HispanicVista Columnists & Guest Columns

Week of August 8, 2005

Business Section

Commentary & News

Week of August 8, 2005

Continuing California’s Progress

By Patrick Osio, Jr./HispanicVista.com

   August 8, 2005

 

Reflecting a widely held opinion in the United States regarding Mexico’s killing crime wave in Nuevo Laredo, the border city across from Laredo, Texas, the El Paso Times published an editorial praising U.S. Ambassador Tony Garza, a Texan, for having shut down the Nuevo Laredo US Consulate office. The editorial noted how the Mexican government’s called closing the consular office as an “extreme” measure only done during war time.  To which the editorial noted, “In case no one has noticed, there is a war going on in Nuevo Laredo and other places along the border.” It then notes that Mexico “unable to quell the violence has resorted to blaming the United States” for the volume of high-technology weapons that enter Mexico for use by professional criminals including in Nuevo Laredo.

To this the El Paso Times editorial says, “There's undoubtedly some truth to that, but it shouldn't be an excuse for governmental failure to take substantive action.”

(See: Closing consulate was correct move)

By Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger

NCM InfoWire

California is moving in the right direction again. The number of jobs is growing, unemployment is the lowest it has been since 2001 and our economy is doing well. And none of this would have happened if it were not for you, the people. You worked hard and you made California stronger. You expanded businesses and created more jobs and more revenue for our state. Now we must continue this success.

Education: Children are my No. 1 priority, and that is why this year, we are investing more in education than we ever have before, nearly half of our entire budget. However, 30 percent of our freshmen do not graduate from high school. We must do better than that for their sake. This year’s budget supports improvements in our schools in many ways. We will begin rewarding teachers who take difficult jobs where they are needed the most -- in our toughest schools. We will give children healthier meals at school, with more fruits and vegetables. We will spend nearly $70 million to help more students prepare to pass the High School Exit Exam. And we will invest nearly $350 million to help our lowest performing schools improve students’ academic performance.

By Richard N. Baldwin T. /HispanicVista.com

   August 8, 2005

 

FROM MEXICO

    

Although this is primarily directed to the United States readers, there are some points that México would do well to take note of.  Although most Mexicans do not believe that México is at risk for a possible attack, I (as I have said before) beg to differ. And being a big trader with the US doesn't help either.

But our subject today is US national safety in the light of what is going on in the world today. At this writing, the latest attacks were in London, England.

What is striking is the response of both the British people and their security agencies. From the people comes defiance and that old "stiff upper lip" syndrome that the British are famous for. But we should remember that those people have a lot of history in this sort of thing. Remember the "blitz" in WW II? Remember the long IRA terror attacks? The IRA has finally laid down their arms, but Britain learned a lot on how to survive.

By Samuel Peña Guzman
Foreign Investment Coodinator State of Nuevo Leon

The problem of legalizing used cars coming from the United States and the legalization of our fellow citizens residing in the USA are similar problems and both as complex, because general factors seem to be the same considering the costs and benefits each could bring.
The subject is controversial and paradoxical in Mexico, because this situation undoubtedly affects car dealers there. However, it is a problem similar to that discussed with the American government regarding the legalization of our fellow citizens who are "illegally" residing in the United States.
The subject was brought up again a few weeks ago in some states in the north of Mexico due to some statements made by governors. The demand for used cars coming from the United States is rising by the day, especially due to their low price when compared to Mexican cars. Denying the increasing presence of these cars in Mexico would only prove the authorities naïve.

By Raoul Lowery Contreras/HispanicVista.com

   August 1, 2005

 

Over 40 percent of California Hispanics voted for Republicans Arnold Schwarzenegger and State Senator Tom McClintock to replace the Democrat governor recalled on the same ballot.
When “Arnold” won the office, Hispanic Republicans delighted that an immigrant became governor.
Hispanic support of the Austrian immigrant’s handling of California has plummeted in recent months, however.
Three polls: the Public Policy Institute of California reports the Governor’s Hispanic support has declined from 47 percent in January to only 17 percent in July. A poll by San Jose State (conducted, by the way, by a former high level Democrat) shows that the Governor’ Hispanic support dropped from 36 percent in March to 25 percent in July. The Field Poll reports the Governor’s Hispanic support fell from 56 percent in September of 2004 to 26 percent this June.

By William F. Buckley Jr.

TownHall

The vote on CAFTA (the Central American Free Trade Agreement) was heartening, but on the long canvas of free trade activity it is discouraging. What stands out is not the success of the CAFTA bill, but the weakness of its support.

To get the critical two votes on the bill, Mr. Bush practically had to promise individual members of Congress that he would pave their driveways the next time a highway spending bill comes up. He was working against very heavy odds in a bitterly partisan scene. Republicans voted in favor of CAFTA by 202-to-27. Democrats voted against it by 187-to-15. It was just before midnight on Wednesday that one congressman from North Carolina came around. A book will probably be written about the welter of pressures on him.

These pressures begin, properly, with the democratic mandate. This is difficult to measure because the country is almost exactly divided, 50-49, on the general question of free trade.

Culture with Rhythm and Good Food

By Domingo Ivan  Casañas/HispanicVista.com

   August 8, 2005

  

     I have been a proud United States Citizen for over 30 years now.  I still remember when I arrived from Cuba with my family.  To this date people will ask me how I got my blue eyes, and fair skin.  This people are Hispanics as well as Anglos.  I am also given hot sauce to put on my food, because  some people think that Hispanics means Mexican.  I bring this up because our History classes are not doing a good enough job on the difference of cultures when it comes to Latin America.   However, we will tackle that topic in the future.   Today I want to focus on the Latin Rhythm and good food that we bring to America.

There are many facets to our Latino culture and is not limited to Latino food, salsa dancing and entertainment.  Our music and dancing of merengue, bachata, cumbia, samba and salsa are what make us move...

Australia and DR-CAFTA
By Ryan T. Singer, Economic Research Bureau, San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce

San Diegans are savvier than most when it comes to free trade agreements. The impacts of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) are well known. However, most don’t know that the U.S. signed bilateral free trade agreements with Australia and the Dominican Republic–Central America in the last 12 months or what those free trade agreements entail.
Congressional ratification of the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA) would place the final seal of approval on an agreement to mutually reduce tariffs, or taxes, on goods traded between the nations of: the U.S., Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua (collectively “Central America”) and the Dominican Republic....

By Steven J. Ybarra, JD/HispanicVista.com

   July 25, 2005

   Notas por la Casa Politica

 

One night this week I watched “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” which featured Bernstein and Woodward who are famous for their “deep throat” source (not the movie, but the guy).  The interview was great; Bernstein ran the show and directed the conversation to the point he wanted to make.  According to Bernstein, we are too busy fighting ourselves to fight terrorism.  I sat back and listened to this comment and thought damn this guy is good! 

 

(sic)… The other day I was on a plane headed for Virginia to train a bunch of DFA (Democracy for America) folks about how to run a campaign.  I got stuck in Salt Lake City thanks to Delta Airlines and the weather in Texas.  I hate Texas.  My seatmate and I got to talking on the ride to the hotel in Utah where Delta sent us to spend the night.  I looked at his arm and saw the Screaming Eagle tattoo and said “Airborne?” 

By Mike Sunnucks

The Phoenix Business Journal

President Bush's bullish remarks this week regarding immigration reform are boosting the spirits of Arizona business and political supporters of a guest worker program.

Bush voiced some optimism this week that immigration reforms -- including a guest or temporary worker program and beefed up border security -- could be enacted this year. The president made the remarks during discussions with newspaper reporters from Texas.

Arizona Republican Sen. Jon Kyl has put forward a get-tough immigration package that includes a guest worker program but requires the estimated 15 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. to return to their home countries and then reapply for status.

Arizona Sen. John McCain and U.S. Reps. Jeff Flake and Jim Kolbe (all Republicans) want to allow illegals already in the U.S. to apply for legal status after paying a $2,000 fine. Both immigration plans call for increased border security and tougher penalties and enforcement against employers.

By Robert Miranda

Special to HispanicVista.com

Residents in Milwaukee continue to press for Milwaukee County District Attorney E. Michael McCann to file criminal charges in the killing of an unarmed man by off-duty police officer, Alfonso Glover.

Glover states that a road rage of sorts was the crux of the contact between him and Wilbert Javier Prado, a Mexican national and father of two daughters. Prado was shot by Glover eight times, mostly in the back and died in an alley in Milwaukee’s south side. Glover shot at Prado 19 times with his off-duty weapon alleging that Prado had tried to run him over with his vehicle. Glover was not in uniform nor did he have a police badge.

MEXICO CITY (AP) – August 2, 2005 - Mexico announced a series of measures Tuesday for bolstering the economy and making the country more competitive, mainly by cutting down on paperwork.

Speaking at an event in the capita's historic city center, President Vicente Fox said the plan will be executed through 2006, when he is due to step down.

"Certainly this government has not finished ... there is much, but much, to be done in economic terms," he said.

The measures target improvements in trade, health, finances, transport, telecommunications, electricity, oil, migration and local government red tape.

Fox took office in 2000 with an ambitious agenda for reforms aimed at spurring strong economic growth in Mexico, but his initiatives...

HISTORY

By John P. Schmal/HispanicVista.com

Hispanic Representation Up To 1960

With the fortieth anniversary of the signing of the Voting Rights Act, we are reminded that Latino Americans and African Americans have endured a long and difficult struggle to obtain fair political representation in the U.S. Congress. 

Before the signing of that Act, such representation was rarely achieved.  Because of the illegal methods utilized to limit minority participation in the political process, Latino representation to the U.S. Congress from the contiguous forty-eight states had rarely been achieved before 1960 and, in fact, did not improve significantly until after the Voting Rights Act of 1965. 

From 1900 to 1960, seventeen Hispanic Americans served in...

Dallas, TX (PRWEB) August 3, 2005 -- Each year in August urban school systems are inundated with children who do not speak English. It poses a particular problem for schools in Texas, California, and counties along the Mexico Border. Now language technology companies like American Language Solutions are coming up with innovative ways to teach English to native Spanish-speakers. They are encouraging students to sing their way to English fluency.
A representative for American Language Solutions stated, "I always get songs stuck in my head and I end up singing them all day. We thought wouldn’t it be great if kids actually learned something from the songs that get stuck in their head. We realized that singing would be an excellent way to teach English to native Spanish-speakers and we created a program to teach English to school children that’s almost entirely based on songs."…

GUEST

Once Upon A Time in Mexico

By Congresswoman Diane E. Watson (CA-33rd)

The Mexican government re-stoked the flames of racial insensitivity by printing a series of postage stamps that celebrate a  Sambo-like black child cartoon character known as Memin Pinguin.  The stamps' debut follow on the heels of President Vincente Fox's controversial May 13 declaration that Mexican migrants are willing to fill jobs in the U.S. not even wanted by African-Americans. 

The two incidents drew a volley of criticism from politicians and civil rights leaders north of the Rio Grande.  Jesse Jackson traveled to Mexico to meet with Fox.  On the heels of Jackson, Reverend Al Sharpton extended an invitation to the President to meet with him in Harlem, which Fox reportedly accepted.  More recently, the Congressional Black Caucus sent a letter to Fox demanding that he withdraw the racially offensive stamps.

Spanish Language Here to Stay

Study Shows Spanish Speakers to Increase 45% in Coming Years

A landmark study titled: "The Future Use of The Spanish Language In The USA -- Projected to 2015 & 2025" just released by Hispanic U.S.A. Inc. reveals startling results about the dramatic continued growth of Spanish-speakers in America.

The study challenges the assumption that the use of Spanish will decrease in coming years as succeeding generations of Hispanics are born and grow up in this country. In fact, the study shows that the number of Spanish-dominant and bilingual Latinos will increase by 45 percent over the next two decades - adding 12.4 million Spanish-speakers to today's population. 

And it's not just because of continuing immigration. Unlike other immigrant groups, even third-generation Hispanics - those born to Latino parents who themselves were born in the United States - will continue to speak Spanish in extraordinarily large numbers.

GUEST

Border violence
Closing consulate was correct move
El Paso Times Opinion

Mexican authorities have objected strenuously about U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Tony Garza's action in temporarily closing down most of the functions of the U.S. consulate in Nuevo Laredo, just across from Laredo in South Texas.
According to an Associated Press story, Mexico called the action "extreme" and said that actions such as his should be taken only during war.
In case no one has noticed, there is a war going on in Nuevo Laredo and other places along the border.
So far in 2005, almost 20 police officers have been killed in Nuevo Laredo, including a chief of police. More than 80 other people have been killed. During a recent shootout in the town, attackers leveled part of a house with a rocket launcher, and also used machine guns, rifles and grenades in the battle.

Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua News
Shopping in the Age of Imported Icons
Frontera NorteSur (FNS)

Long lines of Ciudad Juarez motorists and pedestrians jammed the Santa Fe bridge to El Paso, Texas, this past weekend to take advantage of bargain shopping on the U.S. side.  Lured by the state of Texas’ 7th annual sales tax holiday, shoppers crowded downtown El Paso stores and outlying malls in search of inexpensive clothing and school supplies. Juarenses traveling  45 minutes farther away to stores in Las Cruces, New Mexico,  also found a  tax-free retail scene, and perhaps along the way they heard the voice of New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson on the radio touting New Mexico’s first-ever sales tax holiday weekend. In contrast, many stores in the downtown Juarez shopping district were virtually empty.
Like thousands of other Juarez residents, Manuel Vazquez tolerated the long wait to pass through U.S. customs and immigration. “One has to find the way to save and see variety and quality,” said Vazquez.

GUEST

Tancredo: "Stupid, Brazen, and Uncivilized"
By James J. Zogby

T r u t h o u t

By even suggesting that Mecca could be bombed in retaliation for a terrorist attack, Congressman Tom Tancredo (R-CO) has made the world a more dangerous place. He is not alone, of course. Ironically, the Congressman has plenty of company among those who, either because of the evil they do or the stupid things they say, have endangered us all.

Now, before I am attacked for establishing a moral equivalence between terrorist bombers and unthinking macho politicos, let me be clear: I know the difference. The sick malevolence that led to 9/11 (US), 7/7 (UK), and 7/23 (Egypt) is dramatically and immediately more evil than the lies that led the US and UK into Iraq or the hate-filled incitement practiced by religious extremists of all stripes. Right thinking innocents can reject and counter the latter, while we are all potential victims of the former.

Friends, Foes Made Over Trade Deal

Groups opposed to CAFTA are targeting House members who helped pass the measure despite resistance in their district or party.

By Warren Vieth, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

WASHINGTON — August 7, 2005 - No sooner had Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) cast his vote in favor of the Central American Free Trade Agreement than anti-CAFTA activists started plotting their revenge.
Labor unions began calling members in Cuellar's southwest Texas district and planning a protest outside his San Antonio office. Opponents of the pact finalized plans to launch a door-to-door, bilingual canvassing effort sometime around Labor Day. "Our intent is to expose the myths he expounds that trade is good for Latinos in his district," said Debbie Russell, who is directing the campaign for the Texas Fair Trade Coalition.

GUEST

A Symbol of Latino Unity

By Randy Jurado Ertll

In the late 1970s, Angela Sanbrano, never imagined that she would be currently leading the largest Central American non-profit organization in the United States.  Angela Sanbrano is Mexican American and is an adopted guanaca, a typical term meaning, Salvadoran.

 Sanbrano is well known and respected among the Latino leadership and she represents the unity that is forming between Mexican Americans and Central Americans.  She serves as a role model to Mexicans, Salvadorans, Guatemalans, Hondurans, Nicaraguans, and many other nationalities. 

 She is a known organizer and effective coalition builder who began her activist career while attending the People’s College of Law in the Pico-Union/Westlake area in the late 1970s.  She saw many Salvadoran refugees who would protest the U.S. intervention in El Salvador and she became curious

How to Stop Identity Theft in 30 Minutes

Your credit card bill just arrived in the mail and you notice a $500 charge for a lawnmower from a home improvement store in Delaware. Wait a minute...you don't have a lawn and you certainly don't live in Delaware! It's identity theft. Quick! What do you do next?

Step 1 - 10 minutes

Call the creditor to notify them of the fraud right away. The creditor should reverse the fraudulent charges and lock your account. You should have photocopies of your credit cards and credit contact numbers stored in a safe place just for this kind of emergency. Be sure to record the times, dates and names of the people you contact in a log for future reference. You can use this worksheet to keep track of your contacts.

GUEST

OVER THE EDGE

Rep. Culberson's call for armed state militias on the border is a reckless approach to dangerous problem.

Houston Chronicle Editorial

Republicans and Democrats agree on little these days, but the combined effects of 9/11 and a newly globalized economy have forged consensus on at least one issue: the need for better border control.

The United States' long southern frontier, lawmakers agree, is unacceptably porous. Across it come illegal migrants seeking work, drug runners hauling their wares and terrorists bent on killing U.S. citizens. Recognizing that most illegal border crossers fall in the first category, several federal lawmakers are crafting thoughtful, bipartisan proposals to solve this complex problem. U.S. Rep. John Culberson's plan to create armed border militias is not one of them.

Immigrants in Northeast reinvigorating ailing districts

By Erin Texeira

The Associated Press
 NEWBURGH, N.Y. - July 31, 2005 - Sunday morning in this small, Hudson Valley city: More than 1,000 parishioners, most from Mexico, pack Spanish-language Masses at St. Patrick's Catholic Church. Afterward, many families flock to El Azteca for its authentic tacos. If somebody needs a ride home, there are at least a dozen local taxi companies catering to newcomers born in the Mexican states of Puebla and Jalisco.

New residents from Mexico have, in the last four years, opened dozens of businesses that have begun to reinvigorate the ailing downtown district; they are the region's fastest growing community. It's the same story elsewhere in the Northeast.

GUEST

Meatpacking's Human Toll

By Lance Compa and Jamie Fellner

Washington Post

Working conditions in U.S. meat and poultry plants should trouble the conscience of every American who eats beef, pork or chicken.

Dispatching the nonstop tide of animals and birds arriving on plant "kill floors" and "live hang" areas has always been hazardous and exhausting labor. Turning an 800-pound animal (or even a five-pound fowl) into products for supermarkets or fast-food restaurants is, by its nature, demanding physical labor in bloody, greasy surroundings.

But meatpacking and poultry workers face more than hard work in tough settings. They perform the most dangerous factory jobs in the country. U.S. meat and poultry employers put workers at predictable risk of serious physical injury even though the means to avoid such injury are known and feasible. In doing so, they violate the right of workers to a safe place of employment.

Investment, Fruit Inspections Delaying S. Korea-Mexico EPA

 

SEOUL, Aug 5, 2005 - Asia Pulse - Investment and easing of import restrictions on tropical fruits is holding up progress in establishing an economic partnership agreement (EPA) between South Korea and Mexico, a government official said Friday.

"Mexico has asked South Korea to pledge investments in that country as a prerequisite for the cooperation accord," said the official at the Europe and Americas division of the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy

This, the official said, is similar to what Mexican policymakers got when they signed a EPA, basically a broader free trade agreement, with Japan in September 2004.

"The Japanese agreed to build a car plant in the country that can produce 50,000 units and have asked if Seoul could do the same," the expert, who wished to remain unanimous, said.

GUEST

Beyond the season of death on the US-Mexico border

By Joseph Nevins

When I arrived in southern Arizona in the first days of June, temperatures were in the 90s - considerably more bearable than two weeks earlier when the mercury spiked and reached 115 degrees. The heat wave marked the early beginning of another "summer of death" in Arizona's Sonoran Desert: Authorities found the bodies of 12 unauthorized immigrants in the scorched terrain stretching from Yuma in the west to Douglas in the east.

This summer has been especially deadly in Arizona as migrants are perishing - most frequently from heatstroke and dehydration - at what appears to be a record pace. Over the July 4 weekend, at least 10 lost their lives. During a four-day period in late July, authorities discovered 14 bodies, including one of a 13-year-old boy. With more than 190 documented migrant deaths in the state since the Oct. 1 start of the current federal fiscal year, the grim toll is on pace to surpass last year's record of 221.

Remittances to Mexico show 18 percent increase

 The remittances, mainly from those living in the U.S., are nearing a record $20B for the year.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - August 1, 2005 - Money sent home by Mexicans living abroad, mainly in the United States, increased nearly 18 percent in the first six months of this year compared with the same period in 2004, the central bank said Monday.

The bank said remittances reached $9.3 billion between January and June and appear to be heading for a new record of $20 billion this year following last year's record $16.6 billion.

The remittances have helped underpin Mexico's economy and are the main source of income in many poor areas. Around one in five Mexicans receives money from a relative working in the United States.

GUEST

The Future Looks Ominous for Immigrants

Editorial, Eduardo Juarez,

El Diario/La Prensa

Republican Congressman John Culberson of Texas and 47 co-sponsors recently introduced House Bill 3622 to establish a “Border Protection Corps.”
This is undoubtedly a response to the fear that exists in the U.S., a country prepared to create a system resembling the Gestapo in Germany, or the KGB in the Soviet Union, in the name of national security.
If this law were approved, we would be living in a nation that promotes and justifies mutual distrust – something that would be contrary and unimaginable to the American forefathers who declared a Bill of Rights composed of one people and one united community that would not discriminate against someone because of their racial profile or nationality.

Notarios publicos exploit name

Immigrants are warned they're not lawyers here, unlike in some Latin countries

By Lori Rodriguez

Houston Chronicle
Harris County family court judges are warning their Spanish-speaking litigants not to use the notario publico services in Hispanic neighborhoods for preparing legal documents.

For years, some Hispanic notaries public have exploited immigrants who believe notarios publicos in the U.S. are like the top-tier attorneys who carry the title in Latin American countries. In this country, a notary is simply someone licensed to formally witness the signing of legal documents.

"There's confusion about the status of who these folks are and how they fit in the legal system. A lot of the Hispanic people think the title gives them an aura of credibility. But a lot of the paper being generated by...

GUEST

Day Laborer Dilemma

Washington Post Editorial
 EVERY MORNING in the parking lot of a Herndon 7-Eleven, 100 or so men enter into a sort of job seekers' state of nature, swarming incoming cars, jostling for a chance to perform a day's work. It's a necessary tactic for these day laborers; the ones who hang back don't get picked up. Of course, not every person who drives into the lot is a prospective employer, and the throng makes some customers uncomfortable.

…Day laborers need a more orderly system to connect with employers, and the center could provide such a mechanism. Workers would also be able to register their specialties, so that an employer looking for a carpenter or an electrician could easily find someone with those skills. Throughout the day in a small classroom inside the trailer, English classes would help acculturate the day laborers, most of whom are immigrants from Latin America.

More Latinas Lighting Up: The Health Effects of Acculturation

Eastern Group Publications

News Report, Staff,

Aug 02, 2005

Hispanic women who immigrate to the United States are lighting up cigarettes at higher rates than their female counterparts in Spanish-speaking countries, while Hispanic men's smoking rates remain unchanged, according to a new systematic review of studies by Marc and Bethel Schenker.
The review provides an overview of 11 studies surveying a total of 26,611 predominantly Mexican men and women. Nine studies revealed a significant positive association between acculturation and current smoking status, with smoking rates more than doubling from 11 percent to 25.1 percent in one such study.

GUEST

LATINO-JEWISH AGENDA

Jews, Latinos Assess Nomination of Judge John G. Roberts to Supreme Court

On July 19, President George W. Bush nominated Judge John G. Roberts to replace Justice Sandra Day O’Connor in the Supreme Court. Roberts served on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit for two years. He also has a body of work from his four years as deputy solicitor general under President George H. W. Bush, but it is unclear how much can be made of his writings in that post because he was advocating for a client--the federal government--and not expressing his personal views.

Mexico Airfares May Decline on Budget Carriers

(Bloomberg) – August 4, 2005 - Mexico's domestic airfares, often more expensive than international flights, may plunge as much as 50 percent after new discount carriers begin flying and the government sells two airlines to private investors.

Mexican billionaires Carlos Slim and Emilio Azcarraga unveiled plans last week for a low-fare domestic startup, bringing to four the number of such airlines the Transportation Ministry says will offer service by early next year. The government also completed its bidding process for the nation's two state airlines, Aeromexico and Mexicana.

GUEST

The New Latino South

Rakesh Kochhar, Roberto Suro and Sonya Tafoya

Pew Hispanic Center

The Hispanic population is growing faster in much of the South than anywhere else in the United States. Across a broad swath of the region stretching westward from North Carolina on the Atlantic seaboard to Arkansas across the Mississippi River and south to Alabama on the Gulf of Mexico, sizeable Hispanic populations have emerged suddenly in communities where Latinos were a sparse presence just a decade or two ago. Examined both individually and collectively, these communities display attributes that set them apart from the nation as a whole and from areas of the country where Latinos have traditionally settled.

In the South, the white and black populations are also increasing and the local economies are growing robustly, even as some undergo dramatic restructuring. Such conditions have acted as a magnet to young, male, foreign-born Latinos migrating in search of economic opportunities…

PFA Receives $1 Million From Head of Univision
By Chris Cillizza,
Roll Call Staff

The conservative soft-money organization at the forefront of the efforts to overhaul Social Security and confirm Supreme Court nominee John Roberts received a $1 million contribution in April to fund its efforts, according to reports recently filed with the Internal Revenue Service.
Progress for America raised $1.3 million from Jan. 1 to June 30, the vast majority of which came from a seven-figure check cut by Jerry Perenchio, CEO of the Spanish-language television network Univision. Last October, Perenchio donated $3 million to PFA.
Even with Perenchio's donation, the group remains far from its pledge to spend $18 million on ads aimed at confirming Roberts. In the first six months of 2005, PFA spent roughly $5 million.

COMMENTARY

THE BEST FROM THE NET

August 8, 2005

NEWS  

Of interest you may have missed for

Week of August 8, 2005

ANNOUNCEMENTS

1. Mexican Folkloric Dance Recital Celebrates

2. Dedication of "The Battle of Medina"

3. Chicken Soup for the Latino Soul

Arizona resident arrested for gun smuggling into Mexico – faces 10 years

TUCSON – August 6, 2005 - Arizona Authorities have arrested a man on charges that he was smuggling guns and firearm parts into Mexico, a U.S. official said.

Paul F. Stine bought AK-47s, parts for the assault rifles and .38caliber and 9mm pistols and on at least one occasion negotiated a shipment of 20 AK-47s to Mexico, Arizona Daily Star reported, citing records.

Get a passport so you can get a driver’s license?

By Calvin Woodward/

The Associated Press

ELLSWORTH, Kan. - August 3, 2005 - Federal law will make county treasurer Paula Schneider do something that would be plain rude on the streets of this little town: treat friends as strangers.

Never mind that she knows practically everyone who walks into her office and wants a driver's license. Under the REAL ID Act meant to deter terrorists, Schneider will have to make neighbors prove who they are.

Trespass Arrests of Foreigners Face Challenge

In New Hampshire, police frustrated with federal inaction caught illegal immigrants.

By Elizabeth Mehren, Times Staff Writer

JAFFREY, N.H. — August 6, 2005 - A judge heard lawyers for an area police department argue Friday that stopping illegal immigrants in their vehicles and arresting them for criminal trespass was a novel and legally valid way to promote public safety and protect national borders.
"What the state is doing in this case, we are trying to create a situation where within our community, police are able to perform their function of protecting public safety by enabling the citizenry to know who is among them," said prosecutor Brenda Hume…

Not only Natalee is missing

Is the media inattention to missing women who aren't white due to deliberate racism or unconscious bias?

By Anne-Marie O'Connor,

Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

August 5, 2005

As one of America's new breed of media critics, Philadelphia blogger Richard Blair watched for weeks as the media devoted intense coverage to the story of the May 30 disappearance of Natalee Holloway while on a high school graduation trip to Aruba.
Then, on July 18, another young woman went missing, this one in his hometown. Photos of LaToyia Figueroa, 24, show the kind of smiling, attractive young woman whose disappearance has become a staple of television news coverage, particularly cable news, in recent years.

Killings continue as consulate set to reopen

Nuevo Laredo US consulate to reopen, but killings continue

Wire Service

August 6, 2005

Unidentified gunmen shot dead a Nuevo Laredo city councilman and a police commander just blocks from city hall Friday, continuing a wave of underworld violence gripping the border city this year.

Leopoldo Ramos Treviño, 44, who headed the city council's public security committee, died in a fusillade of bullets at 9:20 a.m. as he drove his pickup toward city hall in downtown Nuevo Laredo. Witnesses told police that three teenage gunmen boarded a car and drove off following the assassinations.

Nuevo Laredo News
Agreement Announced Over Consulate Reopening as Violence Continues
Frontera NorteSur (FNS):

 Mexican Interior Minister Carlos Abascal announced late Wednesday, August 3, that his government had reached an agreement with the United States to reopen the U.S. Consulate in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas. In a Mexico City press briefing following a meeting with U.S. Ambassador Tony Garza, Abascal said the consulate would be open for business soon but did not give an exact date. Quickly retiring from the meeting, Garza avoided reporters’ questions. The U.S. ambassador last week announced the closure of the consulate for this week because of a worsening public security situation in Nuevo Laredo. 

Americans caught in drug-related disappearances in Mexico

By Susana Hayward, Knight Ridder Newspapers

 

NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico – August 4, 2005 - Last September, Brenda Cisneros was celebrating her 23rd birthday with her family at a restaurant in Laredo, Texas, when she begged her father to let her go to a concert with a friend across the border in Nuevo Laredo.

"Please, Daddy, I'm a grown-up now," her father, Pablo Cisneros, remembers her pleading. Reluctantly, he said yes. "I know you're legally an adult," he recalls telling her, "but remember, you'll always be my baby."

His daughter and her best friend, Yvette Martinez, set out for Nuevo Laredo and a concert featuring the popular ranchero singer Pepe Aguilar on Sept. 17. Cisneros hasn't seen them since.

Spanish Increasingly the Language of Choice in Halls of Congress

Spanish is becoming a requirement to work in the halls of the United States Congress. With a few prominent senators addressing their colleagues in Spanish, others taking Spanish lessons, and many more legislators adding Spanish speakers to their communications teams, the language spoken by the largest minority group in the U.S. has a solid foothold in the halls of power. The Republican leader in the Senate, Bill Frist, who has presidential aspirations, began studying Spanish and even recorded in Spanish a political statement on the contentious Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), in his unmistakable Tennessee accent. "It is a phenomenom that reflects the demographic, cultural, and political reality of the country," said Michael Shifter of Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington- based research institute.

Demos want Latinos back – promise more.

By Abe Levy

SAN ANTONIO (AP) – August 7, 2005 - Democrats took their fight for Hispanic votes to the president's home state Saturday, vowing to increase their party's appeal among the nation's fastest-growing minority group by giving Hispanics more resources and leadership positions.

"There will soon be a Hispanic governor in the state of Texas," Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, told the more than 400 party leaders attending the third Hispanic Leadership Summit. "There are people sitting in this room who will run for governor."

A strong focus of the weekend summit has been turning back the Republican Party's advances among Hispanic voters in recent years.

Republican Latinos
Their Numbers Appear To Be Growing, So Why Aren’t They In The Arizona Legislature?
By Christian Palmer
In 2004 strategists for George W. Bush sought approval from “NASCAR dads” and “security moms.” Democratic presidential hopeful Howard Dean scored high with ‘campus kids’ but drew heavy criticism for seeking support from “guys with Confederate stickers in their pickup trucks.”
Phoenix resident José Esparza is also part of an emerging subgroup that will likely be courted by strategists — the Republican-voting Latino.
Attracted to GOP ideals and feeling politically stranded, Mr. Esparza, 31, formed the Arizona Latino Republican Association three years ago with his sister, Blanca, and a friend, Tempe City Council candidate and former 2004 District 17 Senate candidate Jesse Hernandez. At their first major event, manning a booth at a Cinco de Mayo parade, he says the crowd received them with shock and jeers. Today the organization has about 200 members and in reward for his efforts, Mr. Esparza was sponsored by Arizona Sen. John McCain to serve as an Arizona delegate to the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York.

Five Myths About Immigration:   Common Misconceptions Underlying U.S. Border-Enforcement Policy
(The first in a two part series on Rethinking Immigration)
By Douglas S. Massey, Ph.D.^*

Executive Summary

The current crisis of undocumented immigration to the United States has its roots in fundamental misunderstandings about the causes of immigration and the motivations of immigrants. A growing body of evidence indicates that current border enforcement policies are based on mistaken assumptions and have failed. Undocumented migrants continue to come to the United States, rates of apprehension are at all-time lows, and migrants are settling in the United States at higher rates than ever before. Developing effective and realistic immigration policies requires overcoming five basic myths about immigration:

MYTH 1. Migration is Caused by Lack of Economic Development in Migrants’ Home Countries

3 crowded houses targeted
Brookhaven officials order closure of homes they say had as many as 90 tenants; owners face $10,000 fines

BY Erik German, Bart Jones and Kai Ma
STAFF WRITERS; Jennifer Maloney also contributed to this story

Brookhaven town officials Friday launched another volley in their ongoing war on illegal housing, ordering the closing of three residences they said housed as many as 90 tenants.

In documents filed in State Supreme Court in Riverhead, the town alleged that the conditions in the houses, all zoned for single-family - one in Ronkonkoma and two in Farmingville - were filthy and overcrowded, with fire hazards such as exposed wiring and blocked exits.

The homeowners each face possible $10,000 fines for violations of town codes, officials said. Two of the homeowners could not be reached for comment, but one said he'd been duped by his tenants. Officials said the homeowners must bring the three homes up to code.

Death and Deliverance

The desert swallows another border crosser, but her father is determined to find her body.

By Richard Marosi, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
August 7, 2005

Trudging through a sun-baked expanse filled with cactus and mesquite, Cesareo Dominguez looked into the sky and saw eight circling vultures.
For 21 days, he had walked the Arizona desert looking for the body of his daughter, Lucresia. She had left their village in the mountains of central Mexico in June. Led by a band of smugglers, she had crossed the border with her son, Jesus, 15, and her 7-year-old daughter, Nora.

The children survived the journey. But Lucresia was still in the desert somewhere. Jesus told his grandfather that he had left her lying on the bank of a wash, exhausted and incoherent.
But where? How could Dominguez hope to find her in this vast wilderness blanketed with dense mesquite forests, giant ocotillo trees and spiny cholla cactuses?

Mexico plans health care for migrants

By Hernán Rozemberg
San Antonio Express-News Immigration Writer

 

Acknowledging many of its citizens in the United States lead risky lives without medical coverage, the Mexican government will unveil a new program next month offering them unprecedented access to treatment — back home.

Meant as a move to improve both health care and relations with its northern neighbor, the program actually is an extension of Mexico's Seguro Popular, a national low-cost health care system akin to Medicare. The government covers most of the cost.

About 400,000 migrants are expected to be eligible this year, said Juan Fernández Ortiz, a national health commissioner in charge of the program. He said President Vicente Fox will officially launch the program in Zacatecas in August.

How to get Mexican nationals to cast absentee votes the subject of discussions

Wire Service – August 6, 2005 - Activists were discussing ways Friday to encourage millions of Mexicans living abroad to cast the country's first absentee ballots during next summer's presidential elections.

The directors of migrants groups in California, Texas, Illinois and Iowa planned to use 3,000 activists to promote the expatriate vote across the United States, said Primitivo Rodríguez, coordinator of the Coalition for the Political Rights of Mexicans Abroad.

One of the first steps will be putting together lists of registered voters from each Mexican state who live outside of the country because the ballots they cast will go toward the vote totals of their home states, he said.

Baja California News
A Slaughter of Sea Lions
Frontera NorteSur
August 2, 2005
In the struggle for control of Baja California's coastal waters, the sea lions appear to be losing out to the global fish market. In the first 7 months of 2005, at least 53 sea lions died in Baja California. The death toll is a leap from 2003 when at least 8 deaths were tallied and 2004 when 15 were counted. Ricardo Castellanos Percevault, the Baja California state delegate of the Federal Attorney General for Environmental Protection, said more than half of this year's dead sea lions were shot or bludgeoned to death.
"Our inspectors find between three and four dead sea lions every month, either with bullets in their bodies or with their heads destroyed because somebody smashed them in,"

Political animals Jaguares on the prowl in Mexico By Mark Brown, Rocky Mountain News

 Even a hint of politics in song is a pretty good way to kill radio airplay in the U.S. But Mexico's Jaguares are fierce in their politics, criticizing the Mexican government for alleged torture, unsolved mass murders and other human-rights violations.

"I'm ashamed about what has happened in my country. It looks like there's no interest in the truth. . . . There are problems in all the countries of the world, but I think we are lost," Blunt sentiments like those put to melodic hard rock have made Jaguares a force in both music and politics in Mexico, even if it's still struggling to break north of the border. The band headlines the Gothic Theatre on Saturday night.

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 on immense help to thousands, you too can gain from Mr. Osio's lifetime experience.