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Here go the top Latin Grammy nominees

by Antonio Mejías-Rentas

CAfé TacvbaCAfé Tacvba

TOP NOMINEES: Mexican alternative rock group Café Tacvba leads the fi eld of Latin Grammy contenders thanks to a critically acclaimed album from 2007.

Sino and its singles Volver a comenzar and Esta vez earned the Mexico City nominations in six categories, including Album, Record and Song of the Year.

Colombian singer-song writer Juanes’ fi ve nominations, earned for the album La vida es… un ratico and the single Me enamora, tie him with Argentinean musician Gustavo San- taolalla, a top Latin music producer. In fact, four of Santaolalla’s nominations are for his work on both the Café Tacvba and Juanes albums. The two-time Oscar winner also competes as a member of the group Bajofondo, nominated in a video category.

Nominations for the ninth annual Latin Grammy awards were announced last week in Los Angeles. Singer-songwriters did particularly well among nominees this year and three of themÑ Argentina’s Andrés Calamaro, Mexico’s Julieta Venegas and Puerto Rico’s Kany GarcíaÑtook four nominations each.

All contenders for Song of the Year, a songwriter’s award, include artists who perform their own work.

JuanesJuanes

Besides Café Tacvba por Esta vez and Juanes for Me enamora; the category includes García for Hoy ya me voy, Venegas for El presente and Peruvian singersongwriter Gian Marco for Todavía (co-written with Aureo Baqueiro).

Album of the year contenders are Café Tacvba, Juanes, García (Cualquier día), Buika (Niña de fuego) and Vicente Fernandez (Para siempre). It’s the fi rst time the top category includes an album from a Mexican Regional genre.

Nominations were announced in 49 categories by the Latin Recording Academy for music recorded in Spanish or Portuguese.

No recordings in the latter language appear among top nominees. Winners are to be announced Nov. 13 at a ceremony in Houston to be broadcast live by Univision.

INTERNATIONAL ‘PERSONS’: Top U.S. and Mexican television producers are joining forces in a new drama series to be shot in English south of the border.

Fox T’V Studios and Televisa are producing Persons Unknown, a drama about seven strangers who wake up in a deserted town with no recollection of how they got there, and realize they are observed by cameras. The fi rst 13 episodes begin shooting Oct. 27. The drama is expected to be sold for broadcast to a U.S. network. Televisa will air a dubbed Spanishlanguage version in Mexico and producers are reportedly negotiating with an Italian broadcaster.

Persons Unknown is the second project from Fox TV Studios produced with a foreign partner. Mental, a medical drama starring Chris Vance and Annabella Sciorra, is filming in Bogota, Colombia. Hispanic Link.

Early voting begins for presidential election to help avoid lines

by Garrett McAuliffe

Barbara LeeBarbara Lee

Voters in California may begin casting ballots for the Nov. 4 Presidential General Election, as Early Voting Centers opened on Monday, Oct. 6. In San Francisco, registered voters may cast an early ballot at City Hall in room 48 on the ground fl oor. Oct. 6 also marked the first day the Elections Office could begin mailing the official Vote by Mail ballots.

Registered voters wishing to vote by mail can complete an application at the Department of Elections website for the city of San Francisco. Vote by Mail ballots may be returned in the mail, or at any Early Voting Center. On Election Day, they can also be dropped off at any polling station.

Congresswoman Lee votes in Support of bailout plan

After voting against the initial financial bailout package on Monday, Congress woman Barbara Lee (CA-09) voted in support of the revised Senate plan, which passed on Friday, Oct. 3.

“The bill before us today is a better bill,” Lee said regarding her decision, specifically mentioning the revision to extend Unemployment Insurance.

After speaking with the California State Treasurer, Lee said she realized the risk of inaction was too great.

“I’m really confident that this is the right vote,” Lee wrote in a statement released the day the bill passed, “but I know it’s not the popular vote.”

District 11 candidate criticizes San Francisco Chronicle for omission

A candidate running for District 11 Supervisor objected to her omission from an article in the SF Chronicle detailing the race last week.

In a letter to the newspaper, Myrna Lim expressed her disappointment, claiming the reporter had deliberately excluded her from the story, and dismissed claims that she had not garnered enough in contributions and endorsements to be considered for the article.

Lim, the only candidate to have grown up in District 11, said she believed the Chronicle was manipulating public perception in featuring four men, all City Hall political insiders.

Running against incumbent Gerardo Sandoval in 2004, Lim received 42 percent of the votes, and says she has raised more than $50,000 for her current campaign.

City grants property devaluation to some homeowners

Almost half of the San Francisco homeowners requesting reassessment of their property value from the city have received a temporary devaluation, according to the Assessor’s office, which conducted the reviews. Out of 1,673 requests, 810 residential properties have been granted a reduction, saving an average of $1,594 per reduction.

Due to the reassessment in value, the city’s overall property roll value has decreased by nearly $96 million, which translates into a $1.1 million decrease in property taxes paid to the city.

Due to restrictions, homeowners who purchased their homes prior to 2005 have little chance to qualify for reassessment because in most cases the property tax value is still well below the actual market value.

City celebrates walk to school day

Students from over 20 San Francisco schools celebrated Walk to School Day, an annual global event, on Wednesday, Oct. 8. To promote health, safety and concern for the environment, students joined the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency and the Department of Public Health, sponsors of the event.

Walk to School Day activities will continue throughout the month of October. To learn more, visit www.sfwalktoschool.com.

­

Herceptin targets breast cancer stem cells

by the University of Michigan

ANN ARBOR, Michigan.— A gene that is overexpressed in 20 percent of breast cancers increases the number of cancer stem cells, the cells that fuel a tumor’s growth and spread, according to a new study from the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center.

The gene, HER2, causes cancer stem cells to multiply and spread, explaining why HER2 has been linked to a more aggressive type of breast cancer and to metastatic disease, in which the cancer has spread beyond the breast, the researchers say.

Further, the drug Herceptin, which is used to treat HER2-positive breast cancer, was found to target and destroy the cancer stem cells. Results of the study appear online in the journal Oncogene.

“This work suggests that the reason drugs that target HER2, such as Herceptin and Lapatanib, are so effective in breast cancer is that they target the cancer stem cell population. This finding provides further evidence for the cancer stem cell hypothesis,” says study author Max S. Wicha, M.D., Distinguished Professor of Oncology and director of the U-M Comprehensive Cancer Center.

The cancer stem cell hypothesis says that tumors originate in a small number of cells, called cancer stem cells, and that these cells are responsible for fueling a tumor’s growth. These cells represent fewer than 5 percent of the cells in a tumor.

Wicha’s lab was part of the team that first identified stem cells in human breast cancer in 2003.

In the current study, researchers found that breast cancer cells overexpressing the HER2 gene had four to five times more cancer stem cells, compared to HER2-negative cancers. In addition, the HER2-positive cells caused the cancer stem cells to invade surrounding tissue, suggesting that HER2 is driving the invasiveness and spread of cancer.

The researchers then looked at the drug Herceptin, which is used to treat HER2-positive breast cancer. They found Herceptin reduced the number of cancer stem cells by 80 percent, dropping it to the same levels seen in HER2-negative cell lines.

When HER2 was not overexpressed in the cell cultures, the researchers found, the cancer stem cell population did not increase.

Nor did Herceptin have any effect on the HER2-negative cells, which is consistent with how Herceptin is used in the clinic.

“We are now studying what pathways are activated by HER2 overexpression.

Our hope is that we could develop inhibitors of these pathways that might be effective in targeting cancer stem cells in women whose tumors do not overexpress HER2 or those who are resistant to Herceptin,” says study author Hasan Korkaya, research fellow in internal medicine.

Breast cancer statistics: 184,450 Americans will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year and 40,930 will die from the disease, according to the American Cancer Society. About 20 percent of breast cancers are considered HER2-positive.

Minorities less likely to know about breast cancer treatment options

­Half of patients don’t know how survival differs between surgical options

by the University of Michigan

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Nearly half of women treated for breast cancer did not know that their odds of being alive after five years are roughly the same whether they undergo mastectomy or breast conserving surgery. Minority women were even less likely to be aware of this important factor of their treatment decision, according to a study from the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Minority women were also less likely to know about relative survival rates even when researchers considered factors such as the surgeon’s experience, the type of hospital, and whether patients reported talking to their surgeon about treatment options.

“These factors traditionally associated with quality care were not associated with informed decision-making or with our knowledge measures. Surgeon volume or treatment setting did not affect whether women had good knowledge of their treatment options after they had been through the process, nor did it really mediate the racial and ethnic differences we found,” says study author Sarah Hawley, Ph.D., a research investigator at the U-M Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Results of the study appear in the August issue of Health Services Research.

The researchers surveyed 1,132 breast cancer patients and asked them whether the chances of being alive five years after surgery were the same after a mastectomy or after lumpectomy with radiation, and whether the chance of breast cancer coming back after treatment was the same for the two surgeries.

Overall, only 51 percent responded correctly to the survival question, but the numbers varied significantly for minorities: 57 percent of whites answered correctly, 34 percent of African-Americans knew their survival odds, and 37 percent of Latinas did.

The researchers found similar results for the recurrence question. Overall, 48 percent said they did not know the answer to the recurrence question, with African-Americans and Latinas significantly more likely to answer “don’t know.” Research shows that both survival and recurrence are about the same for both surgical options.

Researchers then looked at whether the women were treated by a general surgeon or one who specializes in breast cancer procedures, as well as whether the woman was treated at a National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center or in a community hospital setting.

They found that even when factoring these points in, minority women still were less likely to be knowledgeable about survival.

“It’s important for women to be able to do what we call a high-quality decision-making process. That would mean that the decision needs to be well-informed, based on an accurate knowledge of the risks and benefits of the options, and it also needs to be based on their preferences. If women do not make an informed decision, they’re more likely to be dissatisfied down the road with the treatment they received,” Hawley says.

The researchers did find, however, that patients who said their surgeon described both treatment options more often had adequate knowledge. The findings indicate that not all patients are clearly understanding information their surgeons may be telling them.

The researchers urge surgeons to make sure they communicate information about treatment options, including survival and recurrence risks, during the initial visit in a way that is culturally and ethnically appropriate.

­The researchers also urge patients to be aware of their treatment options. “Be sure to ask questions of your surgeon and consider exploring other avenues for getting information,” Hawley says.

Breast cancer statistics: 184,450 Americans will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year and 40,930 will die from the disease, according to the American Cancer Society Methodology: The researchers surveyed 1,132 women recently diagnosed with breast cancer in the Detroit and Los Angeles metropolitan areas. Information was collected from the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results Registry, a database maintained by the National Cancer Institute that collects information about cancer incidence, treatment and mortality. Patients were matched to 277 surgeons, who were also surveyed. About 73 percent of the women were white, 18 percent were African-American and 9 percent were Latino or other ethnicity.

Additional authors: Angela Fagerlin, Ph.D., U-M Medical School and VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System; Nancy K. Janz, Ph.D., U-M School of Public Health; Steven J. Katz, M.D., M.P.H., U-M Medical School, U-M School of Public Health and VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System.

Funding:

  • National Cancer Institute.
  • Reference: Health Services Research, Vol. 43, No. 4, pp. 1366-1387.

Resources:

The situation the country is going through should be taken seriously – we are all in danger

by Marvin J. Ramirez

Marvin J. RamirezMarvin J. Ramirez

According to an electronic mail received at El Reportero, last week, units which establish command and control apparatus for martial law has indicated that orders for establishment of all necessary command, communications, and control mechanism is underway. And as this edition goes to press, they should be ready to issue orders to any troops, law enforcement, government, or private contractors needed to effect immediate martial law.

“Numerous reports of troops movement and military flights of unusual nature in many parts of the U.S.” are being detected by those who monitor military communications, said the email.

And triggered by the seriousness of the banking fall out, one of the top precious metal dealers in the world said “that the majority of their physical gold and platinum bullion and coins were purchased Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2008 by a few huge players from Asia…”

The email says that there has been a continued scuttlebutt for a false or real flag of a possible threat involving nuclear weapons to hit the U.S., possibly NYC, which has intensified. Though it has been quieted on TV and radio, it says possibly Pakistani-controlled al-Qaida or other Jihad actors may carry it out… and “attempts to link Iran, Syrian, and Pakistan to the attack will probably surface regardless of who sanctioned it.”

The document indicates that there are strong indications from China, Russia, and European banks that if the U.S. does not pay them off for their piles of worthless tranches of securitized mortgages and derivative oriented instruments… perhaps even in gold… dire consequences may happen.

If the U.S. attacks Iran, as we have previously mentioned, there will not be oil tankers coming out of the Persian Gulf, hence there won’t be gas for trucks delivering food to the cities. There will be hunger.

As soon as the world banking system collapses, the crisis will torpedo street protests, and possibly riots, rank sacking and vandalism, which could mean our families would be facing eminent danger.

The email recommends that to protect yourself and your families, which many are already doing, to do a last minute purchasing of large quantities of food, water and purification supplies, medical supplies, fire arms and ammo, NBC gear (gas mask), camping equipment and tools. Your local peace officers might not be available to protect you.

And while these warning could not be accurate, they could be, Many might think this is ridiculous, but things are happening so rapidly, that you might wake up one of these days and find out that the banks are closed, and your credit cards don’t work, and chaos on the street. Without low and order. So, see if you can keep you cash with you. And things are also getting worse for all of us in other areas.

The NSA (National Security Agency) and the Chinese government are working together, through the U.N., to draft plans for systems that would enable all Internet sessions to be authoritatively traced back to their origins, reads another mail.

“A United Nations agency is quietly drafting technical standards, proposed by the Chinese government, to define methods of tracing the original source of Internet communications and potentially curbing the ability of users to remain anonymous,” the document explains.

Consequences.

A political opponent to a government publishes articles putting the government in an unfavorable light. The government, having a law against any opposition, tries to identify the source of the negative articles, but the articles having been published via a proxy server, is unable to do so protecting the anonymity of the author. This is the dead of public opinion and the beginning of all individual liberties to criticize the government, if it happens.

In the election arena.

I believe the ones who should be blamed for all this destruction of our liberties, and the economy are the Democratic and Republican parties for corrupts, which aided by the mainstream media and soap operas offered by TV industry, have kept us all in a state of delusion, in a fantasy world, while the bankers have invaded every bit of our lives indebting us to the neck, while paying us with worthless currency.

I believe, because of the monopoly of these two political parties hold, is that we are the way we are voting for the same parties that hurt us, with no other options to choose from when we go to the polls.

We need to break from them. We need to stop being the fools they have been making of us, presenting a scenario where only these political parties are the only ones capable, the only actors. They are fed by the same money powers to keep enslaving us with a corrupt Congress and an empty currency.

For the first time, I am taking a stance against them, for the sake of our country. On these elections, do not vote for any candidate who represents either of the Democratic or the Republican Party. They are the same thing, like in a marriage, where the husband is a vegetarian, and the wife loves meat. But they have an occasional fight whenever they go shopping for dinner.

Vote for either, the Green Party or the Libertarian Party. You will help break the two-party system monolopy, and allow a third one to create a healthy balance of the votes and an alternative.

Menéndez, Kennedy offer Bill to keep DHS from misbehaving

by Jackie Guzmán

United States Senators Robert Menéndez (DN.J.) and Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) introduced a bill, S3594, Sept. 25 requiring the Department of Homeland Security to follow due process standards when executing immigration raids. They charged that DHS’s enforcement actions have been so sweeping and untargeted that they have ensnared numerous U.S. citizens and other legal residents.

The American Civil Liberty Union sued DHS Feb. 27 for illegally detaining and deporting legal U.S. residents, citing the case of California-born Pedro Guzmán last year. Guzmán, 29, who is mentally retarded, lived on the streets of Tijuana, eating out of trash cans for several months before he was found and reunited with his mother in Los Angeles.

ACLU legal director Mark Rosenbaum said Guzmán was deported “based on appearance, prejudice and reckless failure to apply fair legal procedures.”

Hunger strike launched over fed. raids, immigrant rights

Compiled by Hispanic Link

Described by its organizers as the largest hunger strike in U.S. history, a 21-day demonstration begin ning Oct. 15 intends to draw attention to voter mobilization and immigrant rights.

The fast, to be launched in a ceremony at Los Angeles’ historic La Placita Olvera, will continue until Nov. 4. It calls on a million participants to recruit fi ve family members each to sign a pledge and take action to hold the incoming administration accountable “for our votes.”

A website, www.therisemovement.org, provides details to prospective participants.

The fast is initiated by Rise, a group made up of immigration rights leaders who focus on non-violent action. They include United Farm Workers union cofounder Dolores Huerta, Maria Elena Durazo of Los Angeles County AFL-CIO; the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights; Hermandad Mexicana Transnacional; Clergy; Laity United for Economic Justice; the Institute of Popular Education of Southern California; and the Korean Resource Center.

The coalition has been activated by persistent government-led immigration raids causing family dislocations amid expectation of a record Latino vote Nov. 4, says coordinator Rosalio Muñoz.

Stamp pays tribute to Latin jazz music

by Aaron Sheperd

As part of the 2008 commemorative stamp series  by the U.S. Postal Service, “Latin Jazz Music” celebrates creative minds, heroes, places, institutions and values which “have made us who we are,” Postmaster General John Potter says.

The stamp was released Sept. 8 during a National Postal Museum ceremony hosted by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute as part of National Hispanic Heritage Month. Renown Cuban percussionist Candido Camero performed at the event.

The stamp was designed by San Francisco-based artist ­Michael Bartalos. It is an abstract depiction of a tropical evening, with three musicians playing bass, piano, and conga drums. The design express the percussive and improvisational nature of the music, and its rhythmic complexity.

The nation’s first Latino commemorative stamp, the Landing of Columbus, circulated in 1869. Since then 52 Latin-themed stamps preceded Latin Jazz Music.

Bartalos says his design was inspired by album jazz covers of the 1950s and 60s, especially those by Stuart Davis. Bartalos told Weekly Report he was also influenced by Mexican iDustrator and artist Miguel Covarrubias (1904-1957), and Guatemalan artist Carlos Merida (1891-1984) for their line and abstract work. The stamp represents Bartalos’ signature shapes and colors style.

He found, he said, “packing a graphic punch into a very tiny space” as the most challenging part of doing the stamp’s illustration.

Mission event draws latino leaders against Prop 8

by Garrett McAuliffe

Dean of the Mission Campus of City College of San Francisco Carlota del Portillo speaks against Prop 8,: a measure that will ban same-sex marriage in California. The event took place at the Mission Cultural Center. (photo by Jonathan Rivera)Dean of the Mission Campus of City College of San Francisco Carlota del Portillo speaks against Prop 8, a measure that will ban same-sex marriage in California. The event took place at the Mission Cultural Center. (photo by Jonathan Rivera)

Latino leaders opposed to Prop 8 gathered in their communities across California last week to rally support against the November ballot initiative that would ban the right of same-sex couples to marry. Events in San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego were held to express opposition to the divisive initiative, and encourage Latino voters to oppose a ban that would limit the rights of many within the state.

“Prop 8 supporters want to change the California Constitution to create a different set of standards for people who happen to be gay or lesbian,” said Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina, who spoke at a press conference in East Los Angeles. “It would be the first time in our state’s history that the constitution was amended to deny civil rights. And that is wrong. I consider a vote against Prop 8 to be a vote in favor of dignity and respect for all Californians.”

The ballot measure is an attempt to reverse the California Supreme Court ruling that allowed for same-sex marriage beginning last May.

In San Francisco, community leaders gathered at the Mission Cultural Center on Wednesday, Oct. 8, to speak passionately in opposition to Prop 8, projecting it as a civil rights issue, while addressing the personal impact such discrimination would have on family members and friends.

City Treasurer José Cisneros said that “Californians shouldn’t vote to eliminate rights,” urging not only Latino communities, but all Californians to “vote no on Prop 8 and stop the spread of discrimination.”

Olga Talamante, Executive Director of the Chicana Latina Foundation, also spoke up against Prop 8 in San Francisco. “Gay and lesbian people and same-sex couples are our friends, our families and our neighbors. They are a part of our community and should be afforded the right to marry like everyone else in society,” she said.

“As Latinos we understand community and family, and that is why we all must vote no on Proposition 8.”

But those attempting to unite their communities in opposition to Prop 8 face some difficulty, as Latinos have strongly voted against same-sex marriage in the past.

In 2000, the state’s voters passed Prop 22, a similar measure explicitly defining marriage as between a man and a woman. Sixty-one percent of overall voters backed Prop 22, while more than 70 percent of Latinos favored the initiative.

The California Supreme Court recently overturned the law, ruling same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry.

Supporters of Prop 8 believe Latinos – the state’s fastest growing electoral bloc –  could be a deciding factor in the campaign.

“Given their participation in the 2000 election with Prop 22, the support of the Latino population is critical to the effort,” said Jennifer Kerns, spokeswoman for the Yes on Prop 8 campaign, in an interview with the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin. “They are a community that is extremely passionate about this issue. At least from what we’ve seen, they are very committed to upholding the definition of marriage as being between one man and one woman.”

But some Latino community leaders have criticized the Yes on Prop 8 campaign for unleashing television ads they say are aimed at misleading voters into supporting the ballot measure. “The supporters of Prop 8 are deceitfully using education and children as scare tactics in this initiative, desperately trying to overt attention from what the proposition is really about e­liminating rights,” said Roberto Ordeñana, a NO on Prop 8 spokesperson.

Correa claims comprehensive victory in referendum on new constitution

by the El Reportero news services

Rafael CorreoRafael Correo

Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa consolidated his grip on power with a decisive victory for the “yes” vote in the referendum on the new constitution. The stage is now set for him to win fresh presidential elections and for his party Alianza País (AP) to win a majority in the new congress when elections are held, if he has his way, next February.

The only real blemish on the day for Correa was the narrow victory for the “no” vote in Guayaquil, the stronghold of his only credible political rival, Jaime Nebot, but even this could be seen as a blessing in disguise. The eastern province of Napo also emphatically rejected the constitution.

Historic month ghastly for President Calderón

September, known as el més histórico, because of the series of national commemorations that pepper it, has been ghastly for the government of President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa. The wanton terrorism at the traditional “Grito” in Morelia, Michoacán, in which two grenades, presumably thrown by gangsters, killed eight people, was compounded by a couple of gruesome massacres and a jail riot that left 21 dead. On top of this the fi nancial crisis in the US threatens to cause more economic problems for Mexico in 2009.

Chávez for turning South America into world power

Caracas, Oct 5 (Prensa Latina) South America should become a leading power in today´s multipolar world, said Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who also advised the United States “to learn to listen.”

According to Chávez, who was interviewed by a local radio station, “South America and the Caribbean must be new factors in world power”. The statesman pointed out that his statement stems from the recent creation of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) and the various integration projects on the energy, geopolitics and financial sectors already being implemented in the region.

Asked about an eventual comeback of the so-called Cold War after increasing military ties between Venezuela and Russia, the President regarded a cold war reactivation as practically impossible.

“A multipolar world is being created. A new world of relations, new codes of interrelations among world powers,” he stressed.

Referring to the upcoming navy military maneuvers with Russia, Chávez said the presence of the Russian Navy is positive: “The US IV fleet is also coming, as well as France is coming to carry out war games with us and other countries in the Caribbean waters.”

Regarding the current international situation, the Venezuelan President said a different world is being born after the disappearance of the Soviet Union and the decline of the United States.

A multipolar world is being created by Russia, China and Europe. The United States Empire is never going to recover, expressed the Venezuelan president.

Tight security on Mexico Election Day

Some 13,000 police officers have been deployed in the Mexican western state of Guerrero, where municipal authorities will be elected on Sunday.

According to Guerrero’s Public Security secretary, Juan Heriberto Salinas Altes, the police officers are deployed statewide, although most of them will be patrolling most confl ictive areas, including Tierra Caliente and Costa Grande.

He added that measures have been taken to protect polling stations and ballot boxes.

According to official sources, federal agents, as well as Navy and Army officers, are taking part in the security operation.

(Latin News and Prensa Latina contributed to this report.)

Bendixon poll shows overwhelming comprehensive immigration support

by José de la Isla and Jackie Guzman

Pollster Sergio Bendixen’s latest numbers, released Sept. 9 to coincide with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute conference in Washington, D.C., show the immigration issue is mostly settled among voters in the key battleground states of Florida, Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada.

The report discloses overwhelming support for comprehensive reform. Two-thirds or more of those asked in each of the states expressed approval for comprehensive reform. Support ranged from 66 percent to 69 percent. Only a quarter or less (23 percent to 25 percent) opposed a reform package, with a minor number from 8 percent to 11 percent expressing no answer or not knowing.

These are key states for the Nov. 4 election. All have high proportions of Latino voters who are expected to determine the outcome of the states’ votes and possibly the electoral-college majority.

Immigration has run as a red-hot issue. Bendixen characterized some of the minority anti-reform attitudes as “paranoia” and “irrational” in a presentation of his data.

The results suggest immigration in the critical four states is a reasonably settled matter in the public’s mind. The pro-reform sentiment is generally consistent with similar national polls, although there has been some fluctuation.

Bendixen, an expert in Hispanic public opinion polling, conducted 2,000 interviews, 500 in each of the battleground states, Aug. 6-14, with an over sample of at least 150 Hispanic voters. The margin of error is calculated at 4 percent.

The poll, conducted in both English and Spanish, showed substantially sustaining support among Hispanic voters for comprehensive reform—74 percent to 78 percent in favor.

In the presidential preference portion of the poll, Barack Obama and the Democratic Party showed a substantial advantage over John McCain and the Republican Party.

­The poll, however, was conducted prior to the Republican convention and the nomination of Sarah Palin for vice president by the GOP. Recent surveys have registered some movement among “social values”-oriented voters since that nomination. The impact with Palin on the ticket has yet to register in the polling with Latinos.

Based on election outcome forecasting, Florida, Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada— due to Latino demographic increases and heavy voter-registration efforts—are expected to determine the victory margin in presidential balloting Nov. 4.

Bendixen shows that in three of the four states polled—Florida being the exception—Obama enjoys a wide base of support from Hispanics.

In Florida, however, Hispanic and non-Hispanic likely voters are evenly divided in choosing between Obama and McCain. The proportions are nearly the same, between 42 and 43 percent for each candidate. Hispanic Link.

Listening to the sounds of our heritage

por José de la Isla

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Ever since Lyndon Johnson proclaimed Hispanic Heritage Week in 1978, I’ve had mixed feelings about such a happening.

Don’t get me wrong. Annual celebrations and commemorations are important. Subtly, they can provide the paste that binds us as a nation. In her book “A Brief History of Anxiety,” Patricia Pearson suggests they give us social therapy.

Ultimately, as any good anthropologist would acknowledge, they are modern-day recognitions of rites of passage.

Yet, good intentions sometimes come with flawed packaging. For example, one year a radio station invited me to narrate a tribute to Cinco de Mayo and its special significance in U.S. history during our Civil War years. Afterwards, friends insisted my message was wrong. The reason it is observed more fervently in this country than in Mexico, they said, is because a beer company, promoted it as a rite of spring and used the occasion for an advertising blitz. I disagreed – that is, until I met a beer company exec who was in on the planning.

Yes, it was originally a beer promotion to boost slumping sales. It just goes to show you that even from someone’s commercial hustle, some good can come.

In this, only the 30th federal observance of our country’s Hispanic heritage, (now a month-long celebration), its meaning and form are still evolving. The idea behind it is more than bunting and dressing children in folkloric costumes. It allows us a moment’s pause from raggaetón and hip-hop and classic rock to hear the sounds of our grandparents.

If we listen attentively to the beat, maybe we will hear what moved them.

Anthropologist Edward T. Hall says pop music appreciation is not a recent phenomenon. All cultures carry a kind of idiosyncratic thump that begins in the womb.

It gets played out loud and the group responds.

Sound ridiculous? Composer Aaron Copland struck that chord when he took folk music and orchestrated it into “The Tender Land” and “Rodeo” and “Fanfare for the Common Man.”

He had been unsuccessful before that time. But in Mexico City, as the guest of conductor Carlos Chávez, he did a night of clubbing, ending up at a honky-tonk and eventually wrote a variation of the music he heard that night. The name of his composition was “El Salón México.” Copland’s first popular piece, it was accepted all over Latin America and Europe before U.S. audiences caught on.

Before he became one of the nation’s foremost composers, Copland couldn’t even get a gig writing for the movies. His hoity-toity colleagues said his music made no sense – that is until he drew inspiration from Mexican pop tunes. His friend Carlos Chávez also wrote some of the world’s most memorable conversions from folk to the concert hall, Sinfonía India.

Those of my friends who are mostly oriented to politics, policy and current events see this month’s celebration in a broader context. They point to trashy national attitudes that discriminate against immigrants, stemming from a worldview about whose culture is better and whose isn’t – with Hispanics ranked at the short end. Social commentator Angelo Falcón reminds, “Hispanic Heritage is one month, Latino survival is every day.”

While the better part of this nation’s people are getting laser surgery on those cataracts that haze our national perspective, screwballs, scare-mongers and nativists who make it their business to propagate division remain among us.

The antidote is vents such as those in Washington, D.C., this month bring thousands together for planning and advocacy. They ultimately promote social harmony. Theirs is not strictly a political agenda, but a civic endeavor.

In towns and cities throughout the nation, the Hispanic heritage we commemorate one-twelfth of the year is transnational in nature. It is not, as some might insist, a one-way street going north. It is much more about culture than it is about cargo. It is about ideals and not ideology. It is a national recognition of the advantage of having our hemispheric neighbors, even though our politics don’t exactly reflect it. It is about how we are transforming as a people, a society and a nation.

Welcome to Hispanic Heritage Month. Welcome to the 21st century. Welcome to the United States of America. Can you feel the beat?

(José de la Isla, author of The Rise of Hispanic Political Power (Archer, 2003), writes a weekly commentary for Hispanic Link News Service. He may be contacted by e-mail at: joseisla3@yahoo.com). 2008

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