Annotations for Communities: Youth

Long before the word “multicultural” came into popular usage, it was reflected on the public television's children's program, Sesame Street. Now the program is making an extra effort targeting minority children with special cultural curricula. This year, the Emmy award-winning show is placing an emphasis on Latino culture as Mandalit del Barco reports from New York.

Long before the word “multicultural” came into popular usage, it was reflected on the public television's children's program, Sesame Street. Now the program is making an extra effort targeting minority children with special cultural curricula. This year, the Emmy award-winning show is placing an emphasis on Latino culture as Mandalit del Barco reports from New York.

[Cheerful Sesame Street Music]

[Cheerful Sesame Street Music]

As Sesame Street becomes more bilingual, even the theme song incorporates Latino rhythms. With this season's emphasis on Latino cultures, viewers can watch Big Bird leading a Mariachi band, and Oscar the Grouch dancing the Mambo with Tito Puente. Sesame Street is visited by Chicano rock band Los Lobos and New York's Puerto Rican folk music group, Los Pleneros de la 21. The show goes on location to barrios in Los Angeles where kids paint a Mexican mural, and in New York where they make Puerto Rican masks and visit a community center known as a Casita. This year, the spotlight will also be on the new fluffy blue bilingual muppet, Rosita.

As Sesame Street becomes more bilingual, even the theme song incorporates Latino rhythms. With this season's emphasis on Latino cultures, viewers can watch Big Bird leading a Mariachi band, and Oscar the Grouch dancing the Mambo with Tito Puente. Sesame Street is visited by Chicano rock band Los Lobos and New York's Puerto Rican folk music group, Los Pleneros de la 21. The show goes on location to barrios in Los Angeles where kids paint a Mexican mural, and in New York where they make Puerto Rican masks and visit a community center known as a Casita. This year, the spotlight will also be on the new fluffy blue bilingual muppet, Rosita.

¡Hola Amigos! ¿Cómo están?

¡Hola Amigos! ¿Cómo están?

Muppet Rosita is played by Mexican puppeteer Carmen Osbahr.

Muppet Rosita is played by Mexican puppeteer Carmen Osbahr.

Sí, sí…yes, yeah I'm trying to help my friends to speak Spanish and all of my other friends that they're watching us. I'm trying to let them know that if they speak Spanish like me and English, they have to feel proud because they're very lucky to speak two languages.

Sí, sí…yes, yeah I'm trying to help my friends to speak Spanish and all of my other friends that they're watching us. I'm trying to let them know that if they speak Spanish like me and English, they have to feel proud because they're very lucky to speak two languages.

¿Abierto?

¿Abierto?

Yes, certainly! Abierto is the Spanish word for open! Abierto.

Yes, certainly! Abierto is the Spanish word for open! Abierto.

For many years now, Sesame Street has been teaching kids a few words in Spanish, like “hola” and “adios”, but what's different is that with its new Latino curriculum, preschool viewers will also be taught an appreciation of the diversity of Latino cultures.

For many years now, Sesame Street has been teaching kids a few words in Spanish, like “hola” and “adios”, but what's different is that with its new Latino curriculum, preschool viewers will also be taught an appreciation of the diversity of Latino cultures.

El mundo.

El mundo.

That's the world all right, and we are moving into...

That's the world all right, and we are moving into...

Puerto Rico!

Puerto Rico!

Puerto Rico it is! But look...

Puerto Rico it is! But look...

¡Cotorra!

¡Cotorra!

In studies of preschoolers, researchers for Sesame Street found Puerto Rican children have poorer self-images than white or African-American children. The Latino kids had negative feelings about their hair and skin color, and the majority of white and African-American children in this study said their mothers would be angry or sad if they were friends with a Puerto Rican child. Actress Sonia Manzano, who plays the character María on the show says that's why the Sesame Street producers decided to devote the season to addressing issues of self-esteem and pride among Latinos.

In studies of preschoolers, researchers for Sesame Street found Puerto Rican children have poorer self-images than white or African-American children. The Latino kids had negative feelings about their hair and skin color, and the majority of white and African-American children in this study said their mothers would be angry or sad if they were friends with a Puerto Rican child. Actress Sonia Manzano, who plays the character María on the show says that's why the Sesame Street producers decided to devote the season to addressing issues of self-esteem and pride among Latinos.

I had the opportunity to write a show where María's family comes to visit, and I wanted everyone in María's family to be a different skin color because that occurs in a lot of Hispanic families. Puerto Ricans especially, is that, there are people of different skin colors in the same family so…and actually have a puppet say, "Wow! But he's darker than you. How could he be related?" or "She's lighter than you. How could she be related to you?"

I had the opportunity to write a show where María's family comes to visit, and I wanted everyone in María's family to be a different skin color because that occurs in a lot of Hispanic families. Puerto Ricans especially, is that, there are people of different skin colors in the same family so…and actually have a puppet say, "Wow! But he's darker than you. How could he be related?" or "She's lighter than you. How could she be related to you?"

For the last 20 years, María and Luis have been two of the human characters on the show. In that time, they got married, had a child, and are partners in Sesame Street's Fix It Shop.

For the last 20 years, María and Luis have been two of the human characters on the show. In that time, they got married, had a child, and are partners in Sesame Street's Fix It Shop.

Here, Luis and María, who are both Latinos, are regular people. I mean… they own a business; they have a family. You know… they're just regular people. They work like everybody else… you know. They brush their teeth, they comb their hair, you know…. whatever. The role model is, "Hey, they're just like everybody else.” You know… and that's important to show.

Here, Luis and María, who are both Latinos, are regular people. I mean… they own a business; they have a family. You know… they're just regular people. They work like everybody else… you know. They brush their teeth, they comb their hair, you know…. whatever. The role model is, "Hey, they're just like everybody else.” You know… and that's important to show.

Actor Emilio Delgado, who plays Luis, says, since its beginning, Sesame Street was way ahead of most US television shows in realistically portraying Latinos.

Actor Emilio Delgado, who plays Luis, says, since its beginning, Sesame Street was way ahead of most US television shows in realistically portraying Latinos.

20 years ago when we first started doing this, I don't remember any Latinos on a regular basis on television. As a matter of fact, I can't think of any right now either.

20 years ago when we first started doing this, I don't remember any Latinos on a regular basis on television. As a matter of fact, I can't think of any right now either.

[Kid singing about his cultural roots]

[Kid singing about his cultural roots]

Sesame Street is now in its 24th season. For Latino USA, I'm Mandalit del Barco in New York.

Sesame Street is now in its 24th season. For Latino USA, I'm Mandalit del Barco in New York.

Oh, that was great! Well, this is Big Bird leaving you with one final word: "¡Viva!"

Oh, that was great! Well, this is Big Bird leaving you with one final word: "¡Viva!"

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

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

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

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

The word mentor is derived from the ancient Greek from the name of the man who spent 10 years teaching the son of the poet Homer. In ancient Greece, young people often studied in apprenticeship programs. Today, some Latino students are learning a variety of skills, from chess to chemistry, in a mentorship program taking place in New Mexico. Debra Beagle prepared this report.

Here, I'm thinking of placing my knight on D5. It attacks his queen.

Now, had I scanned a little better, I would've seen that the knight would've come to that square…see, and I would not have put my queen where it is, because now I need to move that queen…

Thirteen-year-old Miguel Atencio of Chama, New Mexico, beats his father in chess almost every game. He began playing when he was nine. Two years later, he joined the high-school chess team. That's when someone from Celebrate Youth, a six-year-old mentorship program in New Mexico, spotted the talented youngster and invited him to work more seriously on his game. This year, Miguel won the state middle-school chess championship.

In math, it's helped me. I can like work out problems in my head and all that. It's helped me like to remember like what the things I read and all that, because you have to remember things. You have to remember positions and all that. So, I've been getting a little bit better at that.

Miguel Atencio is both highly motivated and very talented. These are the characteristics Celebrate Youth director, Paquita Hernández, looks for in students. She also pursues teenagers who are equally talented but living in what Hernández describes as economic and social poverty.

A child who is economically poor but is matched with a mentor who is an artist or is a physicist or is a chemist or is a great writer, offers challenging conversations, exciting questions, um…different opportunities to look…through which to experience the world…I think that they flourish in ways that are magnificent.

The adult mentor meets with the student once a week for six months. Each student develops a project, perhaps a dance, a piece of sculpture, a science or math project, an essay or poem, or a piece of music.

[Person playing the piano]

Okay, now do the last two lines, and make a difference between your…your forte in the top line and your fortissimo in your bottom line.

[Person playing the piano]

Ninth grader Alyssa Montoya works with Mary Agnes Anderson of Española as her mentor. Anderson has mentored three students so far.

It gives them courage to be different, a reason not to be like everyone else, to have faith in themself. Watching this happen is my basic reward on it.

Other mentors have seen more impressive changes as a result of the program. Paquita Hernández tells the story of one talented teenager who is likely to follow two older brothers into drugs and depression. After delving into a science research project for two years in the Celebrate Youth program, he entered college and now plans to become a doctor. Success stories like these, Hernández says, are less likely to happen within the current school system.

I think there's a vacuum in the schools, not only in New Mexico but in the whole nation. I think the schools need to change, and I think they need to change radically because they are not reaching the majority of young people. I think those kids who don't drop out of school physically actually drop out often, even though they're sitting in the classroom with the books in front of them.

Those involved in Celebrate Youth say the goal is to promote excellence over mediocrity. Achievement is measured against one's own abilities rather than in competition with others. This is the attitude Miguel Atencio takes.

All right, and here's the last move, and I'm going to checkmate in one move. I'm going to move Queen on E7 to B7. Checkmate.

That's the end of the game.

These days, Miguel is sharpening his chess skills to prepare for the annual Celebrate Youth Festival in June. Nearly 400 students, including 30 chess players like Miguel, will gather for three days at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, which co-sponsors the program. There, they'll perform their dances, hang their paintings, and display their research projects that demonstrate the skills they've worked so hard to develop.

[Person playing the piano]

The Wild Rider. The Wild Rider. Everyone has trouble with the Wild Rider. He's a hard-bucking horse.

For Latino USA, this is Debra Beagle in Tierra Amarilla, New Mexico.

In an old classroom in South Seattle, in the community center known as El Centro De La Raza, a transformation is taking place. Two evenings a week, kids as young as eight and as old as 20, some of them just a step away from joining a gang, are instead writing poetry. Ingrid Lobet reports that little by little, the kids and the adults who hear them are realizing the importance of what they have to say.

Outside the old school building, a dozen kids are shooting hoops as a cool night begins to fall across the city of Seattle.

Fellas, let's go.

As 6:30 approaches, the kids file into the classroom from the ball court. Others come in from elsewhere, looking tired. Whether tired or full of energy, the 15 kids in this room are here by choice. They've come because here they can put heart into words.

Ode To My Car. The exhaust blows out like the drop of oil. The black dewey night that passes, simply turn itself into a single piece of grass.

Martinez, Armando (Man) has been coming to El Centro for several months now.

Wild rivers, one drop of water that continues, grass, and then run off with my motor vehicle.

The kids' hands shoot into the air. They can't wait to comment. Their comments encourage, but also suggest certain word changes or changes in delivery. Armando's own older sister has a comment for him. I liked your poem, hijo, she says, it was really good. I like the way you read really slow.

Let's go ahead and stand up. It really helps to stand up. I'll be right here beside him.

But even the support that fills this room isn't enough for 16-year-old Glenda Arenas on her first night. When it comes time for her to read the poem she's just written, she hangs her head, her long dark hair, mostly covering her face. Her voice begins, barely audible.

Ode To The Homies. The tree, kicking it. Summer, smooth.

This first night, Glenda can't finish. Another girl comes over, stands by her, and finishes the poem.

Ode to the homie, the tree, kicking it. Summer, smooth. It's all eight-ball. Say eyes, high on weed, 44 Magnum, blow to the head, a scorched rag in the hood, the brightness and the sky showing a flag. Green, white, and red grows into multiplication, sweet and sad.

There's a little poet running around your house, no matter how small he or she is.

Roberto Maestas has directed El Centro for 20 years. He's seen a good number of the 74 children who've spent time in the workshops changed by them. Some are getting better grades, some are being invited to recite poetry at rallies and banquets.

I don't think that poetry itself is going to save the inner cities, but when a young person reads their poetry and other people appreciate their poetry, that begins to build a sense of value, a sense of worth, a sense of somebodiness.

Recently, we had an election for student council, and I didn't really think I'd make it, and I beat everybody by 10 points. It was really amazing.

15-year-old Sandra Martinez says it was in the poetry workshops that she learned to be confident enough to assume that position of leadership.

My name's Sandra Martinez and the poem I'm going to read is "Garibaldi Park in Mexico City".

Blue corazon danced on the stones, cuando la mujer was tocando las musica. On the streets, los gatos laughed, and tonight's the final night.

The poets of El Centro, known as Hope for Youth, now have a book, it's called Words Up. And the kids are getting more and more attention, some even nationally and internationally. Just recently, Hope for Youth received an invitation from the government of Chile to travel there this summer. For Latino USA, I'm Ingrid Lobet in Seattle.

Alfaro says that most of the estimated 200,000 Salvadorians in this country have no plans to return home, as many have established homes and families here. Others, he says, are still afraid to return to El Salvador after 12 years of war. Alfaro and other refugee advocates now plan to lobby to have Congress and the administration consider granting permanent US residency to qualified Salvadoran refugees.

Latino students in Texas are more than twice as likely to drop out as non-Hispanic white students. Vidal Guzman reports.

The Texas Education Agency says Latino students, who make up about a third of the overall student population in Texas, are more than 40% of dropouts. If current trends continue, more than 20% of all Texas students now in the seventh grade will drop out before graduating from high school. The education agency recommends increasing the number of minority teachers and instituting get back to school programs for expelled students. In Austin, I'm Vidal Guzman.

[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]

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.

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.

Hispanics in the United States are the group less likely to have access to healthcare. Luis Antonio Ocasio has a story.

According to a report from the National Coalition of Hispanic Health and Human Services Organizations, 30% of Hispanics do not have regular access to healthcare. The study shows that almost one-third of children of Hispanic working adults are not covered by health insurance. According to U.S. Assistant Secretary for Agent Fernando Torres Hill, the passage of a national healthcare plan is essential for meeting the healthcare needs of Hispanics.

Latino families still tend to rely on each other. They still draw on extended families, and they still prefer to have their elders or disabled either with them or near them. That's not to over-romanticize the Latino community because we are also acculturating. And as we acculturate, our studies show we become like everybody else, where we look to nursing homes and hospices, and hospitals.

Torres Hill says the Department of Health and Human Services will promote home and community-based healthcare programs. For "Latino USA," I'm Luis Antonio Ocasio in Washington.

Educators and education reporters at the Washington Conference of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists agreed that the public schools in this country continue to fail Latino children, especially in bilingual education. Laura Varela reports.

Jim Lyons, the executive director of the National Association for Bilingual Education, says the government and the media pay too much attention to test scores. Instead, he says, the education system should be graded in its performance. Still, Lyons says many Latino students are not letting the lack of quality bilingual ed programs get in their way.

I think one of the great success stories in this country is the number of children that have become fully bilingual, many fully bi-literate, when most of their teachers are still hopelessly monolingual.

To solve the problem, Lyons says, more bilingual teachers must be hired, and more government funding for bilingual education programs must be made available. For "Latino USA," I'm Laura Varela.

Basic issues such as equality and fair media coverage are concerns that carry from one Latino Journalist Conference to the next. Both fairness and equity were main topics at last year's National Association of Hispanic Journalists gathering in Albuquerque and this year again in Washington D.C. Here's a collection of the voices of Latino journalists from around the country.

Our children, what they're getting at home, they put on the TV, they open the newspaper, the images they're seeing, and that is hurting our community. Usually, those images are very negative, the stereotypes. And they don't see themselves in a positive light when they put on the television or when they read the newspaper or when they listen to the radio. And I cannot tell you how basic that is to the development of our community.

Not all Latinos are in gangs. Teenagers, not all of them are drug dealers, hustlers, you know, on the street corners. But that's the only time they make the news. I mean, they never seem to -- When somebody's doing a positive thing, they never put that on news. They always put something negative, whether it's a burglary or robbery or killing.

We're not this monolith, and we're not a bunch of crazy Latins who blow up buildings and play loud music and these sorts of things.

The stereotype needs to be broken. And in order for us to change that, we need to go back and we need to just get, encourage more students, more younger people to get involved in the media because it's the only way we're going to make a difference.

We have to make inroads and get into the mainstream. And for that, we have to acquire a sense of our own worth. We have to start knocking the doors of Anglo America.

We need to get more Latinos into management positions that -- So that we actually decide what stories to cover rather than being told what stories to cover.

The mass media and American society determines what the people will think about and what the people will talk about. And that is an awesome power. It is a power that has been held closely, consciously or unconsciously. It has been held closely. And the battle to open it up, the battle to insist that all aspects of our society and all sectors of our society will have equal access to that awesome power is a battle that we must wage.

Once a year, Latino journalists from across the country come together to network, improve their skills, and examine their impact on the U.S. media. This year, over 800 members of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists met for four days in the nation's capital. And joining us today are Diane Alverio, the President of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and a TV reporter in Hartford, Connecticut; Juan Gonzalez, a columnist for the "New York Daily News"; and George Ramos, a columnist reporter from the "Los Angeles Times." Welcome to "Latino USA." Some of you were involved 11 years ago when this organization was actually formed. Eleven years later, what is different now for Latino journalists operating and functioning in the United States? Juan?

Well, I think that one thing that has happened is you've had a spurt and a tremendous growth in the number of young people that have entered journalism as a profession. It seems to me that every conference, more and more young people appear to be eager to get into the profession. So I think that that's been a tremendous step. A lot of the work that NAHJ has done has been in nurturing and developing and helping to train those young college students and high school students, getting them scholarships and promoting their writing work. So that's been a tremendous step forward.

Unfortunately, on the other end, we don't seem to be retaining as many of the veteran journalists who apparently are coming up against walls and frustrations that they end up leaving the profession, so that on balance, the numbers of Latino journalists have not really grown qualitatively. There's this minute growth that is occurring -- part of a percentage point or a half a percentage point a year, but there's no real qualitative growth in the numbers of Latinos in the newsrooms of the United States.

So, when these Latino journalists get into wherever their newsrooms or if they be at TV stations, et cetera, how much debate is there for these Latino journalists around the questions of, "I'm a journalist first, and then I'm Latino," or, "I'm Latino first, and that influences my role as a journalist"?

I know that at the "LA Times," it's something that I have raised for about the last, oh, I'd say about at least five or six years. Am I a reporter who happens to be a Latino, or am I a Latino who happens to be a reporter? I don't think there's a right or wrong answer, but how you answer the question says a lot about how you look at news and whether or not you take news seriously. I happen to be a Latino who happens to be a reporter because they don't pay me to be a Latino. I'm that coming in. So when I look at a story --

You were born that way.

I was born that way. I'm sorry, but that's a good way to put it. I have a unique perspective, and when I look at something, the editors know that that's how I'm going to look at it, that I -- Hopefully, I'm professional, but my eyes happen to be brown. They're not blue or hazel or something else.

Is there an encouragement of that unique perspective, Juan, from a Latino journalist? Or is it more like, "Well, don't necessarily look at it through those eyes. Maybe you need to see it through a more mainstream eye"?

I think there's a tremendous ambivalence on the part of the managers of the newspaper and television and radio stations on this question. They would like to have Latino reporters in their organizations, supposedly, to be able to give them access to communities and information that they otherwise would not have. However, they would rather that those Latino reporters look at these communities through the same eyes that the non-Latino reporters look at them.

And a part of the great contradiction, I think, of American journalism is understanding that even when you are doing news reporting and trying to be fair and report reality, the fact is that reality is always looked at subjectively by each individual and that there is no such thing as objectivity. There are many individuals attempting to recreate objective reality and that, but you're always doing that subjectively because you're always doing it through how you were raised, what your parents taught you, the school that you went to, the things that you learned. That's the only eyes with which you have to look at the world. And that's true for all reporters.

But somehow, when it comes to Latinos working, let's say on a Latino's story, the editor may think that you will not look at that in an objective fashion, as if a white reporter covering that Latino story would look at it in an objective fashion.

And it's not just about objectivity either. It's about your perspective that they both talked about. Just this past week, a national -- I won't mention the name of the show -- a national -- one of the network magazine shows aired a piece on 936, the tax issue with Puerto Rico in Puerto Rico, and I, as a viewer and possibly as a journalist, I'm sure, and especially as a Puertorriqueña, was watching it, and I thought, "But they're not giving the entire story."

I happen to know the background of 936 just because I am Puerto Rican and I know the history, and the way the story was presented, it just explained the tax law and why the financial benefits the company, but it never delved into why this was instituted in the first place, what the U.S. role has been in Puerto Rico that necessitated a tax reform, a tax act like this. And I felt that the viewer was gypped. The viewer that was non-Hispanic, non-Puerto Rican like I, did not get the correct information in which to form his or her opinion so that what I'm saying is that Latino journalists bring that with them, information that other non-Hispanic journalists may not have or don't bother to go after.

Now, these are very, very interesting issues, not only for us as journalists who come together once a year to talk about these things but also for our communities. But the NAHJ as an organization really is probably not that well known across the United States. Should the organization, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, become more of an activist organization where it is recognized across the country as an organization that is there supporting the Latino community and that has the Latino community's interest at hand, or should it be an organization that really focuses on this professional community, Latino journalists?

We as Latino journalists have been discussing that in the last couple of years. And it's kind of an identity question. It's part of the growing pains of the organization. And I think -- I was attending a panel recently, and someone said it quite well. By the very fact that we have banded together as Latino journalists, we are a civil rights organization, whether all our members want to accept it or not, because our goals are primarily to increase the numbers of Latinos in the industry, to improve coverage of the Hispanic community. If those aren't civil rights issues, I don't know what are.

Thank you, Diane Alverio, the President of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists; Juan Gonzalez of the "New York Daily News"; and George Ramos of the "Los Angeles Times."

Long before the word ‘multicultural’ came into popular usage, it was reflected on the public television children's program, Sesame Street. Now, the program is making an extra effort targeting minority children with special cultural curricula. This year, the Emmy award-winning show is placing an emphasis on Latino culture as Mandalit del Barco reports from New York.

Long before the word ‘multicultural’ came into popular usage, it was reflected on the public television children's program, Sesame Street. Now, the program is making an extra effort targeting minority children with special cultural curricula. This year, the Emmy award-winning show is placing an emphasis on Latino culture as Mandalit del Barco reports from New York.

[Latino Sesame Street Music]

[Latino Sesame Street Music]

As Sesame Street becomes more bilingual, even the theme song incorporates Latino rhythms. [Latino Sesame Street Music Highlight] With this season's emphasis on Latino cultures, viewers can watch Big Bird leading a mariachi band and Oscar the Grouch dancing the Mambo with Tito Puente. Sesame Street is visited by Chicano rock band Los Lobos and New York's Puerto Rican folk music group, Los Pleneros de la 21. The show goes on location to barrios in Los Angeles where kids paint a Mexican mural, and in New York where they make Puerto Rican masks, and visit a community center known as La Casita. This year, the spotlight will also be on the new fluffy blue bilingual Muppet, Rosita.

As Sesame Street becomes more bilingual, even the theme song incorporates Latino rhythms. [Latino Sesame Street Music Highlight] With this season's emphasis on Latino cultures, viewers can watch Big Bird leading a mariachi band and Oscar the Grouch dancing the Mambo with Tito Puente. Sesame Street is visited by Chicano rock band Los Lobos and New York's Puerto Rican folk music group, Los Pleneros de la 21. The show goes on location to barrios in Los Angeles where kids paint a Mexican mural, and in New York where they make Puerto Rican masks, and visit a community center known as La Casita. This year, the spotlight will also be on the new fluffy blue bilingual Muppet, Rosita.

Hola amigos como estan?

Hola amigos como estan?

Muppet Rosita is played by Mexican puppeteer Carmen Osbahr.

Muppet Rosita is played by Mexican puppeteer Carmen Osbahr.

Si, si. Yes. Yeah. I'm trying to help my friends to speak Spanish. And all my other friends that they're watching us, I'm trying to let them know that if they speak Spanish like me, and English, they have to feel proud because they're very lucky to speak two languages.

Si, si. Yes. Yeah. I'm trying to help my friends to speak Spanish. And all my other friends that they're watching us, I'm trying to let them know that if they speak Spanish like me, and English, they have to feel proud because they're very lucky to speak two languages.

[Clip of Sesame Street] Abierto? Yes, certainly. Abierto is the Spanish word for open. Abierto!

[Clip of Sesame Street] Abierto? Yes, certainly. Abierto is the Spanish word for open. Abierto!

For many years now, Sesame Street has been teaching kids a few words in Spanish like hola and adios. But what's different is that with its new Latino curriculum, preschool viewers will also be taught an appreciation of the diversity of Latino cultures.

For many years now, Sesame Street has been teaching kids a few words in Spanish like hola and adios. But what's different is that with its new Latino curriculum, preschool viewers will also be taught an appreciation of the diversity of Latino cultures.

El Mundo.

El Mundo.

[Clip of Sesame Street] That's the word, all right? And we are moving into...

[Clip of Sesame Street] That's the word, all right? And we are moving into...

[Background music] Puerto Rico.

[Background music] Puerto Rico.

[Background music] Puerto Rico, it is, but look.

[Background music] Puerto Rico, it is, but look.

Cotorra!

Cotorra!

[Background sounds of Sesame Street]In studies of preschoolers, researchers for Sesame Street found Puerto Rican children have poorer self images than white or African-American children. The Latino kids had negative feelings about their hair and skin color, and the majority of white and African-American children in this study said their mothers would be angry or sad if they were friends with a Puerto Rican child. Actress Sonia Manzano, who plays the character Maria on the show says that's why the Sesame Street producers decided to devote the season to addressing issues of self-esteem and pride among Latinos.

[Background sounds of Sesame Street]In studies of preschoolers, researchers for Sesame Street found Puerto Rican children have poorer self images than white or African-American children. The Latino kids had negative feelings about their hair and skin color, and the majority of white and African-American children in this study said their mothers would be angry or sad if they were friends with a Puerto Rican child. Actress Sonia Manzano, who plays the character Maria on the show says that's why the Sesame Street producers decided to devote the season to addressing issues of self-esteem and pride among Latinos.

I had the opportunity to write a show where Maria's family comes to visit. And I wanted everyone in Maria's family to be a different skin color because that occurs in a lot of Hispanic families, Puerto Rican especially, is that there are people of different skin colors in the same family. And actually have a puppet say, "Wow, but he's darker than you. How could he be related? Or she's lighter than you. How could she be related to you?"

I had the opportunity to write a show where Maria's family comes to visit. And I wanted everyone in Maria's family to be a different skin color because that occurs in a lot of Hispanic families, Puerto Rican especially, is that there are people of different skin colors in the same family. And actually have a puppet say, "Wow, but he's darker than you. How could he be related? Or she's lighter than you. How could she be related to you?"

For the last 20 years, Maria and Luis have been two of the human characters on the show. In that time, they got married, had a child, and are partners in Sesame Street's fix-it shop

For the last 20 years, Maria and Luis have been two of the human characters on the show. In that time, they got married, had a child, and are partners in Sesame Street's fix-it shop

Here, Luis and Maria, who are both Latinos are regular people. I mean, they own a business, they have a family, they're just regular people. They work like everybody else. They brush their teeth, they comb their hair, whatever. It's the role model is, hey, they're just like everybody else. And that's important to show.

Here, Luis and Maria, who are both Latinos are regular people. I mean, they own a business, they have a family, they're just regular people. They work like everybody else. They brush their teeth, they comb their hair, whatever. It's the role model is, hey, they're just like everybody else. And that's important to show.

Actor Emilio Delgado, who plays Luis, says, since its beginning, Sesame Street was way ahead of most US television shows in realistically portraying Latinos.

Actor Emilio Delgado, who plays Luis, says, since its beginning, Sesame Street was way ahead of most US television shows in realistically portraying Latinos.

20 years ago, when we first started doing this, I don't remember any Latinos on a regular basis on television. As a matter of fact, I can't think of any right now either. [Background sounds of Sesame Street music]

20 years ago, when we first started doing this, I don't remember any Latinos on a regular basis on television. As a matter of fact, I can't think of any right now either. [Background sounds of Sesame Street music]

Sesame Street is now in its 24th season. For Latino USA, I'm Mandalit del Barco in New York.

Sesame Street is now in its 24th season. For Latino USA, I'm Mandalit del Barco in New York.

Oh, that was great. Well, this is big bird leaving you with one final word, Viva! [laughter] [Children yelling] [Wooshing sound]

Oh, that was great. Well, this is big bird leaving you with one final word, Viva! [laughter] [Children yelling] [Wooshing sound]

Bullets, guns, violence, and gangs are a fact of life for an ever-growing number of young people in this country; white, African-American, Asian, and Latino. Many Latino kids know this reality only too well and too early in their lives. John Guardo, who came to New York City when he was only 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, John Guardo is trying to leave that life behind, but as he tells us in this commentary, leaving his crew may be easier than escaping the violence of the streets.

Bullets, guns, violence, and gangs are a fact of life for an ever-growing number of young people in this country; white, African-American, Asian, and Latino. Many Latino kids know this reality only too well and too early in their lives. John Guardo, who came to New York City when he was only 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, John Guardo is trying to leave that life behind, but as he tells us in this commentary, leaving his crew may be easier than escaping the violence of the streets.

[Hip hop music]

[Hip hop music]

Having outgrown that lifestyle though, I'm trying to live a regular life working and going to school. Unfortunately, that also means my family's been taken off the untouchables list. We have all become prey to these urban predators. Now, under this new set of rules, what am I to do with this trouble? Call the cops? Huh, no one I know, including myself, would do that in case of an emergency. In my eyes, cops are more interested in filling their quota than in serving their community. Dialing 911 has simply become taboo. At this point, I'm sandwiched between two problems. Number one, I don't trust the police. The only times they've been there for me was to ram flashlights into my skull while cursing me out. If not that, they've stopped me in front of my building to frisk me as my neighbors watch. Number two, if I remain vulnerable for too long, something bad may happen to my loved ones.

Having outgrown that lifestyle though, I'm trying to live a regular life working and going to school. Unfortunately, that also means my family's been taken off the untouchables list. We have all become prey to these urban predators. Now, under this new set of rules, what am I to do with this trouble? Call the cops? Huh, no one I know, including myself, would do that in case of an emergency. In my eyes, cops are more interested in filling their quota than in serving their community. Dialing 911 has simply become taboo. At this point, I'm sandwiched between two problems. Number one, I don't trust the police. The only times they've been there for me was to ram flashlights into my skull while cursing me out. If not that, they've stopped me in front of my building to frisk me as my neighbors watch. Number two, if I remain vulnerable for too long, something bad may happen to my loved ones.

[Hip hop music] Last night, I was speaking to my girl on the phone, telling her how bad things were getting around my block and that I decided to buy a gun. She got mad, raising her voice and asking me, "How could you be that ignorant? You know what would happen if you got caught with one?" I said to her, "Yo, I ain't going to be carrying it around and showing it off. I'm going to keep it at home in case someone tries to break in or mess with my family." She got quiet then. I was searching for a better answer. I realized what a vicious cycle I was willingly getting into. You see, around my neighborhood, things ain't no joke. I'm a former gang member, so I know what dangers roam the streets. Drug dealers, stick-up kids, crackheads, the whole nine, a glance is reason enough to get jumped.

[Hip hop music] Last night, I was speaking to my girl on the phone, telling her how bad things were getting around my block and that I decided to buy a gun. She got mad, raising her voice and asking me, "How could you be that ignorant? You know what would happen if you got caught with one?" I said to her, "Yo, I ain't going to be carrying it around and showing it off. I'm going to keep it at home in case someone tries to break in or mess with my family." She got quiet then. I was searching for a better answer. I realized what a vicious cycle I was willingly getting into. You see, around my neighborhood, things ain't no joke. I'm a former gang member, so I know what dangers roam the streets. Drug dealers, stick-up kids, crackheads, the whole nine, a glance is reason enough to get jumped.

What can I do? I can't join a crew. I just renounced one, but I got to protect myself. So the only thing left for me is to get a gun. Or is it? You see, I really believe, if the cops got their act together, there wouldn't be so much static in the streets. What I mean is, not that we like police presence, but that it doesn't matter if there's cops on every corner when they're going to be there to magnify the distrust we already have for them. Policemen should figure out who the real criminals are. I know. And go after them instead of treating all of us like such. They're the ones who have to change since the problems of the street are always going to be there. There's always going to be crime and we need protection.

What can I do? I can't join a crew. I just renounced one, but I got to protect myself. So the only thing left for me is to get a gun. Or is it? You see, I really believe, if the cops got their act together, there wouldn't be so much static in the streets. What I mean is, not that we like police presence, but that it doesn't matter if there's cops on every corner when they're going to be there to magnify the distrust we already have for them. Policemen should figure out who the real criminals are. I know. And go after them instead of treating all of us like such. They're the ones who have to change since the problems of the street are always going to be there. There's always going to be crime and we need protection.

These issues may be the bigger picture, but I'm still unable to answer my girl. Every day I have to deal with these problems. And although I may forget about them, what worries me is that it might be one of my friends who falls into the cycle and goes out to buy the nine. In street slang, that's a nine-millimeter handgun. I'm John Guardo, speaking for the street.

These issues may be the bigger picture, but I'm still unable to answer my girl. Every day I have to deal with these problems. And although I may forget about them, what worries me is that it might be one of my friends who falls into the cycle and goes out to buy the nine. In street slang, that's a nine-millimeter handgun. I'm John Guardo, speaking for the street.

Esperanza, or hope. It's said, that's one thing young people living in this day and age, often lack. But in San Antonio, Texas, a group of teenagers is creating theater that expresses a measure of hope for the future. Even amidst a reality of drugs, gangs, identity questions, and homelessness. Along with Lucy Edwards Latino USA's, Maria Martin prepared this report.

[Natural sounds, theater] Grupo Animo

It's the Friday afternoon at Fox Technical High School in San Antonio. The young members of the acting troupe El Grupo Animo, ages 13 to 18, have come together to start rehearsing their new production. The group's name derives from the Spanish word meaning spirit, energy, and a desire to inspire and the drama they're preparing is written and performed by the kids themselves.

[Natural sounds, theater] All the young women in the piece, over here.

Identity. [Natural sounds, theater]

The drama in production is called, "I Have Hopes, Hopes I Keep Sacred in My Soul." It's a series of vignettes, tales of young people, much like the members of El Grupo Animo, facing life's challenges and learning to cope.

It's about a young girl who gets pregnant and she has to tell her parents because both of us know so many girls who have already gotten pregnant and it's not looking better or anything.

I'm 17 years old, and I wrote about the homeless. So much we can learn from our people. They've gone through rough times, and by that, a lot of them are on the streets, and we don't even care about them.

I decided to bring up the issue of teenage homosexuality, because Hispanic, Mexican American families, it's harder for them to deal with it. There's a lot of tradition, and a lot of the tradition is built around the male role model and female role model, you know?

14-year-old Michaela Diaz, along with Guadalupe Covera and Victoria Rivera, are among the nine playwrights who make up El Grupo Animo. 16 year old Priscilla Valle wrote about a young gang member.

He's dealing with the pressures of being tied to his gang, but then wanting to get out and be free and lead the life that he wants to lead, that the gang doesn't allow him to.

You don't understand, what if they come after me? Babe, they know where I live.

They're tearing you apart. They mess around with people's lives like it's nothing. You can't be afraid to be who you are. Don't keep it down forever. I hate them!

It's really a lot of what's going on in their minds and in their lives, but they never have a place to talk about it.

Director George Emilio Sanchez of New York is working with the young playwrights and actors of El Grupo Animo.

It takes a lot of courage to be a young person. It takes a hell of a lot of courage to say, "Yeah, I'm young. I don't know everything, and I want to be alive." Boom. That to me is like heroic. I think individually, if you read the things they write, no, I don't think they have a lot of hope.

But still, say the kids, their stories do express hope as the title of their collective work indicates.

Even though we are, we're sad and depressed about it. I think there's always that bright side and that hope that we have, and that's just what the whole play is about.

That's why I think that the name of it, "I Have Hopes, Hopes I Keep Sacred in My Soul", is what we're using. They're not all happy plays with happy endings, but we're not trying to say that the whole world is terrible. You know, that everything's terrible, that there's no hope for anything. Even though we know what reality is, we still feel that there can be a change, that there will be a change, and if anybody, we'll be the ones who will do that. And that's our message, basically.

El Grupo Animo’s production of "I Have Hopes, Hopes I Keep Sacred in My Soul," runs through July 17th at San Antonio's Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center. The Center's theater director, Jorge Pina, calls the troupe the next generation of Chicano Teatristas.For Latino USA with Lucy Edwards in San Antonio, I'm Maria Martin.

The incident that happened 20 years ago with Santos Rodriguez certainly cast a shadow or a cloud over the city of Dallas.

Santos is a symbol, a symbol of what was happening to the Mexican-American community and the African-American community back in 1973.

20 years ago this summer, a 12-year-old boy named Santos Rodriguez was killed by Dallas police officer Darrell Cain. The incident occurred after the boy and his brother were pulled from their beds in the middle of the night, accused of breaking into a soda machine at a gas station. The boys denied taking part in the robbery. Santos was killed when Officer Cain attempted to wring a confession from him by playing Russian Roulette with a loaded gun. The incident ignited protests in Chicano communities throughout the country, and recently members of the Latino community in Dallas held a full day of events to commemorate Santos' life and death.

[Background--Hymns]

A memorial service for Santos Rodriguez was held at the Santuario de Guadalupe in downtown Dallas, just south of the neighborhood called Little Mexico. Now mostly an African-American neighborhood, back in 1973 it was the heart of the Mexican barrio.

In 1973 I was 14 years old and I didn't know Santos even though I lived about three blocks from his house.

Now, a member of the Dallas City Council, Domingo Garcia recalls the early seventies when Santos was killed, as a time when minorities had absolutely no political clout in Dallas. "We were invisible Dallasites," he says. "Vulnerable to mistreatment by authorities." He himself remembers being stopped often by the police.

Being put up against the wall and pressed. What was my crime? Happened to be brown, happened to be young, happened to be on the streets, especially if it was after dark. And it wasn't like just one time, it was just common, and it wasn't just common to me, it was common to most of my friends. And so, in that type of environment, the police were seen not as the people who protected you, who were there to serve and to protect, but in essence as an occupying force. And when you see that type of relationship between a community and a police department and in a political establishment, then you see the tragic consequences of what happened to Santos Rodriguez.

We're trying to make correction within the police department. That's the reason the Latino Police Officers Association formed nearly two years ago.

Dallas Police Officer Gil Cerda, President of the Dallas Latino Police Officers Association, says that, "20 years after the death of Santos Rodriguez, there are still problems with the city police department."

20 years ago it was more blunt. Hispanic police officers would face discrimination on a daily basis. Today it's faced covert. In other words, they're not going to come out flat outright and tell you, "Hey, you know what? I don't like Hispanic officers being on the police department," but it's out there.

Dallas police spokesperson, Sandra Ortega de King says, despite two shootings of Mexican men by Dallas police officers in recent years, the relationship between the city's police department and the Latino community is better, more lenient, she says than ever before.

They are listening a little bit more to the community because the community within the Dallas area has grown. Population of the Hispanics has grown so dramatically. Just the city of Dallas is 20% Hispanic.

Councilman Garcia believes relations between the police and the Hispanic community of Dallas have come a long way since the death of Santos Rodriguez, as the Latino community has grown and slowly become a part of the city's political structure.

As a police department is diversified, we've seen that now the police department is looked on on a more favorable light. Crime has gone down and the amount of police abuses has gone down. Before Santos, police abuse was institutional and systematic. After Santos it became more sort of haphazard. What we need to learn about Santos Rodriguez's death, is that it can never happen again. It's like those bumper stickers. Remember Santos, nunca mas, because there were a lot of other Santos' all throughout the United States, there's a lot of other Rodney Kings.

City council member Domingo Garcia of Dallas, Texas.

One of the torch-bearers at the US Olympic Festival, recently held in San Antonio, Texas, was a hometown favorite. 33 year old, Helena Gonzalez, took a silver medal in judo and as Rosalind Soliz reports, that's pretty remarkable when you consider that at an age when most competitive judo athletes are set to retire, Gonzalez is making a comeback.

Welcome to Our Lady of the Lake University and the United States Olympic Festival, '93 Judo appearance.

In a mat-lined University stadium, 43 men and women dressed in loose white jackets and pants stand at attention. Some are Olympic athletes, others want to be. Judo referees make their calls as the athletes try to score with wrestling-like holds and throws. One of the smallest contestants in the women's competition is Helena Gonzalez.

5'2", 99 pounds.

You're very strong, I take it.

I work out hard. [Laughter]

She's had to work hard. 14 years ago, Helena was a Junior National Judo Champion. Then she stopped competing to marry and raise two sons. Now at 33 years old, she's competing again in the 45 kilo, or 99 pound, weight class. Last year at the US Open in Colorado, she won a bronze medal. Here, Helena has her eyes on the gold.

Maggie Kahn wearing the red sash. Helen Gonzalez wearing the white.

Looking at the other judo athletes in the gym, many are in their teens or twenties. 30 is retirement age. Even one of Helena's coaches, Eddie Elizade, recommends quitting at that age. He had to himself.

You start training in Judo when they're about eight years old and when you get about 30, your mind wants it, but your reflex is not there no more. Your body now doesn't respond as quickly as it used to.

Come on. Helena. Get underneath her. Go, go, go, go.

To sharpen her reflexes and build stamina for this competition, Helena trained four days a week; running, lifting weights, and practicing judo in spite of problems with both knees. Coach Eddie Elizale.

One thing that keeps her going is her determination. If you got the determination she's going to make it. There's no doubt about it. She trains hard and she's going to make it. She don't want to retire yet.

Besides determination, Helena has inspiration: Her family. Watching her two sons, Blue and Golden, compete in judo, fed her own desires to make a comeback. She shared her dream with her husband, Ruben, a San Antonio policeman and Helena's at-home coach.

My two boys would compete and she would say, "I wish I was still competing." I would always tell her, "Hey, you've got the time. You might as well do it now while you're young. And if you don't make it, at least you tried. You say, hey, I was there."

Helena, come on Helen.

By the third match here at the US Olympic Festival, it looks as though Helena is on a winning streak. In-between matches, she watches her competitors move with a laser-straight focus. Experience gives her an edge. She's been competing since she was 10 years old. She's learned the value of developing physical and mental strength. Helena's passed her love of the sport onto her children. Also, it's a way for Helena and her husband to reach out to disadvantaged children living in San Antonio's housing projects. Her husband runs a judo club for these kids and Helena helps coach them.

Well. Judo gives you a lot of discipline and you have a lot of respect for other people on the mat and other people in general. So hopefully that's what'll help them in their lives. Just everyday lives, going to school and everything.

Some of the boys she coaches are here to watch Helena compete and watch her win a medal.

Our silver medalist. Is Helena Gonzalez from San Antonio, Texas. [Cheers]

With the Olympic Festival over Helena will rest for a few weeks. Her home life will seem normal for a while. Then she will start training again for the US Open in November, and if she keeps winning, she'll seriously start thinking about the 1996 Olympics. For Latino USA, I'm Rosalind Soliz in San Antonio.

One of the featured musicians on Gloria Estefan's recent recording of traditional Cuban music, "Mi Tierra", is Israel Lopez. Also known as Cachao, Lopez now in his seventies, is just beginning to gain recognition for creating many of the familiar rhythms associated with styles like the mambo and el cha-cha-cha. From Miami, Emilio San Pedro prepared this musical profile.

[Transition--Cuban Music]

(Background music) In his younger days, Israel Lopez was known for his interpretation of traditional Cuban musical styles, like el son and danzón. Lopez comes from one of Cuba's oldest musical families and got his nickname, Cachao, from his grandfather, a one-time director of Havana's municipal band. Cachao recalls how after a while he and his brother, Orestes, became bored with playing the same old traditional danzónes, and created a new dance music called the mambo.

[Descarga Mambo--Israel “Cachao” Lopez]

Entonces en el año 37 entre mi Hermano y yo nos… [transition to English dub] In 1937, between my brother and I, we took care of this mambo business. We gave our traditional music, our danzón, a 180-degree turn. What we did was modernize it… [transition back to original audio] …lo que hicimos fue modernizarlo.

In the late 1950s, Cachao got a group of Cuba's top musical artists together for a set of 4:00 AM recording sessions that started after the musicians got off work at Havana's hotels and nightclubs. The group included Cachao's brother, Orestes, El Negro Vivar, Guillermo Barreto, and Alfredo León of Cuba's legendary Septeto Nacional. Cachao says he called those jam sessions descargas, literally discharges, because of the uninhibited atmosphere that surrounded those recordings.

En la descarga se presa uno libremente, cuando uno esta leyendo música no es los mismo… [transition to English dub] In the descarga you express yourself freely. When you are reading music it's just not the same. You are reading the music and so your heart can't really feel it. That's why that rhythm is so strong and everyone likes it so much… [transition to original audio] Fuerte! Y muy bien, todo el mundo encantado.

[Descarga Mambo--Israel “Cachao” Lopez]

Cachao left Cuba in 1962, but his association with the descarga, el mambo, and el danzón kept him busy in this country playing everything from small parties and weddings to concerts with top musicians like Mongo Santamaria, and Tito Puente. For young Cubans growing up in the United States, the music of Cachao and other artists has served as a link to their cultural roots.

His music has inspired me over the years and has brought solace to me and many times and has been a companion for me. Anybody who knows me will know that I carry tapes of Cachao with me in my pocket.

Actor Andy Garcia is one of those young Cubans on whom Cachao's music made a lasting impact. Garcia recently directed a documentary on the musician's life titled "Cachao...Como Su Ritmo No Hay Dos." "Like His Rhythm, There's No Other."

Cachao has been, in a sense, overlooked for his contributions musically to the world of music, world internationally. Musicians know of him and anyone say, "Oh, he's the master," but in terms of the general public, he's been really ignored. So it's important to document something, so somehow that would help bring attention to his contributions to music.

The documentary mixes concert footage with the conversation with Cachao. The concert took place last September in Miami, bringing together young and older interpreters of Cuban and Latin music in a tribute to Cachao and his descarga.

Very modest, extremely modest man. Quiet, shy.

One of the musicians who played with Cachao in that concert is violinist Alfredo Triff. He says, "The 74 year old maestro has lessons to teach young musicians that go beyond music."

He's such a modest person that in fact, I realized that he was the creator of this thing, this mambo thing. And I'll tell you what, not only me, I remember Paquito once in Brooklyn, we were playing, or in the Bronx, we were playing the Lehman College. And Paquito comes to the room and he says, Alfredo, you know that mambos, Cachao invented this thing.

Andy Garcia's documentary, "Como Su Ritmo No Hay Dos", is bringing Cachao some long-delayed recognition. And these days, Cachao is quite busy promoting the film, working on a new album, and collaborating with Gloria Estefan on her latest effort, "Mi Tierra", "My Homeland," a tribute to the popular Cuban music of the 1930s and '40s.

[No Hay Mal Que Por Bien No Venga--Gloria Estefan]

The album "Mi Tierra" has become an international hit in the few weeks since its release. The documentary, "Cachao, Como Su Ritmo No Hay Dos", has been shown at the Miami and San Francisco film festivals. Cachao also plans to go into the recording studio later this year to put together an album of danzónes.

Es baile de verdad Cubano, y se ha ido olvidado… [transition to English dub] It's the traditional Cuban dance, and it's being forgotten. Here you almost never hear a danzón. I wish the Cubans would realize that this is like the mariachi. The Mexican never forgets his mariachi. Wherever it may be, whatever star may be performing, the mariachi is there. It's a national patrimony, as the danzón should be for us and we should preserve it... [transition to original audio] …danzón…y debemos preservarlo también.

Cachao strongly believes in preserving Afro-Cuban culture and its musical traditions. He hopes to keep those traditions alive with his music. For Latino USA, I'm Emilio San Pedro.

[No Hay Mal Que Por Bien No Venga--Gloria Estefan]

This is news from Latino USA. I'm Vidal Guzmán. California governor Pete Wilson is calling for major changes to limit undocumented immigration. The governor promoted a so-called program for recovery at press conferences in San Diego and Los Angeles. Alberto Aguilar reports.

Governor Wilson alleges that up to 2 million of California's 32 million people are here illegally, 1 million in Los Angeles alone.

In a state where we have within Los Angeles, a community of illegal immigrants the size of San Diego.

Governor Wilson, who will probably seek reelection next year, wants President Clinton to deny US-born children of undocumented parents citizenship and access to healthcare and education: proposals which have created a firestorm of controversy with state Senator Art Torres saying that the governor is using the wrong approach to a complex problem. Other immigration advocates say denying education to children goes against a 1982 US Supreme Court decision and keeping somebody from achieving citizenship will require a change in the 14th amendment to the US Constitution. For Latino USA, I'm Alberto Aguilar in Los Angeles.

This is Latino USA. Recent polls show Americans are split on support for President Clinton's budget plan, but some analysts believe the bill's provisions may benefit many in the Latino community. Patricia Guadalupe attended the bill signing ceremony and she prepared this report.

Thank you. Thank you very much.

At the bills signing, the president declared the budget passage, a mandate from the people. Although the plan barely squeaked by in both the house and the Senate, many in Congress voted against it, citing constituent resentment towards the package. But presidential pollster, Stan Greenberg says his studies indicate many Americans, including most Latinos, widely supported the President's plan.

They're much more supportive, broadly supportive of the plan. Though the Hispanic community is very diverse, as you know and national samples aren't quite large enough to represent all of the diversity, but overall supportive of the plan and in general more supportive of the plan than other voters.

Analysts that the National Council of La Raza say the plan will greatly benefit the Hispanic community, particularly the earned income tax credit, which is designed to help lower income families. Democratic representative Henry B. Gonzalez of Texas says this provision will help Latinos in his district who disproportionately hold jobs that pay poorly.

This program will mean that there are over 58,000 families that qualify there. They're sub marginally employed. They're earning on that level less than 27,000, but still trying to maintain a family. And this targeted tax assistance program they call it, will be of immense help.

President Clinton's plan increases the earned income credit salary cap from $21,000 to $27,000 a year. Other parts of the plan, which enjoyed wide support in the Hispanic community and which were signed into law as part of the package were increased monies for urban development and vaccinations for children. For Latino USA I'm Patricia Guadalupe in Washington.

You're listening to Latino USA.

Pope John Paul II made his first visit to the United States since 1987. The pontiff along with 170,000 Catholics from around the world came to celebrate World Youth Day. A commemoration of Catholicism and religious worship. American Catholic clergy are hoping that as a result of the fanfare, traditionally Catholic Latino communities will renew their interest in the church. But as Ancel Martinez reports from Denver, many Catholic parishes are confronted with apathy and a church parishioners feel is sometimes too conservative.

[Church Bells]

One parish that wants to avoid the image of state Catholicism in apathy among Catholics is our Lady of Guadalupe. It's Adobe and Brick colonial style church and courtyard is just across the railroad tracks from Denver’s sleek office buildings. The pastor just ended a three-week fast to protest gangs that dominate summer street life around here. Our Lady Guadalupe is housing, hundreds of pilgrims celebrating World Youth Day. Church Deacon Alfonso Sandoval says for Mexican Americans it should be a time for reflection.

If anything, like I say, part of their culture is their faith in going to church. I think that the presence of the Holy Father is going to be significant for the youth in the sense that they were starting to drift away, not attending mass and not attending sacraments wasn't important for them, it just was not a priority. There's a lot of other priorities going on in their lives, but with this visit, I think it'll help a lot of them just take stock of what their faith's really all about.

The Pope chose Denver as the biannual World Youth Day site because it's a relatively young city and its Hispanic population represents the fastest growing segment of the church in America. But the nearly all Anglo national conference of Catholic bishops only grasped in the 1980s how important Latinos are to the survival of the American church. Father Lorenzo Ruiz works these streets reaching out to Chicanos and Latin American immigrants.

This is an area where the American church, the Anglo-American church and the Hispanic church met. The American church took over this area and again, they were not sensitized or aware of the church already existing here, totally unaware of the fact that there was a church here and people with a different culture and different values and a different way of expressing wonderful and beautiful Catholicism.

When Mexican Americans were ignored, that's when the separations began with the traditional Catholic Church, such as the new Mexican set known as the Penitentes decades ago. And even today, evangelical churches are making inroads to a once all Catholic culture.

[Church music and signing]

The Church of Christ Elam holds thrice weekly services in the basement of the circa 1900s Methodist church in the center of Denver's Latino neighborhood. Furnishings are minimal, fold up chairs, linoleum floor, and a small stage, several teenagers sing, a few dozen followers wave their hands and clutch Bibles, Pastor Manuel Alvarez, explains Catholicism simply isn't spiritual enough for many, so they seek other faiths.

They found something that is not a religious but a new experience with God when they can talk to God and have a relationship with God, not with religious or not with that organization, but a special relationship with Jesus Christ.

The Vatican is now paying special attention to Latinos in the United States because in part of their support of conservative issues like the ban on women serving as priest and opposition to artificial birth control and abortion, but there are even schisms among Latinos. Sister Irene Muñoz works for the Denver Catholic Archdiocese Hispanic outreach program.

I know women are speaking out and saying we want a fuller role in the church in many ways, and I truly see that. I truly believe that women are called to do more than perhaps what we're doing. And I know there are many of our sisters, my sisters that are called even more into become ordained priest and they were saying, look at us, listen to us.

The challenges facing the church in its quest to resolve these issues as well as retain Catholic Hispanics will remain long after the excitement of the pope's visit to Colorado in this continent subsides. For Latino USA I'm Ancel Martinez in Denver.

Since it first opened in Los Angeles in September of 1991. The art exhibit known as CARA, the acronym for Chicano Art Resistance and Affirmation has traveled throughout the country to Denver, Albuquerque, El Paso, San Francisco, the Bronx, and Washington DC, bringing art inspired by the Chicano political and social movements of the 60s and 70s to audiences that had sometimes not even heard of the word Chicano. The CARA exhibits last stop was at the San Antonio Museum of Art. Museum patrons on this last afternoon of the CARA exhibit seemed to appear a little bit more intently than usual at this collection of 130 works by 90 Chicano artists from across the country. San Antonio artist David Zamora Casas was among those getting a last glimpse of the landmark art exhibit.

It has opened up the link that we have with our collective past. It has made it okay to and cool to be Chicano again.

Spanish teacher Barbara Merrill came from Devine, Texas. She says the works in the CARA show help her to better understand her mostly Mexican-American students.

There’s so much of the heritage and seeing it through the eyes of the Mexican American. The quote over there, the A Chicano is a Mexican American through non-Anglo eyes, speaks very much to me through this exhibit.

Combining art, politics and history. These diverse works, posters, murals, and multimedia together defined a distinct Chicano aesthetic.

What that meant some 15 years ago is that Chicano artists began to look inward at their own experience to look at their own traditions.

Art historian Dr. Jacinto Quirarte curated the exhibit in San Antonio.

Things that the Chicanos themselves had experienced rather than leapfrogging over to Mexico and looking at things indirectly. By the mid-70s Chicano artists began to really know who they were and by the 80s they were really well onto their own.

In three years of touring the Chicano Art, Resistance, and Affirmation exhibit has brought this distinctive artistic style to the attention of the mainstream art world, but perhaps its most lasting impact has been on audiences who had seldom before seen themselves reflected on museum walls.

We worked the fields in the summer and on weekends during the school year, whatever crop was seasoned. So uh-

30 year old beautician, Sally Ortiz came to see the exhibit twice in San Antonio before it closed. The familiar images she says like that of the Virgin of Guadalupe and of farm worker life and struggle touched a deep cord of memory.

The lettuce and the grapes and the pesticides. I remember my mother talking about the pesticides and of course I was very young and I never understood, but she used to always say, ‘que era muy venenoso.’ Just looking at everything. Just, it's like looking into my past all over again.

And for others too young or not around during the heyday of the Chicano movement, the CARA show proved an education.

Looking at the photos of all the rallies that they had, I found my mother in one of them and it just made me feel really proud that my parents had never really told me about it. But then they started telling me about all this stuff, makes me really proud that people were so alive back then and it just makes me want to be more alive now with the movement because it is still going on.

In San Antonio, as well as the other cities where CARA was exhibited, the show brought in more Latinos than had ever visited those institutions previously. The challenge now say many observers is to keep them coming.

A revival of traditional Mexican mariachi music is taking place across this country and many Latino youth are participating. Marcos Martinez of Radio Station, KUNM prepared this report on the Mariachi celebration held recently in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Now in its fourth year.

[Mariachi Music]

Albuquerque's Mariachi Spectacular brings together groups from throughout the southwest who bring their instruments and their devotion to the music for four days of workshops and concerts. On a Saturday afternoon, some eight mariachi groups alternate between six different stages along Main street of the New Mexico State fairgrounds. This is called Plaza Garibaldi modeled after the original Plaza Garibaldi in Mexico City where Mariachis gathered to play and find work. This year, about half the groups at Plaza Garibaldi are high school students. 17 year old Nick Watson plays with Mariachi Oro Del Sol from El Paso, Texas. He says Mariachi music is complex and fun to play

Well because it's challenging. It has more than three chords. It's basically what I think rock and roll is. And not that I'm knocking, I like rock and roll, but it's challenging. It's more challenging to play, you know, learn a lot more from it.

[Mariachi Music]

With this music, you can express your feelings more.

How?

Um, with the songs, the words and stuff, they're very powerful words.

Jennifer Luna is the leader of Mariachi Oro del Sol and shares Watson's enthusiasm. She says in her part of Texas, young people are very drawn to this style of music.

A lot of young people play in El Paso. That's mostly what there is there. The groups are younger kids. Cause over there it's in the schools they teach it to you, so it's pretty common over there.

The word mariachi comes from the French word for marriage. According to history, French people who came to Mexico in the 1800s became interested in the Mexican string bands of the time and invited them to play at French weddings. Today, mariachis typically include guitar, violin, trumpet, and the vihuela, which is a small guitar, and the guitarrón, which is a very large guitar. While they carry on traditions, youth mariachi groups like Oro Del Sol are also different from the older generation of mariachis in that they tend to be more gender balanced. Nick Watson says his mariachi group is all the better for including young women musicians.

They're good. We just picked who’s good and they're good. So we take them, it doesn't matter. Sex has nothing to do with it. If you're good, you're good, you play.

[Mariachi Music]

There's no doubt that among the young people attending this year's Mariachi Spectacular is some great future talent. Alex De Leon is a vocalist for the Mariachi Azul y Blanco from Adamson High School in Dallas. This 17 year old has already received high praise for his vocal talents.

[Mariachi Music]

People keep giving me comments, I'm good and stuff. So now I want to get better.

Young Mariachis, like De Leon have a chance to learn from more experienced mentors like Al Sandoval, who teaches music in the Albuquerque public schools and is director of Mariachi Romántico. Sandoval says, attendance at the Mariachi Spectacular workshops has tripled since last year. Sandoval says because of its expressiveness, mariachi music is a big part of Southwest Hispanic culture.

It's the most addicting music of all. I mean Southwest, it's the most addicting music. It grows on you and once it's in your blood, you'll never get it out. It's worse than the worst habit you can ever have because I mean, you grow to love it and you can never get away from it.

[Mariachi Music]

Everything about Mariachis hearkens back to Old Mexico from the ornate charro outfits and broad brimmed hats to the instruments and the old songs. But on the final night of the Mariachi Spectacular, as the teenage musicians joined the world's most famous mariachi groups on stage for a grand finale, the tradition seemed certain to continue for a long time to come. For Latino USA, I'm Marcos Martinez in Albuquerque.

[Highlight--Music--El Vez] You're pretty el vez, stand in line, make love to you baby, till next time. Cuz I'm El Vez. I spell 'H' hombre, hombre...(Cover of I'm a Man--Bo Diddley)

16 years after the death of Elvis Presley. Elvis lives in many forms. For instance, the dozens of Elvis impersonators out there, the teen Elvis, the Black Elvis, the Jewish Elvis, flying Elvis's galore. Pues, what do you think of an Elvis con salsa, or the Elvis for Aztecs? With us on Latino USA is someone who's been called, not an Elvis impersonator, but an Elvis translator. He's Robert Lopez of East Los Angeles, also known as El Vez, the Mexican Elvis. So tell me about it, Robert Lopez. Why Elvis for the Latino community?

Well, I'll tell you, there are more than dozens. There's actually thousands of Elvis impersonators. There are more Elvis impersonators than people realize. Elvis impersonators in all United States and all over different countries. So, it's like we're our own minority.

[Está Bien Mamacita--El Vez]

I would say about 15% of Elvis's impersonators are Latino. You'd be surprised because all over California and all in Illinois, there are many other Latino Elvis impersonators. But I'm the first Mexican Elvis, I take my heritage and make it part of my show.

So when and how did el espíritu, the spirit, of Elvis possess you?

[Laughter] Well, I used to curate a art gallery in Los Angeles called La Luz de Jesus we were a folk art gallery. And I curated a show all on Elvis Presley. And I had always been an Elvis fan, but all this Elvis exposure just kind of made me go over the edge. And I had met some friends and they were saying, "Well, Robert, you should go to Memphis because every year they have this Elvis tribute," which is kind of like Dia de los Muertos for Elvis. It's like a big festival of swap meets, fan clubs, Elvis impersonators galore. And so I said, "Okay, I'm going to go." I had dared myself to go to Memphis and do the show. I would say, "Okay, I'll do El Vez, the Mexican Elvis." And I wrote the songs on ... Rewrote the songs on the plane, and my main idea was to play with the boombox in front of the people waiting in front of Graceland. But as luck would have it, I got on a Elvis impersonator show, and the showrunner was so big, by the time I got back in LA it was already in the LA Times. So, El Vez, the Mexican Elvis had been born.

[Transition--Music--El Vez]

Some people have called you a cross-cultural caped crusader singing for truth, justice and the Mexican-American way. So for you, it's more than just musical entertainment, you've got a message here in the music that you're bringing.

Yeah, well, first of all, I do love Elvis and I'm the biggest Elvis fan, and you can see that when you see the show. But it's like I do try to show the cross-culture. Elvis is the American dream or part of the American dream. I mean, there's many American dreams, but Elvis was part of the American dream. But I feel that American dream, poor man, start really with nothing to become the most famous, biggest entertainment tour of all the world is not just a job for a white man. It's for a Black man. It's for a Chinese man. It's for an immigrant. It's for a Mexican. It's for a woman. It can happen to anyone. And so rather than just say, "Okay, this is a white man's dream in a white United States," I change it and I show everyone they can make it fit to their story too.

[Singing] One two three four, I'm caught in a trap, do do do do. I can't walk out, because my foots caught in this border fence, do do do do do. Why can't you see, statue of liberty, I am your homeless, tired and weary...

[Immigration Time--El Vez]

What do you think Elvis would've thought of you singing and changing the words to the songs?

Oh, he would've enjoyed it very, he'd say, "El Vez, I like your show very much." He would like it.

Some of the songs that you've changed, I just want to go through some of the names because I think that they're so wonderful. I mean, instead of Blue Suede shoes, you have ...

Huaraches azul. Instead of That's Alright Mama, Esta Bien Mamacita. One of my favorites is [singing] ‘You ain’t nothing but a chihuahua, yapping all the time’. We start the show with the lighter easy songs, the familiar ones, and then we get them with the one-two punch and get them talking about political situations, sexual situations, and rock and roll situations.

[En el Barrio--El Vez] En el barrio, people dont you understand, this child needs a helping hand, or he's going to be an angry young man one day. Take a look at you and me-

Robert Lopez, also known as El Vez, is now negotiating with the producers of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air for a possible TV sitcom. He'll also be playing Las Vegas for the first time.

For four days, recently, more than 150,000 young people gathered in Denver to see Pope John Paul II. Among them, many Latinos from across the country. Producer Betto Arcos, spoke to the young Hispanics about what was on their minds, issues ranging from the future of the Latino community to abortion, President Clinton's performance, and gays in the military.

The Hispanic community is not getting very well educated, okay? We need to push more for education.

We're working our way up, and I want to see us in power, not let everybody else walk all over us. We're going to be doing a lot of the walking, and we've got a lot to do.

President Clinton, up to this day, I feel that he takes in a lot of information from his public, from his staff, and he later he comes up with the plan out of that.

I think he's done a good job so far. I think he's the best president ever since John F Kennedy.

I'm sure he has good intentions. He can't please everybody all the time. He's looking out for the general welfare of the whole United States.

I do like the fact that he has let gays and lesbians in the army and stuff like that because I mean, that's their own private life, and nobody should get into that because it's theirs and it's personal. So I mean, we shouldn't hold that against them. Their preference is their business as long as they can do their work right. I mean, I think that's cool.

That's a tough situation. And the way it is right now there, we know that there are some gays in the military, but we don't know who they are, if they keep it quiet or ... Once you do know, I do know of one, a guy that was in my unit, and he seemed just like any other guy. So on a personal level, it's all right, but when you think about the overall picture, it's kind of an eerie feeling.

I don't know if you can say maybe the sixties, free love, everything like that was a part of it. And some of the people took that wrong as to what free love was, and they took it to the extremes with sex. And nowadays, you have a generation that holds nothing sacred.

Yeah, I believe that it's women's choice, even though in the case of rape, they should have an abortion, like incest and stuff like that. But I do believe it's women's choice.

Abortion is not a word for me. I don't believe in it.

Sex is not a game. It's not something we should play with. Responsible sex is knowing that you're going to have sex and knowing that the possibility of having a child is there and taking that responsibility if a child is in your womb.

I work in a neighborhood where the dropout rate is 75% of our high school and 75% of that, 45% of that is due to pregnancy. And I can't justify telling a kid for whatever reason, not to have abortion, not to have abortion, but I think it should be there to be addressed correctly.

On August 24th of last year, Hurricane Andrew ripped through South Florida, wreaking devastation. When the rains and winds had died down, 150,000 people were left homeless. One year later, many communities hard hit by Andrew have generally recovered, but that's not the case in the mostly agricultural region of South Dade County, where construction and repairs are still in progress. Many farms remain closed or are operating at half capacity. Reporter Emilio San Pedro was in the Florida City homestead area of South Florida on the anniversary of Hurricane Andrew. He reports that life is only very slowly returning to normal in this primarily farmworker community.

The Centro Campesino in Florida City is a farm worker support organization that serves as the unofficial town center for many of South Dade's migrant and year-round farm workers. Housing counselor Leslie Guerra says that every day, the staff at the Centro sees indications that the damages caused by Hurricane Andrew are still affecting the area's farmworkers.

In the long run, or the long term, the farmworker was affected because now there aren’t any- there's not as much work. There used to be a lot of farm laboring work done on lime groves, in plant nurseries, and stuff like that. And, as you know, everybody lost their trees in their backyard or their front yard, so you can imagine how the plant nursery industry did. And the farmworker, especially the farmworker who's here year-round, does lots of work in that particular industry, and that was almost completely wiped out.

One year after the eye of Hurricane Andrew passed over the agricultural region of South Dade, many farms remain closed or are operating at half capacity. The cost of housing has risen sharply, due to the destruction of many of the trailer parks, apartments and homes that house agricultural workers.

Last night I was watching a special program about the hurricane, and it was sad. It made me sad because I'm thinking-

Terry Adellano is a dance teacher at the Centro Campesino. She has seen her life, and the lives of the farmworkers she works with, transformed.

Our spirits really were blown away with the hurricane because our school was completely torn. I mean, our costumes flew away, our shoes. Along with a lot of our students that had to relocate to West Palm Beach, some to Texas, some stayed here, but most of them had to relocate because they didn't have nowhere else to live.

One of her students is Raul. His family stayed, even though their house was damaged, and his parents lost their business.

I learned not to give up by helping my parents after the hurricane, going out, making a little money by cleaning up other people's yards after I cleaned up my yard. My parents were just starting to pick up on a restaurant, and on the same day that the hurricane hit, the insurance man was supposed to come and approve it. But Hurricane Andrew beat him to it.

I'm going to ask Governor Chiles to say a few-

Today, on the eve of the anniversary of Hurricane Andrew, Terry Adellano and others at the Centro Campesino are hosting Florida's governor, Lawton Chiles, and other dignitaries who are paying visits to many of South Dade's hardest-hit regions.

I want to say how surprised I was when I came in here to see not only repairs being made to the homes that were here, but to see all the new homes being constructed. By golly, I'm delighted to see that the tent city is no longer there.

This is one of the houses that was rebuilt. This house was here during the hurricane. In fact, this house was used for-

Outside the office of the Centro Campesino is a housing development called Centro Villas. The more than 60 homes are owned by farmworkers that have participated in the Centro's sweat equity program. Antonia Torres lives in one of the houses and is the president of the Centro Villas Homeowners Association.

No, me falta terminar la cocina…[transition to English dub] I still need to redo the kitchen, and the kitchen cabinets haven't been replaced. Also, the tool shed was destroyed, and my fence has not been repaired [transition to original audio]…todavía.

Today, Antonia brought her husband and two boys to the Centro Campesino to hear what the governor had to say.

Que bueno que nos visitó el gobernador, que bueno…[transition to English dub] It's great that the governor came here, and hopefully it won't be just a visit. Hopefully it will result in assistance for all that need it. Sometimes it happens that way. They visit, look around, say they're going to help, and in the end, they don't do nothing [transition to original audio]…ojalá que esta vez sí ayuden.

Housing Counselor Leslie Guerra points out that houses like those in Centro Campesino are the exception for farmworkers, and that the majority of farmworkers are finding it difficult to make ends meet after Andrew, due to the shortage of affordable housing. She adds that the post-hurricane assistance offered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, was in many cases inadequate.

I think that FEMA has helped with maybe their personal property and personal belongings and things like that, but that is not long-term help. When someone replaces their furniture, it doesn't really get them back into the shape that they were in before. Helping them get a better job, helping them get better housing, that's what FEMA really should have done instead of giving them $8,000 or $9,000 and say, "Hey, buy new furniture with it." Is that really helping somebody put them back to where they were, or even helping them put their life back together psychologically and emotionally?

Hurricane Andrew caused over $1 billion in damages to South Dade's agriculture industry, and left thousands of acres of farmland barren. But today, many of the businesses on US 1 are back in operation, and some of the larger agricultural companies are in full swing. But many farmworkers have not yet fully recovered from the loss of housing and employment opportunities. For Latino USA, I'm Emilio San Pedro In Florida City.

This is news from Latino USA. I'm Maria Martin. US Latinos are three times more likely to live in poverty than most Americans. According to a new census report, almost a third of Hispanics live below the poverty line. They make up 18% of the nation's poor, and only 9% of the population. Sonia Perez heads The Poverty Project at the National Council of La Raza.

The poverty level in the Latino community has increased over the past year, and we were expecting that, given the recession last year and the effect that that's had on the employment of a lot of people. So, the poverty issue is a big concern because we see that the community is working, and yet the poverty is high, so they constitute a large proportion of the working poor.

Almost half of poor Latinos are children under the age of 18.

Cuban American activists are protesting a decision by the Mexican government not to allow a boatload of refugees from Cuba to land on Mexican shores. Protests took place in Miami and in New York. Mandalit del Barco reports.

The Cubans protesting the decision called on a total boycott of Mexican products and traveled to Mexico. The demonstration targeted the Mexican government, and the consulate here in New York, for what protestors called their roles as assassins. Cuban refugees had been sailing for 21 days, allegedly on their way to the Cayman Islands, when their boat had mechanical problems. 10 people died, including two children, and the others continued floating until they reached the waters near Cancun. On August 19th, the Mexican government ordered them to be deported back to Cuba. The Mexican consulate issued a bulletin saying the Cubans on the boat were given medical attention before being sent back. According to the consulate, the refugees never asked for political asylum. For Latino USA, I'm Mandalit del Barco in New York.

[Guitar music, transition] I'm Maria Hinojosa. 75,000 people descended on the nation's capital on a train August Saturday to commemorate a historic civil rights march, which took place on another hot August day 30 years ago.

[Archival sound] Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee. Let freedom ring from every hill and all hill of Mississippi.

Although some things have changed for the better in the three decades since Dr. King articulated his vision for equality and justice, this year's march found many people, including many Latinos, seeking to improve their situation in this country. Latino USA's Patricia Guadalupe was at the march and filed this report.

When Martin Luther King Jr. stood on these steps 30 years ago today, he challenged people of goodwill across our nation to rise up and live out the true meaning of his creed.

Coretta Scott King, widow of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., addressed a much smaller crowd in that which heard her husband 30 years ago. She spoke of the same things he did, the need for more jobs and into prejudice and a more peaceful world. Many at the recent march acknowledged that progress had been made in those areas, but they said much remains to be done, especially in improving the lives of Latinos. Carmen Gonzalez of New York City said she came to the march to fight for more jobs.

Things are not going too well for many people. There are too many unemployed. They're not jobs. There's nothing out there really. There's a lot of college grads who are looking for jobs. They can't find anything.

Do you think that this march is going to change things?

We're trying. We're trying to enforce something by being united. We're trying to see, we're trying to foresee if the President will do something for us.

According to the Joint Center for Political Studies in Washington, living conditions have gotten worse for Hispanics in the last 30 years. Since 1963, there has been a 10% increase in Hispanic poverty levels, particularly in urban areas where figures show 60% unemployment among Hispanics.

Almost 10% more Hispanics and Asians live in poverty today than did in 1963. More poor whites drop out before high school graduations.

Young people were strong presence at the march, and while most of them marched for the same things as their older counterparts, a young Latina from Rhode Island took it one step further. Ana Rodriguez said she came to make a statement about Puerto Rico.

Since the plebiscite is going on in Puerto Rico now and they're going to decide the statehood of Commonwealth. And Puerto Rico has been oppressed for 500 years, first by the Spaniards and now by the Americans and everybody else. And the Puerto Ricans here in the United States see the worst part of it.

[Natural sounds of march] Even though a majority of the marchers declared that little has changed in the 30 years since the first march, there was a feeling of optimism for the future in the air. Henry Cisneros, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, said his optimism comes from faith that this administration will help out those who have been in need for so long.

For children who grow up in a development where they have no prospects or jobs or hope, for young people who get drawn to the only life around them which is drugs, you could only say that things were worse. But what we have to do is capture the momentum of what is possible and luckily, we have a president. We have an administration that is willing to go out on a limb and I think today is an important reminder of the job ahead.

Most Latinos at the march were as hopeful for the future as Secretary Cisneros, but some expressed disappointment that President Clinton was not there and that Latino participation in the march was relatively small. For Latino USA, I'm Patricia Guadalupe in Washington.

While the media debates the pros and cons of immigration and pollsters measure growing anti-immigrant sentiment, it's somewhat harder to measure how immigrants feel about the ongoing debate. So Latino USA went to commentator, John Guardo, who came to this country from Colombia as a young boy to get his views on the controversy.

Yo, you want to know what really burns me up? It's when I hear people talk about minorities and immigrants like we are subhuman. It's those same people who think it's our fault when bad things happen in our neighborhoods. What they don't realize is that our communities are the ones abandoned by the authorities and left to decay. To set the record straight, let me tell you a story. There once was a kid, a smart kid, who came to this country not to freeload or abuse the opportunities America had to offer, but for a more basic reason. To live with his mom. You see, earlier in his life, his parents had separated. Pops was an alcoholic who had made a habit out of beating up mom. Mom was a teenager, who after the separation, moved to the US, leaving the kid behind, sacrificing it all for a shot at a better life. Finally, time allowed for mother and son to reunite in New York City.

This story should have ended with them living happily ever after. Unfortunately, this is the real world and it didn't happen that way. I am that kid. When I put my foot on the plane, I knew it was the start of a new life. I look forward to visiting Disneyland and the Empire State Building. I had a lot of aspirations. Catching a glimpse of the Statue of Liberty just before landing gave me confidence. It reassured me that I was finally free from the family violence I left back home. But had I really escaped violence entirely? For the first few weeks after I came to this country, life was good. Living in postcard New York was how I thought it would be. That all ended when my mom ran out of places to take me and I had to face it all on my own. Armed with only intellect and friendliness, I stepped into society only to face a seemingly indestructible enemy. Prejudice.

Being nice didn't keep me from getting beat up. Being smart didn't mean anything if no one would listen. But being punched for not knowing English, that was the last straw. From then on, respect became more important than anything and the streets became my school. My mother, on the other hand, worked incessantly, pushed to exhaustion by a dream of seeing her son wear a graduation gown. Sometimes, I felt like telling her how many obstacles I was facing as a new immigrant and just because of being myself, but that would've disillusioned her and she didn't deserve that. When I turned 15, I joined a gang. It seemed like the only way out of my situation. It was like a passport to a regular life, free from being pursued by hate I didn't understand. With size came strengths, and all our voices fused into one that was heard and respected. Now, through violence, I had earned the right to be.

Being young at that time though, I was more inclined to the social aspects of gang life. Being with girls, drinking with the guys, and wilding. Walking down that path landed me in jail a couple of times, turning me into a stereotype, just another statistic. I admit that my sense of responsibility decreased by being in a gang. Instead of hanging out, I could have been studying. But that lost time was replaced by a sense of security. The acceptance given to me by my crew filled up the hole created by being rejected during my first months here. Belonging to a gang fulfilled me, but as time passed, I realized this wasn't the way either. Now that I've been here for almost 10 years, I look at other young kids who have just arrived to this country and see myself. It's a shame that a person whose only intention is to come here and do better is welcomed by prejudice, greed, and racism.

This country was built on immigration. Why is it then? And some people claim to have more rights than others. Is it a seniority thing or a freedom thing? You see, I believe if there was some sort of structure or orientation to guide immigrants when they arrive here, those who are new to this country would be able to avoid certain obstacles. Like the ones I had to confront. A good start would be an expansion in the English as a second language program to make it available to everybody, students and adults alike. Not knowing how to speak English is a problem that leads to others like difficulty in finding a job or being a target for discrimination. America is a beautiful country, full of promise and opportunity for everyone. Immigrants included. Too bad, there are those out there who tarnish its beauty with ignorance. I am John Guardo, speaking for the street.

As the Census Bureau issued new figures showing the Latino population growing at a faster rate than previously projected, dozens of Latino leaders from across the country met to focus on the issues which most affect this growing population. Among them, education, health, and how to make Latino communities viable. Organized by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, the three day meeting culminated with an electronic town hall meeting linking together San Juan, Miami, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Antonio. Latino USA's Maria Martin reports.

The Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute presents threads of diversity, the fabric of unity.

In New York, Congressman Robert Menendez of New Jersey and Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez, resident commissioner Carlos Romero Barcelo is in San Juan. We have Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Congressman Lincoln Diaz Ballard with an audience in Miami.

In their regional and national diversity, the Hispanic Congressional Caucus, its 20 members up from 14 since last November, mirrors this country's Latino community. Members don't always agree on issues, such as the embargo of Cuba and the North American Free trade Agreement. Yet at this conference, the congress members echoed the sentiment expressed by HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros.

Yes, we are different national origins and yes we are are different partisan roots, Republicans, and Democrats, and independents, and radicals, and conservatives, and every sort of breed of political roots. And yes, we live in different parts of the country and we've already talked about that, but the truth is we have much more in common than the things that separate us.

To address issues in common, a survey was taken among those invited to the seventh City Electronic Town Hall. The results indicated education is the issue of greatest concern among Latinos followed by health community viability, that is jobs, and the environment. From politicians to students to grassroots organizers, they all had questions for their congressional representatives.

My question is language minority preschool-aged children do not have to be provided with equal educational opportunities. How is this issue going to be addressed?

Responding is California Congressman Xavier Becerra.

Mrs. Maria, I can tell you one thing that in Congress you will not be satisfied by the answer because those of us in Hispanic caucus are not satisfied. We will be spending something over $200 million this coming year on bilingual education, about 20 or 30 million more if the president has his way than was spent in the past year. That 250 or $230 million provides us with the funds to reach about 10 to 15% of all the children in this country who are in need of bilingual services. The states aren't doing much better-

I would like to know how the Hispanic Congressional Caucus intends to deal with the current anti-immigrant backlash. In general, its impact on K-12 education. In particular, its impact on children enrolled in federally funded bilingual education programs.

Responding to this question from Los Angeles, LA Congressman Esteban Torres.

At this time in our history we're undergoing a tremendous onslaught by those who would wish to blame all the economic ills on this country on immigrants. The immigrants I might say, didn't have a lot to do with the SNL scandal. They didn't have a lot to do with the Cold War issue.

Those questions and responses having to do with the prevalent anti-immigrant climate seem to get the most response from those in the town hall audience, not only in the area of education but regarding the exclusion of the undocumented from the administration's healthcare plan. Illinois Congressman Luis Gutierrez.

In Chicago, in our discussions, we understand that healthcare needs to become. Given any package that we approve in the Congress of the United States, needs to be looked at as a basic and fundamental human right. A basic and fundamental human right that is guaranteed to every human being who lives in the United States regardless of the color of their skin or their economic status, regardless of whether they arrived yesterday or today or they're going to arrive tomorrow. Cancer and tuberculosis and illness does not ask for a MICA card as to whether it can visit your home or your children.

Just very briefly say that on this issue and on every other issue, it is a caucus policy to include the undocumented as part of our community.

Caucus chair, New York Congressman Jose Serrano.

We are not immigration agents. We don't get involved in how people get here. Once they're here, we feel that they have to be protected. Number two, this caucus, for the first time is also addressing the fact that people who live in American territories are part of our American community. There are questions yet to be settled about those territories, but as far as fair play from Washington, this caucus believes that the members who represent those areas and the people who live in those areas, for American citizens that they are, must get equal treatment and that's the kind of approach that the caucus has taken.

There are no easy answers to all the questions and issues facing the Latino community and addressed during the three days of sessions on Capitol Hill, but what was perceptible in Washington was a new attitude. The Hispanic caucus has been energized by new leadership and by the additional members elected in November, including its first Mexican-American and Puerto Rican congresswomen. There was serious talk of coalitions between Hispanics and African-Americans in Congress at one of the sessions, and at the same time the issues forum was taking place, the 20 members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus had an opportunity to show their new clout when they blocked a bill which would've extended unemployment insurance by cutting off benefits for blind and disabled legal immigrants. Congressman Xavier Becerra.

Chairman Serrano came into the discussions and it was through the efforts of the caucus, the name of the caucus, that we were able to say that Congressman Pastor who also came in, we were able to say that we as members of the Hispanic caucus, could not support this particular bill even though we knew we had many people in our districts who were unemployed, but this was not the way to do it. You don't rob Peter to give to Paul and we would not let it happen, and fortunately we had a leadership with the foresight to know that they should not do it either.

We have shown great progress and the fact that this caucus is being held here today is proved that the Mexican-American, the Hispanic can go forward. My question to you-

This new visibility and increasing political power for Latinos on Capitol Hill led one elderly participant to ask what those outside of Congress could do to help the members of the caucus be more effective. The answer came from representative Becerra.

Three important words Vote, vote, vote.

Finding an agenda which can unite the many diverse and regionally scattered Latino communities is what brought together some 800 invited guests and the Hispanic members of Congress for an electronic town hall meeting joining together seven cities.

The town hall session of the Issues forum sponsored by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus was broadcast over public television stations in New York, Washington, San Antonio, Los Angeles, and Chicago. For Latino USA, I'm Maria Martin.

Pop rhythms and grungy glamour were the rule at a recent opening night party for MTV Latino. The party in Miami South Beach went late into the night as the global rock music giant MTV celebrated its move into 11 Latin American countries and the US latino market. Nina Ty Schultz was at the celebration and filed this report.

MTV Latino Americano. Wow.

MTV, la mejor música.

With hundreds of exotically dressed people crammed into one of South Beach's hottest nightclubs, MTV Latino is launched. There's as much Spanish as English in the air and as many models as musicians. It's all part of MTV's image of youth and ease and scruffy good looks. Take Daisy Fuentes, she's a model turned MTV host who will anchor the new show in Miami as the master of ceremonies here tonight, she's got the kind of bubbly, bilingual enthusiasm that MTV Latino wants to project.

Now we're really going to be in your face. I am talking Central America, South America, the Caribbean, and even in the USA in Español.

MTV will literally be in the face of 2 million viewers with another million predicted by the year's end. MTV's, CEO Tom Preston explained why it's all possible now.

We see that cable television industry exploding. As the media is deregulated, huge demand for alternative types of television services like an MTV.

That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.

He expects the business to be lucrative, not just for MTV, but for Latin American rock and pop stars as well. Gonzalo Morales from Mexico is one of the video jockeys for the show.

They're going to for sure promote their selves all over Latin America. I mean, 10 years ago it was impossible to think that they would be signing to into an international record company and selling the number of records they sell. Nowadays, rock and roll in Mexico, it's really huge now.

The rock groups here tonight come from all over. Maldita Vencidad from Mexico, Los Prisoneros from Chile, Ole Ole from Spain. But oddly enough, the first artist to perform is the not so Latin Phil Collins. That's no mistake. Over three quarters of the music on MTV Latino will in fact be from so-called "Anglo musicians". "That's what Latin teens want to hear," say MTV execs who feel they know the market after running a year long pilot show. Though they say programming may change depending on audience demand. For Latino USA, this is Nina Ty Schultz in Miami.

For now, in this country, MTV Latino can be seen in Miami, Tucson, Boston, Fresno, and Sacramento, California.

From the barrios of the southwest to the gang turfs and immigrant enclaves of the inner cities to middle class Latino neighborhoods from Kansas to Washington state, drug and alcohol abuse are a troubling part of everyday life for many people. To better deal with this reality, Latino social workers who specialize in substance abuse recently came together in Denver. Ancel Martinez reports they're forming a new network called HART, Hispanic Addictions Resources and Training

[Background--Natural Sounds--University Campus] On the manicured campus of the University of Denver there's no hint of the troubles of South Central Los Angeles, the barrios of El Paso or the gang turf of West Denver. Yet the 200 people who have come here to attend seminars must return to those areas with strategies on how to address increasing social problems among immigrants as well as US born Latinos. Paul Cardenas, who specializes in alcohol abuse, co-founded the nationwide group called Hispanic Addictions Resource Training, also known as HART. Because, he argues, not only do Latinos have different needs than Anglos, but their numbers cannot be ignored.

[background sounds cont.] The Hispanic community is growing. In the last 10 years, we've doubled in size. By the year 2020, we will probably be one out of every four individuals in the entire United States. So there's a great economic force that we're all going to have to cope with whether we know it or not, whether we're prepared for it or not.

[bg sound cont.]The symposium was designed to address the myriad of issues facing Latinos. One problem begins here. [Microphone noise] There are not many Latinos in social work. For instance, hundreds finished Denver University's graduate school of social work every year, but only a handful are Hispanic Americans. HART wants more minorities to enter the field. Another problem arises when Latino professionals apply for government grants. There's little information on alcoholism or drug abuse among Hispanics. So justifying grants, say for aiding Latinas, is difficult. So the goal for many is tailoring programs for those they serve.

[bg sound] Women from El Salvador, from Puerto Rico, from Mexico, and they're like so separated because they don't know a thing about one another.

[bg sound] Mary Santos is a program director for the Boyle Heights Family Recovery Center in Los Angeles who works with the growing Central American population,

And I must educate them to share their cultures so that we can find the similarities so that we can get on with the process of recovery. I believe 98% of Hispanic women have a lot of core issues such as sexual abuse, domestic violence, alcoholism. It might not have just started with them, there's a history of alcoholism or chemical dependency, so to speak, that that has been embedded in the family.

[bg sound] Besides organizing comprehensive treatments, much work remains in the area of intervention before people become addicted to violence or drugs. David Flores, an LA-based gang counselor, warns society needs to offer treatment and not simply jail time for risk-prone youth. Flores has spent years documenting gang life in Southern California.

[bg sound] The number of gangs are continuing to grow. The number of kids getting involved in gangs are also growing, and what's kind of scary is that we're seeing the development of new gangs, which will probably dramatically add to the membership unless we intervene and do something about it like right away.

[bg sound] What are the differences between those new gangs and established gangs?

[bg sound] Well, the majority of the new gangs are really tagger/bangers, what we call tagger/bangers or kids who are tagging, then forming groups that tag as a group or a set and then become an actual gang. So we're seeing a significant increase in taggers, which will then add to the number of gang members that we will see in the future.

[bg sound] Flores workshop on how street gangs get a boost from young blood was one of the best attended during the three day symposium. Every workshop stressed the need, that the 3,800 members of HART from across the country need to map out their strategies on say how traditional spiritualism and Chicano or Caribbean cultures is part of the healing process. Or how non-profit agencies can stabilize a community confronted by low wages. By forming a nationwide group HART members say they're dedicated to changing what medical and social services will be available to Hispanic Americans for years to come. For Latino USA, I'm Ancel Martinez in Denver.

Hundreds of sign carrying protestors marched through the streets of downtown San Diego recently protesting what they say is a growing anti-immigrant hysteria. Commentator Guillermo Gomez-Peña says it's fitting that the anti anti-immigrant march should have taken place in the city of San Diego. He recently went through an experience there that convinced him that a backlash against immigrants and perhaps against all Latinos is alive and well in San Diego.

I am the proud father of a four-year old boy, Guillermo Emiliano Gomez Hicks, who happens to be half Mexican, perfectly bilingual and blonde. He has asked me several times, "Papa, how come you are brown and I am pink?" He finally learned what that means.

My son, my ex-wife, and I were having lunch at Café Chez Odette in Hillcrest. I vaguely remember two blonde women looking intensely at us from another table. A few hours later, we were suddenly stopped by a Coronado policeman. He asked if I had been at a cafe on Fifth avenue at noon. He then spok into his radio and said, "I have the suspect." He said he was just cooperating with the San Diego Police and that all he knew was that it had something to do with a kidnapping. I understood right away that I was being accused of kidnapping my own child. For 45 minutes, my son and I were held by the Coronado policeman waiting for his San Diego colleagues to arrive. I was furious and completely devastated. I held Guillermito's hand tightly. "If the police try to take my son away from me," I thought to myself, "I will fight back with all my strength."

Guillermito kept asking me, "How come we can't go? What is happening, Papa?" And I kept on answering, "It's just a movie, don't worry." I was able to control my feelings and politely asked the police officer to let me identify myself. He agreed. Very carefully I pulled out my wallet and showed him my press card, an integral part of my Mexican survival kit in the US. The cop turned purple. "Are you a journalist?" He inquired. "Yes," I answered. I asked the policeman to explain to me why I was suspected of kidnapping my own son. He told me the following story:

At 12:10 PM the police received a 911 call from a woman who claimed that a Latino man with a mustache and a ponytail and a woman who also looked suspicious were sitting at a cafe with an Anglo boy who didn't look like he belonged to them. She said that the boy was clearly being held against his will. She emphasized the fact that I was speaking to my son in a Spanish, and despite the fact she didn't speak or understand the Spanish herself, concluded that I was trying to bribe the kid with presents and talking about taking him to Mexico. As we left the cafe, the woman and a friend of hers followed us and watched us take my son's suitcases out of his mother's car and get into the cab. They called the police again and told them that I had forced the kid into the taxi. I asked the police officer if there had been any reports of missing children that encouraged the police to believe the woman who phoned from the cafe. He said, "No." Then I asked, "How could there be a kidnapping without a report of a missing child?" He replied that, "Many foreigners kidnap kids and take them across the border. Once you cross that border, you never know."

When I finally came out of my shock, I realized that what had just happened to my son and me wasn't that strange or unusual. Everyday, thousands of "suspicious looking" Latinos in the US are victims of police harassment, civilian vigilantism, racial paranoia, and cultural misunderstanding. If I had been blonde and my kid dark, the assumption would have been quite different. "Look, how cute. He probably adopted the child." If I had been a Latina, perhaps the assumption would have been, "She's probably the nanny or the babysitter." But the deadly combination is a dark-skinned man with a blonde child. The representations of evil and innocence in the American mythos. My son Guillermito has learned a very sad lesson. His teacher told my ex-wife that since the incident, he has been omitting his father's last name when signing his drawings. He's also falling asleep wherever he goes. His tender mind is unable to understand what exactly happened and why. All he knows is that to go out with daddy can be a dangerous experience.

Commentator Guillermo Gomez-Peña is a performance artist living in Los Angeles. His new book, Warrior for Gringostroika has just been published by Gray Wolf Press.

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.