, some forecasts expect the U.S. Hispanic population to triple. What makes this population growth of American Hispanics so significant is that little planning is under way for such an eventuality. In a 1988 study, the Arizona Republic newspaper of Phoenix indicated that in the year 2013 "Hispanics will make up nearly half of Arizona's population, compared with 16 percent today, raising the prospect of their taking strong leadership role in the state." True! But little preparation is underway for that eventuality. Who are these people whose presence in the American population will have such a major force in the future? Essentially, American Hispanics may be grouped into five categories: (1) Mexican Americans/Chicanos, (2) Puerto Ricans/Boricuas, (3) Hispanos (U.S. Hispanics who identify themselves as "Spanish"), (4) Cuban Americans, and (5) Latinos (Hispanics from countries other than those already mentioned in this matrix). In the total mix of U.S. Hispanics (counting the population of Puerto Rico), 53% of U.S. Hispanics are of Mexican American stock, many of whom identify themselves as Chicanos, an ideological designation that identifies their generation. All together, 26% of U.S. Hispanics are Puerto Ricans, many of whom identify themselves as Boricuas, an ideological term comparable to the term Chicano. Mexican Americans/Chicanos and Puerto Ricans/Boricuas make up almost 80% of the total U.S. Hispanic population. Hispanos comprise about 7% of the U.S. Hispanic population; and Cuban Americans make up almost 5% of U.S. Hispanics. Latinos make up the remaining 8% of U.S. Hispanics. Surprisingly, most Americans tend to think of U.S. Hispanics as a loose aggregation of "immigrants" who speak only Spanish, somewhat aware that the largest number of them live in the Southwest, a fair number in the Upper Middle Atlantic states and New England, and a growing group in Florida. In profile, U.S. Hispanics are a "young" population, with a median age in 1987 of 23.7 years compared to 32.4 years for Anglos. They are predominantly an urban group: 82.5% of them live in cities, compared to 66% of Anglos who live in cities. In terms of median income, they earned $18,800 in 1987, some $2,450 more than Blacks but some $8,200 less than Anglos. Nearly 3 out of every 10 American Hispanics fell below the poverty level in 1987, more than twice the ratio for Anglos. In 1987, American Hispanic unemployment rose to 13.8% compared to 7.2% for the total population. That figure remains relatively unchanged in 1990. Importantly, American Hispanics are not recently arrived immigrants to the United States. Given the finite immigration quotas for "Latin America" since 1924, the present population of U.S. Hispanics would not be as large if its source were solely from immigration. Their sheer size in the American population points to the fact that American Hispanics are of longer duration in the United States. Their growth in the United States is thus due to fertility, not immigration. The initial core of Hispanics in the U.S. population came from the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam, later renamed New York after the British acquired it in the 17th century. The Hispanic Jews (Sephardim) who came with the Dutch colony contributed significantly to the revolutionary efforts of 1776 and to the later prosperity of the country. In the 19th century, in two swift "blows" within 50 years of each other the United States "Acquired" a sizable chunk of its Hispanic population, not counting the acquisition of New Orleans (and its Hispanic residents) in 1803 from the French (who took it originally from the Spaniards) and Florida (and its Hispanic residents ) from Spain in 1819. The first "blow" was the U.S. War with Mexico (1846-1848), out of which came the Mexican Americans of California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, parts of Oklahoma and Kansas. No one is sure of the numbers of "Mexicans" who came with the wrested territory (almost half of Mexico was dismembered), but figures range from 150,000 to as many as 3.5 million (including Hispanicized Indians). The second "blow" was the U.S. with Spain (1898), out of which came the Puerto Ricans, Cubans, Filipinos, Guamanians, and others. A fair number of Cubans came to Florida with this "blow" between 1898 and the First World War (Cuban gained independence from the United States in 1917). The population figures for these groups range variably as well. American Hispanics are of the United States, but we've tended to confuse them with Hispanic Americans, the 300 million who populate the Spanish-language countries of the American hemisphere. Not all American Hispanics agree on the term "Hispanic" to identify themselves. Many American Hispanics from the southwest, for example, prefer to be called Mexican Americans or "Chicanos" and think the term Hispanic is arbitrarily imposed on them by a bureaucracy with a colonial mentality. Many Puerto Ricans agree with that sentiment and prefer to be called "Boricuas" to differentiate them from island Puerto Ricans. Other American Hispanics contend the term dilutes their individual identities as, say, Salvadorans, Nicaraguans, et al. At best, the term Hispanic is a convenient way to talk about such a diverse group of people, much the way we use the term American to talk about an equally diverse group of people. Actually, the term Hispanic is used (and has been used) widely in Latin America by Hispanics to identify their common roots and heritage. Ideologically, Mexican Americans/Chicanos say the term Hispanic diminishes their priority when "lumped" with other American Hispanic groups (all of which are considerably smaller than the Mexican American group, with the exception of the Puerto Rican group). Those Mexican Americans/Chicanos contend that this "lumping" suggests that all U.S. Hispanic groups are equal in size and have passed through the same historical process in the United States. Indeed, not all U.S. Hispanic groups have passed through the same historical process as Mexican Americans and Puerto Ricans. The historical process of these two groups has been distinctive, not shared by "other" American Hispanic groups in the United States. A sizable number of Mexican Americans and all Puerto Ricans are Americans by virtue of conquest. For this reason, a shrill group of Mexican American/Chicanos and Puerto Ricans/Boricuas resent across-the-board application of legal remedies (affirmative action) for all Hispanics in the U.S. for historical discrimination they have not endured nor suffered historically. Militant members of these groups say that hiring a relatively recently arrived U.S. Hispanic of Peruvian descent, for example, to head a major federal program, does not remedy discrimination suffered by Mexican Americans and Puerto Ricans at the hands of Anglo-Americans since their conquest and for whom these legal remedies were enacted. Moreover, Peruvian culture-while Hispanic-is not Mexican American culture nor Puerto Rican culture. The "languages" are different too. Additionally, many Mexican Americans And Puerto Ricans point out the difference between an "oppressed territorial minority" (the U.S. came to them) and "political refugees" (they came to the U.S.). Many Chicano scholars explain that Hispanics from Mexico who gravitate to San Diego, Tucson, El Paso, Del Rio, San Antonio, and Brownsville are migrating to a part of what was once their ancestral homeland until 1848 (1853 in southern Arizona) the way Jews gravitate toward Palestine, their ancestral homeland. Moreover, those same Chicanos point out, most of them are racially more Indian that Spanish. On their Indian side they are, thus Native Americans, here long before the Nina, the Pinta, the Santa Maria, and the Mayflower. They are not immigrants. They are of the Americas, sharing a common bond with Native Americans of the United States and Canada. There is much to a name. I'm an American Hispanic of Mexican stock who subscribes to a Chicano perspective of life in the United States. I'm not an Hispano because I'm not Spanish. And I'm not a Latino because I'm not from one of those "other" Spanish-language countries. The categories of Hispanicity I've proffered here are actually pretty easy to remember and they do help to pinpoint where we fit in the Hispanic taxonomy. A Puerto Rican friend of mine explains that he's an Hispanic of mainland Puerto Rican stock and subscribes to a Boricua perspective of life in the United States. Another friend of mine tells me he's an American Scandinavian of Norwegian stock who is a registered Republican. I don't find that confusing at all. We're all Americans, rich in cultural, linguistic and ethnic diversity. What's in a name? Everything. That's why my name is Felipe and my friend's name is Sean. Names help to tell us apart. They also reflect our heritage and background. Unfortunately, many Americans tend to think the word Hispanic refers to a homogeneous group of people-which it does not, anymore than the word German, say, (as in German-American) refers to a homogeneous group of people.
Diagnosis and Reporting of HIV and AIDS in States with Integrated HIV and AIDS Surveillance, (posted 6/8/98) United States, January 1994-June 1997 Recent reports based on acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) surveillance data have highlighted substantial declines in AIDS incidence and deaths. As a result of improvements in treatment and care of persons infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), surveillance of AIDS alone no longer accurately reflects the magnitude or direction of the epidemic (1). Current public health and clinical recommendations promote early diagnosis and treatment of HIV disease (2). Data on persons in whom HIV infection is diagnosed before AIDS is diagnosed are needed to determine populations in need of prevention and treatment services. This report examines data for persons aged greater than or equal to 13 years in whom HIV infection was diagnosed in 25 states that conducted name-based HIV surveillance in addition to AIDS surveillance during January 1994-June 1997*. Provisional data indicate that declines in AIDS incidence in these states were not accompanied by comparable declines in the number of newly diagnosed HIV cases.** In late 1993, the states included in this analysis merged data from the name-based HIV and AIDS case reporting systems into an integrated HIV/AIDS surveillance system. Patient and provider names were deleted before states forwarded data to CDC and replaced by codes. Cases were divided into two mutually exclusive categories: persons in whom HIV infection was diagnosed (without an AIDS diagnosis) and persons in whom HIV infection was diagnosed only when they first had AIDS diagnosed. Data for persons aged greater than or equal to 13 years were analyzed by the earliest date of diagnosis of HIV or AIDS for January 1994-June 1997. Quarterly trends in the number of persons whose initial diagnosis was HIV infection were compared with quarterly trends in the number of persons whose initial diagnosis was AIDS. HIV and AIDS data were adjusted for delays in reporting of cases and deaths (3). From January 1994 through June 1997, HIV or AIDS was diagnosed in 72,905 persons aged greater than or equal to 13 years in the 25 states. Of these, HIV infection was the initial diagnosis in 52,690 (72%) and AIDS was the initial diagnosis in 20,215 (28%) (Table 1). From 1995 to 1996, the number of persons in whom HIV infection was the initial diagnosis declined 2%, and the number of persons in whom AIDS was the initial diagnosis declined 9%. Of 52,690 persons in whom HIV infection was the initial diagnosis, 28% were women, 57% were non-Hispanic blacks, and 18% were infected through heterosexual contact (Table 2). Among selected demographic groups, the number of persons in whom HIV infection was the initial diagnosis during 1995 compared with 1996 declined 3% among men (from 10,762 to 10,395) but increased 3% among women (from 4126 to 4253). The number of persons in whom HIV infection was the initial diagnosis increased 10% among Hispanics (from 971 to 1070) and decreased 3% among non-Hispanic blacks (from 8569 to 8300) and 2% among non-Hispanic whites (from 5093 to 4966). Men who have sex with men (MSM) accounted for the largest proportion of the HIV diagnoses (32%). Analysis of trends by risk/exposure category is complicated by the high proportion of HIV cases with unreported risk (28%). Of 52,690 persons in whom HIV infection was the initial diagnosis, 7200 (14%) were aged 13-24 years. The number of HIV diagnoses per quarter-year was approximately constant in this age group, declining 4% from 1995 to 1996 (from 2066 to 1991) (Figure 1). Of persons in this age group, 3203 (44%) were female, 4566 (63%) were non-Hispanic black, and 394 (5%) were Hispanic; by risk category, 2270 (31%) were MSM, 1886 (26%) acquired HIV through heterosexual contact, and 449 (6%) were injecting-drug users; 1074 (15%) had AIDS subsequently diagnosed. An additional 653 persons aged 13-24 years had AIDS initially diagnosed. Reported by: State and local health departments; Div of HIV/AIDS Prevention-Surveillance, and Epidemiology, National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention, CDC. Editorial Note: The data from these 25 states indicate that from 1994 through mid-1997, the number of persons in whom HIV infection was the initial diagnosis was stable and declines over the entire period were slight. Compared with reported declines in AIDS incidence nationally (1), these data suggest that HIV incidence was relatively stable in these states. In particular, the number of new HIV diagnoses among persons aged 13-24 years probably more closely indicate HIV incidence trends because young persons have more recently initiated high-risk behaviors. HIV surveillance data include persons who were infected more recently than were persons reported with AIDS, and their characteristics indicate more recent trends in HIV transmission. Many of the new HIV diagnoses in these states occurred among blacks, women, young MSM, and persons infected through heterosexual contact with substantial increases observed among Hispanics. The HIV case data from these states reflect the changing demographic and risk profile of an epidemic that disproportionately affects racial/ethnic minorities (1,3). Race/ethnicity is not a risk factor for HIV infection but is likely a marker for other factors that may be predictive of increased risk for HIV infection (e.g., low income, lack of education, and higher rates of injecting and non-injecting drug use) (4). Black and Hispanic persons who engage in high-risk sex or drug-using behaviors should be a major focus of HIV-prevention efforts, including strategies to promote knowledge of HIV status through voluntary test seeking and to facilitate entry to care and treatment. Of persons in whom HIV infection was the initial diagnosis, 14% were adolescents and young adults aged 13-24 years, compared with 3% of persons in whom AIDS was the initial diagnosis. This age group is an important target for HIV prevention efforts because a large proportion of all new HIV infections occur among persons in this age group (5). In particular, reduction of high-risk sexual behaviors among adolescent and young adult women and MSM is needed to reduce HIV transmission in this age group. In the 25 states, declines in the number of cases were larger among persons in whom AIDS was the initial diagnosis than among those in whom HIV infection was the initial diagnosis. Most persons with HIV had been tested in a medical facility or other clinical-care setting and had had an opportunity for early treatment interventions to delay HIV-related morbidity and mortality, contributing to declines in AIDS incidence (6). In the future, AIDS surveillance data will increasingly reflect access to testing and response to therapy in the population. Approximately one fourth of all new diagnoses in these states occurred among persons who had already developed AIDS when HIV infection was first diagnosed. AIDS surveillance data should be used to target underserved populations for early testing and prompt referrals for treatment. HIV and AIDS surveillance data mostly reflect the characteristics of persons tested in medical care and other confidential settings. These data may not represent the characteristics of all persons with HIV infection because persons tested anonymously are not reported to the surveillance system, and some persons with HIV infection have not been tested. However, approximately 140,000 persons living with HIV have already been reported and characterized, representing most prevalent infections in these states (7). The degree to which integrated HIV and AIDS surveillance data are representative of all infected persons is expected to increase over time as the proportion of untested persons decreases. The public health usefulness of the HIV surveillance data is affected by the performance of the system of case reporting and follow up (8). In these 25 states, most of which require laboratory-based reporting of HIV-positive test results, HIV reporting was very complete. Only 12% of persons in whom HIV infection was the initial diagnosis had not been reported to CDC as an HIV case before being reported as an AIDS case. CDC estimates that less than 2% of HIV cases are duplicates based on matching of the national coded surveillance database. CDC has developed methods for estimating the risk distribution for AIDS cases with unreported risk (3); however, similar methods for HIV cases are not yet available. In this report, the proportion of HIV cases by risk/ exposure categories is an underestimate until follow up is completed for cases reported without risks (3). Name-based HIV reporting should facilitate epidemiologic follow up to increase the completeness of risk/exposure, clinical, treatment, and other data relevant to effective HIV-prevention community planning. This report highlights the continued need for effective HIV and AIDS prevention programs to reduce rates of HIV transmission and demonstrates the usefulness of integrated HIV and AIDS surveillance data to direct these efforts. State and local areas without such surveillance have limited ability to monitor local changes in HIV infection and disease trends. In these areas, approximately 200,000 persons have had HIV diagnosed (without AIDS) (7), but data are not available to describe trends in new HIV diagnoses. Implementing integrated HIV and AIDS surveillance in these states and local areas is necessary to provide accurate information for targeting resources to populations most affected (e.g., adolescents, women, racial/ethnic minorities, and young MSM) and for evaluating program effectiveness. References 1. CDC. Update: trends in AIDS incidence-United States, 1996. MMWR 1997;46:861-7. 2. CDC. Report of the NIH panel to define principles of therapy of HIV infection and guidelines for the use of antiretroviral agents in HIV-infected adults and adolescents. MMWR 1998;47(no. RR-5). 3. CDC. HIV/AIDS surveillance report. Atlanta, Georgia: US Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, CDC, 1997;(Vol 9, no. 1). 4. Diaz T, Chu SY, Buehler JW, et al. Socioeconomic differences among people with AIDS: results from a multistate surveillance project. Am J Prev Med 1994;10:217-22. 5. Rosenberg PS. Scope of the AIDS epidemic in the United States. Science 1995;270:1372-5. 6. Sweeney P, Fleming PL, Ward JW. Characteristics of HIV-infected persons tested in different settings-where should we focus testing, counseling, and medical services [Abstract]. New York, New York: American Public Health Association 124th annual meeting and exposition, November 1996. 7. Sweeney PA, Fleming PL, Karon JM, Ward JW. A minimum estimate of the number of living HIV-infected persons confidentially tested in the United States [Abstract I-16]. Toronto, Canada: Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, September 1997. 8. CDC. Evaluation of HIV case surveillance through the use of non-name unique identifiers-Maryland and Texas, 1994-1996. MMWR 1998;46:1254-8,1271. Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. ** Single copies of this report will be available until April 24, 1999, from the CDC Prevention Information Network, P.O. Box 6003, Rockville, MD 20849-6003; telephone (800) 458-5231 or (301) 519-0459. Latino Awards Battle Stereotypes, (posted 6/8/98)
Jimmy Smits, the actor who plays the dashing Det. Bobby Simone on the popular TV drama "NYPD Blue," doesn't mince words "The representation of Latinos in the media today is abysmal," said Smits, a half-Puerto Rican actor who is active in the Latino entertainment community. But that's not what he wants to talk about. After all, the disproportionately negative images on TV of Latinos and other minority groups has been common knowledge for years now. Study after study has shown that minorities have been under-represented when it comes to TV programming. The 1998 fall season's announced lineup left little room for doubt. Once again, Latinos are going to be a rare commodity on prime-time TV, despite efforts by a number of Latino TV writers and directors to get their projects on the air. Language and cultural differences among U.S. Latinos are sometimes cited as reasons why Latino-centric programming can't achieve the critical mass of viewers required for a hit TV show. The diverse Latino culture-including the disparate backgrounds of Mexican Americans,Puerto Ricans, Cubans and Central Americans-also makes it more difficult to distill for mainstream America. Meanwhile, TV executives and advertisers continue wrestling with an already large Latino population that is the fastest-growing of any ethnic group in the U.S. and has vast purchasing power. Latino actors are making inroads in supporting roles, but most depictions continue to paint a mostly one-sided picture. A recent study, released last month by the Oakland-based children's advocacy organization Children Now, found that children of all races say the media tends to portray blacks and Latinos more negatively than whites and Asians. To Smits and others who are actively trying to address that issue in the Latino entertainment community, that's old news. The real news is what some Latinos are doing to change that. Enter the ALMA (American Latino Media Arts) Awards, a televised ceremony to honor the achievements of Latinos in television, film and the music industries, as well as TV programming and feature films that accurately portray the U.S. Latino experience. "The ALMA Awards deal with the fact that the Latino performer and the Latino in this country is a significant part of the mosaic of what this country's all about," said Smits, who co-hosts the awards with Daisy Fuentes. This year's event marks the third year for the program, moving to ABC after last year's stint on Fox. (The two-hour show airs tonight at 8.) "Our goal is to mix entertainment with mission by underscoring the need to change current media perceptions and representations of Hispanic Americans," said the show's producer, Grammy Awards veteran Ken Ehrlich. Raul Yzaguirre, president of the National Council of La Raza, a Washington-based civil rights and advocacy organization that founded the ALMA Awards (formerly the Bravo Awards), said his organization created the program for a number of reasons, one of which is building bridges between Latinos and non-Latinos in the U.S. "This show is not just for Hispanics," Yzaguirre said. "We're saying, 'This is who we are as a people,' and it behooves Joe Average to know the Hispanic community, because we're going to be your neighbor, your employee, your customer." U.S. Latinos suffer from a serious public relations problem, Yzaguirre said, citing a recent poll conducted by the University of Michigan. "Americans perceived Hispanics to be lazy when in fact we work harder and longer than any other group in the U.S.," he said. "They also perceive us as being less patriotic, when we spill more blood and receive more Medals of Honor, proportionately, than any other group in America. "There is a direct link between civil rights, politics and entertainment," Yzaguirre continued. "One of the reasons we got into this arena is that when we were trying to move a civil rights agenda forward, we noticed that no matter how many facts and figures we brought to the table, the myths and stereotypes were roadblocks." It's a sobering realization that other minority groups have had to make, as well. African Americans have been battling negative media images for nearly 30 years now, through its own televised awards program, the NAACP Image Awards, which salutes musicians, actors and fiction writers. Other Latino organizations have also hosted smaller entertainment and image awards dinners in the past. And last month marked the first Native American Music Awards. But the television industry follows the mandates of capitalism, not equal representation-which may be why the NCLR had trouble finding a home for the program on network TV. After approaching CBS, NBC and ABC about airing the program and finding a decided lack of interest, the NCLR ended up buying a block of time on ABC, and selling the advertising itself to cover the cost. Sponsors include AT&T, PepsiCo and FritoLay. "It was a tough sell," Yzaguirre said of his efforts to attract major advertisers. In fact, one major roadblock Yzaguirre says he repeatedly confronted was the perception that most Latinos watch only Spanish-language TV, or that if they are already watching English-language programming, advertisers don't have to make a special effort to reach them. "Don't assume general English-language ads have any relevance to most Hispanics," Yzaguirre says he told them. By extension, he said, just because the top-rated programs in Latino households often mirror the most popular programs in the country, it shouldn't be assumed that Latino viewers are happy with the current state of programming. It's a sentiment Smits shares. "I'm not saying everybody needs to be this PC shining knight," said Smits. "But we need to level the playing field so that we are not solely getting negative stereotypes." Chiapas and the role of women?, (posted 6/2/98) THE WAR, WHICH THEY SAY DOES NOT EXIST, HAS THE FACE OF PAIN Chiapas, Chiapas, May 28, 1998. Lydia Cacho/CIMAC Translated by Rosalva Bermudez-Ballin Betina and I arrived to San Cristobal de las Casas. Once we were able to contact Norma, the extraordinary woman who, for some time, has been organizing the distribution of cloth to the indigenous women who have been displaced from their homes, we planned the journey to the mountains- the jungle, they call it-although we know that is really a tropical forest. We were three Mexican women-accompanied by Manuel, our Tzotzil translator-who had to carry our passports to identify ourselves to soldiers whose olive green uniforms color all the road slopes that lead to any point where Mexican indigenous people are found. "We are in war", we said to ourselves almost in silence, when the armed soldiers made us get off the wagon. They asked us where we were going, who we were, and thanks to a letter from the Mexican Red Cross we were carrying, they allowed us to continue. Everything about the soldiers is violent. Their attitude is that of an enemy, as if they were from another land, but their dark features, their dark eyes which resembled ours and their language, tells us that we are the same, except that they were told a different story about their homeland. Are you Mexican? Ask the Commander, barely looking at me, leafing through the passports as if they were real books capable of revealing something about us. Yes, as Mexican as you are, I responded without taking away my eyes from his face, searching for his eyes; trying to dig something out of his spirit, careful not to ask him what he was doing here killing indigenous people, what makes him obey, if he really thinks that killing his "neighbor" and bringing fear to them is to exercise justice. Silence overtook us and suddenly I was sure that it was not true, that being a Mexican in Chiapas, in Oaxaca, in Quintana Roo does not mean that we are fellow human beings, it is a geographic accident. After walking for over an hour we arrived to the municipality of Chenalho, to the Xoyep settlement. The first few homes were supported by a few wooden sticks; black plastic garbage bags, rags and canvas materials resembled the walls. We found soldiers' stations along the way with signs in Spanish and Tzotzil that read: The Mexican Army, doing social work. Men and women slowly came to meet us. Respect for them kept us from taking out our cameras right away, we asked for permission to do it. Once our translator told them that we were there to get testimonies about how the Tzoziles who lost their homes live, they invited us to go inside one of the few homes with wooden walls. There we filmed the women who work with looms that adjust to their waists. And we understood-probably for the first time-why the soldiers and paramilitaries burned their homes in the remotest nooks of the Chiapan mountain, those places farthest away from civilization, where they undressed them and burned their looms. "We want to make our skirts", the women say. Their traditional dresses are their identity as a people, they are not colorful embroidered works for the foreigners, they are not samples of folklore. The clothing is their second skin, it is what tells them that they are daughters of the same earth that saw their Mayan ancestors be born, many, many more than 600 hundred years ago. They care for their looms as if they were treasures and keep them in the wooden house because it is safer and cleaner. It is one of the few things they have left to continue to be free. There are many bags of clothing sent to them by people of good intentions; but the Tzotziles, the Zoques and the Lacandones, do not use our clothing, because they are not us, they don't hope to belong to a group that follows fashion, because they, they have belonged from long before, to the earth that gives them the cotton and the natural dyes which color the thread and the wool that protect them from the wind and the cold. We arrived at Polho, we stopped for a moment. This time we sent our I.D.s to the Councils, a group of men who takes care of the Tzotzil community. They welcomed us to the autonomous municipality, which instead of being secured by armed soldiers, is surrounded day and night by women and children. Around the entrance there is a simple sisal rope, but one after the other, the women and children dressed in clothes that were made by themselves, are a human barrier that keeps the soldiers from entering. They met us in a small room; the oldest councilman looked at us smilling, he just said a few words, he wanted to know from where we were coming. We entered the women's small shop. The wooden pine planks still smelled fresh. Here and there one notices the traces of the foreigners who have come to help and show their human solidarity. Photos stuck to the wooden planks, a cement court for exercising. We continuously asked what they thought about the foreigners and the response were always the same: "thanks to them we have not all been obliterated, they say the truth, they tell the world the truth. If it weren't for them-a woman says-they would have killed us all, like in Acteal, they would have buried us fast and no one would have ever found out anything. That is why they have thrown them out, because they tell the truth. We heard men and women talk about their identity. Neither the men nor the women want to do political work, they have no weapons and they are pacifists. They were not Zapatistas before, but now they are, because it is the Zapatistas who have protected them against death and hunger. Despite the misery, they smile and hug us, they pose for the camera and ask us to share their words with the world down there. They do listen to you, says Juanita. Never bebore have I regretted so much to have the freedom of movement and speech denied to them. Liberty is a compromise that not all of us assume before dying and losing it. "We ask you to respect this sacred land of Acteal, where our children and brothers and sisters have died. Welcome to the Abejas, reads a white piece of canvas at the entrance of the path. As soon as we went down the high slope, an imposing, construction met our eyes; it was almost an absurdity in the midst of so much misery. It was made out of bricks and earthen ceiling, a 60-meter long shrine which still smells of fresh cement. "This is where the killings of the past December 22 took place" a feminine voice tells us. "That shrine is built on the tombs of the killed." "The paramilitaries arrived from there-they signal as if reliving the images- from down there, from up there, cornering the people towards the cliff, and they shot them without pity". The words bounce on the earth. The thick air smells of pain, of impotence. We feel as if we are invading a sacred space to which we have no right because we were not there to prevent the underhanded killing by the Mexican Army, covered up by the Federal government. Our silence of so many years is somewhat a culprit. We did not stop the rifle, but we remained silent before the hiss of the bullet, because we ws, busy working and criticizing, in intellectual friendly conversations, the orphans, the mothers of dead children yelled, but no one did anythhing. names of the politicians that have brought Mexico to its present day misery, It seemed impossilbe that the killers would ride by the mountains in the Judicial Police station wagons, accompanied by soldiers. No one could believe it. Some reporters reacted and they were told to yell and the mob went after the killers, they got them off the station wagon and the soldiers couldn't do anything but act surprised, pretending to arrest their own colleagues.and the politicians would have said another lie about the indian agitators, who want to create opposing opinions and who want to destablize our country. "When the Red Cross people arrived there were already dug holes, but the paramilitaries were not able to do anything but flee. A few days later, when they were walking on that road on which our feet were stepping, all the people of Acteal carrying their dead in funeral procession saw the soldier's buses go by, and behind them, a wagon from the Justice Department of the state which were carrying men dressed as om to ans. Suddenly, the people began recognizing the men who were hiding exercise their ways and customs."lers, the people began yelling, the widows, the orphans, the mothers of dead children yelled, but no one did anythhing. It seemed impossilbe that the killers would ride by the mountains in the Judicial Police station wagons, accompanied by soldiers. No one could believe it. Some reporters reacted and they were told to yell and the mob went after the killers, they got them off the station wagon and the soldiers couldn't do anything but act surprised, pretending to arrest their own colleagues. The funeral changed its tone. It was a moment of revelation. The indigenous people, the people from the Red Cross, all the newspaper reportes, Mexican and foreign who witnessed this moment, so adamantly denied by the government, were actual witnesses that the paramilitaries work for the army. Some reporters finally understood why the indigenous people and the Zapatistas have been telling us for four years: "There is a war in Mexico, the government wants to annihilate, as the conquerors did 500 years ago, the indigenous people who want freedom to exercise their ways and customs." We sat for a few hours talking with the women from Acteal. Each one would stand up and tell her story, they asked us to tell them something. The few words that managed to come out of our throats were accompanied by an unstoppable cry, were that the Mexican women, those from Quintana Roo were with them in our hearts. We asked them not to lose the hope of returning to their lands up the mountains, to continue to plant their coffee, to sing in Tzotzil their lullabies and to continue to spin and embroider their skirts of many colors, living in peace with the earth and their fellow men. It has only been six months since the killing, each man and woman who came close to us to tell us how they killed their children and women, wanted to give us all the details, they wanted to spit out their pain to see if it would leave their soul and would finally let them sleep a bit. We went down the mountain to this other county, a country that hides itself in order to deny the pain of knowing that up there he/it is killing our neighbor, under the orders of those who obtained our votes. I, hereby fulfill my promise to narrate the history of our Chiapan brothers and sisters to whomever wants to know the truth, not because I tell it, but because it is there to be seen and heard-without any masks-for those who want to face it. Because the written word is a devastating tool. Applied as one wishes it, can bring a whole people to believe anything, it is capable, even, of denying a war; of setting fire to a land covered in red because of all the shed blood. We Mexicans of the end of the century have heard everything except the truth. GTE Sees Growth In Latin America, (posted 6/3/98) NEW YORK (Reuters) - GTE, which last week agreed to acquire a stake in Puerto Rico Telephone, said it sees strong growth opportunities in Latin America. "Latin America is an area of priority for GTE," Ignacio Santillana, GTE's senior vice president of international business development, said in an interview. A consortium led by GTE agreed on Wednesday to pay $375 million for a controlling interest in government-owned PRTC. GTE is also exploring opportunities in El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala to build upon its existing Latin America holdings, he said. GTE owns CODETEL, a Dominican Republic telephone company, and has investments in CTI (Compania de Telefonos del Interior), which provides cellular services in Argentina and CANTV, a Venezuelan telecommunications company. GTE said PRTC will serve as a bridge between the Stamford, Conn.-based phone company's services in the mainland U.S. and its Latin American ventures. In addition to providing local, wireless and data services, PRTC will enter the international long distance market, carrying phone calls off the island, Santilla said. "Puerto Rico can be a gateway (to) the Spanish-speaking market," Santillana said. While Puerto Rico already has high local phone line penetration- with limited growth potential-GTE still sees that market as attractive. Puerto Rico's residents are becoming more prosperous, with more disposable income to spend on new technologies such as Internet access and wireless phones. Although the customer base may be attractive, PRTC has suffered the effects of competition sparked by the 1996 Telecommunications Act. PRTC's earnings dropped 16 percent to $107 million in 1996 and were flat in 1997. GTE seeks to bolster revenue and earnings growth through sales of additional lines for second phone lines, fax machines and modems; increased usage per line; and expanded demand of Internet and data services, especially among business customers. "From a revenue point of view, there is a lot of potential. But there is also opportunity on the expense side too," Santillana said. Under a five-year pact, GTE will provide management services, training and technology in order to make PRTC more customer-driven and technologically-advanced telecommunications operator. GTE will receive a performance-based fee for providing this expertise and technology. PRTC has a bloated workforce of about 8,000 employees with average compensation of more than $52,000. GTE must honor the current labor contract, benefits and salaries. Once those contracts are over, however, GTE will likely cut jobs, industry experts said. Statement By U.S. Secretary Of Education Richard W. Riley On California Proposition 227, (posted 6/3/98) As we look to the future of American education, one of the most important new developments is the growing number of immigrant children that we must educate. According to the latest census data, nearly 20 percent of all children in our nation's schools - one out of five - are immigrants or the American-born children of immigrants. A new study of immigrant children (see Citation #1) states that 13.7 million children under 18 are either immigrants or the American-born offspring of immigrants, and that they are the fastest growing part of our student population. These children come from over 150 nations with the largest number coming from Mexico, the Philippines, Cuba, and Vietnam. Some Americans say that these children are a liability, but I welcome these children, just as the Statue of Liberty or the Golden Gate Bridge has welcomed them for years. They are a great source of strength and hope for the future of America, and we want them to be full participants in the American experience as children and as adults. These young people, just like generations of immigrants who have come before them, can grow up to be patriotic Americans who will add their voices to our democracy if we educate them to the best of our ability and treat them as we would like to be treated. Indeed, the largest survey ever conducted of immigrant children found that these young people had higher grades and a lower school drop-out rate than other children and overwhelmingly preferred to speak English by the time they were teenagers. (#2) These young people represent the hopes of immigrant parents who have come to America because they believe in the American dream. They have stood in long visa lines, uprooted their families, left relatives behind, changed careers, often accepted menial jobs and in many cases now work two jobs for one great purpose - to give their children a better life in America. Surely we can meet these people half-way by giving their children the best education possible so that they can make their contribution to the American mainstream. Teaching these young people English is one of the great tasks of nation-building and it falls to our public schools to accomplish. This is not the first time that the task of educating millions of new immigrants to become good citizens has been given to our nation's public schools. At the turn of the century our nation's public schools successfully taught millions of new immigrants English and educated them about our democracy. Today, we face the same challenge. There are school districts in almost every part of our country - from Boston to Seattle to Miami - where children speak more than 40 languages. I believe that our nation's public schools can successfully educate these young people if we give them the same opportunities that other students need in order to succeed: higher standards, safe schools, smaller classes, well-prepared teachers, technology in the classroom, after-school activities, and schools that are accountable for results. President Clinton has made education his number one domestic priority to achieve one end - to prepare all of America's children - native-born and immigrant - for the 21st century. President Clinton has also increased funding for those programs - Title I, immigrant and bilingual education, migrant education, adult education - that directly serve a disproportionate number of immigrant children and their families. Today, however, there are growing questions about the best way to teach these young people English. In California, these concerns about how to teach English center around Proposition 227, the Unz Initiative, which would effectively eliminate bilingual education and require that all children learn English in one year. U.S. Secretary of Education on Proposition 227, (posted 6/3/98) I recognize that the decision to vote for or against the Unz Initiative this coming June is ultimately a decision for the voters of California. I know that there are many well-intentioned and concerned citizens on both sides of this issue and that the people of California are taking this issue seriously. New immigrants have a passion to learn English and they want the best for their children. We must focus on what is best for the children and in this increasingly diverse society we must make sure that all of America's children are given the best education possible. Our common goal in teaching children English should be to support those approaches that ensure that Limited-English-Proficient (LEP) children are both speaking English and making academic progress. Proposition 227, however, is not the way to go. In my opinion, adoption of the Unz Amendment will lead to fewer children learning English and many children falling further behind in their studies. There are five significant reasons why I believe that the Unz Amendment is counter-productive to a quality education for all of our children. First, the one year time limit and one-size-fits-all approach to learning English flies in the face of years of research that tells us that children learn in different ways and at different speeds. A recent National Research Council report (#3) released last month states that, "hurrying young non-English speaking children into reading in English without ensuring adequate preparation is counter-productive." The report recommends that children with no English proficiency are best taught to read English by first being taught reading in their native language, if teachers and instructional materials in their native language are available. Thus, while an English-only approach may be effective for some limited-English-proficient children, it is likely to be ineffective for others. I do not oppose special English instructional programs. In fact, about 25 percent of our current federal bilingual funds support this type of instructional approach. What I question is the arbitrary one-year time limit and the demand that only this approach is the right approach to help young people learn English. The approach taken by Proposition 227 simply ignores the individual needs of each child and certainly is an educational straitjacket for teachers and parents. Good teaching starts with a child's needs and moves the child along in a timely and responsible manner. By analogy, if we adopted the approach suggested by the Unz Initiative to help children learn to read, it would be a disaster. Some children are already good readers when they come to kindergarten and others learn by the end of the first or second grades. Other children need extra help even in third grade and beyond. Second, the Unz Amendment limits the discretion of teachers to choose the approach that is best suited for the children they teach. Some children may learn best in an English-only class, others may learn faster in a bilingual class or through some other proven approach, but with the Unz approach, teachers are given no option to use their professional judgement. Third, Proposition 227 would subject teachers, school board members, and educational administrators to personal liability in litigation by parents if they fail to comply with its requirements. I find this aspect of Proposition 227 both punitive and threatening. This is not the way to build parent-teacher cooperation - a key to student success. Fourth, the Unz Initiative is a direct attack on local control of education. I am surprised that so many outspoken advocates of local control have chosen not to take issue with this fundamental flaw in the Unz Initiative. The Unz Initiative would not be a helping hand for language instruction, but rather the heavy hand of overregulation. Local flexibility to choose the approaches that work best for their students should not be constrained by a mandate for one approach over the other. I believe that every school district should choose the approach that works best for them based on sound research. Fifth, the Unz Initiative will in all likelihood result in problems under federal civil rights laws. In the seminal case of Lau v. Nichols, the Supreme Court interpreted Title VI of the Civil Rights Act to require school districts to take steps to ensure that national origin minority students with limited English proficiency can effectively participate in the regular educational program. Similarly, the Equal Educational Opportunity Act requires public educational agencies to overcome language barriers that impede student participation in their instructional programs. Limiting special language development instruction to one year and preventing a school from providing bilingual instruction to students, despite the judgment of teachers and the school principal that children in that school need bilingual instruction to progress, are likely to result in violations under these laws. I join all Californians who are unhappy with the status-quo and I understand the frustration that is encouraging many voters to think about voting for the Unz Initiative. But the approach of the Unz Initiative is just plain wrong. Proposition 227 may satisfy people's sense of frustration but ultimately it is counter-productive to our common goal of making sure children learn English while making academic progress in other subjects as well. I believe that there is a reasonable and positive alternative to the current status-quo and the proposed Unz alternative. I propose setting a three-year goal to make sure that a child is learning English. Individual differences and circumstances may cause some children to take longer, but a goal of learning English within three years is reasonable. This goal is similar to our goal of making sure that every child learns to read independently by the end of third grade or earlier. We know that goals and standards improve academic performance: when we set goals, we find, to a greater degree than we thought possible, that students can meet them. A goal is not a mandate or a command. And a goal is certainly not a one year educational straitjacket that limits the ability of teachers to do what is best for each child. Some children may learn English in one year or two and others may need three years or even more. The focus should be on the individual needs of each child and not on some artificial and arbitrary time frame. Goals should be combined with flexibility and accountability. I believe in giving local school districts latitude to design their own programs contingent on their being accountable for the results. Parents have a right to expect progress. Children should be tested periodically for English proficiency and when a child is falling behind, extra efforts including after-school classes as well as summer school should certainly be considered. If a school district chooses an approach to teaching English that simply does not achieve positive results for a large number of children, then the school district must have the good sense to fix the problem or use another approach that research shows will work. The focus of every program - be it English-as-a-Second Language, dual language immersion, bilingual education, or English immersion - must be on strengthening quality, regardless of the approach. I believe that the key to strengthening quality is well-trained teachers and we must do a much better job of meeting the demand for more well-prepared teachers. The demand for bilingual teachers, for example, currently exceeds the supply and that is particularly true in California where the number of LEP children has nearly doubled to 1.3 million in less than a decade. The California State Board of Education estimates that there is a shortage of 21,000 bilingual teachers in that state. This, I suspect, is one of the root causes and real reasons why some parents have become frustrated. The Administration has asked for a doubling of federal funds, from $25 million to $50 million, to meet the increasing demand for fully certified bilingual teachers and English-as-second-language teachers. I have no doubt that this nation has the capacity to include our many new immigrants and their children in the American experience. We must do everything possible to make sure that all of these children learn English as quickly as possible and get the quality education that they deserve. Finally, I think American educators need to redouble their efforts to make sure that all of our children are fluent in two languages. I just returned from Chile where I joined President Clinton at the second Summit of the Americas. Improving education was a central part of the dialogue at this summit. I was struck by the fact that several nations begin teaching their children two languages starting in the first grade. Anyone who has traveled to Europe knows that young people all over Europe are fluent in two and often three languages. I see no reason why our children should not be their equals. Some children already come to school with the ability to speak two languages. We should build on this linguistic base and recognize that our nation will be the better for it in the new global environment. Think of the many advantages - economic, cultural and political - that a fluency in two languages can give to the American people. America's message of democracy, human rights and economic freedom would surely reach a wider audience. This is why I encourage and support any school district that sets the goal of making sure that every one of their high school graduates will speak two languages fluently by the time they graduate. We can do no less for today's immigrants than we did for earlier generations of immigrants who turned to our nation's public schools to teach them English and the basics of our democracy. In conclusion, I urge all Americans to welcome America's new citizens and to help them to become part of the American dream. Citations: 1. Rumbaut, Ruben G., Visiting Scholar, The Russell Sage Foundation and Professor of Sociology, Michigan State University, "Transformations: The Post-Immigrant Generation in an Age of Diversity," p. 1. 2. Ibid., pp. 17, 18, and 19. 3. National Research Council, "Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children," p. 324. Parents Face Higher Costs For Quality Child Care Than For Public College Tuition, (posted 6/3/98) On Friday, May 29th, the Children's Defense Fund released "Child Care Challenges," a new report which surveys child care costs for four-year-olds in urban child care centers nationally. This document is one in a 50-state series examining the range of child care challenges facing families in each state. As shown in these state reports, families in every state are struggling to find the quality they are looking for, or the demands of their work schedules limit their choices. There is no state in the country that has successfully addressed the full range of problems facing families who need child care. The problems described in this series highlight the need for a significant new commitment to child care. To obtain a copy of the of an individual state "Child Care Challenges" report, call Kanya Williams at: 202/662-3609 or email: cdfchildcare@childrensdefense.org
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