Features - Crónicas

-- Langley Park forum addresses Hispanic residents' concerns
-- Datos del censo reflejan complejidad racial y étnica de EEUU
-- Harsh Reward for Hard Labor

Langley Park forum addresses Hispanic residents' concerns

by Julia Oliver, Staff Writer - Jan. 30, 2003

At a meeting in Langley Park Saturday with State's Attorney Glenn Ivey and other government officials, residents discussed crime and other issues facing the Latino community.

The gathering, organized by Ivey and the Maryland Latino Coalition for Justice (MLCFJ), touched on issues such as robberies, a site for day laborers to wait for work and--a subject at the top of the MLCFJ's political agenda--making driver's licenses more available to immigrants.

Ivey promised to explore prosecuting abusive labor contractors and said he would look into a rash of robberies in a Suitland community.

County Executive Jack Johnson announced that he would look at day laborer site parameters proposed by CASA of Maryland Executive Director Gustavo Torres, who is also a member of Johnson's transition team.

Johnson and two state delegates from the 47th District expressed support for an upcoming state bill to loosen the restrictions on driver's licenses for immigrants.

"I will support bills designed to ensure that people can get driver's licenses," Johnson said to applause that came even before the remarks were translated into Spanish.

MLCFJ lobbyist Kim Propeack said the bill would expand the list of documents acceptable for non-citizen's license applications to include items such as consular IDs, foreign birth certificates and national ID cards. Currently, non-citizens must show a passport with a valid visa.

"It clarifies that the MVA [Motor Vehicle Administration] may not discriminate on the basis of immigration status," Propeack said.

Several residents testified to the problems encountered by immigrants lacking licenses.

Mount Rainier resident Paulina Gonzales, explained that she has six children to feed, her husband is not reliable and her 19-year-old son, who works in Baltimore, has been fined several times for driving without a license.

"They've already warned him not to drive. But then what will we do? We have to pay rent. We have to eat," she said.

Del. Doyle Niemann (D-Dist 47) of Mount Rainier said he was in favor of expanding the criteria for licenses, although he wasn't familiar with the details of the proposed legislation.

"I will co-sponsor it, yes, if they show it to me," he said, making the point that national security would be enhanced by broadening license requirements. Non-citizens are "here, they drive, but they don't have insurance."

Del. Victor Ramirez (D-Dist. 47) of Mount Rainier said the MLCFJ has not approached him about the driver's license proposal either, but expressed tempered support for the idea.

"We realize that having a license is very important to the community," he said, but cautioned that it wouldn't be easy legislation to pass. "I know a lot of people who have a lot of concerns about giving people who are undocumented driver's licenses."

Ivey said he was generally in support of the idea--"To me the key thing is whether they're driving safely or not"--but added that concerns about credibility need to be addressed.

"You want to make sure the right people are getting [licenses]," he said.

Chillum-Ray Citizen's Association Vice President Judith Banks-Johnson said she would like to see English classes go with licenses.

"If there's an accident between two people who can't speak the same language," she said, "we can't resolve our differences."

Ivey said that of all the meeting's discussions, he was most struck by the complaints of robberies in Suitland.

"Obviously that number of robberies is a huge problem," he said. "That was pretty stark. That and the concern about police corruption... If they're talking about real corruption, that's something that we'll have to focus on."

Suitland residents said their community is plagued by assaults and the police are unresponsive.

"There's gangs there. They don't respect us. They go into the apartments with pistols, with rifles," said Miguel Martinez, a pastor at the Church of Nazareth in Upper Marlboro. He said several members of his congregation--eight of whom came to the meeting--had been robbed in or around the Bristol Pines Apartments in Suitland.

No specific site for a day laborer hiring site in the county has been identified, but Torres said the proposal submitted Monday includes ideal parameters set by workers and a description of services that CASA would provide.

"We'll see what we can do. I'm not making any commitment that we'll fund it," Johnson said of the day laborer center. "We'll be looking at it in terms of our budget... This is not a quick fix thing. It's a step."

E-mail Julia Oliver at joliver@gazette.net.

Datos del censo reflejan complejidad racial y étnica de EEUU

por Rebeca Logan. (Sumitted to Coloquio Online by Rudy Arredondo)

Washington, 22 ene (EFE).- Los nuevos cálculos demográficos del Censo de EEUU confirman el acelerado crecimiento de la población hispana del país y el ascenso de los latinos como el grupo étnico más numeroso de la nación. Sin embargo, las nuevas cifras pueden interpretarse de diferentes formas e incluyen clasificaciones de raza y etnia que se contabilizan de manera distinta, según Robert Bernstein, portavoz del Censo.

"Las últimas cifras muestran una continuación del rápido crecimiento de la población hispana, pero las tablas se pueden interpretar de diferentes maneras", dijo Bernstein a EFE.

Agregó que por primera vez en el 2000, los formularios del censo permitieron que las personas se identificaran con más de una raza o grupo étnico, lo que hace más detallado el panorama demográfico del país.

Bernstein indicó que mientras los negros son considerados como un grupo racial, los hispanos constituyen un grupo étnico cuyos integrantes pueden ser de cualquier raza, lo que lleva a una combinación de números.

Si se cuenta el total de quienes se consideran afroamericanos en EEUU, ya sea como única raza o en combinación con otros grupos, la cifra alcanza 37,7 millones de personas, un número superior a los 37 millones que se consideran hispanos, explicó Bernstein.

Además cerca de 1,7 millones de personas se consideran afro-latinas, y 4,1 millones se clasifican como una combinación de dos o más razas, lo que hace el panorama demográfico aún más complejo.

Según los nuevos datos, la población hispana aumentó en un 4,7 por ciento entre el 2000 y 2001, y ahora alcanza 37 millones, sin incluir los habitantes de Puerto Rico.

Los latinos representan el 13 por ciento de la población de Estados Unidos, mientras que los afroamericanos (como raza única) representan el 12,5 por ciento.

"La importancia de estos datos es casi simbólico, no tienen un impacto inmediato en cosas concretas como el presupuesto de educación, ni en la representación política hispana", dijo a EFE el director del Centro Hispano Pew, Roberto Suro.

DETRAS DE LAS CIFRAS.

Según Suro, "el censo tiene la función de decir oficialmente algo que ya todo el mundo sabe", en vista que ya las organizaciones y los medios hispanos informaron en el 2000, que el crecimiento hispano superaba todos los pronósticos oficiales.

Suro opinó que estos datos demográficos son importantes en la medida que llevan a la sociedad estadounidense, que históricamente se ha identificado en términos de blanco y negro, a reconocer que existe "otro actor en el escenario".

El experto agregó que no se deben considerar como grupos iguales a los hispanos y afroamericanos, por el simple hecho que ambos son grupos minoritarios en el país.

"Los hispanos no son y no van a ser un grupo minoritario en el mismo sentido que los afroamericanos. La historia de los afroamericanos es específica y única en Estados Unidos, y esto no se va a duplicar", señaló Suro.

Agregó que mientras que los afroamericanos en EEUU comparten un historial similar, los hispanos representan un grupo heterogéneo, de diferentes nacionalidades y razas.

"Nuestros estudios indican que los latinos no se ven como un grupo unido con una agenda política o cultura común. Existen diferencias complejas entre los latinos que llevan generaciones en EEUU y hablan solo inglés y los inmigrantes recién llegados que solo hablan español", agregó Suro.

Por otra parte, Adam Segal, analista político de la Universidad de Johns Hopkins, señaló que uno de los factores demográficos más interesantes de los estimados del censo es la juventud de la comunidad hispana y la explosión de nuevos votantes latinos, que en la próxima década podrían ser una importante fuerza política.

Segal manifestó que es positivo reconocer el crecimiento de la población hispana como algo bueno para el país, y que se deben tomar pasos para asegurar una representación más amplia en el gobierno y las corporaciones.

El analista agregó que conforme a la creciente diversidad del país, las diferentes minorías, hispana, afroamericana y asiática, están formando coaliciones políticas y sociales, que transcienden todas las clasificaciones raciales y étnicas, y no se pueden encajar como un solo grupo. EFE

Rebeca Logan
Hispanic News Correspondent
EFE News Services
202 745 7692
202 393 4119 (Fax)

Harsh Reward for Hard Labor

By Nurith C. Aizenman

One moment, Pedro Velazquez was standing on the roof of the partially built townhouse, preparing to anchor his harness to the top. The next, he was careening downward, grasping in panic for a handhold as he sailed over the edge toward the frozen ground four stories below.

At the Maryland Shock Trauma Center, doctors surveyed the damage: Smashed wrist. Broken leg. Fractured spine. Shattered dream.

"All I could think of was my wife and my children in Mexico," the 43-year-old roofer recalled in Spanish recently, blinking back tears as he sat in a sterile nursing home room in Manassas. "What will they live on without me to support them?"

Like many of the Latino immigrants who have swelled the nation's workforce over the past decade, Velazquez was drawn by the prospect of a booming economy and plentiful jobs, settling illegally in Dale City less than a year before his accident in February.

Now, paralyzed from the chest down and unable to use his lower arms and hands, he has joined the growing ranks of a different class of newcomer: one of the thousands of immigrant Latino men -- both documented and undocumented -- who are injured or killed while working in the United States each year.

Government statistics on nonfatal injuries are less revealing because they lump immigrants together with American-born Hispanics, who tend to have more education and better language skills. Yet here, too, the news is grim, with Hispanic men about 50 percent more likely to be injured than the average worker.

And under the laws of many states, employees who are in the country illegally are ineligible for full medical coverage or monetary compensation for their injuries. Instead, they must depend on emergency rooms or simply forgo medical care.

"Our nation is being built on the backs of these guys," said Daniel P. Barrera, a lawyer who has helped Velazquez and other injured Latinos in the area navigate the workers' compensation system. "It's really unfair that they're being treated this way when they're hurt."

Researchers are trying to determine all the reasons behind the rise in injuries, but one is clear: Often minimally educated and desperately poor, Latino immigrants have flocked to some of the nation's most dangerous industries in record numbers, eagerly snapping up nonunion construction, manufacturing and agricultural jobs that are too low-paying and high-risk to attract enough U.S.-born workers.

Largely as a result, the number of fatally injured Latino workers rose by more than 50 percent -- from 533 in 1992 to 815 in 2000 -- even as the nation's non-Hispanic fatality rate dropped.

Among the latest to be added to the tally were two Hispanic steelworkers from North Carolina who were killed in Rockville last month when a concrete parking garage they were building collapsed on top of them. A non-Hispanic worker was also killed, and another Hispanic worker was seriously injured.

In the greater Washington area, where Latinos make up 8 percent of approximately 5.4 million residents, the walking wounded increasingly fill the waiting rooms of rehabilitation clinics. Prompted by an explosion in its Hispanic clientele three years ago, one of the region's largest injury-treatment centers, Rehab at Work, opened an office in Alexandria with four Spanish-speaking therapists.

And at the Shady Grove offices of another group, Rehabilitation Services of Greater Washington, occupational therapist Rich Shegogue said he spends much of his day speaking Spanish.

A recent visit to that clinic amounted to a tour of the underside of the American Dream.

At one table, Mexican-born Mario Perez -- whose right pinkie tendon was sliced by a falling piece of plasterboard -- winced in pain as a therapist massaged his hand.

Nearby, Peruvian-born Luis Enrique Bonta waited his turn, distractedly rubbing the stumps of three fingers he lost in a printing press accident.

The psychological damage to such workers can be tougher to cure than their physical disabilities, Shegogue said.

"Because of the machismo ideal in Hispanic culture, it's a very heavy blow for our Latino clients to be told they can't work," he said. "I see a lot of frustration and depression stemming from that."

Bonta said he has struggled with both. "My family is really feeling the change in my character," said the 46-year-old, who lives with his wife and two of his children in Gaithersburg. "I'm in pain all the time and bothered by everything. And I don't want to do anything anymore. I just feel so impotent."

Yet for all their difficulties, Shegogue's clients are at least getting medical care and financial assistance for their injuries. That can be a challenge when an injured worker is one of the nation's estimated 7 million to 8 million illegal immigrants.

While many states do not distinguish between documented and undocumented immigrants when it comes to workers' compensation, plenty do. The most extreme is Wyoming, where undocumented immigrants are excluded from all compensation. Virginia's Supreme Court held the same in a 1999 decision, prompting the state legislature to pass a law extending most medical and wage benefits to illegal immigrants the following year.

Even so, in Virginia, Maryland and the District, undocumented workers are not eligible for vocational retraining if their injuries prevent them from doing their original jobs.

And while Virginia and Maryland do allow undocumented workers financial compensation for permanent disabilities, such workers cannot receive compensation from employers for a temporary loss in wages they experience if they can only do light work while recovering.

That was devastating news to a Bolivian-born construction worker living in Virginia whose hand was crushed by a plummeting scaffolding plank last year.

The worker, who asked that his name be withheld because he is undocumented, received no compensation during the roughly six months he was recuperating from the accident. As a result, he said, he was forced to exhaust his savings to pay his share of the apartment he rents with five other laborers.

Worst of all, he said, was the knowledge that his wife and three children back in Bolivia -- to whom he used to send about $1,000 a month -- were having to get by on much less.

"They used to eat meat once a week. Now they can't afford it," he said.

Steven Camarota, director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies, said he has some sympathy for such immigrants.

Nonetheless, he noted, "these folks are in the country knowingly and willingly violating our immigration laws. . . . And the more you extend benefits to them, the more you normalize their presence and convey to them, to their employer and to people thinking about coming here illegally that the United States simply isn't serious about its immigration laws."

Lawyers for such workers counter that illegal employees should not have to suffer while the companies that employ them -- often at lower wages than legal workers -- get a free pass.

Immigrant advocates also speculate that undocumented workers face greater chance of injury because the companies that are willing to risk hiring them may be more likely to reduce costs by cutting corners on safety.

"The employer's calculus is that these are workers who won't raise issues of health and safety because they either don't know they can, or will be afraid of losing their job and getting deported," said Brian Christopher, executive director of the Alice Hamilton Center, a nonprofit work-safety training center in Silver Spring.

Unscrupulous employers also may fail to inform immigrant workers of their rights under the compensation system or neglect to obtain legally required workers' compensation insurance, immigrant advocates said.

The latter can be a particularly thorny problem for workers in the District, where it can take a year or more to get compensation from a special fund for workers at uninsured companies.

Eric May, a lawyer based in the District, said he recently had to turn down a house cleaner seeking compensation from a janitorial company for injuries she suffered in an accident while driving from one job to another in the firm's vehicle.

"From what I could tell, the employer wasn't insured, so it would have been too long and arduous a process to come to the woman's rescue," May said.

Even when employers are insured, they may contest an employee's claim in court, causing long delays during which immigrant workers who cannot afford to pay for treatment out of pocket must simply go without.

Such was the case with another one of Barrera's clients, a construction worker who suffered massive head injuries when he fell off a 25-foot-high roof, then had to wait nearly a year to get speech and cognitive therapy until a judge ruled in his favor.

Velazquez, the roofer who was paralyzed in the fall from a townhouse in February, was luckier in that regard. His employer was insured and did not contest Velazquez's claim that he slipped on a piece of tar sheeting that had not been properly nailed to the roof. He is now getting $373 a week in compensation benefits, plus medical care.

But that is small consolation for a man who once reveled in his speed on the soccer field. Still too fragile to return to his wife and children in the central Mexican city of Morelia, he has as yet been unable to persuade immigration authorities to allow relatives to come to him.

So he has had few visitors to lighten his mood as he soldiers through a succession of bedsores, excruciating nerve spasms and other complications of paralysis.

At first, Velazquez said, he spent the hours of isolation staring blankly through his nursing home window, sliding ever deeper into what seemed an unfathomable despair.

But in the past two months, he has begun to search for more active ways to pass the time.

Perhaps, he wonders, he can catch up on some of the schooling he missed when his father set him to work selling vegetables on the street at age 8. As a start, he's borrowed a book of Spanish love poems by Latin American authors. And he's even learning a little English from an instruction video.

On a recent afternoon, he rolled his wheelchair up to a nurse and tried out one of his newest phrases: "Medicine for pain, please?"