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http://humane-rights-agenda.blogspot.com/2006/09/9-14-06-aztlannetnews-report.html
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LIST of NEWS Articles & LINKS in Report
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http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/americas/09/14/mexico.holiday.conflict.ap/index.html
September 14, 2006
Mexican president moves Independence Day celebration
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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/09/14/MNG31L591T1.DTL&hw=Church+Leaders&sn=003&sc=364
Thursday, September 14, 2006
Church leaders speak out against immigration sweeps
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http://www.forbes.com/home/feeds/ap/2006/09/14/ap3018417.html
Thursday, September 14, 2006
House Approves U.S.-Mexican Border Fence
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http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/politics/elections/15516030.htm
Thu, Sep. 14, 2006
Disturbing trend in voting
REPORT: ELECTORATE LACKS THE DIVERSITY OF THE POPULATION
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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/09/13/MNGLTL4I8S1.DTL&hw=Latino+Congress&sn=002&sc=276
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Illegal immigration tab: $44 billion
Federal strategy includes 700-mile fence on border
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http://www.cancer.org/docroot/NWS/content/NWS_1_1x_A_Closer_Look_at_Cancer_in_US_HispanicsLatinos.asp
September 13, 2006
A Closer Look at Cancer in US Hispanics/Latinos
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http://www.channel3000.com/politics/9833733/detail.html
UPDATED: 9:25 pm CDT September 12, 2006
Low Numbers Of Latinos Turn Out At Polls Tuesday
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http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=495248
Posted: Sept. 12, 2006
Latinos and mental health needs
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http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/local/15496888.htm
Tue, Sep. 12, 2006
Lawyer's efforts led to desegregation for Latinos
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http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/09/060911-earthquake.html
September 11, 2006
Strong Earthquake Shakes Gulf of Mexico
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http://www.svrep.org/press_room/press_clippings/06/san_fran_chronicle_091006.htm
September 10, 2006
Latino political clout grows Convention a step toward creating national movement
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/09/10/MNGB8L2TCA1.DTL&hw=Latino+Congress&sn=001&sc=1000
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http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003251962_latinoconsumers10.html
Sunday, September 10, 2006 - 12:00 AM
Latinos at high risk for scams
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AZTLANNET NEWS ARTICLES
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http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/americas/09/14/mexico.holiday.conflict.ap/index.html
September 14, 2006
Mexican president moves Independence Day celebration
MEXICO CITY, Mexico (AP) -- Mexican President Vicente Fox backed away from another showdown with leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Thursday, announcing that he wouldn't hold his annual Independence Day celebration in the capital's main Zocalo square to avoid protesters.
Lopez Obrador and his supporters had vowed to upstage Fox by refusing to take part in Friday's annual salute of "Viva Mexico!" delivered each year by the president. They are planning to take over the Zocalo for their own celebration, and some had feared clashes if pro-government revelers showed up.
Fox will move his ceremony to the small, central town of Dolores Hidalgo, 170 miles (270 kilometers) northwest of Mexico City, where Roman Catholic priest Miguel Hidalgo launched the first call for independence from Spain in 1810. The town is located in Fox's home state of Guanajuato, a bastion of support for his conservative National Action Party. Interior Secretary Carlos Abascal made the announcement shortly after the Senate voted unanimously to recommend that Fox not travel to the Zocalo.
The last president to hold Independence Day celebrations in Dolores Hidalgo was Carlos Salinas in 1994.
The announcement resolved the latest standoff between Fox and Lopez Obrador. On September 1, lawmakers from Lopez Obrador's party seized Congress, blocking Fox from giving his last state-of-the-nation address.
Lopez Obrador's supporters have been camped out in the Zocalo for weeks. They have refused to recognize President-elect Felipe Calderon's slim victory over Lopez Obrador, and said they will do everything to keep the ruling party from holding power.
Calderon, of National Action, is scheduled to take office on December 1. Lopez Obrador, one of Fox's biggest critics, claims the July 2 election was marred by fraud and illegal government spending.
Traditionally, tens of thousands of Mexicans kick off their Independence Day celebrations with a visit to the Zocalo -- an enormous plaza that houses the National Palace, City Hall, the metropolitan cathedral, and a football field-sized Mexican flag.
Lights fashioned in the shape of the nation's independence heroes are draped over the imposing cement colonial building facades, and the square is filled with people wielding miniature green-white-and-red Mexican flags, enormous straw sombreros and aerosol cans of foam and confetti.
Abascal said this year's celebration will be led by Mexico City Mayor Alejandro Encinas, of Lopez Obrador's Democratic Revolution Party.
The protesters did give Fox's government one concession. They agreed to move protest camps from the Zocalo and the upscale Reforma Avenue, allowing a massive military parade to follow its traditional route on Saturday. Immediately following the parade, however, they will retake the plaza to stage a "National Democratic Convention" in which they could "elect" Lopez Obrador as president of a parallel government.
Earlier this week, Fox's spokesman had said the president wouldn't back down. "The president will be there, fulfilling his responsibility as head of state," Ruben Aguilar said.
Some had worried the standoff would bring violence on a day when the country usually unites.
"It's going to be rough," Fabiola Loyo, 38, a housewife and Calderon supporter, said before Fox announced he was moving the ceremony.
There has been no bloodshed since Lopez Obrador began his massive street protests in July to call for a total recount of the election -- a petition Mexico's top electoral court rejected. And the former Mexico City mayor insists his movement will remain peaceful.
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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/09/14/MNG31L591T1.DTL&hw=Church+Leaders&sn=003&sc=364
Thursday, September 14, 2006
Church leaders speak out against immigration sweeps
Arrests, deportations in Santa Cruz area part of national drive
Tyche Hendricks, Chronicle Staff Writer
E-mail: thendricks@sfchronicle.com
APTOS, CA -- Leaders of four different religious faiths spoke out Wednesday near Santa Cruz on behalf of families of scores of immigration violators deported last week as controversy continued over federal immigration sweeps that have netted thousands of people since May.
The 107 arrests in near Watsonville, Santa Cruz and Hollister last week were part of a new crackdown on illegal immigration by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
In Operation Return to Sender, federal authorities have arrested 24,000 people nationally, 2,000 of them in Northern California, and deported 6,800 people.
The arrests targeted individuals, said Timothy Aitken, deputy director of the agency's detention and removal office in San Francisco. He said the agency doesn't do random sweeps.
About one-third of those arrested nationally -- and one-fifth of those picked up in Northern California last week -- have criminal records. The rest either had ignored deportation orders issued by immigration judges or were "collateral arrests" -- people picked up on immigration charges while agents were seeking specific fugitives.
"We're trying to put integrity back in the immigration process," said Aitken. "You need to comply with the law, or you may find someone knocking at your door and you'll get deported."
Of the people arrested last week, 42 had ignored deportation orders, and the remaining 65 were illegal immigrants the agents happened to encounter. Most were Mexican citizens, but a few came from El Salvador, Guatemala and India. As of Wednesday, 93 had been deported, said Aitken, who leads Northern California's three fugitive operations teams, which are among 45 such teams across the country.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement expects to add seven more teams by the end of the year, according to Lori Haley, an agency spokeswoman. The agency estimates there are more than 590,000 "fugitive aliens" in the country, including 29,000 in Northern California.
The religious leaders who spoke out Wednesday acknowledged that the government has a right to enforce immigration law. But they said enforcement can tear apart families in which some members are illegal and others are U.S. citizens.
"It is clear that we have reached a point where we need legislation that will produce a viable path to citizenship for undocumented persons residing in our nation and one (law) that protects the integrity of families and the safety of children," Roman Catholic Bishop Sylvester Ryan said at a press conference at the Resurrection Catholic Community Church in Aptos.
Stacy Tolchin, a San Francisco immigration attorney representing two children whose parents were deported to Mexico, criticized the operation as much more aggressive than in the past.
"Don't deport them the same day," she said. "Give them access to counsel. You're ripping them away from their families. It's really malicious."
The increase in immigration enforcement inside the United States as well as at the border comes as Congress has stalled on revamping the nation's immigration system. President Bush has failed to win support from conservatives in his own party for a guest worker program and a path to legal status for many of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States. Some observers said the current crackdown is an effort by the Bush administration to prove it is tough on enforcing immigration law.
Michael Cutler, a former immigration agent in New York now associated with the Center for Immigration Studies, a think tank in Florida that supports tighter restrictions on immigration, said a better name for the current effort would be "Operation Backrub."
"The administration has administered warm milk and a backrub to the American people to inspire a false sense of confidence," he said. "The president has an agenda, which appears to be open up the border between the U.S. and Mexico and the U.S. and Canada. ... He's been doing this to be able to sell his package."
Immigration enforcement has generally focused on policing the border, but that alone cannot reduce illegal immigration, said Deborah Meyers, a senior policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute in Washington, D.C. Boosting enforcement inside the country -- removing criminals and people who have already had their day in court -- is a sensible next step, she said. But it too is limited.
"You can deport the people, but if employers are still hiring illegal workers, you're not going to solve the problem," she said. "They're tackling the symptom of the problem, which is that people are here. But are they tackling the employment magnet? Are they tackling the fact that there's no way for these workers to come legally? It's not clear."
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http://www.forbes.com/home/feeds/ap/2006/09/14/ap3018417.html
Thursday, September 14, 2006
House Approves U.S.-Mexican Border Fence
By SUZANNE GAMBOA , 09.14.2006, 04:48 PM
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The House voted for the second time in a year to erect a fence along a third of the U.S.-Mexican border, part of a Republican effort to keep illegal immigration an issue before voters.
A new 700 miles of double-layered fencing won approval on a 283-138 vote, a bigger margin than last December when the House passed it as part of a broader bill that also would have made being an illegal immigrant a felony. The nearly 2,000-mile border now has about 75 miles of fencing.
Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., said the separate fence bill was needed to show Americans "we can take meaningful action to secure the border."
The House's bill last December and one passed by the Senate last May are so far apart on issues that Republican leaders haven't even tried to negotiate a compromise.
The main difference is that the Senate bill would provide legal status to millions of illegal immigrants already in the U.S., a concept supported by President Bush but opposed by most House Republicans. The Senate bill calls for 370 miles of fencing along the Mexican border.
Supporters of the new House bill said the new fencing would let Border Patrol agents focus more on apprehending illegal immigrants crossing from Mexico rather than having to man the entire border.
"We have to come to grips with the fact that our Border Patrol agents need a border fence on our southern border ... where we're now facing infiltration by members of terrorist organizations like Hezbollah," said Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif.
The bill passed Thursday doesn't pay for the fence. Republicans, estimating the cost at more than $2 billion, said that will be covered in a later spending bill. Democrats estimated the fence would cost $7 billion, based on information from the Department of Homeland Security on costs per mile of a double-layer fence.
"This is nothing more than political gamesmanship in the run-up to the midterm elections. Sounds good. Does nothing," said Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Fla.
Democrats accused Republicans of playing upon voters' fears to score political points. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, said Republicans were trying to confuse Americans into thinking "Osama Bin Laden is heading north in a sombrero."
The bill also directs the Homeland Security Department to take control of the border in 18 months and gives border agents new authority to stop fleeing vehicles. And it calls for a study of the need for a fence on the U.S.-Canadian border.
Meanwhile, the House Administration Committee approved a bill to make states to ask for photo identification from voters by November 2008 and proof of citizenship by 2010. The full House could vote on it as early as next week.
The House fence bill is HR 6061; the voter ID bill is HR 4844.
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http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/politics/elections/15516030.htm
Thursday, Sep. 14, 2006
Disturbing trend in voting
REPORT: ELECTORATE LACKS THE DIVERSITY OF THE POPULATION
By Steven Harmon
SACRAMENTO - The political landscape would be vastly different if California's non-voters -- especially Latinos, the poor and the uneducated -- voted in proportionate numbers, according to a Public Policy Institute of California report released Wednesday.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's re-election prospects might be more tenuous than they are now, given the non-voting public's dim view of him. And, with Latinos becoming the fastest-growing segment of the population, issues like affordable housing, government services and relaxing immigration laws would be much higher priorities.
Instead, even as the population continues to diversify, the state's policies continue to be determined by an ``exclusive'' electorate of older, relatively affluent and educated whites, said Mark Baldassare, director of the policy institute and author of the study.
``If the trends in voting continue,'' Baldassare said, ``we face the prospect of an electorate making policy choices that neglect the realities and problems facing large segments of California society.''
The report made no recommendations on how to increase turnout, but suggested that solutions include Election Day registration or online voting and targeted drives among under-represented groups.
In November, only 8 million people are expected to vote out of 22.6 million adults who are eligible to vote and 27.7 million adults overall. And only 4 million, or 15 percent of the population, will represent the majority that decides all the issues, Baldassare said.
``That 15 percent,'' Baldassare said, ``doesn't think or look much like all of California today.''
Negative ads, distrust in the political system, and candidates failing to address issues of importance -- like immigration -- add up to a disengaged population.
``It's very frustrating because people have far more power than they think they have,'' said state Sen. Debra Bowen, D-Redondo Beach, the party's nominee for secretary of state. ``They could radically change the direction and face of politics. People perceive that big money rules and choose not to engage.''
Bowen said campaign finance reform -- like what's being proposed in Proposition 89 -- would eliminate some of the cynicism. She also said community organizations can help bolster turnout.
Secretary of State Bruce McPherson met Wednesday with Baldassare to discuss the report, which McPherson said is a reminder that voter registration efforts must continue. He's worked with minority groups to increase participation, and said he and state schools Superintendent Jack O'Connell will soon announce a student voting project.
``It's not a shock that so-called minority groups have a lower percentage of voter turnout,'' McPherson said. ``But we've done what we can to make sure people become engaged, especially young groups. And we'll continue in these efforts.''
The study, titled ``California's Exclusive Electorate,'' was based on interviews with more than 23,516 adult residents, of whom 11,070 were considered not likely to vote. The poll was conducted over a year and featured 11 surveys. In a May survey, 28 percent of non-voters approved of Schwarzenegger's job performance, compared with the 42 percent approval marks likely voters gave him.
The chasm between likely and unlikely voters is deep, in both socioeconomic status and how they view politics:
• Likely voters are more likely to be homeowners (77 percent), college graduates (53 percent), and with household incomes of $60,000 or more (56 percent).
• Non-voters, of whom 63 percent are Latino, are largely renters (66 percent), are less likely to graduate from college (17 percent), and have a household income of less than $60,000 a year (82 percent).
• California is the only state in which no ethnic or racial group constitutes the majority, with whites representing 46 percent of the population and Latinos 32 percent. Yet, whites make up 70 percent of the electorate, and Latinos only 16 percent.
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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/09/13/MNGLTL4I8S1.DTL&hw=Latino+Congress&sn=002&sc=276
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Illegal immigration tab: $44 billion
Federal strategy includes 700-mile fence on border
- Carolyn Lochhead, Chronicle Washington Bureau
E-mail: clochhead@sfchronicle.com
WASHINGTON D.C. -- The federal government will spend $44 billion on immigration enforcement this year and next, including the creation of a mammoth new "virtual fence" along the Southwest border, the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee for Homeland Security told Republican leaders Tuesday.
With pivotal November midterm elections just two months away, Republicans and Democrats vied to show they are tougher than the other party when it comes to illegal immigration. The results so far show that while a broad overhaul of immigration law is dead for the year, both parties retain a large appetite to spend heavily on tightening enforcement of current law.
Rep. Harold Rogers, R-Ky., presented the border spending figures at an unusual "forum," in which House GOP committee chairmen reported their findings from nearly two dozen immigration hearings they held across the country this summer.
House Republican leaders vowed to push even more border-enforcement measures through Congress before adjourning, part of a broader drive to make national security their campaign theme this fall.
They find themselves in something of a political bind, however. After passing a border-enforcement-only bill in December that would build a 700-mile fence on the Mexican border and make illegal presence in the country a felony -- spawning nationwide protests by Latinos -- House Republicans rebuffed a bipartisan Senate bill backed by the Bush administration that would combine a border crackdown with broader avenues for people to enter the country legally.
That killed any chance for a broad overhaul of immigration law this year -- including the tougher border measures -- leaving House Republicans little to show voters in the way of results on an issue they have made the linchpin of their effort to retain their endangered House majority.
Democrats were not invited to Tuesday's forum, which they ridiculed as a sham. But far from feeling cornered into approving more measures to crack down on the border, they said they would be happy to vote for such things because they've been proposing many of them for years, only to see them rejected by Republicans.
"They're the ones on the spot," said Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose. "They're in control. For 12 years they've done nothing. Now with 12 days left (to adjournment) before voters decide whether or not they're going to remain in control, they're trying to look like they're doing something."
Lofgren said that if Republicans "propose the same things we propose, which is enhanced Border Patrol and the like, I'm sure we'll vote for it. We all already voted for it. Not only did we vote for it, we proposed it."
House Majority Leader John Boehner of Ohio said GOP leaders may attach border measures piecemeal to various appropriations bills. That tactic has already been used in the Senate, which approved an amendment by Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., to add $1.8 million to the military appropriations bill to pay for 370 miles of triple fencing and 461 miles of vehicle barriers on the border.
House Speaker Dennis Hastert of Illinois asked Rogers, the Homeland Security appropriations chairman, if it was possible to impose a "no-penetration policy" on the long U.S. land borders -- 2,000 miles with Mexico and 4,000 miles with Canada.
Rogers said such a project is feasible, though it would not be perfect. He also warned that one must consider 12,000 miles of coastline, including the Great Lakes, and the fact that as many as half of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants now here enter the country legally but overstay their visas.
Rogers outlined an ambitious project to construct along the Mexican border an "electronic version" of the 14-mile fence at San Diego. The "Secure Border Initiative Net" is estimated to cost $5.5 billion, a figure Rogers said could go higher, and includes aerial drones and all manner of electronic surveillance. Rogers called the new virtual fence project, which will soon go out to bid, a huge undertaking that aims to gain control of the border within five years.
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http://www.cancer.org/docroot/NWS/content/NWS_1_1x_A_Closer_Look_at_Cancer_in_US_HispanicsLatinos.asp
September 13, 2006
A Closer Look at Cancer in US Hispanics/Latinos
Screening and Health Care Access Need Improvement
Cancer affects Hispanic and Latino people in the United States differently that it does non-Hispanic whites and other ethnic and minority groups, according to the new American Cancer Society report, Cancer Facts & Figures for Hispanics/Latinos 2006-2008. It includes people of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Central American, South American, Cuban, Dominican, and Spanish descent living in the United States.
The report shows that Hispanics have lower rates than whites when it comes to some of the most common cancers, and higher rates of other, less common forms of the disease. There are also differences in risk factors that affect cancer development and in prevention measures that could impact the toll cancer takes in the Hispanic community.
That information could be used to help public health officials and activists devise programs to address some of the gaps, experts said.
"This report provides guidance to community health advocates and other groups on cancer control priorities among Hispanics," said Vilma Cokkinides, PhD, MSPH, American Cancer Society director for risk factor surveillance.
High Rates of Stomach, Liver, Cervical Cancer
Overall, 39,940 new cases of cancer and 12,320 deaths are expected in Hispanic men in the US in 2006, the report says; 42,140 new cases and 11,000 deaths are expected in Hispanic women. That makes cancer the second leading cause of death, after heart disease, among Hispanics. Still, incidence and death rates for all cancers combined are lower among Hispanics than among non-Hispanic whites in the US.
Breast and prostate cancers are the most commonly diagnosed types among Hispanic women and men, respectively. Colorectal cancer comes next among both sexes, followed by lung cancer. These four cancers are also the most common in the non-Hispanic white population in the United States. But Hispanics have lower incidence and death rates from these 4 diseases than do non-Hispanic whites.
Less common cancers, however, take a greater toll among Hispanic groups. Rates of liver, stomach, and cervical cancer are all higher in this ethnic group when compared to whites, as are the death rates from these diseases.
These cancers are all linked to infectious agents: stomach cancer can be caused by infection with the Helicobacter pylori bacterium; liver cancer can be caused by infection with hepatitis B or C; and cervical cancer can be caused by infection with the human papilloma virus (HPV).
Measures that target those agents -- Pap screening to detect cervical changes caused by HPV before they become cancer, and vaccines to prevent hepatitis B infection, for instance -- could have a significant impact on these cancer rates.
Risk Factors, Prevention Measures
Hispanics also differ from other groups in the US when it comes to their risk factors for cancer and their use of prevention and screening measures, the report states.
Smoking and alcohol use, two factors that raise a person's cancer risk, are less common among Hispanic adults and youth than among non-Hispanics. Obesity, however, is more common in Hispanics.
Hispanics also are less likely to get screened for colorectal cancer, and less likely to get mammograms to look for breast cancer and Pap tests to find cervical cancer early. Rates of PSA testing to look for prostate cancer are also lower among Hispanic men than non-Hispanic white men.
Lower screening rates may be partly due to socioeconomic factors. The report finds that Hispanics are more likely to live in poverty than whites and less likely to have health insurance or a regular source of medical care. Many also have difficulties with the English language that prevent them from getting optimal medical care.
The report lists several areas of research that promise to improve the cancer outlook for Hispanics and Latinos in the US. One study is exploring ways of increasing cancer screening through use of "navigators" to guide underserved Hispanic women through the medical system. Another study is examining how cultural beliefs and relationships with medical providers influence the health behaviors of Hispanic and non-Hispanic women after a diagnosis of breast cancer.
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http://www.channel3000.com/politics/9833733/detail.html
UPDATED: 9:25 pm CDT September 12, 2006
Low Numbers Of Latinos Turn Out At Polls Tuesday
Leaders Expect Greater Numbers In November
MADISON, Wis. -- Tuesday's primary is drawing fewer Latinos to the polls, according to local activists. While the immigration issue has drawn thousands of Latinos to the streets in showings of support like the rally on Labor Day, that's not translating to the ballot box -- at least for Tuesday's primary.
Activists like Peter Munoz, president of Centro Hispano of Dane County, said that makes "Get Out The Vote" campaigns all the more important.
"For many Latinos, that come from countries where the democracy and the histories of those countries have been problematic in terms of abusing the population, there is always that fear of government, that reservation," Munoz said.
Munoz said he predicts a much higher voter turnout in November in the Latino and immigrant communities.
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http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=495248
Sept. 12, 2006
Latinos and mental health needs
By AZARA SANTIAGO-RIVERA
WISCONSIN -- The Journal Sentinel recently reported the remarkable growth of the Latino population in Milwaukee County, now estimated at about 100,000. The growth has surpassed that of other racial and ethnic groups in Wisconsin.
What was once primarily a Mexican and Puerto Rican community is now quite diverse. Latinos from countries such as Argentina, Nicaragua, Colombia and El Salvador have migrated here, seeking opportunities to improve the quality of their lives.
It is clear that Wisconsin is attracting a diverse group of people who want to work, raise children, contribute to society and live productive and healthy lives. However, Latinos also face many challenges.
Research has shown that there may be considerable stress associated with adapting to a new environment, especially for recent immigrants.
It is often compounded by inadequate housing, financial burden, discrimination, language barriers and difficulty obtaining social services. All are reported to be major sources of psychological distress, and these stressful experiences contribute to depression.
This is particularly troublesome because depression is one of the most commonly diagnosed psychological disorders in the United States.
The costs of depression are significant, not only to those who are suffering and their families but also because of the high economic burden of depression, much of which is attributed to work-related absenteeism and lost productivity. Suicide, of course, is the ultimate cost.
Experts in the study of ethnic minority mental health report that Latinos not only underutilize mental health services, but when they do seek treatment they drop out after two to three sessions. A primary reason is that traditional forms of treatment have failed to consider cultural and linguistic differences unique to this group.
In fact, a driving force for developing culturally and linguistically appropriate treatment approaches is to decrease the high dropout rate. Thus, longevity in treatment increases the likelihood of a successful therapeutic experience.
New psychosocial treatment interventions are needed so that Latinos will not only seek help but also stay in treatment longer. Recent trends in the counseling and clinical psychology research literature indicate that one such possibility is an intervention called behavioral activation.
This treatment motivates clients with depression to solve problems in their lives by engaging in meaningful and rewarding activities.
Results of a recent study, conducted largely with Caucasian clients, suggest that behavioral activation may be as effective as or more effective than cognitive-behavior therapy for depression and possibly as effective as anti-depressant medication for severe depression.
The good news is that Wisconsin, specifically the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, is responding.
A research study, funded by a UWM Research Growth Initiative award, is under way at Milwaukee's 16th Street Community Health Center to adapt and evaluate behavioral activation for depressed Latinos.
The study is part of an effort to address health disparities by giving more attention to mental disorders like depression, which may be disproportionately represented among the underserved populations in the city and Milwaukee County.
Ultimately, the health and well-being of our communities must be tackled in ways that are sensitive to cultural differences.
With this in mind, the National Latina/o Psychological Association, a leading organization in generating and advancing psychological knowledge, as well as promoting its application for the benefit of Hispanic/Latino populations, will have its biannual conference in Milwaukee Oct. 12 to 14 at the Hyatt Regency.
Nationally and internationally renowned scholars and practitioners will be offering workshops and content sessions on a variety of topics such as innovative interventions for Latino men, women and youth, health risk reduction, counseling Latino gays and lesbians and academic achievement issues.
The keynote speaker will be Yasmin Davidds, an international best-selling author and empowerment specialist, who is recognized as one of the leading Latinas by Hispanic Magazine.
Azara Santiago-Rivera is an associate professor in the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and is president of the National Latina/o Psychological Association.
Related Link=
http://www.nlpa.ws/
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http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/local/15496888.htm
Tue, Sep. 12, 2006
Lawyer's efforts led to desegregation for Latinos
Supreme Court appeal citing an all-white jury helped open schools
JESSE BOGAN
SAN ANTONIO - Civil rights lawyer James deAnda was lauded in South Texas for having helped countless minority kids by winning a landmark court case that indirectly led to the desegregation of schools there. He went on to become the nation's second Hispanic federal judge.
DeAnda, of Houston, died Thursday at his summer home in northern Michigan after suffering from prostate cancer. He was 81.
"The loss of Judge deAnda is the loss of one of the last giants in the civil rights movement involving the Mexican American community," said Tony Bonilla, 70, a Corpus Christi lawyer and former national director of the League of United Latin American Citizens.
Bonilla knew deAnda and praised him for his humility despite many successes.
DeAnda was part of a team of four attorneys, including the late Carlos Cadena and Gus Garcia, both of San Antonio, who successfully appealed the Hernandez vs. Texas case to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1954.
It stemmed from a Hispanic defendant, accused of killing a man in a bar in the southeast Texas town of Edna, who argued that it was unfair to be tried before an all-white jury because it wasn't an accurate representation of the community.
The high court ruled in favor of Hernandez because Mexican Americans were an identifiable minority, which was as clear as the signs on the bathroom doors in the courthouse, said Michael Olivas, a professor at the University of Houston Law Center who wrote the 2006 book "Colored Men and Hombres Aqui" about the case.
The book title references the sign on a bathroom used by African Americans and Hispanics. Anglos had a facility of their own.
Out of 6,000 jurors serving in the area up to the time of the case, none were Hispanic, though Hispanics made up 16 percent of the area's population, Olivas said.
Hernandez was retried and convicted of murder, but his Supreme Court case did for Hispanics what Brown vs. Board of Education did for blacks, though the former case never became a household name.
"It's really quite clear that in Jim Crow Texas, Mexican Americans and blacks were both subordinated classes and the Supreme Court saw that," Olivas said. "I think the reason why they chose to take that particular case was because they were looking for a companion case to Brown," which was decided a week later.
In 1979, President Jimmy Carter appointed deAnda to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. He was the second Hispanic appointee to a federal bench; Reynaldo Garza of Brownsville, Texas, was the first. DeAnda left the bench in 1992, having become chief judge of the Southern District.
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http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/09/060911-earthquake.html
September 11, 2006
Strong Earthquake Shakes Gulf of Mexico
Richard A. Lovett for National Geographic News
The strongest earthquake to hit the Gulf of Mexico in 33 years shook the southern United States Sunday, prompting thousands of calls to authorities.
The magnitude 6.0 temblor, centered about 330 miles (530 kilometers) southeast of New Orleans, Louisiana, occurred at 8:56 a.m. local time (map of Louisiana). It was felt in parts of Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Damage, if any, was too light to be reported. The earthquake was also too weak to cause a tsunami.
And Sunday's quake should have little to no effect on development of recently discovered oil reserves deep beneath the Gulf, says Randy Cox, an associate professor of earth science at the University of Memphis in Tennessee.
Powerful earthquakes are rare but not unheard of in the Southeast U.S. In 1879 an earthquake near St. Augustine, Florida, rattled dishes off shelves and cracked plaster. And in 1886 a magnitude 7.3 temblor killed 60 people in Charleston, South Carolina, and rang church bells as far away as St. Augustine.
Unusual Occurrence: Most earthquakes take place near the edges of the tectonic plates that make up Earth's crust. Stress builds as the plates slowly but steadily collide.
The mammoth tsunami-generating quake in Indonesia on December 26, 2004, occurred at such a plate boundary. The recent Gulf of Mexico earthquake, however, occurred in the middle of a plate, not at an edge.
Such "mid-plate" earthquakes probably represent release of long-term stress originating from distant forces, the U.S. Geological Survey says on its Earthquake Hazards Program Web site, which tracks earthquakes around the globe.
The earthquake occurred along a region known as the Cuba fracture zone, Cox says.
A magnitude 5.2 temblor that occurred on February 10, 2006, about 150 miles (240 kilometers) south of New Orleans may have involved the same fault zone, he adds.
The source of stress is far out in the Atlantic Ocean, where plate tectonics are causing the seabed to spread. This drives the North American plate westward, compressing it.
"All of eastern North America is in similar compression, presumably for the same reason," Cox said by email. A few weeks ago, Cox published a study of the tectonics of southern North America in the GSA Bulletin, a journal of the Geological Society of America.
"This thrusting event is consistent with prehistoric fault movements we found in the onshore Gulf Coast region," he said by email.
"Until recently it was presumed that the eastern North American plate had a transition from compression in the interior to extension—or stretching—in the Gulf, but we've changed the stress maps of late, and this earthquake fits right in."
Sunday's quake was the second-largest temblor recorded in the past week. The largest, at magnitude 6.3, occurred on Saturday in the earthquake-prone country of Indonesia.
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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/09/10/MNGB8L2TCA1.DTL&hw=Latino+Congress&sn=001&sc=1000
http://www.svrep.org/press_room/press_clippings/06/san_fran_chronicle_091006.htm
September 10, 2006
Gracias for original post from EvnAlarcon@aol.com
Latino political clout grows Convention a step toward creating national movement
By Tyche Hendricks
E-mail: thendricks@sfchronicle.com
LOS ANGELES -- Tapping the passion that drew millions of Latinos to immigrant rights marches last spring, leaders from numerous national Hispanic organizations culminated a four-day conference Saturday with agreement on a broad political platform.
Participants called it an important step in building a unified, national Latino political movement.
"It's critical that we have unity, that our civic organizations unite to make us more powerful in our struggles," Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa told the roughly 1,200 participants in the National Latino Congreso. "We have more in common than the differences we may have."
Organizers said it was the first time since a 1977 Latino "congress" that so many groups had made a coordinated push to strengthen Latino political clout.
The event brought together a high-profile roster of Latino leaders, ranging from United Farm Workers Union co-founder Dolores Huerta to Villaraigosa, who was mobbed with admirers after his Friday luncheon speech, to members of Congress such as Loretta Sanchez, D-Garden Grove (Orange County), and Xavier Becerra, D-Los Angeles.
"Thirty years ago you could bring together people from five states and you could effectively say you were representing the Latino community," said John Trasviña, president of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund.
Today it's more difficult to bridge the sometimes-conflicting approaches of political organizations representing diverse segments of the nation's 43 million-strong Latino population.
Indeed, Latinos make up almost 14 percent of the nation's population, but the gathering included many more southern Californians than people from other parts of the country.
The Latino electorate has grown in recent years, with a record 7.6 million Latinos casting ballots nationally in November 2004 and accounting for an estimated 6 percent of all voters.
A common refrain at last spring's rallies in Los Angeles and in Chicago, Dallas, Washington, D.C. and other cities was "Today we march, tomorrow we vote." But some observers have wondered whether activist energy would transform into a political movement, especially when many of the marchers were not U.S. citizens.
This gathering of seasoned activists, many with roots going back to the Chicano movement of the 1960s and beyond, began to take the effort a step further.
"We've seen the largest mobilizations in American history around immigration; it's the new civil rights movement," said Emma Lozano, a community organizer from Chicago. "Now we need to transform that into political power so we can change these immigration laws."
Talking with colleagues at a conference was not enough, said California State Sen. Gil Cedillo, D-Los Angeles.
"It's about organizing and doing the hard work," he exhorted the crowd Saturday morning. "When we leave this congress, we should plan to spend the next 60 days putting voter registration applications in people's hands."
But the conference was about more than electoral power, said Antonio Gonzalez, director of the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project and a key organizer of the event.
The most burning issue on the conference agenda was to push Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform that offers illegal immigrants a path to citizenship, but the delegates also passed resolutions backing a broad range of issues, including:
-- Electoral reforms, including abolishing the electoral college and allowing for instant-runoff voting;
-- Universal health care;
-- Environmental protection, including reducing global warming and strengthening clean air and clean water laws; and
-- A national holiday to honor United Farm Workers founder Cesar Chavez.
Though some of these issues are not traditionally thought of as Latino concerns, they affect that community, said Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard, D-Los Angeles.
"The environment has been a concern and a lonely battle that Latinos have fought for a long time," she said. Whether we're talking about asthma or unwanted manufacturing projects that pollute, we've been in that battle for a long time."
One of the most significant challenges to Latino unity is in bridging the gap between newly arrived migrants, the majority of them undocumented Mexicans, and long-established Hispanic Americans, including some who are not sympathetic to the concerns of illegal immigrants.
But those groups seem to be converging. In a number of recent elections, including the 2005 mayor's race in Los Angeles, labor unions and other groups mobilized hundreds of immigrants, many not citizens, to go door to door and help turn out Latino citizen voters. Dolores Huerta lauded the tactic as a time-honored way to bring new immigrants into the political process.
The other challenge is bridging the divide between the Latino "street," the passionate grassroots activists who have been uncompromising on demanding full rights for all undocumented immigrants, and the longtime political activists facing the harsh realities for a pro-immigrant agenda in a Republican-dominate d Congress.
With 43 million Latinos in the nation, the political agenda must be a multifaceted one, said
Gonzalez. As for getting everyone on the same page?
"The goal is harmony, not unanimity," said Trasviña.
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http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003251962_latinoconsumers10.html
Sunday, September 10, 2006 - 12:00 AM
Latinos at high risk for scams
By Jolayne Houtz Times consumer-affairs Reporter
Email: jhoutz@seattletimes.com
SEATTLE -- The West Seattle car salesman spoke Spanish, sharing the "good news" with customer Teresa Belmont that she was approved for a loan to buy a used Chevy van — at 15 percent interest.
Some car buyers were getting loans for as low as 4 percent at the time. But as a Mexican immigrant with little credit history, 15 percent was the best she could expect, the salesman claimed. The Puyallup woman, a single mother of four who works two jobs, felt she had no other choice and so fell victim to a predatory-loan scam. A year later, Belmont learned just how badly she'd been taken.
A rip-off is a rip-off in any language, but scams aimed at Latino consumers more often find their mark and frequently go unreported. Hispanic consumers are more than twice as likely to be victims of fraud as non-Hispanic whites, according to a 2004 survey by the Federal Trade Commission. Low-income consumers, immigrants and refugees of any background are especially vulnerable to fraud, but the sheer size and rapid growth of the Latino population places them at particular risk.
"As that community is growing, they're becoming bigger players in our economic markets," said Scott Kinney, communications director for the state Department of Financial Institutions. "They're traditionally 'unbanked,' so many mainstream financial-literacy efforts miss them."
The state Attorney General's Office is hosting summits next month in the Seattle area and Yakima, calling together service providers, community organizations, government agencies and others to brainstorm ways to help Latino consumers protect themselves in the marketplace.
Other government agencies and nonprofit groups are paying new attention to Latinos, too. The state Department of Financial Institutions, the Federal Trade Commission and the Washington Credit Union League are among those that have launched public-information campaigns, held workshops, set up Spanish-language Web sites and made other special efforts to reach out to Latinos about consumer issues.
"They take advantage"
Belmont's story illustrates some of the perils facing unwary Latino consumers, particularly those unfamiliar with English, their rights as consumers or the standards expected in American business transactions. A week after Belmont agreed to pay 15 percent interest on her car loan, the car dealership called her back in to sign additional paperwork, saying the van would be repossessed if she didn't sign. Belmont signed in a hurry, without reading everything, so she could return to her job in an Auburn day-care center.
For a year, Belmont never missed a payment. One day, she heard a Spanish-language radio program featuring the CEO of White River Credit Union in Enumclaw talking about credit-union outreach to Latinos. When Belmont showed CEO Linda Kleppe-Olson her car-loan papers a few days later, Kleppe-Olson was outraged.
But when she called the dealership to investigate, Kleppe-Olson was stunned to learn Belmont was actually paying 29 percent interest. The dealership nearly doubled her interest rate in the second set of papers Belmont signed. No one pointed it out to her. Belmont's $9,000 van was going to cost her more than $16,000 over the life of the loan, despite her having put $2,500 cash down.
"It was unconscionable," Kleppe-Olson said. "I was affronted by the injustice of it."
She helped Belmont, who also works as a housecleaner, to close out the predatory car loan and get a credit-union loan. Today, Belmont pays 8.2 percent interest and nearly has the van paid off.
"Lots of us have no idea the amount we're paying in interest," Belmont said. "Sometimes they know we don't speak English very well, and they take advantage. It takes us a lot of effort to earn the money, but it's so easy to lose it."
Hispanics make up nearly 9 percent of the total state population. They are the largest and fastest-growing racial group in Washington. Latinos have a lower median income than the state median, and many conduct financial transactions outside the economic mainstream.
Many subprime lenders — those who lend money to borrowers with poor or no credit histories and charge higher rates — seem more welcoming, with Spanish-speaking staff and looser rules about the documents required.
Lack of access: But consumers may end up paying too much to fringe lenders for routine financial transactions such as wiring money, getting money orders or cashing checks.
Lack of access to mainstream financial services is at the heart of the problem, said Anna Landa, manager of the Immigrant Financial Justice Project at Columbia Legal Services.
"People are paying more to access their own money, and they're not building credit," she said.
Newcomers often face language barriers. Some don't read English or Spanish, or they lack financial literacy. When something goes wrong, many don't know whom to tell — or even that they have a right to complain.
"Hispanics don't complain much. They rely on people's word that they're honest" and often don't demand written documents, said Uriel Iñiguez, executive director of the state Commission on Hispanic Affairs.
And for some, their immigration status may keep them from fingering businesses that scam them.
"They worry about being identified if they call to complain," said Norma Chavez, community outreach liaison with the state Attorney General's Office in Kennewick. "Every consumer has the right to file a complaint. We don't distinguish based on [citizenship status]. They need to know we're not going to inform Homeland Security."
Some distrust government or feel intimidated by banks and other formal business or government institutions.
"In Mexico, it's almost all done in cash," said Belmont, who moved to the U.S. from Mexico City in 2000. "It's difficult to get a loan of any kind, and it's always with high interest rates. We don't know how to shop for credit because we just don't have that kind of system."
Consumer education: Radio and TV are particularly powerful ways of reaching Spanish-speaking consumers with a "buyer beware" message. Several of the state's Spanish-language radio stations dedicate time each week to community education. The head of Seattle's Mexican consulate and Chavez of the Attorney General's Office frequently go on the radio to discuss consumer-education issues.
Educating those who serve Latinos about consumer issues is also effective. Latinos tend to trust the service providers and institutions that directly serve their community — day-care centers, schools, nonprofit organizations and religious leaders.
Simply translating documents and Web sites into Spanish or putting an interpreter on the line isn't enough, Chavez said. Face-to-face interaction is best.
"You need to definitely establish that trust," she said.
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Latino consumer scams
Anyone can get taken in a scam, but Latinos may be particularly vulnerable, in part because of language barriers and cultural differences.
• Money transmitters: Some are unlicensed, unbonded businesses that promise to wire money to family members in Latin America but then disappear. Others charge high fees to wire money.
• Predatory loans: Latinos with little or no credit history or a bad credit rating have a greater likelihood of ending up with high-fee, high-interest loans of all kinds.
• Notary publics posing as lawyers: In Mexico, notarios are attorneys. Some U.S. notary publics misrepresent themselves as lawyers to Latino clients.
FTC Web site: The Federal Trade Commission has a Spanish-language Web site with information about common scams aimed at Latinos and an online form for filing consumer complaints in Spanish: www.ftc.gov/ojo
Upcoming conferences: The Attorney General's Office plans two conferences for service providers, education and outreach experts, community leaders and businesses and organizations that regularly interact with Latinos in Washington or want to in the future. Registration will be available soon at: www.atg.wa.gov/LatinoConference
• Oct. 3 at the Doubletree Hotel Seattle Airport, 18740 International Blvd., SeaTac; Oct. 20 at the Yakima Convention Center, 10 N. 8th St., Yakima
News researcher Gene Balk contributed to this report.
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