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City programs are dying along with the financial system

by Marvin J. Ramirez

Marvin J. RamirezMarvin Ramirez­

The avalanche of destruction of the budget deficit crisis is doing its job, as many essential programs will be wiped out in San Francisco, soon. Today’s recession and tomorrow’s depression is now being felt.

However, regardless of the prognostics, the activist community is not standing still waiting to happen. Dozens of people from different organizations rallied at the Civic Center Plaza on Thursday, Dec. 11, to expose the damages the cuts proposed by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom will inflict on the most vulnerable sector of the community.

For each of the programs that are being targeted, the organizers erected a symbolic funeral on the lawn of the Plaza.

An open letter to the Mayor, and a list of alternatives to the cuts, were delivered by the Coalition on Homelessness, which held a procession and walked to the Mayor’s office on that day.

The San Francisco Health Department is proposing $17 million in cuts to critical services while new Mayor’s Office staff is being excluded from the ax, according to a coalition communicate.

The coalition claims the mayor is utilizing his power to halt spending in a time of budget shortfall, choosing to exclude budget priorities proposed by the Board of Supervisors during the summer.

“The Mayor must put on the brakes before he runs over fragile community members with this mid-year budget cut,” said James Chionsini of Planning for Elders in the Central City.

Many in the homeless shelters are new homeless families, but many are turned away for lack of space.

“We are asking today that you go further. We have identified over $61 million in alternative cuts to the city… that will not cost lives,” wrote Jennifer Friedenbach, executive director of the Coalition on Homelessness in San Francisco.

The financial crisis we are witnessing is all over, all over. And I mean all over, state, national and worldwide. And the situation is not going to get any better, as President-elect Barack Hussein Obama admitted earlier this month.

And if anyone knows, the government does not have any money, it has not had any since the Great Depression in 1933, when money – the unit of measurement of gold and silver – was removed from circulation by Congress, and replaced with a medium of exchange called Federal Reserve Notes (the dollar), which is not real money and has no real value, as it cannot be exchanged for gold or silver.

The fake currency we have been using for about 85 years for exchange and which our government has been borrowing since the Depression in the 1930s, is about to see its fi nal days. How do I know? Because I read alternative news on the internet.

The fiscal budget proposal our government submits every year is for the purpose of borrowing from the private bank called Federal Reserve Bank. And guess how our beloved government promises to pay?

By counting on our brothers’ and sisters’ forced coopera- tion through the increase of parking fi nes, moving violations, confi scation of the cars from the undocumented for being unlicensed, by using the police department as collectors.

So all the trillion plus in bailouts the feds are now instituting to save private banks, guess who will be charged to pay it? We the people.

Can you see the picture? There is no way we the people are going to be able to pay for all that. Not the City of San Francisco, neither the State of California are going to be able to pass the bill on to us, because we don’t have money either. Even if they increased the parking meters to $100 for every time your meter expires, or to $500 when you fail to make a full stop at a stop sign, and so on. Maybe the government should just confiscate your paycheck altogether and give you a stipend for your private expenses and keep the rest of your salary to pay for their borrowing.

­As the situation continues, the government will have to file for bankruptcy, just like other states in the U.S. have done, as well as other countries.

So no matter how many protests or mock funerals are held around the country, it won’t help to bring those services back to life.

Let’s just pray that the bankers, who are responsible for this financial fiasco, and who are in the process of foreclosing on the country and the rest of the world, do not kill us with their army, in an effort to ‘reduce population,’ because the worst is yet to come.

But please, do not panic. Keep buying and selling in your local neighborhood, so we can keep the money locally, and so help each other within the community. Oh, and keep piling up food reserve, because you’re going to need it.

Study: Gene therapy effective treatment against gum disease

by the University of Michigan

ANN ARBOR, Michigan.— Scientists at the University of Michigan have shown that gene therapy can be used to successfully stop the development of periodontal disease, the leading cause of tooth loss in adults.

The findings will be published online Dec. 11 in advance of print publication in Gene Therapy.

Using gene transfer to treat life threatening conditions is not new, but the U-M group is the first known to use the gene delivery approach to show potential in treating chronic conditions such as periodontal disease, said William Giannobile, professor at the U-M School of Dentistry and principal investigator on the study.

“Gene therapy has not been used in non-life threatening disease. (Periodontal disease) is more disabling than life threatening,” said Giannobile, who also directs the Michigan Center for Oral Health Research and has an appointment in the U-M College of Engineering.

“This is so important because the next wave of improving medical there by peutics goes beyond saving life, and moves forward to improving the quality of life.”

The preclinical study offers was a collaboration with the Seattle-based biotechnology company Targeted Genetics. In July, Targeted Genetics released human trial results that showed the same gene therapy approach used to stop periodontal disease had positive affects in human patients with rheumatoid arthritis, another chronic, non-life threatening, disabling condition. The company tested 127 human subjects and showed a 30 percent improvement in pain relief, and gain of function, among other enhancements using the gene treatment.

People with rheumatoid arthritis are four times more likely to also be afflicted with periodontitis.

Periodontal disease is also linked to systemic conditions such as heart disease, bacterial pneumonia and stroke, likely due to the spread of bacteria coming from the oral cavity that invade other parts of the body.U sing gene therapy, Giannobile’s group found a way to help certain cells using an inactivated virus to produce more of a naturally-produced molecule soluble TNF receptor. This factor is under-produced in patients with periodontitis.

The molecule delivered by gene therapy works like a sponge to sop up excessive levels of tumor necrosis factor, a molecule known to worsen inflammatory bone destruction in patients afflicted with rheumatoid arthritis, joint deterioration and periodontitis.

The gene also delivers quite a bit of genetic bang for the buck. The periodontal tissues were spared from destruction by more than 60-80 percent with the use of gene therapy.

“If you deliver the gene into the target cells once, it keeps producing in the cells for a very long period of time or potentially for the life of the patient,” Giannobile said. “This therapy is basically a single administration, but it could have potentially life-long treatment effects in patients who are at risk for severe disease activity.”

The next step is additional safety testing on periodontal patients, he said.

This research was funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Co-authors included Haim Burstein, a research scientist at Targeted Genetics Corporation, and members of U-M research team Joni Cirelli, Chan Ho Park, Jim Sugai and Katie MacKool.

For more on Giannobile, see: http://www.ns.umich.edu/htdocs/public/experts/ExpDisplay.php?beginswith=giannobile&SubmitButton=Search.

For more in U-M Dentistry, see: ­http://www.dent.umich.edu/.

TV station manager in Fresno resigns after linking criminality to Hispanics

by Hispanic Link wires

¿Es el fin de un sistema ineficiente?: (Photo by Marvin J. Ramirez)Is it the end of an innefficient system. (Photo by Marvin J. Ramirez)

Bob Hall, president and general manager of KFSN resigned Nov. 23 under pressure after stating in Fresno, Calif., County Superior Court the previous week that he couldn’t be a fair juror in a Hispanic man’s carjacking trial. KFSN newsroom research, Hall said, showed Hispanics had a propensity to commit violent crimes.

Hall later apologized and said no such research existed. Hispanic leaders who met with ABC Channe 30 management were represented by Fresno County Democratic Party Chair José Murillo, who stated, “We just wanted to verify that there is no such research.”

Murillo said KFSN agreed to investigate whether studies correlating Hispanic ethnicity and propensity to crime had been or was being conducted by the station. The station said it wasn’t and promised to create a weekly show featuring Hispanics in a positive light.

Questioned while in a ­jury pool, Hall had told the Superior Court judge that KFSN research linked Hispanic males, crime and “the propensity of a person to commit violent crimes from socioeconomic groups.”

The judge dismissed Hall and all potential jurors who heard the statement. Hall made an on-air apology and resigned the next day.

Another gory weekend in Mexico

by the El Reportero’s news services

Eleven people were killed in a gunfight between gangsters and police and the army in Guerrero, southern Mexico on Dec. 7. The pace of killing in Mexico does not seem to be slowing. On Dec. 6 and 7 at least 26 people were killed by gangsters. The worst incident was the gunfight in Palos Altos, Guerrero, which went on for several hours. The gory weekend capped a horrible week for the government: from Nov. 29 Dec. 5, a total of 213 people were killed by gangsters. This was the highest figure since President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa took office on Dec. 1, 2006.

Russian president visit to Venezuela coincides with it Navy’s arrival

The media devoted considerable attention in late November to a visit by Russia’s President Dmitri Medvedev to Venezuela, timed to coincide with the arrival of a Russian naval task force in the Caribbean Sea. The fleet was due to begin planned joint manoeuvres with the Venezuelan navy, its first ever joint exercise with a Latin American country in western hemisphere waters. While Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez presented the event as a strengthening of his ‘strategic alliance’ with Moscow, Medvedev spent less than two of his nine day tour of the region in Venezuela.

Chávez puts Venezuela on electoral footing again

Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez embarked on a re-election campaign this week. Before the results of the regional elections on Nov. 23, had been fully digested, Chávez decided to “authorise” the rul­ing Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela (PSUV) to organise a referendum to amend the constitution to allow him to seek re-election in December 2012. The 1999 constitution imposes a two-term presidential limit. Chávez said he wanted the process to be swift, positing a date of February for the referendum.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, left, and Cuban President Raúl Castro take a long walk

HAVANA — Russia’s president met with revolutionary icon Fidel Castro yesterday, discussing Guantanamo Bay and hopes for a multipolar world with Cuba’s former leader at the end of a tour of Latin America aimed at raising Moscow’s presence in the region.

Dmitry Medvedev spent hours talking and sightseeing with President Raul Castro before meeting privately with his 82-year-old older brother.

Medvedev said he was happy with his visit when he left the island yesterday, Cuba’s Prensa Latina news agency reported.

“We have defi ned what we are going to do next, we have cleared up everything regarding credits, and in Russia we will await President Raul Castro’s visit,” Prensa Latina quoted the Russian president as saying. The news agency gave no details about what had been defi ned and cleared up.

In an essay released hours after meeting Medvedev, Fidel Castro wrote that he emphasized to the Russian leader Cuba’s demand for the return of “up to the last square meter” of land occupied by the U.S. military base at Guantanamo.

Nicaragua’s Ortega defiant after US, Europe yank aid

MANAGUA, Nicaragua – Amid growing concern that Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega is leading his country off the path to democratic reform, foreign donors have started to cut off massive amounts of economic aid. Combined with the worsening global financial crisis, the Western Hemisphere’s second-poorest country finds itself in increasingly dire fi nancial straits.

The US was suspending the remaining $64 million of $175 million awarded in grants for sustainable development projects in Nicaragua. But Mr. Ortega, a former wsocialist revolutionary and cold-war nemesis of the United States, shrugged off the move, saying that Nicaragua would soon get some help from Russia and Venezuela, both of which are eager to expand their infl uence in the region.

Do not believe Jerry Brown’s environmental idea

by Marvin Ramirez

Marvin J. RamirezMarvin Ramirez

This week, California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr., sent a letter to Congressional leaders urging them to include language in any automaker bailout that would authorize California and other states to implement and enforce the state’s greenhouse gas emission standards.

The California requirement is a 30 percent reduction by 2016 for motor vehicles, which the auto industry has opposed, according to a communicate from the Attorney General’s office.

Writing to House Majority Leader Harry Reid and other congressional leaders, Brown pleaded for California to be allowed to implement and enforce emission standards, which “for over 40 years it has had the authority to set stricter standards than the federal government.”

However, what Brown is not saying is that the more regulations, the more money will be taken away from the people who drive when they go and register their vehicle to the DMV, causing them to be more financially squeezed out of their dollars, badly needed for medical, clothing and mortgage expenses.

Every regulation and the thousands of laws passed every year, and the ones about to start taking effect in January, don’t serve to liberate the people from the state’s yoke. They just oppress them more.

This legislation or authorization Brown seeks, will basically play into the money-making green fad, while the state continue benefiting from the gas tax revenues, as cars are not requested to be built hybrid. Why?

How many millions of gas-only cars will be built between now and 2016 if we don’t put a halt their production? So, what Brown is trying to do, is baloney.

The state is not working for the people, rather the people are working for the state, and that is how they have maintained us for so long. So we all should start waking up from the illusion that the state really works on our behalf.

They help us get dependent on cars because they want to tax us everywhere they can, with the brainwashing slogan that it is for our own good. They help build new cities which are non-pedestrian or bicycle friendly, send us shopping to faraway malls which are out of our reach without cars, and put all the roads trap they can, so we have to drive through thin rope to fall through, while they have their deputies, who are hiding in the bushes, take our money with their own phony statute violations. Why we do not hear instead, a plead to the Legislature to require that all the cars built by 2011, be built hybrid, and that they engineer a device to be adapted into current vehicles to use air or water, which many drivers are already using. Have you seen those ads ­online, that say: “discover how to convert your car or truck to use water and gasoline, to double, even triple your mileage?

People have been using water-to-gas converters in vehicles for over four years. This is proven technology, according to information posted on the internet, and to someone I know who uses it.

Using a simple device, you can use the electricity from your battery to separate water (H2O) into a gas known as HHO.

I think it would be more beneficial to all of us if Brown instead demanded that cars carry these devices, instead of enforcing legislation that requires costly demands to the auto industry, and which will make us – the consuumers – pay for. This not only  will  improve the driver’s economy, but the environment as well.

A believable formula for immigration change

by David Bacon

Since 2001 the Bush administration has deported more than a million people. It’s no wonder Latinos, Asians and other communities with large immigrant populations voted for Barack Obama by huge margins.

The election, taking place as millions of people were losing their jobs and homes, had its hysteria-mongers trying to scapegoat immigrants for this crisis. But most voters did not drink the Kool-Aid. In fact, every poll shows that a big majority rejected raids and want basic rights and fair treatment for everyone, immigrants included.

People want and expect a change ending the Bush administration’s failed program of raids, jail time and deportations. So does the political coalition that put Obama into office–African-Americans, Latinos, Asian-Americans, women and union families–expect change.

From the beginning, the administration’s enforcement program has been cynically designed to pressure Congress into re-establishing discredited guest worker schemes. The Southern Poverty Law Center called the program “close to slavery.”

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has cynically stated that the raids were intended to “closing the back door and opening the front door.” No one whose eyes are open to the terrible human suffering caused by them will be very sorry to see Chertoff go. So far, Barack Obama’s choice of Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano is not encouraging.

The Tucson “Operation Streamline” court convenes in her home state every day. The situation for immigrants in Arizona is worse than almost anywhere else. Napolitano

herself has publicly supported most of the worst ideas of the Bush administration.

The economic crisis does not have to pit working people against each other, nor lead to demonize immigrants further. In fact, there is common ground between immigrants, communities of color, unions, churches, civil rights organizations and working families. Legalization and immigrant rights can be tied to guaranteeing jobs for anyone who wants to work, and unions to raise wages and win better conditions for everyone in the workplace.

The AFL-CIO’s campaign for the Employee Free Choice Act supports the surest means of ending the low-wage, second-class status of immigrant workers organizing unions. Repealing unfair trade agreements and ending structural adjustment policies would raise the standard of living in places like Oaxaca or El Salvador and reduce the pressure for migration. In the United States, jobs become more secure in working class communities.

But stopping the raids is the first step in a process. At the same time it can help the administration begin to address the larger issues of immigration reform, jobs and workplace rights. Here are steps the new administration can take right away:

  • Stop ICE from seeking serious federal criminal charges when a worker lacks papers or has a bad Social Security numbers.* Stop raiding workplaces.
  • Halt community sweeps, checkpoints and roadblocks where agents use warrants for one or two people to detain and deport dozens.
  • Double the paltry 742 federal inspectors responsible for all U.S. wage and hour violations.
  • Allow all workers to apply for a Social Security number and pay legally into a system.
  • Re-establish worker protections, ended under Bush, connected with existing guest worker programs.
  • Restore human rights in border communities, stop construction of the U.S. and Mexico border wall, and disband the Operation Streamline federal court.

[This commentary condenses a 1,600-word analysis labor writer David Bacon prepared for the New America Media, a nationwide association of more than 700 ethnic media organizations representing the development of a more inclusive journalism. Hispanic Link is a member of NAM. Bacon is the author of “Communities with­out Borders,” (ILR Press, an imprint of Cornell University Press, Ithaca and London, 2006.)] ©2008

The care and feeding of an Aztec blender

by Elisa Martínez

EL PASO, Texas — There’s always a good reason to cross the border into Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. This time I needed to go to the tortillería to get some dried corn. Just a handful, I said to the lady that makes the tortillas. I bought ten kilos of hot steaming tortillas and she filled a plastic bag with the corn. “A gift,” she said and handed it to me.

I needed the corn to “cure” a molcajete (moul-kah-hete). You grind the corn in the molcajete with the pestle to dislodge any debris that might be stuck to the stone. It’s not easy work. It’s long and laborious. After the molcajete is rinsed, diced garlic and onion are ground in it and scrubbed away. Now it’s ready to use. It’s cured and we needn’t worry about any unwanted visitors in the food.

It’s a gift and it needs to be cured for the new owner.

The one I use was my grandmother’s. I learned how to use it by watching.

“Tenga,” she would say and hand me the pestle. Here, take this.

I remember the sound of rock against rock. I would say it’s as old as a molcajete can get. It’s a museum piece.

Molcajetes are wonderful things. Tejolotehey have existed forever in the Mexican kitchen. Over 1000 years I read somewhere. La licuadora Azteca My daughter Analissa calls it: the Aztec blender.

A molcajete is a heavy mortar and pestle made out of basalt, with three stumpy feet to hold it steady. The pear-shaped pestle used to grind the food is called a mano and is made of the same material. It fits in your hand and it’s a perfect instrument to release the oils and the flavors of the food. When this is done carefully it produces a tastier product. Molcajete is a name derived from Náhuatl, the language of the Aztecs. Molli meaning sauce and coxtl meaning bowl.

I use my molcajete often to make salsa. It’s one of the joys of being a retiree. I have time to cook “como Dios manda,” the way God meant one should cook.

Tomato, and tomatillos and jalapeños are roasted on a comal on the stove. The aroma is mouthwatering. I rotate the tomatoes on the griddle so that they roast evenly. They get very hot and squishy. They’re skinned and set them aside to cool off a bit. Garlic and diced onion are ground first. The tomatoes are gently pounded and mixed with a twist of the wrist.

The roasted jalapeño is next. Again the ingredients are ground and mixed with care. I remember the good sound. Rock against rock. Not pureed, not in tiny pieces, but a perfect blend of ingredients where the juices and the flavors have been released and combined to a perfect consistency.

­Next, if you like some cilantro. Salsa is not salsa without cilantro. Watching me quietly on my counter are my Vita-Mix and Kitchen Aid blenders. They can’t do what I do with my Aztec blender. The salsa is set on the table in the same vessel it was made in and disappears in no time.

I wash it by scrubbing it with a small escobeta (natural bristle brush). The Aztec blender usually sits on the counter next to the other powerful blenders. “Dos culturas,” two cultures side by side.

Molcajetes are not relegated to quaint mercados in Mexico. In Juárez they can be bought at Williams Sonoma and Sur la Table and other places. They’re used by many of the famous chefs on TV. You can see a video on the Williams Sonoma web site showing you how to make guacamole.

Fancy restaurants in Santa Fe, New Mexico, make your guacamole in a molcajete at your table to suit your taste and in Ciudad Juárez, they make your salsa in the same manner.

Maybe you’ll decide to buy one and make it a part of your global kitchen.

Good eating. ¡Buen Provecho!

(Elisa Martínez, of El Paso, Texas, is s retired speech therapist. Her e-mail: emar37@flash.net). ©2008

Boxing

Thursday, Dec. 11 — at Newark, NJ (Versus)

  • IBF cruiserweight title: Steve Cunningham vs. Tomasz Adamek.
  • ­Joseph Agbeko vs. William Gonzalez.

Friday, Dec. 12 — at TBA, USA (TeleFutura)

  • Urbano Antillon vs. TBA.

Saturday, Dec. 13 — at Mannheim, Germany (HBO)

  • IBF/WBO heavyweight title: Wladimir Klitschko vs. TBA.
  • Mario Preskar vs.TBA.

Saturday, Dec. 13 — at Atlantic City, NJ (Showtime)

  • WBO light welterweight title: Kendall Holt vs. Ricardo Torres.

Saturday, Feb. 14 — at TBA,

  • USA Miguel Cotto vs. TBA.

Workers rights seminar at Mexican Consulate

by the El Reportero’s staff

Robin Cornwell y Aaron Thayer del Balet Smuin en el Balet de Navidad: (photo by Tom Hauck)Robin Cornwell and Aaron Thayer of Smuin Ballet in The Christmas Ballet.(photo by Tom Hauck)

The community is invited to take part in a Minimal Rights of the Workers in the State of California Workshop.

The presentation will be in conducted by federal researcher Adriana Iglesias, of United States Department of Work Employment Standards Administration Wage and Hour Division, who will chat on the minimal labor rights of every worker in the United States, regardless of their migratory condition. She will answer questions on claims of salary, over time, labor law for minors, among other issues.

Also, it will offer consultancy on the procedure to follow on a federal investigation to protect their rights.

It is important to remember that all the information will be provided in Spanish, and all the information will be confi dential and completely free. Tuesday, Dec. 9, starting at 10:00 am. Confi rmation is required by calling 415-354 1715. At 532 Folsom St., San Francisco 94105, between 1st and 2nd streets) BART Montgomery Station.

The salsa Christmas party that will make history

According to its promoters, never before in the history of Richmond salsa have all the Richmond salsa promoters, instructors, DJs, musicians and meetup groups collaborated under one roof to throw what will be the biggest, hottest, sexiest, salsa party of the year.

The repertoire will include avid Prado & Jay Cuba of Cubariqua Dance Co. & The Richmond Salsa Meetup Group, Abby Toro of Salsa Family of Friends International Dance Group, DJ Steve Green, Nino Torre & Tony Tan of Night Mix Production, Joey of Richmond Salsa.Com, DJ Eddy, DJ Oscar Trujillo and his HOT SALSA BAND Conjunto SaSon (Charlottesville), DJ Gabriel of La Selecta 1350, Marquita of Salsa Vida (VA Beach), Jeanette Reyes (Fredericksburg Salsaholics).

Dec. 12, from 7 p.m. to 1 a.m., at The Shenandoah Club House, 9601 Redbridge Rd. (just off of N. Arch Rd down the street from the Old Razzles Club). For more info contact David Prado at 804-304-9007 or Abby Toro at 804-400-0791.

San Mateo Harley Bikers bring toys to the Children of San Mateo Medical Center

The San Mateo Harley Owners Group (HOGs) will ride their motorcycles from Redwood City to the San Mateo Medical Center to deliver toys and donations to children cared for through the Medical Center’s clinics and hospital. Over 100 bikers are expected to roar into the parking lot.

The Harley riders and visitors will place the gifts they bring under a Christmas tree decorated especially for this event. Kids will have an opportunity to explore police and rescue vehicles that will be here for this event and will also have the opportunity to see a canine demonstration. Attendees are asked to bring an unwrapped gift to share with a child who otherwise might not receive anything this holiday season.

Saturday, Dec. 13, 2008, 10:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. (bikers expected to arrive at 10:15 a.m.), at San Mateo Medical Center 222 W. 39th Avenue (corner of 39th and Edison), San Mateo, CA 94403. For more info call Beverly Thames, San Mateo County Health System, (650) 573-3935.

Join SF State for the Smuin Christmas Ballet

Dance into the holidays with San Francisco’s beloved Smuin Ballet’s Christmas Ballet a holiday tradition since 1995. Presenting both the warm and spiritual aspects of the season along with all the color, fun and frolic of today’s holiday music. The 2008 edition of Michael Smuin’s holiday legacy features incredible décor and special effects.

Celebrated for its accessible and innovative repertory, the Smuin Ballet believes that ballet should be a living dance form that can engage and delight modern audiences.

Friday, Dec. 19, at 8:00 p.m., Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Novellus Theater, ­701 Mission Street, San Francisco. Tickets: upper Orchestra – $50, upper Orchestra, side – $35.

Latin youth orchestra on tour for a noble cause

by Antonio Mejías-Rentas

Orquesta Juvenil Simón BolivarOrquesta Juvenil Simón Bolivar

ON TOUR: Two U.S. performances this week by the Symphonic Youth Orchestra will pay tribute to the man behind Venezuela’s successful music education Sistema and raise funds for similar programs throughout the Americas.

The orchestra, whose members are children and youth from the U.S., Spain, Venezuela and other Latin American countries, was set to play Dec. 1 in New York’s Carnegie Hall and Dec. 3 at the Adrianne Arts Center for the Performing Arts in Miami, as part of an international tour that started last month in that city.

The tour pays tribute to maestro José Antonio Abreu, a veteran pianist and music teacher who founded Venezuela’s Sistema, which teaches music and provides instruments for the country’s impoverished youth and established a chain of national youth orchestras.

El Sistema’s most famous student is Gustavo Dudamel, who conducts Venezuela’s Orquesta Sinfónica Juvenil Simón Bolívar and is a guest conductor with top orchestras around the world. The tour is sponsored by the non-profit foundation SaludArte, which aims to provide medical and educational programs for children throughout the Americas.

The Symphonic Youth Orchestra was founded 15 years ago in Spain and currently includes 90 musicians between the ages of 14 and 19. Ten U.S. musicians from the New World Symphony recently joined the orchestra, conducted by Pablo Mielgo. The bulk of the musicians — a total of 50 — come from Spain. The rest are from Venezuela (20) and Latin America.

In a related item, Gustavo Dudamel recently completed a U.S. tour with the Israeli Symphonic Orchestra and is performing this week with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, for which he will become full-time director next year. Retiring director Esa-Pekka Salonen praised Dudamel in a recent interview in London, saying the 27-year-old Venezuelan will bring much needed diversity to the orchestra’s program ming and audience.

­ONE LINER: Puerto Rican actress Roselyn Sánchez and actor Eric Winter married Nov. 29 at a historic San Juan fort. Hispanic Link.

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