Annotations for Subject-headings: Protest Movements

A report by the US Civil Rights Commission says Latinos in the nation's capital suffered discrimination in social services, jobs, and from the police. Pedro Avilés is the executive director of the DC Civil Rights Task Force.

A report by the US Civil Rights Commission says Latinos in the nation's capital suffered discrimination in social services, jobs, and from the police. Pedro Avilés is the executive director of the DC Civil Rights Task Force.

What the US Civil Rights Commission does is that it substantiates what we've been saying. Now we have a report from a federal agency that is basically saying the District of Columbia government is guilty of mistreating Latinos.

What the US Civil Rights Commission does is that it substantiates what we've been saying. Now we have a report from a federal agency that is basically saying the District of Columbia government is guilty of mistreating Latinos.

The Civil Rights Commission says conditions which led to three days of riots two years ago in Washington's Mount Pleasant District also exist in other US cities. The report recommends DC Mayor Sharon Pratt Kelly begin outreach to the Latino community. You're listening to Latino USA.

The Civil Rights Commission says conditions which led to three days of riots two years ago in Washington's Mount Pleasant District also exist in other US cities. The report recommends DC Mayor Sharon Pratt Kelly begin outreach to the Latino community. You're listening to Latino USA.

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

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

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[Faint voice in the background]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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[Transitional Music]

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

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

[Clapping sounds]

[Clapping sounds]

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

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

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

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

This is Latino USA, a radio journal of news and culture. I'm María Hinojosa. Today on Latino USA: two years after the Mount Pleasant riots in the nation's capital.

Overnight, Latinos were an issue in Washington DC.

Where US Latinos stand on the Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico.

The jobs that are expected to be lost are the low-skilled, low-paying jobs that so many Latinos in this country hold.

Also, Afro-Cuban jazz pioneer, Mario Bauzá, and some thoughts on what's really important.

Here on top of the earth, we have everything a man can need. What more can one ask for?

All this here on Latino USA, but first: las noticias.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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.

[Crowd chanting]

Many Latinos from across the country were among the hundreds of thousands of gays and lesbians who recently converged on Washington, D.C. They gathered in the nation's capital to celebrate their identities and demand lesbian and gay rights. In the wake of that event, Mandalit del Barco in New York spoke with several gay and lesbian Latino activists, and she prepared this report.

It's very, very difficult just to be lesbian or gay and be Latino, but I guess that at the same time, it's very beautiful.

Gay activists like Hector Seda are becoming more politically active, out there proclaiming their identities and working on issues like AIDS and equal rights. Seda is a board member of LLEGO, a national organization of lesbian and gay Latinos. He sees in this country and in Latin America an emerging political force.

It's beginning. It's happening in Puerto Rico. It's happening in general, all…I mean, it's happening in this country right now. Everybody, us, general Latinos and gays in this country, we're fighting for basic human rights.

We also have to be ready for the backlash because with visibility, there comes a very strong backlash, and usually, it's very violent.

Juan Méndez is a gay Puerto Rican who documents cases of gay bashing for the New York City Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project. Méndez rejects the stereotype that Latinos traditionally have more difficulty acknowledging homosexuality than do other cultures.

Homophobia is not any more or any less than in any other community, and I think that when people start talking about the taboos and machismo, you know, and things that, really, we have a very…I would call it a racist slant or context, because, you know, I don't see any other culture that has it any different.

Many gay Latinos, like Méndez, believe that the issues important to them are not necessarily reflected in the agenda of the gay movement as a whole. For instance, he says, the issue of including gays in the military was declared an issue by white gay activists.

I, as a gay person, have no interest in being part of a military core that has invaded not only my country, but has also supported dictatorships, right-wing dictatorships in many Latin American countries, and no one in the gay and lesbian community has stopped to think about what this means for non-white lesbians and gays.

The emphasis on this issue also bothers Terry, a New York City lesbian who declined to give her last name for fear of alienating her Cuban abuelita, her grandmother. She says that when she was at the march in Washington, she was so offended that she found herself booing when they called out the names of gay military men.

Clearly, I see that the mainstream gay and lesbian movement has become more and more focused on their primary desire is to be regular Americans. That is what is happening in this gays and the military thing. They want the right to be regular Americans. Well, we're not regular Americans, no matter what we do, so I don't fit into that agenda, and I don't want to, and I never would, even if I tried.

These activists say that while some differences exist over so-called gay and lesbian issues, what is important is for lesbian and gay Latinos to develop their own unique political agendas, and not only within gay political circles, says Méndez.

We have to fight within the gay and lesbian community at large for our issues as Latinos, but we cannot forget to fight within our Latino community at large for our issues as gay and lesbian people.

For Latino USA, I'm Mandalit del Barco in New York.

By now, Dr. Loco's Rockin' Jalapeño Band has a reputation up and down the California coast. Their fun-loving style is broad in its range, from cumbias like this…to Dixieland, the blues, or a mix of gospel and soca, with a little bit of Afro-Cuban percussion for spice. The members of this nine-piece band like to think of their work as Chicano world music. The band leader is Dr. Loco, also known as Professor José Cuéllar, PhD and chairman of La Raza studies department at San Francisco State University. Dr. Loco says his music is an example of what Chicano culture is all about, mixing and blending unlikely elements to create something entirely new.

We see Afro-Cuban rhythms that have been a part of our culture since the '20s. We see Germanic elements that have been part of our music since the late 1800s. We see indigenous rhythms and indigenous instruments and the reintegration and the influence of nueva canción of the '60s, the cha-chas and mambos of the '40s and '50s, the doo-wop of the '50s, 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.

You know, you've also done something that is really somewhat daring. You've taken a term, “pocho,” which if it's used by a Mexican towards a Mexican, it can be taken as an insult that you're too pocho. That means you're too Americanized, but you've in fact taken this term, and you've said that you pocho-sized something.

Absolutely! We're very proud of being not only bilingual, actually multilingual, and not only bicultural but multicultural. And for the longest time, we were put down on the one side for being too Mexican and on the other side for being too anglicized or too Africanized. And uhh...we decided to, you know, take a cultural position in saying, “we're pochos and proud of it.” You know, somos bilingües. So what? In fact, we see that being bilingual, even when changing the lyrics, we're speaking to two different, actually, three different groups: monolingual English speakers who fill in the blanks, monolingual Spanish speakers who fill in the blanks, and bilingual razas, who trip off on how we can do this.

You mean they're the lucky ones out of…they're the luckiest ones because they can understand everything that's going on?

Well, they appreciate… you know, we appreciate it at a deeper level.

You can really hear the pocho-sizing of your music when you take a song, like "I Feel Chingon" from your album "Con Safos" or "Chile Pie" also from "Con Safos," both of these are like '50s remakes of Black songs, que no?

Absolutely, absolutely…those…I feel "Chingon" is our Jalapeño version of James Brown's "I Feel Good," and "Chile Pie" is the classic…a remake of the classic. It's always reverberated in the Chicano community…resonated. It's the "Cherry Pie."

[Dr. Loco's Rockin' Jalapeño Band music]

Black music is a very important part of the Chicano experience from the West Coast.

It's been an integral experience throughout. I mean, whether we're Chicanos in Tejas, we had the influence of the Louis Armstrongs and the Dixielands way back. I mean, Ernie Cáceres, Emilio Cáceres, the jazz musicians, were tremendous in the '30s, were influenced by Afro-Americans a lot from New Orleans, and then throughout the '40s and '50s, the blues had been strong. Some of our greatest blues singers, Chicano blues singers, have been tremendously influenced by the blues. Freddy Fender, you know, wrote "Wasted Days," the first Chicano blues.

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 '70s or '80s, real staid, 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 panfletária, really propagandistic, and, on the other hand, really wanting to do something that is communicating something else on a cultural level?

Well, you know, the reason we included that song…in fact, that song was the reason …the rest of the album grew out of that song, conceptually, for me, and that song was a song that we performed because the farm workers are still boycotting grapes and because we're so close to really having more and more people understand the dilemma of pesticides, you know, on our food and our jobs and how many people in Earlimart and in other communities are really suffering from these pesticides, and there's other…there has to be other ways of dealing with our food so that we have safe food and safe jobs.

Well, what do you say to people who believe that political music like this is really passé, that it's something of the past and that it's really from an old school, an old trend that's already gone?

Well, you know, I say to them, you know, the lyrics of "The Picket Sign," you know?

El picket sign. El picket sign. Boycott the Jolly Green Giant. El picket sign. El picket sign. Let's stop, run away in the street. El picket sign. El picket sign. Support the displaced workers. El picket sign. El picket sign. [unintelligible]. From San Antonio to San Francisco.

We were encouraged to produce the music because of the movement, not because of the other way around. We were encouraged by what seems to be conditions all around us.

The last piece on your CD is an interesting remake and an interesting version of "We Shall Overcome."

Nosotros venceremos. We shall overcome. Nosotros venceremos. Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe we shall overcome someday. ¡Soca, Loco!

We believe that this is the essential song for the movement of social justice. I mean, it has been…it's the one that's sung all over the world, from Tiananmen Square to Berlin to South Africa to the fields of California. So we decided to do a remake, our own remake blending something that would kind of reflect both its historical essence…and its rooted in the South and southern spirituals and the African American experience, but that has gone around the world and back, and with different and interesting influences. So, that's why we decided to do it in a blending of spiritual soca with Chicano Jalapeño flavor.

Speaking with us from KQED studios in San Francisco, Professor José Cuéllar, leader of Dr. Loco's Rockin' Jalapeño Band.

[Dr. Loco's Rockin' Jalapeño Band music]

This is Latino USA, a radio journal of news and culture. I'm María Hinojosa. Today on Latino USA: in memory of César Chávez, a special report from Delano, California.

We shall miss César's powerful voice. His life and its example call each of us to a higher purpose. ¡Viva la raza! ¡Viva la causa! ¡Viva César Chávez!

And César's own words from his last major speech.

It is a boycott…public action…that saved this union. It is the only way we've ever made any progress, is through the boycott.

Also, health in the Latino community and the Clinton Health Plan. All this on Latino USA. But first: las noticias.

In Kansas City, it was built as a peace and justice summit as African American and Latino gang members gathered to try to chart a new direction for urban youth. From Kansas City, Frank Morris reports.

The gang members, former gang members, and community activists who met at the Urban Peace and Justice Summit have announced goals to make their embattled neighborhoods and barrios safer and wealthier. They say a new generation of urban leaders has emerged from the summit and formed a coalition between African Americans and Latinos to stop gang violence. Nane Alejandrez is executive director of the National Coalition to End Barrio Warfare in Santa Cruz, California.

We're tired of seeing our mothers at the graveyard. I personally have lost 2 brothers, 7 relatives, 20 relatives to the penitentiary, and I am tired, and I come here as a peacemaker.

Summit participants have agreed to spread the urban peace movement to fight police brutality and to pressure President Clinton to create a half a million dollars’ worth of new inner-city youth jobs. For Latino USA, I'm Frank Morris.

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

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

[Crowd cheering]

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

[Crowd cheering]

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

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

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

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

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

¡Nosotros venceremos! ¡Nosotros venceremos ahora!

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

Nosotros venceremos.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

For Latino USA, I'm Diana Martínez.

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.

Welcome this evening, César Chávez of the United Farm Workers of America.

[Clapping]

Very early in our struggle, we found that…we really couldn't beat the growers at their own game…in their own turf. And taking a page from…Gandhi and Dr. King and others, we came to the conclusion that we had to involve half of the world to beat the growers and that we could not do it through public policy. Workers are not covered by any protective laws for collective bargaining. And…those local courts will issue out injunctions like…they were going out of style. We were going to strike. But we also found out that they couldn’t really…although they're very powerful, that they really couldn't reach out to Chicago or Boston or even San Francisco or [unintelligible] or other places…across the border to Canada or Mexico. And that there, we could begin to have a more level playing field.

I'm talking now of public action or the boycott. It is a boycott… public action…that saved this union. It is the only way we've ever made any progress, is through the boycott. We've never won anything without the boycott. The boycott or a threat of the boycott. It's a terrible irony that in our day and our age, our country produces more food than what it really needs…yet the men, women, and children whose labor harvests this food often go to bed hungry. That's a terrible irony, and that's why we're here, and we ask you to join us, to join us to put a stop to that. Thank you very much.

[Clapping]

[Corrido music about César Chávez]

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.

A delegation from the Puerto Rican island of Vieques, the site of a US naval base, came to Washington to ask Congress to close that base. Robert Rabin, head of the Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques says the Navy's presence on the island has had a negative impact on the economy and environment.

The US Navy has been bombing the island of Vieques for the last 50 years, and they also use the Western and the Vieques as giant ammunition depot. So we are asking now that the Vieques Navy bases be included in the base closure program, which is part of the Clinton administration's plan for reducing military expenditures.

A spokesperson for the Navy says moving the personnel station on Vieques could cost the Navy much more than it paid for the base in 1940. You're listening to Latino USA.

This is Maria Hinojosa. The memory of farm worker leader Cesar Chavez continues to be honored throughout the country. In Los Angeles, there's talk of naming a boulevard after him and a bill has been introduced in the state of California to make his birthday a statewide holiday. Recently, in another state, in El Paso, Texas, the city and county government declared a Cesar Chavez Day when a local supermarket chain announced it would honor the boycott of table grapes advocated by the United Farm Workers. Cesar Chavez Day in El Paso was also commemorated with a march attended by farm workers and farm worker advocates. It was an occasion, as an Angelica Luevano reports, to focus on the plight of the farm workers who picked chile in the fields of West Texas and Southern New Mexico.

Close to 3,000 gathered to pay tribute to the late Cesar Chavez, the farm labor leader who fought to better working conditions in the picking fields. And it's here near the border with Mexico, in the chile fields, where the worst working conditions prevailed, according to Carlos Marentes, president of the Border Farm Workers Union.

Farm workers in this area are still receiving wages way below the federal minimum wage. They are working on their unhealthy and unsafe working conditions, and they continue to be treated in an inhuman way by the agri business and the food industry.

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.

The sad thing is, here in El Paso, in southern New Mexico, even the minimal laws are not complied with and they're broken more than they're complied with.

Is the situation here for the farm workers worse than in any part of the country or what is the situation?

I think it's probably the worst of any place in the country because of our day hall system and that means that people are recruited one day at a time, they spend four to five hours a day in old dangerous school buses going a hundred to 120 miles away to work, picking chile in 100, 110-degree heat on a piece rate. They don't even make minimum wage for time in the fields, let alone for travel time, and the workers are made homeless. These are people who maybe have homes, but they have to sleep in the streets of El Paso so they can get a job every day.

Even the Catholic diocese of El Paso has joined in the call for better working conditions. Bishop Raymundo Peña honored Cesar Chavez and the struggle of the farm workers.

We are consciously aware of the fact that we must carry on his work. That much remains to be done in order to bring about the necessary legal and social changes that may ensure just wages for the farm worker, fair treatment in the workplace, and a life of dignity and respect that results when civil and human rights are protected.

Three years ago, over 100 workers went on strike against one of the largest chile farms in New Mexico, and as a result, a collective bargaining agreement was signed. That contract has not been renewed. Still, labor leader Carlos Marentes says the farm workers' movement is alive and as time goes on, more attention continues to be focused on the plight of the chile workers. For Latino USA, I'm Angelica Luevano in El Paso, Texas.

[chanting] This is news from Latinos USA. I'm Maria Martin. A hunger strike by Chicano students at the University of California at Los Angeles has ended happily. The students who had fasted on water only for nearly two weeks reached an accord with UCLA Chancellor Charles Young, over their demand for the establishment of a Chicano studies department.

I want to let you know what we won today. First of all, we won the Cesar Chavez Center for Chicana and Chicano studies. Second of all, we got the administration to realize that the 99 students that protested in the faculty center are not criminals, but they're political activists and we have the charges dropped. Third, we got the administration to recognize the validity of ethnic and gender studies on this campus and guaranteed two years of no budget cuts for any of those programs. [sounds from community gathering]

The final agreement falls short of the students' original demand that Chicano studies become a full-fledged department on campus. Nevertheless, the development was greeted as a major step forward by the students and their supporters, including California State Senator Art Torres and Dolores Huerta of the United Farm Workers.

We're going to have one of these in every UC campus in the state of California. [gatherting sounds]

We're showing here, in the spirit of Cesar Chavez, that we can make social change, that we can right the wrongs that people have done against us with gun violence, by unity and by sacrifice. And by working together, we can make them listen to us. [gatherting sounds][nat sound, music]

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

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

I wouldn't be working in broadcasting today if it had not been for a group, an offshoot of la Raza Unida party in San Antonio 25 years ago. They picketed outside a top 40 station in San Antonio and demanded that they hire a force on the air that was more representative of the population of San Antonio.

According to the United States Census Bureau, Latinos make up almost 10% of the total population. But Latinos in newsrooms around the country account for less than 5% of the work staff. Dolores Huerta, Vice President of United Farm Workers, says this leads to stereotypical portrayals in the media.

I think all of us probably have felt that what we get portrayed in the media as Latinos as Mexican Americans, is that we're all illegal aliens, right? And if you're not an illegal alien, you're a drug runner.

Hispanics, Latinos, Chicanos, Central Americanos were pictured and represented in a negative rather than positive way.

Cruz Reynoso, a former California State Supreme Court judge, has recently been named to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission.

What does the media have to do with civil rights? And I must say that in my view, it has everything to do with civil rights, because the media is an important element in our country in setting the national agenda for issues to be discussed, issues to be debated, what makes America, who represents America, who are we.

Reynoso says lack of coverage of Latino issues makes this population almost invisible to the rest of the country. One example of this was the failure of the media to accurately report how the Los Angeles disturbances of last year affected Latinos. He also cited studies documenting not only a lack of positive Latino images but also how the media has ignored this segment of the population.

More often than not, particularly not in the news reporting but in the general programming, Latinos were reported not at all.

NAHJ President, Diane Alverio, says the poor portrayal of Latinos in the media is due in part to the small number of Latinos in the industry. Her organization is poised to try and change that.

We move forward with a determination and desire of so many Latinos before us, and that is to achieve equality. For us, that is to achieve equality in the newsrooms of this country. We ask for nothing more, for nothing less.

For "Latino USA," I am Barrie Lynn Tapia with Arthur Dungan in Washington.

And finally, to get a poet's perspective on this year's National Association of Hispanic Journalist Conference, we turned to José Burciaga. He watched and listened as journalists mingled. Burciaga found a feisty network of Latino media professionals and evidence in the form of a fruit that there is still much more work to be done in consciousness raising.

It was a study of appreciation and diversity. Latino journalists could not take each other at face value. Blonde, blue-eyed, or African-American journalists could have easily been of Mexicano, Puerto Rican, or Colombian descent. The presence of women was strong, beginning with association president, Diane Alverio, who did express a lack of diversity in news media management. Only 3% of Latino journalists are managers.

At a noontime luncheon, Leonard Downie, executive editor of "The Washington Post," lamented the lack of training among all journalists. Despite the diversity of the term "all," he was taken to task for something Latinos hear a little too often: "You are ill prepared."

There was networking, interviewing for new jobs, old jobs, and workshops on everything from covering the Supreme Court to how to write a book. The conference was dedicated to the memory of Cesar Chavez with United Farm Worker Vice President Dolores Huerta giving a plenary session speech. Organizers had made sure no grapes would be served at the hotel, this to honor the United Farm Worker grape boycott. Nevertheless, an evening reception hosted by the "Chicago Tribune" featured the typical hors d'oeuvre fare crowned with a pineapple surrounded by two luscious mounds of forbidden grapes. Bothered by the hypocrisy and insensitivity, I placed the grapes on a silver tray, covered them with a napkin, laid the tray on the floor, and applied gentle foot pressure on the plump, juicy grapes. With a boycott sign over the squashed grapes, I placed the tray at the floor entrance, but this was not the end.

The word spread, and grapes were spotted at another reception on the terrace of the Freedom Forum office building. Hispanic Link News Service publisher Charlie Ericksen, carefully dumped them over the side of the 25th-floor terrace. No grapes were reported to have survived. And still, this was not the end. At another reception given by the Organization of American States, grapes were again served. This time I gave them a gentle warning, and the grapes were removed.

The OAS reception and grape boycott were a fitting end to the NAHJ conference. As I looked across the Grand Halls bedecked with the many colorful flags representing our mother countries, we invoked the memory of Cesar Chavez.

Poet José Antonio Burciaga lives, writes, and paints in the San Francisco Bay Area.

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.

I'm Sandra Levinson. I'm from New York, but I started on the Duluth route.

Joe Callahan from Minneapolis.

I’m Henry Garcia from Chicago.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Telephone calls to my office, threatening to come over with a pistol and take care of me.

Still. Walker insists he is not engaging in politics, only in the highest tradition of religious principles and civil disobedience.

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.

[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.

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.]

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.

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.

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...

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.

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.

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.

The incident that happened 20 years ago with Santos Rodriguez certainly cast a shadow or a cloud over the city of Dallas.

Santos is a symbol, a symbol of what was happening to the Mexican-American community and the African-American community back in 1973.

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.

[Background--Hymns]

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.

In 1973 I was 14 years old and I didn't know Santos even though I lived about three blocks from his house.

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.

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.

We're trying to make correction within the police department. That's the reason the Latino Police Officers Association formed nearly two years ago.

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."

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

City council member Domingo Garcia of Dallas, Texas.

In Chicago, the city's park district has rejected the gift of a statue of Puerto Rican nationalist Pedro Albizu Campos. And as Tony Sarabia reports, this has sparked protests from the city's Puerto Rican community.

For some, Pedro Albizu Campos is a hero who fought for Puerto Rico's independence, but his philosophy has many of Chicago's Puerto Ricans opposed to honoring a man who was jailed for attempting to assassinate President Harry Truman. A park district board spokesperson says the board didn't want to contribute to the community's division, so it decided not to accept the statue. Supporters are incensed the board is censoring a monument when it has never done so in the past. Chicago alderman Billy Ocasio calls the action hypocritical.

Where were they when they had to censor the Robert E. Lee statue? Where were they when they had to censor the Balbo statue? They haven't censored anything. Now they want to censor the Puerto Rican community.

Ocasio says the vote isn't the end of the issue. He and other Puerto Rican community leaders plan on taking their fight to court. For Latino USA I'm Tony Sarabia in Chicago,

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.

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.

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.

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.

Combining art, politics and history. These diverse works, posters, murals, and multimedia together defined a distinct Chicano aesthetic.

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.

Art historian Dr. Jacinto Quirarte curated the exhibit in San Antonio.

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.

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.

We worked the fields in the summer and on weekends during the school year, whatever crop was seasoned. So uh-

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.

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.

And for others too young or not around during the heyday of the Chicano movement, the CARA show proved an education.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

We are all determined to stay on the school bus until the school bus goes to Cuba.

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…

That among the 12 people on hunger strike is 32 year old Camilo Garcia who left Cuba four years ago.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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."

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]

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.

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.

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.

After a week of continuous protests in which Cuban exiles went on hunger strikes and burned Mexican flags and sombreros, the Mexican government reversed their stand and granted visas to the eight Cuban rafters they had originally repatriated to Cuba. Ninoska Perez of the Cuban-American National Foundation assisted the Cuban refugees in obtaining visas to come to the United States.

The Cuban exile community has shown that it does not forget the people in the island. It has shown that their voices and their actions were able to finally get something, which is really an unprecedented event, which is the return of refugees who had been deported to Cuba. This had never happened before.

But the protests against the Mexican government upset members of Miami's Mexican-American community. Susan Reina of South Dade was on a committee of Mexican-Americans that issued a press release expressing their anger at the Cuban exiles burning of the Mexican flag.

We understand that they were very upset of what happened, but they really acted very irresponsibly as far as that is concerned. I mean, what was the whole purpose of burning a Mexican flag? If they wanted to get back to President Salinas, you don't do it by burning a Mexican hat because number one, the president doesn't wear those kind of hat. Those hats are worn by common people.

Members of the Cuban-American community have apologized to the Mexican-American community for the negative reaction against Mexicans on the part of what they say is a small percentage of Cubans in Miami, but Mexican-American leaders in Miami say that healing the relations between the two Latino groups may take a while. For Latino USA, I'm Emilio San Pedro in Miami.

Mayoral elections are being held in the heavily Latino cities of Miami and New York. Dade County voters will decide between Miami Commissioner Miriam Alonso and former metro mayor, Steve Clark. While in New York, poll show incumbent Mayor David Dinkin's running neck and neck with challenger Rudolph Giuliani. And analysts say, the Latino vote could decide the election's outcome. From New York City, Mandalit del Barco reports.

Four years ago, David Dinkins won his job as mayor by beating Rudolph Giuliani by only 2% of the votes. Now, in the final days of the campaign, both mayoral candidates have been serenading Latino voters like never before.

“Papa, por quien tu vas a votar?”

“Eso no se pregunta mijo, los Latinos votamos por Dinkin.”[Latin music]

Presente! Latinas! Con Dinkins! Presente! Latinas! Con Dinkins!...

Outside City Hall recently, a group calling themselves Latinas for Dinkins rallied for the mayor, who listed some of his accomplishments.

We've made a lot of progress in the past four years, and we're not going to turn back now. I felt the sting of discrimination in my own life, and I know that unless all of us are free, none of us is free. And that's why I have appointed highly talented Latinos to top posts in my administration, more than any mayor in our city's history.

Dinkins' spokeswoman Maite Junco says Latinos have a clear choice between a progressive minority candidate and Giuliani, a conservative Republican who served in the Justice Department under Ronald Reagan.

[Background people speaking] The choice is clear. For us, it's clear, particularly for the Latino community. The mayor has done in four years what this man has not done in his lifetime.

Dinkins' has the support of Congress members, José Serrano and Nydia Velázquez, as well as Bronx borough president Fernando Ferrer. El Diario La Prensa, along with the New York Times and the Village Voice has endorsed him. And wherever he campaigns, Dinkins make sure to throw in a little Spanish.

Vaya con Dios, y mantenga la fe. [Applause]

While Dinkins got a standing ovation when he addressed a conference of Puerto Rican elderly, his challenger, Rudolph Giuliani, also received a warm reception.

Do you speak any Spanish?

Un poco, [laughter]. I understand Spanish from understanding Italian. And I can read it, but my accent is so bad. I hate to speak it. I embarrass myself. [Background-People speaking]

Giuliani's bid to win the Latino vote has been boosted by running mate Herman Badillo, the grandfather of the city's Latino politicians. A longtime Democrat, Badillo's campaigning for city controller, this time around, on the Republican liberal ticket.

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.

Herman Badillo is not the only Latino Democrat to have defected from Dinkins' camp to Giuliani's. Fire Commissioner Carlos Rivera, along with prominent political figures, Ruben Franco and Elizabeth Colón, are now supporting Giuliani, citing disillusionment with the mayor.

He has failed us, and that is the cry of the Hispanic community around the city of New York. He has failed us, and we need a change.

Around the city, Giuliani voters seem more concerned about crime, while those who favor Dinkins feel a kinship with the city's first African-American mayor.

Dinkins look like he likes Spanish people. And Giuliani, he is going to go for Italian people. So we get together, the Black and Spanish, so I think we could get him thinking back. I think he's doing all right. We have to give him a chance.

Years back, we went to the street. We went to church. We went to different places at nighttime. Now we can't go out. We're scared. Drugs is number one. [Background-People Speaking]

And you think that Giuliani will take care of that?

I think Giuliani will take care of that, yes. Maybe a change would be better.

Giuliani.

Why?

Well, he looks like he'll take care of the crime, the crime and the drugs in the street. He'll do a better job, I think.

How do you know he will?

Well, I'm not too sure, but from people talking and everything.

Giuliani is not going to win and Dinkins is going to squeak by. That's what's going to happen.

Reporter Evido De La Cruz has been covering the election for the city's largest Spanish language newspaper, El Diario La Prensa. He says, at this point, the election and the Latino vote is just too close to call.

I believe that it is such thing as a Latino vote. But who's going to get it? Nobody's sure. A lot of people are really, really upset with the mayor, because they perceive him as somebody that he didn't live up to his promises, his commitments to the Latino community. And the other part of it is that, they don't trust. For some reason, they think that Giuliani is not sensible enough, doesn't know the community. He's perceived as somebody that's going to like everybody that has this mentality of prosecutor mentality. I interview a lot of people and that's what they say. I mean, they don't know how to vote. They haven't made their mind.

In the meantime, at least one segment of the city's so-called Latino swing vote has been trying to force both mayoral candidates to address issues such as racial violence against Latinos.

Madison Avenue! This Latino swing vote is in the middle of the monster, waving our flag, demanding...

At rallies outside City Hall and outside Giuliani's headquarters, community activist Richie Perez challenged Dinkins and Giuliani to act on the recent racial murder of a Dominican teenager and the fire bombing of a home belonging to a Puerto Rican family in Brooklyn. [Background-Person giving speech]

All the polls are saying that the community has not yet made up its mind. Two weeks ago went one way. This week is going another way. It's still a volatile situation. We are here to increase the volatility of the situation and say, "If you want our votes, you got to give something up,” because it is long past the time when our community was sleeping and our votes could be taken for granted. As far as we are concerned, this is a candidate accountability demonstration.

If nothing else, says Richie Perez, this mayoral campaign has forced the candidates to put Latino issues on the political agenda. For Latino USA, I'm Mandalit del Barco in New York.

Teachers in Puerto Rico are out on strike to protest a school voucher program, which they say jeopardizes the island's public education system. And residents of the Puerto Rican island of Vieques are also protesting the US Navy, which controls two thirds of the tiny island, reportedly dropped several bombs near a residential area. Now residents are asking President Clinton to put the naval bases on Vieques on his list of base closures.

Preferably, if they would just close the bases on this island period, but priority. Stop bombing exercises on this island.

Myrna Pagan of the Committee for the Rescue of Vieques. I'm Maria Martin. You're listening to Latino USA.

This is news from Latino USA, I'm Vidal Guzmán. Latino students at Cornell University have ended a four-day sit-in of the university's administration building. The protest, which also included some African-American students, began after a Latino art display was vandalized with what the students called racist graffiti. From Syracuse, Chris Bolt filed this report.

When the piece called Burning Castle was vandalized, Latino students at Cornell saw it as an act of racism. A demonstration followed, which escalated until a group of 75 students took over the university administration building. The artwork consists of several black walls constructed at places around the campus with slogans pointing out acts of discrimination against Hispanics. Vandals defaced the work by painting swastikas on the monoliths. Students want an aggressive response from the university to stop more acts of racism. The group of protestors refused a private meeting with Cornell President Frank Rhodes, instead calling for a public discussion of this incident and hiring practices at some of the university's colleges, especially those popular with students of color. Rhodes acknowledges the concerns of the students, but says they're the same problems confronting every major school in the nation. For Latino USA, I'm Chris Bolt in Syracuse, New York.

I'm Maria Hinojosa. Since the death of farm labor leader Cesar Chavez, there's been a growing movement to name parks, streets, and libraries after the Mexican American leader. But in Fresno, California, the city council there has revoked an earlier decision to change the name of California Ventura and Kings Canyon Boulevard to honor the founder of the United Farm Workers. The decision came after a heated special session attended by over 1000 people.

Mexican American people, Scotch Irish people, Europeans, Middle Eastern people, people from Asia, people from all over the world came to this valley and built this valley, and I'm tired of hearing that Mexicans built this valley. It didn't happen that way.

The vote by Fresno City Council was four to three in favor of overriding their earlier decision regarding Cesar Chavez Boulevard. In Austin, Texas however, a similar effort has been much less controversial. In that capital city, East 1st Street was recently inaugurated as Cesar Chavez Street, with a march and other festivities.

[Background--natural sound--march] Led by a motorcycle policeman flying the red and black farm workers flag, and by a parade of low rider cars and Aztec dancers, about 1000 people marched to inaugurate Austin's new Cesar Chavez Street.

[Highlight--natural sound--march] ¡Viva la Raza! ¡Que viva!

[Background--natural sound--march] There were activists and politicians, farm workers from the Rio Grande Valley, members of the NAACP, and a very large number of young people.

[Highlight--natural sound--march] ... themselves can come and-

We're from Southwest University and-

... participate.

... and we can from San Marcos to celebrate this day. We're really proud and we really like to support this.

!Viva Cesar Chavez!

[Highlight--natural sound--crowd]

[Background--natural sound--crowd] These young students were not even born when Cesar Chavez began his efforts to organize farm workers and provide them a more humane existence in California, and here in Texas. Still, says Juana Nieto, he set an example that means a lot to young people.

We see him as a role model for us so when we grow up and we have our kids, we can teach them what we learned from him, to fight for what we want and for what we believe.

Unlike the controversy in Fresno, changing the name of Austin's 1st Street to honor the farm labor leader was a smooth process and, the vote, says City Councilman Gus Garcia, was unanimous.

It's appropriate that if any place would be the first place to have a street named after him, that it would be Austin because this is where the muscle of Latino politics is going to be flexed.

Members of Cesar Chavez's family, including his sister-in-law and the new President of the United Farm Workers Union, Arturo Rodriguez, joined the Austin inauguration.

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.

[Highlight--natural sound--crowd]

This is Maria Hinojosa.