Tuesday, August 31, 2004

English Language Learner program reaches above-average exit rate





"Roughly 23 percent of Metro students for whom English is a second language acquired the skills necessary to exit the district’s English Language Learner (ELL) program last year, a number which is more than double the amount districts typically expect to achieve in a year, according to the director of Metro’s ELL program, Sayra Hughes."



"Exiting the ELL program means that students have become fluent enough in English to be successful in school without special assistance."



"'Usually in a district you shoot for 10 percent in a year,' Hughes said."



"An upcoming open house will have a translator in every classroom to make sure that parents not fluent in English will get the same vital information as the rest of the parents."



Metro schools have "more than 200 ELL teachers."



Nashville City Paper

Friday, August 27, 2004

Environmental advocacy and international flair mix in "Global Stir Fry"





"International food, music and dance will be part of a ''Global Stir Fry'' on Saturday at the 'eARTh Food Park,' an outdoor site operated by the nonprofit organization EarthMatters Tennessee in Nashville."



"The event, 11 a.m.-3 p.m., will include prize giveaways and games like the 'endangered species spelling bee' and introductions to foreign languages and composting. WFSK disc jockey Sipho Dumasane will be on hand for the event, which is sponsored by the Tennessee Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. The park is one block south of Sevier Park on the corner of Lealand and Gale lanes."



Tennessean



see also EarthMatters Tennessee

Thursday, August 26, 2004

Political pandering to Hispanics sparks parody by Nashville-based Spanish instruction series





"A new CD offers famous and infamous American political phrases in Spanish. English-Spanish Campaign Audio Flash Cards sounds like a typical lesson from a high school language lab. We hear 'I Am Not a Crook' in Spanish and 'Lock Box.'"



NPR



see also English-Spanish Campaign Audio Flash Cards, Kerry web site in Spanish, Bush web site in Spanish, Hispanic vote-courting stories on Yahoo! News

Wednesday, August 25, 2004

Nashville Scene college guide sizes up Nashville's Mexican food





"La Paz in Green Hills has tasty Mexican food at average prices. Las Palmas is also a favorite Mexican restaurant for college kids, but its popularity is due to the cheap prices, not the quality of the food. Try the fajitas and get a pitcher of margaritas. In Murfreesboro, try La Siesta or Camino Royal for Mexican, Marina's for Italian. La Hacienda on Nolensville Road is the real thing; 80 percent of the clients are actually Hispanic. Can't make up your mind? Drive up and down Nolensville Road and survey the options of Mediterranean, Mexican, Vietnamese, Indian and everything in-between."



Nashville Scene

Tuesday, August 24, 2004

NASCAR detours through Mexico City to build Hispanic fan base





"NASCAR is heading south of the border next year. It has scheduled a Busch Series race March 6 at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez road course in Mexico City."



"[Nashville Superspeedway General Manager Clif]f Hawks understands the move from a business standpoint. There are approximately 38.8 million Hispanics in the United States, and they currently represent 9 percent of NASCAR's fan base."



"Hawks notes the booming Hispanic population in Nashville and says, 'Having NASCAR racing in Mexico will attract a lot of these folks to our sport. The marketing possibilities are very exciting. Again, my only reservation is that if all of this eventually leads to a Nextel Cup race going to Mexico that's not good for our track here.'"



The Tennessean

Monday, August 23, 2004

Nashville-raised English professor publishes essay compilation on the complexities of interracial friendships



"In the introduction to Some of My Best Friends: Writings on Interracial Friendships, editor Emily Bernard writes about her experiences growing up in Nashville as a black bourgeois kid with mostly white friends. Born in 1967, she found herself maintaining a difficult balance between her integrated world and the life lessons of her parents, particularly those of her mother."

"'All 16 of the essays in this book reflect people - black, white, Hispanic, Asian - doing just that, finding their way through interracial friendships. Bernard has pondered this phenomenon for most of her life. 'Which ingredients make interracial friendships possible?' she writes. 'Which factors destroy them? At what point does unintentional racial ungainliness become willful racial insensitivity? What do other people do at those moments when racial difference rears its head uncomfortably?'"

"Not all the essays, however, are about successful interactions, and if Bernard had had her way, there would have been even more of these. 'One group I was interested in hearing from was white male conservatives,' she says. 'I was really disappointed not to successfully convince any of the numbers of them I wrote to, to participate.' Meanwhile, on the other end of the spectrum, Sandra Guzman, a journalist, writes of her exclusively non-white circle of friends in 'Gringo Reservations.' It is a choice borne out of a lifetime of unpleasant experiences with the white girls across the street and with her freshman-year roommates. She writes: 'One should not have to walk on eggshells among friends, I think. One should not have to translate one's essence, either.'"

Nashville Scene

Friday, August 20, 2004

PBS features special programming for Hispanic Heritage Month





"In celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month - September 15-October 15, 2004 - PBS brings the vibrant talents of Latino actors, actresses and producers into viewers' homes. With broadcast premieres and encore presentations, animation, drama, history, art and music, PBS has something with a little Latin flavor for everyone."



"Latino artists across the United States take center stage in a groundbreaking six-part television event VISIONES: LATINO ARTS and CULTURE, premiering Sunday, September 5 and airing Sundays through October 10, 2004, 10:30-11:00 p.m. ET."



"Kids will find a new place to watch and learn weekday afternoons with the new daily animated series MAYA and MIGUEL. Lively and colorful, MAYA and MIGUEL chronicles the adventures, and sometimes misadventures, of 10-year-old twins Maya and Miguel Santos, and features their family, friends and a richly diverse neighborhood. The programs present culture and language learning as fun, relevant and rewarding for all children, with a special emphasis on the Latino population."



"Sure to keep everyone on their feet is the music and beats from the PUERTO RICO JAZZFEST 2003 (September, 2004, check local listings). This year's festival features performances by Berkley professor William Cepeda, Makoto Ozone, Paquito D'Rivera, Claudia Acuña and Chick Corea."



"And rounding out the month is the conclusion of the encore presentation of the the Emmy(R) award-nominated miniseries AMERICAN FAMILY — JOURNEY OF DREAMS. This compelling epic interweaves the Gonzalez family's courageous escape from the Mexican Revolution to seek a better life in America with the sacrifices the family made in the 1990s to send their first-born son to medical school and the consequences of those sacrifices as seen through the war in Iraq."



"Throughout the months of September and October PBS offers a wide variety of encore presentations of award-winning documentaries and acclaimed specials. Please check local listings for airdates and times of the following programs: AMERICAN EXPERIENCE "Zoot Suit Riots", BEYOND THE BORDER, COME AND TAKE IT DAY, FLAMENCO: THE PASSION OF SPANISH DANCE, INDEPENDENT LENS "Foto-Novelas: Junkyard Saints and Broken Sky", P.O.V. "90 Miles", and STEALING HOME: THE CASE OF CONTEMPORARY CUBAN BASEBALL."



Hispanic Business

Thursday, August 19, 2004

Minority business leaders and state officials mine business opportunities at Tennessee Minority Business Development Conference





"Representatives from top corporations in the state and government agencies are meeting with minority-owned businesses this week at the 24th annual Tennessee Minority Business Development Conference to build stronger alliances and create business."



"'The goal of TMSDC is to get minority businesses past the gatekeepers of corporations so opportunity can become a reality,' said Jacquelyn Lutie, consultant for TMSDC. 'Our conference strives to put everyone together under one roof so all the players can network face to face.'"



"TMSDC has 142 corporations working with 226 minority-owned businesses in the state."



Nashville City Paper

Wednesday, August 18, 2004

Hispanic children cited in Hamblen County tax crunch; County Commissioner suggests segregation





Hamblen County "has the largest school system in the Lakeway Area and more migrant students than any county in the state."



"The schools have more and more Hispanic students every year. While some aid is available to teach these children, it is primarily a local responsibility."



"Putting all the Hispanic children into one school, as County Commissioner Tom Lowe suggested, is not only unworkable but illegal, school officials said."



"Faced with an expected 250-300 more students and costly mandates from the state, the county school board approved a budget they said was lean but would be adequate for the schools' needs."



Citizen Tribune

Tuesday, August 17, 2004

New York Times: Hispanic gangs follow rural jobs





"Gangs have been a fixture of urban life in the United States for more than 150 years, making their presence known in inner-city ghettos and poor immigrant neighborhoods ever since the Irish settled the Five Points district of New York. But as Carter and other small-town cops in America have discovered over the past few years, gangs are no longer just a big-city problem."



"Gang activity has traditionally been a function of immigration and labor-migration patterns. Today, with those patterns changing -- with unskilled jobs shifting from cities to rural regions, with sprawl pushing suburbs and exurbs deeper into the countryside -- gangs are cropping up in unexpected places: tiny counties and quaint villages, farming communities and cookie-cutter developments, small towns and tourist resorts. In Toombs County, Ga., for instance, 10 Hispanic gangs roam an area marked by cotton, tobacco and onion fields, according to Art Villegas, who tracks gang activity there for the sheriff's office."



"The blue-collar jobs that do not require much training or fluency in English are increasingly found in the countryside. Thanks in part to the explosive growth of the fast-food industry and the huge agro-conglomerates that service it, giant food factories now dot pastoral America. The plants actively recruit south of the border and in poor Hispanic neighborhoods on both coasts of the United States, drawing legions of immigrants to places barely big enough to register on state maps."



The New York Times

Monday, August 16, 2004

Vanderbilt "separatist" professor Virginia Abernethy assumes national advisory role for Arizona anti-immigration group





"A woman who says she believes in the separation of the races is the new national voice of Protect Arizona Now, drawing harsh criticism from activists who call her a 'white supremacist' - and splintering the political group’s own rank and file."



"Virginia Abernethy, a 69-year-old professor emeritus at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, Tenn., has been appointed chairwoman of the national advisory board for PAN, a political group trying to stop illegal immigration. Reached by telephone, Abernethy said she considers herself a 'separatist,' not a supremacist."



"'I'm in favor of separatism - and that's different than supremacy,' Abernethy said. 'Groups tend to self-segregate. I know that I'm not a supremacist. I know that ethnic groups are more comfortable with their own kind.' PAN has gathered enough signatures to get Proposition 200 on the Nov. 2 ballot. If passed, Proposition 200 would require proof of citizenship to register to vote, require voters to show identification and force government officials to ask individuals if they are legal residents before offering public benefits."



East Valley Tribune Online

Friday, August 13, 2004

Athens (Tennessee) celebrates second Downtown Fiesta





"After a successful debut last year, organizers of the Athens Downtown Fiesta are making plans for the second Hispanic/International street party, which is scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 25."



"The Downtown Fiesta is modeled after similar annual events in larger cities celebrating Hispanic culture. According to a letter promoting the Fiesta, the event was conceived as an opportunity for the coming together of our area’s Hispanic population, the traditional local community and students at Tennessee Wesleyan College."



"For more information about the Downtown Fiesta, call Laura LeNoir at 746-0699 or Alicia Mora at 744-9535."



Daily Post-Athenian

Thursday, August 12, 2004

Hospitals say federal immigration reimbursement might not be worth it





"Congress has approved $1 billion in federal funds to reimburse hospitals across the country in the next four years for emergency care provided to illegal immigrants."



"'The big issue is, in order to get these dollars, do we have to be policemen and report these individuals?' asked Craig Becker, president of the Tennessee Hospital Association. 'We don't believe it's our role to determine if someone is in this country legally or illegally. It's our role to take care of the patient.'"



"The CEO of Bedford County Medical Center in Shelbyville is giving consideration to the new policy. Bill Macri says his hospital spends $3 million a year to cover the costs of patients who can't pay."



"Although the hospital never asks anyone's immigration status, Macri assumes that there are illegal immigrants among the non-paying patients whom emergency room doctors treat every day. It's a fact of life in places like Shelbyville, where thousands of Hispanic workers have flocked in recent years to work in meat-packing plants, factories and on farms."



"'It would be nice to have some subsidy,' Macri said. But requiring staff to ask patients questions about their immigration status in the emergency room 'puts a significant burden on us,' adding to overworked medical personnel's jobs."



"Ultimately, he said, sick people might forgo treatment altogether."



"Tennessee's allocation is based on Department of Homeland Security's estimates of the state's undocumented immigrant population. Tennessee, with an estimated 46,000, stands to get $1.1 million each year between 2005 and 2008. California will get the largest share: $72 million each year for the estimated 2.2 million illegal immigrants in the state."



The Tennessean

Wednesday, August 11, 2004

"Coyote" headed to Nashville arrested with 15 in truck bed





"For more than two days in intense heat they sat tightly jammed into a covered six-by-ten truck bed, often without a bathroom break."



"With just hours to go, a speeding ticket put an end to the American dream for 15 illegal immigrants traveling through Kenton County."



"The group's alleged coyote or transporter, Jose Rodriguez-Ramos was pulled over for speeding while taking the Mexicans to Nashville from Phoenix, possibly for future employment. Officials said they had first come illegally from Mexico by another way."



"Rodriguez-Ramos now faces 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine."



"The 15 other illegal aliens will be brought back to Covington as material witnesses and will then be deported to Mexico, they will not face any charges."



WCPO

Tuesday, August 10, 2004

110,000 Hispanic Catholics in Middle Tennessee diocese





"The 75,000 registered Catholics in the Nashville area today are more than double the number in 1990. In addition, there are about 110,000 Hispanic Catholics in the diocese, many of whom are not registered members because they come and go from the area, he said."



The Tennessean

Monday, August 9, 2004

Hispanic machine operator loses hand, alleges illegal employment practices





"A 17-year-old illegal immigrant recently filed a $2 million suit against a Maryville pallet company after her hand was cut off while she was working there."



"The teen's suit alleges that when she tried to get help from the company for her medical bills, she was told to 'go back to Mexico.'"



"The suit also alleged that when the company learned the defendant and other workers were illegal aliens, they continued to withhold payroll taxes, but didn't forward those taxes to the government."



The Daily Times (Maryville, TN)

Friday, August 6, 2004

Latin bands Cypress Hill and DeSol at Dancin' in the District this weekend





"The Asbury Park, N.J. group deSol features the same infectious, rousing sound and exciting mix of Latin rhythms and American pop and rock elements previously popularized by such bands as Azteca, Malo and the original Santana ensemble. But one difference between these earlier aggregations and deSol, who appears Saturday as part of Bridgestone Dancin' In The District, is this band's strong identification with Nashville, a city that's not as well known for its Latin connections as Miami, Los Angeles or New York. DeSol's Aug. 24 debut disc will be released on Curb Records, and the first single 'Spin Around' is already getting airplay on both Spanish-language and Americana radio stations."



"'We do about twenty-five to thirty percent of our songs in Spanish and the rest of them are in English,' Monterrosa said. 'This is really not that big a deal to us, but it is something that the industry as a whole always seems to be concerned about. We've done sets where we take some of the English songs and do them in Spanish, and there are others where we'll do some of the choruses or bridges in Spanish and the main melody and the hooks in English, and it never seems to bother the audiences.'"



"Los Angeles' own Cypress Hill serves up a unique brand of hip-hop that merges rap with rock, hardcore with Latin-flavored textures. Though the crew formed in 1988, this Latino group didn't become a bona fide hip-hop smash until 1991. Cypress Hill's best-known song is perhaps Insane in the Brain, which came from its 1993 album, Black Sunday."



"See deSol Saturday at Bridgestone Dancin' In the District, First Avenue and Broadway at Riverfront Park, along with Cypress Hill, Dropping Daylight and Common Ground. Tickets are $5 in advance, $8 day of the event. Gates open at 4 p.m. Call 255-3588 for information. Children ages 5 and under get in free. To purchase tickets by phone, call 1-800-594-TIXX (8499) or log onto www.dancininthedistrict.com."



Nashville City Paper, The Tennessean

Thursday, August 5, 2004

State crackdown on fake Social Security numbers hits Spanish-language bartending classes





"On a recent afternoon, three waitresses chatted in a south Nashville Mexican restaurant waiting for an alcohol safety class in Spanish to begin when special agent Michael Cawthon appeared. He asked for their Social Security cards and immigration paperwork."



"After Cawthon's visit to La Terraza restaurant on Nolensville Road, the woman whose documents were confiscated left quickly and a half-dozen other students never showed up for the class, said Veronica Torres, an instructor. Torres works for SPIRITS, one of 10 companies registered with the state to offer five-hour classes required of anyone serving drinks. Torres surmised they heard about or saw the agent in the restaurant, which had no role in the class except as its location. Class attendees work in restaurants and bars around the city, Torres said."



"SPIRITS owner Martha Marston said she has suspended the company's Spanish classes because she feels they are being singled out for enforcement efforts."



"Cawthon was responding to a tip about Torres' classes, [executive director of the Tennessee Alcoholic Beverage Commission Danielle] Elks said. ABC staff had found that 29 of 30 students in her recent classes had submitted fake Social Security numbers. Neither Torres nor SPIRITS is suspected of any wrongdoing, she said."



"Alcohol permits by the numbers

4,000 bartenders and waiters in the past six months sought permits to serve drinks in Nashville

800 of the applications had fake Social Security numbers

75 sets of fake documents were seized by officials in Knoxville, Chattanooga and Memphis in the past two months

22,000 permits are issued statewide each year"



The Tennessean

Wednesday, August 4, 2004

Los Lobos rides into Uptown Mix tonight





"The East Los Angeles ensemble Los Lobos has electrified music fans for more than three decades by fusing an extraordinary blend of influences and elements into a highly charged, dynamic ground sound."



"Los Lobos, who perform at the Uptown Mix tonight, have also been pioneers in spotlighting the Latin contribution to pop and rock music, frequently cutting songs (even entire discs) in Spanish and also incorporating traditional Mexican tunes and norteno (a hybrid sound blending Tex-Mex, country and polka, as well as blues and traditional Mexican music) aspects into other releases."



"Their most recent CD The Ride (Hollywood) celebrates that legacy with a series of outstanding collaborations between the group and various artists they've admired since their inception. The disc has been widely deemed to be their greatest, as well as being their most commercially potent. That's quite an achievement since they've previously done such master releases as How Will The Wolf Survive?, By The Light of the Moon, La Pistola Y El Corazon and Neighborhood."



"Los Lobos appears along with Sonia Dada tonight at the Uptown Mix, at the corner of Chet Atkins Place and 20th Ave. S., across from South Street and the Bound'ry. Gates open at 6 p.m. Tickets are $10."



Nashville City Paper

Tuesday, August 3, 2004

Hearing in driver certificate challenge set for September





"After a month on the books, Tennessee's new driver's license law continues to draw national attention from immigration and national security policy-makers who wonder how well it's working."



"In another month, they may get their first clear answer. A judge has set a Sept. 23 hearing date to rule on whether the law will be halted immediately while a lawsuit against it is decided."



"As of Wednesday, the state had issued 1,698 certificates, according to the state Department of Safety."



The Tennessean

Monday, August 2, 2004

Franklin brings bilingual fingerprinting station to tonight's National Night Out Against Crime





"[This] week marks the “National Night Out Against Crime,' and to kick off the event Monday night, the city of Franklin is planning a party at Pinkerton Park."



"'The mission of the night is to bring awareness to crime prevention efforts,' said Monique McCullough, the city’s Community Relations Manager."



"'We want the night to be accessible to all residents, so we will have a bilingual Spanish officer at the fingerprinting station,' McCullough said. 'For our event and in order to get a really good print, we would prefer the child be at least one year old.'"



"Activities on August 2nd at Pinkerton Park will begin at 4:00 PM. For more information or to volunteer, please call (615) 794-2103."



The Review Appeal, City of Franklin
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...