Annotations for Subject-headings: Governors

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

When he died, César Chávez vacated the post he had held for over 20 years as president of the United Farm Workers. Towards the end of his tenure, though, the organization was faced with much criticism over the handling of the last grape boycott and a decreasing membership of farmworkers. In naming a new president, the UFW could have chosen Dolores Huerta, the co-founder of the organization. She said it would've been symbolic but, in fact, that the Farm Workers Union needed to move forward. So last week, the torch was passed to the younger generation. Arturo Rodríguez, Chávez's son-in-law is the new UFW president. The future of the UFW was on the minds of many who gathered at the memorial service for the longtime union leader. From Delano, Alberto Aguilar reports.

[Transitional corrido music]

This retired farmworker brought his accordion to Delano to remember César Chávez. Old-timers like him have been through a lot in the last 30 years, ever since César Chávez began organizing in the fields. The corridos tell the story of the struggle to improve the lot of the most impoverished of American workers. With the passing of their leader, unionized farmworkers now turn their heads to the future. While some may say these are unsettled times for the UFW, others see it as a rebirth. Organizer Humberto Gómez said Chávez's crusade won battles on the strength of our conviction of justice in the fields and that justice is still worth fighting for.

See, what happened is, like César used to say, the UFW is not only a union; it's a social movement. We belong to the community, and the community belongs to us. So we are part of the community, and that way, we will never die. You know, it is like me…you know, I start when I was 15 years old. I got my family here marching with me, and then more farmworker kids are going to be coming, and they're going to be getting involved in this. So we will never be shrinking, we will never die because this is a good movement. This is the best movement.

Another UFW organizer says he's not concerned at the passing of Chávez or the death of the union. Bobby de la Cruz, whose father was killed in an early union-organizing drive, said Chávez prepared them for his departure.

When I went and seen his coffin, you could see his face. I mean, he died peacefully, but you could tell that the work that he wants us to do is there. And he knows that, and we know, that the commitment is even stronger now. And I think this summer, you'll see the fruit of his labor really producing because it has inspired us to say that the union is alive, the leadership that it has. I mean, we come from that school. We've been at it for 20…25 years, and we're young, we're moving ahead and moving the movement forward to where he wants us.

For a time in the '70s, farmworkers had political clout in California. They even got the governor Jerry Brown, Jr., to sign a landmark legislation establishing the Agricultural Labor Relations Board. But through two successive Republican administrations, the tide started to turn against the farmworkers. California political consultant, Richie Ross.

I think César came to conclusion, and I think the correct one, that this movement has to win on the strength of average people and not be dependent on politicians.

Was that evident to you, and how?

He hasn't had any serious communication with any politicians in a long time. They haven't done anything. I mean, he tried everything. He supported them. He did it with money, he did it with people. He's done it every way you're supposed to play. He played the game the way everyone says you're supposed to play the game. He played the game. He got the law passed. He continued to support them all. And when push came to shove, all that he could do was no match for the money of the agricultural interests in the state. And uhh…I think he came to the conclusion when he started the grape boycott the second time several years ago that they're going to have to do it the old-fashioned way.

The union has also been weakened by internal strife and dissension within the ranks. But in the wake of César Chávez's death, the disaffected and the estranged have come back. Like California Senator Art Torres, many are talking about a renewal of the UFW.

It's a healing process for all of us. And now we realize that we still have a lot of work to do, and I think his death gives us all a rebirth of where we have to recommit ourselves even stronger now to erase some of these injustices which continue in one of the richest states in the world.

The newly appointed successor to César Chávez, Arturo Rodríguez, started as a union organizer in the '70s. The Chávez lieutenant will have to deal with difficult issues like the grape boycott, the legal challenges by the growers, and the ban on toxic pesticides in the fields. Rodríguez will need the determination and daring Chávez taught his organizers. For Latino USA, this is Alberto Aguilar, reporting from Delano, California.

I am Maria Hinojosa on the 4th of July at the Spanish Colonial Governor's Palace in San Juan, Puerto Rico's pro-statehood governor Pedro Rosello, signed a bill which calls for a plebiscite to be held this November to decide Puerto Rico's political future. With us on the phone from San Juan to talk about what this latest step means for Puerto Rico is political analyst Juan Manuel Garcia Passalacqua. It seems that the Puerto Rican people are forever voting on or debating or talking about whether they want to be a state, remain a commonwealth, or be granted their independence. Now, is there anything different about the process that began with Pedro Rosello, the governor's, latest effort?

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

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

What's happening at this point is that Congressman Jose Serrano, a Puerto Rican from New York has introduced a resolution that will be discussed in the House Interior Committee that in effect, does two things. Number one, recognizes the right of the people of Puerto Rico to self-determination, and number two, commits the Congress to respond to the expression of the will of the people of Puerto Rico. So that the people of Puerto Rico will next year, know exactly what the reaction of the Congress has been to whatever wins in November of this Year.

Now, Juan Manuel, the fact is that Puerto Rico has been struggling with this issue for many years. [Interruption, “Absolutely”] It's an island where we've had Spanish declared the official language at times. Other times English has been taught forcibly in the schools.

That's right.

Can Puerto Rico in fact become the 51st state of the United States, and how does that look in the future?

Well, the state of movement itself, Maria has announced that only one senator, Senator Paul Simon of Illinois, has already committed himself to submit enabling legislation if statehood is voted on by the people. On the other hand, my own pulse of the Senate indicates that 29 senators will oppose the granting of stated offhand and from the very beginning. So here we have a very lopsided thing. I mean, we already have 29 names that will oppose statehood, only one that will favor it. But I think that the issue is not really whether the statehood will be granted or not. The issue is that the things will be forced to speak, that the Senate will, in effect, respond and take a position on the admission of Puerto Rico as a state of the Union.

Pues muchas gracias Juan Manuel Garcia Passalacqua, a columnist for the Miami Herald and a political commentator in Puerto Rico. Muchas gracias, Juanma.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This healthcare system of ours is badly broken and it is time to fix it.

Nothing short of a social revolution is how some describe President Clinton's attempt to reform the nation's health system and provide comprehensive health coverage for all Americans.

If you lose your job or you switch jobs, you're covered. If you leave your job to start a small business, you're covered.

As many as a third of you as Latinos now lack health coverage. Perhaps no group stands to benefit more from an extension of health insurance, but members of the Hispanic Medical Association, a coalition of 25 Latino health groups say they have several concerns about the administration's health plan. Among these, what happens to community health clinics and to the public health if there is no coverage for the undocumented. Association president, Dr. Elena Rios.

Very few Latinos have been involved with the policymaking process and we think that we can add more of our own insight if we can be involved at every level, but we think that once the new health system happens, in whatever form, that Latino representation be mandated.

Latino health advocates also want to see a health system that is culturally and linguistically accessible to the country's 24 million Latinos. Mexican president Carlos Salina de Gortari paid a visit to the US recently to promote the embattled North American Free Trade Agreement. In California, Salina said free trade is the key to stopping illegal immigration from Mexico. Isabella Legria reports

In a speech before corporate VIPs from 65 countries meeting in San Francisco, Salina said Mexico needs to invest in itself if it is to curb the flight of Mexicans to the US in search of work.

I will also emphasize that we want trade and not aid. It is trade that will provides us with the opportunities to invest more, to produce more, to create more job opportunities in Mexico.

Salinas went on to say that undocumented Mexican immigrants are wrongly accused of relying on government support at the expense of US taxpayers who see them as a burden, not a resource.

Mexicans who come to the US looking for jobs in this country take risks, are very courageous and very talented people. That is why we want them in Mexico.

Earlier this month, California governor Pete Wilson wrote to the Mexican president saying that NAFTA was endangered by a perception that Mexico was not making efforts to curb the illegal immigration of Mexicans to the US. Wilson has proposed denying healthcare and access to public education to the undocumented in California. For Latino USA, I'm Isabella Lagria in San Francisco.

In San Diego, the county board of Supervisors has voted to bill the federal government for the cost of services provided to the undocumented in this country. Board members say they plan to charge President Clinton for the cost of providing hospital care and jail service to day laborers. This vote follows debate in several San Diego area school districts over the cost of educational access by undocumented immigrants. Wanda Levine reports on a resolution passed in the San Diego community of Vista, which criticizes federal laws requiring all children be taught regardless of citizenship districts.

The original resolution endorsed efforts by California Governor Pete Wilson to control illegal immigration. But public outcry and disagreement among board members toned down the final resolution to read, "The school board is concerned about legislation designed to curtail illegal immigration." School board member Joyce Lee proposed the resolution.

I'd like to be able to count the illegals, send the number back to Washington and ask for federal funding that they would send in foreign aid to Mexico because these are their people. So let's get some of that money back to the school districts.

The final vote on the resolution came after 30 minutes of heated public comments, most critical of the decree. Many called the resolution racist. For Latino USA, I'm Wanda Levine in San Diego.