­by Marvin Ramírez

L-R: Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, MNC executive director Santiago “Sam” Ruiz, MNC board of directors member Tiffany Rasmussen, and president of the board Jim Salinas Sr., during the 50th anniversary of the center at SF City Hall. (Photo by Katia Fuentes).

With all the majestic honors that it deserves, Mission Neighborhood Centers (MNC) celebrated its 50th Anniversary on April 23 with an elegant dinner in the rotunda of the beautiful San Francisco City Hall, a Beaux-Arts monument that epitomized the high-minded American Renaissance of the 1880s to 1917.

Unlike other nonprofit institutions that have suffered the devastating consequences of the beginning of a current economic collapse nearing the Great Depression of the 1920s, the MNC, although is struggling to maintain its current services intact, is receiving wide support from the City and private institutions. Its endeavor mission is something many cannot afford to let die. For this reason, its black-tie fundraising dinner tickets sold out.

Being one of a few Latino centers that provides a helping hand to the most vulnerable ones in the San Francisco Latino community, its services offer culturally appropriate services to children, youth and seniors, and it’s the brain organizer of the San Francisco Carnival, one of most colorful attractions to the City by the Bay.

The MNC, an umbrella organization for a large number of organizations – distributed at 14 different locations citywide – provides services to low income seniors, youth, preschool children and their families, and is one of the most venerated organizations in the City. It is considered a model institution to many.

Funded by two Irish sisters in 1959 as a girl’s club, the organization started as a type of shelter for young pregnant women. At present, it provides services through its development programs for children, which in the past 10 years has impacted over 3,000 children, while its youth development program offers guidance that nurtures positive changes among high-risk and gang–affiliated youth, with tools and confidence to reach their fullest potential, including leadership training.

It senior’s program is one of the most loved services, and the most cared by its longtime executive director Santiago Ruíz, who has been at the forefront of the organization success for almost three decades. Ruíz

MNC from page 1was honored with a community service award, along with Steve Contreras, Jim Contreras, Jim Queen and Ray Rivera.

Latino seniors of all steps of life not only can enjoy a delicious hot, Latino meal for less than $2 at MNC, but can also receive classes that help improve their lives, such as English, citizenship among others. Its senior program also offers elders wellness and health education and promote independent living to approximately 700 seniors a year.

The center’s services expand to outer Mission, Excelsior, Mission Bay and BayView/Hunter’s Point districts, and employs over 150 bilingual/multicultural people.

The event included awards to a good group of community members that had contributed in making a difference in the lives of those in need, scholarship grants, while the ambiance was filled with the performance of SF’s salsa talent, Julio Bravo and his Orchestra, The Latin Jazz Youth Ensemble of San Francisco, and Berta Olivia y su Mariachi Mexicanísimo.

­A silent auction was also part of the excitement of the evening, in which dozens of art pieces donated by many local artists and business, and gift cards to eat at more than a dozen restaurants, and tickets to local sports events landed in the hands of many lucky ones. The MNC’s is located at 362 Capp in San Francisco.

by the University of Michigan

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — While radiation therapy is common after breast conserving surgery, it’s much less frequent after mastectomy, even among women for whom it would have clear life-saving benefit. This is according to a new study from researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center.

The study looked at 2,260 women treated for breast cancer, assessing whether they had lumpectomy or mastectomy, and whether they would be strong candidates for radiation therapy. Women who have particularly large tumors or cancer in four or more of their nearby lymph nodes are recommended to have radiation after mastectomy.

The study found that among patients who should receive radiation therapy according to medical guidelines, 95 percent of those who had lumpectomy went on to receive radiation, but only 78 percent of those who had mastectomy received radiation. Among women for whom radiation is less clearly benefi cial, 80 percent of the lumpectomy patients had radiation while only 46 percent of the mastectomy patients did.

“A substantial number of breast cancer patients are being under-treated. One in five women with strong indications for radiation after mastectomy failed to receive it. Radiation can be a life-saving treatment,” says study author Reshma Jagsi, M.D., D.Phil, assistant professor of radiation oncology at the U-M Medical School.

“The fact that 95 percent of patients who had lumpectomy received radiation in the two metropolitan areas we studied indicates that we can do better than we are currently doing for the selected mastectomy patients who also need radiation. More attention needs to be paid to radiation after mastectomy,” Jagsi says.

­Results of the study appear online March 29 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

The study also found that doctor participation strongly influenced radiation receipt. Patients who reported their surgeon was involved in the decision to receive radiation were more likely to receive radiation than patients whose doctor was less involved.

“Even patients who wanted to avoid radiation therapy were very likely to receive it if their surgeons were highly involved in the decision process. We need to do a better job of educating both patients and physicians regarding the benefits of radiation after mastectomy in certain circumstances, and we need to encourage physicians to help their patients as they make these important decisions,” Jagsi says.

In patients with strong indications for radiation after mastectomy, their risk of the cancer coming back in the chest wall or surrounding areas can exceed 330 percent. This is reduced by two-thirds if the patient undergoes radiation treatments, and overall survival is improved.

Methodology: The researchers surveyed 2,260 women in the Los Angeles and Detroit metropolitan areas who had been diagnosed with breast cancer between 2005 and 2007. Women were identified through the Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results registry. Participants were asked about their breast cancer diagnosis and treatment, including whether they received radiation therapy.

Breast cancer statistics: 194,280 Americans will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year and 40,610 will die from the disease, according to the American Cancer Society.

by the El Reportero’s news services

Daniel Ortega

Led by two Supreme Court justices, supporters of Nicaragua’s leftist president threw rocks and fireworks at a hotel where opposition lawmakers tried to meet Tuesday to overturn a decree extending the judges’ terms.

The latest chapter in a fight over the limits of President Daniel Ortega’s power started earlier in the day when hundreds of people backing his Sandinista Party blocked entrances to the Congress building to keep opposition lawmkers out.

A pro-government crowd then assaulted the Holiday Inn Hotel as legislators sought to hold a session in a conference room.

‘’They are trying to block us with their mobs,’’ opposition congressman Carlos Noguera said.

The spokesman for the opposition Liberal Party, Leonel Teller, said three of the party’s legislators were hit by rocks and were being treated for their injuries.

Supreme Court Justices Rafael Solis and Armengol Cuadra, Sandinista allies whose terms expired earlier this month, led the crowd that attacked the hotel.

Asked about the stones and fireworks, Solis told journalists, ‘’The owners have insurance.’’ Ortega has depended on the highly politicized Supreme Court for rulings like one by pro-Sandinista justices in October that overruled constitutional term limits, allowing the president to run for a second consecutive term.

The Liberal Party has called Ortega’s decree ‘’a coup against the country’s

governmental institutions.’’ ‘’The president does not have the authority to name justices,’’ the party said in a statement. ‘’The legislature does.’’ Congress has been unable to name replacements for the two justices because neither the Sandinistas nor the Liberals have a majority in the legislature.

Chinchilla’s victory – indicative of progress for women in the region?

The recent victory of Laura Chinchilla in Costa Rica’s February presidential elections and her appointment of a cabinet with unprecedented numbers of female ministers has generated fresh debate about the political participation of women in the region.

Chinchilla’s election refl ects a new trend in Central and Latin America over the past fi fteen years of record numbers of women being voted into high level political offi ce.

At the same time this progress has been offset by legislative developments across the region that represent a grave step backwards for women’s rights. This, coupled with record levels of “femicide” (the killing of women purely because they are women) suggest that considerable work remains to redress gender inequality in the region.

­ICJ’s salomonic verdict on paper mill

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague issued its verdict on April 20, on the dispute between Argentina and Uruguay over the construction of the UPM (formerly Botnia) paper mill on the banks of the river Uruguay, which acts as natural border between the two countries.

The ICJ issued a salomonic verdict, ruling that Uruguay had violated articles 7-12 of the 1975 Treaty of the River Uruguay, since it failed to inform the Comisión Administradora del Río Uruguay (CARU) of its intentions to build the mill.

The ICJ did not support Argentina’s claim that the mill pollutes the river.

The conflict is set to continue, after Argentine protestors declared that they would not comply with the ruling, stating, ‘the verdict justifies our struggle’ and vowing to fight on until the mill is dismantled ‘brick by brick’.

(Latin News and Associated Press contributed to this report.)

by Ruth Gened

An interim Immigrant Justice Report Card released this month by the National Latino Congreso reveals several strong disassociations between Congress members’ sponsorship and voting records on comprehensive immigration reform-related issues and the desires of their constituents.

A recent Benenson Strategy Group poll showed that 68 percent of likely voters support pro-immigrant reforms such as legislation which would allow undocumented immigrants to apply for citizenship after satisfying certain requirements.

In contrast, only 37 percent of all pro-immigrant measures were supported by their elected representatives.

While three-quarters or more of Democratic members backed pro-immigrant proposals, Republican members rejected them overwhelmingly. (See shaded chart above.) The NLC graded members based on their records of co-sponsoring bills or casting votes on others’ proposals.

Despite the fact that the majority of Democrat, Republican and Independent voters favored legislation to facilitate acquisition of citizenship, the overall majority of members supported bills that would actually impede immigrants on the path toward legalization.

In releasing its survey, the National Latino Congreso stated, “It is important for members of Congress to know that Latino voters and other important immigrant groups will be studying their records to determine whether or not they are truly voting in their best interest of their families and constituents.”

Additionally, the NLC evaluated members of Congress in terms of their positions with respect to immigration law. The outcome of these evaluations may be important to the electorate during the November elections, it noted. An American Community Survey showed that 225 House districts had more than 50,000 immigrant-profile constituents during 2007- 2009, but only 120 House members received pro-immigrant scores.

Within the House, 68.4 percent of representatives in districts with more than 50,000 Asian- American residents favored reform. This contrasts to 51.9 percent of representatives in districts with 50,000 or more Latino members and to 58.2 percent of repre sentatives of districts with

more than 50,000 foreign-born members.

These data should invite inquiries into the factors that create the differences between the relative strengths of non-white voices. The NLC also recorded signifi cant proimmigrant legislation support variation between regions; 28 percent of senators from the South received pro-immigrant scores greater than 70 percent compared to 77 percent from the Northeast, 56 percent from the North-west, and 50 percent from the Midwest. However, the Southitself is far from homogenous in terms of proimmigrant support among representatives.

The South Atlantic region shows the highest levels of support with more than 50 percent of representatives achieving scores of 70 percent or better compared to 13 percent of the West South Central region and 0 percent of the East South Central region.

The statistical representation of these southern areas, which contain large numbers of Latinos, heavily contribute to the overall disconnect between the general population and members of congress.

The NLC report concludes by reiterating the mismatch between representatives’ records of support and the views of their respective constituencies. The Congreso warns “The NLC strongly believes that the failure to enact progressive immigration reform legislation is contrary to good policy for the nation…this failure to act is also bad politics. The IJRC Interim Progress Report pro­vides an advance indication of the need for many current legislators to adjust their voting to match their current and future constituencies.”

MALDEF president Thomas Sainz commented: ”Continued federal in action is not only bad policy, it’s bad politics.”

Angela Sanbrano, board president of the National Alliance of Latin American and Caribbean Communities, said it “is resulting in a human tragedy at the grassroots levels as raids, deportations, and racial profi ling have become the rule, not the exception.

Heavy-handed federal enforcement and right wing state and local policies gone amok are dividing families and abusing entire communities.”

SAMPLE SENATE BILL (‘NO’ vote regarded as proimmigrant) Senate Vote 220 – HR 2892: Fiscal 2010 Homeland Security Appropriations – Border Fence Construction July 08, 2009 – DeMint, R-S.C., amendment no. 1399 to the Reid, D-Nev., substitute amendment no. 1373. The DeMint amendment would require that a fence be built along the US-Mexican border by Dec. 31, 2010. The substitute would provide $44.3 billion excluding mandatory spending; $1.5 billion for the Secret Service and $7 billion fo FEMA. It also would prohibit funding after Jan. 4, 2010, for Loran-C, a land-based radio navigation system. (continues with general budget breakdown) Adopted 54-44: R 33-7; D 21-35; I 0-2. Hispanic Link.

por Luis Carlos López

Children of undocumented ask for amnisty.

PHOENIX, Arizona, 24 April – The impassioned pleas directed at Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer by thousands of students, adults, faith organizers and elders who gathered at the Arizona capitol for a week of round-the-clock protests against a bill they defined as xenophobic, racist and anti-Hispanic, has fallen on deaf ears.

At an afternoon news conference April 23 a few miles away, Brewer signed SB1070, which can require persons to carry proof of legal residency, gives local police officers authority to arrest anyone they suspect might not be here legally, and punish individuals who give aid to an undocumented person.

Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles likened such police powers to “Nazism.”

Students, Hispanics prominent among them, united their chants, making more than 80,000 texts and phone calls to Brewer’s office in the hope that their voices would be heard.

Maricopa County Su1pervisor Mary Rose Wilcox, the lone Hispanic on the five-member Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, broke the news of Governor Brewer’s decision to the petitioners rallying outside the capitol.

The county is one quarter Hispanic.

“The governor did not listen to our prayers. She did not listen to your cause,” Wilcox told the vast crowd. “Even when President Obama declared ‘this bill needs to be vetoed, these children are correct,’ she signed the bill.”

Defying White House custom by speaking out on a single piece of state legislation, Obama commented during an April 23 citizenship ceremony for immigrant war veterans at the White House, as he once again urged Congress to pass comprehensive immigration legislation this session “to avoid irresponsibility by others,” that the law undermines “basic notions of fairness that we cherish as Americans.”

Wilcox urged the students to keep the faith, reminding them of the theme that had been at the center of their protest — non-violence and the legacy of César Chávez. “We cannot let this stop us from continuing to fight,” she said.

After the Governor’s announcement, national Hispanic and civil rights organizations began preparing court actions challenging the constitutionality of various elements of the law, which takes 90 days to go into effect.

Phoenix attorney Antonio Bustamante told Hispanic Link News Service to expect SB1070 to have repercussions internationally as well as nationally.

“It’s highly likely that there will be massive boycotts of every product produced in the state,” Bustamante said. “There are talks in Mexico of boycotting Arizona and buying and trading products with other states.”

­Mexico’s foreign min1istry quickly expressed its concern about the rights of its citizens and the country’s own relations with Arizona.

Even with the many outcries, the bill apparently has much popularity within the state. A recent poll by Rasmussen Report found 70 percent of Arizonans favored it while only 23 percent opposed it.

Locked in a tight Republican primary re-election battle this year, Sen. John McCain, who once led the bipartisan support for immigration reform in partnership with late Sen. Ted Kennedy, now applauds his state’s effort.

He called the proposal “an important step forward.”

Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon had informed the protesters that if Brewer signed the law, he would work to appeal it. “This is clearly unconstitutional. This is clearly immoral,” he said.

After Brewer signed it, Gordon stated in a Washington Post commentary, “I do recognize those responsible for this humiliating moment. They are bitter, small-minded and full of hate, and they in no way speak for Arizona.” Hispanic Link.

(Luis Carlos López, of Washington, D.C., is editor of Hispanic Link Weekly Report. Email him at lclopez@gmail.org)

by the University of Michigan

ANN ARBOR, Mich.— Developing countries use proportionally less energy than industrialized nations, but large cities like Madras and Bangkok are helping to fuel global energy demand, according to a University of Michigan study.

Thirty-eight of the world’s 50 largest metropolitan areas are located in countries with emerging economies and most of them are located in warm-to-hot climates.

“Using energy to cool houses and apartments is not yet common in developing countries,” said Michael Sivak of the U-M Transportation Research Institute. “However, as individual income in developing countries increases, it is likely that so will the use of air conditioning in hot climates.”

In a new study published in the journal Energy Policy, Sivak examined the combined energy demand per person for residential heating and cooling in the world’s 50 largest metropolitan areas.

His analysis used data on “heating and cooling degree days”—units that relate to the amount of energy needed to heat and cool buildings—to produce a combined index of total energy demand for climate control. One heating (cooling) degree day occurs for each degree the average daily outdoor temperature is below (above) 65 degrees Fahrenheit.

Sivak says that among the world’s 50 largest cities, the top 13 in terms of cooling degree days are located in developing countries, such as India, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nigeria. All but two of the top 30 are in these and other developing nations.

­The warmest metropolitan area in developing countries—Madras—has 1.6 times the cooling degree days of Miami, the warmest city in developed countries. The potential cooling demand for another Indian city—Mumbai—is about 24 percent of the demand of the entire United States.

Currently, nearly 90 percent of housing units in the United States have central or room air conditioning, but only 2 percent in India do.

“Whether the potential cooling demand in developing countries will translate into energy consumption for cooling on the scale of the United States or greater is not clear,” he says. “Differences in energy infrastructure, size and occupancy density of buildings, sustainability concerns, desirable temperature and diurnal use of air conditioning will influence the energy use for cooling in developing countries. Nevertheless, the potential for a huge increase in energy use remains.”

Overall, among the largest cities in the world, four cold-weather metropolitan areas use the most energy (mostly heating, but some cooling, as well): the Russian cities of St. Petersburg and Moscow and the North American cities of Toronto and Chicago (the only two cities in industrialized nations among the top 10).

The rest of the top 10 include warm-weather cities Madras; Bangkok; Karachi, Pakistan; Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; and the Chinese cities of Beijing and Tianjin, which have more seasonal weather.

­by the El Reportero’s news services

Fernando Gómez Mont

Fernando Gómez Mont, the interior minister, came out strongly on April 25 against a proposal floated by the former US president Bill Clinton (1993-2001) that the U.S. and Mexico should model their anti-drugs strategy on the US ‘Plan Colombia’. Gómez Mont’s unequivocal rejection of Clinton’s tentative suggestion, floated in a speech at a conference at the Universidad del Valle de México on April 24, shows how touchy Mexico is about US policy.

Gómez Mont not only rejected Clinton’s suggestion but also said some harsh things about the US appetite for drugs and its inability to stop Mexican gangs exploiting US gun laws to arm themselves. He said that the US should be “ashamed” of both facts.

­Pulp-mill verdict satisfies honor on both sides of River Uruguay

The International Court of Justice at The Hague finally delivered its verdict on 20 April in the long-running confl ict between Argentina and Uruguay over the construction of a pulp mill on the Uruguayan side of the River Uruguay. Its evenhanded ruling allowed both governments to claim victory, although Uruguay is ultimately the real winner as it will not have to relocate the mill.

The foreign ministries of both countries quickly arranged a meeting between President Cristina Fernández and President José Mujica, for 28 April, to put the confl ict behind them but a defi nitive resolution rests on Fernández showing the political will to take on local protest groups to end the blockade of an international bridge between the two countries. (Latin News contributed to this report).

­

by Rosalba Ruíz

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Latin American migrants sent 10 billion fewer dollars home last year than they did the year before, a drop-off felt greatest in Mexico, economic experts say.

Measuring how that hemisphere weathered the global economic downturn in 2009, they shared their findings and expertise here during an April 12 roundtable discussion at Inter-American Dialogue headquarters. Remittance flows to Latin American nations, which are mostly from the United States, dropped from $69 billion in 2008 to $58.8 billion in 2009, a 15 percent decline, they reported.

“As employment levels declined, so did the capacity to send money home,” said Natasha Bajuk, remittance specialist at the Inter-American Development Bank. Unemployment rates among foreign-born Latinos in the United States rose more sharply than among other foreign-born populations, from 6.9 percent in 2008 to 11.4 percent in 2009, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The crisis in the U.S. affected some countries more than others.

For example, 95 percent of Mexico’s $21 billion remittance inflow in 2009 came from the United States, explained Bajuk, while Ecuador and Bolivia received about 40 percent of their remittance income from Europe.

To adjust for the lack of income, migrants living in the United States made “tremendous sacrifices,” such as seeking extra work, tapping their savings or finding less costly housing, said Bajuk.

Those who lost their jobs weren’t the only ones affected, according to a study by Manuel Orozco, remittance specialist at Inter-American Dialogue’s research center.

The study said, “insecurity about unemployment has proven to be the greatest hardship for migrants in the current environment. Nearly a quarter stated that the fear of losing one’s job represented the worst part of the…crisis.”

Families and other recipients back home have constrained their spending as much as they could, Orozco said.

Although Latin America was severely hit by the global downturn, the region’s economic prospect for 2010 is positive, according to the Organisation (cq) for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), headquartered in Paris.

“There are some positive signs, but definitely 2010 is going to be a tough year. You’ll probably see no growth or very moderate growth, no more than two percent growth in remittances,” said Orozco.

Both Orozco’s study and studies from the OECD indicate that in order to boost the flow of remittances and development of the region, there are some basic actions policymakers in countries of origin and destination must take:

•Gain a better understanding of migration flows and the economic impact migrants have so programs can be initiated that will provide the right incentives and protections and take advantage of the economic contributions they make.

­•Equip migrants and their families with the capacity to make informed financial decisions and manage their resources.

•Help boost competition between money transfer companies to lower remittance costs, which range up to eight percent on a remittance of $200. Hispanic Link