Negative tone has been rejected by some Christians, but continues nonetheless

In an environment in which Hispanics and/or immigrants are the subject of politically generated suspicion and scorn, it certainly isn't right for Southern Baptists and other evangelicals to gin up more suspicion and scorn.

Family Research Council Action executive director David Nammo released the following statement:

"We strongly condemn the tone and content of materials that were exhibited by one of the vendors at this weekend's Values Voter Summit. The materials represent an attempt at parody that crosses the line into coarseness and bias."

"The exhibitor contacted our reviewer just days before the Summit by email and described material that sounded like it was devoted to political flip-flops on policy issues. When the content of the materials was brought to the attention of FRC Action senior officials today, they were removed and the exhibit was dismantled by the vendor at our insistence. It is our responsibility to fully vet materials that are offered at any event we cosponsor, but we are deeply dismayed that this vendor violated the spirit, message and tone of our event in such an offensive manner."

"The Values Voter Summit represents a coming together of many long-established organizations that work across denominational and ethnic lines to celebrate and promote the family and a culture of life. We reject any communications that divide and distract us and frustrate these principles. Bishop Harry Jackson's High Impact Leadership Coalition, Gary Bauer's American Values, and Alliance Defense Fund join us in rejecting this material."

Source: Christianity Today

Explanation

"Positions on the, the border... We're havin' th-, him, erase the line between the U.S. and Mex-"

Apology to Lou Dobbs

"Lou Dobbs: 'My Wife Will Love This!'"

Labels: business, english, faith, justice, mexico, negativity

“I signed Lalo Schifrin to Verve Records,” boasted [Mike] Curb by phone from his home in Nashville, Tenn.

“I merged my company with MGM and Verve in 1969 and became president. We continued to operate those combined labels. I had been a fan of Lalo Schifrin's scores, and we wrote 'Burning Bridges,' the theme for 'Kelly's Heroes,' together. I recorded it with my group, the Mike Curb Congregation, and I had a hit. It created a long friendship.”

Labels: argentina, arts, business

[Austin] Ray, meanwhile, is opening a bar called The Melrose on Franklin Pike and developing a resort in Nicaragua with his father Norm Ray, formerly an industrial real estate broker in Nashville with Colliers Turley Martin Tucker.

Labels: business, nicaragua

Labels: business, chambers, events

IMMIGRATION

To make Nashville the best it can be…

Identify ways to encourage understanding of immigration issues – including the problems associated with illegal immigrants – in a broader context of valuing cultural diversity and encouraging appreciation for new Nashvillians.

* Create more positive image of immigration in the city. Encourage corporate and political leaders to educate city on value of diversity and immigration. Find ways to increase cultural awareness in Nashville through more city-wide celebrations like the Celebration of Cultures festival. Educate public about differences between immigrants and illegal immigrants with a focus on the total immigrant population.
* Expand diversity training to identify cultural differences provided in the workplace, school, religious institution and govt.
* Encourage local corporations to “adopt” at-risk or immigrant neighborhoods for civic training and job placement.
* Provide a database and services that are multi-lingual to address specific newcomer needs.
* Convene a group of policy-makers to develop a special driver’s license for undocumented immigrants that, at a minimum, allows them to drive to and from work.
* Create an Office of Immigrant Integration that provides education, information services and forums that encourage civil conversation
* Hold “civics” classes at schools and libraries for new Nashvillians on local laws, government processes and services available.
* Create a leadership academy which partners immigrant leaders with native Nashvillians to expand partnerships and create stronger leaders.

Labels: business, education, english, immigrants, justice, spanish

Homage to Emilio and Rick Trevino, Freddy Fender and Johnny Rodriguez

Melissa Lawson takes top slot

"It's great. It's just an honor to be a representative and be among the few Hispanic artists of the world," Garcia told reporters. "Emilio and Rick Trevino, Freddy Fender and Johnny Rodriguez -- I have some big shoes to fill there with these guys. But it's just great. I'm just here to represent all our country fans, too."

Despite being proud of his roots, Garcia said he doesn't expect to be a crossover artist.

"I don't think I would do a crossover thing but I would definitely throw maybe like a bilingual song in an album or something," he said. "I'm really going to keep it country and as best as possible."

Labels: arts, business, country music

"Part of Delta's ongoing international expansion, of which Latin America is a key component"

Delta Air Lines plans to offer a nonstop flight between Nashville and Cancun beginning December 20.

According to a news release from the company, as an introductory offer the Saturday flights will cost $159 one-way.

Pam Elledge, senior vice president-Global Sales and Distribution, said Cancun is a favorite destination for U.S. travelers.

The new flight between Nashville and Cancun is part of Delta's ongoing international expansion, of which Latin America is a key component.

Delta currently serves Cancun from Atlanta, Boston, Cincinnati, Hartford, Conn., Los Angeles, Orlando, Fla., Raleigh-Durham, N.C., Salt Lake City, and Washington, D.C.

Labels: business, mexico

Unlike many blogs, "so-called" informational Web sites or news outlets that purport to cover or report objectively on the private prison industry and Corrections Corporation of America, the content here does not reflect a narrow agenda or view point. Instead, TheCCA360.com offers a more complete 360-degree perspective, citing official government records, official documents and respected experts and sources on issues and happenings that impact the company and its industry.

Labels: business, immigrants, justice

Putting the "buena" in BNA

Labels: business, food

"We are proud of our language and culture and revel in celebrating it with little kids all over the country"

Los Pollitos Dicen, the premier line of children's Spanish tee shirts, debuts new gift items: bilingual baby hats, bibs and tank tops.

The company also introduces its first embroidered design, a cheerful "Los Pollitos Dicen Pio Pio Pio'' on vibrantly colored red and yellow infant onesies.

The new items in the apparel company's offerings are, like the rest of the line, boutique quality and 100% cotton, made in the U.S.A. The items join a selection of bright and festive onesies and tees screen-printed with funny and popular Latino colloquialisms like Gordito, Pachanga and Candela (Chubalicious, Par-TAY! and Spitfire.)

Los Pollitos Dicen (The Little Chicks Say) sells many of its t-shirts and onesies packaged in a wooden, egg-shaped gift box with a beautiful illustration and story in English. The box can be decorated and cherished as a keepsake or fun box for toddler treasures.

All the t-shirts and onesies, like the company's tag line, are "Vibrant Threads for Colorful Babes.'' Prices range from $6 to $24. All items are available on-line and at select boutiques across the country.

Los Pollitos Dicen launched in 2005 and has been featured in national newspapers and magazines such as Working Mother, The Miami Herald and the Dallas Morning News. Los Pollitos Dicen also was a Target.com Hispanic Heritage Month Red Hot Shop vendor in 2007.

The founders, Carrie Ferguson Weir and Oscar Alonso, are South Florida-born Cuban-Americans who created the line to celebrate and promote la cultura to all -- regardless of Mother Tongue. Weir is a former newspaper reporter who blogs about "life on the hyphen'' at Bilingual in the Boonies. She also writes for the popular site, Parenting.com. Alonso is a Philadelphia-based artist and graphic designer.

"We are proud of our language and culture and revel in celebrating it with little kids all over the country,'' Weir said. "Our loyal customers appreciate our originality and our quality, so we always are working to expand our line. We know the new offerings will be a hit.''

For more information visit Los Pollitos Dicen at www.piopio.biz
Use the code PACHANGA to receive 20% off your next purchase.

# # #

Los Pollitos Dicen, the premier line of Spanish baby gift t-shirts and onesies, has been making familias happy since 2005. Our designs are bold in color and rich in Latino heritage.

Labels: business, cuba, spanish

Immigration bureaucracy is "one of the more consistent customers"

Facility in Georgia is "all-ICE"

National press picks up problems

On the federal side, our main customers are the U.S. Marshals Service, the Federal Bureau of Prisons and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. We have a new (federal) contract out in Las Vegas, and we are getting ready to start construction of a 1,072-bed facility there — the Nevada Southern Detention Center.

If you look at the last eight years, the Federal Bureau of Prisons has probably been one of the more consistent customers we've had. They have two potential procurements for another 4,000 beds that we think they'll take some type of action on next year. It would be beds for criminal aliens — non-U.S. citizens, low security.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement, our very first contract with them goes back to our company's founding in 1983. We continue to work with them and in pretty creative ways. Our facility down in Lumpkin, Georgia, in Stewart County has turned into an all-ICE facility.

It has courtrooms for immigration judges and other space for about 60 federal caseworkers who work on deportation issues. We put services on site so there's no transport required to a federal courthouse or to a federal immigration office in Atlanta. Everybody is under one roof and detainees can go through the system very quickly.

ICE is challenged on bed space all over the country, but that picture improves if you have detainees going through the system in 30 days, let's say, instead of on average 60 days.

Labels: business, immigrants, justice, reputation

"Our part to help ensure the success of the next generation of Latino leaders"

Automaker's local YMCA support reaches six figures in two years

Nissan North America, Inc. announced July 30 that it has contributed $50,000 to the Hispanic Achievers -- a program of the YMCA of Middle Tennessee. This will mark the second year Nissan has partnered with the local non-profit contributing a total of $100,000 to date.

"Nissan is proud to support the Hispanic Achievers Program in its efforts to help the Hispanic community reach educational success," said Stephanie Valdez Streaty, senior manager, Philanthropy and Diversity Communications, Nissan North America, Inc. "It provides us an opportunity do our part to help ensure the success of the next generation of Latino leaders who will positively impact and improve our communities."

The Y-Hispanic Achievers Programs help children, youth, and adults in the Hispanic community achieve their educational goals and better their lives. The program has achieved much success with its high school program, which has a 100% graduation rate with half of its participants moving on to college.

"Receiving support from a company of Nissan's stature speaks volumes about its commitment to the community. Nissan's generous contribution will help the Y-Hispanic Achievers Program make a greater impact on Hispanics' lives," said Jessie Van de Griek, Harding Place YMCA Community & Volunteer Development Coordinator. "We're thrilled that Nissan shares our commitment to education, and this partnership will have a lasting impact in Hispanic communities across Nashville. We deeply value the support that the Nissan family has provided our efforts."

The Y-Hispanic Achievers Program also seeks to direct families on the right path, looking for ways to develop strong academic and educational foundations, to discover their cultural identity, and to establish leadership roles among its participants. Nissan recognizes the numerous strides that the Y-Hispanic Achievers Program has made since its inception in 1992.

Nissan has long been a major contributor of other Hispanic organizations across the country including the National Hispana Institute, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, the Hispanic Scholarship Fund, the League of United Latin American Citizens, and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund; and is a proud long-time sponsor of the Copa Nissan Sudamerica.

In North America, Nissan's operations include automotive styling, engineering, consumer and corporate financing, sales and marketing, distribution and manufacturing. Nissan is dedicated to improving the environment under the Nissan Green Program 2010, whose key priorities are reducing CO2 emissions, cutting other emissions and increasing recycling. More information on Nissan in North America and the complete line of Nissan and Infiniti vehicles can be found online at www.NissanUSA.com and www.infiniti.com.

The Hispanic Achievers Program is part of the YMCA of Middle Tennessee, YMCA of Middle Tennessee, a not-for-profit, worldwide charitable fellowship united by a common loyalty to Jesus Christ for the purpose of helping persons grow in spirit, mind and body. With 30 centers and 253 program locations, the YMCA reaches 278,328 lives-1 of every 6 people in the 12-county area it serves-through membership, program participation, volunteerism and philanthropy. The YMCA builds strong kids, strong families, and strong communities.

Labels: business

Hispanic employees in the news

Importance of diversity

History of Hispanic marketing

Cross-cultural business

Philanthropic support of Hispanic non-profits

Welcome

Labels: business

Bank executive Ron Samuels has been named the new chairman of the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce's board of directors, the organization said Wednesday.

Samuels, the president and chief executive of Avenue Bank, replaces Darrell S. Freeman Sr., the chairman and chief executive of Zycron Inc., an information technology company.


Bert Mathews, president of The Mathews Co., a real estate firm, was named vice chairman, and Bob Grimes, marketing manager for Turner Universal Construction Co., will be secretary.

Ralph Schulz remains president, and Freeman becomes the group's immediate past chairman.

The chamber also announced seven new board members for the 2008-2009 term: Dennis Alpert, senior manager of public affairs/government relations for Wal-Mart Stores Inc.; David Fox, a partner in the public relations firm McNeely Pigott & Fox; Kate Herman, president and publisher of Nashville Business Journal; Dr. Melvin N. Johnson, president of Tennessee State University; Larry Kloess, president of HCA Tri-Star Health Systems; Tom Oreck, executive chairman of Oreck Corp., a vacuum cleaner manufacturer; and Nick Zeppos, chancellor of Vanderbilt University.

Labels: business, chambers

To greet Koreans in Korean as a non-Korean is always a sure fire way to elicit surprise and a bit of cultural cool points. It doesn’t matter how much I mangle the pronunciation or use the improper honorific or fail to conjugate the verb, it never fails to please at some level.

Trying to speak someone’s language is a sign of respect... It indicates that you value them, or at least care enough to recognize that they are not altogether like you, and that this is a good thing.

Labels: business, english, spanish

Labels: arts, business

"How would this facility have been if no one found out about it?"

HQ's inner musings still a mystery

"Mommy, where is God that he doesn’t want to help us? Mommy, tell God to come and take us out of here and take us to our house"

In the last 18 months alone, CCA has been the target of several stinging lawsuits supported by detailed affidavits and third-party reports alleging dangerous and inhumane practices that have put inmates’ lives at risk. Whistle blowers, once in positions of trust at CCA, have emerged from the shadows to tell vivid tales of corporate misconduct. Federal authorities have castigated the publicly traded corporation for operating an immigration detention facility in Texas on the cheap. And at that CCA complex—which at one point forced children of immigrant detainees to dress in prison garb—dozens of incarcerated women and children have come forward with gut-wrenching tales of anguish and neglect.
...
Elsa and her children wore prison uniforms and spent hours in their pod, often with no toys or books for the kids. One day, Elsa and her family were in the doctor’s office, where all the kids were playing with crayons. Angelina drew a picture, but a guard grabbed the girl’s artwork. She cried a lot at Hutto, wondering what her family had done wrong.

“Mommy, where is God that he doesn’t want to help us? Mommy, tell God to come and take us out of here and take us to our house,” Elsa recalled her daughter saying. “Mommy, why do they have us as prisoners if we have never killed anybody?”
...
By all accounts, Hutto is no longer as oppressive as it was when Elsa and her family first arrived from Honduras. But why didn’t CCA get it right from the start? Or to put it more bluntly, why did a rich company—one with $388 million in revenues last quarter—have to be told by the ACLU to cease treating innocent children like criminals?

“The point I’d like to make is that none of these changes were done voluntarily,” says [Barbara] Hines, the attorney. “When you look at CCA and ICE, the question is, how would this facility have been if no one found out about it?”

Labels: business, immigrants, justice

Opened Basante's, father from Nicaragua

“My father put me in with his chefs when I was 17,” said Fonseca, who now serves as executive chef of the venerable Nashville City Club.

But long before then, the career of Nicaraguan-born Luis Fonseca Sr. impacted an impressionable lad.

“He used to come home at about 3 o’clock in the morning, wake me up, spend time with me, get a little sleep — and then go back to work,” the younger Fonseca said. “I remember my father working 16 to 17 hours a day. He was on his feet all the time.”

The physical toil eventually sidelined the banquet manager, a respected member of San Francisco’s diverse culinary community.

About that time, in the mid-1990s, Fonseca Jr. was pondering a move to Music City, lured by the opportunity to open with a relative what would become Basante’s.

Labels: business, food, immigrants, nicaragua

Legendary couturier Manuel celebrated his 76th birthday with one of his famous all-day fiestas atop the mountain at his Triune-area home.

The event welcomed hundreds of friends, family and well-wishers, with impromptu performances from some of his singer-songwriter pals. Rosie Florez dedicated the tune "Hot Dog" to Manuel's daughter, Morelia,who also served as hostess and emcee for the event. Joshua Black Wilkins also performed, as did Danny Salazar, Rachel Rodriquez and Pino Squillace, who together roused the audience of margarita lovers with a bit of Latin flair.

Nashville Opera ushered in a new era of drama, spectacle and artistic distinction today as the company unveiled plans for the Noah Liff Opera Center and the Fund for Artistic Excellence. The Opera's $12 million Raise Your Glasses capital campaign will fund the visionary $6 million opera center, the first-ever permanent home for the community-supported nonprofit organization, which has established a reputation for eminence in the 400-year-old art form here in the nation's Music City.

The Raise Your Glasses campaign, which has already garnered three-fourths of its $12 million goal, will also provide for the Fund for Artistic Excellence. The Fund will augment the organization's ability to expand its education and outreach programs and enhance the artistic quality of its productions.

Labels: arts, business, fashion, immigrants, mexico

Nashville Business Journal profile described as "advertorial"

"Tired of people making false accusations"

Iranian immigrant

The [NBJ] piece also serves as an advertorial for Lucas’s company, La Vision Advertising, and his new Spanish-language newspaper, El Suceso. He is portrayed as a force to be reckoned with in the advertising community, a man with expertise in delivering the Spanish-language market to advertisers.

Unmentioned is the fact that Lucas does not speak Spanish or possess any significant Hispanic heritage. He is not from Spain, as he has led some in the Nashville business community to believe, and his real name—which police say is definitely not Anthony Lucas—has no echo or lilt of any Latin nation.

In fact, most of Anthony Lucas’ carefully constructed image is complete fiction. His name, age and address as printed in the NBJ are false, according to police reports, court documents and testimonials from those who have crossed his path. Lucas’s real name is Abbas Tehrani, and according to police records, he was born in Iran in August 1951, making him 56 years old—not 48, as reported in the NBJ.

Labels: business, immigrants

"I no longer find my identity in my music anymore."

Jaci, you've been at the top of the charts for a long time and a favorite in Christian pop. Have the aspirations changed for you now that you're a mother?

Velasquez: My career, my ministry is all important, though I no longer find my identity in my music anymore. My identity is now in my relationship with God and my two boys. That's what I love the most, though I still love making music. And Zealand loves me making music—[I could tell when] he was in my tummy making the [latest] record. He would wake up in my stomach, and to soothe him, I would have to sing. He would also get really upset if someone was singing off key on the TV or something. So I'd sing to him and it would soothe him and he'd listen to me. Now he's still the same way—when his mommy or his daddy sing, it soothes him. It's really sweet.

It made for a different experience making a record, putting things into perspective. It used to be that I would remember what was going on in my life by the record that I was doing at the time. The reality of it was [my life] was only based around that. Making music is a big part of my life, but it's just not my life.

Nic, you're a lifelong Austin boy. What was it like making the move to Nashville?

Gonzalez: I don't want to speak ill of Nashville because it's a good city, but it's not Austin. My wife lives here, and I love my wife, so that made it easy. It was easier for us because we both have careers here and she just happens to have a couple of things going on a little bit more than I do. I was able to live in Austin to hide away from all of it, but Jaci's face is a little more identified with this area. She works more out of here, so it only made sense [to make the move].

Labels: arts, business, faith

Labels: business, cuba

Thirteen lose their lives behind CCA walls, some cases never previously made public

"Basic standards of decency and fairness... means lifting the veil"

Mr. Bah’s relatives never saw the internal records labeled “proprietary information — not for distribution” by the Corrections Corporation of America, which runs the New Jersey detention center for the federal government.
...
Four days after the fall, tipped off by a detainee who called Mr. Bah’s roommate in Brooklyn, relatives rushed to the detention center to ask Corrections Corporation employees where he was.

“They wouldn’t give us any information,” said Lamine Dieng, an American citizen who teaches physics at Bronx Community College and is married to Mr. Bah’s cousin Khadidiatou.
...
The Public Health Service did not respond to questions, and the Corrections Corporation said medical decisions were the responsibility of the Public Health Service.
...
Four sons in another family, in Sacramento, described trying for days to get medical care for their father, Maya Nand, a 56-year-old legal immigrant from Fiji, at a detention center run by the Corrections Corporation in Eloy, Ariz.

Mr. Nand, a legal immigrant from Fiji who was diabetic, had been calling his family with mounting desperation over a 10-day period, the sons said. Already ailing when he was abruptly taken into custody at the family’s home in Sacramento early in the morning of Jan. 13, 2005, he had deteriorated after a week at the Arizona detention center, which is run for the federal government by Corrections Corporation of America, a publicly traded prison company.
...
Asked about Mr. Nand’s treatment, Corrections Corporation officials said in a written statement that he had been medically screened when he arrived at the Eloy center, seen and treated “multiple times” by its medical staff, and taken to a hospital. According to a government list of deaths in immigration custody, Mr. Nand was one of five detainees to die at Eloy within a 26-month period; none of the deaths have previously been brought to public attention.

Privately run centers had 32 percent of the deaths, even though they housed only 19 percent of detainees over all, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

There are more than 300 detention centers around the country, but one private operator, the Corrections Corporation of America, had 13 deaths in its centers...

The government urgently needs to bring the detention system up to basic standards of decency and fairness. That means lifting the veil on detention centers — particularly the private jails and the state prisons and county jails that take detainees under federal contracts — and holding them to the same enforceable standards that apply to prisons.

Labels: business, immigrants, justice, statistics

Buenos Aires native is looking for studio space

Labels: argentina, business, immigrants

[S]ome illegal immigrants choose to file taxes and write a check come April 15, using an alternative to the Social Security number offered by the IRS so it can collect income tax from foreign workers.

"It's a mistake to think that no illegal immigrants pay taxes. They definitely do," said Martha Pantoja, who has been helping Hispanic immigrants this tax season as an IRS-certified volunteer tax preparer for the non-profit Nashville Wealth Building Coalition.

Among those she has assisted is Eric Jimenez, a self-employed handyman who has worked in Nashville for several years. He feels obliged to pay taxes — even though, as Pantoja said, "nothing would happen" to him if he did not.

"I have an idea, a mentality, that to be a good citizen you have to pay taxes," he said. "Also, I'm conscious of the fact that the money we pay in taxes supports the schools and all the public services."

Pantoja said she has helped a number of construction workers who, because they are classified as independent contractors by their employers and have no taxes withheld, owe big tax bills come April. Beyond income tax, they have to pay the full Social Security and Medicare taxes due.

The Social Security Administration estimates that about three-quarters of illegal workers pay taxes that contribute to the overall solvency of Social Security and Medicare.

Labels: business, immigrants, justice

Recognized in corporate executive, nonprofit categories

Labels: business, costa rica, events

Judge John Rich: "About half my friends were Spanish kids - Mexican kids - and their first language was Spanish"

I think, that Julio Iglesias Jr. brings an element to country music that does not exist -- and that being the Spanish-English element. I remember growing up in Texas and hearing Johnny Rodriguez on my radio station, and about half my friends were Spanish kids -- Mexican kids -- and their first language was Spanish. They were all my buddies. I remember Johnny Rodriguez turning them on to country music. They liked it, but it wasn't something they completely related to until they saw Johnny Rodriguez.

Well, I think, it's been 30 years since that, and I think it's time we pay attention to that audience again. I see Spanish-speaking people coming to Big & Rich shows by the hundreds and thousands, depending on the part of the country that we're in, and right now, there's nobody in our format speaking to that audience.