Latino USA Episode 29

This is Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture.

[Opening Theme]

I'm Maria Hinojosa. Today, on Latino USA, on el Día de los Muertos, remembering.

We and the generations to come will remember what our ancestors and the people who came from Mexico and migrated here to this country, how they understood and interpreted their dead, and how they respected that within the culture.

Also, mayoral elections in Miami and New York.

This is a candidate accountability demonstration. We are here to increase the volatility of the situation and say, if you want our votes, you got to give something up. It's long past the time when our community was sleeping and our votes could be taken for granted.

This and more coming up on Latino USA, but first las noticias.

This is news from Latino USA. I'm Maria Martin. In an effort to gain Latino support for the North American Free Trade Agreement, the Clinton administration has thrown its support behind a border development finance project developed by Latinos. It's called the North American Development Bank, or NADBank. From Washington DC, Patricia Guadalupe has more.

The North American Development Bank is the brainchild of the Latino Consensus, a group of over 20 Hispanic organizations supporting NAFTA. Based on legislation introduced by Democratic Congressman Esteban Torres, NADBank would finance border development projects and provide economic support in communities anywhere in the United States affected by NAFTA. Both the United States and Mexico would make available from $2 to $3 billion in investment funds and provide added monies for environmental cleanup and training for workers. Congressman Torres said that without those resources, he would not have voted for NAFTA.

People fear that if the agreement is passed, American companies will close and workers will be left jobless. And for this reason, I believe it was necessary to address the legitimate fears that some communities and workers may be adversely affected. The North American Development Bank, known as NADBank, boldly addresses these fears in the most efficient and in the best cost effective manner.

Congressman Torres added that 14 undecided members of Congress, including four Hispanics, will support NAFTA, now that the financing mechanism is taken care of. The Latino Consensus says that it is intensifying its grassroots campaign around the country in support of NAFTA. For Latino USA, I'm Patricia Guadalupe in Washington.

A poll conducted by the San Antonio-based Southwest Voter Research Institute, one of the members of the Latino Consensus, finds a slight majority of registered Latino surveyed supporting NAFTA, but a large percentage remains undecided regarding the merits of free trade.

Yesterday, in the morning, if you walked by downtown, you could see little ashes coming.

A large part of Southern California, which has seen its share of troubles in recent years, has been declared a federal disaster area, following a series of destructive fires which have caused billions of dollars in damages. The fires have been concentrated in the areas not heavily populated by Latinos, but according to Róger Lindo of La Opinion Newspaper in Los Angeles, the disaster's economic effects will be felt by all Californians for a long time to come.

It will have an impact. I mean, the state has to stress all its emergency capacities. This is a loss of property. This is a loss of resources for the state, for this part of the state.

Róger Lindo of La Opinion Newspaper in Los Angeles. From Austin, Texas, this is news from Latino USA.

More than a dozen big cities elect mayors on November 2nd. One of the most contested races is in Miami, where Cuban-born Commissioner Miriam Alonso is facing former mayor, Steve Clark. That race has been characterized by a great deal of mudslinging, with Clark being dubbed the marshmallow mayor, and Alonso's opponents calling her Castro's ambassador and a communist. Alonso's husband was Cuba's ambassador to Lebanon, before the couple defected from the island 27 years ago.

A much publicized gang summit recently wrapped up in Chicago. One theme of that gathering was unity between Blacks and browns. But as Tony Sarabia reports from Chicago, few Latino gang members took part.

According to summit organizers, the meeting was an effort to persuade gangs to make peace among themselves and in the neighborhoods they dominate, something critics say isn't possible. But Latino gangs made only a few appearances at the summit. Juan Rangel of United Neighborhood Organization, a social service agency in one of Chicago's Latino communities, says, "While the summit was more or less a publicity stunt, it still would've been helpful to formally include Latino gangs."

With anything, I think that you would try to include as many of the people that are involved, knowing that there are Hispanic gangs out in the neighborhoods that are having an impact, or negative impact, on our communities. We would have hoped to see their involvement, if anything, positive was going to come out of this.

Rangel also says it's important for Latino gangs to work for peace with their African American counterparts. But he says, "None of these efforts will work if all the gangs don't give up their guns or drug trade." For Latino USA, I'm Tony Sarabia in Chicago.

The incidence of measles among US children has reached a record low, after a huge resurgence beginning in 1989, according to the Centers for Disease Control. However, 224 cases of measles in Puerto Rico were not included in the results. From Austin, Texas, I'm Maria Martin. You're listening to Latino USA.

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I'm Maria Hinojosa. November 2nd is election day in many places throughout the country. In California, voters will decide on a controversial initiative known as Proposition 174, a school voucher proposal, which advocates say is right in step with parents fed up with the state's troubled public schools, but which opponents call, a thinly veiled attempt to bankrupt the public education system, in which 36% of the students are Latino. Isabel Alegria has this report.

Proposition 174 would give each student $2,600 in state education funds, to use toward tuition at participating private or religious schools. Advocate Sean Walsh says, "Simply put, the voucher initiative would give parents, especially those stuck in inner city schools, the power to ensure their children get a good education."

It says, okay, here is $2,600. Walk into your principal's office with this $2,600 and say, "Mr. Principal, either you do a better job of educating my child, or I'm going to go to a school that will." And if the school does not improve, then you can say, "I'm out of here."

Opponents of the measure say, if it were that simple, Californians would be embracing Prop 174 wholeheartedly. But recent polls show they're not. Rick Ruiz is a spokesperson for the No on 174 campaign. He says one of the measure's main problems is that it would give all students a voucher, including 500,000 already enrolled in private schools. That means a drain of more than a billion dollars in public education funds to private schools over three years. Ruiz says advocates of the voucher plan are unconcerned about the effect on public schools.

They seem to be more interested in punishing the public schools than in reforming them.

Prop 174 has been rejected by many Hispanic civil rights groups, including MALDEF, LULAC and the Latino Issues Forum. Ruiz says there's no question that voters in California, especially Latinos and African Americans, want to see education reform, but not at the expense of public schools. In interviews outside Lazear Elementary School in Oakland, parents, most of them Latinos, express this same sentiment. But there is another concern over Prop 174, says Edgardo Franco, who was at Lazear to pick up his little sister and says he'll vote no on the measure.

I don't think we should be giving them money for they want to open their own school without a license. And then someone, the government probably, is going to give them money to do it. So I don’t think that's right. I think they should give the money to the public schools better.

Franco is expressing a widespread concern about the voucher plan that opponents say may result in the measure's defeat. Polls show most voters don't want public money to go to private schools that aren't required to hold to state standards on academic safety or teacher training. Rick Ruiz of the No on 174 campaign says even if parents did believe that private schools were better, most of them would be hard-pressed to send their kids to the private schools of their choice.

The really top quality private schools that are enjoyed by the wealthy charge anywhere from $7,000 to $15,000 a year and more. A $2,600 voucher is not going to provide anybody access to that kind of education.

Proponents of Prop 174 say these negative arguments are based on false information. Advocate Sean Walsh says surveys show most private schools, like parochial schools, would be accessible with a voucher. As for state supervision of schools, Walsh says it has hardly resulted in a top-notch public system. But Walsh says, what will influence voters the most to support the voucher plan is their disillusionment at the pace of school reform.

And again, we feel confident that when those parents go into that voting booth and they pull that little lever, that they're going to stand there before they do and say, "You know something? I can't afford to have my child go another 10 years without any sort of educational reform, that my child will be out of school by then and my child will have lost his or her future."

Opponents of Prop 174 are convinced voters will reject the measure, but they're not as quick to say that a no vote on November 2nd should be considered the final word on the idea of school vouchers. For Latino USA, I'm Isabel Alegria in San Francisco.

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Mayoral elections are being held in the heavily Latino cities of Miami and New York. Dade County voters will decide between Miami Commissioner Miriam Alonso and former metro mayor, Steve Clark. While in New York, poll show incumbent Mayor David Dinkin's running neck and neck with challenger Rudolph Giuliani. And analysts say, the Latino vote could decide the election's outcome. From New York City, Mandalit del Barco reports.

Four years ago, David Dinkins won his job as mayor by beating Rudolph Giuliani by only 2% of the votes. Now, in the final days of the campaign, both mayoral candidates have been serenading Latino voters like never before.

“Papa, por quien tu vas a votar?”

“Eso no se pregunta mijo, los Latinos votamos por Dinkin.”[Latin music]

Presente! Latinas! Con Dinkins! Presente! Latinas! Con Dinkins!...

Outside City Hall recently, a group calling themselves Latinas for Dinkins rallied for the mayor, who listed some of his accomplishments.

We've made a lot of progress in the past four years, and we're not going to turn back now. I felt the sting of discrimination in my own life, and I know that unless all of us are free, none of us is free. And that's why I have appointed highly talented Latinos to top posts in my administration, more than any mayor in our city's history.

Dinkins' spokeswoman Maite Junco says Latinos have a clear choice between a progressive minority candidate and Giuliani, a conservative Republican who served in the Justice Department under Ronald Reagan.

[Background people speaking] The choice is clear. For us, it's clear, particularly for the Latino community. The mayor has done in four years what this man has not done in his lifetime.

Dinkins' has the support of Congress members, José Serrano and Nydia Velázquez, as well as Bronx borough president Fernando Ferrer. El Diario La Prensa, along with the New York Times and the Village Voice has endorsed him. And wherever he campaigns, Dinkins make sure to throw in a little Spanish.

Vaya con Dios, y mantenga la fe. [Applause]

While Dinkins got a standing ovation when he addressed a conference of Puerto Rican elderly, his challenger, Rudolph Giuliani, also received a warm reception.

Do you speak any Spanish?

Un poco, [laughter]. I understand Spanish from understanding Italian. And I can read it, but my accent is so bad. I hate to speak it. I embarrass myself. [Background-People speaking]

Giuliani's bid to win the Latino vote has been boosted by running mate Herman Badillo, the grandfather of the city's Latino politicians. A longtime Democrat, Badillo's campaigning for city controller, this time around, on the Republican liberal ticket.

There's no way that Dinkins is going to get the same support in the Latino community that he got in 1989, and that's the reason he's going to lose. Every poll, while it may vary more or less some points, shows him nowhere near the 66% to 70% that he got last time. And I'm convinced that we're going to win the majority of the Latino vote. So that's the election right there.

Herman Badillo is not the only Latino Democrat to have defected from Dinkins' camp to Giuliani's. Fire Commissioner Carlos Rivera, along with prominent political figures, Ruben Franco and Elizabeth Colón, are now supporting Giuliani, citing disillusionment with the mayor.

He has failed us, and that is the cry of the Hispanic community around the city of New York. He has failed us, and we need a change.

Around the city, Giuliani voters seem more concerned about crime, while those who favor Dinkins feel a kinship with the city's first African-American mayor.

Dinkins look like he likes Spanish people. And Giuliani, he is going to go for Italian people. So we get together, the Black and Spanish, so I think we could get him thinking back. I think he's doing all right. We have to give him a chance.

Years back, we went to the street. We went to church. We went to different places at nighttime. Now we can't go out. We're scared. Drugs is number one. [Background-People Speaking]

And you think that Giuliani will take care of that?

I think Giuliani will take care of that, yes. Maybe a change would be better.

Giuliani.

Why?

Well, he looks like he'll take care of the crime, the crime and the drugs in the street. He'll do a better job, I think.

How do you know he will?

Well, I'm not too sure, but from people talking and everything.

Giuliani is not going to win and Dinkins is going to squeak by. That's what's going to happen.

Reporter Evido De La Cruz has been covering the election for the city's largest Spanish language newspaper, El Diario La Prensa. He says, at this point, the election and the Latino vote is just too close to call.

I believe that it is such thing as a Latino vote. But who's going to get it? Nobody's sure. A lot of people are really, really upset with the mayor, because they perceive him as somebody that he didn't live up to his promises, his commitments to the Latino community. And the other part of it is that, they don't trust. For some reason, they think that Giuliani is not sensible enough, doesn't know the community. He's perceived as somebody that's going to like everybody that has this mentality of prosecutor mentality. I interview a lot of people and that's what they say. I mean, they don't know how to vote. They haven't made their mind.

In the meantime, at least one segment of the city's so-called Latino swing vote has been trying to force both mayoral candidates to address issues such as racial violence against Latinos.

Madison Avenue! This Latino swing vote is in the middle of the monster, waving our flag, demanding...

At rallies outside City Hall and outside Giuliani's headquarters, community activist Richie Perez challenged Dinkins and Giuliani to act on the recent racial murder of a Dominican teenager and the fire bombing of a home belonging to a Puerto Rican family in Brooklyn. [Background-Person giving speech]

All the polls are saying that the community has not yet made up its mind. Two weeks ago went one way. This week is going another way. It's still a volatile situation. We are here to increase the volatility of the situation and say, "If you want our votes, you got to give something up,” because it is long past the time when our community was sleeping and our votes could be taken for granted. As far as we are concerned, this is a candidate accountability demonstration.

If nothing else, says Richie Perez, this mayoral campaign has forced the candidates to put Latino issues on the political agenda. For Latino USA, I'm Mandalit del Barco in New York.

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[Mexica ceremony/danza sounds: flutes, shell rattles]

In many Latin American countries, people believe that the spirits of the dead return to celebrate with the living on the first two days of November, los Días de los Muertos, the days of the dead. On those days, people visit cemeteries, march in processions, or make ofrendas or altars to their loved ones who have passed, with flowers, candies, candles, liquor and sweet bread, all of the food and drinks they loved in life. These celebrations are festive and colorful, reflecting the indigenous belief that death and life are part of the same never-ending cycle. Here in this country, el Día de los Muertos has enjoyed a resurgence in recent years, and nowhere more so than in San Francisco, where the celebration begins with a procession through the city's Mission District.

Okay. Now we like to ask everybody to please line up against the fence in order for us to start the procession.

I think this procession and the honoring of the dead should continue, because in that manner, we bring them back. El festival naturalmente es para recordar los Muertos y en esa forma viven. [Drumming, flutes, shell rattles]

It's very fun, and I'm here to honor my great-grandfather who died. [Drumming and whistling]

[Drumming and whistling] Dia de Muertos antiguamente era una celebración Azteca para celebrar los guerreros que murieron en batalla…[transition to English dub] The day of the dead was an Aztec tradition to honor warriors or hunters who died in battle or during a hunt. Today, it's the same spirit of joy, celebrating those who passed on[transition to original audio]…sostiene el mismo Espíritu de alegría y celebrar los difuntos.

Que vivan los muertos, la tradición sigue mas fuerte cada dia. [Drumming, singing]

[Clapping] The Chicano here in San Francisco, and throughout the Southwest, wants to retain their ancestral culture. They're Americans, but they're very special Americans. They're not English Americans or European Americans. I think what they want to do now is reintroduce this culture that's being lost in Mexico.

[Highlight--Natural Sounds--Live Music in Spanish]

La verdad que si es una celebración preciosa…[transition to English dub] It really is such a beautiful celebration. It's my first time here from Mexico, and I never imagined so many people. It's beautiful, right down to the dances representing the Day of the Dead. [Background singing]

[Music, horns, city streets]

So what do you think about the celebration?

I think it's a great idea. I think we should have it every day of the year. Absolutely.

Que te gusta?

The skeleton. They’re not scary for me. [Laughter] Some are funny. [Horns]

Para mi también la celebración tiene un carácter de fiesta…[transition to English dub] For me, this celebration is a very festive time. But it's also an opportune moment to protest some forms of death that should not be repeated, like torture and disappearances [transition to original audio]…por ejemplo la gente desaparecida.[Horns, drums]

[Drumming, horns and whistles]

[Crowd cheering] The Day of the Dead has entered the United States with the exodus of so many Latinos from Latin America, from Central America to this country, so that now it is unmistakably going to be an annual holiday. Eventually, I'm sure, next year, it'll start being commercialized. You'll probably see Safeway having Day of the Dead specials and Macy's even. They're going to commercialize. They're going to come into it. But right now, it's very beautiful because it's the beginning. They've always had it, but never like this.

Que vivan los muertos! [unintelligible] los muertos! Y vivan todos los muertos que se murieron por vivos! Y mueran todos los muertos que sigan siendo muertos vivos! [Applause, cheering, whistling]

The Day of the Dead is a spiritual celebration revolving around the communion between the living and the dead. In Boulder, Colorado, an art exhibit called Noche de Muertos: A Chicano Journey into a Michoacan Night celebrates the traditional roots of this cultural celebration, while making it a vital part of modern day Latino reality. From Boulder, Colorado, Betto Arcos prepared this report.

[Transition--Natural Sounds--Choir vocals]

The exhibition was conceived around the theme of a traditional cemetery, but the most powerful images are the altars and paintings that celebrate death and life, as in a large canvas painting of a cemetery at night. Standing near tombs covered with cempasúchil or marigold flowers, a man sings and plays the guitar. Artist Carlos Frésquez. [Choir vocals]

This particular painting is about life. It's about living. It's not about death. It's not about death. There's one woman, Calavera Catrina, she's dressed to celebrate. And really, that's what this is. It's a celebration. It's a magical piece. It's not a true reality. It's my reality.[Choir vocals]

Silvia...Mercedes...Alonso...Lupita [Choir vocals]

For inspiration leading to the exhibition of Noche de Muertos: Chicano Journey into a Michoacan Night, in 1991, a Chicano artist from Colorado traveled to the Mexican state of Michoacan.

We went into Michoacan with the intent of experiencing the days of the dead with the indigenous peoples of Mexico, in this case, Pátzcuaro and Tzintzuntzan, and coming back with that experience, and documenting it through Chicano interpretations of the visual arts.

George Rivera is professor of sociology at the University of Colorado in Boulder, and co-curator of Noche de Muertos: Chicano Journey into Michoacan Night.

We went there to discover ourselves through the cultural mirror of the people of Mexico as they viewed and celebrate the days of the dead. [Choir vocals]

In Noche de Muertos, the artist also paid tribute to the life and struggle of farm worker leader Cesar Chavez, who passed away last April. [Choir vocals]

And alongside the exhibit, you will see for nichos that are all tributes to Cesar Chavez, the farm workers, and Dolores Huerta. They were done by Megan Rodriguez, Tony Ortega, Aileen Lucero, and myself, as, again, the nichos with rosaries, with candles, celebrating what Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta and the Farm Worker Movement was all about. [Choir vocals]

The altar is shaped like an inverted pyramid, representing the eagle emblem of the Farm Workers Union, and built with empty letters boxes sent by the UFW's office in Salinas, California. [Choir vocals and whispers]

[Whispers]...Cesar...Juanita...[Whispers, voices]

Noche de Muertos also features a number of collaborative altars in memory of deceased relatives. One of them called Altar a Nuestras Abuelas includes an image of the Lady of Guadalupe, surrounded by photographs of the artist's grandmothers. Artist Sylvia Montero. [Whispers]

We just always have felt that we would not be the Chicanas we are today if it had not been for our grandmothers and their experiences in their lifetime, how things have changed. I believe that there's an evolutionary process to becoming Chicana, and I think the grandmother's a part of that evolution of how we become who we are.

Another prominent altar is dedicated to the memory of the early '50s rocker Ritchie Valens. The altar is designed as a stage, with Ritchie Valens at the center, and two little angels holding an electric guitar on top. It's the work of artists Rick Manzanares and Carlos Frésquez.

Rick Manzanares talked to his aunt and asked, what was his favorite things to do? She said, "He loved to eat, as we all do, and he liked to roller skate as a child." So we have a pair of roller skates. And what he left was his music, and that's still alive today.

For all of those involved in Noche de Muertos: Chicano Journey into a Michoacán Night, the exhibit is more than just an art show. George Rivera says, "It's a celebration and a revitalization of Chicano culture."

And so, Noche de Muertos and Día de los Muertos was important for us to go there and document in some way so that we and the generations to come will remember what our ancestors and the people who came from Mexico and migrated here to this country, how they understood and interpreted their dead, and how they respected that within the culture. [singing]

[Choir vocals]

Currently, an exhibition at the University of Colorado Art Galleries, Noche de Muertos: Chicano Journey into Michoacan Night moved to the Museo de Las Americas in Denver until December 4th. In 1995, it will travel to Amsterdam and other European cities. For Latino USA, this is Betto Arcos in Boulder, Colorado.

[Closing Theme]

And for this week, y por esta semana, this has been Latino USA, the radio journal of music and culture. Latino USA is produced and edited by Maria Amelia Martin. The associate producer is Angelica Luévano. We had help this week from Vidal Guzmán and Karyl Wheeler. Latino USA is produced at the studios of KUT in Austin, Texas. The technical producer is Walter Morgan. The theme music is by Ben Tavera King. We want to hear from you, so porque no nos llaman, call us on our toll-free number. It's 1-800-535-5533. That's 1-800-535-5533. Or write to us at Latino USA, Communication Building B, University of Texas at Austin, 78712. Major funding for Latino USA comes from the Ford Foundation, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and the University of Texas at Austin. Y hasta la próxima, until next time, I'm Maria Hinojosa for Latino USA.