Tuesday now just Tuesday due to swine flu

I’m wondering how many more incidents we’re going to hear of in the next few days similar to the Mexican Civic Society of Illinois’ upcoming festival in conjunction with the Cinco de Mayo holiday?

The society had been planning a festival to be held near downtown Chicago to commemorate the date in 1862 when forces of a Mexican resistance were able to drive French troops from the city of Puebla.

WHILE THERE ARE many communities that have Cinco de Mayo celebrations, and even in the Chicago area there will be a few, this festival had the advantage of entertainment, vendors and even a few government officials coming from Mexico.

It would have added a certain authenticity to the event over places where locals dress up in vaquero costumes, a mariachi band plays, and a few overly soggy tamales are sold. In some places, Cinco de Mayo becomes the generic excuse for Latino ethnic recognition – even though the date has no historic significance outside of Mexico.

But some of those officials are having trouble getting flights into the United States. Others don’t want to go through the hassle of traveling at a time when the swine flu is reaching a peak in Mexico.

In short, the festival got taken out by the health hazard.

NOT THAT I’M getting all worked up over the thought of one less Cinco de Mayo celebration. I’m sure if I really scour the neighborhoods this coming weekend, I can find somewhere to go if I really feel the need to be surrounded by people doing the Mexican hat dance.

But my concern is that some people are going to think that somehow, the festival itself has the potential to spread disease. As though it is somehow due to exposure to anything Mexican that causes the virus to spread.

That nitwit attitude is evident in so many places, including some rhetoric that recently came from Israel Deputy Health Minister Yakov Litzman, who said the current outbreak should be called the “Mexican flu” instead of “swine flu,” because if it truly were “swine flu” then Jewish people would not be capable of getting it because of the abstention from pork products on religious grounds.

He has a point in that swine flu, strictly speaking, doesn’t come from pigs. Contact with them, or eating food products produced from them, does not put anyone at risk. The fact that Egypt is now slaughtering all pigs in the country is about as irrelevant a gesture as a nation could make toward trying to control spread of the virus.

BUT THE IDEA that this has any real connection to a country is ridiculous. The list of nations on Planet Earth who have had people contract the virus ought to discredit that notion right away.

And the idea that any contact with anything that brings to mind the culture of a country is somehow harmful is absurd.

So go out, find a festival, preferably one with decent Mexican food (since there’s nothing more disgusting than overly mild, third-rate takes on food from the rest of the Americas).

Because it would be just as irrelevant a gesture to start penalizing Cinco de Mayo celebrations that take place this weekend in anticipation of the actual holiday on Tuesday.

WE SHOULD CONTINUE our celebration of the Mexican victory at Puebla, where what could be described as rag-tag forces were able to defeat the French army – thereby giving Mexican people a sense of hope that they could somehow drive France and its puppet Austrian emperor, Maximillian, out of control in Mexico City.

It was a moment that even spills over to impact U.S. history, since the fact that Mexican rebels fighting to get back control of their country were able to put up such a fight for the next few years that French forces were not able to follow through on their long-term plans to provide military assistance from Mexico to the so-called rebels trying to split up a country.

None other than los Estados Unidos itself.

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EDITOR’S NOTES: Chicago will have one less Cinco de Mayo celebration, due to the (http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2009/04/cinco-de-mayo-fest-canceled-over-swine-flu.html) swine flu outbreak that may have hit Mexico hardest but now threatens the globe.

Israel officials are being ethnically offensive in their own right when they criticize (http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ieHZRubAS3lyjn2GBiCPkXkHrXwwD97QROAG0) officials for being insensitive to the cultural realities of Jewish people.

While I’m not sure I agree with all his song choices, I do believe there ought to be some variety (http://www.dallasobserver.com/2009-04-30/news/this-cinco-de-mayo-give-the-mariachis-a-break-from-the-old-standbys/) in a Cinco de Mayo celebration.

Swine flu causes pols to play the blame game

The swine flu virus that is scaring the public this week has spread to another state in the United States.

But in what appears to be a quirk, officials are unable to fid any connection between the infected resident of northern Indiana and Mexico.

THAT IS SIGNIFICANT because the story being pushed for days is that this virus broke out in Mexico, spread rapidly there because of negligence, and is now spreading to the United States.

It is fortunate for us that federal officials these days are showing some restraint and not giving much credibility to the people who would have this illness become the excuse for shutting down the U.S./Mexico border.

Some officials seem to realize that trying to associate this virus with any nationality is little more than a trivialization of the issue. Yet there are some political people who are more than willing to engage in such ridiculous rhetoric.

And they’re not limited to any one nation.

TAKE THE MEXICAN government, which these days is trying to spread the story that this virus may very well have started in south Texas, then spread across the border INTO Mexico.

“I think it is very risky to say, or to want to say, what the point of origin or dissemination of it is, given that there have already been cases reported in Southern California and Texas,” Mexico Health Secretary Josè Angel Cordova told reporter-types.

It helps their rhetoric that the World Health Organization has stressed the fact that swine flu cases are being documented around the world, pushing the idea that no one nationality ought to be associated with the virus – even though the bulk of the outbreaks and fatalities have come in the Mexico City area.

But residents of the United States, Canada, New Zealand and Israel – to name a few countries – also have become infected with the virus. While many did recently travel to Mexico, not all have.

I’M NOT SURE if I find this blame game to be scary, or silly. It reminds me too much of the time last year when tomatoes and jalapeño peppers grown in Mexico were found to be tainted with a bacteria that made people ill.

At one point, Mexico officials were claiming that the infection of the Mexican-grown crop came at a U.S.-run facility where they were inspected before formally being trucked into the United States.

My point is that the blame game served as rhetoric meant to distract attention from trying to fight the potential contamination of vegetables, such as it now serves to keep people from focusing on how to best contain this virus that can spread out of control if left unchecked.

I’m not so sure I care where the virus started, as much as I’d like to know that steps are being taken to try to control its spread – since it appears it could be as long as six months before a vaccine meant to stop the virus can be produced in significant quantities.

THIS OUGHT TO be an instance where people put aside nonsense talk, because all it does is interfere with the attempts to find a solution.

And at a time when the number of infections worldwide has reached the thousands (with more than 150 fatalities in Mexico), that kind of attitude borders on criminal.

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EDITOR’S NOTES: Who’s fault is it? Such rhetoric accomplishes little when addressing problems (http://www.nydailynews.com/news/us_world/2009/04/28/2009-04-28_where_did_swine_flu_start_.html) caused by the swine flu spread.

Not every swine flu incident can be clearly traced to Mexico, which has officials (http://www.nwi.com/articles/2009/04/28/updates/breaking_news/doc49f720b2ec660720930896.txt) investigating (http://cbs2chicago.com/health/indiana.swine.flu.2.996247.html) the outbreak confused.

Who will take the first step?

We’re at a point in time where many people realize that the current policies that keep the United States and Cuba isolated from each other are absurd and that something has to change.

But we’re also at a point where everybody seems determined to say they did not take the first step toward a process that would result someday in a normalization of relations between the two countries – a status that has not existed since the early days of President John F. Kennedy.

SO IT BECOMES difficult to say how this situation will play out. It likely will come down to who is willing to accept the most criticism from their loyal followers for doing the right thing – no matter how politically unpopular it will seem.

How else to consider the fact that U.S. and Cuban officials actually met on Monday.

An assistant secretary of state met with a Washington-based head of the Cuban interests section (since the two countries don’t have reciprocal ambassadors who can talk). In accordance with the security that people at this level of politics like to engage in, the meeting’s location is a secret.

But U.S. officials went out of their way to portray this meeting as no big deal, saying it was meant to hash out some details and answer any questions the Cuban government might have about President Barack Obama’s actions earlier this month to ease federal restrictions on people traveling to Cuba and sending money to their relatives who still live on the Caribbean island nation.

AS THEY PUT it, this is the second such meeting this month, and similar meetings were held during the days of President George W. Bush.

Nobody in their right mind is going to believe that the Bush years in any way brought the United States and Cuba closer to a normal relationship than they have had for the past five decades.

This is all about the fact that federal officials want to be able to say that it is the Castro government that made the concessions that made it possible for the two countries to engage in talks serious enough that they might bring an end someday to the trade embargo – that attempt by Kennedy and maintained by all presidents since to try to cut Cuba off from the rest of the world.

All it really does is give Cuba and Fidel Castro the talking points he uses to stir up ridiculous rhetoric about “imperialistic Yankees” picking on the island nation and driving it into poverty.

SO AT A time when various studies are showing that the oldest Cuban exiles are starting to show slight sympathy for the idea of measures that might allow them to someday visit their homelands (and younger Cubanos in this country wishing to come and go between the two nations at their convenience), U.S. officials these days are trying to figure out how to build a relationship without appearing that they’re bending over to accommodate the Castro regime.

In short, it’s about partisan rhetoric. U.S. officials are determined to claim our nation “the winner” in the five-decade “fight” against a Communist-influenced nation existing so close to the mainland (the distance between Havana and Miami is about the same as the distance between Chicago and Milwaukee).

Now if it sounds like I’m saying the United States is somehow being pigheaded in this matter, I’m not. The pigheaded blame is to be shared on both sides of this partisan fight.

It literally goes all the way up to the top with Fidel himself.

WHEN CURRENT CUBA President Raul Castro tossed out rhetoric implying Cuba might be willing to make some concessions in the long-standing gripe areas of human rights abuses, it was seen as a sign that Castro and Obama might someday have a meeting of the minds that could result in some progress.

Only to have Fidel come out a few days later and claim that people were misinterpreting his younger brother’s talk, and that Cuba has nothing to apologize for or to concede.

Apparently, Fidel Castro wants to “win” this longstanding fight just as much as the U.S. hardliners do. Perhaps it is his old age that has him thinking in terms of legacy. I’m sure the last thing he wants is for a new regime that goes out of its way to erase his memory from the island.

Be honest, if the hardliners of old were to get its way, the history books would record the Castro regime as some batch of gangsters who took control by force, only to be deposed by the forces of good (with U.S. support). They might even try to rewrite the books so that the past half-century would be an irrelevant time period altogether.

I STILL THINK the idea of restoring relations between the two nations is not only a worthwhile goal, it is a required one.

Continuing with the trade embargo these days comes across as the United States trying to pretend that Cuba does not really exist. The fact is that it does. We can’t change that fact. The rest of the world has largely accepted the idea that Cuba’s legitimate government turned Communist back in ’59.

The sooner the United States accepts that, the better off we’ll be. Because the status quo is absurd, almost as ridiculous as Fidel Castro’s rhetoric about how the United States is to blame for all his country’s faults.

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What constitutes a U.S. citizen?

It’s a growing trend in the United States, and it is a factor that the nativists would prefer to ignore – there are an increased number of families whose membership are split on the citizenship question.

Not philosophically. Literally.

WE’RE TALKING ABOUT cases where one, or both, parents are not U.S. citizens, but the children are. Or there are instances where some of the children are citizens of this country, while others are not.

The New York Times followed one family whose ethnic ties are to Ecuador, where the children are split. The oldest is not a U.S. citizen, and longs for a life in the open. The youngest is a citizen, and sometimes talks of wanting to return to Ecuador – which has his parents shocked and appalled.

The newspaper’s feature story published Sunday is definitely something worth reading. It puts (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/26/nyregion/26immig.html?_r=1&hpw) faces on the issue that confounds the way some people want to perceive the immigration reform issue in this country.

How prevalent is the situation?

THE PEW HISPANIC Center estimates there are about 2.3 million families in this country where some members have questionable status with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency.

The Washington-based center also thinks that about 400,000 families have a split in their children – with some being citizens and some having to scurry whenever there is a perception that “immigration” is in the neighborhood.

That creates problems when immigration officials get it into their heads that a particular individual ought to be deported. There is the end result of families being split up as a result.

Now I know the nativist response to this dilemma. They don’t see one.

THEY WANT TO believe that anyone born to a non-U.S. citizen ought not to have any claim to U.S. citizenship themselves – even though citizenship by its very definition is nothing more than an accident of birth.

But if we’re not going to ever get the mass deportations of the roughly 12 million non-visa-ed U.S. residents, then we’re definitely never going to see the removal of all their relatives – including ones who were born in this country and know no other way of life.

Nor should we be seeing the deportation of some people who might have been born elsewhere, but have lived the bulk of their lives in the United States and are so acculturated to U.S. society (in short, they’ve assimilated so thoroughly) that they’d be foreigners in their so-called home lands.

This is actually part of the reasoning behind the communities across the United States that have declared themselves to be “sanctuary cities,” placing limits on how much their local law enforcement and other government agencies will cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

NOT ONLY ARE these locals not properly trained to be enforcing federal immigration laws, it also would put them on shaky moral ground to be thinking of themselves as officials who ought to be trying to split up families.

But in the same way that many U.S. families are now actually composed of members of two (or more, in some cases) families through marriage, we are going to have to accept the fact that some U.S. families are composed of people who face a problem with immigration because of the outdated laws that regulate the arrival of newcomers to this country.

Part of the reason we need serious reform of those federal laws (the sooner President Barack Obama and the Congress can do something, the better) is because the predicaments faced by these families is downright absurd. It is not realistic to expect “immigration” to pick up an entire family and have to spend time weeding through which members are “legal” and which are not – unless we’re willing to settle for serious gaffes being made.

In fact, the only thing more absurd than the current situation is the suggestion by the nativist nitwits that there ought to be mass deportations, regardless of citizenship status. That is exactly the kind of behavior that will warrant us mass condemnation when historians look back at us some 50 or so years from now.

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New cops could be the future along border

In theory, law enforcement in Ciudad Juarez is taking the right steps these days.

At a time when many people in the city on the U.S./Mexico border named for one-time President Benito Juarez don’t trust the police at all, officials are trying to come up with many new officers.

INSTEAD OF TRYING to retrain existing police in the ways of legitimate law enforcement, they’re trying to grow a new crop.

The police academy that provides Juarez with its officers graduated 290 new officers this week. According to the El Paso Times newspaper, those new officers had their first day of patrol duty on Friday.

Officials say they hope to come up with more and more classes until they get about 1,400 new officers. That compares to the current police department of about 2,000 members.

Of course, this new class of rookie cops is entering a unique situation. They are coming on the job at a time when the police department has no control over law enforcement in the border city.

THE MEXICAN ARMY has installed troops, and federal law enforcement officials also are in place. They are enforcing the law, from prosecuting homicides to writing traffic tickets – NOT the police.

These new cops are coming of age in a time when they will be expected to enforce the law – rather than protect the interests of the drug traffickers, who have been able to use their immense wealth to “buy” the interests of police officers or of people who are willing to wreck harm upon those honest cops who try to enforce the law.

Various reports indicate that since the military took over patrolling the streets of Ciudad Juarez just over a month ago, the number of drug-related murders is down significantly. That thought might make some people think that turning Juarez into a military zone is the solution.

It’s not.

FOR WITH THE decline in murders, there also has been a significant increase in the number of human rights abuses alleged to have been committed by these soldiers.

It is just fact that even though many military veterans re-enter civilian life by becoming police officers, the two roles are significantly different. These soldiers in the Mexican Army may very well be conducting themselves as though they are in combat against a heavily armed enemy.

But the army’s presence in Ciudad Juarez will not eliminate the drug traffickers. It will merely cause the dealers to scurry into their rat holes for the time being, waiting out the military for the day when some official gets bored and decides to pull the troops out.

What is ultimately going to eliminate the concept of drug dealers being the people in charge is the existence of legitimate law enforcement – officials willing to stand up for something resembling a higher ideal.

IT’S KIND OF like the scene in the 1989 film “The Untouchables,” where Kevin Costner’s Eliot Ness and Sean Connery’s Jimmy Malone decide to pick a third member of their prohibition crew from the Chicago police academy, on the theory that the “apple” of the regular police department is “rotten to the core.”

These new officers need to ultimately be incorporated into the ranks of protecting the people of their hometown. The sooner that police can get their dream of 1,400 new officers in place to patrol the streets of Ciudad Juarez, the better off the public will be.

Ultimately, we may use rhetoric such as “war on drugs” to discuss the situation of cocaine and other narcotics being readily available. But it’s not truly a war.

It is a matter of law enforcement. What the U.S./Mexico border truly needs is a sense of the rule of law having some meaning, not militarized presences south of the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo del Norte and National Guard troops waiting north of the border on the off chance that violence spills over.

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Latino problems not limited to Deep South

I have no doubt that the Southern Poverty Law Center has managed to accurately record incidents of ethnic hostility experienced by Latinos who have chosen to live in the Deep South.

The organization known for its work in monitoring activity by the Ku Klux Klan and other racial hate group has come up with a new study – one that contends lower-income people who are Latino in the South are suffering because of their ethnic background.

THEY SURVEYED LATINOS, both citizens and immigrants (with and without valid visas), who live in places such as New Orleans, Charlotte and Nashville (along with small towns in Georgia and Alabama), to find out that those people feel a sense of hostility toward them.

All too often, the locals want to believe that anyone who is Latino either is not a U.S. citizen, or somehow only got citizenship through some sort of legal dodge.

They found instances of Latinos who were jailed because they tried to get paid for work they did, constant harassment or observation from local police, and even one instance where a man was not prosecuted for a rape because the woman was not a U.S. citizen.

All of these things are probably true.

THE REGION THAT likes to think it offers a unique brand of Southern Hospitality has more than its share of people who are downright unhospitable to anyone who doesn’t look, act or drawl just like they do.

But in reading this study, I can’t help but wonder if it is a mistake to focus so much attention on the Southern United States. Because there are many other parts of this country where Latinos face harassment.

I’m wondering if people in those places now somehow feel like their behavior is excusable. After all, this group says Latino harassment is a Southern problem. Taking that attitude would be a mistake.

If anything, I’m inclined to think of the trend of growing Latino populations in the places whose names are remembered for civil rights brawls as being more a sense of growing pains.

THESE ARE OFTEN small towns where having a single Latino family move in significantly alters the percentage of locals who are Latino. It often is a case of the long-time locals not sure what to make of the newcomers, which isn’t much different than those of us Latinos moving into these places and wondering to ourselves, “What is wrong with these goofy people?”

I’m sure much of this will, with the passage of time, decline.

If anything, I’d be more interested in a study of attitudes and perceptions in the Southwestern United States. Some of these places are the ones that once were part of Mexico (and the Spanish colonies before that).

Seeing hostile Anglo establishments trying to treat Latinos as a “foreign” element in places like Texas or Arizona (and it certainly happens every day) is more galling – to me – than the idea of Latinos being harassed in New Orleans (where officials say a “Wild West” mentality prevails in the wake of Hurricane Katrina – and many of the Latinos who came to find work in rebuilding the city are being taken advantage of).

I DON’T DOUBT the accuracy of Mary Bauer, who wrote the report for the Southern Poverty Law Center, when she says in a prepared statement, “workplace abuses and racial profiling are rampant in the South.”

But let’s not forget that such practices are occurring across the United States. It’s not just a southern issue. Thinking of it as purely a southern issue is as ignorant an attitude as those for which the study is criticizing southerners for taking.

If anything, that is why we need the political officials of this nation to come up with serious revisions to the immigration laws. Because the status quo helps create the confusion we now live with.

Too many people see the ridiculous mish-mash of requirements that now exist to go through the process of obtaining U.S. citizenship, and somehow use it to justify in their minds the idea that their “isolationist” ideas are somehow justified legally.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: Is the conduct of Maricopa County (Ariz.) Sheriff Joe Arpaio somehow less troublesome (http://www.splcenter.org/news/item.jsp?aid=375) because it did not occur in the Deep South? I doubt that very much.

How will people react when Miss Puerto Rico represents U.S.A?

To what degree is Puerto Rico truly a part of the United States? That question is now going to become a part of the world of beauty/scholarship pageants.

It became an issue when officials who run the Miss America pageant this week said that Puerto Rico will send a representative, similar to how the Virgin Islands sends one along with each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

SO BEGINNING NEXT year, there will be a lovely lass from Puerto Rico who competes for the title of Miss America. There’s a good chance that Miss America someday will be someone of Boricuan heritage.

That is a radical change for the world of beauty pageants in Puerto Rico (where in some ways they are taken more seriously than they are on the mainland). We won’t get to see an independent Miss Puerto Rico advancing to the Miss Universe pageant to take on the rest of the world.

It’s too bad we couldn’t get dueling Miss Puerto Ricos – one for people who want a strong identity with the United States and another for people who’d prefer to think of Puerto Rico as an independent concept (rather than a mere U.S. commonwealth).

This confusion is because of the fact that in the United States, we have dueling beauty pageants.

THERE IS MISS America, the one with history and tradition with images of Bert Parks singing to a beauty queen from the boardwalk in Atlantic City on national television (even though that pageant now comes from Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas and only get televised on the TLC cable channel).

Then, there is Miss U.S.A., the competition that is a production of billionaire real estate developer Donald Trump. It is the competition that earlier this week gave us a sore loser from California who can’t accept the fact that she alone put her high-heeled foot in her mouth when answering questions about gay marriage.

The people who get caught up in the whole pageant world will cite minute differences (Miss America has a talent competition, whereas Miss U.S.A. is more about the swimsuits – which in the contest earlier this week looked more like skimpy lingerie than anything else) in the two.

The real difference is that the winner of the Miss U.S.A. contest goes on to represent the United States of America in the Miss Universe Pageant, where she winds up competing for best female form against women from around the globe – including Puerto Rico.

SURE ENOUGH, MISS Puerto Rico as she now gets chosen is the island’s representative in the Miss Universe contest. It means that Miss Universe will become the competition that treats Puerto Rico as an independent entity, and Miss U.S.A. will be for the traditionalists who want to think of all those Puerto Ricans as “foreigners” – even though they are U.S. citizens by birth.

By comparison, Miss America is merely Miss America, which fits in with a mentality from a time and place in which a U.S. winner is naturally the world’s superior – just think of how the U.S. major leagues for baseball call their annual championship the World Series, even though the World Baseball Classic keeps crowning champions from Japan.

Miss America will be for the people who are willing to accept the idea that Puerto Rico is a part of the greater nation as a whole, and ought to be considered equal to the rest. I say that even though I know some Puerto Rican people themselves prefer the thought of being separate and independent, than being lumped in with the rest of the United States.

Now I’m not going to claim I have put deep thought into this whole “beauty queen from Boricua” concept. On the one hand, it is nice to see that something as iconic as Miss America is willing to include Puerto Rico for the first time in nearly 50 years.

“THE MISS PUERTO Rico organization has a tremendous amount of pageant expertise and business savvy, and will surely thrive as part of the Miss America program,” said Miss America CEO Art McMaster.

There’s just one point to think about. I can literally envision the “controversy” that will occur the first time that Miss Puerto Rico literally wins and becomes Miss America. Will Rush Limbaugh choke on the concept of that crown being worn by a Latina?

While I enjoy that thought, I must admit to having a little twinge of regret. I enjoy the idea of Puerto Rico maintaining some sort of independent identity, whether it be in beauty pageants or athletic competitions.

The island commonwealth does have its own identity, and I’d hate to see anything that reduces that. I get a kick out of seeing Puerto Rico beauty pageant contestants. I wouldn’t want to see Miss Puerto Rico reduced to the level of triviality of someone like Miss Vermont, or any other place that rarely wins.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: The first Miss Puerto Rico who will go on to compete for the title of Miss America (http://www.missamerica.org/news/press-releases.aspx) will be crowned on July 18 in Caguas.

Fans of the concept of Miss Puerto Rico can (http://missprunofficial.websiteanimal.com/) learn more by checking out this Internet site.

NOTICIAS de LATINO: Is it worth it?

At the beginning of 2009, Ciudad Juarez accounted for nearly half of all murders committed in Mexico, with the bulk of those caused by fighting related to the drug cartels.

But the presence of the Army in the border town named for the one-time president of Mexico has caused the number of homicides to drop significantly – although the number of human rights abuses under investigation has shot up just as dramatically.

SO IT COMES down to a matter of wondering to what degree turning Juarez into a police state is justified by the reduction in drug-related crime – which may very well be a temporary move. It wouldn’t shock me at all to learn that the drug dealers are merely lying low, figuring that the military will get bored and eventually leave.

The Washington Post newspaper reported that the presence of 5,000 troops in the city has had an effect. From 434 murders in January and February in Ciudad Juarez, they dropped to 51 murders in March and 22 thus far this month.

That is one result of having the military and another 5,000 federal agents patrolling the streets, in place of the local police who were either bought off by the narcotics dealers or were so overwhelmed by their influence that they felt there was little they could do to stop drug trafficking.

Another result, as reported by the newspaper, is 170 complaints of human rights abuses filed during the first three weeks of military occupation. Some of the incidents are so outrageous that Mexico’s attorney general is conducting formal investigations.

I’M NOT TRYING to defend the status quo in Ciudad Juarez, which did have the potential to spill over the border into El Paso or other towns on the U.S./Mexico border. But this is a natural result of thinking that the military can do police work. They’re not suited for it. At best, this is a short-term solution.

Development of a more professional police department is the long-term solution, training law enforcement to think of public protection and getting the public to accept the notion that the police officer is NOT necessarily the problem.

And for those who wonder, the end results in Ciudad Juarez don’t surprise me. If the nitwits who want to militarize the border region on the U.S. side as well were to get their way, I would expect similar results to occur in El Paso, Laredo, Brownsville and other Texas towns.

The Mexican results are the perfect evidence as to why long term, the military should be used (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/20/AR2009042003479.html) as little as possible along the border. What else is notable these days among issues of interest to the growing Latino population?

I WANT TO GO HOME: Is it just the effects of old age that are making Cuban exiles feel sentimental about their homeland? Or is there really a significant change taking place that could mean a shift in support for greater ties between the United States and Cuba.

The New York Times reported on a new study by Miami-based Bendixen & Associates, which often does studies of concern to the growing Latino population. This study found 67 percent of Cubanos in this country favor the elimination of all travel restrictions to Cuba.

Prior to President Barack Obama’s appearance at the Summit of the Americas, he approved the easing of some restrictions on contract between Cuban exiles and their family members back on the island. The poll indicates 64 percent approve, and want more contact.

One other statistic from the poll that caught my attention – Obama has a 67 percent approval rating (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/21/us/21miami.html?_r=1&hp) among Cubans in this country. Bendixen officials said the last U.S. president to gain the support of Cubans that much was Ronald Reagan.

WE LEARNED IT FIRST FROM MEXICO: He has yet to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate. But Mexican officials have made it clear they would not object if Carlos Pascual were to become the new U.S. ambassador to Mexico.

Pascual, who is of Cuban ethnic background, was once U.S. ambassador to the Ukraine, and also has served on the White House’s national security council staff. Mexico’s foreign ministry said it would not have problems with him getting the post.

Currently, the ambassador’s post in Mexico City is empty. Tony Garza had held the post under President George W. Bush, but resigned it when Bush stepped down in January.

Approval could come later this spring. It will fall onto the ambassador to implement the promises (http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN20429929) President Barack Obama made earlier this year to aid Mexico in its efforts to gain control of the border region and put down drug-trafficking operations that have caused violence to run amok.

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Who knew Hugo was a literary promoter?

How many people remember how “The Satanic Verses” managed to become a U.S. bestseller? All those people who heard about how author Salman Rushdie had a “fatwa” issued against him by Islamic officials in Iran were suddenly curious to see what the big deal was about.

So many of them rushed out, bought a copy of the book, and found the tale itself to be a bit plodding and dull (that’s my opinion). Somewhere in the mess of books that I own, I have my copy of the book – which I must admit I have yet to finish, even now two decades later.

BASED ON ALL the copies in respectable condition I have seen of the book in used bookstores throughout the years, it would appear that I’m not alone.

It would appear now that we’re repeating the syndrome. When the American public learned that Venezuela President Hugo Chavez gave President Barack Obama a gift of a book – one about the often-dismal history of U.S. relations in Latin American – the book shot up in sales.

Completely irrelevant in the sales rankings offered last week by Amazon.com, so many people turned to the Internet to pick up a copy (it’s still in print in paperback) that it is now the second-highest selling book on the site that tries to make cheap books available to the general public.

All those people want to see just what it is that Chavez handed to Obama. Perhaps they feel like if they can hold their own copy of the book in their hands, they will be included in the moment that occurred when Obama and Chavez had their brief face to face “confrontation.”

NOW I HAVEN’T gone out to buy “Open Veins of Latin America,” which is a serious work of historic research about how the lands now known as the nations of Latin America have been picked over by other countries (first European, now the U.S.A.) for their own interests.

I do own several books of Latin American history, but this one strikes me as being a little too propagandistic – even though one person’s “propaganda” is another person’s “fact.”

I can’t help but notice the fact that the ratings readers provided on Amazon.com. Of the people who bothered to write up the book and provide a ranking, 49 gave it the top rating of five stars, while 49 more gave it the lowest ranking of one star.

This book is either loved, or hated, by the people who have suddenly felt the need to read it. I would guess that their love or hate would coincide strongly with their hate or love for the Obama administration.

THAT OFTEN IS the hard part of reading about Latin America – the reader has to take into account the biases of the writer. All too often, people are more interested in trying to demonize an outside force, or are willing to come up with justification for some of the abhorrent behavior the U.S. (and European nations) have condoned in the Americas.

So I won’t be surprised if Eduardo Galeano’s work winds up getting trashed by many people who bought the book so they likely could see some evidence that Obama himself is some sort of Marxist (after all, why else would he accept a book unless he agreed with it?”).

Of course, what we really should keep in mind about the whole incident is that it is not about whether Obama accepted a book, or ever bothers to read it.

The whole point behind Chavez giving him a copy of the book is because he had enough sense to know that people would pick up on the moment. It would gain him attention. It would feed his massive ego.

HOW ELSE TO explain the comment Chavez made to reporter-types this weekend when discussing the book incident. “So I said, ‘Obama, let’s go into a business. We’ll promote books. I’ll give you one, you give me another.”

It is too bad Obama couldn’t have had a copy of his own book on hand to exchange. I can’t help but wonder what his reaction would have been to reading the story of, “Dreams From My Father.”

So by rushing out to buy the book, these people are validating Chavez in a way that Obama doesn’t even come close to doing with the brief greetings he expressed to Venezuela’s leader.

The only thing Obama is guilty of this weekend is using good manners when dealing with a boorish person. The most sensible thing I can do is to avoid purchasing this particular book (Galeano made enough in royalties this week to last him awhile). I already made one impulse purchase of a book that now clutters my shelves. I don’t need to make another.

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Obama takes his crack at improving U.S. relations with rest of Americas

First Mexico, then Trinidad – where he met with various leaders of Latin American nations. That is how our nation’s president spent the past few days.

He’s back in the United States now, trying to catch up on domestic matters (although he may get to take a quick break and meet with the Chicago White Sox). But that will be a sudden shift from the Latin American issues that have dominated his attention.

TRYING TO COPE with the border wars that threaten public safety in Ciudad Juarez (and some people fear could spill over into El Paso) to trying to figure out whether Venezuela President Hugo Chavez was sincere in his kind gestures to Obama this weekend, or whether Cuba's leader, Raul Castro, was spewing lies in saying he's willing to talk about various issues that the Cuban government has long maintained are none of the United States' business.

There’s just only one aspect of this weekend that one can say definitively – Chavez is not the craziest native of Venezuela with whom he will meet.

That role falls to White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen, if you happen to catch him on one of his more outspoken days.

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EDITOR’S NOTES: This was a productive weekend for Barack Obama when it comes to addressing U.S. relations with Latin America. It will be interesting to see how he follows up on the rhetoric spewed the past couple of days. These two reports from the Los Angeles Times newspaper (http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-obama-mexico18-2009apr18,0,654367.story) give a better accounting of what happened (http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-obama-americas20-2009apr20,0,3878264.story) than any summary I could provide. They’re both worth reading.

It took 48 years, but talks could be forthcoming

When it comes to the history of relations between the United States and Cuba, Friday and Saturday are dates of historic significance because of what took place 48 years ago.

The Bay of Pigs invasion, where (depending on one’s perspective) some crazy Cuban exiles attempted a suicide mission on the belief they could overthrow Fidel Castro, or Cuban patriots were “sold out” by John F. Kennedy and the liberal establishment of this nation, took place April 17-19, 1961.

THE ACTIVITIES OF those two days (in which the exiles’ invasion was promptly squashed) were one of the low points (along with the Missile Crisis of 1962) in the story of how the two countries co-exist.

Which is why I find it ironic that Friday and Saturday of this year have the potential to be a high point for those people who want to see the United States and Cuba advance beyond the stalemate in which they have engaged for the past five decades.

Admittedly, the progress of Friday was all rhetoric.

There are those people who believe that talk “is cheap,” and they will wait to see what actions come about because of the talk coming from President Barack Obama and from Fidel’s baby brother, Raul.

OBAMA IS IN Trinidad and Tobago for the Summit of the Americas. Raul Castro is not, as Cuba is the one American nation (as in the two continents) that has not been invited.

But the nations of the Americas appear willing to put pressure on the United States to start thinking about what life will be like in the days following the trade embargo – the maneuver by which the United States attempted to economically isolate Cuba from the rest of the world.

During his campaign, Obama engaged in rhetoric that made it seem like he wants to study the issue seriously (rather than past political officials who preferred to maintain the status quo of the Eisenhower and Kennedy years and not address the issue at all).

But it is likely that he will have to take some action soon, and it will have to be more substantial than the moves he approved earlier this week to make it easier for Cuban exiles with relatives on the island to visit, and send money and gifts as well.

ON FRIDAY, WE got to hear the right talk.

From Obama, we heard, “the United States seeks a new beginning with Cuba. I know there is a longer journey that must be traveled in overcoming decades of mistrust, but there are critical steps we can take toward a new day.”

That came just after Castro responded to Obama’s actions earlier this week by saying, “we have sent word to the U.S. government in private and in public that we are willing to discuss everything – human rights, freedom of the press, political prisoners, everything.”

If both of these world leaders back up their rhetoric with corresponding actions, then this would be the beginning of the end of the embargo, which (let’s face it) has failed to cut Cuba off from the rest of the world, and has only served to isolate U.S. business interests from making money off the Caribbean island nation that does sit only 100 or so miles off the southern tip of Florida.

IF THAT WERE to happen, then perhaps we could someday think of it as a mere afterthought that 48 years ago today, Kennedy permanently wedded the Cuban exile community (many of whom thought of themselves in Cuba as progressive on social issues) to the hard-line conservatives who were willing to appease them with anti-Communist rhetoric.

This could become the anniversary of when United States and Cuban officials cut the bull, so to speak, and started to talk seriously about how to co-exist in this hemisphere.

For those who want to believe that a hard line has to forevermore be maintained between the United States and Cuba, I’d argue that the hemisphere would be a safer place if ties could be developed between the two nations – thereby leaving Hugo Chavez isolated as one of the crackpot leaders of the Americas. Who else besides Hugo seriously wants the United States and Cuba to remain apart?

And I still maintain that if Obama is able to take actions that do result in the normalization of ties between the United States and Cuba, that alone would put his presidency among the ranks of the best in U.S. history.

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EDITOR’S NOTES: Can they walk the walk, or is it all (http://www.nydailynews.com/latino/2009/04/17/2009-04-17_us_cuba_seek_new_beginning_after_50_years.html) just cheap talk?

I may mock the military strategy that went into planning for some Cuban exiles to land (http://www.jfklibrary.org/Historical+Resources/JFK+in+History/JFK+and+the+Bay+of+Pigs.htm) on the beach and swiftly take control of Cuba, but I don’t doubt the sincerity of the people of Brigade 2506 who partook in the invasion to try to depose Fidel Castro.

Boycotting census falls into opposition’s hands

Some people have their perception of issues all backward.

That is about the only way I can describe the National Coalition of Latino Clergy & Christian Leaders. The group claims to represent the interests of Latinos who are turning to evangelical churches as part of their assimilation into the United States.

EARLIER THIS WEEK, they said Latinos without a valid visa ought to think about boycotting the Census. In short, they would want people to ignore the forms sent out next year by the Census Bureau, and the people who will walk through the neighborhoods, all in an effort to get as honest a count as possible as to how many people are living in the United States on April 1, 2010.

The group says it would want such action as a reaction to Congress if our federal officials do not approve some sort of immigration reform measure some time this year.

As the group sees it, if the federal government does not provide some sort of fair and sensible laws to regulate the arrival of people in this country from other parts of the world, they are prepared to sabotage any attempt to get an honest population count.

Now in theory, I agree with the coalition.

IT OUGHT TO be a priority for the federal government to resolve this quandary over the nation’s immigration laws, and it is not something that President Barack Obama should postpone action on until late in his presidential term (or possibly into a second term – if he is fortunate enough to get re-elected in 2012).

The fact that some Democratic officials think it more important not to offend the sensibilities of the nativists by delaying action (or maintaining the status quo that gives us our current confusing mess) is offensive.

So the coalition is totally justified in being disgusted. The status quo has got to go.

But I don’t see how threatening the 2010 Census provides any benefit. In fact, I could see how it would hurt the status of Latinos (both citizens by birth and those with and without valid visas) in the United States.

IN FACT, I could see how the people who are most opposed to any serious immigration reform (the ones who just want an increase in deportations when it comes to people with Latin American ethnic backgrounds) would be the ones who would thoroughly enjoy having a smaller Latino population count to cope with after next year’s Census is complete.

Local government entities always want as large a Census count as possible because having more people in their boundaries entitles them to more assistance from the federal government.

In short, having a larger number shows a sense of political muscle.

That is what Latinos need to show. It is important to document the existence of as many Latinos in this country as possible come next year’s count.

BECAUSE THE ONE practical truth is that true immigration reform is going to come when Congress and other political people become convinced that our numbers are so great that we can no longer be ignored.

The reason that the nativists get so much sympathy for their ethnic hang-ups is because political people see them as potential voters who can cast them out of office for showing sympathy to Latinos (or other foreigners, to be honest about it).

It is going to be when they see Latinos who can vote as a larger force (and who will take it personally that our ethnic brethren who have not advanced as far as we have in the naturalization process) that those with political power will start to use it for our advantage.

A less-than-honest Census count of Latinos is going to give mental ammunition to the nativists, who want to believe that all this talk during the past decade of Latinos being the fastest-growing population group is some sort of distortion being peddled by “liberal” interests who want to destroy their vision of what this country should be about.

AN HONEST COUNT is going to force people to take notice, particularly if the Latino count comes close to 20 percent of the overall U.S. population (it might not make it by 2010, but could reach that level by 2011 or 2012).

So when I hear activists claiming to represent the interests of the Latino population claiming we should deliberately undercut our numbers, I have to wonder if someone doesn’t understand the reality of electoral politics and political influence.

Total numbers can be organized into votes, and votes translate into influence with people who have political power. Do we Latinos really want to support something that threatens to undercut our long-range influence?

I hope not.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: A religious coalition that is suggesting some people ignore the Census count in 2010 (http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/census/2009-04-15-census_N.htm) estimates that about 38 percent of its members do not have a valid visa that allows them to live openly in this country.

Obama in Mexico to ease border region tensions

President Barack Obama’s trip Thursday to Mexico City is a classic case where a politician should do what he thinks is right, and ignore the political backlash. Because no matter what he says or does, he’s going to manage to offend somebody.

That is the current status of the United States’ relations with Mexico. There’s no way to appease everybody.

OBAMA IS MAKING his first trip as president to the land south of the Rio Bravo del Norte/Rio Grande (although it will be his third meeting with Mexico President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa ) to discuss what has become the Flavor of the Month when it comes to issues involving the two countries – the violence along the border region due to illegal drugs.

Several U.S. officials already have visited Mexico (including Secretary of State Hillary R. Clinton, who ticked off nativists by admitting that the U.S. shares part of the blame for the violence that has sprung up in border towns like Ciudad Juarez).

They have made gestures of support for Calderón’s use of the military to combat the drug traffickers – who use their wealth to corrupt the local police and to recruit their own mini-armies to enforce their control in places like Coahuila (which is where Robert Rodriguez’ first low-budget flick “El Mariachi” was set).

But Calderón wants more. He wants a bold, brash declarative statement that the United States is fully supportive of Mexico. As one-time Mexico foreign secretary Jorge Castañeda told the Washington Post, “he wants to hear Obama say that Mexico was never a failed state, is not a failed state today and even in their deepest, darkest fears will never, ever be a failed state.”

THE REFERENCE IS to a report released late in 2008 by the U.S. Joint Forces Command, a military group that annually analyzes the potential for conflicts to break out around the world.

That report said that both Pakistan and Mexico had the potential to become failed governments. In the case of Mexico, it was because of the border violence and local government’s inability to do anything to control it.

That same study also made it clear that the idea of calling Mexico a “failed state” would only be true as an absolute last resort if every single one of several circumstances were to break out in ways negative to the Mexican national government.

In short, Mexico as a “failed state” is a hypothetical situation that we are far removed from. And it also presumes that the entire country is like the northernmost portions of the five northern states of Mexico.

IN SHORT, IT would be like declaring the United States a “failed” concept because of poverty in Appalachia – it would be a ridiculous exaggeration.

So for Obama to give Mexican government officials some sign that he supports them emotionally (not just because our two countries share a more-than-1,900-mile border) would not be the most inaccurate thing he could say.

It might even be smart for foreign relations.

But I’m realistic enough to know that such talk would be taken up by certain elements of our society (the same ones who want “immigration reform” to be nothing more than increased deportations) as evidence that Obama is somehow “selling out” this country.

PERHAPS IT IS because I spent part of Wednesday watching and reading about conservative types across the country who included Obama rants as part of their rhetoric against excessive taxation. But anything that expresses support for Latin America will be demonized, even though the nations of Latin America are among the most significant to the United States because of their proximity to our nation.

For that reason, U.S./Mexico relations are among the most important when it comes to U.S. foreign policy – even though too many people wish they could pretend that there is no other country beyond the deserts of the U.S. southwest.

So Obama is going to have to hedge his Mexico support somewhat, although he shouldn’t do too much because this is the segment of the population that likely is never going to come around to this particular president – and is most likely watching for anything it can characterize as a slip-up.

Can anyone envision a circumstance under which Rush Limbaugh will not be lambasting the Obama trip to Mexico during the next few days of broadcasting to his incredibly loyal listening audience?

WE KNOW LIMBAUGH will trash him for something. We just don’t know for what, exactly.

And if Obama did hold back enough to sort of appease these people, he’d wind up offending the masses of this country who have enough sense to realize that the nonsense talk often spewed about Mexico “is” the problem our nations face.

In short, I’m hoping Obama can reach some sort of understanding during his one day in North America’s largest population city. But I’ll be satisfied if he doesn’t manage to do something that legitimately puts his “pie” in his “boca.”

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Burger King adds to litany of tacky ethnic images

Is the Burger King Mexican wrestler destined to join the ranks of the Taco Bell Chihuahua or the Frito Bandito as images that managed to offend the ranks of Latinos?

Possibly not, but only because Burger King thus far has limited their take on a Mexican wrestler to their advertising on the European continent. Technically, he doesn’t exist in the United States, so he can’t offend Latinos.

BUT OUR ETHNIC brethren in other countries are taking up the lead in being offended at the image, which is used in Burger King advertisements promoting the “Texican,” a version of the Whopper hamburger that supposedly is spiced up a bit with the flavor of Latin America.

In those European ads, a short little brown guy and a lanky white cowboy team up and help each other with things, such as reaching high shelves or opening jars. Of course, the short brown guy is wearing a wrestling getup complete with cape.

And that cape is none other than the tricolors of the Mexican flag.

As I wrote, the ads are airing in Europe, where they were seen by Mexican consulate officials in Spain. They reported the image back to their homeland, and now the Mexican government is writing letters of protest to ask that the image be shelved.

WHO KNOWS WHAT Burger King ultimately will decide to do? They have kept quiet to reporter-types asking for reaction to this potential “international incident.” Of course, in the mindset of some people in this country, it can’t be a true incident because the United States isn’t involved.

But in some ways, those types of people probably could identify with one aspect of what offends the Mexican government. Officials do not like the fact that the national flag has been turned into a cape, and they’re claiming it to be disrespectful.

But since the ads aren’t airing in Mexico, I’m not sure how much legal weight that argument would carry.

Personally, I hope this advertising image never makes it to the United States. Because the fact is that it is a stupid image, and I would hope Burger King would know their home country well enough not to want to stir up Latino resentment over something so lame.

FOR THAT IS what I think of much of the attempt to use the garish images of Mexican freestyle wrestling (Lucha Libre) in any context outside the wrestling ring. Mexican wrestling legend Santo may have made many movies (en Español), but those things come off as ludicrous – only to be watched when one is in need of some garish fun.

How else can Santos defending us from the Frankenstein monster be explained?

For those people who think that Latinos ought to have enough sense as to ignore such an image, forget it. Because I think it would fall into the same category as the aforementioned doggie in the Taco Bell window, or the cartoon bandit who once was the symbol of Fritos corn chips.

I actually remember being a young kid watching television and seeing commercials featuring the Bandito, thinking it was a trite image. But looking back on it, I am sure it did reflect the attitude of a segment of the U.S. population in how it regarded people with ethnic origins in Latin America.

THE BANDITO IS evidence of how much our society has changed for the better in that we now readily recognize it as a dated image that has no place in the 21st Century.

The Taco Bell Chihuahua, by comparison, was an attempt to turn back the clock, so to speak. It came at a time when people should have known better, and it was common sense that ultimately caused that ridiculous talking dog to wither away.

So perhaps we’ll get lucky and the Mexican wrestler will also wither away before reaching the shores of the continental United States.

In all fairness to Burger King, we should make one point. The ad really isn’t that much more garish than the advertisements we see for the fast-food hamburger chain in the United States – most of which feature that “king” in a goofy looking mask who usually is doing absurd things.

I HAVE NEVER understood how that image is supposed to make me want to eat at a Burger King franchise (I can’t remember the last time I ate their “food,” although I have a nephew who thoroughly adores it). Personally, I find the royal image to be somewhat creepy.

It makes Ronald McDonald look downright sophisticated by comparison.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: Is the Burger King capable of triggering an (http://breakingnews.nydailynews.com/dynamic/stories/L/LT_MEXICO_BURGER_KING?SITE=NYNYD&SECTION=US&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT) international incident?

No more U.S. newspaper correspondents from Havana

Watching the demise in recent weeks of the final U.S. newspaper types to report from Havana strikes me as sad, and not just because it means another reporter-type out of work.

It’s just that I remember the elaborate production that U.S.-based news organizations made back in the early 2000s to get a reporter into Cuba, where U.S. journalists had quit operating as of the end of the 1960s.

IT WAS A reopening of information, the potential that we might actually gain a first-hand understanding of our Caribbean island neighbor to the south (or at least as much information as can be slipped past the censored information that Havana-based reporters were able to get).

But now, the budget cuts that have caused many newspapers to scale themselves back to levels that make some people think they are now irrelevant have caused the shuttering of Havana bureaus.

The Tribune Co. was the last U.S.-based newspaper to close up. The correspondent who wrote for the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel and Chicago Tribune, along with other newspapers in the company came back home to the U.S. a couple of weeks ago.

Other newspapers either closed up shop years ago, or have given up on the idea of ever going into Havana. Such as the Miami Herald, which never got the Castro brothers’ permission to operate in Havana because of the perception that it was the voice of Yankee Imperialism (even though many of those in the Miami exile community think the Herald is a batch of Castro sympathizers).

YOU JUST CAN’T please everybody, no matter what you do.

Admittedly, there are still a few U.S.-oriented news outlets in Havana. NBC and CNN continue to have somebody in place should some newsworthy act occur on the island. And there’s always the Associated Press, which was one of the first news outlets granted permission by Fidel Castro to come to Havana back in 2000.

In theory, that wire service’s dispatches will be available to newspapers and news organizations across the country (around the world, actually).

But it is the reality of the various news mediums that the most thorough reporting is going to be done by newspapers. Broadcast news reports of barely over a minute just don’t allow for any significant detail – particularly if they have to be written around the presence of video.

THE RESULT IS often stories that might make for good television, but provide trivial information that adds little to the public understanding of what is taking place in Havana and the other provinces of Cuba.

Now I know some people claim there is no great loss when U.S. news organizations cut back on their foreign staffs. They claim that the Internet gives us easy access to the news organizations that are based in those countries, and often will give a more detailed sense of what is happening and how it is perceived by the locals.

But there are cases when that local perception taints information to the point where it is worthless. And Cuba is one of those places where information coming from the country carries the stink of propaganda.

This comes from someone who gets a kick out of checking out the copy from Granma, the official newspaper of the Communist regime in Cuba.

IT IS OFTEN laughable in the way that obscure facts can be twisted to provide some meaning that trashes the Yankee Imperialists who are the threat to world peace.

Even by the standards of analyzing the press in oppressive nations (where one usually figures that the sports and entertainment “news” on the back pages is the most accurate, and the political reporting/commentary is the most ridiculous), Cuban news just can’t be trusted.

The most intriguing aspect of Granma is literally the columns written periodically by Fidel Castro – who likes to view himself as an expert on all kinds of things.

From the election of Barack Obama to the failure of Equipo Cuba to advance to the semi-finals of the recent World Baseball Classic (it was a plot by imperialist nations to try to humiliate Cuba, or so says Castro), he has an opinion on everything.

BUT I DON’T know that I’d trust it to be factual on anything.

Without the presence of at least a few decent correspondents trying to slip some truth past the layers of propaganda that he/she encounters, we’re going to be subjected to much more of the Castro line of rhetoric when it comes to comprehending Cuba. What is particularly sad is that there is some circumstantial evidence that things might be changing for the better when it comes to U.S./Cuba relations.

But should it happen, should President Obama be successful in restoring some sense of ties following 50 years of the U.S. trying to isolate Cuba from the rest of the world, there’s the very good chance that we won’t be able to read a word about it.

Unless you want to settle for the propaganda line being spewed from Havana. That is a loss for everyone.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: Do we have to trust Granma now for our news from Havana? That is (http://www.hispanicbusiness.com/news/2009/3/31/last_usbased_newspaper_bureau_in_havana.htm) a scary thought.

Immigration “controversy” nothing new

The Associated Press wire service is trying to stir up the mess that is our immigration laws, hoping to create enough pressure that somebody feels compelled to do something about it.

The only problem is that the “problem” the wire service decided to focus their attention on – U.S. citizens being deported to Mexico – is something that has been happening for decades.

THERE’S ABSOLUTELY NOTHING new about the concept of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (formerly known as Immigration and Naturalization Services) being incapable of determining who among Latinos was born in this country, and who wasn’t.

The knee-jerk reaction of shipping them all out of the United States (kind of like the nitwits who think they’re clever by saying, “kill ‘em all, let God sort ‘em out”) is not a new concept.

It is going to be an ongoing result of our haphazard immigration laws, all too often put together by people who are more interested in keeping people out of the U.S. then trying to figure out a sensible way to work newcomers into the nation’s mix.

For the record, the wire service published a story that is bound to fill space around advertisements for post-Easter sales at various department stores. It contends that the wire service has been able to document 55 cases of people who were detained for immigration violations – even though they were natural-born U.S. citizens.

ALSO FOR THE record, immigration officials are saying that 55 is a miniscule number of cases when compared to the thousands of people whom they encounter in any given month – the amount of time the wire service spent trying to document this problem.

They would argue that the California man whom the wire service chooses to focus on (he got picked up by police, turned over to immigration and deported to Tijuana in part because he was illiterate and mentally ill) was some sort of fluke incident who distorts the whole picture.

None of this surprises me.

The simple fact is that when it comes to the concept of Latin American “immigration,” there are people who do not want to accept the fact that there are parts of the United States where the “founding fathers,” so to speak, were the Spaniards.

THERE ARE PARTS of this country where the Latino influence is the majority – no matter how much this country may have enacted policies in past decades to try to eradicate it.

So there are a lot of us Latinos who are full-fledged U.S. citizens – since the only requirement to be a natural-born citizen is to have achieved the accident of having your parents within the U.S. boundaries at the time of your birth.

Now I know there are those people who have a problem with that concept, wishing they could somehow turn people who were born here into “foreigners” just because their parents came from elsewhere.

As long as those nitwits are allowed to prevail, our nation’s immigration problems will continue. For what their attitude is about is more in line with keeping this country mired in its past problems.

FOR THESE KINDS of incidents go back to when the United States first amended its immigration laws to include restrictions on people from Mexico and other Latin American countries.

Many Latino families can trace back into their genealogical backgrounds and find some aunt or grandfather who got picked up because some nitwit went after anyone who looked “Mexican.” Back then, we didn’t call it profiling. We just thought of it as the way things were, and some nitwits probably thought they were doing their duty to their country by behaving in such a manner.

Some of the most egregious acts along this line occurred in the 1950s when under then-President Dwight Eisenhower, immigration officials came up with the now-notorious “Operation Wetback.”

That was an official government initiative to root out Mexican citizens who “don’t belong here” and send them back to Mexico by train or ship, often to places nearly 1,000 miles from the U.S./Mexico border.

THERE WERE MANY people born in this country of Mexican ethnicity who got picked up, and some entire families where someone took it upon themselves to decide that the U.S.-born (and thereby citizens) members of the family didn’t belong in this country.

So can I get outraged at the wire service’s discovery? Sure, but not for the reason that some people would want me to.

What happened to Pedro Guzman two years ago left him traumatized in a way that is absurd. But it’s nothing new. He’s merely the latest in a list that runs into the thousands of Latinos who got mistaken for Latin Americans.

The tragedy isn’t that the incident happened. It is that it has been happening for so long, and some people are more than willing to look the other way – or claim that it isn’t a problem to begin with.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: Some people mistakenly seem to think they have a moral superiority (http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/041309dnimmigrants.102620f.html) just because they won the “lottery” of life that gave them U.S. citizenship.

Richardson correct to veto Hispanic department

Excuse me for not getting offended that New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson used his “veto” power this week to kill a bill that would have created a new state government agency – a state Department of Hispanic Affairs.

Richardson, the one-time presidential hopeful whose own Mexican ethnicity comes from his mother’s side of the family, is not taking a stand against the general concept. He’s just saying that he doesn’t want to create a new state government agency during an economic downtown when he’s not sure where the money to fund a new agency would come from.

HE HAS A point, although it gives the impression that he might be inclined to support creation of such a state agency in a couple of years once the economy rebounds.

I hope that’s not the case. This is one agency I would just as soon never see created. And I hope no other state decides to try to copy this idea for themselves. I would rather never see one state agency director (the state equivalent of a cabinet-level post) get a title that implies he’s the be-all and end-all for Latino concerns.

Now before anyone jumps to the wrong conclusion, I’m not opposed to the agency because it would have been called “Hispanic” affairs. Personally, I think “Latino” and “Hispanic” are interchangeable. I think the people who get all wrapped up in the semantics of the two words are wasting breath and time that could be better spent on other issues.

I definitely am not siding with those crackpots who try to claim that it is somehow racist to do anything that draws special attention to any ethnic group, as though they ought to be allowed to ignore anyone they want to – and the rest of society just has to accept their hang-ups as the way things are.

MY PROBLEM WITH the concept is that I fear that if New Mexico state government (or any other state, for that matter) were to create a separate state agency to address Hispanic/Latino concerns, that would let other state agency officials somehow think that they no longer have to pay attention to all those funky brown people who seem to be everywhere these days.

Invariably, you’d get some political people who would use such an attitude to justify pushing for policies that deliberately hold back the concerns of the growing Latino population – on the grounds that doing anything to support Latinos is the job of that ONE state agency director, and no one else.

What I would want is for ALL state agencies to realize that the number of Latinos in this country is on the rise to the point where we now comprise a significant chunk of the population. And there’s nothing that can be (or ought to be) done to change that fact.

If that means all state agencies need to keep in mind the Latino population (along with all other segments of the population that comprise their state, and our country as a whole) when they address their specific segment of society, then so be it.

AFTER ALL, AS the Hispanic Affairs Department was envisioned, it would have served to address issues such as education and health care and how they affect Latinos.

I say the departments of education and health care in New Mexico ought to be addressing those concerns, particularly in a place like New Mexico that occupies land that once was part of Mexico (and before that, New Spain) and has a population that is nearly half Latino.

If they are not, the solution is not for Richardson to create another state agency. His job ought to be to crack down on the existing state agency directors to figure out why they are not adequately doing their jobs.

So in that regard, I have to disagree with the officials of the League of United Latin American Citizens. They are upset with Richardson. They say a cabinet-level post drawing attention to Latinos is the only way to make the public aware of our growing numbers.

I SAY THAT pressuring the existing directors to acknowledge our growing numbers is the best way to ensure that the needs of the rising Latino population are truly addressed.

Anything else amounts to letting existing government officials off the hook from doing their jobs in full. And if there is one duty that truly belongs to the role of “public citizen,” it is holding our government officials accountable for all their actions.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: It would be nice if the idea of a Department of Hispanic Affairs were one (http://www.nydailynews.com/latino/2009/04/10/2009-04-10_nm_gov_vetoes_hispanic_affairs_dept_.html) concept that just sort of withered away and died. That probably means it will get resurrected in some other state.

Illinois town could be a sign of the future

For decades, the town of Waukegan, Ill., liked to boast that it was the birthplace of the famed comedian Jack Benny.

While the town isn’t ashamed of being the home of the radio and television comedian, there is evidence that it has a new reason to boast – the fact that its residents showed an ability this week to look toward the future, rather than dwell on the past.

IN ELECTIONS HELD Tuesday, Waukegan residents voted for a new mayor. Now the fact that they voted out of office the incumbent is not, in and of itself, unusual. Every election sees some government officials who fail to hang onto their offices because they don’t grasp the conditions of their surroundings.

But in the case of Waukegan, it was the fact that the soon-to-be-former mayor was insistent on pandering to those people in his town near the Illinois/Wisconsin border on the issue of immigration that wound up coming back to bite him in the nalgas.

Richard Hyde always took pride in implementing regulations in his town that solidly put him on the side of the nativists when it came to the immigration issue. One policy of his that particularly offended the growing Latino population in that area was the granting to local police the ability to arrest people solely on suspicion of immigration law violations.

Those are federal laws, and the federal government has a special agency (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) whose duty is to enforce them. Local cops who might very well be capable of handling the radar gun to determine whether someone is exceeding the speed limit or figuring out if that teenage kid is trying to hide a baggie of marijuana are not going to know the nuances of immigration.

I ALSO AM aware that had federal authorities tried to come into Waukegan and enforce local laws, Hyde and his political allies would have been the first people to scream about a government gone mad – overstepping its bounds into an area that ought to be none of its concern.

That same logic applies to any local government that thinks it ought to be playing “immigration officer” with its local cops.

This was all about creating the image for the Anglos that the police would protect “them” from this growing foreign hoard. And if it served to put people whose sense of their immigrant self (even if born in the U.S., some people have a strong sense of where their families come from) in an uneasy state of mind that they might leave the area, that was a side benefit – as far as the old mayor was concerned.

Hyde told the New York Times this week that all he did during his time as mayor was “listened” to what his local residents (or at least the residents who were inclined to agree with him) said.

BUT HYDE WILL soon be gone, replaced by a new mayor who says he plans to drop a lot of the restrictions whose purpose was to make the growing Latino population (which in Waukegan is what comprises much of the immigrant element) feel unwelcome.

It could be that the growing Latino population finally built itself up into a large enough element to start voting for its interests. If so, then this is going to be the pattern that will be seen over and over in communities across the United States.

Places are going to find these newcomers are strong enough to stand up for themselves, and that it would be best to work with them – rather than try to postpone what is truly the inevitable.

But in the case of Waukegan, there also was a sense that a sizable number of non-Latino people saw the absurdity of such ordinances and how they did nothing more than give their hometown a black eye. Getting rid of such ridiculous attempts to keep the community dwelling in the past is the way to move forward into the 21st Century.

ACTIVISTS WHO WERE organizing people to oppose the hostile immigrant measures estimate that about 31 percent of the people who voted earlier this week in Waukegan were Latino. By comparison, about half of Waukegan’s 91,000 residents have their ethnic roots in a Latin American nation.

It means Waukegan isn’t at the point yet where the Latino population can elect “one of its own,” although activists in the community say that is their long-term goal.

And when the day comes that Waukegan gets its Latino mayor, there’s a good chance that Jack Benny will still be thought of fondly in the town. Not everything from the past was bad, not even his perpetual jokes about being a mere “39 year old.”

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EDITOR’S NOTE: Listening to the people when they “spoke,” or developing a strategy (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/09/us/09waukegan.html?_r=1&ref=global-home) “to scapegoat immigrants and harass them” – which viewpoint was at work in Waukegan?

Some material worth reading

Personal business kept me busy. Commentary and analysis should resume Friday. But here are a few choice links worth checking out, for those of you who need an update immediately on the status of Latinos in our society.

It seems like a bad comedy sketch from decades ago – a member of the Black Panther Party having a sit-down with Fidel Castro. But in a sense, it happened this week.

CASTRO MET WITH members of the Congressional Black Caucus who were traveling to Cuba this week. One of the legislators he met with was Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., who back in the 1960s was a member of the group that promoted black power and revolution. But now, it was (http://www.nydailynews.com/latino/2009/04/08/2009-04-08_fidel_castro_how_can_we_help_obama_.html) little more than a couple of aging 60s characters having a chat.

About half of the newly naturalized immigrants last year were Latinos. So much for the idea (http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/6363623.html) that Latinos inherently aren’t interested in following the rules of becoming a part of this country.

President Barack Obama is continuing to get barraged with pleas to appoint a Latino to the U.S. Supreme Court (http://feetin2worlds.wordpress.com/2009/04/08/us-senators-from-new-york-ask-obama-to-name-a-hispanic-to-supreme-court-if-there-is-a-vacancy/) when the next vacancy occurs.

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Does Sharpton want to include Latinos in coalition?

The hearts and minds of Latinos apparently seem to be the goal of Al Sharpton, the New York activist who has longed to be the voice of the African-American portion of the nation.

I say that because Sharpton is now taking on that cartoon character of a police officer, Maricopa County, Ariz. Sheriff Joe Arpaio, saying he will travel to Phoenix in order to lead protests against the lawman whose idea of cracking down on criminals includes picking out Latinos.

SHARPTON, EVER SINCE his days of defending a teenage girl who said she was raped and had slurs scrawled on her body (only to later have serious flaws develop in her story), has been willing to be the outspoken guy who sticks up for the rights of black people.

But one of the themes peddled in the wake of Barack Obama’s election as president is that people like Sharpton (particularly Sharpton himself) are now irrelevant – to the point where it is a mistake for anyone among us to pay them any attention.

Considering that the people who usually peddle this theory are the ones who have long wished they could get away with ignoring Sharpton, I always considered talk of the Rev. Al’s political demise to be little more than wishful thinking.

But perhaps Sharpton is thinking he needs to expand his audience if he is to continue to remain relevant in the 21st Century.

SO PERHAPS IT is common sense that Sharpton expand his rhetoric to include the fastest-growing portion of the U.S. population – Latinos.

Hence, he made his plea from New York City that Arpaio should resign. He expanded the “racial profiling” charge often used by black activists, and is expanding it to Latinos – although in our case it becomes ethnic profiling.

Sharpton does gain some credibility in that he can piggyback his accusations off the fact that the Justice Department is looking into whether the Maricopa County sheriff’s police is being overzealous in the way it treats people it suspects do not have U.S. citizenship.

The Phoenix-area law enforcement agency has arrested more than 1,500 people in recent years after suspecting they did not have either citizenship or a valid visa, and most of those people were Latinos (who believe it or not are a significant portion of the legal population living in the one-time Mexican territory of Arizona).

ARPAIO, OF COURSE, is trying to take advantage of the fact that many people want to discredit anything that Sharpton gets involved with, telling reporter-types that he has no intention of resigning. He even points out the fact that Sharpton is a Noo Yawker, telling people, “he doesn’t even know where Arizona is.”

I’ll give Sharpton the benefit of the doubt that he remembers his grammar school geography lessons. But it is questionable whether Latinos will be willing to accept Sharpton as someone who speaks out on their behalf.

There are some Latinos who have their own racial hang-ups to the point where they probably would side with Arpaio over Sharpton on most issues.

But Sharpton is being clever in using this particular issue, as many Latinos in this country have their own suspicions about the police. Those born in other countries can equate them with the corrupt law enforcement types in their home countries, while those born here may have experienced hostility from the so-called protectors of the people.

ON THE SAME day that Sharpton made his demand for Arpaio’s resignation, the Pew Hispanic Center released a study showing that Latino trust for police is at levels closer to African-American people than it is to Anglos.

That study found that 61 percent of Latinos have a great or fair amount of trust in police.

Some might say that 61 percent is a majority of Latinos. But that same study found 55 percent of African-Americans have the same amount of trust in police, and nobody would seriously say that law enforcement has a great history when it comes to black people.

It also is significantly less than the 78 percent level of great or fair amount of trust that white people feel for police.

SO ON ONE level, Sharpton is showing that he can read the reality of our society. He has found an issue in which he may be able to make inroads among Latinos, and perhaps someday include them among his ranks of supporters.

It’s just too bad he couldn’t make this realization a month earlier.

A trip to Arizona during the month of March (rather than in April) would have let him enjoy some of the Cactus League activity that comprises spring training baseball in the Phoenix area.

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EDITOR’S NOTES: Al Sharpton is making his plans for a business trip, so to speak, to Arizona (http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE5365XO20090407). His business is gaining the support of Latinos.

Sharpton is not the only person who sees that many Latinos have their concerns about (http://pewhispanic.org/reports/report.php?ReportID=106) police.

Spanish “Yellow Pages” a recognition of Latino market

It seems like such an obvious concept that I have a hard time believing that anyone thinks this is a great innovation.

I’m talking about “Seccion Amarilla” (Section Yellow, for those of you who need an English translation). It’s the marketing label given to the idea of printing Spanish-language versions of the Phone Book.

SPECIFICALLY, THERE ARE the Yellow Pages, that portion meant to stand out in the big thick books that some people still prefer using to trying to look up numbers on the Internet (which always seem to spew out the wrong number whenever I use them).

It is a realization that Latinos are capable of using the telephone, and can use the book to help deal with business needs. It also means that yet another business entity looks at Latinos and sees green – as in the color of our money, which is just as spendable as anybody else’s cash.

The Spanish version of the Yellow pages is successful enough that it even gets its own advertising campaign – this year featuring the great Mexican soccer player Cuahtemoc Blanco (who has played the past couple of years with the Chicago Fire of Major League Soccer).

“We want our clients to feel secure that Seccion Amarilla is, and will continue to be, an efficient and cost-effective advertising channel to business owners wanting to promote their goods and services to the (Latino) population,” CEO Juan Reffreger said, in a prepared statement.

“OUR CAMPAIGN IS to support our current customers, and also an invitation for the ones that have not yet joined us,” Reffreger said.

So how big a deal is the Spanish-language version of the Yellow Pages?

Seccion Amarilla officials say they hope to publish more than 60 versions of their directory that would put them in markets in just over 30 of the 50 states of the United States.

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Latino college perception a factor in life's outcome

There are times I wonder how suited I am to being a political pundit who attempts to explain the “Latino” perspective on various issues to the masses of this country.

On many issues, there is no single perspective shared by a majority of Latinos. Our differing backgrounds make us see certain issues in varying ways. Education levels are included among those background factors. There are those who would say the fact I have a college education (a bachelor of arts degree, but no graduate studies) cuts me off from certain elements of the so-called Latino “experience.”

WHAT MADE ME think about this was some roaming around the Internet that I chose to do Sunday afternoon. It is common for me to include a search of websites maintained by newspapers along the U.S./Mexico border, and also the big cities of Texas.

That is how I repeatedly encountered an Associated Press story about how Latino high school graduation rates in Texas are on the decline, and how the enrollment in college is lower for Latinos than it is for white people or African-Americans.

One Texas official of apparent Latino background tried to explain the statistics by saying that Latinos started out so far behind, and our numbers are growing so much, that it is natural for Latinos to make up smaller percentages of college students than other ethnic or racial groups.

Time, he would imply, will allow the Latino statistics to catch up to those figures for other groups of people.

YET THE WIRE service managed to come up with a Latina teenager who said many young Latinos who have to work to contribute financially to the family may wind up deciding a college degree isn’t worth the time or hassle.

As this teenager phrased it for the wire service, “once they get a taste of money, they may decide to skip college.” That viewpoint is all too true.

I know for a fact that in my extended family, there were several viewpoints on this issue. I have some uncles and cousins who are blue collar; who either had (or have) to work with their hands (one cousin works for a Ford Motor Co. plant in Chicago) and/or physical strength.

They’re not sorry about their choice in life. They do work that needs to be done if our society is to maintain itself.

BUT I ALSO have other cousins who have surpassed me on the academic credential brigade, and who have obtained the white collar professions that enable them to have significant amounts of money or professional glory (one cousin works for Disney, with aspirations of writing screenplays).

When it comes to Latinos who had to work at a young age, my case offers up a contrast.

My father was someone who put himself through college and managed to work his way up on his own to the point where I had a few advantages in life. One of those is that I never had to encounter the concept of having to work so that I could kick in part of my pay to cover the rent for the month or for grocery or utility bills.

From the time I was about 5, it was sort of a given that both my brother and I would seek to continue our education after we finished up with high school (the idea of dropping out of high school would not have been tolerated). Even though in those early years I didn’t truly comprehend what “college” was about, but I knew I was going.

IN THE END, it worked out that I not only had the luxury of attending a university of my choice, I even got to study what I wanted – instead of having to pick a “major” that would lead to some “career path.” The reality is that taking courses in areas that interested me gave me an education that has been relevant to me during my professional life.

As far as I’m concerned, I’m doing more or less what I’d like to be doing with work (although I wouldn’t be the least bit upset if I could find some way or someone who would pay me more money than I’m bringing in now for the kind of writing and news-oriented analysis I’m doing).

But some people don’t have that luxury. Not that I’m giving myself any kind of superiority ranking in our society, but it is a difference in perspective that colors my own judgment as I attempt to observe the society around me and explain it for the benefit of those people who are trying to comprehend the growing numbers of Latinos and the cultural changes that Latin American nations will make upon this country as a whole.

I am attempting to be that observer – even for those of you who wish you could go back to the Old Days of ignoring anything that reeked of being “Spanish.”

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EDITOR’S NOTE: Just under 4 percent (3.9, to be exact) of Latinos in Texas attend (http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/040609dntswhispanics.26a2d6f.html) college, which is less than the 5.3 percent of Texans overall who are trying to get more than a high school diploma.