STUDY DISPUTES MYTH OF INSTANT ASSIMILATION AMONG IMMIGRANTS

BY LEONEL MARTÍNEZ

LA VOZ DE KERN

Sometimes, I’d like to be a time-traveling sociologist.

That way, I could go back to the turn-of-the-century U.S. and research the type of claim I hear from people all the time: My grandfather came to the U.S. from Europe in 1901, immediately shed his immigrant culture, learned flawless English in five minutes and became a professor of Shakespearian literature at Princeton.

OK, that’s a slight exaggeration, but you get the idea. And these claims usually end with the question “Why can’t Hispanics do that?”

In other words, “Why don’t Latinos assimilate?”

Countless hard drives brimming with data from the U.S. Census Bureau and dozens of well respected think tanks say otherwise, but why let actual facts and data change your mind?

Those who pose these questions usually believe that in some ideal past, European immigrants assimilated almost instantaneously. But they argue that their Hispanic counterparts resist assimilation because they are spoiled by bilingual education in the schools, the prevalence of Spanish-language media, and the increasing number of businesses that cater to Spanish speakers.

Did past immigrants assimilate quickly? Fewer people crunched numbers back then, and it’s hard to reconstruct the habits immigrant groups that existed more than a century ago. How can we verify any of this without boarding a time machine to the past?

A Wisconsin college professor did the next best thing. He plowed through census data, newspapers, books, court records and other materials from 1839 to the 1930s, focusing on the characteristics of German immigrants in his state.

And guess what he found? Many German newcomers took their time learning English or never learned it at all and lived in communities that spoke only German. In fact, many thrived for decades while speaking only the mother tongue.

So much for instant assimilation.

University of Wisconsin-Madison instructor Joseph Salmons and recent UW-Madison German Ph.D. graduate Miranda Wilkerson published their findings last year in the academic journal “American Speech.” They found that German remained the primary language of business, education and religion in parts of Wisconsin well into the early 20th century. Amazingly, some second- and third-generation German adult immigrants born in Wisconsin still spoke only German.

More amazingly, they did it without being stalked by CNN’s xenophobic commentator Lou Dobbs.

Sorting through numbers from the 1910 Census, the researchers also discovered that in many Wisconsin communities, approximately one of four residents spoke only German. In fact, after 50 or more years in the U.S. many of these immigrants were still monolingual.

A few of the study’s other findings:

• People who complain that too many people speak a foreign language in the U.S. workforce should hear this: Things weren’t much different at the turn of the century. In fact, speaking only German in Wisconsin didn’t prevent most people from getting and keeping a job. That’s because many teachers, clergymen, retail merchants, blacksmiths, tailors, yard foremen, surveyors, farmers and laborers also knew only German.

• Folks who wring their hands over the number of grade-school students who don’t speak English should realize that in the 1890s, some correspondence from Wisconsin school districts to the office of the state school superintendent was still entirely in German. And this is after the passage of an 1889 law that required schools to teach in English.

• Those who gripe about the increasing number of Spanish-language television and radio stations and newspapers should know that Wisconsin had more than 500 German newspapers throughout its history, including many that published through the 1940s.

Professor Salmons deserves a hearty “danke schön” to for digging out these facts. While they won’t settle the assimilation debate, they at least show that assimilation in the past was more complex and time-consuming than we were often led to believe.

As for Latino immigrants, they will continue to assimilate despite the horror stories circulated by Dobbs and his buddies. They know that English is the language of success in America.

They only need what their European counterparts had at the turn of the last century: Time.

LATINOS ARE REALLY TAKING OVER! (AT LEAST IN NOVEL "AMERICA LIBRE")

BY LEONEL MARTÍNEZ

LA VOZ DE KERN

Texas police shoot an innocent Latina in a drug raid. Rioting sweeps across the Southwest, and cities throughout the nation erupt in flames.

Vigilante groups respond by launching drive-by shootings in the barrios, and gang members retaliate with their own firepower. Finally, one congressman succeeds in passing legislation that erects large walls around inner-city barrios, transforming them into quarantine zones like the Japanese internment camps of World War II.

But the violence escalates until the truth is inescapable: The United States is in an all-out Civil War against Latino insurgents.

That’s the plot of the novel “America Libre” by Cuban-born author Raul Ramos y Sanchez. And Ramos is scheduled to appear in Bakersfield on Wednesday for a panel discussion of the social issues raised in the book.

The event, which will be held at 6 p.m. at China Palace, 4142 California Ave., is sponsored in part by the Heritage of America Educational and Cultural Foundation, a nonprofit organization that coordinates educational and cultural programs. The discussion, which is part of a Southern California book tour, occurs on Mexican Independence Day, September 16, and at the beginning of Hispanic Heritage Month, September 15 to October 15.

“I’ve had Latinos say that my book is subversive,” said Ramos in a telephone interview with La Voz de Kern. “But from the Latino community, it’s been almost universally accepted.”

Calling his book a “cautionary tale,” he explained that it focuses on the dangers of extremism whether from the right or the left. But that doesn’t mean armed insurrection couldn’t happen if extremism isn’t held in check.

“When everybody’s afraid, they do some pretty awful things,” Lopez said. “Little girls shouldn’t go walking in the woods at night because there are big, bad wolves out there.”

Jess Nieto, founder and director of Heritage of America, agreed, saying that the increasing amount of violence against Hispanics makes the issues raised in Lopez’s book timely. Groups such as the Southern Poverty Law Center, renowned for its legal battles against the Ku Klux Klan, say hate crimes against Latinos have surged in many areas of the country.

“I think the initial premise (Lopez) started out with is not that far from reality,” said Nieto.

And Ramos, the author, knows about extremism.

The graphic designer and advertising writer was born in Cuba under dictator Gen. Fulgencio Batista. His parents divorced, and his mother brought her son to the U.S. in 1957, while his father stayed behind to battle the Batista regime.

Ramos began his project a few years ago as the script for a television movie called “Two Americas” that received the input of scholars from Latin America, Spain, and the United States. But when the funding dried up, he began to write a book instead.

“The book turned out to be completely different than the movie,” he said.

After five months as a self-published edition, America Libre, was acquired by Grand Central Publishing, which was formerly Warner Books and features thriller writers such as David Baldacci and James Patterson.

The publishers also acquired the sequel, El Nuevo Alamo, scheduled for release in 2010. The final installment of what is planned as a trilogy has yet to be named. "America Libre" won the International Latino Book Award for best novel.

Although some may be unnerved by book's plot, it is not biblical prophecy, but an extended parable about what could happen if the nation is seized by xenophobia because of the growing Hispanic population.

Set about 10 years in the future, the 373-page paperback sounds many believable themes. English is declared the nation’s official language, and government no longer conducts business in any other language. All immigrants – whether in the U.S. legally or illegally – are deported. Hispanics and their spouses are classified as “Class H” and tossed into internment camps.

Through it all, the main character, Manolo “Mano” Suarez, an unemployed mechanic and military veteran, finds himself questioning his assumptions about what it means to be a patriot and to defend your culture. Finally, he is drawn into the insurgency.

The panel discussion scheduled to discuss the issues raised in “America Libre” is free of charge and open to the public. Those who plan to attend are asked to RSVP at 325-5098.

THE UNITED FARM WORKERS OF AMERICA: WHY WE LOVED SENATOR TED KENNEDY

By UFW President Arturo S. Rodriguez and

Paul F. Chavez, President Cesar E Chavez Foundation

Since Sen. Edward M. Kennedy championed the cause of Cesar Chavez and the Farm Worker Movement after picking up the mantle from Sen. Robert F. Kennedy following his assassination in 1968, no national political leader has more effectively and selflessly embraced the farm workers’ cause.

Year after year, Sen. Kennedy stood shoulder to shoulder with the farm workers in good times and bad during marches and rallies, political campaigns and legislative battles from the halls of the United States Senate to the dusty farm fields of California.

As United Farm Workers co-founder Dolores Huerta once said, Robert and Ted Kennedy “didn’t come to us and tell us what was good for us. All they said was, ‘What do you want? And how can I help?’ That’s why we love them.”

From helping convince Congress to end the infamous Bracero Program in 1964 to becoming the driving force in recent years behind the United Farm Workers’ historic AgJobs immigration reform bill in the U.S. Senate, Sen. Kennedy never failed to respond to the farm workers’ call for help.

In the last several years, Sen. Kennedy was a leading author of the landmark AgJobs bill, negotiated by the UFW and the nation’s agricultural industry to allow undocumented farm workers in this country to earn the permanent legal right to stay by continuing to work in agriculture.

The best way to honor Sen. Kennedy’s commitment and selflessness is to continue advancing the farm workers’ cause he unequivocally supported.

Comment by UFW Co-Founder Dolores Huerta

This is a great loss for the Latino community because Senator Kennedy was such a steadfast advocate and supporter of the the Latino community and farm workers specifically.

We should honor his memory by joining in the fight for universal health care and immigration reform.

Viva Ted Kennedy!

DAILY NEWSPAPERS LOSING CREDIBILITY IN BATTLE TO SURVIVE IN DIGITAL AGE

If someone asked me who taught me the most about writing and reporting in my 15 years as a professional journalist, the answer would be easy: Mike Trihey.

Trihey is a former reporter, assistant city editor and city editor for the Bakersfield Californian who switched to television news after being fired from the newspaper in 1994. He is also the most savvy newsman in Bakersfield. So with daily newspapers shrinking, cutting and folding all over the nation, I asked Trihey for his thoughts on the subject.

His response: “Deadline??”

The following is Trihey’s personal perspective on the plight of daily newspapers and is accompanied, at right, by a response from Californian Chief Executive Officer Richard Beene.

-- Leonel Martinez

BY MIKE TRIHEY

SPECIAL TO LA VOZ DE KERN

Newspaper journalism in Kern County will take another big hit next week: The Bakersfield Californian will shrivel to tabloid size. That means the size of each page will be about half what it once was.

It’s the local angle on the withering of the newspaper industry as a whole. This sort of thing is happening everywhere. American newspaper readership is shrinking almost as fast as the front page of The Californian.

The current recession is described as the worst since the Great Depression. It has hammered all kinds of businesses, but these are especially tough times for newspapers. Some of our nation's holiest institutions are gone or in danger of folding and the best and the brightest in the business seem unable to stop the slide.

Maybe it’s just a prayer, but I think not even the stupidity of modern publishers can kill off such a necessary institution. Someone is going to figure a way to make Internet advertising profitable. Newspapers will survive if they have a commodity to sell when this happens.

That product is their credibility, and right now they’re losing it quickly.

Readership started to decline decades ago and fell off a cliff in the ‘90’s. But subscriptions don't support newspapers. Advertising does. And that's where the Internet really hurt papers. On top of that, big retailers are eating little ones. Every merger or acquisition or bankruptcy means less advertising.

This is the worst recession since the Great Depression. But lots of papers survived even the Depression. And, yeah, the Internet is a huge challenge to newspapers. But papers survived the introduction of radio and then television.

One national study found last year that, of those surveyed, only 39 percent said they “read a newspaper yesterday.” That was down 4 percent from two years earlier. Here’s the thing: That includes online readership.

It’s not that readers are leaving print newspapers for online editions because the Internet is easier or even because it’s free. Readers, young and old, are abandoning newspapers in all forms.

And why shouldn’t they? Some modern newspapers, faced with competition from the Internet in general and social networking sites in particular, are turning their sites and even their printed pages over to ragtag collections of press releases and mindless blogs that seem to abandon all the old rules of responsible journalism. If readers want to read that sort of thing – and many, including me, do – they can go to something like Facebook to read the mindless blogs of people they know.

The Bakersfield Californian has a proud tradition of challenging authority in this town, of holding officials to account for the conduct of public business.

That was then. This is now. Now, the only coverage some events get is the verbatim publication of news releases written by officials the paper used to scrutinize. Now, press releases by public relations professionals are posted and sometimes printed as articles by “contributing writers.’’

And there’s apparently more to come.

In his blog announcing the change to tabloid size five days a week, Californian President Richard Beene said, in answer to a reader’s question, ‘’We still have terrific writers and reporters who will continue to do excellent journalism, and while that is hugely important, it is no longer the end game. There is a world of relevant local content out there that exists outside of every newsroom. Yes, some of it comes in the form of local blogs, or local writers, or sister publications or many new forms of user generated content that exist outside the traditional newsroom.’’

He’s right that the newspaper still has excellent journalists. Lois Henry is the best columnist The Californian has ever had -- bar none -- at least in the 30 years I’ve been a subscriber. Gretchen Wenner and Steve Swenson, among others, do honor to the profession.

But Beene is wrong, real wrong, when he says staff reporters doing excellent journalism is ‘’no longer the end game.’’

Credibility and independence are, and always will be, the end game.

‘’Relevant local content’’ not produced by staffers appeals to many readers. Beene is right: It’s an important part of the newspaper of the 21st Century. Just like the comics and the horoscope.

But the bread and butter of all news media of any century, the end game of the profession, must be reporting produced under the exacting standards of ethical journalists and scrutinized by independent editors. Citizens in a participatory government need the dependable, impartial information they get from professionals – not just from each other.

There needs to be a bright line between this kind of journalism and the user-generated content we see in print and online newspapers. There isn’t. As publishers try to make less look like more, they blur the distinction between the two.

Readers understand the rules that govern traditional staff reports. But what standards are imposed on blogs or stories by ‘’contributing writers?’’ Is there any kind of impartiality expected? Even more confusing, what are the rules for a staff blog? Is a blogging staffer required to get both sides of a story, as he would if he were writing a more traditional article? Readers don’t know the answers to these questions, and that erodes the credibility of papers.

Internet publications around the world are experimenting with online advertising. Micro payments, subscriptions, penny-page-views – there are a hundred theories. Someday one of them, or a combination of them, will prove successful.

Newspapers that have kept their credibility when that day comes will survive.

LA CUCARACHA CARTOONIST MAKES LIVING PUTTING SARCASM ON PAPER

BY LEONEL MARTÍNEZ

LA VOZ DE KERN

When Lalo Alcaraz gets mad, people laugh.

Or at least, that’s how it frequently turns out.

Alcaraz, a nationally syndicated cartoonist, got ticked when pundits predicted Latinos wouldn’t support then-presidential candidate Barack Obama because he is black. So he drew a cartoon of Obama dressed as legendary Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata, complete with sombrero and rifle.

He got upset that Republican senators grilled U.S. Supreme Court candidate Judge Sonia Sotomayor about her racial views. So he inked a little something showing one of the GOP members wearing a Ku Klux Klan hood.

He almost lost it when the New Yorker magazine featured on its cover a cartoon image of President Obama as a stereotypical terrorist, fist-bumping his wife, Michelle. So he parodied the cover, renaming the publication “The Red Necker.”

For a guy that makes a living by being funny, Alcaraz gets pretty miffed at the world.

“I’m just chronically pissed off, and I like to amuse myself,” said Alcaraz in a telephone interview from his Los Angeles home. “I get pissed off when people aren’t pissed off.”

If that’s the case, he better stay peeved. For Alcaraz, putting sarcasm on paper has brought national recognition.

Over the last 15 years, his work has been published in the The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Variety, Hispanic Magazine, Latina Magazine, Mexico’s La Jornada, and several other publications. Alcaraz’s books include “Latino USA: A Cartoon History,” “Migra Mouse: Political Cartoons on Immigration,” and a collection of his daily comic strip, “La Cucaracha.”

He is perhaps best known for the syndicated comic strip La Cucaracha, which provides a satirical view of the world, often through the eyes of a goateed, Chicano militant cockroach who dresses in the khaki pants and the Pendleton wool shirt of a cholo.

What subjects does he prefer? Those that needle conservatives.

In one La Cucaracha installment, for example, Alcaraz portrays members of the Minuteman vigilante group spewing terms like “frijole fondlers,” “tortilla tossers,” and “welfare suckin’ border monkeys” while swearing they’re not racist.

In another, he laments the commercialization and trivialization of Hispanic Heritage Month by depicting a street fiesta where a Klux Klansman peddles “Karne Asada” tacos, and the Anti-Immigration League hosts mariachi music.

Yet another strip published around Halloween 2008 shows people with eyes wide, running in horror from the scariest thing they have ever seen: A trick-or-treater costumed like former GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin as president.

Stunts like that have earned Alcaraz stacks of hate mail, some racist. But he said he doesn’t take it too seriously since even his friend, Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez, catches anti-Mexican flak despite the fact that his roots are in Italy and Spain.

As if the written abuse from La Cucaracha isn’t enough, Alcaraz also does cartoons that center on political and social issues or current events. One of his latest focuses on the feet of singer Michael Jackson as he dances on his tiptoes. But Jackson, who died recently, isn’t on a lighted stage. He is surrounded by clouds.

Alcaraz’s favorite works over the years? Perhaps those on Migra Mouse, a rodent U.S. Border Patrol agent born during the uproar over California Proposition 187, which sought to deny many benefits to illegal immigrants. He also loved another cartoon entitled “How to Spot a Mexican Dad” that listed typical characteristics such as “big ol’ bigote,” “tattoo he won’t talk about,” and “Tres Flores brilliantine in his hair.”

“People would tell me, ‘Oh my God. I love the cartoon, but when did you meet my dad?’” Alcaraz laughed. “It’s basically my dad.”

Alcaraz, 45, is the son of Mexican immigrants and grew up in San Diego, straddling the cultures of Mexico and the U.S. In 1987, he earned a bachelor’s degree in art and environmental design from the San Diego State University.

In 1991, he graduated with a master’s degree from the University of California at Berkeley, but not before helping launch the satirical Pocho magazine. It was sign of what was to come.

Alcaraz started La Cucaracha in 1992 as an occasional feature in the LA Weekly newspaper. It was born as the “L.A. Cucaracha,” but when Alcaraz got a chance to draw a daily strip with regular characters, he dropped the periods, and the strip took off. At its peak, La Cucaracha was carried by more than 60 newspapers.

In recent years, that number dropped as the recession hit, some newspapers folded, and others had less room for cartoons. In 2007, the Los Angeles Times decided to dump La Cucaracha, but furious readers inundated the newspaper with complaints, Alcaraz said. After only 36 hours without the militant cockroach in its pages, the Times relented.

Alcaraz is also the co-host of the popular satirical talk show, “The Pocho Hour of Power,” broadcast Fridays at 4 p.m. at KPFK-FM 90.7 in Los Angeles and co-founded the political satire comedy group Chicano Secret Service.

How long will he wield the wicked pen? Alcaraz isn’t sure, but he’s not interested in doing anything else. In fact, he’s trying to animate La Cucaracha. Despite the bad economy, he’s pretty passionate about it.

One might even say a bit irked.

“At this point,” he said, “I don’t care if it just shows up on gas station pumps.”

NEW HEAD WANTS TO REANIMATE KERN COUNTY HUMAN RELATIONS COMMISSION

BY LEONEL MARTÍNEZ

LA VOZ DE KERN

The new president of the Kern County Human Relations Commission has started an effort to reanimate the 11-member agency so that it plays a more active role in fighting discrimination and promoting equal rights.

Bakersfield insurance agent Ed Herrera, who took over as head of the commission this month, said the group receives limited support from the Board of Supervisors, and four of its commissioner positions are vacant.

Many people don’t even know the body exists.

“The support is kind of tepid,” said Herrera, who has served on the commission about six years. “We deal with some hard issues, and sometimes, it seems like the county doesn’t want to deal with law enforcement and excessive use of force.”

Herrera, who also heads the commission’s law enforcement committee, has more than 30 years’ experience in human relations and civil rights issues in Los Angeles and Bakersfield. That included working with the Los Angeles Police Department after the beating of motorist Rodney King in 1992. He said he supports law enforcement, but wants to ensure police are accountable for their actions.

"He's fully competent, he's aggressive, and I think he'll do an excellent job," said Kern County Sheriff's Lt. J.R. Rodriguez, who worked with Herrera when he headed the Kern County Hispanic Advisory Council to Law Enforcement.

"He tried to bridge the gap between the minority community and that of law enforcement in the recruitment process."

The effort had some success, Rodriguez said.

The Board of Supervisors established the Human Relations Commission as an advisory body in late 1990 to combat prejudice and discrimination, safeguard equal rights in employment and education, and promote social and economic justice. Supervisors appoint commissioners.

The commission's efforts target racial and ethnic problems as well as those involving sexual orientation, Herrera said. Sometimes, commissioners act as intermediaries, negotiating problems between Kern residents and other county agencies. The commission lacks enforcement authority, but tackles problems by bringing them to light or contacting the responsible agency.

“They put a spotlight on it,” said Herrera.

Last year, for example, medical marijuana advocates sought the commission’s help in protecting pot dispensaries that were shut down by federal authorities. The commission set up a meeting between advocates, the Kern County Sheriff’s Department and the Bakersfield Police Department.

Law enforcement officials explained that their policy is to follow federal marijuana laws instead of more lenient state laws. Therefore, any change would have to occur at the federal level.

The commission also sponsors an annual essay contest for middle-school students focusing on diversity. Herrera wants to maintain these efforts while incorporating new ideas such as holding some meetings in outlying communities like Wasco, Taft and Delano.

Another idea is to take on the recent series of verbal and physical attacks on Hispanics at Harte Park. Two Oildale men went to state prison as a result of one attack. Herrera said the attacks were violations of civil rights laws, and any future assailants should face federal penalties.

“I have some pretty provocative commissioners that want to make sure things are level for everybody,” said Herrera.

The commission meets at 5:30 p.m. on the second Tuesday of each month at the Kern County Administrative Center, 1115 Truxtun Avenue. Meetings are in the third-floor multipurpose room. They can be reached at (661) 868-3480.

IMMIGRATION REFORM MUST CONSIDER NEW REALITIES OF LAST FEW DECADES

BY LEONEL MARTÍNEZ

LA VOZ DE KERN

Will President Obama and the U.S. Congress strap on their political flak jackets and take on immigration reform this year?

They seem to send different signals every week.

But whatever happens, one thing is certain: Any new immigration legislation will have to consider newer realities that did not exist during the passage of the last major immigration reform package – the Immigration Reform and Control Act – in 1986. These realities specifically relate to illegal immigrants.

That’s a conclusion I drew after reading a new report, “A Portrait of Unauthorized Immigrants in the United States,” released by the nonpartisan Pew Hispanic Center in April. Basing its estimates on data provided by the U.S. Census Bureau, the 51-page document provides a detailed picture of the nation’s 12 million illegal immigrants.

A little confession: I’ve been criticized for my frequent use of studies and data. But without hard numbers and facts, how can people develop informed opinions?

Personal biases? Overheated emotions? The various phases of the moon?

No thanks. I’ve had enough of right-wing talk radio.

Many of the Pew study’s findings are interesting because they defy the simplistic reasoning, scapegoating and stereotypes that have poisoned the immigration debate for decades.

For example:

• Most children of illegal immigrants are not illegal immigrants. In estimating the costs of illegal immigration, anti-immigrant organizations pad their numbers by counting the expenses incurred by the U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants.

Those would be called “American citizens.”

In fact in 2008, about three of four children of unauthorized residents were born in the U.S, up from 63 percent only four years ago, according to Pew report. Immigration hardliners believe all these residents should be deported, but aren’t these the first folks who shout about family values? Any reasonable policy should not fracture families.

• Illegal immigration isn’t isolated to a few southwestern states like California, Texas and New Mexico. In their never-ending quest for jobs, these newcomers are spreading throughout the U.S. California, for example, was home to 42 percent of the nation’s illegal immigrants in 1990, according to the Pew report. That percentage dropped to 22 in 2008.

Yet the percentage of illegal immigrants is increasing in states like Georgia, Colorado, Nevada and South Carolina that had relatively few immigrants a few years ago.

Can anyone say “y’all” in Spanish?

• Children in illegal immigrant households are more likely to be in two-parent families (47 percent) than children in legal immigrant households (35 percent), the Pew study found. That should make immigration restrictionists like CNN commentator Lou Dobbs – who frequently screams about an illegal immigrant “invasion” -- break out in a nervous rash.

Oh my gosh. We’re being invaded by stable families.

Congress will have to set aside the myths and stereotypes to consider these facts as well as hundreds of others in drafting any immigration reform package that stands a hope of being effective.

Let’s hope legislators set aside the emotionalism and listen.

The Pew report, “A Portrait of Unauthorized Immigrants in the United States,” can be viewed in its entirety at http://pewhispanic.org/reports/report.php?ReportID=107