FrontPage Stories

Bustamante Says Latinos Hurt Themselves By Not Voting

By E.A. Barrera

Campaigning in San Diego on October 12, Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante told supporters that the biggest hurdle to increasing the influence of Latinos in California was their lack of participation in the electoral process.

“We have precincts in California where as few as 40 percent of the eligible voters bother to register to vote. In San Diego, some precincts with large Latino populations only saw 20 percent of those who were eligible to vote go to the polls in the last election. What this means is that the people we elect to represent us in government are disproportionately selected by a smaller group of people. The interests of Latinos are not being adequately addressed as a result,” said Bustamante.

Speaking to voters at events in Mission Hills and the College area near San Diego State, Bustamante also blasted the priorities of some liberal activists, telling supporters it was more important to elect representatives who would serve their constituent’s interests than focus energies on ballot initiatives.

“In an important election year like this, voters who want to see real change in policy need to change the people who decide policy. It is the elected representatives who make the decisions that affect people’s lives - that affect the quality of life we have when it comes to government policy,” said Bustamante.

Bustamante noted the large protest marches in San Diego and across California in favor of immigrant rights last Spring, but questioned what historical impact they would have if Latino voting did not increase in future elections.

“Will they have discovered the enormous power of their community, and refuse to slink silently into the shadows of our political system. Will the marches of 2006 be remembered as an aberration? A momentary spike in Latino political participation that died out as quickly as it began? Or, will these marches be remembered for something far greater, something historic? I believe these marches will make a permanent mark on our nation only if the same passion and power that led millions to the streets can lead millions to the ballot box,” said Bustamante.

Bustamante, the first Latino Lieutenant Governor in California history is seeking to become the first Insurance commissioner of Latino descent in the state’s history. He is running against Republican Steve Poisner, a wealthy businessman and electrical engineer, who has waged an aggressive campaign. The position is currently held by Democrat John Garamendi, who is running for Lieutenant Governor.

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Terror War’s New Enemy — Texas Border Residents Ask If They’re Friend or Foe
By Mary Jo McConahay
Editor’s Note: The climate has changed along the Texas border, according to residents of small towns there. National Guard troops, citizen militias and traffic stops by local law enforcement bring fear and anger. This is the second of a two-part series on border enforcement along the Texas border.

SAN ELIZARIO, Texas—Residents of this hardscrabble town on the Mexican border are feeling jumpy and under siege. Since 9/11, border immigration enforcement and drug interdiction have been swept into the war on terror, with chilling effects.

Indy Film Unveils the True Lives of Invisible
Mexicans Living in Canyons
By Raymond R. Beltran
Independent filmmaker John Frey knew that his project was going to be intrusive and that it could compromise the lives of migrants who have built homes in the backyard of one of the nation’s richest cities. But knowing that these undocumented people were soon to be evicted from the canyons of Carmel Valley, he packed a tent anyway, some lighting equipment and his camera and entered a clandestine community in order to unveil a story that neither politicians nor newspapers would tell.

Candidato joven dice que tiene el apoyo de los jóvenes y estudiantes para la Mesa Directiva de Sweetwater
Ed Herrera dice que puede ser una voz fresca
Por Pablo Jaime Sainz
Apenas tiene 20 años, pero Ed Herrera quiere hacer la diferencia en su comunidad.

Young candidate says he has student, youth support for Sweetwater board
Ed Herrera says he can be a fresh voice.
By Pablo Jaime Sainz
He’s barely 20, but Ed Herrera wants to make a difference in his community.

Stories

Mexico’s Fox administration gets the bulk of border fence controversy
By Isaac Garrido
WASHINGTON - The proposed U.S.-Mexico border fence is just as controversial in Mexico as it is in the United States - with Mexican President Vicente Fox getting the bulk of the criticism.

Analizan el narcotráfico y la relación México-Estados Unidos
Por Luis Alonso Pérez
La amenaza del crimen organizado en México no es generada por su fuerza militar, sino por su poder de corrupción, sostuvo el investigador Jorge Chabat durante una conferencia en la que analizó el narcotráfico desde la relación de México y Estados Unidos.

Violence against journalists in northern Mexico
By Luis Alonso Pérez
On April 2005, Alfredo Jimenez, a reporter from the Mexican northen state of So-nora, disappeared days after he published an investigation on organized crime in the region. More than a year has passed and still no sign of Alfredo.

Violencia a periodistas en la frontera norte de México
Por Luis Alonso Pérez
El 25 de abril del 2005 Alfredo Jiménez, un reportero de Sonora desapareció días después de publicar una investigación sobre el crimen organizado en la región.

10 candidates in the race for three seats on the Chula Vista Elementary School District board
By Pablo Jaime Sainz
Three of them are the incumbents. Many of the challengers said the board needs new blood that will lead the district into a better future.

10 candidatos en la contienda de tres puestos de la Mesa Directiva del Distrito Escolar de Primarias de Chula Vista
Por Pablo Jaime Sainz
Tres de ellos son actuales miembros de la Mesa Directiva. Muchos de los retadores dijeron que la Mesa Directiva necesita sangre nueva que llevará al distrito a un mejor futuro.

First Person:
Don’t vote, don’t snivel...
By Al Carlos Hernandez
Everyone who I vote for always loses, so I’ve changed my voting strategy and now vote according to my proclivity to pick the loser.

We Have to Live Together’
Last of a Six-Part Series By Rene P. Ciria-Cruz
SOUTH LOS ANGELES—Marqueece Harris-Dawson and Aurea Montes-Rodriguez of the Community Coalition often bump into the Watts/Century Latino Organization’s Arturo Ybarra and other South L.A. activists in meetings of the city’s organizers.

LA COLUMNA VERTEBRAL
Por: Victor Rivas Rivers
NO MÁS SILENCIO
Me preguntan con frecuencia: ¿por qué el chico malo de las películas es un activista en contra de la violencia doméstica? ¿No se supone que ése es un asunto de mujeres?”. Yo pienso que debería ser un asunto de todos.

For the Vecinos:
Tacos Salceados, Come to Taste, Come to Appreciate, and Come Sober
By El Vecino
Okay, tacos in Tijuana, you’ve had them already, I know. The guy with the un-gloved hands peels off flakes from a pork reel with a rusty machete, tosses them in a little cracking corn tortilla, slaps about four different toppings down the midsection with grease lightening speed, and somehow, it all tastes like a piece of Lateeno heaven.

Editorials

Editorial:
Ballot Recommendations on Local Propostions
This year is the year of the Initiative and Proposition. This week we provide our recommendations on the local Propositions
City of San Diego: Propositions A, B, & C:

Editorial:
Ballot Recommendations on Local Propostions
City of Chula Vista
Propositions F, G, & H:

Editorial:
Does Prop. 89 Deliver on the Promise?
Prop 89: Political Campaigns, Public Financing, Corporate Tax Increase, Campaign Contribution and Expenditure Limits: INITIATIVE STATUTE.

Commentary:
No Fruits For Their Labor
By David Bacon
Julia Preston, a New York Times reporter writing from Washington DC, describes pears rotting on trees in Lake County, owing to a lack of farm workers to pick them. Growers tell her 70,000 of the state’s 450,000 farm workers are missing. America’s newspaper of record is being spun by agribusiness, which wants a new bracero program, and complains of a labor shortage to get it.

Comentario:
Los inmigrantes, potenciales líderes para América Latina
Por Manuel R. Villacorta O.
La calidad del desarrollo integral de un país depende de su nivel educativo. Todos los países desarrollados otorgan importancia y atención permanente al proceso educativo, desde la educación primaria hasta la especialización universitaria. Asimismo, todos los países subdesarrollados tienen graves deficiencias en su sistema educativo, en no pocos casos, se hace referencia a sistemas colapsados.

Comentario:
Chávez y el voto
Por José Uzal
Mientras Castro languidece en su lecho de muerte, Hugo Chávez, el presidente de Venezuela y dictador en entrenamiento, trabaja activamente para conseguir el objetivo de su mentor: destruir a Estados Unidos. El peligro más grande que presenta Chávez, es que aparenta ser un mequetrefe. Nada más lejos de la verdad. El incipiente dictador es un formidable adversario, con dinero, con poderosos aliados y con acceso a la economía norteamericana. Esto lo sitúa en una perfecta posición para ser una quinta columna y tratar de destruirnos desde dentro.

Commentary:
Hamilton’s Tavern, Disturbers of the Peace
By Ernie McCray
I’ll always remember a moment in my childhood when a police officer told a screaming woman that he was going to have to arrest her for “disturbing the peace.” The setting was a rough neighborhood in my hometown referred to as “the strip” and the woman replied “What g——n peace?”

The Public Forum . . . El Foro Publico
Adios, Freddy Fender
Last week we lost one of the great musical influences for Chicanos and all of the country with the passing of Freddy Fender. Freddy, through his music broadened the understanding of the Blues Chicano style and his musica Tejana. Along with his other compadre Flaco Jimenez, they became living exponents of the Tex-Mex musical experience.

Etc. Etc. Etc.
Entertainment, Reviews, Sporting news, and other tid bits

¡ASK A MEXICAN!
Why do Mexicans put on their Sunday best to shop at Wal-Mart, Kmart, Target, etc.?
Brown Beauty

The magic of the Sierra Madre comes to San Diego
By Pablo Jaime Sainz
Mexico’s Sierra Madre has captured the imagination of many Americans, who, looking for adventure, have turned it into a some sort of Fantasy-land full of myths and legends.

La magia de la Sierra Madre viene a San Diego
Por Pablo Jaime Sainz
La Sierra Madre de México ha capturado la imaginación de los estadounidenses, quienes, buscando aventuras, la han convertido en una especie de tierra de la fantasía llena de mitos y leyendas.

Reseña:
Nuevas Ediciones Bibliográficas
Por: Paco Zavala
El ser humano siempre anda en busca de emociones, provocando dar rienda suelta a sus inquietudes, persiguiendo la realización de sus metas y de sus ambiciones, pero considero que uno de los mayores placeres del ser humano es dar lectura a un libro. Reseñamos a continuación suscintamente el contenido de tres estupendos libros, el lector tiene la oportunidad de tener en sus manos tres historias distintas, cada una con una particularidad atractiva y diferente. Tres temas distintos, tres géneros distintos.

Halloween Fun Scheduled at City Recreation Centers
Halloween will be celebrated at several of Chula Vista’s recreation centers with a variety of fun-filled activities for children and teens. The schedule includes a Pumpkin Carving Day and Little Tikes Costume Carnival at Montevalle Recreation Center; Halloween Crafts and Costume Contest at Heritage Park Community Center; a Fall Fest and a Teen Monster Bash Dance at Loma Verde Recreation Center; a Ghoulish Dance and Contest at Parkway Community Center; a Flashlight Candy Hunt at Veterans Park Recreation Center; and a Halloween Tot Carnival and Haunted House at Otay Recreation Center.

Latin Grammy 2006: El Año de los Rockeros Mexicanos
Por James Klein
NUEVA YORK (KPRENSA) — 2006 es el año de los Rockeros Mexicanos! Este año el Grammy Latino celebra a los mexicanos en el rock con nominados para artistas veteranos y nuevos. Julieta Venegas, Café Tacuba, Motel, Natalia LaFourcade, Alejandra Guzmán, Nortec Collective, y Chetes vienen de tradiciones musicales diferentes. Sin embargo, juntos ellos representan todo el espíritu de la música Rock. Con una suma de once nominados, estos siete artistas muestran que Mexico ha logrado un lugar alto en Rock. Aquí está una descripción de los artistas y los álbumes de que han hecho 2006 el año de los Rockeros Mexicanos.

La Soprano Florencia Tinoco en Concierto
‘Imágenes de Baja California y Florencia Tinoco’
Por:Paco Zavala
Dotada de facultades vocales extraordinarias la soprano mexicana Florencia Tinoco, desde la edad de 9 años comienza a cantar, alentada e inspirada por sus padres, familiares y amigos. Florencia ha cautivado a las audiencias con su bella y expresiva voz de Soprano Lírico-Coloratura. Florencia realizó sus estudios de canto en México-Europa y Estados Unidos. Por la versatilidad de su voz, Florencia tiene un extenso repertorio que abarca desde obras de música antigua, oratorio, ópera, lied, musicales, música mexicana y de concierto.

¡TIC TAC TIEMPO !
Barrio teens toting their filmmaking talents is what it’s all about at the Media Art Center San Diego’s Teen Producers Project, a media youth program celebrating its 5th Year Anniversary with two months of their very best films. Come discover the next Robert Rodriguez, Chicano Tarantino, or Latino Moore this Sunday, Oct 22, as local youth showcase their Tu Voz T.V. Episodes “Girls Tell Stories,” “Youth, Camera Action,” and “Highlights” of the Tu Voz series at the Museum of Photographic Art’s Joan and Irwin Jacobs Theater (1649 El Prado) in Balboa Park. Shows begin at 2 p.m. For more info, call 619-230-1938.

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