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diggLP Journal - March 2006
News around the state
D.C BOUND
The immigration reform organization Border Angels recently stopped in Tucson and Phoenix on their way to the Nation's Capitol. The San Diego-based group decided to conduct the caravan after an undocumented immigrant was shot -- allegedly in the back -- by a U. S. Border Patrol agent in December near that city. The agent claims the border crosser threw a rock, says Border Angels Director Enrique Morones. The travelers stopped at El Tiradito Shrine in Tucson and at Patriot's Park in Phoenix. The activists are headed to Washington, D.C., to protest Congressional deliberations over possible passage of tougher border security measures without a guest worker program. "Building walls is not the solution," Morones says.
RAUL CASTRO INSTITUTE
A new ASU research center for Latino community development will carry the name of the first Hispanic governor. The ASU Raul H. Castro Institute, to honor Raul Castro, the first Mexican American elected to chief executive of Arizona in 1974, was christened on Feb. 16. The ceremony was held at a reception at the state Capitol attended by Gov. Janet Napolitano, who's office helped form a coalition to define the center's mission. The 89-year-old former governor traveled from his home in Nogales, Arizona, to be guest of honor. Castro's name graces the former Center for Civil Rights and Community Development, created in early January 2006 and created by Raul Yzaguirre, the former leader of National Council of La Raza. The Castro Institute's offices are located at 411 N. Central in downtown Phoenix. A national search for a institute director is underway. In addition, adjunct programs will be created on the Maricopa Community College campuses, with Phoenix College Acting President Anna Solley in charge. The Castro Institute's goal is to become as prestigious a Latino think tank as the Tomas Rivera Institute at University of Southern California.
LEADING LADY
Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the United Farm Workers of America, will return to Arizona, the scene of some of the union's fiercest struggles, to receive a great honor. Actress Liz Torres, president of the National Hispanic American Educational Fund (NHAEF), will bestow the nonprofit's inaugural Hispanic Heritage Hall of Fame Leadership Award on the Latina civil rights activist and humanitarian April 7 at Arizona State University. The dinner, underwritten by SODEXHO, also will include the awarding of NHAEF's education grants to Arizona Hispanic students.
HEALING RACISM
A consortium of concerned organizations is holding forums on an issue too important to be ignored. Challenge and Opportunity: Biracial and Multiracial Identities, a forum on race relations, was held in February at Phoenix College. The event was hosted by the Phoenix Human Relations Commission, Arizona State University, the Maricopa County Community College District and Phoenix College. The free forum was the third in a series of four conversations on the topic. Hopefully these public dialogues will continue even after the next event.
"We consider the forums important to open dialogue on these topics to eliminate conflict and discrimination in the city of Phoenix," says Olga Aros, deputy director of the city's Equal Opportunity Department. "The mission is to heal racism, a topic which often goes unspoken."
Aros says the fourth forum hasn't been scheduled yet, but that people can call the city at (602) 262-7716 for information.
NAHJ IN PHOENIX
KNXV ABC 15 News in Phoenix will co-host a Town Hall March 28 at which the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) will discuss its Parity Project initiative. The event is scheduled from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the ABC 15 Studios, 515 N. 44th St. in Phoenix. The journalist organization founded the Parity Project in 2003 to improve the quality of news coverage by encouraging English-language media companies to increase its Latino journalist staffing to better reflect the communities they cover. Currently there are low percentages of Latino journalists in newsrooms compared to their percentage of local populations. NAHJ also wants to help the nation's newsrooms forge stronger ties with local Latinos who might offer continuing guidance in covering this fast-growing population segment. To achieve that goal, NAHJ offers a free, anonymous online survey regarding ABC 15 News' coverage of Latinos in Arizona. Visit www.nahj.org/survey/knxvCOMM.html to participate.To reserve a seat at the Town Hall, contact Jessie Colbert, (602) 685-6361 or e-mail jcolbert@abc15.com.
OFF THE WALL
Even if you don't agree with him, you have to be amazed at the way the mind of Legislator Russell Pearce operates. Pearce and his cohorts want to put a measure on the ballot that will tax immigrant money transfers to pay for a wall along the Arizona border that our state government will build. Pearce is enlisting the support of other Republicans who want a wall. GOP sponsors include state Representative Rick Murphy and state Senator Dean Martin, Ron Gould and Thayer Verschoor. Building a border wall isn't a new idea. Congress is debating funding for construction of such a wall right now. What is different is how the Arizona Republicans want to raise wall funding. The Pearce bill would pay for Arizona's portion of the wall by taxing money wire transfers from immigrants in Arizona to family back home. In 2005, immigrants living in the U.S. sent about $20 billion out of country.
The proposed ballot question would assess a new 8 percent tax on international money transfers from Arizona. Pearce knows the ballot proposal will get headlines, but those in the banking business say it is bad business to put banks in Arizona at a competitive disadvantage with banks in other border states. The bill also will hurt Latino small businesses.
CHAVEZ LEGACY
Christine Chavez, granddaughter of César Chavez, accepted this year's Equality Ally Award and Recognition on behalf of the United Farm Workers for their support of marriage equality in February. With the help of activists, the California State Legislature became the first in the nation last year to pass equal marriage rights legislation for same-sex couples.
"It is a testament of unity, which no movement has ever succeeded without allies and coalitions," Chavez says. She adds that there are more Latino same-sex couples in California than in any other state. More than 40 percent of same-sex couples in California identify themselves as
Latino.
Chavez says she is carrying on her tata's legacy. Beginning in the 1970s, César Chavez spoke out strongly for LGBT rights in the 1970s, before there was wide
spread public acceptance of the LGBT community among Latinos.
CRAFTY CHICA
Local Chicano artist Kathy Cano Murillo's Crafty Chica's Art de la Soul, a do-it-yourself book of projects for the home, is now in bookstores. Murillo, who writes feature stories for The Arizona Republic, has built a national reputation outside her journalism career as a queen of crafts. (She was mentioned in a recent Marketing y Medios magazine article on Latino design experts.) Art de la Soul ($19.95) combines the two, interspersing hip projects such as a fabric prayer book or embellished jean jacket with excerpts from her Diary of a Crafty Chica. Murillo sees the world through glittering eyeglasses, and her enthusiasm for crafting irrepressibly shines through. Visit www.CraftyChica.com to learn more about this diva with a glue gun.
