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February 9. 2005
Gonzales First Hispanic Attorney General
Torture memos
fail to derail
senate decision
( A P)— The Senate voted Thurs­
day to confirm W hite House coun­
sel Alberto Gonzales as attorney
general, setting aside complaints
he helped craft questionable U.S.
policies on the treatment of foreign
prisoners.
Gonzales, 49, a longtime friend
who was President Bush’s legal
counsel when he was governor of Alberto Gonzales
Texas, becomes the first Hispanic A m e ric a n s ,” said Sen. M el
to be the nation’s top law officer. Martinez, R-Fla., calling Gonzales
His 60-32 vote confirmation came “a role model for the next genera­
after opponents said they would tion” of Hispanics in this country.
not tie up the nomination with a
Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., said
filibuster.
he expected Gonzales, a former
"This is a breakthrough of in­ Texas judge, “to help lead the way
credible magnitude for Hispanic- for the creation of an America that
despises hate and
bigotry and recog­
nizes that every hu­
man being deserves
a governm ent that
will fight for the dig­
nity and equality of
all.”
During his confir­
m a tio n h e a rin g ,
o th e r D em o crats
c h a rg e d
th a t
G onzales’ January
2002 memo as White
House counsel led to
the abuse of sus­
pected terrorists in
Iraq and A fghani­
stan. The memo argued that the
fight against terrorism "renders ob­
solete [the Geneva Conventions’]
strict limitations on questioning of
enemy prisoners and renders quaint
some of its provisions.
“1 simply cannot support the
nomination of someone who, de-
spite his assertions to the contrary,
obviously contributed in large mea­
sure to the atrocious policy failures
and the contrived and abominable
legal decisions that have flowed
from this White House over the
past four years,” said Robert Byrd,
D-W.Va., the senior senator.
G onzales defended the memo
and said the treaty’s protections
did not extend to al-Q aida and
other suspected terro rists, but
he declared, "T orture and abuse
will not be tolerated by this ad­
m inistration.”
He told senators that as attorney
general he would “ensure the De­
partment o f Justice aggressively
pursues those responsible for such
abhorrent actions.”
Salazar said Gonzales made his
position on torture clear.
“Torture is illegal and wrong,
and that will be the position of
Judge Gonzales as attorney gen­
eral," Salazar said.
Race ’Goes Beyond’ Skin Color for Many
“W hite” also was more popular
among the U.S.-bom grandchildren
of immigrants than among the U.S. -
bom children o f foreign-bom His­
panics.
Sonya Tafoya, the Pew research
(AP) — Hispanics who identify associate who wrote the report,
themselves as “white” tend to be said, for Latinos, “race goes be­
better educated and less likely to be yond physical characteristics and
in poverty than those who con­ skin color.”
sider themselves “some other race,”
The census results showed that
according to a report by a private race among Hispanics appeared "to
research group.
be a measure of belonging or of
The Pew Hispanic Center ana­ political enfranchisement. ...Those
lyzed data from the 2000 census feeling more belonging to the
and its own survey in 2002 and American mainstream are more
found foreign-bom Latinos who likely to feel white,” she said.
became citizens were slightly more
The government considers “His­
likely to consider themselves white panic” an ethnicity instead of a
than noncitizens.
race; people of Hispanic ethnicity
Study shows
how Latinos
view themselves
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Cash Connection Supports
Martin Luther King Jr, celebration,
and Black History Month
open monthur, 9am-7pm
fri, 9am-epm sat, 9am-7pm
sun, ioam-4pm
onth
The 2000 census counted
35 million Hispanics. Since then,
Hispanics have passed blacks as
the nation s largest minority group.
can belong to any race.
Cubans were most likely to identify
The 2000 census counted 35 themselves as white (85 percent),
million Hispanics. Since then, His­ while Dominicans most often se­
panics have passed blacks as the lected “some other race” (58 per­
nation’s largest minority group.
cent).
The last census found the two
In most groups, naturalized citi­
most popular responses to the race zens were slightly more likely to
question among Hispanics were choose white than noncitizens. 47
white (48 percent, or 17 million percent of naturalized Mexican-
people) and “some other race” (42 Americans said they were white,
percent, or nearly 14.9 million).
compared with 44 percent of M exi­
Among H ispanic subgroups. cans who were not U.S. citizens.
Doll’s Storyline Upsets Neighborhood
Character leaves
‘dangerous’ city
for a better life
(A P) — Som e resid en ts o f
Chicago’s largely Hispanic Pilsen
section are upset over a new doll in
the popular American Girl series
because her storyline says the
Mexican-American youngster and
her family left the "dangerous"
neighborhood fora better life in the
suburbs.
Many in the neighborhood say
the characterization is insulting and
inaccurate.
“It’s very offensive and it’s re­
ally a slap in the face to the
hardworking people of the Pilsen
c o m m u n ity ,” said A lv a ro R.
Obregon, who lives near where the
doll, M arisol, supposedly lived
before setting out for the suburbs.
According to the biography that
accompanies the doll, which was
Marisol Luna, the newest
character in the American Girl
doll maker's line.
introduced just after Christmas, she
is the daughter of a transit worker
and an accountant. One day her
mother tells Marisol the family is
leaving their apartment for a house
in the suburbs.
The old neighborhood “was no
place for me to grow up,” the doll’s
story says. “It was dangerous, and
there was no place for me to play.”
American Girl officials said that
they never intended to insult the
community.
Although crime was down 6 per­
cent last year in Pilsen, the neigh­
borhood still grapples with gang
violence and high dropout rates.
“It’s a community that doesn't
give up and doesn’t run from its
problem s,” said O bregon, who
works with the community group
The Resurrection Project. “It’s a
community o f faith, of hardworking
people, and that’s why when this
comes out I’m sort of taken aback.”
American Girl dolls were intro­
duced in 1986. The dolls, which
have become a must-have for many
girls, also feature otherethnic char­
acters, including a Hispanic girl liv­
ing in colonial New Mexico, a black
girl during the Civil W ar and an
American Indian girl.
Chevez Pledges Support to Poor
(AP) — Venezuelan President
Hugo Chavez pledged to deepen
his “revolution” for the poor as he
marked his governm ent’s sixth an­
niversary, saying he intends to win
another six-year stint next year.
Chavez was inaugurated on Feb.
2,1999. He swiftly oversaw the draft­
ing of a new constitution that called
foreleetions in 2(XX). and won a six-
year term. Ahead of next year’s
elections, Chavez has pledged a
new push to fight poverty and ex­
pand social programs.
“One day we will no longer speak
of class here,” Chavez said, blam ­
ing accumulated poverty on “a cen­
tury of exploitation, o f hegemony,
imperialism."
In his six years, Chavez has sur­
vived a short-lived coup in 2002, a
two-month strike in 2(X)3 and recall
referendum last August.
Critics argue his policies have
done little to improve the lives of
the 25 million Venezuelans, most of
whom live in poverty despite the
country's oil wealth.
“Venezuelan society has become
poorer and, in addition, divided,"
said Anibal Romero, a political sci­
ence professor at Simon Bolivar
University.
Money Goes Home to Mexico
W ESTER N
U N IO N
t o wy to send money "
(AP) — Mexicans living and remittances became the country's
working in the United States sent second-most-important source of
$ 16.6 billion to their homeland dur­ revenue after oil.
ing 2004, an increase of 24 percent
Such increases in remittance fig­
over 2003, the B ankof Mexico said ures may he a result of better record
Monday.
keeping by authorities and not nec­
It was the second year in a row essarily a large increase in money
that remittances were greater than shipments. Bank ofMexicoGuillermo
direct foreign investment. In 2003 Ortiz warned in early January.
“Now nearly all of the remittances
are passing through the financial
system and we are recording them,"
Ortiz said. “These spectacular in­
creases o f 20 percent and 30 per­
cent in many ways reflect simply a
better collection of the information
and not necessarily an increase in
the shipments.”