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The New York City school system is still looking for a replacement for ousted Chancellor Joséph Fernandez. The controversial administrator will vacate his post in June. From New York, Mandalit del Barco reports.

The New York City school system is still looking for a replacement for ousted Chancellor Joséph Fernandez. The controversial administrator will vacate his post in June. From New York, Mandalit del Barco reports.

Joséph Fernandez returned to the city where he was born three years ago, vowing to turn around the nation's largest school system. In the end, it was his controversial reforms that put him at odds with his own board of education. His support for social issues created controversy, especially his programs to distribute condoms to high school students and his curriculum to teach respect for gays and lesbians. Fernandez had these words after a meeting in which board members voted not to renew his contract.

Joséph Fernandez returned to the city where he was born three years ago, vowing to turn around the nation's largest school system. In the end, it was his controversial reforms that put him at odds with his own board of education. His support for social issues created controversy, especially his programs to distribute condoms to high school students and his curriculum to teach respect for gays and lesbians. Fernandez had these words after a meeting in which board members voted not to renew his contract.

Some of my detractors have said, “Well, you didn't have to get into these issues of HIV AIDS…You didn't have to get into these issues of tolerance and bias program.” And that's a part of a… major part of educating our kids. I wouldn't have done it differently.

Some of my detractors have said, “Well, you didn't have to get into these issues of HIV AIDS…You didn't have to get into these issues of tolerance and bias program.” And that's a part of a… major part of educating our kids. I wouldn't have done it differently.

In a recently published autobiography, Fernandez details his years as a heroin addict and a gang member who went on to become a teacher and later Miami School superintendent. He also criticized New York's governor and mayor for not spending enough on education. Unless New York City's Board of Education reverses itself or is restructured, Fernandez's contract ends in June. For Latino USA, Mandalit del Barco in New York.

In a recently published autobiography, Fernandez details his years as a heroin addict and a gang member who went on to become a teacher and later Miami School superintendent. He also criticized New York's governor and mayor for not spending enough on education. Unless New York City's Board of Education reverses itself or is restructured, Fernandez's contract ends in June. For Latino USA, Mandalit del Barco in New York.

In Los Angeles, the Latino community suffered heavily and has still not recovered from the effects of the disturbances of April of last year. Latinos are half of those who live in the areas most affected by the disturbances. A third of those who lost their lives in the violence were Latino. Hispanic men made up more than half of those arrested and 40% of the businesses damaged in the riots were Latino owned. Reporter Alberto Aguilar recently visited one of the hardest hit Latino neighborhoods in South Central Los Angeles. He prepared this report.

In Los Angeles, the Latino community suffered heavily and has still not recovered from the effects of the disturbances of April of last year. Latinos are half of those who live in the areas most affected by the disturbances. A third of those who lost their lives in the violence were Latino. Hispanic men made up more than half of those arrested and 40% of the businesses damaged in the riots were Latino owned. Reporter Alberto Aguilar recently visited one of the hardest hit Latino neighborhoods in South Central Los Angeles. He prepared this report.

[Faint voice in the background]

[Faint voice in the background]

Very little has changed in Pico-Union, west of downtown Los Angeles in the last year, since hundreds of small and large businesses were looted. Here at the swap meet, the radio may be playing happy rhythms, but to the residents of the mostly Latino neighborhood, the road to recovery has been anything but happy.

Very little has changed in Pico-Union, west of downtown Los Angeles in the last year, since hundreds of small and large businesses were looted. Here at the swap meet, the radio may be playing happy rhythms, but to the residents of the mostly Latino neighborhood, the road to recovery has been anything but happy.

Nosotros perdimos todos los negocios que teníamos. Teníamos tres negocios en la Union y todo fue perdido…[transition to English dub] We lost all our business. We have three little shops here and everything was lost, and we haven't really been able to recover anything.

Nosotros perdimos todos los negocios que teníamos. Teníamos tres negocios en la Union y todo fue perdido…[transition to English dub] We lost all our business. We have three little shops here and everything was lost, and we haven't really been able to recover anything.

María Elena Mejia sold children's clothes at the swap meet. The single mother of two teenage girls lost her life savings when the old theater, that housed dozens of swap meet stalls, was set on fire.

María Elena Mejia sold children's clothes at the swap meet. The single mother of two teenage girls lost her life savings when the old theater, that housed dozens of swap meet stalls, was set on fire.

Lo que a nosotros nos ayudaron de parte del gobierno de la ciudad solamente fueron tres meses de renta. Lo que nos quedó a nosotros de eso solo fueron como… [transition to English dub] What the city government helped out with was three months’ rent, and after that, all we had left of our investment of five years was something like 14 or 10 dollars. I don't even remember now. We suffered so much because you know, being without work in this country is hard, and we were left without work and without anything… [transition to original audio] trabajo, porque nos habíamos quedado sin trabajo y sin nada.

Lo que a nosotros nos ayudaron de parte del gobierno de la ciudad solamente fueron tres meses de renta. Lo que nos quedó a nosotros de eso solo fueron como… [transition to English dub] What the city government helped out with was three months’ rent, and after that, all we had left of our investment of five years was something like 14 or 10 dollars. I don't even remember now. We suffered so much because you know, being without work in this country is hard, and we were left without work and without anything… [transition to original audio] trabajo, porque nos habíamos quedado sin trabajo y sin nada.

This was a gift by a student, but it's called The Day that Los Angeles Cried, and you have an angel trying to turn off the fires and slow down the riots and above the Angel…

This was a gift by a student, but it's called The Day that Los Angeles Cried, and you have an angel trying to turn off the fires and slow down the riots and above the Angel…

Mike Hernandez is a member of the city council. His district includes Pico-Union, the area hardest hit by the riots of '92.

Mike Hernandez is a member of the city council. His district includes Pico-Union, the area hardest hit by the riots of '92.

Pico and Alvarado, for example… it’s one corner where we had the four corners demolished by fire. And so, in terms of intensity, it was the hardest hit area in the city.

Pico and Alvarado, for example… it’s one corner where we had the four corners demolished by fire. And so, in terms of intensity, it was the hardest hit area in the city.

What has happened since then? And a lot of people are now saying that perhaps the City does not have the leadership to bring the city of Los Angeles to where most people want it to go?

What has happened since then? And a lot of people are now saying that perhaps the City does not have the leadership to bring the city of Los Angeles to where most people want it to go?

I think if you talk about community leaders, if you talk about the organization leadership, they very much want to bring the city together and start improving. If you talk about the political leadership, I think the political leadership hasn't displayed that well. They're out of touch with what's really going on in the city. See, the city of Los Angeles is not just the buildings. A lot of the buildings destroyed were empty. What the city of Los Angeles is, it's people from all over the world, and what we got away from is building people.

I think if you talk about community leaders, if you talk about the organization leadership, they very much want to bring the city together and start improving. If you talk about the political leadership, I think the political leadership hasn't displayed that well. They're out of touch with what's really going on in the city. See, the city of Los Angeles is not just the buildings. A lot of the buildings destroyed were empty. What the city of Los Angeles is, it's people from all over the world, and what we got away from is building people.

The building involves encouraging people to become citizens. Hernandez estimates this process can take as long as 10 to 15 years. He also says the City has to improve the educational level of city residents.

The building involves encouraging people to become citizens. Hernandez estimates this process can take as long as 10 to 15 years. He also says the City has to improve the educational level of city residents.

Over the age of 25, we have 2.1 million people. 900,000 cannot claim a high school diploma, and of the 900,000; 600,000 cannot claim a ninth-grade education. So that's 150% of the entire student body of the LA Unified School District. So, we have a tremendous amount of building of people to do.

Over the age of 25, we have 2.1 million people. 900,000 cannot claim a high school diploma, and of the 900,000; 600,000 cannot claim a ninth-grade education. So that's 150% of the entire student body of the LA Unified School District. So, we have a tremendous amount of building of people to do.

[Transitional sounds]

[Transitional sounds]

Those who work with the residents of Pico-Union agree with Hernandez about the work that remains undone.

Those who work with the residents of Pico-Union agree with Hernandez about the work that remains undone.

We're seeing families with multitude of problems… economic, social, relationship problems…

We're seeing families with multitude of problems… economic, social, relationship problems…

Sandra Cuevas works with battered Central American women in South Central Los Angeles. She has seen a decrease in the social services available to people in the area's hardest hit by the destruction. Despite all the publicized good intentions, little action and little resources are being allocated to the solution of the root causes of poverty and unemployment.

Sandra Cuevas works with battered Central American women in South Central Los Angeles. She has seen a decrease in the social services available to people in the area's hardest hit by the destruction. Despite all the publicized good intentions, little action and little resources are being allocated to the solution of the root causes of poverty and unemployment.

There seems to have been a lot of lip service. Little committees forming coalitions, but when you look at Rebuild LA, you have people that are coming from outside the community, very removed from the reality of Los Angeles and particularly of South Central and Pico-Union, that have excluded Latinos, by and large.

There seems to have been a lot of lip service. Little committees forming coalitions, but when you look at Rebuild LA, you have people that are coming from outside the community, very removed from the reality of Los Angeles and particularly of South Central and Pico-Union, that have excluded Latinos, by and large.

Cuevas is not the only Angelino critical of Mayor Tom Bradley's effort to bring back the city from massive destruction. His Rebuild LA has been described as a misguided effort to create job opportunities according to county supervisor Gloria Molina.

Cuevas is not the only Angelino critical of Mayor Tom Bradley's effort to bring back the city from massive destruction. His Rebuild LA has been described as a misguided effort to create job opportunities according to county supervisor Gloria Molina.

Very frankly, I don't want to be critical. I think they're doing their own thing, but I think that the mayor missed the boat in the beginning. I think he could have called many of us together to sort things out because it isn't just in South Central, it's throughout the community. And it isn't just a corporate effort and isn't about giving. It's about putting together a lot of institutions that have been unjust to minority segments of our community. And it isn't going to happen by a corporation coming together and putting together programs. It's about making the system much more responsive to the needs of people in this community.

Very frankly, I don't want to be critical. I think they're doing their own thing, but I think that the mayor missed the boat in the beginning. I think he could have called many of us together to sort things out because it isn't just in South Central, it's throughout the community. And it isn't just a corporate effort and isn't about giving. It's about putting together a lot of institutions that have been unjust to minority segments of our community. And it isn't going to happen by a corporation coming together and putting together programs. It's about making the system much more responsive to the needs of people in this community.

I’m a member of the board, but it's hard among 80 people. A lot of those are corporate people and I’m… I guess, the only immigrant, it's really hard sometimes.

I’m a member of the board, but it's hard among 80 people. A lot of those are corporate people and I’m… I guess, the only immigrant, it's really hard sometimes.

Carlos Vaquerano is one of a handful of Latinos on Rebuild LA's board.

Carlos Vaquerano is one of a handful of Latinos on Rebuild LA's board.

We need to not only to rebuild LA physically, but to rebuild the soul of the city, the soul of people here. We need to make changes in terms of our morality, political changes, because that's one of the main issues in the city. Not only the city, but in the country.

We need to not only to rebuild LA physically, but to rebuild the soul of the city, the soul of people here. We need to make changes in terms of our morality, political changes, because that's one of the main issues in the city. Not only the city, but in the country.

[Transitional sounds]

[Transitional sounds]

Police helicopters assist uniformed officers on the ground in the search for gang members in the Pico-Union district. Longtime resident, Raúl González has been in this blue-collar neighborhood for 20 years.

Police helicopters assist uniformed officers on the ground in the search for gang members in the Pico-Union district. Longtime resident, Raúl González has been in this blue-collar neighborhood for 20 years.

It's kind of scary going out lately. Plus what you hear on the news and people… after the rioters start getting guns and bigger guns and you know what's going to happen in the street. Now you have to carry your own gun for protection… and you have to be careful lately…you know. And it's terrible, it is terrible because we are not supposed to be like this.

It's kind of scary going out lately. Plus what you hear on the news and people… after the rioters start getting guns and bigger guns and you know what's going to happen in the street. Now you have to carry your own gun for protection… and you have to be careful lately…you know. And it's terrible, it is terrible because we are not supposed to be like this.

Um…but if everybody's armed and everybody's afraid…um…. what are you going to do?

Um…but if everybody's armed and everybody's afraid…um…. what are you going to do?

Well, you know…to tell you the truth, if you're carrying a weapon, you have to know how to use it and when to take it out.

Well, you know…to tell you the truth, if you're carrying a weapon, you have to know how to use it and when to take it out.

In Los Angeles, I'm Alberto Aguilar, reporting for Latino USA.

In Los Angeles, I'm Alberto Aguilar, reporting for Latino USA.

[Transitional Music]

[Transitional Music]

May I present Gloria Romero: She played a vital role in the police reform movement in Los Angeles in the wake of the Rodney King beating. The title of her talk is Todavia Ando Sangrando: A Chicana's Perspective on the Fires This Time…Gloria.

May I present Gloria Romero: She played a vital role in the police reform movement in Los Angeles in the wake of the Rodney King beating. The title of her talk is Todavia Ando Sangrando: A Chicana's Perspective on the Fires This Time…Gloria.

[Clapping sounds]

[Clapping sounds]

April 29th, 1992, less than three hours after the verdicts were released, I stood at the intersection of Adams and Hobart in South Central LA. In reality, I stood at much more than the intersection of Adams and Hobart. I stood at but one of many intersections of race, class, and gender in America. Breathing in all I saw, even as light dimmed on America, the reaction in my guts at the intersection of life in America in the shadow of lies of an afterlife as light faded out on America, felt like the full velocity of the bricks hurled through the pane of that liquor store, which on an hourly basis, markets pain to Black and brown men and women in south central LA. Addiction, alcoholism, unemployment, a 50% dropout rate, incarceration, but a chance to win the lotto.

April 29th, 1992, less than three hours after the verdicts were released, I stood at the intersection of Adams and Hobart in South Central LA. In reality, I stood at much more than the intersection of Adams and Hobart. I stood at but one of many intersections of race, class, and gender in America. Breathing in all I saw, even as light dimmed on America, the reaction in my guts at the intersection of life in America in the shadow of lies of an afterlife as light faded out on America, felt like the full velocity of the bricks hurled through the pane of that liquor store, which on an hourly basis, markets pain to Black and brown men and women in south central LA. Addiction, alcoholism, unemployment, a 50% dropout rate, incarceration, but a chance to win the lotto.

We stood at the intersection on April 29th in an America that has bled for too long, from too many unjust verdicts that Simi Valley merely symbolized, any one of which could have sparked fires at any intersection in America. And I believe a riot takes place on a day-to-day basis in LA, but nobody notices. Todavia ando sangrando, even as our trial continues.

We stood at the intersection on April 29th in an America that has bled for too long, from too many unjust verdicts that Simi Valley merely symbolized, any one of which could have sparked fires at any intersection in America. And I believe a riot takes place on a day-to-day basis in LA, but nobody notices. Todavia ando sangrando, even as our trial continues.

Every culture has its special days, Diaz de Fiesta. Most often, they're related to a special date in history: Fiestas Patrias, Puertorriqueños celebrate El Grito de Lares on September 23rd. Dominicanos celebrate on February 27th, the Dominican Republic's independence from Haiti. In Mexico and among Mexican Americans, Cinco de Mayo is one such day of celebration, not an Independence Day, but in memory of a battle which took place in 1862. However, as producers Laura Valera and Arthur Duncan found, the historical significance of the holiday is often lost in the midst of cultural festivities. Here's their Cinco de Mayo audio essay.

Every culture has its special days, Diaz de Fiesta. Most often, they're related to a special date in history: Fiestas Patrias, Puertorriqueños celebrate El Grito de Lares on September 23rd. Dominicanos celebrate on February 27th, the Dominican Republic's independence from Haiti. In Mexico and among Mexican Americans, Cinco de Mayo is one such day of celebration, not an Independence Day, but in memory of a battle which took place in 1862. However, as producers Laura Valera and Arthur Duncan found, the historical significance of the holiday is often lost in the midst of cultural festivities. Here's their Cinco de Mayo audio essay.

You bet. There's a battle of somewhere… I forget now.

You bet. There's a battle of somewhere… I forget now.

[Transitional Drum Music]

[Transitional Drum Music]

Cinco de Mayo has to do with the French forces attempting to occupy Mexico. Essentially what it deals with is the defeat of the French forces by the liberal forces of Benito Juarez in the city of Puebla, in the state of Puebla.

Cinco de Mayo has to do with the French forces attempting to occupy Mexico. Essentially what it deals with is the defeat of the French forces by the liberal forces of Benito Juarez in the city of Puebla, in the state of Puebla.

Do you know why we celebrate Cinco de Mayo?

Do you know why we celebrate Cinco de Mayo?

All I know is it's a Mexican holiday. I don't really know what the reason is.

All I know is it's a Mexican holiday. I don't really know what the reason is.

I don't know, is it somebody's birthday?

I don't know, is it somebody's birthday?

Ah…for me, Cinco de Mayo is a pretty good… good day.

Ah…for me, Cinco de Mayo is a pretty good… good day.

A big event?

A big event?

A big Fiesta.

A big Fiesta.

That's when the Mexicans took over. They kicked the French out of Mexico!

That's when the Mexicans took over. They kicked the French out of Mexico!

Y ganamos los mexicanos.

Y ganamos los mexicanos.

The independence of Mexico.

The independence of Mexico.

From?

From?

Spain.

Spain.

And one last thing. Do you know why we celebrate Cinco de Mayo?

And one last thing. Do you know why we celebrate Cinco de Mayo?

[Transitional Music in Spanish]

[Transitional Music in Spanish]

Cinco de Mayo did not lead to the ouster of the French. It would represent a significant victory for the Mexicans because it taught them that they could create a real sense of nationalism for them, that they could defeat invading forces and the like. It was significant on the basis of… you know, sort of a moral strength that gave the Mexicanos.

Cinco de Mayo did not lead to the ouster of the French. It would represent a significant victory for the Mexicans because it taught them that they could create a real sense of nationalism for them, that they could defeat invading forces and the like. It was significant on the basis of… you know, sort of a moral strength that gave the Mexicanos.

[Transitional Mariachi Music]

[Transitional Mariachi Music]

We just know it as a celebration, as a fiesta. Aside from it being a festival event, it's an educational event because it is the time of the year that, for some reason, many of our people put our political agendas, our turf agendas aside, and realize that we are all one of a large majority of people in this hemisphere.

We just know it as a celebration, as a fiesta. Aside from it being a festival event, it's an educational event because it is the time of the year that, for some reason, many of our people put our political agendas, our turf agendas aside, and realize that we are all one of a large majority of people in this hemisphere.

Do you celebrate Cinco de Mayo?

Do you celebrate Cinco de Mayo?

Well, doesn't every Hispanic?

Well, doesn't every Hispanic?

Bueno, cuando celebramos el Cinco de Mayo vamos aquí a las fiestas que tienen en el Fiesta Garden.

Bueno, cuando celebramos el Cinco de Mayo vamos aquí a las fiestas que tienen en el Fiesta Garden.

Yes, a big party.

Yes, a big party.

Con Mariachi, es una fiesta mexicana.

Con Mariachi, es una fiesta mexicana.

Bueno… el parque.

Bueno… el parque.

The typical barbecue con unas cervecitas aquí y allá. I just have a good time with the friends and family.

The typical barbecue con unas cervecitas aquí y allá. I just have a good time with the friends and family.

The most things that I do is dance.

The most things that I do is dance.

[Corrido Music]

[Corrido Music]

During these festivals, we also realize that there are no borders.

During these festivals, we also realize that there are no borders.

[Corrido Music]

[Corrido Music]

This is news from Latino USA. I'm María Martin. He truly was a legend in his own time, the man who organized farm workers in California and throughout the Southwest beginning in the '60s, whose tireless efforts on their behalf inspired a whole generation to political activism and who, more than 25 years ago, gave then oppressed Mexican Americans a hero and a cause.

[Corrido music]

César Estrada Chávez was born in 1927 on a ranch outside Yuma, Arizona. At age 10, he was working in the fields. 20 some years later, he was organizing Mexican and Filipino farm laborers in California in the first ever successful effort to unionize US agricultural workers.

[Corrido music]

César Chávez died at his home in Arizona, not far from where he was born, but the journey he traveled in those 66 years as a symbol of the Chicano movement, as a unique labor leader, was one of struggle and faith. Not long ago, Father Virgil Elizondo of San Antonio, Texas mused on how far Chávez had come, often fighting a David and Goliath battle against powerful economic interests, but driven by a strong belief in the justice of his cause on behalf of migrant workers.

When Caesar Chávez took on the greatest powers in this country, people said he was crazy…couldn't do it. He has not totally succeeded, but he's come a long way.

Rebecca Flores Harrington works with the United Farm Workers in Texas.

He never forgot where he came from as a farm worker himself, as a migrant farm worker… and he always remembered those experiences. And he inspired others who were different from himself to do the same, to go back into their communities and do something to better the lives of those people in their own communities.

In 30 years as an organizer, Chávez saw his small union grow to a high-tech organization with a pension plan and retirement benefits, but Chávez's union had lost membership and some say moral authority in its later years due to a hostile political environment in California and infighting within the union itself. Osvaldo Jaurechi worked with the UFW until 1990. He says even those people who had had severe fallings out with the UFW founder were in shock on hearing of the passing of César Chávez.

They feel really shocked, really moved, and they think they should go and pay their tribute to the leader for what he was and most for what he still represents as a symbol of the campesino struggle.

It's been two years since disturbances broke out in Washington DC's Mount Pleasant neighborhood, where most of the city's Latino population lives. At the time, Latino leaders blamed the violent outburst on neglect by the local city government of Hispanic residents. In the past 10 years, Washington DC's Latino community, mostly Central American, has grown rapidly. Since the violence of two years ago, the DC government has taken action to address community concerns, but Latino leaders say there's still much more to be done. From Washington, William Troop prepared this report.

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A music vendor sets up shop at the corner of Mount Pleasant and Lamont Street, the heart of Washington's Latino community. He's one of at least a dozen Latino merchants doing business near Parque de las Palomas, a small triangular park at the end of a city bus line.

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[Helicopter sounds]

Just two years ago, the worst riots the nation's capital had seen in over 20 years started right here. On May 4th, 1991, Daniel Gómez, a Salvadoran immigrant, was stopped by an African American police officer for drinking in public. There are differing accounts about what happened next. Police say Gómez launched at the rookie officer who shot him in self-defense, but many Latinos heard a different version, one that said Gómez was shot after being harassed and handcuffed by the officer. Gómez was seriously wounded and as news of the incident spread, outrage poured from the community.

…sangre fría frente a demasiados latinos. Eso no lo llevan todos porque en realidad esta es una comunidad latina. ¿Me entienden? y la discriminación ha ido tan lejos de que si alguien…

During the riots, these men looted a 7-Eleven store because they were angry at police for mistreating Latinos. The looting and burning in Mount Pleasant lasted three days. To calm people down, DC Mayor Sharon Pratt Kelly arrived on the scene and promised to address Latino concerns as soon as the violence ended. It was a victory of sorts. Latino leaders had long complained that city officials ignored charges of discrimination and police brutality. The riots changed that.

To a certain degree, we had the best disturbance that we could have ever had. Although you had the destruction of public property, you had the destruction of private property, you had some injuries, nobody was killed. And overnight…Latinos were an issue in Washington DC.

Juan Milanés was a law student at the time. Today, he is legal counsel for the Latino Civil Rights Task Force, an organization created after the disturbances in Mount Pleasant.

Prior to May 5th, 1991, the Latino population of Washington DC, although it was 10% of the population, was unrecognized…just invisible…just a bunch of people who get on the bus in the evening to go clean buildings, but you know... There are just a few people here and there. Most of them are illegal anyway. Suddenly, we're there and there was now this group of people that were demanding that they be there.

A few months after the riots, the Latino Civil Rights Task Force issued a blueprint for action, detailing 200 specific steps the city could take to address Latino concerns. Task Force executive director Pedro Aviles says the city has not done enough to stop discrimination and police insensitivity.

The problems have not been solved yet. The police brutality cases, they continue. Certainly, the fact that we've been complaining, and we've been shaking the tree kind of thing…it's brought about little change, but I would say that it's a lot of stuff that needs to be done.

What has been done has been done slowly according to task force officials. One example, the city hired bilingual 911 operators a year and a half after the task force recommended it and only after a Latina who had been raped had to wait two hours for assistance in Spanish. Carmen Ramírez, director of the Mayor's Office on Latino Affairs, says the city has taken significant steps to address community concerns.

The recommendations, in many instances, are not recommendations that can just be met by one concrete action, although some of them are, but rather, it's a matter of putting into place policies and in many instances, mechanisms by which problems can continue to be addressed.

To do that, the city has created bilingual positions in almost all departments of DC government. Ramírez adds that DC's police department has hired more bilingual personnel and sent hundreds of police officers to Spanish classes and sensitivity training. But last year, Latino leaders complained they were excluded from developing the initial sensitivity training program and they say there are still plenty of police brutality cases. In January, the US Commission on Civil Rights agreed when it issued its report on the Mount Pleasant disturbances. Commission Chair Arthur Fletcher called the plight of Latinos in DC appalling.

Many Latinos in the third district have been subjected to arbitrary harassments, unwarranted arrests, and even physical abuse by DC police officers.

The commission also found that the District of Columbia still shuts off Latinos from basic services because it lacks bilingual personnel. Many DC Latinos feel that in a city dominated by African Americans, it's often hard to get a fair distribution of resources. BB Otero is chair of the Latino Civil Rights Task Force.

There is a prevalent feeling among the African American community, not just the leadership but the community at large that says, “we've struggled hard to get where we are, to have control of some resources in the city to begin to play a powerful role in the community.” And its um…“if we open it up to someone else, we may be giving something up.”

They still wanted them to be citizens of their own country and not registered to vote in the United States and still have the same measure of power and the same measure of participation as somebody who was a citizen. That, in my view, is a naive expectation and certainly is not something that the civil rights movement ever talked about.

African American council member Frank Smith represents Ward 1, the area where most DC Latinos live. He says, the struggle for civil rights is about citizenship and voting.

I think that the Hispanic community has got to work harder at getting their people registered to vote. If they want to win elections, they're going to have to get people registered to vote and get them out to the ballot boxes on election day in order to win. Nobody's going to roll over and give up one of these seats.

Civic activity comes once you have gained some sense of security of where you are or where you live. You still have a community that doesn't have that sense of security.

Over half of Washington's estimated 60,000 Latinos are undocumented, many of whom have fled war and unrest in El Salvador and most recently, Guatemala. BB Otero who ran unsuccessfully for a school board seat last fall says she's hopeful a Latino political base will develop as time goes by and as the community matures.

If they can survive the struggle that it is to be able to fight the odds basically and build that political base, then we will see, I think by '96, some other candidates in other areas beyond myself.

[Transitional music]

Change, however slow some may consider it, seems to be happening at Parque de las Palomas, where the disturbances erupted two years ago. There are now more Latino officers walking the beat. Merchant José Valdezar says, even those stopped for drinking in public are now treated with respect by police.

First, they say hello to you, and I start to speak and they explain to you what's going on. Sometime, the person who own any store around here say, you know, they don't like drunk people around here. You know, that's why they say no. Just keep walking and everything will be okay.

[Transitional music]

Daniel Gómez, whose shooting sparked the disturbances in Mount Pleasant two years ago, recovered from his wounds and was later acquitted of assaulting the police officer who shot him. For Latino USA. I'm William Troop reporting from Washington DC.

[Change in transitional music]

The roots of Latin jazz go back at least five decades to such artists as Machito, Chano Pozo, and Dizzy Gillespie. Latin jazz has lost many of its originators in recent years, but one of them, 81-year-old Mario Bauzá keeps going strong. From Miami, Emilio San Pedro prepared this profile of the legendary co-founder of the band Machito and his Afro-Cubans.

Mario Bauzá left his native Havana for New York in 1930. When he got to this country, Bauzá became one of those responsible for making Afro-Cuban music popular in the United States and around the world.

Had to happen outside of Cuba before the Cuban people convince themself what they had themself over there. When they got big in United States, Cuba begin to move into that line of music.

[Afro-Cuban jazz music]

Bauzá remembers his days at the Apollo Theater in Harlem where he helped to launch the career of Ella Fitzgerald. He recalls his days with the Cab Calloway Orchestra and the time that he and his friends, Dizzy Gillespie and Cozy Cole, played around with Afro-Cuban rhythm and jazz arrangements and created something new: Afro-Cuban Jazz.

[Afro-Cuban jazz music]

In the early 1940s, Bauzá formed the legendary band Machito and his Afro-Cubans, along with his brother-in-law, Frank Grillo, who was called Machito. Bauzá was the musical director of the band and he composed some of the group's most memorable songs.

[Afro-Cuban jazz music]

The sensation caused by Machito and his Afro-Cubans and by other Latin musicians in the '40s made New York the focal point of a vibrant Latin music scene.

[Afro-Cuban jazz music]

It's the scene of The Mambo Kings, you know, and that's why a lot of people will say Mambo is not Cuban music or is not Mexican music. Mambo is New York music.

Enrique Fernández writes about Latin music for the Village Voice. He's also the editor of the New York-based Más Magazine.

It was here that this kind of music became very hot…that it really galvanized a lot of people…that really attracted a lot of musicians from different genres that wanted to jam with it, and that created those great, you know, those great encounters between Latin music practitioners and the jazz practitioners, particularly Black American jazz practitioners. For that, you need to recognize that New York has been, since then, probably before then, but certainly since then, one of the great centers of Latin music.

Mario Bauzá takes great pride in the current popularity of Latin and Caribbean music, but he says people are wrong to call his music Latin jazz. He says that label doesn't give proper recognition to its musical roots.

Merengue, merengue from Santo Domingo. Cumbia is cumbia from Colombia. Afro-Cuban is Cuban. That's why I got to keep [unintelligible] Afro-Cuban rhythms, and Afro-Cuban rhythm…Danzón es cubano…la Danza es cubano…Bolero es cubano…el Cha-cha-cha es cubano…el Mambo es cubano…el Guaguancó es cubano y la Columbia es cubana. So, I got to call it Afro-Cuban Jazz.

[Afro-Cuban jazz music]

After seven decades in the music business, Mario Bauzá has come out of the shadows of the group Machito and his Afro-Cubans and is being recognized for his accomplishments as one of the creators of Afro-Cuban Jazz. This year, Bauzá plans to tour with his Afro-Cuban jazz orchestra featuring Graciela on vocals. The group also plans to release another album of Afro-Cuban jazz: Explosión 93. For Latino USA, I'm Emilio San Pedro.

[Afro-Cuban jazz music]

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

Sigue la música. Sigue los éxitos. Twenty-four hours a day!

[Radio station recording]

WAQI Miami. Aquí, Radio Mambí.

The growth in Spanish-language media is one indication, and now it's official. The Census Bureau reports that next to English, Spanish is now the most-used language in the nation. Seventeen million people in thirty-nine states speak Spanish daily. This 1990 census data says that one out of seven Americans speak a language other than English. This nation's outgoing and Spanish-speaking Surgeon General, Dr. Antonia Novello, recently added to the controversy regarding President Clinton's healthcare plan.

Los virus no identifican persona por pasaporte ni por tarjetita. En ese sentido, hay que de quitarle el temor a buscar salud…

Novello stated that it should include coverage for undocumented workers for public health reasons and added that viruses and bacteria did not ask for green cards. First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, head of the Health Care Task Force, says that the healthcare plan would not provide courage for the undocumented. That topic and other healthcare issues of interest to the Hispanic community were on the table when Mrs. Clinton recently met with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. From Washington, Patricia Guadalupe reports.

Mrs. Clinton came to Capitol Hill promising greater minority-group participation in changing the healthcare system. An issue of particular worry to Congressman José Serrano, Democrat of New York and chairman of the caucus, is the lack of sufficient medical data on Hispanics.

One of the things I mentioned to her, for instance, was that tuberculosis in New York City's Hispanic community was always a problem but now has become a national problem when it reached out. So we need research to know what unique medical needs exist.

Puerto Rico's resident commissioner, Carlos Romero-Barceló, told Mrs. Clinton that residents of Puerto Rico don't enjoy full-healthcare rights as other U.S. citizens.

We have the absurd situation that here we have citizens who are not covered by Medicaid and even veterans in Puerto Rico not covered by Medicaid.

According to the National Council of La Raza, one-third of all Hispanics have no medical coverage. Members of the Hispanic Caucus want the Clinton administration to extend universal healthcare to the uninsured and undocumented workers, over half of whom are Hispanic. For Latino USA, I'm Patricia Guadalupe.

Preparations are underway in Los Angeles for the June 8 mayoral runoff election. Chinese American councilmember Michael Woo is vying with millionaire Richard Riordan to succeed Tom Bradley as the city's top official. Only eight percent of registered Latinos voted in the April 20 primary election, and analysts say the candidates will have to work hard to inspire greater Latino participation in the upcoming mayoral race. From Los Angeles, Alberto Aguilar prepared this report.

Latino community could have turned out up to 70,000 voters very easily had candidates invested intelligently into the Latino community, but they chose not to.

Southwest Voter Registration Executive Director Richard Martínez said in Los Angeles that none of the front-runners captured the imagination of the Latino leadership nor the Latino voter.

The Latino community could not see itself in their issues. It's like looking in the mirror and seeing somebody different. So, I think the Latino community sent a message to the elected officials. "We are not for sale just because it's you. You have to show us that you care and you know us, or else, we're not going to give you our votes."

Latinos make up 10% of the city's registered voters. Their absence in this election may signal trouble for a city that is desperately trying to live with its own diversity. In Los Angeles, this is Alberto Aguilar reporting for Latino USA.

This is news from Latino USA. I'm María Martin. Proceedings have begun in San Francisco for the administrative discharge of Army Sergeant José Zuniga, the 1993 Sixth-Army Soldier of the Year and a decorated Gulf War hero. Zuniga recently announced he was gay. Franc Contreras has this report.

Zuniga disclosed his sexual orientation at April's Gay and Lesbian March in Washington, knowing he might jeopardize his own future in the military. He says he made the announcement because his exemplary record and achievements would enlighten those who oppose gays in the military. Army personnel would not comment on Zuniga's case, saying only that he has been processed for administrative discharge. The outcome depends on President Clinton's decision on the gay military ban. Regardless of his personal fate, Sergeant Zuniga says he hopes his action will encourage other distinguished gay and lesbian soldiers to reveal their orientation. For Latino USA, this is Franc Contreras.

They came by the thousands to the 40-acre ranch near Delano to pay their respects to the man who had fought an entire lifetime to give dignity and more opportunity to those who picked the food on America's tables. César Chávez, founder of the United Farm Workers Union, the first successful attempt to organize agricultural workers in this country, died April 23 at age 66. In Delano, the mass procession behind Chávez's simple pine coffin was at times over two miles long, as everyone, from farmworkers to the famous, came to pay their respects.

We shall miss…we shall miss César's powerful voice. His life and its example call each of us to a higher purpose, to greater resolve, to right the wrongs, to correct the injustices that continue to plague our communities, whether it's urban or rural, industrial or agricultural. It is an honor to remember his valiant life and to recommit myself and that of my colleagues as we go forward to try to bring for our children and our children's children the vision and the dream that we share. Entonces, con su permiso…hablo poquito en Español.

[Crowd cheering]

César Chávez es mi hermano, mi amigo, mi compañero. ¡Viva la raza! ¡Viva la causa! ¡Viva César Chávez!

[Crowd cheering]

A proclamation by the President of the United States of America upon the death of César Chávez. "César Chávez came from the humbled yet proud beginnings of a migrant worker to lead those same workers in a movement that irreversibly shaped our nation and brought justice and dignity to thousands. After the Depression ..."

In 1965, I believe, or '66, we marched with César here in Delano. On the efforts to do something about publicizing the boycott and the plight of farmworkers.

He moved us in a way that has come to be known as el movimiento y la causa.

Repeat after me. Boycott grapes! Boycott grapes! Boycott grapes!

In his loving…in his loving memory, please, boycott grapes. Make sure that our children do not have to suffer the pesticides anymore. What has happened to César will happen to all of us, and may we all be as lucky as César and be able to lay our heads down, close our eyes while reading a magazine on the Aztec nation and go to sleep and end our lives in that manner. We should all be that lucky.

¡Nosotros venceremos! ¡Nosotros venceremos ahora!

The life of César Chávez, his commitment to a cause, inspired many across the country, and as thousands gathered at the memorial service in Delano, California, Diana Martínez collected these thoughts from friends and supporters of César Chávez.

Nosotros venceremos.

Whether from a celebrity, politician, or average citizen, everyone who came to pay their respect seemed to have a story about how César Chávez touched their lives.

His life was an example to people, and millions of Hispanics and millions of Americans who will never live on a farm had their lives changed by him.

Mark Grossman first met Chávez in 1969 as a student. Grossman worked summers and vacations on the grape boycott from 40 Acres, United Farm headquarters in Delano. He learned firsthand how César was always able to get people to do a little more than what they first expected. Grossman wound up working for the union for 24 years and became his press secretary and personal aide. No one, he said, worked harder than the labor leader.

No one could tell César Chávez to slow down. The man was working 20-hour days, traveling constantly. I can't count the number of times that I'd meet him at his yard…you know, at 3 o’ clock in the morning, because…at La Paz near Bakersfield, because we had to be in Sacramento or San Francisco at 11:00, and we'd spend a full day of appearances and rallies and news conferences and protests or negotiations and be back dropping him off at 3 o’ clock the next morning.

Before becoming a politician, California State Senator Art Torres also worked for the UFW. As a young man, he was inspired by his unbending principles.

I remember, one time, we were driving from…Thermal, California in 1973 and the two dogs were in the back, Boycott and Huelga, and we stopped at a gas station…and we had just come from a rally. We had collected all this money, and I said, "Well, brother, we need to pay the gas bill." He says, "You're not going to touch that money until it's accounted for, back at La Paz." I said, "But we have no money to pay for the gas." "Then you go out there and you find the money from somebody else, but you're not going to touch that money because that has to be accounted for. It's the workers' money."

Senator Robert Kennedy, Jr., says his family became more aware of the power of the Latino vote because of Chávez.

I remember in the 1980 campaign when he came to Arizona, which he didn't have to do, during a primary, when Senator Kennedy was already in bad shape in the election, but he produced hundreds of lowriders who came with him because they were devoted to him to get out the vote for us on primary election day. He went into the field, sent organizers, had them register actually in the field, and we won the state of Arizona just because of César.

My first job that César gave me when we came to Delano was to go get the money from the workers at $3.50.

Dolores Huerta was with Chávez from the very beginning. She said he always knew gaining rights for farmworkers would mean tremendous sacrifice.

I went back to César, and I said, "César, they can't afford that much money." And he said, "If they don't give that $3.50, they will never get out of their poverty.”

Father William Wood, president of the National Catholic World Life Conference, and the Reverend Jesse Jackson, say Chávez will never be forgotten.

Because of our common faith, and especially with what I see here tonight, with the face of the people, I see that that it's really true when they say "Viva César Chávez." He really does live.

Chávez was a seed sower. He planted seeds of dignity, and those seeds will keep sprouting in the heart of people. As long as farmworkers fight for a decent wage, Chávez lives. As long as they fight against the horrors of the insecticides, Chávez lives. As long as they fight for the right to vote, Chávez lives. As long as they fight to build coalition, Chávez lives.

For Latino USA, I'm Diana Martínez.

It's been viewed by thousands of people in Los Angeles, Denver, Albuquerque, El Paso, Washington DC, and the Bronx in New York. Now the art exhibit known as the CARA show opens at its last venue of it's two year run in San Antonio. The exhibit examines the Chicano art movement of the 60s and 70s, through a wide range of multimedia, including posters, holograms, and altars. Latino USA's Maria Martin prepared this report.

Marentes indicates that the average annual income for a farm worker in this area is just over $5,000, well below the poverty line. At the same time, the chile industry has become the most prosperous in the region. In 1992, picante sauce or salsa surpassed ketchup as the most popular condiment in the US. And for the state of New Mexico, chile is the most lucrative crop. Mark Schneider, a lawyer with Texas Rural Legal Aid says that the Department of Labor for years has ignored the enforcement of minimal labor laws for the farm workers.

I'm Maria Hinojosa. You've been listening to a sampling of opinions from Miami about the recent repeal of a 13-year-old English-only law, which prohibited the official use of Spanish in Dade County. The law was enacted in 1980 in the wake of the Maria boat lift from Cuba and the arrival of thousands of Haitian refugees. One observer said the repeal of the English-only amendment signals a new era of bilingualism and bi-culturalism in South Florida.

Latino USA commentator Guillermo Gomez Peña is an award-winning performance artist based in California. In 1991, he was a recipient of a MacArthur Genius grant. Well, what do you think of NAFTA? Give us a call and leave a brief message at 1-800-535-5533.

For several months now, students along with Latino professors have tried to get a department by working through university channels. All of those attempts have failed. In fact, there have now been three generations of students since 1968 who've attempted to establish a Chicano studies department at the well-known campus. Now, the six students and one university professor, on the water only fast, say they're determined to continue even if it takes their lives.

In the poverty-stricken South Bronx, a controversy has erupted over the alister of an activist Puerto Rican minister. Supporters of Episcopalian priest, Father Luis Barrios, who preaches liberation theology want him reinstated at St. Anne's Church. But his superiors say Father Barrios has gone beyond the boundaries of a good Episcopalian minister. From the South Bronx, Mandalit del Barco reports.

[Background--Sounds--Crowd chanting] Supporters of Reverend Luis Barrios have been rallying with protest songs and prayers in front of the city's episcopal cathedrals, St. John The Divine. On May 19th, the popular priest was suspended from his parish at St. Anne's Church without explanation by Episcopal Bishop Richard Green. Parishioners of the mostly working-class Puerto Rican parish are furious over Barrios's suspension from a church that's been politically active since the 1960s.

Other priests have been doing exactly what Luis Barrios has been doing, and they have not been removed, they have not been taken out, they have not been suspended, and that's our concern that it's because he is the Puerto Rican priest at South Bronx that he's being removed.

Episcopal Bishop Richard Green, who notified Barrios of his suspension in the letter has been unavailable for comment and he reportedly refused to discuss his reasons with St. Anne's vestry, but his spokesman told the New York Times that Barrios had displayed vocational immaturity when he blessed the unions of gay couples and when he allowed a Roman Catholic priest and bishops from so-called schismatic churches to use St. Anne's. [Background--Sounds--Crowd chanting] On a recent Sunday, Barrios's supporters calling church leaders homophobic and racist rush the altar of St. Anne's Church chanting in solidarity and forcing a replacement priest to cancel mass. Meanwhile, this protest continued, Father Barrios has been waiting it out in another church, St. Mary's in Harlem. Looking back, Barrios says his troubles began in January after he delivered a sermon critical of the church.

My concern in that a particular moment in that sermon was that we talking about justice and transforming this society and the church need to play a very important role in changing society and getting into something that we call justice, but we need to start doing some cleaning inside the church. So my biggest concern, and it's still my biggest concern, is that we are in a church that is racist and homophobic, and if we are not going to deal with this, how we going to deal with the society preaching what we are not really practicing.

As a black Puerto Rican, Barrios wonders of his work for independence of the island led to his suspension, or perhaps he says it was his support for gay and lesbian rights, but being politically active is something he's always believed in, even as a child in Santurce, Puerto Rico.

The whole point was that I grew up in a church where the priest was a member of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party and at the same time a very respectful priest in the denomination. And I never saw the contradiction between politic and religion. And of course he always told me that do not believe that there is a separation between politic and religion. So I grew up with that in my mind.

Barrios is still waiting for church superiors to communicate with him directly. He also believes church leaders underestimated the impact of their action on St. Anne's worshipers.

This is a Latino Black priest. Nobody's going to do nothing or sometimes is this racism that do not let you see that this person has some capacity or some organizational skill. So they took it for granted that nothing was going to happen and said, oh God, that's very dangerous to commit that kind of stupid mistakes.

Supporters say they plan to keep the pressure on until Father Barrios gets a public apology and is reinstated. Church officials, meanwhile, still decline to comment on the case. For Latino USA, I'm Mandalit del Barco in New York.

My brother Charlie used to play with Tito Puente. That was one of the most important conjuntos that we've ever had here. Wherever my brother would go and play, he would recommend me, and that's how I got into an orchestra called Ray Almore Quintet and first Johnnie Segui in '55, Vincentico Valdez, Pete Terrace at the interim, back to Vincentico Valdez for summer in '58 in the Palladium, and then for '58, '60 with Tito Rodrigez After that I went on my own.

The big new trombone sound he had developed revolutionized Afro-Cuban music in the 1960s. Eddie Palmieri had found the perfect combination and called his new band La Perfecta. [Background--Music--Piano] They were sensation at dance halls like the now legendary Palladium, where battle of the bands were common and Palmieri reigned supreme. His influence, however, wasn't limited just to the East Coast. A classic collaboration with California vibraphonist Cal Tjader came about when word got out that no one could go toe to toe with Palmieri's band, La Perfecta.

Cal Tjader knew that and he went to the record one. So he came to see me and then we made the agreement to record two albums, one for his company, which were Verb records, and then we recorded the other one, Bamboleate with Tiko, moving from one direction, which is the authentic dance orchestra to get into the album that we merged with him because he saw right away I went into variations. We did a walls resemblance and things like that. It was very interesting and very educational for me and rewarding because Cal Tjader was a great, great player.

[Highlight--Music--Piano]

Eventually, for Palmieri, even La Perfecta wasn't perfect. And his classic recording Champagne signaled a change in his musical direction.

Highlight--Music--Salsa

This was done in 1968. That's where La Perfecta breaks up. The beginning of '68, we did a tour of Venezuela and after that, that was the ending of La Perfecta. Phase one curtain down, that was it. Boom.

The symbolic leader and the man who speaks for the African American boycott of tourism, HT Smith. He says that there have been a lot of changes in the last four years for African Americans, things that have made a difference, things that have made them feel that perhaps there is some hope, for example, that there are two Congress people representing African Americans from Florida, and that makes a statement for African Americans, the changes in the county commission. So, the situation he feels, and a lot of African Americans feel that the situation now in 1993 is not the same as it was in 1989. That's not to say that everything is fine and that everybody is, and that no one has any problems. But the point is that there is some sign that there can be some hope and that there isn't that feeling of despair that may lead people out into a riot-type situation, and that's the kind of thing that they were looking for with the boycott to bring up all these topics.

There have been efforts, continuous efforts by community groups to get together to discuss their differences, and the key issue really is economic empowerment. The key issue is hopelessness because of economics, because Blacks many times are stuck in communities in day county that are basically the communities that are deprived economically and socially. They're the first communities that they want to get the schools out of. They're the first communities that they don't pick up the garbage. They're all these things that are starting to get addressed, and so people feel, okay, well let's give it another chance. Let's see what happens. Let's figure out ways to try to diminish these tensions. And they have worked a lot on it since 1989. I'm not telling you they're all the way there, but at least they've made some efforts and they're definitely trying to get rid of or quell the opportunists who will go out and riot anyway because they always are, but at least they've made some effort and people see that.

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.

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

Now the ritual sacrifice of animals for the Orishas or the saints was banned in the Florida city of Hialeah in 1987. What was the impact of that ban, and how do you think things are going to change with this Supreme Court ruling?

In the 1960s, Marga's dad, Willy Chevalier, was a comic actor who produced theater reviews known as Spanish Spectaculars, [background music] featuring salsa stars like Tito Puente and Celia Cruz, female contortionists, magicians and other acts. He put together sketches called La Familia Comica, which sometimes showcased her mom's Afro-Cuban dancing, they're pet chihuahua, and little Marga Gomez.

Latino USA commentator, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, a recipient of the MacArthur Genius Award, is based in California. In Brownsville, Texas, a group of Chicanos and elders from Indigenous populations in the US and Mexico gathered recently for what they called the 17th Encuentro of the National Chicano Human Rights Council. The group is part of a movement which began in the 60s to help Mexican Americans reconnect with their Indigenous roots. Today, the movement is taking a new turn involving Chicanos in a spiritual reawakening foretold in ancient Indian myths, which caused them to action on human rights and the environment. From Brownsville, Lillie Rodulfo and Lucy Edwards prepared this report.

[Singing, natual sounds] The Chicano Human Rights Council was formed in the 1980s to address the human rights violations in the southwest. The council teaches Chicanos how to document abuses that affect their community. The testimony they hear in Brownsville will be presented at international forums, such as the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. (Singing) For Latino USA, with Lucy Edwards, I'm Lily Rodulfo. (Singing)

Since the 1960s, the fight for fair media coverage has been an integral part of the struggle for Latino civil rights. Chicano and Puerto Rican activists fought to have their movements covered accurately and fairly by the press. Now, almost three decades later, civil rights activists and Latino reporters at the journalists' conference agreed that their goal of an unbiased media is the same. Barrie Lynn Tapia reports.

Politicians, activists, and journalists came together in Washington, D.C., to examine how well the media has covered Latino civil-rights issues. It was made clear there exists a unique link between social activism and the coverage of minorities. Many veteran Latino journalists, such as ABC's correspondent John Quiñones, say the activism of the '60s and '70s paved the way for them in the media.

I've always lived in Miami. And that's been a discussion in Miami for the last 30 years. I can guarantee you of that. But the thing is, I think primarily, that now you see people that have not been in the United States for 30 years or 25 years, people who came in 1980 from Cuba, people who came in the 80s, people who have recently arrived, and they feel a much deeper connection to Cuba in the sense of, I have a mother that lives in Cuba, or I have a sister that lives in Cuba and that I keep in contact with on a regular basis. And a lot of those people are the ones that are saying, "I want to be able to know that my relatives in Cuba are okay. I don't agree with the system over there. I don't like the system, but I don't want to punish the people who live there that are my relatives."

I've always lived in Miami. And that's been a discussion in Miami for the last 30 years. I can guarantee you of that. But the thing is, I think primarily, that now you see people that have not been in the United States for 30 years or 25 years, people who came in 1980 from Cuba, people who came in the 80s, people who have recently arrived, and they feel a much deeper connection to Cuba in the sense of, I have a mother that lives in Cuba, or I have a sister that lives in Cuba and that I keep in contact with on a regular basis. And a lot of those people are the ones that are saying, "I want to be able to know that my relatives in Cuba are okay. I don't agree with the system over there. I don't like the system, but I don't want to punish the people who live there that are my relatives."

Cardinal Juan Jesus Posadas Ocampo and six other persons were accidentally killed when gunmen hired by a Tijuana drug cartel mistakenly opened fire on the cardinal's limousine. Law enforcement officials say that members of the Calle Treinta gang were hired by the Arellano brothers to kill a rival drug lord, Joaquin Chapo Guzman. Guzman was believed to be the target when Cardinal Posadas was shot last May 24th. For Latino USA, I'm Marie Araña in San Diego.

Number one, it's the first time ever that a prospective government controls the executive, both chambers of the legislature with an ample majority, and 60 of the 78 municipalities in the island. In other words, this is the first time again, since 1898 in which statehood is obviously the possible winner of a plebiscite in Puerto Rico. The second thing is that after Congress failed to implement a US oriented plebiscite, which died in the Senate two years ago, the United States has to get its act together to respond to what unilaterally, the people of Puerto Rico are going to say on the 14th of November of this year. I have said in my column in the Miami Herald that this is the moment in which finally the resistible force meets the movable object.

So what happens with the US Congress when they get the decision on November 14th of what the Puerto Rican people decide? What role does the US Congress have to play this time?

Hector Lavoe was born Hector Juan Perez into a musical family of singers in Ponce, Puerto Rico in 1946. When he was barely six years old, he would sit by the radio, shouting out jibaro songs with singers like Daniel Santos, and Chuito El De Bayamon. [Background Music, Hector Lavoe] Eventually, he left for New York and was soon discovered by Johnny Pacheco of Fania Records who teamed him up with Willie Colon. Pianist Joe Torres worked with Hector Lavoe for 25 years. First in Willie Colon's band, then Lavoe's own orchestra.

Lavoe never quite recovered from his 1988 suicide attempt and his drug addiction. He spent his last years in hospitals with an amputated leg and living with AIDS. Lavoe was in the hospital listening to a radio tribute to his life and music when he suffered the first of two heart attacks that finally killed him. [Lavoe Music, background] After hearing of his old friend's death, Willie Colon said, "All of Latin America cried for the hero of poor people." He called him Salsa's Martyr, a monster we helped create. "Forgive us, Hector," he wrote in a statement from Spain.

The number of migrant workers in this country has tripled in the last 15 years. According to a study by the Migrant Legal Action Program in Washington, there are now 3 million migrant laborers in the U.S.

Some of those workers made history recently when for the first time ever, Mexican migrants in Chester County, Pennsylvania, the heart of the nation's mushroom industry, voted to unionize.

From Philadelphia, Vicky Quay reports.

Chester County mushroom growers have hired Mexican nationals to pick their crops for 25 years, and in the past, there have been several attempts to unionize these workers, but none have been successful until now.

On July 13, the State Labor Board tallied ballots the workers cast in an election held last April. The results were 124 to 101, in favor of unionization. The workers' attorney, Bill Suárez-Potts, says the results should send a warning to other growers.

They could probably save themselves a lot of grief and just the turmoil that's been caused by the events of the last few months if they were to recognize the legitimate interests and concerns of their workforces.

Potts says poor working conditions and low wages spurred the union drive. The company plans to challenge the results.

Reporting for "Latino USA," I'm Vicky Quay in Philadelphia.

I am Maria Hinojosa.

In November, residents of Puerto Rico will vote on whether they favor independence, statehood, or the current status of commonwealth. Right now, no matter what the result of that vote, it's the U.S. Congress who will decide the final outcome, but not if a resolution proposed by New York Congressman José Serrano is passed.

From Washington, Patricia Guadalupe reports.

Democratic Congressman José Serrano of New York said he introduced the Puerto Rico Self-Determination Resolution as a vehicle so that Congress will finally be forced to act on the status of Puerto Rico.

We're trying to put once again on the congressional agenda the fact that the United States is a colonial power, that there is a unique and sad relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States and that that relationship in a new world climate where the U.S. has been successful in pushing democracy throughout the world, that that democratic principle be extended to the island of Puerto Rico, that the people must have that right.

Supporting Serrano are the other Puerto Rican members of Congress as well as the influential New York Congressman Charles Rangel, who counts a large number of Puerto Ricans among his constituents. Rangel welcomes the resolution because he says Puerto Rico has never been clear in what they want. However, he fears that any changes from the current political situation may not go over well in Congress.

Of course, if they decide on commonwealth, then that's not changing anything and there's no profile encouraged for the Congress to support it. But when you start talking about adding senators, adding members of Congress, looking at the situation in the District of Columbia, revising the tax code, believe me, the prejudice and bigotry that exists in this country is going to be reflected in the Congress. I do hope that these biases can be overcome by legislative and executive leadership.

So when the stated bill is presented in Congress, that would then require a referendum.

All it would be is your bill, and I would treat it as a --

Discussions on the status of Puerto Rico have sometimes created tension between representatives of the island and the Puerto Rican counterparts on the mainland, particularly when it is centered on whether Puerto Ricans who don't live on the island can participate in the November island plebiscite.

At a hearing on the resolution, Democratic Congressman Luis Gutiérrez of Illinois became involved in an exchange with Puerto Rico's Resident Commissioner, Carlos Romero Barceló. Barceló of the ruling statehood party believes only residents of Puerto Rico should participate in the November plebiscite.

Would you vote for it or not?

Would I vote for what?

For the statehood bill?

I would vote for a resolution of the colony of Puerto Rico in which there has been both participation of the Puerto Rican people in a very decolonizing process according to international law and principles.

In other words, you would not vote for the state under those conditions?

Under the conditions that --

The ones that I've expressed to you.

I want to make it categorically and absolutely clear to you and all the members of this body that I would never accept a decision that comes out of a non-binding vote in Puerto Rico, such as the one that is being. And no one suggests it. I think there are many people who are harmonious with me in that statement.

Ironically, this hearing was held on the 95th anniversary of the U.S. Marine invasion of Puerto Rico, shortly after which the island became a possession of the United States.

Carlos Gallisá, President of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party, which favors independence for the island, says because of this, no U.S. president has taken Puerto Rico seriously, and a resolution isn't about to change that.

Puerto Rico is not in the agenda of the White House or the U.S. government, and they can care less about colonialism in Puerto Rico. They only move when the United Nations expresses about the Puerto Rican case and tell the Puerto Rican people, those representatives of the foreign countries, that Puerto Rican people exercise its right to self-determination many years ago. Well, it's politics of not confronting the issue, not facing the problem, and I don't see change in that position.

Puerto Rico's Governor, Pedro Rosselló, has said this type of resolution is not necessary. But Rosselló acknowledges that the Congress can do whatever it wants regarding Puerto Rico until there is a congressional mandate.

For "Latino USA," I'm Patricia Guadalupe in Washington,

[Transition--Afro-Cuban jazz]

Latin jazz great Mario Bauzá died July 11 of cancer in his Manhattan home, just blocks from where I live. Mario Bauzá, an integral part of New York's Latin jazz scene, was 82 years old.

I remember this great musician sitting on a milk crate outside a bodega, surrounded by friends, drinking coffee, and enjoying the simple things of life. You would've never known it by seeing him that this small, tender, smiley man had totally revolutionized American music.

In the 1940s, he influenced popular music by innovating a new musical style which mixed popular Afro-Cuban rhythms with American jazz.

Emilio San Pedro prepared this remembrance of Latin jazz legend Mario Bauzá.

[Afro-Cuban jazz]

Mario Bauzá was first exposed to American jazz in 1926, when he visited New York. In 1930, anxious to become a part of that scene, Bauzá left his native Havana for New York, frustrated that in Cuba, Afro-Cuban music was considered merely the music of the streets, not the music of the sophisticated nightclubs, country clubs, and hotels of pre-revolutionary Havana.

Had to happen outside of Cuba before the Cuban people convinced themself what they had, themself over there. They didn't pay no attention to that. When I got big in United States, Cuba begin to move into that line of music.

[Afro-Cuban jazz]

In the 1930s, Bauzá performed with some of New York's best-known jazz musicians, like Chick Webb and Cab Calloway. In fact, in those days, Bauzá was responsible for introducing singer Ella Fitzgerald to Chick Webb, thus helping to launch her career. It was also Bauzá who gave Dizzy Gillespie his first break, with the Cab Calloway Orchestra.

During their time touring and working with Cab Calloway, Mario Bauzá and Dizzy Gillespie, along with the Afro-Cuban percussionist Chano Pozo, played around with Afro-Cuban rhythm and jazz arrangements and created something entirely new: Afro-Cuban jazz.

[Machito--Sopa de pichon]

In the early 1940s, Mario Bauzá formed the legendary band Machito and his Afro-Cubans, along with his brother-in-law, Francisco Perez, who was called Machito. Bauzá was the musical director of the band, and he composed and arranged some of the group's most memorable songs.

[Machito--Sopa de pichon]

The sensation caused by Machito and his Afro-Cubans and by other Latin musicians in the 1940s made New York the focal point of a vibrant Latin music scene.

It's the scene of the Mambo kings you know, and that's why a lot of people will say Mambo is not Cuban music or it's not Mexican music. Mambo is New York music.

Enrique Fernandez writes about Latin music for the Village Voice.

It was here that this kind of music became very hot, that it really galvanized a lot of people, that had really attracted a lot of musicians from different genres that wanted to jam with it, and that created those great encounters between Latin music practitioners and jazz practitioners, particularly Black American jazz practitioners, that brought all this stuff together that later on, generated salsa and it generated Latin jazz and a lot of other things.

[Machito--Si si no no]

Groups like Machito and his Afro-Cubans were responsible for sparking a Latin dance craze in the United States, from New York to Hollywood. Mario Bauzá's sister-in-law, Graciela Pérez, began singing with Bauzá's orchestra in 1943.

Pero jurate que la música de esta…[transition to English dub] The music made by Machito's orchestra created such a revolution that you could say people began to enjoy because dance schools sprang up to teach the mamba and the guaguanco and all that [transition back to original audio]…el guaguanco todo todo.

Graciela and Mario left Machito's band in 1976 to form their own group, Mario Bauzá and his Afro-Cuban jazz Orchestra. Achieving recognition came slowly for the new band as general audiences lost interest in the traditional Afro-Cuban jazz sounds.

But in the late 1980s, Bauzá's music experienced a resurgence in popularity. His orchestra played to packed houses in the United States, Canada, and Europe. And in the last two years, Bauzá still active and passionate about his music, recorded three albums worth of material.

Meringue, meringue from San Domingo. Cumbia's cumbia from Colombia. Afro-Cuban is Cuban. That's why I've got to keep a bunch of these Afro-Cuban rhythms. Danzón Cubano, la danza Cubano, el bolero Cubano, el cha-cha-cha Cubano, el mambo es Cubano, guaguanco Cubano, la Colombia es Cubana.So I've got to call it Afro-Cuban, yeah.

In a 1991 interview, I spoke with Mario Bauzá about his extraordinary musical output.

You've brought out these great musicians, you've helped create or created Afro-Cuban jazz, brought Latin music and Latins to Broadway.

That's it.

And you're 80 years old.

Yes.

Many people at 80 years old are sitting by the pool or in the rocking chair and whatever. You don't look like it.

You know me. It ain't going to be like that.

What else could you do at this point, what more?

I don't know. I ain't through, I ain't through. I just wanted my music to be elevated. That's why I want to record this suite now. I want to see the word, music is music. You tell me what kind of music. I like any kind of music that we're playing. And that's what I tried to do, present my music different way. Some people might don't like this, don't like that, but when they hear that, they have a right to choose for. That's what I want them to do.

[Mario Bauza--Carnegie Hall 100]

Mario Bauzá worked steadily until his death. He recently released a compact disc on the German record label Messidor called My Time is Now.

For "Latino USA," I'm Emilio San Pedro.