WEDNESDAY, JULY 21, 2021 | SILVERTONAPPEAL.COM
PART OF THE USA TODAY NETWORK
There were
1,101 reports
of hate, bias
in Oregon
last year
Dianne Lugo Salem Statesman Journal
USA TODAY NETWORK
People gather for a wellness day at Capaces Leadership Institute as the organization celebrates its 10th anniversary.
BRIAN HAYES / STATESMAN JOURNAL
A future of Latino leaders
CAPACES prepares
a future wave of
leaders to lead
their communities
Dora Totoian
Salem Statesman Journal
USA TODAY NETWORK
In 2018, while searching for commu-
nity as a recent college graduate, Jules
Martinez Plancarte signed up for the
People’s
Representatives
training
through the CAPACES Leadership
Institute in Woodburn, designed for Lat-
inx people to explore serving in elected
or appointed decision-making bodies.
The 26-year-old described instantly
feeling welcome, and considered run-
ning for office down the road.
But when the Newberg City Council
had a vacancy in January 2020, the tim-
ing was right, she said, and she became
the first Latina to serve on the city’s
council.
“If I wouldn’t have had that support
and network from the CAPACES Leader-
ship Institute, I don’t think I would’ve
taken that step so early on in my career,”
Martinez Plancarte, now also a staff
member at CAPACES, said. "We’re not
just serving the community, we’re work-
ing and co-creating with the communi-
ty.”
On July 13, the CAPACES Leadership
Institute celebrated its 10th anniversary.
The organization, part of the Alianza
Poder network, supports leadership de-
velopment in Latinx communities, with
a focus on strengthening political con-
sciousness and eliminating social dis-
parities.
“Part of it is to have the communities’
experience at decision-making tables-
...given the demographic changes we’ve
experienced," CAPACES executive direc-
tor Jaime Arredondo said, describing
one CAPACES program. "And we want to
also emphasize this isn’t about the rep-
resentatives, it’s about the people
they’re representing.”
The network's other organizations,
such as the farmworker union PCUN,
Mano a Mano and Farmworker Housing
Development Corporation, arose out of
need, while CAPACES emerged from op-
portunity, Arredondo said.
“We’re not responding to emergencies
here. We’re built on opportunity, on the
future, on self-actualization,” Arredondo
said. “We try to marry community wis-
dom with institutional knowledge
—that's kind of our secret sauce.”
The programs at CAPACES, the plural
of “capable” in Spanish, encourage civic
engagement, support young people in
their leadership development and con-
nect families to their agricultural and cu-
linary heritage.
The organization also serves as the
backbone of the Oregon Latinx Leader-
ship Network, a group of over 100 com-
munity-based organizations started
amid the pandemic.
'Our past is very deep'
While CAPACES is turning 10 this
week, the organization was decades in
the making, Arredondo said, going back
to the founding of PCUN in 1985, and to
the creation of the Willamette Valley Im-
The programs at CAPACES,
the plural of “capable” in
Spanish, encourage civic
engagement, support young
people in their leadership
development and connect
families to their agricultural
and culinary heritage.
migration Project in 1977, started to sup-
port undocumented workers in response
to increased immigration raids in the
state.
More than a thousand people walked
through the doors of the original blue
house of PCUN to process their immigra-
tion papers after the Immigration Re-
form and Control Act of 1986, Arredondo
said, including his father and father-in-
law.
The lumber from that house was used
in the new CAPACES building, which re-
lied on community members to pull
weeds and put up the building’s walls,
Arredondo said.
Community members also rallied in
2012 to change a Woodburn city ordi-
nance to allow public murals, making
way for the mural depicting the history
of Woodburn’s farmworker movement
on the building and for other murals that
now color downtown Woodburn.
The mural reflects CAPACES’ empha-
See CAPACES, Page 4A
Oregon’s Olympians: Tokyo-bound
athletes with ties to state
Chris Hansen
Register-Guard | USA TODAY NETWORK
From July 21 through Aug. 8, America
will be rooting for its more than 500 ath-
letes competing in the Olympic Games
in Tokyo. But some will hold a special
spot in Oregon’s heart. They include
Oregon natives, current and former Uni-
versity of Oregon Ducks and Oregon
State University Beavers, and those
who love calling this state home. Here
are some of the Olympic athletes with
Oregon connections to follow:
Jade Carey
Sport: Women’s gymnastics
Oregon connection: A future Oregon
State University student
The 21-year-old from Arizona
punched her ticket to Tokyo prior to the
Olympic Trials by winning both floor ex-
ercise and vault in the individual event
World Cup series. She’ll compete as an
individual at the games.
She only competed in two events on
the second day of trials – bars and beam.
Carey started gymnastics when she
was 2. Her parents owned a gym at the
time, and her dad, Brian Carey, is now
her head coach.
According to Oregon State University,
Carey signed her letter of intent with the
school in 2017, but has deferred while
training for the Olympics. She enrolled
in classes in 2020 but did not compete
for the Beavers while she continued to
train for the Tokyo Games.
She has an aunt and uncle who at-
tended OSU and chose the school “be-
cause of the positive team environment
and the amazing coaching staff. I also
fell in love with the gorgeous campus,”
according to OSU.
Matthew Centrowitz
Sport: Track & Field, men’s 1,500
Oregon connection: Graduated from
University of Oregon, runs with Bower-
man Track Club.
The 2016 Olympic champ proved he’s
still at the top of his game when he fin-
ished second by a step to Oregon fresh-
man Cole Hocker during the Olympic
Trials last month in Eugene.
A master in-race tactician with a for-
midable kick, the 31-year-old veteran
will be a medal threat in Tokyo during
his third Olympic Games.
“I knew where my fitness was (at the
Olympic Trials) and I know where I need
to get to,” Centrowitz said on June 27.
He’ll have plenty of familiar faces
around him.
Centrowitz is in his second summer
See OLYMPIANS, Page 4A
Vol. 140, No. 31
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A Unique Edition of
the Statesman Journal
QEAJAB-07403y
Oregon’s second annual report on
hate crimes and bias shows reports of
incidents against people of color
spiked in 2020 during the rise of the
Black Lives Matter movement and lat-
er the presidential election, and con-
tinue to rise this year.
And in more than 30% of the inci-
dents reported, the perpetrator was a
police officer or some other govern-
ment employee.
The report released this month de-
scribes data collected by the Oregon
Department of Justice’s hotline. The
hotline records reports of bias inci-
dents and connects victims to various
resources.
Victims reported hundreds of inci-
dents of harassment, vandalism and
assault perpetrated in large part by
strangers but also by the government.
The data are a first glimpse at how Ore-
gon’s changing bias crime laws and
new efforts to connect victims with re-
sources has perhaps helped uncover
more victims in need of support.
The report is a result of Senate Bill
577, which passed during the 2019 leg-
islative session and changed bias
crime reporting criteria. It also direct-
ed the Oregon Criminal Justice Com-
mission to review data about bias
crimes and incidents during 2020.
Additionally, SB 577 required the
Department of Justice to establish a
hate crimes hotline dedicated to as-
sisting victims, witnesses and other
reporters of bias crimes and incidents.
The hotline opened in January 2020.
More than 1,000 reports of bias
According to the report, 1,101 reports
of bias were made to the Bias Response
Hotline. Hotline advocates who re-
sponded to the reports determined
that 304 of them were bias/hate
crimes and 606 were bias incidents.
Under Oregon statutes, a bias crime
is a verbal, physical or visual crime
that is motivated in part or in whole by
bias against someone’s perceived
race, color, national origin, disability,
religion, sexual orientation or gender
identity. Gender identity was added as
a protected class under SB 577.
Bias incidents are someone’s “hos-
tile expression of animus towards an-
other person, relating to the other per-
son’s perceived race, color, religion,
gender identity, sexual orientation,
disability or national origin, of which
criminal investigation or prosecution
is impossible or inappropriate.”
To make the determination, hotline
advocates inquire whether a protected
class was involved, whether the inci-
dent involved a hostile expression of
animus based on a protected class and
whether the victim or reporter believes
the offender was motivated by bias.
Advocates did not investigate the
reports made to the hotline them-
selves. The report makes clear that the
advocates are “centered on the tenet of
belief.”
Of the 1,101 calls made to the hotline,
492 were reports of harassment
(45%). Reports about institutional bi-
as conduct made up 23% of the re-
ports.
The hotline also categorized 142 of
the reports as incidents of assault
(13%). The other reported incidents
types were vandalism (7%), refusal of
service (5%), and doxing (1%). The
hotline was unable to determine the
incident type for 76 of the reports
(7%).
Race-based incidents the
majority
Most of the reports involved race-
based targeting (63%). Of those 695
incidents reported, 55% of were re-
ports of anti-Black or African-Ameri-
can incidents.
Anti-Hispanic or Latinx reports
made up 16% of the reported incidents
involving race and 10% were anti-
Asian.
The report adds that the hotline was
tracking whether reporters believed
their experience was related to health
and political events that occurred dur-
See HATE, Page 2A