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L.A.'s 1st Latino Sheriff Was a 19th-Century Hero, (posted 11/17/98) L.A.'s 1st Latino Sheriff Was a 19th-Century Hero Although Los Angeles County Sheriff-elect Lee Baca will be the first Latino to occupy the office in this century, he is not the first. That distinction belongs to one of 19th-century Los Angeles' most beloved heroes: Martin G. Aguirre, a diminutive, one-eyed lawman who was nonetheless famed for his aim with a knife. Gallantry and high spirits were the character hallmarks of the 5-foot-6-inch, 120-pound Aguirre. But he was probably best known for his heroism during the 1886 flood, when he saved 19 people from the churning Los Angeles River. His friends, however, admired the humility that allowed him to serve as a simple deputy under three of his onetime subordinates when they were themselves elected sheriff. "He had the blind courage of a fighting bull terrier, the tender sympathies of a girl and a soul unblemished by dishonor," a friend wrote. Sea Captain's Son Aguirre was born in San Diego in 1858, the son of a Spanish sea captain. Orphaned at 9, he went to live with a relative, Joseph Wolfskill, the son of William Wolfskill, then Los Angeles' citrus king. The family ranch was near the Los Angeles River, just south of where Union Station now stands. Filled with restless energy and fond of practical jokes, Aguirre and his lifelong friend William Hammel-a straight arrow who would also become sheriff-once dammed up the zanja, part of the city's brick aqueduct that ran along what is now Central Avenue. The result was a popular swimming hole into which the pair plunged stinging nettles that they anchored to the bottom with rocks. When their friends jumped in for a dip, they reportedly returned to the surface angry and screaming obscenities. Another moment of high spirits cost Aguirre considerably more. One day, while the two boys were playing with bows and arrows, Aguirre looked skyward and an arrow pierced his eye. He lost the sight of it, but the disability failed to deter him from pursuing a new boyhood enthusiasm-membership in the city's volunteer Fire Department. When the town's fire alarm sounded, either by pistol or bell, little Aguirre would gallop on his pony to the fire station near 1st and Main streets, lassoing the back end of the horse-drawn steamer. He and the pony were pulled along as he choked on the dust billowing from the fire wagon. Meanwhile, Aguirre pursued his education, first at Professor Lawler's Institute in Los Angeles and later at the Jesuits' University of Santa Clara. Returning to Los Angeles, he was elected constable in 1885. The following year, he was appointed deputy sheriff and incurred what some regarded as the only stain on an otherwise unblemished reputation. Two ex-state senators and land-grabbers, Charles Maclay and George K. Porter, ordered Aguirre to evict Rogerio Rocha, head of a community of 10 Indians near the San Fernando Mission. Rocha and his wife, Manuela, lived on the 10-acre site where Rocha had been born 80 years earlier. Aguirre forcefully grabbed the old man and threw him onto a wagon; the others jumped aboard peaceably. Dumping them on a county road along with their sacks of live chickens, Aguirre headed back to the city. Despite the unlawful eviction-Rocha held title under a legally recognized Spanish land grant-only a few Angelenos viewed it as racist conduct, voicing their concern in letters to newspaper editors. Others argued in greater numbers that Aguirre was just doing his job. Night of Terror Aguirre soon made headlines again, but this time for heroism that earned him a gold watch from the Los Angeles Bar Assn. On the night of Jan. 19, 1886, Aguirre stood on the crumbling bank of the Los Angeles River, as a raging torrent of water surged down the channel. A storm with colossal wind and a deluge worthy of Noah hit like a hand from the sky, engulfing everything in its path. The water rose so swiftly that it left people and livestock marooned or carried them away. Houses were torn from their foundations with smoke still pouring from their chimneys. The 1st Street bridge fell, trapping two horses in the middle, and a rescue party fed them from a rowboat for several days until the structure was repaired. As houses came floating past 1st Street with people on the roofs screaming for help, Aguirre repeatedly charged into the river on his white horse, El Capitan, to pull out the victims. On his 20th plunge, he lifted a little girl onto his horse from the window of a house being carried downstream. But as his horse struck a partially submerged picket fence, toppling them into the water, Aguirre only had time to throw the girl onto the fence. As he came ashore at 7th Street and returned to find the child, she was gone. Aguirre, who saved 19 others that awful night, would grieve over the lost little girl to the end of his days. He was elected sheriff in 1888, defeating former baker Tom Rowan, who would later become mayor. Squeamish over hanging condemned prisoners, Aguirre persuaded the Legislature to change the execution site to a state prison. A strict disciplinarian, he always told his deputies: "Bring back your man. I don't want a report." He never carried a gun, only a knife that hung from a brown leather scabbard under his arm. "If anything starts, I don't know where bullets might go or whom they might hit, but I know where this knife is going," Aguirre told a friend. But there were times he found it necessary to use a gun. When 14 prisoners tried to escape from jail, he forced them to the floor by shooting bullets over their heads and off the steel bars until help arrived. Unimpressed with the position of sheriff, he resigned after two years and subsequently held other jobs in law enforcement, including bailiff. Gov. Henry T. Gage appointed him warden of San Quentin in
1899. Ironically, more men were hanged during his four-year term
there than during any other previous period. He was admired by
inmates as well as guards. He implemented hot saltwater baths,
recreational periods and substantially decreased the flow of
contraband into the prison. He died of cancer on Feb. 25, 1929, as he sat in bed recalling old times with friends. Rasmussen's new book, "L.A. Unconventional," a collection of stories about Los Angeles' unique and offbeat characters, can be ordered by calling (800) 246-4042. The special price of $30.95 includes shipping and sales tax. Copyright 1998 Los Angeles Times. All Rights Reserved. Prop. 227 Supporter Watch in Montebello, CA-Los Angeles Times, (posted 11/17/98) Escalante Again Stands and Delivers, but Not in Class Education: The master of math made famous by movie returns to Eastside, this time to instruct teachers. By JAMES RAINEY, Times Staff Writer For the first time in 35 years, a fall semester draws toward its close and famed teacher Jaime Escalante is not in his classroom. Silenced are the talks about ganas or desire. Stopped are the Saturday study sessions. Curtailed are the funny and magical classroom morality plays that helped reveal a generation of math whizzes at Garfield High School in East Los Angeles. But just months after retiring from his final post at a Sacramento high school, the venerated Escalante returned to the Eastside on Saturday, this time to help teach the teachers. About 125 educators from around Los Angeles came to Eastmont Intermediate School in Montebello to hear the man celebrated in the film "Stand and Deliver" talk about how they can teach math by connecting with their students. Joining the 67-year-old teacher were four students from his final class at Garfield, whose success stories brought some of the teachers in attendance close to tears. "I am still trying to do what I can, raising money for scholarships and motivating teachers and people," Escalante said. "That's the only thing I have left to do. . . . What counts is to remain in the arena." Speaking from the lectern in the school auditorium, Escalante rumbled and whispered his way through a series of war stories and homilies. His eyebrows dancing, he repeated favorite aphorisms, such as "Commitment is the price of success." He told how he captured students' imagination: by painting math formulas and derivatives on the walls in a sort of educational graffiti, by insisting that students "look at me when I look at you," by telling students their IQs were so high that even they began bragging to the principal: "Hey, we are gifted!" Those anecdotes left the teachers laughing and nodding in appreciation. But Escalante said the key to his success was that students and parents knew he cared. "A teacher must possess love for the students," he said. "Love individually and love for the mass." He told of spending hours getting parents to commit to their children's education-insisting that they go to school and finish their homework. Denise Troncale, a mentor teacher and department chairwoman at Emerson Middle School in Pomona, said that message resonated most powerfully with her. "He showed how important it is to make those phone calls and those home visits and to get that hook into parents," Troncale said. "That is the thing he said [that] connected and really made a difference." The strong bond between Escalante and his last East Los Angeles
students was still much in evidence Saturday. Before and after
his talk they huddled close by him, put their arms around him
and called him by his old nickname, "Kimo." "The greatest thing in my life was meeting Mr. Escalante," Valdez said. "All the tools he gave us went way beyond the classroom. He taught me about life, how to make friends and what friends were. . . . I learned from him to have enthusiasm and to project that to other people." Jema Leyva, who now designs retail spaces for Merle Norman Cosmetics, said Escalante taught her how to think logically. "He taught me to break down a problem and take it one step at a time," Leyva said. "He gave me the tools to approach everything that came my way, from college on." Escalante's protege at Garfield, Angelo Villavicencio, said he thought the master teacher "would have gone on until 90 if he could have." "In his heart he is still a teacher," said Villavicencio, who now runs an acclaimed math program at Don Antonio Lugo High School in Chino. But Escalante left Garfield in 1991 after his relationship with the school's new principal soured. At Sacramento's Hiram Johnson High School he never made the deep connections-with either students, parents or staff-that were the hallmarks of his success. His direct appeal to Garfield parents, often in their native Spanish, was not always possible with most parents at the more ethnically diverse Sacramento school. Some of the parents and co-workers at Hiram Johnson have said they rejected his sometimes confrontational, aggressive tactics. So when class opened this fall, Escalante decided to remain on the sidelines for the first time since he was a young man. "It's sad, it's sad, it's sad," he said. "All the memories you have and then it's the end of the line and you don't have anymore. "You have to adjust the way you are living. You miss the kids." But Escalante will not be idle. Saturday's presentation was sponsored by Carl's Jr. restaurants and the Foundation for Advancements in Science and Education, which presented all the teachers in attendance with the 24-part "Futures" educational video series. The classroom programs, featuring Escalante and a series of stars, show students the many career applications of mathematics. Escalante said he plans to work evaluating test procedures for the Educational Testing Service-the company that once rejected the high scores of his Garfield students because it suspected the students had cheated. And he will deliver inspirational talks and seminars, beginning with a two-month tour of his native Bolivia at the end of this month. He said the trip back to the Eastside inspired him. "To be back here with these kids, to remember the good life back then, it is a real plus." Kids' Books Reading and Role Models for Latino Youth, (posted 11/17/98) By KEVIN BAXTER, Times Staff Writer That America is a country of immigrants with a culture built on contributions from every corner of the globe is hardly a new concept. In fact, that message is all around us, from the back of our money-"From Many, One"-to the city banners-"Diversity Is Our Strength"-that recently hung from light posts around downtown Los Angeles. But celebrating that diversity can be difficult for children if the only literary examples they get are so different from their own daily experiences they become meaningless. And that problem can be especially acute during the teen years, when the search for a personal identity and the need for relevant role models are at their peak. Which is why the University of Houston's scrappy Arte Publico Press is rapidly becoming an important part of America's multicultural landscape. Arte Publico is the largest publisher of contemporary and recovered literature by U.S. Latino authors and, together with Pinata Books, its children's imprint, it provides the most widely recognized showcase for Latino literary arts and creativity in the United States. Virtually all of Arte Publico's offerings feature Latino protagonists who struggle with the same coming-of-age problems addressed in most young adult literature, but with a twist because these subjects must also contend with cultural alienation, language difficulties and racism-troubles common to Latino youth but ones frequently ignored by mainstream imprints. "Rina's Family Secret" (by Gloria Velasquez, 147 pages; $9.95), for example, focuses on the pain and inner turmoil one young woman must confront when she witnesses her abusive stepfather hurt her mother so badly the older woman must be hospitalized. The fourth novel in Velasquez's Roosevelt High School series, "Rina" is told from two perspectives: Rina's and that of Sandra Martinez, a school counselor. And since both characters' ethnicity figures heavily in the plot, the author has casually scattered Spanish phrases throughout the book. (There's a three-page glossary in the back of the book.) In "The Year of Our Revolution" (97 pages; $16.95), award-winning Puerto Rican author Judith Ortiz Coffer follows teen-aged Maria Elena on a scorched-earth rebellion marking her passage from innocent adolescence to womanhood. The opening volleys in the rebellion come when she removes her mother's religious artifacts from her bedroom wall, adopting poetry and rock music as her spiritual guides and insisting she be called Mary Ellen and not Maria Elena, the Spanish equivalent. By either name, however, she ultimately learns the high price to be paid for matters of the heart. Pelayo "Pete" Garcia's semiautobiographical 1997 novel, "From Amigos to Friends" (242 pages, $7.95), continues to resonate in today's headlines. The book follows the trials and tribulations of three boys whose lives are disrupted and families uprooted by the Cuban revolution. By necessity the three are rushed through the transition from carefree, youthful pranksters to adults learning to survive as exiles and refugees. And though the politics may be dated, the experiences are not, as young immigrants from every impoverished or war-torn corner of the world can attest. And finally, for pure inspiration there's "The Tall Mexican," Robert E. Copley's moving biography of ballplayer, businessman and humanitarian Hank Aguirre (159 pages; $16.95). Although Aguirre was born in Azusa to Mexican immigrant parents, the book makes scant mention of his childhood, focusing instead on his 15-year big-league pitching career and on the multimillion-dollar auto-accessories business he founded in a once-neglected Detroit neighborhood. Copley was a longtime friend of Aguirre and worked for him as director of communications for Mexican Industries, so don't expect to find much criticism here. But then few found fault with Aguirre, who died of cancer in 1994 at age 63. A year before his death, the National Council of La Raza recognized his unique accomplishments in sports and society by presenting him with the Roberto Clemente Award for Excellence. Copyright 1998 Los Angeles Times All Rights Reserved Celebrities Flock to 'Biblical' Catastrophe, (posted 11/16/98) By David Adams TEGUCIGALPA, HONDURAS. Aid may be slow in reaching hurricane-ravaged Honduras, but the celebrities are arriving in droves. First it was George Bush, the former US President, who visited at the weekend. On his heels came another two large United States aid delegations yesterday, led by Tipper Gore, wife of Vice-President Al Gore, and Elizabeth Dole, president of the American Red Cross and wife of Bob Dole, the former Republican presidential candidate. "The world must know the tragedy in Honduras is of biblical proportions," Mrs Gore said after flying over the devastated area. "We are here today because we are neighbours who care and because we are all Americans." The US response to the disaster was stepped up this week, seemingly prodded by a flood of aid from less expected sources, including Britain and its European Union partners, Mexico and Canada. The EU is sending $110 million (£67 million), Spain has pledged $105 million and Sweden, more than $100 million. Joschka Fischer, the German Foreign Minister, was due to arrive in Honduras yesterday, to be followed next week by Hillary Clinton and President Chirac of France. The World Bank has announced it is redirecting loans to provide $201 million in immediate help to Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala. Britain, France and Germany are also leading the debate over a moratorium on Honduras's $4 billion foreign debt. France has written off $101 million owed by Honduras and Nicaragua. Britain has dedicated £10 million to a debt relief fund being set up through the World Bank. Honduran officials criticised the Americans for their initially lukewarm response to the disaster, deriding a cheque for $125,000 from the US Ambassador here. Many Hondurans were shocked that their country, a key ally of America in Central America's civil wars in the 1980s, was not deemed worthy of greater support. Despite the large US military presence based here, the Americans have found themselves outnumbered by troops, aircraft, helicopters and warships from Britain, Mexico, Canada and France. But this week the US effort kicked into high gear. The Clinton Administration announced on Tuesday that it was increasing its contribution to the region to $80 million in short-term humanitarian relief. A boatload of food supplies donated by the American Red Cross was due to arrive yesterday. "It's essential that the US lead the way to give these Governments the resources they need - and don't have - to rebuild and replan in a more sustainable way," said Brian Attwood, head of the US Agency of International Development. American officials may not say it publicly, but much of their effort is driven by a growing Hispanic constituency in the US - many refugees from the region's wars - and the politically sensitive issue of illegal immigration from Latin America's poorest countries. The fast-growing British aid appeal is being matched by the American Red Cross. "We are trying to raise $6 million and we are already well past half that," Christopher Thomas, an American Red Cross spokesman, said. Although some have criticised the slow distribution of the aid, both in Honduras and Nicaragua, relief workers say damage to the infrastructure of roads and bridges has inevitably hampered their efforts. "Have we run into logistical problems? Yes. Is everything running smoothly? No," Mr Thomas said. But, he added: "It's amazing what they [the Hondurans]
have done, considering the scope of the disaster." Anti-Illegal Immigration Group's New Sign Elicits Protests, (posted 11/16/98) Controversy: O.C.-based coalition says billboard near Arizona border is sending a 'warning' to other states. But Latinos say the wording is insulting. By DAVID REYES, Times Staff Writer Los Angeles Times, Tuesday, November 10, 1998 An Orange County coalition opposed to illegal immigration has resurrected a billboard that declared California "the illegal immigration state" and that earlier this year caused a major confrontation between coalition members and Latinos on the Arizona-California border near Blythe. The latest sign is 10 by 40 feet long and faces motorists traveling from Arizona into the state along Interstate 10 near Blythe. The $6,000 sign was constructed on private land the coalition is leasing from a rancher, said Barbara Coe, chairwoman of the California Coalition for Immigration Reform. The billboard, about a mile from the site of the original, reads: "Welcome to California, the illegal immigration state. Don't let this happen to your state," and includes a toll-free telephone number. "We still need to send a warning to other states," Coe said. "With greater illegal immigration, the message is even more critical now." When the sign was originally put up in May, it prompted criticism from numerous Latino community groups and leaders, including Mario Obledo, former state secretary of health and welfare, who promised to tear it down. But before Obledo and others could act, the billboard was removed by an advertising company after its other clients received threats of economic boycotts. Marcos Contreras, state president of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), a Latino civil rights group, said the sign "demeans the image of the Latino citizen and won't be tolerated." "We are quite disappointed that these people have not gotten the message," Contreras said. "We will not tolerate this affront." Contreras said he plans to discuss the billboard at a LULAC board of directors meeting Saturday in Santa Ana. In Blythe, some Latino residents said they were disappointed and frustrated after a local newspaper ran a story on the coalition's attempt to put up the new sign. "I think it's a disgrace that anyone would be so adamant about putting something up that they know is so offensive to so many people," said Sally Rivera, dean of student services at Palo Verde Community College in Blythe. "It's suggesting that we condone something illegal, which we don't, and suggesting that we're all illegal over here, which we're not," Rivera added. "It's an attack on all Latinos in the state." Coe said pressure from residents made it difficult for her group to find a contractor; but one did eventually construct the sign "under cover of darkness" over the weekend. She said several contractors had been threatened with violence. Coe, whose coalition co-sponsored Proposition 187, the 1994 ballot measure that bars illegal immigrants from attending public schools and receiving social services and health care, said she would notify law enforcement if anyone threatened to take the sign down. "It is a symbol of our freedom of speech and we will not allow terrorists to threaten that freedom by tearing the sign down," she said. Justice Department, Pentagon Faulted in Border Slaying, (posted 11/16/98) Departments dispute congressional study By David LaGesse / The Dallas Morning News WASHINGTON - Federal civilian and military officials worked to block a state criminal investigation into the 1997 Marine shooting of a West Texas teenager, a congressional report said Thursday. The report by Rep. Lamar Smith, R-San Antonio, said the Justice Department and Pentagon were negligent in not better training Marines for the counterdrug patrol that led to the death of 18-year-old Esequiel Hernandez of Redford. Then, after the death, the Justice Department and the Defense Department both appeared more concerned about helping the Marines "coordinate their story" than learning the truth, Mr. Smith said. Also, the two departments "withheld necessary information that had the effect of seriously undermining" the criminal investigations, Mr. Smith said. Officials at the Justice Department and the Immigration and Naturalization Service, which coordinated the military operation in 1997, disputed the report Thursday and said they had cooperated with all investigations into the shooting. Pentagon officials said they had not yet seen the report and could not comment. The death prompted Pentagon officials to suspend armed military patrols along the border with Mexico, where they had helped spot and track suspected drug traffickers. The suspension remains in place. Mr. Smith's was at least the fifth, and perhaps last, official investigation into the May 1997 shooting of Mr. Hernandez by the leader of a four-man Marine patrol. Two state grand juries and a federal civil rights inquiry resulted in no charges against the Marines. The congressional report, however, was the first to make a strong public case that federal officials had tried to block the earlier, criminal investigations into the shooting. In those criminal investigations, the four Marines testified that Mr. Hernandez was killed in self-defense. They said the teenager, who was herding his family goats in rough country along the Mexican border, fired a rifle twice in their direction. The troop leader, Cpl. Clemente Banuelos, said Mr. Hernandez was preparing to fire a third time when the corporal shot and killed him. Mr. Smith's report said evidence indicated "serious doubts regarding the Marines' account of events." While investigators did not prove the Marines had lied, the
report concluded, "the cumulative effect of such doubts
and discrepancies is to create the disquieting impression that
justice has not been done in this case, and may never be done." The family of Mr. Hernandez earlier this year settled a lawsuit against the government for payments over 20 years that will amount to about $1.9 million. An earlier Pentagon investigation found serious fault in the training and supervision of the Marine patrol. That report led to discipline taken against several officers. But the Justice Department, which oversees the Border Patrol, never conducted a thorough investigation of its role and never disciplined anyone, Mr. Smith said. "The Justice Department should do its job right and hold accountable those responsible for this needless death," Mr. Smith said. INS officials said Thursday that they had concluded that their own investigation would not add to the extensive evidence gathered by the criminal investigations. Gonzales Appointed to Court Republican to Replace Retiring Texas Justice, (posted 11/16/98) By George Kuempel / The Dallas Morning News AUSTIN - Republicans on Thursday laid claim to the last remaining statewide elected post held by Democrats with the appointment of Secretary of State Al Gonzales to the Texas Supreme Court. Mr. Gonzales, 43, will take over the seat held by Democratic Justice Raul Gonzalez for the last 14 years. Justice Gonzalez has announced he will retire at the end of the year. Justice Rose Spector, the only other Democrat on the high
court - and the only other member of her party holding one of
the 27 statewide elective offices - was defeated for re-election
on Nov. 3 by Republican Harriet O'Neill of Houston. Gov. George W. Bush announced the appointment Thursday, praising Mr. Gonzales as a person of integrity, intellect and knowledge about the law. The appointment is subject to Senate approval. Mr. Gonzales
would serve the final two years of the unexpired term. Mr. Gonzales is the fourth person Mr. Bush has named to fill vacancies on the nine-member court during his first term in office. Answering questions from reporters, Mr. Bush downplayed Mr. Gonzales' lack of judicial experience, saying he isn't the first person on the court with no bench experience. "I think it's going to be a pretty interesting mix to have somebody who may not have been a judge before on the court, and I think the judges and those who argue in front of Al are going to see that he is a great judge." Asked if a factor in the decision was that Mr. Gonzales is Hispanic, Mr. Bush said the "most important consideration was 'could he do a good job?' " "Of course it matters what his ethnicity is, but first and foremost what matters is I've got great confidence in Al. I know him well. He is a good friend, and he'll do a fine job," the governor said. Mr. Bush said he isn't sure how many candidates he considered for the post, but "this is the best choice." He said no Democrats were considered. Four Supreme Court justices - Chief Justice Tom Phillips and Justices Gonzalez, Spector and Deborah Hankinson - joined Mr. Bush for the announcement. Mr. Bush praised Mr. Gonzales, who grew up in a two-bedroom house with his parents and seven brothers and sisters, as the embodiment of the "Texas and American Dream." Born in San Antonio and raised in Houston, Mr. Gonzales earned degrees from Rice University and Harvard Law School and attended the U.S. Air Force Academy. Mr. Gonzales, who was joined by his wife, thanked Mr. Bush for his confidence in him and promised to make him proud of his choice. He vowed to "work hard for all Texans and to fairly interpret and apply the laws of our state." Before his appointment as secretary of state, Mr. Gonzales served as Mr. Bush's chief lawyer for three years. Before that, he was a partner in the Vinson & Elkins law firm in Houston. Justice Gonzalez, the first Hispanic to be elected to a statewide office in Texas, said he is "delighted" with Mr. Bush's choice for his replacement. Although he is an opponent of the partisan election of judges, Justice Gonzalez said Mr. Bush's three previous appointees - Greg Abbott, James Baker and Justice Hankinson - put the law above party in their rulings. "I am delighted that even though the three [previous] appointments the governor has made were Republicans, they are persons of integrity, great intellect, and they have not allowed party affiliation to be any part of the equation in making decisions," Justice Gonzalez said. Unlike Justice Gonzalez and others on the court, Mr. Bush
favors keeping the current system of electing judges. Slaying of Latino Teenager in Utah Sets Off Debate Violence, (posted 11/16/98) Saturday, November 14, 1998 Critics say killing was a hate crime and that Salt Lake City officials want to preserve area's image. Police counter that the incident was gang-related. By SOLOMON MOORE, Times Staff Writer When Bernardo Repreza moved from North Hollywood three months ago to live with his father in Salt Lake City, his family thought he would be safe from street gangs. They did not imagine that they would be burying the 15-year-old in the Hollywood Hills today, two weeks after he was beaten and stabbed to death in a brawl with 30 Straight Edge skinheads-a white, middle-class gang that espouses violence as well as vegetarianism, abstinence from drugs, alcohol and premarital sex. Nor could they have predicted the controversy sparked by Bernardo's death, as city officials and Salt Lake City activists debate whether the slaying was motivated by gang rivalry or racial hatred. Salt Lake City police have arrested two suspects-both high school seniors, one of them a juvenile. But police have denied allegations that the slaying was racially motivated and have cast it as a gang fight. "What's the primary motive?" said a Salt Lake City police source who spoke on condition of anonymity. "These kids were just upset with each other. This wasn't a group looking for victims of their racism." That view angers many community activists, who say that police are more interested in preserving Salt Lake City's image than determining the truth about a potential hate crime. "The Olympics are coming here in 2002," said Mike Martinez, a local lawyer and Latino activist. "No one wants the perception that in Salt Lake people can be killed just because of the color of their skin." As the battle rages on in Utah, family members and friends in Los Angeles grieved over their loss and spoke fondly of the boy who aspired to become a Marine and who touched many who knew him. Gordon Clayton, Bernardo's stepfather, said the family had to hold two funerals-one today and the other last Wednesday in Utah-to accommodate all of Bernardo's friends. More than 300 people attended the funeral at a Mormon church in Salt Lake City. Friends at John H. Francis Polytechnic High School in Sun Valley, where Bernardo was a student until he moved to Utah, described him as a gregarious ladies man. "He said he wanted to be a model, and he had the looks," said 15-year-old Brenda Najeia, who met Bernardo in a world history class. Brenda said Bernardo was always dapper and always above the fray, avoiding the gangster lifestyle that swirled around him. "You should have seen his funeral," said Cecily Patton, who taught Bernardo in the sixth-grade when he previously lived in Utah. "There were many, many brokenhearted girls of every race crying, and boys as well." But detectives, at first calling him a gangster wannabe, said that Bernardo's many friends may have put him in harm's way on Halloween night. "Unfortunately, he associated with gang members," said Lt. Phil Kirk of the Salt Lake City Police Department. "He was hanging around the wrong people at the wrong time and got caught in the mix of it." The people who knew Bernardo said he never wanted to belong to a gang, but that he had friends of every stripe-including gangsters. Police were holding Colin C. Reesor, 17, and Andrew D. Moench, 18, at the Salt Lake County Jail on $500,000 bail. Moench is accused of clubbing Bernardo with a baseball bat; Reesor is charged with stabbing him. Both have been charged with murder, which carries a maximum penalty of life in prison in Utah. Reesor will be tried as an adult. Officials with the Salt Lake City district attorney's office said it is unlikely they will press hate crime charges. Under Utah's state laws, a hate crime turns misdemeanors into felony offenses, but such charges are moot when the crime is already a felony, prosecutors said. Copyright 1998 Los Angeles Times. All Rights Reserved Between the Certainty and Uncertainty Of Death, (posted 11/16/98) FROM UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE In our personal lives, we have had to contend with these same
questions that the average mind never has to think about. Today,
we write about someone we don't know, but whose life and writings
provoke the same complex reflections. Late last month, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court unanimously denied Abu-Jamal's request for a new trial. It's mind-numbing to know that a gifted journalist, columnist and colleague can be here one day and executed the next. Abu-Jamal is not simply a writer, but a philosopher and a poet. He doesn't enjoy being a symbol and isn't eager to become a martyr either. More troubling than putting a possibly innocent man to death
is the idea of the state having the arbitrary power to put anyone
to death. As Abu-Jamal aptly points out in "Death Blossoms"
(Plough Publishing House, $12), capital punishment is not about
punishing the guilty; only one murder conviction out of a hundred
results in capital punishment. Yet it's not Abu-Jamal's guilt or innocence that we should be focused upon. Neither should we be focused upon the power and eloquence of his words, nor the beauty of his uncaged and fiery spirit. That is not in question. Rather, we should question, who gave our politicians-of either party- the stones to throw at prisoners or the stones to build more prisons? The answer, sad to say, is themselves-sanctimonious finger-pointing politicians who have no moral spine or authority. It is this sector that clamors for the death of the hundreds of nameless prisoners who today sit on death row. Though some may argue that these politicians merely reflect the desires of their constituents, we reply that studies have shown that when life in prison without the possibility of parole is an option, support for the death penalty dramatically declines. We have looked through religious teachings of many faiths
to justify putting anyone to death and we find none-none that
are compatible with a modern, just and enlightened society. We
have to go deep into the Dark Ages, witch hunts and the Inquisition
to find examples of societies that thought executions were necessary
and served some kind of moral purpose. For those who argue that the death penalty collectively soothes society's soul, we suggest working toward a society that invests more money in higher education than in the building of prisons. We suggest investing in life, rather than in death. And as for soothing the victims, let's honor their lives, care for them, and let them know that the lives of their loved ones will never be forgotten. We can best do this by celebrating life, not taking it. COPYRIGHT 1998 UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE Border Patrol Protests Effort by Deputies, (posted 11/16/98) By CARY CARDWELL SAN ANTONIO-U.S. Border Patrol agents in West Texas are protesting a weekend drug interdiction and training exercise by at least two dozen county sheriff's deputies along the Rio Grande in Presidio County, site of the 1997 fatal shooting of a teen-age goatherd by a U.S. Marine anti-drug patrol. Jerry Agan, deputy chief of the Border Patrol's Marfa sector, said the sheriffs' group, operating under the acronym STAR, has refused to inform federal agents of the locations of their exercise, and ignored warnings by the federal agency, which has legal jurisdiction over drug smuggling and illegal immigration along American borders. "Our big concern is that you have two armed law enforcement
agencies operating along the border, and that seems like a pretty
volatile situation to me," Agan said. "I don't know
what level of expertise or training these deputies have." The report, by U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith, R-San Antonio, said that Marines were not properly trained for police work and drug patrols among civilians, and charged that both the Justice Department and the Marines had sought to cover up information critical to the investigation of the shooting. A Presidio County grand jury returned no indictments after studying the case. "My concern is that I do not want another incident like the killing in Redford," said Presidio County Judge Jake Brisbin Jr., a retired Marine who opposes this weekend's exercises. He said that the Presidio County Commissioners Court as recently as Monday had rejected applications for joint operations requested by other law enforcement groups partly out of fear that cultural differences between urban police and rural Hispanics could lead to another tragedy. "The same kind of situation could develop because of cultural differences and perceptions," Brisbin said. "I do not know that deputies from Midland have that perception. But the situation seems filled with the possibility of grave errors." The Border Patrol's Agan notified his regional headquarters in Dallas after learning of the planned exercise two weeks ago. But he was informed that the federal government has no power to intervene in county police operations. The training exercises, which also include search and rescue
training, are defended by Presidio County Sheriff Danny Dominguez
and Midland County Sheriff Gary Painter, a leader in the formation
of the Sheriffs of Texas Agreed Response team or STAR. STAR was formed after the April 1997 stand-off between law enforcement officers and an armed band of anti-government activists called the Republic of Texas, Painter said. It was during that incident in Fort Davis that West Texas sheriffs realized they needed to plan how to coordinate their responses to terrorism or natural disasters. In recent months, 35 to 40 counties have joined STAR, which receives no state or federal funding, Painter said. Asked why deputies from urban Midland County (near New Mexico) would need training along the border, Painter said, "If we shut off the narcotics at the border, they can't make it up to here." The deputies are being paid for the weekend training, the third such exercise under STAR. He noted that the training was helpful after recent flooding in South Texas, when a team of deputies from Midland and other STAR counties traveled to Del Rio to help with rescues, looting prevention and the manning of the county jail. "If I had a situation here, a terrorist attack on the oil fields, or a tornado, all I have to do is call (on STAR members), and my citizens would get the help they need." When asked about the concerns of Border Patrol agents, Painter said, "We're not going to go down there and run rough-shod over them." Dominguez could not be reached for comment Friday. Agan said he is concerned that the STAR group will not provide federal agents with better information, and he worries that Border Patrol operations, which use sophisticated night-vision devices and motion detectors, could cause an unintended clash with the deputies. Illegal Immigration Forces Imperial County to Declare Emergency, (posted 11/13/98) November 10, 1998 EL CENTRO, Calif. (AP) -- The Imperial County Board of Supervisors declared a state of emergency Tuesday in hopes that the federal government will cover its mounting costs associated with illegal immigration. "The expense of taking care of a federal problem should not be borne by local agencies or private enterprise," Supervisor Dean Shores said before the five-member board's unanimous vote. "The federal government has an obligation to take care of its own problem, not just in Imperial County but all along the southern border." The small, rural county bordering Mexico has been hit hard financially this year because of the number of illegal immigrants dying or getting stranded as they cross its deserts and irrigated fields. Operation Gatekeeper, a program initiated by the federal Immigration and Naturalization Service in 1994, beefed up patrols in San Diego County along the border, but pushed migrant traffic to the more treacherous routes to the east. So far this year, almost 100 illegal immigrants have died in Imperial County, twice as many as last year. Each body required an autopsy, body identification and notification of family, a cost of nearly $200,000 to the sheriff's department, which doesn't have a coroner. The county contracts those services with local pathologists and a funeral home. Bodies not claimed by family members are buried in a local cemetery at an added cost of $900 per person, the county reports. Hundreds of other migrants were rescued this year by emergency crews and hospitalized; housed and fed in local jails; and assigned public defenders in criminal cases. The costs are estimated at more than $1 million. The county officials say they empathize with the migrants' struggle for a better life and they won't deny services to people who need them. However, the supervisors believe the federal government should pick up the tab for its border policies instead of dumping the costs on counties with a narrow tax bases and shallow coffers. The board hopes by declaring a state of emergency, the county can qualify for federal disaster aid instead of waiting for Congress to approve reimbursement through the INS. The declaration requires state approval before reaching federal authorities, and Imperial County officials plan to lobby their state lawmakers for help in pushing the request. Imperial County is not alone in its struggle. Twenty-four counties, both rural and urban, hug the border that stretches 1,700 miles from San Diego to Brownsville, Texas. They share a transient population of Mexican nationals who require more public services than the counties can afford. Officials from those counties formed a border coalition this year to build a greater voice in getting Congress to recognize their plight and get financial help. The idea surfaced last year after Santa Cruz County, Ariz., hired the University of Arizona to study the impact of illegal immigration on its criminal justice system. Researchers found that, in 1996, Santa Cruz spent more $2.8 million- more than half its annual criminal justice budget-to cover such costs. George Kourous Box 2178 Silver City, NM 80062 http://www.zianet.com/irc1/bordline/ Activists in Tijuana Mourn Dead Migrants, (posted 11/13/98) Protest: White crosses, makeshift altars remember those who died looking for a better life in the United States. Group finds blame on both sides of the border. By KEN ELLINGWOOD TIJUANA-Human rights activists and church eaders assailed government policies on both sides of the U.S-Mexico border Monday during a Day of the Dead remembrance for undocumented migrants who have died entering California in defiance of a 4-year-old U.S. crackdown on illegal crossings. A mile-long row of 340 white crosses, most bearing the names, ages and home states of illegal immigrants who activists said have died since 1994, were planted along the Mexican side of the steel border fence near Tijuana's Rodriguez Airport. Many of the wooden crosses were marked simply "No identificado." Organizers said the Day of the Dead holiday, traditionally when Mexican families honor their deceased loved ones through graveside visits or makeshift altars, was an opportunity to publicly commemorate many who died in obscurity. "We want them to know that we haven't forgotten them, that they go on living," said Lourdes Arias, who works at a migrant aid center in Tijuana. Rafael Romo, Tijuana's Roman Catholic bishop, blessed the crosses as well as an altar-heaped with sweet bread and candles, flowers and fruit- in honor of deceased representing nearly all of Mexico's 31 states. Advocates say 131 illegal immigrants have died so far this year along California's border with Mexico, compared with a total of 85 deaths in 1997. The abrupt rise in border deaths, most of them in the inhospitable terrain of Imperial County, has spurred the Border Patrol to launch a safety program to warn would-be immigrants of the dangers and locate those who end up lost. Romo conveyed concern among church officials over the rising death toll, which reached historic levels during the summer and has become a rallying point for migrant rights advocates and other critics of the Operation Gatekeeper immigration crackdown around San Diego. The ceremony occurred on the eve of California elections in which the immigration issue was virtually absent-a stark contrast to four years ago when the incendiary Proposition 187 was on the ballot. Romo, standing a few feet from the border fence, urged officials in the United States to remember that "we are human beings, and everyone has the right to seek a better way of life." But the bishop and others said it also fell to the Mexican government to resolve social problems that drive people to search for that better life north of the border. "In these kinds of deaths, we can't put the blame on natural factors," said Antonio Garcia Sanchez, official human rights ombudsman for Baja California. "The ones who deserve blame for the Mexicans who leave for the United States are the ones who have designed an economic policy in our country, who have not succeeded in providing satisfactory resources in health and housing and food and clothing." North of the border, critics blame Operation Gatekeeper for driving immigrants into dangerous routes to the east. The program increased enforcement on the once-porous border in San Diego through fences, lighting and doubling the number of patrol agents in San Diego. Arrests last year fell to an 18-year low of 248,092. Immigration officials counter that ruthless immigrant smugglers are at fault for sending people along perilous passages. In Imperial County, at least 86 illegal migrants have died this year. The largest number succumbed to harsh desert conditions, and nearly half drowned in the irrigation canals that crisscross the fields. Migrant deaths have slowed since summer; the most recent occurred Oct. 14. The expense to Imperial County of hospitalizing injured immigrants or burying them-each burial is estimated to cost $927--has prompted county supervisors to consider whether to declare a state of emergency in hopes of getting financial help from the federal government. The Board of Supervisors ' vote is expected next week. "We're talking about services that are running half a million dollars" every three months, said Janet Thornburg, the county's deputy administrative officer. "That's big bucks for this county." At the border fence in Tijuana, Agustin Manzano Castillo walked along the row of crosses, touching those marked with his home state in Mexico, Jalisco. The 73-year-old, with two sons who emigrated to Milwaukee, Wis., said he empathized with those who trekked north to fatal results. "A lot of people came to find work," he said, "and all they found was death." GOP Wiped Out In Land of Reagan, (posted 11/10/98) Wall St. Journal By Joel Kotkin, a senior fellow with the Pepperdine Institute for Public Policy. From the earliest days of this century, the California Republican Party has stood on the cutting edge of American politics, producing such notable political figures as Hiram Johnson, Earl Warren, Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan. The beginnings of political Progressivism, modern issue politics, the mobilization of grass-roots conservative activists, the use of sophisticated polling and media: All have their roots in the California GOP. Yet today this party-after 16 years in control of the governor's
office-stands at its weakest point since the Great Depression,
dispirited, underfunded, leaderless and lacking in ideas. Gubernatorial
candidate Dan Lungren lost by more than 20 percentage points,
and U.S. Senate candidate Matt Fong fell by 10 points to one
of the most vulnerable of Democratic incumbents. The party also
surrendered all but two statewide offices, as well as five state
Assembly and two state Senate seats. Republicans did have a net
gain of one U.S. House seat-a small victory indeed, given that
Mr. Davis's election ensures Democratic control of the redistricting
process, which will likely cost the GOP several seats in 2002. Perhaps the most notable error, according to Mr. Madrid, has been the party's almost complete alienation of minorities, who now constitute roughly one-third of the total California electorate. Under Richard Nixon and later Ronald Reagan, Republicans routinely won 30% to 40% of the Latino vote and half the Asian vote. As recently as 1990, Pete Wilson garnered almost 45% of Latinos and a majority of Asians in his successful first bid to become governor. Mr. Wilson's decision in 1994 to embrace the anti-immigrant
ballot measure, Proposition 187, changed all that, turning potentially
conservative and middle-of-the-road minority voters into staunch
Democrats. In this year's gubernatorial election, Dan Lungren,
although consciously campaigning as a simpatico Catholic, won
less than a quarter of Latino voters, who now represent 13% of
the total electorate. Asians, who now represent 8% of the voters,
cast two-thirds of their ballots for Democrat Gray Davis and,
improbably, almost half for Sen. Barbara Boxer, even though she
was running against a well-regarded Asian candidate. "We
are now stuck as a party that is perceived as anti-immigrant
and antiminority, thanks to Pete Wilson," says GOP consultant
Alan Hoffenblum. "We have become known as the party that
appeals only to angry white males. When you do that today, you
end up with 38% of the vote for the top of the ticket." Business indifference can also be traced to the good times in the state, a feeling also shared, according to the exit polls, by most voters. "Prosperity wears out the minds of the wise," the Roman historian Sallust once noted. Assumptions of continued growth have led business in California to feel impervious to changes in Sacramento and Washington. The donors didn't feel a sense of urgency, suggests Mr. Madrid. "They've had years of checks and balances. Maybe the new situation will wake up the donor and business community." Indeed, over time, it may prove that the scale of the Democratic triumph may be the only thing that can arouse California business, and the Republican party, from their current torpor. Despite the generally moderate reputations of Mr. Davis and Lt. Gov.-elect Cruz Bustamante, the leadership of the now lopsidedly Democratic Legislature has been effectively seized by the left wing of the party, including Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa, a former labor organizer from East Los Angeles, and John Burton, president pro tempore of the Senate, an archetypal product of the People's Republic of San Francisco. Over the next year, these legislators likely will put before Mr. Davis legislation, both on the social and economic fronts, well out of the mainstream of California politics. New "domestic partner" legislation and antibusiness measures favored by trial lawyers will likely head the agenda. This, Mr. Madrid believes, will cause both business leaders and minority voters, particularly the rising Latino middle class, to reconsider their acquiescence to Democratic rule, particularly if the economy begins to weaken measurably. Yet even here, Democratic failings may not prove enough. In its heyday, California leaders like Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan laid out critical principles-anticommunism, lower taxes, economic freedom-that resonated with the voters, including many working- and middle-class Democrats. To win in the next century, the Republican Party in California must identify a similarly compelling set of principles or face a long sojourn in the desert of political irrelevance. Latinos Make Strides in Elections, (posted 11/10/98) Filed at 4:47 p.m. EST LOS ANGELES (AP) -- From New England to the West Coast, Hispanic
politicians made historic strides in last week's elections, especially
in California, where they captured their first statewide office
in more than a century. There is no radical ethnic agenda." Other gains in California included Hispanics' first mayoralty
of a major city and six more seats in the state Legislature.
Elsewhere, Hispanics gained political ground in Massachusetts,
Colorado, New Mexico and Wisconsin. "A presidential candidate cannot win the election without winning California, and certainly without winning Latino votes," said Leo Briones, a Los Angeles political consultant. "Their effect on national politics will be amazingly significant. Everyone will be paying attention." In Colorado, Denver lawyer Ken Salazar was elected attorney general and Hispanics gained four statewide posts in New Mexico: attorney general, auditor, secretary of state and treasurer. In Wisconsin, one won entry to the state House. In Massachusetts, three Hispanics were elected to the state Legislature, where previously there had been none. "When you go from zero to three in the state House, and not in predominately Latino districts, then voters are going beyond ethnicity and saying, 'I know what this person's position is on issues that are relevant to me and I'm going to vote for this person,"" said Marcelo Gaete of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials. He added, "It's almost like the words of our Founding Fathers are coming true: All men are created equal." California-which had not had a Hispanic elected to statewide office since Romualdo Pacheco was elected lieutenant governor in 1871 -- saw the largest gains. Besides Bustamante, Ron Gonzales was elected mayor of San Jose in the heart of Silicon Valley. In Los Angeles County, Lee Baca was elected to head the nation's largest sheriff's department. In heavily Republican Orange County, Democratic Rep. Loretta Sanchez earned an unexpectedly lopsided victory over conservative Bob Dornan; she had unseated Dornan two years ago by only 984 votes. Underscoring the trend, Rod Pacheco, the first Hispanic Republican elected to the California Legislature this century, was named Assembly minority leader. The top Democrat is Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa of Los Angeles. Pacheco, of Riverside, was one of four Hispanic Republicans elected to the state Assembly, boosting the total number of Hispanics in both houses from 18 to 24. Hispanic politicians weren't the only ones to benefit from
the invigorated Hispanic electorate. Hispanics also were crucial to Republicans Jeb Bush and his brother, George W. Bush. Jeb Bush was elected governor of Florida and George Bush, who speaks Spanish and stresses that immigrants are welcome, was elected to his second term as governor of Texas. Many saw the Democratic gains in California-led by Gov.-elect Gray Davis-as backlash against Republican Gov. Pete Wilson, who used anti-illegal immigration rhetoric during the election four years ago. To capitalize on those feelings, Davis ran a TV ad in Spanish showing Republican opponent Dan Lungren and Wilson together. Antonio Palada, a postal worker in San Francisco's largely Hispanic Mission District, voted for Davis because he was turned off by Republicans. "They tend to go against the Latino community," Palada said. "You can see the propositions they put on the last election. Now they have to pay for that. The Latino voters are coming out to vote." Franc Contreras, Mexico City The Age Of 'Borderless Borders', (posted 11/9/98) FROM UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE The wrath of Hurricane Mitch upon the Caribbean and Central America, the poorest region of the Americas, once again underscores the interconnectedness of life and our actions, and how those actions change the meaning of borders. Much of the reconstruction aid will come from the United States, not simply out of humanitarian concerns and from relief institutions, but as a result of remittances from tens of thousands of pained and grieving relatives who fled U.S.-financed wars in the region in the 1980s. George Seilestad, a professor of astronomy at the University of North Dakota, recently stated, "As far as astronomers are concerned, Earth is but one ecosystem." Philosophers, theologians, biologists and even meteorologists (witness El Nino and La Nina, for example) have long held the same beliefs. Furthermore, the Asian financial crisis currently circling the globe also drives home the idea promoted by various economists around the world that we must begin to look at market economies as an evolving ecosystem, a complex system that we are all dependent upon. So it seems that society's wisest minds-accentuated by financial and weather crises-believe we are all interrelated. Then, we ask, who believes otherwise and what do borders mean in this era of complete interconnectedness? Some politicians and some of our readers seem to believe that we are not all related, and as far as they are concerned, placing an alligator-guarded moat around the entire United States would suit them just fine. In a recent dialogue with Mike Scott of Glendora, Calif., who is a pen pal of ours and an ardent immigrationrestrictionist, we told him that deep down, even he probably does not envision a future society of legal and illegal, hunter and hunted populations. He responded by saying that he would like to see even more restrictions, including "a San Diego-type fence from Imperial Beach, Calif., to Brownsville, Texas." So herein lies a paradox: The world's going global, but some
would like us to return to the era of isolation. Is it legitimate
to want to completely seal off U.S. borders, lest the country
become part of the economic Third World, as Scott tells us? At the same time, if we were to extend the fortress-thinking to its logical conclusion, IBM, AT&T, Xerox, GM, Coca Cola and all transnational corporations would have to pack up their international operations and go home. The United States and capitalism would end as we know it. In a new book called "Borderless Borders" (Temple
University Press), the editors (Frank Bonilla, Edwin Melendez,
Rebecca Morales & Maria de los Angeles Torres) argue that
globalization and international trade agreements have rendered
the concept of sovereignty, citizenship and nation-states virtually
meaningless. De los Angeles Torres writes: The authors examine the specific relationships between Latinos in the United States and Latin Americans-within the context of a globalized world-and refute the old idea that Latinos belong to but one homeland. Instead, they argue that Latinos (partially due to high levels of remittances) are integral to both societies: the continental United States, and Mexico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, etc. But contrary to the Cold War rhetoric of "foreigners" having dual loyalties, the authors generally argue that such talk is outmoded. They argue that just as capital, ideas and goods travel back and forth across borders, so too do people, who then become transnational or multinational. That these professors have examined the fluidity of borders, which is not restricted to the Americas, means they are on the cutting edge of scholarship, creating another way to frame the world differently and perhaps charting a new course for politicians. Given the forces of history, even politicians will eventually put forth proposals (as the authors do) to counter corporate globalization, not with isolation and retrenchment, but with a global human rights culture-a culture that ensures that mobile corporations and all governments treat workers, at home and abroad, better than disposable machinery. That should mean good news for most of us-except for the unemployed alligators. COPYRIGHT 1998 UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE California: Latino Power Strikes at Tormentors, (posted 11/9/98) By Christopher Parkes in Los Angeles The Democratic coup in California, remarkable for the near-absolute power granted to President Clinton's party, will also come to be remembered as the occasion when the state's silent minority showed its political potential. Although a sideshow in comparison with Tuesday's national spectacle, Loretta Sanchez's thorough drubbing of veteran congressional attack dog Bob Dornan, provided stunning evidence of the power of the Latino vote. The woman who beat the Republican Dornan by a contentiously narrow margin in 1996 brushed him aside this time. Helped by the large, once reticent Latino community in her Orange County district, she almost certainly ended his political career. The result was one of a string which highlighted the cost of Republican neglect of the fastest-growing ethnic constituency in California, which has been antagonised and - ultimately "energised" in the words of one Spanish radio commentator - by the departing governor, Pete Wilson, and his cohorts. The ending of affirmative action, welfare restrictions on illegal immigrants and the end of bilingual education were all supported by Mr Wilson. This week, as George W. Bush collected some 46 per cent of the Hispanic votes in his race for the Texan state house, more than 70 per cent of California's Latino votes went to the Democrats. Cruz Bustamente, a Democrat elected to governor-elect Gray Davis's former job of lieutenant governor, made a piece of history by becoming the first Latino elected to a state-wide office in more than 100 years. Buttressed by Democrat majorities in the Sacramento assembly and senate - with a fellow party member also in charge of the state's educational bureaucracy - the state's new leaders will enjoy unaccustomed power. They will wield it first in education, the most pressing and most delicate case for treatment in the state's ailing infrastructure. Even as he waded into the cheering crowds on Tuesday night, Mr Davis took his first steps towards what could be a bruising engagement with the California Teachers' Association (CTA), one of his most ardent and most generous supporters during the campaign. "No orthodoxies" would be regarded as sacrosanct, he said, as he announced plans for a special legislative session dedicated to the topic which his campaign tactics had made the dominant issue. Mr Davis has dropped several hints that restoring discipline in the educational establishment - inside and outside the classroom - is one of his main objectives. The electorate this week rejected a ballot initiative which its backers said would guarantee future funding for a highly successful project to reduce class sizes. The CTA spent $6m opposing the measure which also called for the installation of a schools inspector on the British model, parent councils to oversee budgets and curriculums, and stiffer tests for teachers. It was a successfully denounced as a last-ditch attempt by its main backer, Mr Wilson, to by-pass union opposition and add more bureaucracy to an already byzantine system. Now here comes Mr Davis, stepping into the breach, his political skills well proven, and eager to test his abilities as negotiator and, in all likelihood, as street-fighter. © Copyright the Financial Times Limited 1998 Exit Polling Sheds Light on Bush's Appeal to Hispanics, (posted 11/9/98) 11/4/98 BY DAVID KOENIG DALLAS (AP) Hispanic voters concerned about education and crime rallied around Gov. George W. Bush and helped boost him to a huge re-election victory. Bush exceeded even his own campaign aides' wildest expectations by gaining 49 percent of the Hispanic vote, according to final exit poll results Tuesday. Republican candidates for lieutenant governor and attorney general were far less successful among Hispanics, the poll showed. About four in 10 Hispanic voters said education was their top issue Tuesday, and they voted for Bush nearly as often as for Democrat Garry Mauro. Hispanics who focused on crime, drugs and taxes went solidly for Bush, the exit poll showed. To be sure, Bush's big win ^ 69 percent to Mauro's 31 percent ^ was also made possible by the support of 65 percent of female voters and 27 percent of black voters, both marking double-digit improvements for Bush over his 1994 election. But those increases were dwarfed by the huge jump in his support from Hispanics, nearly doubling the 28 percent he got four years ago. Bush even carried heavily Hispanic Democratic strongholds such as El Paso and Hidalgo and Cameron counties. In his victory speech Tuesday night, Bush called the result a win for "my compassionate conservative philosophy. He said the election shows "that a leader who is compassionate and conservative can erase the gender gap, can open the doors of the Republican Party to new faces and new voices. During the speech, Bush switched briefly into Spanish, as he did often on the campaign trail. "I think Bush is very pragmatic and genuine, and people
saw that, said Lydia Camarillo, executive director of the nonpartisan
Southwest Voter Registration and Education Project. Ms. Camarillo
said Hispanics were especially grateful for Bushs opposition
to Californias 1994 Proposition 187, which attempted to cut services
to illegal immigrants. "The governor indicated he wouldnt
let that happen in Texas, and Latinos never forgot, she said.
"And he speaks the language and travels where Latinos reside.
U.S. Rep. Henry Bonilla, R-San Antonio, credited Bush's style,
not any one issue. Ms. Camarillo also credited Bush's Spanish television and radio spots, including one featuring Emilio, a popular Tejano singer, for turning out young voters. Bush's campaign spent about one-fourth of its advertising money on Spanish language spots. Bush carried a majority of Hispanics in the 18-39 age group, but he ran poorly ^ only getting one-fourth of the votes ^ among Hispanics over 60, the exit poll indicated. "Older Hispanics are more set in their voting patterns, and its tougher for them to vote for a Republican, said Karl Rove, a political adviser to Bush. "But entrepreneurial-minded Hispanics voted for us. Although Hispanics tend to vote Democratic in Texas ^ and more than half said they are Democrats ^ more than four-fifths described themselves as conservative or moderate on Tuesday, only slightly less conservative than non-Hispanic voters. Bush won more than two-thirds of the votes of conservatives Hispanics, ran close among moderates and was beaten 2-to-1 among liberals, the exit poll showed. By a slight margin, Hispanics were more likely than other voters to believe that Bush should serve out his new, four-year term rather than run for president. But Hispanics who voted for Bush overwhelmingly said he should seek the White House. Bush's appeal with Hispanics did not translate to other GOP candidates, the exit poll indicated. In the lieutenant governor's race, Rick Perry drew 31 percent of the Hispanic vote, and John Cornyn got 29 percent in the attorney general's race. Both won close races, in contrast with Bush's landslide. The results were drawn from interviews with about 1,250 Texas voters as they left the polls Tuesday. The survey has an error margin of 1.2 percent for all voters and higher for subgroups. Latino Professor Fights for His Own, (posted 11/9/98) By Michael Booth - Denver Post Staff Writer (Section Two, page two) Nov. 3 - Estevan Flores is settling into the reality that he must always prove himself. Not just to his immediate boss, or to his family, or to the students who visit him at the University of Colorado at Denver campus. Flores knows he must prove himself to an entire culture, a whole region that is slow to grant Hispanic intellectuals the reverential labels of social scientist or policy wonk. He directs the Latino/a Policy Institute for UCD, one of only a small handful of Hispanic-oriented think tanks in the nation. Yet his own strained history tells him to work overtime building connections between his fledgling institute and the Front Range until it becomes an indelible part of public life here. Flores wants the institute to reflect his own personality: a force that will not be denied. "People are watching. It's a wait-and-see attitude," he said, not complaining, just stating a fact. "The test of all organizations is, can we be effective?" Flores grew used to shouting his credentials and his accomplishments in public during a nasty, 16-month battle over his bid for tenure in the sociology department at CU-Boulder in 1994 and 1995. It is brutal enough to be told privately by a boss that your work doesn't merit job security, let alone a promotion. It is quite another thing to have your alleged shortcomings debated in the press, argued for the public record at the CU Board of Regents and become the rallying point for a hunger strike. Opponents said Flores' research as a sociologist documenting the effect of government policy on Latinos was not solid enough for CU-Boulder. His supporters said he was being judged for his ethnicity, not his research, and that Hispanic scholars are not taken seriously in Boulder. Flores mustered support from everyone he knew and from many he didn't. He accused his detractors of racism. The president of CU at the time, Judith Albino, backed Flores as a way to prove the university's commitment to minorities. Albino took his rejected tenure to the regents for reconsideration, a highly unusual move, and Flores won by a 9-0 vote. Saying it would be impossible to continue working in the Sociology Department, he accepted a tenured position at Boulder's Center for Ethnicity and Race. When CU-Denver decided to revive its Hispanic studies with a new policy institute, Flores jumped at the chance to become a co-director last year. The Boulder experience has been hard to shake, he says. "There's a distance, social as well as physical, between Denver Latinos and Boulder," he said. He cannot say the tenure fight was one of those life lessons he was glad to learn. "It confirmed a lot of Latinos' bad impressions of going up to Boulder," he said. Now Flores is the sole director of the institute, which has focused its resources on two areas: education and health care. Two questions Flores wants to help answer are why Hispanic students fail to graduate from high school or go on to college, and how all Hispanics can get better access to health care. At base level, Flores is the institute. He is the director and the only full-time employee. His goal has been to push ideas based on community needs rather than the abstracts of ivory tower academics. The think tank's real work is done in committees Flores created that bring together everyone from a Latina professor of romance languages in Colorado Springs to a Denver union organizer. A symposium on proposed HMO guidelines helped influence policies
dealing with Spanish-speaking patients. The people who backed
Flores in his earlier fights are glad to see him now choosing
his own battles on behalf of his community, while still in the
university system. "It's a good thing about a big university,
that we have these resources that don't have to just be disposed,"
said Evelyn Hu-DeHart, the director of the CU-Boulder ethnicity
center who hired Flores. "Whatever the reason, the way the
tenure system goes, we oftentimes waste very valuable resources
by discarding them. I think that was a win-win situation for
everybody." Hondurans Overwhelmed by Magnitude of Hurricane Disaster, (posted 11/9/98) 11/4/98 TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) - Unable to provide Hondurans such basics as gasoline, food and water, a government overwhelmed by Hurricane Mitch's destruction made an urgent appeal for international aid Wednesday. Across Central America, Hurricane Mitch has killed an estimated 9,000 people and destroyed roads leading to areas where authorities say thousands were still missing. A revived Mitch was expected to hit South Florida on Thursday as a fast-moving tropical storm, bringing 4 to 8 inches of rain before heading toward the Bahamas. Mitch had sustained winds of 45 mph Wednesday when it was 250 miles west of Cuba, producing rain and winds to the island. In Honduras, the largest cities have become virtual islands accessible only by air. The U.S. Air Force was helping Honduras deliver aid to remote towns, Communications Minister Tomas Lozano said. Honduran officials estimated their country's death toll at 7,000 on Wednesday, though no one knows how many really died and it wasn't clear what the number was based on. Some 10,000 people officially were listed as missing. As many as 1 million are homeless, said Col. Rene Osorio of the national emergency committee. "We really dont know what the numbers are. There are places we havent reached yet, Osorio said. Mitch hit the Honduran coast last week and parked itself there, dumping several feet of rain onto the poor nation before moving across the Yucatan Peninsula and into the Gulf of Mexico. It left behind a stunning wake of death and devastation across Central America. "How do we continue, without food, without sleep? said Yoland Marvella Arraya, 35, who has spent nights outside on a soggy mattress along the debris-strewn banks of the Choluteca River since flooding destroyed her familys home. "I dont know what to think. My mind needs help. In neighboring Nicaragua, as many as 2,400 were believed dead. Rains there last week caused a crater lake atop the Casitas volcano to break open Friday and spill tons of mud onto villages along the slopes. El Salvador declared three days of national mourning for the 239 dead there. In Guatemala, 194 were reported dead and at least 77,900 had evacuated their homes. At least six people were killed in southern Mexico and seven people died in Costa Rica. The Nicaraguan government pleaded Wednesday for more helicopters to deliver food and medical supplies. Its air force has only six helicopters. A U.S. Army base in Panama sent three helicopters to Nicaragua on Monday and the U.S. government pledged to send another seven. Mexico said it was sending 10, and Panama will send two more. Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo called President Clinton on Tuesday to urge that a large-scale international aid effort be made. Zedillo's office said Clinton was "highly sympathetic to the Mexican leaders concerns and pledged to review aid efforts. At the Vatican, Pope John Paul II called on "all public and private institutions and all men of good will to do all they can "in this grave moment of destruction and death. Obstacles to relief are daunting: countless roads are out in Honduras, including main highways. Nearly all available aircraft are being used in the search for survivors and victims in isolated towns. "There are medicines available, but the problem is the same: How do we transport it? said a frustrated Andres Aguiriano Duarte, deputy commissioner of the emergency committee. The government is coping with competing demands: to find and rescue survivors still isolated by flooding in remote towns, to establish a reliable information network to assess the disaster and the urgent need for drinking water and food in the capital of 800,000. "The peoples desperation is growing, Aguiriano said. The countrys roads sustained $2 billion in damage, nearly one-third of Honduras gross domestic product and double the governments budget, Finance Minister Gabriela Nunez said. Coffee and banana crops - the two most important sources of export income for Honduras - were also hit especially hard. Coffee crop damage in neighboring countries was also substantial. With most of Tegucigalpa's bridges knocked out, men charged 30 cents to carry residents across muddy streams and rivers. Citizens tossed soiled clothes and furniture from shops and homes into growing, foul-smelling piles on streets. Blocks-long lines formed at a few stations where gasoline was available, but rationed to a gallon per person. "Weve been waiting four hours, said Gladys Nunez, 50, two plastic containers in hand. "Its been all nerves and tension. That tension, authorities fear, could prompt lawlessness if basic needs remain unmet. Despite an overnight curfew, many army troops and police were diverted to search and rescue operations. At least 300 people have been arrested in Tegucigalpa for violating the curfew, police said. Officials say residents in some neighborhoods have formed vigilante groups to ward off looters. The Honduran Red Cross continued its search operations in the countryside but was hampered by the lack of transportation and $2 million in flood damage to its Tegucigalpa headquarters. "Tell the world that, really, our country has been destroyed, said Red Cross president Meneca de Mencia. "The Red Cross itself is homeless. And were still rescuing living survivors. Operation Condor and Pinochet, (posted 11/9/98) LOS ANGELES TIMES COMMENTARY NEW YORK-The continued detention in London of Chile's former dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet points to many unanswered questions about his rule, including a terrorist conspiracy by six U.S.-supported Latin American governments-Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay- to murder their political opponents around the world. The Central Intelligence Agency and some U.S. government officials knew about this 1970s operation, but didn't reveal it to the public or Congress. Known as "Operation Condor," foreign armies and security services cooperated in dealing with political opponents from one country who crossed into another, and assigned their own men to out-of-country operations to avoid the identification of local agents. Now, Spanish authorities handling the Pinochet investigation want to know what the United States knows about Operation Condor, and Washington has been sending them declassified documents. But it has balked at requests to release all relevant papers in the archives of the State Department, the Pentagon, the FBI and the CIA. The U.S. government denied a report in the Guardian newspaper in London that it had urged the British to release Pinochet and not agree to his extradition to Madrid for fear that revelations about the U.S. role in the 1973 coup overthrowing Salvador Allende would come out during a trial. But, since the current investigation concerns the post-coup period, some U.S. officials are more likely worried about revelations of U.S. knowledge of and connections to Operation Condor. The U.S. certainly knew about it. A week after the killings of Orlando Letelier, former Chilean foreign minister and ambassador to the U.S., and his Instiute for Policy Studies colleague Ronni Moffitt in Washington in 1976, Robert Scherrer, the FBI's attache in Buenos Aires assigned to the case, reported key information to Washington. Scherrer had learned from an Argentine official that Chile was the center of something called Operation Condor, established to share intelligence and engage in joint operations against "so-called 'leftists,' communists and Marxists," he wrote in a recently release document. He said the operation included setting up teams to carry out assassinations around the world and speculated it might have orchestrated the Washington bombing. Scherrer learned that the CIA had already reported on Operation Condor. Col. Manuel Contreras, who organized the terror network, had set up the Directorate of National Intelligence (DINA), the Chilean secret police, two months after the September 1973 coup. CIA station chief Stuart Burton, who arrived in Santiago in May 1974, established a close liaison with Contreras and DINA. U.S. Embassy political officer John Tipton, who at the time was cabling protests of human-rights abuses and coauthoring a dissent channel memorandum that called for more U.S. attention to the issue, told me the CIA and DINA were working together. He said, "I don't believe the CIA set up DINA, but they were in a close relationship. Burton and Contreras used to go on Sunday picnics together with their families. That permeated the whole CIA station." The Chilean government's Truth and Reconciliation Commission says U.S. Embassy personnel were involved in the capture of a Chilean by Paraguayan police. In the 1991 report, it said that Chilean Jorge Isaac Fuentes Alarcon was arrested by the Paraguayan police crossing the border to Argentina in May 1975, and that the participants in his capture were "the Argentine intelligence services, who provided the information about his false passport; persons from the U.S. embassy in Buenos Aires, who informed the Chilean Investigative Police of the result of the interrogations, and the Paraguayan police, who permitted the clandestine transport of the detainee." Fuentes Alarcon was brought to a Chilean torture center, Villa
Grimaldi, in Santiago. He never left. The papers revealed that the terror network murdered a former president of Brazil and two Uruguayan parliamentarians, as well as hundreds of political activists. They also documented the presence of Nazis throughout the southern cone and the assassination of Israeli agents who were pursuing them. Finally, they detailed the connection of local intelligence services with drug traffickers and with the CIA. Argentine journalist Stella Calloni, correspondent for the Mexican daily La Jornada in Mexico, reported that after the U.S. Agency for International Development arrived to help microfilm the Paraguayan files, some of which detailed U.S. connections with the Paraguayan police, journalists who sought to look at the archives discovered that the military-related material about Operation Condor had been put out of their reach. In August 1975, Contreras had met in Washington with CIA deputy director Vernon A. Walters. Up until then, cooperation between the security services of the Latin American dictators had been informal. There are no declassified documents that prove Walters urged or approved the plan to set up Operation Condor, but the month after meeting with Walters, Contreras asked Pinochet, in a memo obtained by Italian courts, for another $600,000 for "reasons that I consider indispensable," one of which was "the neutralization of the [Chilean] government junta's principal adversaries abroad, especially in Mexico, Argentina, Costa Rica, the U.S.A. and Italy." After Contreras' meeting with the military intelligence chiefs of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay in October, the relationship was formalized and a joint information center was established at DINA headquarters. In March 1976, Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), and several other members of Congress visited Chile and met with human-rights defenders there. Miller has now called on President Bill Clinton to release "critical information that will help link Pinochet directly to acts of international terrorism." Meanwhile, the Spaniards are seeking a CIA report said to assert that Pinochet ordered the 1976 car-bomb assassination in Washington of Letelier and Moffitt. It is widely believed that Operation Condor already had carried out the 1974 Buenos Aires killing of Pinochet's predecessor, the democrat Gen. Carlos Prats and his wife, and the 1975 Rome attack that disabled Christian Democratic opposition leader Bernardo Leighton and his wife. Those cases are being investigated by judicial authorities in Argentina and Italy, who might like to see U.S. archives. The CIA immediately connected the Letelier-Moffitt killings
to Operation Condor. After the assassinations, the agency decided
the network had become a rogue operation that could create problems
in the United States. When it found out about Condor plans in
Europe, it advised police in France and Portugal, where assassinations
were planned. Two days after the congressional request, the State Department
said it was prepared to look at ways to accelerate its declassification
process. If the U.S. expects to be taken seriously in its protests
against international terrorism by political adversaries, it
must open its documents on Operation Condor, the terrorist operation
of its sleazier friends. ** NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. ** Nationwide Employment
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