On Saturday, July 22, 2007, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer attended the launch of the East 106th Street Farmers Market. The outdoor fresh fruit and vegetable market is part of the Go Green East Harlem Initiative spearheaded by the Manhattan Borough President’s Office with the concerted efforts of the political leadership of the district and several community organizations and individuals. PRdream covered the opening.
Tag Archives: President
Court win fuels Puerto Rican citizenship debate – article from the Right
Note: See the very end of this article about former Secretary of State Norma Burgos’ “Puerto Rican citizenship.” What are the implications of this for the right of Stateside Puerto Ricans being able to vote in a plebiscite on the political status of Puerto Rico? Interesting.
—Angelo
PUERTO RICO
Court win fuels Puerto Rican citizenship debate
After a long battle, the elder statesman of Puerto Rico’s independence movement finally has what he wanted: citizenship
BY FRANCES ROBLES
Miami Herald (July 14, 2007)
MAYAGUEZ, Puerto Rico — The seeds of Juan Mari Brás’ quixotic patriotism were planted when his parents draped a Puerto Rican flag over his crib.
Those seeds flourished 13 years ago, when the elder statesman of Puerto Rico’s independence movement renounced his U.S. citizenship in an effort to be officially recognized as a Puerto Rican. He’s 79 now, and after a 60-year anti-colonial crusade, he has something new to adorn his surroundings: a certificate of Puerto Rican citizenship.
He is the first Puerto Rican in history to have one. And as the U.S. Congress considers Puerto Rico’s status, Mari Brás’ newfound and hard-fought citizenship has refueled the heated debate about what it means to be Puerto Rican.
The certificate was issued in October after Mari Brás successfully sued for the right to vote in local elections. Last month, the Secretary of State’s Office here offered citizenship to eligible islanders. About 450 have requested certificates, and legislators are drafting bills to codify the process of obtaining them.
The tangible value of the certificates is in doubt, even among some of Marí Brás followers.
”With this certificate, can I travel from here to some other country?” asked independence party legislator Víctor García San Inocencio. “When I come back, will Homeland Security let me in?” The answers: no and no.
For Mari Brás, the citizenship certificate is more legal test than meaningful evidence of nationality. He said his win is important because it marks the first time the government here has recognized a national identity not tied to the United States. But he shrugs off the significance of his long court battle, recognizing that while it may have been the most important achievement Puerto Rico’s tiny independence movement has seen in years, it is a far cry from the sovereignty he craves.
”Biologists experiment with plants and animals and chemists do so with elements,” he said in a recent interview at his office at the Eugenio María de Hostos Law School in Mayagüez. “Since I am a lawyer, I experiment with the law. The certificate is an achievement, but it’s not the independence of Puerto Rico.”
When Mari Brás was born to a deeply political Mayagüez family, the U.S. military had seized Puerto Rico from Spain barely 30 years earlier. People like nationalist leader Pedro Albizu Campos were frequent dinner guests at his uncle’s house next door.
”Back then, we thought independence would happen the day after next,” he said. “We never thought we would remain the most important colony of the most important empire.”
His father took him to political events, and he founded an independence movement in high school. It became a passion that got him jailed seven times, kicked out of law school and a heart attack at 36.
Mari Brás graduated from American University Law School in Washington. As a lawyer, he took on controversial cases such as the independence activists who opened fire on the U.S. House of Representatives. He founded the Puerto Rican Socialist Party and ran a spirited campaign for governor in 1976 until his son was murdered, a death Mari Brás blames on the CIA.
A Marxist with close ties to Havana, he was disbarred from practicing in federal court when he skipped a client’s appearance to attend a conference in Cuba.
But after decades of sometimes violent activism, even now the independence movement gets only about 4 percent of the popular vote. The vast majority of Puerto Rico’s 4 million people are split between wanting to become the 51st state and keeping some form of its current commonwealth status.
In a mission to prove Puerto Ricans had a separate national identity, Mari Brás in 1994 went to the American embassy in Caracas and renounced his U.S. citizenship. When he returned to Puerto Rico, a local statehood activist sued him, arguing that Mari Brás no longer had a right to vote in local elections. Puerto Rico’s electoral law says that only U.S. citizens can cast ballots.
”I wanted to see if in Puerto Rico you could continue breathing without being a U.S. citizen,” he said.
The case made the Puerto Rican Supreme Court, and, last fall, Mari Brás won.
”It’s extraordinary,” said Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, a New York group that has represented Puerto Rico’s independence activists. “He has been after this for 30 or 40 years. The next step is people will demand passports. What other things can flow from there?”
The Popular Democratic Party, which seeks more autonomy for Puerto Rico while keeping the island’s current relationship with the United States, agrees.
”An empty wallet does not have everything a full wallet has,” said legislator Charlie Hernández, who has submitted a bill to codify the citizenship process.
Puerto Rico’s New Progressive Party (PNP), which supports statehood, is vehemently against the citizenship plan, calling it a useless and illegal residency certificate. It also alleges that current Secretary of State Fernando Bonilla, of the ruling Popular Democratic Party, agreed to go along with it in order to attract votes within the independence movement.
In a statement, Bonilla said he offered the certificate to obey the constitution and the court decision. He stressed that it doesn’t replace the U.S. passport.
‘I understand Juan Mari Brás’ purpose and respect it, but Puerto Rican citizenship does not exist,” said PNP Sen. Norma Burgos, a former secretary of state who once denied Mari Brás’ petition for citizenship.
To prove her point, Burgos, who was born in Chicago and moved to Puerto Rico when she was 5, asked for citizenship. Under rules that the Secretary of State drafted after Mari Brás’ court victory, she did not qualify.
”Was the Secretary of State going to tell me, Norma Burgos, ex-secretary of state, ex-lieutenant governor, and sitting senator, that I am not Puerto Rican?” she said.
Bonilla redrafted the requirements to include Burgos — and lots of other people. Now, if you live in Puerto Rico and one of your parents was born here, you qualify. U.S. citizens who have lived here more than a year are also eligible.
NILP 3
National Institute for Latino Policy
101 Avenue of the Americas, Suite 313
New York, NY 10013
www.latinopolicy.org
Angelo Falcón, President and Founder
212-334-5722 Fax: 917-677-8593
afalcon@latinopolicy.org
LATINOS EXCLUDED FROM BURNS’ DOCUMENTARY “WAR”
LATINO REPRESENTATIVES MEET
WITH PBS PRESIDENT
ON LATINO EXCLUSION FROM
KEN BURNS’ WWII DOCUMENTARY
The President of the Public Broadcasting System (PBS), Paula A. Kerger, met on Tuesday, March 6, 2007 with representatives from the Latino community at their headquarters in Crystal City, Virginia to discuss their concerns and recommendations about the exclusion of Latinos from producer Ken Burns’ forthcoming documentary, “The War”, on World War II.
Representing the Latino community at the meeting were Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez of the University of Texas at Austin; Gus Chavez of San Diego; Marta Garcia, co-chair and founder of the New York Chapter of the National Hispanic Media Coalition; Angelo Falcón of the National Institute for Latino Policy; and Ivan Roman of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. PBS was also represented by new PBS Board member Lionel Sosa, Senior Vice President/Chief TV Programming Executive John F. Wilson, Chief Content Officer John L. Boland, and Director of Corporate Communications and Media Relations Jan McNamara.
The PBS position on this issue at this point is:
· The Ken Burns 7-part documentary, “The War”, 6 years in the making, is completed and cannot be changed. The idea of PBS telling him to make changes to include Latinos would violate Burns’ artistic independence.
· PBS is putting resources to promote local programming by its 348 member stations around this documentary, the best of which they plan to promote at the national level. They are willing to work with the Latino community to make sure that the Latino involvement in WWII is addressed in this way.
· PBS may be willing to facilitate a meeting between Ken Burns and representatives of the Latino community to discuss this issue, as well as the Latino role in this future productions.
The Latino community representatives made the following points:
· The exclusion of Latinos from Ken Burns documentary is an insult to our community and nothing short of delaying the release of this film until it is edited to include Latinos is acceptable.
· We are willing to meet directly with Ken Burns as an independent producer to discuss our concerns.
· Why, if this documentary took six years to complete, did no one at PBS flag this problem of Latino exclusion earlier? We raise the need for PBS to consider instituting measures that prevent this type of exclusion from occurring in the future.
· There is a clear pattern of the neglect of Latinos in all of Ken Burns projects, so why hasn’t PBS been sensitive to this problem earlier?
· We have given Ms. Kerger one week, until Tuesday, March 13, 2007, to formally respond to us in writing.
For further information on this issue, please contact:
Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
School of Journalism
The University of Texas at Austin
1 University Station A1000
Austin, TX 78712
512-471-0405
Fax: 512-471-7979
http://utopia.utexas.edu/explore/latino
Gus Chavez
Latino Community Development and Education Advocate
4674 Esther Street
San Diego, CA 92115
619-807-8938 (Cell)
619-286-9858 (Home)
Marta Garcia
Co-Chair and Founder
New York Chapter
National Hispanic Media Coalition
101 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10013
(212) 965-9758
Angelo Falcón
President and Founder
National Institute for Latino Policy
101 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10013
212-334-5722
BADILLO LASHES LATINOS, RIPS HISPANIC VALUES
By Carl Campanile
New York Post (Tuesday, December 19, 2006), page 8
Herman Badillo has dropped a bombshell on his fellow Hispanics – charging that too many are mired in poverty because they don’t value education.
“Education is not a high priority in the Hispanic community . . . Hispanics have simply failed to recognize the overriding importance of education,” the first native-born Puerto Rican elected to Congress writes in his new book, “One Nation, One Standard.”
“Hispanics have failed to assume responsibility for their children’s welfare . . . Hispanic parents rarely get involved with their children’s schools. They seldom attend parent-teacher conferences, ensure that children do their homework or inspire their children to dream of attending college,” he adds.
Badillo writes that many Spanish-speaking immigrants are hard workers, but that to get their children to move up the economic ladder would require a cultural shakeup of sacrifice and “self-improvement” by putting education first – as Asian and other U.S. immigrant groups have.
Hispanics can no longer rely on schools and the government to do it for them, he writes. He further blames “self-segregation” – not discrimination – as a major impediment to progress for many Hispanics. Instead of focusing on assimilating into the American fabric, he writes, too many view themselves as aggrieved minorities.
“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 come,” he writes. “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,” the controversial autobiography says.
Hispanic immigrants would be better served by embracing the American ideal of “one nation, one standard,” Badillo adds.
Badillo, 77, says his own rags-to-riches story proves that the poor – including Hispanics – can become successful. Orphaned in Puerto Rico, he came to the mainland as a boy knowing no English and went on to become the city’s first Puerto Rican borough president, in The Bronx, as well as a congressman, top adviser to three mayors, and CUNY chancellor.
Bronx Democratic leader José Rivera blasted Badillo’s comments as a “total insult” to Latino parent- advocates who fought for decades to get the city to better educate their kids.
“This is unfair. You cannot write a book blaming the victim,” said Rivera.
Instead, Rivera blamed Badillo for educational shortcomings of Latinos – because Badillo held city leadership positions overseeing education under Mayors Rudy Giuliani and Ed Koch.
“He was part of the system that miseducated our children for many years. We are constantly being shortchanged,” Rivera said.
From Amazon.com:
Review
Linda Chavez, author of Out of the Barrio
Herman Badillo is a true leader who doesn’t flinch from expressing difficult truths. His own amazing story provides inspiration and the moral authority that allows him to advocate hard choices for American Hispanics.
Mario Cuomo, former governor of New York
He provides nourishment for intelligent people who call themselves liberals and equally intelligent people who call themselves conservatives. I call him brilliant.
Rudolph W. Giuliani, former mayor of New York City
The greatest lesson of Herman Badillo’s story is that the genius of American life—the upward ladder of opportunity that American freedom at its best provides—is better at solving most any problem than any government program.
Edward I. Koch, former mayor of New York City
Herman’s recollections on a host of important national issues, described and discussed in One Nation, One Standard, are fascinating. It is a wonderful read.
Book Description
Why aren’t Hispanics succeeding like Asians, Jews, and other immigrant groups in America? Herman Badillo’s answer is as politically incorrect as the question: Hispanics simply don’t put the same emphasis on education as other immigrant groups.
As the nation’s first Puerto Rican–born U.S. congressman, the trailblazing Badillo once supported bilingual education and other government programs he thought would help the Hispanic community. But he came to see that the real path to prosperity, political unity, and the American mainstream is self- reliance, not big government. Now Badillo is a champion of one standard of achievement for all races and ethnicities.
In this surprising and controversial manifesto, you will learn:
* Why Hispanic culture’s trouble with education, democracy, and economics stems from Mother Spain and the “five-hundred year siesta” she induced in Latin America.
* Why the Congressman who drafted the first Spanish-English bilingual education legislation now believes that bilingual education hurts students more than it helps.
* Why “social promotion” — putting minority students’ self-esteem ahead of their academic performance and then admitting them to college unprepared — continues to this day, despite the system’s documented failures and injustices.
* How self-identifying as “Hispanic” or “white” or “black” undermines achievement, and what lessons we can learn from Latin American countries, where one’s race is irrelevant.
With Central and Latin America exporting a large portion of their poor, Hispanics are on the way to becoming a majority in the United States… but one with all the problems of a minority culture.
Badillo’s solution to this problem relies on traditional values: hard work, education, and achievement. His lessons are important not only for Hispanics but for every American.
About the Author
Herman Badillo was the nation’s first Puerto Rican– born congressman. He also served as the borough president of the Bronx, deputy mayor of New York City, and chairman of the board of the City University of New York. Currently he is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute.
People in a community do not embrace gentrification…
they embrace bettter services, clean streets, good schools, drug free parks and playgrounds, etc. And everyone is entitled to that, not only those who are coming into a community and displacing those who already live there. That is the case in West Harlem, Central Harlem and East Harlem. Whoever posted the question GENTRIFICATION: GOOD OR EVIL? is basically propagandizing for the forces at work that are displacing good, hardworking, decent people, their children and the elderly. Without giving much thought to his or her views, he or she displays simple biases that equate good city services and schools, etc. with gentrification. Displacing a population by stimulating certain types of economic development is a choice or a decision based on policies that favor one economic class over another. Good government and social policies generate a civil society in which everyone can share in the common weal of the nation, city, and community. Poor policies generate fear, class hatred, displacement and exclusionary practices. Singling out for attack the bright, fine councilwoman is useless. The community of East Harlem knows quite well that she is judicious and fair– with an interest in enlightened policies to guide the development of the community she represents. That is why Melissa Mark Viverito is being maligned by our pro-gentrifier who clearly is not interested in maintaining the integrity and soul of either Black or Spanish Harlem. Both Melissa Mark Viverito and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer bring thoughfulness and humanity to their administrations, and an earnest search for more balanced and fair ways of developing communities.
The American Taxpayer and The Colony Of Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico is a Colony of the United States since 1898. We are American citizens since 1917. We cannot vote for the President of the U.S. Puerto Rico is bankrupt even though we receive 22 Billion dollars from hard working American Taxpayers every year. I believe in Statehood for Puerto Rico because I believe in equality as a citizen and taxwise. Puerto Ricans do not pay federal taxes. Our annual budget is 9.2 Billion dollars of which 5 Billions goes in paying government employees which number 260,000. The actual governor, Anibal Acevedo Vila favors the actual status (The Colony). About 90% of anything being built here is paid by federal funds. Streets are full of potholes, umemployment is about 18%, level of poverty is about 60%. I believe Congress should investigate why Puerto Rico is bankrupt even with 22 Billion dollars in aid. Where is all the money going?
Ricardo