Boy Scouts Hispanic Recruitment

Aug. 18, 2005

Transcript:

>> José Cárdenas:
Good evening, welcome to "Horizonte." I'm Jose Cardenas. Tonight on "Horizonte," Governor Janet Napolitano declares a state of emergency to help fight illegal immigration. Also, the boy scouts of America are stepping up their efforts in Latino recruiting. We'll tell you about a new children's educational magazine written entirely in Spanish. All next on "Horizonte."

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>> José Cárdenas:
On Monday, Governor Napolitano declared a state after emergency along Arizona's border with Mexico, freeing up to $1.5 million in disaster funds to help four border counties fight illegal immigration. This action follows a similar declaration by New Mexico Governor bill Richardson. Joining us to talk about this is Jeanine L'Ecuyer. Thank you for coming to "Horizonte."

>> Jeanine L'Ecuyer:
Thank you for having me.

>>José Cárdenas:
Tell me about the specifics of the declaration, and then I want to talk about why and what the problems are we're trying to deal with.

>> Jeanine L'Ecuyer:
The Governor my her own authority under Arizona law has the right to authorize up to $200,000 in emergency funds. She did that on Monday. The State has what's called an emergency council. The council has the statutory ability to raise that amount. They added $1.3 million.

>> José Cárdenas:
That's all been done.

>> Jeanine L'Ecuyer:
On Monday.

>> Jeanine L'Ecuyer:
Every year the legislature appropriates a certain amount of dollars, the $4 million to be used for emergencies. That's where this money comes from. We have to be mindful, the Governor had to be mindful when she made this decision, because we may have floods this winter. We may have fires this spring. It's one of those things where you don't want to use up all of the money now, but at least it's a start.

>> José Cárdenas:
Why are we doing it at this point in time? There has been suggestion that Governor Richardson did it last Friday, and so the Governor comes out on Monday and Tuesday with her own proposal. Was there -- was that just a coincidence?

>> Jeanine L'Ecuyer:
I wish I could tell you we coordinated that. We did not. We were surprised by Governor Richardson's announcement. What has been happening with border states, they have been working on parallel tracks for quite sometime. It's certainly something we were aware of that Governor Richardson was working on and we had our own plan in progress as well. So the timing is what it is. The second part of your question was --

>>José Cárdenas: One doesn't think of New Mexico as having the severity of problems that Arizona does.

>> Jeanine L'Ecuyer:
Right. As a matter of fact, one of the border sheriffs, Tony Estrada says they have it bad in New Mexico, come see what's going on in Arizona. The problem here is serious and I think anybody who lives or works in any of those four counties, Yuma, Cochise, Santa Cruz or Pima, will tell you it is an emergency. What they are dealing with day to day, the reality of illegal immigration makes it a problem so serious, compounded by the fact that the federal government has not done what it promised to do in dealing with the border here in Arizona and the other border states. The combination of those things, the problem has escalated to the point that the Governor feels as though Arizonans don't have to be left waiting anymore, should not be left waiting anymore.

>> José Cárdenas:
You are exactly right in terms of people saying how serious the problem is. While officials have expressed their appreciation for the $1.5 million, they said the problem is so much bigger than that, millions and millions of dollars. What will this accomplish?

>> Jeanine L'Ecuyer:
What this does is allows state money to help local law enforcement. The people who are eligible for this, the organizations who are eligible will be counties and cities and towns within those four border counties. State age seize, for example, DPS, could under some circumstances apply to use some of that money as well. But the focus is on law enforcement. What we've heard so far, for example, from the city of Nogales, they've said that they would use money -- once this becomes available to them, for enhanced patrols. The drainage tunnels, for example, that we know are used by people trying to enter illegally, they would enhance the patrols in those areas. There is something called the Soto subdivision Nogales, which is a known preferred traffic spot for people who are trafficking in human beings. The increased overtime would allow them to enhance patrols in that area. A lot of small age hes aren't working with dollars that we have available in police agencies in Phoenix and Tucson. To be able enhance that with officers right now who are working themselves to the bone, to be able to add the overtime is a huge help.

>> José Cárdenas:
How much discretion will these agencies or entities have or is the Governor's office providing some indication of the kinds of projects they want to see funded by this?

>> Jeanine L'Ecuyer:
What happens is the jurisdictions will apply to the Arizona division of emergency management. They'll make the case for what they think they need, whether it's night vision goggles, overtime or whatever the case may be. The department will vault those, prioritize them and the money will be awarded according to the priority list.

>> José Cárdenas:
What happens when the $1.5 runs out?

>> Jeanine L'Ecuyer:
That's a really good question. We would hope that the federal government will step up and do what it's supposed to do and regain operational control of the border. The reality is it doesn't look like that's going to happen any time soon. Will there be more money, more requests to the legislature? That's a distinct probability.

>> José Cárdenas:
When will we know that?

>> Jeanine L'Ecuyer:
We're working on the '07 budget right now. She mitts her budget proposal in January to the legislature. We're in the process of gathering that information and writing that budget now.

>> José Cárdenas:
Now, the Governor has said that one of the purposes of these dollars is to protect the ranchers who are living along the border, protect from property damage. How would this help that?

>> Jeanine L'Ecuyer:
There would be ways, we hope, for some of them to recoup some of the dollars that have been spent in damage to their property. But this is more for law enforcement than repair to private property. The real issues that will be dealt with to the extent this money will allow is the enhanced enforcement, trying to interrupt the flow of drugs, of illegal human traffic in these areas, and to try to begin to bring some semblance of order. Although, as you pointed out $1.5 -- it's better than nothing -- but it's only a start.

>> José Cárdenas:
The Governor's critics refer to the Governor as Janet come lately to this issue. How do you respond to that?

>> Jeanine L'Ecuyer:
Many critics are members of the Arizona state legislature. What I would point out is that they had an entire session to do something that would have worked to deal with border issues. Now, they'll come back right away and say, well, the Governor vetoed, for example, the bill that would have forced local law enforcement to do federal immigration law. In other words, to enforce federal immigration law. The problem with that bill was twofold. First of all, every law enforcement agency in this state, and I mean every last one of them, asked the Governor to veto that bill. So they obviously had problems with it. The other issue was not a dime, not a dollar, not a dime, was attached to that bill. So we were going to say, had that been signed, to local law enforcement, you go out and do more, but we're not going to give you any extra help to do it. So it wasn't functional. Basically it was a bumper sticker approach to immigration and would not have worked. In contrast, what the Governor now has done is said okay, I've got this pool of money available, let's devote some resources so that we can actually do some real work, not to enforce federal law, to enforce the state laws that apply here.

>>José Cárdenas:
What kind of reaction has the Governor's proposal gotten on the Mexican side of the border?

>> Jeanine L'Ecuyer:
Really, really positive. She has spoken with several members of the Mexican federal government, and she has spoken at length -- she speaks to the Governor of Sonora all the time. They speak quite frequently. The feedback has been, this is what needs to happen. She has a tremendous good relationship with the Governor of Sonora. She and the Governor of Sonora will make an announcement that has to do with a coordination of efforts between Arizona and Sonora to allow more enforcement on the Sonora side. But a lot of people don't realize that folks come through Sonora to enter the United States illegally. They don't come from Sonora. They are coming from other places. It's a problem on both sides of the border. They face very similar issues.

>>José Cárdenas:
We have to leave it at that for now Jeanine. Thank you for joining us on "Horizonte."

>> Jeanine L'Ecuyer:
Thank you for having it.

>>José Cárdenas:
The national council of boy scouts of America scout reach offices in Texas report that boy scouts have 3.1 million members and of those, 7.3% are Hispanic. In Arizona, less than 10% are Hispanic. According to the boy scouts of America's Grand Canyon council. The organization is trying to step up their efforts to get more young Latinos to join the boy scouts of America. Here is one public service announcement that the boy scouts of America put together.

>> Boy Scout:
Gear up for a great adventure.

>> Boy Scout:
Let's go scouting!

>> Boy Scout:
Share stories around the campfire and go canoeing with new friends.

>> Boy Scout:
Camp and look at the stars and practice your skills with archery and fishing.

>>> Boy Scout:
Visit new places, hotels, national parks and summer camp.

>> Boy Scout:
You get awesome gear and learn how to use it.

>> Boy Scout:
Gear up for adventure.

>> Boy Scout:
Join boy scouts today.

>>José Cárdenas:
With us to talk about this effort is Le Martinez, chapter for the boy scouts of America. Also here is Silverio Ontiveros, thank you for joining us on "Horizonte."

>>José Cárdenas:
Thank you. Silverio, we've had you before. You were wearing a different uniform as a City of Phoenix police commander. It's good to have you back. This is a very attractive uniform as well.

>> Silverio Ontiveros:
Thank you.

>> José Cárdenas:
How did you get involved in scouting?

>> Silverio Ontiveros:
Three years ago I was approached by boy scouts of America to help them in recruiting young boys and adults into the scouting.

>>José Cárdenas:
Had you been a scout yourself?

>> Silverio Ontiveros:
I was a cub scout probably for two years when I was a young boy and growing up in south Phoenix.

>> José Cárdenas:
How did you get involved in scouting?

>> Le Martinez:
Well, I was involved by Silverio Ontiveros. I know him for a long time, since I got here in Phoenix five years ago, so I liked the idea to join such a wonderful program, and I liked the idea to do something for our Latino youth. Work for the whole districts and we had a lot of la teen nose there and I want them to be in scouting.

>>José Cárdenas:
And you were a journalist?

>> Le Martinez:
Yes, I was there for almost five years. I know it's a big change, you know. I thought it was time for a change.

>>José Cárdenas:
Exactly what are your duties with the pueblo district?

>> Le Martinez:
Well, I have to lead the volunteers, and one of my responsibilities is to promote scouting through the schools, community organizations, and what I'm doing right now with my background, with working with the Spanish community, is to take advantage of that and promote scouting in Spanish community to bring more Latinos to scouting programs. And what I doing right now is to start units all over my district who is pueblo.

>>José Cárdenas:
What is the scope of the pueblo district? What parts of the valley does it encompass?

>> Le Martinez:
Include part of Glendale, central and south and west Phoenix and we cover Tolleson and the south of Phoenix, Laveen and the baseline corridor.

>>José Cárdenas:
Silverio, is Librada a part of the program to entice scouts?

>> Silverio Ontiveros:
Well, part of the board saw the need -- if scouting was going to continue to grow, we had to make sure that our young Latino boys were involved in scouting, and so that was an effort that we've been discussing for quite a while. We knew we needed a bilingual person to help us lead the pueblo district, and that's what led us to Librada.

>>José Cárdenas:
As I understand, Ernie Calderon is the chair of the council of entire Grand Canyon council?

>> Silverio Ontiveros:
Yes.

>>José Cárdenas:
Some of the publicity on this special outreach effort indicated that there has been a decline in the number of Latino youth who have been members of boy scouts in Maricopa County, back in 1993, I guess it hit its peak and it's gone down. Why is that?

>> Silverio Ontiveros:
For different reasons. Again, with a lot of our immigrants that have come to the country recently, the countries that they've come from, Mexico or other Latin American countries, boy scouts just wasn't available to everyone in the communities. It was many times just for the wealthy families, and so when they come here, that's the perception that they have, that in the United States, scouting eally isn't for their kids. That's what we're trying to break and educate them.

>>José Cárdenas:
Well, for some families, I would assume the expenses still are initial. How do you deal with it?

>> Silverio Ontiveros:
With scout reach and other organizations we're able to offset some of those costs, but ultimately, it really isn't that expensive. The boys are able to earn funds to purchase their uniforms. And the uniform is important to us, but we're not going to turn away any boy that wants to be a scout.

>>José Cárdenas:
Now, Librada, I noticed as part of your outreach effort, you have some materials that are in Spanish. Are there others as well?

>> Le Martinez:
Oh, yes, we have plenty of Spanish materials, including videotapes, materials, and that's for a Spanish family to join scouting. We have training in Spanish or English, and that is not -- the language is -- families, monolingual families can join the parties and mamas and papas can be in the scouting because we provide Spanish training, so there is no problem. We have a lot of materials in Spanish.

>>José Cárdenas:
Is it working? Are you actually having success in getting predominantly Spanish-speaking families and kids into boy scouts?

>> Le Martinez:
Let me tell you. We are doing a lot of community events recently, and it's amazing how families, Spanish families are hungry for programs such as scouting. And they not gonna join something that they don't know. So when we go out there, we see how parents get excited when we tell them what scouting is about. So, yes, we have got a lot of calls, signing up for when we -- community events, schools, yes, we've been successful.

>> Silverio Ontiveros:
What we've learned is that Latino families want those core values that scouting provides their children. It's the core values of scouting which are the same core values that a lot of Latino families embrace.

>> José Cárdenas:
Speaking of values, scouting has been surrounded by controversy first with respect to the gay issue. Is that a plus or a minus when you are recruiting Latinos?

>> Silverio Ontiveros:
I don't think it's a minus, but --

>>José Cárdenas:
Has the subject come up?

>> Silverio Ontiveros:
It comes up. As an organization, we're willing to deal with it. It's an issue, a philosophy that all of us have to live with or accept or not accept. But I think there is so many other important parts of scouting that helps develop our youth that we just learn to deal with that and accept it.

>>José Cárdenas:
And another issue of controversy, but scouts and Catholic organization is the issue of sexual abuse. There was an arrest of somebody associated with scouts. What you can tell us of that?

>> Silverio Ontiveros:
Basically, one of our volunteers has been accused of child molesting, and again, scouts has zero tolerance for that type of criminal activity. We want to protect young boys and young men, and we're not going to tolerate it. We're going to support any type of prosecution. Again, this happens in all professions, in many areas where people volunteer, adults volunteer to work with youth.

>>José Cárdenas:
Are the scouts doing anything special to make sure that at least the incidences are few and far between?

>> Silverio Ontiveros:
And we've been doing things. One of the first things we teach any adult volunteer is never to find themselves alone with a child that they are leading, and, we also train the kids, the boys, to recognize when something -- they are experiencing something that they should not be experiencing, yes.

>>José Cárdenas:
Let's talk about the national Jamboree. I understand there was a special group that went from Arizona to Washington. Tell us about that.

>> Silverio Ontiveros:
Yeah, we're very fortunate that one of our leaders here and some of the other leaders were able to take 36 boys from the Maryvale area, Isaac school district, Cartwright school district back to Washington D.C. for our national Jamboree, and there was one young man that goes to Cartwright school district, a child of an immigrant family that had never been out of the valley.

>>José Cárdenas:
Some these kids had never been on an airplane?

>> Silverio Ontiveros:
And he was frightened. I talked to the scout leader recently. He said the night before he was supposed to leave he received a phone call from this young man saying I can't go, and it took a while for Armando to find out why. He was frightened of leaving his family and going, flying across the country. And -- but Armando reassured him that he would be fine, and he had an experience that maybe none of us will have. He got the opportunity --

>> José Cárdenas:
I'm sure it made quite an impression.

>>José Cárdenas:
We've only got 30 seconds left. If people want more information left and scouting particularly this outreach effort how do they get it?

>> Le Martinez:
Yeah, they can go to our web site. We have a Spanish web site that is WWW.scouting.ORG, and they can call me to 602-955-7747 extension 234.

>> José Cárdenas:
Thank you both for joining us on "Horizonte."

>> Le Martinez and Silverio Ontiveros:
Thank you, Jose.

>>José Cárdenas:
Iguana is the first Spanish language magazine. One of the goals is to have them continue to read in the language and not forget their cultural roots. With us is the editor founder and publisher Christianne Jacobs. Thank you for being with us.

>> Christianne Jacobs:
Thank you.

>> Christianne Jacobs:
I was born in Nicaragua. I came here when I was 17. I went to high school in Los Angeles, and I had a scholarship to go to Wesleyan university in Connecticut on the east coast

>>José Cárdenas:
What was your focus of studies?

>> Christianne Jacobs:
Political science and international relations. I had been involved in journalism and college. I wanted to be a foreign correspondent. A friend convinced me to into teaching.

>>José Cárdenas:
That's what you do now?

>> Christianne Jacobs:
Exactly.

>>José Cárdenas:
What was the inspiration for the magazine?

>> Christianne Jacobs:
My daughter was the inspiration. My husband and I decided that we wanted her to grow up in a bilingual and bicultural environment.

>>José Cárdenas:
Is your husband a Spanish speaker?

>> Christianne Jacobs:
No, he's American.

>>José Cárdenas:
This is truly bicultural.

>> Christianne Jacobs:
Exactly pep understands a lot of Spanish. He is the art director of our magazine.

>> José Cárdenas:
And the magazine is targeted to children who have at least one Spanish-speaking parent or who grow up in a Spanish-speaking environment?

>> Christianne Jacobs:
That's right. We want the kids to feel proud that they are bilingual, that they never forget their culture.

>>José Cárdenas:
In the past, many immigrant parents have felt -- they haven't been embarrassed or lacking in pride for their culture heritage, but they felt for their children's benefit, they needed to immerse them as quickly as possible in the American culture, English language and so they wouldn't speak Spanish at home, their children grew up not speaking Spanish. What do you think of that?

>> Christianne Jacobs:
Yeah, you know, unfortunately that has happened and as an educator, and a parent, I believe that is important that the kids retain the language. We are moving toward a global economy.

>>José Cárdenas:
Do you not have any concerns that your daughter will go to school and be confused some of the other children?

>> Christianne Jacobs:
No, not at all, because we have been speaking to her in both languages and since she was born. She has -- she stores both languages in the same part of the brain as opposed to me, I store them in two separate parts of the brain because I learn English later in life. But for her, it's very natural to speak both languages.

>>José Cárdenas:
Let's talk about the magazine itself. The age range as I understand is 7 to 12 years old?

>> Christianne Jacobs:
Exactly.

>> José Cárdenas:
How do you accomplish that in the magazine?

>> Christianne Jacobs:
We have writers who write for small children, the 7, 8 years old. We have writers also who write for the 9 to 10, and then 11 to 12. So we have that wide range, and you know, they are very conscientious, our writers, to know that they have to write in the language that the children can understand.

>>José Cárdenas:
And where do your writers come from?

>> Christianne Jacobs:
We have writers all over the United States, and we have writers all over the world, too, in Mexico, Venezuela, Costa recross at that, Panama, Argentina, and we have illustrators too, India.

>>José Cárdenas:
Spanish speakers in India?

>> Christianne Jacobs:
Our illustrators don't have to be Spanish speakers. I only require the writers to be Spanish speakers.

>>José Cárdenas:
Is there any concern -- because there is so much variation in Spanish as you go around the Spanish-speaking world. Is there any concern about whether somebody from Argentina, what they write is something that would appeal to a kid growing up here in the United States?

>> Christianne Jacobs:
Yeah, as an editor, I read all of the articles, and when I don't understand something that or when I read something that I think is particular to a country, I ask the writer to rewrite it in standard Spanish so that everybody can understand it.

>>José Cárdenas:
You have a tremendous variety of material. I happen to take a look at the special edition that came out last year. You've got one article on Gutenberg, the printing press, and it's all in Spanish, the whole magazine?

>> Christianne Jacobs:
Right, exactly. The entire magazine has to be in Spanish. There is nothing like that in the United States at this time. We talked to a lot of librarians, teachers, the consensus was that there is nothing like this for Spanish-speaking children.

>>José Cárdenas:
Well, you go from, again, in the special edition, an article about Gutenberg in the 15th century, and you have an interview with Orlando Figueroa who is an explorer for NASA. How do you decide what kind of articles you put in?

>> Christianne Jacobs:
As a teacher, I have a pretty good idea of topics that the kids will be interested in, and also, my idea is that we would like the kids to be well-rounded in their elocution and culture, and because the children -- the topics here in the magazine not touched in the school curriculum. They don't talk about Gutenberg in schools any more in history. One of my favorite parts of the magazine is the interview piece, because I would like Latino children to be exposed to Latino role models to see that we have achieved so much in the United States.

>>José Cárdenas:
The other thing that kind of jumps out at a reader, at least an adult reader is there is no advertising.

>> Christianne Jacobs:
Exactly.

>>José Cárdenas:
Why is that?

>> Christianne Jacobs:
We have decided when we did our research, we researched this idea for a year, and we worked so hard asking many people about children's magazine, and we find out that children's magazines, educational children's magazine like iguana have no advertising. It's purely educational.

>>José Cárdenas:
How do you support it?

>> Christianne Jacobs:
It's privately funded.

>> José Cárdenas:
Subscriptions are $25 a year?

>> Christianne Jacobs:
It's $29.95 a year, yeah.

>> José Cárdenas:
There is an event coming up at changing hands bookstore on the 27th. Tell us about that.

>> Christianne Jacobs:
Exactly. On August 27th at 11 a.m., we're going to have a very exciting event. We're going to have a puppet story time. One of our writers, Joey Acedo, who is also an educator, is going to be reading from his first short story. We're going to have singing, we're going to have arts and crafts. So it's like a whole hour, hour and a half of activities for the children and parents and it's going to be in Spanish and some of it is going to be bilingual.

>> José Cárdenas:
We've got 20 seconds left in our interview.

>> Christianne Jacobs:
Uh-huh.

>>José Cárdenas:
What kind of success have you had so far? What kind of reception are you getting?

>> Christianne Jacobs:
We're very excited. We couldn't believe the reception we've received. We have about 200 subscriptions since January, and librarians are very excited about it. We have received positive response, everybody loves the magazine, even major publishing companies are calling us to find out more about it.

>> José Cárdenas:
Well, thank you for joining us on "Horizonte" to tell us about it. We appreciate it very much.

>> Christianne Jacobs:
Thank you very much.

>> José Cárdenas:
Best wishes for continued success.

>> Christianne Jacobs:
Thank you.

>> José Cárdenas:
We have links on our web site about tonight's stories, click on "Horizonte" and look at the upper left-hand corner. That's all for us tonight. Thank you for watching "Horizonte." I'm José Cárdenas. Have a good evening.