Latino USA; No. 1; 1993-04-30

This is Latino USA, a radio journal of news and culture. [background music] I'm Maria Hinojosa.[background music] Today on Latino USA, two years after the ?march? and riots in the nation's capital. [new voice] Overnight, Latinos were an issue in Washington, D.C.[Hinojosa] Where U.S. Latinos stand on the free trade agreement with Canada and Mexico. [new voice] the jobs that are expected to be lost are the low skilled, low paying jobs that so many Latinos in this country hold. [Hinojosa]Also, Afro Cuban jazz pioneer Mario Bauza. And some thoughts on what's really important. [new voice] Here on top of the earth, We have everything a man can need. What more can one ask for? [Hinojosa] All this here on Latino USA. But first, let's not ?discuss? [new voice] This is news from Latino USA. I'm Maria Martin. [background music] He truly was a legend in his own time. The man who organized farmworkers in California and throughout the southwest, beginning in the 60s, whose tireless efforts on their behalf inspired a whole generation

to political activism. And, who, more than 25 years ago, gave then oppressed Mexican Americans a hero and a cause. [music] [music] [music] Cesar Estrada Chavez was born in 1927 on a ranch outside Yuma, Arizona. At age 10, he was working in the fields, Twenty Some years later, he was organizing Mexican and Filipino farm laborers in California in the first ever successful effort to unionize U.S. agricultural workers. [singing] [music] [music] Cesar Chavez died at his home in Arizona, not far from where he was born. But the journey he traveled in those 66 years, as a symbol of the Chicano movement, as a unique Labor leader, was one of struggle and faith.

Not long ago, Father Virgil Elizondo of San Antonio, Texas, mused on how far Chavez had come, often fighting a David and Goliath battle against powerful economic interests, but driven by a strong belief in the justice of his cause on behalf of migrant workers. [male voice] When Cesar Chavez took on the greatest powers in this country, people said he was crazy, couldn't do it. He has not totally succeeded, But he's come a long way. [Maria Martin] Rebecca Flores Harrington works with the United Farm Workers in Texas. [female voice]He never forgot where he came from as a as a farm worker himself, as a migrant farm worker. And he always remembered those experiences, And he inspired others who were different from himself to do to, do the same, to go back into their communities and and do something to better the lives of those people in their own communities. [Maria Martin] in In 30 years as an organizer, Chavez, saw his small union grow, to a high tech organization with a pension plan and retirement benefits. But Chavez's union had lost membership, and some say,

moral authority in his later years, due to a hostile political environment in California. And infighting within the union itself. Oswaldo ?How did she? worked with the UFW until 1990 He says even those people who had had severe fallings out with the UFW founder were in shock on hearing of the passing of Cesar Chavez. [male voice]They feel really shocked, really moved, and they think they should go and pay their tribute to the leader for what he was, and most for what he is to represent as a symbol of the compass in the struggle [music and singing] [music] [music] [music] [singing continues] [music]

[female voice] A case which challenges minority based redistricting is now before the U.S. Supreme Court. The case involves a majority African-American district in North Carolina, which was redrawn to ensure a black majority. ?word? white voters in the district challenged the redistricting plan, arguing it goes against the principle of a colorblind constitution. [male voice] Without the Voting Rights Act, we would not see the progress we've seen in minority voter participation. What this would do would be, if they were to prevail, it would be a major step backward. It would shut people out again. [Maria Martin] Minority voter advocates like Andrew Hernandez of the Southwest Voter Education and Registration Project say districts like the one challenged in this case only came about after a long time pattern of racially polarized voting was established, preventing the election of minority representatives. Twenty-six new black or Latino majority districts created under the Voting Rights Act could be in jeopardy if the High Court accepts that North Carolina's redistricting plan established a racial quota.

An announcement of President Clinton's health care plan is expected soon. Among the many questions surfacing about the plan is whether it will include coverage for undocumented immigrants. Reportedly, many members of the President's health care task force do favor undocumented health care coverage for public health reasons, But First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton has been quoted as saying undocumented immigrants would not be covered. I'm Maria Martin. [female voice]You're listening to Latino USA. [music] I'm Maria Hinojosa. Trade talks are now underway regarding the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico. NAFTA, perhaps as no other U.S. economic initiative, will have a significant impact on U.S. Latinos. With us to speak about the future of the controversial free trade agreement, our three journalists who cover Washington, D.C. politics. ?Sandra Marcus? of the Hispanic Link News Service, freelance journalist ?Sittar Roger? and ?Joseph Carino?, D.C.

bureau chief for the Mexican daily El Universal. [male voice]The biggest misperception on this whole thing is that even if NAFTA's a new document in a way, it's something that is already happening at the border as well. The people who's in Texas and California can say, now what is going to happen? I think that there will be a lot of pressures on Mexico and the United States, Muslim environment and labor problems. Congressman Gephardt and a number of other Democratic freshmen went to ?one? to take a look at the ecological situation there, And they came out saying no way that way, at least the actual treaty has to be upgraded. And we'll see a lot of the arguments in the next few months about it. [Maria Hinojosa] In fact, we've seen a lot of arguments already. Sandra, how much has the debate over NAFTA divided the Latino community in particular? [Sandra Marquez]I think there's tremendous division among US Latinos on the issue of NAFTA, because primarily the jobs that are expected to be lost as a result of this agreement are the low skilled, low paying jobs that so many Latinos in this country hold.

So there is concern that the jobs Latinos have are going to be exported to Mexico, But at the same time, Latinos realize that they have this intrinsic link with their Mexican kin across the border, and so they realize there's tremendous potential that, because of Latinos by cultural skills, that they can really tap into this and benefit more so than other Americans in this country. [male voice] The Latino population is also divided on terms of convenience. For instance, in Texas, there was a lot of people who's in favor of NAFTA because most of the Import-Export businesses are going through Texas and of course, they are getting a boost out of it. But in California, for instance, where there is a lot of Latinos in this low end of the industry, they're having a lot of problems, a lot of hesitations about it. So I think that it is also related a lot with the where are the jobs? I think the Mexican government has realized that U.S. Latinos can be very good promoters of this plan and they have started ?Anacin? Fund, a 20 million dollar fund

for U.S. Latino business leaders to create joint ventures with business partners in Mexico, And U.S. Hispanic Chambers of Commerce here in this country have also been leading in terms of creating these trade partnerships and expos and taking people from the United States to Mexico and really helping to create these links. [new female voice]There's another benefit to Latinos, and I think Latinos are beginning to see this, that if the agreement leaves in less immigration from Mexico to the United States, from Latin America generally to United States, then those low end jobs will not be taken away as easily as they would be if we continue to see hundreds of thousands of people coming across the border every year. There is some resistance on the part of some Latinos for fear that a lot of the low end jobs will go to Mexico. But at the same time, there is also a realization that there will be benefits long term that will come from fewer immigrants coming over and taking U.S. jobs at the low end. [Maria Hinojosa] Thank you very much, Sandra Marquez, ?de Rocha? and Jose Careño, for joining us

here on Latino USA. [music] [Maria Hinojosa] It's been two years since disturbances broke out in Washington, D.C.'s Mount Pleasant neighborhood, where most of the city's Latino population lives. At the time, Latino leaders blamed the violent outburst on neglect by the local city government of Hispanic residents. In the past 10 years, Washington, D.C.'s Latino community, mostly Central American, has grown rapidly. Since the violence of two years ago, The D.C. government has taken action to address community concerns, but Latino leaders say there's still much more to be done. From Washington, William Troop prepared this report. [music] [Troop] A music vendor sets up shop at the corner of Mount Pleasant and Lamont streets, the

heart of Washington's Latino community. He's one of at least a dozen Latino merchants doing business near Parque de las Palomas, a small triangular park at the end of a city bus line. [music continues] [music] [Troop] Just two years ago, the worst riots the nation's capital had seen in over 20 years started right here. On May 4th, 1991, Daniel Gomez, a Salvadoran immigrant, was stopped by an African-American police officer for drinking in public. There are differing accounts about what happened next. Police say Gomez lunged at the rookie officer, who shot him in self-defense, but many Latinos heard a different version, one that said Gomez was shot after being harassed and handcuffed by the officer. Gomez was seriously wounded, and as news of the incident spread, outrage poured from the community. We saw ?something? [male voice speaking Spanish] [continues speaking Spanish]

[Spanish continues] [Troop continues] During the riots, these men looted a 7-Eleven store because they were angry at police for mistreating Latinos. The looting and burning in Mount Pleasant lasted three days. To calm people down, D.C. Mayor Sharon Pratt Kelly arrived on the scene and promised to address Latino concerns as soon as the violence ended. It was a victory of sorts. Latino leaders had long complained that city officials ignored charges of discrimination and police brutality. The riots changed that. [male voice] To a certain degree, We had the best disturbance that we could have ever had. Although, you had the destruction of public property, you had the destruction of private property, you had some injuries, Nobody was killed. And overnight, Latinos were an issue in Washington, D.C. [Troop] Juan ?name? was a law student at the time. Today, he's legal counsel for the Latino Civil Rights Task Force, an organization created after the disturbances in Mount Pleasant. [male voice] Prior to May 5th, 1991, the Latino population of Washington, D.C.,

although it was 10 percent of the population, was unrecognized, just invisible. Just a bunch of people who get on the bus in the evening to go clean buildings, But, you know, they're just a few people here and there, most of them are illegal, anyway. Suddenly, we're there, And there was now this group of people that were demanding that they be there. [Troop] A few months after the riots, the Latino Civil Rights Task Force issued a blueprint for action, detailing 200 specific steps the city could take to address Latino concerns. Task Force Executive Director Pedro Avila says the city has not done enough to stop discrimination and police insensitivity. [Avila]The problems have not been solved yet. The police brutality cases, they continue. Certainly the fact that we've been complaining and we've been shakin' the tree, kind of thing, it's, it's brought about little change. But I would say that it's a lot of stuff that needs to be done.

[Troop] What has been done, has been done slowly, according to task force officials. One example, the city hired bilingual 911 operators a year and a half after the task force recommended it, and only after a Latina who had been raped had to wait two hours for assistance in Spanish. Carmen Ramirez, director of the mayor's Office on Latino Affairs, says the city has taken significant steps to address community concerns. [Ramirez] The recommendations, in many instances are not recommendations that can just be met by one concrete action, although some of them are, but rather it's a matter of putting into place policies and, in many instances, mechanisms by which problems can continue to be addressed. [Troop] To do that, the city has created bilingual positions in almost all departments of D.C. government. Ramirez adds that D.C.'s Police Department has hired more bilingual personnel and sent hundreds of police officers to Spanish classes and sensitivity training.

But last year, Latino leaders complained they were excluded from developing the initial sensitivity training program. And they say there are still plenty of police brutality cases. In January, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights agreed when it issued its report on the Mount Pleasant Disturbances. Commission chair Arthur Fletcher called the plight of Latinos in D.C. appalling. [Fletcher] Many Latinos in the Third District have been subjected to arbitrary harassment, unwarranted arrests, and even physical abuse by D.C. police officers. [Troop] The commission also found that the District of Columbia still shuts off Latinos from basic services because it lacks bilingual personnel. Many D.C. Latinos feel that in a city dominated by African-Americans, it's often hard to get a fair distribution of resources. Bebe Otero is chair of the Latino Civil Rights Task Force. [Otero] There is a prevalent feeling among the African-American community, not just the leadership, but the community at large that says, you know, we've struggled hard to get where we are, to have control of some resources in the city, to begin to play

a power role, a powerful role in the community, And it's, if we open it up to someone else, we may be giving something up. [male voice] They still wanted them to be citizens of their own country and not register to vote in the United States and still have the same measure of power and the same measure of participation as somebody who was a citizen. That, in my view, is a naïve expectation and certainly not something that civil rights movement ever talked about. [Troop] African-American council member Frank Smith represents Ward one, the area where most D.C. Latinos live. He says the struggle for civil rights is about citizenship and voting. [Smith]I think that the Hispanic community has got to work harder at getting their people registered to vote. If they want to win elections, they're going to have to get people registered to vote and get them out to the ballot boxes on Election Day, In order to win. Nobody is going to roll over and give up. One of these seats. [female voice] Civic activity comes once you have gained some sense of security of where you are or where you live. You still have a community that doesn't have that sense of security. [Troop] Over half of Washington's estimated 60,000 Latinos are undocumented,

many of whom have fled war and unrest in El Salvador and, most recently, Guatemala. Bebe Otero, who ran unsuccessfully for a school board seat last fall, says she's hopeful that Latino political base will develop as time goes by and as the community matures. [Otero] If they can survive the struggle that it is to be able to fight the odds, basically, and build that political base, then we will see, I think, by 96, some other candidates in other areas. beyond myself. [music] [Troop] Change, however slow some may consider it, seems to be happening at Parque de Las Palomas. Where the disturbances erupted two years ago, There are now more Latino officers walking the beat. Merchant ?Jose Balthazar? says even those stopped for drinking in public are now treated with respect by police. First, they say hello to you, and I start to speak, and they explain to you what's going on,

Sometimes the person who owned any store down here will say, you know, they don't like ?drunk people around here, you know, they say, no, keep walking and? everything will be OK. [music] [Troop] Daniel Gomez, whose shooting sparked the disturbances in Mount Pleasant two years ago, recovered from his wounds and was later acquitted of assaulting the police officer who shot him. For Latino USA, I'm William Troop, reporting from Washington, D.C. [music] [Female voice] The roots of Latin jazz go back at least five decades to such artists

as ?Mashita Channel, Boasso and Dizzy Gillespie.? Latin Jazz has lost many of its originators in recent years, but one of them, 81 year old ?Mario Bauza?, keeps going strong. From Miami, ?Emilio Sampedro? prepared this profile of the legendary co-founder of the band ?Margita? and his Afro-Cubans. [male voice] Mario Bauza left his native Havana for New York in 1930. When he got to this country, Bauza became one of those responsible for making Afro Cuban music popular in the United States and around the world. [male voice] Had they happen outside of Cuba before the Cuban people could reasons for what they had been serving over there. [sentence is unclear] When it got big in the United States, Cuba begin to move into that line of music. [music] [male voice] Bauza remembers his days at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, where he helped to launch the career of Ella Fitzgerald.

He recalls his days with the Cab Calloway orchestra and the time that he and his friends, Dizzy Gillespie and Cozy Cole, played around with Afro Cuban rhythm and jazz arrangements and created something new, [background music] Afro Cuban Jazz. [music] In the early 1940s, Basar formed the legendary band Machito and his Afro Cubans, along with his brother in law, Frank Grillo, who was called Machito. Bauza was the musical director of the band, and he composed some of the group's most memorable songs.[music] [music] The sensation caused by Machito and his Afro Cubans and by other Latin musicians in the 40s made New York the focal point of a vibrant Latin music scene. [music] [male voice] It's the scene of the Mambo Kings, you know, and that's why a lot of people will say Mambo

is not Cuban music or it's not Mexican music, Mambo is New York music. [Sanpedro] And Ricky Fernandez writes about Latin music for The Village Voice. He's also the editor of the New York based Mas magazine. [music] [male voice] It was here that this kind of music became very hot, that it really galvanized a lot of people. That really attracted a lot of musicians from different genres. They wanted to jam with it and they created those great, you know, those great encounters between Latin music practitioners and the jazz practitioners, particularly black American jazz practitioners. For that, you need to recognize that New York has been since then, probably before then, but certainly since then, One of the great centers of Latin music. [Sanpedro] Mario Bauza, takes great pride in the current popularity of Latin and Caribbean music. But he says people are wrong to call his music Latin jazz. He says, that label doesn't give proper recognition to its musical roots. [Bauza] merenque, merengue from San Domingo, cumbia, scumbia from Colombia Afro, that's Cuba. That's why I got to keep ? ?

Afro Cuban rhythms and Afro Cuban rhythm now sound like cubano ? That's a Cubano. A political one. [unintelligible sentence] No one else, but no one got one. [unintelligible] So I gotta call it Afro Cuban. [music[ {[Sanpedro] After seven decades in the music business, Mario Bauza has come out of the shadows of the group Machito and his Afro Cuban and is being recognized for his accomplishments as one of the creators of Afro Cuban jazz. This year, Bauza plans to tour with his Afro Cuban Jazz Orchestra, featuring Graciella on vocals. The group also plans to release another album of Afro Cuban jazz, Explosion ?...? For Latino USA, I'm Emilio Sanpedro. [music] [female voice] You're crazy in Chicago, I grew up in Chicago, but

every summer my family would pack up an overloaded station wagon and drive across the border to visit my homeland, Mexico. I have many wonderful memories of those trips to less urban settings. That was where I came into contact with nature, driving across the mountains and deserts of Mexico. I often think that, like me, many Latinos who return to the land of their birth or where their parents or grandparents came from, do so for the joy of going back to where the simple things of life are still valued. A few years ago, Texas artist Luis Guerra moved to a village in the state of San Luis Potosi in northern Mexico. He says he was recently reminded of why he made the move as he took a long hike in the mountains in La Sierra. [male voice] La Sierra is dura, it's a steep climb, but after a few hours, the walking gets easier. The valleys and peaks of this beautiful rocky sierra spread out before you

like a solid ocean suspended in time. This is a dry land, almost a desert. Yet sometimes I'll find a tiny spring in a niche of a canyon wall, or I'll happen upon a small shrine in a lonely valley. Almost every day I'll come across a shepherd tending his flock, or I'll hear the sounds of children and discover they're gathering wild herbs like oregano or rosa de castilla Often, early in the morning, I'll see a woman or a man driving two or three burros, loaded with mountain produce, heading for a nearby town or city. I make it a point not to camp close to someone's home, just out of respect. And so as not the use of firewood that doesn't belong to me. Firewood is scarce around here. This day, As I crested a hill, I spotted a ranchito, just a little two room house, adobe walls with a flat roof.

Smoke was rising from the chimney. I was barely three hundred yards from the Grand Teton and it would be dark soon. It was too late to move on. It was going to be a cold night and the only firewood I could find was already cut [?] for the ranchers' Woodstove. [mi mordo?] I used the firewood. I feel guilty but warm that night. Anyway, I would make it up to them in the morning. After breakfast, as I was packing my things, the campesino from the ranchito showed up, a barrel chested man with strong hands, a weathered face and a scraggly beard. Buenos diaz! I walked up to him and offered to pay for the wood, he brushed my words aside. Mira [?], everything you see all around you is mine [Spanish term....estas su casa] This is your home. To him, I was already his guest and my offer to pay was almost impolite. He reached into his bag and handed me a small bundle.

My wife packed this for you, he said. it was bread, Goat cheese and jamoncillo, A homemade candy made from fresh milk. We talked for awhile. I told him I was a painter who took inspiration from the Sierra. He told of his early life as a shepherd in these same mountains and of his many years as a miner in Zacatecas. The mines are bad luck, he said. [Spanish phrases] always in the dark, digging with dynamite for God knows what or for whom. Here on top of the earth, we have everything a man can need. What more can one ask for? [?] provides the earth, the sun, wind and rain. We provide the labor, he smiled. Somehow my pack felt especially light that whole day. [female voice] Commentator [?name?] is an Austin artist who now resides in the Mexican state of San Luis Potosí. [music]

And for this week, [y por esta semana], this has been Latino USA, a radio journal of news and culture. Latino USA is produced and edited by Maria Emilia Martin, associate producer Angelica Luevano. We had help from Caryl Wheeler in New York. Latino USA is produced at the studios of KUT in Austin, Texas. The technical producer is Walter Morgan. We want to hear from you so [llamanos] on our toll free number, 1-800 535-5533. Major funding for Latino USA comes from the Ford Foundation, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and the University of Texas at Austin. The program is distributed by the Long-Horned Radio Network. [?y esta la proxima?] Until next time, I'm Maria Hinojosa for Latino USA. Cable stations coming up are the modular segments for this week's edition of Latino USA

Segment number one runs three minutes, seven seconds. The in-cue is the biggest misperception. The out-cue is here on Latino USA. The suggested lead follows in three, two, one. The North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico NAFTA. Perhaps as no other U.S. economic initiative in recent memory will have as significant impact on US Latinos. Latino USA host Maria Hinojosa spoke about the future of the controversial free trade agreement with three journalists who cover Washington, D.C. politics. Sandra Márquez of the Hispanic Link News Service, freelance journalist ?Cita Arrocha?, and Jose Carreno, Washington D.C. bureau chief for the Mexican daily El Universal. [Jose Carreno]:The biggest misperception on this whole thing is that even if NAFTA is a new document in a way, it is something that is already happening at the border as well. The people who's in Texas and California can say, now, what is going to happen. I think that there will be a lot of pressure from Mexico and the United

States, mostly in the environment and labor problems. Congressman Gephardt and a number of other Democratic freshmen went to Tijuana to take a look at the ecological situation there. And they come out saying no way, that way. At least the actual treaty has to be upgraded. And we will see a lot of arguments in the next few months about it. [Maria Hinojosa]: In fact, we've seen a lot of arguments already. Sandra, how much has the debate over NAFTA divided the Latino community in particular? [Sandra Márquez]: I think there's tremendous division among us Latinos on the issue of NAFTA, because primarily the jobs that are expected to be lost as a result of this agreement are the low skilled, low paying jobs that so many Latinos in this country hold. So there is concern that the jobs Latinos have are going to be exported to Mexico. But at the same time, Latinos realize that they have this intrinsic link with their Mexican kin across the border. And so, they realize there's tremendous potential that because of Latinos bicultural skills, that they can really tap into this and and benefit more so than other Americans in this country.

[Jose Carreno]: The Latino population is also divided on terms of convenience. For instance, in Texas, there was a lot of people who are in favor of NAFTA because most of the import export businesses are going through Texas and of course, they are getting a boost out of it. But in California, for instance, where there is a lot of Latinos in this low end of the industry, they're having a lot of problems, a lot of hesitations about it. So I think that it is also related a lot with the where are the jobs? [Sandra Márquez]: I think the Mexican government has realized that US Latinos can be very good promoters of this plan. And they have started a NAFIN fund, a 20 million dollar fund, for US Latino business leaders to create joint ventures with business partners in Mexico. And U.S. Hispanic Chambers of Commerce here in this country have also been leading in terms of creating these trade partnerships and expos and taking people from the United States to Mexico and and really helping to create these links. [?Cita Arrocha?]: There's another benefit to Latinos, and I think Latinos are beginning to see this, that if the agreement leads in less immigration from Mexico to

the United States, from Latin America, generally to the United States, then those low end jobs will not be taken away as easily as they would be if we continue to see hundreds of thousands of people coming across the border every year. There is some resistance on the part of some Latinos for fear that a lot of the low end jobs will go to Mexico. But at the same time, there is also a realization that there will be benefits long term that will come from fewer immigrants coming over and, you know, taking us jobs at the low end. [Maria Hinojosa]: Thank you very much, Sandra Márquez, ?Cita Arrocha?, and Jose Carreno for joining us here on Latino USA. Segment number two runs eight minutes one second. It opens with three seconds of music. The out-cue is from Washington, D.C. The suggested lead follows in three, two, one. It's been two years since disturbances broke out in Washington D.C.'s Mount Pleasant neighborhood where most of the city's Latino population lives. At the time, Latino leaders blamed the violent outburst on neglect by the D.C. government of the fast growing Latino community, many of whom are Central American

immigrants. Since then, the city's government has taken action to address community concerns. But Latino leaders say there's still much more to be done. From Washington, William Troop prepared this report. [instrumental music] A music vendor sets up shop at the corner of Mount Pleasant and Lamont Streets, the heart of Washington's Latino community. He's one of at least a dozen Latino merchants doing business near Parque de las Palomas, a small triangular park at the end of a city bus line. [background music] Just two years ago, the worst riots the nation's capital had seen in over 20 years started right here. On May 4th, 1991, Daniel Gomez, a Salvadoran immigrant, was stopped by an African-American police officer for drinking in public. There are differing accounts about what happened next.

Police say Gomez lunged at the rookie officer who shot him in self-defense. But many Latinos heard a different version, one that said Gomez was shot after being harassed and handcuffed by the officer. Gomez was seriously wounded. And as news of the incident spread, outrage poured from the community. [Man speaking Spanish]: [Spanish continues] [Spanish continues] [William Troop]: During the riots, these men looted a 7-Eleven store because they were angry at police for mistreating Latinos. The looting and burning in Mount Pleasant lasted three days. To calm people down, D.C. Mayor Sharon Pratt Kelly arrived on the scene and promised to address Latino concerns as soon as the violence ended. It was a victory of sorts. Latino leaders had long complained that city officials ignored charges of discrimination and police brutality. The riots changed that. [Juan Milanes]: To a certain degree we had the best disturbance that we could have ever had. Although you had the destruction of public property, you had the destruction of private

property, you had some injuries. Nobody was killed. And overnight Latinos were an issue in Washington, D.C. [William Troop]: Juan Milanes was a law student at the time. Today, he's legal counsel for the Latino Civil Rights Task Force, an organization created after the disturbances in Mount Pleasant. [Juan Milanes]: Prior to May 5th, 1991, the Latino population of Washington D.C., although it was ten percent of the population, was unrecognized, just invisible. Just a bunch of people who get on the bus in the evening to go clean buildings, but, you know, just just a few people here and there, most of them are illegal anyway, suddenly were there. And there was now this group of people that were demanding that they be there. [William Troop]: A few months after the riots, the Latino Civil Rights Task Force issued a blueprint for action detailing 200 specific steps the city could take to address Latino

concerns. Task Force Executive Director Pedro Aviles says the city has not done enough to stop discrimination and police insensitivity. [Pedro Aviles]: The problems have not been solved yet. The police brutality cases, they continue. Certainly the fact that we've been complaining and we've been shaking the tree kind of thing, it's brought about little change. But I would say that it's a lot of stuff that needs to be done. [William Troop]: What has been done, has been done slowly, according to task force officials. One example, the city hired bilingual 911 operators a year and a half after the task force recommended it, and only after a Latina who had been raped had to wait two hours for assistance in Spanish. Carmen Ramirez, director of the mayor's Office on Latino Affairs, says the city has taken significant steps to address community concerns. [Carmen Ramirez]: The recommendations, in many instances, are not recommendations that can just be met by one concrete action, although some of them are. But rather it's a matter of putting into place

policies, and in many instances, mechanisms by which problems can continue to be addressed. [William Troop]: To do that, the city has created bilingual positions in almost all departments of D.C. government. Ramirez adds that D.C.'s police department has hired more bilingual personnel and sent hundreds of police officers to Spanish classes and sensitivity training. But last year, Latino leaders complained they were excluded from developing the initial sensitivity training program. And they say there are still plenty of police brutality cases. In January, the US Commission on Civil Rights agreed when it issued its report on the Mount Pleasant disturbances. Commission chair Arthur Fletcher called the plight of Latinos in D.C. appalling. [Arthur Fletcher]: Many Latinos in the Third District have been subjected to arbitrary harassments, unwarranted arrests, and even physical abuse by D.C. police officers. [William Troop]: The commission also found that the District of Columbia still shuts off Latinos from basic services because it lacks bilingual personnel.

Many D.C. Latinos feel that in a city dominated by African-Americans, it's often hard to get a fair distribution of resources. BB Otero is chair of the Latino Civil Rights Task Force. [BB Otero]: There is a prevalent feeling among the African American community, not just the leadership, but the community at large, that says we've struggled hard to get where we are, to have control of some resources in the city, to begin to play a power role, a powerful role in the community. And it's...if we open it up to someone else, we may be giving something up. [Frank Smith]: They still wanted them to be citizens of their own country and not registered to vote in the United States and still have the same measure of power and the same measure of participation as somebody who was a citizen. That, in my view, is a naïve expectation and certainly is not something that the civil rights movement ever talked about. [William Troop]: African American council member Frank Smith represents Ward 1, the area where most D.C. Latinos live. He says the struggle for civil rights is about citizenship and voting.

[Frank Smith]: I think that the Hispanic community has got to work harder at getting their people registered to vote. If they want to win elections, they're going to have to get people registered to vote and get them out to the ballot boxes on Election Day in order to win. Nobody's going to roll over and give up one of these seats. [BB Otero]: Civic activity comes once you have gained some sense of security of where you are or where you live. You still have a community that doesn't have that sense of security. [William Troop]: Over half of Washington's estimated 60,000 Latinos are undocumented, many of whom have fled war and unrest in El Salvador and most recently, Guatemala. BB Otero, who ran unsuccessfully for a school board seat last fall, says she's hopeful a Latino political base will develop as time goes by and as the community matures. [BB Otero]: If they can survive the struggle that it is to be able to fight the odds, basically, and build that political base, then we will see, I think, by '96 some other candidates in other areas beyond myself. [music]

[William Troop]: Change, however slow some may consider it, seems to be happening at Parque de las Palomas. Where the disturbances erupted two years ago there are now more Latino officers walking the beat. Merchant Jose ?Valdezar? says even those stopped for drinking in public are now treated with respect by police. [Jose ?Valdezar?]: First, they say hello to you and start to speak. And then they explain to you what's going on. Sometimes the person who own many stores around here they say you know, they don't like drunk people around here. That's why they say now, just keep walking and everything will be OK. [William Troop]: Daniel Gomez, whose shooting sparked the disturbances in Mount Pleasant two years ago, recovered from his wounds and was later acquitted of assaulting the police officer who shot him. For Latino USA I'm William Troop, reporting from Washington, D.C. Segment number three runs three minutes, 41 seconds to the standard out, four minutes, 12 seconds to the end of the music. The suggested lead follows in three, two, one.

[Maria Hinojosa]: The roots of Latin jazz go back at least five decades to such artists as Machito, Chano Pozo, and Dizzy Gillespie. Latin jazz has lost many of its originators in recent years, but one of them, 81 year old Mario Bauzá, keeps going strong. From Miami Emilio San Pedro prepared this profile on the legendary co-founder of the band Machito and his Afro-Cubans. [Emilio San Pedro]: Mario Bauzá left his native Havana for New York in 1930. When he got to this country, Bauzá became one of those responsible for making Afro-Cuban music popular in the United States and around the world. [Mario Bauzá]: Had they happened outside of Cuba, before the Cuban people come, [unclear] self what they had been [unclear] over there when it got big in the United States. Cuba begin to move into that line in music. [Emilio San Pedro]: Bauzá remembers his days at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, where he helped to launch the

career of Ella Fitzgerald. He recalls his days with the Cab Calloway Orchestra and the time that he and his friends, Dizzy Gillespie and Cozy Cole, played around with Afro-Cuban rhythm and jazz arrangements and created something new, Afro-Cuban jazz. [instrumental music] In the early 1940s, Bauzá formed the legendary band, Machito and his Afro-Cubans, along with his brother-in-law, Frank Grillo, who was called Machito. Bauzá was the musical director of the band and he composed some of the group's most memorable songs.[music] The sensation caused by Machito and his Afro-Cubans and by other Latin musicians in the 40s made New York the focal point of a vibrant Latin music scene.

[Enrique Fernandez]: It's the scene of the Mambo Kings, you know, and that's why a lot of people will say Mambo is not Cuban music or it's not Mexican music, Mambo is New York music. [Emilio San Pedro]: Enrique Fernandez writes about Latin music for The Village Voice. He's also the editor of the New York based Mas magazine. [Enrique Fernandez]: It was here that this kind of music became very hot, that it really galvanized a lot of people, that it really attracted a lot of musicians from different genres that wanted to jam with it. And that created those great, you know, those great encounters between Latin music practitioners and jazz practitioners, particularly Black American jazz practitioners. For that, you need to recognize that New York has been since then, probably before then, but certainly since then, one of the great centers of Latin music. [Emilio San Pedro]: Mario Bauzá takes great pride in the current popularity of Latin and Caribbean music. But he says people are wrong to call his music Latin jazz. He says that label doesn't give proper recognition to its musical roots.

[Mario Bauzá]: Merengue, merengue from San Domingo, cumbia as cumbia from Colombia. Afro-Cuban is Cuba. That's why I got to keep [unclear] this Afro-Cuban rhythms and Afro-Cuban. [unclear] Cubano [unclear] Cubano, a bolero Cubano, a cha-cha-cha Cubano, el [unclear] mambo es cubano. [unclear] So I got to call it Afro-Cuban. [music] [Emilio San Pedro]: After seven decades in the music business, Mario Bauzá has come out of the shadows of the group Machito and his Afro-Cubans and is being recognized for his accomplishments as one of the creators of Afro-Cuban jazz. This year, Bauzá plans to tour with his Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra, featuring Graciela on vocals. The group also plans to release another album of Afro-Cuban jazz Explosión Noventa y Tres. For Latino USA. I'm Emilio San Pedro. [Maria Hinojosa]: Segment four runs three minutes, 14 seconds, the

in-cue is "La subida es dura", "It's a steep climb". The out-cue is "My pack felt especially light that whole day". The suggested lead in three, two, one. Many Latinos who travel back to the land of their birth or to where their parents or grandparents came from, often do so for the joy of going to a place where the simple things of life are still valued. A few years ago.