Minnesota

There is much work to be done to erase racism and provide opportunity for all. I hope Minnesotans will take time to consider Dr. King’s words and actions.” — Governor Tim Pawlenty (January 10, 2008, Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder Special MLK Edition

Governor Tim Pawlenty’s public praise of Dr. Martin Luther King for his compassion and contribution to the struggle for human rights is contrary to the governor’s harsh and inhumane immigration orders and policy proposals.”*

*From: http://www.tcdailyplanet.net
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Mexican people, Hispanic people were a part of life through our area during those years. 1928, ’29, ’30. ’31. Lately I came on an article from 1930. The speaker for Worthington’s Kiwanis Club on Constitution Day was Marie Luiz Cabrera, “social worker who worked for the past two years among the Mexican laborers in Nobles County beet plots.”

Cabrera told the Kiwanians, “Generally they are a hardworking, thrifty race and as a rule aim to pay their way and meet their just obligations.” She said the problem, all around, was “language barrier.” By this date, Cabrera’s comments recall Paul Newman’s line from, “Cool Hand Luke.””*

*From: http://www.dglobe.com
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The Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota Foundation has named Frank Fernandez, JD, to its 13-member board of directors. The board directs the state’s largest grantmaking foundation dedicated exclusively to improving health in Minnesota and includes five community representatives.

“Frank brings great experience and passion in working with communities the foundation serves,” said Marsha Shotley, foundation president. “His understanding of the role of social and economic influences on health makes him a valuable addition to our board in guiding our work.”

Fernandez is a licensed attorney who joined Blue Cross in December 2005 as the government programs/Medicare attorney. He was promoted to vice president of government programs in August 2007. In this capacity he leads overall business operations for Blue Cross government programs including the Federal Employee Plan, Prepaid Minnesota Assistance Program (PMAP), MinnesotaCare, Medicare supplement plans and local Medicare Advantage plans. Previously Fernandez worked for health plans in Nevada and Wisconsin. He also served as executive director of the Nevada Association of Health Plans.

Born in Las Vegas, Nevada, Fernandez attended Arizona State University, graduated with a bachelor’s degree in political science with an emphasis in Latin American studies. He attended Hamline University School of Law and graduated in 2005. Fernandez was admitted to the Minnesota bar in October 2005.

In 2006, Fernandez was elected to the board of the Minnesota Hispanic Bar Association, having previously served as its student representative. He also serves on the steering committee of Fuerza Azul, Blue Cross’ new employee resource group for Latinos.

Fernandez replaces Timothy Peterson, who retired from the board in 2007.

For more information on the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota Foundation, visit us on the Web at www.bcbsmnfoundation.org or call (651) 662-3950 or toll free 1-866- 812-1593.

The Blue Cross Foundation’s purpose is to look beyond health care today for ideas that create healthier communities tomorrow. By addressing key social, economic and environmental factors that determine health — beyond genes, lifestyle and access to health care — the foundation’s work extends beyond the traditional reach of the health care system to improve community health long-term and close the health gap that affects many Minnesotans. The foundation has become the state’s largest grantmaking foundation to exclusively dedicate its assets to improving health in Minnesota, awarding more than $22 million since it was established in 1986.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, with headquarters in the St. Paul suburb of Eagan, was chartered in 1933 as Minnesota’s first health plan and continues to carry out its charter mission today: to promote a wider, more economical and timely availability of health services for the people of Minnesota. A nonprofit, taxable organization, Blue Cross is the largest health plan based in Minnesota, covering 2.9 million members in Minnesota and nationally through its health plans or plans administered by its affiliated companies. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, headquartered in Chicago. Go to www.bluecrossmn.com to learn more about Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota.
Website: www.bcbsmnfoundation.org/
Website: www.bluecrossmn.com/ “*

*From: http://sev.prnewswire.com
Traducido: usando Google o Altavista/Babel Fish

Since Roxana Segura’s family moved to a mobile home park in Inver Grove Heights, she has watched the Latino population blossom at both Skyline Village and nearby Pine Bend Elementary.

The number of children from Skyline Village attending the school has doubled in the past few years, to about 70, including many students whose families speak Spanish at home.

“I don’t think that the school was kind of prepared for all these changes,” said Segura, who has two children enrolled at Pine Bend.”*

*From: http://www.startribune.com
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Federal agents will be on the stand in immigration court today, testifying about a raid that netted some 50 undocumented immigrants in Willmar last April.

Attorney Gloria Contreras-Edin of the Latino legal services group Centro Legal says the cases of four Willmar residents will be heard as well as some residents from Worthington.”*

*From: http://www.kxmc.com
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Recently, the Minnesota Chicano Latino Affairs Council (CLAC) issued a statement sharply at odds with the immigration plan put forth by Governor Tim Pawlenty.
CLAC is a state agency created by the Minnesota legislature in 1978. Eleven of the 15 council members are appointed by the governor, with one member coming from each congressional district and three serving at-large. Two state senators and two representatives make up the remaining four members of the council. According to its web site, “The primary mission of CLAC is to advise the governor and the state legislature on the issues of importance to Minnesota’s Chicano Latino community.” “*

*From: http://www.workdayminnesota.org
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Kris Soltvedt of Austin believes Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s plans to more effectively counter illegal immigration may do just what they are intended to do — get the immigrants to stay in their own country.

The effect of that would be devastating, she said.

“Their whole lives revolve around their community, and if it’s going to be that difficult … they will say, ‘Oh well, let’s just go home,’” said Soltvedt, a former pastor in the Hispanic community.”*

*From: http://www.postbulletin.com
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The governor issued an order that takes several steps to deal with illegal immigration without legislative agreement.

It requires state law enforcement officers to work with federal agents to enforce immigration laws. It instructs the Department of Public Safety to review photos on the state’s driver’s license database for possible fraud. And it requires any new state employees and contractors who do business with the state to verify citizenship through an Internet-based system operated by the federal government.

Pawlenty said the steps are necessary to respond to illegal immigration.”*

*From: http://minnesota.publicradio.org
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It’s an election year, and none of us is going to get out of 2008 un-pestered and un-pitched. It’s going to be a long year.

On Monday, I saw two press conferences at the Capitol and barely escaped to tell the tale. At one — a presser put on by Gov. Tim Pawlenty to scare illegal immigrants — I was strong-armed by two angry white citizens who told me I must hate white people, which would come as a shock to my mother. At the other presser, organized by supporters of Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee, I was thumped on the chest by a good Christian woman and told I should accept Jesus into my heart, and had better do it soon.”*

*From: http://www.startribune.com
Traducido: usando Google o Altavista/Babel Fish

An expert in Chicano studies who just completed a tour of the United States on his bicycle while interviewing hundreds of people about immigration, citizenship and identity will address students, scholars and the community at a forum next week at the University of Utah.

While it promises to be a hot topic in the coming election year, honors students at the U. will be taking on questions regarding the increasingly complex subject of immigration and the American West.”*

*From: http://deseretnews.com
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Today is the one year anniversary of a federal immigration raid on the Swift meatpacking plant in Worthington. Officers arrested 239 illegal immigrants in the southwest Minnesota city. It was part of a nationwide action.

Latinos in Worthington, Minn., say they’re still recovering from the raid. Some people though say the raid didn’t go far enough.”*

In our national dialogue about our broken immigration system, our political leaders have two choices: They either can come together to find solutions that are practical and fair, or they can fuel the flames by appealing to worst in us by creating fear and confusion around the issue. Unfortunately, in his run for Congress, Minnesota state Sen. Dick Day has chosen the latter path.

According to a recent report in the Star Tribune, Day, R-Owatonna, recently traveled to Arizona at the invitation of a group called the Minuteman Project. It’s been widely reported that the Minutemen are a group of civilian vigilantes that take the law into their own hands by patrolling the U.S.-Mexico border fully armed, without the official sanction of the United States Border Patrol or local law enforcement. Their members advocate the immediate expulsion of all undocumented immigrants in the country, no matter the effect on our economy and society, and for the construction of a 700-mile-long fence along the border, no matter the cost.”*

Silvia Álvarez, a graduate student from Guatemala, is the 2007 recipient of the University of Minnesota Women of Color Tapestry Award. The annual award is granted to individuals who help create a thriving campus community where diversity is welcomed and supported.

Álvarez, who moved to Minnesota with her husband and three children three years ago to pursue a master’s degree in education policy administration at the university, is credited with promoting the Latino culture and Spanish language by creating a bilingual radio show on RadioK, the student-run radio station at the university.

When moving to Minnesota, Álvarez faced many challenges, not only because of the language barriers but also because the culture and environment were new. However, she and her family turned the challenge into what she described as an incredible experience.”*

How many of us “shop” for clinics, doctors and other health care providers, getting references from patients and researching quality of care issues that have the potential to affect ourselves and our families? How many of us seek second opinions about health care options and treatments? The fact is that health care quality can—and does—vary widely. Many of us, as health care consumers, are not as aware of those variations or of our right to make informed decisions about our medical care as we should be. More important, most of us wouldn’t know where to find this information if we were to go looking for it.”*

Dick Day took an unusual campaign trip this month as a Republican candidate in Minnesota’s First Congressional District, which spans the whole of southern Minnesota from Wisconsin to South Dakota.

Day traveled more than 1,600 miles farther south.

The Republican state senator from Owatonna went to the U.S.-Mexican border at the invitation of the activist anti-open border Minutemen Project. He came away convinced that pressing for controls on illegal immigration will be the key to a victory against incumbent Democrat Tim Walz.”*

It’s a story that’s been repeated over and over again: Impoverished Mexicans leave their country in search of a better life in the United States, only to find humiliations and mistreatment in exchange for a meager wage at backbreaking jobs. When these workers learn their rights and try to organize, they start to receive threats from their employers, including the threat of deportation.

This is the story of Help Wanted, a play written by Virginia McFarlen and directed by Alberto Justiniano, that Teatro del Pueblo has been bringing to colleges and community theaters throughout Minnesota. Help Wanted tells the true story of two Mexican sisters who, together with their co-workers, organize to fight for better working conditions at their Minneapolis hotel while they confront threats of deportation. The struggle and triumph of the Holiday Inn Express workers, upholding the right to organize without intimidations, became a watershed victory in the history of the labor movement. Today, it is an important lesson of struggle and perseverance for young people caught in the middle of the immigration debate.”*

El Paso received a visit from a cross-continental traveler last weekend.

Louis Mendoza, the chair of the department of Chicano studies at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, set out for a bicycle tour of the country in July, starting out of Santa Cruz, Calif., and going clockwise. He arrived in El Paso on Thanksgiving and left this morning. His goal is to gauge people’s perspectives on what he calls the “Latino-ization” of the United States.

Just a month short of the end of his trip, Mendoza said that what struck him was the number of Hispanics present even in smaller towns across the country, their entrepreneurial spirit and “how well we’re all getting along,” despite the rhetoric.”*

One of the reasons often given for Minnesota’s consistently high rank in national health surveys is an above average percentage of residents covered by some form of health insurance. However, the percentage of uninsured has been creeping upward for several years. In fact, according to a study by the Minnesota Department of Health, the University of Minnesota School of Public Health and the Minnesota Department of Human Services, the state’s uninsured rate rose from 5.4 percent in 2001 to 6.7 percent in 2004. Fewer businesses providing coverage for their employees was cited as the primary reason for the increase.

What this study did not take into consideration—and what is still going virtually unacknowledged in discussions about health care—is the number of uninsured immigrants in the state of Minnesota, both documented and undocumented, who would drive that percentage even higher if they were taken into account.”*

Minnesota’s Latino population faces health risks made worse by lack of medical coverage for undocumented immigrants.>

One of the reasons often given for Minnesota’s consistently high rank in national health surveys is an above average percentage of residents covered by some form of health insurance. However, the percentage of uninsured has been creeping upward for several years. In fact, according to a study by the Minnesota Department of Health, the University of Minnesota School of Public Health and the Minnesota Department of Human Services, the state’s uninsured rate rose from 5.4 percent in 2001 to 6.7 percent in 2004. Fewer businesses providing coverage for their employees was cited as the primary reason for the increase. What this study did not take into consideration—and what is still going virtually unacknowledged in discussions about health care—is the number of uninsured immigrants in the state of Minnesota, both documented and undocumented, who would drive that percentage even higher if they were taken into account.”*

LawHelpMN.org/espanolhas nearly 200 resources available in Spanish, including fact sheets, booklets, videos and links to external Web sites. With more and more government and nonprofit agencies producing translated materials for the state’s growing Hispanic population, that number is continually rising.”*

“All across Minnesota, farmers are learning how to sell directly to a growing immigrant population. In some places the market may be Hmong, while others could include Somali or Latino.

Steven Mejia, along with his father and grandmother, has a unique insight into the ethnic market — because they are the market.

Being part of the market they want to sell to gives them an inside perspective when they direct market goats, cattle, eggs, chickens and even a few vegetables to area Latinos.”*

“Viking Terrace is a neighborhood on the Northeast side of the city of Northfield. It is a diverse community in general but it is the heaviest Latino/a inhabited neighborhood. In 2006, Greenvale Park Elementary School, located just over the creek behind Viking Terrace had a total of 14% Latino/a families. From 87 registered Latino/a students 67 had Viking Terrace addresses. This numbers are in high contrast to 5% and 3% for Bridgewater and Sibley elementary schools on the other side of town. The Greenvale Park School numbers are also in contrast with the official 5% reported Latino/a population in Northfield, and with the 4+% for Rice County, but right in line with the 14.4% Hispanic/Latino population of the nation according to 2000 census data.

The fire last Monday that destroyed the home IMG_0108 of Selene and Miguel Rojas was caused by electrical wiring issues according to the fire department’s declarations to the Northfield News yesterday. Whatever the cause, the fact is that the home was destroyed and the family needs support.”*

“Gustavus Adolphus College is hosting its annual Chicano/Latino Youth Leadership Institute service conference Oct. 25-26. This year’s conference is for Latino high school students from St. Peter and St. James high schools.

ChYLI is a culturally based positive youth development program that provides Chicano-Latino high school youth from southern Minnesota with opportunities to develop their leadership ability and enhance their educational outlook.

The program was developed in 1993 by the Region Nine Development Commission in Mankato, Minn., and is now coordinated by Gustavus. Goals of the program include building a network of Chicano-Latino leaders, increasing understanding of the Chicano-Latino culture, involving youth in service-learning opportunities, community decision-making and vision setting, and increasing school connectedness and graduation rates among Chicano-Latino youth.”*

“A member of the St. Cloud State University Office of Admissions will be honored as one of the top role models within Minnesota’s Hispanic community.

Martha Noyola, assistant director of the students of color outreach program in the office of admissions, has been named one of “25 on the Rise” by the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in Minnesota.

The honor is in recognition of Noyola’s commitment to excellence, which has made her a role model and leader, according to the Hispanic Chamber.”*

“While their friends and classmates were sleeping in or taking it easy during a four-day weekend, 10 teenagers from Willmar’s Latino community spent most of their time in an intensive workshop on digital storytelling.

The result of their four days of training and editing will be a collection of 5-minute films about their views of growing up in Willmar.”*