Annotations for Subject-headings: Public Health

The debate over healthcare reform continues. In a full page ad in the New York Times, three California Latino organizations urged President Clinton to include everyone, even the undocumented, in his upcoming healthcare plan. From Sacramento, Armando Botello reports.

The Latino issues for a Mexican American political association and American GI forum based their petition on the assumption that preventive healthcare is a good investment. John Gamboa is President of the Latino Issues Forum.

There's no real good reason why these people should not be counted. First, it's un-American. Second, it doesn't save money. Third, if we don't cover them, the health of everybody else is in jeopardy because a communicable disease that could be prevented may spread to other people and increase the cost, and get other people sick simply because we won't cover them.

According to Gamboa, the only criticism to their petition has come from anti-immigrant groups. However, Arnoldo Torres, former National Director of the League of Latin American Citizens, says the plan is not feasible because of an anti-immigrant climate, a shortage of funds, lack of Latino health professionals, and a lack of consensus among the Latino community to back the proposal. Torres however offers an alternative which would be linked to the Free Trade Agreement.

Some of the revenue and benefit that Mexico will receive from this, and as well as the US, ought to be providing... It should be put into some reserve/trust fund to cover some of the healthcare costs of undocumented people in this country.

So far, the only response to the proposal has come from the California Congressional Delegation, which has asked the President to look into it. In Sacramento, California, I'm Armando Botello reporting for Latino USA.

Seasonal farm workers have been left out of Washington State's newly-enacted healthcare law, considered the most sweeping in the nation. Farm worker health advocates call the exclusion "unwise and unconstitutional", and plant a core challenge. I'm Maria Martin. You're listening to Latino USA.

An international labor union has begun a series of meetings nationwide to involve its Latino retirees in national healthcare reform. From Miami, Emilio San Pedro reports.

About 40% of the retired members of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union, the ILGWU, are Latinas. That's why the union decided to create a series of nationwide meetings on Latino healthcare called Acceso or Access. At the first such meeting held in Hialeah, a primarily Hispanic industrial city northwest of Miami, about 100 retired Latinas expressed their healthcare concerns to a panel made up of national and local union representatives as well as representatives from the local congressional offices of Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Lincoln Diaz Ballard.

The kickoff will be for our retirees, our Hispanic retirees across the country, to highlight the fact that for them the key issue, for our Spanish-speaking retirees, it's the access issue because they have the additional difficulty at times of not having linguistic access to this care, and particularly for women.

The retirees say they're concerned with how a new healthcare system would impact their ability to seek medical care from Hispanic doctors. For Latino USA, I'm Emilio San Pedro in Miami.

Hispanics in the United States are the group less likely to have access to healthcare. Luis Antonio Ocasio has a story.

According to a report from the National Coalition of Hispanic Health and Human Services Organizations, 30% of Hispanics do not have regular access to healthcare. The study shows that almost one-third of children of Hispanic working adults are not covered by health insurance. According to U.S. Assistant Secretary for Agent Fernando Torres Hill, the passage of a national healthcare plan is essential for meeting the healthcare needs of Hispanics.

Latino families still tend to rely on each other. They still draw on extended families, and they still prefer to have their elders or disabled either with them or near them. That's not to over-romanticize the Latino community because we are also acculturating. And as we acculturate, our studies show we become like everybody else, where we look to nursing homes and hospices, and hospitals.

Torres Hill says the Department of Health and Human Services will promote home and community-based healthcare programs. For "Latino USA," I'm Luis Antonio Ocasio in Washington.

In press conferences held in Washington, New York, San Antonio, Chicago, and Los Angeles, over a hundred Latino health and community organizations joined with Hispanic political officials to announce a major effort to combat the devastating effect of AIDS on the nation's Latino community.

In press conferences held in Washington, New York, San Antonio, Chicago, and Los Angeles, over a hundred Latino health and community organizations joined with Hispanic political officials to announce a major effort to combat the devastating effect of AIDS on the nation's Latino community.

We're united in purpose. We understand how the AIDS epidemic is devastating our communities. We've let that be known for some time, but we did not have consensus and a unity of purpose and a strategy to work out among ourselves. And now this is different because today we announced to the world that, in fact, it's happening.

We're united in purpose. We understand how the AIDS epidemic is devastating our communities. We've let that be known for some time, but we did not have consensus and a unity of purpose and a strategy to work out among ourselves. And now this is different because today we announced to the world that, in fact, it's happening.

The announcement of the formation of the National Hispanic Latino AIDS Coalition followed shortly after the release of the final report of the National Commission of AIDS, created four years ago by Congress to advise the nation about AIDS and HIV. With us on the phone from Santa Barbara to speak about the commission's work and the Hispanic AIDS Coalition is commission member Eunice Diaz.

The announcement of the formation of the National Hispanic Latino AIDS Coalition followed shortly after the release of the final report of the National Commission of AIDS, created four years ago by Congress to advise the nation about AIDS and HIV. With us on the phone from Santa Barbara to speak about the commission's work and the Hispanic AIDS Coalition is commission member Eunice Diaz.

Eunice, the AIDS Commission ended its work with a report expressing frustration at what you called the lack of political will to carry out effective HIV prevention programs across the country. But what thoughts do you have about the political will to do something specific about the disproportionate number of AIDS cases in Latino and other minority communities?

Eunice, the AIDS Commission ended its work with a report expressing frustration at what you called the lack of political will to carry out effective HIV prevention programs across the country. But what thoughts do you have about the political will to do something specific about the disproportionate number of AIDS cases in Latino and other minority communities?

One of the things that we were frustrated about is that after the end of four years of ardent effort and work around the country, there are so many unresolved issues 12 years into this epidemic. And the mobilization and development of leadership at many levels, including the federal level, has taken so long. And at the same time, we see in many of our communities, yet evidences of intolerance and inhumanity reflected in the response of so many to this epidemic and those afflicted. Therefore, the response to our community, the Hispanic community, is just part and parcel of how this nation needs to be organized to address the issues that are posed before us that are unresolved.

One of the things that we were frustrated about is that after the end of four years of ardent effort and work around the country, there are so many unresolved issues 12 years into this epidemic. And the mobilization and development of leadership at many levels, including the federal level, has taken so long. And at the same time, we see in many of our communities, yet evidences of intolerance and inhumanity reflected in the response of so many to this epidemic and those afflicted. Therefore, the response to our community, the Hispanic community, is just part and parcel of how this nation needs to be organized to address the issues that are posed before us that are unresolved.

We are hopeful for a new day ahead. Being that just recently, this administration, the president appointed Kristine Gebbie, formerly the director of health for the state of Washington to really lead the country in an organized response to the AIDS epidemic. And we hope that that will now create the momentum we've been waiting for at least four years at the commission level. And then look at the needs of all communities, including the very specific needs of the Latino-Hispanic community.

We are hopeful for a new day ahead. Being that just recently, this administration, the president appointed Kristine Gebbie, formerly the director of health for the state of Washington to really lead the country in an organized response to the AIDS epidemic. And we hope that that will now create the momentum we've been waiting for at least four years at the commission level. And then look at the needs of all communities, including the very specific needs of the Latino-Hispanic community.

Well now, one of the positive aspects of this, as you said, is the formation of the national Hispanic-Latino AIDS Coalition, a national organization to investigate the issue of AIDS in the Latino community. But to what extent is this really a new effort? And what does it say about the political will of Latino political leadership to also deal with this issue?

Well now, one of the positive aspects of this, as you said, is the formation of the national Hispanic-Latino AIDS Coalition, a national organization to investigate the issue of AIDS in the Latino community. But to what extent is this really a new effort? And what does it say about the political will of Latino political leadership to also deal with this issue?

Well, the creation of the national Hispanic Latino AIDS Coalition represents a coming together of many organizations, national and throughout the country that spent years fighting the AIDS epidemic. And at this point, we were ready to do that and we were ready to call on our policy-makers at all levels, the national level, state, and local level to say, "We've got to be joined in our response to AIDS." And that is unprecedented. That's never happened. And for me, it represented a moment of triumph, a moment of significant push behind this epidemic. That now, we are telling our communities, si se puede, we can do it. And we can do it united in a coalesced form.

Well, the creation of the national Hispanic Latino AIDS Coalition represents a coming together of many organizations, national and throughout the country that spent years fighting the AIDS epidemic. And at this point, we were ready to do that and we were ready to call on our policy-makers at all levels, the national level, state, and local level to say, "We've got to be joined in our response to AIDS." And that is unprecedented. That's never happened. And for me, it represented a moment of triumph, a moment of significant push behind this epidemic. That now, we are telling our communities, si se puede, we can do it. And we can do it united in a coalesced form.

Well, thank you very much, Eunice Diaz, the only Latino or Latina member of the National Commission on AIDS, which completed its four-year term in June.

Well, thank you very much, Eunice Diaz, the only Latino or Latina member of the National Commission on AIDS, which completed its four-year term in June.

This poem was written after a conversation with a friend who is very frustrated over trying to get funds to help educate Latinos about AIDS.

This poem was written after a conversation with a friend who is very frustrated over trying to get funds to help educate Latinos about AIDS.

Boston poet Martha Valentin has this commentary directed at the Latino agencies now coming together to help educate the Latino community about the AIDS virus.

Boston poet Martha Valentin has this commentary directed at the Latino agencies now coming together to help educate the Latino community about the AIDS virus.

Deadly Games People Play.

Deadly Games People Play.

Because we did not get the funds, we cannot do the workshops. And though you did not get the funds either, your agency is responsible for doing the workshops anyway.

Because we did not get the funds, we cannot do the workshops. And though you did not get the funds either, your agency is responsible for doing the workshops anyway.

Every day, one agency of Mercy argues, competing with the other over who will educate Latinos on the evils of AIDS and the ways to be safe. And while they're arguing, every day three more Latinos die of AIDS. Macho men too proud to wear condoms, every day infect young, beautiful life-giving women who no one has taught that to demand protection is to express love. And every day, little people are born who will not be around to engage in the deadly games people play.

Every day, one agency of Mercy argues, competing with the other over who will educate Latinos on the evils of AIDS and the ways to be safe. And while they're arguing, every day three more Latinos die of AIDS. Macho men too proud to wear condoms, every day infect young, beautiful life-giving women who no one has taught that to demand protection is to express love. And every day, little people are born who will not be around to engage in the deadly games people play.

Marta Valentin is a poet, musician, and radio producer living in Boston.

Marta Valentin is a poet, musician, and radio producer living in Boston.

This is Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture.

[Opening theme]

I'm Maria Hinojosa. Today on Latino USA, the border prepares for free trade.

And the question is how do you manage this process in a way that really leads to people's lives being better off?

Also, tackling border health problems and the perennial question, what do we call ourselves?

I'm Chicano.

I'm Puerto Rican,

I'm Cuban Argentine,

and now we have this new thing, non-white Hispanics. I mean, it's crazy.

[Transition Music]

That's all coming up on Latino USA. But first, las noticias.

The City of Los Angeles, with a 40% Latino population, is facing drastic cuts in its public healthcare system, and experts warn a possible medical disaster. From Los Angeles, Alberto Aguilar, reports.

The possible closure of healthcare facilities in Los Angeles has sent ripples of fear throughout Southern California. County administrators have opted to cut deep into their health system to relieve some of the economic pressures brought on by the loss of property tax revenues and the poor local economy and the growing number of uninsured families. Susan Fogel of the Legal Aid Society is a lead attorney on the case against closures.

This is going to cause the death of many people in Los Angeles. It will pervade every part of the community, not just poor people, not just people without insurance.

Healthcare experts warn the proposed closure of four comprehensive healthcare centers and 20 clinics will mean an unbearable pressure on the remaining facilities as well as the eventual breakdown of the healthcare system. Reporting for Latino USA, I am Alberto Aguilar in Los Angeles.

A bill now before Congress would create a commission to tackle health problems along the US-Mexico border. From Washington, Patricia Guadalupe reports.

In some counties along the border, diseases such as tuberculosis and hepatitis and even cholera, occur at rates far higher than other US communities. Congress members representing border states have proposed a commission to tackle the special health needs along the 2000-mile stretch between the US and Mexico. Legislation recently introduced would establish the US-Mexico Border Health Commission to address those concerns. Democratic representative Ron Coleman of El Paso, chairs the Congressional Border Caucus, he is proposing the legislation.

I wanted to create a health commission to coordinate and direct an all-out effort to reduce the rates of illness in the border region. Those, as I say, are oftentimes caused by poor environmental conditions, and they need to be addressed.

Coleman says that part of the problem is just plain ignorance about the border.

I would point out that in Des Moines, Iowa, we have already passed several billion dollars worth of assistance. I wonder why? Because we have been directed by FEMA to know exactly where to spend the funds in the best way possible. The president himself visited that region and yet, along the US Mexico border, we have exactly the same problem of not having clean drinking water, and there are 350,000 Americans without clean water or sewage facilities along the US-Mexico border. And yet, why isn't there a crisis there?

The proposed commission would be made up of public health officials, physicians, and other professionals from both United States and Mexico. Representative Coleman is asking Congress for close to $1 million to set up the Border Health Commission. The legislation moves onto the foreign affairs and energy and commerce committees, but no action is expected before the summer recess. For Latino USA, I'm Patricia Guadalupe in Washington.

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.

With us to discuss the implications of the agreement and the future of NAFTA are three reporters who have been keeping their eyes and their ears on free trade. Richard Gonzalez of National Public Radio, Jose Carreño of the Mexican daily El Universal, and Latino USA's, Washington correspondent Patricia Guadalupe, who's also a reporter for the Hispanic Link News Service. Bienvenidos to all of you. Let's look at to what was actually agreed to in this final round. What about the side agreements and what protections do they offer for labor and the environment on all sides of the border? Richard?

I think what they offer is basically a very complicated, long, convoluted process by which a government entity, a private company, a public agency or an individual might file a complaint saying that one country is not enforcing its own labor and environmental laws. It does nothing about addressing the inadequacy of any laws, but just talks about enforcing laws that are now in the books. And so it sets up this process, if one believes that the process can work, then one thinks that these side agreements are good. If you don't think the process is going to work, then you don't think that the side agreements are any good.

Jose Carreño, from the Mexican perspective will this be good? Will this work or are these more faults in the treaty?

God, that is a great question because it is a completely untried territory, this kind of agreements that has never been done before. So as Richard say, if you believe in those, you think that they will, you hope that they will work. If you do not believe in them, you think that they won't work, but it's completely unchartered territory. There is nothing like this as far I know anywhere else.

Well, the conventional wisdom has it that US based Latinos have a lot to gain from this treaty. Is that still the case with the final version of NAFTA? Are Latinos in this country going to benefit more or less?

I think it depends on who you speak to. I mean, the Latino Consensus, a group of Latinos who want further participation in NAFTA want a treaty, but some of the final details, they don't agree with us. For instance, the financing of a development bank. They agree with the idea, but they don't like the final outcome.

I think that's a very hard question because you really don't know how much it'll benefit the population in general or not, or how much will it harm it. The truth though is that at this point there is this sort of political haggling going around and, "Okay, if you want my support, you will have to give me something."

If the question is, will Latinos in the US say benefit from NAFTA? The answer depends on who you are, where you live, and what you do. If you are a Chicano entrepreneur in the border states, you're likely to do very well by NAFTA. If you are an industrial worker in the Northeast or in the Midwest, you're probably in a situation where your company might find it advantageous to move your job to Mexico, in which case you become a loser. And because of these various circumstances, you see that the Congressional Hispanic Caucus here in Washington up on Capitol Hill is very divided on NAFTA. As one caucus member said to me, "Whenever you bring up NAFTA, you really have to watch your table manners," because people have very strong opinions pro and against inside the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

What kind of a timeline are we looking at and will it be passed or will it not be passed by Congress?

Well, if you had the vote right now, no. Absolutely not. And then there's also the discussions of what healthcare reform and all the other issues that are going up on Capitol Hill. Then the average person here wants that before the treaty. I mean, I don't think the average person has been following NAFTA as much as the press and business people are.

Look, up to now I might say, I think that has been basically inside the beltway issue.

Absolutely.

The population in general has heard only slogans both in favor or against and has sort of decided its position in base of slogans, but the population hasn't heard hard facts, not as well. The Congress itself is, I could bet that most of some of the people who are in favor and some of the people who are against doesn't even have an idea of what they're talking about.

I think what we're seeing is that we'll find the administration will be ready to send this up to the hill sometime in early October after they've sent the healthcare package up to Congress and we won't have a vote until November, maybe even as late as December. So once they send it up to The Hill in October, there's 90 days in which Congress has to act and they're really pushing to get this done by January 1st. Whether it will pass, like Patricia said, today it would not pass. But the vote is not going to be held today. It's going to be held after two or three months of a very nasty, ugly debate. And so I don't think you can place of bet either way.

Well, thank you very much, muchas gracias, for joining us on Latino USA's Reporters Roundtable. Richard Gonzalez of National Public Radio, Jose Carreño of the Mexican daily El Universal, and Latino USA's Washington correspondent Patricia Guadalupe. Muchas gracias.

The Latino community, according to many health experts, is often least likely to receive attention from policy makers often because there is little available information. A new study in the nation's capital seeks to change that. As Patricia Guadalupe reports.

For the first time ever, the National Cancer Institute, in cooperation with the Washington Hospital Center, will conduct an in-depth study of cancer in the Washington DC Latino community. It will start with the Salvadoran community, the largest group of Hispanics in the area. Investigator Dr. Elmer Huerta of the National Cancer Institute says the study will concentrate on behavioral patterns in educating that community.

Do they know that smoking cigarette causes cancer? Do they know that a pap smear is important to detect cervical cancer? Then we are trying to find out their attitudes towards cancer.

At the beginning of the study, government officials were at first concerned that because of the high number of undocumented Salvadorans, many people would be afraid to participate. But so far says Dr. Huerta response to the study has been very positive.

The Salvadorians who are coming to this interview after we explain to them what this study is about, they say, "listen, doctor, I don't care if you pay me or not. I think this study is so good, it's going to be so good for my community that I will work for free."

Over 2000 Salvadorans will be included in the six-month study for Latino USA, I'm Patricia Guadalupe in Washington.

According to government statistics, more than a third of all babies born in 1991 had unwed parents. These accounted for 22% of white births and 68% among African Americans, while a total of 39% of Latino births were to unmarried women. You're listening to Latino USA.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I'm Maria Martin. Reaction to and debate about President Clinton's Health Security Act of 1993 began long before the act was unveiled officially and is still going strong. Latino USA's Patricia Guadalupe spoke with Latino legislators and policy makers in the nation's capital. She prepared this report.

In what is called by analysts the most ambitious economic and social reform since President Franklin Roosevelt proposed social security more than half a century ago, President Clinton delivered his long promised plan to reform the current healthcare system. In a joint session of Congress, he outlined what he called six guiding principles. Security, simplicity, savings, choice, quality and responsibility, with the focus on universal access. Although President Clinton offered very little detail, particularly on how to pay for the new system, it was welcomed by both Democrats and Republicans in Congress. Democratic representative Ed Pastor of Arizona called this a first step in the right direction.

People want change and I'm happy that he took this bold step. It'll probably be the only step we'll have to change our health system and now it's up to us. He made the challenge to us. He said, "Here's a blueprint. Congress a year from now, give me the legislation back that makes every American secure in their in that they know they have health service available to them." And now the challenge is to us, and I hope we do it in a very nonpartisan way and get it done.

When President Clinton speaks of universal access to the healthcare system, he includes Puerto Rico. Under his plan, residents of the island will receive the same amount of Medicaid payments as those who live on the mainland. Under the current system, Puerto Ricans on the island receive only 20% of what they would receive if they lived here. Resident commissioner Carlos Romero Barcelo, Puerto Rico's representative in Congress, is pleased with the proposed change.

For the first time in our history, we're now going to be covered in equal terms with all citizens in the nation. Up to now, the Medicaid has not covered Puerto Rico. We have only gotten 79 million dollars and now for the first time we are going to be treated as equals.

But when President Clinton speaks of universal access, he doesn't include undocumented workers. Under his plan, only US citizens and legal residents will be included. Ira Magaziner, our chief advisor to the president on healthcare, explains why.

We're guaranteeing something to all American citizens. And they're not American citizens, they're not here legally and there's something that we think is not quite right about saying people who are illegally here should get a legal benefit from the country.

Activists have complained that this will actually cost more in the long run. Some go a step further and say excluding undocumented workers is discriminatory. Cecilia Munoz, Senior. Immigration Policy Analyst at the National Council of La Raza is one of them.

It's pretty clear that the decision's politically motivated, that the administration doesn't want to find itself in a position of having to defend taxpayer dollars being used to cover undocumented immigrants. Unfortunately, that decision's really not in the best interest of the public health in the United States.

Unlike some of the president's earlier speeches. Republican response to this one was generally favorable. While some said the proposed changes would create a huge unmanageable bureaucracy, most said they recognized the need for change. Republican representative Lincoln Diaz-Balart, Florida, says he wants to see change but not at the expense of what he calls the best system in the world.

And that's one of the problems when you have these socialized systems like in England where I hear that the people in Great Britain are extraordinarily dissatisfied with their system now because of the lack of quality and also the total bureaucratic morass.

In the next few weeks, president Clinton is expected to present to Congress details on how he plans to pay for the new system. It is on that particular issue where much debate is anticipated. For Latino USA, I'm Patricia Guadalupe in Washington.

A bill introduced by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus seeks to remedy the lack of statistical information about Latino health. The Minority Health Opportunities Act would increase funding for the National Center on Health Statistics on whose information healthcare monies are largely allocated. Democratic Congress member Lucille Roybal-Allard says the measure will be especially beneficial for the health needs of Latinas.

Latina women are more likely to have diabetes than other groups of women, and there's a whole series of diseases that impact Latino women disproportionately from other population.

Members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus say their bill is not meant to compete with the administration's healthcare plan, but to compliment it. This is news from Latino USA. The leaders of the nation's environmental justice movement, organizations representing African, Asian, and Native Americans along with Latino groups gathered in the nation's capital. It's the first time all these organizations have come together. According to Richard Moore, coordinator of the Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice based in Albuquerque.

One of the agenda items will very clearly be the relationships between our networks. We have been working together in the past on several issues. One of the primary pieces that will be on the agenda, for example, is a letter that was sent requesting an emergency environmental justice summit because of the urgency of the poisoning of communities of color, and in our case in the southwest Latino communities, that we called for a meeting with the president and vice president and also that a emergency, I say environmental summit take place, environmental justice summit.

The Southwest network coordinator says though many Latinos may not consciously make the environment a priority, Latinos have been involved in the movement for environmental justice for a long time.

We've been involved, for example, with pesticides issues with farm workers for many, many years. We didn't perceive that as an environmental issue, we perceived it as a labor issue. Housing and tenant organizing. Over 900,000 housing units today still have lead based pain in them with many children eating the chips off those walls and Latino housing projects and other communities in the southwest. Never perceived it as an environmental issue, we perceived it as a tenant's rights issue. And as we're all unfortunately very aware, our communities are located in and around slaughterhouses, dog food companies, industrial facilities, landfills, incinerators, whatever it may be, and that's not anything recent. Matter of fact, that's been for the last many, many years.

The environment and its impact on Latino communities from Bayamon Puerto Rico, to El Paso, to the South Bronx was one of the issues addressed in Washington recently during the Latino Issues Forum sponsored by members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. I'm Maria Martin, you're listening to Latino USA.

As the Census Bureau issued new figures showing the Latino population growing at a faster rate than previously projected, dozens of Latino leaders from across the country met to focus on the issues which most affect this growing population. Among them, education, health, and how to make Latino communities viable. Organized by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, the three day meeting culminated with an electronic town hall meeting linking together San Juan, Miami, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Antonio. Latino USA's Maria Martin reports.

The Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute presents threads of diversity, the fabric of unity.

In New York, Congressman Robert Menendez of New Jersey and Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez, resident commissioner Carlos Romero Barcelo is in San Juan. We have Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Congressman Lincoln Diaz Ballard with an audience in Miami.

In their regional and national diversity, the Hispanic Congressional Caucus, its 20 members up from 14 since last November, mirrors this country's Latino community. Members don't always agree on issues, such as the embargo of Cuba and the North American Free trade Agreement. Yet at this conference, the congress members echoed the sentiment expressed by HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros.

Yes, we are different national origins and yes we are are different partisan roots, Republicans, and Democrats, and independents, and radicals, and conservatives, and every sort of breed of political roots. And yes, we live in different parts of the country and we've already talked about that, but the truth is we have much more in common than the things that separate us.

To address issues in common, a survey was taken among those invited to the seventh City Electronic Town Hall. The results indicated education is the issue of greatest concern among Latinos followed by health community viability, that is jobs, and the environment. From politicians to students to grassroots organizers, they all had questions for their congressional representatives.

My question is language minority preschool-aged children do not have to be provided with equal educational opportunities. How is this issue going to be addressed?

Responding is California Congressman Xavier Becerra.

Mrs. Maria, I can tell you one thing that in Congress you will not be satisfied by the answer because those of us in Hispanic caucus are not satisfied. We will be spending something over $200 million this coming year on bilingual education, about 20 or 30 million more if the president has his way than was spent in the past year. That 250 or $230 million provides us with the funds to reach about 10 to 15% of all the children in this country who are in need of bilingual services. The states aren't doing much better-

I would like to know how the Hispanic Congressional Caucus intends to deal with the current anti-immigrant backlash. In general, its impact on K-12 education. In particular, its impact on children enrolled in federally funded bilingual education programs.

Responding to this question from Los Angeles, LA Congressman Esteban Torres.

At this time in our history we're undergoing a tremendous onslaught by those who would wish to blame all the economic ills on this country on immigrants. The immigrants I might say, didn't have a lot to do with the SNL scandal. They didn't have a lot to do with the Cold War issue.

Those questions and responses having to do with the prevalent anti-immigrant climate seem to get the most response from those in the town hall audience, not only in the area of education but regarding the exclusion of the undocumented from the administration's healthcare plan. Illinois Congressman Luis Gutierrez.

In Chicago, in our discussions, we understand that healthcare needs to become. Given any package that we approve in the Congress of the United States, needs to be looked at as a basic and fundamental human right. A basic and fundamental human right that is guaranteed to every human being who lives in the United States regardless of the color of their skin or their economic status, regardless of whether they arrived yesterday or today or they're going to arrive tomorrow. Cancer and tuberculosis and illness does not ask for a MICA card as to whether it can visit your home or your children.

Just very briefly say that on this issue and on every other issue, it is a caucus policy to include the undocumented as part of our community.

Caucus chair, New York Congressman Jose Serrano.

We are not immigration agents. We don't get involved in how people get here. Once they're here, we feel that they have to be protected. Number two, this caucus, for the first time is also addressing the fact that people who live in American territories are part of our American community. There are questions yet to be settled about those territories, but as far as fair play from Washington, this caucus believes that the members who represent those areas and the people who live in those areas, for American citizens that they are, must get equal treatment and that's the kind of approach that the caucus has taken.

There are no easy answers to all the questions and issues facing the Latino community and addressed during the three days of sessions on Capitol Hill, but what was perceptible in Washington was a new attitude. The Hispanic caucus has been energized by new leadership and by the additional members elected in November, including its first Mexican-American and Puerto Rican congresswomen. There was serious talk of coalitions between Hispanics and African-Americans in Congress at one of the sessions, and at the same time the issues forum was taking place, the 20 members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus had an opportunity to show their new clout when they blocked a bill which would've extended unemployment insurance by cutting off benefits for blind and disabled legal immigrants. Congressman Xavier Becerra.

Chairman Serrano came into the discussions and it was through the efforts of the caucus, the name of the caucus, that we were able to say that Congressman Pastor who also came in, we were able to say that we as members of the Hispanic caucus, could not support this particular bill even though we knew we had many people in our districts who were unemployed, but this was not the way to do it. You don't rob Peter to give to Paul and we would not let it happen, and fortunately we had a leadership with the foresight to know that they should not do it either.

We have shown great progress and the fact that this caucus is being held here today is proved that the Mexican-American, the Hispanic can go forward. My question to you-

This new visibility and increasing political power for Latinos on Capitol Hill led one elderly participant to ask what those outside of Congress could do to help the members of the caucus be more effective. The answer came from representative Becerra.

Three important words Vote, vote, vote.

Finding an agenda which can unite the many diverse and regionally scattered Latino communities is what brought together some 800 invited guests and the Hispanic members of Congress for an electronic town hall meeting joining together seven cities.

The town hall session of the Issues forum sponsored by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus was broadcast over public television stations in New York, Washington, San Antonio, Los Angeles, and Chicago. For Latino USA, I'm Maria Martin.

At a hearing on AIDS in the Latino community held recently in Los Angeles, health officials said Hispanics constitute the fastest growing segment of new AIDS cases. One out of every three people with AIDS in Los Angeles County is Latino. In the last year alone, there has been a 95% increase in the incidence of AIDS/HIV among Hispanic men. This is news from Latino USA.

The House of Representatives in Washington recently approved a bill extending unemployment benefits to millions of out of work Americans, but at the expense of legal immigrants. It was the battle the Hispanic Congressional Caucus fought and lost. From Washington, Patricia Guadalupe has more.

Members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus were angry when they found out their colleagues in the House were going to pay for the latest extension of unemployment benefits by requiring legal immigrants to wait five years instead of the usual three in order to qualify for government benefits. Although it would save the government more than $300 million, members of the Hispanic Caucus said there had to be other ways to fund the extension. Democratic representative Luis Gutierrez, Illinois.

We said, "Well, why are we changing the rules in the middle of the game and now doing this on the back of those that least can afford to do it? The disabled and then immigrant community to this country."

After heated debate, much of an antagonistic toward immigrants, the Hispanic Caucus didn't have enough votes and lost. Gutierrez says a lot of it is due to the increasing levels of bigotry and intolerance in the Congress and the rest of the country.

The immigrants in 1993 are no longer spoken of in the grand tradition of the grand mosaic of American society where each immigrant group obviously adds because of the diversity and their new strength to building America. But they are attacked and casually accused of being responsible from everything to the drug infiltration in our country to people not being able to get jobs, to the crisis in healthcare.

The bill to extend unemployment benefits is now under consideration in the Senate. For Latino USA, I'm Patricia Guadalupe in Washington.

The incidence of measles among US children has reached a record low, after a huge resurgence beginning in 1989, according to the Centers for Disease Control. However, 224 cases of measles in Puerto Rico were not included in the results. From Austin, Texas, I'm Maria Martin. You're listening to Latino USA.

In the 90s, death for many in this country's Latino communities comes too early often as the result of preventable causes like gang and gun violence and AIDS. To call attention to this, some community groups are using the traditions of El Dia De Los Muertos or the Day of the Dead, a century's old ritual commemorating friends and family who've passed on as a springboard for social messages. From Austin, Texas, Latino USA's, Maria Martin prepared this report.

We have in this particular room, altars that have been built by people, members of the community. Este…

At an East Austin community center in the heart of the city's Mexican American barrio, Diana Gorham of the AIDS Outreach group in Informecida shows a visitor around an exhibit of altars created to honor those who have passed on in the tradition celebrated in Mexico and other Latin American countries. The structures are colorful with flowers and photographs, candles, ribbons, and incense. But some altars also have non-traditional decorations like condoms and anti aids messages.

This one was also built by a volunteer of Informecida who also lost her brother to AIDS in Houston, and she and her brother were very, very close.

[Natural sounds--community center] The altar exhibit in Austin isn't the only effort linking the traditional Mexican holiday to the reality of a growing cause of death in the Latino community where AIDS is now the leading killer of young Hispanic men, and the third leading cause of death among Latinas ages 25 to 44.

[Natural sounds--pop music performance] San Antonio artist David Zamora Casas does a performance piece for El Dia de Los Muertos called Cuentos de la Realidad or Tales of Reality, which tells of the painful death from AIDS of his friend Jesse.

[Singing] It’s time for the angels to take you away to a different place. Another time…

[Natural sounds--pop music performance] In the piece, Zamora Casas tries to make a connection between his loss to AIDS and all of the other losses, individual and collective, which may have been suffered by those in the audience.

I try to use things that bring people down to a very fundamental basic level and relate it to situations that I've encountered dealing with homophobia within a family that Chicano son has AIDS and these families don't know how to react because of all the machismo and stereotypes and all the baggage that we've carried on from our childhood. We've got to nurture and educate each other.

The traditions associated with the Dia de Los Muertos. According to AIDS educator, Diana Gorham provide an opportune forum in which to bring up difficult issues, ones often veiled in secrecy and denial.

There are mothers, for example, who go to the priest and say, "Please don't let any of the community know that this is what's killing my son or that's what my son died of." And so what we try to do in this particular event is to break that silence.

[Natural sounds--guitar playing] Good morning and welcome the Culture Warriors presents Dia de Los Muertos, the Day of the Dead…

In a warehouse, housing an alternative high school called the Creative Rapid Learning Center, a diverse group of young people, white, Black, and Latino, all wearing Dia de Los Muertos t-shirts perform a series of skits which come from their own experiences with death and loss of family and friends.

Hey, Uncle Paul. I wonder where you are right now. I miss you. There are so many things that I wanted to learn from you. I've changed a lot since you left.

The kids who make up this theater group call themselves the Cultural Warriors. Many of them had dropped out of school before coming to the Creative Rapid Learning Center. As part of a writing project two years ago, they were asked to write letters to deceased friends and family members as a way to complete unfinished business. Cast member John Gonzalez says that project, which eventually led to a whole series of skits dealing with a range of issues affecting young people from AIDS to drugs to racism, has helped him to cope with the pain of loss.

Well, it helps us out bringing that stuff out in the open instead of just keeping it inside. You heard when they're in the picnic scene, they're saying about this guy that had died in a car crash. That was my friend.

Hey, what's up?

What's up, homes?

What you been up to?

Oh man. Just been lying around.

See you lost a little bit of weight, huh?

Yeah, man. Can't get nothing to stick to the bones around here, man.

[Natural sounds--acting performance] In this scene, a group of the kids visit the cemetery on the night of Dia de Los Muertos as is the tradition in Mexico. The kids say these presentations allow them to look at both life and death in a more positive way.

Metropolitan America or Cosmopolitan America does not like to talk about death. It's something you whisper about, you don't talk about it. And we're the kind people we like to put things bluntly.

Passion Fields is 19 years old and an energetic member of the Cultural Warriors.

But that's what we want to put everything forward and we thought that bringing the culture thing over with not too many people, even Hispanic know about Dia de Los Muertos, Day of the Dead. [Laughter] We thought that it was important that we bring this so everybody can know about it. Now there's white kids that know about it. There's Hispanic kids that know about it. There's Black kids that know about it, and that's what we think is important.

[Natural sounds--acting performance] And so an ages old traditional commemoration for the dead has become a relevant way to look at issues facing the living.

On this holiday of Dia de Los Muertos, we celebrate the Mexican folk tradition. For as we are born, we shall die. Life is temporary, so live it with honor, dignity, hope, and courage. Live it like a culture warrior.

[Natural sounds--applause] For Latino USA in Austin, Texas, I'm Maria Martin.

The Centers for Disease Control says AIDS is now the leading cause of death among young Hispanic men between the ages of 25 and 44, ahead of homicide and suicide, and just behind chronic liver diseases on the centers' ranking of causes of death in the United States. Among Hispanic women in the same age group, AIDS ranks as the third leading cause of death. You're listening to Latino USA.

According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, Latinos, despite their poverty and lack of access to healthcare, have a lower mortality rate than non-Hispanics. The researchers concluded that though there is a high Hispanic death rate from homicide, liver disease and pneumonia, Latino mortality rates from chronic diseases were relatively low compared to the general population. Researchers have not yet determined the cause for the disparity.

This is news from Latino USA. I'm Maria Martin. Another border community is reporting an alarming increase in a number of possibly environmentally-related diseases. From the twin cities of Nogales on the Arizona/Mexico border, David Barbour reports.

It was nearly two years ago that residents first realized there was a serious health problem in the border area of Nogales. Clusters of rare cancers began showing up, and one working class neighborhood could count 16 cases of cancer within a two block area. But it wasn't until a review of 600 death certificates indicating that nearly 50% were cancer-related, that community activists got the attention of state and federal health officials.

Dr. Larry Clark is with the University of Arizona's Cancer Center, and has uncovered a disturbing increase in cases of systemic lupus.

We've identified 18 definite or probable cases, and 30 possible cases. Nogales may have the world's highest rates of systemic lupus.

On December 2, Arizona Governor Fife Symington led an entourage of state and federal health and environmental officials to Nogales, Arizona to announce the creation of a border health task force to study the problem. Though more money has been promised to study the diseases, the causes are still anybody's guess. The residents of Nogales are still waiting for answers. For Latino USA, I'm David Barbour in Tucson.