Latino USA Episode 09

[Opening Music]

This is Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture. I'm Maria Hinojosa. [background music]

We believe that you need independent review. Let's get some serious activity in here because there are people who are being abused. [background music]

Today on Latino USA, human rights along the US-Mexico border. Also from the border, the debate over immigration. [background music]

There's laws right now that call for the respect of the rights and dignity of the people crossing the border within IRCA, within the law- [background music]

How about the immigration laws that are not being respected by Mexican nationals and others from South America? Those laws need to be respected, too. [background music]

And dancer, actress, and now hip-hop star, Rosie Perez. This and more on Latino USA. But first Las Noticias. [background music]

[chanting] This is news from Latinos USA. I'm Maria Martin. A hunger strike by Chicano students at the University of California at Los Angeles has ended happily. The students who had fasted on water only for nearly two weeks reached an accord with UCLA Chancellor Charles Young, over their demand for the establishment of a Chicano studies department.

I want to let you know what we won today. First of all, we won the Cesar Chavez Center for Chicana and Chicano studies. Second of all, we got the administration to realize that the 99 students that protested in the faculty center are not criminals, but they're political activists and we have the charges dropped. Third, we got the administration to recognize the validity of ethnic and gender studies on this campus and guaranteed two years of no budget cuts for any of those programs. [sounds from community gathering]

The final agreement falls short of the students' original demand that Chicano studies become a full-fledged department on campus. Nevertheless, the development was greeted as a major step forward by the students and their supporters, including California State Senator Art Torres and Dolores Huerta of the United Farm Workers.

We're going to have one of these in every UC campus in the state of California. [gatherting sounds]

We're showing here, in the spirit of Cesar Chavez, that we can make social change, that we can right the wrongs that people have done against us with gun violence, by unity and by sacrifice. And by working together, we can make them listen to us. [gatherting sounds][nat sound, music]

The new Cesar Center for Chicano Studies will be part of UCLA Center for Interdisciplinary Instruction, which the university says has been in the works now for several years.

In New York City, a group of Dominicans, Puerto Ricans and Panamanians is forming the first ever Latino chapter of the NAACP, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. From New York, Mandalit Del Barco has more. [nat sound, music]

Discrimination was not the first worry of the Latinos who joined to form the first Hispanic chapter of the Civil Rights Organization, crime was. Reverend John Flynn, who is part of the group, says since 1989 he's presided at the funerals of more than 30 young people who have been killed in the streets of Crotona, one of the poorest communities in the country. The young people there live in despair, he says. There are no jobs and the only money they can get is in the streets selling drugs.

It was the perception that no one in high places listens to the problems of people in the Bronx that led area resident Austin Jacobs to call on his brother-in-law, Ben Chavis, the NAACP's executive director. Chavis cheered the efforts of the first Latino NAACP chapter and said he would like to expand the organization even farther into Latin American and Africa. The NAACP was founded in 1909 to fight discrimination and to empower people on a grassroots level. For Latino USA, I'm Mandalit del Barco in New York.

From Austin, Texas. You're listening to Latino USA. Los Angeles, California, has elected its first Republican mayor in over 30 years. While most of the city's political establishment had supported the defeated candidate, Chinese American city council member Michael Woo, some analysts predict Latinos may stand to benefit politically under the new mayor Richard Riordan. Alberto Aguilar has this report.

Latinos took a keen interest in the mayoral campaign, with most of the political leadership, including a state assemblyman Richard Polanco, county supervisor of Gloria Molina, state Senator Art Torres supporting the defeated candidate Michael Woo. Only Councilman Richard Alatorre broke with fellow Democrats to yearn Republican, Richard Riordan. Loyola University political science professor Fernando Guerra believes having a Latino political operator inside the Riordan organization might be advantageous.

If Richard Alatorre had not gone over to Riordan's campaign, that means that every single Latino elected official who did endorse one of the two candidates would've endorsed Michael Woo. This way you have somewhat of an entree to the Riordan mayoral team.

Guerra believes the costliest race in the city's history may have helped Latinos come closer to the mayor's office.

With Mayor Bradley's leadership, Blacks have been at the forefront. At the congressional level, there are now more Latinos than Blacks from LA County. At the state level, there are now more Latinos than Blacks in LA County. So that Latinos have actually surpassed, in terms of absolute numbers, Blacks. And they are now, I would say, the dominant minority group in Los Angeles politics.

Whether the new mayor will help promote Latinos, still unclear. What is obvious, according to local observers, is that allegiances were clearly visible, especially on issues of interest to Latinos, something not seen around here in a long time. For Latino USA from Los Angeles, this is Alberto Aguilar reporting.

Allegations of abuse by the Border Patrol, customs, and immigration agents are often heard in many Latino communities, particularly along the U.S.-Mexico border. These widespread complaints have prompted several congressional leaders to call for the creation of a commission to investigate abuses by these federal agencies. From Washington. Patricia Guadalupe has more.

Cuando yo me miraron se aceleraron y me dijeon parate

Heriberto Arambula is a Mexican national who claims he was beaten up by the US Border Patrol while riding his bicycle in El Paso, Texas.

Me agarre la bicicleta me tumba para atras y el otro esta gringo parece Bruce Lee.

They grabbed me and threw me from my bicycle. One of the officers then jumped at me. He looked like Bruce Lee. Imagine. He sunk his boot into my chest that left the mark. They didn't ask me what I was doing or explain why they were after me, nothing. Only the beating and then to the police, then to the ambulance, then to the hospital, and that's all. [Spanish dubbed over]

It is because of this and many other complaints that legislation was introduced in Congress May 20th to create an independent commission that would oversee the Border Patrol. Currently, the Border Patrol is part of the immigration and naturalization service, which immigrant advocates say is inefficient and biased since it polices itself. Democratic representative Xavier Becerra of California is the chief sponsor of the commission bill in Congress.

We believe that you need independent review and that's the big change here. It's not dramatic, but what we're saying is let's get some serious activity in here because there are people who are being abused.

Congressman Becerra adds that the problem doesn't exist only among the undocumented along the border.

We're talking about US citizens, legal permanent residents who have been abused by the INS. And we have not only eyewitness testimony and firsthand testimony of people who've come, but we have court cases where we have had judicial decisions that show that people have been abused.

Former Consul General of Mexico in El Paso, Roberto Gamboa Mascarenas investigates many cases of alleged abuse by Border Patrol agents. Most recently, the violent deaths of three undocumented workers in Arizona and Texas. He said the commission would have the power to act on claims of abuses, something he says the system is not now set up to do.

It is the most fantastic and the most positive step that has ever been taken in favor of the human rights and the civil rights of many people in the border areas, not necessarily all Mexican, whose rights have been violated continuously by agents who, again, are unchecked, uncontrolled, and not disciplined whatsoever.

In its annual report released on the same day Becerra introduced this legislation, the human rights group, America's Watch, concludes that conditions at the border have not changed. Cases of abuses have risen, not fallen. Juan Mendez is executive director of America's Watch.

There's something wrong in the way abuses are referred to the proper authorities and investigated inside these agencies, both the Border Patrol and the customs administration.

Mendez says that creating an independent commission would alleviate the fear many have of coming forward when they have claims of abuse. When reached for comment, a spokesman for the INS said they would follow whatever directive the Congress and Attorney General Janet Reno handed down. For Latino USA, I'm Patricia Guadalupe in Washington.

Perhaps no other site on the US-Mexico border sees more complaints regarding human rights abuses than the San Diego-Tijuana region. In recent years, the number of complaints of abuses has risen as a number of anti-immigrant groups have organized to protest the number of undocumented immigrants crossing the border. Observers in California, which has lost over 800,000 jobs in the last four years, point to a growing anti-immigrant climate in the state, particularly apparent in the San Diego area.

With us to discuss some of these issues are Muriel Watson of the organization Light Up the Border, which has drawn attention to the issue of the number of immigrants crossing the border by stationing cars with their headlights turned on facing Mexico. And Roberto Martinez, director of the American Friends Service Committee San Diego office. The AFSC has documented numerous cases of human rights abuses in the area. Welcome to Latino USA, both of you.

Thank you.

Muriel, let me start out with you. Would you like to see this border area right here between San Diego and Tijuana and this area here, would you like to see it closed? What would you like to see happen with the border?

I would like to see that border secured and I would like to see good business being transported back and forth between Mexico and the United States. I'm a member of the San Jacinto Chamber of Commerce and they're constantly saying that business is good between Mexico and the United States, but the drug smuggling and the alien smuggling distorts that good business and healthy climate. And unless we secure the border... No, I don't want it closed. I want it secure. I have no objections to legal immigration. But illegal immigration hurts everybody.

Roberto.

Well, before we address illegal immigration, as a human rights office, we're more concerned right now with the increase in human rights abuses by Border Patrol. These last few weeks, we've been receiving at least three to four cases a day of people coming across the border. [interruption]

Well, that's incredible.

Let me say my piece first. [interruption] With their heads split open. Two of them required surgery for internal injuries. We have two shootings right now, one in Calexico and one in MCC Jail right now by Border Patrol. These are all unarmed civilians. This doesn't even begin to address the day-to-day insults and racial remarks that Border Patrol uses on the buses and the trains. And I say this from firsthand experience, I don't say this from third-hand. I interview these people myself. Whether they're undocumented or coming across illegally or not, there still has to be respect for human rights, and then we'll address illegal immigration.

Well, then- [interruption]

What needs to happen on the border then, Roberto?

Well, like Muriel wants the border to become secure, we want Border Patrol to adhere to the policies that are already in place. There's laws right now that call for the respect of the rights and dignity of people crossing the border within IRCA, within the law- [interruption]

How about the immigration laws that are not being respected by Mexican nationals and others from South America? Those laws need to be respected, too. You can't ask for respect for the laws on the one hand and ignore the other laws

Well, see. You have to understand, and I know this is difficult, but hunger and poverty does not understand laws.

We understand that, but what about the Mexican government's responsibility on this?

Well- [interruption]

The host country has a responsibility.

Muriel, do you believe that this country which was built by immigrants and was a country-[interruption]

Hey, there's no denying that.

Do you believe that you can in fact completely closed down any kind of undocumented immigrants coming into this country? Do you think that that's realistic and that it's possible?

Yes, it is, because we haven't been doing it for the last 20 years.

So, how is it possible?

It's possible by the will of the people. Obviously, the Gallup Polls have said they want to put an end to illegal immigration. Those people who would like to immigrate to the United States, many of them want to come to just work. We have those facilities in hand to allow them to work legally, so that they can come back and forth. All of those mechanisms need to be brought forth by the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Labor, and to do it legally. There is no reason why we as a nation have to cope with this kind of silent invasion and the abuse that goes on both sides of the border. Border patrol agents are abused too.

But to shoot 15-year-old kids for having a rock, in the back or in the stomach or whatever, you know. [interruption]

Yeah, well, the rock was the first form of execution in written history. And when you've got 15-year-old kids in a pack of 200 throwing rocks at one single Border Patrol agent, his life is in danger. I have friends who were in the helicopter that was shot down by the bandits who didn't want the helicopter flying over that international line. I have Border Patrol agents that are shot at, Border Patrol agents that are rocked. All of these kinds of abuses go on, and Congress just sort of sits back-

Nobody condones that.

At this point, you're saying, Roberto, that there's no accountability... When the Border Patrol in fact violates, as you say, unarmed civilians, there is no one who they must be accountable to?

That's not true.

This was brought out very clearly two weeks ago when they announced the introduction of this bill to create a federal civilian oversight, that there is no system of accountability, no system of complaints.

When you say that no complaints are recognized, every time there is something that goes on as far as the Border Patrol is concerned, depending on the jurisdiction, either the sheriff's investigators take over, or the FBI takes over, or the San Diego police take over.

How many agents have been prosecuted for abusing an undocumented person?

Many of them have. Internally, they have been prosecuted.

How many?

Not one has ever been- [interruption]

Well, you know, prosecution follows through-

Are you saying that no Border Patrol official has been prosecuted for their…

In the dozens of shootings that have taken place over the last 10 years, not one agent has been prosecuted for shooting or killing an undocumented or unarmed civilian. In the abuse types, maybe one or two. The last criminal prosecution was of a Border Patrol agent in El Centro earlier this year for raping and beating a 16-year-old girl. He was sentenced to 24 or 25 years in prison.

How many undocumented immigrants have been shot and killed by the Border Patrol?

Oh, I've lost track. I mean, there was 30 or 40- [interruption]

How many of many have been shot and killed by smugglers and bandits down on the border? We don't have any track of that either.

That-[interruption]

The Border Patrol is just simply a policing arm of the United States government. And like all police agencies, it's suffering the same form of criticism that every other police force in the country is facing. But it is one of the tightest, one of the firmest, one of the most obvious to the public. I mean, they work down there in a fishbowl.

Let's just end up on this point. Is there any point, Roberto and Muriel, where your opposing views can ever come together? You both live in San Diego, you both live in an area that's a border. These things are not going to change overnight. Will you continue to be as far apart as ever or is there anything that can bring together these opposing perspectives? Roberto?

I guess as long as people don't understand why people come here and the poverty that brings them here, and never promote the contributions that Mexican immigrants have made to this state, the 4 billion agribusiness that's sustained on millions of seasonal agricultural workers and just targets the negative part of it, I think we're always going to be opposed to it. But also I think my problem too is that the anti-immigrant sentiment is getting so focused on undocumented problems that I think that if we don't begin to realize that immigrants are the ones that built this country instead of focusing on the negative, I think there we're always going to be poles apart. But I think people have to accept their responsibility for the growing anti-immigrant sentiment. And I think until that is addressed, we're going to continue being on different sides of the fence.

Muriel.

Well, I think what I'm hearing from Mr. Martinez is the fact that he would like to have open borders, and I think that sort of debate has to take place on the floor of Congress. We cannot have a law and then not enforce it. We cannot expect anarchy not to be taking place at those ports of entry. I mean, it's happening in New York State, it's happening in San Francisco, happened right here in San Diego. As long as people seem to feel that they can come to this country without permission, then we're going to have constant anarchy and danger to the people involved and to the law enforcement officers who are put out there by Congress to maintain that law.

Okay, thank you very much. Muriel Watson with the organization Light Up the Border, and Roberto Martinez with the American Friends Service Committee Border Office, here in San Diego. Thank you for Latino USA.

Thank you.

Thank you.

[music]

After stealing the show in movies like Do the Right Thing, White Men Can't Jump and Untamed Heart, actress and dancer, Rosie Perez will soon star in films with Jeff Bridges and Nicholas Cage. Perez is also starring in an HBO special which puts the spotlight on rap music. From New York, Mandalit Del Barco profiles Rosie Perez, the multi-talented Nuyorican.

Hi! Oh, I know where that is. That's in this neighborhood, babe. [nat sound]

At Fort Green Park in Brooklyn, up the street from Spikes Joint where filmmaker Spike Lee sells clothing and memorabilia, Rosie Perez sits on a park bench to talk about growing up not far from here. She remembers living with a big extended family in a low income area of Brooklyn called Bushwick. That's where she caught the dancing bug that eventually made her famous.

Because they used to go to the disco all the time with the hustle and everything. So, they used to use us as their partners and stuff and they would burn holes in our stockings and then our socks. They would twirl us around so much. I'm like, "All right, man, I'm tired." "Get up!" They wanted to be the king of the disco, you know, and stuff. And that's how we started.

[highlight hip hop music]

After high school, Rosie moved to Los Angeles to study biochemistry and ended up choreographing for singer Bobby Brown, rapper LL Cool J and Diana Ross. Her big screen break came in 1989 when Spike Lee cast her as Gloria, who danced like a prize fighter and cursed up a storm as his girlfriend in Do the Right Thing.

That's it. All right? [movie excerpt]

I have to get my money from Sal. I'll be back. All right? [movie excerpt]

Shits to the curb, Mookie, all right? And I'm tired of it, all right? Because you need to step off with your stupid ass self, okay? And you need to get a fucking life, Mookie, all right? Because the one you got, baby, is not working, okay? [movie excerpt]

After Do the Right Thing, Rosie landed a gig choreographing the Fly Girls on TVs In Living Color, where she brought hip hop dancing from the New York streets and nightclubs into mainstream America. After stints on TV shows like 21 Jump Street, Rosie's film career took off, playing rather loud characters like she did in the film Night on Earth. To avoid being stereotyped, Rosie says she fought hard to win roles like the Jeopardy! game queen in White Men Can't Jump.

Jeopardy! is going to call Billy. It is my destiny that I triumph magnificently on that show. [film excerpt]

Who is Peter the Great? Who is the Emperor Constantine? [film excerpt]

It's like when people think of Latin women, they think of kind of just sex-crazed maniacs that are kind of lightheaded and not really that smart. You know what I mean? And everything. And I hate that. And that's why I went after White Men Can't Jump with a vengeance because you got to be smart to get on jeopardy and win money. And, to my agents, I said, "I got to get this role, man. And I got to keep her Puerto Rican, man." I know they wanted a white girl, an Irish girl from Boston, initially for the role. I said, "But, yo, if I get in there, I got to represent, man. You got to keep her Puerto Rican, man." Look at films, look at TV. We're always the maid. We're always the one that's having the extramarital affair. Wearing the tight dress and ay... You know, all that and everything. That's fine, but don't pigeonhole us and don't have that represent us as a whole.

Soon Rosie Perez will be starring with Jeff Bridges in Fearless and with Nicholas Cage and Bridget Fonda in Cop Gives Waitress $2 Million Tip. She's also producing her own projects, including a possible film about the Puerto Rican independence movement. Comedian David Alan Grier works with Rosie on In Living Color.

The thing I like about her is that she's a hustler. I mean, she has this plan. She's building this power base. And she's got her own company, she's managing groups. I'm going to be asking her for a job in just about two or three years. She's a powerful woman.

[hip hop music highlight] [nat sound]

Grier also calls Rosie the harbinger of hip hop, youth culture that includes street dancing, graffiti and rap music. HBO, in fact, is now airing a series on hip hop that she executive-produced. The show Rosie Perez Presents Society's Ride features cutting edge rappers before a live audience at a New York nightclub. While Leaders of the New School, Brand Nubian, and Heavy D and others rock the crowd. Rosie gives the flavor backstage and on the dance floor. [background hip-hop music]

Hi!

Hi!

Society's Ride means... Leaders of the New School, the Electric Records recording artists, they gave me the name. Because I said, "I want to take people on a ride to my world. I want them to see what I feel and what I do and how I be living and everything." And they were like, "Society's ride. Society's ride." And so it just stuck and everything. And the hip hop community gets it. Everybody else goes, "what?" But that's cool. But that's what the show is about. We're showing you real. We'll teach you. We'll take you on the ride. We're in the driver's seat this time.

Rosie says HBO was nervous about the rap special at first, thinking the material would be too racy for TV. But at a time when radio and TV waters down or sensors rap lyrics, she says she fought the network to let the artists show the real deal, uncensored. With this latest project, Rosie hopes to be taken seriously as a Hollywood producer because being boss is something she loves.

I feel great. I keep all the money.

The show Rosie Perez presents, Society's Ride is airing Friday nights on HBO. For Latino USA. I'm Mandalit Del Barco in New York.

[Transition hip hop music]

Friday night I was hanging with my boys. We were chilling at this guy, Chino's house, drinking forties while he took care of his kid. I hadn't hung out in a while, so I didn't mind babysitting. But the rest of the guys seemed restless. When I finally asked what was up, they told me that they were expecting a delivery of skis, also known as cocaine. [hip hop music background]

John Guardo, who came to New York City when he was 12 years old, was a member of a crew for most of his teenage life. Crews are what gangs are called in New York City. Now Guardo is trying to leave that life behind. [hip hop music background]

It's hard for me to admit how much drugs have become a part of my life, but they have, and in a big way. The lyrics and the music I hear speak of drugs as a way to become popular or even rich. That idea is reinforced by how drugs are glamorized in the movies. Bad guys living large, selling cocaine, with women around them and money to burn. As a little kid, I fantasized about someday living like them. Walking home from school, I saw that crime did pay. Just like in the movies, the neighborhood dealers had cars, girls, money, and respect. Things I wanted. [hip hop music background]

Time passed by, though, and a pattern became visible. I watched yesterday's big shot dealers become the day's victim, whether they got shot or went to jail. It was always constant. I saw those who came around to buy drugs, deteriorate, transforming from regular people to beggars and criminals with each purchase. In the end, I realized everybody was a victim, that it wasn't worth it, because even if you ain't got nothing to do with drugs you can still be mugged by a crack head or catch a bullet from a dealer's gun. No one will ever really be safe unless this problem is solved. Until then, the only protection there is is to be educated. People like to sell or do drugs because they don't realize what harm they're inflicting on themselves or others. Not knowing leaves a void for curiosity to fill.

Anyway, that Friday, as my friends got high, I chose to ignore what they were doing, numbing myself to their actions. I felt compelled to talk to them, but was afraid they'd start dissing me. Feeling out of place, I went home, got to bed, and fell asleep with a bad feeling. The next day, I woke up to a phone call. One of the guys I was with the night before had OD’ed on cocaine and died of a heart attack. He was 21 years old, and also my friend. I'm John Guardo, speaking for the street.

And for this week y por esta semana. This has been Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture. Latino USA is produced and edited by Maria Emilia Martin. The associate producer is Angelica Luevano. We had help this week from Vidal Guzman and Mike Moon. 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 why don't you call us on our toll-free number 1-800-535-5533. That's 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 proxima. Until next time. I'm Maria Hinojosa for Latino USA. [closing music]