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I. ELECTIONS - AATSP JUAN DE FUCA CHAPTER
Nominations are now being accepted for the board
positions listed below. Nominations close on May 31.
Voting takes place by mail ballot in September.
Nominations are open to all members in good standing.
Please e-mail your nomination to: Carol Froelich
(cfroeli@thurston.com)
If you are nominating yourself, please write a 200
word statement (longer if you'd like). The
description should include years teaching, service to
the language community, a little
bio with relevant info, and ideas for the chapter. We
strongly encourage you to nominate yourself and/or a
colleague!
1. President (one-year term 2001-2002, then 2 year
terms beginning 2002)
2. Northwestern Vice-President
3. Southwestern Vice-President
4. Secretary
5. Treasurer
The following board members plan on running again:
Paloma (NW Vice President), Oriana (SW Vice
President), Jay (Secretary).
For more information, please see our constitution at
http://www.users.qwest.net/~eledu/aatsp/constitution.html
II. CARIBBEAN EVENT IN YAKIMA ON APRIL 21
Don't forget to mark your calendars for our chapter's
next event - EL CARIBE - which will be held in Yakima
on April 21 from 11am-4pm. We will meet at Yakima
Community College in their language building (Martin
Hall). The event will include:
-literature from the Caribbean
-Caribbean food (and how to make it)
-music, games, and songs for teaching
-Caribbean music and dance lessons, including a
community-wide Caribbean dance to end the day! (The
community dance / party begins at 7pm)
For more information please contact our Eastern Vice
President Ricardo Chama at: rchama@yvcc.cc.wa.us
III. UPCOMING EVENTS AT THE UW: CENTER FOR SPANISH
STUDIES
For more information on any of the events listed
below, please contact the Center for Spanish Studies
at (206) 221-6571 or spnrectr@u.washington.edu, or
visit their website:
http://depts.washington.edu/spnrectr/
-Tuesday, March 27th: The wines of Spain. Learn
about the wines of Spain with Francisco Fenollar,
Visiting Representative from "Bodegas Crisve", La
Mancha, Spain.
-April 3, 5, 10: A Virtual Tour of Contemporary
Spain. A total of nine hours with three different
teachers and also surfing the internet. 4pm-7pm (see
IV below for complete description)
-Saturday, May 12th: Diversity in Spain - a series
of four films about Spain and its geographical and
cultural diversity. This event will include a section
on the use of films in the Spanish class.
8:30am-5:00pm.
-Tuesday, May 22. Two workshops for Spanish teachers
by the Spanish Consultant Oscar Cerrolaza.
IV. A VIRTUAL TOUR OF CONTEMPORARY SPAIN
Thanks to a common effort of the Office of
Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) the
University of Washington and the Education Office of
the Spanish Embassy this course will be offered free
of charge to a maximum of 20 participants. This nine
hour long class will include an introduction to
Spain's geography, history, politics, culture
(customs, food, folklore, art, etc), languages,
economy, and current affairs. Teachers will also spend
three and a half hours surfing the internet and
learning about resources available for them. Most of
the activities will be conducted in Spanish. Teachers
will receive a handout and other materials so they
will be able to
bring new ideas and activities to their classroom.
This is also an excellent occasion to brush up your
spoken Spanish and to share ideas with other Spanish
teachers in your area. You can earn up to nine free
clock hours with this class.
Instructors: Inma Raneda, a native of Spain, is a
lecturer at the University of Washington in the
Division of Spanish and Portuguese Studies where she
teaches Spanish Culture courses. In cooperation with
the Jackson School of International Relations she is
currently teaching a course on Contemporary Spain
Spanish 360/European Studies 360. She will make two
presentations: The
New Spanish Cinema and The Social and Cultural
Advances of Women in
Democratic Spain. Lola Rodríguez is a Visiting
Graduate Student at UW and the current Language
Assistant assigned to the Center for Spanish Studies.
She is a native of La Mancha and will be giving
presentations on this Spanish region. Eduardo Tobar is
the Spanish Language Consultant at OSPI and represents
the Education Office of the Spanish Embassy. He is
involved with various programs of cooperation between
Spain and the State of Washington.
-Where? Mary Gates Hall, Room 30, University of
Washington, Seattle.
-When? Three sessions: Tuesday, April 3rd, Thursday,
April 5th , and Tuesday, April 10th.
-What time? Every session starts at 4:00 p.m. and ends
at 7:00 p.m.
You can find the registration form at:
http://depts.washington.edu/spnrectr/registrationvirtual.doc
. Please send the complete registration form to:
Center for Spanish Studies
University of Washington
Division of Spanish and Portuguese
Padelford C-224
Box 354360
Seattle, WA 98195-4360
For further information or for registration forms
contact the Center for
Spanish Studies at: 206-2216571 /
spnrectr@u.washington.edu
V. INTERNET
http://www.spanishmultimedia.com/ "One of the
largest" distributors of educational films in Spanish,
including videos in Spanish on Math, Language Arts,
History, etc.
VI. New Files Tie U.S. to Deaths of Latin Leftists in
1970's
By DIANA JEAN SCHEMO
WASHINGTON, March 5 — A recently declassified State
Department document shows that Latin American officers
involved in Operation Condor, the joint effort in the
1970's by right-wing governments to crush left-wing
opposition, used an American communications
installation to share intelligence.
A cable to the State Department in 1978 from the
United States ambassador to Paraguay at the time,
Robert E. White, quoted the chief of staff to the
dictator Alfredo Stroessner as saying an
American installation in the Canal Zone was "employed
to coordinate intelligence information" among South
America countries. "Obviously," the cable said, "this
is the Condor network, which all
of us have heard about over the last few years."
Mr. White wrote that he had not independently
confirmed the accuracy of the Paraguayan's report. But
he recommended that Secretary of State Cyrus R. Vance
"review this arrangement to insure that its
continuation is in the U.S. interest."
To Mr. White's knowledge, he said recently, the review
was never done.
But the cable appeared to open new avenues of inquiry
about the American role in Condor, a shadowy operation
to stamp out the Latin American left that, among other
things, dispatched death squads to kill critics at
home and overseas.
Documents already made public have shown that the
F.B.I. helped Condor's efforts early on by
investigating South American leftists who were
arrested and, in at least one case, tortured.
The cable was discovered by a Long Island University
professor, Patrice McSherry, among thousands of
documents being declassified on American relations
with South American dictatorships.
If Latin American officers did use American facilities
to transmit intelligence, this would have provided
United States officials the opportunity to monitor
Condor activities closely.
Lt. Gen. Samuel Wilson, retired, who was director of
the Defense Intelligence Agency through August 1977,
said, "If such an arrangement existed on an
institutional basis, I would have known about it, and
I did not then and do not now."
However, he added, "that such an arrangement could
have been made locally on an ad hoc basis is not
beyond the realm of probability."
But Peter Kornbluh, a senior analyst at the National
Security Archive, said the cable implied
"foreknowledge, cooperation and total access" to the
plans and operations of Condor.
"The degree to which the U.S.A. knew about and
supported these operations has remained secret until
now," he said. "The layers of the onion are peeling
away here."
Officially, Condor arose as a defense against
Communist-inspired terrorism, but its victims included
government officials ousted in United States-supported
military coups, trade unionists, rights advocates and
suspected socialists. By 1978 investigators were tying
Condor to the killing of Orlando Letelier, the former
Chilean foreign minister, and Ronni Moffitt, an
American colleague, in 1976 when the car in which they
were riding exploded in Washington.
In his cable, Ambassador White recounted a meeting
with a Paraguayan general, Alejandro Fretes Davalos,
shortly after a Chilean official visited Paraguay to
discuss the Letelier case. Mr. White surmised that in
telling him American channels were being used to
transmit intelligence for Condor, the generals hoped
to fend off questions from the United States Justice
Department about their role in the killings.
The cable said Condor nations "keep in touch with one
another through a U.S. communications installation in
the Panama Canal zone, which covers all of Latin
America."
"This U.S. communications facility is used mainly by
student officers to call home to Latin America," the
cable continued, "but it is also employed to
coordinate intelligence information among the Southern
Cone countries. They maintain the confidentiality of
their communication through the U.S. facility in
Panama by using bilateral codes."
Mr. White, who currently runs the Center for
International Policy, a research organization, sent
his message directly to Secretary Vance in recognition
of its sensitivity and his recommendation. In a recent
interview, however, he said he had received no
response: "Nobody reacted in any way, shape or form."
"What it suggests to me is that people in the U.S.
government really actively worked not to have this
knowledge, this evidence, in play," he said. "There
are thousands of telegrams that come in each day. It's
very easy to just drop one down that big memory hole."
VII. Oaxaca Journal: Mexican Rebels' Hopes Meet Hard
Indian Reality
March 3, 2001
By GINGER THOMPSON
OAXACA, Mexico, Feb. 27 — The Zapatista rebels' march
to Mexico City has become the biggest show in the
country, and Esther Juárez, 21, traveled almost half a
day to see it pass through this colonial town.
Carrying her daughter, 1, in her arms, she arrived
with dozens of other working-class coffee farmers from
her Mixe Indian village in the Sierra Madre, all
crowded in the back of an old truck. Their ill-fitting
clothes were so tattered that they looked like rags,
and most of the women wore plastic sandals that were
splitting on all sides.
When she was asked what she thought about the
Zapatista rebellion for Indian rights — or about
President Vicente Fox's promises to reach a peaceful
settlement to the seven- year-old conflict in the
southern state of Chiapas — her expressive brown eyes
turned blank. To her, the demands and promises sound
like pipe dreams. The struggle she most cares about,
she said, is the one that she faces every day to feed
her family.
On a good day — and Ms. Juárez made clear that good
days are rare — she is able to scrape together a
couple of pesos to buy her baby an egg for supper. But
mostly, she said, she feeds her daughter tortillas
with salt. As for herself and her husband, Ms. Juárez
said, their daily diet consists of tortillas and a
salsa made with chilis, water and salt.
Rice and beans, a staple of most Mexican households,
are often too expensive for Ms. Juárez's family. When
asked whether she ate meat, she shrugged and said
perhaps once a month.
"We all live this way," Ms. Juárez said of her
community. When asked about wealthy residents, she
shook her head no, and said, "There are people who are
even poorer than me."
As a 24-member group of Zapatista rebels winds its way
toward Mexico City in pursuit of new rights for the 10
million indigenous people in this country, they are
making symbolic stops in areas like this one, where
the social plagues that incited their cause come to
life. The rebels' audiences are sprinkled with Indians
from isolated hamlets who know little about the
conflict in the Chiapas jungles but who endure the
desperate hardships that drive the uprising.
More than 90 percent of Mexican Indians live in
housing without sewage systems, and 60 percent of
their houses do not have running water, according to
government reports. More than 44 percent of Indians
are illiterate, compared with 10 percent of the whole
country. Seventy percent of Indian children suffer
problems related to malnutrition.
With the highest indigenous population in the nation,
Oaxaca leads Mexico in many indicators of Indian
poverty. On Monday, across the same crowded plaza in
the center of this colonial town where the Zapatista
leader Subcommander Marcos denounced the Indians'
"scandalous conditions of misery," more than 100
indigenous people camped out in front of the palace of
the state government to demand basic services and
protection.
Dozens of protesters had arrived that day from Santa
Cruz Tepenixtlahuaca to demand that the government
install a water system and build a road to their
village. They said that to go to and from the nearest
market to sell their fruit and vegetables or to take a
day job to earn a little money — $4 a day — they have
to walk six hours over a mountain.
The farmers said they had been asking for a road for
10 years. Their children have begun to lose hope that
things will ever improve. And for the first time, some
of their sons have migrated to the United States.
"We think that the government does not pay attention
to us because we are indigenous," a protester, Teodora
Habana López, 44, said. "Or maybe it is because we
speak a different language or because we live far away
from where they live."
Flaviano López Bautista, 31, shouted out: "That's why
we have come here! And we are not leaving until they
answer our demands."
A few yards away, 30 women and all their children had
already proven their staying power. They have sat in
protest before the government office for almost four
years, abandoning their homes in San Agustín Loxicha
to protest the arrests of their husbands and to demand
that the men be released from jail. The men have been
accused of belonging to another rebel group, the
People's Revolutionary Army, which led violent
uprisings against the government in 1996.
Ms. Juárez did not intend to stay in the plaza. She
said her fight was at home. The enemy was hunger. She
and another mother, Vicenta Espinosa, said their
husbands owned less than half an acre of land in
Chuznaban village, not enough to grow the corn and
vegetables that their families need to sustain them
the entire year. Some people grow coffee in the
highlands around the village, the women said, but the
prices for coffee are so low that most farmers are
unable to break even.
The families have no real incomes. When their food
runs out, it runs out. The families live only on
chilis and herbs that grow wild around their village.
"Most times, I know that I am not giving my family
enough to eat," said Ms. Espinosa, who had the first
of her four children at the age of 13. "But we do the
best we can to endure, because there is nothing else
we can do. There is no money for food."
Ms. Espinosa and Ms. Juárez said that many children in
their village were smaller and thinner than average
and that their hair fell out in clumps. The youngsters
have little energy for play, the mothers added.
Ms. Juárez's daughter was small, but appeared
healthy. She had fallen asleep in her mother's arms,
exhausted from the long journey into town and the
excitement of thousands of people gathered there for
the Zapatista rally.
Recalling the rally, Ms. Espinosa said she liked
hearing Subcommander Marcos call all Indians to unite
behind the cause of peace.
Ms. Juárez turned up her nose at the notion.
"We already live in peace," she said of her
community. "What we need is food."
VIII. Early Census Data Shows Hispanic Population on
Rise
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 3:09 a.m. ET
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Demographers have long predicted
that the fast-growing Hispanic population would soon
become the nation's largest minority group. New
figures from the 2000 census show that is closer to
becoming reality.
The Hispanic population numbered roughly 35.3 million
in 2000, or about 12.6 percent of the country's 281
million people the Census Bureau said. The black
population, meanwhile, ranged between 34.7 million and
36.4 million, with the exact figure uncertain yet
because Americans, for the first time, were allowed to
check off more than one race on the 2000 census form.
Bureau officials and outside analysts warned Tuesday
that the figures, released in a Census Bureau report
last week, may not be final, and could change because
of ongoing study. The Census Bureau is expected to
offer more detail on the nation's racial makeup next
week, including information on other race groups.
The population numbers for Hispanics, especially,
surpassed previous projections, exploding 58 percent
since 1990. One bureau estimate had placed the
Hispanic population in November 2000 at
32.8 million -- 2.5 million less than the actual 2000
census figure, which is officially tied to April 1,
2000.
"Hispanic'' is considered an ethnicity, and Hispanic
people can be of any race. Therefore, it is unclear
yet whether Hispanics are officially the nation's
largest minority group, since data showing how many
blacks were specifically "non-Hispanic'' is not yet
available.
A wide discrepancy also existed between the 2000
census number for Hispanics, a second figure derived
from a Census Bureau follow-up survey that estimated
the undercount for race groups, and a separate
demographic analysis typically performed to measure
census accuracy.
That discrepancy was part of the reason why the Census
Bureau recommended that the actual census count -- and
not one adjusted using statistical sampling -- be used
as the official numbers for political redistricting.
Commerce Secretary Don Evans backed that
recommendation Tuesday, with the first set of
redistricting numbers based on unadjusted data to be
sent out Wednesday.
The overall national population figure of 281 million
released in December was more than 5 million higher
than a previous estimate.
Part of the reason, the bureau has said, is that it
may have done a better job than expected in counting
undocumented immigrants, including newly arrived
Hispanics. Immigrants were one of the targets of a
massive bureau outreach campaign last year to increase
participation.
Overall, the Census Bureau estimated a net national
undercount of 1.2 percent, or 3.3 million in 2000,
down from 1.6 percent, or 4 million, in 1990.
Numbers on the black population, meanwhile, offered
the first glimpse into how many people checked off
more than one race on their form. While 34.7 million
people marked only "black'' on their form, an
additional 1.7 million classified themselves as black
and another race.
Analysts had predicted that about 1 percent to 2
percent of the population would check off more than
once race category.
Because demographic analysis may have undercounted
Hispanics to begin with, it is wrong to base the
Census Bureau's recommendation against adjustment on a
comparison between the actual census count, adjusted
data, and the analysis, said Jeffrey Passel, a
demographer and consultant for members appointed by
former President Clinton to a bipartisan board
overseeing the census.
"There is ample evidence in my mind that there is an
underestimation of immigration that is the source of
the discrepancy,'' Passel said.
But Chip Walker, spokesman for Rep. Dan Miller,
R-Fla., said it was wrong for Democrats on the board
to criticize either the Census Bureau recommendation
or Evans' decision.
"The fact is, there is now way that the people at the
(board) would have had enough time to analyze these
numbers,'' Walker said.
IX. Hispanic Growth Revives Okla. Town
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 1:23 a.m. ET
HEAVENER, Okla. (AP) -- The boom in Oklahoma's
Hispanic population can be seen clearly in the two
sides of this small town in the state's eastern hills.
One moves to a salsa beat, the other complains about
the noise. One side can't speak English well, the
other can't understand Spanish.
"It's Heavener, but it's not the same Heavener I grew
up in,'' said Police Chief Donald Richards. "There
may be 10 people walking down Main Street and there'll
be one Caucasian and nine Hispanics.''
Heavener has been dealing with the implications of the
change since Hispanic immigration pushed into Oklahoma
towns during the 1990s like one of the freight trains
that rumble through here.
According to census figures released Monday, the
number of Hispanics statewide grew from about 86,000
people in 1990 to more than 179,000 last year, an
increase of 108 percent. Nationally, the Hispanic
population jumped by 58 percent over the last decade.
LeFlore County, which includes Heavener, had an 11
percent overall population growth to some 48,000
people. Hispanic population increased fourfold to
1,849.
The chief's phone rings nonstop, often with gripes
about loud Latino music. Some in the Hispanic
community complain of rent gouging, while local
residents grouse about run-down looking rental homes
packed with newcomers.
The boom has caused "absolute chaos sometimes,'' the
chief says. But if Heavener hadn't become a Hispanic
town, he suspects it would be a dying town.
"You could have shot a shotgun down Main Street and
never hit a car all day,'' he says, recalling a
decline that began in the 1980s. "I'll be honest.
They've helped our community.''
Long-vacant downtown buildings now hold Hispanic
churches, Mexican restaurants, the Mexican grocery and
a bakery. Sales tax collections grew by almost 25
percent between 1994 and 2000.
Hispanics have come for a better life -- and for the
chickens.
Poultry manufacturing so dominates this
Oklahoma-Arkansas border region that feathers dance
along the roadways. When the OK Foods' chicken
processing plant opened at the edge of town in 1991,
it became a beacon to Mexicans willing to do work
locals refused. An average worker earns $7.25 to
$10.50 an hour.
"You've got your check you can depend on,'' explains
Sotero Farias, whose wife, Alejandrina, also is among
the 900 workers at the Heavener plant.
They left planting corn and beans in Mexico to give
their children more opportunity. But like many
immigrants here, they plan to go home when the kids
are grown.
Chatter flows in Spanish over the dried beans and
peppers in the Mexican market where they shop. Adela
Solano's cash register sings nonstop. The store is a
meeting point for the Hispanic community.
Lisa Fabian, one of the district's four bilingual
instructors, says many of the Hispanic teens she
tutors have been here for just a few weeks, and new
students arrive all the time speaking only Spanish.
One Heavener school teacher walked into class a few
years ago to discover 10 of her 15 students couldn't
speak English. The district, caught off guard, turned
to federal grants to hire bilingual help.
Some of Fabian's students now have lofty goals.
In her classroom, 15-year-old Juan Silva explains in
English how he dreams of becoming a boxer, a lawyer or
a doctor. Fabian encourages him. "I like the sound of
that -- Dr. Juan Silva.''
"The only thing I don't like,'' the boy says, "are the
people who make fun of me.''
He and other teens say they've been called "tamales''
and "tacos'' and told, "Go back to your own country.''
A lot of people "don't like them, don't want them
here,'' says Tish Livesay, a park ranger at nearby
Lake Wister. "It's just an old country town. That's
what it is.''
Heavener has so few bilingual speakers that the
courthouse and the emergency room regularly call on
Fabian for translation help. For a time, she even
interpreted her pastor's rapid-fire sermons.
Other states also have registered triple-digit
increases in the number of Hispanic residents during
the 1990s: Iowa had a whopping152.6 percent increase,
Indiana shot up by 117 percent and Arkansas' Hispanic
population increased by 337 percent.
Richards thinks Heavener's complexion has been altered
for good.
"In my opinion, they're here to stay. They're going to
become part of the community in the years to come and
you'll see council members with the names Hernandez
and Gomez,'' he says. "They're integrating into our
community and that's the way it's going to be.''
On the Net:
http://www.census.gov
http://www.nytimes.com
=====
Steven Green, President, sslgrn@aol.com
Ricardo Chama, Eastern V.P., cheetah101@earthlink.net
Paloma Borreguero, NW V.P., paloma@u.washington.edu
Oriana Cadman, SW V.P., ocadman@kalama.com
Jay Adams-Feuer, Secretary, jay@alumni.middlebury.edu
Alexandra Porter, Treasurer, dporter@universityprep.org
WATSP web page: http://www.users.uswest.net/~eledu/aatsp