Volume XXVII Number 06 February 7, 2003

FrontPage Stories

Raza, Don’t Kill Raza!

By: Raymond R. Beltran

“Aqui! Ya, Ya! La Paz y Unidad!” was the war cry for the Raza Rights Coalition and the Chicano youth organization Somos Raza during a march titled ‘Walk for Peace, Unity and Justice’ Saturday, January 25. In response to a recent shooting last month, where two raza youths were injured and one murdered, San Diego activist organizations decided to beef up their solidarity and be one voice, a voice of peace with a cry for unity.

Somos Raza ‘Walk for Peace, Unity and Justice.’ Photo by Raymond Beltran

The march began at Southcrest Park in National City, where the organizations, along with M.E.Ch.A. de San Diego State University, met and rallied with concerned community members to address the violence that plagues the barrios. The marchers took their message up National Avenue, while handing out fliers. Drivers zoomed by honking their horns, and waving at the one thing that unites raza from different barrios, the Mexican flag. Strangers came out of their shops, restaurants, and churches along the street to witness the spectacle of a people coming together because of the lack of safety in their lives.

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Le Dicen “Rancho Los Diablos”
 Por Emmanuelle Le Texier
 Al pasar la salida Cannon Road de la Autopista I-5, entre Del Mar y Carlsbad, uno siempre contempla la Laguna y los campos de fresas. Jamás pensaría que a orillas de la laguna, duermen cada noche más de 150 trabajadores en lugares que nadie se atrevería a nombrar vivienda. Según el San Diego Task Force on the Homeless, en el norte del Condado de San Diego, se estima que de entre unos 20.000 a 25.000 campesinos, 7.000 están sin techo.

Anti-China Campaign Hides Maquiladora Wage Cuts
 By David Bacon
GOMEZ PALACIOS, DURANGO — For decades, US workers have been told their wages were too high — that higher labor costs would force their employers to move to Mexico.  Now Mexican workers, whose numbers on the border have mushroomed in the last three decades, are on the receiving end of the same threat. This time the bogeyman is China.

I.N.S. Employees Shred 90,000 Thousand Documents
 LOS ANGELES, Jan. 30 – The Immigration and Naturalization Service data processing center in Laguna Niguel, Calif., receives thousands of documents, addressed to the INS, every day, from residents of Arizona, California, Nevada, Hawaii and Guam. But according to a recent federal grand jury indictment approximately 90,000 documents ended up being shredded instead of the being processed.

Colin Powell’s Al Qaeda-Iraq Connection Tenous at Best
 By: William O. Beeman
The Bush administration wants above all to prove a connection between the al Qaeda terrorist network and Saddam Hussein. Secretary of State Colin Powell tried to do just that in his argument before the United Nations on Feb. 5. Despite his claim that his words were based on “solid sources,” Powell’s argument was specious and based on deceptive rhetoric.

Stories

Recuperando El Tiempo Perdido
La Revitalización de las Comunidades Indígenas de México
 Por Eduardo Stanley
 La Sierra Mixteca, en el estado de Oaxaca, México, luce su imponente presencia al visitante. Al observar más detenidamente, los cerros se ven secos, con poca vegetación y sin cultivos. Los habitantes más viejos recuerdan cuando los árboles y los cultivos de maíz, frijoles y frutales cubrían esos orgullosos cerros. 

Maryland Hotel Residents’ Protest Begs to Differ About Concept of Home
 By Isadora Malon
They carried handwritten signs made out of moving boxes. One man lead the march, adlibbing what their chants would be until they came up with something with a cadence that rhymed while stressing the point, “City Council, hear our call. We need housing for us all.” I couldn’t help a certain feeling of embarrassment for them as I watched. It was the day before the Super Bowl and they were a block off the main drag of the Gaslamp Quarter.

White House Wages Budget War Against Poor Children
 Bush Administration Budget Dismantles Head Start, Medicaid Cuts Child Care and After School Activities
WASHINGTON — “The Bush Administration is waging a budget war against poor children. This country has the resources to give every child the health care he or she needs, and to give every eligible child a Head Start if we make the right choices,” said Children’s Defense Fund

LA COLUMNA VERTEBRAL
Por Diego Alvarez
Columbia: Accidente fatal
“Espero que puedan sentir la energía positiva que irradia todo el planeta, mientras nosotros lo sobrevolamos.” Parte final del mensaje electrónico enviado por Laurel Clark —astronauta del Columbia— a sus familiares y amigos, un día antes de su muerte.

Perspective
DREAM Act Holds Promises for Undocumented Immigrants
 By: Victor Menaldo
Between 50,000 to 70,000 undocumented immigrants graduate from U.S. high schools each year. This is important. In the United States, a high school degree is a prerequisite for a college education. So, as a society it behooves us to ask, what do America’s Latin American, Asian and Middle Eastern undocumented immigrants do with these valuable diplomas upon graduation?

Ira Por Las Viñas
La Crisis Agrícola de California
 Por: Eduardo Stanley
Durante el verano en California, el viajero puede apreciar en sus valles infinidad de campos de uva cultivados por campesinos inmigrantes, mayoritariamente mexicanos. Sea para pasas, vinos o consumo de mesa, la uva representa un cultivo crucial para la economía estatal: casi un millón de acres que produjeron 6.6 millones de toneladas en 2002, 11% más que en el 2001. En dólares, la producción total de uvas representó la segunda fuente de ingresos agrícolas con $2.7 billones en 1999—el nueve por ciento de la producción agrícola de ese año, estimada en 29 billones de dólares.

A Million Dollar Opportunity!
 Imagine that $1 million winning lottery tickets were being handed out to kids across the state.  The line to get one would be miles long! Cal Grants provide such a golden opportunity for thousands of California’s students...

Jack Kent Cooke Foundation will top $5 million in scholarship offers in ‘03
 By Katie McFarland
Twenty-eight-year-old Rachel Breman said she was completely shocked when her “shot in the dark” application turned into a possible $50,000 graduate studies scholarship from the Jack Kent Cooke foundation.

Medical Board of California Announces Launch of Student Loan Repayment Program
 SACRAMENTO—The Medical Board of California announced the launch of a new program that encourages recently licensed physicians to practice in underserved locations in California by authorizing a plan for repayment of their medical school loans in exchange for their service in a designated medically underserved area for a minimum of three years.

Many Latinos Favor Bottled Water
 By David Minkow
Eileen Navarro refuses to drink the water from her tap. “I don’t trust it,” explains the East Los Angeles mother of three. “It comes through dirty pipes, plus I don’t believe the water is any good to begin with.”

La Prensa Persa
LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL. Except for YOU and ME!
Prop 187 is back with a vengeance!
By: Ramin Moshiri
I remember my 1st days in the United States when I spent the summer of 1975 with my Baptist host family. The Sunday school, streets, billboards, cable and Ma Bell telephone services were all fascinating. Even the air smelled pleasantly different. Although the country I was coming from was blessed with good oil revenue and lots of developments at that time, United States was simply amazing. People could read any books, say anything and Xerox any information. They could travel freely by car or airplane to and from anywhere within or outside the United States without inquisition and prosecution. Johnny Carson joked about the head of the state and his policies. Unbelievable! People left their homes unlocked in that small town. Unheard off!

Editorials

Editorial
Secretary of State Shoots Blanks At U.N.
 The long awaited presentation before the 15 members of the United Na-tions Council, by Secretary of State Colin Powell, that he had evidence “irrefutable and undeniable” that Saddam Hussein was concealing weapons of mass destruction i.e. nuclear, biological and/or chemical, was delivered Wednesday morning, February 5, 2003 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City.

Editorial
Zasueta Unceremoniously Dumped!
 It came as little surprise when, abruptly, Southwestern College President, Serafin Zasueta, was fired from his job. The firing was not in response to a dismal job performance or grievous misconduct, but as a casualty of the struggle over who runs the college – the President or the Teacher’s Union (SCEA) and in this case a Trojan horse, in the person of newly elected Board Member David Agosto, aided the Union.

Commentary
What Latinos Saw at the State of the Union Speech
 Jorge Mariscal
Hovering over the final section of President Bush’s State of Union speech was a ghostly shade that perceptive Latinas and Latinos recognized at once. The old cucuy (bogeyman) was none other than the spirit of Manifest Destiny, the ideology of racial and cultural superiority that guided the United States westward across the continent into Mexican territory, south into Central America and the Caribbean, across the Pacific, and beyond.

Commentary
Military recruiters bully schools for access to students
 By Juleyka Lantigua
I’ve been helping a high-school senior with his college applications, but the military had other plans for him.

Commentary
Following and Not Just Celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
 By Marian Wright Edelman
Our nation has just finished celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday. Now it is time to follow up the celebration by finishing his work for peace and for justice for the poor at a time when both are in great peril.

The Public Forum . . . El Foro Publico
 An Open Letter
California needs budget cuts and tax increases
To Members of the California Legislature:

Etc. Etc. Etc.
Entertainment, Reviews, Sporting news, and other tid bits

Is it me...
...or did Kingpin really suck?
 By Frank Arzaga
Is it me, am I getting too old to digest new things, or did the highly touted TV Show “Kingpin” really suck?

Es Una Joven Talentosa Yazmina Zarod
 Por: Paco Zavala
 Siempre se ha dicho que México, es un país de contrastes, de cultura y de tradiciones ancestrales, que se manifiestan de distintas formas y maneras. En estas se involucran los habitantes inquietos, ansiosos y anhelantes de vivir la vida, de recorrer el mundo, de conocer los contrastes, de impregnarse de sus reflejos, de empaparse de las distintas culturas y corrientes ideológicas, de reconocer y de admirar las distintas tradiciones de otras culturas y de respetarlas y de ser posible, involucrarse en ellas y de desarrollarlas.

Fiery Flamenco Puro From Spain’s Juana Amaya y Farruquito Blaze in ‘Por Derecho’
 High praise follows Farruquito everywhere. At age 20, he has already been hailed by the New York Times as “…one of the great flamenco dancers of this new century!” He is complemented on stage by Spain’s legendary gypsy dancer Juana Amaya, about whom London’s The Independent declared “If you see only one flamenco dancer in your lifetime, Amaya is the one.”

Calendar of Events
 By: Berenice Cisneros
“Out of Hiding”
SDSU School of Music and Dance is presenting a concert which will feature many of San Diego’s finest modern dancers. Performances will be held Friday and Saturday, February 7 and 8 @ 8 pm in the Dance Studio Theatre. Tickets are $10 general admission and $6 students. To purchase your tickets you may call 594-1696.

Arthur Ashe’s Legacy Lives On
 It was ten years ago yesterday (Feb. 6, 1993) when Arthur Ashe died from AIDS-related pneumonia.

Carlos “Famoso” Hernandez: El Salvador’s First World Champion
 By Fiona Manning
Carlos “Famoso” Hernandez said he cried when the president of El Salvador stepped into the ring with him on Saturday night at the Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas. For both men it was a historic occasion because “Famoso” had just won the IBF 130 pound boxing championship to become El Salvador’s first world champion in any sport.

Mexico Surprises In Australia Cup
 By: John Philip Wyllie
Leonardo Cuellar, the coach of Mexico’s women’s national soccer team selected a young squad to play in the just concluded Australia Cup. And they produced some surprising results. Mexico held its own against two previous Women’s World Cup participants.

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