Arizona Hispanics in Partnership

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A new effort is underway to tackle important issues to the Latino community. Arizona Hispanics in Partnership is in the beginning stages, but seeks to raise funds in an effort to address problems related to education, health care, immigration and civil rights. Belen Martinez of the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trusts and Rudy Guglielmo of the Arizona Community Foundation discuss this new endeavor.

>> José Cárdenas:
Good Evening, I'm Jose Cardenas. Welcome to "Horizonte." Tonight, the Chandler Police Department continues outreach to the Hispanic community in that city following the infamous "Chandler Roundup" six years ago. We'll update you on the latest. Senator Jon Kyl will talk about the latest efforts to reform immigration law in the U.S. Senate. And we'll tell you about the "Arizona Hip" a Hispanic town hall which met recently to address numerous issues affecting Latinos, like education.

>>Man:
Funding for "Horizonte" is provided by Bank of America, who applauds those who strife for excellence. Bank of America, higher standards. And by SRP. SRP's business is water and power, but our dedication to the community doesn't stop there. SRP, delivering more than power.

>> José Cárdenas:
Before we get to our topics tonight, here's a news update. A judge in Yavapai County has ruled that racial profiling is irrelevant in criminal cases. Judge Janice Sterling ruled that 13 black and Hispanic motorists may not use expert witnesses to claim they were stopped because of race. The minority motorists had been charged with drug trafficking after being allegedly racially profiled by the arizona department of public safety in traffic stops. The DPS Denies racially profiling motorists. Judge Sterling said raising the issue of racial profiling is a civil rights issue, not a defense to criminal conduct. She said the issue could be best dealt with in a lawsuit against the DPS. Speaking of racial profiling, that's what some residents of Chandler felt happened to them six years ago. That's when the infamous "Chandler Roundup" occurred, as Chandler police apprehended suspected illegal immigrants. However, some of those picked up were not here illegally, and some were even citizens of the United States. Since then, the City of Chandler and its police department have been reaching out to chandler Hispanics. Here how to tell us more about that is Nachie Marquez, spokesperson for the City of Chandler. Nachie, welcome to "Horizonte." We're delighted to have you on tonight. Every time there is a reference to immigration enforcement, most recently with the Clear Act pending in congress, which we'll talk about later, people make reference to the Chandler roundup. It occurred six years ago, but they always refer to it. What's happened since then?

>> Nachie Marquez:
Thank you, Jose, for having me here this evening. There has been tremendous outreach from the City of Chandler and the Chandler Police Department. The most recent event held was held at Food City. What we had started soon after the roundup were Spanish beat meetings where our officers, our Spanish-speaking officers, have been going out into the community, speaking to the Hispanic community at churches and schools, reaching out and hoping to further promote and build the trust that was lost back in 1997.

>> José Cárdenas:
For the benefit of viewers who were not here in 1997, tell us a little bit about the roundup.

>> Nachie Marquez:
In 1997, the City of Chandler in conjunction with the INS immigration services held a joint operation to arrest illegal immigrants. The operation came about. There were resident calls complaining about illegal activity, criminal activity involving illegal immigrants, and again, the city joined in an operation with the INS that went very sour and there were over 400 individuals arrested. I believe out of the numbers arrested, there were a handful that were not illegal immigrants, and as a result, the city just recently within the last year settled the very last lawsuit in this incident and we are looking now ahead.

>> José Cárdenas:
All of the litigation is behind us?

>> Nachie Marquez:
It sure is.

>> José Cárdenas:
You were talking to us when we began about what the city is doing since. You mentioned a number of things. What else is the city trying to do to heal the wounds that occurred because of the roundup?

>> Nachie Marquez:
We have started -- and this is going back to the 1997/1998 time frame, a Spanish citizens police academy. They've also put forth training, educational, informational training for our officers. We have had a number of community forums and meetings and, really, everything has been in the notion of outreach to the community to try to bring them back in, something like what occurred in '97, didn't happen overnight, so the building of those relationships is an ongoing effort for our city.

>> José Cárdenas:
You came to the city of Chandler from the City of Tempe; correct?

>> Nachie Marquez:
That is correct.

>> José Cárdenas:
This is after the roundup?

>> Nachie Marquez:
I joined Chandler in September of 2000. I had been in Tempe prior to that. I was very aware of what had taken place, however, I had not been with the city.

>> José Cárdenas:
Was your hiring part of the city's effort to heal the wounds?

>> Nachie Marquez:
I don't believe directly. I think it's been a benefit, being a Latina, being in the field of communications and being in a position to reach out to the Latino community, working with members of both the English and Spanish media. I think it's been a benefit. I don't think it was directly tied to that. There was, I believe -- they wanted to improve and increase communication internally and externally for the city of Chandler. The position was created in 2000 to accomplish that.

>> José Cárdenas:
Tell us about the most recent outreach efforts by the city of Chandler to the Hispanic community.

>> Nachie Marquez:
The meetings we were holding within the churches and schools, we were attracting half a dozen to a dozen residents and oftentimes a lot of the same residents, which is not a bad thing, but we felt -- we needed to really reach out and go and be out in the community, perhaps, in this case, Food City stepped up and wanted to partner with us. So many of our Hispanic residents frequent Food City. We have a great partnership with Food City. We felt what a great opportunity to be there, bring out our Spanish-speaking officers, bring out programs which work with kids in the schools, kids who are limited English-speaking children, and take our show out to the community to, again, allow them to fill comfortable to approach our officers.

>> José Cárdenas:
That's something the city initiated just this week; correct?

>> Nachie Marquez:
That is correct. It's been in addition to the beat meetings, the Spanish beat meetings we've been doing. We're also talking, Jose, about going out into the neighborhoods. It's difficult for somebody to come into city hall or the police department if they don't have a relationship established, especially with members of our police department.

>> José Cárdenas:
You talked about the Spanish citizens' police academy. What is that?

>> Nachie Marquez:
That's a program done entirely in Spanish. It brings residents, residents who volunteer to participate, into the police department to learn everything about the department. It's a 9-week course that runs through all aspects of the Chandler police department, educating them about the programs, everything we do out in the community, and hoping to get members of our community involved with the police departments. We have a number of boards and commissions and volunteer opportunities for our residents, and this we hope is an outreach to further educate, to further increase, again, the trust with our Hispanic residents and members of our police department.

>> José Cárdenas:
How successful would you say all of these efforts have been?

>> Nachie Marquez:
I'd say they've been fairly successful. I think it's been difficult getting the word out, certainly programs like this tonight, and working with members of the media, both in English and Spanish, have assisted, but we need to continue our efforts, and we need the input of our community to do a better job and to get their ideas on what might work.

>> José Cárdenas:
Now, Chandler has a human relations commission. What role has it played?

>> Nachie Marquez:
The Human Relations Commission was established shortly after the incident, and they are involved in reaching out to the community in holding forums, in bringing groups together, in sponsoring cultural events. We do Hispanic heritage month where we bring in a number of different individuals, again, to further educate the community. They have been very vocal in the community to listen to issues that our residents have.

>> José Cárdenas:
As I mentioned at the beginning, there is the Clear Act pending in congress that would basically deputize local law enforcement and put the Chandler Police Department basically back in the position it was in six years ago. What's the city of Chandler's position on that legislation.

>> Nachie Marquez:
We are monitoring that Jose, but we are not in support of that. That is a federal issue. That is not for a local jurisdiction to be enforcing federal laws. So we are not in support of that whatsoever.

>> José Cárdenas:
Now, the city of Chandler has a new police chief?

>> Nachie Marquez:
Yes.

>> José Cárdenas:
Can you tell us about her?

>> Nachie Marquez:
We're extremely excited, police chief Sherrie Kyler started on February 3rd. She was from the City of Phoenix, she was a commander. She has been in the police department for over 30 years. She brings a wealth of experience to Chandler. And we're exstatic to have her. She is a great addition, not only to the Chandler community but to the police department.

>> José Cárdenas:
We wish you the best and we thank you for joining us on "Horizonte" tonight.

>> Nachie Marquez:
Thank you for the opportunity to be here.

>> José Cárdenas:
It's an election year issue, reforming the nation's immigration laws. Recently, "Horizon's" Michael Grant talked to U.S. Senator Jon Kyl about the latest on immigration reforms in the U.S. Senate, among other issues. Here's a portion of that interview.

>> Jon Kyl:
The immigration issue is a big issue. There, the president proposed some principles, and they are enough subject to interpretation that he's gotten people on both the left and the right concerned, and I think it's important for him to clarify what he means so that at least as to those on the right side of the equation, it's clear that he's not talking about a pathway to citizenship for people who have broken the law. I think that is his position, but I think that does need to be made more clear. Somebody could still become a citizen, but they would have to go back to their country of origin, get in line like everyone else and not stay in the United States during that whole period of time. And that's not been made clear.

>> Michael Grant:
Are we on the right track with the guest worker program in your opinion or not?

>> Jon Kyl:
I think the president was right to say "let's start talking about this." We all know in Arizona, we know, this is a huge issue. We better try to figure out how to address it. The president put these principles on the table and said, now, we can talk about all of the details, but let's start talking about it. Let's start having hearings in the congress, look at some of the bills that have been introduced. Maybe we can pass something this year, maybe not, but we've got to get started because we've got to pass something sooner or later. I think that's right. In Arizona, we know that things aren't working.

>> Michael Grant:
Uh-huh.

>> Jon Kyl:
I'll add this point to it. What I have found is that people will have an open mind to different kinds of proposals, if they are convinced the government will start getting serious about enforcing the law. And we haven't been that serious about enforcing the law. Everybody knows how it's being broken. So the question is, if we don't enforce it now, what makes us think we would enforce it in the future, and, of course, a new program would have to be enforced or else it would be a magnet for more and more illegal immigration. That's the first thing people want to see.

>> Michael Grant:
Resist the temptation to say "both" in answer to this question. Is the reason we haven't gotten serious about it because we don't really have the will to be serious about it, or because we don't have the resources to devote to obviously what is a pretty long border?

>> Jon Kyl:
We don't have the will. We could make the resources available if we set it as a priority that I think we should. But it's not just controlling the border. It's enforcing the law in the country itself. We have a law that says you can't hire illegal immigrants.

>> Michael Grant:
Employer sanctions?

>> Jon Kyl:
Yeah, but we don't enforce it. We give the employers a little form to fill out. They ask the person for a driver's license and a Social Security card and they get them. They are in many cases counterfeit, and almost anybody looking at them could figure that out, but as long as they can check the box and keep a record that they asked for those documents, it's -- it's fine. But it's not fine, because everybody knows the law is being violated. And so, they -- I think most people are willing to address this and acknowledge the fact that there are a lot of folks who would like to work in the United States and they help our economy, but let's do it legally. That's what the president is saying. If they have confidence that we will enforce the law, they will be open-minded about the kind of program that we can develop. But again, the president has got to make it clear that for those who violated the law, there is no path to citizenship ahead of the people who do it legally.

>> Michael Grant:
What about a proposal currently pending at the Arizona legislature which says that you could lose your local business license if we find that you have hired undocumented workers?

>> Jon Kyl:
Yeah, I just heard about it. There you would have to know the details, because the question is, if the employer has on file the record of the tri driver's license and Social Security card that he was given, then presumably, he is in compliance with the law.

>> Michael Grant:
Right.

>> Jon Kyl:
So presumably, he wouldn't be prosecuted. Well, he may well have those documents in hand, but they also may well be counterfeited.

>> Michael Grant:
It is evidence, I think, though, of the growing frustration by people that something needs to be done, and if there is a local option that can do it, then fine, because Washington doesn't seem to be real serious about it.

>> Jon Kyl:
That's the impression, and there is an element of truth to the impression.

>> Jose Cardenas:
A new effort is underway to address issues important to the Valley's Hispanic community. Arizona Hispanics in Partnership is an organization made up of nonprofits and community leaders. In a moment, I'll talk to a couple of the people involved in the endeavor, but first Paul Atkinson looks at the need for such an effort.

>> Paul Atkinson:
Arizona's Hispanic population doubled over the 1990s to more than 1.3 million people in the year 2000. That's one out of every four Arizonans. Population studies suggestion that Latinos will make up the majority of people in Arizona in another 40 years. That's why the 81st Arizona Town Hall looked at the growing Hispanic influence in November of 2002.

>> Augustine Garcia:
I think what we need to do is we need to take a look at exactly what will the well being of the Hispanic be at that particular time, and I think we need to take a look at will Hispanics share the benefits of the educational, political and economic successes possibly enjoyed by other groups a little bit more than it is with Hispanics.

>> Paul Atkinson:
One of the keys to that success is education. In 2000, the percentage of Latinos that failed to complete high school was 28%.

>> Perry Hill:
We have to remember that the dropout -- it's not a process -- it is a process, it's not just an event. We have to go back down to the elementary schools, because we can identify those students immediately in elementary schools. So the 81st Town Hall talked about all-day preschool, all-day kindergarten, which we know leads to literacy to third grade, and what students do in third grade has a great deal to predict.

>> Paul Atkinson:
In order to have a greater say in addressing education and other issues important to the Hispanic community, town hall participants noted the number of Latino civic leaders and elected officials must increase.

>> Carlos Galindo-Elvira:
One of the things that came out in the Arizona Town Hall was a discussion about leadership. As our population grows, so does the need for leadership. There are organizations like my my own that has the Hispanic Leadership Institute, we need to promote a lot more leadership programs, support more leadership programs for this vastly growing community.

>> José Cárdenas:
Joining me now to talk about the Arizona Hispanics in Partnership is Belen Martinez, grants manager with the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trusts. Also here is Rudy Guglielmo, program officer for Arizona Community Foundation. Rudy, Belen, thank you for joining us. The video package talked about the Arizona Town Hall. Arizona Hispanics in Partnership is yet another focus on Hispanics in the role they play in the development of this State, but it actually developed from another initiative, Arizona Hispanics in Philanthropy, Belen, tell us about that.

>> Belen Martinez:
Hispanics in Philanthropy is basically a national organization which created a program called the Funders Collaborative. What the collaborative seeks to do is match national dollars with local dollars to be given specifically to Latino led organizations, Latino led, meaning the majority of executive staff is Latino, the executive director is Latino or a majority of the clientele served by the nonprofit agency is Latino. The idea of the collaborative in bringing it to Phoenix, to Maricopa County, to Arizona, was compelling to Funders because it helps us, as funders, leverage dollars in the economic climate in which some of us are experiencing a declining budget.

>> José Cárdenas:
This is something that was first initiated in New Mexico; is that correct?

>> Belen Martinez:
One of the sites is New Mexico. There are 13 sites nationwide, and then there's one in Argentina and one in the Dominican Republic as well.

>> José Cárdenas:
What did they do in New Mexico?

>> Belen Martinez:
They raised approximately $700,000 to be given to small, nonprofit, Latino led organizations with operating budgets of less than $2 million, basically focusing around capacity building, so creating the infrastructure of those smaller organizations to better serve the communities.

>> José Cárdenas:
Rudy, how did Hispanics in Philanthropy lead to Hispanics in Partnership?

>> Rudy Guglielmo:
We engaged in a large, extensive planning process. We worked and established a committee of representatives from the major foundations, and nonprofits in the Valley. Those included Arizona Community Foundation, where I'm at, the Virginia G -- charitable Trust, Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust, St. Lukes Health Initiative, BHS Legacy Foundation, as well as Valley of the Sun United Way, in partnership with some major nonprofit organization that do serve the Latino community, Chicanos Por La Causa, Valle Del Sol, Friendly House. And we had additional support from the ASU nonprofit management center. We came together in regular meetings to discuss how we can effectively plan a day to build on existing recommendations or past activities that address issues within the Hispanic community.

>> José Cárdenas:
As I understand, in addition to those meetings you conducted a survey; is that right?

>> Belen Martinez:
Yes, we conducted a survey of 150 individuals and the results identified about 18 areas. We selected six priority areas.

>> José Cárdenas:
What were those?

>> Rudy Guglielmo:
Those include, K-12 education, early childhood education, healthcare, immigration, civil rights, work force development.

>> José Cárdenas:
Then we had the forum last week; is that right?

>> Rudy Guglielmo:
Yes.

>> Belen Martinez:
Yes.

>> José Cárdenas:
Tell us about the forum itself. What happened there?

>> Rudy Guglielmo:
Sure. Well, it was a full-day forum. It began basically with an expert panel discussion on those key issue areas identified through the survey. We then broke up into group sessions around each of those key areas, but the importance of the group sessions, I think, an added component was that we had experts in each of those fields actually facilitating the session. So they are able to provide input as well as lead the groups. We then had a keynote from the Governor. She addressed the Latino community, and some of those issues that we identified through the survey.

>> José Cárdenas:
What was her focus? Was it principally education?

>> Rudy Guglielmo:
It was looking at education, healthcare, really a lot of parallels to our party issues. But she also described as an opportunity for us to create our own legacy, and I think that's really key to philanthropy at this time, and the foundation -- because as foundations we look towards creating legacy through working with donors to pull funds, to create programs, and eventually form the financial leadership of the Latino community as a vehicle to support them in areas of need.

>> José Cárdenas:
Belen, what was the focus of the afternoon session?

>> Belen Martinez:
We had an afternoon session on Latina leadership. We then had an address from State Senator John Lorado, and then we talked a little bit more about Hispanics in Philanthropy and presented the program to the group.

>> José Cárdenas:
Who were the experts that you referred to who were involved in the presentations?

>> Rudy Guglielmo:
Nadine Bashas Matha (phonetic) did a discussion on early childhood and led the discussion there. David Garcia led the discussion on K-12 education. Elizabeth MacNamee looked at healthcare.

>> José Cárdenas:
With respect to education, as I understand it, the numbers are such that while on some of these issues we might be talking about issues that are of particular importance to the Hispanic community, given the fact that the majority of students, I think even now, in our school system are Latinos. This is a statewide issue, the education of Latinos is a statewide issue; is that right?

>> Rudy Guglielmo:
Yes. I think David's comments really focus on our ability to collect accurate data regarding the dropout rate, so we get a clear picture of how our students, our Latino students are succeeding within the school system.

>> José Cárdenas:
Some of the news is rather sobering, but did he hold out any prospects for improvement? What optimism was there in his presentation? I know he talked about certainly the greater focus that we have.

>> Rudy Guglielmo:
I think what we really have to do is take a holistic view of education. You have to begin early, before school, with the mothers, with the children, with the families, to look at really a culturally appropriate approach to serving Latino communities, looking at determining interface between Latino culture and American school culture and where we find those commonalities to help create a better system that improve opportunities for our kids.

>> José Cárdenas:
Belen, it sounds like this was basically a call to action. These are serious issues. Here's the basic information and a call to action. What was the result of the forum itself?

>> Belen Martinez:
Well, you are exactly right. The idea of the forum was not to duplicate research or conduct research. It was actually to take research to the next level. Some of the action steps we identified are pursuing the Hispanics in Philanthropy, the Funders Collaborative. To pursue that initiative, we're planning another meeting in probably late April to get together executive staff of local foundations and corporations, along with Hispanics of Philanthropy to plan out how the Funders Collaborative could come into place in Phoenix, Maricopa County. We also are going to disseminate a report on the day to those who participated in the event. At the end of the day, we asked for people to fill out a certificate, commitment certificate to ongoing efforts in each of those areas. Many people filled them out and will be participating for the long term. We said this would take another year or to to really plan out action steps in each of those areas. Other steps, I think --

>> Rudy Guglielmo:
The Arizona Community Foundation hopes to develop a small grants program, perhaps having a Latino focus to address other priority issues. So, for example, within education we wanted to convene a group to further discuss strategies. There would be funding available to do that.

>> José Cárdenas:
There were some grants, were there not, issued at the forum, small $1,000 grants?

>> Rudy Guglielmo:
That was an outcome, actually, and those type of opportunities will be available in the summer.

>> José Cárdenas:
The grants you were talking about, how will they come about or be used?

>> Rudy Guglielmo:
The Arizona Community Foundation maintains an on-line application process, and those will be communicated through our system. You can access information about the community foundation, WWW.azfoundation.org. Related to this, another outcome -- as a result of this, we had it webcasted, so if you have an interest in reviewing the day's activities and getting more information about particularly the panels themselves, visit our Web page, and there'll be a link to the webcast of the event.

>> José Cárdenas:
Two other issues we discussed earlier on tonight's program, civil rights, and work force development and immigration actually, were also subjects of the forum. How did you handle the immigration issue, which just seems to touch on all of the other major subjects?

>> Belen Martinez:
Well, through the survey, we identified a couple of cross-cutting factors, one of them was education, another one was language. We attempted to identify our -- address those issues in the context of the bigger issues, work force developments, civil rights, et cetera, by bringing experts, immigration experts, into each of the group sessions to provide input into those.

>> José Cárdenas:
Did that work well?

>> Belen Martinez:
I believe so.

>> José Cárdenas:
Rudy, where do you think we go from here? Would you pronounce the forum itself a success?

>> Rudy Guglielmo:
Yeah, I think it is a success. I think it's a starting point. I think our next step is how do we advance and further our discussion about philanthropy within the Latino community, and how do we make our community think about philanthropy and foundations as a way to maximize or pulling the resources, to do something that can specifically help our own Latino community.

>> José Cárdenas:
Are you both confident that this is not a report that ends up on the shelf?

>> Rudy Guglielmo:
Aren't you going to a meeting in April?

>> Belen Martinez:
Yes, I'm going to attend an annual conference in Toronto in late April, and I'm continuing having conversations with them as well. So, we're making efforts, and I think with the planning group we have, we're all interested in seeing this go further than the one day.

>> José Cárdenas:
Thank you both for joining us on "Horizonte" tonight. We appreciate it.

>> Belen Martinez:
Thank you.

>> José Cárdenas:
And thank you for joining us for "Horizonte" tonight. Please join us again next Thursday night as we bring you the latest news affecting Arizona Latinos.

Rudy Guglielmo: Program officer for Arizona Community Foundation;

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