Annotations for Subject-headings: Spanish Language

This is Latino USA, a radio journal of news and culture. I'm María Hinojosa. Today on Latino USA: Latinos in South Central Los Angeles.

This is Latino USA, a radio journal of news and culture. I'm María Hinojosa. Today on Latino USA: Latinos in South Central Los Angeles.

The realities are, we have a lot of Rodney Kings. We have a lot of Latinos who are being beat up. We have a lot of discrimination going on in the city.

The realities are, we have a lot of Rodney Kings. We have a lot of Latinos who are being beat up. We have a lot of discrimination going on in the city.

A report card for President Clinton.

A report card for President Clinton.

It's unfair in a way to say that the Clinton administration hasn't appointed too many Latinos, hasn't appointed too many of anything.

It's unfair in a way to say that the Clinton administration hasn't appointed too many Latinos, hasn't appointed too many of anything.

Also, una celebración del Cinco de Mayo y Sesame Street goes Latino.

Also, una celebración del Cinco de Mayo y Sesame Street goes Latino.

¿Abierto?

¿Abierto?

Yes, certainly! Abierto is the Spanish word for open! Abierto.

Yes, certainly! Abierto is the Spanish word for open! Abierto.

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

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

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.

[Faint voice in the background]

[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.

[Transitional sounds]

[Transitional sounds]

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.

[Transitional sounds]

[Transitional sounds]

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.

[Transitional Music]

[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.

Long before the word “multicultural” came into popular usage, it was reflected on the public television's children's program, Sesame Street. Now the program is making an extra effort targeting minority children with special cultural curricula. This year, the Emmy award-winning show is placing an emphasis on Latino culture as Mandalit del Barco reports from New York.

Long before the word “multicultural” came into popular usage, it was reflected on the public television's children's program, Sesame Street. Now the program is making an extra effort targeting minority children with special cultural curricula. This year, the Emmy award-winning show is placing an emphasis on Latino culture as Mandalit del Barco reports from New York.

[Cheerful Sesame Street Music]

[Cheerful Sesame Street Music]

As Sesame Street becomes more bilingual, even the theme song incorporates Latino rhythms. With this season's emphasis on Latino cultures, viewers can watch Big Bird leading a Mariachi band, and Oscar the Grouch dancing the Mambo with Tito Puente. Sesame Street is visited by Chicano rock band Los Lobos and New York's Puerto Rican folk music group, Los Pleneros de la 21. The show goes on location to barrios in Los Angeles where kids paint a Mexican mural, and in New York where they make Puerto Rican masks and visit a community center known as a Casita. This year, the spotlight will also be on the new fluffy blue bilingual muppet, Rosita.

As Sesame Street becomes more bilingual, even the theme song incorporates Latino rhythms. With this season's emphasis on Latino cultures, viewers can watch Big Bird leading a Mariachi band, and Oscar the Grouch dancing the Mambo with Tito Puente. Sesame Street is visited by Chicano rock band Los Lobos and New York's Puerto Rican folk music group, Los Pleneros de la 21. The show goes on location to barrios in Los Angeles where kids paint a Mexican mural, and in New York where they make Puerto Rican masks and visit a community center known as a Casita. This year, the spotlight will also be on the new fluffy blue bilingual muppet, Rosita.

¡Hola Amigos! ¿Cómo están?

¡Hola Amigos! ¿Cómo están?

Muppet Rosita is played by Mexican puppeteer Carmen Osbahr.

Muppet Rosita is played by Mexican puppeteer Carmen Osbahr.

Sí, sí…yes, yeah I'm trying to help my friends to speak Spanish and all of my other friends that they're watching us. I'm trying to let them know that if they speak Spanish like me and English, they have to feel proud because they're very lucky to speak two languages.

Sí, sí…yes, yeah I'm trying to help my friends to speak Spanish and all of my other friends that they're watching us. I'm trying to let them know that if they speak Spanish like me and English, they have to feel proud because they're very lucky to speak two languages.

¿Abierto?

¿Abierto?

Yes, certainly! Abierto is the Spanish word for open! Abierto.

Yes, certainly! Abierto is the Spanish word for open! Abierto.

For many years now, Sesame Street has been teaching kids a few words in Spanish, like “hola” and “adios”, but what's different is that with its new Latino curriculum, preschool viewers will also be taught an appreciation of the diversity of Latino cultures.

For many years now, Sesame Street has been teaching kids a few words in Spanish, like “hola” and “adios”, but what's different is that with its new Latino curriculum, preschool viewers will also be taught an appreciation of the diversity of Latino cultures.

El mundo.

El mundo.

That's the world all right, and we are moving into...

That's the world all right, and we are moving into...

Puerto Rico!

Puerto Rico!

Puerto Rico it is! But look...

Puerto Rico it is! But look...

¡Cotorra!

¡Cotorra!

In studies of preschoolers, researchers for Sesame Street found Puerto Rican children have poorer self-images than white or African-American children. The Latino kids had negative feelings about their hair and skin color, and the majority of white and African-American children in this study said their mothers would be angry or sad if they were friends with a Puerto Rican child. Actress Sonia Manzano, who plays the character María on the show says that's why the Sesame Street producers decided to devote the season to addressing issues of self-esteem and pride among Latinos.

In studies of preschoolers, researchers for Sesame Street found Puerto Rican children have poorer self-images than white or African-American children. The Latino kids had negative feelings about their hair and skin color, and the majority of white and African-American children in this study said their mothers would be angry or sad if they were friends with a Puerto Rican child. Actress Sonia Manzano, who plays the character María on the show says that's why the Sesame Street producers decided to devote the season to addressing issues of self-esteem and pride among Latinos.

I had the opportunity to write a show where María's family comes to visit, and I wanted everyone in María's family to be a different skin color because that occurs in a lot of Hispanic families. Puerto Ricans especially, is that, there are people of different skin colors in the same family so…and actually have a puppet say, "Wow! But he's darker than you. How could he be related?" or "She's lighter than you. How could she be related to you?"

I had the opportunity to write a show where María's family comes to visit, and I wanted everyone in María's family to be a different skin color because that occurs in a lot of Hispanic families. Puerto Ricans especially, is that, there are people of different skin colors in the same family so…and actually have a puppet say, "Wow! But he's darker than you. How could he be related?" or "She's lighter than you. How could she be related to you?"

For the last 20 years, María and Luis have been two of the human characters on the show. In that time, they got married, had a child, and are partners in Sesame Street's Fix It Shop.

For the last 20 years, María and Luis have been two of the human characters on the show. In that time, they got married, had a child, and are partners in Sesame Street's Fix It Shop.

Here, Luis and María, who are both Latinos, are regular people. I mean… they own a business; they have a family. You know… they're just regular people. They work like everybody else… you know. They brush their teeth, they comb their hair, you know…. whatever. The role model is, "Hey, they're just like everybody else.” You know… and that's important to show.

Here, Luis and María, who are both Latinos, are regular people. I mean… they own a business; they have a family. You know… they're just regular people. They work like everybody else… you know. They brush their teeth, they comb their hair, you know…. whatever. The role model is, "Hey, they're just like everybody else.” You know… and that's important to show.

Actor Emilio Delgado, who plays Luis, says, since its beginning, Sesame Street was way ahead of most US television shows in realistically portraying Latinos.

Actor Emilio Delgado, who plays Luis, says, since its beginning, Sesame Street was way ahead of most US television shows in realistically portraying Latinos.

20 years ago when we first started doing this, I don't remember any Latinos on a regular basis on television. As a matter of fact, I can't think of any right now either.

20 years ago when we first started doing this, I don't remember any Latinos on a regular basis on television. As a matter of fact, I can't think of any right now either.

[Kid singing about his cultural roots]

[Kid singing about his cultural roots]

Sesame Street is now in its 24th season. For Latino USA, I'm Mandalit del Barco in New York.

Sesame Street is now in its 24th season. For Latino USA, I'm Mandalit del Barco in New York.

Oh, that was great! Well, this is Big Bird leaving you with one final word: "¡Viva!"

Oh, that was great! Well, this is Big Bird leaving you with one final word: "¡Viva!"

Every culture has its special days, Diaz de Fiesta. Most often, they're related to a special date in history: Fiestas Patrias, Puertorriqueños celebrate El Grito de Lares on September 23rd. Dominicanos celebrate on February 27th, the Dominican Republic's independence from Haiti. In Mexico and among Mexican Americans, Cinco de Mayo is one such day of celebration, not an Independence Day, but in memory of a battle which took place in 1862. However, as producers Laura Valera and Arthur Duncan found, the historical significance of the holiday is often lost in the midst of cultural festivities. Here's their Cinco de Mayo audio essay.

Every culture has its special days, Diaz de Fiesta. Most often, they're related to a special date in history: Fiestas Patrias, Puertorriqueños celebrate El Grito de Lares on September 23rd. Dominicanos celebrate on February 27th, the Dominican Republic's independence from Haiti. In Mexico and among Mexican Americans, Cinco de Mayo is one such day of celebration, not an Independence Day, but in memory of a battle which took place in 1862. However, as producers Laura Valera and Arthur Duncan found, the historical significance of the holiday is often lost in the midst of cultural festivities. Here's their Cinco de Mayo audio essay.

You bet. There's a battle of somewhere… I forget now.

You bet. There's a battle of somewhere… I forget now.

[Transitional Drum Music]

[Transitional Drum Music]

Cinco de Mayo has to do with the French forces attempting to occupy Mexico. Essentially what it deals with is the defeat of the French forces by the liberal forces of Benito Juarez in the city of Puebla, in the state of Puebla.

Cinco de Mayo has to do with the French forces attempting to occupy Mexico. Essentially what it deals with is the defeat of the French forces by the liberal forces of Benito Juarez in the city of Puebla, in the state of Puebla.

Do you know why we celebrate Cinco de Mayo?

Do you know why we celebrate Cinco de Mayo?

All I know is it's a Mexican holiday. I don't really know what the reason is.

All I know is it's a Mexican holiday. I don't really know what the reason is.

I don't know, is it somebody's birthday?

I don't know, is it somebody's birthday?

Ah…for me, Cinco de Mayo is a pretty good… good day.

Ah…for me, Cinco de Mayo is a pretty good… good day.

A big event?

A big event?

A big Fiesta.

A big Fiesta.

That's when the Mexicans took over. They kicked the French out of Mexico!

That's when the Mexicans took over. They kicked the French out of Mexico!

Y ganamos los mexicanos.

Y ganamos los mexicanos.

The independence of Mexico.

The independence of Mexico.

From?

From?

Spain.

Spain.

And one last thing. Do you know why we celebrate Cinco de Mayo?

And one last thing. Do you know why we celebrate Cinco de Mayo?

[Transitional Music in Spanish]

[Transitional Music in Spanish]

Cinco de Mayo did not lead to the ouster of the French. It would represent a significant victory for the Mexicans because it taught them that they could create a real sense of nationalism for them, that they could defeat invading forces and the like. It was significant on the basis of… you know, sort of a moral strength that gave the Mexicanos.

Cinco de Mayo did not lead to the ouster of the French. It would represent a significant victory for the Mexicans because it taught them that they could create a real sense of nationalism for them, that they could defeat invading forces and the like. It was significant on the basis of… you know, sort of a moral strength that gave the Mexicanos.

[Transitional Mariachi Music]

[Transitional Mariachi Music]

We just know it as a celebration, as a fiesta. Aside from it being a festival event, it's an educational event because it is the time of the year that, for some reason, many of our people put our political agendas, our turf agendas aside, and realize that we are all one of a large majority of people in this hemisphere.

We just know it as a celebration, as a fiesta. Aside from it being a festival event, it's an educational event because it is the time of the year that, for some reason, many of our people put our political agendas, our turf agendas aside, and realize that we are all one of a large majority of people in this hemisphere.

Do you celebrate Cinco de Mayo?

Do you celebrate Cinco de Mayo?

Well, doesn't every Hispanic?

Well, doesn't every Hispanic?

Bueno, cuando celebramos el Cinco de Mayo vamos aquí a las fiestas que tienen en el Fiesta Garden.

Bueno, cuando celebramos el Cinco de Mayo vamos aquí a las fiestas que tienen en el Fiesta Garden.

Yes, a big party.

Yes, a big party.

Con Mariachi, es una fiesta mexicana.

Con Mariachi, es una fiesta mexicana.

Bueno… el parque.

Bueno… el parque.

The typical barbecue con unas cervecitas aquí y allá. I just have a good time with the friends and family.

The typical barbecue con unas cervecitas aquí y allá. I just have a good time with the friends and family.

The most things that I do is dance.

The most things that I do is dance.

[Corrido Music]

[Corrido Music]

During these festivals, we also realize that there are no borders.

During these festivals, we also realize that there are no borders.

[Corrido Music]

[Corrido Music]

And for this week y por esta semana, this has been Latino USA, a radio journal of news and culture. Latino USA is produced and edited by María Emilia Martin. We had help from an Angelica Luévano, Vidal Guzmán, Radio Cali in Los Angeles, Teresa Acosta, and MEChA at UT Austin, and Manolita Wetherill. Latino USA is produced at the studios of KUT in Austin, Texas. The technical producer is Walter Morgan. We want to hear from you. So, llámenos on our toll-free number 1800-535-5533. Major funding for Latinos USA comes from the Ford Foundation, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and the University of Texas at Austin. The program is distributed by the Longhorn Radio Network. ¡Y hasta la próxima! Until next time. I'm María Hinojosa for Latino USA.

And for this week y por esta semana, this has been Latino USA, a radio journal of news and culture. Latino USA is produced and edited by María Emilia Martin. We had help from an Angelica Luévano, Vidal Guzmán, Radio Cali in Los Angeles, Teresa Acosta, and MEChA at UT Austin, and Manolita Wetherill. Latino USA is produced at the studios of KUT in Austin, Texas. The technical producer is Walter Morgan. We want to hear from you. So, llámenos on our toll-free number 1800-535-5533. Major funding for Latinos USA comes from the Ford Foundation, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and the University of Texas at Austin. The program is distributed by the Longhorn Radio Network. ¡Y hasta la próxima! Until next time. I'm María Hinojosa for Latino USA.

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.

[Transitional music]

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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[Helicopter sounds]

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.

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The roots of Latin jazz go back at least five decades to such artists as Machito, Chano Pozo, and Dizzy Gillespie. Latin jazz has lost many of its originators in recent years, but one of them, 81-year-old Mario Bauzá keeps going strong. From Miami, Emilio San Pedro prepared this profile of the legendary co-founder of the band Machito and his Afro-Cubans.

Mario Bauzá left his native Havana for New York in 1930. When he got to this country, Bauzá became one of those responsible for making Afro-Cuban music popular in the United States and around the world.

Had to happen outside of Cuba before the Cuban people convince themself what they had themself over there. When they got big in United States, Cuba begin to move into that line of music.

[Afro-Cuban jazz music]

Bauzá remembers his days at the Apollo Theater in Harlem where he helped to launch the career of Ella Fitzgerald. He recalls his days with the Cab Calloway Orchestra and the time that he and his friends, Dizzy Gillespie and Cozy Cole, played around with Afro-Cuban rhythm and jazz arrangements and created something new: Afro-Cuban Jazz.

[Afro-Cuban jazz music]

In the early 1940s, Bauzá formed the legendary band Machito and his Afro-Cubans, along with his brother-in-law, Frank Grillo, who was called Machito. Bauzá was the musical director of the band and he composed some of the group's most memorable songs.

[Afro-Cuban jazz music]

The sensation caused by Machito and his Afro-Cubans and by other Latin musicians in the '40s made New York the focal point of a vibrant Latin music scene.

[Afro-Cuban jazz music]

It's the scene of The Mambo Kings, you know, and that's why a lot of people will say Mambo is not Cuban music or is not Mexican music. Mambo is New York music.

Enrique Fernández writes about Latin music for the Village Voice. He's also the editor of the New York-based Más Magazine.

It was here that this kind of music became very hot…that it really galvanized a lot of people…that really attracted a lot of musicians from different genres that wanted to jam with it, and that created those great, you know, those great encounters between Latin music practitioners and the jazz practitioners, particularly Black American jazz practitioners. For that, you need to recognize that New York has been, since then, probably before then, but certainly since then, one of the great centers of Latin music.

Mario Bauzá takes great pride in the current popularity of Latin and Caribbean music, but he says people are wrong to call his music Latin jazz. He says that label doesn't give proper recognition to its musical roots.

Merengue, merengue from Santo Domingo. Cumbia is cumbia from Colombia. Afro-Cuban is Cuban. That's why I got to keep [unintelligible] Afro-Cuban rhythms, and Afro-Cuban rhythm…Danzón es cubano…la Danza es cubano…Bolero es cubano…el Cha-cha-cha es cubano…el Mambo es cubano…el Guaguancó es cubano y la Columbia es cubana. So, I got to call it Afro-Cuban Jazz.

[Afro-Cuban jazz music]

After seven decades in the music business, Mario Bauzá has come out of the shadows of the group Machito and his Afro-Cubans and is being recognized for his accomplishments as one of the creators of Afro-Cuban Jazz. This year, Bauzá plans to tour with his Afro-Cuban jazz orchestra featuring Graciela on vocals. The group also plans to release another album of Afro-Cuban jazz: Explosión 93. For Latino USA, I'm Emilio San Pedro.

[Afro-Cuban jazz music]

Yo crecí en Chicago. I grew up in Chicago, but every summer, my family would pack up an overloaded station wagon and drive across the border to visit my homeland, México. I have many wonderful memories of those trips to less urban settings. That was where I came into contact with nature, driving across the mountains and deserts of México. I often think that, like me, many Latinos who return to the land of their birth or where their parents or grandparents came from do so for the joy of going back to where the simple things of life are still valued. A few years ago, Texas artist Luis Guerra moved to a village in the state of San Luis Potosí in northern México. He says he was recently reminded of why he made the move as he took a long hike in the mountains in La Sierra.

La subida es dura. It's a steep climb, but after a few hours, the walking gets easier. The valleys and peaks of this beautiful, rocky Sierra spread out before you like a solid ocean suspended in time. This is a dry land, almost a desert, yet sometimes I'll find a tiny spring in a niche of a canyon wall. Or I'll happen upon a small shrine in a lonely valley. Almost every day, I'll come across a shepherd tending his flock or I'll hear the sounds of children and discover they are gathering wild herbs like oregano or rosa de castillo. Often, early in the morning, I'll see a woman or a man driving two or three burros loaded with mountain produce heading for a nearby town or city. I make it a point not to camp close to someone's home just out of respect and so as not to use up firewood that doesn't belong to me. Firewood is scarce around here. This day as I crested a hill, I spotted a ranchito, just a little two-room house, adobe walls with a flat roof.

Smoke was rising from the chimney. I was barely 300 yards from the ranchito and it would be dark soon. It was too late to move on. It was going to be a cold night and the only firewood I could find was already cut…tú sabes, for the rancho's wood stove. Ni modo. I used the firewood. I felt guilty, but warm that night. Anyway, I would make it up to them in the morning. After breakfast, as I was packing my things, the campesino from the ranchito showed up, a barrel-chested man with strong hands, a weathered face, and a scraggly beard. "Buenos días." I walked up to him and offered to pay for the wood. He brushed my words aside. "Mira, everything you see all around you is mine. Estás en tu casa. This is your home." To him, I was already his guest and my offer to pay was almost impolite. He reached into his bag and handed me a small bundle. "My wife packed this for you," he said. It was bread, goat cheese, and jamoncillo, a homemade candy made from fresh milk. We talked for a while.

I told him I was a painter who took inspiration from the Sierra. He told of his early life as a shepherd in these same mountains and of his many years as a minor in Zacatecas. "The mines are bad luck," he said. "Es muy duro, siempre en lo oscuro… always in the dark, digging with dynamite for God knows what or for whom. Here on top of the earth, we have everything a man can need. What more can one ask for? Dios provides the earth, the sun, wind, and rain. We provide the labor." He smiled. Somehow, my pack felt especially light that whole day.

Commentator Luis Guillermo Guerra is an Austin artist who now resides in the Mexican state of San Luis Potosí. And for this week y por esta semana, this has been Latino USA, a radio journal of news and culture. Latino USA is produced and edited by María Emilia Martin; associate producer, Angelica Luévano. We had help from Karyl Wheeler in New York. Latino USA is produced at the studios of KUT in Austin, Texas. The technical producer is Walter Morgan. We want to hear from you. So, llámenos on our toll-free number, 1-800-535-5533. Major funding for Latino USA comes from the Ford Foundation, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and the University of Texas at Austin. The program is distributed by the Longhorn Radio Network. Y hasta la próxima. Until next time, I'm María Hinojosa for Latino USA.

This is Latino USA, a radio journal of news and culture. I'm María Hinojosa. Today on Latino USA, what it's like to be Latino and gay.

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.

A conversation with a music man named Dr. Loco.

We decided to take a cultural position in saying, “we're pochos and proud of it.” You know, somos bilingües. So what?

And a commentary from the streets.

I can't join a crew. I just renounced one, but I've got to protect myself. So the only thing left for me is to get a gun, or is it?

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

This is news from Latino USA. I'm Vidal Guzmán.

Sigue la música. Sigue los éxitos. Twenty-four hours a day!

[Radio station recording]

WAQI Miami. Aquí, Radio Mambí.

The growth in Spanish-language media is one indication, and now it's official. The Census Bureau reports that next to English, Spanish is now the most-used language in the nation. Seventeen million people in thirty-nine states speak Spanish daily. This 1990 census data says that one out of seven Americans speak a language other than English. This nation's outgoing and Spanish-speaking Surgeon General, Dr. Antonia Novello, recently added to the controversy regarding President Clinton's healthcare plan.

Los virus no identifican persona por pasaporte ni por tarjetita. En ese sentido, hay que de quitarle el temor a buscar salud…

Novello stated that it should include coverage for undocumented workers for public health reasons and added that viruses and bacteria did not ask for green cards. First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, head of the Health Care Task Force, says that the healthcare plan would not provide courage for the undocumented. That topic and other healthcare issues of interest to the Hispanic community were on the table when Mrs. Clinton recently met with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. From Washington, Patricia Guadalupe reports.

Mrs. Clinton came to Capitol Hill promising greater minority-group participation in changing the healthcare system. An issue of particular worry to Congressman José Serrano, Democrat of New York and chairman of the caucus, is the lack of sufficient medical data on Hispanics.

One of the things I mentioned to her, for instance, was that tuberculosis in New York City's Hispanic community was always a problem but now has become a national problem when it reached out. So we need research to know what unique medical needs exist.

Puerto Rico's resident commissioner, Carlos Romero-Barceló, told Mrs. Clinton that residents of Puerto Rico don't enjoy full-healthcare rights as other U.S. citizens.

We have the absurd situation that here we have citizens who are not covered by Medicaid and even veterans in Puerto Rico not covered by Medicaid.

According to the National Council of La Raza, one-third of all Hispanics have no medical coverage. Members of the Hispanic Caucus want the Clinton administration to extend universal healthcare to the uninsured and undocumented workers, over half of whom are Hispanic. For Latino USA, I'm Patricia Guadalupe.

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]

And for this week y por esta semana, this has been Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture. Latino USA is produced and edited by Maria Emilia Martin; associate producer is an Angelica Luévano. We had help from Vidal Guzmán and David Gorin. Latino USA is produced at the studios of KUT in Austin, Texas. The technical producer is Walter Morgan. We want to hear from you, so llámenos on our toll-free number, 1-800-535-5533. Major funding for Latino USA comes from the Ford Foundation, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and the University of Texas at Austin. The program is distributed by the Longhorn Radio Network. Y hasta la próxima, until next time, I'm María Hinojosa for Latino USA.

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.

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.

And for this week y para este semana, this has been Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture. Latino USA is produced and edited by María Emilia Martin. Associate producer is Angelica Luévano. We had help this week from Franc Contreras, Mandalit del Barco, Patricia Guadalupe, Manolita Wetherill, Karen Blackman, Radio Bilingüe in Fresno, California, Margo Gutiérrez, Linda Wedenoga, and the Chicago Cultural Center. Latino USA is produced at the studios of KUT in Austin, Texas. The technical producer is Walter Morgan. We want to hear from you, so llámenos on our toll-free number, 1-800-535-5533. Major funding for Latino USA comes from the Ford Foundation, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and the University of Texas at Austin. This program is distributed by the Longhorn Radio Network. Y hasta la próxima…I'm María Hinojosa for Latino USA.

This audio essay with music by The Latin Alliance was produced by Beto Argos in Boulder, Colorado, along with Guillermo Gomez-Pena, Yareli Arizmendi, and Sergio Arau.

[background music] I'm Maria Hinojosa. The word "alien" writes New York Times columnist, AM Rosenthal, "Should be saved for creatures that jump out of bellies at movies." In a recent column, Rosenthal recalls how he came to this country without immigration papers as a child, along with this Russian-born father. He remembers how much he detested to hear himself referred to as an alien. Like Rosenthal, many Latinos find the use of the label "illegal alien" offensive, as offensive as the word "wetback" was to an earlier generation.

[background music] Producer Betto Arcos, along with Mexican performance artist, Guillermo Gomez-Pena, actress Yareli Arizmendi, and rock musician Sergio Arau, have given some though to the use of these labels. “Ahi Les Va Un audio essay.” Here's their audio essay.

Do you remember the little song we learned yesterday?

Yes, I remember.

Let's sing it.

Okay. (singing).

One little, two little, three little aliens. Four little, five little, six little aliens. Seven little, eight little, nine little aliens.

[recorded voice] To find out how to report illegal aliens or employers of illegal aliens, dial six now. [beep]

Alien nation. Alien nation. Alien action. Alien native. Alguein-ated. Alien hatred. Aliens out there. Hay alguien out there. Aliens the movie. Aliens the album. Cowboys versus aliens. Bikers versus aliens. Hippies versus aliens. The wetback from Mars. The Mexican transformer and his radioactive torta. The Conquest of Tenochtitlan by Spielberg. The Reconquest of Aztlán by Monte Python. The brown wave versus the microwave.

It is estimated that there are approximately six million undocumented or illegal aliens living and working in the United States at this time.

Sergio is an illegal. Guillermo is a wetback. Is Sergio a wetback?

No, Sergio is not a wetback. Sergio is an illegal. Guillermo is a wetback.

Good.

I am, therefore, I cross. My rationale for crossing is simple, survival plus dignity equals migration minus memory.

[Recorded Sound] Come in Border Patrol. Border Patrol. I'm in Chopper One. [Sounds of breathing] I need help. I need assistance. I need assistance. [inaudible 000919]. [Hip-hop music] Come in, come in Border Patrol, please. Come in. We need assistance.

[Hip-Hop Music] The helicopter flies like an eagle. Made it to the other side now. We're illegal.

[Ranchera music transition] The Chicana writer, Ana Castillo, had an abuelita, a grandmother who signed her name with an X. Castillo's father dropped out of high school. Her mother only finished primary school. But all three had an indelible impact on Castillo as a writer. They told her stories, or cuentos, and in her latest novel, So Far From God, Ana Castillo brings these cuentos to life.

An account of the first astonishing occurrence in the lives of a woman named Sophia and her four fated daughters, and the equally astonishing return of her wayward husband. La Loca was only three years old when she died. Her mother Sophie woke at 12 midnight to the howling and neighing of the five dogs, six cats, and four horses, whose custom it was to go freely in and out of the house. Sophie got up and tiptoed out of her room.

So Far From God is based in New Mexico, where Castillo who grew up in Chicago, has been living for the past two years. The book has been called a telenovela, a Chicano soap opera. In fact, Castillo deals with some pretty heavy topics in her book, among them women's rights, environmental racism, sexuality, Catholicism, and the Gulf War, just to name a few. Thanks for joining us on Latino USA, Ana.

In your book, what's interesting, what caught my eye was that you have a lot of Spanish phrases with no translation at all. Is that one way in which you wanted to kind of deal with that schizophrenia of being bilingual and bi-cultural in just saying, "This is who we are," and it's not going to be translated?

Yeah, well of course, that is our reality. Lots of times when I would go to universities to read and I'd see the flyers, Ana Castillo, poet. I always say, "Chicana in search of her identity." I stopped before I did anything. I said, "I want people to know that I'm very aware of my identity. What I would like to do is assert that identity to the public." And so, part of our identity is not so much as schizophrenia. It's the denial from society that this is our language. So if this is an oral storyteller, she or he would say this, would talk this way, would not be inclined to translate.

In literature, once you see that in print, obviously it would be very redundant to say, “Callate. Shut up," he told me, or something like that. I work at what I had to do to compromise for everybody. It's a compromise because some Latinos do not read any Spanish, and some Chicanos won't understand this particular Spanish, is then you work it into the text. Sophie put the baseball bat that she had taken with her when checking the house back under the bed, just in case she encountered some tonto who had gotten ideas about the woman who lived alone with her four little girls by the ditch at the end of the road.

It was then that she noticed the baby-

After growing up Chicago as I did, which is not necessarily a very magical realist place, although it has its moments, was magical realism a part of your moving to the Southwest? [laughing] Because you talk about the Southwest and New Mexico as an integral part of this novel of yours.

Let's just kind of deconstruct this magical realism catch word I think that's associated with Latin American literature, but also with the Latino reality I think. That's why I laugh, because I think it's more like this, this is a reality and magical realism is what motivates us. I did not have that intention at all to do that in my literature, in this particular book. What happened was that I think I was possessed, and I was there immersed, baptism by fire in Nuevo Mexico. Much of what comes out in here is material that is based on faith, whether it's Catholic faith, it's Pueblo Indian mythology faith, or the creation story that is told here.

It's sort of diluting to simply say it's magic realism. I'm not saying there's a, "Now what can I do that's very extraordinary?" Well everything around me is very extraordinary. What's probably... I couldn't beat the reality here. I wouldn't call it magic realism. I would call it a book based on faith.

[Reading] Esperanza let out a shriek long and so high-pitched it started some dogs barking in the distance. Sophie had stopped crying to see what was causing the girl's hysteria, when suddenly the whole crowd began to scream and faint, and move away from the priest who finally stood alone next to the baby's coffin. The lid had pushed all the way open and the little girl inside sat up just as sweetly as if she had woken from a nap, rubbing her eyes and yawning, "Mami?" She called, looking around and squinting her eyes against the harsh light. Father Jerome got hold of himself and sprinkled holy water in the direction of the child, who for the moment was too stunned to utter so much as a word of prayer.

[Reading] Then as if all this was not amazing enough, as Father Jerome moved toward the child she lifted herself up into the air and landed on the church roof. "Don't touch me. Don't touch me," she warned. This was only the beginning of the child's long life's phobia of people.

Highlight--music--Violin

There's been a lot of attention given to this book, So Far From God. You've gotten a lot of press, you've been doing readings, you've been traveling starting at 500 in the morning and ending at 900 at night, reading in many, many different places. But this isn't your first novel. You've written other novels and other books of poetry before. So why now? Why do you think there's this interest now? Is it because there's all of sudden this general incredible interest in Chicana/Latina writers, or what? Or do you think it's just because hey, it just was the right historical moment? How are you interpreting it?

Since I've been writing and publishing now for almost 20 years, I had that vision that it would take that long as a Chicana. I don't know how I had it, but I did have it. Unfortunately, that was an analysis that I understood in terms of racism, sexism, and classism, which that is something that we can say most Chicanas, Latinas, do experience in this country. You are not Native American. You are not European. What you are is a drone that should just go and work, and don't worry. Nobody wants to hear what you have to say. When you're a writer, that's what it's about, is what you have to say.

And so, I worked for many years as a poet. People still see me primarily as a poet. Then I thought, how can I really get the word out? Well, not that many people read poetry, and that's when I started teaching myself how to write fiction. It took me a number of years before I did The Mixquiahuala Letters, which I thought I would die with it stuck between the mattress and the bedspring, and nobody would ever see it or want to see it. When it was accepted so quickly and so highly-acclaimed critically by the Chicano scholars, that literary audience, it really took me aback.

I guess, finally, what do you say to young Chicanos and Chicanas, but I guess primarily Chicanas, who are probably maybe even listening to this, who are sitting in their little casita who knows where, or in their dorm room if they're in a university and saying, "I don't have anything to say, and my voice is strange. No one understands me." How do you try to convince them to trust their voice as you have finally come to trust yours?

You have to have great tenacity about this, great personal conviction, that this is what you want to do, that you love to do. I would say, write, write, write, write, and read everything you can read, and brace yourself because we all get rejected. I still get rejected. Sandra Cisneros still gets rejections. You say, "Well in comparison the success or to acknowledge when who cares," but everybody at some point and continuously will get that when they're sticking by their convictions, and when you're trailblazing with a machete to try to make a little pathway there.

I would say to young Chicanos and Latinos who want to write, to read, read, read, write, and to believe in yourself. How can you go wrong when you're doing what you believe in?

Thank you for joining us on Latino USA. It's been a pleasure Ana, un placer. Ana Castillo's latest book, So Far From God, is published by Norton. Muchas gracias, Ana.

Thank you.

Home Box Office has announced plans to launch HBO en Español, a Spanish language version of its regular schedule of movies. HBO en Español will be available in the top 10 Latino markets beginning in October, and television network Telemundo plans to launch their Spanish-language newscast in conjunction with Reuters television. I'm Maria Martin with news from Latino USA.

We're doing a survey to find out how people feel about the repeal of the anti-bilingual ordinance, making Dade County bilingual again.

Estamos de acuerdo con esa ley de que sea bilingüe, no?

Why should we have to learn two languages where we stay here in America?

60% of the county speak Spanish, so yeah, I approve it.

Yo cuando comenzó la le ese estaba trabajando…

I remember when the law began and I was working, speaking Spanish with a coworker and some people came over and told me it was absolutely forbidden to speak Spanish.

From my understanding, is that I think it would probably better if anything because the government's going to be understood by more people.

And in case of a hurricane or something, these people got to know where to go, what to do.

I'm Maria Hinojosa. You've been listening to a sampling of opinions from Miami about the recent repeal of a 13-year-old English-only law, which prohibited the official use of Spanish in Dade County. The law was enacted in 1980 in the wake of the Maria boat lift from Cuba and the arrival of thousands of Haitian refugees. One observer said the repeal of the English-only amendment signals a new era of bilingualism and bi-culturalism in South Florida.

With us to speak about, if indeed this is a new era, and what it symbolizes, are Ivan Roman, a staff writer with El Nuevo Herald, Nancy San Martin, a general assignment reporter for the Sun-Sentinel, and Emilio San Pedro of WLRN Radio and a Miami correspondent for Latino USA. Welcome to all of you and muchos gracias, thank you for joining us. Many people are talking about this, in fact, as the dawn of a new political and cultural era in South Florida. Does this, in fact, set the stage for a whole new political reality in that area?

It's not so much the repeal of the ordinance that's going to foster that change. I think that a lot has happened in Miami and this is just a step in the right direction. It's the first concrete example of working together in unity, if you will, from the standpoint of politicians or leaders in the community taking a certain position with this issue. I think a lot will follow.

Well, the people were saying that in fact this could, in many of the reports there were questions of whether this was going to increase ethnic divisions. What is the reality there? Is this in fact going to divide more groups? Or has this brought together the minority groups in the Miami area to say, look, if we work together, we're not a minority, we're a majority and we have political clout and can do things?

I think we can look at a combination of factors there. If we look at the new composition of the county commission, we have six Hispanics and four Blacks on it. In addition, three non-Hispanic Whites, and the commission has made it clear, everyone on that commission, that they're looking towards change, they're looking towards working together. One of the ways to do it is with repealing this law.

Another thing that has happened in the last few weeks was the ending of the Black Boycott of Miami, the Black Convention Boycott. There are just a series of factors in which basically what's happening is a realization of the changes in Dade County and just getting rid of the vestiges to reflect the reality in Dade County that's been happening for the last 10 years, that it is a community with a bunch of different groups that need to work together and the leadership is finally saying, look, let's work together and let's deal with all these different vestiges that keep us apart.

Was there any one specific thing that really set the stage for these groups beginning to work together and as you say, Ivan, realizing that this is the reality in the Miami area?

I think the redistricting of the county commission and the way that the commission is set up and voted on, I think that was this very significant focal point and that was when things started to really perhaps change because of the way that the commission has changed and the diversity on the commission, as Ivan was mentioning, has made it possible for all these things to come up again, things that were had become law and were not discussed for quite a while.

People realize that to get anything done, you need a coalition. If you have six Hispanics and four Blacks and three Whites on a commission, you realize that you have to establish coalitions to get anything done. You just can't not do anything. I think another thing that happened, is the success of the boycott was finally making the leaders here realize that something needed to be done to ensure the economic health of the county, and at the same time, the hurricane I think was very helpful in making everybody realize here that everybody needed to work together to help.

What was interesting for me was that there was not only divisions on the issue of the English-only law between for example, Latinos and African Americans or Anglos, for example. We also saw heated confrontation between Latino groups. Not all Latinos wanted to repeal the English-only law.

Well, I think it's good that they can speak their own language, but I don't like to walk in a place where nobody speaks English even though I do speak Spanish and I'm Cuban.

I think you're right, that both sides had a combination of Latinos or Blacks and non-Hispanic Whites did speak on both sides of the issue, but I was at the meeting and the pro or anti-repeal folks were certainly a lot smaller. The interesting thing also was that just using Hispanics and Haitian as an example, in recent events, those two particular groups have been on opposing sides, and for the first time in recent months, you saw both facets fighting for the same thing, and that was to repeal the ordinance. I think it was clearly a demonstration of unity that had not been seen in recent months here, and I think it's a good sign.

I also think that younger generations of Hispanics here in Miami, because of increased immigration, daily immigration every day, and a strong identification of Hispanics in Dade County with their culture and with their ancestry, especially in the Cuban community, that it's much harder to have a particular Hispanic group that would be against a law that in essence attacks or sub-estimates Spanish, which is part of what they are. So, I think that, of that group that you're mentioning, I think is a very minor thing in this community.

However, in many cases, I think the discord in relation to the law that was just passed is because a lot of people don't really understand what the law really means. I mean, when you ask them, when you go out and interview them and you talk to them about it, to many people it's a matter of pride. It's a matter of defining your stake in this community. And I think for them when they talk about it, they say things like, I don't want to be forced to learn Spanish. That's one of the things I hear all the time, and I don't think the law is about forcing anyone to learn Spanish or Creole or any other languages spoken here. Also, among the Haitian community, they don't really know what role this will play in their language, Creole being also spoken or translated or, and used in county documents.

You know, it's not that the law is really going to change anything. It's not that the previous law really did anything that would change much that was of substance. It's largely symbolic. It's people trying to define what American culture is. We're still hearing all of these catchphrases about, well, people should adapt to what American culture is, and everybody's trying to define what that is. And in Dade County, people are saying, no American culture is not necessarily what you would define as American culture in the Midwest. It's reflective of different groups that are here and we all have something to contribute. So it's a redefinition of American culture, and people who don't want to define it that way and want to resist any change to what they understand as American culture, take this as a very symbolic and important issue when, in essence, practically, it really means nothing.

Thank you for joining us from Miami, Ivan Roman of El Nuevo Herald, Nancy San Martin, a general assignment reporter for the Sun-Sentinel, and Emilio San Pedro of WLRN Public Radio.

President Clinton say some recent polls is rapidly losing popularity with the American public. The president, for his part, says it's just that people don't understand his economic plan. Well, here at Latino USA, we wondered how US Latinos, who in November voted overwhelmingly for candidate Clinton, feel about the President's performance so far. Our first informal sampling comes from the small border community of Clint, Texas, just outside El Paso.

I'm Maria Martin. Clint Texas is a small working-class border community, quiet on a warm Saturday afternoon. Those people I spoke with fell into two categories. One, the politically apathetic, and two, those who felt that any judgment on the President is premature.

It's going to take time. It can be done in one day.

To me, it's all the same. I'm just waiting to see what kind of taxes he brings up because I am opening up my own business.

Yeah, I'm happy. We need a change. He's doing a good job.

Well, he's doing okay in some things and the other things he's not because well, he needs people to back him up.

He can't do everything the way it was. I tell you one thing, he was messed up. Our nation was pretty messed up. How can he fix in less than a year. He can't.

[Background--Sounds--Nature] I'm Emilio San Pedro in Wynwood, a predominantly Puerto Rican neighborhood just north of downtown Miami, Florida. Here, reaction to President Clinton's performance was mixed.

I don't know if it's too early in the year to feel the effects, but up to now I haven't felt any and I haven't seen that my community has felt anything that he's promised. I don't think he's made any changes, and we haven't felt any in the Hispanic community.

[Translation--Dub--English] Well, I think he's doing all right because it's only his first months in office.

[Translation--Dub--English] Well, I'll tell you with all my heart. I voted for Clinton because I hoped for a change, but the truth is I see things worse every day.

[Translation--Dub--English] He's going to have to raise taxes. I voted for Bush. Don't blame me.

People here in suburban Monterey Park, in Eastern LA County, are divided over the issue of President Clinton's performance on the job, with most willing to give him more time. Some felt he needed more on-the-job experience.

I think he's doing well. Everyone's saying that he's doing bad, but I think he's going to go through with it. He's going to take care of everything and improve it. They'll see, everyone's going to see how he's going to do good.

I think he's doing in between. I'm not really satisfied with everything he's doing, but he's our president, so we have to pull for him, stay together with him.

Since I saw him that he was elected, I like him because he is sincere and he tells you, he says what he thinks, and it's right for the people.

[Spanish speaking--sounds--dubbing] But with the country the way it is, it's impossible for things to get fixed in a moment. Really. It's too soon to say whether he's a good or a bad president.

In Monterey Park, reporting for Latino USA, this is Alberto Aguilar.

Allegations of abuse by the Border Patrol, customs, and immigration agents are often heard in many Latino communities, particularly along the U.S.-Mexico border. These widespread complaints have prompted several congressional leaders to call for the creation of a commission to investigate abuses by these federal agencies. From Washington. Patricia Guadalupe has more.

Cuando yo me miraron se aceleraron y me dijeon parate

Heriberto Arambula is a Mexican national who claims he was beaten up by the US Border Patrol while riding his bicycle in El Paso, Texas.

Me agarre la bicicleta me tumba para atras y el otro esta gringo parece Bruce Lee.

They grabbed me and threw me from my bicycle. One of the officers then jumped at me. He looked like Bruce Lee. Imagine. He sunk his boot into my chest that left the mark. They didn't ask me what I was doing or explain why they were after me, nothing. Only the beating and then to the police, then to the ambulance, then to the hospital, and that's all. [Spanish dubbed over]

It is because of this and many other complaints that legislation was introduced in Congress May 20th to create an independent commission that would oversee the Border Patrol. Currently, the Border Patrol is part of the immigration and naturalization service, which immigrant advocates say is inefficient and biased since it polices itself. Democratic representative Xavier Becerra of California is the chief sponsor of the commission bill in Congress.

We believe that you need independent review and that's the big change here. It's not dramatic, but what we're saying is let's get some serious activity in here because there are people who are being abused.

Congressman Becerra adds that the problem doesn't exist only among the undocumented along the border.

We're talking about US citizens, legal permanent residents who have been abused by the INS. And we have not only eyewitness testimony and firsthand testimony of people who've come, but we have court cases where we have had judicial decisions that show that people have been abused.

Former Consul General of Mexico in El Paso, Roberto Gamboa Mascarenas investigates many cases of alleged abuse by Border Patrol agents. Most recently, the violent deaths of three undocumented workers in Arizona and Texas. He said the commission would have the power to act on claims of abuses, something he says the system is not now set up to do.

It is the most fantastic and the most positive step that has ever been taken in favor of the human rights and the civil rights of many people in the border areas, not necessarily all Mexican, whose rights have been violated continuously by agents who, again, are unchecked, uncontrolled, and not disciplined whatsoever.

In its annual report released on the same day Becerra introduced this legislation, the human rights group, America's Watch, concludes that conditions at the border have not changed. Cases of abuses have risen, not fallen. Juan Mendez is executive director of America's Watch.

There's something wrong in the way abuses are referred to the proper authorities and investigated inside these agencies, both the Border Patrol and the customs administration.

Mendez says that creating an independent commission would alleviate the fear many have of coming forward when they have claims of abuse. When reached for comment, a spokesman for the INS said they would follow whatever directive the Congress and Attorney General Janet Reno handed down. For Latino USA, I'm Patricia Guadalupe in Washington.

NAFTA has provided fertile ground for the work of performance artist Guillermo Gómez-Peña. In the following skit, Gómez-Peña becomes a character he calls "the Aztec salesman". The Aztec salesman is a lobbyist for free trade who at first tries to sway others to enter into the free trade fever, but later has an identity crisis.

[“Tequila” background music] Bienvenidos damas y caballeros, lovers, consumers of pura vicultura, a new transcontinental breeze, ricochets from Monterrey to Manhattan, from DF to LA, we perceive the pungent smells of chile con ketchup and low-cal mole. Never before have Gringolandia—[clears throat] digo--America succumbed to the sabor of the amigo country with such eagerness and gusto. Let Frida Kahlo's monkeys run wild in your dreams. Get lost in the labyrinth of solitude of a Mexican painting. Dance yourself to sleep with the picante sounds of Guapango rap. Don't forget to wear your conceptual sombrero, güerita. Enjoy the tender, tender, magenta nipples of a ranchero diva. Don't get left behind. Don't arrive late to the Grand Tri National Fiesta. Support NAFTArt, free trade art for the klepto Mexican connoisseur.

Como debe diciendo, man, join a new vibrant Castro erotic—digo—econo-cultural ma-ma-maquiladora y de paso contribute to. Sorry. What I meant to say is you will receive a glossy 200-page catalog, certified by Televisa and the Metropolitan. You can place your mail orders debolada by simply dialing your resident-alien number. Remember, no one can like Mexi-can. No mejor dicho en Spanglish, lo echo en Mexico esta bien [clears throat] digo—[beep]. Me-me-me-Comprehend this machine. Approach your funders de ya porque Free raid, digo, free trade artist, tax-deductible, hombre.

No, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to. I'm having an identity crisis on the radio studio. I don't know what I'm saying. I mean, la neta es que…I need a job, man. I mean, I can cook, translate, guide tours en Nahuatl and Arawak, do gardening, security, community outreach, got my resident-alien card, barata. My social security number is ... [“Tequila” plays]

Latino USA commentator, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, a recipient of the MacArthur Genius Award, is based in California.

Buscar dientro de su corazon, dientro de su-

Educators and education reporters at the Washington Conference of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists agreed that the public schools in this country continue to fail Latino children, especially in bilingual education. Laura Varela reports.

Jim Lyons, the executive director of the National Association for Bilingual Education, says the government and the media pay too much attention to test scores. Instead, he says, the education system should be graded in its performance. Still, Lyons says many Latino students are not letting the lack of quality bilingual ed programs get in their way.

I think one of the great success stories in this country is the number of children that have become fully bilingual, many fully bi-literate, when most of their teachers are still hopelessly monolingual.

To solve the problem, Lyons says, more bilingual teachers must be hired, and more government funding for bilingual education programs must be made available. For "Latino USA," I'm Laura Varela.

[Closing music] And for this week, y por este semana, this has been "Latino USA," the Radio Journal of News and Culture. This week's special edition of "Latino USA" was produced by members of the Radio Ondas Training Project of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.

We want to hear from you, so why don't you call us on our toll-free listener hotline. It's 1-800-535-5533. That's 1-800-535-5533. Funding for "Latino USA" comes from the Ford Foundation and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The program is distributed by the Longhorn Radio Network. And a special thanks this week to the Gannett Foundation, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, and National Public Radio for their support for the Radio Ondas Training Project.

Y hasta la proxima, until next time, I'm Maria Hinojosa for "Latino USA."

Si ellos quieren hacer algo verdad, que vayan a—[English translation dub]

Si ellos quieren hacer algo verdad, que vayan a—[English translation dub]

Yo me opongo porque se—[English translation dub] Well, I'm opposed. If we keep attacking, then they keep attacking, and it's never going to end.

Yo me opongo porque se—[English translation dub] Well, I'm opposed. If we keep attacking, then they keep attacking, and it's never going to end.

Ahorita ultimamente no me entero de nada noticas por la radio. Lo relacionado a que estan sin trabajo se dedica mas tiempo en el trabajo si.

Ahorita ultimamente no me entero de nada noticas por la radio. Lo relacionado a que estan sin trabajo se dedica mas tiempo en el trabajo si.

Bueno si si hubo motivo pues esta bien que lo hagan hecho [English translation dub].

Bueno si si hubo motivo pues esta bien que lo hagan hecho [English translation dub].

[Natural sounds of ceremony] Bienvenidos cuidadanos Americanos nuevos.

History was made in Tucson, Arizona when 76 Latino immigrants became naturalized US citizens in a ceremony conducted mostly in Spanish.

[Unidentifiable] [Ceremony natural sounds] Tu sacrficio….

English-only groups that attacked the ceremony as unpatriotic, but Tucson immigration officials ruled it complied with laws allowing immigrants over the age of 50 in this country over 20 years to take citizenship tests in their native language.

The law only requires that the oath of allegiance to the United States be taken in English. Anything else is permissible in another language. We thought it was only right that we do it in their language so they can understand the experience, the full ceremony.

Nationwide, as many as 6 million Latino legal residents are eligible for US citizenship.

Hollywood movies and television commercials often give us quick, concise images of people and places along the US-Mexico border. Going beyond those media-made notions towards real understanding is difficult, even impossible. Without firsthand contact. In the nation's capital, there was an attempt to go beyond those media images of the border. It was part of the Smithsonian Institution's annual Festival of American Folklife. But as Franc Contreras reports from Washington, real, cultural understanding required more than a taste of border foods or the sounds of border music.

[Natural sounds of Washington D.C.] Some young guys from Mexicali were standing in a crowd between the Capitol building and the Washington Monument. They wore baggy pants, some had dark glasses, and others' headbands pulled way down low. To some people, they looked like gangsters, but they're not. They're cholos with a distinctive style of dress that comes straight from the border. Suddenly, they started speaking Spanish out loud.

Bueno, aqui pasa todo los dias la patrulla fronteriza. Que tal si sacamos la lengua?

Border patrol goes through here every day. Let's stick our tongues out at them.

[Natural sounds of Folklife Festival] Then from behind a food stamp where some beans were cooking, A guy came out wearing all white with a pointed hood clan style. [Highlight, natural sounds of Folklife Festival] It was the border patrol chasing down one of the Cholos people watching realized it was a play by a theater group from Mexicali, a border town south of California. The actors were hitting one of the main issues on the border, immigration. Their translator is Quique Aviles.

A lot of people complain that they don't understand because the show is being done in Spanish, but at the same time, that's what life is. When Latinos come here, we don't understand either. So, we were talking about that last night. It's sort of like returning the favor.

A woman walked past us, dressed like the Virgin of Guadalupe, the patron saint of Mexico. She went past a display where a man was making guitars by hand, past a group of muralists from El Paso who were painting an eagle, and over to a food stand where a Black woman who speaks only Spanish was serving tamales and Tecate beer, and next to her was a woman from Texas.

We're breaking a lot of preconceived ideas, a lot of biases that perhaps have been most influenced by the media.

Cynthia Vidaurri teaches at the Southwestern Borderlands Cultural Studies and Research Center in Kingsville, Texas. She says, the American Folk Life Festival in Washington is an opportunity not only for people who've never seen the border, but also for people who've come here from the border to share their cultures.

The rest of the world perceives us as what the media makes us out to be, the movies, the news, and they're really thrilled to have a chance to say, this is who we are. We are living, breathing human beings that have the same needs as you do. We just take care of those needs in a slightly different fashion.

That sounds fairly straightforward, and some people walked away from here with more understanding about the people of the borderlands, but not without some effort. At one display, Romi Frias of El Paso was trying to explain to some people from Delaware, what a low rider is, you know, a highly stylized car, usually an older model with small thin tires, maybe a mural painted on the hood and lowered about an inch from the pavement.

[Laughter] I tell people that it's really going to mess you up. You're doing about 55 and there's this monster pothole and you've got about an inch clearance. I've got a lot of friends that face that situation and unfortunately hadn't learned the hard way.

Later under a shaded area, there was a storytelling session. It was supposed to be about women on the border. An Indian woman from the Mexican side sat on the left. On the right was a white woman who works for the US Border Patrol in the middle of the two women sat a university professor. He was monopolizing the discussion. Then at another storytelling session about immigration, the professor was taking over again. Some people in the back were saying it was typical. Here's this white male, the expert, not letting the others talk. After the session, I went over to him and learned his name is Enrique Lamadrid, a man of mixed races whose family migrated to the Americas from France and Spain like many others along the border. His family goes back generations. Lamadrid says he saw many surprised people at the folk fest who learned of the amazing cultural diversity along the border.

I mean, just the amazement that you can see in people's faces when they encounter these two black women over here from the black Seminole community. They're Mexicans. So these are really complex cultural entities.

Complex, like the land where they live. The border is often characterized by clashing cultural forces. Lamadrid says People living on the border cross the international boundary daily, but it's no big deal because it's part of their daily life. And he said the people living along the 2000-mile separating line did not come to the border. It came to them. Then he mentioned a series of treaties between the US and Mexico dating back to the late 18 hundreds. It's a complex history, a balancing act, he says, because the needs of border people compete with the national needs of Washington and Mexico City, and the result of that struggle is border culture.

But culture isn't in your blood. Culture is something that you learn. Culture and identities are things that are negotiated and forged every day of our lives as we live our lives out in specific areas of the country.

Lamadrid told me about a sewer line that broke during the festival Sunday morning. Smelly dark sewer water flooded a small area around some of the exhibits. He and the other said it reminded them of some border towns where pollution has become a major problem. But on the day the sewer broke, people taking part in the American Folk life Festival this year continued their efforts to share their life's experiences as the smell and humidity surrounded them. For Latino USA, I'm Franc Contreras in Washington.

[Sports Broadcast Recording] Y le muestra la señal, la manda, viene- strike!

That's the deep right. It sends Gwynn to the wall. He leaps and can't get it. It's backed up by Bobby Kelly --

Baseball, it's the all-American pastime, and for Latinos as well. The CBS television broadcast of the All-Star game featured an all-Spanish television language commercial, which ran twice.

Setenta mediocampistas en baseball profesional son de la Republica Dominicana.

Called "La Tierra de los Mediocampistas," the Land of the Center Fielders, the ad for Nike featured images of Dominican kids playing baseball in makeshift diamonds in the Dominican Republic.

More than 70 Big League shortstops, including Tony Fernández and Manny Lee, have come from the Dominican Republic.

Ken Griffey Jr. en tercera base…

The broadcasting of baseball and other professional sports in Spanish is becoming more common in this country in places like California, Texas, and New York. But now even teams in less traditional Latino cities are discovering the profit of pitching their games to Hispanic listeners.

Ingrid Lobet reports that this season, for the first time, baseball fans in the state of Washington can listen to the Seattle Mariners games in Spanish.

[Sports Broadcast Recording] Larry se espera, le da cuarda, lanza, viene, contacto! Se va hacia el centro y Ken…se va escapar, se va escapar, se les escapa!

Perched in the cramped broadcast booth, Publio Castro handles the play by play.

[Sports Broadcast Recording] Muestra señal, la manda, viene, strike! [Spanish baseball report].

Castro has worked to establish a style that's his own. He always knew he wanted to work in broadcasting, even when he was a child doing farm work in California. Through their hard work, his parents made it possible for him to go to college.

I studied TV production, and I just wanted to know how they made movies, how they make cartoons, how they made commercials, how the cartoons moved, and those sound effects, and stuff like that.

Castro and his brother started a talk radio show in a small town in Oregon. And when a producer came looking for talent to host Portland Trailblazer basketball, he didn't have to look very far.

Finley presenta lanza bien, toquecito! Ken Griffey! ¡Sacrificio cuenta! ¡Es más, salvo! Blowers a pesar de que está cogiendo, le gana a Finley.

When Cliff Zahner heard Castro's show, he knew he had a place for him. Zahner makes a business of persuading teams to air games in Spanish. He then identifies stations that broadcast in Spanish and whose formats could benefit from the games. Then he provides them the games for free.

And then they get half of the airtime that they can sell to make their own money and we have half of the time that we can sell to pay for our expenses and the announcers. So it's added programming for them, and they'll generally do it if they feel it's a sport that's interesting to their audience. And baseball is particularly interesting because of the Hispanics that play the game.

The Mariners' team alone has Omar Vizquel, Edgar Martínez, and coach Lou Piniella. By giving Spanish-language interviews, these players are now able to reach another audience. And Randy Adamack, Vice President of Communications for the Seattle Mariners, says advertisers are slowly taking interest.

Even without it being a profit center, which it is not right now, it's obviously got value to us anyway, in speaking to a large group of important people.

If advertisers stick with the games and if the present trend continues, there will be few professional teams in the Northwest that aren't broadcasting in Spanish. It's tentative, but as football training camp begins, there are plans to make fall 1993 the first season for Seattle Seahawks games in Spanish.

[Sports Broadcast Recording] Se acaba esta entrada, donde el score dice, ahora los Angelitos de California con cuatro, Marineros con dos. Regresamos, esta es la cadena de los Marineros de Seattle.

For "Latino USA," I'm Ingrid Lobet in Seattle.

This year, the Mexican cinema is enjoying a revival with such films as el Danzón and "Como Agua para Chocolate," "Like Water for Chocolate."

Like Water for Chocolate is a saying, un dicho, meaning that something is near the boiling point. And in her film and the haunting narrative of her novel, screenwriter and author Laura Esquivel finds the boiling point in the kitchen and in relationships between men and women.

Tal parecía que en un extraño fenómeno de alquimia su ser se había disuelto en la salsa de las rosas, en el cuerpo de las codornices, en el vino, y en cada unos de los…