by Margine Quintanilla R.

Directly from Venezuela, the group Los Vassalos del Sol, leave a Bay Area audience asking for more, after their performance at the Yearba Buena Gardens in San Francisco on May 10. (Photo by Marvin J. Ramirez)

More than 600 immigrants and their sympathizers will meet in the twelfth annual celebration of the “ Day of the immigrant ”.

This event will be celebrated on May 19, in Sacrament C.A. For more information call (510)-981-6250.

Grand Carnaval San Francisco

To the rhythm of samba and music, Latin, afro-caribe and pop, celebrate happiness and life participating in the 30 Anniversary of Carnaval San Francisco.

You will be able to enjoy the pluri-culturalism of different world representations shown in their floats and the exuberance and beauty of their cultural roots. There will the participation of musical groups and performance by the best dance schools.

The Mission District parade will take place on May 24, and on the 25 will be the grand parade, leaving from Bryant and 24th Street at 10 a.m.

History of the American folklore

You can do a brief trip for the musical history of the American folklore, and know its culture, rhythm and much more Tim Holt author of songs, writer of chronicles, essays and novels, will present the history of the American Folklore, accompanying this story on ancient ballads.

This presentation will take place on May 22, in the Berkeley’s Public Library bookstore, North Branch located at 1170 Avenue, admittance free and it will be opened on Monday, Tuesday, Friday and Saturdays ofrom 10:00 a.m to 6:00 p.m, only for 14 year-old or older. For morr information call (510) 981-6107.

“The beauty that was mine”

The AXIS Dance Company, the Dandelion Dance Theater, and the Company Y (Spain), will present their premiere, The beauty that was mine directed by the choreographer Joe Goode.

The event will take place at The Forum, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, in San Francisco, on Friday, May 23 at 7:00 p.m, and on Saturday, May 24 at 4:00 p.m. Tickets at (800) 838-3006, or visit the web page: http://www.sfiaf.org/.

by Janet Murguía

Janet Murguía

“I work. I am a productive citizen. But when it comes to insurance, what is out there for me?”

Any of the 15 million Hispanics in the United States who lack health insurance could have spoken these words, but it is even more poignant to hear them from Marytza Sanz, president of Latino Leadership, Inc., a community-based organization in Florida.

Ms. Sanz’s top priority as leader of Latino Leadership is to support Central Florida’s Latino community by increasing its access to preventive health services through improved awareness. Yet in spite of her long-standing mission, Ms. Sanz, who is diabetic, cannot even obtain for herself the quality health care she is making accessible to so many others.

Ms. Sanz’s situation exemplifies the struggles that members of countless Latino families endure. Without regular access to such essentials as insulin, supplies, and regular check-ups, Ms. Sanz cannot easily manage her diabetes. This inability to regulate one’s own health condition is the reason that Latinos suffer a higher risk of developing chronic medical conditions D such as obesity and diabetes D in the first place.

Studies show that language barriers and low health literacy widen the health disparity gap, preventing patients from understanding their doctor’s instructions, leading to dangerous, even fatal, complications as a result of medical error.

Chronic disease sufferers face other barriers to accessing care. For example, most insurance programs would immediately reject someone like Ms. Sanz. The ones that offer minimal coverage demand monthly rates of $800 or more. Many Latinos find it increasingly difficult to pay such astronomical price-tags, effectively barring them from the health care system.

Therefore, it is not surprising that more than one-third of Hispanics do not have health insurance. As a result, many shy away from visiting doctors, obtaining routine health services, and even going to the emergency room.

It is clear that we need to overhaul our health care system to ensure that all individuals can enjoy the healthy, productive lives to which they are entitled. This is why the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) and a bipartisan group of more than 100 members of Congress support proposed legislation to make critical health services more accessible to the Latino community.

The Health Equity and Accountability Act of 2007, championed by Rep. Hilda Solís (D-Calif.) and the Congressional Tri-Caucus, would drastically improve opportunities for Latinos and other communities of color, reducing current disparities in the health care system by diversifying the workforce, instituting new programs at hospitals that serve these populations, and collecting data related to access to health care.

It will improve communication by increasing funding for language interpretation services and community-based health promotion activities that give families access to vital, easy-to-understand medical information. By establishing an Office of Health Disparities within the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Civil Rights along with civil rights compliance offices within other agencies, this bill taps into an issue more fundamental to the heart of our national values: the tradition of protecting everyone’s rights by empowering the most vulnerable members of our society.

While such legislation would be good news for Marytza Sanz, it would also significantly contribute toward achieving the goals of her organization, which prioritizes the health needs of children. Currently, legally residing immigrant children and pregnant women are barred from Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) for five years after their arrival in the United States. If passed, this bill would increase health program access for these women and children. We know that a strong, healthy foundation is essential in giving children the best physical, mental and emotional start in life, so we should embrace those measures that bring this reality to more of this country’s youth.

The sacrifices by individuals such as Ms. Sanz for the welfare of underserved communities should not go unrewarded. For her service as a crucial link to health care, she deserves proper coverage so that she may perform her job more effectively, and, most importantly, so she can live her life without constant concern for her own condition.

When providers themselves go uninsured, we know it’s time to address health care’s inequalities. This bill is a golden opportunity for Congress to truly champion the cause of making health care accessible to those who need it most. Hispanic Link News Service.

(Janet Murguía, president and CEO of the National Council of La Raza, the nation’s largest advocacy and civil rights organization, writes a monthly commentary for Hispanic Link News Service. She may be contacted at -opi@nclr.org).

by José de la Isla

José de la Isla

WASHINGTON, D.C. – You have to feel sorry for the panelists at Howard University on April 18. The group, moderated by NBC News anchor Brian Williams, discussed the documentary, “Meeting David Wilson.”

It is about a young black man, David A. Wilson, journeying from New Jersey to North Carolina, looking for answers to his questions and issues about his ancestral slave past. He meets up with David B. Wilson at the plantation where A’s antecedents had been slaves.

The responses to challenging questions may not reconcile the burden of an ancestral slavery past, but it’s at least direct talk. Their post-traumatic stress has persisted after seven generations. They represent why each new black-and-white chaffing reminds us about hate, anger and hurt in everyday life.

Because of the recent dust up over Pastor Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama’s former minister, black rage-white guilt was called up again to the public eye. To many this was the call for another public discussion about race. But for most people there is little if anything new to say about it. The discussion continues stuck where it was.

What continues undiscussed is important. Isn’t Barack Obama, as the first black president, intended to signify the end of a level of race prejudice? But did he not run away from race until the Wright episode forced his hand? And doesn’t he really represent mixed race, black-and-white, and not of a slave ancestry? Why could he not become the fi rst mixed-race president? Is there a constituency for that? What about Hillary as the first woman president?

Where is the women’s perspective on society and governance in the post-birth control world. By extension, what is the women’s perspective on the future of children and families? Does it all just boil down to a few liberal programs that don’t take a woman to advocate?

And what about John McCain? Isn’t the idea that this white man of war knows the road to peace and security better than others? But instead we get somebody who proposes endless war with no peace in sight? Is this Dr. Strangelove coming to haunt us?

Are they big symbols and small substance? Or, to put it as a political cliché, “Where’s the beef?” The public was set up for a paradigm shift and there was none.

That’s why the panel discussion following the Wilson documentary was so disappointing. If the presidential candidates are behind the times, at least the public discussion didn’t have to be. But it was.

The group included columnist Mike Barnicle, entrepreneur Malaak Compton-Rock, author Michael Eric Dyson, radio host Tom Joyner, writer Kevin Powell, Rev. Buster Soaries, screenwriter Kriss Turner and Tim Wise, director of the Association for White Anti-Racist Education.

There were no black Latinos in that discussion, nor white Latinos, nor mestizo Latinos (Latinos are of all races), no Asians, no Native Americans nor people of the many other variations of humankind — representing an alternative to the black-white conundrum. So it wasn’t a “conversation about race,” certainly not one for the United States of the 21st century. To her credit, audience member 33-year-old Lisa Rawlings, a graduating Ph.D. student at Howard — herself originating from St. Kit in the West Indies —could see through it.

About the documentary itself she volunteered, “it wasn’t really substantial” because the two David Wilsons “didn’t challenge each other enough.”

There was a moment in the documentary when some Latinos were working in the tobacco fields “probably in pretty similar conditions to the ones the slaves were in,” she said. While the two Wilsons engaged in their own dialogue about their races, they “acted as if they (the Latinos) were invisible,” she said. “It seemed to be like the next wave, like the system of exploitation, was reinvented with a new group of people.”

That’s how even a panel conversation becomes an inward-turned monologue. All this talk and such little depth about what we should learn from the slave past.

[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

by Marvin J. Ramirez

Marvin J. Ramirez

San Francisco could become a city of strangers if you voters allow on June 3, that Prop. 98 passes.

The measure that would ­eliminate renter protections and rent control, threatens the environment and hurt communities, all under the guise of eminent domain reform.

Newsom also announced his support for a real eminent domain reform measure on the ballot, Proposition 98.

Thousands of San Francisco renters, which comprise about half of a million, could be kicked out of their homes by greedy landlords ready to make an extra buck, if Prop. 98 passes.

It is a direct attack to seniors living on fix income, as well as entire families. It will attract renters from abroad who are willing to pay more just to live in the City by the Bay. No more you might see the same friendly faces in your neighborhood once this Proposition becomes law, if you vote for it. San Francisco is going to become a place nobody can live in but the upper-middle class.

Prop. 98 is sponsored by a handful of wealthy landlords and mobile home park owners who are using the issue of eminent domain to eliminate laws that protect renters and rent control. The measure would also have a devastating impact on environmental laws, and vital community protections.

Prop. 98 is opposed by a broad coalition including the AARP, League of Women Voters of California, National Wildlife Federation, California Professional Firefighters, California Teachers Association, California League of Conservation Voters, the California Chamber of Commerce, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

Prop. 99 provides voters real eminent domain reform. It protects homes from being taken through eminent domain and given to a private developer. It does not contain the hidden provisions and devastating consequences of Prop. 98, said Mayor Gavin Newsom.

San Francisco is one of the most desirable cities to live in in the world now days by out-of-the-city developers and land speculators.

Don’t hand our city over to the rich and real estate investors, vote No on Prop. 98.