Community

While a debate rages about whether immigration’s effects have been positive or negative, what is undeniable is the poverty and poor living conditions in which many Central American and Mexican immigrants find themselves.

“Sun Valley,” says Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, who represents the area, “is ground zero for the county’s underserved and uninsured populations in the eastern San Fernando Valley.”

More than 70 percent of Sun Valley’s estimated 46,000 residents are Latino - and at least half are undocumented. They often fall through the bureaucratic cracks of census and city statistics, but make up the bulk of the one-in-five residents living in poverty in the area. “*

A summer pilot program in Columbia aims to introduce Hispanic preschoolers to the English language before they head to kindergarten.

The three-week !Listo! Summer School starts next Monday and will serve as many as 16 Spanish-speaking children who haven’t already been introduced to English at another preschool, said Phil Peters, director of First Chance for Children and one of the program’s organizers. “*

B y the time the Portland City Council abandoned its plan to rename North Interstate Avenue for Cesar Chavez last year, it had badly bruised every constituency with a stake in the renaming, and damaged its own reputation in the bargain.

The Latino community, businesses, neighborhoods along Interstate, innocent bystanders who’d only watched the racially charged saga unfold, all were disgusted. And the Chinese American community was angry. The council’s last-minute proposal to rename Fourth Avenue struck many in that community as disrespectful, since Fourth runs through Chinatown. “*

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio on Monday launched another crackdown on immigration and other criminal violators in Mesa”*

Suffolk police on Tuesday asked the public’s help finding out who defaced a Bay Shore building with anti-Hispanic graffiti.

The phrases “Latinos Go Home” and “Get Out of the U.S.A.” were spray-painted on the side of Body Designs, a tattoo and body piercing shop, at 1746 Sunrise Highway in Bay Shore.”*

With Topeka celebrating Fiesta Mexicana, 13 News took a trip to Monday’s V.I.P. dinner and asked Hispanic voters their thoughts on the issue. Click on the video to hear what they had to say, and leave a comment with your thoughts.”*

Qué Pasa is part of North Carolina’s oldest and largest Hispanic communications company - Hispanic Group.

José Isasi, a Cuban-American who has been in the U.S. for more than 40 years, started the company in 1994. The Hispanic Group includes Qué Pasa and businesses including events production and temporary services - all focused on the Hispanic community.”*

The Make the Connection! Hispanic Business Expo is one of the largest Hispanic business events in the country. This year’s Hispanic Business Expo will take place on Thursday, August 14th at Navy Pier. “*

This year, expo organizers with the Greater Oklahoma City Hispanic Chamber of Commerce are expecting more than 13,000 people to attend the expo from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the Transportation Building at the State Fair Park.”*

Local activists concerned about immigration reform, education and other issues are banding to form the Latino Democrats Club of Rockland County, a civic and political action group.

The club will have its first public meeting on Wednesday, in which it will present its officers, discuss its mission and agenda, and take questions from the public.”*

Democratic state House candidate Juan Vazquez Valdez says he changed his name to “John” when he filed ballot paperwork this year to show he has assimilated to his new country.

His challengers, however, contend he did it to conceal a crime that happened nine years ago.

Valdez refused to talk about the incident, and though he acknowledges it in his campaign literature, his version varies from police records. “*

Juana Villegas DeLaPaz, a Nashville, Tennessee resident, should be happily tired these days since the recent birth of her fourth child. And Villegas DeLaPaz is tired but it’s one derived of an emotional ordeal that has drained and depressed this 33-year-old mother — not because of her undocumented status, but because of what local law enforcement subjected her to as she was about to deliver her baby.”*

Crowd noise was building in the City Council chambers next door; soon-to-be councilwoman Maria Gabriella Fernandez couldn’t believe her ears.”*

A proposed law aimed at booting illegal immigrants from Fremont, Neb., is causing an uproar among residents and inciting cries of racism.”*

When Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger complained last year to a convention of Latino journalists that Mexican and Central American immigrants were “staying Mexican” because they weren’t learning English, he just may have been talking about much of the Northeast San Fernando Valley.

Today in Pacoima, Sun Valley and other areas of the Northeast Valley, Latino immigrants can do everything from shop and work to service their vehicles and get health care - all without having to learn English or interact with non-Latinos. “*

It’s hard to stay healthy if you speak a different language than your doctor, and maybe harder yet if you have no doctor at all.

Those are just some of the health challenges facing local Latinos, said Israel Santana. He organizes Rochester’s Latino Health Fair to help Latinos clear those hurdles and get healthy.”*

Salem’s police chief says he plans on hiring three Latino officers to build a force that better reflects the ethnic makeup of the city.

Chief Robert St. Pierre says a recruiting drive has been so successful that a civil service list he received to fill the three vacancies has 13 bilingual candidates, including more than a half-dozen Latinos who live in Salem.”*

Every Thursday, Alfredo Pena meets with local Hispanic construction workers, among other low-wage workers, to discuss working conditions and rights. Lately, however, his attendance has been declining.

“It depends on how the work is,” says Pena, workers’ center organizer with Memphis Workers Interfaith Network. “Sometimes they have to work, and sometimes they won’t come because they have moved out of state.” “*

Two years ago, the city passed an ordinance to punish landlords for renting to illegal immigrants. But it rescinded the rental restriction after a legal challenge was filed and bills began to mount.

Now Escondido is trying a new approach to what it calls the “public nuisances” of illegal immigration, citing residents for code violations such as garage conversions, graffiti and junk cars.
“*

Marching orders may be delayed for the organizers of New Jersey’s Hispanic-American parade this year because ousted board president Gina Jaramillo has taken legal action against parade director William Hernandez and its vice president Agustin Garcia. “*

The drama caused by the statue is featured in the documentary “The Last Conquistador,” which airs nationally Tuesday on the PBS series P.O.V. The film is part of Art&Seek, a series by Dallas’ KERA focusing on arts, journalism and community.

“The Last Conquistador” follows artist John Sherrill Houser as he sets out to build a statue of Onate, an explorer who founded the first European settlements in the upper Rio Grande Valley and established what would become the cities of El Paso, Texas and Sante Fe, New Mexico. Called “The Equestrian,” the statue depicts Onate atop a towering Andalusian stallion.”*

Back in 2002, before all the trouble, the Rev. Paul Ouderkirk retired from St. Bridget’s Roman Catholic Church here, his last station in 43 years of ministry. He built a home 35 miles away in a town along the Mississippi, and he indulged a passion for family history, tracing his lineage to an ancestor who had arrived in New Amsterdam with the Dutch East India Company.”*

The Abilene Chamber of Commerce will host its inaugural Business Mercado from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sept. 20 at the Abilene Civic Center, 1100 N. 6th St. Hispanic-owned and non-Hispanic-owned businesses may take advantage of the services and products offered.”*

Javier Martinez is an icon of local Del Rio radio. His “Town Talk Live” is a popular hour of talking about the issues. Or, detractors would say, one hour of local political drama. He is also the founder of the local chapter of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

My first encounter with Martinez was during one of the many Del mayoral elections. He usually sets up a remote broadcast from the polling location. This time, it was in the Del Rio City Hall parking lot inside his mobile studio, or Del Rio City Councilwoman Pat Cole’s motor home, whichever way we define it. “*

So a year ago, she and one of her dance colleagues — who happened to be a Web and graphics designer — launched a Web site. Today, Saborhr.com is a hit in Hampton Roads’ Hispanic community, getting 15,000 visits a month, its owners said.”*