by Emily C. Ruíz

The 42-cent postage stamp honoring Mexican-American journalist Rubén Salazar, who was killed by a Los Angeles County deputy sheriff while covering a Chicano anti-Vietnam War protest on Aug. 29, 1970, is now on sale.

The stamp is part of an American Journalists commemorative set where four other distinguished reporters are saluted as well. The unveiling took place in dual ceremonies April 22  – in Washington D.C at the National Press Club for all five and in California at the Los Angeles Times building in a special tribute to Salazar.

The Los Angeles City Council proclaimed April 22 as Rubén Salazar Day.

Olga Briseño, director of the Media Policy Initiative at the University of Arizona, ignited the Salazar stamp campaign three years ago, gathering 1,300 signatures and submitting a ten-pound package of compelling evidence to the Citizens Stamp Advisory Committee as to why Salazar deserved the national recognition and why the public should care. She made it happen.

The committee reviews 50,000 submissions each year. Thirty are approved.  The last Latino to be so honored was the late farm labor leader César Chávez in 2002.

Salazar’s career began at the El Paso Times across from his Mexican birthplace in the border city of Juárez. In 1959 he joined the Los Angeles Times, where he covered the Vietnam War, civil disobedience in the Dominican Republic and, based in Mexico City, served as the Times’ Latin American correspondent.

Later he found himself in the midst of turbulent times in Los Angeles, where the Mexican-American population had begun to speak out against the neglect and injustice it had to confront at home.

As a reporter and then a columnist, Salazar documented every aspect of the charges and the changes. His coverage and commentaries put him in on police radar as he uncovered the repressive tactics employed by law enforcement. He expanded his aggressive reporting after becoming news director at Spanish-language KMEX-TV.

More than 50,000 residents of East Los Angeles paraded in the National Chicano Moratorium March Against the Vietnam War, where Salazar became the first of three fatalities when police charged the protesters.

He and his news crew were taking a lunch break at the Silver Dollar Café several blocks away from the demonstrations when the deputy fired an armor-piercing tear gas missile into the café. It struck Salazar in the head, instantly killing him. The official explanation failed to satisfy many of those familiar with the circumstances.

Approval of the stamp was announced in 2007. It was originally a 41-cent denomination, but was raised with the first-class postage rate to 42 cents.

Salazar’s daughter, Lisa Salazar Johnson, said the 42 on the postage stamp will remind her forever of her father’s love and his accomplishments during his 42 years of life.

Former Times reporter Frank Sotomayor spoke about Salazar’s legacy at the Washington ceremony. “I see his work in a broader context as advocating for the best in journalism and the best values of American democracy, fairness, justice and equality.”

Iván Román, executive director of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, praised Salazar for his “trailblazing,” stressing that he shifted from mainstream to Spanish-language media to include the Hispanic community more fully in this nation’s information loop.

(Emily C. Ruíz is a reporter with Hispanic Link News Service, based in Washington, D.C. Email: e.cruiz@hotmail.com). © 2008

Eddy Martínez

Singer-author and businessman Eddy A. Martínez is celebrating his birthday. Martínez, of Nicaraguan origin, who has just finished recording his CD of romantic music, has worked in the field of real estate for more than 25 years in the city of San Francisco, where his regarded as a good friend of many and very much liked by all. The personnel of The Reporter sends him very warm congratulations on this so special day.

by Margine Quintanilla R.

Group deSol one of the band to perform during SF Carnaval (May 24-25) in SF

This June all Oaklanders vote for candidates for the At Large City Council seat. Come hear these candidates’ positions on issues important to working families.

All At Large candidates have been invited to participate. Join us in continuing this effort to Build Oakland for Everyone!

Sponsored by Oakland NetWork for Responsible Development (ONWRD), Oakland People’s Housing Coalition, and the League of Women Voters. Held at the East Bay Community Foundation. These organizations are nonpartisan organizations that neither support nor oppose any political party or candidate for office. Wednesday, May 14, 2008, at 6:30 p.m., at the East Bay Community Foundation, 200 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza, Oakland.

Intergenerational meeting of salsa music and poetry

If you are a salsa music lover prepare for an unforgettable night where a group of salseros of recognized international trajectory, will have an artistic meeting seldom seen with so many new styles.

The experience of salseros of the category of Benito Cereno and Manny Martínez will join the energy of new values during a musical evening, which you will be able to enjoy big time.

Also a group of poets will put a romantic touch to this event which will take place on Wednesday, May 21, from 8:00 p.m at the la Peña Cultural Center, located at 3105 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. $10 cover charge per person and $8 for students. For more info call 415.642.4784 or visit http://lapena.org.

Beyond asylum and jail: Protecting and treating people disabled by mental illness

The media frenzy that recently surrounded the involuntary psychiatric commitment of a certain celebrity singer at the UCLA Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital brought to the American consciousness the concept of a 72-hour hold–a legal requirement of the Lanterman-PetrisShort Act (LPS) for “mentally disordered persons.”

On May 27, mental health experts and legal scholars will discuss how to fix a law that has backfi red, as countless individuals suffering from mental illness have ended up as criminals in our legal system without justice or treatment.

Tuesday, May 27, 2008, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m., sponsored by the Commonwealth Club. UC Berkeley’s Wheeler Auditorium or UCLA’s Semel Institute Auditorium. For more info call 415/597-6734.

Presentation of Cristina Maura ballerina and choreographer

In the celebration of her V anniversary, the International Festival of Arts of San Francisco will present once more the famous Brazilian ballerina and choreographer Cristina Maura.

The event will take place on Thursday, may 29 from 7:00 p.m; on Saturday, May 31 at 9:30 p.m; and Sunday, June 1, from 4:30 p.m. at the Mission Theater Dance, located at 3316 24th and Mission streets. $20, and $15 for groups or studentes. For more info call 415-292-1850 or 800-838-3006.­

by Jorge Mújica Murias

Fernando Lara was going to get married on April 26, 2008, but his wedding it’s been postponed… indefinitely. The 15 thousand dollars him and his wife to be, along with their families had already spent, are lost.

Two days before his wedding, Fernando went to O’Hare airport, in Chicago, to pick up his father and grandmother. His father came out half an hour after the flight landed, but not his grandmother, a venerable lady of 80. After another half an hour, Fernando asked about her to the immigration officers. Their only response was to ask him for an ID and immigration papers. Fernando has been in immigration detention ever since, while his deportation is processed.

His fiancée and his mother wanted to immediately buy an airplane ticket and take it to immigration, to ask them to take hem directly to the airport and deport him. The couple decided, the first time Fernando was able to call from jail, that they rather go back to Mexico.

But there’s no go. Immigration refuses to set him free, to assign him a bond to pay (maybe because of the flying risk?,) and he is still in jail.

The reason for all this seem to go well beyond reason: keeping immigrants in jail is a big business.

By the end of 2007 there were, according to the George Bush regime, some 27 thousand immigrants in detention. Per night, as if they were in some good hotel, somebody is pocketing about 95 dollars, for a grand total of about a billion dollars a year.

Two companies, Corrections Corporation of America, and the Geo Group, formerly known as Wackenhut Corrections, which already have the concession of 8 of the 16 federal detention centers in the United Stares, are launching an aggressive campaign to privatize the rest of the jail system.

As a matter of fact, since the government announced more aggressive raids and deportations of undocumented immigrants, the declared intention was not to build more jails, but to rent and give them out in concession to private parties. Already the county authorities, which keep in their jails about 57 percent of all detained undocumented “aliens”, have their jails managed by private companies.

Maybe they are not even related, but a woman by the name of Louise Gilchrist, same last name of one of the founders of the Minuteman Project, spokesperson for Corrections Corp., says they could provide “all beds Immigration my ever need.”

Less immigrants, more money

Curiously enough, according to the Pew Hispanic Center, the crisis in the housing industry and related jobs caused the number of undocumented immigrants from Mexico to fall in around 50 thousand last year.

It is important to make this clear, because part of the strategy of new jails, increased raids and deportations is not focusing on border crossers, but on those already inside the United States. Why bother detaining 400 thousand people who sneak in, if you can go after the 12 million already here?

There’s where the list of the 600 thousand “criminals” comes from: from drug dealers to people who lost their legalization, adjustment or asylum cases, for whom Immigration already has names and addresses, and from all the “OTM’s”, Other Than Mexicans, title given by the Migra to all undocumented immigrants who are not from Mexico and have been detained but set free because is not as easy to deport them immediately.

This strategy allows the Migra to have “clients” almost permanently, and despite the market exchange going down because of oil prices and other economic problems, shares of Geo and Corrections are going up at a fast pace. From February to date, when Bush announced his new strategy, Corrections shares went up from $42.50 to $53.77, a 27 percent gain, while the shares of Geo went up from $23.36 to $39.24. A “modest” 68 percent in a few months.

At this point, it is only fair to state that living in the United States without papers is still not a crime, despite Republican Jim Sensenbrenner and Democrat Shuler putting all their efforts into it. It is still an administrative fault, but that category plays against undocumented immigrants caught by the Migra. Fernando and many others have to wait in jail for long periods of time without a lawyers being immediately assigned to them. In some cases, they are not even allowed to make phone calls to get in contact with their families or private lawyers.

In closing, undocumented immigrants are “contributing”, albeit not willingly, to the economy of the United Status even in the Migra jails. Resides taxes, contributions to the Social Security, Medicare and who knows what else, and the faithful payments every April 15 without the right to unemployment, pensions and other benefits, undocumented immigrants are “helping” some entrepreneurs to get richer. As Judith Greene, Director of the research group Justice Strategies says, “Privatization of jails for immigrants is part of the American entrepreneurial spirit of this country, but frankly this is an ill spirit.”

Oh, and the next México del Norte, I promise, Hill be on the 60 undocumented immigrant who have died in the Migra jails … don’t miss it!

Lea “México del Norte” en Internet: http://mx.groups.yahoo.com/group/mexicodelnorte.

by Marvin J. Ramirez

Marvin J. Ramirez

Sometimes during deadline, is hard for an editor who works alone with very little help, to come up with a last-minute idea for writing an editorial.

This was the case of myself at the time or sending this edition to the printer. I just couldn’t think what to write about, I was blocked for a while.

But I started to look around in my thoughts and remember how most people can’t see what’s really happening to our beautiful country.

Perhaps not many people in the United States understand of why many things are not going right for most citizens: the more you work, the more debts you’re in, and afraid of falling to the financial bottom. It seems that we are going nowhere.

The harder you work to buy a house playing by the rules, the more you later find out that those rule weren’t really made to protect you, the hard-working citizen, but to protect some invisible corporation based somewhere in another part of the world, and that your own government can’t do much for you. It just watches you to be thrown on the streets and be stripped of your fundamental rights afforded by our Founding Fathers.

With this intention, I am publishing this piece from author Mark Nestman, that I found sometime ago, which I hope will give you an idea of what could be going on and what could be for our future.

Soon you’ll have to ask permission before you fly

Last year, I wrote here that if Uncle Sam gets its way, we’d all be on no-fly lists, unless the government gives us permission to leave – or re-enter – the United States.

Now, the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) proposed a similar system for travel on commercial airlines WITHIN the United States. Both sys- tems will come into effect Feb. 19, 2008.

Under the TSA’s “Advance Passenger Information System (APIS) initiative,” you’ll need to obtain permission from the U.S. government to travel on ANY commercial airliner or ship that goes to or from the United States. You won’t receive your boarding pass until you are cleared by APIS. You’ll also need permission to travel through the United States (e.g., if you’re changing planes at a U.S. airport on a trip between two foreign countries). It doesn’t matter if you’re a U.S. citizen or permanent resident.

Everyone will need permission to enter – or leave – the United States.

Then, on Aug. 23, 2007, the TSA issued proposed regulations for its “Secure Flight” program.

The TSA wants commercial airlines to submit passenger information through a single DHS portal for both the Secure Flight and APIS programs. This would result in one DHS system responsible for watch list matching for all aviation passengers. Naturally, the entire process – for both domestic and international travel – will occur in total secrecy. If you’re denied permission to travel, you won’t be able to appeal the decision to any court. Your only recourse will be through the TSA bureaucracy. Essentially, you’ll be reduced to pleading with the TSA to say something like, “pretty please, give me a boarding pass.”

What this amounts to is essentially a reprise of the infamous “internal passport” system in effect in the former Soviet Union. In 1933, Soviet dictator Josef Stalin introduced “internal passports” that prohibited Soviet citizens from leaving their place of residence without permission. Over time, the internal passport became the prime instrument of Soviet oppression over its citizens. It’s bad enough needing to ask Uncle Sam for permission to leave the United States, and to reenter it. But an internal passport is a blueprint for totalitarianism.

Mark Nestman, Privacy Expert & President. The Nestmann Group www.nestmann.com. This article was written in 10 -4 -7.­