For evolving reasons, Spanish proficiency in this country has boiled down to that old saying "You're damned if you do, and damned if you don't."

What am I referring to?

Well, in the first case, it seems that the nation’s top Latin music chain, Ritmo Latino, has banned J.Lo from its stores’ racks.


Jennifer Lopez
(Source: slantmouth.com)

Por que?

According to David Massry, president of Ritmo Latino, J. Lo “has refused personally to promote her new CD in any of our stores” and won’t appear at other outlets devoted only to Latin music.”

He continues to charge that “This is not the first time this has happened. Celebrities have this notion that when they reach a certain level of crossover appeal, they forget quickly where they started,” he said. “We will no longer tolerate these situations.”

Interestingly, J.Lo’s camp has not issued a rebuttal to these charges. One would think that you would not want to risk alienating or offending such a large fan-base, especially her own raza.

Which leads me to offer my theory as to why J.Lo no quiere visitar esas tiendas Latinas (she doesn’t want to visit these Latin stores):

Could it be that she doesn’t speak Spanish all that well?

The critics will jump to say “But her newest album is all in Spanish and has gotten excellent reviews.”

So what?

A lot of artists sing in Spanish but that’s not their first language or the one that they are comfortable in speaking.


J. Lo's new album "Como Ama Una Mujer"
(Source: amazon.com)

Anyone can sing a song in Spanish – Beyonce just did with Shakira, but it doesn’t mean she speaks Spanish fluently.


J.Lo at Univisions's Premio Lo Nuestro
(Source: Univision)

I know that J.Lo appeared at Univision’s Premio Lo Nuestro in February. She walked the red carpet with her husband Marc Anthony and she even stopped and chatted with the carpet reporters.

She did a decent job in Spanish but she never reached the velocity at which Marc rambled. She even presented an award but who can’t read a script?

J.Lo is familiar with Spanish, speaks it well enough but maybe, just maybe not well enough to carry spontaneous rapid-fire conversations with the kinds of fans who most likely shop at Ritmo Latino.

And is that such a crime?

Are all Latinas expected to speak flawless Spanish — simply because they are Latina?

Should not being fluent in their cultural language be held against them?

Because of this fear of not being able to speak Spanish with proficiency, public figures like J.Lo opt out of putting themselves in uncomfortable situations — even if it means angering/disappointing a whole lot of fans.

Instead of blasting J.Lo, the president of Ritmo Latino should extend another invitation with no expectation that J.Lo would speak Spanish.

If the pressure is removed, J.Lo would certainly feel more relaxed and perhaps not quite afraid to face her Spanish-speaking fans.

In another case regarding Spanish, it seems the research says that those who are Spanish-dominant are less educated and have lower incomes.

In an
analysis of El Paso television station KVIA’s ratings during the February sweeps, the author noted the difference between bilingual Latinos and the Spanish-dominant and this effect on ad dollars for the tv station.


KVIA station logo

Kevin Lovell writes: You might well see cross-promotional ads touting the news success of Spanish-language KINT in the El Paso Times. But KINT builds its audience on Spanish-dominant viewers. Research shows that Spanish-dominant viewers tend to be less educated and have lower income levels than bilingual Hispanics who prefer tuning to KVIA and other English-language news. Local advertisers are savvy about this and as a result KVIA consistently achieves top local billing in the market. National advertisers still tend to think that the preferred way to reach Hispanics is through Spanish-language means. That’s why KINT dominates the flow of national advertising dollars into El Paso.

Recently I was greatly relieved to see that some agency or decision maker with Albertson’s Supermarkets finally began buying English language television in El Paso. Common sense dictates that it was not spending its advertising dollars wisely by choosing to only place broadcast advertising on KINT.

To speak Spanish, or not to speak it.

To speak it well, or not good enough.

To speak both English and Spanish, or only one or the other.

To speak without casting judgment.

First, there were THESE headlines:

Latinos hurt by digital divide, report says

Latinos lagging in Internet use, report states

Study finds wide Internet gap among US Latinos

US Latinos Less Likely to Use Internet


Juan Manuel Reyes- Hernandez, 12, plays games on the internet.
(Source: Statesmanjournal.com)

All of the above stories dealt with the March 14, 2007 report released by the Pew Internet & American Life Project and Pew Hispanic Center titled Latinos Online: Hispanics with lower levels of education and English proficiency remain largely disconnected from the internet.

Among some of the report's findings were:

78% of Latinos who are English-dominant and 76% of bilingual Latinos use the internet, compared with 32% of Spanish-dominant Hispanic adults.

76% of U.S.-born Latinos go online, compared with 43% of those born outside the U.S. Some of this is related to language, but analysis shows that being born outside of the 50 states is an independent factor that is associated with a decreased likelihood of going online.

80% of second-generation Latinos, the sons and daughters of immigrants, go online, as do 71% of third-generation Latinos.

89% of Latinos who have a college degree, 70% of Latinos who completed high school, and 31% of Latinos who did not complete high school go online.

Mexicans are the largest national origin group in the U.S. Latino population and are among the least likely groups to go online: 52% of Latinos of Mexican descent use the internet. Even when age, income, language, generation, or nativity is held constant, being Mexican is associated with a decreased likelihood of going online.


It is obvious this report deals with a certain segment of the Latino community. Yet, by the media headlines, one would never know it. The assumption, without even reading the full article, would lead the casual reader to think that the Internet is unchartered territory for ALL Latinos.

Then come THESE headlines this week:

Online U.S. Hispanics Are Internet Trend Setters,Study Shows

Study Finds Hispanics Avid Consumers Of Online Media

'Media Meshing' Comes Easy to Hispanics

U.S. Hispanics Quick to Embrace Digital Media


All these articles were regarding a new study released this week by Experian Simmons Research and YAHOO! Telemundo titled Conexión Cultural/Connected Culture.

Among some of this report's findings included:

Hispanics with Internet access outpace the general population in reported hours of daily media and technology use, identifying a total of 51 hours of total daily activities including 27 percent of each day (14 hours) spent with technology, and 26 percent (13.5 hours) spent with media (the general market identified only eight hours a day with technology and nine hours with media).

Online U.S. Hispanics are early adopters and users of media, devices and their features compared to the general population

Online U.S. Hispanics are highly experienced and multi-faceted on the Internet. Two-thirds have been online for more than five years, 80 percent have access to broadband and 44 percent have wireless access.

Although study respondents consume Spanish language media, Spanish dominant respondents stated that they consume two-thirds of their online content in English due to the lack of Spanish language options.

The difference between the two sets of headlines clearly shows that a divide does exist in the Latino community, but it is a divide regarding the impression of the Latino community that is perpetuated by the media.
Even the Pew report conceded that:

76% of U.S.-born Latinos go online, compared with 43% of those born outside the U.S. Some of this is related to language, but analysis shows that being born outside of the 50 states is an independent factor that is associated with a decreased likelihood of going online.

80% of second-generation Latinos, the sons and daughters of immigrants, go online, as do 71% of third-generation Latinos.

It goes without saying that the US Latino population is complex. There are the immigrants and there are the native born. Both groups with distinct needs and challenges, but to take the first report’s findings and apply them without thought to the entire US Latino population does all Latinos a big disservice.

By “lump identifying” Latinos, it feeds into low academic expectations of all Latinos, the assumption that all Latinos speak fluent Spanish, prefer telenovelas over sitcoms, are technologically illiterate and every other bad stereotype.

While it’s important to measure and know the challenges that face immigrant Latinos, it is equally important to know the challenges that U.S –born Latinos face.

Otherwise, if all Latinos are lumped together, what emerges is a distorted picture of who US Latinos really are, and just how different the needs are between the two groups.

All this week, Latino communities have been remembering, and trying to replicate, the immigration marches of a year ago.

Unfortunately,the people aren't quite as enthusiastic as last year. It could be people are tired and are waiting for Congress to get their act together or they are scared,if they're undocumented,that ICE trucks will be on every corner.
Immigration Debate has Good Unintended Consequences for Latino Communities


But because of the poor showings this week and Congress just barely cobbling something together to get the ball rolling,people are asking,"What good did last year's marches really do?"

Well, an unintended byproduct of this whole immigration debate is the emergence of new voices and new faces representing the Latino community.

Before, it was either Latinos in show business, sports or those who headed up national organizations who were known as the "voice of the Latino community."

Today, because of the immigration debate, we have everyday people who found themselves moved to act in extraordinary ways to combat the mindless panic driving the harsh measures targeting undocumented immigrants and border relations with Mexico.

People like Jay Johnson-Castro who has walked from San Diego to the Valley in Texas to bring awareness to the women and children being held in immigrant detention facilites, and to the opposition of a border wall.


Jay Johnson-Castro
(Source: Latina Lista)

Ana Lorena Hart in Little Rock, Arkansas. She has become one of the primary lobbyists on Latino issues at the legislature, it is said, by default. The multicultural community relations manager at the Tyson Foods headquarters in Springdale (she emphasizes that her political activity is separate from her professional work), Hart was pushed into service in the absence of any organization prepared to undertake Latino political action.


Elvira Arellano, the single, undocumented mother who has been granted sanctuary in a Chicago-area church, for refusing to be separated from her US-born son and allow herself to be deported. She sees herself as representing all the undocumented families who would be torn apart in the event of deportation.


Elvira Arellano

And the list keeps growing.

It was reported today that there is a backlog of 623,292 cases of people who have been ordered deported but Homeland Security isn't sure if they ever left or where they are.

Kind of ironic isn't it that the same Homeland Security deems the women and children held at T.Don Hutto Residential facility a bigger security threat than the fugitives on the loose, by holding the women and their children in a penal detention facility but not even charging them with a crime.

It is a story that won't be buried until the families are freed.



To read the latest article on it, check out my op-ed on Matt.org.

Last week in Cartagena de indias, Colombia, the Inter American Press Association held their mid-year meeting where they reviewed the status of press freedoms throughout North and South America.

The news isn't good.


Western Hemisphere

Some of the countries, like Cuba, Venezuela and Mexico, we know journalists and news media are under physical and mortal attack. In other countries like Panama, the United States and Chile, there exists much more subtle threats against press freedoms.

Thanks to the current Administration, by the example set by President Bush, the media is something to be disdained and constantly put in our place.

Why?

Because we dare to make officials explain themselves when they would rather hide behind "Executive Privilege."


President Bush at a press conference
(Source: ilusa.com)

Grant it, the United States is not alone in treating the press in such a manner but the U.S. should be farther along in applying democratic principles when dealing with the press rather than taking notes from south of the border.

Maybe it's because it's the Information Age and media is so accessible 24/7 that it makes government officials feel like they've lost control like the old days during the "Cold War."

Or maybe they just have more to hide.


Below are some highlights of the Inter American Press Association's review of countries and their press freedoms:


Cuba:Journalism in Cuba is undergoing a period of extreme stress and government control. The absence of Fidel Castro from power for almost eight months has not changed in the least the totalitarian framework imposed on the media and news practices for 48 years. The interim ruler, Castro’s younger brother Raul, is intensifying the repression against independent journalists, attempting to silence accredited foreign correspondents and persecuting citizens who decide to seek alternative sources of news and entertainment.

Venezuela:Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s drive to suppress press freedom, which is enshrined in Article 57 and 58 of the Constitution, is continuing with ever more serious and defiant threats and incidents.

At this point, the president, who controls all branches of the government, moves directly to close media outlets, as in the case of Radio Caracas Televisión (RCTV), the most important channel in the country. Also, an administrative court imposed a fine of 1.5 billion bolivars on the television station just a week ago.

MexicoJournalism in Mexico continues to be a highly risky activity. Thirty-one journalists were murdered during the Vicente Fox administration. In fact, the National Human Rights Commission has described the period as “journalism’s six dark years.” And the situation doesn’t appear to be any better under the new administration, at least not since its inauguration in early December 2006.

Between October 2006 and February 2007, seven journalists were murdered, two others disappeared, and eight complaints of threats have been filed with the authorities and nongovernmental organizations. Organized crime and abuses by the powers that be are still the main threats, and these crimes remain unpunished.


United StatesDespite intensified lobbying from advocates of press freedom and some prominent legislators, the United States has yet to enact a federal shield law. Reporters still face the possibility in federal cases of having to go to jail for refusing to identify their confidential news sources.

While there are 31 states in the United States with shield law protections and four with some limited protections for journalists, 17 states have no form of shield law....A number of other recent cases also revived calls for a federal shield law. In one, American blogger and videographer Joshua Wolf was jailed on contempt of court charges stemming from his refusal to turn over to a grand jury investigation video footage of a July 8, 2005 clash between police officers and protestors in San Francisco in which a police car was damaged. Wolf was jailed on August 1 last year, released a month later but shortly afterwards returned to prison after losing his appeal, and has now been behind bars for defying a subpoena relating to his work longer than any other journalist in the history of the United States.

I regularly read Latina Lista and I have a question for you. I find the direction this country is taking regarding immigration very disturbing. Beyond letting my Congress-critters know how I feel, how can I get involved? What can I do to change the tone of the discourse? What groups (especially local to NYC, my hometown) can I volunteer with or assist?
E-mail from a Latina Lista reader

It's not unusual for readers to contact Latina Lista and ask this question.

I can certainly understand the frustration from reading about all that is happening in the country regarding undocumented immigrants, and even the problems themselves of Latino youth, and wonder that there has to be something more than just reading blogs regurgitating the dire injustices or statistics.

So, I've thought of a couple of ways to put thought/intention into action:


ESL students
(Source: streetlevelhealth.org)

English-as-a-Second Language classes: We know that any type of immigration reform bill will include a provision that there be shown a satisfactory fluency in English. Contrary to the false rhetoric that is preached saying that immigrants don't want to learn English, we know there are waiting lists for these classes. What is needed is more space and more teachers. The most common places holding such classes now are at libraries and churches. Check in your city or town and see where there is the greatest need.


Helping Latino youth


Volunteer with Latino youth: A good organization to go through is Big Brothers and Big Sisters. They screen everyone and then pair you up with someone they think would be a good match. It's not always easy but, in the end, it is rewarding.



Immigration March

Join a March. This may depend on where you live, but in certain areas of the country protest marches are taking place in defense of the undocumented or anti-undocumented immigrant ordinances created by city councils.

I am sure there are many other areas in need of volunteers. If Latina Lista readers have more suggestions, please send them.

It's obvious eveyone is getting tired of the talk and ready to do something.

Isn't that the first step in any healing process?

While Congress begins debate on reforming the immigration system, some cities and towns, along with, ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) are doing their damndest to scare the undocumented into packing up and going "back where they came from."

But for one undocumented immigrant in Dallas, Texas, even the prospect of certain death isn't enough to drive him back to the country where he was born.

Jesus Martinez, known affectionately as Don Chucho, left the Mexican state of Guanajuato to come to the United States and work — that was 43 years ago in 1964.

Intent on working, Don Chucho worked and worked and worked. When he first arrived, he even qualified for a work permit to be in the United States.

But like too many people, when you're young, in good health and too busy with life, well, stuffy office appointments of any kind aren't given the priority they should.

If only Don Chucho had known that years down the road he would suffer a stroke that would leave him bedridden and in need of dialysis three times a week.


Jesus Martinez
(Source: Univision)

Years ago, Don Chucho had an appointment with the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. He didn't go. As a result, he lost his work permit and all his rights pertaining to Social Security - no matter that at the time he lost it, he had already spent 20 years paying into the system.

He also effectively became undocumented.

As a result, Don Chucho lays in his borrowed hospital bed, unable to receive any public medical assistance, unable to afford any proper medical care himself and regretting the day he didn't make his appointment so many years ago.

If he had, he nor his wife Maria Esther, would be in the situation where they are today: she having to quit her job to care for him, and him laying in a hospital bed waiting to die.

The local Mexican consul has offered to help Don Chucho and provide him the medical care he so desperately needs but it would have to be back in Mexico. If Don Chucho returns to Mexico, he can't come back to the United States.

For a man who has lived his life for more than 40 years in this country, working and raising his family, this is home. That's why Don Chucho hasn't accepted the Mexican Consul's offer to go back and take advantage of the medical care he needs.

He just waits to die in a country he considers home, but which considers him no one at all.

Whoever thinks the only place a person can lay down his life for his country is in a war with guns and insurgents doesn't understand what true patriotism is all about.

Today, the first real step towards immigration reform was introduced on Capitol Hill.


Rep. Luis Gutierrez

Two Representatives, Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) and Jeff Flake (R-AZ) offered their version of bipartisan immigration reform with the “Security Through Regularized Immigration and a Vibrant Economy Act of 2007," otherwise known as the STRIVE Act.


Rep. Jeff Flake

Already, organizations from the National Council of La Raza
to the National Immigration Forum are singing the praises of the bill.

Though everyone is admitting that it is far from perfect, the relief in that it is a serious attempt to address immigration reform has everyone giddy with excitement. There seems to be a consensus that whatever differences lay ahead will be ironed out to everyone's satisfaction.

I'm not so sure.

Though Gutierrez and Flake were able to meet in the middle to draft this bill, that's not to say that the rest of Flake's Republican colleagues will be able to do the same.

And if they do, a real concern is that they will latch onto one particularly disturbing provision in the bill to drive home their point: that all undocumented immigrants leave the country, go back to their home country and re-enter this country legally.

To demand this of over 12 million people, with no guarantee that their applications will be dealt with in an expedited manner almost sounds like a scam to get people to leave and then "conveniently" misplace their paperwork.

To demand that these people leave the country doesn't recognize nor respect the lives they have built here, the bills they are paying, the classes their children are attending, the communities they are a part of, etc.

If it's so important that these people start the process on their country's turf, why not let them go to their nearest embassy or consulate and file the paperwork there?

It is unreasonable to send people, who are already the most vulnerable, all the way home, especially if they live beyond Mexico. Many of these undocumented immigrants experienced horrendous violence and risks to get here.

A lot of them did not survive without being scarred for life.

To expect them to relive those horrors without any safeguards, is unrealistic and just plain wrong.

We hope that when Congress does sit down to iron out the details of this bill, that they don't use it as an excuse to punish a group that has already proven they want to contribute to society through their hard work and community participation.

They shouldn't have to travel thousands of miles to prove they want to be here.

Once should be enough.

As the plot thickens in Washington over the firings of the eight Democratic federal prosecutors: Who will testify? Who will be the scapegoat? Who will be proven to be the real mastermind?


The White House

There comes an interesting study that was mentioned on the Senate floor this week by Assistant Democratic Leader Dick Durbin (D-IL).

Titled The Political Profiling of Elected Democratic Officials: When Rhetorical Vision Participation Runs Amok, the study is written by Donald Shields and John Cragan, both professors of communications at the University of Missouri at St. Louis and Illinois State University, respectively.

The study shows that under both Ashcroft and Gonzales, from 2001-2006, "a vastly disproportionate number of Democratic officials were scrutinized when total investigations were viewed based on political party affiliation."



The authors surmise that during this time a type of political profiling was taking place.

According to the authors, The current Bush Republican Administration appears to be the first to have engaged in political profiling. Our paper calls for new federal laws that would create a national registry of federal investigations of elected officials by party affiliation.

This new, political profiling registry could well be a hybrid of the current requirement for state and local reports of racial profiling in traffic stops and the Commerce Department's Office of Labor Management Standards' annual report on Union corruption.

An interesting part of the report is how the authors compare political profiling to racial profiling.

For those who don't believe racial profiling happens to African Americans and Latinos, the report, by comparing the two types of profiling, helps us all gain a better perspective and realize that it does exist, and its implications have been so institutionalized that popular culture/opinion on stereotypes needs to be revisited.

In each of the following points, substitute racial profiling for political profiling to see why profiling, of any kind, is harmful and detrimental to every group of people.


The Harms of Political Profiling of Elected Democratic Officials

1. Political profiling makes Democratic officials look like they are more corrupt than Republicans, just as racial minorities are made to look more corrupt than whites by the practice of racial profiling by law enforcement agencies. However, the data on state-wide, U.S. Congress, and U.S. Senate elected officials do not support this claim.

2. Political profiling of local Democratic elected officials attacks the party at the very grassroots essence of its personality. Each local case of reported or insinuated corruption by the federal authorities eats at and saps the local Democrat's energy to be the grassroots leader of the party and drains his or her resources in defense against the comparative unlimited resources of the federal government.

3. Political profiling discredits each candidate's persona as a viable leader of and spokesperson for the local Democratic party.

4. Political profiling weakens the candidate's ability to raise monies for themselves when seeking re-election and negates their ability to raise money for other democratic candidates.

5. By keeping political profiling at the local level -- in this way the story is most likely not to be viewed nationally -- it makes it harder for reporters to connect the dots between corruption investigations in say Atlanta, Chicago, Las Vegas, or Philadelphia let alone towns like Carson, Colton, East Point, or Escambia, or counties like Cherokee, Harrison, Hudson, or Lake. Each local report of a corruption investigation appears as only an isolated incident rather than as a central example of a broader pattern created by the Bush Justice Department's unethical practice of political profiling.

Though there aren't many Latino leaders in Washington to emulate these days, it's time to remember one man who is not only worth remembering and emulating — but celebrating.


Cesar Chavez
(Source: americaslibrary.gov)

I'm talking about Cesar Chavez — the first Latino and labor leader who has been honored with an official public holiday in his name.

Because of Cesar's fight to bring awareness to the pitiful working conditions of migrant farm workers, things improved and finally farm workers were given a voice that had previously been denied them.

In the process, Cesar gained notoriety from coast to coast.

So much so that Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, New Mexico, Texas, Utah and Wisconsin all observe the holiday on March 31 (Cesar's birthday) that honors Cesar Chavez.

Yet surprisingly, or not, today's younger generation doesn't really know about Cesar and why the fight he led to gain respect for some of the hardest working and most vulnerable people in this country was so important.

What's worse, since many of our young Latinos don't go on to college and have the opportunity to take a Chicano/Latino history class, they may never really know about Cesar.

But Angel Cervantes wants to change that.


Angel Cervantes
(Source: Latina Lista (LL))

Angel, a 34-year-old 4th-grade California elementary school teacher and community college adjunct history professor has created a hands-on activity book teaching children about who Cesar Chavez was, what he believed in, how he accomplished his goals and why it's important to remember him.


Cesar Chavez history and activity book
(Source: LL)

In an e-mail interview with Latina Lista, Angel explains his reasons for creating such a book to bring Latino history to life for the next generation:

I met Cesar on several occasions when I was in college and my father was a campesino in the 1950s. Cesar is a hero to me and he stands for concepts like non-violence and workers' rights — I wanted children to learn about those concepts.

As a community college professor, I was saddened by the fact that most of our community never learns about the Chicano movement because most of our community does not go to college.

I wanted to bring the history that I teach in college into the elementary schools so that every child would grow up knowing their history, regardless of whether they have the opportunity to go to college or not.

Since the book is aimed at elementary school children, it teaches them the basic "vocabulary" that they need to discuss the issues of non-violence, human rights and worker dignity. We introduce words like "huelga" and "hunger strike" to children and this gives the teacher/parent an opportunity to have discussions about those concepts with children.


Example of learning activity about Cesar Chavez
(Source: LL)

Angel, along with fellow teacher and activist, Richard Ramos, have been working on bringing Cesar's story to elementary-age children for about 4 years. It is only by word-of-mouth that its popularity has grown.

Angel sells the book for $2.00 but says for those who order more than ten books, the price goes down to $1.50 a book.

To order the book, contact Angel at acervant@crsassociates.net.


Paint-by-number activity
(Source:LL)

The more we know about our own history, the more we can respect and identify with other people's struggles. This book is a tool for parents/teachers to begin conversations with young people about these important concepts.

And as we all know, it's never too early — nor too late to start those much needed conversations!

No matter how we look at what is happening to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, it is a sad situation.


Alberto Gonzales
(Source: abcnews)

What was done to those eight federal prosecutors for only doing their jobs was a travesty, ironically, of justice.

Yet, Gonzales' full role in the firings leaves most of us with a sour taste in our mouths, especially if the White House makes him the fall guy and invokes executive privilege so Karl Rove and Harriet Miers don't have to testify before a Congressional hearing.


Karl Rove and Gonzales
(Source: washingtonpost.com)

If Gonzales leaves his post, either by resignation or fired himself, it will be an act of disgrace for him, his family and the Latino community who still measures our progression and success on the backs of those who make it.

The bigger their positions, the greater the community pride.

With so few prominent Latino role models in President Bush's inner circle, no matter the politics, Gonzales represented the "every Latino" who came from humble beginnings to go far.

If Bush and his circle feel that Gonzales is expendable and dish him up as the sacrificial lamb, it should finally serve as a wake-up call to Latinos that not even loyalty is enough to be considered an equal when it comes to Washington politics.

It's been said so much that it now sounds like a cliche: U.S. immigration is a broken system.

Yet, for it to be broken means that it had to have worked at one time, which would mean that at one time it was a good system, or at least got the job done.

Usually, something breaks when it is overwhelmed. It would be easy to see how our current immigration system steadily became overwhelmed but, in some regards, the system never broke — it just never was any good.

I'm referring specifically to when it comes to undocumented children who are not with family members.

As someone who believes that compassion and lawfulness can go hand-in-hand, I am especially disturbed by a story coming out of Gilbert, Arizona.


(Source: city of Gilbert)

It seems three high school students: 16-year-old Jaime Cisneros, 17-year-old Johany Nafarrate, and 16-year-old Omar Galvez were spending their Spring Break doing a common but not very safe nor lawful activity — drag racing.

The three got pulled over and a Gilbert, Arizona police officer approached Jaime who was the driver. He asked Jaime for his driver's license. Instead of lying or stalling, Jaime admitted to the officer he didn't have a driver's license, at least American. He did have a Mexican license.

Well, it doesn't take a pyschic to know that such a response would send up a red flag to someone in law enforcement who lives in a state that has gone out of its way to make life difficult for undocumented immigrants.

It's natural that the officer would call Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to come in and review the matter.

At this juncture, there's debate in Arizona circles whether the police officer may have racially profiled these boys when calling in ICE. Yet, if we are to be honest with ourselves, Jaime's admission laid the groundwork for probable suspicion — but that is not what is so upsetting about this incident.

Knowing that the boys were not in this country alone, but living with their families and attending high school no less, were deported by ICE to Mexico — alone!

What is not clear is that ICE officials claim a parent for each of the students was also contacted but gives no further information.

According to Arizona ICE officials, the agency has picked up 2,408 "deportable aliens" since September. Of those, only two or three cases involved unaccompanied juveniles.

So, while it's rare that such juveniles are deported, it does happen and it shouldn't.

Immigrant advocates talk about the psychological and traumatic harm deportations have had on families, but usually in those cases it is the adults who are bearing the brunt of the trauma from interrogation through deportation.

In most cases, their maturity gets them through it. But to deport children and teenagers who are by themselves is unthinkable and unconscionable.

It is a form of abandonment — a criminal offense.

There has been a nationwide call for a moratorium on anymore immigration raids. It is unlikely that ICE will agree since they're trying to make up for years of lax law enforcement.

In an ironic coincidence, this weekend 50 high school and college students from the greater Chicago area caravaned to Washington DC to demand an immediate moratorium on raids and deportations.

The young people have witnessed firsthand the devastation that the raids and deportations are having on families, and most of all their friends and themselves.


When it comes to children and juveniles, the letter of the law should not be applied to deport these victims of the immigration debate, but to reunite them with their families.

The bigger crime would be putting these children's lives at risk simply because one government agency wants to claim they're finally doing their job.

During his stop in Mexico, the last leg of his The-US-Wants-to-be-Your-Friend Latin American trip, President Bush made it clear that there would not be any amnesty granted to the undocumented who are in the United States, but rather what he likes to call a "path to citizenship."


President Bush with Mexican President Felipe Calderon
(Source: whitehouse.gov)

Maybe he's juggling semantics so as to throw any critics of amnesty off his tail but in the end, whichever term is used to refer to it, the only way to realistically deal with the millions of people who are undocumented is to grant them amnesty.

There's also been a lot of talk about creating a guest worker program. In most minds in the Latino community, the guest worker program was always seen as something separate from recognizing the undocumented who are already here.

Evidently, though, others are seeing the guest worker program to mean how the current undocumented would be classified and allowed to stay here.

In that vein, an excellent article was written by Amy Traub, associate director of research at the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy.

In the column, Guest-Worker Caste System, Traub argues that a guest worker system applied to the undocumented is a bad idea because it further cements and institutionalizes the second-tier status of the undocumented in society, and actually serves as a detriment to middle class America.


Amy Traub
(Source: Drum Major Institute)

Traub argues that a guest worker program, without the proper safeguards, still exploits the undocumented and, in turn, affects middle class workers because the undocumented will (be forced to) accept lower wages and sub-standard working conditions which impacts the broader scope of job quality for the entire US workforce.

How can we preserve immigrants’ vital contribution to our economy while also preventing their workplace vulnerability from undermining American wages and working conditions? The answer is to strengthen the ability of immigrant workers to demand a better deal at work, claiming the same wages and working conditions that similarly-skilled natives command, and in the process ensuring that employers don’t prefer immigrants simply because they are more exploitable. A guest worker program, which permanently isolates a class of workers in a separate and unequal program, cannot do this. — Amy Traub

I agree with Amy that any kind of guest worker program certainly runs this risk of making it bad for everyone. Yet, giving the undocumented the power to negotiate and demand better working conditions isn't exactly foolproof either.

Just last night, my inbox was flooded with emails about the firings of two LAX Hilton employees who had fasted for a living wage. One of those fired was housekeeper Alicia Melgarejo.

Alicia Melgarejo has worked as a housekeeper at the LAX Hilton for almost eight years. She is a single mother who supports her 14 year old daughter on a single income. Despite a clean work record and the fact that she has never been disciplined in her eight years at the hotel she was fired after management accused her of stealing towels.

Alicia vehemently denies these accusations and asked management to show her the video they claim to have of her stealing, but despite her request management refused to show her any proof. Now that she has been fired from her job as a housekeeper at the LAX Hilton she worries about providing for her teenage daughter. “I have been a good employee at this hotel for many years, and have a clean work record and have never been disciplined in the past. That they would fire me for something I didn’t do, even though I have given years of my life to making this hotel successful is not right. Now I don’t know how I am going to provide for my daughter,” said Alicia Melgarejo. — Unite Here press release

According to Union organizers, firings by employers is a common tactic where employees are trying to organize themselves.

So, while I agree in the spirit of what Amy Traub is saying I think there has to be another way to deal with the immigrant labor that is already here and the labor that still wants to come and will come in the future.

The Latina Lista Solution: Grant citizenship to everyone who has been here for at least 2 years or longer.

Implement a guest worker program but one that involves an arrangement where businesses that want to employ migrant labor and will comply with predetermined criteria must register to be on the list.

These businesses must coordinate certain times of the year when they will hire and they should conduct "hiring fairs" preferably south of the border.

Every business should be given a quota of workers they can hire and with each new hire, that person should be listed in a guest worker database.

Businesses should be responsible for transporting and housing their workers. Government reviews, aided by local community groups, should oversee that the businesses are in compliance with their guest worker contracts.

As a way to monitor and ensure that no worker is being exploited, each worker should have an unique bank account in his/her own name with automatic deposit. In reviewing business compliance, banks can monitor to see that workers are being paid what businesses agreed to pay them.

Length of employment should not exceed 6 months. If a worker does decide he/she wants to become a citizen, then they have to follow normal procedure back in their home country.

Of course, a lot more thought needs to go into any kind of guest worker program but it has to be a program that ensures that future migrant workers won't be exploited for their labor or be able to slip through the cracks to begin another wave of an undocumented population.

At the same time, there needs to be an encouragement of these same workers to use the skills and knowledge they learn here to take back and implement in their home communities.

The idea of a guest worker program is to give these workers a dignity they don't have in their home country or this one - yet.

But with an honest effort from the business community and Congress, there's no reason why they can't retain their dignity while supplying us with the labor that is needed.

Can't say the reaction of PBS to demands that they edit the Ken Burns' film on WWII to include Latino contributions was totally unexpected (Account of meeting is below).

Chances are they probably said no for one reason having to do with money.

Yet, I am sure the companies who financed the film would have the money and even the incentive to seriously considering making such 11th hour edits.

The two major financial backers to the film are two brands very familiar to the Latino community: General Motors and Anheuser-Busch.

As all in the Latino community know, both companies believe strongly in providing support to la raza.

Wonder how GM and Anheuser-Busch would feel if they knew some of their most loyal consumers were overlooked and flat-out dismissed when it came to acknowledging their important roles in a war story that, thanks to their money, will be broadcast across the nation without even a nod to the fact that Latino soldiers were even there.



PBS REJECTS LATINO COMMUNITY'S DEMANDS FOR INCLUSION

PBS President Kreger Defends Ken Burn's Exclusion of Latinos from WWII Documentary


In a March 13th letter to Latino community representatives, Paula Kerger, President and CEO of the Public Broadcasting System (PBS), rejected the demand that PBS delay the release of Ken Burns' 7-part WWII documentary, until it is re-edited to include the Latino experience. "This is unacceptable and an insult to the hundreds of thousands of Latino veterans who served in World War II," responded Professor Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez of the University of Texas at Austin and one of the leaders of the Defend the Honor Campaign that met with Kerger last week to discuss the issue.

The Ken Burns documentary, which is scheduled to air in late September, has been the target of mounting criticism in the Latino community because of its exclusion of the experience of Latinos. The 14-hour series was six years in the making.

"How is it possible, that in the six years it took to make this film, no one involved thought to ask where are the Latino stories?" asked Gus Chavez, another founder of the Defend the Honor Campaign.

In her reply to the group, Kerger noted that PBS is supporting community outreach and educational initiatives attached to the Burns documentary. That local programming is intended to "bring forth the many stories that are not part of the Ken Burns series." PBS will consider programs produced by local stations by possible national airing, she said.

But the local programming isn't enough, the Defend the Honor Campaign organizers said.

"Once again they want to relegate us to being the side attraction, keeping us out of the main act," explained Marta Garcia, a New York-based founder of the Hispanic group.

Angelo Falcón, another founding member of the Defend The Honor Campaign, noted that the timing of the Burns documentary was particularly troublesome.

"Our demand for inclusion comes at a time when the Latino community is too often under attack as being 'unwelcomed foreigners,' despite the fact that the majority of us are U.S. citizens and, in the case of WWII, close to half a million of us served this country," said Falcón.

Rivas-Rodriguez, who established the U.S. Latino & Latina WWII Oral History Project at the University of Texas at Austin eight years ago, said that the community response to news of the Burns documentary has been visceral.

"All Americans feel a deep, personal, connection to WWII," she said. "These are our parents, our grandparents, aunts and uncles. We know their contributions and sacrifices. And we are painfully aware of how the have not had the recognition they deserve. It is our duty to right this wrong."

Various Latino groups and individuals are calling for a boycott of PBS, while others plan to pressure the corporate, foundation and government sponsors of PBS and Ken Burns, said Chavez, a Defend the Honor Campaign organizer out of San Diego, CA.

"We are disappointed that PBS, being a public television network, was not more responsive to our community's concerns," said Chavez. "They have not heard the last from us."

Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez is an associate professor of journalism at the University of Texas at Austin and director of the U.S. Latino & Latina WWII Oral History Project (http://utopia.utexas.edu/explore/latino/)

Gus Chavez is a Latino community development and education advocate based in San Diego.

Marta Garcia is founder and co-chair of the New York Chapter of the National Hispanic Medica Coalition

Angelo Falcón is president and founder of the National Institute for Latino Policy, based in New York City

A new report released today by the Boston College Center on Aging and Work warns the country that today's strong economy is in for a very rude awakening by 2012.

Why?

Because of a changing workforce demographic.

Today's Baby Boomers are getting near retirement age and there won't be anyone with the same skills to take their places when they retire.

According to the report:

Only 37% of employers have even adopted strategies to keep workers working past the usual retirement age.


(Source: goer.state.ny.us)

Researchers of the report make several recommendations like implementing flexible work options for employees and encouraging managers to share knowledge among employees at different career stages.

But none of those recommendations address the real issue of who is going to fill those eventual vacant spots.

As of now, there exists in this country an untapped source with the potential to fill this depletion of skills needed in the next few years: undocumented students.

There are literally thousands, if not millions, of undocumented students who have the ganas and the grades to go to college.

What is unfortunate is that too many states have only short-term vision and can't see what the future holds for their particular state workforce. Otherwise, they wouldn't be doing their best to penalize these students, who more than likely grew up in this country, by making college overly expensive for these kids and not giving them any hope that they can put their degrees to work once they receive them.

Kids who want to go into education, medicine, engineering and other service sectors are being forced to waste their intellects rather than put them to use to help this country in the future.

Giving these kids a chance and letting them receive degrees in the very fields that will experience shortages by 2012 just makes sense and is the smart thing to do.

What is asinine is watching this talent slip away, along with a better future for all of us.

The second most read article today in the Mexican newspaper La Cronica de Hoy is an article about President Bush.

The article isn't about his trip to Mexico or his face-to-face with Felipe Calderon, Mexico's president. Rather the article sums up the overwhelming view of Bush by people not just in Mexico but throughout South America.


Bush in Mexico
(Source: whitehouse.gov)

The article focuses on the so-called "The Presidential IQ Report" by The Lovenstein Institute. It reports that Bush has the lowest IQ of any President of the United States in the last 60 years.

A visit to this web site clearly shows a tongue-in-cheek site biased against Bush. Yet, reading the Spanish headline and the importance and seriousness of how the report is presented makes it obvious that it is a story they consider "real" news.

It ranked above the third most read story of the day which was Calderon telling Bush that a highway would be more beneficial than a wall at the border.

To say Bush is not trusted in South America is an understatement. Pictures coming out of Brazil were common showing how protesters marked pictures of Bush's face with a Hitler-like moustache and a swastika.

The thing is Bush may have had a very different reception, even with the same policies in place towards South America, had he not started the Iraqi occupation.


Mexican Pres. Felipe Calderon with Pres. Bush
(Source: whitehouse.gov)

That one action crystallized in the minds of many South Americans, who have always felt the United States bullies to get their way, that the US is an agressor against the weak — and the pre-emptive action just served as evidence to the world.

Those actions have proven to be the rallying cry against him and justification to villify him and tolerate such villification from South American heads of state like Hugo Chavez.

Viewing Bush in this light, it's no wonder no one south of the border had any real expectations of him, or really believed he would deliver to what he was paying lip service. Otherwise, why dwell on a report ranking him with the lowest IQ?

I think the same can be said of him here, expectations I mean.

His Administration has been sinking deeper and deeper into scandal after scandal that just doesn't damage their credibility to get anything done, but to even begin to believe what their real intentions are to support any cause in the first place.


That same skepticism extends to immigration reform. It's pretty much accepted that in this fight, any kind of reformation doesn't rest with this President or his Administration.

It rests with Congress.

In fact, the President should be worrying more about another kind of comprehesive reform — reforming his Administration so that they quit acting like they are above the law, or worse, that they are the law.


In an effort to find out what more Latinas/os think about Bush's visit to Latin America, American Public Media's Marketplace (broadcast on NPR) is asking that we visit and fill out this quick survey to share each of our insights.

Babies having babies.

It's a thought that runs through everyone's minds when they see a young teenage girl pregnant.

It's common knowledge that the majority of these "babies having babies" are young Latinas.

In the state of Virginia alone, the Latina teen birth rate increased 50% between 1990 and 2003 as reported by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy.

And in a new study released today by the Guttmacher Institute titled, Social Ecological Predictors of Repeat Adolescent Pregnancy, it was found that these same young girls are likely to not just stop with one baby but have more — especially if the fathers of their first children are three years older than themselves.

But how do you get the mensaje (message) to these young Latinas that dating older guys is not all that cool when it can most probably result with a screaming baby?

Well, the Virginia Health Department thinks they know how — deliver the message in a medium that is relevant to this age group — a comic book.



But this isn't any animated cartoon stuff. It's real life like only novelas can convey.

Definitely drawing inspiration from the telenovela genre, Virginia's health department is distributing the mini-book Gracias Papa
.

The 15-page booklet targets Latinas ages 11-17 and illustrates what are healthy dating relationships.


Page from "Gracias Papa."
(Source: Virginia Health Dept.)

The book should appeal to both boys and girls. It has good-looking actors, "real" dialogue and very common situations that too many young Latinas find themselves in these days.

The basic message that the book tries to get across to teens is to not let anyone "guilt" you into a sexual relationship, and to realize that being older doesn't make a person smarter.

Now, if we can just work on the message that there's nothing sexy about being a poor, pregnant parent before you're even legal to drive or drink.

The minute President Bush designated Jose Padilla an illegal enemy combatant on June 9, 2002, the Latino community couldn't distance itself farther from the boy.


Jose Padilla
(Source: wikimedia.org)

Jose's sad story of being involved in gangs, killing another gang member with a kick in the head, his conversion to Islam and then his friendship with Adham Amin Hassoun — someone federal officials think was supplying money to Al Queda operatives — has all the earmarks of another sad tale of a young Latino who is his own worst enemy.

Except for one thing — the federal government is making it very easy to sympathize with Jose.

So far, Jose is the best catch this government has on its "war against terror" and they have milked him for all he's worth.

After holding him for three and a half years without charging him for a crime, government officials finally got around to indicting him which meant he could finally be "freed" to face charges.

Throughout his incarceration in the military prison, Jose was subjected to interrogations that were videotaped by military officials.

Yet, the video of the very last interrogation Jose underwent, before leaving the Navy brig where he had been held, is nowhere to be found.

His lawyers surmise that something happened at that last interrogation that makes Jose mistrust his lawyers and consider them government agents. Yet, without that video no one knows exactly what was done to Jose.

The Pentagon and prosecutors don't seem to be in a hurry to find it.

Why should they?

Maybe on that tape, it will be seen that from the beginning, to bolster support for their neverending declaration that terrorists were still coming to get us, they created "Jose the Terrorist."

After all, they couldn't lose the one public face that represents that the government has a handle on capturing terrorists.

Never mind that everything they have accused him of doing such as making dirty bombs and blowing up apartment buildings, they haven't been able to prove.

Since April 2006, the focus has shifted to Judge Clarke's courtroom. She dismissed some of the criminal charges against Padilla, finding them insufficiently supported by facts, only to have them reinstated by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.

Last week, with Padilla's case set for trial in April, Judge Clarke turned her attention to Padilla's claim that he was mentally incompetent to stand trial.

In support of this claim, the defense's mental health experts testified that Padilla was suffering from post-traumatic syndrome (PTSD), an anxiety disorder suffered by people exposed to an extreme trauma.

People with PTSD experience three different kinds of symptoms: reliving the trauma through flashbacks and dreams; becoming upset when faced with reminders of the traumatic event; and avoiding reminders of the trauma by self-isolation and emotional detachment.

Throughout Jose and his family's ordeal, the Latino community has not spoken up for the rights of this man. True, he was not a model citizen when he was younger but very many of our young boys can claim the same start in life.

Unfortunately, we can't fully believe what the government said about Jose either.

Given the track record of this administration and its tendency to inflate or overlook elements of a situation and to bend the rules till they are at the snapping point just to fit their needs, makes this case worthy to be reviewed by Latinos and all Americans.

It's about time we claim Jose Padilla back in the fold and demand the truth be told about him.

I guess in another one of those things that can be filed under "It Can Only Happen In Texas" is the story of a newly elected judge being raked over the coals because she's doing what she was elected to do — dispense justice.

It seems Judge D'Metria Benson presided over a court case where limited English speaker, Refugio Guzman, owes the Citibank South Dakota credit card company $15,000.


Dallas County Judge D'Metria Benson

Guzman who claims he fell behind in his payments because he's raising 10 kids and sending money to care for his sick mother in Mexico had initially answered the lawsuit in English. Only come to find out later it was with the help of his teenage son that he was able to do so.

He didn't understand, nor his son, that he also had to respond to the summary judgment motion.

Judge Benson ruled that because the documents weren't in Spanish the bank's motion for summary judgment was to be set aside and both sides were going into mediation. She ordered Guzman to show up with a translator.

The lawyer for the credit card company is crying foul and says it is unreasonable and costly to expect court documents to be translated into another language if that person doesn't speak English.

State Rep. Will Hartnett, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said he has drafted a bill that would prevent a court from denying a motion because documents are in English. He said he is prepared to file it if similar incidents occur.

"I don't think it's appropriate," said Mr. Hartnett, R-Dallas. "There is no statute or rule that I know of that permits a judge in Texas to force one party to translate a pleading for another party."

Yet, isn't justice better served when all parties understand one another?

Why wouldn't somebody want to do it unless their intent was to take advantage of the language deficiencies of the other party?

For this lawyer to claim the Judge is out of line in expecting the court documents to be translated so that Guzman understands the charges seems ludicrous. Especially, when chances are that Citicard most probably sent Guzman solicitations in Spanish to begin with.


(Source: Citibank.com)

A quick peek at the Citibank web site reveals there is a Spanish version.

If Citibank can provide services in Spanish to get Guzman's business then by all means, they should be able to pay the extra charges to translate any court documents in Spanish so Guzman can know exactly how to defend himself and what are the consequences.

And for State Rep. Will Hartnett to threaten that he would draft such a bill to prevent a court from denying a motion because documents are in English if the accused speaks another language, well there's an easier rule of thumb to use:

Court documents should be in the native language of those being served if the company provides for that language in their daily interactions with that customer via traditional mail, e-mail and/or the company web site.

After all, it's about justice that is fair for all - not just those who know English so well they can twist the meaning of its words to fit their own needs.

It's so easy to take for granted the strides women have made in countries that are developed and where educational access is equal for both men and women, or those women lucky enough to be born in the upper classes of society.

But there's a whole other side where women are still suffering:

• Two-thirds of the world's 800 million illiterate adults are women as girls are not seen as worth the investment, or are busy collecting water or firewood or doing other domestic chores.
  
• Two million girls aged from five to 15 join the commercial sex market every year.
  
• Domestic violence kills and injures more people in the developing world than war, cancer or traffic accidents.
  
• Seventy per cent of the world's poorest people are women.
  
• Violence against women causes more deaths and disabilities among women aged 15 to 44 than cancer, malaria, traffic accidents or war.
  
• Women produce half the world's food, but own less than two per cent of the land.
  
• Of the more than one billion people living in extreme poverty, 70 per cent are women.
  
• Almost a third of the world's women are homeless or live in inadequate housing.
  
• Half of all murdered women are killed by their current or former husbands or partners.
  
• Every minute a woman dies as a result of pregnancy complications.
  
• Women work two-thirds of the world's working hours, yet earn only a tenth of its income.
  
• One woman in three will be raped, beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused in her lifetime.
  
• 43 million girls are not able to go to school.
  
• Last year, one million HIV-positive women died of AIDS-related illnesses because they could not get the drugs they needed.
  
• Human Rights Watch, in reports on 15 countries including Afghanistan, Brazil, Morocco, Papua New Guinea, Togo and South Africa, has identified violence against schoolgirls, child domestic workers and those in conflict with the law as on the rise.
  
• Women across the developing world are the victims of systematic abuse.

Today is International Women's Day when mujeres of all ages are inspired to achieve all that they can be.



In fact, the whole month is known as Women's History Month.

Some interesting facts to know about us (of course, for the hombres who are reading this since we already know this ;))

The U.S. Census tells us:

152 million
The number of females in the United States as of Nov. 1, 2006. That exceeds the number of males (148 million).

82.5 million
Estimated number of mothers of all ages in the United States.

$32,168
The median annual earnings of women 16 or older who worked year-round, full time, in 2005. Women earned 77 cents for every $1 earned by men.

$58,906
Median earnings of women working in computer and mathematical jobs, the highest for women among the 22 major occupational groups. Among these groups, community and social services was the only group where women’s earnings as a percentage of men’s earnings were higher than 90 percent.

32%
Percent of women 25 to 29 who had attained a bachelor’s degree or higher in 2005, which exceeded that of men in this age range (25 percent). Eighty-seven percent of women and 85 percent of men in this same age range had completed high school.

870,000
The projected number of bachelor’s degrees that will be awarded to women in the 2006-07 school year. Women also are projected to earn 369,000 master’s degrees during this period. Women would, therefore, earn 58 percent of the bachelor’s and 61 percent of the master’s degrees awarded during this school year.

Nearly one in three women-owned firms operated in health care and social assistance, and other services such as personal services, and repair and maintenance. Women owned 72 percent of social assistance businesses and just over half of nursing and residential care facilities. Wholesale and retail trade accounted for 38.2 percent of women-owned business revenue.

65%
Percentage of women citizens who reported voting in the 2004 presidential election, higher than the 62 percent of their male counterparts who cast a ballot.

203,000
Total number of active duty women in the military, as of Sept. 30, 2005. Of that total, 35,000 women were officers, and 168,000 were enlisted.

63 million
Number of married women (including those who are separated or have an absent spouse) in 2005. There are 55 million unmarried (widowed, divorced or never married) women. THIS IS A VERY INTERESTING STATISTIC!

85%
Among those who purchased aerobic shoes in 2004, the proportion who were women. Women also comprised a majority (64 percent) of those who bought walking shoes.

57%
Percentage of women who participated in gardening at least once in the past 12 months, compared with 37 percent of men. Women were also much more likely than men to have done charity work (32 percent versus 26 percent), attended arts and crafts fairs (39 percent versus 27 percent) and read literature (55 percent versus 38 percent).


In other words, we've come a long way but have a long way to go!

No one has ever said that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has an easy job. In the latest mass arrests of undocumented workers, 350 were rounded up in a New Bedford leather goods factory.

Reports are citing the hysteria and fear that arose within the factory once ICE made their presence known. According to reports, guns were drawn, police officers were stationed at the exits and some of those arrested were forced to lay on the floor.

The immigrants were mostly from El Salvador and Guatemala — and mostly women.


Undocumented workers rounded up at leather goods factory.
(Source: Boston Globe)

As can be read from the entry paragraph, the government is now "explaining" itself. They are saving these women and men from being exploited.

Yet, never once did they accuse the leather goods factory of keeping these people against their will or of them being indentured servants. If things were as bad as the government outlines, anyone of these undocumented immigrants had the opportunity to walk away but they didn't.

Yet, ICE and the federal government continue to purposely fail to see what their actions are doing to families.

Reports are trickling in of the children who have been left behind. Some only months old.

On the one hand, there are critics who say these women are bad parents if they don't give up the information that they have children here so they can be picked up and reunited with them.

And on the other hand, you have the alternative — places like the T. Don Hutto Residential facility that though it claims it keeps families together uses old-war scare tactics like threatening the young children if they don't behave, they will be taken away from their mothers.

Nice choice.

In fact, the humanitarian approach by ICE and Homeland Security has a long way to go according to the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children.

They have released the most in-depth and impartial study on family immigrant detention titled "Locking Up Family Values: The Detention of Immigrant Families."

And the thrust of the report is the United States has NO standards when it comes to detaining families.

Though the government wants to show it's "tough on illegals," it's time to employ some common sense when processing women, and as much as I hate to say it, take advanatage of stereotype information as well.

1. Assume most women over the age of 18 are mothers.
2. Assume these children are very young, could be infants.
3. Assume these children are in the care of a family friend or family member.
4. Assume they are not going to betray the whereabouts of their children.
5. Assume their children, especially under the age of 10, are U.S. citizens.
6. Assume that because their children are U.S. citizens, these women will do what it takes to correct their citizenship status.
7. Outfit these women with ankle bracelets to electronically monitor their whereabouts.
8. Set them up with a court date.
9. Issue them a special "employment permission" to work while their cases are being appealed.
10. Dictate that all family members must attend court proceedings.

These points would only cover non-Mexican undocumented women. Mexican women are subject to automatic deportation and there it is much trickier to determine if children are being left behind.

Of course, the best route to take is to call a moratorium on immigration round-ups and wait and see what Congress decides.

That is much more preferable than breeding a large group of children into becoming nothing more than this country's version of "street children." Like ones found all over South America who sleep wherever they can, pickpocket and steal just to get food - and these children are younger than 12 who do this.

Do we not have the foresight or do we not care, that this is what can happen in this country?

Catherine, Liliana and Daniel share advice in their column Consejos
(Source: The Dallas Morning News)

The question:



How the three advice partners answered this pregunta (question) was clear they didn't get it.

Their responses ranged from: Regardless of the demographics of your current managers, promotion takes time.

and

It's as if instead of helping each other out, we Latinos arrive at success and then slam the door shut to keep other hermanos (brothers and sisters) out.

to

You need to stop noticing and start getting noticed. Imagine a world where you have equal ability and equal potential and you are a hard-working, valued employee.

Competency, loyalty and ambition will always get you further than worrying about race, sex or religion. So adopt the attitude that makes things happen because of who you are and what you do.

Though encouraging as these answers are, they don't address a very real situation that occurs in too many companies today, and one which the writer saw very clearly: To satisfy, real or imagined, diversity goals, companies feel that representation of one racial minority satisfies the quota.

It's not a matter of playing the victim or even being kept down by our fellow Latinos. It's a situation that is so embedded in corporate America that it's passed off with easy excuses like "not enough qualified candidates of color" or "nobody of color qualified applies."

It's called institutional racism.

Institutional racism is so subtle that people who claim it will almost always be accused of looking for it so as to bolster attention to themselves.

Yet, depending on the company, no matter how much a person of color holds advanced degrees, works their butt off or contributes ideas to the company, they will always be told they just don't quite qualify for the coveted position — if they're told at all.

How does someone even know there's institutional racism practiced at a particular company?

Well, when management is overwhelmingly represented by one ethnicity when the workforce of the company is diverse, is usually a pretty good indication.

Institutionalized racism doesn't just occur in corporate America. It's found in the management at media companies and in higher education as well.

If I was one of the consejeros, I would have told the letter writer, that she is probably right in noticing how the company is satisfied with one person of color being in management, and her turn to advance probably won't happen until her friend either leaves the company or is transferred to some other department.

In the meantime, she can prepare herself for a management position by taking some business management classes and contributing ideas on how to improve efficiency and create innovation at the company.

Also, it's a great opportunity to take an initiative and suggest to management that a mentoring program be inaugurated so those who want to move up can learn the ropes from seasoned professionals.

If all this fails to snag a management position at her present company, not all is lost. She just enhanced her resume enough to prove attractive to maybe a company that is more progressive and understands the benefits of having a diverse management team - even if that means having more than one person of the same color.

It's always amazed me that as many Central and South American migrants make it as far north as they do — especially after having to cross through Mexico.

As Latina Lista reported last spring, Los Angeles Times' reporter Sonia Nazario chronicled in her Pulitzer prize-winning series "Enrique's Journey" how these non-Mexican migrants face frightening danger from corrupt Mexican officials, ruthless gangs and the trains they hop in their journeys to get here.


Central American migrants headed for the United States
ride in railroad cars through southern Mexico.
(Source: LA Times)

It's long been a sore spot for Mexican officials demanding humane treatment for undocumented Mexicans when their own country fails so miserably in their treatment of undocumented Central and South Americans.

Now, it seems that Mexico's new President, Felipe Calderon, wants to show the U.S. they mean business when it comes to immigration reform.

The Associated Press is reporting that Calderon announced today that his country is not just going to start treating the undocumented immigrants more fairly but Mexico will be establishing a guest worker program.


Mexican President Felipe Calderon
(Source: masnoticias.net)

Calderon also will push Mexico’s Congress to make being undocumented a civil violation, rather than a crime, Salazar said. By contrast, Republicans in the U.S. Congress have sought to treat undocumented migrants as felons.

The president also has promised a more formal guest-worker program for Central Americans.

"Just as we demand respect for the human rights of our countrymen, we have the ethical and legal responsibility to respect the human rights and the dignity of those who come from Central and South America and who cross our southern border," Calderon has said.

It's an agressive move but one where only time will tell if this announcement is solely a political ploy to be used as some kind of leverage for when Bush visits Mexico later this month.

It would make sense for Mexico to set the example and succeed with their reforms if they want the United States to follow suit.

Yet, there is something that is bothersome about their reform measures.

According to the article:

Details have not been released, but experts expect an expansion of Mexico’s seasonal farm-worker program, which issues at least 40,000 temporary visas a year, mostly to Guatemalans. Most work on coffee plantations in southern Chiapas state, and many face problems over pay, medical care and housing.

Migration experts say Calderon wants to stop those abuses while also allowing Central Americans to work in the construction and service industries in the south.

If these are industries that can support, in some small way, a foreign workforce, then why can't it support a native workforce?

Grant it, the state of Chiapas is far from the northern regions of the country where most of the undocumented in the United States come from, and the wages would certainly be much lower in Mexico than what they can make here, but it's obvious there is a need for workers there.

Their economy just needs to be stimulated.

With this week's stock market scare and a new realization of how tied in we're becoming to China, doesn't it make sense to pull back some investment in that part of the world to build up our neighboring countries, so that these workers don't have to ignore the available jobs in their own country just to come to the United States for the higher wages?

It's often said by short-sighted people that it's not the responsibility of the United States to take care of our neighbors.

When will the lesson be learned: Taking care of our neighbors is really taking care of ourselves.

In light of National Eating Disorders Awareness Week, we must ask: When is a girl too flaca (thin)?

When you can see her huesos (bones).


(Source: HBO film Thin)

To many of us, eating disorders like anorexia or bulimia affect other ethnicities - not us.

After all, it was only last summer that a report was released citing how of all the children in the United States, Latino children are the most likely to be obese.



Not to mention that obesity runs high among Latino adults as well.

Yet, guess what?

Latina girls, along with Caucasian girls, are the two highest groups to experience eating disorders according to a 2005 research study titled Eating disorder and depressive symptoms in urban high school girls from different ethnic backgrounds.

Whether we like it or not, young Latinas are like those peers in search of what they think is the perfect body.

Luckily, some countries, like Spain, are understanding the confusion in young girls who aspire to be pretty and trendy and can only emulate the models they see in their fashion magazines.

So Spain has banned all skinny models from their catwalks.


Spanish model in 2005 show.
(Source: msnbc.com)

Unfortunately, the message is failing to catch the proper attention on this side of the Atlantic.

But it's time it did:

"We know seeing super-thin models can play a role in causing anorexia," says Nada Stotland, professor of psychiatry at Rush Medical College in Chicago and vice president of the American Psychiatric Association. Because many