Latino USA Episode 01
02:00
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.
02:00
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.
02:12
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.
02:12
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.
02:39
Some of my detractors have said, âWell, you didn't have to get into these issues of HIV AIDSâ¦You didn't have to get into these issues of tolerance and bias program.â And that's a part of a⦠major part of educating our kids. I wouldn't have done it differently.
02:39
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.
02:52
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.
02:52
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.
10:09
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.
10:09
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.
10:44
[Faint voice in the background]
10:44
[Faint voice in the background]
10:46
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.
10:46
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.
11:04
Nosotros perdimos todos los negocios que tenÃamos. TenÃamos tres negocios en la Union y todo fue perdidoâ¦[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.
11:04
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.
11:19
MarÃa 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.
11:19
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.
11:31
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 monthsâ 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 habÃamos quedado sin trabajo y sin nada.
11:31
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.
12:05
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 Angelâ¦
12:05
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…
12:14
Mike Hernandez is a member of the city council. His district includes Pico-Union, the area hardest hit by the riots of '92.
12:14
Mike Hernandez is a member of the city council. His district includes Pico-Union, the area hardest hit by the riots of '92.
12:22
Pico and Alvarado, for example⦠itâs 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.
12:22
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.
12:33
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?
12:33
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?
12:45
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.
12:45
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.
13:12
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.
13:12
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.
13:26
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.
13:26
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.
13:42
[Transitional sounds]
13:42
[Transitional sounds]
13:46
Those who work with the residents of Pico-Union agree with Hernandez about the work that remains undone.
13:46
Those who work with the residents of Pico-Union agree with Hernandez about the work that remains undone.
13:51
We're seeing families with multitude of problems⦠economic, social, relationship problemsâ¦
13:51
We're seeing families with multitude of problems… economic, social, relationship problems…
13:57
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.
13:57
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.
14:20
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.
14:20
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.
14:48
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.
14:48
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.
15:03
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.
15:03
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.
15:35
Iâm a member of the board, but it's hard among 80 people. A lot of those are corporate people and Iâm⦠I guess, the only immigrant, it's really hard sometimes.
15:35
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.
15:45
Carlos Vaquerano is one of a handful of Latinos on Rebuild LA's board.
15:45
Carlos Vaquerano is one of a handful of Latinos on Rebuild LA's board.
15:49
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.
15:49
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.
16:06
[Transitional sounds]
16:06
[Transitional sounds]
16:12
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.
16:12
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.
16:23
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 latelyâ¦you know. And it's terrible, it is terrible because we are not supposed to be like this.
16:23
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.
16:50
Umâ¦but if everybody's armed and everybody's afraidâ¦umâ¦. what are you going to do?
16:50
Um…but if everybody's armed and everybody's afraid…um…. what are you going to do?
16:58
Well, you knowâ¦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.
16:58
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.
17:08
In Los Angeles, I'm Alberto Aguilar, reporting for Latino USA.
17:08
In Los Angeles, I'm Alberto Aguilar, reporting for Latino USA.
17:13
[Transitional Music]
17:13
[Transitional Music]
17:23
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 Timeâ¦Gloria.
17:23
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.
17:39
[Clapping sounds]
17:39
[Clapping sounds]
17:43
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.
17:43
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.
18:33
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.
18:33
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.
24:13
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.
24:13
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.
24:46
You bet. There's a battle of somewhere⦠I forget now.
24:46
You bet. There's a battle of somewhere… I forget now.
24:58
[Transitional Drum Music]
24:58
[Transitional Drum Music]
25:02
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.
25:02
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.
25:19
Do you know why we celebrate Cinco de Mayo?
25:19
Do you know why we celebrate Cinco de Mayo?
25:21
All I know is it's a Mexican holiday. I don't really know what the reason is.
25:21
All I know is it's a Mexican holiday. I don't really know what the reason is.
25:26
I don't know, is it somebody's birthday?
25:26
I don't know, is it somebody's birthday?
25:28
Ahâ¦for me, Cinco de Mayo is a pretty good⦠good day.
25:28
Ah…for me, Cinco de Mayo is a pretty good… good day.
25:31
A big event?
25:31
A big event?
25:32
A big Fiesta.
25:32
A big Fiesta.
25:33
That's when the Mexicans took over. They kicked the French out of Mexico!
25:33
That's when the Mexicans took over. They kicked the French out of Mexico!
25:37
Y ganamos los mexicanos.
25:37
Y ganamos los mexicanos.
25:39
The independence of Mexico.
25:39
The independence of Mexico.
25:41
From?
25:41
From?
25:42
Spain.
25:42
Spain.
25:43
And one last thing. Do you know why we celebrate Cinco de Mayo?
25:43
And one last thing. Do you know why we celebrate Cinco de Mayo?
25:52
[Transitional Music in Spanish]
25:52
[Transitional Music in Spanish]
26:00
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.
26:00
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.
26:17
[Transitional Mariachi Music]
26:17
[Transitional Mariachi Music]
26:24
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.
26:24
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.
26:47
Do you celebrate Cinco de Mayo?
26:47
Do you celebrate Cinco de Mayo?
26:49
Well, doesn't every Hispanic?
26:49
Well, doesn't every Hispanic?
26:50
Bueno, cuando celebramos el Cinco de Mayo vamos aquà a las fiestas que tienen en el Fiesta Garden.
26:50
Bueno, cuando celebramos el Cinco de Mayo vamos aquí a las fiestas que tienen en el Fiesta Garden.
26:55
Yes, a big party.
26:55
Yes, a big party.
26:57
Con Mariachi, es una fiesta mexicana.
26:57
Con Mariachi, es una fiesta mexicana.
26:58
Bueno⦠el parque.
26:58
Bueno… el parque.
26:59
The typical barbecue con unas cervecitas aquà y allá. I just have a good time with the friends and family.
26:59
The typical barbecue con unas cervecitas aquí y allá. I just have a good time with the friends and family.
27:04
The most things that I do is dance.
27:04
The most things that I do is dance.
27:06
[Corrido Music]
27:06
[Corrido Music]
27:17
During these festivals, we also realize that there are no borders.
27:17
During these festivals, we also realize that there are no borders.
27:22
[Corrido Music]
27:22
[Corrido Music]
Latino USA Episode 02
01:33
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.
02:00
[Corrido music]
02:12
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.
02:31
[Corrido music]
02:40
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.
03:10
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.
03:19
Rebecca Flores Harrington works with the United Farm Workers in Texas.
03:23
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.
03:44
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.
04:16
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.
10:25
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.
11:01
[Transitional music]
11:06
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.
11:21
[Transitional music]
11:27
[Helicopter sounds]
11:30
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.
12:05
…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…
12:16
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.
12:44
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.
13:04
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.
13:14
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.
13:45
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.
14:02
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.
14:21
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.
14:45
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.
15:07
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.
15:42
Many Latinos in the third district have been subjected to arbitrary harassments, unwarranted arrests, and even physical abuse by DC police officers.
15:52
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.
16:11
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.”
16:35
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.
16:50
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.
17:01
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.
17:14
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.
17:24
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.
17:45
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.
18:00
[Transitional music]
18:04
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.
18:21
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.
18:37
[Transitional music]
18:39
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.
19:09
[Change in transitional music]
19:35
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.
20:00
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.
20:12
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.
20:25
[Afro-Cuban jazz music]
20:31
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.
20:51
[Afro-Cuban jazz music]
20:58
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.
21:13
[Afro-Cuban jazz music]
21:25
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.
21:35
[Afro-Cuban jazz music]
21:42
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.
21:49
Enrique Fernández writes about Latin music for the Village Voice. He's also the editor of the New York-based Más Magazine.
21:57
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.
22:25
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.
22:39
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.
23:04
[Afro-Cuban jazz music]
23:08
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.
23:27
[Afro-Cuban jazz music]
Latino USA Episode 03
00:59
This is news from Latino USA. I'm Vidal Guzmán.
01:02
Sigue la música. Sigue los éxitos. Twenty-four hours a day!
01:06
[Radio station recording]
01:08
WAQI Miami. Aquí, Radio Mambí.
01:15
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.
01:46
Los virus no identifican persona por pasaporte ni por tarjetita. En ese sentido, hay que de quitarle el temor a buscar salud…
01:54
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.
02:24
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.
02:40
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.
02:54
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.
03:05
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.
03:12
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.
04:00
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.
04:29
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.
04:42
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.
04:53
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."
05:14
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.
Latino USA Episode 04
00:59
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.
01:20
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.
09:59
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.
10:39
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.
11:23
[Crowd cheering]
11:31
César Chávez es mi hermano, mi amigo, mi compañero. ¡Viva la raza! ¡Viva la causa! ¡Viva César Chávez!
11:42
[Crowd cheering]
11:45
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 ..."
12:08
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.
12:25
He moved us in a way that has come to be known as el movimiento y la causa.
12:30
Repeat after me. Boycott grapes! Boycott grapes! Boycott grapes!
12:38
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.
13:12
¡Nosotros venceremos! ¡Nosotros venceremos ahora!
13:36
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.
13:53
Nosotros venceremos.
14:04
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.
14:15
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.
14:25
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.
14:55
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.
15:25
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.
15:35
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."
16:08
Senator Robert Kennedy, Jr., says his family became more aware of the power of the Latino vote because of Chávez.
16:15
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.
16:45
My first job that César gave me when we came to Delano was to go get the money from the workers at $3.50.
16:54
Dolores Huerta was with Chávez from the very beginning. She said he always knew gaining rights for farmworkers would mean tremendous sacrifice.
17:04
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.”
17:19
Father William Wood, president of the National Catholic World Life Conference, and the Reverend Jesse Jackson, say Chávez will never be forgotten.
17:28
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.
17:40
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.
18:05
For Latino USA, I'm Diana Martínez.
Latino USA Episode 06
16:21:00
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.
Latino USA Episode 07
07:39
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.
11:03
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.
27:21
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.
Latino USA Episode 08
01:40
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.
06:17
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.
06:44
[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.
07:59
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.
08:16
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.
09:13
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.
09:45
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.
10:01
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.
10:30
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.
10:39
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.
11:00
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.
13:28
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.
14:14
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.
15:01
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.
15:34
[Highlight--Music--Piano]
15:54
Eventually, for Palmieri, even La Perfecta wasn't perfect. And his classic recording Champagne signaled a change in his musical direction.
16:03
Highlight--Music--Salsa
16:15
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.
23:43
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.
25:05
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.
Latino USA Episode 09
03:12
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.
03:38
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.
20:28
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.
Latino USA Episode 10
06:46
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?
11:37
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.
22:23
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.
27:17
[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)
Latino USA Episode 11
20:48
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.
21:18
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.
Latino USA Episode 12
20:17
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."
20:17
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."
Latino USA Episode 13
03:29
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.
07:03
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.
08:03
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?
24:05
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.
26:08
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.
Latino USA Episode 14
02:17
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.
02:28
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.
02:38
From Philadelphia, Vicky Quay reports.
02:41
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.
02:53
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.
03:12
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.
03:25
Potts says poor working conditions and low wages spurred the union drive. The company plans to challenge the results.
03:32
Reporting for "Latino USA," I'm Vicky Quay in Philadelphia.
15:55
I am Maria Hinojosa.
15:57
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.
16:17
From Washington, Patricia Guadalupe reports.
16:20
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.
16:32
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.
16:57
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.
17:19
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.
17:55
So when the stated bill is presented in Congress, that would then require a referendum.
18:02
All it would be is your bill, and I would treat it as a --
18:05
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.
18:20
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.
18:37
Would you vote for it or not?
18:39
Would I vote for what?
18:40
For the statehood bill?
18:42
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.
18:55
In other words, you would not vote for the state under those conditions?
18:58
Under the conditions that --
18:59
The ones that I've expressed to you.
19:01
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.
19:24
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.
19:34
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.
19:48
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.
20:24
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.
20:38
For "Latino USA," I'm Patricia Guadalupe in Washington,
20:42
[Transition--Afro-Cuban jazz]
20:54
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.
21:09
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.
21:25
In the 1940s, he influenced popular music by innovating a new musical style which mixed popular Afro-Cuban rhythms with American jazz.
21:35
Emilio San Pedro prepared this remembrance of Latin jazz legend Mario Bauzá.
21:40
[Afro-Cuban jazz]
21:43
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.
22:06
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.
22:23
[Afro-Cuban jazz]
22:30
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.
22:50
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.
23:06
[Machito--Sopa de pichon]
23:19
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.
23:36
[Machito--Sopa de pichon]
23:43
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.
23:53
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.
24:04
Enrique Fernandez writes about Latin music for the Village Voice.
24:08
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.
24:38
[Machito--Si si no no]
24:47
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.
25:01
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.
25:17
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.
25:33
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.
25:51
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.
26:14
In a 1991 interview, I spoke with Mario Bauzá about his extraordinary musical output.
26:19
You've brought out these great musicians, you've helped create or created Afro-Cuban jazz, brought Latin music and Latins to Broadway.
26:30
That's it.
26:31
And you're 80 years old.
26:32
Yes.
26:32
Many people at 80 years old are sitting by the pool or in the rocking chair and whatever. You don't look like it.
26:39
You know me. It ain't going to be like that.
26:42
What else could you do at this point, what more?
26:44
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.
27:08
[Mario Bauza--Carnegie Hall 100]
27:19
Mario Bauzá worked steadily until his death. He recently released a compact disc on the German record label Messidor called My Time is Now.
27:30
For "Latino USA," I'm Emilio San Pedro.
27:33
[Mario Bauza--Carnegie Hall 100]
Latino USA Episode 15
05:57
My friends, today, on the 25th anniversary of our birth, I pledge to you that the National Council of La Raza will carry on the struggle.
06:08
That's Raul Yzaguirre, president of the National Council of La Raza, the nation's largest community-based Hispanic organization. At its recent national conference in Detroit, NCLR celebrated its 25th anniversary, and as Latino USA's Vidal Guzman reports, "While many of its members believe great strides have been made for Latinos over the past 25 years, they also see challenges and struggles ahead."
06:37
The 25th annual conference of the National Council of La Raza opened with a retrospective hosted by actor Edward James Olmos.
06:45
The year is 1968, and it is a year of tragedy. First, Martin Luther King, then Bobby Kennedy are killed by assassin's bullets. For those neither black nor white, but brown. It is a momentous year. In that year, a great organization is born in Phoenix, Arizona. It was then called the Southwest County...
07:07
As I look back, and I saw the photos of the marches we were doing, we were fighting discrimination.
07:13
Ed Pastor, a founding member, went on to become the first Latino congressman from the state of Arizona.
07:20
I look back, there's a lot of stories of success that people have empowered themselves and there has been movement forward, but the irony of the whole thing is that we have a long way to go.
07:30
This was made clear with a release during the conference of a report called the State of Hispanic America. According to the survey, Latinos are more likely to be among the working poor than other Americans. In 1991, one third of Latino families living below the poverty line had at least one full-time worker. The authors say this challenges the stereotype of poor Latinos, as well for recipients. Another study released at the conference focuses on Latinos in the Midwest; up to now, a largely invisible population. John Fierro, one of the authors of the report is Director of Community Affairs at the Guadalupe Center in Kansas City, Missouri.
08:10
Well, I think overall what we've seen was Hispanics in the Midwest resemble the national scene as far as educational attainment. Both areas suffer from high dropout rates. Poverty is high, the income is basically similar, but a couple things that stand out to me is definitely the labor force participation among Hispanic females, that when you look nationally, Hispanic females rank third among blacks, whites and Hispanics. Whereas in the Midwest, they're leaders.
08:40
Everyone in attendance at this 25-year retrospective agreed great accomplishments and great strides have been achieved. However, they also felt that many of the original problems that the council began to tackle in the sixties have still not disappeared, but they left the conference feeling the 90s will provide many opportunities for continued progress. NCRL president Raul Yzaguirre, echoed that sentiment.
09:05
We will win because our issues are America's issues, because ending poverty and discrimination is not only the right thing to do, it's the smart thing to do.
09:19
For Latino USA, covering the National Council of La Raza's 25th anniversary in Detroit, Michigan, I'm Vidal Guzman.
26:17
Will the predatory Statue of Liberty, devour the Virgin of Guadalupe, or are they merely going to dance a sweaty cumbia. Will Mexico become a toxic and cultural waste dump of the US and Canada? Who will monitor the behavior of the three governments? Given the exponential increase of American trash and media culture in Mexico, what will happen to our indigenous traditions, social and cultural rituals, language, and national psyche? Will the future generations become hyphenated Mexican-Americans, brown-skinned gringos and canochis or upside-down Chicanos? And what about our northern partners? Will they slowly become Chi-Canadians, Waspbacks and Anglomalans? Whatever the answers are, NAFTA will profoundly affect our lives in many ways. Whether we like it or not, a new era has begun and the new economic and cultural topography has been designed for us. We must find our new place and role within this new federation of US republics.
27:39
Latino USA commentator Guillermo Gomez-Pena 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.
Latino USA Episode 16
14:13
The musical style known as La Nueva Canción, the new song movement, was beginning in the mid sixties and for 20 years, the signature sound of Latin American music. Founded by singers Violeta Parra and Víctor Jara of Chile and Atahualpa Yupanqui in Argentina. La Nueva Canción sought to create an awareness of Latin America's Indigenous musical heritage while addressing the region's political situation. Today, as younger generations identify more with the Rock in español, or Rock in Spanish movement, La Nueva Canción has lost some of its popularity. But a group of Latin American musicians living in Madison Wisconsin, believes strongly that La Nueva Canción is still alive and well. Even as they strive for a new sound fusing musical styles. Betto Arcos prepared this profile of the musical group called Sotavento.
15:24
[Transition Music]
15:29
Founded in 1981 by a group of Latin Americans living in Madison, Wisconsin. Sotavento's early recordings focused on the legacy of the Nueva canción movement. Traditional music primarily from South American regions played on over 30 instruments, but as the group grew musically and new members replaced the old ones, their approach to music making also changed.
15:51
[Un Siete--Sotavento]
16:02
For percussionist. Orlando Cabrera, a native of Puerto Rico, the band search for a new sound helps each member bring his or her own musical background.
16:12
We get together and someone starts playing a rhythm based on some traditional music, let's say from Mexico, from Peru. This person might ask, why do you play something there? Some percussion, for example, and at least in my case, my first approach will be to play what I grew up with. The things I feel more comfortable with. So if it fits and it sounds good, then we'll just go ahead and do something.
16:39
We are a hybrid. I mean we're all kind of different flowers that are being sort of sewn together and planted together, and what comes out is a very, very different kind of flower.
16:51
[Flute music] The hybrid group always searching for its own sound is how founding member Anne Fraioli defines the music of Sotavento and in their last recording, mostly original compositions. Sotavento takes Latin American music one step ahead by blending instruments and styles to form a new one.
17:11
[Amacord--Sotavento]
17:28
Sotavento's approach to composing and playing music is the group's artistic response to a top 40 music industry that overlooks creativity and experimentation. For Francisco López, a native of Mexico, this commercial environment and the group's principles of Nueva Canción have a lot to do with Sotavento's search for a new sound.
17:49
Nueva Canción has always been alive and always been alive because there's always somebody out there that is trying to produce new stuff, and that's what Nueva Canción is all about. Somebody that is uncomfortable with situations. Say for example, the commercialization of music.
18:08
According to lead vocalist, Laura Fuentes. The fact that the group's music may be heard on a light jazz or new age radio station proves that Sotavento's music is what is happening right now and that it is not completely folkloric or passe.
18:11
[Esto Es Sencillo--Sotavento]
18:35
However, Laura Fuentes believes that Sotavento's music is not specifically designed to sell. Sharing what they feel as artists is hard.
18:45
But it's worth it. I can't see us putting on shiny clothes and high heels trying to sell somebody something that we are not, something that people seem to be more willing to buy. I'd rather challenge people to hear the beauty in something different, something new.
19:03
[El Destajo--Sotavento]
19:10
For Fuentes, a native of Chile, Sotavento is also a way of establishing a connection between an artistic musical expression and its historical background.
19:19
[El Destajo--Sotavento]
19:27
An example of this connection is a Afro Peruvian style, known as Festejo, a musical style created by a small black community in Peru as a result of the living conditions they experienced during slavery.
19:40
[El Destajo--Sotavento]
19:54
In keeping with the tradition of the new song movement, Sotavento arranged music for a poem by Cuba's Poet Laureate, Nicolás Guillén. The poem called, Guitarra is for Sotavento's and Farioli a symbol of the voice of the people.
20:08
[Guitarra--Sotavento]
20:15
Wherever people are, there's going to be a voice, and I think my guitarra represents that voice, that's music, and I think it's also saying that people have to hold on to their roots. They have to hold on to their musical traditions, because it's those traditions that are really going to allow them to express who they really are, where they really come from.
20:35
[Guitarra--Sotavento]
20:49
This summer Sotavento will perform in Milwaukee and Madison, and in the fall there will begin a tour of Spain. The recording called El Siete was released on Redwood records. For Latino USA, this is Betto Arcos, Colorado.
21:37
More than 30 years ago after the Cuban missile crisis of 1962 and the failed US backed invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs, the United States government imposed an economic embargo of that island. Trade and travel to Cuba were prohibited under most circumstances. Under the Trading With the Enemies Act, that policy has softened and then heartened over the years. Most recently, it was tightened under legislation sponsored by Representative Robert Torricelli of New Jersey, the Cuban Democracy Act. Now that policy is being challenged by a group led by several religious leaders. It's an effort known as Pastors for Peace.
22:18
I'm Sandra Levinson. I'm from New York, but I started on the Duluth route.
22:22
Joe Callahan from Minneapolis.
22:25
I’m Henry Garcia from Chicago.
22:28
Latino USA caught up with a group Pastors for Peace in Austin a few days before they defied US government policy by taking medicines, food, and other aid to the economically strapped island of Cuba.
22:41
We're taking such dangerous things as tons of powdered milk. We are taking pharmaceuticals because they are actually distilling their own pharmaceuticals out of the herbs and plants in the fields. I've seen that with my own eyes just in April. They don't even have sutures to close surgical wounds.
23:05
Like the Reverend George Hill, pastor of First Baptist Church in downtown Los Angeles. Every one of the approximately 300 people involved in the motley caravan of school buses, vans, and trucks that make up the Pastors for Peace eight caravan opposes the US economic embargo of Cuba. So much so that they refuse to obtain the license the Custom Bureau requires in order to ship anything to that island.
23:33
We refuse to ask for a license. We refuse to accept the license if the government extends one to us. Our license is really our command from God to feed the hungry, to give clothes to those who are naked, to visit those in prison, to give a cup of cold water. We must do this to the least and even to those with whom we may have differences.
23:54
The Reverend Lucius Walker of the Salvation Baptist Church in Brooklyn is the founder of Pastors for Peace. His stand on Cuba has not made him very popular among those opposed to the government of Fidel Castro. And he says he's received a number of threats.
24:10
Telephone calls to my office, threatening to come over with a pistol and take care of me.
24:15
Still. Walker insists he is not engaging in politics, only in the highest tradition of religious principles and civil disobedience.
24:25
Of Jesus Christ, of Martin Luther King, of Gandhi, and all of those who are the good examples of what it takes to make social progress in a world that if left to its own devices could be a very ugly place to live.
24:40
[Music] About 30 members of the Pastors for Peace Group sit around a television three days before they're set to rendezvous with more caravan members to cross the border at Laredo. They're watching a video about how the animosity between the governments of Cuba and this country have separated families for as long as 30 years.
25:00
No quiero vivir allá, no me gusta vivir allá. Pero me gusta vivir aquí, pero quiero ver a mi hermana, y a mis sobrinos que nacieron allá. Que son familia, que son sangre. [Translation: I don’t want to live there, I don’t like living there. I like living here, but I want to see my sister, and my nephews that were born over there. They are family, they are blood.]
25:09
I grew up myself with my family always saying, you know, that the only way to get out is to go to US to have a better life, to live like normal people, to wear jeans, to eat gum, chew gum. It's like very idiotic things to think of when I live here now, and you know, I have to learn the language.
25:31
Elisa Ruiz Zamora was born in Cuba. She came to this country with her family when she was 18. She's now a young mother and student making her life here in the States. But when she heard about the caravan of aid to Cuba, she brought her family down to meet with a group. Her mother, brother, and grandfather are still on the island and she hopes some of the caravan's aid gets to them. It's amazing, she says, to see Americans get together to help another nation, one their government has told them is a dangerous enemy.
26:00
Tell the opposite to their government. The government's like to me, it's like they want to be the judges of the world. Say, what should happen here? What shouldn't happen, how Cubans should live their lives. And we have a mind of our own and we always have. There's...
26:15
The Clinton administration has so far given little indication that it's ready to lift the blockade on Cuba. During his election campaign, Mr. Clinton received considerable support from anti-Castro organizations like the Cuban American National Foundation, but with the easing of telephone communications with the island, some now believe there might be a small window of possible change on other fronts. Sandra Levinson is the director of the Center for Cuban Studies in New York.
26:45
They are looking, I think, in Washington for a way to change policy, which does not really give anything to Cuba. Of course, we will never do that, but will ease the tension somewhat, perhaps make it possible for more people to travel legally to Cuba. Make it possible for AT&T to put down some new telephone lines and perhaps give some of the 80 million dollars in escrow, which is accrued for Cuba to the nation, which so desperately needs that money. They don't care how much they have to pay for a telephone call. They want to talk to their mama.
27:23
As this program went to air, most of the Pastors for Peace caravan had been able to get across the border, except for two school buses and a few other vehicles. Among the drivers of those vehicles was the delegation leader, the Reverend Lucius Walker, who in the non-violent tradition of Gandhi and Martin Luther King, began a hunger strike in protest. For Latino USA, I'm Maria Martin reporting.
Latino USA Episode 17
00:16
I'm Maria Hinojosa. Today on Latino USA, remembering a 20-year-old case of police misconduct.
00:23
Santos is a symbol of what was happening to the Mexican-American community and the African-American community back in 1973. 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.
00:37
And the musical legacy of Cachao, the creator of the Mambo.
00:41
Cachao has been, in a sense, overlooked for his contributions musically to the world of music. Musicians know of him and anyone would say, "Oh, he's the master," but in terms of the general public, he's been really ignored.
00:53
That's all coming up on Latino USA. But first, las noticias.
04:03
The great flood of 1993 has left millions of acres of Midwest farmland underwater and thousands of farm workers with no work. Many of those unemployed migrants are now returning early to their homes in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. Attorney Ray Gill is with the United Farm Workers in San Juan.
04:21
Many of the people are going to be without unemployment insurance. They're going to be without the wages that they would have earned, that would protect them during the winter, because, typically, the migrant farm workers come back here, hopefully after a good summer of work cashed up to where they have enough money to be able to live at least for a while, buy shoes for the children and clothes for the children and the family, and fix up the family car and maybe fix up the family home. Hopefully, to collect unemployment during the winter to be able to, again, have enough money in May to get the family car together, to buy some gas to go back up North.
04:58
Resources to help the expected flood of returning farm workers are scarce in the Valley, says Gill, and many may not be eligible for emergency unemployment insurance.
05:09
For all the people that were going someplace in hopes of finding work, but didn't have a solid job that they were going to, but had heard there's there's corn detasseling around the Davenport area in Iowa, there are sugar beets in a particular area in North Dakota, who were going there in the hopes of finding work but didn't have anything solid or substantial ahead of them. Those people may not be eligible for this federal insurance. It's the typical syndrome. People will come back, they'll get on welfare program, aid the family with dependent children, or food stamps, and hopefully find a little bit of work here and there in the Valley, but that's highly unlikely given the 26 or 27% unemployment rate that's here in the best of times. You have a very disasterful situation.
05:59
Attorney Ray Gill is with the United Farm Workers in San Juan, Texas. I'm Maria Martin with news from Latino USA.
06:17
The incident that happened 20 years ago with Santos Rodriguez certainly cast a shadow or a cloud over the city of Dallas.
06:25
Santos is a symbol, a symbol of what was happening to the Mexican-American community and the African-American community back in 1973.
06:32
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.
07:13
[Background--Hymns]
07:20
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.
07:37
In 1973 I was 14 years old and I didn't know Santos even though I lived about three blocks from his house.
07:44
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.
08:05
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.
08:38
We're trying to make correction within the police department. That's the reason the Latino Police Officers Association formed nearly two years ago.
08:45
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."
08:58
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.
09:14
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.
09:31
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.
09:46
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.
10:00
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.
10:31
City council member Domingo Garcia of Dallas, Texas.
10:50
We've just heard a report about relations between the police and Latino community in the city of Dallas, Texas. With us on the phone to address the issue from the perspective of other communities, our attorney, Juan Milanes, legal counsel for Washington DC's Latino Civil Rights task force, and from California, professor Gloria Romero, chair of the Hispanic Advisory Council for the Los Angeles Police Commission. Welcome to both of you. Is there a problem, a historical problem between the Latino community and police departments across this country, or is it just a question of isolated incidents in certain areas?
11:27
In my mind, there's no doubt that it's a national issue, and I think that if we look at Washington D.C., if we look at Miami, Florida, if we take a look at Houston or Dallas or Albuquerque, Denver, LA, San Jose; in every community, historically, the issues of tensions between police and community have arisen. And that's not only in the contemporary period, but historically within the last 50 years. We can even go back to the Zoot Suit Riots in Los Angeles. So there is a legacy I think that's present.
11:57
Why is that legacy there? What is the root of the tension between police departments and the Latino community?
12:03
I think if you want to take a look at the underlying issues of police community tensions, you're looking at not simply the police, but what police symbolize. And to me, that comes down to taking a look at perhaps an institution of society that is there to maintain what people perceive to be an unjust order. And over the last 50 years, we have seen movements to raise the quality of life, to equalize conditions between Latinos and others in this society, and in that sense, as long as you're going to find inequity in just the day-to-day living standards of people, it's not surprising to find challenges to that order, which is there to maintain.
12:43
In Washington D.C. you saw a very large influx of new immigrants, which is the predominant group of Latinos here in Washington, that the city truly just wasn't prepared to deal with because the increase in the population has been exponential when compared to any other group. So that in the last 10 years, Hispanics have doubled in size here, especially with regard to the police department. So few Hispanics and so few bilingual police officers has led to the problem of cultural clashes as well as a language barrier.
13:24
In both of your communities, there have been studies and recommendations made about how to deal with the issue of police and Latino community relations. In the aftermath what has been done to address those issues?
13:37
Well, I think on one hand we still have to look at quote, unquote the aftermath. The aftermath is more immigrant bashing than ever. In Los Angeles you're looking at the picking up just recently of skinheads accu- basically ready to bomb. It was focused on the south central African-American community, but the issues around which this aroused the greatest sentiment was around issues of Rodney King police brutality. So I think we have to look at the aftermath. There is the criminalization of the Latino that is not new. We can go back 50 years again and it's still the Frito Bandito. You still have the Latino, the Mexican, the Salvadorian as the criminal illegal alien. That's the language that's being used. So I believe that yes, in Los Angeles and nationally we had the Christopher Commission report. We've had the Colts report, we've had the Webster's report and decades before we had the McCone Commission and the Kerner reports. We have had study after study after study, and these are significant and important, but the bottom line is I will continue to take a look at, until we as a society at all levels, federal and state and local, take a look at some of the underlying complications of economic, social, political, racial inequity. We can put all the reports we want in impressive array in our library shelves, but we're not getting to the root causes and consequences of tensions in the community into which police immerse themselves.
15:07
And in Washington D.C., Juan.
15:10
Not that different. One of the things that we found when we did our investigation was that officers would compete in the third and fourth police districts, which are the police districts with the largest Hispanic populations in the District of Columbia, would compete for what was known, Officer of the Month Award. The Officer of the Month Award is based on a number of different factors, one of which is number of arrests, and one practice would be that officers would routinely go into the poorer, most immigrant sections of the Latino community and pick up individuals on disorderly conduct arrests to basically hike up their own arrest records to be able to compete for that Officer of the Month Award, and would ultimately trump up charges against anyone for anything.
16:05
Well, thank you very much for joining us on Latino USA. Attorney Juan Milanes, legal counsel for Washington D.C.'s, Latino Civil Rights Task Force, and Professor Gloria Romero, chair of the Hispanic Advisory Council for the Los Angeles Police Commission. Thanks again, for Latino USA.
16:53
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.
17:16
Welcome to Our Lady of the Lake University and the United States Olympic Festival, '93 Judo appearance.
17:25
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.
17:48
5'2", 99 pounds.
17:50
You're very strong, I take it.
17:52
I work out hard. [Laughter]
17:54
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.
18:18
Maggie Kahn wearing the red sash. Helen Gonzalez wearing the white.
18:24
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.
18:37
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.
18:51
Come on. Helena. Get underneath her. Go, go, go, go.
19:00
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.
19:13
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.
19:25
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.
19:42
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."
19:56
Helena, come on Helen.
20:04
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.
20:40
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.
20:55
Some of the boys she coaches are here to watch Helena compete and watch her win a medal.
21:01
Our silver medalist. Is Helena Gonzalez from San Antonio, Texas. [Cheers]
21:12
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.
21:39
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.
22:05
[Transition--Cuban Music]
22:11
(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.
22:37
[Descarga Mambo--Israel “Cachao” Lopez]
22:46
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.
23:04
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.
23:33
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.
23:57
[Descarga Mambo--Israel “Cachao” Lopez]
24:09
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.
24:31
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.
24:43
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."
24:57
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.
25:19
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.
25:32
Very modest, extremely modest man. Quiet, shy.
25:37
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."
25:47
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.
26:09
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.
26:28
[No Hay Mal Que Por Bien No Venga--Gloria Estefan]
26:43
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.
27:00
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.
27:31
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.
27:47
[No Hay Mal Que Por Bien No Venga--Gloria Estefan]
Latino USA Episode 18
00:56
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.
01:13
Governor Wilson alleges that up to 2 million of California's 32 million people are here illegally, 1 million in Los Angeles alone.
01:21
In a state where we have within Los Angeles, a community of illegal immigrants the size of San Diego.
01:27
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.
06:10
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.
06:46
[Church Bells]
06:50
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.
07:17
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.
07:53
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.
08:17
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.
08:41
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.
08:56
[Church music and signing]
09:04
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.
09:27
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.
09:44
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.
10:04
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.
10:25
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.
10:55
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.
11:53
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.
12:00
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.
12:10
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.
12:28
Combining art, politics and history. These diverse works, posters, murals, and multimedia together defined a distinct Chicano aesthetic.
12:38
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.
12:47
Art historian Dr. Jacinto Quirarte curated the exhibit in San Antonio.
12:53
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.
13:11
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.
13:30
We worked the fields in the summer and on weekends during the school year, whatever crop was seasoned. So uh-
13:38
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.
13:54
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.
14:12
And for others too young or not around during the heyday of the Chicano movement, the CARA show proved an education.
14:20
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.
14:43
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.
15:05
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.
15:23
[Mariachi Music]
15:30
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
16:11
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.
16:23
[Mariachi Music]
16:32
With this music, you can express your feelings more.
16:36
How?
16:37
Um, with the songs, the words and stuff, they're very powerful words.
16:42
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.
16:53
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.
17:05
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.
17:41
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.
17:48
[Mariachi Music]
17:55
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.
18:12
[Mariachi Music]
18:22
People keep giving me comments, I'm good and stuff. So now I want to get better.
18:27
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.
18:50
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.
19:05
[Mariachi Music]
19:12
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.
20:17
A drama has been unfolding for more than two weeks now in the border town of Laredo, Texas. On July 29th, a group known as Pastors for Peace defied the US trade embargo against Cuba by taking dozens of vehicles carrying food, clothing, medicines, and other aid to Cuba across the US border. But one of those vehicles, a yellow school bus, was stopped by the customs service. Today that bus sits in a federal compound in Laredo. It's occupants refusing to leave the bus and now starting their third week of a hunger strike. From Laredo, Latino USA's Maria Martin reports.
20:57
I see a whole bunch of semis waiting in line to go to Mexico, and in the middle of all that mess, there's this little school bus and I feel sorry.
21:07
Retired Laredo social worker, Manuel Ramirez sits on a sidewalk near the border wearing binoculars. He's trying to get a better glimpse of the scene across the street, there off to the side of the Lincoln Juarez Bridge. in an enclosed lot where semi-trucks wait to be inspected by the custom service sits a yellow school bus with a sign which reads ‘End The Embargo Against Cuba’. Inside the bus, 12 people ages 22 to 86 wait out the blazing hot August days. They've refused to leave the vehicle and to take any solid food, since the bus was seized by the customs service on July 29th. Among them is Pastors for Peace leader, the Reverend Lucius Walker of Brooklyn.
21:48
We see a nation that is threatened, a nation that is not our enemy, with which we are not at war. We were asked by the churches in Cuba to take this mission on and having responded affirmatively to their request, we have come to see for ourselves the importance of what we are doing.
22:06
What the Reverend Walker and Pastors for Peace hope to accomplish by their hunger strike and their attempt to take aid materials to Cuba is to call into question this country's 32-year old prohibition against trade and travel to that island. Pamela Previt of the Customs Service says her agency tried to help the aid caravan get through the border smoothly, but that this bus clearly violated US Law.
22:28
Customs detained 29 boxes of prescription medication, four computers, and five electric typewriters, which are prohibited items according to the embargo. The group specifically claimed that it was the vehicle itself that was to be exported. And because of that customs seized the bus.
22:48
The Reverend Walker says he was actually surprised when the bus he was driving was seized. Even though the group stated they were making the trip to challenge the embargo against Cuba.
22:58
They simply were not able to stop it because this was a human wave and a vehicular wave of people who were determined that this is a law that can no longer be enforced.
23:10
The law Walker refers to is the Trading with the Enemy Act enforced by the Treasury Department. So far that government agency has not responded to a proposal from the Pastors for Peace to allow someone from the World Council of Churches to escort the yellow school bus to Havana. On the 10th day of the hunger strike, there was a rally, in Laredo to support the hunger strikers and an end to the embargo against Cuba. A microphone was passed across the fence and the strikers told the crowd they were prepared to stay indefinitely.
23:43
We are all determined to stay on the school bus until the school bus goes to Cuba.
23:50
Cuba is not perfect, the government's not perfect, but it's way better than what they have in Latin America. And I realize that…
23:57
That among the 12 people on hunger strike is 32 year old Camilo Garcia who left Cuba four years ago.
24:03
And I decided that I will do everything I can to help the revolution to survive, and I will stay in here as long as it take no matter what it take, even if it take my life. So what?
24:15
The 100 degree heat, the exhaust fumes and the liquid only fast are taking their toll on the health of the hunger strikers. Doctors brought in by the Customs Service and by Pastors for Peace are monitoring the group's health condition regularly. For Latino USA, I'm Maria Martin reporting.
Latino USA Episode 19
01:32
We're here today as a coalition of Latinos, leaders in our community, leaders in business, and leaders in the political arena to hold Governor Wilson accountable for his recent proposals to President Clinton.
01:45
As politicians throughout the nation from Washington to Texas come up with proposals to curb illegal immigration. A coalition of Latino organizations in California warned that immigrants are fast becoming the scapegoats of bad economic times. From Los Angeles, Alberto Aguilar reports.
02:04
In just 12 hours, this week, US attorney Janet Reno, two US Senators, Governor Pete Wilson, the state Senate, and the assembly put aside other issues to promote laws against illegal immigration. The rush to legislate and castigate illegal immigration has created a great deal of concern in the Latino community, which responded with its own open letter decrying Governor Wilson's recent initiatives to strip immigrants of access to health, education, and constitutional protection.
02:34
We know well in our community that this is a historical cycle. During the depression in 1931, immigrants were made scapegoats. In 1954, immigrants were made scapegoats. During the inflationary periods of the seventies, immigrants were made scapegoats. And the 1990s, in today's recession, guess what? Immigrants are being made scapegoats.
02:57
Arturo Vargas is the vice president of the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund. MALDEF is part of the coalition who responded to what they feel is an anti-immigrant hysteria. Representing the Latino Business Association, Ed Vasquez disputes that immigrants are a public charge.
03:17
There's a hundred thousand, 100,000 Latino owned businesses in Los Angeles alone generating six and a half billion dollars in revenues every single year. For the politicians to blame the economic problems on immigrants it sends out a dangerous message. Immigrants did not take away the jobs in the defense industry. Immigrants are not taking away jobs from corporate America, bad economic policies are.
03:40
California leaders aware of the upcoming state elections strongly decry what they call scapegoating of Latinos for the sorry state of California's economy by both Republicans and Democrats. For Latinos USA, I'm Alberto Aguilar in Los Angeles.
05:14
Latino students are enrolling in higher education in greater numbers than other minority groups. These numbers according to the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities, HACU, will continue to grow as the end of the baby boom results in fewer young non-minorities. But according to the National Institute of Independent Colleges and Universities, US institutions of higher learning are not doing enough to prepare for the upcoming influx of Latino students. According to the Census Bureau, the Hispanic population is expected to rise from 24 million in 1992 to 41 million by the year 2050. In the year 2010, there will be nearly 3 million Hispanics ages 18 to 21. I'm Maria Martin, you're listening to Latino USA.
06:13
The name Pedro Albizu Campos is a familiar one in Chicago's Puerto Rican neighborhoods. An alternative high school and a street bear the name of the Puerto Rican politician, who headed Puerto Rico's nationalist party in the first part of this century. But an effort to add one more symbol to honor Albizu Campos died recently when the Chicago City Park board voted down the donation of a bronze statue to the nationalist hero scheduled to be erected in the community's largest park. Indignant admirers of Campos say the board ignored the will of the community, but other Latinos say Campos was a controversial politician whose ideals don't deserve any more recognition. From station WBEZ in Chicago, Tony Sarabia sent this report.
06:57
The theme of the song is about a community united in an effort that is uncontainable. On a sweltering August afternoon, a throng of protestors stood on the steps of the Chicago Park District headquarters singing that and other songs as they awaited the outcome of the board's vote. Inside close to 200 people listen to community leaders who backed the effort to raise a statue in Campos's Honor. Absent however, were voices of opposition, which led many to argue that none exists. One prominent opponent however, the commissioner of the city's Human Services Department, Daniel Alvarez, says those who spoke out against Campos were intimidated with threats of violence.
07:36
Many people are afraid of talking. Many people didn't want to show up in meetings. They call me, they express opinions in the street, but they didn't want to go public.
07:49
Alvarez says only 5% of the city's Puerto Rican community support the idea of honoring a man he says relied too much on violence. Supporters however say it's more like 95% for and only five against. Pedro Albizu Campos began his fight for Puerto Rico's independence shortly after World War I. He led that Caribbean Island's only armed revolt against the US and was convicted of conspiracy to overthrow the US government. For those reasons part of Chicago's Puerto Rican community say Campos is a patriotic hero who deserves honor. Opponents argue a community that is already plagued with violence doesn't need a role model like Campos. But Magdalia Rivera, head of a Latino advocacy group in the city, counters the statue is exactly what the community needs.
08:33
It is of dire need that this community which exhibits by the way, according to the 1990 census, some of the lowest socioeconomic indicators amongst all groups within the Latino community even, needs to have its symbols. Needs to memorialize the memory of individuals who have provided models of valor.
08:56
But Alvarez says if that's the case, there are other Puerto Ricans who have done more for the island. But supporters maintain this is what the community wants. And as proof produced a petition with 3,000 signatures in favor of the statue. Chicago alderman Billy Ocasio, whose ward includes the Puerto Rican community says, "The park board has never turned down the donation of a statue."
09:17
And now here comes the statue of a Puerto Rican, one that this room here believes in. And you're saying, "No," you're saying, "No." Why is it that every time it comes down to the Puerto Rican community, you have to say no? Let me present to you that community. How many people in this room are in favor of the statue? [Cheering and applause]
09:44
But a spokesperson for the board says the commissioners had the whole community in mind when it decided not to accept the statue. And while the opposition is pleased with the board's decision supporters say their fight is far from over. They plan on taking the board to court to force them to erect the statue of Pedro Albizu Campos. For Latino USA, I'm Tony Sarabia in Chicago.
19:12
[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)
19:32
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?
20:09
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.
20:24
[Está Bien Mamacita--El Vez]
20:42
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.
20:58
So when and how did el espíritu, the spirit, of Elvis possess you?
21:03
[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.
21:59
[Transition--Music--El Vez]
22:14
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.
22:27
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.
23:08
[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...
23:37
[Immigration Time--El Vez]
23:53
What do you think Elvis would've thought of you singing and changing the words to the songs?
23:58
Oh, he would've enjoyed it very, he'd say, "El Vez, I like your show very much." He would like it.
24:03
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 ...
24:12
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.
24:35
[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-
24:49
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.
25:12
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.
25:35
The Hispanic community is not getting very well educated, okay? We need to push more for education.
25:42
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.
25:51
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.
26:04
I think he's done a good job so far. I think he's the best president ever since John F Kennedy.
26:10
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.
26:20
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.
26:40
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.
27:03
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.
27:21
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.
27:32
Abortion is not a word for me. I don't believe in it.
27:37
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.
27:49
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.
Latino USA Episode 20
00:00
This is Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture.
00:00
Before the revolution that brought Fidel Castro to power, jazz music flowed freely from this country to Cuba and back. That musical cross-pollination has been more difficult in recent years, though. However, Cuban jazz pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba made history this summer when he was permitted to play in the United States for the very first time. Alfredo Cruz reports.
00:00
[Recordando a Tschaikowsky--Gonzalo Rubalcaba]
00:00
During the first half of this century, Cuban music was a very popular source of entertainment in the United States. The Mambo y cha-cha-cha, and other rhythms dominated radio waves and dance halls across the country. Cuban music was being heard here, and jazz over there. But in 1959, following the Cuban Revolution, all cultural and political connections between the two countries were cut. And in Cuba, jazz became a Yankee imperialist activity. Playing or listening to jazz was done in an underground clandestine manner. Since then, things have changed. For one, the Havana International Jazz Festival, now in its 14th year, has attracted world-class musicians and helped raise the social and political acceptance of jazz in Cuba. But as pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba says, it wasn't easy.
00:00
Bueno, principio en los años sesenta, y parte de los setentas…[transition to English dub] In the early '60s and through part of the '70s, it was very difficult getting people to understand the importance of supporting jazz and the increasing number of young Cuban musicians heading in this direction. Today, however, there can not be, and there isn't any misunderstanding or political manipulation of jazz or Cuban jazz musician [transition to original audio] …interpretación por parte de los musico Cuba.
00:00
[Mi Gran Pasion--Gonzalo Rubalcaba]
00:00
At 30 years of age, Gonzalo Rubalcaba is considered one of Cuba's premier pianists. His father played with the orchestra of Cha-cha-cha inventor Enrique Jorrín, and later became one of Cuba's most popular band leaders. Gonzalo himself played with the legendary Orquesta Aragón while still a teenager, but it is through his solo playing that Gonzalo has made his mark in Cuba and around the world. Because of political differences, however, the United States audience remained out of reach to Cuban jazz and musicians like Rubalcaba.
00:00
[Simbunt Ye Contracova--Gonzalo Rubalcaba]
00:00
Bueno Estados Unidos debió ser uno de los primeros escenario…[transition to English dub] The United States should have been one of the first places for me to play. But since 1989, there's been a mystique and anticipation surrounding my not being allowed to enter this country. Very simply put, it's been a politically motivated maneuver to not grant me a performance visa, and has nothing to do with artistic or musical considerations. But now, my first appearance in this country, I think signals that we are entering a new era. But that doesn't mean I haven't had any contact with American musicians, because I've played with many in Cuba and in festivals around the world [transition to original audio]…contacto con músicos Norte Americanos.
00:00
American bassist Charlie Haden met and played with Gonzalo Rubalcaba in Switzerland at the 1989 Montreux International Jazz Festival and brought him to the attention of Blue Note Records. Haden, along with Blue Note executives and Lincoln Center in New York City, negotiated with the US State Department to grant the young pianist a performance visa. And finally, in what seems to have been a political icebreaker last May 14th, Gonzalo Rubalcaba made his US debut performance before a sold-out audience at Lincoln Center.
00:00
[No name (Live at Lincoln Center)--Gonzalo Rubalcaba]
00:00
Nueva dirección, del viento, el aire lleva…[transition to English dub] There's been a change of wind, politically speaking, a relaxation of attitudes and perceptions that are now opening the doors to dialogue in an effort to eliminate tensions. And it seems to me that this is a common goal of both Cuba and the United States. Even though we still can't really speak of this in practical terms, but ideally, this could be the beginning of normalizing relations between the two countries [transition to original audio]…esto podría ser un pequeño parte de eso, un comienzo.
00:00
[Unknow Track--Gonzalo Rubalcaba]
00:00
Many artists in both countries do agree that a relaxation of political policy between Cuba and the United States would be a positive development. And Rubalcaba's US debut has generated a renewed optimism within the cultural community, even though the visa he was issued allowed him to play only one concert, and on the condition that he would not be paid. Recently, Gonzalo Rubalcaba's recording, entitled Suite 4 y 20, was released in this country on the Blue Note record label. For Latino USA, I'm Alfredo Cruz in Newark, New Jersey.
00:05
[Opening Theme]
00:16
I'm Maria Hinojosa. Today on Latino USA, Homestead, Florida, one year after Hurricane Andrew.
00:20
[Simbunt Ye Contracova--Gonzalo Rubalcaba]
00:24
My God, it's been a year. Our lives have been affected so much that we were living so fast, so quickly.
00:30
Also, for the end of the summer, a Nuyorican pastime.
00:34
Yo, this is Orchard Beach in the boogie-down Bronx, the Puerto Rican Riviera.
00:39
And a proposal for a free art agreement.
00:43
Through trilingual publications, radio, video, and performance collaborations, more complex notions of North American culture could be conceived.
00:55
That's all coming up on Latino USA. But first, las noticias.
01:46
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.
02:00
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.
02:45
Lawyers for the Clinton administration, and for a coalition of environmental groups, appeared before the US Court of Appeals in Washington, arguing the merits of a recent ruling, which prevents the administration from presenting the North American Free Trade Agreement to Congress until an environmental impact study is conducted. Patricia Guadalupe filed this report.
03:04
The Coalition of Consumer Groups maintains that the North American Free Trade Agreement is in violation of the 1970 National Environmental Policy Act. That law requires that any proposal significantly affecting the environment must be accompanied by an environmental impact study. Patti Goldman is the senior litigator from the consumer group Public Citizen.
03:24
We would like to see the environmental impact statement. There are serious environmental consequences of the recent vintage of trade agreements, including the NAFTA, and we'd also like to see a system developed under the National Environmental Policy Act for a full analysis of the environmental effects of future trade agreements.
03:42
The Clinton administration, represented by the Solicitor General Drew Days, contends that the environmental impact study applies only to federal agencies, and not to actions by the president, such as treaties. For Latino USA, I'm Patricia Guadalupe in Washington.
Latino USA Episode 21
06:10
[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.
06:56
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.
07:14
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.
08:06
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.
08:24
Almost 10% more Hispanics and Asians live in poverty today than did in 1963. More poor whites drop out before high school graduations.
09:10
[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.
10:17
The total number of Latinos in the US workforce has been doubling every 10 years since the 1950s. But while Latino employment has expanded, the average quality of their jobs has declined. Latino USA's Maria Martin has more.
10:44
Just a short while ago, the Census Bureau issued a report saying Hispanics are disproportionately represented among the nation’s poor and make up a large part of the working poor. This finding came as no surprise to a group of sociologists and political scientists who studied Latinos in the American labor market. According to economist Raul Hinojosa Ojeda, one of the authors of the study, Latinos in a changing US economy, the study's most important finding was the dramatic downturn in economic opportunity for Latinos beginning after the mid 1970s.
11:15
Whereas the gap in earnings was closing throughout the most of the post-war era until about the mid 1970s, that gap has been increasing very rapidly. And in fact, that gap is very large part of the explanation of the increasing inequality in the United States.
11:34
The study's authors say downsizing of government programs during the 80s along with a lack of higher educational achievement by Latinos are among the factors which contribute to a decline in their economic situation. Perhaps the biggest factor, however, has to do with the restructuring of the US economy, from manufacturing to a greater focus on the service sector. Again, Raul Hinojosa.
Latino USA Episode 22
07:40
Luis the Banana King laments that nobody shops at the marketplace anymore and there's not much to shop for. It's a far cry from 1936 when it was created by Mayor Fiorello La Guardia as an indoor space to keep the push cart pedalers off the streets. What started as the Park Avenue market with Italian and Jewish merchants slowly shifted to becoming La Marqueta as Puerto Rican started flooding into East Harlem in the 1950s, there were five Marqueta buildings where there now is barely one. Butcher Alex Garcet, a Puerto Rican New Yorker remembers how La Marqueta used to be.
08:13
30 years was different, was crowded you couldn't even... We used to open at five in the morning by six o'clock was people waiting outside the N 20. The bus used to be crowded. Everything, it's nothing, was different. Everybody was concerned.
08:31
In the 1970s, tenants at La Marqueta organized to run the marketplace and later several developers took over all without success. La Marqueta became the site of building code violations and neglect as small vendors retired or moved elsewhere and there was no one left to take their place. A year and a half ago, the city finally took charge again. Through the Economic Development Corporation. [Natural sounds of neighborhood] The city is fixing the one remaining building hoping to welcome new tenants by October. There's now a task force working on choosing a new developer to boost La Marqueta to a new future. The city is committed $5 million to the project and the task force is hoping for state and federal money in addition. East Harlem City council member Adam Clayton Powell IV envisions La Marqueta as a tourist attraction and an affordable neighborhood shopping center.
16:35
For over 400 years since New Mexico was settled by Spain in the 16th century, Hispanic folk artists in that state have created wooden statues called Santos, representing figures of Catholic saints. They've also made retablos, images of the saints painted on wooden panels. The practitioners of these carving arts or santeros were exclusively men until the last 20 years or so, but today, women are some of the best-known santeros and their contribution is the focus of an exhibit at the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Catalina Reyes reports.
17:49
[Natural sounds of Museum] 40 objects representing the work of 26 Santeras are on view in the small exhibit room. There's a bulto tableau of Noah's Arc by Marie Romero Cash and her tin Smith husband, complete with wooden animals, a tin arc and foot tall carvings of Noah and his wife With Hispanic features and early 20th century dress, popular saints are rendered in various media Santo Nino de Atocha, a Christ child who helps prisoners. Dona Sebastiana or La Muerte, a skeleton in a two-wheeled wooden cart who represents death and of course our Lady of Guadalupe and Indian Virgin Mary who's especially venerated throughout the Americas.
19:31
It was during the civil rights movement of the 60s says Lucero, that Hispanic men in New Mexico began to revive the dying Spanish colonial Santero tradition. About 10 years later, women artists began to emerge from behind the dominance of men in public arenas, making saints images in such a variety of media that Lucero decided to include more than bultos and retablos in the exhibit broadening the definition of santera.
Latino USA Episode 23
19:06
And there's an interesting turn of events right now because on this celebration of el dies y seis de septiembre, or Mexican Independence Day, the 16th of September, you will be here in the United States. Your father's paintings will be on exhibit in Texas, and Governor Ann Richards of Texas will be in Mexico during the grito there. What does all of this say about Mexico y los estados unidors, the United States at this point in time?
21:03
So people always ask, "Yo, when is Hispanic Heritage Month anyway?" And then you have to tell them that it's not really just one month but a four-week period of time that starts in the middle of September when El Salvador, Peru, Nicaragua, Mexico, and several other Latin American countries celebrate their independence from Spain. The month then runs through mid-October through Columbus Day or el día de la raza, as it's known in Latin America. For many Latinos, this is a time to look back at history and to look forward to see where we as a group fit into this country's future. Commentator Barbara Renaud Gonzalez says that in particular, the 16th of September, the equivalent of the 4th of July for Mexicans makes her realize she really is part of a community.
21:51
I'm not afraid to look in their eyes, me, the zippy Latina with the import car and the University of Michigan sticker. They, my Mexican hermanos breathless in the Texas sunrise, clinging to the back of a Ford Ranger, almost ashamed that they are the only ones riding like this on the open road of the LBJ carretera. Or maybe it's too obvious that they're on their way to make another garden out of Plano Prairie for a minimum wage. I smile. I am almost ashamed to not go with them. I love my Mexican people. On September 16th, my construction heroes, Plano gardeners, North Dallas maids, my café con leche waiters and I will come together to celebrate the 16th of September, el dies y seis de septiembre, which is the anniversary of Mexico's independence from almost 300 years of Spanish conquest. On the morning of September 16th in 1810, Father Miguel Hidalgo Y Costilla delivered his grito de dolores, his cry for independence in the city of Dolores, Mexico, the city of pain, to claim independence from Spanish rule.
23:00
Our celebrated Mexican independence is not like American democracy. The Puritans were free the day they left England on the Mayflower. The Spaniards, however, transformed the America they discovered with every touch and every torment. They came to evangelize their Catholic tradition and so redeemed the Spanish crown with pure Indian gold. While the Puritans established independent colonies from the beginning, the Spaniard established dependent missions.
23:30
So, when Mexican independence rang in 1810 and Father Hidalgo exhorted his campesinos to rebellion with “Mexicanos, ¡Viva México!” He must have cried for Mestizo courage and independence from Spain and for all the battles yet to come. As Mexicans and Mexican Americans, Hispanics, Chicanos, Latinos, Pochos, and the descendants of Tejanos like me, every battle, every cry makes us braver in our marches, the people we are and will become. While Mexico's battles may be more anguished than those of the United States, this quest for the Mexican soul is still in transition and hardly defeated. Thus, every September 16th, every dies y seis de septiembre, we celebrate this realization of the Mexican self. I love my Mexican people. Original beauty on Spanish bones. Look at the hands in the ecstasy of expression, rainbows of skin on the Indian profile. We are a jeweled people. I know that the Indian gods and goddesses live among us transformed into the Mexicans I see every day, especially on September 16th, el dies y seis de septiembre. I know. I look in their eyes.
25:21
In Mexico and Mexican American communities from Los Angeles to Chicago, the night of September 15th is the night of el grito, (singing) literally the yell or the scream, which commemorates the occasion in 1810 when a parish priest named Father Miguel Hidalgo called his countrymen to rise up against the tyranny of Spain with the cry Mexicans que viva méxico.
Latino USA Episode 25
24:13
This year, the Smithsonian institution in Washington DC has dedicated its commemoration of Hispanic Heritage Month to the memory of Cesar Chavez, the influential farm worker organizer who died last April. The museum staged a tribute to honor the union leader on the night of September 27th.
Latino USA Episode 27
01:00
This is news from Latino USA. I'm Maria Martin. The House of Representatives votes on NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement on November 17th. And a newly formed bipartisan coalition has set out to convince Latinos and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus to support the controversial accord. Barrie Lynn Tapia reports.
02:02
President Clinton interviewed on Spanish language television, said he favors continuing educational and public health services for the undocumented and also statehood for Puerto Rico if the islands residents vote that way on November 14th. The border patrol's continuing blockade of a 20-mile area of the Texas-Mexico border is drawing fire from Mexican officials. Louie Saenz reports from El Paso.
08:30
Showing their birth certificates and other ID, the New York voters proved they could participate in what's called a parallel plebiscite. Over the next few weeks, Puerto Ricans in Orlando, Florida, Springfield, Massachusetts and Chicago will be holding similar votes. Puerto Ricans living on the island will be voting for their future on November 14th. The plebiscites are non-binding on Congress, who will ultimately decide Puerto Rico's future. Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer says the higher than expected turnout in New York was a testament to the strong patriotic feelings of Puerto Ricans no matter where they live.
19:03
These mural pieces and dozens more were bequeathed to the museum in 1976 by a San Francisco architect, Harold Wagner. He bought them legally though originally they were stolen from the Teotihuacan by looters. Kathy Barron says, Wagner's home was laid out with the priceless fragments like so many puzzle pieces on tables and floors. To help preserve and restore the fragments, museum staff decided to call on Mexican specialists. And in a move that surprised many, Barron says the museum also decided to return most of the treasures to Mexico. Although, US law did not require it.
Latino USA Episode 28
02:25
Border Patrol spokesperson, Doug Mosher says that technically Operation Blockade ended on November 2nd, but that the enhanced patrols would continue indefinitely. Border Patrol spokesperson, Doug Mosher says that technically Operation Blockade ended on November 2nd, but that the enhanced patrols would continue indefinitely.
05:10
The immigrants in 1993 are no longer spoken of in the grand tradition of the grand mosaic of American society where each immigrant group obviously adds because of the diversity and their new strength to building America. But they are attacked and casually accused of being responsible from everything to the drug infiltration in our country to people not being able to get jobs, to the crisis in healthcare.
11:53
[crickets] March 9th, 1916, Columbus, New Mexico, three miles from the US-Mexico border. [hoofbeats]
16:19
Pues muchas gracias and congratulations, felicidades, on yours and Paul Espinoza's production, The Hunt for Pancho Villa. Speaking to us from Austin, Texas, Hector Galan. The premier of The Hunt for Pancho Villa will be on November 3rd on public television stations across the country.
18:18
[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.
Latino USA Episode 29
04:01
More than a dozen big cities elect mayors on November 2nd. One of the most contested races is in Miami, where Cuban-born Commissioner Miriam Alonso is facing former mayor, Steve Clark. That race has been characterized by a great deal of mudslinging, with Clark being dubbed the marshmallow mayor, and Alonso's opponents calling her Castro's ambassador and a communist. Alonso's husband was Cuba's ambassador to Lebanon, before the couple defected from the island 27 years ago.
10:34
Opponents of Prop 174 are convinced voters will reject the measure, but they're not as quick to say that a no vote on November 2nd should be considered the final word on the idea of school vouchers. For Latino USA, I'm Isabel Alegria in San Francisco.
13:51
There's no way that Dinkins is going to get the same support in the Latino community that he got in 1989, and that's the reason he's going to lose. Every poll, while it may vary more or less some points, shows him nowhere near the 66% to 70% that he got last time. And I'm convinced that we're going to win the majority of the Latino vote. So that's the election right there.
23:58
For inspiration leading to the exhibition of Noche de Muertos: Chicano Journey into a Michoacan Night, in 1991, a Chicano artist from Colorado traveled to the Mexican state of Michoacan.
26:21
Another prominent altar is dedicated to the memory of the early '50s rocker Ritchie Valens. The altar is designed as a stage, with Ritchie Valens at the center, and two little angels holding an electric guitar on top. It's the work of artists Rick Manzanares and Carlos Frésquez.
27:33
Currently, an exhibition at the University of Colorado Art Galleries, Noche de Muertos: Chicano Journey into Michoacan Night moved to the Museo de Las Americas in Denver until December 4th. In 1995, it will travel to Amsterdam and other European cities. For Latino USA, this is Betto Arcos in Boulder, Colorado.
Latino USA Episode 30
02:16
In Miami's mayoral race, candidates Miriam Alonso and Steve Clark face a November 9th runoff. And as Melissa Mancini reports from Miami, voting there broke down largely along ethnic lines.
02:29
Former Metro Mayor Steve Clark dominated in white non-Hispanic areas and also won a sizeable share of young Hispanic votes. Challenger Miriam Alonso took two votes for every ballot captured by Clark in Miami's Hispanic areas. However, Alonso trailed Clark by big margins in non-Hispanic neighborhoods winning less than 15% of the vote. For the past two decades, Miami's mayor's job has been held by a Hispanic, a fact that Cuba born Alonso has repeated in Spanish language radio broadcasts. During election day radio appearances, Alonso exhorted Cuban voters to keep the mayor's office in their hands. Those appeals apparently succeeded in Miami's Little Havana community where voters turned out in greater numbers than in other neighborhoods. However, it remains to be seen if Alonso can broaden her base for the November 9th runoff. For Latino USA, I'm Melissa Mancini in Miami.
20:21
[Background--Afro-Cuban Jazz] 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 in the interim, back to Vincentico Valdez for a summer in '58 in the Palladium, and then the '58 to '60 we took the holiday. After that, I went on my own.
21:06
The big new trombone sound he had developed revolutionized Afro-Cuban music in the 1960s. Eddie Palmeri had found the perfect combination and called his new band La Perfecta.
21:52
[Background--Afro-Cuban Jazz] This was done in 1968. That's when 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, one curtain down. That was it. Boom.
Latino USA Episode 31
05:17
A bill to provide funds to help those who became citizens under IRCA, the Immigration Reform Act of 1986, has been introduced by Congressman Luis Gutierrez of Illinois. The bill would provide money for citizenship and English classes for millions of immigrants who became eligible later this month.
11:14
[Background--Music--Salsa] Ever since 1898, when the island of Puerto Rico first became a US territory, Puerto Ricans have debated their relationship to the United States. 40 years after becoming a US commonwealth in 1952, the debate still continues with some Puerto Ricans favoring the status quo, others advocating the island become the nation's 51st state, and still others calling for Puerto Rico's independence. During his electoral campaign, Puerto Rico's governor Pedro Rosello promised to try to put an end to the eternal debate over status by calling for a plebiscite. That vote on November 14th may not be the last word on Puerto Rico's status, but Puerto Ricans are hoping it will force the US Congress to act. Latino USA's Maria Martin is in San Juan to report on the plebiscite.
12:40
This is not the first plebiscite in which Puerto Ricans vote to decide the island's political status. The last vote was held in 1967 and that vote, like this one is non-binding because it's still the US Congress that has the final word on the political future of Puerto Rico. Two years ago, a bill calling for a congressionally-approved vote failed to get through a Senate committee, and what's significant about this election says political analyst Juan Manuel Garcia Passalacqua, is that this vote is actually a petition to Congress by the Puerto Rican people, made under the Right to Petition clause of the First Amendment of the US Constitution.
13:28
This is the first time in the history of Puerto Rico that the three parties approved a law that was adopted as a petition for the redress of grievances against the Congress of the United States. That's the first sentence in that particular law. So, here we are. This is the first time after 1898 that the people of Puerto Rico have told the United States we have a grievance, and that grievance obviously is colonialism.
24:08
[Background--natural sounds--museum ambience] The museum hosts about a half dozen living weekends every year. Portraying what life was like in New Mexico from the 1600s to 1900. At the old Spanish mill, the present has yet another link to the past.
24:27
For more than 200 years, El Rancho de las Golondrinas was a stopping place for carriages coming north from Mexico on the Santa Fe Trail. The ranch was bought by a Finnish couple in 1932. They turned it into a museum four decades later. Their son, George Paloheimo, now the director, says interest in local Native American history is so great that little attention has been paid to the state's Spanish heritage.
25:48
[Highlight--Natural sounds--Indigenous spiritual singing] By the mid-1800s, clashes with the natives and problems with the Mexican government drove out many of the Spanish priests who had come to New Mexico, lacking formal religious leadership, small adobe houses of worship, called Morales, sprang up throughout the mountains. Here at las Golondrinas, the small Morale is an exact replica of one in Abiquiu. And is hosted by Dexter Trujillo.
26:52
We're doing a writing project. We're writing as if we were one of the people who lived here in the 1800s. She's going to be the abuelita and I'm going to be the grandchild that comes to live with her.
Latino USA Episode 32
04:20
The discrimination complaint was filed at the EEOC in August by 12 Hispanic officers. In the last few days, more than a quarter of the membership of the San Antonio Hispanic Police Officers Association have added their names to the complaint. There are 1,527 uniformed police officers in San Antonio. 594 are Hispanic. The complaint alleges Mexican Americans are not recruited for the force in large enough numbers, that Hispanic officers are treated unfairly in disciplinary actions, and that they are overlooked for promotions within the San Antonio Police Department. The complaint alleges Hispanic officers are forced to work in a hostile environment according to spokesman for the Hispanic Officers Association, Jose Marquez.
05:31
The EEOC will complete its investigation in February. San Antonio Police Department and city officials refuse to comment on the complaint, but they have defended the department's personnel practices in the past. 80% of the Hispanic officers filing the complaint have 20 years or more experience on the force. Marquez predicts the case will be taken before a federal judge in the spring.
15:09
Politically that's going to be the next fight in the next election year. I think that you're going to have candidates running against immigrants and there's a very good chance that Latinos will become the Willie Hortons of the 1994 elections. I think we should anticipate that and we need to take the appropriate steps to -- not defend ourselves. I don't think we need a defense, but we need to take the appropriate steps to make sure that we don't allow these myths and these falsehoods to go unchallenged in the political arena.
16:37
For the first time in 26 years, the people of Puerto Rico went to the polls to express their preference on the island's political destiny and in a very close vote, Puerto Ricans chose to retain their current commonwealth status over becoming the nation's 51st state, or an independent republic. Latino USA's Maria Martin was in Puerto Rico for the November 14th vote. She filed this report.
21:02
Statehood has died on its tracks. The statehood has been growing in Puerto Rico since 1952 at a pace that came from 12% to 49% in the last elections.
Latino USA Episode 33
02:55
17 Latino drivers filed the suit in San Francisco's Superior Court saying they were the victims of constant discrimination and harassment by their supervisors over a period of three years. The workers, all immigrants, say they were threatened with firing, forced to use segregated toilets, subject to abusive language, and repeatedly required to produce verification of their immigration status. They also allege they were denied vacation time, rain gear and regular breaks. Avis has denied the charges. Representatives of both sides are meeting in an attempt to settle the case as is required in San Francisco's court system. A jury trial is scheduled to start December 13th. For Latino USA, I'm Isabel Alegria in San Francisco.
03:38
Immigration rights groups in California have filed suit against the Immigration and Naturalization Service. They claim the 1986 immigration reform law have kept many families apart. They say INS regulations have put children of amnestied individuals in danger of being deported, in denial of the family unity protection clause of the immigration law. You're listening to Latino USA.
06:55
[Background--music--Chicano world] We see Afro-Cuban rhythms that have been a part of our culture since the twenties. We see Germanic elements that have been part of our music since the late 1800s. We see indigenous rhythms, indigenous instruments, and the reintegration in the influence of nueva canción of the sixties, the cha chas and mambos of the forties and fifties, the doo-wop of the fifties and the rhythm and blues and more recently the rap influence as well as influences from rhythms around the world, songo, soca and et cetera. So we decided to call it Chicano world because we think it's Chicano music and it also represents the influences of the world on our music.
10:15
[Background--music--Chicano world] It's been an integral experience throughout. I mean whether we're Chicanos in Texas, we had the influence of the Louis Armstrongs and the Dixielands way back. I mean Ernie Caceres, Emilio Caceres, the jazz musicians, they're tremendous, in the thirties were influenced by Afro-Americans a lot from New Orleans. And then throughout the forties and fifties, the blues have been strong. It's one of our greatest blues singers that Chicano blue singers have been tremendously influenced by the blues. Freddy Fender wrote “Wasted Days”, the first Chicano blues.
10:47
Well, one of the themes that runs through most of your music is the idea of Chicano pride and it's really especially apparent on your most recent CD called Movimiento Music. But at some point, Dr. Loco, don't you feel like, for example, let's take “El Picket Sign”. I mean it sounded kind of predictable, kind of a throwback to the seventies or eighties, real stayed, predictable, even like rhetorical kind of political music. I mean, at what point do you continue to talk, let's say, in music that is considered panfletaria, [Background--music--Chicano world] really propagandistic, and on the other hand really wanting to do something that is communicating something else on a cultural level?
Latino USA Episode 34
05:31
The immigrant workers also claim they were ordered to use a segregated toilet and sit at certain tables in the lunchroom. Avis has denied all the charges, but attorneys say the company will not comment any further while the suit is in litigation. The trial is set for December 13th. The two sides are currently trying to reach a settlement. From San Francisco, I'm Isabella Alegreia for Latino USA.
10:01
NAFTA is kind of going to be the icing on the cake to a trade program with Mexico that we kind of started in 1985 or 86. We've seen exports from the United States to Mexico increase from eight to 10 billion a year, clear up to 40 billion since 1985. NAFTA's going to make it possible for, mostly for the United States to sell our products down there. Plus there's a lot of products, Mexican manufactured products coming up from Mexico City, Guadalajara, and the west coast of Mexico that are coming into the LA area either for consumption in LA or for shipment to the Orient.
12:20
Well, I think it is now pretty plain that Salinas has been grooming Colosio for this moment, for this role for quite a number of years. Further than that, he also has an enormous amount of experience in knowing how to run a campaign all over the country. He was Salinas' own campaign manager when Salinas was a candidate in 1988, and subsequent to that, Salinas made Colosio the president of the PRI party. So Colosio is very well positioned and the ground has been prepared very carefully for him to be something of an ideal candidate, to be the PRI standard there.
14:49
Now the election takes place on August 24th, 1994, but the opposition candidate, the main opposition candidate, Cuauhtemoc Cardenas, is surely expected to give Colosio a run for his money. Do you think that there's a possibility that this might be the first election in which the PRI actually loses and the opposition with Cuauhtemoc Cardenas actually has a chance to win or not?
21:42
It is late night Denver. We have the booze thirst for one more soul search in a city packed with blue blood prosecutors and urban developers. We are after love too. In the brown buffoon stance of middle-aged Luis Montez, we follow the drowsy meditations of this ex legal age Chicano lawyer, an accidentally trip into an old homeboy's death, Rocky Ruiz. In the sparse language and short jabs of 21 chapters, we listened to Montez decipher Rocky's last days in Denver's Aztlan, the mythical land and moment of Chicano's 60s unity. Montez doesn't look back willingly. He seeks this home base by accident. In broken desks and hidden journals, he uncovers the old student walkout days, Chicano Power chance, and Red Beret rallies. Montez is more interested in finding his own life center at Lawley's Taco Shack over beans and bourbon, slouch and sport bars, or in his collapsing legal practice, he half digests the city machine.
22:57
He doles over his divorce, his abandoned kids, and Jesus, his fading father. Montez feels the grip of hooded men and the heat of racial slurs as he plays back Rocky's killing. Yet all Montez can do is whimper. He spills nostalgia and spits barrio desolation until he traces the sudden death of another companero, Tino Pacheco. Tino's death leads him to Rocky's last night and breaks open the trap door to Los Guerrilleros, a tight-knit Chicano homeboy crew of the 60s led by Rocky Ruiz. Finding Rocky requires fumbling through romance, sex, and the voices of wives and stark eye Chicanas. Montez meets Teresa Fuentes, a Chicana with multiple names and guises. By day, the only minority lawyer working for an upscale firm. By night, a silvery persona with a secret assignment in Denver that will unravel the mystery around Rocky's death. Montez is condemned to seek who killed Rocky Ruiz. Why is the crew of the old Movimiento Gang being quickly taken out in cold blood?
24:32
Montez finds the answers in shreds. The truer keys come from the private knowledge and power that Teresa and her mother, Margarita, possess. Although the figure of Rocky Ruiz at times appears utopian and forced, this is outweighed by the complex development of Teresa's and Margarita's voice. Manuel Ramos writes a ballad where we must discover the hero and the heroine, where we must rise through a post-modern turf of laws, cultural rupture, and reassess the meanings of a bygone social movement that only comes to us in memory fevers in two-fisted blows against the 21st century in the elegance of versions of women in male-centered networks. Who is this lawyer dude Montez? Maybe it is not Rocky. We are after. Maybe we are looking for the 90s hombre, alone now. No longer surrounded by his homeboy vatos. No longer insulated by his self-made narratives for justice and revolucion. Ramos asks us, "Who will search for him? Who and where is he now?"
26:05
This poem was written for Elizabeth Ramos, who upon discovering that she was HIV positive, became very active in the fight against aids and who died November 6th, 1988. Death by Association for Elizabeth Ramos.
Latino USA Episode 35
01:58
On December 2, Arizona Governor Fife Symington led an entourage of state and federal health and environmental officials to Nogales, Arizona to announce the creation of a border health task force to study the problem. Though more money has been promised to study the diseases, the causes are still anybody's guess. The residents of Nogales are still waiting for answers. For Latino USA, I'm David Barbour in Tucson.
05:48
The North American Free Trade Agreement will be enacted on January 1st, gradually eliminating tariffs and other trade barriers over the next 15 years. For Latino USA, I'm Patricia Guadalupe in Washington.
09:20
For all of us, it shows us that we're not alone. We know that there's a lot of people that support it, the efforts of Cesar. When 50,000 people joined us in Delano, California on April 29th for Cesar's funeral, that gave us the spirit and encouraged us to continue right then on. All of these re-namings of schools, of streets, of libraries, of parks and so forth continue to give us that strength and courage, and show us and demonstrate to us that we're not alone by any means, and that there's millions of people that continue to support this movement.
22:59
Our Lady came on December 12, 1531 and within the next 10 years, over 10 million Indians had been baptized. No longer were the Franciscans trying to convince them into persuading, but they were coming trying to persuade the Franciscans to baptize him because they would say, "The Mother of God has appeared to one us," like one of us, And we want to belong to her son, and they wanted to be baptized.