April 4, 2002
Lorenzo Sandoval--Good evening. Latinos and Latinas have been a part of Iowa history for many years. The Mexican Revolution in the early years of the last century prompted many Mexicans to move north. They helped build Iowa’s railroads, plant and harvest its crops, and manufacture a variety of goods. Over the decades people from other Latin-American countries came to Iowa. Collectively this diverse Latino population preserved its array of traditions while being part of the mainstream of Iowa life. Yet, Latinos and Latinas remained a fairly stable group and composed only a small percentage of Iowa’s overall population. In 1990, for example, they were only 1.2 percent of the population, but things have changed. There has been rapid growth in the last decade. The 2000 census for Iowa reported 82,473 people with Spanish, Hispanic, or Latino origin. That's about 253 percent of the Latino population of 1990. The surge of immigration to the state has not been without its problems or issues. Polls reveal that there is widespread anti-immigration sentiment, and recently the passage of the English only law prompted many Latinos to reflect the dismay and concern upon the conflict between those anti-immigrant feelings and Iowa’s rich and manifest immigrant heritage. Tonight we'll talk about the realities confronting the Latinos and Latinas of this state, and we'll discuss major issues that this population must address as it seeks to secure its place in the unfolding story of Iowa. Joining us in our studio is Rose Vasquez, Director of the Iowa Department of Human Rights, and Jesse Villalobos, Program Director for the Iowa regional office of the National Conference for Community Injustice. Joining us from an ICN site in Davenport is Gilbert Sierra, the Director of the League of United Latin-American Citizens for the state of Iowa. Welcome to you all. I wanted to go to you first, Rose, and just ask you a little bit about the department that you represent and head up, the department of human rights. What is the overall mission?
Rose A. Vasquez --Thank you, Lorenzo. It's a pleasure to be here, and I welcome the opportunity to tell you about our department. It is the Department of Human Rights. And in state reorganization in 1986, it was created. We're a small agency but doing some big and powerful things. We have, for example, the status of African Americans, the status of women, persons with disabilities, and a Latino affairs division. And of course, Latino affairs division is there to do like the other divisions, and that is to promote the well-being and to improve the quality of life for Iowa’s unique and diverse populations. That's what we're all about.
Lorenzo Sandoval--Now, speaking about the interests of Latinos, certainly their interests came to the fore with the recent passage, if you will, of the English only law. Now, definitely there were arguments on both sides of that particular issue. Actually I wanted to read a comment from one of our viewers who probably -- her viewpoint is representative of much of the discussion that took place during that debate. This is from Sandy in Des Moines. “Regarding English only, I totally agree with that and I totally support that. If people come to the U.S., our language is English, and if they want to stay here, they need to be English speaking. I think it should be English only.” Well, let's take the discussion out to Gilbert in Davenport. What's your response to that particular sentiment?
Gilbert Sierra --Gee, I’m glad the Native Americans in the 1500s didn't say that to the pilgrims that arrived at Plymouth Rock and say, "Hey, by the way, if you don't speak Indian or Native American, you've got to leave." What’s happened? All of a sudden we have people saying English only. During the debate of the Bill of Rights, the provision was going to be added to have German as our official language back when Benjamin Franklin was writing the Constitution. Thank God that they didn't put that in. They left it up to the individual and individual states. That's why we have 50 states now and have individual states do their thing. We've been a multitude -- a melting pot of nations that have come to this country, great country, and each with their own ethnic background and their ethnic language. Thank God we haven't lost that. Let's go to 9/11 when we went out looking for people to speak Afghanistan, we found a community that could still speak that dialect and help translate and decode a lot of those things that the FBI and Secret Service needed to protect our country.
Lorenzo Sandoval--So, basically you're not very happy at all with the passage of the English only law. There are some various conceptions, rose, about what it is and what it can do and what it can't do. Can you kind of clarify at least what the law is about?
Rose A. Vasquez --Yes. I'm not in a position to give you some legal interpretation of this, and I don't think anyone here today is. But -- it's a law that some people say is a weak law and ceremonial at best. For the most part, it does designate certain official documents as having to be in English. And then it has -- it carves out some exceptions. Then as you look through those exceptions, it's hopeful that it doesn't really impede anyone from carrying on their business. For instance, the division of Latino affairs. Obviously we communicate in Spanish and so do, you know, schools and law enforcement and a lot of other entities. So the bill was, to some degree, designed so that it wouldn't, like I say, impede that communication. At the same time it does designate English as the language that will be used in official documents. So our concern, of course, is there are people out there who may try to interpret it in such a way that it leads to a language police, if you will, people trying to say you can't speak this outside of your home when, in fact, it's not intended to do that.
Lorenzo Sandoval--Now, Jesse, you have some concerns about it too, because even though -- I’ve heard from several people that it's toothless, the law is toothless and it's not going to have that much of an impact, but you have concern.
Jesse Villalobos--Yeah, we have valid concerns because we've heard the reports from all over the state. I had a call from eastern Iowa and Iowa City. I know Gilbert has some stories he can share. And also from Des Moines, obviously, we've heard the stories already of threats of people using English only as an opportunity to create an imbalance of power in work situations, in school settings, where those already exist. Unfortunately, although the bill may not mean a whole lot signed into law and we wasted a lot of our time and resources and money of Iowa taxpayers, I think it is a powerful symbol, just as a swastika is a powerful symbol of the Nazis, just as a sign that says "Whites Only" is a powerful symbol in the U.S. during the civil rights movement. This is a symbol that says to people who don't speak English as a first language or are in the process of learning English that you're not welcomed and you're not as good as us and, therefore, you need to learn our language. People are in the process of learning the English language. It takes anywhere from five to seven years for young people to learn the language. So I think we need to give an opportunity for adults to have those opportunities to learn English, but we don't have that right now.
Lorenzo Sandoval--Now, Gilbert, you are saying over there in Davenport area, didn't you uncover already some incidents where people are already misinterpreting what the law is about?
Gilbert Sierra --Yeah, we already had eight cases, two to one commissioner, a Latino commissioner, Ed Cervantes, and six to the diocese of Davenport to the immigration program that received phone calls from people that had either been told not to speak Spanish at their workplace or where they used to have translators at different facilities, they were told that they were no longer needed. They were laid off because they were saying that we have English only in Iowa, we don't need interpreters, and we're investigating those cases. But again, the thing is that people are going to be apprehensive about coming forward to tell about these stories because they fear for themselves. Some are going through the immigration process. Some are here still illegal or whatever but are in the process of becoming citizens. And now the point is that we've got to get the word out to the people that if they have concerns, we've got to give them telephone numbers of organizations they can call so we can investigate these allegations, that the bill doesn't change anything in the law. You can still get your driver's license in seven languages in Iowa. You can still speak Spanish in public at a restaurant or your workplace, as long as it doesn't affect your workplace.
Lorenzo Sandoval--I might turn this, then, to Rose, then. Would your agency be involved in taking in any concerns or complaints?
Rose A. Vasquez --Oh, exactly. We're specifically designed to bridge -- to create a bridge between that constituency and their policymakers, the government. And we need to hear those stories. We need to have the kind of information that Gilbert is talking about and exactly what Jesse is saying in terms of people being afraid, because if I can't sit here and give you a legal definition, John Q Public and Jose Q Public is not going to be able to figure out exactly what their rights are. But if they talk to us, they get ahold of Latino affairs definition and say "This is what I’m facing, how can you intervene or can you help, what can you do to help," we're happy to step in and see what we can do.
Lorenzo Sandoval--You do have Spanish-speaking people, of course, on staff.
Rose A. Vasquez --Yes, definitely. And we have a web site, and I won't push it here. But just like every other state agency, we have a web site. You know, a lot of times people say, well, these people don't have access to web. But typically, a person, a friend, a relative, maybe a supervisor, someone that they know or someone at a community center can communicate the information to us.
Lorenzo Sandoval--You know, we can say, though, that anybody who is watching this show can go to our web site at iptv.org, and we have a link there to your particular web site. So that should help in providing some information. Moving on to immigration or anti-immigration sentiments, Jesse. You know, here we are, we've got -- the state of Iowa has a history of diversity. Why the resistance to immigration?
Jesse Villalobos--That's a good question, Lorenzo. I think when you talk about English only and you talk about immigration, they're one in the same in many ways; it’s just related. The concern that I have is, I think right now in Iowa, Iowans aren't part of forming the dialogue or the debate around these issues. And I think the thing that we need to be frightened of is Iowans are concerned with and acting upon or acting against are the hate groups, anti-Semitic groups, racist groups that are defined by the Southern Poverty Law Center that are setting up shop in Iowa, groups like project u.s.a., groups like numbers U.S.A., "FAIR" who have pushed these agendas with misinformation.
Lorenzo Sandoval--Now, why would they be drawn to Iowa?
Jesse Villalobos--Well, Iowa is a predominantly white state. As you pointed out earlier in the show, a lot of changes with people of color coming to the state. And anytime there's change with an individual, with a community, there's going to be challenges, there's going to be struggles, so I think average Iowa ns are having a difficult time figuring out how this all fits into their communities and into their way of life. How do we deepen the understanding is a difficult question to answer. I think the governor is asking that same question, but it's not going to be through mandating a bill such as English only, which has all the wrong message. But I think we need to be concerned as Iowa ns particularly about these groups that are setting up shop here, and we need to mobilize people in our communities and as individuals and groups and say we're not going to take it, we're not going to stand for this kind of thing in our town.
Lorenzo Sandoval--Now, Rose, you're probably familiar with some of the methodologies employed by some of these outside groups, aren't you?
Rose A. Vasquez --Well, we've tried to track down -- I think, to some degree Jesse and his organization and others have done as good or probably a better job -- a better job of tracking them than we have. We're -- you know, I want to take you to that point of why Iowa. And I think Iowa ns need to have their guard up. I mean "Why Iowa "? You can't come to this state and assume that Iowans are going to roll over and buy into some kind of a proposal that is designed to pit people against each other. Iowans just don't operate that way. I mean I want to take you back to the mid 70s when we had the refugee resettlement with all the Southeast Asians. What a beautiful story. Iowans were there. They were there to help. They know the rich heritage of immigration, and I think that will be resurrected. And, yes, we're trying to stay in front of the curve on those things, but we need the help of Iowa ns to be on guard in this.
Lorenzo Sandoval--Gilbert, now, you certainly remember that time when Iowa definitely seemed very welcoming with the Southeast Asian program. What do you think is happening nowadays? Why the change?
Gilbert Sierra --Well, I think we suffer from having a resource of jobs where we can't fill them up, and there's people in Iowa that don't want those jobs. The only people that are coming in to perform those jobs have been the Vietnamese, the Hispanic immigrant, Croatian, the Bosnians that have come in and taken those jobs that nobody else wants. They found themselves trapped in a community where they could not relate to anybody, and there was nobody there in their support. But on the other hand, on the reverse side, look at our prison population, how it's increased by minorities. The poor Vietnamese have only been here for twenty years, and we're already sending them to prison in droves, as well as the Hispanics. And the African American, 46 percent of the prison population are one of color. We've got to look at ourselves and say, Jeepers, if the population of the whole state is only 250,000 minorities but yet our prison population reflects 46 percent, there's got to be something going wrong.
Lorenzo Sandoval--Jesse, you're also kind of concerned with that issue too of, what is it, disproportionate minority confinement; is that right?
Jesse Villalobos--Right, right. As Gilbert pointed out, the statistics are disproportionate. We feel that -- once again, this has not been part of our dialogue as Iowa ns. This has not been a priority at the statehouse on either party. We know that the governor has a task force currently working on this issue, but we feel like there has been not enough response in dealing with this issue. Furthermore we see it even more astonishing statistics when we look at juvenile detention, and that's really increasing, especially among Latinos and African Americans in Iowa.
Lorenzo Sandoval--Speaking of juveniles, it kind of makes me want to go into education and talking about the concerns surrounding the poverty level of the Latino population, those who are enrolled in schools. This has been revealed through various reports, even here locally in Des Moines, that most of the minorities who are attending school are at poverty level. What's the role that education should play in addressing that particular concern?
Rose A. Vasquez --Education plays a key role and I know everyone, I guess, wants to jump on this question. So I’ll just say that it couldn't be more key. I mean who around this table can't attribute their success and where they are today to the education that they received? We know how important it is, and we know that we need to start at a really young age. Now, we do have some issues. We have graduation issues and we have dropout issues and we have truancy issues and we have reading skill level issues. You could just keep going down the line, and we will be able to show you that Latinos and other minority groups are really struggling in these areas. But I tell you, Lorenzo, we need to get the kids at a really early age introduced to the richness that is education and the potential that education can offer. And we need to have -- and this is true: we need to have the resources and we need to have the confidence in the community and public and school administrators in terms of bridging so that they understand what the Latino kids need, other minority kids need, and we understand what we can do to facilitate that. But, yes, exactly, education is key.
Jesse Villalobos--That's the problem, though, that I see, at least from the work that I’ve done around the state, working in places like Iowa city, eastern Iowa , and also growing up in Des Moines and living here my whole life, is seeing the issue of education. And what I’ve seen over and over is that it's not really the students who have the role in change in the system. Unfortunately, the system has not met the needs of our students of color, and particularly we're talking about immigrant students and Latinos. When we have a poverty level of 70 percent of the students in the schools, we understand obviously there's some special needs there. And those needs aren't being met on the local level, on the state level.
Lorenzo Sandoval--But, you know, Rose was talking resources, but we're talking now reality of shrinking budgets. So we have to be -- I mean, Gilbert what do we do? I mean we are talking realities of shrinking budgets. I know that's happening in this area here and it's statewide. That's certainly an issue in davenport as well, isn't it?
Gilbert Sierra --Well, not only that, it's a national issue. We've got the bush administration that wants to cut back on programs to help migrants and migrant workers and their families to upgrade themselves. He wants to cut two million dollars on the educational program, another two million dollars to retool yourself as a migrant worker to upgrade yourself. So we're getting the word from the federal government, you know, reaching down to the state and local government that there isn't going to be any money to help these people.
Lorenzo Sandoval--I might ask you this too: In the little research that I’ve been doing on this thing about minorities and education and retention is that it's felt by many people that a lot of the teachers and the administrators themselves should look like the students. In other words, there should be more of the minorities who are educators, but that's not happening. What's the incentive for a minority to be a teacher?
Gilbert Sierra --Well, again, we live in Iowa. We're one of the third or fourth best states to live in for education. Our best people -- our educated Hispanics leave the state of Iowa. They go to Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, for better paying jobs. Until we pay those people, those of color, a little more incentive to stay here, and the rest of the educational people, we're going to lose those too. But you know, Iowa -- we graduate more Hispanic lawyers, doctors, and engineers from our universities here in Iowa than any other state in the country. People outside of Iowa, you talk to educators, they send them to Iowa. You're going to get a good education here. You're going to become a lawyer, engineer, and doctor. But where do these people go? They go back to their own state. But what do we do with our natural resources, our people? They leave too, because we have a population, until the last ten years, that were entrenched. You've got to talk to unions and the teachers unions, they entrench the principals. Now all of a sudden there's going to be a shortage of principals in the state of Iowa. In the next five years, we're going to lose almost 30 percent of the principals in this state. Where are we going to get them from?
Lorenzo Sandoval--Now, Rose, what Gilbert is pointing out is really -- it really raises some concerns. Quality-of-life issues. Is there an interest and any futures for the Latino youth in Iowa? What's going to be the attraction?
Rose A. Vasquez --Well, obviously a very good question for all youth, really. We’re struggling with Iowa keeping its youth and Latino youth. I think I do want to support the point that having Latinos reflected in law enforcement, school administration, teachers, medicine is important. I've done no scientific survey, but I was at ISU a year or so go and there was some Latino sitting behind me, and he asked every one of them what field were they studying in. And there wasn't one in there that was studying in education: journalism, marketing, law, medicine. Important fields no question, but what do we do about the teacher shortage and what do we do about having Latinos in the teacher population? I don't have the answer but I think we do need -- and I think Jesse can speak to this, a product of the Iowa -- Des Moines Public Schools: role models... You do have to see them and you have to aspire to be them and we need to have them out there.
Lorenzo Sandoval--Well, actually, Jesse, I was going to ask you what's kept you here in Iowa. I'm sure once you graduated, you probably thought, well, there's other places that you could go.
Jesse Villalobos--Definitely, definitely. And I want to respond also to what Rose said earlier about education has kept us here at the table -- brought us to this table. That's definitely a great point, because education is a tool to be able to serve our communities, and that's basically my biggest motivation. And the reason why I’m at the tables is because people in my family have been here for a long time. My mother's family is one of the first families in Des Moines from Mexico, and my parents and my grandparents and great-grandparents never had the opportunity to have education, never had the opportunity to have their voices heard. And that's why I’m here. It's not because of the educational system. Now, obviously, I’ve been able to get a degree and stay in Iowa. The reason why I’ve stayed in Iowa is for that very reason, is to give back to the community that has given me the resources to be here, has put me in this position. We have a lot of work to do in this state. For me to leave and go to someplace like Chicago or California at this time I don't think would be in the community's best interest.
Lorenzo Sandoval--Well, speaking of a lot of work, rose, you know, we have a lot of other issues and problems, I’m sure, that we encounter as well. One that comes to mind too is human services. Now, we know that the state has been cutting back. When there's a cutback in human services, aren't Latinos and Latinas the first to really, really get affected by that?
Rose A. Vasquez --Well, that's exactly right. The typically underserved populations are the ones that are going to continue to be underserved and could take the brunt of any kind of cut in resources. I'm excited to say that our division of Latino affairs has received a wraparound project grant, and it's designed specifically to deal with substance abuse and mental health issues. It's a new way of looking at treating those type of issues to begin with. But what's important is when you are dealing with the minority population, your support services typically do involve family and community. And sometimes when you have a really structured type of program, it takes the Latino or Latina away from the support that they're used to and puts them in a structure that they're not used to. So we're excited about we have a few dollars that we're looking to get this project off the ground and looking for more dollars. But I won't disagree with you that if there continue to be cuts, some of the populations -- African American, women, single women, Latinos, you can go down the line, refuge services -- they’re all going to take a hit; that's true.
Lorenzo Sandoval--Gilbert, I want to go to you and ask you, when I was mentioning in the introduction, you know, the Latino culture is more than just the Mexican Americans and there are a number of other countries which are represented, of course, in Iowa under that umbrella, Latino, Latina. But that means that there's diverse interest. Is there anything that can kind of unify us at all? Can we even come together as one voice, because one of the things that we've been trying to do is say, hey, we are very diverse as well. I was wondering if that might even plant the seeds for even actually defeating our cause?
Gilbert Sierra --Well, that's why I’m here as a Director of LULAC. LULAC has been here in Iowa for over forty years, and we've enhanced our membership of all Latin-Americans, whether it is Puerto Rican, Cuban, Mexican Americans, and we united them mostly on education. Every Hispanic organization here in the quad cities is an emphasis on education. LULAC council ten has given away over $750,000 over the last thirty years in scholarship. And we formed a committee with the davenport school district on dropout rate. Our dropout rate in davenport was at 8 percent. We thought that was too high. We got it down to 3.5 percent, which we think is still too high. We had to reach and develop programs to enhance kids to stay in school.
Lorenzo Sandoval--Jesse, you've been actively involved in that too, haven't you, kind of creating the feeling that leadership can come from, well, the Latino kids. I mean other minorities kids as well, but especially among the Latinos too, right?
Jesse Villalobos--Yeah, definitely. The projects in Iowa -- the project of united action for youth in Iowa City that works in west liberty and communities like that, all colors count in Muscatine, the Latino leadership project in Des Moines, young people leading projects that empower other young leaders, the mentoring that rose talked about, the shadowing, the role models, but also empowerment as far as connecting youth with their culture, with their roots, with their history, which is really what we're missing in the schools. When you take away that, you take away the dignity of the individuals. And I think one important thing that unites us as "Latinos" -- I call myself Chicano but I know a lot of other folks call themselves Latino, Hispanic, Mexican American, Ecuadorian, whatever, Guatemalan.
Lorenzo Sandoval--Thus the diversity of population in Iowa.
Jesse Villalobos--Exactly. But I think the one thing that does unite us is not a Spanish origin or a Spanish language even, it is our Native-American roots right here in this continent. And I think that's something that does unite us, and it's something that we'll have to recognize, especially instilling it in our youth in order to build that confidence and to build productivity in our youth.
Well, that's going to have to be the last word. Thank you very much, Jesse Villalobos, Rose Vasquez, our friend Gilbert Sierra out of Davenport. Thanks to all of you for being on the show today. Our program next week will focus on gambling in Iowa. This fall there will be a referendum on gambling, and there are those who say it is a blight on the state and others who think of gambling as a viable economic development strategy. What are your thoughts on this topic? Please phone your comments and questions to us at 800-469-2788 or e-mail us at insightiowa@iptv.org. Thank you for joining us this evening. Please join us next Thursday at 6:30. I'm Lorenzo Sandoval. Good night.
