Thursday, December 16, 2004

CONDITION CRITICAL:
The Absence of Latinos Among Policymakers
in New York City’s Voluntary Hospitals
by Annette Fuentes


(New York: PRLDEF, December 2004), 66 pages

To download a copy of the full report as a PDF file, go to:
http://www.prldef.org/lib/Condition_Critical.pdf

Key Findings
● Six of 13 New York City voluntary hospitals surveyed had no Latinos on their boards of trustees; one hospital had two Latino members (representing only 2% of their trustees) and two hospitals had one Latino member (1% of trustees).
● One of 13 hospitals had a Latino president/CEO; the same hospital had Latinos in 33% of its senior management positions.
● 12 of 13 hospitals had no Latinos in any senior management positions.
● The Greater New York Hospital Association and the Healthcare Association of New York, the two largest industry lobbying/trade groups, had just one Latino each on their boards of trustees, representing 3% and 2% of members, respectively.
● The Greater New York Hospital Association this spring failed to meet the Equal Employment Opportunity standards of the city’s Health and Hospitals Corporation, a GNYHA member, because of lack of diversity in 7 of 20 job categories among staff.

Latinos Face Multiple Barriers to Care
● Hospitals routinely fail to follow regulations on providing language interpreter services for Spanish-speaking patients and others with limited English proficiency
● Hospitals fail to provide written materials, such as financial forms, in patients’ language
● Hospitals receive millions in state funds to care for the uninsured but fail to inform patients such assistance is available
● Many hospitals maintain a dual system of care in their specialty practices – a clinic system for poor with resident doctors, and a private practice with attending physicians
● Hospitals serve low percentages of uninsured patients despite regulatory and legal mandates to serve all regardless of ability to pay; Public hospitals continue to be safety net providers for the uninsured and immigrant populations.

This report was developed by the PRLDEF Institute for Puerto Rican Policy and was funded in large part by a grant from the WK Kellogg Foundation.



The Reading Life
By Vivian Lake, Puerto Rico Sun Book Editor

Memoria de mis putas tristes by Gabriel García Márquez Vintage Books, $10.95)This is the first novel from the author in ten years. Anticipation was so feverish that bootlegged copies of the book hit the streets in his native Colombia weeks before the official publication date. A revised ending written at the last minute has made the pirated versions obsolete. When the book finally hit the stores, sales were clocked in at 1,000 volumes per hour. One wonders what his compatriots have to say about this unexpected story.
A few guesses: Offensive, sad, misogynistic, ridiculous. Not words usually associated with the beloved Gabo.
A 90 year-old man wants a last fling with a young virgin for his birthday and falls in "love" for the first time. Not even García Márquez's formidable talent (still very much in evidence here) can make this story poignant or compelling.
Set in the Colombian coastal city of Barranquilla during the 1930's, the first-person narrative introduces the protagonist, a retired journalist, who is looking back at his life and preparing to face death. But first, he wants that virgin. For this he contacts an old friend of his, the madam of a whorehouse with whom he has a long acquaitance: he has never had sex without paying for it; even if the woman wasn't a prostitute, he insisted on paying. The old writer has kept a list of the women he has slept with (including descriptions and a scoring system); the list contains 514 names. He has lived alone, writing his columns, listening to classical music his whole life. He was almost married once, but ditched the bride on their wedding day. The misogyny fairly boils over the margins.
After some difficulty a young girl is found and the assignation made. When he arrives, she is asleep on the bed, nude, her face grossly made up. He doesn't wake her or touch her in any way, but watches her and leaves the next morning. He arranges to meet the girl several nights per week, for the same pathetic charade. She is always nude and asleep, he watches her and occasionally caresses her, nothing more. Eventually he brings his favorite music, books and objects to the room -- ostensibly for her, but she is always asleep.
When the house closes unexpectedly and the madam disappears, the man is bereft. Desperate to see the girl, he walks the streets, looking for her, imagining that he sees her, when he realizes that he wouldn't know what she looked like fully dressed and standing up. He doesn't know her name or the sound of her voice, and tries to imagine it. Then he realizes he doesn't want to hear it. He prefers her silent.
Amazed at his desperation to find her, his agony at not seeing her, he realizes that for the first time in his life he is in love. With what is unclear, since the girl has never even been awake in the same room with him. He knows the girl works her fingers to the bone every day in a factory as the sole support of her family, and he has done nothing to help her, even mocks her to the madam about it. He calls her "Delgadina" (little slender one) but she is described as malnourished by somone else (not that he cares). He does nothing to find out if she gets enough to eat, or to ensure she is getting a fair share of what he pays the madam. He loves her silent somnolence which neither demands nor complains. There is no poignant love story here, just a lingering distaste.
Review of Spanish language edition.

Burning Precinct Puerto Rico: Book Three by Steven Torres (Thomas Dunne Books, $23.95)This is the third novel featuring the no-nonsense Sheriff Luis Gonzalo of Angustias, Puerto Rico, a remote small town in the mountains. The year is 1989 and Sheriff Gonzalo has 25 years on the job. His last duty before an extended vacation is to attend his anniversary celebration in the town square, where he's bored to tears by the speeches and distracted during the ceremony. Then billowing smoke in the distance signals a major fire on the outskirts of town and all hell breaks loose.
When the smoke clears, a family has been killed and their home burned down. The Ortiz family seemed to be farmers, but the violence signals something more serious was going on. The story moves at breakneck speed as Sheriff Gonzalo starts investigating and two dangerous suspects come to light. Other leads indicate the drug trade blighting the cities has moved up into this mountain idyll. But how? The town is so impenetrable even the walkie-talkies don't work steadily. Solidly relentless, the Sheriff follows the investigation through more twists than a daytime soap, as deputies get shot, people disappear and the new mayor continues trys to get him off the case.
An intimate sense of place, vivid and well-devoloped characterization and fast-paced action make this crime-spree a must-read.

To read more of Lake's work, go to www.bookauthority.blogspot.com.

Saturday, December 11, 2004



Originally uploaded by minusbaby.
Photo by "minusbaby."

Check out minusbaby's work at flickr.
Felicidades. In this month of sending holiday wishes, consider sending an e-card of Puerto Rico.

Reminder -- My photos are now part of the photo collection at the Escape to Puerto Rico site.

My work is located under the categories:

Old San Juan
escape.topuertorico.com/postcards/oldsj8.shtml

Churches
escape.topuertorico.com/postcards/church4.shtml

Folklore
escape.topuertorico.com/postcards/folklore3.shtml

Please visit and send an Isla del Encanto e-card.

Thanks.

Wednesday, December 08, 2004

In the News

COMING UP ON DEMOCRACY NOW!

Thursday, December 9:
* A look at the contested Puerto Rican election of 2004: The candidate
narrowly leading in last month's governors race is charging the U.S.
government with acting as a colonial ruler for seizing control of
ballot counting in the protracted election. A Boston-based federal judge has
decided to step in and overrule Puerto Rico's Supreme Court on how to
run the recount. Last week 20,000 people protested outside the federal
courthouse in San Juan to denounce the decision of U.S. District Judge
Daniel Dominguez. Some demonstrators held signs reading "Stop the
federal coup, respect Puerto Rico." Gubernatorial candidate Aníbal
Acevedo Vilá said the U.S. judge's move "tortures the island's
residents and holds them hostage."

* A discussion on the future of the nation's labor movement
For more information, www.democracynow.org.

Sunday, December 05, 2004

Guitar, maracas, oh my!


Guitar, maracas, oh my!
Originally uploaded by clarisel.
!Feliz Navidad!

Thanks for your support of the Puerto Rico Sun project.

Peace and love always.

Clarisel

Saturday, December 04, 2004

Boricuas in Gotham forum

Community News

IPR Policy Forum

BORICUAS IN GOTHAM
Puerto Ricans in the Making
of Modern New York City

Wednesday, December 8, 2004
6:00 pm (followed by a book signing reception)
PRLDEF Conference Room
99 Hudson Street, 14th Floor
(between Franklin and Leonard Streets in Manhattan; #1 or 9 subways to Franklin St.)

This forum will critically examine issues in the writing of the history of the Puerto Rican community in New York City as presented in the newly-published book, Boricuas in Gotham: Puerto Ricans in the Making of Modern New York City -- Essays in Honor of Dr. Antonia Pantoja (Princeton, NJ: Markus Wiener Publishers, 2004).
Boricuas in Gotham, edited by Gabriel Haslip-Viera, Angelo Falcón and Félix Matos-Rodríguez, attempts to recover that history from 1945 to the present through the writings of leading scholars in the field. The book’s contributors are: José Cruz (SUNY-Albany), Angelo Falcón (PRLDEF and Columbia University), Fernando Ferrer (NYC Mayoral Candidate), Gabriel Haslip-Viera (City College of New York), Antonia Pantoja, Francisco Rivera-Batiz (Columbia University and the Russell Sage Foundation), Clara Rodriguez (Fordham University), Virginia Sánchez-Korrol (Brooklyn College) and Ana Celia Zentella (University of California-San Diego).
A panel of respected experts has been invited to critique the book and discuss its implications for the Puerto Rican community and New York City. These are:
Javier Castaño (Hoy Newspaper; author of New York Colombiano)
Juan Flores (Hunter College; author of From Bomba to Hip Hop)
Lillian Jimenez (Latino Educational Media Center)
Ed Morales (freelance writer; author of Living in Spanglish)
John Kuo Wei Tchen (New York University; author of New York Before Chinatown)

Lillian Jimenez will be showing clips from her documentary, "Antonia Pantoja: Abriendo Caminos," chronicling the Puerto Rican community's educational and language rights struggles in New York. The documentary features interviews with Dr. Antonia Pantoja and other members of the Puerto Rican community from the 1950s to the early 1970s. It includes rarely seen archival footage and never-before-seen 8mm home movies of the era.
This IPR Policy Forum is organized by the PRLDEF Institute for Puerto Rican Policy, and co-sponsored by the New York Regional Office of the Puerto Rican Federal Affairs Administration (PRFAA), the Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños at Hunter College, the Latin American and Hispanic Caribbean Studies Program at the City College of New York, and Markus Wiener Publishers.

Please RSVP with Myra Y. Estepa at MEstepa@aol.com or 212-739-7499.
Myra Y. Estepa
Policy Networking Program Coordinator
PRLDEF, Inc.
99 Hudson Street, 14th Floor
New York, NY 10013
(212) 739-7499 (Direct)
(212) 431-4276 (Fax)

"Querer ser libre es empezar a serlo"

Zero Improvement for Hispanic Workers: Hispanic Unemployment Rate Unchanged, Significantly Higher Than National Rate

WASHINGTON, Dec. 3 /PRNewswire/
-- Today the government reported that the Hispanic unemployment rate continued to be disproportionately higher than the national average. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate for Hispanics was 6.7 percent, with 1.3 million Hispanic Americans looking for work -- a 16 percent increase since President Bush took office.
The national unemployment rate was at 5.4 percent; with today's weak job numbers, 1.2 million private-sector jobs have been lost over the last four years. The average length of unemployment is at a 20-year high, and manufacturing jobs have been lost three months in a row remaining at a 54-year low. Americans working hard to provide for their families need good jobs and a growing economy.
"Today's lackluster jobs report makes clear that the economy has not 'turned the corner,' as President Bush claimed during the campaign," House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said. "Under Republican leadership, the manufacturing sector has been devastated, wages have not kept pace with inflation, and we have the worst record of job creation since the Great Depression."
"The Latino unemployment rate did not improve and it remains staggeringly higher than the national rate," Congressman Xavier Becerra (D-CA), member of the House Ways and Means Committee, said. "The policies of this Administration and the Republican Congress ignore the economic realities facing the hard working Latino community, making matters worse for Latinos, and benefiting the very wealthy at the expense of American workers."
"According to the President's spokesman, the Bush Administration is planning an economic summit in two weeks, to 'force' the President to focus on economic issues," Pelosi said. "Instead of using this summit to push the radical Republican plan to cut retirement benefits, or to discuss the merits of exporting American jobs, Republicans should use that time to come up with a real plan to create good paying jobs here at home, control the deficit, and help the middle class achieve financial security. Bipartisan solutions exist. But first, the Republicans must replace economic theory with real-world strategies that focus on job creation."
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, an additional 1.3 million people fell out of the middle class and into poverty last year, with paychecks flat and household income down. While annual average incomes remained flat, incomes for Hispanics dropped by 2.6 percent, the only group whose incomes fell last year.
House Democrats have always fought on behalf of Hispanic American working families. The Democrat's Hispanic Agenda, Compromiso Democrata con el Pueblo Latino embodies this commitment. The proposals put forth by House Democrats would create 10 million new jobs, would fully fund education programs so that all our children can reach their potential, including migrant and seasonal worker's children. The Democratic commitment to Latino families is the same that produced 20 million new jobs during the 1990s and that has always defended the interests of the Hispanic community, especially during the last four years of insensitive neglect from Congressional Republicans and President Bush.

Source: Office of House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi

CONTACT: Federico A. de Jesus of the Office of House Democratic Leader
Nancy Pelosi, +1-202-225-0100


Web site: http://democraticleader.house.gov/



Wednesday, December 01, 2004



Tuesday, November 30, 2004

Community News

Event: 2004 CT LATINO LEADERSHIP SUMMIT
Date: December 3rd, 2004
Category: CT

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT
Rita Rivera Ortiz
Program Director
Leadership Greater Hartford
860.951.6161, ext. 15
rivera@leadershipgh.org


400 Connecticut Latino Leaders To Convene for Third Summit Dirigiendo Con Nuevo Ritmo

November 22, 2004 (Hartford, CT)On December 3, Latino leaders from across the State will convene at the Hartford Marriott Hotel in Farmington for the third biennial Connecticut Latino Leadership Summit. Impacto Latino: Leading With New Rhythm, is an outstanding opportunity for learning, networking, and celebrating for emerging and current leaders in the Latino community.

The program features morning and afternoon workshops and keynote addresses from U.S. Congresswoman Nancy Johnson and Rossana Rosado, Publisher /CEO of El Diario- La Prensa.

Registration begins at 8:00 a.m. and the day concludes with a reception at 4:00 p.m.

Latino Leadership Development Network, in collaboration with Leadership Greater Hartford, Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, The City of Hartford, C.A.L.A.H.E., The Latino & Puerto Rican Affairs Commission, Latina Roundtable, Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration, SINA, Trinity College and the Hispanic Professional Network, organized the event.

Thanks to key event sponsors The Phoenix, Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut, Bank of America, Aetna Foundation, Comcast, and SBM Charitable Foundation, registration is only $75, or $35 for students (18-25) and Senior Citizens (60 plus).

For more information and to register, please visit Leadership Greater Hartfords website at www.leadershipgh.org, or contact Rita Rivera Ortiz, at 951-6161, ext. 15.

Source: www.leadershipgh.org