Somos Primos

 July 2006 
Editor: Mimi Lozano ©2000-6

Dedicated to Hispanic Heritage and Diversity Issues
 
Society of Hispanic Historical and Ancestral Research
Celebrating 20th Anniversary 
1986-2006

Los Angeles's Olvera Street
Birthplace of Los Angeles featured in Pictorial History Book by Bill Estrada
in Tribute to the 225th Anniversary of the city of Los Angeles.
For more information, click. 

 Letters to the Editor : 

§
To: Jaime Cader frequent submitter:
What's nice is having a hot cup of coffee and reading Somos Primos early on a Sunday...I always learn something new. And it is so interesting, and getting even better than the time before!!I'm sure Somos Primos will gain in popularity due to the internet.  I learn something new every time I read it. Somos Primos should be a teaching tool, there is something in it for everyone, everywhere.
 
Keep up the great work!!  
Purliemae Wiggins Purliemae@aol.com

"My parents didn't speak English.  They learned it little by little.  
They realized that education was the ticket to a better future."  
Tony Cardenas, 
Former California State Assemblyman, now a member of the Los Angeles City Council

United States

Education
Ana Maria Armano, a month short of 80th birthday receives B.A.
Course helps Latinos understand kids' schools 
Website for Diversity Education
French in Maine
Most states fall short in teaching the culture of Latin America and Mexico 
A Guide to the Tool Kit for Hispanic Families
The 7 Secrets of Big Picture Thinkers by Nancy Marmolejo


Culture 
Race and Latino!
Tejano Texian 
Our Lives are better left to chance
In Search of Fatherhood 
Latino Rhythms and their influence on Classic Soul Music: 

Business
Would you believe? . . Meet the Fakers
Multi-ethnic business a piece of cake

Theodore Roosevelt's ideas on Immigrants & being an AMERICAN in 1907.
Sent by Sylvia Bisnar  Biziebiz@aol.com

"In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag... 
We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language.. and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people."  . . . . . Theodore Roosevelt 1907

Sons Live Out a Dream, Passing the Torch to a New Generation

By Steve Hymon, Times Staff Writer, May 7, 2006
Los Angeles Times, Orange County Edition 
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-council7may07,1,264511.story?
coll=la-headlines-california
Sent by Granville Hough, Ph.D.

Four couples crossed the border from Mexico with little but hope. 
Now all have children serving on L.A.'s City Council.

Ed Reyes
District 1

Tony Cardenas
District 6

Alex Padilla
District 7

Jose Huizar
District 14

"We would swim until noon and then they would shut down the pool for an hour, and we would go to a free lunch program because we lived In a poor census tract," PadUla recalled.

In 1990, much to his own surprise, Padffla was accepted into the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He had applied to, but -not visited, the school and had never traveled east of El Paso.

Although he graduated with a degree In mechanical engineering, he returned home after college in 1994 and tell in love with the world of local politics. He said he was driven largely by that year's Proposition 187,' which called for denying illegal immigrants many social benefits but which was overturned in federal court. "

In 1999, Padilla was elected to the City Council at age 26 representing parts of the northeast Valley. Two days later, his mother became a U.S. citizen in a ceremony at the convention center, joining his .father, who had' earned his citizenship in 1998.

Padffla, now 33, is the youngest member of the council -and was three times elected its president. His next stop could be the State Senate. But he has a formidable opponent for the Democratic nomination for,, the 20th District seat in Assemblywoman ndy Montanez (D-San Femando), whose parents immigrated from Mexico in 1970 and also struggled to build a better life

The Reyes Family
Anyone who watches council meetings knows that Ed Reyes frames roost issues —from planning to policing to the price of cable television — in terms of how they will affect the poor in his mostly Latino district, west of downtown and part of northeast LA.

He is not a dour man.. But when he is asked to recount his childhood, it is clear that some of the memories nearest the surface are the hard ones. His father, Luis, was born in Denver, the son of a Mexican Immigrant who worked for U.S. railroads; At age 3, Luis Ramos Reyes. moved back to Mexico. He met his wife, Eustolia, in Mexico City and they returned north in the mid-1950s; she had to live in Tijuana for two years waiting for her papers. They had seven children; Ed Reyes was the first born in the U.S.

Reyes' parents, like their peers, received little in the way Of "formal education. In the U.S., the councilman remembers, they tried to assimilate with a certain "humbleness." .^:

He has sharp memories. They include his father's hands, swollen from working to a freezer at the meatpacking plant that made Dodger .Dogs, and his mother in the kitchen of their Cypress Park home before dawn, making tortillas.

Reyes, 47, can recall being mocked for not being able to recite the alphabet In English in first grade and his father suffering a similar fate at work mocked by the foreman

"I remember my parents would make us step aside for a well-dressed white person," Reyes said. "To see all the people come out for the marches was a way of shedding that and saying we have as much rights as anyone."  Last Monday, on the day when hundreds of thousands marched in LA. In support or immigrants' rights, Reyes and hits family put on T-shirts labeled "Team Reyes" and hit the streets.

The Huizar Family
Jose Huizar was born on a ranch near the mountain town of Jerez in Zacatecas, in northern Mexico. His family lived in a three-room house with no plumbing or electricity.

'We didn't own It. We were borrowing it" Huizar said. ''People would lend out their homes, Otherwise they wouldn't be maintained, and it just kind of flowed back into the earth."

His father, Simon, Joined a U.S. government program to supply American farmers with laborers. He traveled the southwestern states picking crops, and, to the early 1970s — when Hulzar.was 3 — the family landed in Boyle Heights. Simon Hulzar found work as a machinist; His wife, Isidra, worked at a meant packing plant.

Jose Huizar hit a rough patch in middle school and was once kicked out for fighting. But he righted himself with the help of a mentor. He went on to UC Berkeley, to Princeton for graduate school and finally to UCLA's law school He won election to the Los Angeles Board of Educatio in 2001 and, last fall, captured a seat on the council to replace Antonio Villaraigosa, representing, a huge swath of east and north-west LA

Last Monday, the day of the latest marches, Huizar was stuck in a hearing on the city's budget. At lunch, he finally had his chance to wade into the crowd;

"What realty hit me about the marches is that I think about what my life would be like if I hadn't left Mexico," said Huizar, 37. "I still have some family back. there. These guys go out to work each and every day in a tough climate tending to cows, picking asparagus and peaches.  "They work hard and still live in poverty. And that could have been me."

Most Latino professionals are fully bilingual, work in various industries and are well integrated within American corporate culture, according to a recent survey of Latinos in the workplace. 

The Hispanic Alliance for Career Enhancement’s (HACE) latest findings may give many Americans pause. More than 500 professionals completed HACE's e-mail-administered 2006 Latinos Professional Pulse Survey http://www.hace-usa.org/news.htm. The results reveal an image of Latino
workers that confounds long-held stereotypes and addresses questions raised amidst the political fervor over immigration that has rocked the nation in recent months.

"With so much focus on the issue of immigration, many people are unaware that a significant number of college-educated Latinos are successfully working in professional positions and advancing in their careers," said Abe Tomás Hughes, HACE’s president and CEO. "This is an upwardly mobile
segment comprised of English-dominant individuals of Hispanic heritage that are, in practically all cases, citizens or legal residents authorized to work here. They represent model citizens of this country and offer a clear picture of how Latinos are increasingly contributing to the future of the
U.S." 

Diversity Inc Bookstore 
http://store.diversityinc.com/cgi-bin/commerce.exe?preadd=action&key=VINCERO001
Heritage Hispanic-American Style is a rich, entertaining cultural compendium of facts that surveys the vast Hispanic culture, from its birthplace in Spain to the lands of the new world where its language, religion, and customs greatly influence two continents. 

Twenty-seven percent of respondents work in publicly-held Fortune 1000 companies and 30 percent work in private businesses. More Latinos work in nonprofit, government or academia than whites, according to the survey. 

"You see Latino involvement across all industries and economic sectors. In the military, they have the greatest ratio of Medal of Honor recipients [of] any group, which shows both courage and dedication," said Alma Morales Riojas, president and CEO of the Washington, D.C.-based MANA, A National Latina Organization. "For those of us who are not only Latino but have dealt
in issues of equal opportunity and diversity, we know our common traits. We have no problem once we get in the workplace; the problem has been getting our foot in the door."

Survey results confirm Latinos' capacity for advancement. Of the 500-plus professionals who completed the survey, 65 percent reported receiving promotions at some time in their careers, with more than 90 percent occurring in the last five years. 

The survey also indicates that money is not the primary objective for most Latinos, as most said they seek progress over plumped-up paychecks. They consider growth potential (96 percent) and positive environment (96 percent) important/very important in future career choices. Nearly 80 percent of respondents say working for a company on The DiversityInc Top 50 Companies
for Diversity list is a factor in their career decisions. (See who's in The DiversityInc 2006 Top 50 Companies for Diversity http://www.diversityinc.com/public/21029.cfm.
 
More respondents report satisfaction with their jobs than not by a margin of nearly 2 to 1. This translates to higher retention rates that minimize disruption and contain costs often generated from high turnover. Three out of five Latino professionals have been at the same job for more than two
years, the survey shows. 

"I think it’s well documented that Latinos, whether they hail from Mexico, Puerto Rico or South America, historically have a track record of pride in their work and loyalty to their employer," said Riojas, who also chairs the Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility’s board of directors.
"Even in places where there are employment issues, Latinos are consistently more likely to see challenges as opportunities to grow and move ahead." 

By a ratio of 2 to 1, most do not have affinity groups or other forums for interaction with other Latinos at work. But this has not stopped these professionals from integrating themselves into corporate culture.

The majority of Latino professionals in the United States have been in the country for more than a generation. Nearly 90 percent are fully-or-limited bilingual, both written and spoken, and not a single respondent cited a total lack of English skills.

Almost 40 percent said speaking Spanish is not important for their current jobs, but the majority believes that may change as Latino numbers continue to rise faster than any other segment of the population. (See also Despite New Law, Spanish is Here to Stay) http://www.diversityinc.com/public/21667.cfm .

"The idea that there are Latinos in this country who are fully integrated, fully English proficient and working very diligently in high-powered professional jobs puts to rest the idea that these are 40 million of the same kind of folks," said Lisa Ramirez, director of Affiliate Member Services at the National Council of La Raza. "That's just not the case."

Illegal immigrant turned U.S. citizen has come a long way
By John Gittelsohn,

The smugglers who brought Vilma Palma across the border put her in a coffin-sized box concealed under a pickup truck bed. They told her to stay still and quiet until they passed the immigration checkpoint at San Clemente. The truck tires roared as Vilma, then just 9, sped blindly north to an uncertain future.

"There was a hole, and I could see my sister," Vilma recalls of the last leg of her journey 12 years ago from El Salvador. "It was too loud to talk, so I just lay there."

Vilma's entry to the United States started as a nightmare, but she turned it into an American dream.

She became a U.S. citizen last year. Now 21, she graduated from UC Irvine this month and plans to go to law school. Today, she will be honored with 13 other winners of the Merage Foundations' $20,000 American Dream Fellow award.  How did the little girl in the box find her way?

Vilma was born with little promise on Sept. 29, 1984, in Jayaque, a coffee-growing village in the foothills of southern El Salvador. When she was 7 months old, her mother, Blanca Palma, left her infant and two older daughters with their grandmother and went to seek a new life in California.

"She was a single parent with three kids," Vilma says of her mother. "That was the only way she could get enough money to live."

Blanca Palma found work in the fields of the Coachella Valley. After a 1986 immigration amnesty, she became a legal U.S. resident, and she paid consultants to help bring her daughters to California through legal channels.

"She found out years later that her attorneys never filed any papers," Vilma says.  It was an injustice Vilma cannot forget.

In 1994, Blanca Palma paid $3,000 to smuggle her daughters to California. They entered Mexico on a barge, hopped a freight train to Guadalajara and flew to Tijuana. On the moonlit night of March 11, 1994, the girls walked barefoot on a beach to bypass the U.S. border fence. They boarded a San Diego trolley and then transferred to trucks with hidden compartments.  

"The only thing in my mind was 'Let's not get caught,'" Vilma says. Once she settled into her new home, Vilma set bigger goals. Her mother would come home from the fields exhausted, beaten by the 100-degree heat, her hands and back aching from harvesting grapes or broccoli or strawberries. Vilma would massage her mother's feet.

"She would tell me to do well in school, so I didn't have to work like her," Vilma says. Her two older sisters never finished high school. "They had a lot of potential, but they didn't have the opportunity," Vilma says. Vilma created opportunities.

She started third grade in Coachella speaking only Spanish. By fifth grade, she was Student of the Year, staying after the last bell rang to study in the computer lab.

She attended Coachella Valley High, where more than a third of her freshman class dropped out, many following their parents to the fields.

Vilma followed the advice of guidance counselors. She enlisted in a string of programs - Upward Bound, AVID, COSMOS and SAGE - building a network of adult mentors and high-achieving friends.  "You need to have a drive to succeed," she says. "And people need to push you."

Vilma took honors and Advanced Placement classes, graduating with a 3.96 grade-point average. She won a full college scholarship from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The summer before her senior year, Vilma attended a math and science program at UC Irvine. The director was Melina Duarte, who also graduated from Coachella Valley High. Duarte took Vilma under her wing and persuaded her to attend UCI, becoming a surrogate sister, introducing Vilma to internships, professors and administrators.

"She was a shy little girl who seemed like she felt very out of place here," Duarte says. "Some students like her don't make it past their first year. She got a 4.0 in her first quarter."

For Vilma, the new challenge was an opportunity. People gravitated to the dark-eyed, sweet-natured young woman, offering her a hand up.

"She juggles a lot, but does it with a sense of grace and a sense of calm," says Karina Hamilton, director of SAGE, a UCI program for disadvantaged students where Vilma worked as an intern. "She has a quiet strength."

Vilma majored in criminology and interned with the Orange County public defender's office. She spent a quarter studying in Madrid.

"She searches for opportunities and takes them. She doesn't just sit and wait," Duarte says. "For her to have made it here is a big deal. To go where she's going is bigger."

Winning the Merage Foundations award in May was a big deal. Fellow winners are graduates of Harvard and Stanford. But Vilma didn't feel like she could enjoy it because she still didn't know what she was doing next year. She was wait-listed at USC, Cornell and UCLA law schools.

On June 9, Vilma's cell phone rang as she was driving to Irvine from the public defender's office. It was an admissions officer from UCLA, who asked if she still wanted to go to law school. Of course, she said yes.  "I called my mother," Vilma says. "I called everyone. Then I got home and started sending e-mails. I was so happy."

In her applications for the Merage award and law school, Vilma wrote about her goal of returning to the Coachella Valley with her law degree and starting a legal center for the people she grew up with - the people she could now so easily leave behind if she wanted.

The center's main purpose would be to help immigrants, to open America's door for more newcomers, to protect people from the kinds of scams that kept her, as a little girl in El Salvador, separated from her mother.  "So many people helped me," Vilma says. "It's time to give back."

A Look at History - Repatriation / Bickering Delays Illegal-Immigrant Deal 
~~ What history can tell us about anti-immigrant zeal ~~
By Cragg Hines, cragg.hines@chron.com  Houston Chronicle, April 5, 2006
Hines is a Houston Chronicle columnist based in Washington, D.C. 
Sent by Zeke Hernandez zekeher@yahoo.com
 
THE sharp-edged, vigilante tone of the current immigration debate is as old as it is regrettable.
Today's rancor sounds all too familiar to academics who mine the often-neglected field of immigration history and to politicians who are beginning to pay attention to some startling findings.

California state Sen. Joe Dunn remembers being "absolutely devastated" as he read the story of
concerted government action to force at least 400,000 Hispanics out of the United States as economic woes mounted in the Great Depression. Some historians estimate total Hispanic departures at closer to 2 million if the tally includes families, fearing deportation or further financial hardship, whose departure was nominally voluntary.

It is a sordid story that echoes from the farm fields of the Rio Grande Valley and Winter Garden of Texas to the barrios of Los Angeles and as far north as Detroit and Gary, Ind.

Most alarming, Dunn, D-Santa Ana, said, was that up to 60 percent of those forcibly stampeded across the border, some on locked trains, were U.S. citizens. So-called "repatriations," at least in those instances, were actually illegal forced removals from a homeland.

It is as shocking as the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II, except that very few people know about it.

Dunn's reading of Decade of Betrayal: Mexican Repatriation in the 1930s, by historians Francisco E. Balderrama and Raymond Rodríguez (University of New Mexico Press, revised edition 2006) led him to introduce legislation offering an apology from California for the coerced relocations.

After several attempts, and the removal of any suggestion of reparations, a bill was passed last year
by both Assembly and Senate, was signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and became law Jan. 1.

A plaque marking the apology is to be erected in Los Angeles, possibly at La Placita, a downtown park in the historic Olvera Street area, where perhaps the most notorious deportation raid took place in February 1931.

An apology and plaque are not much, but it's more than any other governmental or private entity with a hand in the sorry campaign has done.  Today, Rep. Hilda L. Solis, D-Calif., will introduce in the U.S. House a bill that could lead to a national apology.  Solis's proposal calls for appointment of a seven-member commission to investigate the deportations and report back to Congress within a year. Its members would be appointed by the president
and congressional leaders.

"The time has come," said Solis, a third-term House member from a heavily Hispanic district in eastern Los Angeles who has been interested in the mass deportations since she first learned of them in a Chicano studies program in college. She recalls seeing government records of how raids and removals were plotted.

"I was really horrified this information was not given any exposure," she recalled. "It's amazing how we're robbed of our heritage."

Solis, whose father came to the United States from Mexico in the 1940s, envisions a careful inquiry into the period, which she knows may be sensitive as it could include such questions as bank and insurance claims. But she hopes her proposal will strike a responsive chord with the Bush administration, especially its ranking Hispanic, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales.

Lack of knowledge about the mass deportations is a result of what historian Abraham Hoffman called "a kind of benign neglect."

Hoffman, author of Unwanted Mexican Americans in the Great Depression: Repatriation Pressures, 1929-1939 (University of Arizona Press, 1974) said that just as studies of blacks in American history suffered for a long time from the "Booker T. Washington and all the other Negroes" syndrome, study of Hispanics' role was classed in many minds as "Cesar Chavez and all the other Mexicans."

Even Hispanics are generally unaware of the mass deportations, said Nora Rios McMillan, a historian at San Antonio College who has written about the removals. "I had not been aware of it," said McMillan, whose family came from Mexico in the 1920s and established a grocery in Edinburg. Few historians between the Depression and the 1960s delved into the deportations, she said. McMillan's research, as well as that of others, shows many of the deportees were children, most of whom were citizens, even if their parents were not, and could not speak Spanish.

Balderama and Rodríguez write that the raids stemmed at least in part from Secretary of Labor William N. Doak's "personal vendetta to get rid of the Mexicans." His motivation, they said, "was purely political, for he was acting under President (Herbert) Hoover's orders to create a diversion to counteract organized labor's hostile attitude toward his administration. "Deportation meant jobs for real Americans," the authors said the reasoning went. Sound familiar?

Deportation: A removal from one country to another, or to a distant place, exile, banishment
Repatriation: Return or restoration to one's own country.

By Valerie Orleans March 17, 2005 Christine Valenciana, assistant professor of elementary and bilingual education, was always aware that her mother, as a child, had been forced to return to Mexico in 1935. What Valenciana didn’t realize was that her mother was just one of up to 2 million Mexican and Mexican-Americans who were deported during that era.
“I thought what happened to her and her family was an isolated incident,” she recalled. “I had no idea that this happened on a much larger scale.”

Here, Valenciana discusses her work as it relates to the mass deportation of people, many of whom were American citizens, that was systematically practiced during the Great Depression.

Q: How did you first learn that close to 2 million Mexican and Mexican-Americans were deported to Mexico in the 1930s? 
A: I was a history major at Cal State Fullerton, and one of the classes I took was a community history class. Having a Mexican background, I was interested in researching an area that had to do with Mexican-Americans. While I was trying to determine a topic, I spoke with my mother, Emilia Castaneda, about her experience as a child. That’s when I discovered that many families had been deported to Mexico in the late 1920s through the 1930s.

Even prior to this, there were “whisper” campaigns and employers were asked not to hire those suspected of being of Mexican descent. Actually, there were laws passed that “aliens” could not be hired to work. In addition, massive deportation raids were conducted throughout the country, including Orange and Los Angeles counties. An atmosphere of fear was created in the Mexican-American community.
Q: So what happened? Why were these people deported? 

A: During the Great Depression, anywhere from one to two million people were deported in an effort by the government to free up jobs for those who were considered “real Americans” and rid the county governments of “the problem.” The campaign, called the Mexican Reparation, was authorized by President Herbert Hoover. Although President Franklin Roosevelt ended federal support when he took office, many state and local governments continued with their efforts.

Estimates now indicate that approximately 60 percent of the people deported were children who were born in America and others who, while of Mexican descent, were legal citizens.
Q: How did you go about conducting your research? 

A: It was all primary research because historians hadn’t really paid much attention to it. I spoke to my mother, who referred me to some of her cousins. I made public announcements and found other interviewees. It snowballed from there. These interviews are housed in the Center for Oral and Public History. Now, I am conducting new research focused on the education and language of the children and families involved. 

Q: What was it like for those who were deported? 
A: It was traumatic, of course. For example, my mother was nine years old. She lived in Los Angeles. Her dominant language was English, although she knew rudimentary Spanish. Suddenly, she was removed from the only home she’d known, taken out of her school and away from her friends, and sent to an unfamiliar country. She didn’t understand the customs. She was forced to live outdoors. She was teased because she couldn’t speak Spanish very well. And keep in mind that she was an American citizen. 

Q: What was it like for adults? 
A: It was very difficult for them as well. Mexico also was going through a depression at that time, and it was hard for the adults to find jobs in Mexico. Returning Mexicans were unwanted. Many of these people had jobs, homes and families in the United States. They hadn’t been in Mexico for decades – they couldn’t just pick up and start again.

This act literally broke up families. For instance, some who were deported had subsequent children who were born in Mexico – that meant that some children in the same family were American citizens while others were not. As these children grew older and married, they often had children who were born in Mexico and so these children were not considered American citizens either. The effects of this unconstitutional deportation are far ranging and have ramifications even today.

Q: Were there ever any attempts to rectify this wrong? 
A: Part of the problem is that many did not realize this was part of a huge concerted effort. Now that they’re aware of it, there have been some attempts to recognize what happened. Some looked at what happened to those who were interned in Japanese camps during World War II and recognized that they were, in fact, discriminated against. It’s also important to realize that it took the Japanese community several decades to organize in response against their treatment – and they were still in this country. 

Q: What kind of attempts have been made to publicize this? 
A: One of our alumi – Bernie Enriquez, a field representative for State Sen. Joseph Dunn – was aware of the Mexican Reparation, having read my husband’s – Francisco Balderrama – book, Decade of Betrayal. He brought the book to the attention of Sen. Dunn [D-Santa Ana], who introduced a bill in 2003 asking for a removal of the statute of limitations for survivors like my mother to make claims against the state of California for, what was quite frankly, an unconstitutional deportation. 
MALDEF [Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund] filed a class action suit on behalf of the survivors. Sen. Dunn sponsored a state senate hearing in July 2003 on this unconstitutional deportation. My mother was one of the survivors who spoke. My husband was an expert historian witness.

Q: What was that like watching your mother? 
A: I had very mixed emotions. On the one hand, I was tremendously proud of her. This is a woman – in her 70s – with very little formal education, speaking before a group of powerful legislators. On the other hand, I was nervous for her and helped her prepare. But she did just fine. I asked her what she hoped to get out of all this. She said simply, “I just want people to know what happened.” 

Q: Did they get an apology? 
A: No. Both Governors Davis and Schwarzenegger refused. Apologizing is an admission of guilt and neither wanted to get involved in what they considered financial ramifications. What was very disappointing about Schwarzenegger’s response was that he indicated that those affected had had years to file civil suits. But most of those who were deported were children. They were abused, had their constitutional rights violated and were kicked out of their country. They weren’t even aware that they had constitutional rights let alone that they had been violated.  

Q: So what happens now? 
A: Sen. Dunn will re-introduce related legislation. We are doing our best to educate others about what happened so that this never happens to anyone again. People were denied their rights, sent to a foreign land and children were not allowed to finish their education.

                                                Action Items

No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people, in their righteous might, will win through to absolute victory.

With confidence in our armed forces, with the unbounding determination of our people, we will gain the inevitable triumph, so help us God.

 MESSAGE FROM AN APPALLED  OBSERVER:

Today I went to visit the new World War II  Memorial in Washington, DC.    I got an unexpected history lesson.  Because I'm a baby boomer, I was one of the youngest in the crowd.   Most were the age of my parents, veterans of "the greatest war," with  their families.  It was a beautiful day, and people were smiling and  happy to be there.  Hundreds of us milled around the memorial, reading  the inspiring words of Eisenhower and Truman that are engraved  there. 

On the Pacific side of the memorial, a  group of us gathered to read the words President Roosevelt used to announce the attack on Pearl Harbor:  Yesterday, December 7, 1941-- a date which will live in  infamy--the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately  attacked. 

One elderly woman read the words  aloud: "With confidence in our armed forces,  with the unbounding determination of our people, we will gain the inevitable  triumph." But as she read, she was suddenly turned  angry.  "Wait a minute," she said, "they left out the end of the quote.   They left out the most important part.  Roosevelt ended the  message with "so help us God.'"   

Her  husband said, "You are probably right.  We're not supposed to say    things like that now." "I know I'm right," she  insisted.  "I remember the speech." The two looked dismayed, shook  their heads sadly and walked away.   Listening to their conversation, I thought to myself,  "Well, it has been over 50 years.  She's probably  forgotten."  But she had not forgotten.   She was right.

I went home and pulled out the  book my book club is reading --- "Flags of  Our Fathers" by James Bradley.   It's all about the battle at Iwo Jima    I haven't gotten too far in  the book.  It's tough to read because it's a graphic description of the  WWII battles in the Pacific.   
  
But! right there  it was on page 58.  Roosevelt's speech to the nation ends in "so help  us God." 
The people who edited out that part of the  speech when they engraved it on the memorial could have fooled me.  I  was born after the war.  But they couldn't fool the people who were  there.  Roosevelt's words are engraved on their  hearts.

Now I ask: "Who Gave Them the Right to Change the Words of History?" People need to know before everyone forgets. People today are trying to change the history of America by leaving God out of it, but the truth is, God has been a part of this nation, since the beginning.  He still wants to be...and He always will  be! 

Sent by Bill Carmena  JCarm1724@aol.com  "I personally heard the speech on 8 Dec 1941  and "So help us God " was used . Why was this important historical phrase deleted ?????"

Editor:   I have received this message from many people, but no one identified themselves as Bill Carmena did, remembering the day and the speech by Roosevelt, when it was given. 

Contact your elected officials and ask them why the important historical phrase was deleted.  Surely now is the time to take a stand as a historically founded Christian nation. Perhaps Dr. James H. Billington, Librarian of Congress, assigned the task as public guardian, caretaker of the history and documents of Congress should hear from you too. An email that suppose to reach him:  bicentennial@loc.gov   

Veterans History Project Staff Contact Information
Bob Patrick, Director
(202) 707-4916   (888) 371-5848 (toll free)    (202) 252-2046
vohp@loc.gov  www.loc.gov/vets

Peter Bartis  (202) 707-4919 Senior Program Officer
Contact for Military and Veterans Organizations and Associations, Members of Congress

Anneliesa Clump Behrend  (202) 707-9822  Public Relations Specialist
Contact for Media and Press; Public Outreach and Relations 

I hope everyone will pick up the phone and make a call asking,  why were the words of Roosevelt not accurately quoted and what can be done to rectify this inaccurate historical portrayal of our President's character and leadership? . . .  Mimi

Left to right, niece Alejandra Ruano, daughter -in-law, Kristi Edwards and son Paul Edwards. Photo: Sang H.Park OC Register

Ana Maria Armano, a month short of 80th birthday receives B.A.

 
http://campusapps.fullerton.edu/news
/2006/CLE_honoree.html, 
Born: June 11, 1926, Chicago, Illinois
B.S. degree: May 11, 2006, Fullerton, Calif.
Sent by Granville Hough

Course helps Latinos understand kids' schools 
By Juan Esparza Loera,  (Updated Monday, December 5, 2005)
Willis Papillion,  willis35@earthlink.net 

Juan Pacheco, a 41-year-old farm supervisor in Dinuba, never went to college because he had to work in the fields to help his family. That course, he vowed, will not be repeated by his three youngest children, ages 14, 12 and 7. Three adult children never went to college.

But Pacheco faced a hurdle common in Latino households: With little understanding of the school system, how can he help his children with their homework and make sure they are taking the necessary courses to get into college?

"I think a lot of parents want to help their children, but we come from another culture. If our children wind up in college, fine. If they don't, then they come to work with us," says Pacheco about Latino expectations of education.

The answer came in a telephone call a few months ago asking him to participate in a conversational meeting (organizers don't call it a class) sponsored by the Parent Institute for Quality Education (PIQE). Once in the course, Pacheco — who reached the high school level in his native Baja
California, México — learned the basics about college-eligibility tests and how to motivate his children to go to college.

Pacheco was among 32 parents who gave up one evening a week for nine weeks to graduate last week. Now he notices 14-year-old Lilia, an aspiring lawyer, talks more openly with him about school. When she graduates from college, she will be the second in her immediate family to earn a college degree. (An uncle died six months after getting a chemical engineering degree.)

PIQE is laying groundwork to change the ugly statistics about Latinos in education: Only 22.9% of high school graduates in 2001 met the requirements for University of California or California State University admission; Latinos make up more than half of high school dropouts; and only 7.1% of
Latinos 25 and older hold a bachelor's degree or higher.

Because Latinos will represent California's majority in a couple of decades, recent studies underscore the need to change the dismal statistics if the state's future economy will have enough educated workers.

Alma R. García, director of the PIQE office in Fresno, knows the problems. The youngest of seven daughters, García worked alongside her parents in the fields as a child. Her mother thought a high school diploma would be good enough for her daughters to get a good job.

It took a migrant education counselor visiting the family's Madera home to convince García's parents that college should be an option. Her older sisters went to college; by the time García was finishing high school, college was expected.

"I'm really a believer that if we can get the first older children to go to college, they can set an example," says García. "I see parents today with the desire to get more involved in their children's education. But many are not familiar with the school system."

PIQE and other similar parent involvement programs are a start, but, as Pacheco points out, 32 PIQE participants from a high school with 1,350 Latino students doesn't cut it. 

Juan Esparza Loera is editor of Vida en el Valle, The Fresno Bee's bilingual publication. 
He can be reached at jesparza@vidaenelvalle.com  or(559) 441-6781. 
http://www.fresnobee.com/includes/zTestz/redesign/images/fbfooterlogo.gif

FRENCH IN MAINE
by Pam Belluck, The New York Times, June 4, 2006
http://www.languagehat.com/archives/002396.php
Sent by Win Holtzman

A story by Pam Belluck in today's NY Times describes the changing fortunes of the French language in Maine:
Frederick Levesque was just a child in Old Town, Me., when teachers told him to become Fred Bishop, changing his name to its English translation to conceal that he was French-American.

Cleo Ouellette's school in Frenchville made her write "I will not speak French" over and over if she uttered so much as a "oui" or "non" — and rewarded students with extra recess if they ratted out French-speaking classmates.

And Howard Paradis, a teacher in Madawaska forced to reprimand French-speaking students, made the painful decision not to teach French to his own children. "I wasn't going to put my kids through that," Mr. Paradis said. "If you wanted to get ahead you had to speak English."

That was Maine in the 1950's and 1960's, and the stigma of being French-American reverberated for decades afterward. But now, le Français fait une rentrée — French is making a comeback...

You can go to the article to read about the comeback; what I want to focus on is the bad old days. I can understand the reaction against the language of the enemy during wartime, against German during both world wars for example; it's irrational and deplorable, but understandable. But why on earth were people subjecting their neighbors and their neighbors' children to that kind of harassment in the '50s and '60s? It shocks me to learn that during the very years when I was happily learning French, others of my generation were being punished for using it in a supposedly free country. If anyone can explain this to me, please do. I mean, generalized "why can't they speak English" griping is one thing; forcing people to change their name is quite another.

Incidentally, Benjamin Zimmer discusses this story in Language Log and demolishes the idea that "French-American French, derived from people who left France for Canada centuries ago, resembles the French of Louis XIV more than the modern Parisian variety."

Most states fall short in teaching the culture of Latin America and Mexico, 
Source: Cox News Service (6-7-06)
Sent by Howard Shorr howardshorr@msn.com

Despite growing ties to the southern hemisphere, two-thirds of U.S. states have weak or non-existent standards for teaching the history and culture of Latin America and Mexico, a study released Tuesday found.

The study was conducted by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a Washington-based non-profit organization dedicated to improving elementary and secondary education.

Renowned historian and foreign policy expert Walter Russell Mead, who conducted the study, said he was "aghast" at what he found. While most states didn't make a passing grade in world history instruction, his report is especially critical of a lack of effective standards for teaching the history and culture of Latin America and Mexico. He found that many states overlooked these histories while excessively focusing on modern European history.

Texas received 97 out of a possible 170 points and an overall grade of C in the study, the first to evaluate states' academic standards for teaching kindergarten through 12th grade world history. These standards are what a student is expected to know on the subject.

For Latin American and Mexican history and culture, Texas scored a 5 on a scale of zero to 10.
"As a representative for a border district, and coming from the state of Texas, a state that's history is so connected to Mexico and Latin America, I am deeply troubled that the state ranked so poorly," Rep. Ruben Hinojosa, D-Texas, chairman of the Education Task Force for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

"Clearly, this needs to change, especially as our economy and way of life becomes more and more international.? If we do not stress the importance of world affairs and other cultures with our children, they will fall behind."?

Colorado received 81 out of a possible 170 points and an overall grade of D in the study, the first to evaluate states' academic standards for teaching kindergarten through 12th grade world history. These standards are what a student is expected to know in the subject.

For Latin American and Mexican history and culture, Georgia scored a 9 on a scale of zero to 10.
Georgia received 156 out of a possible 170 points and an overall grade of A in the study, the first to evaluate states' academic standards for teaching kindergarten through 12th grade world history. These standards are what a student is expected to know in the subject.

North Carolina received 64 out of a possible 170 points and an overall grade of F in the study, the first to evaluate states' academic standards for teaching kindergarten through 12th grade world history. These standards are what a student is expected to know in the subject.

For Latin American and Mexican history and culture, North Carolina and Ohio scored a 3 on a scale of zero to 10.  Colorado scored a 4 on a scale of zero to 10.

Ohio received 67 out of a possible 170 points and an overall grade of F in the study, the first to evaluate states' academic standards for teaching kindergarten through 12th grade world history. These standards are what a student is expected to know in the subject.

Four states — Alaska, Idaho, Missouri and Montana — received zeros for standards that give "superficial or cursory attention" to Mexico and the Western Hemisphere.

Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Nevada and Texas, which all have large Hispanic populations, were among 30 states to score between 1 and 5 for standards that cover Mexico and Latin America and have "significant gaps or shortcomings."

Fifteen other states, including other Hispanic population centers like Arizona, California and New Mexico, earned scores of 6 through 10 for having standards that "propose a coherent and thorough approach" to Latin American and Mexican history. Even so, these states do not require students to study world history.

Two states, Iowa and Rhode Island, did not receive grades because neither state has world history standards.  Eight states received an A and 33 received a D or an F.

Race and Latino!
June 7th, 2006
SouthernBoyWKG73@wmconnect.com 

I am used to statements like the following: "Are you White, Black or Mexican?" "Are they White, Black, or Latino?" "Is he/she White, Black, or Latino?" etc. etc.! "He/she looks Hispanic/Latino!" The real problem with this is these and statements like these act or declare, the Mexican, Hispanic, and Latino are races and thus outside the realm of Black and White. However, I have seen White Mexicans! I have seen White/Black Hispanics! I have seen White/Black Latinos! Whether they consider themselves White/Black or not is not relevant. If you look White/Black and anthropologists who study these things consider you White/Black (Caucasoid/Negroid), then that's logically what you are! 

La Raza claims Hispanic settlements earlier than Whites, but that's a contradiction, since the Hispanics they refer to were Spaniards aka. White Europeans just like the British! Hispanic means of or relating to the Spanish culture, language, and nationality. It's not a race! Latino is more of a broad term that is better qualified to designate Latin America. Just to let you know, it was the French who coined the term Latin-America/n to distinguish themselves from Anglo-America! But I've heard the nonsense spouted off, "French peoples and cultures are not Latino, because they are White! That is such a stupid, uneducated statement to declare.

The French and the Spanish both belong to the Caucasian (White) race, but with different languages! Not only the Spanish, but the French, Portuguese, Italians, and Romanians all speak related Romanic (Italic) or Latin languages, thus making all them Latino technically speaking, yet they are all predominantly White people in each country! Even the Spanish Conquistadors considered themselves White! The Mayans, Incas, etc. considered the conquering Spaniards and Portuguese to be White describing them as "having eyes like chalk with pale faces and sandy hair and beards! A few having dark hair and eyes!" 

Oh! I love this one! "I am half White and half Latino!" How dumb! That would be like me saying "I am half White and half Anglo!" Can you see the utter nonsense of these statements? Latino is a culture or language ethnicity, not a race! Many Latinos are White especially in Cuba, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uraguay, and Costa Rica! Many are Black also, such as in Haiti, Dominican Rep., and Brazil! Many more Latinos are a Mixed group (Puerto Ricans and Mexicans) to varying degrees branching features from near Black to near White and every shade of brown in-between! 

Roberto Clemente was a Black Puerto Rican, not Black and Puerto Rican, but a Puerto Rican who was Black! Gloria Estefan, Andy Garcia, the late Jerry Garcia, Shakira, Cameron Diaz, the Estevez/Sheen family, and Ricky Martin to name a few are all Caucasian (White) people! They physically look Caucasian and if Forensic Anthropologists studied them or their skeletons that would be their conclusions too! I get sick and tired of people treating White or Black Latinos as being neither Black nor White "because they are Latino" or they themselves, due to political propoganda, personal axes to grind, brainwashing, or whatever, declare "No, I am neither Black nor White, I am Latino!" 

I even heard Samuel L. Jackson in one of the DIE HARD movies when he was riding with Bruce Willis when they were arguing and Jackson yelled, "Do I look Puerto Rican to you?!" This being said because of the ludicrous consensus that Puerto Ricans have a single definite look! I have seen Black Puerto Ricans, the same race as Jackson, and White Puerto Ricans the same race as Willis! True, Puerto Ricans are the most Mixed Caribbeans but it still doesn't negate the fact that there is still plenty of Black one's and White ones too! 

On the same token, Latino is not a look or physical appearance or phenotype! It is a language/culture/ethnicity, nothing more or less! Just like here in America where we are all Anglos (Anglo is the equivalent of Latino/Hispano) by language/culture/ethnicity, but some Americans are White Anglos, some are Black Anglos, and some are Mixed Anglos! This scenario applies to Latinos as well! Truthfully, the whole world has only 2 main races and those are White (Caucasoid/Blancoid) which can be divided into 2 branches (Nordic and Mediterranean) and Black (Negroid)! A third race from the varying admixtures of these 2 main races is also feasible, a Mixed or Multi-race. This Multi-race would suffice for Mongoloids, most Aboriginal Americans (both North and South Americans), Pacific Islanders, etc. Asian, Indian, Latino, Hispanic, African, European, Pacific Islander, Arab, etc. are not races but rather continents, languages, areas, or misnomers! All people past, present, and future the whole world over are either Black, White, or Multiracial!  Thanks.   Billy

June 8, 2006

Thanks for your reply Ms. Lozano. I must state that it was not my intention to be unpleasant in my attitude. I was merely getting to the point and stating facts, though, I come across as abrasive sometimes.

I forgot to mention a couple of other points in my previous email. Cajuns from Louisiana, aside from the obvious English language, also speak a Criole (Mixed) dialect that is by far predominantly French in origin with substantial Spanish and West African dialects as well. Thus, the Cajun dialect is, in effect, a Latin dialect. This would be inference make the Cajun people Latino as well, whether those Cajuns are White as many are, Black, or Mixed as many also are. Cajuns have predominantly French sir names, thus making them Latino, but it certainly does not describe a race in and of itself! 

My Dad's side of the family emigrated from Spain to the South (southern USA), I think soon after the War for Southern Independence, not sure exactly when. Anyhow, none of us today speak Spanish or cling to that culture. We know our European heritage but do not live by it. We are Americans, and I pride myself as being a Southerner, flying my Confederate Flag high and proud in Florida! My Dad's side has always considered themselves White and proudly so! Others see us as White and rightfully so! The concept of us being Latino or Hispanic would never be tolerated by my Dad's side of the family. 

My Mom was actually born in France and came over here to the South when she was 2. She speaks no French at all, but still holds dual citizenship. She considers herself White, and she is, as others also see her that way. She considers herself a plain ole American though she was born in France! My Mom never went around projecting herself as French to others. She doesn't  go around saying, "I'm French this and French that!" However, my Momma or Daddy's families are well within their rights and logic to call themselves Latino, but it's not even an issue. Therefore, I could also claim Latino as well, but I don't. Even if I did, I would constantly run into arguments by those saying, "you don't look latino!" or "Naw! You can't be Latino! You're White!" and other such stupid ludicrous nonsense, proving that people don't even understand the proper definition of Latino in the first place! It's not a physical look as I stated before, and it's high time that people begin to learn this! They should know it, but, common sense is lacking in most people today! 

My family is Southern Americans and good ole country people that love to hunt and fish, pick and sing bluegrass music, and general stuff associated with living in rural Dixie. What gets me is that Latinos that have been here in the USA for several generations still act as if they were Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, etc., etc.! You might hear Americans of Italian, Irish, Polish, German, Russian, and Greek, which are all incidentally mainly White, declare their ancestral pride in fairs an festivals and such. They may be more inclined to talk about their heritage than those Americans that have roots going all the way back to the Revolutionary War, but they still all consider themselves American first! Latinos, seem to put Latino (Mexican, Cuban, Puerto Rican, etc.) first. Honestly though, if you weren't born in Mexico, Cuba, or Puerto Rico, you are not Mexican, Cuban, or Puerto Rican! You may be of Mexican, Cuban, or Puerto Rican descent or ancestry, but that's not where you were born so that's not what you are! 

You are whatever country you're born in, period! If I was born in Mexico I would be a Mexican! If I was born in Greece, I would be Greek! If I was born in China, I would be Chinese, period! Likewise, if you're born in America, you're American, period! Your nationality is the nation where you were born, not where your ancestors came from! If that was true, no Americans would would be Americans, not even the "American Indians" because all humans had to originally emigrate from overseas to get here! That would apply to Mexico, the Caribbean, South America, etc., as well!

Actually, all nations on Earth came into being by people moving, migrating, invading, absorbing, and assimilating! If you want to talk ancestry and apply it to nowadays in regards to what we all are, then we might as well go back to Babel and the Ararat Mountains where Noah's Ark landed and a city was built before God fragmented the human race into languages and races and before anybody scattered abroad on the face of Earth. Technically we would all be Babylonians, or Araratians! Although this is true, it would be ridiculous to strictly go by that measure, so it is better to not do it at all. Thanks again.  Billy

To this effect, it is incorrect to assert that Texas during the Spanish Colonial Period was a part of Mexico which was under Spanish rule. Mexico as a modern nation did not exist but until 1821, before this time Texas was a part of Spain, a province of New Spain, and the people born in Texas were citizens of the Kingdom of Spain, not of Mexico, since the country of Mexico did not yet exist. While the flag of Spain governed Texas for 308 years (from 1513 through 1821), and for a period of 301 years (from 1520 through 1821) the flag of Spain waved over Texas uninterrupted, the flag of Mexico waved in Texas for only 14 years. This period of Mexican jurisdiction over the people of Texas, from 1821-1835, was a period of an imposed Mexican rule which the colonial Texans never wanted, imposed by the historical circumstance of having been dropped in the lap of Mexico by Spain when Mexico earned its independence from Spain. The colonial Tejanos had never wanted Mexican rule, having had established an independent republic in 1813 which looked forward to becoming part of the United States. Because Mexican rule was imposed upon the colonial Tejanos and they never wanted it, from their perspective the period of Mexican jurisdiction would be correctly identified as the period of Mexican occupation.

It is necessary, therefore, to distinguish between the "new Tejanos", those people from Texas whose ancestors came from Mexico beginning in the period of time just before, during and after the Mexican Revolution of 1910 through today, and the "colonial Tejanos" or "Tejano Texians", that is, those people who were the original pioneers of Texas who tamed the wilderness of Texas starting in the Spanish Colonial Period and up through the Texas Revolution, and to define the colonial people of Texas in a more historically accurate way that would reflect their family histories and traditions and their self identification and the history and historical data that supports them.

It is necessary to draw this distinction because the people who came from Mexico starting just before,during and after the Mexican Revolution through today are and were of a different ethnic heritage than the ones who colonized Texas during the Spanish Colonial Period, of a different history. While the majority, not all, of the people who have come from Mexico since the Mexican Revolution are and drew their identity from the mestizos (people of mixed Indian and Spaniard blood) or genizaros (Indians who lost their tribal identity and adopted Spanish names and the Spanish language, of which much of the modern day Mexican immigrant population in the U.S. consists) and had their history and identity in the history of Mexico, the majority, not all, of the people who colonized Texas in the Spanish Colonial Period were and drew their identity from the Spaniards and the criollos (full blooded Spaniards born in the New World), and had their history and identity in the history of Spain and of the United States as a consequence of the participation of Spain and its colonial provinces of Texas and Louisiana in the American Revolution. This difference caused the people of Texas, the colonial Tejanos or Tejano Texians, to identify more with the people of Louisiana, which was a Spanish colony, and of the U.S., rather than with the people of Mexico. For this reason as early as 1813 the colonial Tejanos established a government in Texas that looked forward to becoming part of the United States. As revealed by the writings of colonial Tejano Texians such as Antonio Menchaca, the Texas Revolution was first and foremost a colonial Tejano cause, the Anglo Americans simply joined the colonial Tejanos in that cause, having been invited and recruited to do so by the colonial Tejanos, the Tejano Texians.[1][2][3]

In summary, while a new Tejano is a Mexican American, Latino or Chicano generally of Indian or mixed Spanish and Indian heritage, a colonial Tejano, who can also be correctly identified as a Tejano Texian, is a descendant of those colonists who pioneered Texas as citizens of the Kingdom of Spain through the Spanish Colonial Period starting in the 1500's through the 1800's up to the Texas Revolution and who were generally of pure Spaniard blood, or hispanicized European heritage, including Frenchmen like Juan Seguin, Italian like Jose Cassiano, or Corsican like Antonio Navarro, generally of white Mediterranean race, although there was also a small number of people of mixed blood among them ranging from mulattos to mestizos[4][5][6][7] who were excluded by the Spanish law of "limpieza de sangre", purity of blood, from participating in the colonization of Northern New Spain including Texas and the American Southwest.[8][9][10][11] For these reasons a colonial Tejano, or Tejano Texian, is more accurately classified as a "Spaniard Texan" or "Spaniard Texian" or "Spaniard American" or as a "Texan of Spaniard heritage", as opposed to a "new Tejano" who is of Mexican heritage.

In direct relation to this distinction, genuinely Tejano music is related and sounds more like the folk music of Louisiana known as "Cajun" music and to the music of northern Mexico, rather than to the folk music of central and southern Mexico such as Mariachi and other Latino music. With the abundant use of the accordion, genuinely Tejano music is part of the foundation of Country Western music. The American Cowboy culture and music was born from the meeting of the Anglo-American Texians who were colonists from the American South and the original Tejano Texian pioneers and their "vaquero" or "cow man" culture.[12][13][14][15]

It should be noted that in the Spanish language, the term "tejano" is simply the term to identify an individual from Texas regardless of race or ethnic background.

It should be noted as well that during the Spanish Colonial Period of Texas, before Texas was wrested from Spain and became a part of Mexico in 1821, the colonial settlers of Northern New Spain, including Texas and the American Southwest, understood themselves to be and called themselves Spaniards[16], as opposed to the people of Central and Southern Mexico who generally understood themselves to be and called themselves mestizos or Indians or Mexicans. This is also a crucially important reason why the term "Spaniard Texan" rather than "Mexican Texan" is more correctly applied to the Tejano Texians, and to their descendants.

For bibliographical citations regarding the above article and for a more detailed history of the colonial Tejanos, or Tejano Texians, please click on the following Texas A&am