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.
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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.
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