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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (March 29, 2000)
March 29, 2000 Page B4 (Elu' ÿortlanb if llw r m Miracle Mainstage presents El Paso Blue Portland’s first-ever conference on Chicano issues A conference for the N ational A ssociation for C hicano and Chicano Studies (N A C C S) w as held in Portland on W ednesday, M arch 22. T he event m arked the first tim e in N A C C S ’ tw enty-seven year history that the conference w as held outside o f its traditionally preferred U.S. Southw est. N ationally, M exican-A m ericans m ake up 63.3% o f the total H ispanic population (N ational Council o f La Raza). U.S. C ensus data indicates that O regon currently ranks 18lh am ong states w ith highest overall Chicano and Latino population, w ith 6.1% o f total state population. T he reception w as hosted by Portland State U niversity’s C hicano/L atino Studies Program , Dr. Phyllis Edm undson, Dean o f the G raduate School o f Education and Dr. M arvin Kaiser, Dean o fth e college o f Liberal Arts & Sciences. T he reception included a c o m m u n ity a w a rd s p r e s e n ta tio n a n d liv e E lizabeth “ Betita” M artinez’s best know n w ork is 500 Years o f Chicano H istory in Pictures, a alliances am ong peoples o f color. Ram ón Ramírez isa foundingm em berofPineros y Cam pesinos U nidos del Noroeste (PCUN) a farmworker union based in W oodbum , O regon, established in 1985. He has served as either President or V ice-President o fth e union since 1988. From 1988 through 1995 he has coordinated P C U N ’s Project to Stop Pesticide Poisoning, w hich has video-taped unsafe practices, legally pursued possible pesticide exposure cases and enacted effective “right-to-know ” legislation. Since January 1996, Ram ón has directed PC U N ’s Immigrant Rights and Empowerment Project and served as a primary leader o f CA U SA , a statew ide im m igrants’ rights coalition. O riginally a native o f East Los A ngeles, Ram ón bilingual history w hich becam e the basis o f a two- part video she co-directed, entitled Viva La Causa: 500 Years o f C hicano History. In fall 1998 she published a collection o f essays entitled D e Colores M eans A ll o f Us: Latina Views f o r a M ulti-C olored C entury (South End Press). A fter graduating from Sw arthm ore Col lege in the 1950s, she w orked in the U nited N ations Secretariat as a researcher on colonialism in Africa. She also worked as an editor at Simon & Schuster and as Books and A rts Editor o f The Nation magazine. D uring the 1960s she jo in ed the Black civil rights m ovem ent, w orking full-tim e w ith the Student N onviolent C oordinating Com m ittee (SN C C ) as coordinator o fits New York office as well as its office cam e to the Northwest in 1973, working as an Amalgamated Clothing W orker Union O rganizer in Seattle, Washington, as w ell as being a com m unity liaison for the Chicano Studies D epartm ent at the U niversity o f W ashington. In 1975 he w as elected president o f M EChA Central, the leadership body o f M EChA in the state o f W ashington. Later he enrolled in C olegio C ésar C hávez in Mt. Angel, O regon and directed Rescate Press in 1976 and 1977. Ram ónjoined the Willamette Valley Immigration Project in late 1977, handling im m igrant visa cases fo rth e organization until 1982, w hen he then coordinated the Im m igration P ro ject’s fundraising and legislative work until 1985. In addition to his com munity organizing efforts, R am ón has w ork ed as a teacher and co u n selo r at W oodbum H igh School from 1978 to 1980. entertainm ent. H onorary guest plenary speakers included Elizabeth “Betita” Martinez, nationally known C hicana activist, author and educator, and R am ón R am írez, founding m em ber ofPinerosy Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste (PC U N ) a farm w orker union based in W oodburn, M iracle M ainstage Theatre will be celebrating its 15'h anniversary season with the fin a l p roduction o /E l Paso Blue. C om pany pla yers o f the p la y include (from left to right) Ted Schultz. K ellie Johnson, a n d Ja ck Lozano. T ake a trip through the w est T exas desert, Jornada del M uerto and the dark shady streets o f El Paso and uncover the secrets o f E l P aso Blue. a sexually charged and passionate story o f vengeance, love, pain and loss o f culture experienced by two generations o f men. T he road to the “ A m erican D ream ” is full o f potholes and detours in El P aso Blue. T hrough the stupidity o f his best friend, A lejandro spends a year in prison for a burglary he d id n ’ t commit. A lejandro d o esn ’t get along w ith his father, Jefe, yet he asks him to take care ofhis wife Sylvie, a former beauty queen, w hile he is away. U pon his release A lejandro discovers his w ife and father have run o ff together. Bent on revenge, the hunt begins as he sets o ff to find his w ife and father. Father and son distant from each other in their hearts find an aching desire for the sam e w om an. In the end she can only be w ith one. A rtistic D irector, A ntonio Sonera directs an all star cast in E l Paso Blue. D ram m y aw ard w in n in g actress, K ellie Johnson w ill play the anti blonde, blues singing Sylvie. M iracle favorite, Jack L ozano will play the tortured Alejandro. V eteran actor, Ted Schultz will play the O ld W orld father Jefe, 3rd floor actor, Andy Buzan will play the radio transm itting sidekick, Duane, and the O ther S ide’s V anessa Rios y V alles will play the m ysterious seer, China. This exciting new play was the smash h it o f th e O re g o n S h a k e sp e a re Festival last season. S olis’s play is an im aginative blend o f com edy and dram a that is set am ong the clash o f Lation and A m erican culture, and is filled with dynam ic language and raw steam y blues m usic, all w ritten and com posed by R odolfo O rtega. D o n ’t m is s E l P a s o B lu e , th e fin a l production o f the M iracle M ainstage 15th A nniversary Season! E xperience the passion o f th e h u n t...th e pain o f a tortured h e a rt...th e m ystery o f Jom ad a del M uerto. E x p erien ce.. .E lP a so Blue, by O ctavio Solis. Perform ances o f E l Paso B lue w i 11 be T h u rs d a y , F rid a y an d S atu rd ay evenings, M arch 31" through April 29lh. T hursday perform ances are at 7 pm. and tickets are $12. Friday and Saturday perform ances are at 8 pm. and tickets are $14. T here w ill be a special preview perform ance on Thursday, March 30lh at 7 pm. Tickets are $7. T he Gala O pening night perform ance w ill be March 3151 at 8 pm . Tickets are $ 17.50. The M iracle M ainstage is located at 525 SE S tark in P o rtla n d . For reservations and inform ation, call 503/236-7253. in M ississippi. Later, as part o f the Chicano m ovem ent in N ew M exico, she founded the bilingual m ovem ent new spaper E l G rito del Norte (1968-1973) and co- founded the Chicano C om m unications Center, a banrio-based organizing and educational project. Since m oving to the San Francisco Bay A rea in 1976, she has organized on Latino com m unity issues, taught W o m en ’s Studies part-tim e, conducted num erous anti-racist training workshops and worked with community youth groups. She even ran for G overnor o fC alifo m ia on the Peace & Freedom Party ticket in 1982. For her lifetime w ork o f activism and education she has received many a w a rd s fro m v a rio u s ac a d e m ic and p ro fe ssio n a l organizations and w ell as m any com m unity groups. Her new project is the institute for M ultiRacial Justice, a resource center that com bats divisions and help build Oregon. j U K 3?? sted tiene una familia que lo respalda Hispanic dropout numbers alarming A ssociated P ress H ispanic students are tw ice as likely as blacks and three tim es as likely as w hites to drop out o f high school, according to Education D epartm ent statistics that suggest the nation is ill-equipped to deal with the fastest- grow ing group o f schoolchildren. E ducation Secretary Richard Riley, hoping to create a brighter future for these children, is asking public school districts to establish in the next five y e a r s 1,000 new d u a l-la n g u a g e sc h o o ls that instruct ch ild ren in E nglish and in a native language such as Spanish. “ I f w e see to it that im m igrants and th eir children can speak only English nd nothing m ore, then w e will have n s'se d o n e o f th e g r e a te s t opportunities o f this new century,” R iley said W ednesday. “ It is high tim e w e begin to treat language skills as the asset they are.” Riley said dual language instruction has proven to h elp H ispanic children do better academ ically as w ell as preserve c h ild r e n ’s h eritag e and p rom ote bilingualism that can help students in an increasingly globai economy. “U nfortunately, too m any teachers an d ad m in istra to rs today treat a ch ild ’s native language as a weakness i f it is not E nglish.” R iley said, speaking at Bell M ulticultural High S chool, w hich is not one o f the n atio n ’s 260 dual-language schools. “ In som e places, even the idea o f bilingual education is controversial. It sh ouldn’t be.” D ual-language instruction is one o f th re e m ain, o ften hotly deb ated approaches to teaching the 3 m illion I 1 U.S. students w ith lim ited English p ro fic ie n cy , o f w h ich nearly 75 percent are Hispanic. These students, designated by school tests and other m easures as non-English speakers, also are taught in English-only classes o r c o m p le te ly in th e ir n a tiv e languages. Conservative critics o f dual-language schools said that such instruction doesn’t necessarily give non-English speakers the language im m ersion necessary to im prove. “Y ou are basically using Hispanic kids to help teach English-speaking kids Spanish,” said Jorge A m selleo f the C enter for Equal O pportunity, a W ashington-based group critical o f current bilingual education programs. W hile H ispanic children are more likely than other kids to com e from poor fam ilies w here they d o n ’t have good a c ce ss to h ealth ca re and preschool classes that would make them better students, Riley recounted statistics indicating that language is the c h ief barrier to learning. In 1997, 25.3 percent o f H ispanics ages 16 to 24 had dropped out of high school, com pared w ith 13.4 percent o f blacks and 7.6 percent o f whites. The dropout rates for H ispanics are lin k e d to a s tu d e n t’s la n g u a g e difficulties. Nearly h a lf o f foreign- bom H ispanic students drop out, w hile ju st 16 percent o f Hispanic students bom in the U nited States leave school, Riley said. And am ong U .S.-bom students w ho had at least one foreign-bom parent, the dropout rate w as higher at 20 percent. W hile 11 percent o fH isp an ics age 25 to 29 possessed at least a bach elo r’s degree. 14.2 percent o f blacks and 32.6 percent o f w hites had finished college. And there are few er teachers w ho can teach bilingual students. W hile 54 percent o f the nation’s classroom s have students in need o f English instruction, just 20 percent o f teachers say they feel prepared to teach them, the departm ent said. “ P aren ts and ed u cato rs w ant all children to learn English because it is essential for success,” Riley said, d isclo sin g th e latest research on H ispanic students. “ But, w hatever the approach to teaching English, it cannot be sim ply a defensive or reactive one.” The trouble with dual- language schools, said Am selle, is that nearly h a lf o f them have a 9 -to -1 ratio o f non-English students. “It really is Spanish im m ersion, and th at’s great for English speakers, but n o t so g re a t fo r th e S p an ish speakers," A m selle said, adding that m any parents have opposed such schools. B u t at O y s te r E le m e n ta ry in W ashington, a 325-student school w here every child learns everything equally in Spanish and in English, children are successful. Principal Paquita Holland said. Each classroom has two teachers who divide the children into two groups. W hile one group is solving math problems in English; the other isdoing the sam e math lesson in Spanish. At the end o f the sem ester or quarter, the groups sw itch languages. Nearl y hal f the chi Idren there are poor and 56 percent are Hispanic, yet seven in 10 have scored at or above grade level on recent standardized reading and math tests, Holland said. r Imagínese: hoy cambia todo, “)fo" da paso a "nosotros". "Nuestro" sustitifye a "mío". Y vivir feliz el resto de la vida es una meta no un hecho. ¿Está nervioso? Para, nada Usted cuenta con el apoyo dé una familia sólida American Family Mutual Insurance. 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