In this issue:
- President’s Message
- Congratulations
- Washington DC Update
- Hate Speech Update
- Media Democracy Fund Grant
- NHMC Revamps Website
- 2010 Census
- Palabra Radio
- Notice From the FCC
President’s Message
We are extremely proud to honor our Latino talent in Hollywood at NHMC’s 13th Annual Impact Awards Gala. This year’s honorees include Rico Rodriguez, Justina Machado, Aimee Garcia and Oscar Nuñez. They will join past NHMC Impact Award recipients Edward James Olmos, America Ferrera, Eva Longoria and George Lopez, to name just a few.
Oscar Nuñez will receive the award for Outstanding Performance in a Comedy Television Series
for his performance as a frustrated accountant on the hit show "The Office." Nuñez also appeared in the popular romantic comedy, "The Proposal." Well known for her work in "Six Feet Under," the talented and beautiful Justina Machado will receive the award for Outstanding Performance in a Dramatic Series for the CBS TV show "Three Rivers." She also recently appeared in the film "Accidental Husband" opposite Uma Thurman. Eleven-year-old Rico Rodriguez will receive an Outstanding Performance in a Comedy Television Series Impact Award for his role as Manny Delgado in ABC’s hit series, "Modern Family." Rico made the move from Texas to Los Angeles with his mom and sister to support his sister’s dream of becoming an actress. After one year of watching his sister having fun and success, Rico enrolled in acting classes and soon started making a name for himself. Another Impact Award for Outstanding Performance in a Dramatic Television Series will go to Aimee Garcia from NBC’s show, "Trauma." Best known for her role as Andy Garcia’s daughter and George Lopez’s niece, "Veronica Palmero," on "The George Lopez Show", she is currently the only Latina in her generation to be on syndicated television.
The Masters of Ceremonies for the evening are Wilmer Valderrama and Jose Luis Valenzuela. Valderrama is well known for his role as Fez on Fox’s "That 70’s Show" and the voice of Manny on Disney’s animated hit show "Handy Mandy," for which he received an Impact Award at last year’s gala. He can be seen in the drama "The Dry Land," that premiered at The Sundance Film Festival this year. Jose Luis Valenzuela is the Artistic Director of the Latino Theater Company and THE NEW LATC and an award-winning theater director and a tenured professor at UCLA’s School of Theater, Film & Television.
We hope that you are able to join us on this special evening, and if not that you visit our YouTube Channel later next week to see the videos of the awardees receiving their Impact Awards.
Congratulations!
Congratulations to NHMC Board Chairwoman Brenda-Victoria Castillo for being being one of Governor Schwarzenegger’s 2010 Appointees!
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger recently appointed Ms. Castillo to the California Teacher Credentialing Commission, and she is now awaiting Senate confirmation.
Ms. Castillo has a distinguished record of service in the private and public sectors. She currently serves as Director of Government and Public Affairs of the Western Region for BP America, Inc. Previously, she served as director of diversity and community outreach for the American Red Cross of Greater Los Angeles from 1999 to 2006. She was a teacher for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles from 1994 to 1998 and executive director for the National Hispanic Media Coalition from 1992 to 1994. Castillo began her professional career at KTLA, Channel 5 in Los Angeles, as an associate producer and community affairs representative from 1985 through 1992. She received several Los Angeles Emmy nominations, and in 1985 won a Los Angeles Emmy Award as co-producer of "A Salute to Hispanic Heritage Month Special."
Washington, D.C. Update
For years certain groups have been dehumanized and misrepresented on mainstream media. Now YOU can do something about it!
In January of 2009, the National Hispanic Media Coalition filed a petition for inquiry at the Federal Communications Commission, asking the agency to examine the link between hate speech and hate crimes, and to allow citizens across the country to voice their concerns. At the same time, it requested that the National Telecommunications and Information Administration update a 1993 report, The Role of Telecommunications in Hate Crimes. Over the past year the agencies have utterly failed to answer those requests.
In the meantime, countless people have been the victims of violent, and sometimes deadly, hate crimes. Hate crimes against the Latino community have risen over 40% in just the past few years. We know that hate speech not only inspires violence, but that it also has a profound effect on the psychological well-being of our children.
Here’s what you can do:
You can file comments at the Federal Communications Commission, explaining how the media is failing to serve your community. Although the FCC has not addressed NHMC’s petition for inquiry, it recently initiated a proceeding about "The Future of Media and Information Needs of Communities in a Digital Age." This may be our only chance to voice our grievances with the FCC! In this proceeding, the FCC asks some very broad questions about how the media is serving the news and informational needs of our communities. NHMC will be filing comprehensive comments about the media’s failure to serve the Latino community, and the proliferation of violent, anti-Latino rhetoric and programming that airs on some mainstream media outlets. We encourage you to do the same! Or, if you do not have enough time to file your own comments, we invite organizations to sign-on to NHMC’s comments by contacting Tatiana Arizaga at tarizaga@nhmc.org or at 626-792-6462 by May 1st. For more information on how you can participate, go to
https://www.nhmc.org/?q=node/73. Comments are due May 7th, so please don’t delay!
Hate Speech Update
Hispanics in the crosshairs
By William C. Kashatus
Philadelphia Inquirer
July 12, 2008, six white teenagers confronted Luis Eduardo Ramirez Zavala, a 25-year-old father of three and an illegal immigrant from Mexico, in an alley in Shenandoah, Pa. Screaming racial slurs at him, the teens viciously kicked and beat him. He died in intensive care two days later.
Two of the six assailants – 17-year-old Brandon Piekarsky and 18-year-old Derrick Donchak – were acquitted of the most serious charges by a Schuylkill County jury, but they were charged with federal hate crimes last month. They could receive life in prison if convicted.
What makes the Shenandoah case even more disturbing is that three of the borough’s police officers have been charged with obstructing the investigation into Ramirez’s death. Police Chief Matthew Nestor, Lt. William Moyer, and Officer Jason Hayes are accused of helping the defendants dispose of crucial evidence, including the shoes used to deliver the final, fatal kick to Ramirez’s head.
The Shenandoah case is not an isolated incident. It’s part of a frightening national pattern of anti-Latino hate crimes in the United States, which has paralleled growing resentment of illegal immigrants. Hate crimes against Latinos have surged 40 percent nationwide since 2003, according to recent FBI statistics. (The statistics are thought to undercount total hate crimes, but nevertheless indicate real trends.)
Of the 1,347 victims attacked in this country because of their ethnicity or national origin in 2008, 62 percent were Hispanic. Though the most common offense was intimidation, there were at least nine murders and nonnegligent manslaughters. And convictions were rare.
Many of the hate crimes take place in towns like Shenandoah, where there has been a significant increase in the Latino population over the last decade, and where Hispanics are competing with white workers for jobs in a struggling economy.
Some of the towns are famous for having adopted harsh anti-immigrant ordinances. Hazleton, Pa., for example, approved an ordinance in 2006 making it illegal for individuals and businesses to aid undocumented workers, punishing landlords who rent or lease to them, suspending the licenses of businesses that hire them, and making English the city’s official language. Similar measures targeting Hispanics have been passed in Riverside, N.J.; Palm Bay, Fla.; and San Bernardino, Calif. The measures echo the community-driven Repatriation Movement of the 1930s, which forced Mexicans to return to their native country.
Other towns have been hotbeds of white supremacist activity. Hemet, Calif., for example, was the scene of a vicious hate crime in November, when four reputed white supremacist gang members knocked a Latino man unconscious and then repeatedly stomped on him and kicked him in the head. The victim suffered permanent brain damage and has been placed in a long-term-care facility.
The same month, in Patchogue, N.Y., seven teens, six of them white, decided to "go fight a Mexican." They ended up attacking an Ecuadorean immigrant, who died of a fatal stab wound. According to investigators, both attacks were random, unprovoked, and motivated purely by racial hatred.
Still other American towns have struggled with cases of racial intimidation. In Avon Park, Fla., Jose Gonzales, a U.S. citizen and mechanic, had his car and garage destroyed by an arsonist who spray-painted "F- Puerto Rico" on his house in September 2007. The first documented anti-Latino attack of 2009 occurred on New Year’s Day, when a Vallejo, Calif., motorist was arrested for gunning his vehicle toward a crowd of Latino day laborers.
Latinos are inevitably the most convenient targets for such hate crimes. Illegal immigration is still a hot-button issue, and many of the most fervent immigration opponents are either unable or unwilling to distinguish between legal and illegal immigrants.
Underlying this disturbing trend is the reality that the white establishment that once dominated education, business, and politics in this country is in decline. Latinos, meanwhile, are the fastest-growing segment of the population. Instead of resenting Latinos, the white mainstream must learn to share power with them and other minority groups. It’s the only way we can move forward as a nation and capitalize on the social, economic, and political benefits of our diversity.
WILLIAM C. KASHATUS is a professional historian and educator who holds a doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania. Kashatus has written for the New York Times, Philadelphia Daily News, and St. Louis Post-Dispatch, among other publications. His previous baseball books include September Swoon: Richie Allen, the ’64 Phillies and Racial Integration; Mike Schmidt; Connie Mack’s ’29 Triumph; and One-Armed Wonder: Pete Gray, Wartime Baseball and the American Dream.William C. Kashatus is an educator, historian and author.
Are you fed up with hate speech or hate crimes? to discoverh ow you can make a difference with only 10 minures of your time go to
https://www.nhmc.org/?q=node/73
NHMC Awarded Grant from Media Democracy Fund
The Media Democracy Fund (MDF), a project of the Proteus Fund has awarded a grant to NHMC to support our Washington, D.C. operations and policy activities. We are very grateful for their continued support of our work on media policy reform. Since 2008 NHMC has had a presence in Washington D.C., where media and telecom policy issues are being discussed and decided. Jessica Gonzalez, NHMC’d Policy Counsel is now leading the work in D.C. and has already made an impact this year with an important FCC filing on network neutrality.
MDF is a grant-making collaborative in support of a just media environment and democratic media policy. In its work to protect and reclaim the information commons, the MDF is rooted in the belief that freedom of expression and access to information are basic human rights and necessary elements of a healthy society.
The NHMC DC Office will continue to:
• Educate/inform Latino policy-makers and the local and national Latino population about media policy issues and how they impact our community.
• Hold the FCC accountable to the Latino community on issues ranging from equal employment opportunities in media to public access programming.
• Critically analyze the increasing corporate consolidation of media and its implications for the Latino community and develop an action plan to safeguard Latino and non Latino consumer interests.
• Develop approaches to connect local and national civil rights and social justice advocates to the Latino community so that we achieve media democracy.
NHMC Revamps Website
We are very excited about our recently redesigned web-site, www.nhmc.org. We are still adding archive information and making updates, but the site was soft-launched this month and we encourage you to take a look. Thank you to Omar Lomelli for his great work on this over the past three months.
2010 Census
This year’s census day is on April 1. The forms will start arriving at our homes at the beginning of March. The census is one of the most important tools that we have to improve and strengthen our communities in aspects such as education, political representation, economic development, healthcare, etc.
The information you provide is strictly confidential and cannot be used by any government agency or private party against you. It is critically important that every Latino be counted. Please make sure you encourage others to participate in the 2010 Census.
Meet Palabra Radio
Palabra Radio is an independent network of people who offer training, technical support and accompaniment to communities, collectives and social organizations who want to start or maintain a participatory and independent low power FM radio station. Community radio has no borders, and there are many valuable projects outside the United States that we can learn from as we continue our fight to expand low power radio.
Since Spring 2008, Prometheus Radio Project has been collaborating with and learning from the political work of
Palabra Radio. In the Spring, Prometheus and Palabra Radio are teaming up for a bilingual cross country outreach tour called Making Waves: Transmitting Popular Power.
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Notice From FCC Wireless Bureau
As of June 12, 2010 ALL wireless microphones that operate in the 700MHz band must cease operation to prevent interference with public safety entities and commercial users.
For more information and to find out if your wireless microphone operates on a 700MHz band please use the following websites for reference:
The FCC’s web-site, dedicated exclusively to providing consumers with information on wireless microphones that operate on 700MHz band:
http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/wirelessmicrophones/.
For any additional information please call this the FCC Hotline at
1-888-CALL-FCC Please pass this important message along to other organizations that use wireless microphones.]]>
