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Coast Guard refusing FOIA request on cargo ships in Cal

by the El Reportero’s staff

More than five months after the devastating Cosco Busan accident, the US Coast Guard is still refusing to comply with an October 11, 2008 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.

The FOIA filed by the marine conservation organization Seafl ow, is asking for a list of vessels previously cited by the Coast Guard for regulatory violations and environmental crimes, says an statement form Vessel Watch Project.

The Cocsco Busan smashed into the Bay Bridge on November 7, 2007 resulting in the spilling of about 58,000 gallons of heavy bunker fuel that polluted beaches and pristine marine habitats throughout the San “Five months later, the US Coast Guard still refuses to provide the public with basic information about past ‘Cosco Busans’ that may still be visiting San Francisco Bay everyday,” warned Robert Ovetz, Ph.D., executive director of Seafl ow, in a statement.

Hispanic Caucus applauds senate passage of bills honoring the Latino community

The Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) applauded passage of two bills in the Senate on April 15.

One is The Commission to Study the Potential Creation of the National Museum of American Latino Act of 2007 (S.500/ H.R. 512), which creates a 23-Member Commission to study the possible creation of a museum dedicated to the history and culture of American Latinos. The other is the Cesar Chavez Study Act (S.327/H.R. 359), which directs the Secretary of the Interior to complete a special resource study to determine appropriate methods for preserving and interpreting sites that are significant to the life of Cesar Estrada Chavez and the farm labor movement.

“Today’s vote is a very important step in the process to fi nally recognize the value of the Latino culture to the United States and an important historical figure to American Latinos. A national Latino museum and the preservation of historical sites to the life and work of César Chávez will give our families the opportunity to witness the amazing contributions that Hispanic-Americans have made to this great nation,” said Congressman Joe Baca (D-CA), Chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC). “The Hispanic Caucus applauds Congressman Xavier Becerra and Congresswoman Hilda Solis for authoring these bills. We look forward to the president signing these into law.”

H.R. 512 passed the House unanimously on February 6, 2007. H.R. 359 passed the House unanimously on July 10, 2007. Once the president signs these bills, they will take effect

2008 Pulitzer Prizes  3reflect alumni excellence

April 11, 2008 — The careers of two distinguished SF State alumni have been recognized in this year’s Pulitzer Prizes, announced April 7. Poet and writer Philip Schultz (B.A., ‘67) won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for poetry for his latest book “Failure,” and journalist Jose Antonio Vargas (B.A., ‘04) is part of the award-winning staff at The Washington Post,  which scooped six Pulitzer prizes this year.

Philip Schultz’ sixth collection of published poems, “Failure,” speaks of grief, love, marriage, fear, fatherhood and depression. His first collection, “Like Wings” was nominated for the National Book Award and Schultz’ work has appeared in numerous publications including The New Yorker and The Nation.

At The Washington Post, SF State graduate Jose Antonio Vargas was part of the team whose coverage of the Virginia Tech shootings won the Pulitzer Prize for breaking news.

“It was great to be part of this historical moment with The Washington Post winning six prizes this year,” Vargas said. “Two of the nine articles submitted were mine; the first was a front-page eyewitness account of the Virginia Tech shootings and the other was a feature article about how students connected through Facebook in the aftermath.­

Lou Dobbs: ignorante of history – again

by Anthony M. Stevens-Arroyo

The world’s best-dressed Mexican-hater is at it again. Lou Dobbs on his Monday, April 8, 2008 evening show attacked historical truth once again in his never-ending effort to build up his ratings.

His latest concern is about an advertisement for Absolut Vodka that uses a 1830s map of Texas and northwest Mexico before annexations by the United States. Of course, the map is factual. Those lands were part of Mexico. But truth threatens Mr. Dobbs’ small world. He believes this is an outrageous assault on the United States history because it suggests that the United States invaded, occupied and took land that did not belong to it.

The problem is that Dobbs sticks to the politically correct version of events that is taught to children in U.S. grammar schools. He appears either unwilling or unable to run a truth check for adults.

Anybody who is somebody knows that President James K. Polk “manufactured” an attack on U.S. troops to justify war against Mexico. In 1845, the president appealed to Manifest Destiny as justification for invasion, murder and robbery against Mexico and Mexicans.

While history has tried to whitewash the racism behind the rape of Texas and the lands leading to California and the Pacific, contemporaries of the time like Abraham Lincoln saw the unjustified war for what it was.

It is too late to undo the injustice by surrendering the Southwest to Mexico, but it is never too late to learn from the past. Polk’s purposefully faulty intelligence and Bush’s intended overstatements about WMD in Iraq have a lot in common.

As Santayana wrote: Those who fail to learn from the past are doomed to repeat it. Clearly Mr. Dobbs is heading for the trash heap of history.

The most striking misstatement of Dobbs and his minions is that the United States “paid” Mexico for the land from New Mexico to California. Actually, the United States had tried bluster with the mission of a plenipotentiary minister, John Slidell, in order to bribe a weak Mexican government into selling those lands before the war by threatening to take it by force otherwise.

It was a tactic that had been used by James Monroe against Spain to acquire Florida in 1821. When the Mexicans refused to sell out, war was waged, Mexico City invaded and the rump Mexican Congress forced to sign a treaty that they had no legitimate power to accept. (The same thing happened later to snatch Panama from Colombia and then build a canal).

The U.S. war party in Washington took vengeful caprice against Mexico because the country of Moctezuma had shown the audacity to refuse to sell itself out when Slidell was on his mission. Therefore, the Congress refused to authorize the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo unless the commitment of $15 million to Mexico was expressly worded so as NOT to buy the territories. That section of the treaty says that the money was “for losses incurred.” This is an expression that Mexicans took to refer to the deaths of so many of its people, since Mexican culture has traditionally valued human life more than property. So the United States did not pay for the land. It took it by force. The offi cial treaty documents prove this fact. Of course, the truth about the United States or any facts that justify Mexican rights are alien to Mr. Dobbs. The truth does not fit into his pre-fabricated categories of U.S. superiority and Mexican inferiority.

There was a time, I suspect, that Latinos and Latinas would become disturbed by the repeated errors, misstatements and race-baiting emanating from the ever-sartorial Lou. Increasingly, we recognize that it is only entertainment for the increasingly irrelevant circle of uncritical Dobbsian ditto-heads.

Studies at Brooklyn College. Author and scholar, he serves as member of the Pennsylvania(Anthony M. StevensArroyo is Professor Emeritus of Puerto Rican & Latino State Advisory Committee to the US Commission of Civil Rights in Washington. Email: stevensa@pld.com).

Signposts of a new geography

by José de la Isla

José de la IslaJosé de la Isla

Wilhelm Scholz, a photographer, and I meet up with Wilkin Sherris, who is selling folk paintings along the seawall on George Washington Avenue in the Dominican Republic capital of Santo Domingo. Sherris tells us his parents came from Haiti, that he has relatives scattered throughout the Caribbean and others in Miami.

Scholz and I were on an assignment that spread over two years to learn firsthand about how people are migrating across North America. As it turns out, we witnessed only the tip of the iceberg.

From a worker, we learned about the yolas, the flimsy rafts taken by people to cross the Mona Passage to Puerto Rico. Like Cuban balseros, these rafters want to get to the other side, where things are mythically better.

Ahh, going to a U.S. territory is ethnocentrically satisfying knowledge. It is comforting to think that where we live is so desirable everyone else wants to be here, although we also learn many Dominicans also leave their homeland for Venezuela and Spain and Italy.

Now data tell us we should consider leaving our national egos at the hat-check stand.

There’s a bigger picture out there. It’s not all about us. Canada and Mexico have decided to work out a new six-to-ten-month guest-worker program. Its enticements range beyond agriculture to include tourism, construction and financial services, building on the current program which includes about 18,000 farm-related workers. All this is happening while we can’t get our own guest-worker program underway.

Mexican workers are a new high-demand group in, of all places, Dubai. This month Emirate Airlines plans to begin interviewing in Mexico. Already, about 23 Mexicans work as pilots there and the airline seeks others for cargo jobs. Dubai expects tourism to increase from 40 million now to 75 million by 2015.

An airline official told Newspaper Tree, an online ­source, Mexicans are nice, friendly, work well in a team and speak English well. The lesson here is that if you raise your kids ethnocentric, you jeopardize their employment future. And if they have an attitude – well, you know the rest.

The same source reports that more than 16,000 Uruguayans left home in 2007, mostly for European destinations.

In the past decade, migration to Chile tripled to 290,000. The pattern changed from mostly Argentineans to Bolivians and Peruvians. Peruvian restaurants are all the rage in Chile. Other immigrant populations include Colombians, Ecuadorians, Cubans and Mexicans.

Costa Rica, having posted growth in high tech and tourism, is another magnet. Nicaraguans are contracted for transportation jobs. Brazil seeks professional workers for entertainment and in petroleum. Bolivians seem to be forming a new urban working class there. Work permits in Brazil are up 46 percent over 2004.

Too often in the United States our microscopes onto the world about these movements come through fuzzy, like an old analog TV set, instead of the Hi-Def we need.

Now is not a bad time for our presidential candidates to face the challenges of a hemisphere in motion by proposing realistic — and humane — solutions to receiving and sending workers. A continent-wide meeting to reach accords about migration would help.

Maybe we have had it all wrong all along. It’s not that we can become isolated and insulated. We are already. The issue is how can we become more open and accommodating of the world movement around us? And which candidate will take his or her head out of the sand?

For Wilhelm and me, a factoid now makes sense. It didn’t register then, but it does now — how the phone book in Anchorage, a town of 275,000, lists 30 Mexican and Latin American restaurants. It’s a signpost of a new geography.

[José de la Isla, author of “The Rise of Hispanic Political Power” (Archer Books, 2003), writes a weekly commentary for Hispanic Link News Service. E-mail joseisla3@yahoo.com]. ©2008

More learning centers needed for our youth

by Marvin J. Ramirez

Marvin J. RamirezMarvin J. Ramirez

Just recently, a friend of mine’s 19-year-old son was released from jail from charges of beating a man with his bodies. He spent approximately seven months in the joint. He came out clean, however, prior to getting arrested he was attending City College of San Francisco. Obviously, he lost the whole school semester. It seemed that it was more important to punish him that making sure that he continued in school.

I wrote a strong letter to San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris expressing my concern that jail would not serve any purpose in directing this young man through a path of positive future and should let him finish his school semester.

The District Attorney’s Office insisted that he was a ‘gang member,’ but apparently they were wrong. So they let him free, according to his mother.

Many youths like this young man are thrown into jails by the thousands every years, as part of money-making scheme by the prison industry, the sole purpose of its goal.

Punishment is the best recipe this industry that is growing faster that our learning institutions, while teachers are being layoff, school budget cut to the bone, and basically every year have the whole education industry beg on its knees for money.

Young people continue being warehoused like animals with the sole purpose of punishing them for their criminal behavior, which at the end is the same citizenry that they purpose to protect who is the last victimized by this blinded system of punishment.

In a released written statement, Books Not Bars says mismanaged, expensive, and dangerous youth prisons must go Books Not Bars (an Ella Baker Center for Human Rights campaign) and families of incarcerated youth throughout California call on the state to abandon the warehouse prisons’ chronic failures and build the state’s continuum of effective local and regional treatment programs for youth.

The Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ), which is budgeted $518 million for 2008-09, has missed successive court-imposed reform deadlines since the 2004 lawsuit settlement. It has wasted $100 million on unmet reform goals. With a population of 2,072 youth — each costing the state $252,000 per year — the California Youth Prison System has become California’s budgetary black hole.

According to the statement, which was released on April 17, despite the money, conditions in DJJ prisons have remained deplorable and shameful for incarcerated youth: Education fails to meet state minimum levels, both mental health and medical care are inadequate and often delayed, and violence in facilities remains dangerously high. The miserable conditions have rendered rehabilitation impossible for youth in the prisons.

The DJJ has proven to be incapable of reform and has failed thousands of our youth in the meantime.

How do we expect youth to come out rehabilitated from this broken system?” asks Zachary Norris, Director of Books Not Bars. “Real change can only happen when we shut down the failing warehouse prisons. Only then can California shift to a local and regional rehabilitative system of care that allows youth to return to society with a chance to make it.”

In its recent budget cuts, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s only options to balance the state’s budget deficit has been targeting education, health and the most vulnerable sectors of our communities.

Unless everyone stand up and start demanding changes in the Constitution, where education receives a bigger share of the budget and never lose funding, we will continue losing funding to educate our future generations and our prisons industry growing.

Working poor women most affected by restriction in State program

Civil rights groups sue State over 6-month In-State residency requirement for women in need of pre-natal care.

by the ACLU

SAN FRANCISCO – Maternal and child health advocates and leading public interest law groups have filed a lawsuit against the state of California seeking to end a requirement that low-income working women must be residents of California for six months before they are eligible to receive prenatal and other medical care services through California’s Access for Infants and­ Mothers (AIM) insurance program.

Maternal and Child Health Access (MCH Access), a non-profi t organization that advocates for health care for pregnant women and children, seeks a court order that will prevent the state from implementing the six-month in-state residency requirement.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, Bay Area Legal Aid, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, and MCH Access’ lawyers hold that because the requirement discriminates against pregnant women who are new California residents on the basis of how long they have lived in the state, it violates both the California and the United States Constitutions.

MCH Access points out that time is of the essence in obtaining access to prenatal care, and that prenatal care is especially important to maternal and fetal health in the fi rst trimester. The sixth-month in-state eligibility requirement means that working poor women who are new residents in California may not be able to obtain timely prenatal care through AIM at all.

“Study after study shows that early access to prenatal care is important for the well-being of the mother and the child,” said Lynn Kersey, Executive Director of MCH Access.

“Prenatal health care can help prevent premature delivery and low birth weight.

To deny working women health care simply because they are new to the state endangers the health of both the mother and the child.”

In denying a woman AIM coverage, the state also deprives the newborn of healthcare coverage guaranteed if the mother was in the program. This can lead to tremendous costs for families. Studies show that medical bills are one of the nation’s leading causes of bankruptcy for families.

The legal groups explain that the government requirement is also unconstitutional. “The residency requirement discriminates against new residents in violation of equal protection under the law and impedes the fundamental freedom to travel between states,” said Juniper Lesnik, an attorney at the ACLU-NC. “The U.S. Supreme Court has already struck down durational residency requirements for similar benefi ts because they are unconstitutional.”

In 2007, the Legislature passed AB 1328, which would have deleted the residency requirement. The Governor vetoed the bill in October 2007.

The State estimates that 100 women each year are excluded by the six-month requirement in AIM. The lawsuit seeks to clear the way for these women to obtain the prenatal care they need.

Lucy Quacinella, one of the lawyers for MCH Access, added: “With the mounting cost of food, gas, and other basic necessities, not to mention all time high charges for medical care and premiums for private health insurance, many working women find that they cannot afford health care. AIM is a program that is designed to step in and help these women who otherwise might fall through the cracks because they earn too much to qualify for the Medi-Cal program but too little to purchase health insurance.”

Participants in AIM contribute 1.5 percent of their annual income to the health services they receive.

The program is not only medically vital but cost effective. According to the federal government’s Institute of Medicine, each dollar spent on providing adequate prenatal care saves $3.38 on medical care that would otherwise be necessary for low birth weight infants during the first year of life. Other investigators have computed different, even higher, ratios, but virtually all find evidence of cost effectiveness.

Fpr AIM Program: (800) 433-2611. The website is www.mrmib.ca.gov, then click on the AIM link, or http://www.mrmib.ca.gov/MRMIB/AIM.shtml.

Available for interview: Bay Area mother who benefited from the AIM program. Available after 3 p.m.

When Sonna Valdez lost her work-sponsored health insurance in her 26th week of pregnancy, she panicked. Sonna made too much money to qualify for Medi-Cal but, as a single mother, couldn’t afford to pay out-of-pocket for prenatal care. Diagnosed with gestational diabetes, she went without care for a full month.

Maternal and Child Health Access helped her fill out the paperwork for California’s Access for Infants and Mothers (AIM) health insurance program. On Nov. 13, 2007, Sonna gave birth to a healthy – and robust – nine-pound, nine-ounce baby boy named Jaiden.

Festival César Chávez

Dolores Huerta (with red cap), and SF Supervisor Tom Ammiano (holding a poster up) march during the César Chávez Festival: on April 19, on 24th Street. (Photo by Ray Balberan)Dolores Huerta (izquierda con gorra roja), el Supervisor de SF Tom Ammiano (levantando un póster) marchan durante el festival de César Chávez el 19 de abirl sobre la calle 24. (Photo by Ray Balberan)

Millones de personas conmemoraron la vida y el trabajo de César Chávez por todo el país, exigiendo al Congreso la creación de un Día Nacional del líder de los derechos civiles.

Nacido el 31 de marzo de 1927, el organizador y jefe de los trabajadores del campo murió en su sueño el 23 de abril de 1993, después de varios ayunos para protestar por el tratamiento injusto a sus compañeros de trabajo, que muchos han sugeridos aceleraron su muerte.

Un desfile en su honor el 19 de abril atrajo a cientos en la calle 24 en el Distrito de Misión de San Francisco, donde ejecutantes danza Azteca ejercieron su ceremonia más sagrada en honor al Sr. Chávez. Un festival en la Escuela Elemental de César Chávez fue llevado a cabo de 1 a 5 de la tarde.

DHS waives laws to build border wall

by Alex Meneses Miyashita

Michael ChertoffMichael Chertoff

To complete some 500 miles of fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border by the end of the year, the U.S. government will waive 36 environmental and management laws that prevent building fences in certain areas.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security will use exemptions authorized by Congress to proceed with construction.

DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff justified use of the waiver, stating, “criminal activity at the border does not stop for endless debate or protracted litigation.”

“Congress and the American public have been adamant that they want and expect border security,” he added. “We’re serious about delivering it, and these waivers will enable important security projects to keep moving forward.~,

The waivers will free the DHS from exploring and explaining how the fencing would impact the wilderness and wildlife in the areas where the restrictions apply.

Environmental groups have decried the government’s decision.

“The administration is effectively putting America on notice that it will ignore even the gravest concerns about the border wall,” stated National Audubon Society president John Flicker. “The DHS decision to abandon U.S. laws to construct a border fence will jeopardize the economy, quality of life and beauty of south Texas.”

Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club, considered the move “a threat to wildlife and communities along the border.”

One of the exemptions will apply in areas of Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas, encompassing about 470 miles. The other will allow construction of 22 miles of fencing in Hidalgo County, Texas.

The DHS claims it remains “deeply committed to environmental responsibility,” and says some of the areas in question have already been reviewed, and that it will conduct further environmental reviews in other areas “before any major construction begins.”

Backing its decision, an opinion piece in World Net Daily criticized environmentalists for not taking into account the human impact on the environment.

“Like environmentalists, politicians generally privilege flora and fauna over folks…Thankfully, a handful of Congress members concluded that the tsunami of illegal trespassers is worse for the environment than the fence itself.”

Other news media, such as The El Paso Times and The New York Times, shared a different view.

“Chertoff has demonstrated that he doesn’t care what people’ particularly border-area residents who will be personally affected, think of the border wall,” states an El Paso Times opinion piece.

“He is showing that laws are minor obstacles to be brushed aside without second thought when deemed necessary.”

The No Border Wall Coalition’ comprised of local groups and activists opposed to building the wall’ called the government’s decision an unprecedented abuse of authority on Secretary Chertoff’s part.”

Sen. Robert Menéndez (D-N,J,) blasted the Bush Administration during a ­Washington’ D.C, forum April 3 organized by the New Democrat Network.

He accused it of being “fixated on building walls rather than building trust.”

“We need smart borders’ not closed borders’” he said. “This administration does not understand that if you build a ten-foot wall someone will just bring an eleven foot ladder.” Hispanic Link.

Boxing

April 23 (Wednesday), 2008 At The Seminole Hard Rock Live Arena, Hollywood, FL

  • (ESPN2) Juan Urango (19-1-1) vs. Carlos Vilches (52-7-2).
  • (ESPN2) Joe Greene (18-0) vs. Marlon Thomas (36-7-1)
  • David Estrada (21-4) vs. Alexander Quiroz (14-5-1).

In Terni, Italy

  • Massimo Morra (19-3-3) vs. Fabrizio Trotta (10-3-2).
  • April 24 (Thursday), 2008 In Livorno, Italy
  • Alberto Servidei (25-0-2) vs. Sergio Blanco (17-0-1).
  • Luca Tassi (11-0) vs. Simone Cannelli (14-5-1).

April 25 (Friday), 2008 At The Utopia Paradise Theatre, New York City, NY

  • (ESPN2) Andrey Tsurkan (25-3) vs. Jesse Feliciano (15-6-3).
  • (ESPN2) Albert Sosnowski (42-1) vs. Terrell Nelson (8-4).

At TBA, Puerto Rico NEW (Telefutura) Francisco

Lorenzo (31-4) vs. TBA NEW (Telefutura) Roman Martinez (18-0-1) vs. TBA At TBA, Erie, PA Paul Spadafora (40-0-1) vs. TBA Yusaf Mack (23-2-2) vs. TBA.

At The Aston Villa Leisure Centre, Birmingham, England

  • Wayne Elcock (18-3) vs. Darren McDermott.

Grand Nicaraguan gathering

by Margine Quintanilla Romero

Dancing Palo de Mayo (May Pole).: (Photo Nicaragualiving)Dancing Palo de Mayo (May Pole). (Photo Nicaragualiving)

If you like the rhythm of Nicaraguan Palo de Mayo (May Pole), cumbias, salsa and also enjoy much the delightful Nicaraguan food, Productions Moreira has will organized a big holiday with all the Creole flavor.

The event will be held Sunday, April 20, at Club Tapatío, located at 4742 Mission St. San Francisco, CA 94112 from 12:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. For more information visit: www.aquinicaragua.com.

Bilingual Children Care Center celebrates its annual auction

One of the most important bilingual child care centers in Berkeley, El Bay Area Hispano Institute for Advancement (BAHIA), will celebrate its Seventh Annual Auction to benefit its programs on April 25 at the California Ballroom of Oakland.

The BAHIA, was founded in 1975 to respond to the needs of low-income Hispanic families with bilingual care for their children in the community of West Berkeley.

This program has been recognized at the local, state and national level as an organization that promotes learning in the children.

The executive director of BAY, Inc. made sure that her personnel is professionally qualified to provide support, care and fondness to children in critical ages with physical needs and social-emotional development. ”

This program has been recognized at the local, state and national level as an organization that promotes learning to the children.

The executive director of BAY, Inc. made sure that her personnel is professionally qualified to provide support, care and fondness to children in critical ages with physical needs and social-emotional development. ”

The Auction will start on Friday, April 25 from 6: 00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. in the California Ballroom located at 1736 Street Franklin, in Oakland. Cost is $50 per person, only adults please. For more info please call (510) 525-1463.

Arabs and Latinos support our Mexican students

The Arab and Latin communities will join efforts to organize a big ArabLatin party, which funds will be used to fi nance the airfare of a group of Mexican students who will enroll this year at the University of San Francisco.

This event will be loaded with big surprises as the fabulous Egypt-style Belly  Dance, interpreted by the international artists Amina, Shara and Maya.

The event will take place at the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts (MCCLA) located at 2868 Mission St., San Francisco, on Friday, April 25, from 7:00 to 10:0 p.m. Cover charge $25, which includes food and refreshments. (415) 821-1155, or visit www.missionculturalcenter.org.

San Francisco celebrates Cinco de Mayo

The San Francisco community will celebrate Cinco de Mayo with music, dance and cultural activities, where everyone will be able to join.

This date commemorates The battle of Puebla, in which a group of organized Mexicans repelled the French army, which was trying to take possession of this territory.

The celebration will take place on Saturday, May 3, at Dolores Park, from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Admission is free and the public will be able to enjoy a tour of the historical part of the Mission. Bring a picnic and enjoy a calm evening and a spectacular sight. For major information visit www.sfcincodemayo.com or call 415-647-1533.­

­

Top Spanish-language artists to help the poor Latin America

by Antonio Mejías-Rentas

Ricky MartinRicky Martin

POP PHILANTHROPISTS: Five of the top Spanish-language recording artists pledged to help Latin America’s poor at last week’s annual meeting of the Inter American Development Bank in Miami Beach.

During the meeting’s opening day, on April 4, singers Juanes, Ricky Martin and Juan Luis Guerra launched the Yo amo América campaign, for which each artist will assume a specific area of responsibility through their individual charitable foundations.

Ricky Martin, whose charity work focuses on children’s well being, will head an effort to register the continent’s all newborn children. Juanes will promote pre-school education in the region and Guerra will oversee micro credit initiatives.

Later that day, singers Shakira and Alejandro Sanz announced a series of fundraising concerts to be held in various Latin American cities on May 17. The effort is being spearheaded by the America Latina en Acción Solidaria (ALAS) foundation, which last month signed an agreement with the bank to “work jointly to raise aware ness of the vital role children and youth play in human capital development in Latin America and the Caribbean”.

The foundation (www.fundacionalas.org) was launched last year by several recording artists and activists and lists Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez as honorary president.

MASTERPIECE’TO AIR: A documentary on the life of the first Mexican American to be named Catholic bishop will premiere this week on PBS.

A Migrant’s Masterpiece: The Life and Legacy of Patrick Flores, by writerdirector Hector GalAn, will begin airing nationally on April. 3 on most PBS stations (check local listings). Filmed during Flores’ last month as Archbishop of San Antonio, the film uses rare footage, personal archives and interviews to tell the story of a man who rose from picking cotton in rural Texas to become the most influential Latino in the U.S. Catholic church.

Covering nearly 80 years of history, the film is “really the larger story of the Mexican-American experience in the United States, according to Galán, a San Antonio filmmaker who has covered Latino history and culture in several documentaries for PBS. “I see a lot of my own history in Patrick’s life that mirrors what many Mexican-American families had to endure.”

ONE LINERS: The two leading music publishing rights’ organizations announced Latin award winners recently: ASCAP will honor Puerto Rican artists Víctor Manuelle and Black: Guayaba at a May 16 ceremony in New York while BMI will name Argentinean musician Gustavo Santaolalla an Icon at a June 12gala in Los Angeles. Hispanic Link.

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