­by Esther J. Cepeda

Behold the spectacle of the incredible invisible Hispanic woman. She and her sisters walk among us, over 20 million strong, young and old, U.S.-born and immigrant, legal and illegal, yet undetectable to the mainstream eye.

This month we heard about the “Hidden Epidemic” – a major public health crisis affecting one in every four teenage girls – when the Centers for Disease Control released a study estimating 3.2 million young women between the ages of 14 and 19 in the United States are infected with the Human Papilloma Virus, Chlamydia, Herpes Simplex Virus, and/or Trichomoniasis.

All media accounts made it clear these shocking numbers, gleaned from 838 randomly chosen study participants, were even worse for African-American women. A stunning 48 percent of those in that age range were infected with oneor more of these STDs, compared to 20 percent of white women.

And the 20 million Latinas – just those counted by the U.S. Census’ last tally in July of 2006, that is – well, they just don’t exist. Not in this “nationally representative study, at least.

Apparently there were “insufficient numbers” of Hispanic women served in the high school-based health clinics in California and the New York city clinics the CDC studied to make any estimates about STD rates among Latinas.

Really? The CDC and most media outlets covering the report’s release went to the great pains to point out the study didn’t include any STD prevalence data on teenage boys, but no one blinked at the glaring omission of the country’s fastest growing ethnic group.

It’s true, the big four STDs are a drop in the bucket compared to the major chronic diseases like obesity, diabetes and asthma decimating Hispanics. To its credit, in recent years the CDC has painstakingly researched, reported on and reached out even in Spanish – to tell Hispanics how to prevent these illnesses.

But leaving Latinas out of this highly-publicized report – “the clearest picture to date of the overall STD burden in adolescent women” – undermines the CDC’s well intentioned efforts to make us aware these STDs are everywhere, often go unnoticed and undiagnosed, and cut across racial and ethnic lines.

According to the CDC’s Office of Minority Health, obtaining data for Hispanics is too hard because of “their relatively small numbers in the population and geographic dispersion,” and the lack of “culturally and linguistically appropriate data collection materials and bilingual interviewers.

They should check out the latest statistics.

A Pew Research Center report, ~Statistical Portrait of Hispanics in the United States, 2006,- found that of the 45 million Hispanics counted, 61 percent were native-born. Of those under 18, 75 percent reported themselves predominantly English-speaking.

We could argue about perceived barriers all day. Instead let me tell you why anyone who isn’t a Gómez, Hernández, or Rodríguez should even care about STD rates in Hispanic women.

How about this? After 14 years of declining teen pregnancy rates, between 2005 and 2006 the birth rate for all girls between ages 15 and 19 rose 3 percent. The CDC estimated the rate for Hispanic girls was 2 percent.

Or let’s talk about the biggest biggie: HIV/ AIDS which is staging a comeback as a result of the misguided belief it is now curable with drug cocktails. I n 2006, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality found new AIDS cases worsening only among Latinos – compared to all other racial/ethnic groups. Their cases doubled from 2001 to 2004, with Latinas’new infections jumping from 23 percent to 51 percent in that time period.

The bottom line is 20 million Juanas, Rosas and Marías are not invisible and neither the CDC nor anyone else can afford to ignore the sexual health of 20 million Hispamc women.

In fact, lots of them will have sex with Toms, Dicks and Harrys. Or as I like to think of them: your sons, brothers and fathers. Heck, some of the 20 million might even hook up with your moms, sisters and daughters. Hispanic Link.

And the STDs that’ll cross cultural barriers just happen to be colorblind.

(Esther J. Cepeda is a director at the United Neighborhood Organization, a Chicago based non-profit dedicated to ensuring Hispanics’ success in the United States. She may be reached at ecepeda~unoonilne.org).

by Juliana Birnbaum Fox

Nurses make demands St. Luke’s Hospital, other Sutter’s hospitals and supported by the Nurses Union, hold a labor strike at the corner of César Chávez and Valencia streets. (photos by Marvin J. Ramirez)

About 4,000 nurses at eight Sutte­r Health hospitals in the Bay area, including St. Luke’s in the Mission District of San Francisco, started striking March 21 over a dispute about health standards at the hospitals, pension benefits, and the closing of hospitals in poor areas.

Planned to last 10 days, the action affects hospitals in Antioch, Berkeley, Burlingame, Castro Valley, Oakland, San Francisco, San Mateo and Vallejo. The California Nurses Association states that the walkout is due to ongoing contract negotiations and Sutter practices that it says puts patients at risk.

“Sutter cannot expect RNs to sit idly by and watch the ongoing problems with patient care and patient safety at our hospitals,” reads the Nurses Association statement. “ When there are not enough nurses, patients are put at risk, period. We don’t want to strike, but our ethical oblication as patient advocates demands it.”

Nurse Francisca Laurel, on strike, don’t want St. Luke’s to be close

Hospital. “They say they“We are fighting for better retirement,” said Francisca Laurel, a medical surgical nurse since 1979 and one of many other nurses protesting an eventual closure of St. Luke’s want to close the hospital…we want to save it.”

Sutter Health said it hasmet the levels of staffing, health care and retirement benefi ts the union has demanded from other hospitals. It said the union’s “real goal is more members and more dues money.”

St. Luke’s Hospital’s status has been in question over the past year and among the plans to reduce costs there are calls for fewer nurses in the neonatal unit, as well as for nurses to be crosstrained outside their areas of specialty.

“This is a change in service … this is a very solid way to do it.” Dr. Martin Brotman, president and CEO of CPMC, the more profitable of the Sutter hospitals in the city, told the SF Chronicle last December. He said a decision on whether to close the hospital would not be made for two years.

All hospitals remain open currently, and hospital officials have said that patient care won’t be disrupted.

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by the El Reportero’s news services

Juan Manuel Santos

Peru’s anti-terrorist police announced On 19 March the arrest of a senior official from the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Farc) in Iquitos.

The arrest suggests that the Colombian military has changed tack after its controversial raid on Ecuador on March 1, and will now work with neighbouring police forces against the Farc rather than take action itself.

The arrests are another blow to the Farc. The man arrested is Johnny Cárdenas Pasaján, a drug trafficking and explosives expert, and a key lieutenant to Joaquín Gómez – who replaced Raúl Reyes on the Farc’s ruling council after Reyes was killed in the March 1 raid.

OAS resolution stops short of condemning Colombia

The Organization of American States (OAS) approved a resolution in the early hours of March 18 issuing Colombia with a mild rebuke for its bombing of a Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Farc) camp on Ecuadorean soil on March 1.

It differed very little in substance from the Rio Group resolution released 10 days earlier. Ecuador had wanted Colombia explicitly condemned for the action.

It had to settle for an article which used the word “reject” in relation to the military incursion. While the Colombian government managed to save face, however, it suffered a setback in its efforts to link Ecuadorian authorities to the Farc.

Colombia confirms it killed Ecuadorian

BOGOTÁ, Colombia – Colombia’s defense minister announced Sunday that an Ecuadorean was killed during Colombia’s controversial March 1 raid on a rebel camp in Ecuador’s jungle.

Ecuador and Venezuela briefly mobilized troops to their borders with Colombia in the wake of the attack that killed top Colombian rebel commander Raúl Reyes and 25 others, and confirmation of the Ecuadorian death threatened to revive tensions

between the Andean neighbors.

Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos said one of two bodies brought to Colombia after the attack belonged to the Ecuadorian he identified only by the nom de guerre “Lucho.”

The Ecuadorian’s body was initially identified as that of a Colombian rebel troubadour, alias Julian Conrado, and brought back to the Colombian capital of Bogotá with Reyes’ body.

Cuba condemns criticism of China

HAVANA – Cuba on Saturday rejected criticism of China for its crackdown on recent riots in Tibet, which has led to calls for a possible boycott of this summer’s Olympic Games in Beijing.

In an e-mail statement issued by the Foreign Ministry, Havana also accused U.S.-funded Radio Free Asia of being the principal voice behind talk of a boycott.

“The government of Cuba condemns with all of its energy attempts to organize a crusade aimed at undermining this noble undertaking,” the government said.

Protests against Chinese rule in Tibet have drawn a harsh response from Beijing, and Chinese authorities say 16 people have died and 325 were injured. The Dalai Lama’s exiled government says 99 Tibetans have been killed.

Havana — one of five current communist governments including Beijing — also is quick to reject international complaints about its own human rights record.

The government added that it believes the Tibet riots were “promoted from Juan Manuel Santosoutside the country,” and expressed opposition to “any attempt to meddle in the internal affairs of China.”

President Bush has long planned to attend the Beijing Olympics, and the White House said this week that the crackdown in Tibet is not cause for him to cancel.

by Ricardo Chavira

Raúl Castro

For most of her 63 years Havana native Carmen was “a true revolutionary. But these days, her fervor has been displaced by rage at Cuba’s seemingly eternal, official crushing poverty. She is also angered by Washington’s indifference to Cuba’s plight.

“Is this revolution?” she asks dismissively, gesturing around her dirt-floored shack. Her daughter Yasmin is blind. Carmen cares for her. Together they receive the equivalent of $5 a month in government aid, not nearly enough to buy increasingly expensive food.

Carmen is not alone in having to get by on crumbs. Nor is she alone in being overcome by exasperation at Havana’s and Washington’s policy sclerosis. She wonders why the United States, a bastion of enlightenment and generosity, has stuck to its Cold War policy of isolating Cuba.

“I don’t know why (former U.S. President Jimmy) Carter and other leaders there are not acting now. It’s time for the United States to do something different here. The embargo is just like a foot on our necks. “Why not try talking to Cuban leaders?” she asks.

Not surprisingly, President Bush is not disposed to talks. Speaking March 7, he lamented that only a handful of countries had joined the United States in isolating Cuba.

Meanwhile, much of the rest of top development aid official said after a recent visit to Cuba that he would work to get EU to drop diplomatic sanctions. “I think the necessary conditions exist to open a new era in relations,” said Louis Michel.

Most world leaders have figured out what Bush and much of official Washington are working overtime to ignore. Fidel Castro is dying. His brother Raul has become head of state and likely will enact some modest economic reforms.

Raúl, dour and ill at ease as a politician, is not expected to play more than a transitional role. Cuban and U.S. officials privately say a mildly reformist coalition will run the country, probably within a few years. Finance Minister Carlos Lage and Legislative Chief Ricardo Alarcón are most often mentioned as part of this group.

Whatever the exact lineup, major change in Cuba is inevitable and rapidly approaching. Popular restiveness is palpable and growing. With the Castro brothers gone, one thing is certain. The long-silent Cuban people will make themselves heard.

They want to earn enough to feed a family. Meager rationed goods are insufficient.

Most consumer goods are priced in so-called convertible pesos, or chavitos, pegged 20 cents more than a U.S. dollar. “This system is crazy,” fumes housewife Marina San Martin. “It is impossible to buy what we need.”

The Cuban leadership is wary of loosening political controls so long as Washington maintains a policy whose stated goal is the replacement of the current government. That has been underscored by countless covert operations to subvert the regime and, of course, the longest-running trade and travel embargo in modern history.

Salary increases and unlimited remittances, severely limited by U.S. sanctions, would greatly help. Washington could permit unrestricted travel by Cuban Americans, who would bring money and consumer goods for family members. This would be an important first step toward a pragmatic change. It would buy goodwill for the United States, which has all but vanished.

It’s time to engage Cuba. Havana officials are eager to sit down with their U.S. counterparts to work out the differences that have made Cubans the most distant of our neighbors. Instead, Bush and other traditionalists talk only of the need to bring democracy to Cuba. Here’s what Bush had to say in his March 7 speech: “A few weeks ago reports of the supposed retirement of Cuba’s dictator initially led many to believe that the time had finally come for the United States to change our policy on Cuba and improve our relations with the regime. That sentiment is exactly backward. To improve relations, what needs to change is not the United States; what needs to change is Cuba. Cuba’s government must begin a process as peaceful democratic change. They must release all political prisoners. They must have respect for human rights in word and deed, and pave the way for free and fair elections.”

These sentiments reflect wishful thinking at best. At worst, they are delusional. Given the siege mentality in Havana, the leadership will not open up politically until they are on the road to normalization with Washington. That will not happen until something revolutionary happens: two longtime antagonists sit down and talk.

Cuba’s tragedy will continue until that occurs. Hispanic Link.

(Hispanic Link contributing columnist Ricardo Chavira has visited Cuba more than 40 times as a correspondent and is writing a book about the island’s people. He teaches Latin American studies at the University of California-/ rvine and journalism at California State University- Fullerton.)

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