Holding the cake, Salvador Durán, General Manager and CEO of the Mission Area Federal Credit Union celebrates his birthdate with co-workers on August 9. From left-right: Raquel Parra, Angelica Lozoya, Leidi Sanabria, Jessica Lozoya, Margaret Libby, and Dan Collins. In the back members of the Youth Credit Union Program. (photo by Marvin J. Ramírez)

por Juliana Birnbaum Fox

Nerio Degracia

El Nerio Degracia le trae una tarde de jazz latino puro, clásico, tocando su silófono como nadie más, acompañado
por Jaime Vanegas, uno de los percusionistas más finos en el Área de la Bahía (antiguo miembro del grupo de Latin Rock de los 70, Zorro) y Jack Gruber. En el Mantra restaurante
un lugar exclusivo de Palo Alto, todos los viernes a las 8 p.m. Gratis. Para más información visite: http://www.myspace.com/
neriodegracia1.

Radio Bilingüe presenta “Chilefornia

En el 30mo aniversario de la primera ola de exiliados chilenos que llegaron a California, Radio Bilingüe presenta una serie especial titulada “Chilefornia”. Esta serie cultural de diez programas se enfoca en la contribución de los inmijuntosgrantes chilenos y da inicio a la celebración del Mes de Herencia Latina Nacional.

“Chilefornia” es una serie de diez programas de 30 minutos en español, y se estrenará el Día del Trabajo el 3 de septiembre a las 9:00 AM PST en Radio Bilingüe. La serie terminará el viernes 14 de septiembre. Los programas se repetirán a partir del 17 de septiembre en el mismo horario. También estarán disponibles en vivo en el servicio de transmisión vía web de Radio Bilingüe en www.radiobilingue.org.

Jimmy Bosch trae “Salsa Dura” a Oakland

Jimmy Bosh in Oakland

Jimmy Bosch, un talentoso trombonista e innovador de “Salsa Dura” contemporánea, una forma de Salsa avant-garde de Nueva York, se presentará en el Club Caribe de Oakland el jueves 30 de agosto. Bosch, quien ha hecho arreglos para la orquesta de Marc Anthony, actuará con Anthony Blea y su Charanga. Entre los invitados especiales se encuentran DJ Luis Medina de la reconocida Radio KPFA de SF. La fiesta comienza a las 9 pm en el Club Caribe en 1408 Calle Webster en Oakland, y las entradas valen $15 antes de las 10 pm y $20 después. Para más información llame al (510) 251-0769 o visite www.saboryritmo.com.

Mezcla de salsa clásica, cumbias y merengue en La Peña

Otro Mundo, una banda de 10 piezas que interpretará lo mejor de la salsa clásica, mezclando grandes cumbias y merengues, estará en el Centro Cultural La Peña de Berkeley el jueves 6 de septiembre. La banda cuenta con grandes vocales, ritmos apretados y una poderosa sección de trompetas. Los miembros de la banda se han reunido en el Área de la Bahía de todas partes de América para crear este excitante sonido. La presentación comenzará a las 8 pm; las entradas valen $10.

El viernes 7, La Peña presentará el estreno en Berkeley de War Made Easy, How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death. La película, narrada por Sean Penn, se enfoca en la manera que los medios han diseminados mensajes a favor de la guerra, distorsionando la historia y exagerando los hechos. Está basada en la investigación y el análisis realizado por el crítico de los medios, Norman Solomon, quien se encontrará en la presentación para una sesión de preguntas y respuestas.

El Centro Cultural La Peña está ubicado en 3105 Avenida Shattuck en Berkeley. Para más información llame al 510-849-2568 o vaya a www.lapena.org.

Tributo a Santana, Miembro Original José Chepito Areas

Un evento especial llamado “Tributo a una Leyenda Viviente”, que honraría a José Chepito Areas, un miembro original de la banda Santana, se realizó el 24 de agosto.

by John Flórez

“You can become president!”

That’s what my grade school teachers told me. If I studied and worked hard, they said, I could become president.

So I did what they told me. But it turns out what they promised me wasn’t the truth, although I’m pretty certain they didn’t know it at the time.

Here we are, months before the Democratic and Republican parties’ presidential primaries and well over a year away from the general election itself and it’s clear to me that without millions of dollars stuffed in my pockets, I won’t be able to get out of the campaign starting blocks.

The latest campaign finance reports show that among Republican contenders Mitt Romney has already raised $34.5 million. Near behind him are Rudy Giuliani, $29.6 million, and John McCain, $23.5 million.

Barack Obama has rung up nearly $57 million on the Democratic cash register, trailed by Hillary Clinton, $31.5 million, and John Edwards, $21.6.

Already poor John admits having to spend $400 or more for a haircut to look presentable to unpretentious Democratic primary voters in states like Iowa and New Hampshire. No telling what it’ll cost him to primp up for the sophisticated electorate in California and New York. Or even Texas.

I wonder what the grade school teachers of today are telling Mexican kids like me the costs about becoming president? If they’re using Bill Richardson as a model, his ante to date is $13.1 million.

Dang those grade school teachers of mine. There I was, a poor Mexican kid with missing teeth, striped bib overalls and worn-out shoes being told the big lie by my Riverside Elementary teacher.

Later, my Jefferson Elementary teachers even read to me from books that anyone could become president.

I remember seeing pictures on the classroom wall of a white guy with wavy, silver hair. They said he was the first president of the United States. I later found out he wore a powdered wig. When you are a kid, history can be confusing.

My teachers taught me the pledge of allegiance to our flag and made me feel proud to be a United States citizen. I was especially honored to pull the ropes that raised the fl ag on the pole in front of the school in the morning. They talked about “our” forefathers and encouraged me to read books about U.S. history.

I gazed at the forefathers’ pictures, looking for any brown faces like mine. I learned not to take things too literally.

My teachers taught me about the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Though my immigrant parents taught me to be proud of my Mexican heritage, they helped bolster my pride in being an “American,” too.

My public schools did something else that is often overlooked. They taught me how to live, learn, work and play with others, and to discover the common values that bind us.

As I look at today’s roster of formidable presidential candidates — a female, a black and a Hispanic among them — now I can accept what my teachers told me. While we may never realize all the dreams our teachers had for each one of us, we won’t forget the gift they gave us — believing that we can make a difference and we are part of something larger than ourselves.

(John Flórez writes a regular column for the Deseret Morning News in Salt Lake City. He has founded several Hispanic civil rights organizations and served with more than 45 state, lo- cal and volunteer groups. E-mail: jdfl orez@comcast.net). © 2007.

by Salome Eguizabal and Charlie Ericksen

Elvira Arellano her son Saúl

Just as Elián González put a fresh human face on “Cuban refugee” nearly eight years ago, Elvira Arellano has gone and done it to the derisive term “illegal alien.”

There are many parallels to their stories. Each centered on a young, single mother and her son.Each mother took incredible risks to build a better life for her child. Both mothers dreamed the “American dream.” And both lived a nightmare.

There are differences in their dramas, too, as large as the Florida Straits that swallowed Elián’s mother and almost ended his own life. Elízabeth Rodríguez died at age 28 along with all 11 others aboard their Florida-bound small craft. Elvira was torn away from the clinging arms of her son and quickly deported.

Five-year-old Elián was found bobbing in an inner tube by a pair of Florida fisherman on Thanksgiving Day 1999. Instantly the child won this nation’s collective heart with his story and his smile. His arrival also ignited a political battle that stretched through seven months.

Mexico native Elvira is 32 now and her struggles are reflected in the lines in her face.

Her happy years seem past. She set out with dreams but no documents ten years ago.A lengthy romance included the birth of her lone joy, Saúl, now 8, but eventually ended in separation from the child’s father.

In December 2002, while employed as a maintenance worker at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, Arellano was caught in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement sweep. After all her appeals failed, she defied her deportation order last year and sought sanctuary with Saúl inside the city’s Adalberto United Methodist Church.

The pair became national spokespersons against U.S. immigration policies that separate mother and child. Over the past year, their situation became symbolic of the struggles facing the many mixed-status U.S. families, those made up of both undocumented and legal residents. The Pew Hispanic Center estimates there are 3.1 million children born here to an undocumented parent.

“Congress must act in September to stop the separation of families, the torture of four million U.S.-citizen children, the raids and deportations,”

Arellano said the day she announced her plans to leave the church’s protective walls after a year in the sanctuary and travel to Washington, D.C., to lobby.

Before departing, she told Hispanic Link News Service that if ICE wants to arrest her, it should do so in Washington “in front of the men and women who make the big decisions and who are ignoring the millions of families who are shouting that we need changes in the immigration laws.”

She also built in a brief speaking engagement in Los Angeles and it was there she was arrested Aug. 19 outside Our Lady Queen of Angels church after meeting with reporters. Within hours she was deported to Mexico.

The National Immigrants Solidarity Network calls her deportation “a shameful move, a clear signal from the government to terrify people who dare to speak up and fight injustice.”

Elvira, now staying in the border city of Tijuana, says she plans to continue her fight from Mexico. She promised her tearful son they will be reunited soon.

Until that happens, Emma Lozano, president of Centro Sin Fronteras, an immigrant advocacy group in Chicago, is caring for Saúl. The boy has traveled the country extensively, pleading for his mother’s future and is likely to continue to do so.

“He has met other children who are also living  under difficult situations because of their parents’ deportation, and he wants to be a part of this struggle,” Arellano told Hispanic Link a few days prior to her deportation.

In Cuba, Elián González is an apparently well-adjusted high school student now. He was permitted in June 2000 by the U.S. government to rejoin his father there despite huge public clamor to allow the boy to remain with relatives here.

There’s another difference in the two families’ stories. Cuban Elián is still beloved by millions here. A news photo of him screaming as he was dragged from his Miami family’s house by federal immigration agents sealed that image.

ICE was careful not to make the same public relations blunder with Saúl. They waited until he and his mother were being driven away from the Los Angeles church before surrounding their car and seizing Elvira.

(Salome Eguizabal and Charlie Ericksen report for Hispanic Link News Service, based in Washington, D.C. Reach them at editor@hispaniclink.org.) © 2007.­

by Marvin J. Ramírez

Marvin J. RamírezTo talk about the American Dream is to talk about owning a home – for most people. Many immigrants from all over the world come to North America to reach that dream, which in many instances is more than just owning a home. It’s about working hard and be able to have the basic needs of life, including to own a home, provide their children with a quality education and raise them healthily, and when is time to retire from a long, hard working life career, not to be worried about the essentials.

But instead of seeing people living the American Dream happily without worries, what I see is despair and struggle in their lives, especially those who have engaged in buying a home on the false assumption and promises that the property would increase in value, so later be able to earn a profit and then buy something more affordable.

Instead, entire families, probably in the millions nationwide, are seeing their lives torn apart now, by an injustice system that capitalizes on the property, on the basic need of people to put a roof over their heads, by monopolizing all forms of funding assistance and so abusing the so called “homeowners.”

But really, are they really homeowners? How can they be with a tax imposed on one’s own home? It really becomes a state rental property.

How can it be owned if the state says you have to pay every year to own it, or you will lose it?

The taxpayers should make our local government reduce their dependency on property taxes. One way would be increasing sales, corporate, and gas taxes.

For God’s sake, politicians, liberate your constituents. Let them own their home without penalty.

Make laws that protect one family’s own dwelling against any tax debt or lawsuits by health providers. Let them get old graciously without fearing that some government entity will evict them for lack of money to pay taxes or a debt. One’s home should be the last sacred sanctuary where a family holds together.

To rescue badly needed taxes, you yo got to be creative. Tax second homes or additional properties owned by the family. Do not tax the sanctuary, the only home the family has to inherit to their siblings. Because without having home security, there is no American Dream.

If you, politicians, do not do anything after reading this writing, then you are not working for your constituents, rather for other interests.