Annotations for People: Alegria-isabel

Senator Boxer's legislation would provide for at least $2 million to train members of the National Guard to assist the border patrol along the Border. Guard members would be asked to serve all or part of their obligatory 15 days per year at border stations. The plan has come under attack from Hispanic civil rights groups who say it would further militarize the border. Boxer's legislation is part of a larger defense spending bill that must still be approved by the full Senate and a joint committee of both the House and Senate. For Latino USA, Isabel Alegria in San Francisco.

[Footsteps] Kathleen Barron, the show's curator leads the way into a small gallery hung with portions of murals from Teotihuacan, that date back some 1300 years. Their surfaces seem flecked with thousands of tiny stars.

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.

Barron says experts from the US and Mexico worked closely for nearly a decade on the murals. Their work inspired the exhibit and also prompted a special outreach effort by the de Young to the Hispanic community. Today, a colorful mural painted by Latino artists beckons museum goers in to see the exhibit. There are Spanish signs throughout and Mexican-American singer Linda Ronstadt hosts a show's audio tour.

Besides the murals, the exhibit features elaborately crafted incense burners and ritual figurines used by the people of Teotihuacan, which at its height was the world's sixth-largest city and a major Mesoamerican ceremonial site. The exhibit shows Teotihuacan's influence on the Aztecs who came some 600 years later. One gallery shows an extraordinary collection of greenstone, alabaster, and onyx masks used in the hundreds of temples that once lined Teotihuacan street of the dead. 18-year old museum goer, Judith Torres found the masks unsettling.

Teotihuacan was dedicated primarily to two principle deities, a storm god, an early inspiration for the Aztec rain god Tlaloc. And an earth goddess, who some scholars think may distinguish Teotihuacan as the only Mesoamerican civilization with a goddess as supreme deity. Curator Kathy Barron.

Barron says some experts believe Mexico's Virgen de Guadalupe is a continuation of this ancient earth goddess in her beneficent form. These Latino visitors to the exhibit found their own examples of how the art of Teotihuacan resounds in their lives today.

When Teotihuacan, city of the Gods, ends its run at the M. H. de Young Museum, the collection of Teotihuacan's murals will remain on display as part of the museum's permanent collection. For Latino USA, I'm Isabel Alegria in San Francisco.

Proposition 174 would give each student $2,600 in state education funds, to use toward tuition at participating private or religious schools. Advocate Sean Walsh says, "Simply put, the voucher initiative would give parents, especially those stuck in inner city schools, the power to ensure their children get a good education."

Opponents of the measure say, if it were that simple, Californians would be embracing Prop 174 wholeheartedly. But recent polls show they're not. Rick Ruiz is a spokesperson for the No on 174 campaign. He says one of the measure's main problems is that it would give all students a voucher, including 500,000 already enrolled in private schools. That means a drain of more than a billion dollars in public education funds to private schools over three years. Ruiz says advocates of the voucher plan are unconcerned about the effect on public schools.

Prop 174 has been rejected by many Hispanic civil rights groups, including MALDEF, LULAC and the Latino Issues Forum. Ruiz says there's no question that voters in California, especially Latinos and African Americans, want to see education reform, but not at the expense of public schools. In interviews outside Lazear Elementary School in Oakland, parents, most of them Latinos, express this same sentiment. But there is another concern over Prop 174, says Edgardo Franco, who was at Lazear to pick up his little sister and says he'll vote no on the measure.

Franco is expressing a widespread concern about the voucher plan that opponents say may result in the measure's defeat. Polls show most voters don't want public money to go to private schools that aren't required to hold to state standards on academic safety or teacher training. Rick Ruiz of the No on 174 campaign says even if parents did believe that private schools were better, most of them would be hard-pressed to send their kids to the private schools of their choice.

Proponents of Prop 174 say these negative arguments are based on false information. Advocate Sean Walsh says surveys show most private schools, like parochial schools, would be accessible with a voucher. As for state supervision of schools, Walsh says it has hardly resulted in a top-notch public system. But Walsh says, what will influence voters the most to support the voucher plan is their disillusionment at the pace of school reform.

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.

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.

Ramiro Hernandez, a Guatemalan immigrant and former Avis employee says he clearly remembers the incident that finally drove him and 16 other workers to sue Avis for discrimination.

Hernandez says that day a calculator was found missing from a returned rental car. Avis managers detained 15 Latinos in the lunchroom, including some who were just coming onto their shift, then they called the police. Non-Latinos were allowed to return to work

Hernandez says Latinos were repeatedly accused of theft and denied benefits routinely granted other employees.

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.