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| The Hispanic silent majority | |
Political analysts suggest that President Bush is attempting to navigate immigration reform so as to placate both his conservative Republican supporters and the burgeoning Hispanic electorate. If the analysis is right, wow, one more mistake in a long line of mistakes. We are familiar with the expression “the silent majority” referring to voters going about their daily lives without fanfare saving their frustrations for election day when their silence becomes a scream heard from coast to coast. But, there seems to be little awareness to the existence of a “Hispanic silent majority” that likewise is present, and as it grows will become a very, very loud scream. |
By Roberto Lovato The
Chiapanecan Indian and Nicaraguan farm workers fled their bucolic but
troubled rural homelands to harvest these fields carpeted with colorful
tulips under the gray skies of northernmost Washington State. They make on
average $10,000 a year, have high rates of infant mortality and most won’t
live past 50. Yet, despite these conditions, they’ll tell you they fare
better than they did back home: there are no forests decimated by bombs; no
blood-stained roads or other grisly reminders of wars left behind; most
importantly, their children’s future will surely be better. |
| Minutemen Exposed By Their Own | A Day without Undocumented Workers |
The media tripped all over itself in a feeding frenzy when it adopted the Minutemen Border watchers as heroes. Leading the way were Fox News Channel, its primetime star, Bill O’Reilly, LA (KFI) Talk hosts "John and Ken," and San Diego’s former mayor, Roger Hedgecock. Joining the radio and TV talkers were politicians like Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who called the Minutemen "fantastic," California State Senator and prospective congressional candidate, Bill Morrow and myriad little politicians and candidates like State Assemblymen Ray Haynes and Jay LeSeur. |
By Luis Padilla MS (sic)… In agriculture, these needs have historically been resolved through a marriage of convenience. On the one hand, employers took their chances and got affordable willing workers; on the other; workers got a job, were able to enroll their children in school, and could even dream about joining the middle-class, or advancing their professional career. Today, this arrangement is in trouble because a large underground labor market, rife with fake documents and violent smugglers, makes it increasingly unsatisfactory to both parties. After 9/11, mutual economic self-interest remains but security and humanitarian considerations can no longer be ignored. The situation has become most critical in U.S. agriculture where 60% to 75% of the workforce is estimated to be illegal. |
| What Free Trade Agreements Are Not | Why so many people coming across? |
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By Elsa Salazar Cade It’s biology! So sorry to break the news to you, but it’s all about biology. If more people had studied their biology in school, we would understand so much better what all these issues are all about and face the truth about why we do what we do. We should consider the implications for our children and the future of the nation. But no, we want to deny that science has anything to do with this and see the world through red or blue glasses and then ignore the consequences for the results. Ultimately, we behave in a way that maximizes the “fruit” of our investments and reduce the waste of our efforts. But it depends on who we regard as our family and why this has implications for the future of Americans. What does that have to do with immigration, education and racism in America and the Mexican Americans who have been a part of this nation for many generations? |
| French Paradox | |
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By Hector M. Barajas Reflecting on the situation in France, I am reminded
that people in glass houses should not throw stones. |
| What We NEED, Is NOT What We Are Getting! Take Action! | Hard work opens American's eyes |
The House Homeland Security Committee passed, by voice vote, the "Border Security and Terrorism Prevention Act" (H.R. 4312) on Thursday, November 17. The bill has appreciably worsened to such an extent through amendment that original cosponsor Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-CA) is purportedly withdrawing her name from the bill. What would this bill do? |
By JOHN SALAS
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The Immigration Debate: The Politics of Fear Do Not Always Carry The Day |
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An e-newsletter monitoring extremism and the
anti-immigration movement |
| Policies on Illegal Immigrants at Odds | The Rise Of America's New Enemy |
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Contradictions breed anger and confusion as U.S., state and local governments enact varying laws. The free market sets own rules. By Anna Gorman and Jennifer Delson, Times Staff Writers Illegal immigrants receive in-state tuition for
California colleges but don't qualify for federal loans. And they
regularly find jobs at publicly funded hiring halls but can't lawfully work. |
By John Pilger I was dropped at Paradiso, the last middle-class area before barrio La Vega, which spills into a ravine as if by the force of gravity. Storms were forecast, and people were anxious, remembering the mudslides that took 20,000 lives. "Why are you here?" asked the man sitting opposite me in the packed jeep-bus that chugged up the hill. Like so many in Latin America, he appeared old, but wasn't. Without waiting for my answer, he listed why he supported President Chavez: schools, clinics, affordable food, "our constitution, our democracy" and "for the first time, the oil money is going to us." I asked him if he belonged to the MRV, Chavez's party, "No, I've never been in a political party; I can only tell you how my life has been changed, as I never dreamt." |
| Ports air pollution causes highest health risks – plans to stop it in Baja port expansion. | The Idiots Abroad |
Seventeen-year-old Maribel Garcia not her real name has wasted away to 76 pounds. Eduardo Mora has been in the hospital five years with lung cancer, though he never smoked a cigarette in his life. They are not alone, but being among the residents of an area with one of the world's highest cancer risks and rates of premature death is no consolation. Theirs are the West Coast cities of San Pedro and Wilmington, Calif., which are adjacent to the twin ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, the largest shipping facility on the eastern Pacific Rim, and the single largest pollution source in their airshed. |
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The Minutemen could be heard before they were seen. First came the bullhorns barking "This is America, not Mexico" and "No work today. The Minutemen have arrived." Then the group of two dozen men and women, holding U.S. flags and cameras in their hands, turned the corner and started bearing down on Hispanic workers waiting for jobs outside the Macehualli day-labor center in northern Phoenix, Ariz. Sensing trouble, some took refuge behind the gates of the center, and others melted away down side streets. As the laborers fled, the protesters tried to take pictures of their faces. "This is our country!" shouted a Minuteman. "We are under invasion." |
'I was doing a presentation for a major retailer and they said `is she really Latin?' People don't think I'm Latin enough because of my name!'' says an indignant Hoffmann. It's a far cry from the days when the likes of Ramón Estévez and Richard Valenzuela had to become Martin Sheen and Ritchie Valens, respectively, to make it in show biz. |
"Part of my job is being a good listener," Hillary Clinton wrote, in the first line of her letter received today. As a New Yorker, I'm represented by Hillary in the U.S. Senate. Along with her two-page fundraising letter, I received a four-page "2005 Critical National Issues Survey." But something was missing -- something Hillary obviously doesn't want to hear about: IRAQ. Nowhere in the letter or the questionnaire was that four-letter word. Hillary's first question asked me to rank nine issues in their "order of importance." Iraq wasn't on the list. Nor was there a place I could add an issue she'd somehow forgotten about. |
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Summit of the Americas
Fails to Establish Agreement on F.T.A.A. |
The stage was set for a showdown. When the Bush cabinet announced intentions to revive the moribund Free Trade Area of the Americas at the Fourth Summit of the Americas in Mar del Plata, the countries of the Southern Common Market closed ranks to prevent it. What followed was a diplomatic melee that reflects not so much divisions within Latin America, as a growing resistance to the current free trade model throughout the developing world. The November summit was officially billed as a forum to discuss employment, and the issue of creation of a Free Trade Area of the Americas was not even on the agenda. |
The war in Iraq is not going as advertised. It is a flawed policy wrapped in illusion. The American public is way ahead of us. The United States and coalition troops have done all they can in Iraq, but it is time for a change in direction. Our military is suffering. The future of our country is at risk. We can not continue on the present course. It is evident that continued military action in Iraq is not in the best interest of the United States of America, the Iraqi people or the Persian Gulf Region. General Casey said in a September 2005 Hearing, “the perception of occupation in Iraq is a major driving force behind the insurgency.” General Abizaid said on the same date, “Reducing the size and visibility of the coalition forces in Iraq is a part of our counterinsurgency strategy.” |
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Time was when you could get shot for being a priest in Mexico. How things have changed! At a meeting of the Mexican Episcopal Conference this month, the Catholic Church, having gradually recovered a precarious but real place in Mexican society in the 80-odd years since the violent anti-clericism of the 1920s and 30s, set out what can only be called a strategy for the 2006 elections. It is being circumspect. Mexico's constitution expressly forbids political activity by any ecclesiastical group, so it is focusing on issues that concern it rather than offering direct support to any political party or politician. |
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The federal government did something Tuesday it should have done more than three years ago. It charged Jose Padilla with a crime. Padilla is a former Chicago gang member and convert to radical Islam who was arrested in May 2002 at O'Hare airport. At a dramatic news conference, then-attorney general John Ashcroft accused Padilla of plotting to detonate a crude nuclear device known as a "dirty bomb." Later, government officials said he was scheming to blow up apartment buildings. |
CARLOS ARREDONDO, a wiry man with expansive gestures, circles the Cambridge Common, handing out copies of letters his son Alexander wrote in January 2003 as he shipped out for his first tour of duty in Iraq. "I feel so lucky to be blessed with the chance to defend my country 6 months after I joined the military," Alexander writes to his brother. To his parents: "I am not afraid of dying. I am more afraid of what will happen to… |
Benedict XVI Encourages Teaching of Latin
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SACRAMENTO - Associated Press – Nov. 23, 2005 - By 2020, California will be more crowded, its population older and its racial composition dominated by Hispanics, according to a report released Tuesday. The changes will pose challenges to state lawmakers, who will have to grapple with the additional pressures on already strained schools and health care systems, according to the report by the California Budget Project. In just 15 years, one in seven Californians will be age 65 or older, the state will add 10 million residents, and Hispanics will account for 43 percent of the population, with whites accounting for about 34 percent. |
“Made in Mexico” Border Patrol uniforms: Embarrassing or sign of the times? WASHINGTON – (Associated Press) – November 27, 2005 - The labels inside the U.S. Border Patrol uniforms have been making many federal agents feel uneasy. It's not the fit or feel of the olive-green shirts and pants, but what their labels read: "Made in Mexico." "It's embarrassing to be protecting the U.S.-Mexico border and be wearing a uniform made in Mexico," says T.J. Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council, a 6,500-member union. Agents and lawmakers are concerned about the consequences if the uniforms for agents charged with combating illegal immigration fall into the hands of criminals or terrorists. |
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Mexican child kidnappers find market in US (Associated Press) – November 27, 2005 - A Baja California state prosecutor said several people arrested for offering to buy a child in Tijuana have reportedly confessed to stealing children or buying them, some from their own parents and sending at least four to the United States. At least one child was allegedly handed over to the group by her own mother, apparently in exchange for about US1,000. She and three other children were sent apparently in exchange for even more money to "adoptive" families in New York, Florida and Virginia. |
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The chamber invited the candidates to speak on "Mexico's Competitiveness" with more than 500 representatives of U.S. companies operating in Mexico. Also present was former U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Jeffery Davidow, Central Bank governor Guillermo Ortiz, and Autonomous Technological Institute (ITAM) professor Denise Dresser. U.S. Chamber of Commerce CEO Thomas Donahue, who opened the event, said this was "an exciting time" in Mexico's history. "The presidential campaign will provide further evidence of Mexico's democratic maturity as it begins to take shape over the next year," he said. |
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LOS ANGELES – In October, three illegal immigrants were arrested at Fort Bragg in North Carolina using false IDs. In August, six Mexican nationals were arrested at Fort Irwin, Calif. In July, six more illegal immigrants were found at Homestead Air Reserve Base in Homestead, Fla. A division of the Department of Homeland Security has continued to ramp up post-9/11 investigations of what it considers key strategic sites across America: airports, power plants, and military installations. These investigations are routinely turning up so many illegal workers that concern is mounting - from Congress to terror watch-groups - that serious security breaches are possible at some of the most strategic and critical sites in the country. |
So far, Mexico's expatriate voting plan is a flop
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WATSONVILLE, Calif. – Associated Press Writer - Nov. 27, 2005 - Shoppers rifle through store shelves brimming with succulent tomatoes and plump strawberries, hoping to enjoy one last round of fresh fruit before the Western growing season ends. There is no hint of a dark side to the blaze of red. Strawberries are a painful subject for Guillermo Ruiz. The farm worker believes his headaches, confusion and vision trouble stem from a decade working in the fields with methyl bromide, a pesticide that protects the berries with stunning efficiency. Cheri Alderman, a teacher whose classroom borders a farm, fears her students could inhale a dangerous whiff of the fumigant as it drifts from the adjacent strawberry field. "A little dribble of poison is still poison," she says. |
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CARACAS, Venezuela — Nov. 25, 2005 - Three years after
President Hugo Chavez purged 20,000 employees from state-owned Petroleos de
Venezuela, the oil giant's production still hasn't recovered, but many who
became part of a global diaspora of Venezuelan talent slowly are putting
their lives and careers back together. |
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By Patrick Osio,
Jr./HispanicVista.com
By
Raoul Lowery Contreras/HispanicVista.com
By
Richard N. Baldwin T. /HispanicVista.com
By Manuel Hernandez/HispanicVista.com
Ingrid
Hoffmann's Teutonic name has always provoked queries about its origin ever
since she was growing up in Colombia. But now that she's branding herself
as a Miami-based Latin cooking and entertainment media maven, the
attention has gotten more than a little irksome.