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Valley's Latino activists band together |
| Name: |
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AV Press |
| Date Posted: |
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Oct 2, 07 - 2:04 PM |
| Email: |
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vrocha@avpress.com |
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Antelope Valley |
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PROMOTING PRIDE - Dolores Dominguez, center, speaks Sunday at a meeting of a newly formed coalition of area Latino groups. A former member of the Palmdale School District board, Dominguez believes Latino youths should be educated about their culture at school.
GENE BRECKNER/Valley Press
Valley's Latino activists band together
Coalition aims to educate residents about civil rights
This story appeared in the Antelope Valley Press on Tuesday, October 2, 2007.
By VERONICA ROCHA
Valley Press Staff Writer
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PALMDALE - Seeking to unify the Antelope Valley's Latino citizens and immigrants and educate them about their civil rights, members of seven area Latino organizations have banded together to form a new coalition.
Antelope Valley Raza Rights Coalition leaders said they saw a need to provide a platform for individuals who believe they don't have a voice.
"Our people really need to get familiar with their rights," said coalition member Roy R.S. Ramirez, president of the Mexican American Political Association's Antelope Valley chapter. "We need to educate people about what is going on in our community."
Group members believe most Latino families are tightly bonded together but are detached from the Latino community and often do not get involved in Latino issues, such as immigration and civil rights.
"If Latinos are going to be complacent because of language difficulties, then they are going to be picked on," Ramirez said.
He said Latinos must educate themselves, stand up for their rights and voice their concerns against groups who target them.
"I think it's time for us to start working together in a positive way," said coalition member Maria Avalos.
The groups that formed the coalition are the Brown Berets; Latinos Americanos En Accion; Lancaster Soccer League; the League of Latin American Communities, or LULAC; the Valley chapter of the Mexican American Political Association, or MAPA-AV; and the Ministry of Social Justice of Sacred Heart Catholic Church.
Coalition members would like to join the Antelope Valley Human Relations Task Force in an effort to discuss Latino issues. Joining the task force, however, has been unusually difficult, Ramirez said.
To join the task force, group members must attend three meetings and provide a mission statement, Ramirez said.
Group members, he said, have attended more than three meetings and have provided a mission statement but they have not been permitted to join the task force.
Darren Parker, the task force's president, said group members must provide a copy of their bylaws and a declaration of what they plan to contribute to the task force and how they plan to educate the Antelope Valley about their group.
The task force will decide at its October meeting whether the Latino group members will be granted membership, Ramirez said.
One way the coalition hopes to educate and unite Latinos - specifically teens - is through the dissemination of an informational booklet that details Latino history and culture.
Coalition leaders are trying to work with the Antelope Valley Union High School District to distribute the booklet to students.
"It's very important we start educating our young people," Avalos said. "Schools have to present themes more friendly to the people they serve."
Dolores Dominguez, a member of the coalition and a former member of the Palmdale School District board, said she believes Latino youths should be educated about their culture at school.
"We have no historical background about us," Dominguez said. "The problem is education in schools."
As a young Latina attending school in the United States, she said, she never learned about her culture in history textbooks.
It wasn't until she enrolled in college that she learned about her heritage, Dominguez said.
She said if Latino teens learn about their historical background in school, they might develop a sense of pride about their culture. Dominguez said she hopes Latino teens will not join gangs or be involved in violent activities after they have developed cultural pride.
The organizations that formed the coalition have Antelope Valley histories dating back to the 1990s.
MAPA started as an independent organization in the Antelope Valley in the 1990s after skinhead gangs committed assaults and other crimes against men and women of various ethnic groups, Ramirez said.
Mario Ramirez, a member of the national LULAC organization, said he is in the beginning phases of starting a regional chapter in Palmdale.
"We are concerned with current issues about what is happening in the Antelope Valley," he said.
Mario Ramirez moved from San Fernando to the Antelope Valley three years ago looking for a fresh environment to raise his children.
Susan Rivera-Rodriguez and Keppel Union School District board member Manuel Magaña formed Latinos Americanos En Acción in 1996 to push for bilingual teaching and curriculum about Latino culture for Latino students.
The group represents "justice of education," Rivera-Rodriguez said.
In Lake Los Angeles, the pair successfully launched the annual Cinco de Mayo parade.
Brown Berets president Anthony Topete said the Antelope Valley chapter was created out of a desire to protect Latinos' educational, cultural and civil rights. It has 11 members, he said.
"We have always been a nonviolent organization," Topete said. "Our purpose is to serve the Latino community and unify the Latino community."
vrocha@avpress.com |
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