HispanicVista Columnists - March 14th, 2005

By Patrick Osio, Jr

As the debate on Social Security reform rages across the land, little attention is paid to the role today’s Hispanic youths will play for the future of Social Security. As a group they are younger than non-Hispanics thus will have a disproportionate load in contributing to future benefits aging non-Hispanics will receive.

In May of 2004, I wrote an article on the subject, which was picked up by numerous newspapers and The Globalist that chose the article as an important contribution to the coming debate and with their editorial staff improved on the article for its publication in their magazine.

By Luis J. Rodriguez

At 18 years old—some 32 years ago—I was on drugs, barely out of jail, and somewhat suicidal (in an outwardly, gang-violent kind of way) when I climbed onto a plane at LAX to the San Francisco Bay area. It was the first time I ever set foot on an airplane. Despite my tough demeanor, I was scared to death.

I survived, however, to take part in the Quinto Sol Chicano Literary Awards celebration in Berkeley, hosted by Dr. Octavio Romano and Herminio Rios. In 1973, I was given an honorable mention for a group of vignettes I called “Barrio Expressions.” I had been writing bits and pieces of my life and thoughts in juvenile hall and adult jails since I was 15.

From the Publisher’s Corner

By Sal Osio, JD

The Border metropolis, San Diego/Tijuana, forms a mega billion dollar critical mass.  Over 45 percent of San Diego’s exports, approximately $10 billion, are sold to Mexico. According to statistics from the Department of Commerce, 19,000 jobs are supported for each billion dollars in exports. Accordingly, Mexico supports 190,000 jobs in San Diego.

Ten percent of the labor market in San Diego is supported by trade with Mexico.

Over 5 million northbound crossings are made each month. Of these, based on SANDAG estimates, 43 percent are to shop, which spills over to the service sector, such as restaurants.

The Americas This Week
By Laura Carlsen

Throughout the continent, there is an offensive against the rights of women. The litany of losses or less-than-hoped-for gains announced this International Women’s Day only proved what women across Latin America already knew.

Most law does not recognize the term “sexual rights,” and the religious right has been working hard to eliminate the term “reproductive rights” as well. A coordinated effort to rescind parts of the Cairo agreement--if not in law at least in practice--has seriously affected the exercise of hard-won rights.

By Raoul Lowery Contreras

 A decade ago, I wrote an article pointing out that the coming Social Security catastrophe would seriously damage the earning power of America’s new Hispanic workforce. I wrote that the Hispanic population would rebel against having their taxes raised by 100-to-300 percent in order to maintain a country club life style for the retired Anglo population.

The publisher of my newspaper objected to my "us versus them" article and insisted I drop the subject. Luckily for the American body politic that publisher no longer publishes a daily newspaper. If still so employed he would probably continue to bury the story of the generation.

By Nathan Tabor
As I was flipping TV channels the other day, I stopped on VH-1 for a moment, because they were discussing whether Jesus Christ was black or white.  Well, Jesus actually was Jewish, so I’ll bet He probably looked a lot like Jerry Seinfeld.
Anyway, then a black comic offered the opinion that it is nice to walk through an airport these days and not be stared at or followed by the cops.  Things have changed, he said, since the look of “criminals” has now been transferred to Middle-Eastern rag-heads. This brought forth a lot of laughs from the other African-Americans on the show.

By Manuel Hernández

There has been a lot of talk about the “President's New High School Initiative, Other Proposed Programs Tackle Issues Important to Hispanics.” According to the U.S. Department of Education’s February 23^rd Press Release, the President's budget focuses on high dropout rate, teacher quality and college aid. There is no doubt that the November 2nd elections defined Latinos as the vote that defined the new administration’s priorities in education. The initiative proposes to increase funding to make sure that every high school student reaches high standards, including Latino teens.

By Mike Kirchubel

Registered Nurses are hard workers.  Their daily work involves disgusting and often hazardous substances, wounds, and diseases that you don’t even want to think about.  They comfort us even when family and friends retreat.  They often work overtime and skip their breaks and lunches to provide patient care.  If you ever needed a nurse, you know they are truly selfless heroes in this dollar-dominated world.

California’s registered nurses recently won a well-publicized victory over Governor Schwarzenegger and the hospital owner’s lobby…

Pacific News Service, Youth Commentary,
By Pedro Paulo Viegas De Sa,

I have been a temp worker in the cafeteria at Stanford University for two and a half years now -- and I have only gotten a dollar raise since I started. Working as a temp in the Bay Area is a sure ticket to nowhere. The boss sees you as something discardable, like used toilet paper.
I have seen so many people come and go that it is hard to remember faces and names. The other day my sister told me about this kid who goes to school with her and worked with me, but I could not remember him at all.

By John T. Plecnik
My last column, "Forget Free Speech, Liberals Don't Tolerate Campus Conservatives," drew the ire and attention of thousands.  Published online by GOPUSA and the Washington Times, it sparked still more debate on the issue of liberal bias on campus.  Conservative professors from North Carolina, Wisconsin and across the country e-mailed their support.  One celebrity endorsement came from former U.S. House Historian Christina Jeffrey, who currently presides over the South Carolina Association of Scholars.  In her words, this past column was my "best ever."   

By Robert Miranda

Milwaukee is a hyper-segregated city. The name of the city should be New Selma, Wisconsin. Indeed, in the 1960s Selma, Alabama was a hotbed of overt racism in the United States. Jim Crow apartheid flourish in that part of the country for years before the civil rights movement finally brought down the backward culture that prevented Blacks from voting just a little over 40 years ago.
However, Milwaukee, unlike Selma, is more sophisticated in its racist culture. In New Selma, racism is more covert; nevertheless still as brutal.

An Article from the IRC Americas Program

By Raúl Zibechi

 “Half of the country is in the hands of the paras,” Paula says by the candlelight in a bar in La Candelaria, the historic old town of Bogotá that has been declared a World Heritage Site. “Wherever they establish their domain, they impose strict rules on daily life and customs: the haircuts of the young people, the closing times of the bars and clubs, and above all, they control and harass the women.” Paula works for an environmental organization and she cannot hide her anguish over a country that she and many other Colombians feel is slipping out of their hands.

By Felipe de Ortego y Gasca

In 1965, Joyce Carol Oates published an unusual and provocative short story entitled "Where are you going? Where have you been?" It’s the story of an adolescent girl struggling to define her personal identity in a world where identity seems to be prefigured by externalities–advertising, peer-pressure, family expectations. In pursuit of her personal identity the young woman, Connie, is lured (erotically, some critics have said) by Arnold Friend [An old friend] identified by some critics of the story as the Devil who appeals successfully to her need to define herself as the person she believes she is, can be, or ought to be. Like so many of Joyce Carol Oates’ pieces the story ends without resolution, open-ended.

Spanish Follows the English Article.

Fr. Pablo Kasun, OSB

Behind the sweet promise of wealth in the Social Security verbal wars, lies what America’s most famous Black theologian calls a human, toxic waste dump.  This man, James Cone, refers to the wide-spread suffering of African-Americans, saying that they are worse off in 1998 than in 1968, worse today than yesterday.

Our goal is not to advocate for a sweet promise of wealth, but to figure out how Americans can make sure Social Security is a comprehensive, nation-wide, federally guaranteed entitlement for all.

By Daniel Gutierrez 

I was in a meeting recently where an executive of a large organization asked me, “What is self-leadership and stepping into greatness?” My answer was, “The ultimate manifestation of potential.” It seems that most of the time people look at leadership as something that is on the outside. In other words, it is something you do. I believe rather that it is something that you being.

 I have found that people don’t follow leaders primarily because of what they do but because of who they being.  Self-leadership then becomes very important in terms of how you manage your company or organization. Like children, people follow you because of what you are, not what you say.

By Sen. Jon Kyl
 It's a rare conversation in Arizona politics that goes on long without the subject turning to immigration in general and the problems at the border specifically.
Late last month I spent some time in and around Nogales, meeting with various public officials and constituents. Much of what I heard was familiar, as we in Arizona continue to struggle to get the federal government to live up to its obligation to confront what is undeniably a federal issue. But I also heard stories of new developments, both positive and negative.

By Seth R. DeLong, Ph.D/COHA Senior Research Fellow
To Washington’s Chagrin, Chávez’s Influence Continues to Spread Throughout the Continent

• The inauguration of Tabaré Vázquez in Uruguay shows that Latin America’s democratic march to the left continues, and could be a forerunner to Mexico’s 2006 presidential election.

• The Bush administration, already uncomfortable with Latin America’s new left, would become apoplectic if this movement reached the U.S.-Mexican border. A López Obrador victory in the Mexican election would signal the ultimate domino falling.

Español/Spanish

Por Miriam Ventura

Para qué sirve en Nueva York que una comunidad tenga un Mes dedicado a su herencia si no es para reafirmarse dentro del conglomerado que compone el mosaico de culturas que es la Gran Manzana?.
Puede que algunos 'latinofilos e hispanistas', sientan ofendida su pluralidad, pues mucha gente e instituciones en la comunidad dominicana como forma de respuestas a las muchas manifestaciones de la exclusión del poder, se aferran ridículamente a ser mas latinos que el Latín, a defender una diversidad y pluralismo étnico sedicioso con tal de ser incluidos en la 'distribución' de ese poder que a su vez genera mas poder. Con tal de reafirmarse frente a los ostentadores de ese poder.

By Richard N. Baldwin T.

You may remember the "mysterious" death of Digna Ochoa, a dedicated human rights worker here in México. In October of 2001, she was found dead in her office, fatally shot in the head. Her family and activist groups have finally been able to force reopening the investigation that the prosecutors had labeled a "suicide". Her family points out that there is a litany of errors in the police report including differences in the crime scene photographs and the written report. In other words, a very sloppy investigation. But what is most interesting is that there were TWO gunshot wounds to her body.

Christian convert gets Muslim death threat
A Muslim convert to Christianity who discusses his faith with Muslims on a popular Internet chat site has received a death threat.

The threat posted on the New York-based site PalTalk came after a WorldNetDaily column published the man's name and comments on the slaying of four members of a New Jersey Coptic Christian family, reported the weblog Jihad Watch.

The message is similar to others aimed at a number of Christians who are tracked systematically by a radical Islamic website, barsomyat.com.

Patrick Osio, Jr. has written a short but intensive manual on the Mexican perspective on numerous issues between our two countries. The manual is an in depth primer on the culture and protocol for better understanding Mexicans that in turn allows establishing personal and business relationships, and how to avoid the most common faux pas that can ruin relationships and business deals.

The manual is available through Electronic delivery for $9.95 making it possible to download the manual to save on your hard drive, printing its entirety or particular sections while reaping considerable savings over printed copies.