Annotations for People: Murillo-mario--mario A

Myrna Nieves, Maritza Arrastia and Ana Lopez Betancourt, three Puerto Rican poets living and working in New York City. Together they're carving a niche for Puerto Rican women writers in an arena traditionally dominated by men. The three poets founded the Atabex literature collection, which publishes the work of Puerto Rican women writers. Atabex comes from the Taino word meaning mother of the universe. Myrna Nieves says they're celebrating the diversity of writers coming from the community.

Poet and educator, Ana Lopez Betancourt.

Among the things to explore is the challenge of being an immigrant woman in a male-dominated culture. Once again, poet Myrna Nieves.

Theater Director and poet Maria Mar.

The Atabex literature collection will publish the work of many other Puerto Rican women in the coming months, including an anthology of poetry expected to be released this winter. For Latino USA, I'm Mario Murillo.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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