Latino USA Episode 02

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This is Latino USA, a radio journal of news and culture. I'm María Hinojosa. Today on Latino USA: two years after the Mount Pleasant riots in the nation's capital.

Overnight, Latinos were an issue in Washington DC.

Where US Latinos stand on the Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico.

The jobs that are expected to be lost are the low-skilled, low-paying jobs that so many Latinos in this country hold.

Also, Afro-Cuban jazz pioneer, Mario Bauzá, and some thoughts on what's really important.

Here on top of the earth, we have everything a man can need. What more can one ask for?

All this here on Latino USA, but first: las noticias.

This is news from Latino USA. I'm María Martin. He truly was a legend in his own time, the man who organized farm workers in California and throughout the Southwest beginning in the '60s, whose tireless efforts on their behalf inspired a whole generation to political activism and who, more than 25 years ago, gave then oppressed Mexican Americans a hero and a cause.

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César Estrada Chávez was born in 1927 on a ranch outside Yuma, Arizona. At age 10, he was working in the fields. 20 some years later, he was organizing Mexican and Filipino farm laborers in California in the first ever successful effort to unionize US agricultural workers.

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César Chávez died at his home in Arizona, not far from where he was born, but the journey he traveled in those 66 years as a symbol of the Chicano movement, as a unique labor leader, was one of struggle and faith. Not long ago, Father Virgil Elizondo of San Antonio, Texas mused on how far Chávez had come, often fighting a David and Goliath battle against powerful economic interests, but driven by a strong belief in the justice of his cause on behalf of migrant workers.

When Caesar Chávez took on the greatest powers in this country, people said he was crazy…couldn't do it. He has not totally succeeded, but he's come a long way.

Rebecca Flores Harrington works with the United Farm Workers in Texas.

He never forgot where he came from as a farm worker himself, as a migrant farm worker… and he always remembered those experiences. And he inspired others who were different from himself to do the same, to go back into their communities and do something to better the lives of those people in their own communities.

In 30 years as an organizer, Chávez saw his small union grow to a high-tech organization with a pension plan and retirement benefits, but Chávez's union had lost membership and some say moral authority in its later years due to a hostile political environment in California and infighting within the union itself. Osvaldo Jaurechi worked with the UFW until 1990. He says even those people who had had severe fallings out with the UFW founder were in shock on hearing of the passing of César Chávez.

They feel really shocked, really moved, and they think they should go and pay their tribute to the leader for what he was and most for what he still represents as a symbol of the campesino struggle.

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A case which challenges minority-based redistricting is now before the US Supreme Court. The case involves a majority African American district in North Carolina, which was redrawn to ensure a Black majority. Five white voters in the district challenged the redistricting plan, arguing it goes against the principle of a colorblind constitution.

Without the [unintelligible], we would not see the progress we've seen in minority voter participation. What this would do if it were to prevail, it would be a major step backward. It would shut people out again.

Minority voter advocates like Andrew Hernández of the Southwest Voter Education and Registration Project, say districts like the one challenged in this case only came about after a long-time pattern of racially polarized voting was established, preventing the election of minority representatives. 26 new Black or Latino majority districts created under the Voting Rights Act could be in jeopardy if the high court accepts that North Carolina's redistricting plan established a racial quota. An announcement of President Clinton's healthcare plan is expected soon. Among the many questions surfacing about the plan is whether it will include coverage for undocumented immigrants. Reportedly, many members of the President's Health Care Task Force do favor undocumented healthcare coverage for public health reasons. But First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton has been quoted as saying undocumented immigrants would not be covered. I'm María Martin. You're listening to Latino USA.

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I'm María Hinojosa. Trade talks are now underway regarding the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico. NAFTA perhaps, as no other US economic initiative, will have a significant impact on US Latinos. With us to speak about the future of the controversial free trade agreement are three journalists who cover Washington DC politics: Sandra Marquez of the Hispanic Link News Service; freelance journalist, Zita Arocha; and José Carreño, DC Bureau chief for the Mexican daily, El Universal.

The biggest misperception in this whole thing is that even if NAFTA is a new document, in a way, it is something that is already happening at the border, as well, the people who's in Texas and California can say. Now what is going to happen? I think that there will be a lot of pressures on Mexico and the United States mostly in the environment and labor problems. Congressman Gephardt and a number of other Democratic freshmen went to Tijuana to take a look at the ecological situation there. They came out saying, "No way that way. At least the actual treaty has to be upgraded." We'll see a lot of the arguments in the next few months about it.

In fact, we've seen a lot of arguments already. Sandra, how much has the debate over NAFTA divided the Latino community in particular?

I think there's tremendous division among US Latinos on the issue of NAFTA because primarily, the jobs that are expected to be lost as a result of this agreement are the low-skilled, low-paying jobs that so many Latinos in this country hold. So, there is concern that the jobs that Latinos have are going to be exported to Mexico, but at the same time, Latinos realize that they have this intrinsic link with their Mexican kin across the border. And so, they realize there's tremendous potential that because of Latinos' bicultural skills that they can really tap into this and benefit more so than other Americans in this country.

The Latino population is also divided in terms of convenience. For instance, in Texas, there is a lot of people who's in favor of NAFTA because most of the import-export businesses are going through Texas and of course, they're getting a boost out of it. But in California, for instance, where there is a lot of Latinos in this low end of the industry, they're having a lot of problems, a lot of hesitations about it. So, I think that it is also related a lot with where are the jobs.

I think the Mexican government has realized that US Latinos can be very good promoters of this plan. And they have started a NAFIN fund, a $20 million fund for US Latino business leaders to create joint ventures with business partners in Mexico. And US Hispanic chambers of commerce here in this country have also been leading in terms of creating these trade partnerships and expose and taking people from the United States to Mexico and really helping to create these links.

There's another benefit to Latinos and I think Latinos are beginning to see this, that if the agreement leads in less immigration from Mexico to the United States…from Latin America in general to the United States, then those low-end jobs will not be taken away as easily as they would be if we continue to see hundreds of thousands of people coming across the border every year. There is some resistance on the part of some Latinos for fear that a lot of the low-end jobs will go to Mexico, but at the same time, there is also a realization that there will be benefits long term that will come from fewer immigrants coming over and you know, taking US jobs at the low end.

Thank you very much, Sandra Marquez, Zita Arocha, and José Carreño for joining us here on Latino USA.

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It's been two years since disturbances broke out in Washington DC's Mount Pleasant neighborhood, where most of the city's Latino population lives. At the time, Latino leaders blamed the violent outburst on neglect by the local city government of Hispanic residents. In the past 10 years, Washington DC's Latino community, mostly Central American, has grown rapidly. Since the violence of two years ago, the DC government has taken action to address community concerns, but Latino leaders say there's still much more to be done. From Washington, William Troop prepared this report.

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A music vendor sets up shop at the corner of Mount Pleasant and Lamont Street, the heart of Washington's Latino community. He's one of at least a dozen Latino merchants doing business near Parque de las Palomas, a small triangular park at the end of a city bus line.

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Just two years ago, the worst riots the nation's capital had seen in over 20 years started right here. On May 4th, 1991, Daniel Gómez, a Salvadoran immigrant, was stopped by an African American police officer for drinking in public. There are differing accounts about what happened next. Police say Gómez launched at the rookie officer who shot him in self-defense, but many Latinos heard a different version, one that said Gómez was shot after being harassed and handcuffed by the officer. Gómez was seriously wounded and as news of the incident spread, outrage poured from the community.

…sangre fría frente a demasiados latinos. Eso no lo llevan todos porque en realidad esta es una comunidad latina. ¿Me entienden? y la discriminación ha ido tan lejos de que si alguien…

During the riots, these men looted a 7-Eleven store because they were angry at police for mistreating Latinos. The looting and burning in Mount Pleasant lasted three days. To calm people down, DC Mayor Sharon Pratt Kelly arrived on the scene and promised to address Latino concerns as soon as the violence ended. It was a victory of sorts. Latino leaders had long complained that city officials ignored charges of discrimination and police brutality. The riots changed that.

To a certain degree, we had the best disturbance that we could have ever had. Although you had the destruction of public property, you had the destruction of private property, you had some injuries, nobody was killed. And overnight…Latinos were an issue in Washington DC.

Juan Milanés was a law student at the time. Today, he is legal counsel for the Latino Civil Rights Task Force, an organization created after the disturbances in Mount Pleasant.

Prior to May 5th, 1991, the Latino population of Washington DC, although it was 10% of the population, was unrecognized…just invisible…just a bunch of people who get on the bus in the evening to go clean buildings, but you know... There are just a few people here and there. Most of them are illegal anyway. Suddenly, we're there and there was now this group of people that were demanding that they be there.

A few months after the riots, the Latino Civil Rights Task Force issued a blueprint for action, detailing 200 specific steps the city could take to address Latino concerns. Task Force executive director Pedro Aviles says the city has not done enough to stop discrimination and police insensitivity.

The problems have not been solved yet. The police brutality cases, they continue. Certainly, the fact that we've been complaining, and we've been shaking the tree kind of thing…it's brought about little change, but I would say that it's a lot of stuff that needs to be done.

What has been done has been done slowly according to task force officials. One example, the city hired bilingual 911 operators a year and a half after the task force recommended it and only after a Latina who had been raped had to wait two hours for assistance in Spanish. Carmen Ramírez, director of the Mayor's Office on Latino Affairs, says the city has taken significant steps to address community concerns.

The recommendations, in many instances, are not recommendations that can just be met by one concrete action, although some of them are, but rather, it's a matter of putting into place policies and in many instances, mechanisms by which problems can continue to be addressed.

To do that, the city has created bilingual positions in almost all departments of DC government. Ramírez adds that DC's police department has hired more bilingual personnel and sent hundreds of police officers to Spanish classes and sensitivity training. But last year, Latino leaders complained they were excluded from developing the initial sensitivity training program and they say there are still plenty of police brutality cases. In January, the US Commission on Civil Rights agreed when it issued its report on the Mount Pleasant disturbances. Commission Chair Arthur Fletcher called the plight of Latinos in DC appalling.

Many Latinos in the third district have been subjected to arbitrary harassments, unwarranted arrests, and even physical abuse by DC police officers.

The commission also found that the District of Columbia still shuts off Latinos from basic services because it lacks bilingual personnel. Many DC Latinos feel that in a city dominated by African Americans, it's often hard to get a fair distribution of resources. BB Otero is chair of the Latino Civil Rights Task Force.

There is a prevalent feeling among the African American community, not just the leadership but the community at large that says, “we've struggled hard to get where we are, to have control of some resources in the city to begin to play a powerful role in the community.” And its um…“if we open it up to someone else, we may be giving something up.”

They still wanted them to be citizens of their own country and not registered to vote in the United States and still have the same measure of power and the same measure of participation as somebody who was a citizen. That, in my view, is a naive expectation and certainly is not something that the civil rights movement ever talked about.

African American council member Frank Smith represents Ward 1, the area where most DC Latinos live. He says, the struggle for civil rights is about citizenship and voting.

I think that the Hispanic community has got to work harder at getting their people registered to vote. If they want to win elections, they're going to have to get people registered to vote and get them out to the ballot boxes on election day in order to win. Nobody's going to roll over and give up one of these seats.

Civic activity comes once you have gained some sense of security of where you are or where you live. You still have a community that doesn't have that sense of security.

Over half of Washington's estimated 60,000 Latinos are undocumented, many of whom have fled war and unrest in El Salvador and most recently, Guatemala. BB Otero who ran unsuccessfully for a school board seat last fall says she's hopeful a Latino political base will develop as time goes by and as the community matures.

If they can survive the struggle that it is to be able to fight the odds basically and build that political base, then we will see, I think by '96, some other candidates in other areas beyond myself.

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Change, however slow some may consider it, seems to be happening at Parque de las Palomas, where the disturbances erupted two years ago. There are now more Latino officers walking the beat. Merchant José Valdezar says, even those stopped for drinking in public are now treated with respect by police.

First, they say hello to you, and I start to speak and they explain to you what's going on. Sometime, the person who own any store around here say, you know, they don't like drunk people around here. You know, that's why they say no. Just keep walking and everything will be okay.

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Daniel Gómez, whose shooting sparked the disturbances in Mount Pleasant two years ago, recovered from his wounds and was later acquitted of assaulting the police officer who shot him. For Latino USA. I'm William Troop reporting from Washington DC.

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The roots of Latin jazz go back at least five decades to such artists as Machito, Chano Pozo, and Dizzy Gillespie. Latin jazz has lost many of its originators in recent years, but one of them, 81-year-old Mario Bauzá keeps going strong. From Miami, Emilio San Pedro prepared this profile of the legendary co-founder of the band Machito and his Afro-Cubans.

Mario Bauzá left his native Havana for New York in 1930. When he got to this country, Bauzá became one of those responsible for making Afro-Cuban music popular in the United States and around the world.

Had to happen outside of Cuba before the Cuban people convince themself what they had themself over there. When they got big in United States, Cuba begin to move into that line of music.

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Bauzá remembers his days at the Apollo Theater in Harlem where he helped to launch the career of Ella Fitzgerald. He recalls his days with the Cab Calloway Orchestra and the time that he and his friends, Dizzy Gillespie and Cozy Cole, played around with Afro-Cuban rhythm and jazz arrangements and created something new: Afro-Cuban Jazz.

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In the early 1940s, Bauzá formed the legendary band Machito and his Afro-Cubans, along with his brother-in-law, Frank Grillo, who was called Machito. Bauzá was the musical director of the band and he composed some of the group's most memorable songs.

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The sensation caused by Machito and his Afro-Cubans and by other Latin musicians in the '40s made New York the focal point of a vibrant Latin music scene.

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It's the scene of The Mambo Kings, you know, and that's why a lot of people will say Mambo is not Cuban music or is not Mexican music. Mambo is New York music.

Enrique Fernández writes about Latin music for the Village Voice. He's also the editor of the New York-based Más Magazine.

It was here that this kind of music became very hot…that it really galvanized a lot of people…that really attracted a lot of musicians from different genres that wanted to jam with it, and that created those great, you know, those great encounters between Latin music practitioners and the jazz practitioners, particularly Black American jazz practitioners. For that, you need to recognize that New York has been, since then, probably before then, but certainly since then, one of the great centers of Latin music.

Mario Bauzá takes great pride in the current popularity of Latin and Caribbean music, but he says people are wrong to call his music Latin jazz. He says that label doesn't give proper recognition to its musical roots.

Merengue, merengue from Santo Domingo. Cumbia is cumbia from Colombia. Afro-Cuban is Cuban. That's why I got to keep [unintelligible] Afro-Cuban rhythms, and Afro-Cuban rhythm…Danzón es cubano…la Danza es cubano…Bolero es cubano…el Cha-cha-cha es cubano…el Mambo es cubano…el Guaguancó es cubano y la Columbia es cubana. So, I got to call it Afro-Cuban Jazz.

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After seven decades in the music business, Mario Bauzá has come out of the shadows of the group Machito and his Afro-Cubans and is being recognized for his accomplishments as one of the creators of Afro-Cuban Jazz. This year, Bauzá plans to tour with his Afro-Cuban jazz orchestra featuring Graciela on vocals. The group also plans to release another album of Afro-Cuban jazz: Explosión 93. For Latino USA, I'm Emilio San Pedro.

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Yo crecí en Chicago. I grew up in Chicago, but every summer, my family would pack up an overloaded station wagon and drive across the border to visit my homeland, México. I have many wonderful memories of those trips to less urban settings. That was where I came into contact with nature, driving across the mountains and deserts of México. I often think that, like me, many Latinos who return to the land of their birth or where their parents or grandparents came from do so for the joy of going back to where the simple things of life are still valued. A few years ago, Texas artist Luis Guerra moved to a village in the state of San Luis Potosí in northern México. He says he was recently reminded of why he made the move as he took a long hike in the mountains in La Sierra.

La subida es dura. It's a steep climb, but after a few hours, the walking gets easier. The valleys and peaks of this beautiful, rocky Sierra spread out before you like a solid ocean suspended in time. This is a dry land, almost a desert, yet sometimes I'll find a tiny spring in a niche of a canyon wall. Or I'll happen upon a small shrine in a lonely valley. Almost every day, I'll come across a shepherd tending his flock or I'll hear the sounds of children and discover they are gathering wild herbs like oregano or rosa de castillo. Often, early in the morning, I'll see a woman or a man driving two or three burros loaded with mountain produce heading for a nearby town or city. I make it a point not to camp close to someone's home just out of respect and so as not to use up firewood that doesn't belong to me. Firewood is scarce around here. This day as I crested a hill, I spotted a ranchito, just a little two-room house, adobe walls with a flat roof.

Smoke was rising from the chimney. I was barely 300 yards from the ranchito and it would be dark soon. It was too late to move on. It was going to be a cold night and the only firewood I could find was already cut…tú sabes, for the rancho's wood stove. Ni modo. I used the firewood. I felt guilty, but warm that night. Anyway, I would make it up to them in the morning. After breakfast, as I was packing my things, the campesino from the ranchito showed up, a barrel-chested man with strong hands, a weathered face, and a scraggly beard. "Buenos días." I walked up to him and offered to pay for the wood. He brushed my words aside. "Mira, everything you see all around you is mine. Estás en tu casa. This is your home." To him, I was already his guest and my offer to pay was almost impolite. He reached into his bag and handed me a small bundle. "My wife packed this for you," he said. It was bread, goat cheese, and jamoncillo, a homemade candy made from fresh milk. We talked for a while.

I told him I was a painter who took inspiration from the Sierra. He told of his early life as a shepherd in these same mountains and of his many years as a minor in Zacatecas. "The mines are bad luck," he said. "Es muy duro, siempre en lo oscuro… always in the dark, digging with dynamite for God knows what or for whom. Here on top of the earth, we have everything a man can need. What more can one ask for? Dios provides the earth, the sun, wind, and rain. We provide the labor." He smiled. Somehow, my pack felt especially light that whole day.

Commentator Luis Guillermo Guerra is an Austin artist who now resides in the Mexican state of San Luis Potosí. And for this week y por esta semana, this has been Latino USA, a radio journal of news and culture. Latino USA is produced and edited by María Emilia Martin; associate producer, Angelica Luévano. We had help from Karyl Wheeler in New York. Latino USA is produced at the studios of KUT in Austin, Texas. The technical producer is Walter Morgan. We want to hear from you. So, llámenos on our toll-free number, 1-800-535-5533. Major funding for Latino USA comes from the Ford Foundation, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and the University of Texas at Austin. The program is distributed by the Longhorn Radio Network. Y hasta la próxima. Until next time, I'm María Hinojosa for Latino USA.