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HispanicVista Columnists & Guest Columns

Week of March 6, 2006

 

HispanicVista Columnists & Guest Columns

Week of March 6, 2006

"Hollow Prosperity" In Mexico

By Patrick Osio, Jr./HispanicVista.com

   March 6, 2006

   A recent Associated Press article reported that on February 22, 2006, 55 Georgia Vidalia sweet onions, corn and soybeans farmers plus other agricultural employers met with the Department of Labor for a seminar on migrant farm workers hiring policies. The farmers said they’re making extra efforts to follow the letter of the law. As a group they hire over 1000 workers, who by their admission are mostly Mexican immigrants, but as one said, "A guy comes to your office and brings his Social Security and his Green Card, it figures he's legal. But I don't know if it's real or not."

By Richard N. Baldwin T. /HispanicVista.com

   March 6, 2006

   FROM MEXICO

  Let me say at the beginning that I am not a fan of Pat Buchanan. There is precious little that he writes that I can agree with. On the other hand, his column titled Our Hollow Prosperity, date line 15 Feb 06, is worth reading.*    

His topic is how the free trade policies of the US have affected the general prosperity of the US. With extensive research in US government reports, he details that while the total GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of the US increases, it is in the distribution of that prosperity that things go askew.

By Manuel Hernandez

                    The literature of the Latino/a experience in the United States of America closes the gap on education in the United States. Voices of concerns have been depicted in newspapers, websites and statistics across America. On November 30, 2003, Fox television featured a segment on its series on education to vividly document stories of children with problems with standardized testing.

By Raoul Lowery Contreras/HispanicVista.com

   March 6, 2006

 

   With the U.S. Senate approaching its work of immigration reform, finally, all eyes turn to Washington and how it proceeds to solve the widely acknowledged immigration mess. Senators need to know how a majority of Americans feel about illegal immigration. There are two schools of thought: one, that of a tiny minority and one of the majority.

To: Editor of the Orange County Register

Que Viva Ray Barretto

From: Francisco Juarez

Subject: Your Invitation to Be Heard

Editor Foley,

You write, "Talk to us  --  How has immigration affected your life and your community? Register editors want to hear your thoughts and concerns."

Thank you so much for asking.  Further, thank you for not asking about the affects of "illegal" immigration.

By Roberto Lovato

     New York's master percussionist, Ray Barretto gave me the song they will play at my funeral. I have asked those closest to me to make sure that "Que Viva La Musica" (Long Live the Music) is there at my death because the powerful guaguanco beat, the cloud-piercing trumpets, the heartfelt chorus and simple lyrics of his live version of the song have lifted me up at every key moment in my life since I first heard it more than 30 years ago.

American Identity and Undocumented Immigration

By Aquiles Ernesto Martínez
     America continues to be a land of immigrants and opportunities stained by the concomitant reactions to who belongs here and who doesn't.  Ranging from welcoming to hateful "Know Nothings" attitudes, the arguments for and against newcomers have been the same throughout history, as well as the myths: "They are criminals!  They are taking our jobs! They are a financial burden!  They don't want to learn our ways!  They must return to their countries!" 

By Rudy ‘Tejano’ Pena,   Tejano Historian  
     The 59 delegates, who swore and signed, the famous Texas Declaration of Independence document at Washington on the Brazos, March 2, l836…Declared… Texas would be a free independent republic…  This was the singleness of purpose that held them together.

These were very treacherous and difficult times for early Tejas settlers.  The newly formed government of the Mexican Republic was experiencing enormous turmoil within its ranks. 

mun2 revealed the findings of the first major Latino youth-only national study. Top-line findings were presented at the Nokia Theatre in New York City at a research forum entitled me2: Understanding the Young Latino in America, a groundbreaking look at the values that drive the highly-coveted 14-34 year-old Latino demographic.

By Roger Waldinger and Renee Reichl
The 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act, which eliminated nationality-based quotas, opened the United States to a new wave of immigration from Asia, Africa, and the Americas.

Technology Development Centers

By Raúl Carvajal Moreno

 

(sic)… The SBA was created in 1953 in order to support, advise and attend the United States small businesses. In this country there are about 22 millions of small businesses that represent 99% of the total of enterprises, employ 53% of the workforce in the private sector and contribute with 50% to the Gross Domestic Product. Since 1953, more than 20 millions of small firms have been supported by the SBA.

By Antonio O. Garza

United States Ambassador to Mexico

In any long-term and meaningful relationship, occasionally tense discussions are inevitable. In recent weeks, after several violent incidents along our shared border, I was criticized by some for my frank but, what I felt were, honest statements about our need for a safer and more secure border. However, even during challenging times in our relationship, I have never lost my optimism that Mexico and the United States can work...

By Haya El Nasser

Getting the children of Spanish-speaking immigrants to finish high school and go to college is crucial to the economy as much of the nation's workforce edges toward retirement, says a report released Wednesday by a prominent government advisory board.

By Raul Reyes

When I was in 10th grade, the Army set up a mobile recruiting station in the parking lot of my East Los Angeles high school. I stopped by long enough to pick up a free pair of gym trunks emblazoned "Army." I wore them a lot until my father, an Army veteran himself, discarded them without asking me. I was annoyed at my dad.

By Marisa Trevino

The latest news from the U.S.-Mexico border is not good. Violent assaults against Border Patrol agents are up 108%, says Border Patrol Chief David Aguilar.

Sheriff deputies haven't fared much better. After last month's clash between Texas' Hudspeth County lawmen and armed drug smugglers dressed in Mexican military-style…

From: National Immigration Forum

Late last week, Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter (R-PA) introduced a “Chairman’s Mark,” a draft comprehensive immigration reform bill that will serve as the basis for Judiciary Committee consideration beginning on Thursday, March 2.  The Chairman’s Mark borrows elements from other Senate immigration reform bills…

By Kent Paterson

Long resentful at what they regard as second-class treatment by Washington, Mexicans across the political spectrum are blasting the Bush administration's border and immigration policies. Stinging criticisms, diplomatic tiffs, street protests, and even calls for boycotts of U.S. businesses have characterized the Mexico-U.S. relationship in recent weeks.

Submitted by: National Immigration Forum

Draft Senate Immigration Bill Released

Early this morning, advocates in Washington obtained a copy of the revised “Chairman’s Mark”—the comprehensive reform legislation that will serve as the starting point for the Senate Judiciary Committee’s consideration of comprehensive immigration reform.

The revised draft is a huge disappointment: it incorporates many of the enforcement…

By Kelly Arthur Garrett

The current scandal-of-the-month in Mexican politics will reverberate longer than its allotted month. We may be used to public figures getting caught in flagrante delicto on audio- or videotape, but the exposure of Puebla Governor Mario Marín’s conspiratorial telephone conversation with embattled clothing magnate Kamel Nacif is ultimately more disturbing than the garden-variety, suitcase-stuffing ignominies that preceded it.

By Fred Rosen

There is a danger, as the unlikely convergence of militant feminists and the Archbishop of Puebla has already suggested, that the scandal of personal power and cronyism that is likely to cost the governor of Puebla his job may be obscuring the greater disgrace of child sexual exploitation that gave rise to the sordid Mario Marín affair in the first place.

Por Miriam Ventura

Ví como algo normal que los grupos de derechos civiles de Puerto Rico intentaran preservar los derechos legales de la periodista puertorriqueña, Laura Hernández quien entrara a territorio dominicano de mano del narcotráfico. Igual de normal vi los paños tibios con que la justicia dominicana actuo en el caso. Ay !!,si hubiese sido un dominicanyork... 

Interview With Apologist Mark Shea

Millions have read "The Da Vinci Code" and many are expected to see the movie version when it is released May 19.
That is why Mark Shea and Ted Sri -- an apologist and theology professor, respectively -- have co-authored "The Da Vinci Deception" a guide that reveals the fact and fiction behind "The Da Vinci Code."

Patrick Osio, Jr. has written a short but intensive E-book on the Mexican perspective on numerous issues between our two countries. The E-book is also an in depth primer on Mexican culture and protocol for better understanding that allows establishing personal and business relationships, and how to avoid the most common faux pas that can ruin relationships and business deals. Literally this book has been of immense help to thousands, you too can gain from Mr. Osio's lifetime experience.

About the author

Table of Contents

Excerpts from the manual

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

COMMENTARY

THE BEST FROM THE NET

March 6, 2006

LETTERS TO EDITOR

From: Francisco Juarez

From:  Eric S. Serrano

From: Pastor Richard Avila

From: Larry Meneses

From: Manuel Recio,Ed.D

From: Dave Anderson

From: Pieter Speyer

From: Toshiharu Hira Sugioka

ANNOUNCEMENTS

1. San Diego Dialogue and the Mexico Business Center Announce “Borderless

Innovation: A Call to Action” on March 15

2. HBO Films presents WALKOUT

3. Nation Magazine Student Writing Contest

4. "Bajitos y Suavecitos: Lowriders of Southern California" Exhibit at SD Automotive Museum thru March 27

5. The Hispanic College Fund to Award $2 Million in Scholarships.

IMMIGRATION WATCH

An e-newsletter monitoring extremism and the anti-immigration movement

[CA] Orange County police round-up Hispanic workers
[LA] Immigrant laborers exploited in New Orleans

[CA] Costa Mesa gives immigrants cold shoulder

Connecticut lectures rally immigrant bashers
Maryland Minutemen accused of 'intimidation'

The Philadelphia Inquirer Editorial

Crossing the Borders Immigration dilemma: Finding middle ground

Immigration isn't hard for everyone.

Take Tanith Belbin, the Canadian who teamed with Ben Agosto last week to become the first "U.S." ice dancers to win an Olympic medal in 30 years. That happened just seven weeks after President Bush signed a new rule shortening the citizenship process for "applicants of extraordinary ability" such as her.

Restoring the Melting Pot

By Edwin J. Feulner

TownHall

Latin will never be a truly dead language -- at least not as long as “E pluribus unum” appears on our money. That’s our national motto: “Out of many, one.” We’ve always been willing to open our arms to immigrants and help them become Americans.

 

New York Times Editorial

The Gospel vs. H.R. 4437

It has been a long time since this country heard a call to organized lawbreaking on this big a scale. Cardinal Roger Mahony of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, the nation's largest, urged parishioners on Ash Wednesday to devote the 40 days of Lent to fasting, prayer and reflection on the need for humane reform of immigration laws.

Take realistic approach based on what's good for America

By William J. Sanchez

America's need to address and implement comprehensive immigration reform is more important now than ever. Having been honored by the recent opportunity to serve the country as a Senate-confirmed White House appointee in matters involving immigration and civil rights, I've begun viewing the debate from a different perspective.

Editorial from The Raleigh News & Observer

Reform immigration: Match workers with jobs

North Carolina can't send the National Guard down to the Mexican border -- or to the South Carolina border, for that matter -- to stop desperate people from coming here. People need to work when there are families to feed, and a $6-an-hour job in North Carolina beats a dollar-an-hour job in Mexico.

Registration must be part of immigration reform

By Sen. John Cornyn

 

As the Senate considers immigration reform in the coming months, it is critical that it do so in a comprehensive manner.

Over the past year, I have worked closely with Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona to conduct a thorough review of our nation's immigration laws, and last summer, we introduced the Comprehensive Enforcement and Immigration Reform Act of 2005 (S. 1483).

On Immigration: Californians United In Solutions to Illegal Immigration

By Mark Baldassare and Hans Johnson

A dozen years ago, the California governor's election was defined by a television commercial with the simple phrase "they keep coming" and footage of illegal immigrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. The advertising enraged liberals and Latinos, but it is also credited with mobilizing conservatives to vote for a citizens' initiative that denied state services to illegal immigrants -- and to re-elect Gov. Pete Wilson…

Wall would increase human smuggling

By Yolanda Chavez Leyva

Tightening up on the borders has perverse -- and fatal -- consequences. A Texas federal court jury recently convicted three people in a notorious human smuggling case.

The crime was grisly: In May 2003, 19 undocumented immigrants -- including a 5-year-old boy -- from Mexico, Central and South America died after being locked in an abandoned truck in Victoria, Texas.

The world according to Slim  

By Fred Rosen

Carlos Slim, the Mexican entrepreneur with a net worth of some US$23.8 billion dollars, has taken it upon himself to put a fire under Mexico’s lukewarm economy by making it more egalitarian. Slim, who was ranked fourth in Forbes Magazine’s most recent listing of the world’s wealthiest people…

A Test of Ethnic Courts for Drunken Drivers

By Randal C. Archibold

 

Attacking what he called racial and ethnic segregation, the Phoenix district attorney filed a federal lawsuit yesterday against Arizona court programs set up to provide treatment for Spanish-speaking and Indian drunken-driving offenders.

Paul Pillar on Iraq

By  Garrett Jones
Paul  Pillar's  article  in  the  March/April  2006  Foreign Affairs,  "Intelligence,   Policy,  and  the  War  in  Iraq"* makes  sad   reading.  Pillar,  who  left  the  intelligence community last  year, would  have us  believe that  from his low-level  position  therein,  he  watched  while  the  Bush administration  perverted   the  intelligence   process...

NEWS  

Of Interest Around the Net

Salma Hayek donates time and money to aid battered women in Mexico

The star handed over checks to groups fighting domestic violence while promoting her new film. Hollywood actress Salma Hayek has made donations to groups aiding battered women in her native Mexico…

Washington State apples: $962.5 million – Marijuana: $270 million

Law enforcement officers harvested a dubious record last year: enough marijuana plants to rank the illegal weed as Washington state's No. 8 agricultural commodity, edging sweet cherries in value.

Rising tide of border crime and violence

By Kris Axtman

First came an armed standoff between Texas lawmen and drug smugglers disguised as Mexican soldiers. Next, federal officials seized a stockpile of heavy-duty weaponry - assault rifles, hand grenades, and improvised…

U.S. Officials Defend Ploys to Catch Immigrants

By Steven Greenhouse

Despite criticism from advocates for immigrants, federal immigration officials said in recent days that they would not forswear the practice of impersonating occupational safety officials to round up illegal immigrants.

Pay high, sell low – Capitalism with a Conscience new breed of Internet merchants

By Ben Dobbin,

Teresa Fritschi seeks out artisans in hidden corners of Scotland, pays generously for their lamb's-wool blankets, Orkney driftwood chairs and organic-tweed jackets, and peddles their indigenous craftsmanship to a far-flung audience over the Internet.

North Border's Guards Who Don't

By Sam Howe Verhovek,

The 100-mph car chase ended in a blaze of gunfire at the Peace Arch, the graceful marble monument that straddles the U.S.-Canada border here and proclaims the two nations to be "Children of a Common Mother."

More tourists travel to Mexico, despite hurricanes

Nearly 22 million foreign tourists visited Mexico last year, 6.5% more than in 2004, according to Tourism Department data. The visitors spent a total of $11.8 billion in Mexico, the department said in a news release Saturday.

Mexico invites the US and Canada to review progress on NAFTA

The government on Thursday said it had offered to host a springtime summit with the United States and Canada to review progress on an agreement aimed at strengthening security and trade.

Member of Granny Brigade adamant about securing U.S. borders

By Carol Morello, Ernesto Londono and Allison Klein

As she breezed off the plane from Salt Lake City, the woman who had come to protest illegal immigration crossed paths with a man who first set foot here as an illegal immigrant.

Inquiring Gringos Want to Know

By Daniel Hernandez

Dear Mexican, Why do Mexicans call white people gringos?
It was the type of impolite question few people would dare ask in everyday Southern California, much less in print.  "Dear Gabacho," began Gustavo Arellano's answer…

IMMIGRATION WATC

A Southern Poverty Law Center e-newsletter monitoring extremism and the anti-immigration movement….

(Five articles are included in this week’s Immigration Watch.)

Eleven Latin American countries will urge the US to forgo border walls

By Sergio De Leon

Latin American diplomats teamed up Monday to lobby Washington against a tough immigration plan that would include a large wall along the Mexico-U.S. border to keep out illegal immigrants.

Delta Mexico route launches – direct flights to Cancun from Cincinnati

By James Pilcher

Delta Air Lines today launches its new flight from the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport to Los Cabos, Mexico, and airline officials say the new flight may not be the only one from its Cincinnati hub to Latin America.

Biggest joint Mexico-U.S. scientific venture ever

By Ioan Grillo

The Associated Press – February 19, 2006 - In the biggest joint Mexico-U.S. scientific venture ever, builders are finishing a monster telescope on top of a volcano that will let astronomers look back 13 billion years and uncover secrets about the creation of the universe.

They're Building in Baja, and Boomers Are Buying

By Evelyn Iritani

For more than a decade, the high-rise tower at Calafia Resort and Villas was an empty shell, a stark reminder of oceanfront dreams gone sour.   Built on the northern Baja California coast shortly before the Mexican peso crash of 1994, the project couldn't find any buyers.

Arrested home-grown Anglo brothers wanted to follow Timothy McVeigh’s acts of terrorism?

By Eric Auchard

U.S. authorities in New Mexico arrested two brothers sought by federal agents for 15 years and found enough explosives to launch an attack on par with the Oklahoma City bombing, the U.S. Marshals Service said on Saturday.

Patrick Osio, Jr. has written a short but intensive E-book on the Mexican perspective on numerous issues between our two countries. The E-book is also an in depth primer on Mexican culture and protocol for better understanding that allows establishing personal and business relationships, and how to avoid the most common faux pas that can ruin relationships and business deals. Literally this book has been of immense help to thousands, you too can gain from Mr. Osio's lifetime experience.