Saturday, May 15 — at New York, NY (HBO)
Saturday, May 22 — at Los Angeles, CA
Saturday, June 12 — at New York, NY (HBO)
by Antonio Mejías-Rentas
Autor/Author Carlos Chávez
‘THE DUDE’ IS BACK: The young Venezuelan director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic is conducting several programs this week as part of America & Americans, his first festival with the orchestra he famously took over last fall.
According to Gustavo Dudamel, the festival is intended to make audiences look at the Americas as one extended land.
“When we speak of America, we speak of the whole continent,” the 29-year-old musician told La Opinión last week.
The festival’s various programs include music from U.S. and Canadian composers, aswell as Mexico’s Carlos Chávez, Venezuela’s Antonio Estévez, Argentina’s Alberto Ginastera and Brazil’s Heitor Villalobos.
A centerpiece of the festival is the Los Angeles premiere of Estévez’s Cantata criolla, a choral piece to be performed by the Philharmonic along with Venezuela’s Schola Cantorum choral group.
For the performances, April 29 to May 4 at Los Angeles’ Disney Hall, the orchestra has commissioned a film presentation by Venezuelan filmmaker Arberto Arvelo and additional texts written by Mexican novelista and screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga.
As part of the festival the Schola Cantorum will also perform La pasión según San Marcos, a piece specially composed for the group by Argentine composer Osvaldo Golijov. The performance coincides with the release of the first studio recording of La passion by Deutsche Grammophon.
The festival also marks an extended stay in the city for Dudamel, who also conducts the Gothenburg Symphony in Sweden and the Simón Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela. During this, his first season as director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Dudamel is about to embark on a national tour with the orchestra, during which he will conduct several of the programs he has already presented in Los Angeles.
The May tour will include performances in San Francisco, Phoenix, Chicago, Nashville, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, New York and New Jersey.
ONE LINERS: Biutiful, the latest film from Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu which stars Spanish actor Javier Bardem, has been chosen to compete in the upcoming Cannes(France) Film Festival, where Puerto Rican actor Benicio del Toro will be a member of the jury…and Cuban-American rap star Pitbull is launching the 25-city Mr. Worldwide’s Carnaval national tour with a May 25 concert at the 1st Bank Center in Denver… Hispanic Link.
recopilado por el personal de El Reportero
(The following letter was emailed to El Report- ero):
OAKLAND – Three candidates for Oakland mayor today will appeal to Oakland City Attorney John Russo to withdraw a North Oakland gang injunction – the ACLU challenged it in court earlier this month – because the injunction is racist, unconstitutional and will open the city of Oakland to more costly lawsuits.
Candidates Don Macleay, Orlando Johnson and Terence Candell delivered the joint letter to Russo MONDAY, April 19, at his City Hall offi ce.
“An anti-gang injunction is a recipe for the kind of abuse that Oakland has seen too much in the past and will open the floodgates for more unwinnable lawsuits. There is far too much room for abuse. The public has every right to expect…city offi cials to do all (they) can to fi ght crime, but the gang injunction will not work,” said the candidates in their letter.
“This injunction will have a marginal effect on crime, but will have a highly detrimental effect on the youth in our community, particularly African American and Latino. There is a high probability that the injunction will make a bad situation worse among certain communities,” they said.
Instead, the candidates implored the city to implement policies “known to work and known not to provoke civil rights law-suits. Policies, such as classic police work, ‘street outreach’ and ‘restorative justice,’ normal criminal prosecution, and tactics developed working together with community task forces should be implemented in areas affected by gang violence in Oakland.”
“This gang injunction is a violation of the spirit of due process and is unconstitutional…the gang injunction targets directly and exclusively African American and Latino men. That is called race discrimination,” the letter says.
The SF Labor Council approved a resolution to support May Day in SF on May 1
The resolution, adopted last night (April 12, 2010) by the San Francisco Labor Council and it goes like this:
Resolution to Endorse and Support May Day March and Rally in San Francisco on May 1, 2010 Whereas, in past years the San Francisco Labor Council has supported May Day demonstrations for the rights and just demands of immigrants and all workers, and this year the protest will take place on Saturday, May 1, 2010, assembling at noon at 24th and Mission streets in San Francisco, joining other May Day protests in New York, Los Angeles, Detroit, and many other cities; and Whereas, the Council has gone on record in support of each of the demands of the San Francisco May Day 2010 protest:
– Full Rights for Undocumented Workers! Legalization/Amnesty For All!
– Money for Jobs and Education, Not War and Occupation! Jobs For All!
– No Budget Cuts of Fee Hikes! Tax the Rich and Corporations!
Therefore be it resolved, that the San Francisco Labor Council endorse the May Day march and rally in San Francisco, notifying affiliates and otherwise building participation in this important day of protest.
by Rosalba Ruíz
WASHINGTON, D.C. — As U.S. daily newspapers continued to encounter additional economic challenges in 2009, the losses of journalists of color outpaced overall newsroom job reductions, according to figures released April 12 by the American Society of News Editors at its annual conference here.
While persons of color make up a third of the U.S. population, they now comprise just 13.26 percent of newsroom inhabitants, the lowest percentage in half a dozen years. Now approaching 16 percent of the country’s population, Hispanics are just 4.4% of the overall total.
In the past year, newsroom personnel employed by the daily press declined by about 11 percent, from 46,700 to 41,500. Among non-whites, it dropped 12.6%, from 6,300 to 5,500, down more than 25 percent from its peak of 7,400 in 2006.
During that period, dailies lost 175 Latino journalists, an 8.4 percent decline.
“This is, in a word, frustrating,” says O. Ricardo Pimentel, editorial page editor at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel who is president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. Diversity is a “strategic imperative,” he maintains. “We understand the complex factors that contributed to job losses across the board, but we also understand that, particularly in times of deep economic distress, diversity must remain a key strategic goal.”
Julio Morán, executive director of CCNMA: Latino Journalists of California, often a critic of mainstream media’s lack of positive coverage of Hispanics, adds the concern, “As we continue to go backwards, it shows in the product.”
Since 1978, ASNE has tracked its progress, or lack thereof, toward the goal it set that year to have newsrooms reach racial and ethnic parity with the general population. Its first target year was 2000, but when that became an obvious impossibility, it shifted a quarter century ahead, to 2025. It has been falling further and further behind as the population grows.
This year, 914 of 1,422 print and online newspapers responded to the ASNE’s survey, representing 64.3 percent of U.S. dailies. The data are used to project the numbers for unresponsive newspapers in the same circulation ranges.
Outgoing ASNE president Marty Kaiser, editor of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, calls the numbers disappointing, but maintains that in the past year the organization has “reignited the discussion” about the importance of newsroom diversity.
Incoming president Milton Coleman, senior editor with the Washington Post, declined to comment to Weekly Report on ASNE’s plans to address the parity issue, stating he was too busy prior to his induction as president.
“I have to write my speech for tomorrow,” he said.
Barbara Ciara, president of UNITY: Journalists of Color and an anchor at WTRK News Channel 3, in Olso, Virginia, added the question, “Everybody says it’s a priority, but what are they doing on a continuing basis to promote this idea so that it can become a reality? Enough of the lip service.”
Staff cutbacks in the last few years have brought the total of full-time daily journalists down to 41,500, a low level not seen since the mid-1970s.
“It’s been placed on the back burner,” maintains Rick Rodríguez, former ASNE president and Sacramento Bee executive editor who now teaches journalism at Arizona State University.
Felix Gutiérrez, a journalism professor at the University of Southern California, says that even in the midst of cuts, companies “can find ways to retain people they want to retain.” News organizations are not “digging deep enough” when looking for new talent, he adds.
There were no sessions in the ASNE program that specifically addressed the parity issue, but editor Ronnie Agnew, from The Clarion-Ledger, was named the person in charge of diversity efforts for the coming year.
Asked whether the parity goal was achievable, Bobbi Bowman, diversity consultant for ASNE, stated, “We probably won’t make it, but the goal remains.”
Alfredo Carbajal, managing editor of Al Día in Dallas, Texas, said it is essential “to make diversity the cornerstone of everything we do right now as we cope with the challenges of new technology, new ways of relating to our audience and trying out new and more sustainable business models.” Hispanic Link.
(Rosalba Ruíz writes for Hispanic Link News Service in Washington, D.C. Email her at rpruiz@yahoo.com)
NOTE FROM THE EDITOR: This is the sixth part of a series of the article, “Billions for the bankers – debt for the people.” The first part started with history of the United States national debt in the beginning of 1900. This second of this series of several parts, will show you how the control of money has played a key role into the enslaving North Americans by depraving them of owning nothing, while the bankers own everything. The third part details the events from the Depression of the 1930s to later days. The fifth part deals with Manipulating Stocks for Fun and Profit, The Interest Amount is Never Created and The Tyranny of Compount Interest. El Reportero is proud to publish this article, written by Pastor Sheldon Emry for learning purposes, of the history of money in the United States.
Small loans do the same thing
by Pastor Sheldon Emry
If you have not quite grasped the impact of the above, let us consider an auto loan for 5 years at 9.5 percent interest. Step 1: Citizen borrows $25,000 and pays it into circulation (it goes to the dealer, factory, miner, etc.) and signs a note agreeing to pay the Bankers a total of $31,503 over 5 years. Step 2: Citizen pays $525.05 per month of his earnings to the Banker. In five years, he will remove from circulation $6,503 more than he put in circulation.
Every loan of banker “created” money (credit) causes the same thing to happen. Since this has happened millions of times since 1913 (and continues today), you can see why America has gone from a prosperous, debt-free nation to a debt-ridden nation where practically every home, farm and business is paying usury-tribute to the bankers.
Checking Up On Cash
In the millions of transactions made each year like those just discussed, little actual currency changes hands, nor is it necessary that it do so.
About 95 percent of all “cash” transactions in the U.S. are executed by check. Consider also that banks must only hold 10 percent of their deposits on site in cash at any given time. This means 90 percent of all deposits, though they may actually be held by the ban, are not present in the form of actual cash currency.
That leaves the banker relatively safe to “create” that so-called “loan” by writing the check or deposit slip not against actual money, but against your promise to pay it back! The cost to him is paper, ink and a few dollars of overhead for each transaction. It is “check kiting” on an enormous scale.
The profits increase rapidly, year after year.
Our Own Debt is Spiraling into Infinity
In 1910 the U. S. Federal debt was only $1 billion, or $12.40 per citizen. State and local debts were practically non-existent.
By 1920, after only six years of Federal Reserve shenanigans, the Federal debt had jumped to $24 billion, or $228 per person.
In 1960 the Federal debt reached $284 billion, or $1,575 per citizen and state and local debts were mushrooming.
In 1998 the Federal debt passed $5.5 trillion, or $20,403.90 per man, woman and child and is growing exponentially.
State and local debts are increasing as fast Federal debts. However, they are too cunning to take the title to everything at once. They instead leave us with some “illusion of ownership” so you and your children will continue to work and pay the bankers more of your earnings on ever increasing debts. The “establishment” has captured our people with their debt-money system as certainly as if they had marched in with an uniformed army.
by Marvin Ramírez
L-R: Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, MNC executive director Santiago “Sam” Ruiz, MNC board of directors member Tiffany Rasmussen, and president of the board Jim Salinas Sr., during the 50th anniversary of the center at SF City Hall. (Photo by Katia Fuentes).
With all the majestic honors that it deserves, Mission Neighborhood Centers (MNC) celebrated its 50th Anniversary on April 23 with an elegant dinner in the rotunda of the beautiful San Francisco City Hall, a Beaux-Arts monument that epitomized the high-minded American Renaissance of the 1880s to 1917.
Unlike other nonprofit institutions that have suffered the devastating consequences of the beginning of a current economic collapse nearing the Great Depression of the 1920s, the MNC, although is struggling to maintain its current services intact, is receiving wide support from the City and private institutions. Its endeavor mission is something many cannot afford to let die. For this reason, its black-tie fundraising dinner tickets sold out.
Being one of a few Latino centers that provides a helping hand to the most vulnerable ones in the San Francisco Latino community, its services offer culturally appropriate services to children, youth and seniors, and it’s the brain organizer of the San Francisco Carnival, one of most colorful attractions to the City by the Bay.
The MNC, an umbrella organization for a large number of organizations – distributed at 14 different locations citywide – provides services to low income seniors, youth, preschool children and their families, and is one of the most venerated organizations in the City. It is considered a model institution to many.
Funded by two Irish sisters in 1959 as a girl’s club, the organization started as a type of shelter for young pregnant women. At present, it provides services through its development programs for children, which in the past 10 years has impacted over 3,000 children, while its youth development program offers guidance that nurtures positive changes among high-risk and gang–affiliated youth, with tools and confidence to reach their fullest potential, including leadership training.
It senior’s program is one of the most loved services, and the most cared by its longtime executive director Santiago Ruíz, who has been at the forefront of the organization success for almost three decades. Ruíz
MNC from page 1was honored with a community service award, along with Steve Contreras, Jim Contreras, Jim Queen and Ray Rivera.
Latino seniors of all steps of life not only can enjoy a delicious hot, Latino meal for less than $2 at MNC, but can also receive classes that help improve their lives, such as English, citizenship among others. Its senior program also offers elders wellness and health education and promote independent living to approximately 700 seniors a year.
The center’s services expand to outer Mission, Excelsior, Mission Bay and BayView/Hunter’s Point districts, and employs over 150 bilingual/multicultural people.
The event included awards to a good group of community members that had contributed in making a difference in the lives of those in need, scholarship grants, while the ambiance was filled with the performance of SF’s salsa talent, Julio Bravo and his Orchestra, The Latin Jazz Youth Ensemble of San Francisco, and Berta Olivia y su Mariachi Mexicanísimo.
A silent auction was also part of the excitement of the evening, in which dozens of art pieces donated by many local artists and business, and gift cards to eat at more than a dozen restaurants, and tickets to local sports events landed in the hands of many lucky ones. The MNC’s is located at 362 Capp in San Francisco.
by the University of Michigan
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — While radiation therapy is common after breast conserving surgery, it’s much less frequent after mastectomy, even among women for whom it would have clear life-saving benefit. This is according to a new study from researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center.
The study looked at 2,260 women treated for breast cancer, assessing whether they had lumpectomy or mastectomy, and whether they would be strong candidates for radiation therapy. Women who have particularly large tumors or cancer in four or more of their nearby lymph nodes are recommended to have radiation after mastectomy.
The study found that among patients who should receive radiation therapy according to medical guidelines, 95 percent of those who had lumpectomy went on to receive radiation, but only 78 percent of those who had mastectomy received radiation. Among women for whom radiation is less clearly benefi cial, 80 percent of the lumpectomy patients had radiation while only 46 percent of the mastectomy patients did.
“A substantial number of breast cancer patients are being under-treated. One in five women with strong indications for radiation after mastectomy failed to receive it. Radiation can be a life-saving treatment,” says study author Reshma Jagsi, M.D., D.Phil, assistant professor of radiation oncology at the U-M Medical School.
“The fact that 95 percent of patients who had lumpectomy received radiation in the two metropolitan areas we studied indicates that we can do better than we are currently doing for the selected mastectomy patients who also need radiation. More attention needs to be paid to radiation after mastectomy,” Jagsi says.
Results of the study appear online March 29 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
The study also found that doctor participation strongly influenced radiation receipt. Patients who reported their surgeon was involved in the decision to receive radiation were more likely to receive radiation than patients whose doctor was less involved.
“Even patients who wanted to avoid radiation therapy were very likely to receive it if their surgeons were highly involved in the decision process. We need to do a better job of educating both patients and physicians regarding the benefits of radiation after mastectomy in certain circumstances, and we need to encourage physicians to help their patients as they make these important decisions,” Jagsi says.
In patients with strong indications for radiation after mastectomy, their risk of the cancer coming back in the chest wall or surrounding areas can exceed 330 percent. This is reduced by two-thirds if the patient undergoes radiation treatments, and overall survival is improved.
Methodology: The researchers surveyed 2,260 women in the Los Angeles and Detroit metropolitan areas who had been diagnosed with breast cancer between 2005 and 2007. Women were identified through the Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results registry. Participants were asked about their breast cancer diagnosis and treatment, including whether they received radiation therapy.
Breast cancer statistics: 194,280 Americans will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year and 40,610 will die from the disease, according to the American Cancer Society.
by the El Reportero’s news services
Daniel Ortega
Led by two Supreme Court justices, supporters of Nicaragua’s leftist president threw rocks and fireworks at a hotel where opposition lawmakers tried to meet Tuesday to overturn a decree extending the judges’ terms.
The latest chapter in a fight over the limits of President Daniel Ortega’s power started earlier in the day when hundreds of people backing his Sandinista Party blocked entrances to the Congress building to keep opposition lawmkers out.
A pro-government crowd then assaulted the Holiday Inn Hotel as legislators sought to hold a session in a conference room.
‘’They are trying to block us with their mobs,’’ opposition congressman Carlos Noguera said.
The spokesman for the opposition Liberal Party, Leonel Teller, said three of the party’s legislators were hit by rocks and were being treated for their injuries.
Supreme Court Justices Rafael Solis and Armengol Cuadra, Sandinista allies whose terms expired earlier this month, led the crowd that attacked the hotel.
Asked about the stones and fireworks, Solis told journalists, ‘’The owners have insurance.’’ Ortega has depended on the highly politicized Supreme Court for rulings like one by pro-Sandinista justices in October that overruled constitutional term limits, allowing the president to run for a second consecutive term.
The Liberal Party has called Ortega’s decree ‘’a coup against the country’s
governmental institutions.’’ ‘’The president does not have the authority to name justices,’’ the party said in a statement. ‘’The legislature does.’’ Congress has been unable to name replacements for the two justices because neither the Sandinistas nor the Liberals have a majority in the legislature.
Chinchilla’s victory – indicative of progress for women in the region?
The recent victory of Laura Chinchilla in Costa Rica’s February presidential elections and her appointment of a cabinet with unprecedented numbers of female ministers has generated fresh debate about the political participation of women in the region.
Chinchilla’s election refl ects a new trend in Central and Latin America over the past fi fteen years of record numbers of women being voted into high level political offi ce.
At the same time this progress has been offset by legislative developments across the region that represent a grave step backwards for women’s rights. This, coupled with record levels of “femicide” (the killing of women purely because they are women) suggest that considerable work remains to redress gender inequality in the region.
ICJ’s salomonic verdict on paper mill
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague issued its verdict on April 20, on the dispute between Argentina and Uruguay over the construction of the UPM (formerly Botnia) paper mill on the banks of the river Uruguay, which acts as natural border between the two countries.
The ICJ issued a salomonic verdict, ruling that Uruguay had violated articles 7-12 of the 1975 Treaty of the River Uruguay, since it failed to inform the Comisión Administradora del Río Uruguay (CARU) of its intentions to build the mill.
The ICJ did not support Argentina’s claim that the mill pollutes the river.
The conflict is set to continue, after Argentine protestors declared that they would not comply with the ruling, stating, ‘the verdict justifies our struggle’ and vowing to fight on until the mill is dismantled ‘brick by brick’.
(Latin News and Associated Press contributed to this report.)
by Ruth Gened
An interim Immigrant Justice Report Card released this month by the National Latino Congreso reveals several strong disassociations between Congress members’ sponsorship and voting records on comprehensive immigration reform-related issues and the desires of their constituents.
A recent Benenson Strategy Group poll showed that 68 percent of likely voters support pro-immigrant reforms such as legislation which would allow undocumented immigrants to apply for citizenship after satisfying certain requirements.
In contrast, only 37 percent of all pro-immigrant measures were supported by their elected representatives.
While three-quarters or more of Democratic members backed pro-immigrant proposals, Republican members rejected them overwhelmingly. (See shaded chart above.) The NLC graded members based on their records of co-sponsoring bills or casting votes on others’ proposals.
Despite the fact that the majority of Democrat, Republican and Independent voters favored legislation to facilitate acquisition of citizenship, the overall majority of members supported bills that would actually impede immigrants on the path toward legalization.
In releasing its survey, the National Latino Congreso stated, “It is important for members of Congress to know that Latino voters and other important immigrant groups will be studying their records to determine whether or not they are truly voting in their best interest of their families and constituents.”
Additionally, the NLC evaluated members of Congress in terms of their positions with respect to immigration law. The outcome of these evaluations may be important to the electorate during the November elections, it noted. An American Community Survey showed that 225 House districts had more than 50,000 immigrant-profile constituents during 2007- 2009, but only 120 House members received pro-immigrant scores.
Within the House, 68.4 percent of representatives in districts with more than 50,000 Asian- American residents favored reform. This contrasts to 51.9 percent of representatives in districts with 50,000 or more Latino members and to 58.2 percent of repre sentatives of districts with
more than 50,000 foreign-born members.
These data should invite inquiries into the factors that create the differences between the relative strengths of non-white voices. The NLC also recorded signifi cant proimmigrant legislation support variation between regions; 28 percent of senators from the South received pro-immigrant scores greater than 70 percent compared to 77 percent from the Northeast, 56 percent from the North-west, and 50 percent from the Midwest. However, the Southitself is far from homogenous in terms of proimmigrant support among representatives.
The South Atlantic region shows the highest levels of support with more than 50 percent of representatives achieving scores of 70 percent or better compared to 13 percent of the West South Central region and 0 percent of the East South Central region.
The statistical representation of these southern areas, which contain large numbers of Latinos, heavily contribute to the overall disconnect between the general population and members of congress.
The NLC report concludes by reiterating the mismatch between representatives’ records of support and the views of their respective constituencies. The Congreso warns “The NLC strongly believes that the failure to enact progressive immigration reform legislation is contrary to good policy for the nation…this failure to act is also bad politics. The IJRC Interim Progress Report provides an advance indication of the need for many current legislators to adjust their voting to match their current and future constituencies.”
MALDEF president Thomas Sainz commented: ”Continued federal in action is not only bad policy, it’s bad politics.”
Angela Sanbrano, board president of the National Alliance of Latin American and Caribbean Communities, said it “is resulting in a human tragedy at the grassroots levels as raids, deportations, and racial profi ling have become the rule, not the exception.
Heavy-handed federal enforcement and right wing state and local policies gone amok are dividing families and abusing entire communities.”
SAMPLE SENATE BILL (‘NO’ vote regarded as proimmigrant) Senate Vote 220 – HR 2892: Fiscal 2010 Homeland Security Appropriations – Border Fence Construction July 08, 2009 – DeMint, R-S.C., amendment no. 1399 to the Reid, D-Nev., substitute amendment no. 1373. The DeMint amendment would require that a fence be built along the US-Mexican border by Dec. 31, 2010. The substitute would provide $44.3 billion excluding mandatory spending; $1.5 billion for the Secret Service and $7 billion fo FEMA. It also would prohibit funding after Jan. 4, 2010, for Loran-C, a land-based radio navigation system. (continues with general budget breakdown) Adopted 54-44: R 33-7; D 21-35; I 0-2. Hispanic Link.
by José de la Isla Hispanic Link News Service
HOUSTON – Some ancient history might help us get a perspective on a contemporary situation. Here goes:
Following the fall of the Roman Empire, Europe went into a long dormant period. With it went an intellectual tradition that had begun with the ancient Greeks and had persisted into Roman times, from roughly 44 B.C. until about 476 A.D. Previously, scientific and engineering and social knowledge had been the basis for understanding all sorts of change and progress. Now, a millennium of very slow or no development followed, called the Dark Ages.
For instance, Aristarchus of Samos (310 BC Ð ca. 230 BC) had already formulated eighteen hundred years before Copernicus (1473-1543) that the earth was a round planet moving within a complex system. But a disbelieving public and policy centers could not absorb those scientific possibilities. Magical thinking was more important.
After a thousand years, the Dark Ages ended when superstitious thinking and legends had to give way to systematic thinking and discovery, called the Enlightenment, which also brought us the modern concept of science and knowledge. History became a progression of events instead of stringing myths together. But old habits are hard to break, even when they are staring you in the face.
For instance, in 1751, nearly three centuries after the Dark Ages had ended, French philosopher Denis Diderot published the Encyclopedia as a monument to the age of reason, wisdom and knowledge. In it, “America,” whose exploration had begun two and a half centuries before, occupied a quarter of a page. Not until years later was a Supplement printed containing 19 pages about the continent.
This shows how the obvious can be overlooked when people are obsessed with their closed-mindedness. Today, we have, by many who never cared before, the phenomenon of having discovered Latinos and are trying to go from a quarter page to 19 pages. The reason is obvious.
The motivation for the sudden attention given Latinos is the realization that Hispanic voters increased by two million from the 2004 to the 2008 presidential election. The number of non-Hispanic white voters was not statistically different from 2004. The sudden enlightenment, for instance, like the Feb. 16 launch of the Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles, is less about conservative values but self-interest and marketing outreach.
Washington Times blogger Thomas Peters reported as much in his interview with spokesperson Alfonso Aguilar who said his group would focus on educating conservatives about Hispanic values (as if Hispanics are not mostly already integrated into society) and about immigration (which in power centers means defining Latinos as “outsiders”). Aguilar acknowledged to Peters “many conservatives may not come out in support of reform immediately but that as the Hispanic vote continues to increase, they will see the demographic necessity to back reform.”
But the transparent statement shows it is not about enlightenment but a gimmick. It is not about “principles” but marketing.
Wayne Besen, founder of a non-profit group that debunks anti-gay misrepresentations and myths, says that the Latino Conservative Principles organizer Robert P. George has a “primary talent, it seems, is to trick the unschooled and easily fooled,” in this case other conservatives. That kind of hocus-pocus takes us back to the Dark Ages, when sophistry, fake religion, magic, anti-progress schemes, encouraged many Sorcerers’ apprentices.
You can see in its post-modern form, how a wart of frog, deceptive intentions and ignorance of Latino civic history don’t add up to good principals. It might work for fundraising purposes but it looks like a trick bag to enroll Latinos into somebody else’s political agenda.
In other words, like the Dark Ages, there seems to be a movement afoot by those who don’t know to tell others in a quarter page all about the half millennium of Hispanic values and reducing it all to tiring political wedge issues, cherry-picked platitudes andÑschizam!!!—Now you see the principles, now you don’t.
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