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Bilingual sixth graders get a sample of translation jobs

by Juliet Blalack

Two professional translators showed Monroe Elementary students where their bilingual skills could take them last week.

Inés Swaney and Tony Beckwith dropped by the Poetry InsideOut program and engaged the sixth graders with stories of their translation backgrounds and adventures, said teacher Anita Sagastegui.

The two also explained how bilingual skills would help students no matter what career they chose, and then Beckwith shared a poem he wrote in both English and Spanish.

Swaney translated into English while Beckwith spoke in Spanish to demonstrate simultaneous translation.

“It gave the students a real sense of pride,” said Sagastegui. Poetry Inside out is a program that uses poetry to help students from 3rd grade to high school acquire and maintain bilingual skills. The instructors emphasize that the students learn to express themselves creatively in two languages.

Gang injunction hits the Mission

Under a new injunction, alledged members of the Norteno gang are prohibited from associating with each other, showing gang signs or symbols, trying to recruit new gang members, or carrying weapons over 60 blocks in the Mission.

City Attorney Dennis Herrera successfully petitioned a gang injunction that also prohibits intimidation, trespassing, loitering, and graffiti vandalism within the safety zone between Valencia St. and Potrero Ave., north of Ceasar Chavez.

Once gang members have been properly served, they are also banned from possessing drugs, weapons, or graffiti tools within the zone.

Violations of the injunction can be pursued civilly by the City Attorney, for monetary penalties and up to five days in county jail for each violation. They can also be prosecuted criminally by the District Attorney as a misdemeanor for up to six months in county jail.

Of thirty-two alleged Norteño members originally named in the City Attorney’s proposed injunction, thirty were found by clear and convincing evidence to be active Norteño gang members. One was voluntarily released by Herrera’s office prior to the court hearing.

Governor appoints Carolina Rojas-Gore to the County Fair Board of Directors

Carolina Rojas-Gore,60, of Sacramento, has been appointed to the Sacramento County Fair Board of Directors (52nd District Agricultural Association). She has served as director of community affairs for KUVS Univision 19/Telefutura 64 since 2004.

Previously, she served as a leasing agent and events coordinator for Capitol Towers from 1997 to 2001. Rojas-Gore also served as a freelance Spanish translator from 1997 to 2004 and human resources manager for Sacramento Cable Television from 1984 to 1995. She is a member of the Mexican Cultural Center and the Sacramento Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. This position does not require Senate confirmation and there is no salary. Rojas-Gore is a Democrat.

San Francisco officials move toward drug injection rooms

City health officials began discussing and studying drug injection rooms as a means to reduce drug overdoses and deaths, according to the Associated Press.

Drug overdoses represented about one of every seven emergency calls handled by city paramedics from July 2006 to July 2007, said San Francisco Fire Department Capt. ­Niels Tangherlini. At the same time, the number of deaths linked to overdoses has declined from a peak of about 160 in 1995 to 40 in 2004, he said in an Associated Press interview.

San Francisco already operates a clean needle exchange program for intravenous drug users. Injection rooms are open in 27 cities in 8 other countries, but San Francisco’s program would be the fi rst in the United States. The rooms would be supervised by nurses to prevent overdoses and fatalities.

When a driver’s license not a driver’s license?

by José de la Isla

­HOUSTON — The give-and-take at the Democratic presidential debate in Philadelphia, Oct. 30, finally looked like the candidates might drill down to display their differences.

The build-up was there. Barack Obama had said the week before he was going to take off the gloves. Perhaps because NBC and MSNBC with Drexel University sponsored the event, those news people felt they had a certain license to egg on the candidates.

Chris Matthews on his “Hardball” program delivered an oration saying what he thought Obama should say about Hillary Clinton.

Straight-talking Matthews likes brawls out of the East Coast political-boss tradition. Role-playing Obama, Matthews said, “Every vote she has cast, every word she has spoken says yes to the status quo. She voted to approve the war with Iraq. She just voted with the hawks to target Iran. She always seems to choose the safe boat.”

Then on debate night, John Edwards delivered the lines that Matthews had spoken, almost word-for-word. But the “pile on,” as the press called it, came after NBC’s Tim Russert asked whether Clinton supported New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s driver’s license proposal.

To her credit, Clinton — in what’s been widely attributed as skillful waffling — called it this way: By proposing to issue driver’s licenses that would be available to undocumented immigrants, Spitzer is in a touchy spot. He is in that position because Congress failed to pass immigration reform.

That sounds true enough. Indeed, Spitzer is in a tough spot because the underlying issue in New York is really not about permits to drive. The issue being heatedly debated is not about access to the state’s public roadways after proving you understand the rules of the road and have auto insurance.

The issue is really coded language that screams, “Let’s run undocumented immigrants out of town.”

Eight states have already passed legislation somewhat similar to Spitzer’s proposed administrative policy change, which would become effective within eight months. His three-tier plan makes it possible for applicants to obtain a license with identification other than a Social Security card. It was refined following a meeting with U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.

All the details really don’t matter in the presidential race. Attention has been diverted from real concerns — war in Iraq, Afghanistan and maybe Iran. Matthews was even bragging the next day on his program about how illegal immigration would overtake other issues as the major one after the two parties select their candidates.

In reality, the two issues are as different as cup cakes and a heart attack.

A majority of U.S. residents have long favored measures allowing undocumented immigrants to remain as permanent residents and eventual citizens or as temporary workers who go home at some point, according to the Pew Hispanic Center. When it had a chance, Congress failed to pass legislation along these lines.

­That failure has helped create the perception that more people oppose an immigration solution than actually do. Paperless immigrants make a convenient scapegoat in light of that and other national failures.

Will denying undocumented immigrants a New York driver’s license capture Bin Laden? Will having more unlicensed, uninsured drivers capture whoever is responsible for the anthrax attacks on Congress or on NBC’s Tom Brokaw?

There’s a game going on and the public needs to wise up to it.

What’s really taking place is an attempt by media stars to drive the national debate. The focus is less on public concerns and more about inciting raw emotion. The appeal to reason that the national political culture is founded on is slowly giving way to a sensationalist imprint. And the immigration issue is used as a chameleon made to fit the most recent fears — free trade, low wages, job shortages, war and terrorism.

What’s discouraging is how the broadcast ratings game is now driving the priorities of the presidential debates with cheap shots.

This presidential season, broadcast media looks more and more like Friday night wrestling. It’s phony, emotional and made to look real. Where’s Walter Cronkite now that we really need him?

[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]. ©2007

Latin America – the new ‘old neighbor we almost forgot

by Michael Shifter

Few would dispute that the U.S. relationship with Latin America has deteriorated over the past decade, or that the past half dozen years have been the worst. Even Bush administration officials, and certainly many Republicans in Congress, concede as much. There is manifestly less trust in inter-American affairs.

The search for an adequate explanation should begin with the larger question of how the United States is exercising its power on the global stage. The specifics of Washington’s Latin American policy, while important, should be a secondary factor.

On three key questions – immigration, agricultural subsidies and free trade – President Bush has been more in sync with the region’s democratically elected governments than has Congress, whether controlled by Republicans or Democrats. It would be hard to identify a major candidate from either party who can match President Bush’s early drive for pushing comprehensive immigration reform, reducing agricultural subsidies and promoting a free-trade agenda.

The Iraq invasion struck a real nerve in Latin America. For many there, the prevention doctrine was less a recent policy formulation than a historic reality. The United States carries a lot of baggage in Latin America, especially Central America and the Caribbean – the consequence of frequent unilateral military interventions carried out in the name of spreading democracy.

In the post-Cold War period under George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton, many Latin Americans entertained the possibility that the United States would begin to pursue its interests with key allies in accordance with international law. Iraq shattered that notion.

If the United States could carry out a policy of “regime change” in the Middle East, what is stopping a comparable intervention in this hemisphere?

While serving as non-permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, Chile and Mexico opposed the U.S. decision to invade Iraq. Washington temporarily distanced itself from these countries, disappointed it did not receive unquestioning support from its strategic “backyard.”

The shocking U.S. abuses committed in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo effectively destroyed any credibility Washington may have had on human rights and the rule of law. The Bush administration’s hypocrisy has been more costly for U.S.-Latin American relations than any specific issue on the agenda. Particularly after 9/11, Latin Americans have been troubled about the yawning gap between Washington’s priorities and the region’s social and governance agendas. In the early part of the 21st century, Latin America has experienced social dislocations and pockets of instability.

Preoccupied with the Middle East, Washington reflexively assumed the region’s governments would 6embrace U.S. objectives. Of course, they didn’t.

The world has changed, and Latin America with it, but the U.S. remains stuck in its old mindset. To begin restoring some measure of trust, it needs to take a number of concrete steps. Before the next administration takes over in 2009, the Congress should approve pending trade deals with Peru, Panama and Colombia. Since most of the region falls through the cracks on assistance programs, Congress should also back the proposal for a social investment and development fund for Latin America. It is unrealistic to expect much progress on immigration until early 2009, but comprehensive reform would send an important signal to the entire region.

U.S.-inspired anti-drug policies have yielded meager results. In Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia, Brazil and other countries, drug-fueled violence poses the most serious threat to democratic governance. As the world’s largest drug consumer, the United States has shirked its full responsibility.

In Mexico, for example, nearly all drug-related killings are committed with arms easily acquired in the United States.

The Bush administration’s tacit support for the 2002 coup against Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has cast further doubt in the region about U.S. motives.

Washington’s response to the Argentine financial crisis in late 2001 was notably cavalier, and its failure to back a troubled ally in Bolivia with even modest support was not very reassuring.

At the White House, just six days before 9/11, Bush had called the bond with Mexico “our most important relationship.” Even on policy questions where, on balance, Bush was generally supportive of Latin America, the upshot often left a bitter taste and increased irritation with Washington. His support later on for a “wall” on the border was seen as a serious affront to the region. On trade agreements with Chile and Central America, U.S. negotiators evinced little flexibility or generosity.

What is most needed to repair the relationship is for Washington to adopt a different style and fresh attitude. The new administration in Washington must take Latin America’s profound changes into account and treat the region with the seriousness it deserves, not as the stepchild of U.S. foreign policy. Trust, after all, has to be earned.

(Michael Shifter is vice president for policy at the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington, D.C. He teaches Latin American politics as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. Reach him at ­mshifter@thedialogue.org). 2007

Stop unaffordable mortgage loans

­by Marvin J. Ramirez

Marvin RamirezMarvin Ramirez

A recent foreclosure study shows a dramatic injustice done to minorities.

While the losses stand to hit Oakland with more than $875 million, national losses could exceed $25 billion. And what is more highlighted in this study is the racial disparities in the so called, high-cost sub-prime lending.

It would seem that is all a fraud, purposely perpetrated against hard-working people, especially people of color.

I call it fraud because I’ve heard in news accounts, that the banks or lenders, which at night pay each other with promissory notes and not with Federal Reserve Notes (cash dollars), have been putting pressure on mortgage appraisers, to inflate home prices. And this means that if you bought a home at a certain high price, you could’ve paid an illusionary price – not real. However, in your pocket is real. And many like you, might now be about to lose what you called for a short period of time, your home.

It’s been a piece-of-cake deal for the lenders, who probably, in private, divide the profits sucked in from those desired dreamers of owning their own home by charging them more than what the real value is.

Not only many people are losing their home after the bubbled mortgages hit the ceiling, but in the middle of this scheme,  entire neighborhoods are being broken up by the displacement of working families.

According to the ACORN study, the real costs communities incur when high foreclosure rates spawn is that they derelict buildings and depress residential and commercial property values.

“Neighborhoods with concentrated foreclosures experience higher rates of violent crime and artificially decreased property values, placing additional costs and maintenance burdens on local governments and devaluing the assets of neighbors – even those in good financial standing,” says the study.

As ACORN recom­mends, the rules of lending should change, or we will continue being banks’ slaves.

Loans should be modifi ed into a fi xed rate loan based on the borrower’s capacity to repay the mortgage. This could stop the abuse and bring peace to families. But this can only happens if laws are passed for this purpose.

San Francisco has a new same mayor

by Ali Tabatabai

Gavin Newsom­Gavin Newsom

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom said everything short of declaring victory during his re-election celebration speech Tuesday night, including thanking his opponents for entering the race despite his overwhelming approval ratings.

In front of a crowded room full of campaign volunteers and supporters at the Ferry Building in of San Francisco, Newsom acknowledged the mayoral race as “anticlimactic” and offered his next term as moment of reconciliation with his critics. According to campaign spokesman, Nathan Ballard, Newsom had received 77 percent of the 40,000 some votes as of 8:45pm.

“I’d like to thank my opponents for having the courage to actually put their names on the ballot and not sit on the sidelines and take shots,” Newsom said, “To those who may be disappointed tonight, I’m committed to working with you in the next four years.”

Mary Watts, 19, a college student who interned with the campaign through a program called Act Locally said they mayor should focus on fixing Muni problems and homelessness during during his next term.

“I’d like to see him tackle the homelessness situation and make sure they have the right resources are available for them,” Watts said.

After his speech, Newsom said that he plans to concentrate on crime, particularly homicide rates, as well as the environment and quality of life issues.

­“You just wait and see on the environment,” said Newsom, “I’ve been working for six months on some new environmental ideas that will reignite San Francisco.”

District 8 Supervisor Bevan Dufty made an appearance in the crowd to show his support for Newsom’s expected victory and acknowledged the mayor’s ability to overcome publicly chronicled personal issues.

“The mayor has been through a lot of rockiness over the past year, but no matter what San Franciscans have looked beyond the headlines,” Dufty said.”

Official election results counts are not expected until two more weeks.

Emeryville protestors try to oust ICE

by Juliet Blalack

ICE, OUT OF EMERYVILLE!ICE, OUT OF EMERYVILLE! Members of group Unite Here Union, protest outside the ICE Special Agent offices in Oakland.(photo by Jennifer Delgado)­

Protestors demanded immigration officials leave Emeryville last Thursday, in the latest development of local hotel workers’ battle with the management of Woodfin Suites Hotel.

The crowd marched carrying signs such ­as “Tear down the wall of death, stop the raids” and “stop the raids no more deportation.”

They gathered outside the office of the local ICE ((Immigration and Citizenship Enforcement) at Broadway and 15th streets in Oakland at 12:15 p.m., according to Jon Rodney, the communications official for East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy (EBASE).

“By pursuing workers affected by Measure C, ICE is helping employers scare their workers into silence and avoid following labor laws. That undermines labor standards for all workers, no matter where they’re from,” said Wei-Ling Huber, President of UNITE HERE Local 2850.

Emeryville voters passed Proposition C, which guaranteed living wage for hotel workers, in 2005.Woodfin Suites Hotel management tried to overturn Prop. C and did not pay its workers in accordance with the measure, according to EBASE’s website.

After employees began drawing attention to the wage violations, the management fired 12 housekeepers.

In February, the managers contacted U.S. Representative Brian Bilbray, who then asked Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to investigate the immigration status of the hotel workers. Woodfin CEO Samuel Hardage donates to Bilbray’s campaign and lives in his district, according to the East Bay Daily News.

ICE officials took documents from both Woodfin and the Hilton Garden Inn, and then told managers they needed to fire 12 employees.

During this time, they arrested a dishwasher who was employed by the hotel for 18 years, according to EBASE.

“I am deeply concerned by the allegations that another member of Congress – acting on behalf of a campaign contributor – may have gotten a federal agency to intervene in that dispute in a way that hurts workers in my district,” said Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, in a statement made available to the East Bay Daily News as stating.­

Colom wins Guatemala election

by the El Reportero news services

GUATEMALA – CENTER-LEFT VICTORY: The campaign was marred by violence, with more than 50 political party activists or candidates for Congress or the local elections killed.

Center-leftist Alvaro Colom won Guatemala’s presidential election on Sunday, denying power to a retired general who had sought to unleash the army to fight a violent crime wave.

Colom, a soft-spoken textile businessman, beat General Otto Perez Molina, the former head of army intelligence, by 6 percentage points with more than 97 percent of votes counted.

“I am the nation’s president elect,” Colom told his cheering supporters.

He will be sworn in on Jan. 14, becoming the first president from the left since the end of the country’s civil war in 1996, which deeply scarred this coffee-producing nation of jungles, volcanoes and Mayan ruins.

The Central American country, a U.S. free-trade partner, has been plagued by violent drug cartels and youth street gangs since the war and has one of the world’s highest murder rates.

But voters with bad memories of atrocities under military rule rejected Perez Molina’s plans to send more soldiers onto the streets, boost the use of capital punishment and emergency powers to fight crime. Perez Molina conceded defeat.

While the complete Guatemalan Cabinet will be announced December 1st, Alvaro Colom advanced some names on Monday, including that of the future foreign minister, Haroldo Rodas.

Rodas, current general secretary of the Central American Economic Integration system (SIECA), will formally announce his withdrawal from that post at the Ibero-American Summit in Chile on Wednesday.

Colom also invited legislator Alejandro Arevalo (Unionista Party) to lead the Finance Ministry and publicized plans to transform the Economy Ministry into the General Economic Development with involvement of his advisor Edgar Barquin.­

Study documents children’s distress following ICE raids

­by Adolfo Flores

A study released Oct. 31 by the National Council of La Raza and The Urban Institute, has found that children suffered from mental7and health disorders after their parents were seized in workplace immigration raids.

The first-of-its-kind report, ‘’Paying the Price: The Impact of Immigra7tion Raids on America’s Children,” found that for every two detained adults, one child was left behind. Two-thirds of the children were under age 10.

Nearly all of the children exhibited negative emotional and behavioral reactions.

For some it led to depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, separation anxiety and in one child suicidal thoughts, the study revealed.

In the United States more than 3 million U.S.-born children have at least one undocumented parent.

Between 2002 and 2006 the number of undocumented persons arrested at their workplace increased from 500 to 3,600.

“The raids have a destabilizing impact on children’s’ families, schools and social network,” said report co-author Rosa María Castaneda. “All of these influences play a critical factor in all of these children’s well-being.”

The study followed 30 afflicted families for months after ICE raids in New Bedford, Mass.; Greeley, Colo, and Grand Island, Neb., last year. A total of 912 people were arrested and 506 children were directly affected.

Many detainees were held in facilities outside their states and allowed only limited telephone access.

Single parents, primary care-givers and those with family health issues were released within a day or two, but there were inconsistencies in parents’ release.

Some did not disclose they had children for fear they also would be detained or placed in foster care.

In Greeley and Grand Island a large number of those who were arrested accepted voluntary departure. Some were detained for up to six months.

There weren’t that many voluntary departures in New Bedford, where almost all those seized were from Guatemala and Central America.

Initially, community organizations provided most children left behind with strong social support, but resources were quickly drained.

Rev. E. Roy Riley of New Jersey met Berta, a single mother who hid under the floor boards beneath her work station during one of the raids. Berta continues to worry about her son’s welfare.

“You could say, well, Berta, you should have thought about that before you moved to this country,” said Rev. Riley.

“But for the vast majority of these young immigrant families that is exactly what they did…they wanted more than anything to give their children a good home’ sufficient food, and a good education.”

Rep Hilda Solis (D-Calif.), who introduced the Families First Immigration Enforcement Act Oct. 25, is pressing for a hearing on the study.

Her proposal would require Immigration and Customs Enforcement to give access to social service agencies to screen and interview detainees because of problems that arise when a person lies to the agency due to fear and intimidation.

It would also force ICE to release sole caretakers’ those who care for children with special needs, pregnant and nursing mothers within 72 hours of their apprehension if they’re not subject to mandatory detention or pose an immediate fl ight risk.

The Senate companion bill was introduced by Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass).

“Members on both sides of the aisle care very deeply about the education, well-being and health of these children’” said Miriam Calderon, a senior policy analysis for NCLR. “It’s clear that (the raids) are un-dermining their goals.’’

The Urban Institute expects to conduct a follow-up study in a year to report the long-term effects that raids have on immigrant children.

“We also want to look at a broader range of types of immigration raids, like smaller raids, some non-Latino populations and probably some raids that occurred in people’s homes’ in addition to the ones that occurred in the work place,” said Andy Capps’ co-author of the study.

The study is available at ­www.ncir.org.
Hispanic Link.

­

Boxing

Saturday, November 3 – at Las Vegas – (Showtime)

  • 12 rounds, WBC super featherweight title: Juan Manuel Marquez (47-3-1, 35 KOs) vs. Rocky Juarez (27-3, 19 KOs).­
  • 12 rounds, IBF featherweight title: Robert Guerrero (20-1-1, 13 KOs) vs. Martin Honorio (24-3-1, 12 KOs).

Sunday, November 4 – at Saitama, Japan

  • 12 rounds, Takefumi Sakata (31-4-1, 15 KOs) vs. Denkaosan Singwancha (40-1, 16 KOs).

Saturday, November 10 – at New York

  • 12 rounds, WBA & interim WBC welterweight titles: Shane Mosley (44-4, 37 KOs) vs. Miguel Angel Cotto (30-0, 25 KOs).
  • 12 rounds, WBC lightweight title: Joel Casamayor (34-3-1, 21 KOs) vs. Jose Armando Santa Cruz (25-2, 14 KOs).

Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra in concert

by Juliana Birnbaum Fox

­Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra in concert

Gustavo Dudamel en Concierto en The Candy Store on Oct. 28Gustavo Dudamel en Concierto en The Candy Store on Oct. 28

The acclaimed young Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel, recently appointed music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, leads his Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra (SBYO) in concert Sunday, November 4 at 7 p.m. at Davies Symphony Hall as part of the San Francisco Symphony’s Great Performers series. The Orchestra is the crown jewel of Venezuela’s National System of Youth and Children’s Orchestras (El Sistema), a national musical and social organization that is changing the lives of young people by giving them musical training and the opportunity to play and perform orchestral music.

El Sistema now reaches 250,000 young people in music schools and has spawned 125 youth orchestras across Venezuela. Tickets are $25-$81, available through SFS Ticket Services at (415) 864-6000 or online via the SFS Web site at www.sfsymphony.org.

City College of San Francisco Board of Trustees open meetings

The Board of Trustees of the San Francisco Community College District will hold its regular monthly meetings on November 8 and 20. Its study session will be on Thursday, November 8 at 5pm, its action meeting on Tuesday, November 20 at 6pm, both in the Auditorium at the College’s 33 Gough Street facility. The public is invited to attend both meetings. For further information, visit the City College of San Francisco website at www.ccsf.edu.

International Latino Film Festival

The 11th International Latino Film Festival comes to the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts this weekend, November 3rd and 4th, featuring the best features, documentaries and shorts from Latin America, Spain, and U.S. ­Latinos. This weekend will feature Upa! An Argentine Film, and many more. $5 Admission includes panel conversations and discussions with filmmakers. See www.latinofilmfestival.org for details.

Free workshop on street art as resistance

Join local artists from around San Francisco and Oakland for this hands-on workshop on low cost and low skill methods for making street art. What can you do when rich people squeeze you out of your neighborhood seemingly with the full support of City Hall?

Reclaim public space! Artists will instruct in simple and cheap technique, while providing information on and images of the rich history of art as resistance from around the world and back to the Mission.

On Saturday, facilitators will go over the history as well as inexpensive methods for screenprinting. Sunday’s workshop will focus on the history and production of stenciling. These workshops are intended for long-time Mission residents and other folks fi ghting displacement.

On Saturday and Sunday, November 10 – 11. Workshops will be led in Spanish as well as English at the Modern Times Bookstore on Mission Street, for more information go to ­www.moderntimesbookstore.com.

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