Latino USA Episode 35

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

[Opening music]

This is Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture. I am Maria Hinojosa. Today on Latino USA, Latinos and New York's new mayor.

By using our voice and our strengths, we know that we'll be able to build a government that will respond to the needs of our community.

Every time there's an election we have sectors of our community that swear that the messiah has come.

Also, the cult of the Brown Virgin, La Virgen de Guadalupe.

Virgen de Guadalupe, she's our Patron Mother. She's our mother.

And this beautiful lady is a tremendous part of our Hispanic heritage.

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

This is news from Latino USA. I'm Maria Martin. Another border community is reporting an alarming increase in a number of possibly environmentally-related diseases. From the twin cities of Nogales on the Arizona/Mexico border, David Barbour reports.

It was nearly two years ago that residents first realized there was a serious health problem in the border area of Nogales. Clusters of rare cancers began showing up, and one working class neighborhood could count 16 cases of cancer within a two block area. But it wasn't until a review of 600 death certificates indicating that nearly 50% were cancer-related, that community activists got the attention of state and federal health officials.

Dr. Larry Clark is with the University of Arizona's Cancer Center, and has uncovered a disturbing increase in cases of systemic lupus.

We've identified 18 definite or probable cases, and 30 possible cases. Nogales may have the world's highest rates of systemic lupus.

On December 2, Arizona Governor Fife Symington led an entourage of state and federal health and environmental officials to Nogales, Arizona to announce the creation of a border health task force to study the problem. Though more money has been promised to study the diseases, the causes are still anybody's guess. The residents of Nogales are still waiting for answers. For Latino USA, I'm David Barbour in Tucson.

A group of dislocated Levi Strauss employees from San Antonio, Texas is intensifying its campaign for a boycott of Levi's products. The members of Fuerza Unida say they deserve better from the company, after it moved a plant to Costa Rica. From San Francisco, Chuy Varela has more.

[Background--natural sound--protest] This week, Fuerza Unida brought their campaign to San Francisco, California where Levis is headquartered to intensify pressure on the company to negotiate a fair settlement for the dislocated workers. Irene Reina is the co-coordinator of Fuerza Unida.

[Background--natural sound--protest] We know that they're very, very proud of their lily-white reputation, and that's what we're going to do, to make the public aware that they are not the progressive responsible company that they claim to be because it's obvious.

[Background--natural sound--protest] Levi's management has met twice recently with the dislocated workers, and are still willing to negotiate. But at this point, they say they feel they've gone beyond the requirements of the law to help their formers workers make the transition to other work opportunities. For Latino USA, I'm Chuy Varela in San Francisco.

Police chiefs and mayors from throughout the nation came to Washington, DC recently to ask President Clinton's help in dealing with violent crime. The mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico, where the crime and murder rate has reached staggering proportions in recent years says, although more police is one solution, it's perhaps more important to confront this nation's culture of violence. Mayor Hector Luis Acevedo.

In Puerto Rico, we have now the National Guard in the public [inaudible]. We have this year more than 100 murders more than last year.

You're listening to Latino USA.

The North American Free Trade Agreement is now official. Patricia Guadalupe attended the signing ceremonies in Washington.

[Background--natural sound--music] Over 100 supporters, including members of Congress and business and labor leaders came to see President Clinton sign the hotly contested treaty. This pact creates the world's largest market with over 300 million potential consumers. President Bill Clinton.

We are on the verge of a global economic expansion that is sparked by the fact that the United States at this critical moment decided that we would compete, not retreat.

Latino analysts says the Hispanic community, particularly Hispanic-owned businesses, will benefit greatly from NAFTA and the President's emphasis on global expansion. Among those analysts is Raul Yzaguirre of the National Council of La Raza.

If we get our act together, if we do some very specific things, I think we can benefit by increased business and increased employment.

Yzaguirre added that the specific thing he wants to see is Hispanics uniting to make sure that the community now receives the funds it was promised to develop projects along the border with Mexico through the North American Development Bank. This unity was not evident during the vote in Congress, however, with almost all Mexican American representatives voting for NAFTA , and Puerto Rican and Cuban American members voting against it citing fear of loss of jobs and Mexico's friendly relations with Cuba.

Some speculate this has created divisions within the Hispanic caucus, and will affect work on other pieces of legislation. Democratic representative, Kika de la Garza of Texas disagrees.

From this day, like any other piece of legislation, you finish one piece of legislation, you go on to the other. I don't see any connection. I don't see any problems for the President or in the Congress.

The North American Free Trade Agreement will be enacted on January 1st, gradually eliminating tariffs and other trade barriers over the next 15 years. For Latino USA, I'm Patricia Guadalupe in Washington.

You're listening to Latino USA.

[Transition--music--guitar]

I'm Maria Hinojosa. Since the death of farm labor leader Cesar Chavez, there's been a growing movement to name parks, streets, and libraries after the Mexican American leader. But in Fresno, California, the city council there has revoked an earlier decision to change the name of California Ventura and Kings Canyon Boulevard to honor the founder of the United Farm Workers. The decision came after a heated special session attended by over 1000 people.

Mexican American people, Scotch Irish people, Europeans, Middle Eastern people, people from Asia, people from all over the world came to this valley and built this valley, and I'm tired of hearing that Mexicans built this valley. It didn't happen that way.

The vote by Fresno City Council was four to three in favor of overriding their earlier decision regarding Cesar Chavez Boulevard. In Austin, Texas however, a similar effort has been much less controversial. In that capital city, East 1st Street was recently inaugurated as Cesar Chavez Street, with a march and other festivities.

[Background--natural sound--march] Led by a motorcycle policeman flying the red and black farm workers flag, and by a parade of low rider cars and Aztec dancers, about 1000 people marched to inaugurate Austin's new Cesar Chavez Street.

[Highlight--natural sound--march] ¡Viva la Raza! ¡Que viva!

[Background--natural sound--march] There were activists and politicians, farm workers from the Rio Grande Valley, members of the NAACP, and a very large number of young people.

[Highlight--natural sound--march] ... themselves can come and-

We're from Southwest University and-

... participate.

... and we can from San Marcos to celebrate this day. We're really proud and we really like to support this.

!Viva Cesar Chavez!

[Highlight--natural sound--crowd]

[Background--natural sound--crowd] These young students were not even born when Cesar Chavez began his efforts to organize farm workers and provide them a more humane existence in California, and here in Texas. Still, says Juana Nieto, he set an example that means a lot to young people.

We see him as a role model for us so when we grow up and we have our kids, we can teach them what we learned from him, to fight for what we want and for what we believe.

Unlike the controversy in Fresno, changing the name of Austin's 1st Street to honor the farm labor leader was a smooth process and, the vote, says City Councilman Gus Garcia, was unanimous.

It's appropriate that if any place would be the first place to have a street named after him, that it would be Austin because this is where the muscle of Latino politics is going to be flexed.

Members of Cesar Chavez's family, including his sister-in-law and the new President of the United Farm Workers Union, Arturo Rodriguez, joined the Austin inauguration.

For all of us, it shows us that we're not alone. We know that there's a lot of people that support it, the efforts of Cesar. When 50,000 people joined us in Delano, California on April 29th for Cesar's funeral, that gave us the spirit and encouraged us to continue right then on. All of these re-namings of schools, of streets, of libraries, of parks and so forth continue to give us that strength and courage, and show us and demonstrate to us that we're not alone by any means, and that there's millions of people that continue to support this movement.

[Highlight--natural sound--crowd]

This is Maria Hinojosa.

[Transition--music--regional Mexican]

In the aftermath of the defeat of New York City's first Black mayor incumbent, David Dinkins, Latino leaders in that city are beginning to assess the significance of Mayor-elect Rudolph Giuliani's election for their communities. As the transition period proceeds, both critics and supporters of Republican Giuliani are keeping a watchful eye as to how he might address Latino concerns. From New York, Mario Murillo reports.

New York City Mayor-elect Rudy Giuliani will take office in January, facing the same problems David Dinkins confronted in his four years as mayor, a massive budget deficit, high unemployment, an education system in crisis, and a crime problem that won't go away. Giuliani will also be facing an uneasy Latino electorate which overwhelming voted in favor of his Democratic opponent.

He's going to have to really demonstrate despite the fact that he has a good number of Latinos around him as part of his campaign that he's going to have to work hard at reaching our community.

Angelo Falcon is President of the Institute for Puerto Rican Policy, a nonpartisan think take that explores issues affecting the Latino community. According to its statistics, Giuliani won the election, attracting only 27% of the Latino vote, down from the 33% he received in 1989. Falcon says Giuliani must avoid making some of the same mistakes of his predecessors when dealing with the Latino community.

One of the problems that Dinkins had, and I think any mayor is going to have, is that particularly dealing with Latino issues is that a lot of people don't understand the level of poverty and the level of problems. When I tell people that the poverty rate in the Puerto Rican community is higher than that in the African American community, a lot of people don't believe it.

Latino leaders are looking at three areas and measuring Giuliani's response to their concerns, his appointments, how he handles the police department, and his economic development agenda. One of the people making sure Giuliani doesn't overlook these concerns is Sada Vidal, Co-Chair of Dominicans for Giuliani and a member of the Meyaro Transition Team. Vidal says Giuliani got off to a good start by first asking every political appointment of Dinkins to step down.

The second is that his transition team will be reflective of New York City. We're included in that, and we know that he will include us. He's already doing so. By using our voice and our strengths, we know that we'll be able to build a government that will respond to the needs of our community.

But critics of Giuliani are concerned about what they call "business as usual" in the transition process.

One of our problems is that every time there's an election, we have sectors of our community that swear that the messiah has come, and are quick to denounce anything except accomodation-ism.

National Congress of Puerto Rican Rights spokesperson, Richie Perez, points to certain Latino members of the Giuliani transition team as evidence of a Conservative agenda being followed by the Mayor-elect.

These are people whose views are relative to the Right of Center, who have opposed a number of initiatives supported by the entire community and education. For example, HIV/AIDs curriculum in the public schools.

Another issue of concern is how Giuliani will deal with criminal justice and the police department. Some observers fear a Giuliani Administration would be insensitive to the issue of biased crimes against Latinos. Others express concern about how the former prosecutor would deal with police brutality, especially against the Latino and African American communities. Richie Perez recalled one moment during the campaign which he says may be an indication of things to come under a Guilani Administration.

We were asking him to respond to the firebombing of a home in Howard Beach, where he has a lot of constituents, where he got a lot of votes. We wanted him to go out there and speak on racial healing and harmony to his constituents. There's a major contradiction with being a candidate campaigning on safety and crime issues, and not speaking on biased crime and the safety of people to be free from buying a home in an area and getting bombed because they're Puerto Rican.

Yet supporters of Giuliani say he's been unfairly characterized as insensitive. They believe Giuliani will make the streets of New York safe by applying a strong law and order approach to crime across the board. Apaulinal Trinidal of Dominicans for Giuliani says that for him, this was the most important thing in the election.

I've been active in the community for many years, and I saw the condition of life in New York City, particularly in my neighborhood in Washington Heights, deteriorate and it was shocking to me, up to the point where my son was afraid to walk in the streets. When the pardon is confronted with our reality and you have a government that the only thing they'll find is excuses, and don't want to accept responsibility for the conditions which exist in our barrio, I say, this is enough.

So far, there have been mixed signals from the Guilani team. Immediately after his election night victory, he met with leaders of the Latino community, including Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer, the highest Latino elected official in New York City. At the same time, he failed to initially make contact with representatives Jose Serano and Nidia Velasquez, Puerto Rican Congress members with a strong base in the community. Nevertheless, it's just a matter of time before we can see if the forecast, both supportive and critical of Giuliani, come true. For Latino USA, I'm Mario Murillo in New York.

[Transition--music--rock and roll]

I never thought I'd be me, a California Chicana, turning 30 in New York.

The occasion of this momentous milestone, her 30th birthday, gave California-born Gloria Cabrera pause to meditate on her life, and to compare it to that of other women in her family. "Turning 30 for them," she says, "Was a very different story."

Turning 30 to my mom meant being alone, divorced, raising three children on welfare to pay the rent, while working as a housekeeper on the side to survive. My mother, denied a college education because in those days her brothers, my uncles, said women were meant for marriage and not for college degrees. Turning 30 to my sister meant being alone, raising four children in a subsidized apartment, juggling it all while trying to finish college. My sister at 30, willing to give it all she had for herself and her children.

So here I am, trying to understand how I fit into this familial paradigm. Turning 30 for me means being alone, by choice, single and childless by choice, living and working in New York City with two university degrees, a career-bound Chicana transplanted in this far off land miles away from friends who after graduation from college settled into comfortable lives, and to new jobs, new cars, new relationships in the same city. So with autumn's changing leaves, I'm thinking about the changes in my life, how after all my struggles, my tears, my triumphs, I am actually turning 30 in New York, the Big City, on my own.

What's even more exciting, even more significant to me? Turning 30 means redefining the paradigm, changing the future for my daughter one day.

Gloria Cabrera lives and writes in New York City.

[Transition--music--fusion]

Nearly 500 years ago when the mighty Aztec empire was in trouble, early one December morning, so the story goes, a humble Indian named Juan Diego had a vision, a brown-skinned goddess appeared to him. Today, she is known as the Virgin of Guadalupe, La Virgen de Guadalupe. Her image is one of the best known Latino cultural icons, and she's venerated throughout the Americas. Maria Martin prepared this report.

Every people at certain historical moments that marks them, that allows them to be that people. Guadalupe stands at the very birth of Mexicanidad.

This music is from Eduard Garcia's opera, Our Lady of Guadalupe, performed at the Guadalupe Theater in San Antonio. Like countless other works of Hispanic music and literature, it tells the story of how on an early December morning in 1531, an Aztec Indian named Juan Diego saw an apparition on the very spot where a temple to an Aztec goddess, Tonantzin, once stood.

That night, I was awakened by voices, whirling clouds, rainbows. And finally, the apparition of the Holy Lady, she appeared dressed as an Aztec princess. When I asked her who she was, she told me she was the Mother of God. She also told me that she had come to protect her people, meaning us.

[Background--natural sound--performance] In every sense, you could say that the Indigenous people of Mexico needed protection. Only 12 years had passed since the Spaniards had conquered the Aztec empire, enslaving many Indians. Countless others had fallen victim to war, brutality, and disease. Father Jerome Martinez spoke about this historical period at a conference about the Virgin of Guadalupe in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

In a very real sense, one can say that the Aztec peoples lost any reason for existence. Their universe as they had seen it had just come apart. They felt their gods had abandoned them, the cosmic order was out of whack. There was no real reason to continue going on.

But the lady who appeared to Juan Diego said she would change all that. "I will be the hope for you and those like you," are the words she is said to have spoken. She addressed Juan Diego in his native language, so the story goes. "Juanito, my son, go to the Bishop," she said, "And tell him to build a church here on the hill of Tepeyac."

When I got to the Bishop, he relentlessly told me to be sane. "Juan Diego, before you utter a single word, let me remind you that lies directed against the church are considered blasphemy," and then he went on and on about rebellions, and inquisitions, things I knew nothing of. Then in my utter frustration, I threw open the cloak and showed him the roses, which they all acknowledge would be a miracle. And there, much to my surprise, was imprinted the image of Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe.

[Highlight--natural sound--performance]

The picture imprinted on Juan Diego's cloak showed a young brown-skinned woman standing on a moon, her back to the golden sun, her cloak covered with stars. Every detail of the image meant something to the Indians, and in a short time, a cult developed. Patrick Flores is the Catholic Archbishop of San Antonio, Texas.

Our Lady came on December 12, 1531 and within the next 10 years, over 10 million Indians had been baptized. No longer were the Franciscans trying to convince them into persuading, but they were coming trying to persuade the Franciscans to baptize him because they would say, "The Mother of God has appeared to one us," like one of us, And we want to belong to her son, and they wanted to be baptized.

[Highlight--natural sound--performance]

La Virgen no le hablo a ningun sacerdote, no le hablo al obispo, no le hablo al Virrey, no le hablo a ningun Español, le hablo a un Indio…

Mexican Indian Andre Segura, says the Virgin of Guadalupe did not appear first to a priest, bishop, or viceroy. She spoke to an Indian, he says, in the Indian language. Segura is a teacher of Indigenous religious traditions, an elder who keeps the old ways alive.

En el pensamiento Idigena Azteca, Nahuatl, Mexica, Tenhochca o de todo este continente…. [English dub]

According to the Aztecs and other Indigenous peoples of this continent, there exists before everything a primordial law of duality, which guides all the universe, the positive and the negative, the masculine and the feminine. Therefore, the feminine presence is very important. Our ancestors recognized this concept of a cosmic motherhood which coincides with many other philosophies, including Christianity.

Y pore so huyeron un concepto de la maternidad cosmica. Y que coincide con todos las tradiciones de todo el mundo incluso la Cristiana.

[Highlight--natural sound--performance]

As the ancient Mexican stands to honor the goddess, Tonantzin, or Coatlaxopeuh and later Guadalupe, so today in Mexican and Mexican American communities ritual dances are performed for the Brown Virgin. The dancers, called danzantes or matachines, wear colorful costumes reminiscent of the ancient Aztecs. Men, women, and sometimes children dance a simple two step to the sound of the drum, and the rattle.

The danzantes are inside the church now. They come in and say, "Thank you, God. Thank you, Virgencita." And then when the Virgen appeared, that's where the mestizaje heritage started, the beautiful confluences of the blood of Spain and the blood of the Indian. She came 450 years ago to Juan Diego, and they danced in the spirit of love and the spirit of thankfulness, and the spirit of gratitude, and faith. Sometimes they dance hours and hours, and hours. That's all they have of themselves and their beautiful, beautiful gifts of being alive, thanking them for getting them well, for getting Abuelita well, or getting any type of manda. Sometimes, they don't have anything to offer but themselves, so that's why the dance is very important. Muy importante.

Pues yo le pregunto a ellos, que si yo arreglaba para aca para Estados Unidos yo iba a bailar año por año y hacerles faltar a la Virgen de Guadalupe…

[Background--natural sound--drumming] Jose Antonio Morelos is the leader of a group of matachines, who dance and honor The Virgin in El Paso, Texas. He says he made a promise long ago that if he became a legal US resident, he'd dance to Guadalupe every single year. The Virgen also inspires musicians and poets like Juan Contreras.

[Background--natural sound--drumming] Yes, and we dance, and we dance a dance of universal love, of beauty, of honor, of forgiveness, of being. To you, Madrecita Querida (singing). If only for an eternity. Thank you. [Background--natural sound--applause]

[Transition--music--Norteño]

[Closing music] 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 Amelia Martin, an Associate Producer Anjelica [inaudible 00:28:09]. We had help this week from Vidal Guzman and Carriel Wheeler. 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. Call us with your comments, llámanos, on our toll-free number. It's 1-800-535-5533. That's 1-800-535-5533, or write to us, escribenos, at Communication Building E, 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 am Maria Hinojosa for Latino USA.