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Hispanic or Latino?

So, how should you refer to people from most of the countries throughout Latin America or Spain? Hispanics or Latinos? It depends on who you ask.

The origin of the word "Hispanic" is the Latin term Romans used when referring to Europe’s Iberian Peninsula – "Hispania" –made up of Spain and Portugal. Many people I know balk at being identified as Hispanic, noting that Spain colonized their family’s country of origin and they in no way want to show acceptance or even tolerance of that historical fact.

The National Council of La Raza website notes: "the terms 'Hispanic' and 'Latino' are used interchangeably by the U.S. Census Bureau to refer to persons of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Central and South American, Dominican, Spanish, and other Hispanic descent; they may be of any race. Some segments of the population also use the term 'La Raza' which has its origins in early 20th century Latin American literature and translates into English most closely as 'the people,' or, according to some scholars, 'the Hispanic people of the New World.' Mexican scholar José Vasconcelos coined the term to reflect the fact that the people of Latin America are a mixture of many of the world's races, cultures, and religions." (Click here to learn more about Vasconcelos.)

The NCLR web site goes on to explain how "some people have mistranslated 'La Raza' to mean 'The Race,' implying that it is a term meant to exclude others. In fact, the full term coined by Vasconcelos, 'La Raza Cósmica,' meaning the 'cosmic people,' was developed to reflect not purity but the mixture inherent in the Hispanic people. This is an inclusive concept, meaning that Hispanics share with all other peoples of the world a common heritage and destiny."

But Carlos Hernandez-Chavez, a friend of mine born and raised in Mexico and now a U.S. citizen, reminded me, whatever the reference you use – Hispanic or Latino - our cultures, regardless of one’s opinion of Spanish colonialism, has a strong European influence from Spain. "What’s this ‘Latino’ thing about?" he asked. "Not all Spanish-speaking people are Latin American. And not all Latin-based languages are Spanish. Calling myself a Latino makes no sense to me." Latin-based (or Romance) languages include French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Romanian. If forced to choose between the two, Carlos opts for "Hispanic." After a few moments, he added, "if you really want to be accurate, call me what I am – Mexican."

According to a 2002 survey by the Pew Hispanic Center and the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, 53 percent of Hispanics had no preference between "Hispanic" and "Latino." Among the 47 percent with a preference, 34 percent preferred "Hispanic" to "Latino" (13 percent). That same survey also provides a good lead on what to do when faced with the challenge of not knowing whether to refer to someone as Hispanic or Latino - 88 percent of "Hispanics" prefer to identify themselves by national origin rather than either of the two more generic references. It seems to me that the more we generalize ethnic references, the more likely we are to slip into stereotypes. No, we don’t all eat tacos.

Everyday Democracy created a dialogue guide about immigration for communities that want to address this hot button issue. Conversations are designed to help participants consider that Hispanics or Latinos are but one cluster of ethnicities that make up U.S. immigrants. Click here to read about communities who have addressed their immigration issues through dialogue aimed toward taking action and here to download a free copy of our immigration discussion guide.

Gloria Francesca Mengual is a program director for Everyday Democracy. She is of Puerto Rican and Spanish descent and because she identifies more strongly with her Puerto Rican heritage, prefers Puerto Rican. If the choices are limited to Hispanic or Latino, Hispanic feels more accurate to her.

May Day brings rallies

Livin’ in a city where the streets are paved
With good intentions and a people’s faith   
In the sacred promise a statue made
Livin’ in a city of immigrants ...
~ Steve Earle, "City of Immigrants" (lyrics, video)

May Day, known as International Workers' Day throughout most of the world, has in the United States lately become a rallying day for supporters of immigrants and immigration reform - and today is no exception, though rallies this year are expected to be smaller than the historic processions held two years ago. In Detroit, a four-block-long throng marched downtown at lunchtime, carrying signs calling for an end to workplace raids and deportations that separate families. But in Miami, activists are placing more emphasis on a family celebration set Saturday than on a modest march planned today.

In the nation's largest cities, however, crowds will turn out today. Organizers expect a large turnout for a march and rally set later this afternoon for New York's Union Square. In Los Angeles, up to 100,000 people are expected at four different marches that will wind up at a rallying point near City Hall. From the Los Angeles Times:

While most of the attention will be focused on the marchers, the LAPD will also be under a great deal of scrutiny today after last year's mostly peaceful event ended with riot police beating journalists and demonstrators in MacArthur Park. The beatings, captured on television cameras, took place as the police were trying to clear the park after 20 to 30 people starting throwing rocks and bottles. This year, after additional training and cooperation with march organizers, the Police Department leaders say they are better prepared to keep things under control without letting conditions turn chaotic.

Click here for a list of May Day marches around the country and here for some interesting history on why May Day has always been associated with immigrants in America. Finally, here's a compelling column from Ruben Navarrette of the San Diego Union-Tribune on why today's calls for immigration reform are of interest to the 80 percent of U.S. Hispanics who were either born here or are legal residents.  "When they talk to me about the immigration debate, they condemn the hypocrisy of a society that is addicted to illegal immigrant labor but looks for others to blame for the addiction," he writes. "...  Most of all, they scoff at the claim that, as U.S. citizens, this debate doesn't concern them and that the attack is limited to illegal immigrants."

Welcome to the Learning Exchange

About 50 people have gathered in East Hartford, Connecticut, this week from around the country to join in the first of two Learning Exchanges for Communities Creating Racial Equity. Everyday Democracy executive director Martha McCoy (below) greeted us by saying that the program is "a step in a dream we've had for a long time."

Formerly known as the Study Circles Resource Center, Everyday Democracy began focusing on racism during the 1992 civil disturbances in Los Angeles after the Rodney King beating. But in the 16 years since then, America has changed the way we talk about racism, McCoy said.

Early discussions were driven by King's plaintive question, "Can't we all just get along?" At first, it was enough for tens of thousands of people to come together in communities nationwide to talk about racial differences. Eventually, however, communities - and SCRC - understood that real change had to come on the institutional and policy level. Today, Everyday Democracy helps lead the effort to turn community organizing and dialogue into substantive change.  "We're working on two of the leading edges in the country," McCoy said: racial equity and making democracy work better.

CCRE participating communities include South Sacramento County, California; New Haven and Stratford, Connecticut; Jacksonville, Florida; Hopkinsville, Kentucky; Montgomery County Public Schools, Maryland; Syracuse, New York; Burlington, Vermont; and Lynchburg, Virginia. Today at the conference, communities will tell their stories, discuss structural racism, and learn tools for evaluation and communication. Tomorrow, participants will look forward to the next six to 12 months of work, using markers of progress we'll identify this week (and backed by action grants that Everyday Democracy will award via generous funding from the Kellogg and Mott Foundations).

And along the way - via DemocracySpace, our website, and other tools - we'll share much of the communities' progress with you so that cities and towns beyond the initiative can take what we're learning and make it your own.

One view of life on the border

Immigration is a complex topic, and one that has produced more heat than light in recent years. This little video, Arivaca, shows the impact of immigration on one small border town in Arizona - and it's the winner of the Movement Vision Lab's Video Contest on Community Values & Immigration.

It may be that not everyone in Arivaca shares the sentiments expressed in this video, but the views of the people in this film are just as much a part of the national debate on immigration as those seen and heard daily in the traditional media. Everyday Democracy has resources for communities that want to find better ways to talk about immigration and the impact it is having on your community and our nation. Click here.

We also are accepting entires into our first-ever "Making Every Voice Matter" video contest showcasing communities that are talking the talk, then walking the walk on issues ranging from racial equity to education to immigration to growth and sprawl. The deadline - April 16 - is coming soon. Click here for more details on how to enter.

SPLC: 888 hate groups in U.S.

The Southern Poverty Law Center released its annual "Year in Hate" report this week, and it wasn't good news. From the news release:

Led by three states on the southern border, the number of hate groups operating in America has swelled by 48 percent since 2000, a staggering increase mainly attributable to the anti-immigrant fervor sweeping the country ...

... The latest annual count by the SPLC found the number of hate groups operating in America rose to 888 last year, up 5 percent from the 844 groups in 2006 and far above the 602 groups documented in 2000.

At the same time, new FBI statistics suggest a 35 percent rise in hate crimes against Latinos between 2003 and 2006. Experts believe that such crimes are typically carried out by people who think they are attacking immigrants.

"Hate groups continue to successfully exploit the immigration debate to their advantage, even though the immigration issue has largely disappeared from the presidential debate," said Mark Potok, editor of the SPLC's Intelligence Report, an investigative journal that monitors the radical right. "The fact is that they've been aided and abetted by mainstream pundits and politicians who give these haters a platform for their propaganda."

Other hate groups continue to target blacks, gays, and immigrants. Read the full release here.

Everyday Democracy - formerly the Study Circles Resource Center - has resources for communities that want to hold large-scale, inclusive dialogues on sensitive issues including immigration and racial equity. One community - Springfield, Illinois - used its dialogues in part to counter a visit from a white supremacist. Another community - New Haven, Connecticut - will focus on immigration as it takes part in Everyday Democracy's  new Communities Creating Racial Equity project.

Mobilizing community media

An interesting story in today's New York Times tells of the Media Mobilizing Project, a organization that's promoting community journalism in some of Philadelphia's toughest neighborhoods. Noam Cohen writes:

The Brewerytown neighborhood is experiencing an intense struggle with gentrification and street violence — something I could have learned by searching Brewerytown at a news site like Philly.com (recent headlines: “Brewerytown Man Charged With Two Stabbings,” “Firearms, Explosive Devices Found in Brewerytown Home”).

But, in fact, I learned it by hearing the collective news judgment of Mr. (Todd) Wolfson’s group. After a free-flowing discussion about the kind of news they see and read in mainstream outlets, the group of about 15 was encouraged by the class’s three teachers to suggest their own story ideas, a few of which they will turn into five-minute video segments by the end of the eight-week class. A pattern quickly emerged: proposed topics included gun control, violence in schools, as well as crime against cab drivers.

The project got a boost from a $150,000 grant from the Knight Foundation in Miami, which is donating $25 million over five years “for innovative ideas using digital experiments to transform community news.” (Other 2007 recipients include the Chi-Town Daily News, MTV - which has "Choose or Lose" 2008 election street team reporters in all 50 states - and Gotham Gazette.) Click here to learn more about last year's winners and here to read a FAQ about the News Challenge. Cohen continues:

The free classes, which also include Internet training as well as the opportunity to buy a steeply discounted computer, were initially meant for immigrants. But that didn’t sit well with Joyce Haynes, 51, who works in housekeeping at the Gallery, a shopping center on Market Street East. She heard about the classes through the Service Employees International Union, and asked, “It’s a free program. Why is it just for immigrants?”

So while the class is still dominated by immigrants, Ms. Haynes and a few other nonimmigrants have joined as well, and for her report, she and a few others plan to look at the competition for jobs between union labor and immigrant workers.

Organizer Todd Wolfson told the Times that the project aims to help narrow the digital divide as well, by helping greater numbers of diverse people get email, make and post videos, and - most of all - share stories online.

A reminder: If your community has created positive change, we'd love to see a video about it. Click here to learn about Everyday Democracy's Making Every Voice Matter video contest. The deadline is April 16.

'His Panic' illuminates fear

TV journalist Geraldo Rivera has a new book titled His Panic: Why Americans Fear Hispanics in the U.S., which National Public Radio described Tuesday as "his effort to explain why so many Americans are concerned about illegal immigration." Here's an excerpt from Rivera's interview on NPR:

"Many of the most fervent anti-immigrant activists are themselves the children or grandchildren of immigrants," he says. "The style changes, the accents change, the geographical antecedents change, but it's the same. You can track headline for headline the response to the Irish wave of immigration in the mid-19th century to the reaction of the Minutemen and similar radical anti-immigration groups today."

Those people who say they're worried about border security are being disingenuous, Rivera says.

"Are you really concerned about 'border security,' or are you concerned about the changing demographic face of the United States? [For] example, if it is terrorism that you are concerned about and you want this fence built between the United States and Mexico, why don't you want the same fence built between the United States and Canada? Why isn't there this clamor ... ?

"It's not [fear of] crime, it's not terror, it is demographics that is the true fear. If we wanted secure borders, what about the entire Atlantic and Pacific coasts?"

Click here to hear the entire interview and read an excerpt from the book. Everyday Democracy has resources for people who would like to organize large-scale, inclusive, and productive dialogues about how immigration is changing our communities. Click here to learn more.

February book roundup

It's time again for our monthly books roundup.This month's selections include Everyday Antiracism: Getting Real About Race in School; Lost & Found in America; and Political Communication and Deliberation. You can order these books from your local bookseller, or online, or at the links offered with each.

Yesterday, Education Week hosted a live chat with Mica Pollock, associate professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and editor of the forthcoming book Everyday Antiracism: Getting Real About Race in School, which will be released in June by The New Press. Giving the book some advance praise, Tim Wise, author of White Like Me, said, "Teachers and parents often want to act on the issue of racism, but don’t know how. This one-of-a-kind volume is the blueprint; no one should teach another day without reading it." Have a look at the chat transcript (free registration required) for a preview of the book, which features robust and realistic strategies for teachers who want to move beyond frustrations about race.

Lost & Found In America is a new book that, according to its description at amazon.com, "is the story of Akobo Adele, an immigrant from Africa, who, after the events of September 11, 2001, got caught up in both personal and socio-political circumstances that changed his perceptions about United States and transformed his relationships and well being. Lost & Found in America explores the multi-faced circumstances of new African immigrants in the United States and provides unique lenses through which folks from Africa see and analyze events in the country, including how they deal with racism, expectations from home, love, romance, the African-American sub-cultures, and the need to find a sense of place in a new culture." The book was written by Tokunbo Awoshakin, the executive director of Civic Life International, an organization dedicated to using dialogue, deliberation, and media strategies to strengthen local communities in Africa and United States.

John Gastil was co-editor (with Peter Levine) of The Deliberative Democracy Handbook. His new book, Political Communication and Deliberation, was recently released by Sage Publications Inc. and features an accompanying instructors' website with teaching resources. Martin Carcasson of Colorado State University says, "Professor Gastil has been a leading voice in the deliberative democracy movement for the last 15 years, and with this book he has created a wonderful resource that adeptly captures the broad, valuable work being done both inside and outside academia concerning public deliberation and political communication. I hope this book will help spark a whole new generation of courses focused on this critical topic." You can listen to a podcast of the first chapter of the book here.

Finally, it's almost time to announce the next selection for our Everyday Democracy Book Club (which last month featured Frances Moore Lappé and her book Getting a Grip). Stay tuned for that! And be sure to look at Everyday Democracy's website for resources on addressing issues including racial equity, education, immigration, and more.

Friday digest-open thread 2/8/08

The Center for Community Change and its Movement Vision Lab are holding a Community Values & Immigration video contest now through February 29. Create and share a video that offers a message about immigration and answers the question: "What would it mean to value everyone equally, no matter where they come from and how they got here?" The winning filmmaker will get $1,000 from the Center for Community Change. Click on the image above to learn more, or go here to get more information.

Also, stay tuned later this month for word of another video contest - this one from all of us here at Everyday Democracy - that will give you a chance to showcase the positive steps your community is taking to address issues including racial equity, the achievement gap, immigration, education, and more. And mark your calendar for 1 p.m. Eastern on Thursday, February 21, when our monthly water cooler will focus on how community organizers are using tech tools like YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, and blogs to communicate key messages, celebrate their work, and attract new support.

At her Smart Communities blog, Suzanne Morse reflects on the big Super Tuesday voter turnouts and wonders whether the surge of political activity among young Americans will last. "This is the year that we need to turn around voting patterns forever. We saw some positive movement in 2004 but there is still a long way to go," she writes. "While a number of groups run by younger people are pushing and encouraging, I think those of us in the 'most likely to vote' category (ages 45 and above) need to do more ourselves. For example, every high school should have easy ways for students of age to register to vote; employers of young people should encourage but also give time off to vote; and community colleges and four-year colleges should make this as much a priority as winning a football or basketball game. We need the national food chains involved in this. Why can't McDonalds, Burger King, or Chick-Filet offer a discount on voting days to people who wear that 'I voted' sticker? Everybody has got to get into this act."

This week's tornadoes in the South have killed 57 people. (Tornadoes killed 81 people in all of 2007.) Network for Good has a page spotlighting tornadoes and some of the agencies that work to aid survivors of these freak storms. Click here to see how you can help.

Friday digest-open thread 11/02/07

Fifty-six months into the war in Iraq, many people are feeling both numb and cut off from what's really happening in the Middle East. The Dallas Morning News' David McLemore writes of a sure way to stay in step with what's happening on the ground in Baghdad and elsewhere: military blogs (milblogs for short) written by such soldiers as Spc. Alex Horton, the recently returned author of Army of Dude. In Vietnam, we had three television networks beaming pictures of war into our living room. In Iraq, we have soldiers doubling as diarists, writing the first draft of an unfinished history.

In related news, the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University held a conference the weekend before last for milbloggers and others involved in chronicling the Iraq War. A snip from a story in the Brown Daily Herald: "'Progress doesn't take place in the university, in the military or in political circles through blind consent,' said Professor of International Studies James Der Derian, one of the conference's organizers. 'It only happens through contestation - dissent with a willingness to listen to the other.'" There was plenty of both at the conference. Click here to read more.

On Wednesday, the National Council of LaRaza and the Urban Institute released a report detailing the consequences of immigration raids on children. The report explored how more than 500 children - two thirds of them under age 10 - were directly affected by the arrest of 912 people in three large-scale workplace immigration raids over the past year. “The local governments and communities we studied did not have adequate resources to deal with children’s needs in the aftermath of the raids,” said Randy Capps, a demographer with the nonpartisan Urban Institute. "We don't question the fact that our laws need to be enforced. We do question how we enforce those laws," Janet Murguía, president of the National Council of LaRaza, told USA Today. "You're talking about real pain and suffering for these kids." Read more here and here.

At thataway.org, Amy Lang reviews the recent defeat of electoral reform proposed by the recent Ontario Citizens Assembly. Linking to and echoing an analysis by Jim Snider, she suggests that "understanding the Assembly’s reasons for recommending the system they chose could have changed the debate about the proposal." The reform's sound defeat offers a challenge to civic engagement proponents, she adds: "For all the high we feel when we gather people together for face-to-face dialogue and deliberation, how do we connect the outcomes of this work to a broader public?" Read more here.

Noted in the AmericaSpeaks e-newsletter: "Educare Trust is a Nigerian education and health NGO that is establishing a Deliberative Democracy Section in their library to expose students and adult users to the concept of deliberative forums.  If you can donate books and resource material contact Folorunsho Moshood (phone +234-802-386-5772) in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria." Click here to see photos of the library and its users at the DD section's opening.

What have you been thinking about and working on this week? Have a great weekend, don't forget to set your clocks back an hour on Saturday night, and we'll see you here on Monday.