BLACK PRIDE
LATIN AMERICA NEEDS ITS OWN CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT SAYS THE WORLD-FAMOUS RAPPER
By TEGO CALDERON
Just this morning, I was listening to radio host Luisito Vigeroux talking about a movie project that I am working on which co-stars Mayra Santos Febres and he was saying, "Her? She's starring in it?"
Questioning her Black beauty.
I remember, too, when Celia Cruz died, a newscaster, thinking she was being smart, said Celia Cruz wasn't black, she was Cuban. She was pretty even though she's black.
As if there is something wrong with being black, like the two things can't exist simultaneously and be a majestic thing. There is ignorance and stupidity in Puerto Rico and Latin America when it comes to blackness.
To read more, go to:
http://www.nypost.com/seven/02152007/tempo/black_pride_tempo_tego_calderon.htm
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Politics
Puerto Rican official: Tie funding to English classes
By Eric Pfeiffer
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
February 13, 2007
Congress should cut off funds to Puerto Rico if its school system refuses to teach English as well as Spanish, the U.S. territory's Senate president said during a visit to generate congressional support for making the island a state.
"All federal appropriations should be conditional," said Puerto Rican Senate President Kenneth McClintock, a Democrat. "Otherwise, it's going to cost generations of Puerto Rican families."
Mr. McClintock says some of Puerto Rico's public schools are refusing to teach English, which shares official-language status with Spanish, and that millions of dollars in U.S. appropriations spent on supplemental material has been wasted.
To read the full article, go to http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20070212-111911-2529r.htm
Puerto Rican official: Tie funding to English classes
By Eric Pfeiffer
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
February 13, 2007
Congress should cut off funds to Puerto Rico if its school system refuses to teach English as well as Spanish, the U.S. territory's Senate president said during a visit to generate congressional support for making the island a state.
"All federal appropriations should be conditional," said Puerto Rican Senate President Kenneth McClintock, a Democrat. "Otherwise, it's going to cost generations of Puerto Rican families."
Mr. McClintock says some of Puerto Rico's public schools are refusing to teach English, which shares official-language status with Spanish, and that millions of dollars in U.S. appropriations spent on supplemental material has been wasted.
To read the full article, go to http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20070212-111911-2529r.htm
Monday, February 12, 2007
Tourism
Dominican Republic and P.R., the top Caribbean tourism poles
Santo Domingo.- The Dominican Republic has converted into an authentic tourism reserve in the Caribbean. According to the annual Barometer report issued by the World Tourism Organization (WTO), this country along with Puerto Rico predominate as leaders in terms of tourist arrivals.
To read full article, go to http://www.dominicantoday.com/app/article.aspx?id=22356.
Dominican Republic and P.R., the top Caribbean tourism poles
Santo Domingo.- The Dominican Republic has converted into an authentic tourism reserve in the Caribbean. According to the annual Barometer report issued by the World Tourism Organization (WTO), this country along with Puerto Rico predominate as leaders in terms of tourist arrivals.
To read full article, go to http://www.dominicantoday.com/app/article.aspx?id=22356.
Saturday, February 10, 2007
Copy of Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion's State of the Borough Address on February 9 at Hostos Community College
'I chose Hostos this year, because this school, like the Bronx, has a fighting spirit'
Good morning. Members of Congress, the state legislature, the City Council, District Attorney Johnson, my fellow Borough Presidents, community board chairs and managers, Bronx community leaders and friends welcome to the 2007 State of the Borough Address. This is our sixth address on the State of our borough.
I’m very pleased to be here at the historic Hostos Community College. Please join me in thanking our host today, my friend and the President of Hostos, Dr. Delores Fernandez. Thank you and thanks to the entire Hostos family for working so hard to make this event possible.
Eugenio Maria de Hostos!!!! Let me tell you a little about Hostos, he lived from 1839 to 1903, was a Puerto Rican philosopher, pedagogue, writer, sociologist, journalist, abolitionist, freedom fighter, proponent of women’s rights to education and until his dying day in Santiago of the Dominican Republic, a believer in education as the path to emancipation. Hostos argued that reason has no gender”…he fought for Cuba, Puerto Rico, Peru, Chile, Argentina, against slavery…. So if Eugenio Maria de Hostos could somehow come back and be with us today, I believe he would smile with his big 19th century mustache outstretched beyond his chiseled cheek bones and say thank you. My friends, this college was born of the spirit of Hostos. That fighting spirit was alive from its first class of 623 students in 1971, to when it was slated to be consolidated with another school during the fiscal crisis and closed, and this community said no, Hostos will live on, and it has. So here we are today, Hostos has 4800 students and partners with Columbia University in a national scholars program... the Congressman Serrano Scholars Program. That fighting spirit led the Hostos men’s basketball team to be 2005 National Juinor College Div III Basketball Champions – they currently rank 1st in the CUNY Men’s Basketball standings. That fighting spirit led the Hostos women’s basketball team to be 3-time CUNY Athletic Conference basketball title winners. This school, this community, this borough continues to defy the odds and birth champions.
And, so I chose Hostos this year, because this school, like the Bronx, has a fighting spirit and like the Bronx, has experienced enormous success in the past decade. It is this drive for excellence, this desire to be the best that is reflected in the students here at Hostos and in the residents of the Bronx.
While we can probably find and recruit the next point guard for the Knicks or NY Liberty here today, we’re really here because Hostos is at the epicenter of a new wave of development. I told you last year that the Bronx was at work…that we are building a stronger Bronx and by extension a stronger City…I’m proud to say that it’s not just words…we’re doing it. The Bronx is back.
We’ve seen a revitalization of small businesses along 149th St. and the groundbreaking of the new HUB retail and commercial space, the new Gateway Center at the old Bronx Terminal Market, and the new Yankee Stadium.
We’re building a new Grand Concourse for the 21st Century. In fact, the Bronx is now seeing the greatest amount of growth and change since the 1920s and 30s. Hey…after all, this is the home of the Yankees, not the Red Sox.
Over the past five years, I’ve heard your hopes and dreams, as well as your frustrations. This has happened at hundreds of meetings and community events, as well as hearing you on Ask the Borough President on News 12 The Bronx. Please help me thank the team at News 12 The Bronx for providing such an important service for 5 years… I am more committed than ever to improving the Bronx so that we can lay the foundation for an even brighter future.
Our progress is the result of our work. I have not done any of this alone. Let me say thank you to my colleagues in government who have put time, energy and support behind their words. Our political leader, Bronx County Democratic Chairman and Assemblyman Jose Rivera, Assemblywoman Aurelia Greene, who is Chair of the Assembly delegation and all members of the Bronx Assembly delegation, the Bronx delegation of the State Senate…and by the way, let us all today congratulate the new Deputy Minority Leader of the State Senate, Bronx State Senator Jeff Klein… Council Member and Chair of the Bronx City Council delegation Maria Baez and the entire Bronx City Council delegation, and our three members of Congress, members Serrano, Crowley and Engel. Let me also take this moment to make a special recognition of one of our own who has ascended to the third most important position in our new governor’s administration. She’s from The Bronx, she’s an exceptional leader in our community and has served us on the NYS Board of Regents and in many more ways…my good friend and the new Secretary of State of the Great State of New York, the Honorable Lorraine Cortes-Vasquez.
All of these leaders and all of you have been enormously helpful in getting us to where we are today. Of course we are far from finished with our work. I can tell you with certitude that it is not easy...but it’s a whole lot of fun. Sometimes we have our disagreements. But in the end, this isn’t about our interests it’s about what’s best for the Bronx and the City.
I’m happy to declare with confidence that yes, the Bronx is back!!!. The State of our beloved Bronx is better than it was in 2002, when we started our tenure.
As we begin 2007 – by the way, we have 2 years, 10 months and 19 days remaining, but who’s counting - we have made great progress in economic development and job creation, in housing production, in improving the environment, in improving health conditions, in fighting crime, and small but important gains in education.
Now that the Bronx is Back…a new chapter will be written.
Here’s what it looks like. In five years, we’ve created more private sector jobs in the Bronx than any other borough. 10,000 new private sector jobs have been created during my administration. 30,000 people have found jobs and unemployment was cut by more than 50%...from 11.3% to 5.4%. And, 13,000 fewer people are living in poverty. Last year, the Bronx ranked 3rd in the state and 1st in the city in Personal Income Growth.
Those of you who’ve been following the Bronx story remember we launched the Bronx at Work and Buy Bronx/Buy New York campaigns. The message was and continues to be...”IF YOU DO BUSINESS IN THE BRONX…YOU MUST DO BUSINESS WITH THE BRONX”. The chapter you’ve written created 1700 construction related jobs since 2002. Many businesses moved to the Bronx, we’ve lent $12 million to bring in new manufacturers, we created a $6.75 million fund to help businesses become environmentally responsible, in 2006 alone we lent $137 million to 50 businesses that created 2200 jobs and helped another 2000 businesses cut through red tape.
As a result of major development projects like Yankee Stadium, the Gateway Center, and other projects that are on the way, the next big wave of growth is in construction, service and retail jobs. Since the historic groundbreakings last August, we’ve processed 1300 job applicants…these and the many more who will come will be channeled into the 8900 construction jobs and 3100 permanent jobs at these projects alone.
With the great leadership of the Bronx City Council delegation and the participation of a community based working group we crafted two historic community benefits agreements that committed at a minimum, 25% of the construction contracts and 25% of the construction workforce to these projects. On the Yankee Stadium Neighborhood Redevelopment Project alone - look at this - 37% of the construction contracts have gone to Bronx businesses. And at the Gateway Center at the old Bronx Terminal Market 51% of the construction contracts have also gone to Bronx businesses.
As part of the Buy Bronx/Buy NY Campaign we’ve held workshops and talked to 400 businesses about procurement opportunities for major development projects.
Now the Bronx is the place for your corporate office. This has been the year of the groundbreaking, sometimes even days apart…800 new office buildings, with an investment of nearly $2 billion in five years. And, soon there will be 520,000 square feet of shiny new office space at the Hutchinson Metro Center. And for my friends in the trades, we will work out a deal with the developer to ensure that Bronx construction trades help build this new complex. The 170,000sf HUB Retail and Office Center that broke ground last winter, will be neighbor to a 500,000sf office, retail and housing complex right here in the South Bronx.
In order to continue to attract investment that creates jobs and opportunity we must continue an aggressive investment in infrastructure – we need to build and rebuild roads, bridges and better public transportation. Let me tell you what’s happening:
We’re reconstructing the Grand Concourse, thanks to the efforts of Congressman Jose Serrano who secured the federal funds.
We will build a new ramp off of the Hutchinson River Parkway, into the Bay Plaza Shopping complex, thanks to the efforts of Congressman Joe Crowley.
Improvements to are being made to Fordham Road, the Major Deegan Expressway and we’ve invested nearly $900 to re-build and renovating 8 bridges throughout the borough- including every bridge that connects the Bronx to Manhattan over the Harlem River.
We took the MTA to task on the condition of the subways and are finally seeing results. In the last year 27 elevated stations were renovated. 32 more stations need to be redone…14 elevated and 18 underground. I look forward to working with the new head of the MTA, Lee Sander, a good friend, to finish this very important work.
As we continue to grow we will improve our commuter rail lines. We’ve had nine Metro North stations redone and will build new stations in Williamsbridge and Woodlawn, including the new station near the new Yankee Stadium that will be underway by 2009. I look forward to working with Assembly Members Peter Rivera, Michael Benedetto and Ruben Diaz, Jr., and our federal officials to extend commuter rail service to the east Bronx…new stations in Hunts Point, Parkchester and Co-op City.
We know that good housing that’s reasonably priced is hard to come by. At least seven of ten constituent requests and complaints we get are related to housing. Since 2001 nearly 28,000 units of housing have been built. That’s 28,000 units of housing and it’s still not enough. This required an investment of $2.4 billion. I have partnered with the Bronx City Council delegation and the Bloomberg administration. For our part, we have invested $34 million in capital funds to build housing.
Five years ago we set out to increase homeownership opportunities in the borough. More than 7500 families became homeowners during that period. This is the result of an aggressive strategy that includes an annual homebuyers fair and workshops that have attracted several thousand families who learned to simply how qualify for a mortgage and finance their first home. In order to build on our recovery and sustain our growth we must hold on to the middle class. The way we do this is by providing opportunities for young families, as they enter the middle class, to own a piece of the American Dream right here. This is why we’ve built 1,000 residential units of co-ops and condos for young families in the past five years.
Mitchell Lama housing has made it possible for thousands of working families to find quality affordable housing. Since my first election, we created the Bronx Mitchell Lama Task Force whose mission is to preserve and retain 35,000 units of affordable housing and hold owners accountable for their developments. And we’re still not done with housing, we’ll continue to build.
Our effort to create a better place to live means we’ve taken up the fight to clean up our environment. I don’t mean to give another plug to Al Gore’s film, an Inconvenient Truth, which if you have not see you should, we have known anecdotally and more and more based on evidence that our planet is showing signs of warming. On our 44 square miles of God’s good earth called The Bronx, with a population of nearly 1.4 million, we have done what I believe this city and cities around the world should do. We’ve started a Green Roof Program that helps to fund the creation of green roofs…these green roofs reduce heat by 27% to help to retain heat during the winter and cool during the summer, capture and use storm water, and can serve as community gardens. We’ve coupled this with insisting that new development is sustainable…buildings that are built with environmentally friendly material and efficient in the use of energy, including solar panels and reuse of storm water. And, now we need to pass legislation that will give manufacturers tax breaks for making environmentally sustainable products right now in our city. While reducing our fossil fuel consumption and the pollutants in our environment, we will begin to improve conditions for future generations and still be competitive. Green can and must mean good for the environment and good for the pocket book.
I commend Mayor Bloomberg for beginning the overdue process of a 25-year plan for the future of New York. Our City must lead this nation and the world in innovation, as it does in so many other areas
Our daily living environment requires that we create parks that provide a place for exercise and recreation. As a result of a deal that was struck with the City and State, under the leadership of our state legislators and city council members, we are now investing more than $400 million in Bronx Parks. One of the new parks that will be created is the new 24.5-acre park at the site of the old Yankee Stadium. This park will include 4 baseball fields, a soccer and football field, with lights and stands, basketball courts, a 400-meter running track, tennis courts near the river, and a multiplicity of passive multi-use areas.
Over the last 5 years we’ve begun the important work of improving and protecting our waterfront. From the Hudson to the Sound efforts are continuing. The cleanup and restoration of the Bronx River, ensuring access to the water alongside historically industrial sites, like the opening of Barretto Point Park in Hunts Point. Help me say thanks to the work of the 20 plus community based organizations that comprise the Bronx River Alliance. This work, coupled with green development and the introduction of hybrid electric commuter shuttles into the industrial zones in the South Bronx will set the standard for how we should manage our affairs citywide.
Let me talk a little about the healthcare and wellness challenge. We are known as the borough of hospitals, parks and universities. However, we also have the unfortunate distinction of having some of the worse indicators as it relates to wellness. You and I know the reasons for this are complicated and varied. This, however, does not mean that making it better is beyond our reach. We’ve turned many areas of life around in the Bronx and I believe that working together we will turn this around. I’m happy to report that in the last 5 years 71,000 Bronx residents have enrolled in health insurance programs through aggressive outreach efforts by many of you. Please help me thank the Director of the Bronx Health Office, Dr. Jane Bedell for her stellar work in improving health outcomes in the Bronx. I’d also like to recognize someone who just two weeks ago received the highest honor any civilian can receive from the US Surgeon General. This wonderful man, who has served the South Bronx as a community physician for more than four decades received the Surgeon General’s Medallion for the Urban Health Plan, a community health center he founded, now one of the nation’s premier community health centers…please recognize my friend Dr. Richard Izquierdo.
I want to thank every health care worker, from hospital presidents to nurses. We’re still plagued with serious health problems…HIV/AIDs, heart disease, cancer, asthma, diabetes, and obesity. Every elected official from the Bronx is involved in addressing these challenges. From our budget, we’ve complemented your work with $7 million in funding to hospitals and health centers. Despite our efforts, every week nearly 100 Bronx residents learn they have cancer and up to 40 die from it. We need to redouble our efforts and my friends, continue to fight against initiatives like the proposed closing of Westchester Square Medical Center and other so called cost-cutting measures that put our community in further danger. And so I pledge to you today that I will join members of the City Council, the Chair of the Health Committee, Council Majority Leader Joel Rivera and the Bronx delegation, as well as members of the State legislature to fight these cuts as we enter this year’s budget discussion. Please count on me to testify before your respected bodies and help you make the case for the people of the Bronx and the City.
If there is a war that must be declared and won it’s the war against chronic disease and poor health. Here’s where we really need more troops.
I want you to know my parents are here…Papi and Mami thank you. You and I owe a debt of gratitude to those who came before us and worked hard to pass on to us and their grand children a better city. Some people refer to them as seniors, but I like to refer to them as seasoned or older adults. Our small attempt to pay a debt to them has translated into $15 million dollars for 18 housing projects to create 1,800 residential units and about $1 million in renovations to older adult centers. Five years ago, we were funding 53 older adult programs, today we are funding 86 of those programs all around the Bronx. Let me assure you that we will continue to fight against cuts to services for older adults and will work to build more housing.
I want to especially thank those elected officials who either chair or sit on committees that address these issues…Council Members Maria del Carmen Arroyo and James Vacca, and State Senator Ruben Diaz…thank you for your advocacy and for the resources you have fought for in the budget.
Thanks to each of my colleagues who hold special events and fund programs in your respective districts. Last year, we held the 3rd Annual Bronx Week Big Band Brunch where we hosted 800 older adults…let me tell you, these people know how to party and have a good time. So for Valentine’s Day we’re having the first ever Bronx Sweetheart Luncheon for couples who are married 50 years or more. Believe me, it will be a great party.
One of the fundamental elements necessary for our form of government and our free market to work is safety and security. Crime rates in the Bronx have plummeted to historic lows, now we must remain ready and vigilant to ensure there is no return to the days when crime swept through and destroyed many neighborhoods. Crime fighting must take the form of smart/targeted community policing, as well as providing positive options and outlets for our youth. It’s no mystery that if young people’s lives are filled with positive activities and challenges, they are less likely to make bad choices. And, you know, this is our problem. This means the solutions must be ours.
Part of the solution has to be using alternatives to incarceration for nonviolent offenses. When a kid gets involved in a petty crime we should demand a great deal of the kid and the family, let’s provide options that teach responsibility. And to the parents, coddling destructive behavior under the guise of “not my kid” or the system is responsible for how my kid turns out, this is simply absolving ourselves of the awesome responsibility of raising our own children. At the same time, as we demand more of ourselves and our families we must also demand more of government and the corporate stakeholders in our village. That is to say that if you do business in our City you should invest in the future of our City. This means that getting involved in a school, giving to a fund that helps with after school programs, helps with little league, helps with a chess or music program, that it’s not charity, it’s our responsibility.
And since we’re talking about improving public safety and reducing crime, we need to pay our police officers fairly. We need to pay a living wage to the good men and women who put on a uniform everyday to serve and protect us. It’s absolutely ludicrous that we’re paying a new police officer a starting salary of $25,000, and the same goes for firefighters. Let’s raise the starting pay of police officers and firefighters to what they’re worth to us. Unless we do this we will keep training police officers in our academy and shipping them off to the surrounding counties where they get paid right. Mr. Mayor, this must be addressed immediately.
If we pay more we will demand more. Whether its teachers or cops…or anyone else who is entrusted with our children and families. We will support you, we will fight for you to be treated with respect and dignity…and we expect the same. Our top cop in the Bronx gets this and works hard to help us create a safe community for our families. I want you to help me to once again publicly thank my friend and fellow Bronxite, Assistant Chief Tom Purtell. Tom thank you and all the men and women who do the job right…God bless you and keep you safe… I’d like to pause and take a moment to commemorate Police Officers Eric Hernandez and Eric Conception, who were both killed last year. These two deaths remind us of the great sacrifices our police officers make daily.
This past year, Sergeant Jason Manzari and Police Officer Norkiss Andino from the 49th Precinct recovered a baby that was abandoned in Pelham Parkway. The story doesn’t end there, Police Officer Andino went well beyond the call of duty. After bringing the baby to Jacobi Medical Center she learned that the baby would have to be put up for adoption…so she went ahead and adopted the child. You are indeed New York’s finest.
Another critical part of our safety net is those who fight fires and other dangerous conditions. This past year two of our bravest lost their lives fighting a fire at a store right here on Walton Avenue. Lt. Howard Karpluk and Fire Fighter Michael Riley…these are the heroes our children should look up to…to their families who are here…the words thank you cannot capture the magnitude of our gratitude and the depth of our sorrow. So please remember their families in your prayers and let’s all thank our Bronx Fire Chief James Esposito for leading these brave men.
Our Bronx fire fighters show their heroism day in and day out. Just three weeks ago, Lt. Sean McNally and Fire Fighters Thomas O’Meara, Daniel Keating, Patrick Lenihan and John Shurina of Ladder 49 attempted to save four trapped people in a daring ladder rescue from the roof of a home. In the end the home was destroyed, but everyone was rescued and no one was hurt. You are indeed our bravest. Thank you.
I want to again this year thank two outstanding Bronx legislators, Assemblywoman Naomi Rivera and Senator Ruth Hassel-Thompson. They accepted the challenge of chairing the Bronx Legislative Task Force to Combat Domestic Violence. Assemblywoman Rivera introduced and passed legislation this year that takes away parental rights from a parent who has murdered his or her spouse. This is a smart and tough law that protects children and families…congratulations. We’ve added a new tool to continue to address domestic violence…we are now staging a traveling play in the borough with Pregones Theater, to dramatize the problem and encourage women to report abuse. I’m also glad to give special recognition today to Council Member Maria Baez who secured $1 million in the City budget last year to create the Bronx Family Justice Center. Working with our office and the Mayors Office to Combat Domestic Violence we will open this center to provide a full spectrum of services to victims and their families. Thank you to all of you and the colleagues who supported your efforts.
The persistent bad news is that poverty and all its related issues remains a problem that grips still too many in our community. You and I know that this is the result of decades of bad public policy and the absence of a sensible urban agenda for our country. We can’t keep throwing money at a housing policy that concentrates poor families in massive housing projects and hopes for the best. We can’t keep wishing kids into success by simply declaring that no child will be left behind. We must stop treating the poor as laboratory subjects that we tinker with in our pricey think tanks and universities. We will eradicate poverty by investing in our most important asset…our children and families.
In spite of bad public policy The Bronx has succeeded in chipping away at the cycles of poverty that plague so many American cities. Today there are 23,000 fewer people on public assistance in The Bronx than there were five years ago. With so many more people working, so many off the welfare rolls, we are moving in the right direction. You may want to tell that to the New York Times, and all the reporters that simply dwell on the negative.
Let’s again…together…not let anyone make excuses and overanalyze the problems we face…let’s continue to find solutions that work.
So what we need to do is invest in our children and families. As most of you have heard me say, I believe our most important responsibility as Americans is the education of our children. Let me put this into context. Education does not begin at 8am and end at 3pm. Education is a 24/7 proposition. This means that every one of us is responsible for the education of our children in our communities. This means that whether you’re a teacher, a preacher, a merchant, a train operator, a police officer, a doctor…whatever you do…you are in the education system. So that, we have to conceive of the education continuum as one that is seamless and endless. This work then requires a different approach. You know, I’m tired of hearing the public arguments about resources and contracts without the commitment of heart. I believe that to do this right we cannot watch the clock. I believe we must keep the doors of the schoolhouse open before 8 and well after 3 and on the weekends. I believe that we need to incorporate civics, and, social and personal responsibility into the curriculum. I believe no cost is too great for rigorous academics, supported by organized sports, arts and culture, and a fully functioning school library. This will require sacrifice…not complaining that it’s not our job description and is not included in our contract. Our contract is a moral and social contract with the future of this republic. If this is going to work we must set aside the immediate for the larger gain.
We know that our youngsters will do well, or not, depending on how much we support them. We’ve invested $20 million in building and renovating youth centers since 2002. In the time we have left we will get started building a new Y in Co-op City, a new West Bronx Boys and Girls Club on University Avenue, youth programs and schools at the Kingsbridge Armory, a new Mount Hope Youth Center, a new youth center in Parkchester, and new centers in Morrisania and Pelham Parkway.
Our commitment to the schools is real and serious. With my colleagues and with the advice and advocacy of school leaders in our community we’ve provided $13 million dollars for school improvements, like the 50 portable science labs in 50 schools around the Bronx…and 100 new schools where attendance and graduation rates are higher than ever before. Working with Cablevision we’ve provided free high-speed internet to 200 Bronx schools, and fought a tough fight, led by Council Member Arroyo and colleagues in her district to ensure that a planned new school campus would be designed and built correctly on an environmentally sensitive site.
This year we will launch an Education Task Force, not to publish studies or reports but to build connections for schools with philanthropy, with business and any partner willing to help. Beginning this year we will work with Randi Weingarten and the UFT in a partnership with the Council for Unity to address gang violence in every Bronx neighborhood. If we can prepare them early…then we can send them off to college or work prepared to succeed.
As many of you know, the current five-year capital plan calls for the addition of 17,000 new school seats in The Bronx. This is the crux of my message for this year: We can build another 20,000 seats, we can place a computer on every child’s lap, we can shrink class size, and we can try new brands of social engineering techniques that the next generation of academics suggests will turn things around…but none of this will make a difference without leadership. I believe the only way to address the crisis of 3 out of 4 Bronx eighth graders not reading at grade level…3 out of 4 eighth graders not performing math at grade level and the same proportion not graduating with a regents diploma is by providing leadership. Well, let me tell you what brand of leadership I’m talking about. It’s the kind of leadership that understands the neighborhood because it’s immersed in neighborhood life. It’s the kind of leadership that arrives at school early, leaves late, visits parents at home if necessary, supports good teachers but demands as much, works and plays with the kids on evenings and weekends, creates a high expectations environment, respects the community it serves, and loves the children…not offering up paternalistic, self-aggrandizing pity…but a genuine love for the kids. Well, just last week, such an education leader was featured in a NY Daily News story. In three years he and his team of teachers who were more than willing to buy in to a new way of doing things turned a failing school around. Here’s what he said: "The idea is to address the home-school connection, to show [parents] that they are welcome here"…"Come in the morning, come in the afternoon, just come sometime." Well, last March, the school was removed from the state's list of failing schools, and the percentage of 5th graders able to perform math at grade level jumped from just 8.2% in 2003 to nearly 54% last year.
So today I want to recognize Paul Cannon’s leadership and can-do attitude. Paul is the principal of PS140. I’m glad to tell that I commit $100,000 to fund a laptop computer for every 3rd, 4th and 5th grader at PS140. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a testament to every teacher, administrator, and parent who has stepped up for their children. We need to reward success and hard work.
If we do this right, every college president who is here will be ready to receive and prepare the next generation of leaders at their college campuses. Then the $2.2 million dollars that my office contributed last year for science and technology at Bronx colleges will be a drop in the bucket, compared to your invaluable contribution of leadership.
Our office will continue to do what we do every day…help the residents of the Bronx solve their problems. We did this 1600 times this year. We will continue to do the best job we can, working with our community boards and their managers to make this borough and this city better. We will repair the step streets; clean up graffiti; spruce up commercial strips; help the disabled to find jobs and housing, ensure the safety and placement of foster children, and we’ll continue to hold town hall meetings…like the one we just held in Parkchester several weeks ago. To serve Bronx veterans I will turn part of my office into a “One Stop Veterans Referral Service”. Latisha Lemott, of my staff, she’s an army veteran, will head this initiative. Help me recognize the Bronx Veterans Advisory Council and the members of the Bronx’s own 773rd Transportation Company who are currently on active duty…they’ve served in Operation Iraqi Freedom. We will work tirelessly to serve the Bronx.
Now let me close with this:
With the 2 years, 10 months and 19 days we have left, thanks to term limits this is what we will do to complete our work and hand over to the next generation a better Bronx.
We will build the Children’s Museum of the Bronx…a board is being formed, elected officials and community leaders support it, the CMOM is involved, and philanthropies are lining up…
We will build a Hotel and Conference/Convention Center…
We will work to convince City Hall and the Police Department that instead of building a jail in the South Bronx, at Oak Point, we should build the new police academy here and leverage the existing businesses in the area by building a state of the art recycling business that will serve as a place of science, innovation and career opportunities.
We will build a Hip-Hop Museum where West 149th Street meets the Bronx River, and attract tourists who are increasingly interested in this global phenomenon called hip-hip. Cleveland has the Museum of Rock ‘n Roll, the Bronx will have the Museum of Hip-Hop….why not?
We will rebuild the Hunts Point Terminal Produce Market. This market feeds 22 million people every day, employs 10,000 people, and generates $2 billion in fruit and vegetable sales every year. For this we will need the commitment of every level of government, especially City Hall. We must do this, and with your help we will.
We will create second chance schools…for those 16 to 24 year olds who have dropped out of school and are getting in trouble. They need a second chance…finish basic education and get the skills they need to move into higher education or a job… and a little tough love.
We will put plans in place for the Bronx Center for the Arts…a performing arts center that will house, the Bronx Opera Company, the Bronx Symphony Orchestra, the Bronx Dance Theatre, a Bronx Ballet and other performing arts groups.
And, let’s get ready to play host to the 2008 MLB All-Star Game that will be played at Yankee Stadium. Every restaurant and cultural institution will be part of a national marketing campaign to host this special event in The Bronx.
We’ve got our work cut out for us and little time remaining. As you know, after I’m done serving as borough president, I will continue serving our city in one capacity or another. So, over the next few years, in addition to all the good work we will continue to accomplish here, you will hear me chime in with more regularity on the issues that affect every borough of the greatest city in the world. The city that gave my family a very special opportunity. So I’ll be talking about the need to keep our finances in order and pay as we go, and not give our generations’ burden to future generations. I will be talking more about the fact that we cannot continue to have this imbalance with the State and Federal governments, where we send them almost $22 billion more than we get back every year. I’m going to talk about our need to continue to be a city of opportunity where people from all parts of the country and the world come seeking opportunity and a better life and they can find it. I’m going to tell the Bronx story.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Every one in the Bronx should stand up and take a bow. The Bronx is Back…!!!!!!!
Thank you very much…and God Bless You.
'I chose Hostos this year, because this school, like the Bronx, has a fighting spirit'
Good morning. Members of Congress, the state legislature, the City Council, District Attorney Johnson, my fellow Borough Presidents, community board chairs and managers, Bronx community leaders and friends welcome to the 2007 State of the Borough Address. This is our sixth address on the State of our borough.
I’m very pleased to be here at the historic Hostos Community College. Please join me in thanking our host today, my friend and the President of Hostos, Dr. Delores Fernandez. Thank you and thanks to the entire Hostos family for working so hard to make this event possible.
Eugenio Maria de Hostos!!!! Let me tell you a little about Hostos, he lived from 1839 to 1903, was a Puerto Rican philosopher, pedagogue, writer, sociologist, journalist, abolitionist, freedom fighter, proponent of women’s rights to education and until his dying day in Santiago of the Dominican Republic, a believer in education as the path to emancipation. Hostos argued that reason has no gender”…he fought for Cuba, Puerto Rico, Peru, Chile, Argentina, against slavery…. So if Eugenio Maria de Hostos could somehow come back and be with us today, I believe he would smile with his big 19th century mustache outstretched beyond his chiseled cheek bones and say thank you. My friends, this college was born of the spirit of Hostos. That fighting spirit was alive from its first class of 623 students in 1971, to when it was slated to be consolidated with another school during the fiscal crisis and closed, and this community said no, Hostos will live on, and it has. So here we are today, Hostos has 4800 students and partners with Columbia University in a national scholars program... the Congressman Serrano Scholars Program. That fighting spirit led the Hostos men’s basketball team to be 2005 National Juinor College Div III Basketball Champions – they currently rank 1st in the CUNY Men’s Basketball standings. That fighting spirit led the Hostos women’s basketball team to be 3-time CUNY Athletic Conference basketball title winners. This school, this community, this borough continues to defy the odds and birth champions.
And, so I chose Hostos this year, because this school, like the Bronx, has a fighting spirit and like the Bronx, has experienced enormous success in the past decade. It is this drive for excellence, this desire to be the best that is reflected in the students here at Hostos and in the residents of the Bronx.
While we can probably find and recruit the next point guard for the Knicks or NY Liberty here today, we’re really here because Hostos is at the epicenter of a new wave of development. I told you last year that the Bronx was at work…that we are building a stronger Bronx and by extension a stronger City…I’m proud to say that it’s not just words…we’re doing it. The Bronx is back.
We’ve seen a revitalization of small businesses along 149th St. and the groundbreaking of the new HUB retail and commercial space, the new Gateway Center at the old Bronx Terminal Market, and the new Yankee Stadium.
We’re building a new Grand Concourse for the 21st Century. In fact, the Bronx is now seeing the greatest amount of growth and change since the 1920s and 30s. Hey…after all, this is the home of the Yankees, not the Red Sox.
Over the past five years, I’ve heard your hopes and dreams, as well as your frustrations. This has happened at hundreds of meetings and community events, as well as hearing you on Ask the Borough President on News 12 The Bronx. Please help me thank the team at News 12 The Bronx for providing such an important service for 5 years… I am more committed than ever to improving the Bronx so that we can lay the foundation for an even brighter future.
Our progress is the result of our work. I have not done any of this alone. Let me say thank you to my colleagues in government who have put time, energy and support behind their words. Our political leader, Bronx County Democratic Chairman and Assemblyman Jose Rivera, Assemblywoman Aurelia Greene, who is Chair of the Assembly delegation and all members of the Bronx Assembly delegation, the Bronx delegation of the State Senate…and by the way, let us all today congratulate the new Deputy Minority Leader of the State Senate, Bronx State Senator Jeff Klein… Council Member and Chair of the Bronx City Council delegation Maria Baez and the entire Bronx City Council delegation, and our three members of Congress, members Serrano, Crowley and Engel. Let me also take this moment to make a special recognition of one of our own who has ascended to the third most important position in our new governor’s administration. She’s from The Bronx, she’s an exceptional leader in our community and has served us on the NYS Board of Regents and in many more ways…my good friend and the new Secretary of State of the Great State of New York, the Honorable Lorraine Cortes-Vasquez.
All of these leaders and all of you have been enormously helpful in getting us to where we are today. Of course we are far from finished with our work. I can tell you with certitude that it is not easy...but it’s a whole lot of fun. Sometimes we have our disagreements. But in the end, this isn’t about our interests it’s about what’s best for the Bronx and the City.
I’m happy to declare with confidence that yes, the Bronx is back!!!. The State of our beloved Bronx is better than it was in 2002, when we started our tenure.
As we begin 2007 – by the way, we have 2 years, 10 months and 19 days remaining, but who’s counting - we have made great progress in economic development and job creation, in housing production, in improving the environment, in improving health conditions, in fighting crime, and small but important gains in education.
Now that the Bronx is Back…a new chapter will be written.
Here’s what it looks like. In five years, we’ve created more private sector jobs in the Bronx than any other borough. 10,000 new private sector jobs have been created during my administration. 30,000 people have found jobs and unemployment was cut by more than 50%...from 11.3% to 5.4%. And, 13,000 fewer people are living in poverty. Last year, the Bronx ranked 3rd in the state and 1st in the city in Personal Income Growth.
Those of you who’ve been following the Bronx story remember we launched the Bronx at Work and Buy Bronx/Buy New York campaigns. The message was and continues to be...”IF YOU DO BUSINESS IN THE BRONX…YOU MUST DO BUSINESS WITH THE BRONX”. The chapter you’ve written created 1700 construction related jobs since 2002. Many businesses moved to the Bronx, we’ve lent $12 million to bring in new manufacturers, we created a $6.75 million fund to help businesses become environmentally responsible, in 2006 alone we lent $137 million to 50 businesses that created 2200 jobs and helped another 2000 businesses cut through red tape.
As a result of major development projects like Yankee Stadium, the Gateway Center, and other projects that are on the way, the next big wave of growth is in construction, service and retail jobs. Since the historic groundbreakings last August, we’ve processed 1300 job applicants…these and the many more who will come will be channeled into the 8900 construction jobs and 3100 permanent jobs at these projects alone.
With the great leadership of the Bronx City Council delegation and the participation of a community based working group we crafted two historic community benefits agreements that committed at a minimum, 25% of the construction contracts and 25% of the construction workforce to these projects. On the Yankee Stadium Neighborhood Redevelopment Project alone - look at this - 37% of the construction contracts have gone to Bronx businesses. And at the Gateway Center at the old Bronx Terminal Market 51% of the construction contracts have also gone to Bronx businesses.
As part of the Buy Bronx/Buy NY Campaign we’ve held workshops and talked to 400 businesses about procurement opportunities for major development projects.
Now the Bronx is the place for your corporate office. This has been the year of the groundbreaking, sometimes even days apart…800 new office buildings, with an investment of nearly $2 billion in five years. And, soon there will be 520,000 square feet of shiny new office space at the Hutchinson Metro Center. And for my friends in the trades, we will work out a deal with the developer to ensure that Bronx construction trades help build this new complex. The 170,000sf HUB Retail and Office Center that broke ground last winter, will be neighbor to a 500,000sf office, retail and housing complex right here in the South Bronx.
In order to continue to attract investment that creates jobs and opportunity we must continue an aggressive investment in infrastructure – we need to build and rebuild roads, bridges and better public transportation. Let me tell you what’s happening:
We’re reconstructing the Grand Concourse, thanks to the efforts of Congressman Jose Serrano who secured the federal funds.
We will build a new ramp off of the Hutchinson River Parkway, into the Bay Plaza Shopping complex, thanks to the efforts of Congressman Joe Crowley.
Improvements to are being made to Fordham Road, the Major Deegan Expressway and we’ve invested nearly $900 to re-build and renovating 8 bridges throughout the borough- including every bridge that connects the Bronx to Manhattan over the Harlem River.
We took the MTA to task on the condition of the subways and are finally seeing results. In the last year 27 elevated stations were renovated. 32 more stations need to be redone…14 elevated and 18 underground. I look forward to working with the new head of the MTA, Lee Sander, a good friend, to finish this very important work.
As we continue to grow we will improve our commuter rail lines. We’ve had nine Metro North stations redone and will build new stations in Williamsbridge and Woodlawn, including the new station near the new Yankee Stadium that will be underway by 2009. I look forward to working with Assembly Members Peter Rivera, Michael Benedetto and Ruben Diaz, Jr., and our federal officials to extend commuter rail service to the east Bronx…new stations in Hunts Point, Parkchester and Co-op City.
We know that good housing that’s reasonably priced is hard to come by. At least seven of ten constituent requests and complaints we get are related to housing. Since 2001 nearly 28,000 units of housing have been built. That’s 28,000 units of housing and it’s still not enough. This required an investment of $2.4 billion. I have partnered with the Bronx City Council delegation and the Bloomberg administration. For our part, we have invested $34 million in capital funds to build housing.
Five years ago we set out to increase homeownership opportunities in the borough. More than 7500 families became homeowners during that period. This is the result of an aggressive strategy that includes an annual homebuyers fair and workshops that have attracted several thousand families who learned to simply how qualify for a mortgage and finance their first home. In order to build on our recovery and sustain our growth we must hold on to the middle class. The way we do this is by providing opportunities for young families, as they enter the middle class, to own a piece of the American Dream right here. This is why we’ve built 1,000 residential units of co-ops and condos for young families in the past five years.
Mitchell Lama housing has made it possible for thousands of working families to find quality affordable housing. Since my first election, we created the Bronx Mitchell Lama Task Force whose mission is to preserve and retain 35,000 units of affordable housing and hold owners accountable for their developments. And we’re still not done with housing, we’ll continue to build.
Our effort to create a better place to live means we’ve taken up the fight to clean up our environment. I don’t mean to give another plug to Al Gore’s film, an Inconvenient Truth, which if you have not see you should, we have known anecdotally and more and more based on evidence that our planet is showing signs of warming. On our 44 square miles of God’s good earth called The Bronx, with a population of nearly 1.4 million, we have done what I believe this city and cities around the world should do. We’ve started a Green Roof Program that helps to fund the creation of green roofs…these green roofs reduce heat by 27% to help to retain heat during the winter and cool during the summer, capture and use storm water, and can serve as community gardens. We’ve coupled this with insisting that new development is sustainable…buildings that are built with environmentally friendly material and efficient in the use of energy, including solar panels and reuse of storm water. And, now we need to pass legislation that will give manufacturers tax breaks for making environmentally sustainable products right now in our city. While reducing our fossil fuel consumption and the pollutants in our environment, we will begin to improve conditions for future generations and still be competitive. Green can and must mean good for the environment and good for the pocket book.
I commend Mayor Bloomberg for beginning the overdue process of a 25-year plan for the future of New York. Our City must lead this nation and the world in innovation, as it does in so many other areas
Our daily living environment requires that we create parks that provide a place for exercise and recreation. As a result of a deal that was struck with the City and State, under the leadership of our state legislators and city council members, we are now investing more than $400 million in Bronx Parks. One of the new parks that will be created is the new 24.5-acre park at the site of the old Yankee Stadium. This park will include 4 baseball fields, a soccer and football field, with lights and stands, basketball courts, a 400-meter running track, tennis courts near the river, and a multiplicity of passive multi-use areas.
Over the last 5 years we’ve begun the important work of improving and protecting our waterfront. From the Hudson to the Sound efforts are continuing. The cleanup and restoration of the Bronx River, ensuring access to the water alongside historically industrial sites, like the opening of Barretto Point Park in Hunts Point. Help me say thanks to the work of the 20 plus community based organizations that comprise the Bronx River Alliance. This work, coupled with green development and the introduction of hybrid electric commuter shuttles into the industrial zones in the South Bronx will set the standard for how we should manage our affairs citywide.
Let me talk a little about the healthcare and wellness challenge. We are known as the borough of hospitals, parks and universities. However, we also have the unfortunate distinction of having some of the worse indicators as it relates to wellness. You and I know the reasons for this are complicated and varied. This, however, does not mean that making it better is beyond our reach. We’ve turned many areas of life around in the Bronx and I believe that working together we will turn this around. I’m happy to report that in the last 5 years 71,000 Bronx residents have enrolled in health insurance programs through aggressive outreach efforts by many of you. Please help me thank the Director of the Bronx Health Office, Dr. Jane Bedell for her stellar work in improving health outcomes in the Bronx. I’d also like to recognize someone who just two weeks ago received the highest honor any civilian can receive from the US Surgeon General. This wonderful man, who has served the South Bronx as a community physician for more than four decades received the Surgeon General’s Medallion for the Urban Health Plan, a community health center he founded, now one of the nation’s premier community health centers…please recognize my friend Dr. Richard Izquierdo.
I want to thank every health care worker, from hospital presidents to nurses. We’re still plagued with serious health problems…HIV/AIDs, heart disease, cancer, asthma, diabetes, and obesity. Every elected official from the Bronx is involved in addressing these challenges. From our budget, we’ve complemented your work with $7 million in funding to hospitals and health centers. Despite our efforts, every week nearly 100 Bronx residents learn they have cancer and up to 40 die from it. We need to redouble our efforts and my friends, continue to fight against initiatives like the proposed closing of Westchester Square Medical Center and other so called cost-cutting measures that put our community in further danger. And so I pledge to you today that I will join members of the City Council, the Chair of the Health Committee, Council Majority Leader Joel Rivera and the Bronx delegation, as well as members of the State legislature to fight these cuts as we enter this year’s budget discussion. Please count on me to testify before your respected bodies and help you make the case for the people of the Bronx and the City.
If there is a war that must be declared and won it’s the war against chronic disease and poor health. Here’s where we really need more troops.
I want you to know my parents are here…Papi and Mami thank you. You and I owe a debt of gratitude to those who came before us and worked hard to pass on to us and their grand children a better city. Some people refer to them as seniors, but I like to refer to them as seasoned or older adults. Our small attempt to pay a debt to them has translated into $15 million dollars for 18 housing projects to create 1,800 residential units and about $1 million in renovations to older adult centers. Five years ago, we were funding 53 older adult programs, today we are funding 86 of those programs all around the Bronx. Let me assure you that we will continue to fight against cuts to services for older adults and will work to build more housing.
I want to especially thank those elected officials who either chair or sit on committees that address these issues…Council Members Maria del Carmen Arroyo and James Vacca, and State Senator Ruben Diaz…thank you for your advocacy and for the resources you have fought for in the budget.
Thanks to each of my colleagues who hold special events and fund programs in your respective districts. Last year, we held the 3rd Annual Bronx Week Big Band Brunch where we hosted 800 older adults…let me tell you, these people know how to party and have a good time. So for Valentine’s Day we’re having the first ever Bronx Sweetheart Luncheon for couples who are married 50 years or more. Believe me, it will be a great party.
One of the fundamental elements necessary for our form of government and our free market to work is safety and security. Crime rates in the Bronx have plummeted to historic lows, now we must remain ready and vigilant to ensure there is no return to the days when crime swept through and destroyed many neighborhoods. Crime fighting must take the form of smart/targeted community policing, as well as providing positive options and outlets for our youth. It’s no mystery that if young people’s lives are filled with positive activities and challenges, they are less likely to make bad choices. And, you know, this is our problem. This means the solutions must be ours.
Part of the solution has to be using alternatives to incarceration for nonviolent offenses. When a kid gets involved in a petty crime we should demand a great deal of the kid and the family, let’s provide options that teach responsibility. And to the parents, coddling destructive behavior under the guise of “not my kid” or the system is responsible for how my kid turns out, this is simply absolving ourselves of the awesome responsibility of raising our own children. At the same time, as we demand more of ourselves and our families we must also demand more of government and the corporate stakeholders in our village. That is to say that if you do business in our City you should invest in the future of our City. This means that getting involved in a school, giving to a fund that helps with after school programs, helps with little league, helps with a chess or music program, that it’s not charity, it’s our responsibility.
And since we’re talking about improving public safety and reducing crime, we need to pay our police officers fairly. We need to pay a living wage to the good men and women who put on a uniform everyday to serve and protect us. It’s absolutely ludicrous that we’re paying a new police officer a starting salary of $25,000, and the same goes for firefighters. Let’s raise the starting pay of police officers and firefighters to what they’re worth to us. Unless we do this we will keep training police officers in our academy and shipping them off to the surrounding counties where they get paid right. Mr. Mayor, this must be addressed immediately.
If we pay more we will demand more. Whether its teachers or cops…or anyone else who is entrusted with our children and families. We will support you, we will fight for you to be treated with respect and dignity…and we expect the same. Our top cop in the Bronx gets this and works hard to help us create a safe community for our families. I want you to help me to once again publicly thank my friend and fellow Bronxite, Assistant Chief Tom Purtell. Tom thank you and all the men and women who do the job right…God bless you and keep you safe… I’d like to pause and take a moment to commemorate Police Officers Eric Hernandez and Eric Conception, who were both killed last year. These two deaths remind us of the great sacrifices our police officers make daily.
This past year, Sergeant Jason Manzari and Police Officer Norkiss Andino from the 49th Precinct recovered a baby that was abandoned in Pelham Parkway. The story doesn’t end there, Police Officer Andino went well beyond the call of duty. After bringing the baby to Jacobi Medical Center she learned that the baby would have to be put up for adoption…so she went ahead and adopted the child. You are indeed New York’s finest.
Another critical part of our safety net is those who fight fires and other dangerous conditions. This past year two of our bravest lost their lives fighting a fire at a store right here on Walton Avenue. Lt. Howard Karpluk and Fire Fighter Michael Riley…these are the heroes our children should look up to…to their families who are here…the words thank you cannot capture the magnitude of our gratitude and the depth of our sorrow. So please remember their families in your prayers and let’s all thank our Bronx Fire Chief James Esposito for leading these brave men.
Our Bronx fire fighters show their heroism day in and day out. Just three weeks ago, Lt. Sean McNally and Fire Fighters Thomas O’Meara, Daniel Keating, Patrick Lenihan and John Shurina of Ladder 49 attempted to save four trapped people in a daring ladder rescue from the roof of a home. In the end the home was destroyed, but everyone was rescued and no one was hurt. You are indeed our bravest. Thank you.
I want to again this year thank two outstanding Bronx legislators, Assemblywoman Naomi Rivera and Senator Ruth Hassel-Thompson. They accepted the challenge of chairing the Bronx Legislative Task Force to Combat Domestic Violence. Assemblywoman Rivera introduced and passed legislation this year that takes away parental rights from a parent who has murdered his or her spouse. This is a smart and tough law that protects children and families…congratulations. We’ve added a new tool to continue to address domestic violence…we are now staging a traveling play in the borough with Pregones Theater, to dramatize the problem and encourage women to report abuse. I’m also glad to give special recognition today to Council Member Maria Baez who secured $1 million in the City budget last year to create the Bronx Family Justice Center. Working with our office and the Mayors Office to Combat Domestic Violence we will open this center to provide a full spectrum of services to victims and their families. Thank you to all of you and the colleagues who supported your efforts.
The persistent bad news is that poverty and all its related issues remains a problem that grips still too many in our community. You and I know that this is the result of decades of bad public policy and the absence of a sensible urban agenda for our country. We can’t keep throwing money at a housing policy that concentrates poor families in massive housing projects and hopes for the best. We can’t keep wishing kids into success by simply declaring that no child will be left behind. We must stop treating the poor as laboratory subjects that we tinker with in our pricey think tanks and universities. We will eradicate poverty by investing in our most important asset…our children and families.
In spite of bad public policy The Bronx has succeeded in chipping away at the cycles of poverty that plague so many American cities. Today there are 23,000 fewer people on public assistance in The Bronx than there were five years ago. With so many more people working, so many off the welfare rolls, we are moving in the right direction. You may want to tell that to the New York Times, and all the reporters that simply dwell on the negative.
Let’s again…together…not let anyone make excuses and overanalyze the problems we face…let’s continue to find solutions that work.
So what we need to do is invest in our children and families. As most of you have heard me say, I believe our most important responsibility as Americans is the education of our children. Let me put this into context. Education does not begin at 8am and end at 3pm. Education is a 24/7 proposition. This means that every one of us is responsible for the education of our children in our communities. This means that whether you’re a teacher, a preacher, a merchant, a train operator, a police officer, a doctor…whatever you do…you are in the education system. So that, we have to conceive of the education continuum as one that is seamless and endless. This work then requires a different approach. You know, I’m tired of hearing the public arguments about resources and contracts without the commitment of heart. I believe that to do this right we cannot watch the clock. I believe we must keep the doors of the schoolhouse open before 8 and well after 3 and on the weekends. I believe that we need to incorporate civics, and, social and personal responsibility into the curriculum. I believe no cost is too great for rigorous academics, supported by organized sports, arts and culture, and a fully functioning school library. This will require sacrifice…not complaining that it’s not our job description and is not included in our contract. Our contract is a moral and social contract with the future of this republic. If this is going to work we must set aside the immediate for the larger gain.
We know that our youngsters will do well, or not, depending on how much we support them. We’ve invested $20 million in building and renovating youth centers since 2002. In the time we have left we will get started building a new Y in Co-op City, a new West Bronx Boys and Girls Club on University Avenue, youth programs and schools at the Kingsbridge Armory, a new Mount Hope Youth Center, a new youth center in Parkchester, and new centers in Morrisania and Pelham Parkway.
Our commitment to the schools is real and serious. With my colleagues and with the advice and advocacy of school leaders in our community we’ve provided $13 million dollars for school improvements, like the 50 portable science labs in 50 schools around the Bronx…and 100 new schools where attendance and graduation rates are higher than ever before. Working with Cablevision we’ve provided free high-speed internet to 200 Bronx schools, and fought a tough fight, led by Council Member Arroyo and colleagues in her district to ensure that a planned new school campus would be designed and built correctly on an environmentally sensitive site.
This year we will launch an Education Task Force, not to publish studies or reports but to build connections for schools with philanthropy, with business and any partner willing to help. Beginning this year we will work with Randi Weingarten and the UFT in a partnership with the Council for Unity to address gang violence in every Bronx neighborhood. If we can prepare them early…then we can send them off to college or work prepared to succeed.
As many of you know, the current five-year capital plan calls for the addition of 17,000 new school seats in The Bronx. This is the crux of my message for this year: We can build another 20,000 seats, we can place a computer on every child’s lap, we can shrink class size, and we can try new brands of social engineering techniques that the next generation of academics suggests will turn things around…but none of this will make a difference without leadership. I believe the only way to address the crisis of 3 out of 4 Bronx eighth graders not reading at grade level…3 out of 4 eighth graders not performing math at grade level and the same proportion not graduating with a regents diploma is by providing leadership. Well, let me tell you what brand of leadership I’m talking about. It’s the kind of leadership that understands the neighborhood because it’s immersed in neighborhood life. It’s the kind of leadership that arrives at school early, leaves late, visits parents at home if necessary, supports good teachers but demands as much, works and plays with the kids on evenings and weekends, creates a high expectations environment, respects the community it serves, and loves the children…not offering up paternalistic, self-aggrandizing pity…but a genuine love for the kids. Well, just last week, such an education leader was featured in a NY Daily News story. In three years he and his team of teachers who were more than willing to buy in to a new way of doing things turned a failing school around. Here’s what he said: "The idea is to address the home-school connection, to show [parents] that they are welcome here"…"Come in the morning, come in the afternoon, just come sometime." Well, last March, the school was removed from the state's list of failing schools, and the percentage of 5th graders able to perform math at grade level jumped from just 8.2% in 2003 to nearly 54% last year.
So today I want to recognize Paul Cannon’s leadership and can-do attitude. Paul is the principal of PS140. I’m glad to tell that I commit $100,000 to fund a laptop computer for every 3rd, 4th and 5th grader at PS140. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a testament to every teacher, administrator, and parent who has stepped up for their children. We need to reward success and hard work.
If we do this right, every college president who is here will be ready to receive and prepare the next generation of leaders at their college campuses. Then the $2.2 million dollars that my office contributed last year for science and technology at Bronx colleges will be a drop in the bucket, compared to your invaluable contribution of leadership.
Our office will continue to do what we do every day…help the residents of the Bronx solve their problems. We did this 1600 times this year. We will continue to do the best job we can, working with our community boards and their managers to make this borough and this city better. We will repair the step streets; clean up graffiti; spruce up commercial strips; help the disabled to find jobs and housing, ensure the safety and placement of foster children, and we’ll continue to hold town hall meetings…like the one we just held in Parkchester several weeks ago. To serve Bronx veterans I will turn part of my office into a “One Stop Veterans Referral Service”. Latisha Lemott, of my staff, she’s an army veteran, will head this initiative. Help me recognize the Bronx Veterans Advisory Council and the members of the Bronx’s own 773rd Transportation Company who are currently on active duty…they’ve served in Operation Iraqi Freedom. We will work tirelessly to serve the Bronx.
Now let me close with this:
With the 2 years, 10 months and 19 days we have left, thanks to term limits this is what we will do to complete our work and hand over to the next generation a better Bronx.
We will build the Children’s Museum of the Bronx…a board is being formed, elected officials and community leaders support it, the CMOM is involved, and philanthropies are lining up…
We will build a Hotel and Conference/Convention Center…
We will work to convince City Hall and the Police Department that instead of building a jail in the South Bronx, at Oak Point, we should build the new police academy here and leverage the existing businesses in the area by building a state of the art recycling business that will serve as a place of science, innovation and career opportunities.
We will build a Hip-Hop Museum where West 149th Street meets the Bronx River, and attract tourists who are increasingly interested in this global phenomenon called hip-hip. Cleveland has the Museum of Rock ‘n Roll, the Bronx will have the Museum of Hip-Hop….why not?
We will rebuild the Hunts Point Terminal Produce Market. This market feeds 22 million people every day, employs 10,000 people, and generates $2 billion in fruit and vegetable sales every year. For this we will need the commitment of every level of government, especially City Hall. We must do this, and with your help we will.
We will create second chance schools…for those 16 to 24 year olds who have dropped out of school and are getting in trouble. They need a second chance…finish basic education and get the skills they need to move into higher education or a job… and a little tough love.
We will put plans in place for the Bronx Center for the Arts…a performing arts center that will house, the Bronx Opera Company, the Bronx Symphony Orchestra, the Bronx Dance Theatre, a Bronx Ballet and other performing arts groups.
And, let’s get ready to play host to the 2008 MLB All-Star Game that will be played at Yankee Stadium. Every restaurant and cultural institution will be part of a national marketing campaign to host this special event in The Bronx.
We’ve got our work cut out for us and little time remaining. As you know, after I’m done serving as borough president, I will continue serving our city in one capacity or another. So, over the next few years, in addition to all the good work we will continue to accomplish here, you will hear me chime in with more regularity on the issues that affect every borough of the greatest city in the world. The city that gave my family a very special opportunity. So I’ll be talking about the need to keep our finances in order and pay as we go, and not give our generations’ burden to future generations. I will be talking more about the fact that we cannot continue to have this imbalance with the State and Federal governments, where we send them almost $22 billion more than we get back every year. I’m going to talk about our need to continue to be a city of opportunity where people from all parts of the country and the world come seeking opportunity and a better life and they can find it. I’m going to tell the Bronx story.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Every one in the Bronx should stand up and take a bow. The Bronx is Back…!!!!!!!
Thank you very much…and God Bless You.
Friday, February 09, 2007
Bill Introduced to Provide Self-Determination Process for Puerto Rico
This week, Congressman Serrano together with Puerto Rican Resident Commissioner Luis Fortuño, introduced H.R. 900, a bill to provide a federally sanctioned self-determination process for the people of Puerto Rico. Serrano and Fortuño gathered 81 other members as co-sponsors of the legislation.
"I am happy to have been the principal mover behind this legislation, which will start the process to allow Puerto Ricans to decide their status once-and-for-all," Serrano said. "I believe that this legislation has the potential to finally end the colonial status of Puerto Rico. Under a Democratic Congress, I believe the chances for a fair and forthright process for Puerto Rican self-determination are very good."
Serrano and Fortuño's bill would allow for a two-step process. First, the people of Puerto Rico, including those born there and now living on the mainland, would be asked if they support a change in the island's status or prefer to maintain the current relationship with the U.S. If they asked for change, then, in a second referendum, they would be asked whether they supported independence or statehood. If, however, they voted for the status quo there would be subsequent referenda to gauge any change in support for the measure. The sponsorship of the federal government would ensure that the result of the referendum would be acted upon.
"Continuing the current status indefinitely cannot be presented as an equal option to statehood or independence," said Serrano. "Under the Constitution of the United States, there is no provision for the current status continuing as a permanent condition. Statehood and independence are the only two legitimate and constitutional options for Puerto Rico's future. Many choose to ignore this reality, but there is no other option.
"Whatever the choice, Puerto Rico is ready to make this decision. I look forward to working to move the bill and the process further toward a final resolution of the status issue. The time has come to move forward."
source: The Serrano Report
This week, Congressman Serrano together with Puerto Rican Resident Commissioner Luis Fortuño, introduced H.R. 900, a bill to provide a federally sanctioned self-determination process for the people of Puerto Rico. Serrano and Fortuño gathered 81 other members as co-sponsors of the legislation.
"I am happy to have been the principal mover behind this legislation, which will start the process to allow Puerto Ricans to decide their status once-and-for-all," Serrano said. "I believe that this legislation has the potential to finally end the colonial status of Puerto Rico. Under a Democratic Congress, I believe the chances for a fair and forthright process for Puerto Rican self-determination are very good."
Serrano and Fortuño's bill would allow for a two-step process. First, the people of Puerto Rico, including those born there and now living on the mainland, would be asked if they support a change in the island's status or prefer to maintain the current relationship with the U.S. If they asked for change, then, in a second referendum, they would be asked whether they supported independence or statehood. If, however, they voted for the status quo there would be subsequent referenda to gauge any change in support for the measure. The sponsorship of the federal government would ensure that the result of the referendum would be acted upon.
"Continuing the current status indefinitely cannot be presented as an equal option to statehood or independence," said Serrano. "Under the Constitution of the United States, there is no provision for the current status continuing as a permanent condition. Statehood and independence are the only two legitimate and constitutional options for Puerto Rico's future. Many choose to ignore this reality, but there is no other option.
"Whatever the choice, Puerto Rico is ready to make this decision. I look forward to working to move the bill and the process further toward a final resolution of the status issue. The time has come to move forward."
source: The Serrano Report
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Music
Awilda Rivera: On the Air
By Steven Maginnis
The sonorous, silky voice of Awilda Rivera is a comforting presence for listeners of WBGO-FM, the universally acclaimed jazz radio station in Newark, N.J. Every weeknight, from eight at night until one in the morning, Rivera plays a sophisticated set of classic jazz recordings and new releases, addressing her audience in an intimate tone that suggests a gathering between friends. Though she seems like a natural at it, Rivera had in fact never seriously considered a radio career when she first volunteered for the public radio station. “If you had told me that I would end up in radio full time, I never would have believed you,” Rivera says.
To read the full article, go to
www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=24536
Awilda Rivera: On the Air
By Steven Maginnis
The sonorous, silky voice of Awilda Rivera is a comforting presence for listeners of WBGO-FM, the universally acclaimed jazz radio station in Newark, N.J. Every weeknight, from eight at night until one in the morning, Rivera plays a sophisticated set of classic jazz recordings and new releases, addressing her audience in an intimate tone that suggests a gathering between friends. Though she seems like a natural at it, Rivera had in fact never seriously considered a radio career when she first volunteered for the public radio station. “If you had told me that I would end up in radio full time, I never would have believed you,” Rivera says.
To read the full article, go to
www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=24536
Community Calendar
Monday, February 12, 2007
7 - 11 PM
LOVE, LUST & LOSS
EROTIC POETRY OPEN MIC AT Carlito's Cafe
Bring poems, songs, or any kind of artistic expression.
Carlito's Cafe
1701 Lexington Ave (106th/107th Streets)
Hosted by Bobby Gonzalez
Produced by Jaime "El Maestro" Emeric
Alluring attire requested but not required.
Be advised that media and photographers will cover this event.
KINDLY LEAVE INHIBITIONS AT HOME.
Admission $5 No one turned away.
Monday, February 12, 2007
7 - 11 PM
LOVE, LUST & LOSS
EROTIC POETRY OPEN MIC AT Carlito's Cafe
Bring poems, songs, or any kind of artistic expression.
Carlito's Cafe
1701 Lexington Ave (106th/107th Streets)
Hosted by Bobby Gonzalez
Produced by Jaime "El Maestro" Emeric
Alluring attire requested but not required.
Be advised that media and photographers will cover this event.
KINDLY LEAVE INHIBITIONS AT HOME.
Admission $5 No one turned away.
Saturday, January 27, 2007
Prominentes figuras de América Latina apoyan la independencia de Puerto Rico
Comunicado de Prensa
"Gabriel García Márquez, Premio Nobel de Literatura y Ernesto Sábato considerado el más grande de los escritores argentinos vivos, y quien presidiera la Comisión Nacional sobre la Desaparición de Personas que abrió las puertas al enjuiciamiento de las juntas militares de la dictadura, encabezan la lista de prominentes figuras de la América Latina que han manifestado su apoyo a la independencia de Puerto Rico a través de su adhesión a la Proclama de Panamá aprobada por unanimidad en el Congreso Latinoamericano y Caribeño por la Independencia de Puerto Rico celebrado en Panamá en noviembre pasado", anunció en conferencia de prensa el Presidente del Partido Independentista Puertorriqueño, Rubén Berríos Martínez.
"Por Puerto Rico suscribieron la adhesión los reconocidos escritores Luis Rafael Sánchez, Ana Lydia Vega y Mayra Montero. A ellos se suman de Uruguay el poeta y novelista Mario Benedetti y el escritor Eduardo Galeano, autor de Las Venas Abiertas de América Latina; de Brasil, su más importante poeta, Thiago de Mello y Frei Betto, fraile dominico, teólogo y autor; el periodista y ensayista mexicano Carlos Monsiváis, Premio Nacional de Periodismo y Premio Juan Rulfo; el cantautor cubano y uno de los fundadores de la Nueva Trova, Pablo Milanés; el novelista, ensayista y diplomático ecuatoriano Jorge Enrique Adoum y el poeta cubano, Premio Nacional de Literatura y Casa de las Américas Pablo Armando Fernández."
El Licenciado Berríos manifestó que "En los últimos cincuenta años no se había podido lograr, para un fin político, el endoso de tantas figuras literarias de esta talla. Lo que significó el apoyo de los veintidós partidos políticos que asistieron al Congreso por la Independencia de Puerto Rico que se celebró en Panamá, se extiende ahora al endoso de estas prominentes figuras que como novelistas, poetas, ensayistas, cantautores, reflejan con su arte el sentir de sus pueblos".
El presidente del Partido Independentista Puertorriqueño anunció además que como consecuencia del Congreso por la Independencia, se ha logrado la aprobación de una Resolución de apoyo del Parlatino (Parlamento Latinoamericano), del Partido de los Trabajadores de Brasil (partido del Presidente Inacio Lula da Silva), el Senado de Argentina y la Cámara de Diputados de México.
Firmantes del Documento de Adhesión a la Proclama del Congreso Latinoamericano y Caribeño por la Independencia de Puerto Rico
Gabriel García Márquez (1928) Escritor, periodista y premio Nobel colombiano. Su novela más conocida es Cien años de soledad (1967), incluyendo su vasta obra literaria otros títulos reconocidos como La hojarasca (1955), El coronel no tiene quien le escriba (1962), La increíble y triste historia de la cándida Eréndira y su abuela desalmada (1972), El otoño del patriarca (1975), Crónica de una muerte anunciada (1981), El amor en los tiempos del cólera (1985) y Memoria de mis putas tristes (2004). Ha sido galardonado con el Premio Rómulo Gallegos, el premio Neustadt, la condecoración francesa "Legión de Honor" en el grado de Gran Comendador y el Premio Nobel de Literatura.
Ernesto Sábato (1911) Novelista y ensayista argentino. Su obra, de gran profundidad temática, incluye las novelas El túnel (1948), Sobre héroes y tumbas (1961), considerada la mejor novela argentina del siglo XX, y Abaddón, el exterminador (1974). En 1983 y 1984, presidió la Comisión Nacional sobre la Desaparición de Personas cuya investigación, plasmada en el libro Nunca Más, abrió las puertas para el juicio a las juntas militares de la dictadura. Ha recibido los siguientes reconocimientos: el Premio de Consagración Nacional de la Argentina; el Premio Medici; el Premio Cervantes: distinguido en Francia como Comandante de la Legión de Honor; en Israel con el Premio Jerusalén y el XI Premio Internacional Menéndez Pelayo. Varias universidades latinoamericanas y europeas le han conferido doctorados honoris causa.
Ana Lydia Vega (1946) Escritora, columnista y profesora universitaria puertorriqueña. Ha publicado el libro de cuentos Vírgenes y mártires; , en colaboración con Carmen Lugo Filippi (1981), Encancaranublado y otros cuentos de naufragio (1982), libro que fue premiado en el certamen de 1982 de Casa de las Américas. En 1987 publica Pasión de historias y otras historias de pasión, galardonado con el premio Juan Rulfo Internacional de París en el 1984. En 1988 sus ensayos aparecen en la colección El tramo ancla. Entre sus obras pedagógicas se encuentran Le francais vécu, Cahier de redaction y Cahier de grammaire, escritas con Ada Vilar, Quelques difficultés de traduction y El machete de Ogún.
Luis Rafael Sánchez (1936) Dramaturgo, cuentista y novelista puertorriqueño. Es autor entre otras obras de las novelas La guaracha del Macho Camacho (1976) y La importancia de llamarse Daniel Santos (1989), de las obras teatrales Los ángeles se han fatigado (1960), Farsa del amor compradito (1960), La espera (1960), La hiel nuestra de cada día (1962), Sol 13, interior (1961), O casi el alma, (1965) La pasión según Antígona Pérez (1968) y Quíntuples (1985), y del libro de cuentos En cuerpo de camisa (1966). En 1979 recibe la beca de la Fundación Guggenheim. Ha sido profesor y conferenciante en las principales universidades norteamericanas, de América Latina y Europa.
Mayra Montero (1952) Periodista y novelista. Nació en La Habana y desde hace muchos años vive en Puerto Rico. Varias de sus novelas han sido traducidas a numerosos idiomas. Su narrativa abarca una diversidad de temas, como la música y las religiones afrocaribenas y lo erótico. Es considerada como una de las máximas exponentes de la literatura caribeña en español y de la literatura femenina. Entre sus muchas novelas se encuentran La trenza de la hermosa luna, Del Rojo de su Sombra, La última noche que pasé contigo, Púrpura profundo y El capitán de los dormidos . Ha sido ganadora del premio La sonrisa vertical y otros galardones literarios.
Mario Benedetti (1920) Novelista, ensayista y poeta uruguayo. Autor de memorables obras como las novelas Quién de nosotros (1953) y La tregua (1960), Primavera con una esquina rota, que en 1987 recibió el Premio Llama de Oro de Amnistía Internacional, la novela en verso El cumpleaños de Juan Ángel (1979); los poemarios Inventario e Inventario Dos (1968) y la obra de teatro Pedro y el capitán (1979) sobre la tortura. En 1973 tiene que abandonar su país por razones políticas, iniciando un exilio de doce años que lo llevó a residir en Argentina, Perú, Cuba y España.
Thiago de Mello (1926) Poeta brasiilero. En el conjunto de su obra, se destacan: Está; Oscuro pero canto; La canción del amor armando; Bochorno en la floresta; Viento general y En un campo de margaritas y El pueblo sabe lo que dice. Su poema Los Estatutos del Hombre fue editado en más de treinta países. Ha traducido al portugués a César Vallejo, Pablo Neruda, Ernesto Cardenal, Nicolás Gullén, T.S. Eliot, Eliseo Diego y Pablo Neruda, entre otros. Thiago de Mello piensa que el arte debe siempre servir a la vida; que además de su finalidad estética, debe tener también una finalidad ética.
Eduardo Galeano (1940) Escritor uruguayo. Sus trabajos combinan documental, ficción, periodismo, análisis político e historia. Los más conocidos, entre otros, son: Las venas abiertas de América Latina (1971), la trilogía Memoria del fuego (1982), Las caras y las máscaras (1984), y El siglo de viento (1986) y El libro de los abrazos (1989). Ha sido galardonado con el Premio Casa de las Américas en dos ocasiones y con el American Book- Award.
Carlos Monsiváis (1938) Periodista, cronista, ensayista y narrador mexicano. Ha publicado libros sobre los más diversos temas como Días de guardar (1971), sobre los sucesos de Tlatelolco, Escenas de pudor y liviandad (1988), Nuevo catecismo para indios remisos (1982) y Frida Kahlo: Una vida, una obra (1992), entre otros. Entre los numerosos galardones que ha recibido se encuentran el Premio Nacional de Periodismo, el Premio Mazatlán, el Premio Xavier Villaurrutia, el Premio Anagrama de Ensayo y el Premio Juan Rulfo.
Pablo Milanés (1943) Compositor, cantante y guitarrista cubano; uno de los fundadores de la nueva trova. De formación esencialmente autodidacta. Perteneció al centro de la Canción Protesta de la Casa de las Américas e integró, desde su fundación y hasta sus últimas presentaciones, el Grupo de Experimentación Sonora del ICAIC. Como compositor ha recorrido diversos géneros de la música popular cubana, sobre todo el son. Es autor de canciones tan conocidas como La vida no vale nada, Los caminos y Yolanda¨ Ha recibido la Medalla Haydeé Santamaría; el Premio Nacional de Música; la Orden Félix Varela y la Medalla Alejo Carpentier.
Jorge Enrique Adoum (1926) Escritor, político, ensayista y diplomático ecuatoriano. Fue director de Ediciones de la Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana y funcionario de las Naciones Unidas y de la Unesco. Fue secretario personal de Pablo Neruda. Su obra siempre ha tratado temas sociales, y por ella fue nominado al Premio Cervantes. Entre sus mayores éxitos se encuentra la novela Entre Marx y una mujer desnuda (1976) y los poemarios Ecuador amargo (1949), Los cuadernos de la tierra (1961), Curriculum mortis (1968), Prepoemas en postespañol (1979). En el 1960 fue galardonado con el premio Casa de las Américas. .
Carlos Alberto Libanio Christo, "Frei Betto" (1944) Fraile dominico, teólogo de la liberación brasilero. Autor de 53 libros de diversos géneros literarios -novela, ensayo, policíaco, memorias, infantiles y juveniles, y de tema religioso. En dos casiones -1985 y 2005- fue premiado con el Jabuti, el premio literario más importante de Brasil. En 1986 fue elegido Intelectual del Año por la Unión Brasileña de Escritores. Asesor de movimientos sociales, camo las Comunidades Eclesiales de Base y el Movimiento de Trabajadores Rurales sin Tierra. En 2003 y 2004 fue asesor especial del Presidente Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva y coordinador de Movilización Social del Programa Hambre Cero.
Pablo Armando Fernández (1930) Poeta y narrador cubano. Cuenta entre su obra con los libros de poesía Un sitio permanente, Aprendiendo a morir y Ronda del encantamiento, entre otros; la novela Los niños se despiden, Premio Casa de las Américas y el libro de cuentos El talismán y otras evocaciones. Ganador del Premio Nacional de Literatura y de la Crítica y el Premio Casa de las Américas
www.independencia.net/noticias/comp_rbm_promints_adhesionPan25e07.html
--
________________________________________
Partido Independentista Puertorriqueño
www.independencia.net
Comunicado de Prensa
"Gabriel García Márquez, Premio Nobel de Literatura y Ernesto Sábato considerado el más grande de los escritores argentinos vivos, y quien presidiera la Comisión Nacional sobre la Desaparición de Personas que abrió las puertas al enjuiciamiento de las juntas militares de la dictadura, encabezan la lista de prominentes figuras de la América Latina que han manifestado su apoyo a la independencia de Puerto Rico a través de su adhesión a la Proclama de Panamá
"Por Puerto Rico suscribieron la adhesión los reconocidos escritores Luis Rafael Sánchez, Ana Lydia Vega y Mayra Montero. A ellos se suman de Uruguay el poeta y novelista Mario Benedetti y el escritor Eduardo Galeano, autor de Las Venas Abiertas de América Latina; de Brasil, su más importante poeta, Thiago de Mello y Frei Betto, fraile dominico, teólogo y autor; el periodista y ensayista mexicano Carlos Monsiváis, Premio Nacional de Periodismo y Premio Juan Rulfo; el cantautor cubano y uno de los fundadores de la Nueva Trova, Pablo Milanés; el novelista, ensayista y diplomático ecuatoriano Jorge Enrique Adoum y el poeta cubano, Premio Nacional de Literatura y Casa de las Américas Pablo Armando Fernández."
El Licenciado Berríos manifestó que "En los últimos cincuenta años no se había podido lograr, para un fin político, el endoso de tantas figuras literarias de esta talla. Lo que significó el apoyo de los veintidós partidos políticos que asistieron al Congreso por la Independencia de Puerto Rico que se celebró en Panamá, se extiende ahora al endoso de estas prominentes figuras que como novelistas, poetas, ensayistas, cantautores, reflejan con su arte el sentir de sus pueblos".
El presidente del Partido Independentista Puertorriqueño anunció además que como consecuencia del Congreso por la Independencia, se ha logrado la aprobación de una Resolución de apoyo del Parlatino (Parlamento Latinoamericano), del Partido de los Trabajadores de Brasil (partido del Presidente Inacio Lula da Silva), el Senado de Argentina y la Cámara de Diputados de México.
Firmantes del Documento de Adhesión a la Proclama del Congreso Latinoamericano y Caribeño por la Independencia de Puerto Rico
Gabriel García Márquez (1928) Escritor, periodista y premio Nobel colombiano. Su novela más conocida es Cien años de soledad (1967), incluyendo su vasta obra literaria otros títulos reconocidos como La hojarasca (1955), El coronel no tiene quien le escriba (1962), La increíble y triste historia de la cándida Eréndira y su abuela desalmada (1972), El otoño del patriarca (1975), Crónica de una muerte anunciada (1981), El amor en los tiempos del cólera (1985) y Memoria de mis putas tristes (2004). Ha sido galardonado con el Premio Rómulo Gallegos, el premio Neustadt, la condecoración francesa "Legión de Honor" en el grado de Gran Comendador y el Premio Nobel de Literatura.
Ernesto Sábato (1911) Novelista y ensayista argentino. Su obra, de gran profundidad temática, incluye las novelas El túnel (1948), Sobre héroes y tumbas (1961), considerada la mejor novela argentina del siglo XX, y Abaddón, el exterminador (1974). En 1983 y 1984, presidió la Comisión Nacional sobre la Desaparición de Personas cuya investigación, plasmada en el libro Nunca Más, abrió las puertas para el juicio a las juntas militares de la dictadura. Ha recibido los siguientes reconocimientos: el Premio de Consagración Nacional de la Argentina; el Premio Medici; el Premio Cervantes: distinguido en Francia como Comandante de la Legión de Honor; en Israel con el Premio Jerusalén y el XI Premio Internacional Menéndez Pelayo. Varias universidades latinoamericanas y europeas le han conferido doctorados honoris causa.
Ana Lydia Vega (1946) Escritora, columnista y profesora universitaria puertorriqueña. Ha publicado el libro de cuentos Vírgenes y mártires; , en colaboración con Carmen Lugo Filippi (1981), Encancaranublado y otros cuentos de naufragio (1982), libro que fue premiado en el certamen de 1982 de Casa de las Américas. En 1987 publica Pasión de historias y otras historias de pasión, galardonado con el premio Juan Rulfo Internacional de París en el 1984. En 1988 sus ensayos aparecen en la colección El tramo ancla. Entre sus obras pedagógicas se encuentran Le francais vécu, Cahier de redaction y Cahier de grammaire, escritas con Ada Vilar, Quelques difficultés de traduction y El machete de Ogún.
Luis Rafael Sánchez (1936) Dramaturgo, cuentista y novelista puertorriqueño. Es autor entre otras obras de las novelas La guaracha del Macho Camacho (1976) y La importancia de llamarse Daniel Santos (1989), de las obras teatrales Los ángeles se han fatigado (1960), Farsa del amor compradito (1960), La espera (1960), La hiel nuestra de cada día (1962), Sol 13, interior (1961), O casi el alma, (1965) La pasión según Antígona Pérez (1968) y Quíntuples (1985), y del libro de cuentos En cuerpo de camisa (1966). En 1979 recibe la beca de la Fundación Guggenheim. Ha sido profesor y conferenciante en las principales universidades norteamericanas, de América Latina y Europa.
Mayra Montero (1952) Periodista y novelista. Nació en La Habana y desde hace muchos años vive en Puerto Rico. Varias de sus novelas han sido traducidas a numerosos idiomas. Su narrativa abarca una diversidad de temas, como la música y las religiones afrocaribenas y lo erótico. Es considerada como una de las máximas exponentes de la literatura caribeña en español y de la literatura femenina. Entre sus muchas novelas se encuentran La trenza de la hermosa luna, Del Rojo de su Sombra, La última noche que pasé contigo, Púrpura profundo y El capitán de los dormidos . Ha sido ganadora del premio La sonrisa vertical y otros galardones literarios.
Mario Benedetti (1920) Novelista, ensayista y poeta uruguayo. Autor de memorables obras como las novelas Quién de nosotros (1953) y La tregua (1960), Primavera con una esquina rota, que en 1987 recibió el Premio Llama de Oro de Amnistía Internacional, la novela en verso El cumpleaños de Juan Ángel (1979); los poemarios Inventario e Inventario Dos (1968) y la obra de teatro Pedro y el capitán (1979) sobre la tortura. En 1973 tiene que abandonar su país por razones políticas, iniciando un exilio de doce años que lo llevó a residir en Argentina, Perú, Cuba y España.
Thiago de Mello (1926) Poeta brasiilero. En el conjunto de su obra, se destacan: Está; Oscuro pero canto; La canción del amor armando; Bochorno en la floresta; Viento general y En un campo de margaritas y El pueblo sabe lo que dice. Su poema Los Estatutos del Hombre fue editado en más de treinta países. Ha traducido al portugués a César Vallejo, Pablo Neruda, Ernesto Cardenal, Nicolás Gullén, T.S. Eliot, Eliseo Diego y Pablo Neruda, entre otros. Thiago de Mello piensa que el arte debe siempre servir a la vida; que además de su finalidad estética, debe tener también una finalidad ética.
Eduardo Galeano (1940) Escritor uruguayo. Sus trabajos combinan documental, ficción, periodismo, análisis político e historia. Los más conocidos, entre otros, son: Las venas abiertas de América Latina (1971), la trilogía Memoria del fuego (1982), Las caras y las máscaras (1984), y El siglo de viento (1986) y El libro de los abrazos (1989). Ha sido galardonado con el Premio Casa de las Américas en dos ocasiones y con el American Book- Award.
Carlos Monsiváis (1938) Periodista, cronista, ensayista y narrador mexicano. Ha publicado libros sobre los más diversos temas como Días de guardar (1971), sobre los sucesos de Tlatelolco, Escenas de pudor y liviandad (1988), Nuevo catecismo para indios remisos (1982) y Frida Kahlo: Una vida, una obra (1992), entre otros. Entre los numerosos galardones que ha recibido se encuentran el Premio Nacional de Periodismo, el Premio Mazatlán, el Premio Xavier Villaurrutia, el Premio Anagrama de Ensayo y el Premio Juan Rulfo.
Pablo Milanés (1943) Compositor, cantante y guitarrista cubano; uno de los fundadores de la nueva trova. De formación esencialmente autodidacta. Perteneció al centro de la Canción Protesta de la Casa de las Américas e integró, desde su fundación y hasta sus últimas presentaciones, el Grupo de Experimentación Sonora del ICAIC. Como compositor ha recorrido diversos géneros de la música popular cubana, sobre todo el son. Es autor de canciones tan conocidas como La vida no vale nada, Los caminos y Yolanda¨ Ha recibido la Medalla Haydeé Santamaría; el Premio Nacional de Música; la Orden Félix Varela y la Medalla Alejo Carpentier.
Jorge Enrique Adoum (1926) Escritor, político, ensayista y diplomático ecuatoriano. Fue director de Ediciones de la Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana y funcionario de las Naciones Unidas y de la Unesco. Fue secretario personal de Pablo Neruda. Su obra siempre ha tratado temas sociales, y por ella fue nominado al Premio Cervantes. Entre sus mayores éxitos se encuentra la novela Entre Marx y una mujer desnuda (1976) y los poemarios Ecuador amargo (1949), Los cuadernos de la tierra (1961), Curriculum mortis (1968), Prepoemas en postespañol (1979). En el 1960 fue galardonado con el premio Casa de las Américas. .
Carlos Alberto Libanio Christo, "Frei Betto" (1944) Fraile dominico, teólogo de la liberación brasilero. Autor de 53 libros de diversos géneros literarios -novela, ensayo, policíaco, memorias, infantiles y juveniles, y de tema religioso. En dos casiones -1985 y 2005- fue premiado con el Jabuti, el premio literario más importante de Brasil. En 1986 fue elegido Intelectual del Año por la Unión Brasileña de Escritores. Asesor de movimientos sociales, camo las Comunidades Eclesiales de Base y el Movimiento de Trabajadores Rurales sin Tierra. En 2003 y 2004 fue asesor especial del Presidente Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva y coordinador de Movilización Social del Programa Hambre Cero.
Pablo Armando Fernández (1930) Poeta y narrador cubano. Cuenta entre su obra con los libros de poesía Un sitio permanente, Aprendiendo a morir y Ronda del encantamiento, entre otros; la novela Los niños se despiden, Premio Casa de las Américas y el libro de cuentos El talismán y otras evocaciones. Ganador del Premio Nacional de Literatura y de la Crítica y el Premio Casa de las Américas
www.independencia.net/noticias/comp_rbm_promints_adhesionPan25e07.html
--
________________________________________
Partido Independentista Puertorriqueño
www.independencia.net
Monday, January 15, 2007
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
Book Review
One Nation, Polarized?
Herman Badillo and the Limits of Liberalism
Review of Herman Badillo’s One Nation, One Standard
by Angelo Falcón, National Institute for Latino Policy (January 1, 2007)
In One Nation, One Standard: An Ex-Liberal on How Hispanics Can Succeed Just Like Other Immigrant Groups (New York: Sentinel, 2006), Herman Badillo at age 77 sums up his considerable life’s lessons for the Puerto Rican and Hispanic community. Published under the auspices of the Manhattan Institute for Public Policy, where Mr. Badillo is a senior fellow, this book has created a big stir within the Latino community even before it was released. First announced in the infamous tabloid, the New York Post, on December 19th with the headline, “Badillo lashes Latinos, Rips Hispanic Values,” it generated strong feelings, not only about Badillo’s views on the issues, but also about him personally. It was a little eerie in the manner this response was so similar to the reactions in the Black community to comments made by Bill Cosby, the anti- affirmative campaigns of Ward Connery, the recent book by Juan Williams, and the rulings of Supreme Courts Justice Clarence Thomas.
Now that the book is out, a more detailed examination of Mr. Badillo’s perspectives on the Hispanic condition is possible. One Nation, One Standard, with a foreword by former NYC Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, is 228 pages long with an additional 8 pages of black and white pictures of Mr. Badillo’s early career in politics. Its 11 chapters cover the author’s life growing up in Puerto Rico and the United States, his rise to power as the first Puerto Rican to serve as a full commissioner of a city agency, first borough president, first Congressman and first deputy mayor. It traces his dissatisfaction with the policy positions and politics of the Democratic Party, and his decision to leave the party and become a Republican. He covers his battles with the bureaucracies of the city’s public school system and its City University, as well as his role in promoting liberal legislation and policies at the local and national levels, such as bilingual education and the bilingual ballot provisions of the federal Voting Rights Act, which he now generally repudiates. He devotes to chapter to praise Giuliani and another on the future. In other words, the book covers a lot of ground.
The Importance of Education
The central problem Badillo seeks to address is that, “(a)s a community, Hispanics have simply failed to recognize the overriding importance of education.” (p. 30) He finds that, “The whole Hispanic community needs a total attitude adjustment regarding the importance of education.” (p. 31) Looking specifically at Asians, he observes that, “Hispanics, as a culture, do place less stress on the importance of education than do other, more economically and socially successful immigrant groups.” (p. 32) He elaborates, talking of Hispanics, that:
It is up to their own community members to involve themselves in their local school systems and understand how they work. Hispanics must not count on the school system or any arm of government to orient students. That is their responsibility, and the first step should be to recognize that, as a group. Hispanics have failed to assume responsibility for their children’s welfare. To be blunt, educating Hispanic children is not the duty of the governmental school system. This is their duty; as parents, family members, neighbors, and citizens. Whenever a child is left behind, it is not the fault of the teachers, or the principals, of the school chancellor, or the mayor, or the president. It is their fault.” (p. 51)
He continues:
Any long climb takes effort, and serious educational achievement requires serious effort --- not just by individual students but by entire families and the whole Hispanic community. Hispanics must set aside talk of their great culture, their music, and their traditions and instead focus on educational accomplishment. (p. 195).
He concludes that, “Hispanics have no one to blame but themselves for the disastrous high-school dropout rates of the younger members of their community.” (p. 51)
Badillo’s Over Generalizations
Anticipating that he might be criticized for over generalizing, Badillo dismissively refers to a “culture of political correctness (that) dismisses any attempt at pattern recognition as ‘generalization’ and ‘stereotyping’” and asserts the authority of his being “blunt and plainspoken” as a New Yorker. (pp. 24-25) But his over generalizations are a serious problem. When he refers to “the whole Hispanic community” or of them “as a community” or “as a group”, and so on, he undermines his argument. This is compounded by the problem that at times it is not clear whether he is referring to Puerto Ricans or all Latinos.
Politically correct or not, Badillo’s attribution to the entire Latino community of anti-education attitudes and behaviors is classic stereotyping. The worst of it is that he is stereotyping against himself and his own family, since one must assume that he still considers himself a “Hispanic.” There are clearly Latinos who do not support education or the educational aspirations of their children, that is not in dispute, the question is how many and identifying who they are. Is it 10 percent or 30 percent? Is the percentage larger among new Latino immigrants, or Cubans, or Puerto Ricans? Is it a characteristic that is economically- based, or is it more broadly cultural as Badillo states?
Another question is whether such existing anti- education attitudes by parents have a negative effect on their children’s educational outcomes? In Badillo’s case, this didn’t seem to be the case. In fact, going against his own argument, his experience was one where he had to count on the public schools to orient him because his family apparently was, as he describes his upbringing, not at all involved in his schooling --- he did it all himself.
Badillo, for example, writes that, “When I attended City College and lived in West Harlem, I was the only resident in my apartment building who owned a typewriter and stayed up late doing homework. My relatives and friends did not encourage me to remain in school. They considered my interest in books an eccentricity.” (p. 30) He then goes on to relate that, “When I was relocation commissioner, I used to visit many Hispanic homes. In the vast majority of them, there was not a single book to be found. In many cases there was not even a newspaper. The only thing you could be sure to find was a television. It’s natural enough: If adults don’t read in a family, why expect the children to read?” (p. 31)
In a major study on the status of Latinos in the United States, the authoritative National Research Council issued a report in 2006 that found that:
Popular allegations that Hispanics value education less than do others groups are contradicted by evidence that large numbers of Hispanic high school students aspire to attend college. A study conducted by Public Agenda, a New York-based nonprofit public opinion research organization, found that 65 percent of Hispanic parents, compared to 47 percent of black and 33 percent of white parents, believed a college education is the single most important factor for economic success. (National Research Council 2006: 86)
This study found that in 2000, while Latinos made up 11 percent of high school graduates, they made up only 7 percent of students enrolled in 4-year colleges, but 14 percent of those in 2-year colleges. (Ibid: 87) Despite this, “College . . .,” Badillo argues, “is far from an automatic goal in a vast majority of Hispanic homes.” (my emphasis) (p. 30)
(Mis)Documenting the Hispanic Crisis?
The crisis that Badillo attempts to identify the source of is educational failure and the inability of Latinos to enter the American mainstream. He reports that, “In 2005, Hispanics dropped out of high school at a rate of over 50 percent.” (p. 30) To document that “education is not a high priority in the Hispanic community,” Badillo points out that “37 percent of whites between the ages eighteen and twenty-four are enrolled full-time or part-time in college, as opposed to 19 percent of Hispanics.” (p. 50) The ultimate result, Badillo observes, is that “most Hispanics remain in poverty, or barely above it . . .” (p. 194) That is the extent, in the book’s 228 pages, of Badillo’s documentation of the problem, by the way, with no sources cited.
These few statistics that Badillo cites, so central to his argument, are largely unsubstantiated. The “over 50 percent dropout rate” Badillo cites for 2005 is difficult to verify. The closest I could come is a 2005 working paper from the Manhattan Institute that argues that 52 percent of Latinos graduated from high school in 2002, using a methodology not used by the federal government. (Greene and Winters 2005) The National Center for Education Statistics (2005), a federal government agency, reports for 2001 (the latest year available on their website) that the high school event dropout rate (dropouts in one year) for those ages 15-24 was 9 percent for Hispanics, compared to 6 percent for Blacks, 4 percent for Whites and 2 percent for Asians. The status high school dropout rate (total dropouts for the group) for those 16-24, they report, was 27 percent for Hispanics, compared to 11 percent for Blacks, 7 percent for Whites and 4 percent for Asians, that same year. Relative to other major racial-ethnic groups, the Latino dropout rate is unacceptably high and is alarming, but Badillo’s “more than 50 percent” figure and his dating of it in 2005 appear both to be made up.
Badillo states that 19 percent of Hispanics ages 18- 24 were enrolled in college, but the Census reports that in 2005 the figure was 23 percent. (Current Population Survey 2006a) Is Badillo’s figure wrong, or is it dated and there has been some improvement? One can’t tell because Badillo does not cite a source or a year for the statistic. There is a problem as well when Badillo states that “most Hispanics remain in poverty . . .” According to the Census, in 2005, Latinos had a poverty rate of 22 percent (Current Population Survey 2006). “Most” and 22 percent are not even close.
This is not nit-picking because they are significant discrepancies, given the importance of these statistics to his basic argument, and raise serious questions about the integrity of all of his assertions in the book. Is it possible that these figures were simply pulled out from Badillo’s memory with no reference to existing research? What makes this especially troublesome and surprising is that he apparently received editorial and other support from an outfit that calls itself the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research!
Problems . . . and Solutions?
Despite this, given his illustrious career in public service spanning five decades, serious attention needs to be paid to the problems Badillo identifies facing Latinos today. He discusses the social policy problems of Latino dependency on government and institutions like public education (and its policies of social promotion, tracking and the misuse of gifted and special education programs), the failure of Latinos to learn English, and the lowering of standards in the City University of New York. He also identifies problems within the Latino community: their obsession with their “great culture, their music, and their traditions . . .” (p. 195); their ethnic ideology that focuses on group and not individual identity that has fragmented American life (p. 209); their demand for “special rights” (p. 210); and the failure of Latino leaders to repudiate perceptions that their community is demanding amnesty for illegals and not eager to learn English (p. 212).
Badillo’s exhortation to Latinos to eschew government solutions to problems is a good example of the inconsistency of much of his policy recommendations. While on the one hand arguing about the ineffectiveness and incompetence of government and its capture by special interests, he points out, nevertheless, that “although the pilot programs I developed in housing, employment, health and education did achieve some successes, the national support that those programs require(d) has varied between elusive and totally nonexistent.” (p. 2) In other words, it may not be the inherent problems with government, but lack of public support of government that could be the problem. This is one important inconsistency early in the book.
The other in this regard is telling Latino parents not to depend on the public schools and to be more self- reliant. While urging Latino parents not to blame policymakers for their woes, he also complains about how institutions like public education conspire not to be held accountable, thus implying that they should be held more accountable. But the question is by whom? Well, according to Badillo, it appears that they should be held accountable to Badillo himself, and people like Giuliani, Linda Chavez and the like. He decries the lack of support for parent participation by the school system, but never is very specific about how to promote it (nor is he ever critical of Mayor Bloomberg’s gutting of a serious parent role in current school governance).
The pity with much of the book is that Badillo does not see the irony in much of what he proposes. For example, when describing how he was almost trapped in a dead-end vocational track in high school, due to a “stroke of luck” a friend told him he should get into the academic program so he could go to college. (pp. 14-15) He explains that: “‘I don’t have any money for college,’ I said . . . ‘It doesn’t matter,’ my friend said. ‘City College is free, and you’ll get in if you have an academic diploma.’” (p. 15) Badillo went on to major in business and accounting at CUNY and got a law degree from Brooklyn Law School, taking advantage of the free tuition policy of a public university. In light of this history, Badillo’s anti- government rants ring a bit hollow.
Badillo as a Role Model?
The book’s basic approach of drawing public policy and life lessons for an entire community from the experiences of one man, no matter how old he is or will become, is a major flaw. First, Badillo is Puerto Rican and came to the United States already as a United States citizen, in contrast to more than 90 percent of the other Latinos who came to the United States as immigrants. It is an important distinction that he blurs by talking about himself as an immigrant, which even Giuliani does in the foreword.
Second, when Badillo explains that his deceased father had been a school teacher in Puerto Rico, that he is a Protestant, and that he migrated first to New York, then to Chicago, and Burbank, California, and then back to New York to go to high school in the 1940s and ‘50s, he establishes his experiences as pretty unique from the vast majority of Puerto Ricans migrating at the time at his age. His experience in Burbank with his uncle Tomás and his Irish wife, Janice, of personal rejection was poignant but unique, especially Badillo being elected as a student body president in an all white school despite not knowing much Spanish! (pp. 12-13) His Protestant background in the largely Catholic community also set him apart.
Third, as he describes his role in the public schools and the city university, as well as his close association with then Mayor Giuliani, he has become a polarizing figure within the Latino community, thus compromising his role model status. In his descriptions of those policy battles, he never spoke of any efforts on his part to use his status as an elder leader to reach out to or work with the Puerto Rican or Latino communities of which he is a part.
Because Badillo sets himself up personally as the standard by which to judge Latino accomplishments, he invites characterizations of himself as a leader and individual. Described by critics as “aloof” and “elitist,” his third person style of writing about his community reinforces this distance. Of the eight persons he thanks in his acknowledgement in the book, only one is Latino and that’s his longtime secretary for typing the manuscript, reinforcing his detachment from the community he is writing about. He also cites very few Latino authors. In the foreword, Giuliani explains in a very patronizing way that Badillo “never wanted to be thought of simply as a Hispanic, or as an immigrant, or as someone from a poor background. His dignity demanded that he be judged as a man, that his accomplishments be taken seriously on the merits, and that he be rewarded or otherwise on the basis of what he has done, rather than who he was” (p. ix), as it these were mutually exclusive things. And following this same pattern, this is the way Badillo separates what he considers the good from the bad guys (my terms):
Those who demand special rights for Hispanics are the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, the National Council of La Raza, Aspira, and other Hispanic organizations. Those who oppose them and continue to promote assimilation include Linda Chavez, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., Harvard professor Stephan Thernstrom and his wife and co- author, Abigail, and the Manhattan Institute (a New York think tank). (p. 210)
Being a founder of some of these Hispanic organizations, Badillo doesn’t explain what role he played over the years in the development of their advocacy agendas. Did he serve on their boards, or make significant financial or volunteer contributions? He presents himself as someone not engaged in his own community for quite some time.
The impression given is that this book is partly autobiographical, but Badillo’s life is presented primarily to justify policy recommendations. The bits and pieces of his life presented in this book are too limited to constitute a useful autobiography that, given the pivotal role he played in Puerto Rican politics in the 1950s through the 1990s, he still needs to write.
Latinos Versus Blacks
Although more indirectly than others who have tackled this subject, in his book Badillo takes some pain to distance Latinos from the Black experience. Despite arguing that racial divisions need to be avoided and that “one standard” needs to be embraced by Latinos, he very bluntly describes the United States as a racist society.
“Almost from the first day I arrived in New York,” he points out, “it was clear to me that in the United States you are judged by the color of your skin.” (p. 15) “The division into majority and minority,” he goes on to write, “is very rigid in this country; if even a small portion of your ancestry is African-American, you are regarded as black and as part of the minority or inferior culture. I believe this is still true today.” (p. 16) (my emphasis) At another point, he observes that:
“. . . segregation is still a reality in many parts of this country. For example, on the Upper East Side, you seldom see African-Americans in any significant numbers. However, when you travel the subway system, you see that more than three quarters of the people are black or Latinos. A visitor would have to conclude that there are still two separate societies.” (p. 19)
Recounting a childhood incident, he finds that “America’s rigid racism --- which I acknowledge is not politically correct to discuss, but which is still evident to us from a different culture --- damages individuals.” (p. 21)
Claiming a non-racialist legacy from the Spanish in the Latino community, Badillo finds that:
Many Hispanic parents seem to accept the characterization of their community as a minority group, something they would find incomprehensible in the Latin and Caribbean countries from which they came. They accept labels such as ‘brown people’ or ‘people of color.’ Having gone along with such characterizations, some Hispanics behave as if they actually were a persecuted ethnic group, with a permanently diminished capacity for success.
They find excuses to justify their nonperformance. They say they live in poverty and cannot be expected to accomplish what middle-class or ‘white’ people do. They cite language problems as impediments to progress. They say, above all, that they are victims of discrimination and thus cannot move ahead. (p. 196)
However, he goes on to observe that, “I have never heard a Puerto Rican refer to himself or herself as a white Puerto Rican, a black Puerto Rican, or a hyphenated Puerto Rican of any kind.” (p. 16) Besides being inconsistent with his previous statement, this also reflects how detached he has become from his own community, because Puerto Ricans regularly identify themselves along racial lines, both stateside and in Puerto Rico. He is, in essence, perpetuating a Puerto Rican racial myth.
Badillo states that, “I do not believe in racial categories and consider them harmful and literally divisive. Latin Americans do not racially pigeonhole themselves and thus get along much better as a society.” (p. 180) “With a little ingenuity,” he argues,
America could redesign today’s government programs so that they could reach all who need them without scarring them with racist labels. We then would be well on our way to eliminating such categories as “African- American,” “Asian-American,” and “Hispanic- American” --- the one I myself helped to institute on the census --- and simply call ourselves Americans who share a unified culture.” (p. 183)
While Badillo calls on Latinos to move away from a racial identity, he doesn’t explain how. He describes America as an extremely racially divided society and tells Latinos to basically ignore this fact. Contrasting race relations in Puerto Rico with those in the United States he seems to say that in the US there is institutional discrimination while in Puerto Rico it occurs at the individual level. (p. 19) But, Badillo argues, “We further intensify such divisions when we establish racial-preference programs to grant special privileges to allegedly disadvantaged groups. Whatever benefits such programs provide are lost because of the stigma that adheres to the beneficiaries.” (p. 178-9)
“For the first part of my adult life,” Badillo explains, “I believed that achieving political power for the purposes of social change was the answer for moving that (sic?) Hispanic community ahead in America. By 1993 (when Giuliani was elected Mayor), I had changed my mind.” (p. 54) Discussing his decision to enter politics in the early 1950s, he stated that, “I began to see firsthand the many issues faced by the Hispanic community in New York, and my frustration in trying to help them on a case-by-case basis led me to think of a career in politics, where I could address the basic social problems of New York’s Hispanics and the rest of New York’s disadvantaged people.” (p. 22)
In light of his statements, what course of action is Badillo recommending for Latinos to follow? Is he asking them to abandon politics altogether as a strategy for social change? Is he asking them to reject group-based social action and demands? Or is he telling Latinos to address their social problems on a “case-by-case basis”? It really isn’t clear. Given the urgency with which he frames the need for change, Badillo needs to have been much clearer and specific in outlining a proposed course of action for Latinos than we find in his book.
Looking to the future, for example, Badillo projects (as we have all heard from Reagan Republicans to the present) that Latinos, because they are socially conservative, will move firmly into the Republican ranks. However, as the November elections clearly illustrated, this does not appear to be the case. Badillo’s personal political journey does not appear to be the destiny for the great majority of Latino voters who will continue to grapple with being taken for granted by the Democrats for some time to come.
The Spanish Legacy
Badillo attempts to explain much of the Latino community’s current problems by reference to their cultural values’ roots in the Spanish colonization of Latin America. He repeats the myth that Spain’s legacy to Latin America and by extension the Latino immigrant is a religiously-based set of non-racialized attitudes and practices, which he counts as perhaps its greatest contribution to Latino culture. But he also characterized this Spanish legacy as promoting “a disregard for the rule of law, an indifference to participatory democracy, . . . and a lack of enthusiasm for education.” (p. 3) He characterizes this as “a five-century siesta.”
But for some reason he omits any discussion of the United States’ influence on and political and military interventions in Latin America, most specifically the more than one century of its control over Puerto Rico. His account of Spain’s history and impact on the Latino community is overly general, thin and perpetuates unhelpful stereotypes. It also ignores the Latin American wars of independence from Spain and nation-building movements to establish autonomous liberal regimes.
As part of this discussion about what he considers Spain’s mostly negative influences, he also discusses what he called the “Puerto Rican predicament.” He characterizes the deteriorating economic and social position of Puerto Ricans in the 1970s, more than 30 year ago, ignoring more recent data and studies that indicate some improvement in that condition. Discussing the decline and rise of the South Bronx and the rest of Latino New York, he introduces the Dominican factor as follows:
Partly because the Dominican migration is predominantly male and the Puerto Rican family in the South Bronx is predominantly female-headed, Dominican-Puerto Rican marriages and liaisons are becoming common. It seems impossible to doubt that the Dominican migration is partly responsible for any resurgence, present or future, in the South Bronx and in New York’s Hispanic World. (p. 48)
The problem with this scenario is that the Dominican poverty rate is higher than that of Puerto Ricans, and that the gender differences he presents between the two communities is not as large as he describes.
This also brings to mind the problem that as Badillo addresses the immigration debate he does not differentiate Puerto Ricans, who come to the US already as US citizens, from other Latinos who do not. He also gives the impression that most Latinos in the US are immigrants, when in fact 60 percent are not. This confusion becomes evident when he writes that,
In the middle of the twentieth century, shortly after the end of the Second World War, Latin Americans in significant numbers came to the conclusion that this tragic legacy could not be overcome in their own countries . . . First came the Puerto Ricans, followed by Mexicans, Dominicans, Cubans, and then citizens of mainland Central and Latin American nations. (pp. 42-3)
Latino immigration to the United States has been occurring for a much longer period of time, and Puerto Ricans certainly were not the first to arrive in significant numbers, it was the Mexicans.
Conclusion: The Politics of the Badillo Book
This book is certainly not a politically innocent project. Badillo acknowledges that he wrote it at the suggestion of the head of the Manhattan Institute. The foreword by Rudy Giuliani, a virtually declared candidate for President in 2008, results in Badillo’s significant detour in the narrative of the book to praise Giuliani in detail. Finally, then there is his endorsement of a past Manhattan Institute project in Grenada, its Latin American and the Caribbean Basin Initiative, for adoption throughout Latin America (p. 7), as well as his support of their libertarian open borders immigration position has much of his book reading like one of their annual reports.
Ultimately, Badillo’s book reveals the real limits of liberalism when it comes to the issue of race. While he characterizes himself as an “ex-liberal,” his policy recommendations are in and of themselves not necessarily “conservative” or “neo-conservative.” His association with Giuliani and former New York Governor Mario Cuomo’s praise of the book as “brilliant” both attest to this. His general criticisms of government bureaucracy and school policies on tracking, the abuse of gifted and special education programs, and his support of greater parent involvement in the schools are not controversial and would be embraced by most in the Latino community.
His criticisms of bilingualism are more controversial, but the focus of his attacks on what would be termed transitional bilingual education while he supports dual language instruction and what seems to be his support of the bilingual ballots provisions of the Voting Rights Act, make his position on this issue unclear. Even approaches like charter schools have become mainstreamed, although the idea of school vouchers is still contentious.
The jury is still out on his legacy in the advocacy for ending open admissions at CUNY’s senior colleges as there are indications that enrollments are racially resegregating themselves between the community and senior colleges, and through initiatives like the new Honors Program. And rather than being anti- government, Badillo’s positions seem to favor continued big government, as does Giuliani, and reflect more of a concern with efficiency and ending race-based programs.
All of Badillo’s proposals easily fall within the liberal tradition in the United States. Many, in fact, are increasingly being embraced by the liberal Democrats he criticizes. There is a growing uneasiness among both parties with the issue of race and an emerging consensus that it is too divisive to the public discourse.
Despite this, Badillo’s over generalization about the lack of support for education by Latinos amounts to a negative stereotype that undermines his basic message. His sloppy documentation of the extent of the problem of Latino poverty and the dropout rate raises questions about the accuracy of his analysis and makes these problems appear much more insurmountable than they are. While he obviously wants to convey a positive message of hope, in the end he presents a picture that inspires despair and anger instead that is polarizing. Perhaps the book’s title should be changed to “One Nation, Polarized.”
REFERENCES
Current Population Survey (2006), see this website:
http://pubdb3.census.gov/macro/032006 /pov/new01_100_09.htm
Current Population Survey (2006a), see this website:
http://www.census.gov/popula tion/www/socdemo/education/cps2005.html
Greene, Jay p. and Marcus A. Winters, “Public High School Graduation and College-Readiness Rates: 1991–2002: (New York: Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, Education Working Paper, No. 8, February 2005)
National Center for Education Statistics (2205), see this website:
http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2005/dropout2001/sec _2.asp
National Research Council (2006), Multiple Origins, Uncertain Destines: Hispanics and the American Future (Washington, DC: The National Academies Press).
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Angelo Falcón, a political scientist, is President and Founder of the National Institute for Latino Policy. He is an adjunct assistant professor of international and public affairs at Columbia University, and the author of the Atlas of Stateside Puerto Ricans and co-editor of Boricuas in Gotham: Puerto Ricans in the Making of Modern New York City.
One Nation, Polarized?
Herman Badillo and the Limits of Liberalism
Review of Herman Badillo’s One Nation, One Standard
by Angelo Falcón, National Institute for Latino Policy (January 1, 2007)
In One Nation, One Standard: An Ex-Liberal on How Hispanics Can Succeed Just Like Other Immigrant Groups (New York: Sentinel, 2006), Herman Badillo at age 77 sums up his considerable life’s lessons for the Puerto Rican and Hispanic community. Published under the auspices of the Manhattan Institute for Public Policy, where Mr. Badillo is a senior fellow, this book has created a big stir within the Latino community even before it was released. First announced in the infamous tabloid, the New York Post, on December 19th with the headline, “Badillo lashes Latinos, Rips Hispanic Values,” it generated strong feelings, not only about Badillo’s views on the issues, but also about him personally. It was a little eerie in the manner this response was so similar to the reactions in the Black community to comments made by Bill Cosby, the anti- affirmative campaigns of Ward Connery, the recent book by Juan Williams, and the rulings of Supreme Courts Justice Clarence Thomas.
Now that the book is out, a more detailed examination of Mr. Badillo’s perspectives on the Hispanic condition is possible. One Nation, One Standard, with a foreword by former NYC Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, is 228 pages long with an additional 8 pages of black and white pictures of Mr. Badillo’s early career in politics. Its 11 chapters cover the author’s life growing up in Puerto Rico and the United States, his rise to power as the first Puerto Rican to serve as a full commissioner of a city agency, first borough president, first Congressman and first deputy mayor. It traces his dissatisfaction with the policy positions and politics of the Democratic Party, and his decision to leave the party and become a Republican. He covers his battles with the bureaucracies of the city’s public school system and its City University, as well as his role in promoting liberal legislation and policies at the local and national levels, such as bilingual education and the bilingual ballot provisions of the federal Voting Rights Act, which he now generally repudiates. He devotes to chapter to praise Giuliani and another on the future. In other words, the book covers a lot of ground.
The Importance of Education
The central problem Badillo seeks to address is that, “(a)s a community, Hispanics have simply failed to recognize the overriding importance of education.” (p. 30) He finds that, “The whole Hispanic community needs a total attitude adjustment regarding the importance of education.” (p. 31) Looking specifically at Asians, he observes that, “Hispanics, as a culture, do place less stress on the importance of education than do other, more economically and socially successful immigrant groups.” (p. 32) He elaborates, talking of Hispanics, that:
It is up to their own community members to involve themselves in their local school systems and understand how they work. Hispanics must not count on the school system or any arm of government to orient students. That is their responsibility, and the first step should be to recognize that, as a group. Hispanics have failed to assume responsibility for their children’s welfare. To be blunt, educating Hispanic children is not the duty of the governmental school system. This is their duty; as parents, family members, neighbors, and citizens. Whenever a child is left behind, it is not the fault of the teachers, or the principals, of the school chancellor, or the mayor, or the president. It is their fault.” (p. 51)
He continues:
Any long climb takes effort, and serious educational achievement requires serious effort --- not just by individual students but by entire families and the whole Hispanic community. Hispanics must set aside talk of their great culture, their music, and their traditions and instead focus on educational accomplishment. (p. 195).
He concludes that, “Hispanics have no one to blame but themselves for the disastrous high-school dropout rates of the younger members of their community.” (p. 51)
Badillo’s Over Generalizations
Anticipating that he might be criticized for over generalizing, Badillo dismissively refers to a “culture of political correctness (that) dismisses any attempt at pattern recognition as ‘generalization’ and ‘stereotyping’” and asserts the authority of his being “blunt and plainspoken” as a New Yorker. (pp. 24-25) But his over generalizations are a serious problem. When he refers to “the whole Hispanic community” or of them “as a community” or “as a group”, and so on, he undermines his argument. This is compounded by the problem that at times it is not clear whether he is referring to Puerto Ricans or all Latinos.
Politically correct or not, Badillo’s attribution to the entire Latino community of anti-education attitudes and behaviors is classic stereotyping. The worst of it is that he is stereotyping against himself and his own family, since one must assume that he still considers himself a “Hispanic.” There are clearly Latinos who do not support education or the educational aspirations of their children, that is not in dispute, the question is how many and identifying who they are. Is it 10 percent or 30 percent? Is the percentage larger among new Latino immigrants, or Cubans, or Puerto Ricans? Is it a characteristic that is economically- based, or is it more broadly cultural as Badillo states?
Another question is whether such existing anti- education attitudes by parents have a negative effect on their children’s educational outcomes? In Badillo’s case, this didn’t seem to be the case. In fact, going against his own argument, his experience was one where he had to count on the public schools to orient him because his family apparently was, as he describes his upbringing, not at all involved in his schooling --- he did it all himself.
Badillo, for example, writes that, “When I attended City College and lived in West Harlem, I was the only resident in my apartment building who owned a typewriter and stayed up late doing homework. My relatives and friends did not encourage me to remain in school. They considered my interest in books an eccentricity.” (p. 30) He then goes on to relate that, “When I was relocation commissioner, I used to visit many Hispanic homes. In the vast majority of them, there was not a single book to be found. In many cases there was not even a newspaper. The only thing you could be sure to find was a television. It’s natural enough: If adults don’t read in a family, why expect the children to read?” (p. 31)
In a major study on the status of Latinos in the United States, the authoritative National Research Council issued a report in 2006 that found that:
Popular allegations that Hispanics value education less than do others groups are contradicted by evidence that large numbers of Hispanic high school students aspire to attend college. A study conducted by Public Agenda, a New York-based nonprofit public opinion research organization, found that 65 percent of Hispanic parents, compared to 47 percent of black and 33 percent of white parents, believed a college education is the single most important factor for economic success. (National Research Council 2006: 86)
This study found that in 2000, while Latinos made up 11 percent of high school graduates, they made up only 7 percent of students enrolled in 4-year colleges, but 14 percent of those in 2-year colleges. (Ibid: 87) Despite this, “College . . .,” Badillo argues, “is far from an automatic goal in a vast majority of Hispanic homes.” (my emphasis) (p. 30)
(Mis)Documenting the Hispanic Crisis?
The crisis that Badillo attempts to identify the source of is educational failure and the inability of Latinos to enter the American mainstream. He reports that, “In 2005, Hispanics dropped out of high school at a rate of over 50 percent.” (p. 30) To document that “education is not a high priority in the Hispanic community,” Badillo points out that “37 percent of whites between the ages eighteen and twenty-four are enrolled full-time or part-time in college, as opposed to 19 percent of Hispanics.” (p. 50) The ultimate result, Badillo observes, is that “most Hispanics remain in poverty, or barely above it . . .” (p. 194) That is the extent, in the book’s 228 pages, of Badillo’s documentation of the problem, by the way, with no sources cited.
These few statistics that Badillo cites, so central to his argument, are largely unsubstantiated. The “over 50 percent dropout rate” Badillo cites for 2005 is difficult to verify. The closest I could come is a 2005 working paper from the Manhattan Institute that argues that 52 percent of Latinos graduated from high school in 2002, using a methodology not used by the federal government. (Greene and Winters 2005) The National Center for Education Statistics (2005), a federal government agency, reports for 2001 (the latest year available on their website) that the high school event dropout rate (dropouts in one year) for those ages 15-24 was 9 percent for Hispanics, compared to 6 percent for Blacks, 4 percent for Whites and 2 percent for Asians. The status high school dropout rate (total dropouts for the group) for those 16-24, they report, was 27 percent for Hispanics, compared to 11 percent for Blacks, 7 percent for Whites and 4 percent for Asians, that same year. Relative to other major racial-ethnic groups, the Latino dropout rate is unacceptably high and is alarming, but Badillo’s “more than 50 percent” figure and his dating of it in 2005 appear both to be made up.
Badillo states that 19 percent of Hispanics ages 18- 24 were enrolled in college, but the Census reports that in 2005 the figure was 23 percent. (Current Population Survey 2006a) Is Badillo’s figure wrong, or is it dated and there has been some improvement? One can’t tell because Badillo does not cite a source or a year for the statistic. There is a problem as well when Badillo states that “most Hispanics remain in poverty . . .” According to the Census, in 2005, Latinos had a poverty rate of 22 percent (Current Population Survey 2006). “Most” and 22 percent are not even close.
This is not nit-picking because they are significant discrepancies, given the importance of these statistics to his basic argument, and raise serious questions about the integrity of all of his assertions in the book. Is it possible that these figures were simply pulled out from Badillo’s memory with no reference to existing research? What makes this especially troublesome and surprising is that he apparently received editorial and other support from an outfit that calls itself the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research!
Problems . . . and Solutions?
Despite this, given his illustrious career in public service spanning five decades, serious attention needs to be paid to the problems Badillo identifies facing Latinos today. He discusses the social policy problems of Latino dependency on government and institutions like public education (and its policies of social promotion, tracking and the misuse of gifted and special education programs), the failure of Latinos to learn English, and the lowering of standards in the City University of New York. He also identifies problems within the Latino community: their obsession with their “great culture, their music, and their traditions . . .” (p. 195); their ethnic ideology that focuses on group and not individual identity that has fragmented American life (p. 209); their demand for “special rights” (p. 210); and the failure of Latino leaders to repudiate perceptions that their community is demanding amnesty for illegals and not eager to learn English (p. 212).
Badillo’s exhortation to Latinos to eschew government solutions to problems is a good example of the inconsistency of much of his policy recommendations. While on the one hand arguing about the ineffectiveness and incompetence of government and its capture by special interests, he points out, nevertheless, that “although the pilot programs I developed in housing, employment, health and education did achieve some successes, the national support that those programs require(d) has varied between elusive and totally nonexistent.” (p. 2) In other words, it may not be the inherent problems with government, but lack of public support of government that could be the problem. This is one important inconsistency early in the book.
The other in this regard is telling Latino parents not to depend on the public schools and to be more self- reliant. While urging Latino parents not to blame policymakers for their woes, he also complains about how institutions like public education conspire not to be held accountable, thus implying that they should be held more accountable. But the question is by whom? Well, according to Badillo, it appears that they should be held accountable to Badillo himself, and people like Giuliani, Linda Chavez and the like. He decries the lack of support for parent participation by the school system, but never is very specific about how to promote it (nor is he ever critical of Mayor Bloomberg’s gutting of a serious parent role in current school governance).
The pity with much of the book is that Badillo does not see the irony in much of what he proposes. For example, when describing how he was almost trapped in a dead-end vocational track in high school, due to a “stroke of luck” a friend told him he should get into the academic program so he could go to college. (pp. 14-15) He explains that: “‘I don’t have any money for college,’ I said . . . ‘It doesn’t matter,’ my friend said. ‘City College is free, and you’ll get in if you have an academic diploma.’” (p. 15) Badillo went on to major in business and accounting at CUNY and got a law degree from Brooklyn Law School, taking advantage of the free tuition policy of a public university. In light of this history, Badillo’s anti- government rants ring a bit hollow.
Badillo as a Role Model?
The book’s basic approach of drawing public policy and life lessons for an entire community from the experiences of one man, no matter how old he is or will become, is a major flaw. First, Badillo is Puerto Rican and came to the United States already as a United States citizen, in contrast to more than 90 percent of the other Latinos who came to the United States as immigrants. It is an important distinction that he blurs by talking about himself as an immigrant, which even Giuliani does in the foreword.
Second, when Badillo explains that his deceased father had been a school teacher in Puerto Rico, that he is a Protestant, and that he migrated first to New York, then to Chicago, and Burbank, California, and then back to New York to go to high school in the 1940s and ‘50s, he establishes his experiences as pretty unique from the vast majority of Puerto Ricans migrating at the time at his age. His experience in Burbank with his uncle Tomás and his Irish wife, Janice, of personal rejection was poignant but unique, especially Badillo being elected as a student body president in an all white school despite not knowing much Spanish! (pp. 12-13) His Protestant background in the largely Catholic community also set him apart.
Third, as he describes his role in the public schools and the city university, as well as his close association with then Mayor Giuliani, he has become a polarizing figure within the Latino community, thus compromising his role model status. In his descriptions of those policy battles, he never spoke of any efforts on his part to use his status as an elder leader to reach out to or work with the Puerto Rican or Latino communities of which he is a part.
Because Badillo sets himself up personally as the standard by which to judge Latino accomplishments, he invites characterizations of himself as a leader and individual. Described by critics as “aloof” and “elitist,” his third person style of writing about his community reinforces this distance. Of the eight persons he thanks in his acknowledgement in the book, only one is Latino and that’s his longtime secretary for typing the manuscript, reinforcing his detachment from the community he is writing about. He also cites very few Latino authors. In the foreword, Giuliani explains in a very patronizing way that Badillo “never wanted to be thought of simply as a Hispanic, or as an immigrant, or as someone from a poor background. His dignity demanded that he be judged as a man, that his accomplishments be taken seriously on the merits, and that he be rewarded or otherwise on the basis of what he has done, rather than who he was” (p. ix), as it these were mutually exclusive things. And following this same pattern, this is the way Badillo separates what he considers the good from the bad guys (my terms):
Those who demand special rights for Hispanics are the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, the National Council of La Raza, Aspira, and other Hispanic organizations. Those who oppose them and continue to promote assimilation include Linda Chavez, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., Harvard professor Stephan Thernstrom and his wife and co- author, Abigail, and the Manhattan Institute (a New York think tank). (p. 210)
Being a founder of some of these Hispanic organizations, Badillo doesn’t explain what role he played over the years in the development of their advocacy agendas. Did he serve on their boards, or make significant financial or volunteer contributions? He presents himself as someone not engaged in his own community for quite some time.
The impression given is that this book is partly autobiographical, but Badillo’s life is presented primarily to justify policy recommendations. The bits and pieces of his life presented in this book are too limited to constitute a useful autobiography that, given the pivotal role he played in Puerto Rican politics in the 1950s through the 1990s, he still needs to write.
Latinos Versus Blacks
Although more indirectly than others who have tackled this subject, in his book Badillo takes some pain to distance Latinos from the Black experience. Despite arguing that racial divisions need to be avoided and that “one standard” needs to be embraced by Latinos, he very bluntly describes the United States as a racist society.
“Almost from the first day I arrived in New York,” he points out, “it was clear to me that in the United States you are judged by the color of your skin.” (p. 15) “The division into majority and minority,” he goes on to write, “is very rigid in this country; if even a small portion of your ancestry is African-American, you are regarded as black and as part of the minority or inferior culture. I believe this is still true today.” (p. 16) (my emphasis) At another point, he observes that:
“. . . segregation is still a reality in many parts of this country. For example, on the Upper East Side, you seldom see African-Americans in any significant numbers. However, when you travel the subway system, you see that more than three quarters of the people are black or Latinos. A visitor would have to conclude that there are still two separate societies.” (p. 19)
Recounting a childhood incident, he finds that “America’s rigid racism --- which I acknowledge is not politically correct to discuss, but which is still evident to us from a different culture --- damages individuals.” (p. 21)
Claiming a non-racialist legacy from the Spanish in the Latino community, Badillo finds that:
Many Hispanic parents seem to accept the characterization of their community as a minority group, something they would find incomprehensible in the Latin and Caribbean countries from which they came. They accept labels such as ‘brown people’ or ‘people of color.’ Having gone along with such characterizations, some Hispanics behave as if they actually were a persecuted ethnic group, with a permanently diminished capacity for success.
They find excuses to justify their nonperformance. They say they live in poverty and cannot be expected to accomplish what middle-class or ‘white’ people do. They cite language problems as impediments to progress. They say, above all, that they are victims of discrimination and thus cannot move ahead. (p. 196)
However, he goes on to observe that, “I have never heard a Puerto Rican refer to himself or herself as a white Puerto Rican, a black Puerto Rican, or a hyphenated Puerto Rican of any kind.” (p. 16) Besides being inconsistent with his previous statement, this also reflects how detached he has become from his own community, because Puerto Ricans regularly identify themselves along racial lines, both stateside and in Puerto Rico. He is, in essence, perpetuating a Puerto Rican racial myth.
Badillo states that, “I do not believe in racial categories and consider them harmful and literally divisive. Latin Americans do not racially pigeonhole themselves and thus get along much better as a society.” (p. 180) “With a little ingenuity,” he argues,
America could redesign today’s government programs so that they could reach all who need them without scarring them with racist labels. We then would be well on our way to eliminating such categories as “African- American,” “Asian-American,” and “Hispanic- American” --- the one I myself helped to institute on the census --- and simply call ourselves Americans who share a unified culture.” (p. 183)
While Badillo calls on Latinos to move away from a racial identity, he doesn’t explain how. He describes America as an extremely racially divided society and tells Latinos to basically ignore this fact. Contrasting race relations in Puerto Rico with those in the United States he seems to say that in the US there is institutional discrimination while in Puerto Rico it occurs at the individual level. (p. 19) But, Badillo argues, “We further intensify such divisions when we establish racial-preference programs to grant special privileges to allegedly disadvantaged groups. Whatever benefits such programs provide are lost because of the stigma that adheres to the beneficiaries.” (p. 178-9)
“For the first part of my adult life,” Badillo explains, “I believed that achieving political power for the purposes of social change was the answer for moving that (sic?) Hispanic community ahead in America. By 1993 (when Giuliani was elected Mayor), I had changed my mind.” (p. 54) Discussing his decision to enter politics in the early 1950s, he stated that, “I began to see firsthand the many issues faced by the Hispanic community in New York, and my frustration in trying to help them on a case-by-case basis led me to think of a career in politics, where I could address the basic social problems of New York’s Hispanics and the rest of New York’s disadvantaged people.” (p. 22)
In light of his statements, what course of action is Badillo recommending for Latinos to follow? Is he asking them to abandon politics altogether as a strategy for social change? Is he asking them to reject group-based social action and demands? Or is he telling Latinos to address their social problems on a “case-by-case basis”? It really isn’t clear. Given the urgency with which he frames the need for change, Badillo needs to have been much clearer and specific in outlining a proposed course of action for Latinos than we find in his book.
Looking to the future, for example, Badillo projects (as we have all heard from Reagan Republicans to the present) that Latinos, because they are socially conservative, will move firmly into the Republican ranks. However, as the November elections clearly illustrated, this does not appear to be the case. Badillo’s personal political journey does not appear to be the destiny for the great majority of Latino voters who will continue to grapple with being taken for granted by the Democrats for some time to come.
The Spanish Legacy
Badillo attempts to explain much of the Latino community’s current problems by reference to their cultural values’ roots in the Spanish colonization of Latin America. He repeats the myth that Spain’s legacy to Latin America and by extension the Latino immigrant is a religiously-based set of non-racialized attitudes and practices, which he counts as perhaps its greatest contribution to Latino culture. But he also characterized this Spanish legacy as promoting “a disregard for the rule of law, an indifference to participatory democracy, . . . and a lack of enthusiasm for education.” (p. 3) He characterizes this as “a five-century siesta.”
But for some reason he omits any discussion of the United States’ influence on and political and military interventions in Latin America, most specifically the more than one century of its control over Puerto Rico. His account of Spain’s history and impact on the Latino community is overly general, thin and perpetuates unhelpful stereotypes. It also ignores the Latin American wars of independence from Spain and nation-building movements to establish autonomous liberal regimes.
As part of this discussion about what he considers Spain’s mostly negative influences, he also discusses what he called the “Puerto Rican predicament.” He characterizes the deteriorating economic and social position of Puerto Ricans in the 1970s, more than 30 year ago, ignoring more recent data and studies that indicate some improvement in that condition. Discussing the decline and rise of the South Bronx and the rest of Latino New York, he introduces the Dominican factor as follows:
Partly because the Dominican migration is predominantly male and the Puerto Rican family in the South Bronx is predominantly female-headed, Dominican-Puerto Rican marriages and liaisons are becoming common. It seems impossible to doubt that the Dominican migration is partly responsible for any resurgence, present or future, in the South Bronx and in New York’s Hispanic World. (p. 48)
The problem with this scenario is that the Dominican poverty rate is higher than that of Puerto Ricans, and that the gender differences he presents between the two communities is not as large as he describes.
This also brings to mind the problem that as Badillo addresses the immigration debate he does not differentiate Puerto Ricans, who come to the US already as US citizens, from other Latinos who do not. He also gives the impression that most Latinos in the US are immigrants, when in fact 60 percent are not. This confusion becomes evident when he writes that,
In the middle of the twentieth century, shortly after the end of the Second World War, Latin Americans in significant numbers came to the conclusion that this tragic legacy could not be overcome in their own countries . . . First came the Puerto Ricans, followed by Mexicans, Dominicans, Cubans, and then citizens of mainland Central and Latin American nations. (pp. 42-3)
Latino immigration to the United States has been occurring for a much longer period of time, and Puerto Ricans certainly were not the first to arrive in significant numbers, it was the Mexicans.
Conclusion: The Politics of the Badillo Book
This book is certainly not a politically innocent project. Badillo acknowledges that he wrote it at the suggestion of the head of the Manhattan Institute. The foreword by Rudy Giuliani, a virtually declared candidate for President in 2008, results in Badillo’s significant detour in the narrative of the book to praise Giuliani in detail. Finally, then there is his endorsement of a past Manhattan Institute project in Grenada, its Latin American and the Caribbean Basin Initiative, for adoption throughout Latin America (p. 7), as well as his support of their libertarian open borders immigration position has much of his book reading like one of their annual reports.
Ultimately, Badillo’s book reveals the real limits of liberalism when it comes to the issue of race. While he characterizes himself as an “ex-liberal,” his policy recommendations are in and of themselves not necessarily “conservative” or “neo-conservative.” His association with Giuliani and former New York Governor Mario Cuomo’s praise of the book as “brilliant” both attest to this. His general criticisms of government bureaucracy and school policies on tracking, the abuse of gifted and special education programs, and his support of greater parent involvement in the schools are not controversial and would be embraced by most in the Latino community.
His criticisms of bilingualism are more controversial, but the focus of his attacks on what would be termed transitional bilingual education while he supports dual language instruction and what seems to be his support of the bilingual ballots provisions of the Voting Rights Act, make his position on this issue unclear. Even approaches like charter schools have become mainstreamed, although the idea of school vouchers is still contentious.
The jury is still out on his legacy in the advocacy for ending open admissions at CUNY’s senior colleges as there are indications that enrollments are racially resegregating themselves between the community and senior colleges, and through initiatives like the new Honors Program. And rather than being anti- government, Badillo’s positions seem to favor continued big government, as does Giuliani, and reflect more of a concern with efficiency and ending race-based programs.
All of Badillo’s proposals easily fall within the liberal tradition in the United States. Many, in fact, are increasingly being embraced by the liberal Democrats he criticizes. There is a growing uneasiness among both parties with the issue of race and an emerging consensus that it is too divisive to the public discourse.
Despite this, Badillo’s over generalization about the lack of support for education by Latinos amounts to a negative stereotype that undermines his basic message. His sloppy documentation of the extent of the problem of Latino poverty and the dropout rate raises questions about the accuracy of his analysis and makes these problems appear much more insurmountable than they are. While he obviously wants to convey a positive message of hope, in the end he presents a picture that inspires despair and anger instead that is polarizing. Perhaps the book’s title should be changed to “One Nation, Polarized.”
REFERENCES
Current Population Survey (2006), see this website:
http://pubdb3.census.gov/macro/032006 /pov/new01_100_09.htm
Current Population Survey (2006a), see this website:
http://www.census.gov/popula tion/www/socdemo/education/cps2005.html
Greene, Jay p. and Marcus A. Winters, “Public High School Graduation and College-Readiness Rates: 1991–2002: (New York: Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, Education Working Paper, No. 8, February 2005)
National Center for Education Statistics (2205), see this website:
http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2005/dropout2001/sec _2.asp
National Research Council (2006), Multiple Origins, Uncertain Destines: Hispanics and the American Future (Washington, DC: The National Academies Press).
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Angelo Falcón, a political scientist, is President and Founder of the National Institute for Latino Policy. He is an adjunct assistant professor of international and public affairs at Columbia University, and the author of the Atlas of Stateside Puerto Ricans and co-editor of Boricuas in Gotham: Puerto Ricans in the Making of Modern New York City.
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