Latino USA Episode 31

[Opening music]

This is Latino USA, the Radio Journal of News and Culture. [Highlight--Music--Opening] I'm Maria Hinojosa. Today, Latino USA reports from Puerto Rico, as the island debates its political status.

Everything has to do with the emotional part of getting out the vote because for some people, we're talking about their culture, their identity, that to them is the most important thing, and for them, that's a very emotional issue.

Also, the countdown to the vote on NAFTA, and a living monument to New Mexico history.

People come to visit las Golondrinas and leave here with an appreciation of what it took to create successful settlements in what was an awfully inhospitable territory and environment.

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

This is news from Latino USA. I'm Vidal Guzman.

It's a choice between the past and the future. It's a choice between pessimism and optimism. It's a choice...

We got a little song we sing; "we'll remember in November, when we step into that little booth."

Vice President Al Gore and Ross Perot went head-to-head debating the North American Free Trade Agreement over whether NAFTA would benefit the country or send American jobs south. However, the debate didn't do much to convince undecided Congress members who said that the debate would factor little into their eventual decision. The level of debate has reached a fever pitch with both sides trying to sway undecided members. Patricia Guadalupe files this report.

This is almost as NAFTA is almost on the verge of hysteria. You know, Mr. Chairman, how many --

A slew of witnesses recently spent an entire morning telling Democratic representative Henry Gonzalez of Texas and other members of his banking and finance committee, horror stories about doing business in Mexico. These business people, while not against the concept of a free trade, told Gonzalez NAFTA would do little to alleviate the high level of corruption and graph they encountered. They suggested renegotiating a completely new treaty that includes less secrecy and greater involvement of the US Congress and the public. This way, they said, there would be a better chance to set up a mechanism that could help them when they run into problems. Representative Gonzalez agreed.

I think the biggest danger to this whole thing was that the entire agreement was reached in absolute secrecy, and when you do that, you're going to have trouble sooner or later and it is a very complex agreement.

Gonzalez added that, in his opinion, the pro-NAFTA forces will ultimately fall short of the votes they need in Congress because they haven't done a good job of explaining any of the details and too many people are confused. For Latino USA, I'm Patricia Guadalupe in Washington.

The Latino consensus, a pro-NAFTA coalition made up of a group of national Latino organizations is also trying to sway undecided representatives to vote for NAFTA. Andy Hernandez of the Southwest Voter Research Institute, one member of the Latino consensus, says that with the addition of the North American Development Bank, NAFTA is an agreement that Latinos can live with.

As you know, the Latino consensus was not for NAFTA until the North American Development Bank was part of the proposal because we thought the mechanism wasn't there to address some of the problems that NAFTA would create. The point of this lobbying effort is to go back to our leadership and say, now we have a NAFTA worth fighting for.

Hernandez believes that it will be a very tough and close vote. However, if NAFTA fails, says Hernandez, it won't be because of loss of jobs or the environment.

The deciding edge on why NAFTA may go down may be that latent bigotry that exists in our country against all things Mexican or Latino.

You're listening to Latino USA.

Voters in Miami pulled together to elect a new mayor after one of the most divisive political campaigns in that city's history. For Miami, Melissa Mancini has more.

Rejecting ethnic appeals, Miami voters elected Steve Clark as their first non-Hispanic mayor in more than 20 years. By a landslide 59%, voters turned aside the Cuban vote Cuban requests at the heart of opponent Miriam Alonzo's campaign. Younger Cuban American voters rejected Alonzo as did black, white, and non Cuban Hispanic voters who voted two to one in favor of Clark. Younger Hispanic voters ignored Alonzo's appeals to stick with their parents and grandparents in backing her. An exit poll showed Clark winning solid majorities among Hispanic voters below age 49 while Alonzo won among those over 50 years of age. Alonzo ran an all-out ethnic campaign, calling the mayor's job, quote, "a Hispanic seat" and saying Latinos should retain the mayor's seat in Cuban hands. She continued that strategy through election day and many political analysts are blaming Alonzo's defeat in great measure on her racially-based campaigning. For Latino USA, I'm Melissa Mancini in Miami.

A bill to provide funds to help those who became citizens under IRCA, the Immigration Reform Act of 1986, has been introduced by Congressman Luis Gutierrez of Illinois. The bill would provide money for citizenship and English classes for millions of immigrants who became eligible later this month.

This is not about teaching Hispanics to learn Spanish. This is about teaching them to learn English so they can incorporate themselves into the life and milieu of the American society. We want to incorporate them because that will bond them with this country and make this country a stronger, better place to live.

Congressman Luis Gutierrez of Illinois. This is news from Latino USA. I'm Vidal Guzman.

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[Transition--music--Latin folk]

I am Maria Hinojosa. Mention Mexico, and lately the next thing you think about is the North American Free Trade Agreement and how it will play out in the nation. But when a Mexican official visited Chicago recently, the focus was not NAFTA, but education, as Tony Sarabia tells us in this report from Chicago.

[Spanish] Dr. Ernesto Zedillo, el nombre de todos los estudiantes de la escuela Manuel Perez Jr….

Manny Gonzalez was one of a handful of students who shared their gratitude with Dr. Ed Ernesto Zedillo, Mexico's secretary of public Education. Zedillo was in Chicago recently to present city and school officials with over $1 million in books and audio visual materials. The collection will benefit both elementary and high schools with bilingual education programs, but it will also help with the community's adult literacy efforts and the city's community college system. The books aren't just mere translations of works by European novelists, poets or historians, but works by Latinos, specifically Mexicans. Zedillo says his country realizes the need to increase in the community, the available sources of information about Mexican culture and history.

President Salinas has instructed us to provide, in cooperation with the local authorities and the Mexican Institute of Culture and Education here in Chicago, to provide books in Spanish that will now reach the appreciation of the culture and history that unite Mexicans and Mexican-Americans.

Books range from encyclopedias with a Mexican perspective to romance novels, to Spanish language copies of the classic novel Don Quixote by Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes. Sadillio says these and other books will bring students closer to their culture, which will in turn strengthen ties between Mexico and Chicago's burgeoning Mexican-American community.

These ties are based on our common ethnic, historical and cultural roots and on the aspirations and principles that unite us on both sides of the border.

City Council member Ambrosio Medrano represents residents of a mostly Mexican American community, but unlike the city's other Mexican American enclave, many aren't recent immigrants. Medrano says many families have been there for up to three generations and says many students lose touch with their culture. He hopes the books will help reverse that trend.

[Spanish] Es muy importante que los niños este sepan el español y que sepan de nuestras raices de donde venimos...

Maria Elena Gordinas has three kids in the public school system. She says it's very important for students to know the Spanish language and to know about their history and culture. She says the Mexican government is performing an honorable task by providing books that will help students discover their roots. Her daughter, Nancy, a high school senior, says the collection will also give students here something they need, higher self-esteem.

We can identify ourselves, we can identify ourselves, and we know who we are. We know where we came from, we know what our ancestors did and give ourselves pride. And we have a cultural identity and we can educate others who might not know what it means to be Mexican, what it means to be a Hispanic, a Latino.

But besides that, Nancy says the books will be filling a gap that exists in the city’s public schools.

Many of our history classes, they have no Hispanic literature or they don't teach us about Hispanic history, and us being Mexican students, we're not really aware of our culture and we can't really identify with other people. Students from Mexico, we can't really identify with them because we're not as educated in Mexican history as they are.

Gordinas says, while the gift comes too late for her and other Mexican American seniors, it will be an important educational asset for those students still making their way through school. Although the focus was school and education before leaving Chicago, Dr. Ernesto Zedillo put in a lengthy plug for the North American Free Trade Agreement. Zedillo says learning more about Mexican culture will in turn boost support for NAFTA within Chicago's Mexican American community. For Latino USA, I'm Tony Sarabia in Chicago.

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[Background--Music--Salsa] Ever since 1898, when the island of Puerto Rico first became a US territory, Puerto Ricans have debated their relationship to the United States. 40 years after becoming a US commonwealth in 1952, the debate still continues with some Puerto Ricans favoring the status quo, others advocating the island become the nation's 51st state, and still others calling for Puerto Rico's independence. During his electoral campaign, Puerto Rico's governor Pedro Rosello promised to try to put an end to the eternal debate over status by calling for a plebiscite. That vote on November 14th may not be the last word on Puerto Rico's status, but Puerto Ricans are hoping it will force the US Congress to act. Latino USA's Maria Martin is in San Juan to report on the plebiscite.

[Highlight--Natural sounds--broadcast media]

For months now, Puerto Ricans on the island have been bombarded with messages on the radio, the television, and from loud speakers on trucks cruising their neighborhoods, telling them Si se puede con estadidad, Statehood is the way to go, say the ads. But others tell them no, that ELA or enhanced Commonwealth is the better option. It's the best of both worlds, say proponents, allowing them to retain their language and culture, while other messages talk about the merits of independence for Puerto Rico.

[Archival sound--radio production] Caravanas del Estado Boricua siguen con mas fuerza. Este Sabado desde Guayama, Naguabo, Calle y Aguas Buenas hasta el gran mitiga y el Domingo….

This is not the first plebiscite in which Puerto Ricans vote to decide the island's political status. The last vote was held in 1967 and that vote, like this one is non-binding because it's still the US Congress that has the final word on the political future of Puerto Rico. Two years ago, a bill calling for a congressionally-approved vote failed to get through a Senate committee, and what's significant about this election says political analyst Juan Manuel Garcia Passalacqua, is that this vote is actually a petition to Congress by the Puerto Rican people, made under the Right to Petition clause of the First Amendment of the US Constitution.

This is the first time in the history of Puerto Rico that the three parties approved a law that was adopted as a petition for the redress of grievances against the Congress of the United States. That's the first sentence in that particular law. So, here we are. This is the first time after 1898 that the people of Puerto Rico have told the United States we have a grievance, and that grievance obviously is colonialism.

Whatever the results of the plebiscite, whether there's a majority vote in favor of statehood, commonwealth status, or independence as says Passalacqua, all the legal precedents indicate that Congress will finally have to respond to the will of the Puerto Rican people.

If the United States of America respects its own constitutional traditions, the Congress of the United States has to respond to a right to petition for the redress of grievances. This is a right that the courts of the United States have recognized to a single citizen. These are going to be two million citizens, so Congress cannot be irresponsible in the execution of a response to a million and a half of Puerto Ricans in Puerto Rico.

[Natural sounds--mall ambience] Yo no se, pero… He speak better, he speak better English than I. But I prefer to be a state.

Yo preferia esta vida

Y porque?

Porque si, porque veo que, que Puerto Rica se hasta ahora estamos….

At the San Juan shopping Mall called La Plaza des Las Americas, several middle-aged Cubans, part of Puerto Rico's substantial Cuban community for some 30 years now, say they support and will be voting for statehood. Support for statehood for Puerto Rico has been growing steadily on the island. Ever since Puerto Rico gained commonwealth status some 40 years ago. Statehood proponents like former representative Benny Frankie Cerezo say that's because many of the island's residents are tired of being second-class citizens, for instance, of having obligations like serving in the military but not being able to vote in presidential elections.

The problem in Puerto Rico is that the legislation is made in such a way that Puerto Ricans, but not Puerto Ricans per se, the people, the US citizens living on the island of Puerto Rico are disenfranchised. George Bush, President Clinton would move down to Puerto Rico. Next day, they would be disenfranchised because they could not vote for representatives in Congress for senators in Congress, nor for the President. But still you will be subject to all the laws enacted by Congress. Precisely, that's what's called colonialism.

The more we discuss statehood, the faster statehood loses percentage because the moment you start discussing statehood, you discuss the cost of statehood. It's not…

Senator Marco Antonio Rigau of the popular Democratic Party is the proponent of what in Spanish is known as Estado Libre Asociado an enhanced commonwealth state in which Puerto Rico would have much more equality with the United States and more control of its political destiny. Proponents of this option are trying to convince the Puerto Rican people that the prize the island would have to pay to become the 51st state, including possible laws of the official status of the Spanish language and of the island's beloved Olympic team, and the tax break for US companies known as 936 far outweighs any potential benefits of statehood.

I'm telling you, if Puerto Rico becomes a state, you will have to pay federal taxes. If Puerto Rico becomes a state, we will not have an Olympic committee. We will not have a team in the Olympics or in the Central American Games or the Pan-American games. We're telling the people that if Puerto Rico moves for statehood, the state of Puerto Rico could not impose the same income tax because it would be too steep. We tell the people of Puerto Rico, one out of three jobs in Puerto Rico is related to 936. If Puerto Rico becomes a state, 936 is not possible because the federal constitution provides for uniformity in the tax system of all 50 states. So, we're telling the people the consequences of statehood and the people are... What they're saying is stop, look and listen.

Te estan diciendo que en Estados Unidos se paga mas tax que aqui porque entonces un televisor Sony de 27 pulgadas que haya cuesta $599, aqui cuesta $859.

But there are those who say the campaign being waged by the two principle parties, the pro commonwealth Populares and the pro state-hood Nuevo Progresistas doesn't really do the job of telling people to stop, look and listen. [Background--natural sounds--broadcast media] Critics say this plebiscite campaign is misinforming people on the issues, creating confusion and a climate of fear. Former governor Roberto Sanchez Vilella calls the plebiscite a useless procedure that would have no real consequences.

Waste of money, waste of energy, psychological energy, telling the people something which is entirely false. Nothing is going to happen after this. So this is really... I don't want to use harsh words, but it's a fraud.

Former Governor Sanchez Vilella has even gone to court to obtain legal standing for his so-called fourth option, a legal counting of votes left blank or marked with an X to protest the plebiscite.

Well, let me tell you without being glib that I don't see any more confusion than I saw in the campaign between Bush and Clinton. This notion that --

Fernando Martinez, a former member of the Puerto Rican Senate and the vice president of the Puerto Rican Independence Party. The so-called Independentistas are enthusiastically supporting the plebiscite even though polls say they'll be lucky to get even 5% of the vote. But what's making Martin and other independent supporters so eager is a scenario whereby neither statehood nor Commonwealth would win a majority, leaving Congress to look at independence for Puerto Rico in a more favorable light.

The results of this plebiscite will allow the Congress once and for all to refuse statehood because it will not have obtained majority support in Puerto Rico. The results will also show that colonialism is no longer a viable option either for the Congress or for Puerto Rico, leaving only the eventual recognition of sovereignty for Puerto Rico as the only alternative both for the United States and for Puerto Rico.

[Background--natural sounds--city ambience] It's five days before the vote and hundreds of people are gathered outside the studios of San Juan's Telemundo television affiliate. Inside the studios, representatives of Puerto Rico's three principal parties prepare for the last debate of the campaign, but for now, the debate out here appears to be over what group can wave the larger number of flags or who has the loudest sound system.

[Highlight--natural sounds--city ambience]

Elections here in Puerto Rico are very participatory. It's not unusual to have upwards of 70% turnout of registered voters. Reporter Ivan Roman of the Miami Newspaper El Nuevo Herald, a native Puerto Rican, says there's nothing in US elections to compare to the energy and enthusiasm of the Puerto Rican electorate.

You have caravans going all over the island, you have people who don't care if they dress up in clown outfits to get their point across. Everything has to do with the emotional part of getting out the vote. And this race, even more so than some others, is even more of emotional because for some people we're talking about their culture, their identity, that to them is the most important thing, and for them, that's a very emotional issue.

The latest polls conducted by the newspaper El Nuevo Dia, four days before the election indicate a virtual tie in support for the statehood and commonwealth options among the voters of Puerto Rico.

No me cogen con los totones [Laughter] [inaudible] [Highlight--natural sound--resturant ambience]

At Chino's Cafe in Old San Juan, Maria Torres says she still hasn't made up her mind which way to vote.

[Inaudible] No se todavia. Estoy confundida.

Pero que te ha confundidio?

Bueno, todas las cosas estan disciendo los anuncios todo todo ahi confusion.

[Background--natural sound--restaurant ambience] There's just too much confusion, she says, it's hard to decide just what I'll vote for. And analysts say it'll be the substantial number of still undecided Puerto Ricans like Maria Torres who determine the political option on which the US Congress is being asked to take action. For Latino USA, I'm Maria Martin in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

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While most museums invite visitors to look, but generally not to touch, in northern New Mexico, there is a museum of a different kind. El Rancho de las Golondrinas, located just south of Santa Fe is a living breathing reminder of three centuries of the area's Spanish history. Producer Deborah Begel prepared this report.

[Highlight--natural sound--fire] Della Roy Ball was up at four making dough and stoking pinon fires, preparing for the Harvest Festival here at El Rancho de las Golondrinas.

I'm going to make the bread and then let it rise for a little while. Although I do all this while the hornos get hot, two and a half hours.

About 3000 people will walk the dirt roads and trails among the 70 buildings, corrals and fields to get a glimpse of this old New Mexican Spanish settlement, a living museum. Blacksmith Larry Miller is one of 75, so-called demonstrators at El Rancho de las Golondrinas. People like him show visitors how to repair a wheel, cure a cold, or wash clothes.

[Highlight--natural sounds--nail pounding] I'm going to make a large... Well, a large, not too large a nail, but larger than some you'll see.

[Background--natural sounds--museum ambience] The museum hosts about a half dozen living weekends every year. Portraying what life was like in New Mexico from the 1600s to 1900. At the old Spanish mill, the present has yet another link to the past.

My father bought this mill and put it right here from Truchas, New Mexico.

For more than 200 years, El Rancho de las Golondrinas was a stopping place for carriages coming north from Mexico on the Santa Fe Trail. The ranch was bought by a Finnish couple in 1932. They turned it into a museum four decades later. Their son, George Paloheimo, now the director, says interest in local Native American history is so great that little attention has been paid to the state's Spanish heritage.

And it's our hope that people come to visit las Golondrinas and leave here with an appreciation and an understanding of what it took to create active, successful settlements in what was an awfully inhospitable territory and environment, even.

[Highlight--natural sounds--marching] Don Shoemaker of Albuquerque wields a 12 pound 69 caliber flintlock musket. In colonial times, he may have fought with Comanche, Navajo, Ute, Apache, and other indigenous warriors in hotly contested battles over the land in northern New Mexico.

Basically, we're portraying a group of individuals who would've normally been stationed in Santa Fe. We'd be local troops. But during harvest time and other times during the year, they'd send us out to the different settlements and whatnot to protect against Indian depravation.

[Highlight--Natural sounds--Indigenous spiritual singing] By the mid-1800s, clashes with the natives and problems with the Mexican government drove out many of the Spanish priests who had come to New Mexico, lacking formal religious leadership, small adobe houses of worship, called Morales, sprang up throughout the mountains. Here at las Golondrinas, the small Morale is an exact replica of one in Abiquiu. And is hosted by Dexter Trujillo.

[Highlight--Natural sounds--Indigenous spiritual singing] You know, if it would have been for the Hermano Peniten, which were the ones that kept the faith alive in New Mexico for many years, we probably wouldn't even have our religion or anything right now.

[Highlight--music--folk]

[Background--music--folk] Of the more than 40,000 people who visit El Rancho de las Golondrinas every year, about 12,000 are children like Melanie Carr and Terry Nelson. They're here on a field trip from their grade school in Albuquerque.

We're doing a writing project. We're writing as if we were one of the people who lived here in the 1800s. She's going to be the abuelita and I'm going to be the grandchild that comes to live with her.

First I'm going to talk about how when I was little, I went to live with my grandmother and about how her grandfather had died.

If Melanie Carr had lived here with her grandmother at the Old Mountain Village, she might have heard this old time fiddle and guitar music on a Sunday afternoon. Just as visitors to El Rancho de las Golondrinas do today. [Highlight--music--folk] For Latino USA, this is Deborah Beagle in La Cienega, New Mexico.

[Closing music] And for this week, y por esta semana, this has been Latino USA. The Radio Journal of News and Culture. Latino USA was produced this week by Angelica Luevano and edited by Maria Emilia Martin. We had help this week from Vidal Guzman and Raphael Gracia and [inaudible 00:28:05] from Radio Station, WRTU in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Latino USA is produced at the studios of KUT in Austin, Texas. The technical producer is Walter Morgan. The executive producer is Dr. Gilbert Gardenas. Why don't you call us with your comments?

Our toll-free number is 1-800-535-5533. That's 1-800-535-5533. Or write to us at 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 proxima. Until next time, I'm Maria Hinojosa for Latino USA.