Now in year 18, Nations brings traditional dancers from over 15 cultures together in a state-of-the-art theater for a weekend of magical performances rarely seen together in one setting. Over 150 dancers and musicians from every continent share dance traditions that transport audiences to exotic lands for a taste of authentic art forms. Also be prepared for spontaneous eruptions of dance during intermission and after the show when cross-cultural free styling often takes place.

The mission of Nations is to present the ethnic dance traditions alive in the community. This year the festival will showcase Chinese dance to celebrate the commitment of San Diego’s Chinese community to cultural tradition. Dance groups include Blue Ming Chinese Dancers of San Diego, Moonlight Chinese Dance Group, San Diego Chinese Folk Dance Ensemble and SilkRoad Dancers. Each group represents a different region in China and a thriving local cultural community. These dancers may be the parents, doctors, lawyers, scientists, or teachers that make up our community by profession, but they also commit hours of practice to perfecting and passing on the dance traditions of their heritage. Audiences will be transfixed by the costumes, narrative and beauty of these varied dances representing China.

Weekend “travelers” will also experience dance traditions from Brazil, India, Ireland, Mexico, the Middle East, the Philippines, Spain, and more! Dancers representing Scotland and New Zealand also return this year. Nations promises a full passport of international music and movement.

Attendees desiring a memento of the weekend may browse the internationally flavored bazaar featuring art, sculpture and clothing from faraway lands presented by “Explore Inspiration.” “Beads for Life” will also be on hand with beautiful beaded jewelry made out of recycled paper created by Ugandan women. Proceeds from the jewelry translate into income, food, medicine, school fees and hope for the Ugandan communities where these artisans live.

Nations is produced by the Coronado School of the Arts Foundation and proudly sponsored by the Coronado Tourism Improvement District.

For tickets and more information about Nations, visit www.nationsdancefestival.com .

There are many kinds of war. The classic image of a uniformed soldier kissing mom good-bye to risk his life on the battlefield has changed dramatically. In today’s wars, it’s more likely that mom will be the one killed.

UNIFEM states that by the mid-1990s, 90% of war casualties were civilians– mostly women and children.
Mexico’s drug war is a good example of the new wars on civilian populations that blur the lines between combatants and place entire societies in the line of fire. Of the more than 50,000 people killed in drug war-related violence, the vast majority are civilians. President Felipe Calderón claims that 90% of the victims were linked to drug cartels. But how does he know? In a country where only 2% of crimes are investigated, tried, and sentenced, the government pulled this figure out of its sleeve.

There is no official information on why these thousands were killed. When their bodies are found in unmarked mass graves, no one even knows who they were. With violence the norm, executions can —and do— target grassroots leaders, human rights defenders, indigenous peoples, and rebellious youth under the cloak of the drug war.

Not Just Homicide

There are also war tolls beyond the body counts. The homicide number misses the disappeared, the thousands whose bodies–dead or alive–are never found, never counted. And it hides the mutilation of lives caused by “collateral damage”: the loss of loved ones, families forced from their homes, permanent injury, orphans and widows, sexual abuse, lives lived in fear.

These costs fall primarily on the shoulders of women–the mothers, daughters, and sisters who are left with the nearly impossible task of seeking answers and redress in a justice system outpaced by violence and overrun by corruption. They are often re-victimized by government agencies that ignore, reject, or stifle their pleas for justice.

“Families that demand that our children be found face all kinds of threats… the loss of our property, isolation, rejection by our own families,” said Araceli Rodríguez, a mother whose son, a young policeman, was disappeared on the job. His police unit refuses to give information on his disappearance. “I wake up and find that it’s not a nightmare, that his absence is real and the impunity is also real.”

It’s rare to hear the voices of the women who bear the brunt of the drug war. Their pain doesn’t make headlines. Some need anonymity to remain alive. Many have been granted protective measures by the government or international human rights organizations because of the extreme threats they face.

Telling Stories

Despite all these difficulties, some 70 women told their stories amid tears and despite fear for their lives in Mexico City on January 22. The meeting called by the Nobel Women’s Initiative brought an international delegation led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Jody Williams together with Mexican women victims of the violence and women human rights defenders.

From the sketchy statistics available, women make up a relatively small proportion of the murdered in Mexico, but they are the majority of citizens who denounce disappearances, murders, and human rights violations in the drug war. They work on the front lines of defending communities and human rights. For their efforts, they become targets themselves. In Mexico, six prominent women human rights defenders have been murdered in the past two years.

The last report by the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders recognized that threats and especially “explicit death threats against women human rights defenders are one of the main forms of violence in the region, with more than half coming from Latin America, most of those (27) from Mexico.”

Sometimes it’s the drug cartels that seek to silence women activists. But a recent survey of Mexican women human rights defenders revealed that they cite the government (national, state, and local) and its security forces as responsible in 55% of cases of violence and threats of violence to women defenders. Among government officials charged with public safety and justice, they encounter at best indifference and at worst death threats and attacks. A human rights defender from the state of Coahuila explained that searching for a disappeared loved one implies “always having to be in the hell of the institutions, which are often infiltrated by crime.”

Gender-based violence including femicide has skyrocketed in the context of the overall violence. The number of femicides in Chihuahua since sending the army in has risen to 837 for the period of 2008- June 2011 —nearly double the total femicides in 1993-2007. Women rights defenders report that the vast majority of threats and acts of violence against them include gender-based violence.

Silent No More

Olga Esparza, whose daughter Monica disappeared in Ciudad Juarez in 2009, explains through her tears that the government simply doesn’t care. “We’re the ones who have to carry out the investigations, with our own resources.” She adds that government officials often add insult to injury, “They say she’s probably just gone off with her boyfriend or she’s a prostitute or drug addict.” In her case, as with so many others, there’s no investigation, no results, no justice.

Another woman described how her work with indigenous communities led to her rape and torture by police agents. She continues to live in terror due to threats against her life and her family.

Alma Gomez of the Center for the Human Rights of Women in Chihuahua summed up what she sees in the center, “Women are the invisible victims, we are always at risk in this military and police occupation. We know of gang rapes by security forces that the women don’t even report; arbitrary arrests; women who make the rounds between army barracks and city morgues searching for their sons, fathers, or husbands. We are the spoils of war in a war we didn’t ask for and we don’t want.”

“Victim” is really the wrong word for these women. The mother whose son disappeared more than two years ago said, “In the struggle to find my son, I joined the peace movement. I learned that I can transform my pain into a collective force and together we can help more people to have a voice and to now be empowered to defend their rights.”

Valentina Rosendo, a Me’phaa indigenous woman from the State of Guerrero, was raped by soldiers and took her case all the way up to the Interamerican Court of Human Rights. She sums up the reason for participating in the Nobel Women’s forum, “It’s really hard to speak out, but it’s more painful to keep quiet.”

Laura Carlsen is the Director of the Americas Program and is currently corresponding from the Nobel Women’s Delegation as it tours Mexico, Honduras, and Guatemala.

Colorblind racism is the new normal in American conservative political thought. Well after the election of the nation’s first African-American president, in 2012 Republican candidates are using egregious signals and dog whistles to incite racial divisiveness as an effective tool for political gain. But when confronted about the nature of their offensive rhetoric, the answer is either an innocuous denial or dismissive retort.

It is curious that people bold enough to make outlandish racial claims never admit guilt or receive a proverbial trial and conviction by the greater populace. Paul Rosenberg, a political contributor to Al-Jazeera, recently explained that this curious phenomenon of “racism without racists” has become de facto in today’s political discourse and is best described as “colorblind racism.”

First explored in the book Racism Without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in the United States by Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, a professor of sociology at Duke University, the concept explains much of the Republican strategy to defeat Barack Obama, using race as a wedge issue. Bonilla-Silva defined colorblind racism as a racial ideology that expresses itself in seemingly nonracial terms. As such, it is most practiced by people who never see themselves outside their own myopic worldview.

Last week’s Fox News debate prior to the South Carolina Republican primary was an excellent example of the hubris inherent in today’s racially charged, conservative environment.

All the more offensive was the fact that this debate took place on the national holiday celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. As Michael Keegan explained in the Huffington Post, “What could have been an opportunity for the candidates to express their support for the myriad advances of the civil rights movement and to address the real challenges that remain, instead turned into a mess of racially charged attacks on African Americans, immigrants and the poor.”

Newt Gingrich — the worst offender — doubled down on his prior attacks. When asked by Juan Williams, the lone African-American Fox News moderator, about calling Barack Obama the greatest “food stamp president” and his insistence that he would “talk about why the African-American community should demand paychecks and not be satis-

fied with food stamps,” Gingrich played to the bloodthirsty audience.

“Can’t you see that this is viewed, at a minimum, as insulting to all Americans, but particularly to black Americans?” Williams asked.

“No,” Gingrich replied. “No, I don’t see that at all.”

The response? Roaring applause and a standing ovation.

Now confident, with the wind at his back, Gingrich went on to repeat his misguided call for poor, inner-city children to be forced to work as janitors.

But this is only the least of offenses. The former House speaker has been using blatantly racist rhetoric to attack President Obama for the past two years. Starting with the suggestion that Obama could only be understood through a Kenyan, anti-colonialist mindset — an idea he borrowed from the equally problematic Dinesh D’Souza — to his oft-repeated correlation of the president with food stamps and welfare dependency, Gingrich refuses to accept responsibility and is quick to accuse liberal media of bias.

Mitt Romney, the candidate most likely to receive the nomination, was not immune. In response to a question from Rick Santorum, Romney declared his opposition to extending voting rights to convicted felons, an issue that disproportionately affects African-American and Hispanic males and is a direct result of the vast disparity created by the drug wars implemented during the Reagan administration.

Romney also promised to veto the Dream Act, a law supported by Obama’s White House, which would allow the children of long-term, illegal immigrants to gain citizenship while proving themselves through military service or higher education. All these statements reflect a post-Tea Party conservative climate, which is fueled by xenophobia and racial animus.

Perhaps if these instances had not become so commonplace, they could be disregarded as gaffes, but following Santorum’s remark in Iowa that he did not want “to make black people’s lives better by giving them somebody else’s money” and the unearthing of a new set of newsletters from Ron Paul’s past framing African Americans as ravenous criminals, the racism is too obvious to be dismissed as subtle subtext.

In his article, Rosenberg notes that one of the central frames at the core of colorblind racism is “minimization of racism, [which] suggests discrimination is no longer a central factor affecting minorities’ life chances (‘It’s better now than in the past’ or ‘There is discrimination, but there are plenty of jobs out there’). It remembers the past with a highly selective intent, to excuse the evil that remains.”

Gingrich, Paul and Santorum convey textbook definitions of the minimization of racism. Paul “can’t remember” who wrote what and thinks “it’s not important anyway.” Gingrich doesn’t see anything wrong with any of his comments about the poor and blacks. Santorum’s excuse is “blah.” They each adopt a cavalier attitude toward the feelings of minorities and suggest that the fuss is much ado about nothing.

Why do they do it?

Just a quick look at Gingrich’s rise in the polls and his recent win in South Carolina explains why it’s a winning strategy among white GOP primary voters. The latest Gallup poll shows the race in a dead heat nationally, with Gingrich at 28 percent to Romney’s 29 percent. Romney has essentially lost any advantage he had before the South Carolina primary.

Yet the American public and media have developed an acute sense of political correctness, which allows conservative politicians like Gingrich to lie and bait so outrageously without being called to task. And when confronted, Republicans are always quick to deny any malicious intent.

As I expressed in a previous article, poor whites have been encouraged to vote against their own economic interests; more broadly, middle-class whites are encouraged to vote against their better judgment. They are manipulated by race-baiting tactics that lead them to believe that the social ills of the nation are caused by the black and brown poor — or, as Gingrich would have you believe, the black “elite” currently residing in the White House.

The political rhetoric being espoused from the far right has become inundated with corrupt language born of a racist past that still plagues the American consciousness. An informed electorate can no longer excuse blatant racism as a casual, social faux pas.

Voters in the upcoming primaries across the nation must demand that Republicans take responsibility for wallowing in a cesspool of race-baiting for political advantage, ever hiding behind a veil of colorblind ignorance and innuendo.

Edward Wyckoff Williams is an author, columnist, political analyst for MSNBC and a former investment banker. Reprinted from The Root (http://www.theroot.com/)

Perspective:
By Herman Baca

It would be truly unbelievable if someone in our community in 2012 could honestly state that, “something is not fundamentally or systemically wrong politically in our ever growing community.” The recent Sweetwater Water District indictments by District Attorney, Bonnie Dumanis made that politically clear.

In politics there is an old saying, “sometimes what you see is not what you see, sometimes what you hear is not what you hear, and sometimes what is, isn’t!

When one views the large political picture, the facts are that something is fundamentally and systemically politically wrong in our communities. One only has to witness the increase of repressive official government legislation, and illegal hate groups that has led to vicious attacks on our peoples’ civil, constitutional and human rights. Many in our community question if the attacks are isolated, or well-planned concerted political attacks being initiated by a rapidly depopulating white controlled political system? A political system both at the national and local level that fully understands time is not on their side, and fears losing their economic and political control. Many persons in our communities have given up believing that President Obama, the Democratic and Republican Party, or His/Her Panics politicians are not going to do anything to stop the attacks.

The increased attacks at the national level have emanated mainly from Arizona (Nazizona) with its draconian SB 1070, legislation to destroy Chicano Studies (our history) and banning (Nazi style) of Native American and Chicano books. Former slave states such as South Carolina, Georgia, and Texas have legislated “Jim Crow” immigrations laws against persons of Mexicans ancestry. Adding insult to injury, New Mexico’s malinche Governor, Susana Martinez has desgraciamente lead white supremacist and Tea Party political lynching parties against her own people? The hate rhetoric, and legislation in those states have resulted in the murder by racist thugs in Pennsylvania of Mexican undocumented Luis Ramirez, and the hideous murder of 9 year old Brisenia Flores in Arizona by Minuteman.

In CA the political situation is no better. For starters the small city of Bell; 90 percent Mexican, median income $29,946, robbed by politicians/administrators with the full acquiescence of His/Her Panics politicians. The “legal” robbery included Bell’s city manager (Anglo) earning $787,637 per year, assistant manager (Anglo) $376,288 and Police Chief (Anglo) $457,000!

In SD County one would have to be deaf, blind and dumb (which most of the news media is) to deny the striking similarities between Bell, and National City, CA. NC like Bell is a poor city (the poorest in SD County), population 70% Mexican ancestry, household median income $39,000, NC city employees (non-safety) earn $55,000, while police and firemen earn $86,000?

Like Bell’s robbery, NC residents continue to be fleeced with the so-called 1 cent sales tax. One of the highest in CA, levied on the backs of SD County’s poorest residents; that adds up to 80-90 million dollars over a 10 year period!

In NC as in Bell, the fleecing/robbery has been …spearheaded by its white mayor with the unanimous acquiescence of its (4) elected His/Her Panics politicians! 

Another example where things are even worse is North County, population close to 50% persons of Mexican ancestry. Five undocumented and unarmed persons have been killed by law enforcement officers. Escondido a segregated-apartheid city for Mexicans has a Sheriff Joe Apario, Texas Ranger style police force, and mayor and council that would have made Hitler proud in Nazi Germany. The city has approved ordinances against renting to Mexicans; illegal police check points, and permitting Ice Migra agents to ride along with its police officers, etc?

So why is this happening politically to our community?

History can only answer that question. Let’s not forget that in the late 60 our people did not even exist to U.S. political, social, and economic institutions. Our people were referred to as the silent, invisible, and forgotten minority. Politically we were represented in the entire California Legislature by one person of Mexican ancestry Assemblyman, Alex Garcia and in SD County, by National City Councilman, Louie Camacho.

Those dismal political facts finally began to change in 1959 when Bert Corona, Ed Roybal and Eduardo Quevedo organized (MAPA) the Mexican American Political Association. Ironically the first community based political victories in San Diego County were won in the South Bay School Boards Trustees elections. Individuals such as Ernie Azchoar, Ben Moreno, Oscar Canedo and others opened the political doors to those that followed, Peter Chacon (CA 2nd Assemblyman), City Councilman, Jess Haro, etc.

What are the historical political reasons for the above happening?

1. It’s apparent that the thousands of His/Her Panics politicians, along with most funded organizations such as the National Council of La Raza, etc. have provided no political solutions and failed our people. However the primary reason is; demographics, the only politically tangible that has changed in our community in the last 43 years?” I bet, “in those 43 years our population has increased 10 fold,” but unfortunately, “our political stupidity has increased 50 fold!”

2. La faulta of a political infrastructure to protect, advance our interests, and make politicians (especially our own) accountable. For that to be done, “If you are going to be in politics, you have to know how to count, either people or money, because that is the basis of all political power.” However, “they have to be organized people and organized money, because politics is not a game of individuals but one of competing interests.” The question for our community is…where are our organized people and money? 

3. Our exploding population that will soon make us the majority in CA and other Southwestern States. However, if the process to educate our people (not only in schools, but with knowledge of their history, language, and culture), politicize them, and organize them fails; our fundamental and systemic issues/problems will only get worse. And if fail to historically address the above…we, our children and future generations will surely live under an apartheid system like the world witnessed in South Africa!

Baca is president of the Committee on Chicano Rights in National City. Part I of this perspective was published Jan 20. You can find this article on our website at: http://laprensa-sandiego.org/?p=16147

New fires are steadily igniting in different corners of the Mexican political system. As the country plunges head-long toward the July 1 elections, clashes over candidacies, bouts of negative campaigning and a new spying scandal are lighting up the political scene.

A bizarre video game with a barely concealed subliminal message, “Super Ernesto,” stars National Action Party (PAN) presidential primary candidate Ernesto Cordero in a showdown that has the former economy minister vanquishing rival party presidential candidates Enrique Peña Nieto and Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador as well as fugitive crime boss Joaquin “Chapo” Guzman.

If current polls are accurate, Cordero will be the one who gets zapped, and as early as February 5, the day of the PAN presidential primary. Surveys show the candidate in third place behind Santiago Creel and Josefina Vazquez Mota in terms of PAN voters’ preferences.

On another front, the rival Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) is projecting a youthful image and stressing the “New PRI” in its bid to re-conquer the Mexican White House from the PAN and win other key elections this year.

But an examination of the PRI’s proposed list of candidates for the Senate reveals many career politicians, losing candidates for other offices, sons and daughters of old-time PRI leaders (“babysaurs”) and personalities wrapped in layers of controversy. Seven ex-governors figure high on the candidate list including Patricio Martinez of Chihuahua, Ma-nuel Cavazos of Tamaulipas and Rene Juarez Cisneros of Guerrero.

A booster of closer economic ties between Chihuahua and the U.S. border state of New Mexico, Martinez left office in 2004 surrounded by human rights scandals involving his police agencies.

Of special note was the fabrication under torture of multiple scapegoats in the killings of women in Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua City, crimes that Martinez claimed had significantly diminished after he took office in 1998. While he was still governor, Martinez was quoted as referring to a 2003 Amnesty International report on the mounting murders and disappearances of women in Chihuahua state as “that damn report.”

The last year of the Martinez administration was also marked by the so-called “House of Death” scandal in Ciudad Juarez, when Chihuahua State Judicial Police commanders and officers were linked to narco-related kidnappings and executions of a dozen or more people. During Martinez’s term femicides spread to Chihuahua City, and the Juarez drug cartel firmly implanted itself in the capital city.

Nowadays, Chihuahua City is submerged in violence between rival criminal groups.

In the southern state of Guerrero, which also excels as a hot spot in the so-called drug war, the PRI is poised to elevate former Governor Rene Juarez (1999-2005) to the Senate. Juarez assumed his governorship amid an intense post-electoral conflict that erupted after rival candidate Felix Salgado Macedonio of the center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) claimed fraud. Salgado’s supporters marshaled evidence of election irregularities and staged a march to Mexico City. Nonetheless, they were unsuccessful in their demands to overturn the election results.

Like the nearly parallel Martinez years in Chihuahua, Juarez’s period of governance was punctuated by scandals involving state police, the expansion of organized crime and an increase in femicides.

Additionally, Juarez’s state law enforcement apparatus came down on different social movements like the Campesino Environmentalist Organization of Petatlan and Coyuca de Catatlan. The two most recent leaders of the group, Eva Alarcon and Marcial Bautista, were abducted by armed men late last year and remain missing; local police have been implicated in the disappearances.

Another familiar name appears in the nomination for the second PRI senatorial candidate from Guerrero. Claudia Ruiz Massieu is the daughter of Jose Francisco Ruiz Massieu, a former governor and general-secretary of the PRI who was gunned down in Mexico City in 1994. Claudia Ruiz Massieu’s uncle, Raul Salinas de Gortari, was accused of the crime and spent a decade in prison before being exonerated. The still-murky slaying happened while Raul Salinas’ brother Carlos was the president of the Mexican Republic.

The final list of PRI candidates for the Senate is expected to be approved or disqualified by the party’s internal affairs commission this week. Elected to a single six-year term, Mexican senators enjoy more power than in the past. The well-paid elected officials also get annual Christmas bonuses valued at approximately $40,0000, and are largely immune from prosecution.

The scramble for the PRI’s senatorial prizes not only heightened internal tension, but triggered reverberations that could affect the presidential race. Several of the proposed candidacies touched off public controversy, including the bid by Maria Elvira Amaya, the wife of former Tijuana mayor and gambling magnate Jorge Hank Rhon. The gaming czar has been investigated but never prosecuted for a variety of crimes including alleged arms possession and murder.

“The PRI has to decide if it wants a candidacy with moral quality, or if it wants one that is from a lot of money of murky origin like casinos,” said Felipe Ruanova, PRI representative on the Baja California Electoral Council.

Ultimately, Amaya was left out of the contest but did not discount running for future public offices.

Disputes over possible Senate seats led to a partial break-up of the PRI’s national electoral alliance with two minor parties.

Last weekend the National Alliance Party (PANAL), founded by teacher union leader and ex-Priista Elba “La Maestra” Esther Gordillo, announced it was leaving the coalition to run its own candidates. Reportedly, veteran PRI members were upset at the prospect of the much smaller PANAL receiving a disproportionate share of candidacies.

Both the PRI and PANAL have since attempted to put a good face on the split, insisting it is an amicable parting of ways instead of a nasty rupture. But the break-up could spell trouble for PRI presidential candidate Enrique Pena Nieto, especially if the race tightens. The PRI still maintains its alliance with another small party, the Mexican Green Party.

PANAL General Secretary Monica Arriola, who is the daughter of “La Maestra”, told a Mexican interviewer that her party counted on three percent of the vote, undoubtedly a small slice of the electorate but one that could prove critical if the 2012 election shapes up like the controversial one in 2006 in which Felipe Calderon was declared the victor by a razor-slim margin.

Gordillo’s back-room support for Calderon in 2006 was considered an important reason for the latter’s official triumph.

For 2012, about five million Mexicans have been knocked off the voter rolls because they allegedly failed to renew voter identification cards by the January 15 deadline.

Prior to the PRI-PANAL affair, a former governor of Yucatan and ex-national president of the PRI warned her party of the consequences of political in-fighting. Dulce Maria Sauri said the tensions over Congressional candidacies were reminiscent of 2000, when similar political rows disrupted the party and the PRI lost the presidency for the first time. “Nothing is more contagious than conflicts,” Sauri warned.

The admonishment came as the PRI’s Enrique Pena Nieto was showing signs of faltering in his campaign for the presidency.

Not all were convinced the PRI-PANAL break-up was genuine. The presidential standard-bearer of a center-left coalition encompassing four political organizations, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador called the announced split a “simulation” designed to publicly distance the PRI and Pena Nieto from the controversial Elba Esther Gordillo while still maintaining a behind-the-scenes political agreement.

In general terms, the rhetoric rising from the political class has grown more negative in recent days. National Action Party (PAN) presidential primary candidate Santiago Creel said the PRI had a candidate (Pena Nieto) who was full of “holes,” while PRI President Pedro Joaquin Coldwell said the last 12 years of PAN governance were a “nightmare” filled with decisions ranging from “stupid” to “mediocre.” The right has “never learned to govern,” Coldwell said. For his part, Lopez Obrador declared that a return of the PRI to the presidency would be akin to a “collective masochistic act.”

As if the political scene did not already have enough heat, a big, ugly piece of kindling was discovered smoldering this week after the bugging of the lower house of the Mexican Congress was exposed. Some parts of the Congressional headquarters in the San Lazaro building were shut down, and the federal attorney general’s office (PGR) initiated an investigation after receiving a complaint from Congressional staff.

Legislators urged a thorough inspection of both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. The building in which the alleged bugging of telephone and Internet communications occurred has about 500 video cameras. One lawmaker expressed surprise, saying that San Lazaro has a strong computer security system that on average resists 2,000 hacking attacks every day.

Chamber of Deputies President Guadalupe Acosta Naranjo said the eavesdropping appeared to be “generalized” throughout San Lazaro, but special targets could have been Acosta’s office as well as the one belonging to Congresswoman Carolina Viggiano, the wife of ex-PRI head Humberto Moreira.

A former governor of Coahuila, Moreira is still embroiled in legal controversies over a large public debt he left behind in the violence-torn, northern border state. The PGR is currently investigating any illegalities that might have been committed in contracting the state debt. Humberto’s successor and brother, Governor Ruben Mor-eira, recently announced a new state program to investigate the forced disappearances of 1,658 people-1,113 men and 545 women-in Coahuila mainly since 2006. Involving entire families and razed communities, the disappearances are largely blamed on organized crime.

Interior Ministry Alejandro Poire quickly distanced his office and CISEN, Mexico’s national intelligence agency, from the reported San Lazaro bugging. Political spying is an old story in Mexico, one which was written under the long rule of the PRI and its government security apparatus before 2000, but was widely considered to be an odious if still breathing mummy from the past.

PRD Congressman Mauricio Toledo cautioned that the still-developing espionage scandal (Watergate South 2012?) broke at a moment when the Mexican state was in a “condition of worrisome weakness.” “We are in a state of institutional fragility that is not convenient for anyone,” Toledo warned.

Frontera NorteSur: on-line, U.S.-Mexico border news Center for Latin American and Border Studies New Mexico State University Las Cruces, New Mexico.

U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva, a Tucson Democrat who is a caucus member, said he had spoken Friday with the caucus chairman, U.S. Rep. Charles A. Gonzalez, D-Texas, and officials from the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights about the Tucson Unified School District’s recent decision to end its Mexican-American studies program.

Earlier this week, the caucus sent a letter to the office demanding an investigation for alleged civil-rights violations. The caucus argues that the program’s elimination is a violation of students’ constitutional and First Amendment rights.

Federal officials “advised us that they’re evaluating it,” Grijalva said Friday. “Now that it (the program’s elimination) has been implemented, they have cause to evaluate it.”

Grijalva said the caucus wants the department to make the investigation a priority.

The school board’s decision earlier this month stopped Arizona Superintendent of Public Schools John Huppenthal from cutting millions of dollars from the district’s budget as a penalty for alleged violations of the state ethnic-studies law that he wrote with help from his predecessor, now-Attorney General Tom Horne.

Huppenthal had declared the program illegal under the law, which bans classes that promote the overthrow of the U.S. government, encourage resentment toward a race or class of people, are designed solely for students of a certain ethnicity, and that advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of students as individuals.

The board’s decision and Huppenthal’s allegations have angered many of the 700 students who were enrolled in the now-dismantled classes, and have prompted a series of student-led marches and protests this month.

The board and district officials have been accused of banning some of the key texts that had been used in the classes – a move which was condemned this week by the American Library Association.

TUSD officials have denied that they banned the books, saying they placed them in storage but left copies in school libraries.

A federal lawsuit by students challenging Huppenthal’s decision and the state law is pending.

Mitt Romney, a todas luces, será el candidato del Partido Republicano a la presidencia de los Estados Unidos en noviembre de 2012. Al parecer, la idea de Newt Gingrich de darle un chance de legalizarse a los inmigrantes indocumentados “que tengan más de 20 años viviendo en el país y paguen una multa y aprendan inglés” fue demasiado para los votantes. De legalizar a los inmigrantes a correrlos a todos, mejor correrlos, parece ser la conclusión.

La propuesta básica de Romney, el hijo del mexicano George Romney, “Chihuahua George” para sus cuates, es que los inmigrantes sin papeles se deporten solitos, por cansancio, como consecuencia de hacerles la vida imposible en Estados Unidos. Esa le ganó, al parecer, la votación de tres cuartos de millón de votantes de Florida, contra el medio millón de Newt Gingrich.

El plan es simple: si un inmigrante quiere trabajo, tiene que mostrar papeles; si quiere una licencia, tiene que mostrar papeles; si quiere una identificación, tiene que mostrar papeles; si quiere rentar una casa, tiene que mostrar papeles. Es tan simple que se parece horrorosamente a lo que los Republicanos han tratado de hacer en Alabama, Arizona, Georgia y otros estados, nomás que a nivel nacional. La “consecuencia” de pedirle papeles a todo el mundo por todos lados, dice el mexicanito Mitteo, como le llaman ahora, es que la gente se va a cansar y se va a ir “voluntariamente”.

La idea, además, es que se vayan gratis.

Corría el año 2007 cuando la entonces jefa de La Migra, Julie L. Myers, declaró que “nuestra agencia calcula que costaría por lo menos 94 mil millones de dólares deportar a todos los inmigrantes indocumentados”. Para 2009, el Director de Operaciones de la Migra, Kumar Kibble, declaró en una audiencia pública que “el costo real de arrestar, encarcelar y deportar a cada inmigrante indocumentado es de 12 mil 500 dólares”.

Según Kibble, deportar a 393 mil inmigrantes ese año, había costado unos 4 mil 900 millones de dólares. Por lo

tanto, el costo de deportar a 11 millones de indocumentados para ese año sería de 137 mil 500 millones de dólares. Ese número, lleno de ceros, es exactamente igual al déficit del gobierno federal de noviembre del año pasado. Y son números de 2009…

Que se Vayan Solos

Para este año de 2012, el costo de deportar a todos los sin papeles está calculado en casi 200 mil millones de dólares, considerando entre otras cosas 29 mil millones en arrestos, 3 mil 350 millones en encarcelamiento, 7 mil millones en costos legales, y 6 mil millones en transportación, según dice La Migra. El plan del mexicanito no está mal en los números.

En vez de reventarse una lanota por buscar, arrestar, encarcelar, juzgar y transportar 11 millones de personas, les harían la vida de cuadritos y se van solos. Fácil.

Nomás que no tiene mucho sentido cuando se le compara con la terca realidad real.

La realidad real es que hoy, si un inmigrante quiere trabajo, tiene que mostrar papeles; si quiere una licencia, tiene que mostrar papeles; si quiere una identificación, tiene que mostrar papeles; si quiere rentar una casa en algunos lugares, tiene que mostrar papeles; si se pasa un alto tiene que mostrar papeles; si quiere una licencia comercial tiene que mostrar papeles. Y en muchos empleos, el que tiene que mostrar papeles es el patrón, por aquello del E-Verify, y así por el estilo.

Desde ese punto de vista, la propuesta del radical de derecha Romney es tan simple que se parece horrorosamente a lo que los Demócratas han estado haciendo a nivel nacional desde la Casa Blanca desde hace tres años.

Pero la realidad real es que mucha gente no se ha ido a sus países de origen, sino a pueblos, ciudades y estados menos gachos y ya. Y la realidad real es que los chambeadores que ya de plano no pueden agarrar chamba ni en una agencia temporal se vuelven lo mismo que eran allá en el terruño, vendedores ambulantes de anteojos oscuros y tamales en las banquetas y se quedan y ya.

Pero ni es cuestión de lana ni cuestión de deshacerse de los inmigrantes sin papeles. Ni el plan de Romney de que “se vayan solitos” ni el de Obama de deportar a los más posibles tienen nada que ver con la realidad o con resolver la cuestión migratoria. Tienen que ver con ganar las elecciones y ya.

Contacto Jorge Mújica Murias e mexicodelnorte@yahoo.com.mx

Cathy Espitia, Erendira Ramirez, Bridgette Castillo, Myra Rodriguez, and Isabell Peña.

Unión del Barrio, -an organization that for over 30 years has struggled for the self-determination and liberation of La Raza, and other oppressed poor and working class people,- held a community forum on Thursday January 19, 2012, at the Memorial Senior Center. The Center is located in Memorial Park, found within a mostly Mexican and African American community in San Diego. The objective of the forum was to address the critical issues facing our community and the importance of the participation of women in these particular struggles.

The forum was also part of Unión del Barrio’s ongoing work to build a liberation movement that can challenge the oppressive and violent system known as capitalism that controls most of the world today.

The forum, organized under the theme of “La Mujer: Al Frente de la Lucha por la Liberacion de la Raza”, brought together more than fifty participants, which included men and women, teachers, mothers, students, and community organizers. Also, the Save Our Barrio Committee (SOBC), Association of Raza Educators (ARE), Lindsay Community School, and the Chicano Mexicano Prison Project (CMPP) displayed information and art, and sold their group’s material.

The program began with a welcome by Compañera Isabell Peña, a leading member of Unión del Barrio. Compañera Isabell explained to the audience the importance of participating in events like the forum, which provides a space for ideas to be exchanged and to have a dialogue with different sectors of our community. She stressed that forums help us develop the knowledge and creates the unity that will move our struggle forward. Compañera Isabell specifically referred to the forum as part of the work to build a mujer national liberation conference that will be organized by Unión del Barrio on March 10, 2012, in Los Angeles, California.

The keynote speaker of the forum was Wendy Arroyo, member of the Frente Popular Revolucionario (FPR) Baja, California. A member of the State Committee of the FPR, Compañera Wendy’s main area of work has been working with labor unions, focusing on the defense of workers’ rights.

Compañera Wendy spoke on the role of women in the struggle for national liberation and against capitalism-imperialism. Her presentation began with a personal narrative that describe her participation in an International Women’s Day march.

Compañera Wendy also spoke on the fact that women face oppression and exploitation both at the home and at the work place. Women are not only expected to work 8 hours or sometimes longer at work, but also to come home and fulfill gender roles imposed on her by society, taking care of the household maintenance.

Compañera Wendy concluded her presentation making clear that women and men can only liberate themselves by overturning the capitalist system and creating a socialist-communist society where there will not exist any forms of oppression or inequalities. Central to her position on this matter was that the struggle against oppression cannot be one based on gender, but one based on class, and thus only united can both men and women win their freedom.

The second part of the program was a panel of four women that participate in local community organizations. These women shared with the audience their experiences in organizing and why it is important for women to be part of an organization. The panelists were: Cathy Espitia, a member of Unión del Barrio who was coordinator of the CMPP (Chicano Mexicano Prison Project) for more than five years. Compañera Cathy spoke on the mass imprisonment of Raza and its effects on women and their family. Prisons, she explained, serve to oppressed people of all nationalities, specifically Africans and Mexicans, and make a profit off of their imprisonment. She stressed that the role of women is to raise the consciousness of our community and educate ourselves on the real reasons why there is a mass incarceration of Africans and Mexicans.

Also on the panel were two student leaders from Lincoln High School, Bridgette Castillo and Mayra Rodriguez, who actively participate in school organizations. Compañera Bridgette is a founder and member of Women’s Empowerment Organization, and Compañera Mayra is vice president of Lincoln MEChA (Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán). Both young ladies shared with the audience their perspective on why youth should be involved in the social justice movement. They spoke on the importance of an education that teaches Raza their true history and raises consciousness as a form of empowering youth. Compañera Mayra specifically addressed the need to overturn the cultural dynamic that is so derogatory towards women and the need to create respect amongst young men and women, so that united all can participate in creating a better society.

The last panelist was Erendira Ramirez, an English teacher, and member of Unión del Barrio and ARE (Association of Raza Educators). Compañera Erendira spoke on the role of educators in the struggle for the liberation of la mujer. She expressed that there is an urgent need to be positive role models of struggle for our youth and create a relationship based on respect and equality between the teacher and student. Compañera Erendira explained that a “real educator” enables the student to become critical thinkers with the means to analyze their problems and find ways to resolve them.

Judy de los Santos, Central Committee member of Unión del Barrio and head of the organization’s Women’s Commission, gave a brief update on the Women’s Conference (of March 10, 2012). One of the aims of the conference will be to commemorate International Women’s Day. Judy invited all to attend the conference so that we can promote the participation of women as leaders in a social movement that will destroy the capitalist system that oppresses both women and men alike, a system that does not discriminate by gender only, but exploits all people.

Unión del Barrio believes that the absolute and unequivocal liberation of women is fundamental to any revolutionary organization or social movement. The subjugation of Raza women is a major part of the overall oppression of our people under capitalism and imperialism, and the only solution is organization. Raza-Mexicano/as will not see equality between genders until we are free as a class and are able to self-determine our future as a nation.

We urge all to join an organization, get involved and participate!

You can follow them on FaceBook, http://www.facebook.com/pages/Uni%C3%B3n-del-Barrio/212431572108611?sk=wall

Por: Paco Zavala

El actor Luis Angel Isaias Silva charlando sobre Experiencias de Vida en La Casa del Abuelo.

El presente año es un ciclo de tiempo del que se esperan grandes novedades y expectativas, sobre todo en el campo político, las guerras iniciaron desde hace tiempo y algunas con bastante intransigencia, pero ese es un terreno que en esta nota no tocamos, nos dedicaremos a temas vinculados con el desarrollo del arte y el quehacer cultural.

El Centro Cultural Tijuana ha organizado para este mes de febrero el desarrollo de su programa “Que ruede la bola”, el cual consiste en una serie de actividades que itinerantes de promoción cultural, mismas que se realizarán en sedes alternas, tanto en Tijuana, Mexicali, México, D.F. y Los Angeles, Ca., con la finalidad de difundir, promover y preservar los bienes y servicios culturales, para fomentar el desarrollo humano y mejorar la calidad de vida de los bajacalifornianos y de los mexicanos del sur de California.

Dentro del marco de este programa destacan la presentación de Opera Ambulante, cuyas presentaciones se desarrollarán en sitios alternos al azar; “Experiencias de Vida” que presentará el actor Luis Angel Isaías Silva en la Casa del Abuelo los días viernes y Adriana Cortés, llevará todos los martes, miércoles y jueves del mes el Taller Cecut Verde a la Escuela Indígena de Valle Verde, al igual que a las colonias Altiplano y Pedregal de Santa Julia.

La exposición colectiva de fotografía “Sierra de Juárez” se presentará el viernes 10 de febrero en el Salón Paraninfo de la Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, Campus Mexicali. Dicho evento está vinculado con la presentación del libro “Sierra de Juárez”.

La lectura es uno de los vínculos más fuertes a los pequeños y un acercamiento de esta actividad se realizará el lunes 20 de febrero, con la visita de la Bebeteca Móvil al área pediátrica del Hospital General de Tijuana; el jueves 23 en el Salón Caballito del Palacio de Minería en el Distrito Federal, se presentará la colección Editorial del Cecut 2011, en el marco de la Feria Internacional del Libro y en Los Angeles Ca., en el Whittier College de Los Angeles, Ca., se presentará un libro del maestro Hugo Salcedo, publicado por el Cecut, el cual reúne las obras teatrales, “Noche estrellada sobre el campo de pepinos” y “Nosotras que los queremos tanto”.

El Centro Cultural Tijuana, para este año en el que cumple 30 años de su fundación, ha diseñado una serie de actividades de las cuales en fecha posterior les comentaremos.

El Instituto Municipal de Arte y Cultura, trabaja intensamente a favor de las juventudes tijuanenses, programando, impulsando y proyectando infinidad de actividades que se presentan constantemente en sus diferentes escenarios, como son sus tres Casas de Cultura y Sistema de Bibliotecas de Tijuana.

La CANIRAC de Ensenada y Bodegas de Santos Tomás, están anunciando para el próximo sábado 4 de febrero de 3:00 a 8:00 pm. en la Sala de Tintos de Bodegas de Santo Tomás, en Miramar No. 666 en la zona Centro de Ensenada, la celebración del 3er. Festival del Chocolate, la entrada a este evento es gratuita.

“The new report shows 21.2 percent of California voters have no political party preference, a new all-time high,” said Secretary of State Debra Bowen, the state’s chief elections officer. “The percentage of voters who have no party preference (NPP) – previously known as decline to state voters – has steadily increased in recent years. The previous record high of unaffiliated voters was 20.4 percent of all registered voters, reported in March 2011.”

The Report of Registration includes data gathered 154 days before the June 5 Presidential Primary Election and reflects updates to voter registration rolls in California’s 58 counties, including the removal of registrants who have passed away, moved out of state, or have been determined to be ineligible to vote, as well as the addition of new registrants.

The complete report, which includes voter registration data for a variety of political subdivisions, is on the Secretary of State’s website at www.sos.ca.gov/elections/ror/ror-pages/154day-presprim-12.

Registering to vote is easier than ever, thanks to the Secretary of State’s online fillable form at https://www.sos.ca.gov/nvrc/fedform/ which just needs to be printed, signed and mailed. (The form is even pre-addressed to the registrant’s county elections office.) Californians can also pick up a voter registration form at any U.S. post office, public library or county elections office. Voters can check their registration status through a portal at www.sos.ca.gov/elections/registration-status.

About California’s Primary Elections

California’s Top Two Candidates Open Primary Act, which took effect January 1, 2011, renamed partisan offices as voter-nominated offices, which include state constitutional, state legislative, and U.S. congressional offices. Under the Top Two Candidates Open Primary Act, all candidates for voter-nominated offices are listed on one ballot and only the top two vote-getters in the primary election – regardless of party preference – move on to the general election.

Lamentablemente, y desde que tenemos memoria como especie, el crimen ha hecho parte de la vida del hombre. Nadie está exento. Cualquiera puede ser víctima en algún momento de asaltadores o personas inescrupulosas. Por eso es importante, primero, tomar precauciones y después, por si acaso, saber que hay que hacer.

Un hecho que vulnere nuestra integridad, aun cuando no haya consecuencias corporales, como un robo o un atraco o una circunstancia en la que la fuerza excesiva sea usada como un arma pueden alterar nuestra vida dramáticamente. La violencia en cualquiera de sus formas deja huellas. Debemos saber como manejarla.

Una circunstancia violenta puede dar al traste con la confianza que las personas tengan en sí mismas y en los demás y afectar seriamente el comportamiento y las relaciones humanas de una persona.

Para regresar a la vida normal, cosa que cualquiera está en capacidad de hacer, el individuo que ha sido victimizado necesita el apoyo de su entorno, de sus familiares y amigos.

Actualmente y a nivel nacional existe una gama de servicios y recursos creados para ayudar a las víctimas a recibir justicia y reparación.

La Oficina para Víctimas del Crimen – OVC- del Departamento de Justicia de Estados Unidos es la encargada de garantizar que usted sepa que, de ser víctima de un crimen, tiene derechos y puede recibir la ayuda necesaria.

De acuerdo con esta agencia la mayoría de estados han enmendado sus constituciones para garantizar ciertos derechos a las víctimas del crimen. En general usted tiene el derecho a ser notificado de todos los procedimiento judiciales correspondientes a las ofensas. De ser pertinente, debe asegurarse de la situación particular de su estado, condado o ciudad.

Usted tiene el derecho de ser razonablemente protegido del delincuente acusado y el derecho a declarar y presentar cargos ante los tribunales y el de ser informado acerca de la culpabilidad, sentencia, prisión y liberación del victimario, entre otros.

Dado el caso, usted puede obtener información a través de su programa local de asistencia a las víctimas y testigos de la oficina del Procurador General en su Estado o en las oficinas de los Procuradores o Fiscales Federales.

Existen gran cantidad de programas – estatales, privados o sin fines de lucro – que ofrecen servicios y protección a las víctimas del crimen en todo el país. Las víctimas pueden acceder a servicios compensatorios y de asistencia y obtener reembolsos por los gastos incurridos en razón del crimen.

Entre los crímenes cubiertos están el homicidio, la violación, la conducción de vehículos en estado de embriaguez, la violencia doméstica y el abuso o abandono de menores. Las víctimas pueden obtener auxilio con los gastos médicos, funerales y el lucro cesante o pérdida de ingresos.

Además de los programas de asistencia a las víctimas de crímenes existe una gama de servicios que incluyen refugios de emergencia, defensa ante la justicia penal y transporte.

A través de los años miles de personas que en algún momento fueron víctimas, convirtieron su experiencia en una fuerza de cambio positivo. Víctimas y sobrevivientes de delitos graves, se han dedicado a trabajar para que las víctimas de delitos similares reciban verdadera justicia, asistencia efectiva y un tratamiento compasivo ante la ley.

Si usted ha sido víctima de un crimen lo fundamental es que no se rinda ante el miedo.

Para obtener información sobre los recursos disponibles a nivel nacional y una guía sobre los procesos y beneficios en su estado visite http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/ovc/.

¿Es usted uno de los 18.8 millones de adultos y niños en los Estados Unidos a quien le han diagnosticado diabetes, o tal vez uno de los 7 millones que aún no se diagnostica?

Ya considerada una epidemia nacional, la diabetes es una enfermedad que afecta la capacidad del cuerpo para producir o utilizar insulina, una hormona que produce el páncreas que ayuda a transportar la glucosa (azúcar en la sangre) a las células del cuerpo para que pueda aprovecharse como energía. Sin suficiente insulina, el cuerpo no puede aprovechar el azúcar apropiadamente. Debido a que el azúcar no puede entrar en las células, se acumula en el torrente sanguíneo y altera las funciones normales del cuerpo. Cuando el azúcar en la sangre se mantiene en niveles altos durante períodos prolongados, puede causar daño a los órganos tales como los ojos, riñones, corazón y a las extremidades, incluso si no se presentan síntomas.

Las personas con diabetes o no pueden producir suficiente insulina para procesar el azúcar, o no pueden utilizar correctamente la insulina que generan. Se desconoce la causa exacta de la diabetes, aunque los factores genéticos y ambientales como lo son comer en exceso que puede conducir a la obesidad y la falta de ejercicio, pueden ser factores. Existen una serie de factores que puede afectar su riesgo de diabetes. El riesgo puede ser mayor si usted es afro americano, latino, nativo americano, asiático americano o isleño del Pacífico, tiene antecedentes familiares de diabetes, sobrepeso, lleva una vida sedentaria o desarrolla diabetes durante el embarazo.

Existen dos tipos principales de diabetes. La diabetes tipo 1 es más frecuente en niños y adultos jóvenes. Es una enfermedad autoinmune, lo que significa que el sistema inmunológico del cuerpo ataca por error y destruye sus propias células (beta) productoras de insulina. Por esto, el páncreas deja de producir insulina, o produce sólo una pequeña cantidad. Las personas con diabetes tipo 1 deben ponerse insulina todos los días para mantener su cuerpo funcionando correctamente. Alrededor del 5 al 10 por ciento de la población de Estados Unidos tiene un diagnóstico de diabetes tipo 1.

La diabetes tipo 2 es la forma más común de diabetes y afecta al 90 por ciento de la población estadounidense con diagnóstico de diabetes. Mientras que la diabetes tipo 2 generalmente ocurre en adultos, está aumentando a un ritmo alarmante en los adultos jóvenes y niños. La tipo 2 se desarrolla con el tiempo a consecuencia de los factores de estilo de vida, como la obesidad y la falta de ejercicio; a menudo comienza como una afección conocida como prediabetes, en la que los niveles de glucosa en sangre de la persona son más altos que lo normal, pero aún no lo suficiente elevados como para calificar como diabetes. Es probable que la prediabetes conduzca a la diabetes tipo 2 en un lapso de 10 años; mientras tanto, muchas personas con prediabetes desarrollarán problemas de salud asociados con frecuencia a la misma diabetes.

Si no se trata, la diabetes puede llevar a complicaciones serias, entre ellas, a enfermedades cardíacas, accidentes cerebrovasculares, presión arterial alta, enfermedades renales, ceguera, infección en las extremidades inferiores que puede llevar a la amputación y daño al sistema nervioso periférico.

Por fortuna, una vez que la diabetes se diagnostica se puede tratar. Aunque no hay cura hasta la fecha, los investigadores de la diabetes han hecho avances significativos para entender y tratar la enfermedad. A través del control adecuado de la diabetes, incluyendo medicamentos y cambios en el estilo de vida, las personas con diabetes pueden llevar una vida plena y saludable.

La detección temprana de la diabetes es vital para disminuir las probabilidades de complicaciones futuras. Entre los síntomas más comunes de la diabetes están la micción frecuente, sed o hambre excesiva, pérdida inusual de peso, aumento de fatiga, visión borrosa, heridas que no sanan e infecciones frecuentes. Si usted tiene alguno de estos síntomas, consulte a su médico de inmediato.

Las pruebas de detección de la diabetes, tales como los exámenes de laboratorio que miden el nivel de glucosa en la sangre, pueden identificar la diabetes y determinar el mejor tratamiento. Hay varios tipos de pruebas. Dos requieren ayunar al menos ocho horas antes de la prueba para asegurar que no consumirá nada de lo que puede afectar los resultados del examen, ya que comer o beber puede elevar sus niveles de glucosa en la sangre. La prueba de glucosa en plasma en ayuno mide los niveles de glucosa a primera hora de la mañana después de haber ayunado durante la noche. La prueba de tolerancia oral a la glucosa mide la glucosa en sangre una vez después de haber ayunado. Después, se le da una bebida especial con alto contenido de glucosa para que se la tome; dos horas después de habérsela terminado, se mide de nuevo su nivel de glucosa en sangre. Una prueba más novedosa que no requiere ayunar, la HbA1c, se ha utilizado para medir qué tan bien ha sido controlada su glucosa en sangre durante un período de dos a tres meses. Esta prueba mide el porcentaje de hemoglobina glicosilada, o HbA1c, en la sangre.

Si usted tiene cualquiera de los factores de riesgo para la diabetes, incluyendo antecedentes familiares de diabetes, presión arterial alta, colesterol HDL bajo, triglicéridos altos, o antecedentes de diabetes gestacional, pregunte a su médico si hacerse pruebas es indicado para usted.

La doctora Athena Philis-Tsimikas es especialista en endocrinología con Scripps Health y es vicepresidente corporativo del Scripps Whittier Diabetes Institute. Scripps Mercy Hospital será el anfitrión de un evento gratuito para personas que viven con diabetes y para aquéllos con riesgo de padecer diabetes el próximo 4 de febrero de 2012, de 9 a.m. a 2 p.m. A todos los asistentes se les ofrecerán pruebas de detección, información y la oportunidad de platicar con profesionales de la salud. Para más información, llame al 1-800-SCRIPPS.

For football fans this is a great weekend. The Super Bowl, in all its glory, features the New England Patriots versus the New York Giants. We continue to lament the fact that our San Diego Chargers didn’t even make the playoffs. But wait till next year!

For political junkies the Republican presidential primaries have been entertaining to say the least. From Herman Cain’s plan to electrify the border fence to the front runner Mitt Romney who earns more interest money in one year, over $20 million, than most earn in their whole lifetimes, and the lives of their descendants. To Newt Gingrich who has so much baggage that the Obama people are hoping he wins.

The Republican primary has been fascinating as we have watched the wannabe winners come and go, and the contenders tear at each other. Gingrich, the quintessential bulldog prototype politician is the darling of the extreme right wing and seen as having the aptitude to go after President Obama. Romney is seen as soft, but this too is changing as he has allowed himself to fall to the level of Gingrich as they attack each other, making for good television. That and outrageous amounts of money being spent by these political PACs, mostly on behalf of the Romney campaign. And the Supreme Court, criticized for their decision which allowed PACs to raise and spend without transparency.

Then there is the Sweetwater High School District scandal that has recently exploded. Sweetwater has been a bastion of bad news for quite some time now and with each passing day, as the media frenzy works overtime, more and more bad news keeps coming out.

The latest news was the release of Vega report. After the long delay of its release, it confirmed the feelings of many in the community that illegal political back room deals were being made at the expense of the taxpayer. What will come of this we are anxiously awaiting to see.

The other piece of good news was that a group called ‘Occupy Sweetwater’ attempted to serve the school board members with recall papers. We see this as a good next step. It is time for a clean sweep and a clean board. This board has so many issues and miscues over the years that community confidence in this board is gone.

There are times in life when you need to wash the board clean and start over, this is one of those times. It is time for a fresh start.

Welcome to Black History Month.

The idea originated with historian Carter G. Woodson, best remembered for having published “The Mis-Education of the Negro” in 1933. In it, Woodson argued, “The so-called modern education does others so much more good than it does the Negro, because it has been worked out in conformity with the needs of those who have oppressed weaker people.” Woodson initiated a “Negro History Week” each February, which in 1976 officially became Black History Month.

Woodson chose this month because it includes the birthdays of both Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. By celebrating black history, Woodson believed we would move closer to our nation’s motto of “E Pluribus Unum.”

We’re getting there, but we’re not there yet.

A few months ago I was on a cross-country train ride. I was seated in the observation car alongside several college freshmen. It was a multiracial group, and all the young people were excited by school and the latest fads, music and television shows. One among the gaggle was a young African-American woman.

When the train briefly stopped in Harpers Ferry, W.Va., I rushed to the window because I had to catch a glimpse of the historic site. So did the African-American college freshman. But her friends were less than wowed.

“This is Harpers Ferry,” she explained. “You know, where John Brown … The raid.”

Her friends wore blank expressions.

“You’re kidding,” she finally said with a sigh.

Ignorant of a moment in history they had never been taught — or which they had covered cursorily and then forgotten — the others could only shrug.

These young people were united in many ways, but they had not inherited a common history.

Woodson would not have been happy.

In his vision, the students would all have a modicum of knowledge of the American Revolution, the Constitutional Convention, Presidents Washington and Lincoln, Gens. Grant and Lee, Thomas Edison, World Wars I and II. But they would also share in equal parts knowledge of the Middle Passage, the stories of Olaudah Equiano, Benjamin Banneker, Sojourner Truth, John Brown, Reconstruction, the Buffalo Soldiers, James Weldon Johnson, the Great Migration, Emmett Till and the many heroes of the struggle for civil rights who preceded Martin Luther King.

Yes, today, we have a president who is a black American, and de jure segregation is a thing of the past. But we don’t yet have a shared history of who we are as a nation.

That’s why Black History Month is so important.

Many public libraries will post a Black History Month reading list. Please make use of the recommended titles.

Many schools will offer special programs or assemblies on the month. Please encourage your children or grandchildren to attend.

Black History Month is intended to escort us toward an honorable goal.

Let’s reach it together.

Darryl Lorenzo Wellington is a poet and journalist living in Santa Fe, N.M. He can be reached at pmproj@progressive.org. Reprinted from The Progressive (http://www.progressive.org/)

Commentary:
By Juan Cartagena

During the very first week of the new year of 2012 came news of the loss of Robert Carter and Gordon Hirabayashi, two giants in this country’s civil rights movement and two beacons of light for the Latino community. They died only one day apart.

Gordon Hirabayashi is one of three fearless Japanese American leaders who used the courts to resist the nation’s misguided and racist round up and detention of citizens of Japanese ancestry during World War II. In separate prosecutions, Hirabayashi, along with Fred Koretmatsu and Minoru Yasui, stood up to a federal executive apparatus that used the threat of national security to deliberately engage in the purposeful detention of persons because of their race with no individualized determination of disloyalty.

Hirabayahsi, an American born citizen, was studying in Washington State. He refused to register with the federal authorities, refused to obey the curfews imposed upon the Japanese, and was eventually jailed and convicted. In effect, he engaged in that quintessential American act: he dissented. Decades later, his conviction was overruled and the country paid him and other Japanese Americans reparations for the country’s acts during war time.

Latinos also know firsthand the direct effects of being corralled in the name of national interests. During the Great Depression of 1929, half a million people of Mexican descent, from Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit and Denver, nearly half of them citizens of the U.S., were detained and deported to Mexico as a way to increase jobs for other Americans.

In 1954 another one million persons of Mexican heritage were detained as part of a quasi-military offensive called Operation Wetback aimed at ridding the country of undocumented immigrants. Regardless of citizenship, these Texas residents were then bused, flown and shipped deep into Mexico to make their return even more difficult.

Today’s profiling of Latino immigrants by untrained local police forces in many states echoes these round ups of yesteryear. “My citizenship didn’t protect me one bit. Our Constitution was reduced to a scrap of paper,” Hirabayashi noted. And yet, in Hirabayashi Latinos have a model to follow; a principled person who refused to accept this abuse, and used the law to right a historical wrong.

Robert Carter is a giant in the world of civil rights, one of the masterminds of the strategy that led to the desegregation of our nation’s public schools and the dismantling of separate-but-equal doctrine. At that time, Robert Carter was part of the team of attorneys at the NAACP and one of the advocates for presenting social scientific evidence to the courts to document the psychic harm of racism and Jim Crow on the nation’s black children.

In that vein, Mr. Carter also played a significant role in the arguments presented in the seminal Mendez v. Westminster case by coauthoring an amicus curiae brief to support the Mexican plaintiffs in California. The decision in Mendez resulted in the first court opinion to recognize that segregation of schoolchildren – in that case, Mexican and Latino children — creates an irreparable sense of inferiority among minority children. And these very same arguments were presented successfully in Brown v. Board of Education, years later.

Robert Carter also had a direct connection to the LatinoJustice PRLDEF (then known as the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund) when he became a federal district court judge in New York City. Judge Carter presided over Guardians Association v. Civil Service Commission where our attorneys successfully proved that the City’s civil service examinations for police officers discriminated against Black and Latino police candidates. Judge Carter’s decision in our favor was eventually upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1983 and paved the way for the increased diversity of the city’s police force.

Judge Carter also presided over the trial of housing discrimination claims by Puerto Rican and Latino residents seeking entry into the exclusive Grand Street cooperative apartments in the Lower East Side in the 1980s, in Huertas v. East River Housing Corp. Judge Carter ruled in favor of the Latino community’s claims that they were systematically prevented from applying to these units, opening up the opportunity to integrate these 4,500 moderate income cooperative apartments.

LatinoJustice PRLDEF Special Counsel, Richard Bellman, noted that “Bob Carter represented the best of the civil rights bar. He was a dedicated and innovative advocate who never wavered from insisting on true equality for all. Indicative of his passion was his consistent position on the evils of de facto segregation, even when the courts stood idly by and allowed it”. Robert Carter had an incredible reputation as a no-nonsense civil rights attorney and advocate and as a person who constantly pushed the envelope to expose American racism.

They both stand as models for the growing Latino community today. And they both have contributed greatly to the platform that allows LatinoJustice PRLDEF and other Latino civil rights advocates to protect the rights of Latinos throughout the country.

Juan Cartagena can be reached at jcartagena@latinojustice.org. Reprinted from the National Institute for Latino Policy (www.latinopolicy.org).

Teresa Wiltz in America’s Wire writes that despite claims of increased educational opportunities for minorities that the performance of black and Latino teenagers remains the same or lower than 30 years ago. In fact, the math and reading performance of black and Latino high school seniors equal that of 13-year-old white students – so much for the post racial society.

Educators and liberal politicos point the finger at low expectations, inequality of resources, less qualified teachers, the income inequality, teacher bias, and inexperienced teachers. They throw in the tracking of black and brown students into remedial class while whites are put into university bound classes.

Further, minority students are more likely to be given “A’s” for work that would receive a “C” in a rich school giving the illusion that they are being educated. Society would not tolerate this record in a football team at any level, or for that matter if we had fewer weapons of mass destruction than 30 years ago.

However, in my view, the major reason for the lack of progress of Mexican American and other minorities is society’s historical amnesia or more aptly its Alzheimer disorder that erases the memory of previous efforts or commitments to bridge the gap between black, brown and white – rich and poor.

The truth be told, educators pay less attention today to Mexican Americans than it did 50 years ago. In the sixties educators and reporters at least talked about it. The late Los Angeles Times’ columnist Ruben Salazar attacked the dropout problem and the failure of the schools to devise a relevant curriculum, as well as the failure to recruit and train effective Mexican American teachers.

In February 1963, Salazar began a series on Mexican American education. He titled his first article, “What Causes Jose’s Trouble in School?: Mexican-Americans Problems Analyzed.” Salazar begins:

Kicked out of school, Jose Mendez at 16 has been trapped in a peculiar twilight zone of American life. They tested him, graded him and pigeonholed him…say some educators, the fault may lie in the tests and the teachers –not in Jose. Educational policy and curriculum are oriented towards the education of the middle-class, monolingual, monocultural English-speaking student… [Jose] is at a great dis-advantage…[he] is a hyphenated American, a Mexican-American … he is culturally confused.

Salazar interviewed educators, Drs. George I. Sánchez, Paul Sheldon, Julian Samora and high school teacher Marcos de Leon on why José was dropping out of school. They attributed the dropout problem to the Mexican American’s inferiority complex, which has intensified his marginalization.

Salazar blamed the schools for the Mexican Americans failure. Schools nurtured a negative self-image, which was reinforced by the movies and literature, and failed to correct the stereotyping of poor Mexicans. It was a vicious cycle: the schools did think Mexicans could not learn, students developed a low esteem, they failed and dropped out.

The experts advocated bilingual-bicultural education, and initially there was a consensus for these programs, from President Lyndon B. Johnson to Republican St. Ronald Reagan. Yet, the Greek Chorus gained traction and labeled the programs separatist, un-American and racist. This nativist movement allied itself with right wing thinks tanks and foundations, and by the beginning of the 21st century, bilingual ed died a violent death.

By and large educators were mute as bilingual programs were wiped out and university based teacher training programs specializing on Mexican Americans were eliminated. At teacher training institutions grade point average was favored over knowledge of the child’s background. Although Latinos comprised 75 percent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, student teachers were given minimal preparation on how to teach Latino students.

The dropout was one of the major reasons for the development of Chicano Studies in 1969. A solution was sought for the high dropout problem that was overexposing Latino students to a life of poverty and not incidentally to the Vietnam draft. One of my first books Cultures in Conflict: Case Studies of the Mexican American was written for fifth graders. The purpose was to build a positive image in order to facilitate the acquisition of skills. These skills would prepare students to enter which ever field they wanted.

The importance of self-image is common sense. I remember looking for engineering computer lab with my future wife at UCLA in the 1980s. We asked several students if they knew where the computer lab was. They all gave us blank looks. Finally, we asked a Latino student who told us to ask an Asian. We did and she told us where it was. Talking to Asian fiends they told me that they exceled in math because the teachers expected them to.

Looking back at my own life, I was fortunate that I ended up in a Jesuit high school where I had to take four years of Latin. My relatives would notice my Latin book on the table, would ask my mother who it belonged to, and they would remark that Rudy must be smart. In contrast, in the first grade, before I knew English, I was pushed out of public school as mentally retarded.

When I became smart, that is adhered to their rules, anytime a Mexican student would act up, other teachers would ask me why? When I told them, they generally did not like the answer. They thought I was flip when I said that my solution for the marginalization of Mexicans was to rewrite the bible and substitute the word Mexican for Israeli. In a couple of decades, Mexicans would start looking at themselves as the “chosen people.”

This identity has helped Jews survive and endure over 2,000 years of persecution. In my view it comes down to self-image.

This was the premise of the Tucson Unified School District’s program. It was the repairing the damage done by marginalization – of being written out of history. The thinking was that learning history, literature and the arts though their viewpoint would repair the image of the greaser, the loser and the numerous other stereotypes.

From the beginning, the xenophobes tried to send the Mexican American Studies program down the same path as bilingual education. It was unpatriotic to learn any language other than English, it was un-American to learn history other than the American way.

The reasoning ignored the past; it was as if the debates of the sixties and seventies never occurred. They disregarded pedagogical principles that even St. Ronald accepted.

One of the books banned in Tucson was Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed. It was based on a highly successful literacy campaign conducted in Brazil. The xenophobes’ main argument is that Freire was a Marxist, which is ridiculous since the pedagogy goes back to Socrates. With that aside, would we cast aside a cure for cancer because the researcher was a Marxist?

The Cambium Learning Corp’s Curriculum Audit of the Tucson Mexican American Studies Department which was commissioned by Arizona Superintendent of Schools John Huppenthal and cost the $177,000 concluded,

No observable evidence exists that instruction within Mexican American Studies Department promotes resentment towards a race or class of people. The auditors observed the opposite, as students are taught to be accepting of multiple ethnicities of people. MASD teachers are teaching Cesar Chavez alongside Martin Luther King, Jr. and Gandhi, all as peaceful protesters who sacrificed for people and ideas they believed in. Additionally, all ethnicities are welcomed into the program and these very students of multiple backgrounds are being inspired and taught in the same manner as Mexican American students. All evidence points to peace as the essence for program teachings. Resentment does not exist in the context of these courses observable evidence exists that instruction within Mexican American Studies Department promotes resentment towards a race or class of people… No evidence as seen by the auditors exists to indicate that instruction within Mexican American Studies Department program classes advocates ethnic solidarity; rather it has been proven to treat student as individuals.

There has not been any credible proof to refute claims that the program has improved chances of graduation, improved the students’ self-images, and motivated them to pursue a higher education.

A society that has historical dementia or Alzheimers cannot correct the defects of the present just like it cannot correct racism, sexism or homophobia.

Stupidity and fanaticism led to the destruction of the most transformative movements in Latin American, Liberation Theology. The forces of reaction in order to protect the large landowners redbaited Liberation Theology and substituted a reactionary evangelical Christian movement that promised that their reward would come in the next world. So it is in Arizona.

With the destruction of Mexican American Studies and the banning of the books, Mexican Americans are being put in their place. Vicariously, they are burning the infidels. The difference is that students are fighting back! They are reading books and will remember that anybody can learn. It is their right.

Ha sido dicho anteriormente, pero tiene que repetirse. Los hispanos no son votantes preocupados por un solo tema. Esto, a pesar de la narrativa que la prensa hispana y el lobby hispano propagan. Los hispanos están preocupados por temas más allá del asunto migratorio. Esto fue recientemente confirmado en una encuesta realizada por ImpreMedia que destacó que la economía, y no el tema migratorio, es la máxima preocupación para el electorado hispano.

Claro que no escuchará a muchos de los partidarios del presidente citando este último sondeo ya que es mucho más fácil pintar a los conservadores como antihispanos debido a su oposición a la inmigración ilegal. Tampoco escuchará que la mayoría de los conservadores apoyan el aumento de más modelos de inmigración legal ya que el presidente está más preocupado por ganar las elecciones que ganar en la esencia de problema.

Eso es lo que precisamente buscan los hispanos si tenemos en cuenta que se necesita desesperadamente que Estados Unidos vuelva a ser lo que muchos vinieron buscando en estas costas.

Para la mayoría de los hispanos que son inmigrantes o hijos de inmigrantes, el empleo y la oportunidad de ganarse la vida de mejor forma han sido los principales atractivos para venir aquí y dejar todo atrás. Sin embargo, algunos están convencidos de que los hispanos se sienten naturalmente atraídos a la idea del Estado omnipresente como el principal proveedor de bienes y servicios a perpetuidad y nunca adoptarían una visión conservadora de Estados Unidos.

Estas son las mismas personas que no quieren que sepamos que más de 600 conservadores hispanos y 150 medios de comunicación se reunirán para celebrar la conferencia de la Red de Liderazgo Hispano (Hispanic Leadership Network) en Miami con el propósito de ahondar en las cuestiones políticas que afectan a nuestro país, incluyendo los casi 50,5 millones de hispanos.

Por ejemplo: ¿Qué se puede hacer para reducir el índice de desempleo entre los hispanos que está muy por encima del 10%? O ¿qué hacer con el número preocupante de los estudiantes hispanos que abandonan la secundaria?

En la conferencia se hablará de libertad, no un gobierno grande, y ello ocupará un lugar destacado en las respuestas de los voceros y panelistas cuando se hable de cuestiones urgentes que afectan a los americanos.

Algunos podrían querer que creamos que los hispanos están especialmente centrados en las opiniones políticas sobre la reforma de inmigración sin tener en cuenta otros aspectos importantes. No se lo crea. Y, como una reciente encuesta realizada en la Florida revela, con una mayoría de hispanos diciendo que el país va por el camino equivocado, hay apetito por una alternativa a la política de identificación perfeccionada por la izquierda.

Si la reunión de esta semana sirve de indicación, los hispanos están prestando atención a la exhortación de vivir en un país fundado en una mayor libertad y responsabilidad personal.

Dear Mexican: My cousin had put a picture on Facebook that said, “I will not be forced to learn a foreign language to accommodate illegals in my country.” He’s Mexican-American. Our family is from La Luz, Zacatecas, and its surrounding villages. His dad (my uncle) was born here in El Paso, Texas. His mom jumped in the conversation and backed him up. His parents are divorced. How do I politely tell them they are wrong with their way of thinking?

Prepared to Punch a Pinche Pocho Primo

Dear Wab: Sorry, cabrón, but you’re just not going to win this battle. As much as I and other Chicano yaktivists would love it that everyone of Mexican descent in this country were a card-carrying member of the Reconquista complete with Nahuatl names and a Frida-filled house, that’s just not going to happen. As I’ve explained muchos times before, the great thing about this country is how it can turn the descendents of even the biggest wab into an anti-immigrant loon by the second generation (see: Marco Rubio) and even by the first (see: my parents). The best you can tell your cousin is remind him that your grandparents came to this country to find a better life, not to talk trash on those less fortunate than them—but, again, it’s a losing battle that goes contrary to the American immigrant experience, which sees the previous generation of immigrants spit on newcomers as if they were a spittoon. So can I suggest something revolutionary, instead? Leave your primo to his opinions. Let him be a prieto Know Nothing. You be the conscious cousin, and let him be the pocho one—trust me, you’ll get all the hot second cousins at the family pachangas, while he’ll be condemned to be the Tio Taco of El Paso.

You explain the etymology of words so well! Please enlighten your readers with the explanation of the word prieto, as opposed to moreno.

La Que le Gustan los Morenos

Dear She Who Likes Brown-Skinned Men: Prieto is derived from apretar (“press”), from the Late Latin appectorâre (“to press against one’s chest“), but in Mexico it denotes a dark hue, one veering on blackness. Moreno, on the other hand, comes from moro, the Spanish word for Moor, and usually signifies a dark brown—you know, like a Moor! (How we got prieto to mean “blackish” from its pressing roots escapes me). But these are general definitions, as their meaning shifts across the color prism depending on who’s talking and what century. In the present day, prieto is usually reserved as a term for parents to describe their darkest-skinned kid, a description as injurious to a young soul as calling them “tubby” or “Newt Gingrich.”

CONFIDENTIAL TO: Vickie Carr. I’ve received autographed books by legendary playwright David Mamet, was able to interview Louie Perez and David Hidalgo of Los Lobos in front of a live audience in Oakland, have had Cheech Marin enthusiastically shake my hand and proclaim himself a fan—the celebrity readers of this columna and their generosity toward me knows no bounds. But to get an autographed glossy photo of you thanking me for my work? You’ve made this hombre blush enough to last the year. Gracias for the kind words, and for being such a great role model for our community. ¡Eres chingona!

Ask the Mexican at themexican@askamexican.net, be his fan on Facebook, follow him on Twitter or ask him a video question at youtube.com/askamexicano!

Published: 2/3, 10, 17/2012 La Prensa San Diego

REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL

The San Diego Housing Commission (SDHC) is soliciting proposals for Project No. GAHCS-12-01 General Affordable Housing Consulting Services. Interested and qualified firms including small businesses, minority, women and disabled veteran owned businesses are invited to submit responses. The proposal package with complete instructions is available for download at www.demandstar.com. If you do not have a username and password for the Onvia DemandStar website, please register at www.demandstar.com/register.rsp and select the FREE AGENCY option.

San Diego Housing Commission
1122 Broadway, Suite 300
San Diego, California 92101
Contact: Greg Wellong (619) 578-7571
Email: gregwel@sdhc.org

Sealed proposals marked, “General Affordable Housing Consulting Services (GAHCS-12-01)” will be received until Wednesday, February 15, 2012 at 2:00 p.m. (PST) at the above location. Late proposals will not be accepted.

Published: 2/3/2012 La Prensa San Diego

NOTICE TO CONTRACTORS
BID No. 189

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that Southwestern Community College District of San Diego County, California, acting by and through its Governing Board, hereinafter referred to as the “DISTRICT” will receive up to, but no later than 10:00 AM of the 29th day of February, 2012, sealed Bids, No. 189, for the award of a contract for Southwestern College Central Plant Concrete and Grading Project”. Bids shall be addressed to John R. Brown, Director of Facilities, Operations and Planning and received at the office of Southwestern College Business, Operations and Planning; Building 1620, Room 1625 located at900 Otay Lakes Road,Chula Vista,CA 91910, and shall be opened on the date and at the time listed above at Prop R Offices, Room 1688.

Bid documents will be available on February 3, 2012. Contractors interested in obtaining bid documents must contact Professional Reprographics at 1440 Imperial Avenue, San Diego CA. 92101 or (619) 272-5600. CD’s are available for a $10.00 fee. Documents may also be viewed and/or downloaded at no cost by visiting www.southwesterncollegeproprplanroom.com. Please note that you will need to login under your company’s name and password in order to download the plans. If you do not have a company login and/or password, please register with the site first. If you have questions about registering, downloading or ordering, please contact Mark Caldwell at (619) 272-5600. Obtaining copies of the bid documents is the responsibility of the bidder and any costs are non-refundable. Bidders are also responsible for checking the website noted above for any addenda that may be posted.

 Each bid shall be accompanied by the security referred to in the contract documents, the non-collusion affidavit, the list of proposed subcontractors, and all additional documentation required by the Instructions to Bidders.

The successful bidder shall file a payment bond issued by an admitted Surety approved to conduct business in the State of California approved by the District in the form set forth in the contract documents.1

 The District reserves the right to reject any or all bids or to waive any irregularities or informalities in any bids or in the bidding.

The Director of Industrial Relations has determined the general prevailing rate of per diem wages in the locality in which this work is to be performed for each craft or type of worker needed to execute the contract, which will be awarded to the successful bidder, copies of which, are on file and, will be made available to any interested party upon request at Southwestern Community College. It shall be mandatory upon the Contractor to whom the contract is awarded, and upon any subcontractor under him, to pay not less than the said specified rates to all workers employed by them in the execution of the contract.

Minority, women, and disabled veteran contractors are encouraged to submit bids. This bid is subject to Disabled Veteran Business Enterprise requirements.

This contract is subject to a labor compliance program, as described in subdivision (b) of section 1771.5 of the Labor Code.

Each bidder shall be a licensed contractor pursuant to the California Business and Professions Code Section 7028.15 and Public Contract Code Section 3300, and shall be licensed in the following classification as required by the scope of work required in the above called out bid packages: C8, Concrete, Any bidder not licensed at the time of the bid opening will be rejected as non-responsive.

Contractors shall have been in business under the same name and California contractor’s license for a minimum of three (3) continuous years prior to bid opening.

A MANDATORY bidder’s conference will be held at Southwestern College, Building 620-LRC, Room L238 North/South on Wednesday, February 15, 2012 at 10:00 AM. for the purpose of acquainting all prospective bidders with the bid documents and the work site.

Please forward any questions to the Construction Manager at Risk Balfour Beatty Construction Howard Eng, heng@balfourbeattyus.com. Contractors shall reference the bid number in the email subject line. The final day for questions shall be February 21th, 2012, no later than 4:00 PM..

No bidder may withdraw his bid for a period of ninety (90) days after the date set for the opening of bids.

Dated this: February 3, of 2012

Secretary to the Governing Board
Melinda Nish, Ed.D.
Southwestern Community College District
of San Diego County, California

 1 A payment bond must be filed for a contract involving an expenditure in excess of $25,000 (Civil Code section 3247(a)) and may be required for contracts involving smaller expenditures at the option of the District. 

Published: 2/3,10/2012 La Prensa San Diego

NOTICE TO CONTRACTORS
BID No. 191

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that Southwestern Community College District of San Diego County, California, acting by and through its Governing Board, hereinafter referred to as the “DISTRICT” will receive up to, but no later than 10:00 AM of the 1st day of March, 2012, sealed Bids, No. 191, for the award of a contract for Southwestern College Central Plant Structural Steel, Steel Decking and Metal Fabrications Project”. Bids shall be addressed to John R. Brown, Director of Facilities, Operations and Planning and received at the office of Southwestern College Business, Operations and Planning; Building 1620, Room 1625 located at 900 Otay Lakes Road, Chula Vista, CA 91910, and shall be opened on the date and at the time listed above at Prop R Offices, Room 1688.

Bid documents will be available on February 3, 2012. Contractors interested in obtaining bid documents must contact Professional Reprographics at 1440 Imperial Avenue, San Diego CA. 92101 or (619) 272-5600. CD’s are available for a $10.00 fee. Documents may also be viewed and/or downloaded at no cost by visiting www.southwesterncollegeproprplanroom.com. Please note that you will need to login under your company’s name and password in order to download the plans. If you do not have a company login and/or password, please register with the site first. If you have questions about registering, downloading or ordering, please contact Mark Caldwell at (619) 272-5600. Obtaining copies of the bid documents is the responsibility of the bidder and any costs are non-refundable. Bidders are also responsible for checking the website noted above for any addenda that may be posted.

Each bid shall be accompanied by the security referred to in the contract documents, the non-collusion affidavit, the list of proposed subcontractors, and all additional documentation required by the Instructions to Bidders.

The successful bidder shall file a payment bond issued by an admitted Surety approved to conduct business in the State of California approved by the District in the form set forth in the contract documents.1

 The District reserves the right to reject any or all bids or to waive any irregularities or informalities in any bids or in the bidding.

The Director of Industrial Relations has determined the general prevailing rate of per diem wages in the locality in which this work is to be performed for each craft or type of worker needed to execute the contract, which will be awarded to the successful bidder, copies of which are on file and will be made available to any interested party upon request at Southwestern Community College. It shall be mandatory upon the Contractor to whom the contract is awarded, and upon any subcontractor under him, to pay not less than the said specified rates to all workers employed by them in the execution of the contract.

Minority, women, and disabled veteran contractors are encouraged to submit bids. This bid is subject to Disabled Veteran Business Enterprise requirements.

This contract is subject to a labor compliance program, as described in subdivision (b) of section 1771.5 of the Labor Code.

Each bidder shall be a licensed contractor pursuant to the California Business and Professions Code Section 7028.15 and Public Contract Code Section 3300, and shall be licensed in the following classification as required by the scope of work required in the above called out bid packages: C51, Structural Steel, Any bidder not licensed at the time of the bid opening will be rejected as non-responsive.

Contractors shall have been in business under the same name and California contractor’s license for a minimum of three (3) continuous years prior to bid opening.

A MANDATORY bidder’s conference will be held at Southwestern College, Building 620-LRC, Room L238 North/South on Wednesday, February 15, 2012 at 10:00 AM. for the purpose of acquainting all prospective bidders with the bid documents and the work site.

Please forward any questions to the Construction Manager at Risk Balfour Beatty Construction Howard Eng, heng@balfourbeattyus.com. Contractors shall reference the bid number in the email subject line. The final day for questions shall be February 21th, 2012 no later than 4:00 PM.

No bidder may withdraw his bid for a period of ninety (90) days after the date set for the opening of bids.

 Dated this: February 3, of 2012

 Secretary to the Governing Board
Melinda Nish, Ed.D.
Southwestern Community College District
of San Diego County, California

1 A payment bond must be filed for a contract involving an expenditure in excess of $25,000 (Civil Code section 3247(a)) and may be required for contracts involving smaller expenditures at the option of the District. 

Published: 2/3,10/2012 La Prensa San Diego

NOTICE TO CONTRACTORS
BID No. 190

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that Southwestern Community College District of San Diego County, California, acting by and through its Governing Board, hereinafter referred to as the “DISTRICT” will receive up to, but no later than 1:00 PM of the 29th day of February, 2012, sealed Bids, No. 190, for the award of a contract for Southwestern College Central Plant Masonry Project”. Bids shall be addressed to John R. Brown, Director of Facilities, Operations and Planning and received at the office of Southwestern College Business, Operations and Planning; Building 1620, Room 1625 located at 900 Otay Lakes Road, Chula Vista, CA 91910, and shall be opened on the date and at the time listed above at Prop R Offices, Room 1688.

Bid documents will be available on February 3, 2012. Contractors interested in obtaining bid documents must contact Professional Reprographics at 1440 Imperial Avenue, San Diego CA. 92101 or (619) 272-5600. CD’s are available for a $10.00 fee. Documents may also be viewed and/or downloaded at no cost by visiting www.southwesterncollegeproprplanroom.com. Please note that you will need to login under your company’s name and password in order to download the plans. If you do not have a company login and/or password, please register with the site first. If you have questions about registering, downloading or ordering, please contact Mark Caldwell at (619) 272-5600. Obtaining copies of the bid documents is the responsibility of the bidder and any costs are non-refundable. Bidders are also responsible for checking the website noted above for any addenda that may be posted.

 Each bid shall be accompanied by the security referred to in the contract documents, the non-collusion affidavit, the list of proposed subcontractors, and all additional documentation required by the Instructions to Bidders. 

The successful bidder shall file a payment bond issued by an admitted Surety approved to conduct business in the State of California approved by the District in the form set forth in the contract documents.1

 The District reserves the right to reject any or all bids or to waive any irregularities or informalities in any bids or in the bidding.

The Director of Industrial Relations has determined the general prevailing rate of per diem wages in the locality in which this work is to be performed for each craft or type of worker needed to execute the contract, which will be awarded to the successful bidder, copies of which, are on file and, will be made available to any interested party upon request at Southwestern Community College. It shall be mandatory upon the Contractor to whom the contract is awarded, and upon any subcontractor under him, to pay not less than the said specified rates to all workers employed by them in the execution of the contract.

Minority, women, and disabled veteran contractors are encouraged to submit bids. This bid is subject to Disabled Veteran Business Enterprise requirements.

This contract is subject to a labor compliance program, as described in subdivision (b) of section 1771.5 of the Labor Code.

Each bidder shall be a licensed contractor pursuant to the California Business and Professions Code Section 7028.15 and Public Contract Code Section 3300, and shall be licensed in the following classification as required by the scope of work required in the above called out bid packages: C29, Masonry, Any bidder not licensed at the time of the bid opening will be rejected as non-responsive.

Contractors shall have been in business under the same name and California contractor’s license for a minimum of three (3) continuous years prior to bid opening.

A MANDATORY bidder’s conference will be held at Southwestern College, Building 620-LRC, Room L238 North on Monday February 15, 2012 at 10:00 AM. for the purpose of acquainting all prospective bidders with the bid documents and the work site.

Please forward any questions to the Construction Manager at Risk Balfour Beatty Construction Howard Eng, heng@balfourbeattyus.com. Contractors shall reference the bid number in the email subject line. The final day for questions shall be February 15th , 2012 no later than 4 pm.

No bidder may withdraw his bid for a period of ninety (90) days after the date set for the opening of bids. 

Dated this: February 3, of 2012 

Secretary to the Governing Board
Melinda Nish, Ed. D.
Southwestern Community College District
of San Diego County, California

1 A payment bond must be filed for a contract involving an expenditure in excess of $25,000 (Civil Code section 3247(a)) and may be required for contracts involving smaller expenditures at the option of the District. 

Published: 2/3,10/2012 La Prensa San Diego

NOTICE TO CONTRACTORS
BID No. 192

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that Southwestern Community College District of San Diego County, California, acting by and through its Governing Board, hereinafter referred to as the “DISTRICT” will receive up to, but no later than 1:00 PM of the 1st day of March, 2012, sealed Bids, No. 192, for the award of a contract for Southwestern College Central Plant Electrical Project”. Bids shall be addressed to John R. Brown, Director of Facilities, Operations and Planning and received at the office of Southwestern College Business, Operations and Planning; Building 1620, Room 1625 located at 900 Otay Lakes Road, Chula Vista, CA 91910, and shall be opened on the date and at the time listed above at Prop R Offices, Room1688.

Bid documents will be available on February 3, 2012. Contractors interested in obtaining bid documents must contact Professional Reprographics at 1440 Imperial Avenue, San Diego CA. 92101 or (619) 272-5600. CD’s are available for a $10.00 fee. Documents may also be viewed and/or downloaded at no cost by visiting www.southwesterncollegeproprplanroom.com. Please note that you will need to login under your company’s name and password in order to download the plans. If you do not have a company login and/or password, please register with the site first. If you have questions about registering, downloading or ordering, please contact Mark Caldwell at (619) 272-5600. Obtaining copies of the bid documents is the responsibility of the bidder and any costs are non-refundable. Bidders are also responsible for checking the website noted above for any addenda that may be posted. 

Each bid shall be accompanied by the security referred to in the contract documents, the non-collusion affidavit, the list of proposed subcontractors, and all additional documentation required by the Instructions to Bidders. 

The successful bidder shall file a payment bond issued by an admitted Surety approved to conduct business in the State of California approved by the District in the form set forth in the contract documents.1

 The District reserves the right to reject any or all bids or to waive any irregularities or informalities in any bids or in the bidding.

The Director of Industrial Relations has determined the general prevailing rate of per diem wages in the locality in which this work is to be performed for each craft or type of worker needed to execute the contract, which will be awarded to the successful bidder, copies of which are on file and will be made available to any interested party upon request at Southwestern Community College. It shall be mandatory upon the Contractor to whom the contract is awarded, and upon any subcontractor under him, to pay not less than the said specified rates to all workers employed by them in the execution of the contract.

Minority, women, and disabled veteran contractors are encouraged to submit bids. This bid is subject to Disabled Veteran Business Enterprise requirements.

This contract is subject to a labor compliance program, as described in subdivision (b) of section 1771.5 of the Labor Code.

Each bidder shall be a licensed contractor pursuant to the California Business and Professions Code Section 7028.15 and Public Contract Code Section 3300, and shall be licensed in the following classification as required by the scope of work required in the above called out bid packages: C10, Electrical, Any bidder not licensed at the time of the bid opening will be rejected as non-responsive.

Contractors shall have been in business under the same name and California contractor’s license for a minimum of three (3) continuous years prior to bid opening.

A MANDATORY bidder’s conference will be held at Southwestern College, Building 620-LRC, Room L238 North/South on Wednesday, February 16, 2012 at 10:00 AM. for the purpose of acquainting all prospective bidders with the bid documents and the work site.

Please forward any questions to the Construction Manager at Risk Balfour Beatty Construction Howard Eng, heng@balfourbeattyus.com. Contractors shall reference the bid number in the email subject line. The final day for questions shall be February 21th no later than 4 PM.

No bidder may withdraw his bid for a period of ninety (90) days after the date set for the opening of bids. 

Dated this: February 3, of 2012 

Secretary to the Governing Board
Melinda Nish, Ed. D.
Southwestern Community College District
of San Diego County, California

 1 A payment bond must be filed for a contract involving an expenditure in excess of $25,000 (Civil Code section 3247(a)) and may be required for contracts involving smaller expenditures at the option of the District. 

Published: 2/3,10/2012 La Prensa San Diego

PUBLIC NOTICE

El Departamento Naval (DoN) de los Estados Unidos (U.S.) da aviso, de acuerdo al Decreto Nacional de Politica Ambiental (NEPA por su siglas en Ingles) de 1969, el Consejo de Normas de Calidad Ambiental (CEQ) del Código de Reglamentos Federales (CFR) 40 partes 1500–1508 y regulaciones NEPA de La Marina 32 CFR parte 775, que se ha preparado un borrador de Evaluación Ambiental (EA) para el proyecto que propone el alojamiento a puerto de Buques Litorales de Combate (BLC) en la Costa Oeste de los Estados Unidos. Este borrador de EA estará disponible para revisión y comentarios durante 30 días (a partir del 3 de Febrero del 2012 y hasta el 5 de Marzo del 2012).

Bajo la alternativa preferida para la implementación de la acción propuesta, La Marina propone el alojamiento a Puerto de hasta 16 BLC, los cuales incluyen los 4 BLC inicialmente evaluados en Diciembre del 2005, en la EA Para El Alojamiento a Puerto de Cuatro Buques de Vuelo de Buque Litoral de Combate 0, en la Base Naval de San Diego. Este borrador de EA evalúa los posibles impactos ambientales a causa de la aplicación de la alternativa preferida utilizando una combinación de instalaciones existentes en la zona Sur de California y acomodando las tripulaciones necesarias y sistemas aéreos no tripulados (es decir, MQ-8B Firescouts, para almacenarse y probar vuelos en la Base Naval del Ventura Condado en Point Mugu) para los BLC.

El Borrador de EA esta disponible para la revisión y comentario publico en el sitio electronico:

http://www.navyregionsouthwest.com/go/doc/4275/1283991/

Ejemplares de el Borrador de EA están disponibles para revisión en las siguientes bibliotecas:

•Biblioteca Pública de National City, 1401 National City Boulevard, National City, CA 91950

•Ciudad de Chula Vista-Biblioteca del Centro Civico, 365 F Street, Chula Vista, CA 91910

•Biblioteca Central de San Diego, 820 E Street, San Diego, CA 92101

•Biblioteca de la ciudad de Camarillo, 4101 Las Posas Road, Camarillo, CA 93010

•Biblioteca Ray D. Prueter, 510 Park Avenue, Port Hueneme, California 93041

Además, el Resumen Ejecutivo de la EA ha sido traducido al Español y está disponible en el sitio electronico.

Comentarios podrán presentarse por escrito a: LCS Homeporting EA Project Manager; Naval Facilities Engineering Command Southwest; Attn: EV21.AK Bldg 15th Floor; 1220 Pacific Highway; San Diego, CA 92132. Comentarios deben ser sellados a no más tardar del 5 de Marzo del 2012. Los comentarios deben ser lo más específicos posible.