volume i,
in uni ber 1
Committed to cultural diversity.
September 25, 1996
SEC TIO N
Diversity and Hispanic
culture in Eastern
Oregon on page C3.
Q B S
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Violence changing our way of life
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September
Police call for fundamental changes in dealing with violence
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ikmwaiì «
heritage
M@ INI TIMI
Richard Brown &
Portland Chief of
Police Charles Moose
discuss community
policing issues at the
Villa de Clara Vista.
Photo by Timothy Collins
by S ean C ruz , E ditor ,
P ortland O bservador
Portland Police Bureau C h ie f o f
Police Charles Moose and three o f
his key administrators spoke at a
conference recently to discuss d is­
turbing trends in homicides in our
city. The trends indicate that the
characteristics o f hom icides are
changing in ways that are far more
threatening to the community than
in the past, and the police believe
that citizen involvement is the key to
dealing effectively with this crisis.
Changes for the worse
K illin g s are less likely to involve
people who know each other, mak­
ing the cases themselves more d iffi­
cult to solve. The ages o f both vic­
tims and killers are trending down­
ward, which increases both short-
and long-term costs to society. We
are now having to develop rehabili­
tation or confinement solutions for
killers under the age o f twelve.
Violence in the community
is deadlier than before
There is an alarming increase in
the numbers o f young people who
“ have no regard for human life.’’ The
use o f firearms— especially hand­
guns— is increasing, making the re­
ed by the Portland Police Bureau
sult o f violence more likely to result
indicate that females are currently
in death, and increasing the danger
more often victims than males, that
to innocent passersby. Revenge k ill­
homicides are more likely to occur
ings are on the rise, and the reasons
between 8 pm and 4 am, on certain
which people seek mortal vengeance
days o f the week: Friday, Saturday,
are increasingly cheap. D rive-by
Sunday and Monday. But no statis­
shootings and violence involving
tics can predict in what neighbor­
gangs o f crim inals are becoming in­
hood or household the next murder1“
creasingly callous and common.
w ill occur. A ll the police can do is
Hispanics, Blacks are
react to an incident that has already
more often victims
taken place.
Homicide is taking a toll on peo­
Portland compared
ple o fco lo r wholly out ofproportion
to other cities
to their numbers. O f the 36 murder
National crime statistics show
victims in Portland this year, 55%
Portland right in the middle o f a
wereHispanic, B lacko r Asian. While
ranking o f 207 sim ilar cities, with an
major crimes in the city are down in
annual homicide rate o f 5.2 per
all other categories, the homicide
100,000 residents. New Orleans cur­
rate here is up a startling 50% from
rently holds the distinction o f hav­
last year.
ing the nation's highest murder rate
Homicide not
for major cities: 38.2 per 100,000.
a “suppressable” crime
N a tio n a lly , h o m icid e s am ong
M any crim es are considered
people o f color amount to an epi­
suppressable because they can occur
demic.
in predictable patterns and are
Homicide is the
analyzable, such as auto theft or bur­
result of the problem
glary. I he police can develop and
C h ie f Moose called foracom mu-
implement strategies to deal with
nity-wide, if not nation-wide, vio­
these crimes. Homicide does not fall
lence prevention program that goes
into that category. Statistics provid­
to the systemic causes o f violence
"Violence should be treated as a
public health problem,” he said. "We
are very good at treating uninten­
tional injuries as public health prob­
lems. We have programs to deal
with the prevention o f injuries due to
drunk driving; we target smoking;
we require bike helmets and seat
belts.”
Homicide is a
public health problem
"We need to develop an approach
that treats the homicide issue as a
public health problem," he said.
C h ie f Moose called for a sustained
program that incorporates commu­
nity policing, educational programs
and schools, and that deals with pre­
vention o f domestic violence. Par­
ents ought to stop buying toy guns for
their children. Violence is eroding
the security children need to feel;
instead, they are growing up in a
climate o f fear.
Portland C h ie f o f Detectives Gre­
gory Clark noted that “homicide is
the result ofthe problem." It is not the
problem itself. “ We have to get at the
predecessor o f assaults, etcetera, and
people doing bad things to people,”
he said
César Chávez Leadership Conference Oct 8
The Cesar E. Chavez Leadership
Conference, which began in 1990 as
a gathering o f H ispanic students from
Portland Public Schools, has grown
to become the largest student event
in the Hispanic community in Ore­
gon
The conference is a meeting
ground for Hispanic leaders and role
models, and offers a forum for Lat­
ino youth to learn more about how
they can become effective leaders o f
our community and our country.
This event attracted more than
800 youth attendees last year, and
the same number are expected to
attend this 6th annual conference.
I he Cesar C havez Leadership
Conference offers the opportunity
to take part in activities which focus
on the development o f leadership
skills, career development, college
planning, and on enhancing se lf es­
teem.
Attendees are also able to be­
come part o f new networks o f com­
munication between Hispanic stu­
dents in the Portland area and
throughout Oregon.
The conference w ill be held at the
University o fPortland'sChilds Cen­
ter on October 8. Interested students
must register through their schools.
Some o f the sessions to be held
are: Increasing Latino Youth In­
volvement at Schools; Accom plish­
ments o f Latin as- Preparing for
L e a d e rsh ip R o le s; O r g a n iz in g
Latinos for Political Empowerment;
College & You; and A Look at the
Youth Movement Past, Present
and Future.
during the previous year benefited
the Hispanic community in some sin­
gular way. The award w ill be pre­
sented each year in the future during
Hispanic Heritage Month.
Hacienda CDC was winner
The HaciendaComm unity Devel­
opment Corporation was our inaugu­
ral winner, honored for their stellar
work at the V illa de Clara Vista,
located at 6706 N E Killingsw orth
Street. We had the pleasure o f pre­
senting the Community Betterment
Award at the Hispanic Metropolitan
Cham ber o f Com m erce meeting
Tuesday night at the N ike campus.
This issueofThe Observador will
contain articles that are not necessar­
ily Hispanic, but are o f vital interest
to the Hispanic communities.
Léalo! Apréndalo! Hazlo!
The
Portland
O bserver
con tin u é a celebrar el Mes
Nacional de Herencia Hispano con
nuestra segundo edición de The
Portland Observador. Estesección
se aparecerá en El Observer cada
otra semana. Algunas porciones
del periódico estar imprimido en
una forma bilingüe. Texto en
Español se aparecerá en secciónes
grisáceos.
Puntos desta ca d o s
Entre de los puntos más
destacados de nuestro primero Ob­
servador estuvo el primero anual
Portland Observador Galardón de
Mejora del Comunidad. Este
premio prestigioso la honra una
persona o organización lo que ha
mejorado la comunidad Hispano
durante del año previo en alguno
modo singular, y lo presentará cada
año en el futuro durante del Mes
Herencia Hispano.
Hacienda CDC fue ganador
El Hacienda Community Devel­
opment Corporation fue nuestro
primero ganador, se ha honrado
por su trabajo estelar por la Villa
de C lara V ista, 6706 NE
Killingsworth Street. Hacienda
CDC le aceptó el Galardón de
Mejora del Comunidad durante de
la reunión del Cámera de Comercio
Hispano, 24 de Septiembre.
Este edición de The Observador
los incluirá articulos que no
necesariamente están Hispano, pero
los están de interés indispensable a
los comunidades Hispanos.
»
WW
Painting by Diego Rivera, "Mientras el pobre duerme", "While the
poor sleep."
What is
Hispanic
Heritage?
It is impossible to gain an appre­
ciation o f our heritage and who we
are without understanding some­
thing o f the history o f Hispanics in
the United States. For far too many
people, Hispanics are seen as a re­
cently-arrived stereotype colored by
images o f tequila-drenched Cinco
de Mayo parties, mass-produced
burritos and illegal immigration.
Television, and the film and adver­
tising industries have done far more
to spread demeaning misinforma­
tion about Hispanics than they have
to recognize the dignity and beauty
and accomplishment o f the 11 ispan­
ic people.
A blend of Old and New worlds
Hispanics are a people that have
blended together from what used to
be called the Old and New Worlds.
Before the economic- and race-
based Third World designation
came into use, world civilization
was roughly divided into two hemi­
spheres, and cultural/pol itical d ivi­
sions were then based more on the
geography o f continents than they
are in contemporary times.
The perspective o f Old and New
was more equitable, although still
sharply flawed. The O ld World
was combined o f Asia, Africa and
Europe; the New World consisted
ofthe newly-discovered Americas.
But the New World newly named
the Americas already had a name;
in fact it had multiplicity o f names,
names as old as anything in the Old
World
Bienvenida al Portland Observador
Read! Learn! Act!
...
Bv S ean C rdz
Welcome to the Portland Observador, II
The Portland Observer contin
uesto celebrate National Hispanic
Heritage Month with The Portland
Observador. The Observador is
designed to address the interests o f
Portland’s growing and vital H is­
panic communities, and w ill ap­
pear in The Observer every other
week. Some portions ofthe news­
paper w ill be published in a bilin­
gual format. Spanish-languagetext
w ill appear in grey-shaded sec­
tions.
Highlights
Am ong the highlights o f our
first Observador was the bestow­
ing o f the first annual Portland
Observador Com munity Better­
ment Award, intended to recog­
nize a person or organization that
8 $ $
History as we know it largely!
represents the viewpoint o f Anglo I
Europeans, and dividing the world I
today into Firsts, Seconds and K urds
is more comfortable from that per­
spective But such divisions reveal [
nothing about heritage.
Hispanics are an ancient people I
Hispanics are known by many|
different names. Regardless o f or­
igin, they share "a rich and socially-1
important cultural background that I
is (their) essential heritage from Eu­
ropeans and Native Americans, who
developed highly-advanced c iv ili­
zations hundreds o f years before the |
first voyage o f Colum bus.”
Essentially, Modern Hispanicsl
are a mestizo blend ofN ativc Amer-1
icans from the New World and
Spanish immigrants from the Old.
who have since blended with Anglo,
African and Asian ethnicities. But
the original Spanish were not mo-|
nocultural or o f a single ethnicity,
they were made up o f Andaluz, |
Basques, Catalonians and Moors,
to name a few.
And the Native Americans were I
made up o f hundreds o f different
remnants o f ancient civilizations,
each with their own language, cu l-l
ture and history. Even today, more I
than 50 distinctly different Native
American languages are spoken in
M exico alone Each o f these lan­
guages and the people that speak
them predate the Spanish conquest
and the arrival o f Europeans.
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Continued to page C3