Panel at UA discusses challenges of Latinos
Posted on Tuesday, September 16, 2008
BROOKE McNEELY Northwest Arkansas Times From left, Charlie Cervantes, League of United Latin American Citizens state director; Jim Miranda, civil rights activist; Ana Aguayo, University of Arkansas student; Margarita Solorzano, executive director of the Hispanic Women’s Organization of Arkansas; Javier Boyas, UA assistant professor of social work; and Ana Bridges, UA assistant professor of psychology, participate in a panel discussion at the UA Multicultural Center Monday as part of Hispanic Heritage Month. The discussion centered around challenges Latinos face in Northwest Arkansas and the United States.
Undocumented immigrants, poor working conditions and lack of services were the topics tackled Monday by a panel sponsored by the League of United Latin American Citizens.
The panel, located at the Multicultural Center of the University of Arkansas, was part of Hispanic Heritage Month activities. LULAC is the largest and oldest Hispanic organization in the United States. It works toward advancing the economic condition, educational attainment, political influence and health and civil rights of Hispanic Americans through community-based programs.
Panelists agreed that there needs to be more community-based health care available for Hispanic Americans. Ana Bridges, an assistant professor of psychology at the UA, said health care programs must eliminate the language barrier as well as the eco- nomic barrier.
Javier Boyas, an assistant professor of social work at the UA, said that according to a 2007 survey by the Arkansas Department of Health only 39 percent of the Hispanic population in Arkansas has some type of health coverage, compared to 83 percent of white people. The report showed that only 45 percent of Arkansas Hispanic Americans go to a consistent primary health care provider and high cholesterol and obesity are prevalent among Arkansas’ Hispanic population.
“ The Latino population and the term prevention are still not very good friends, ” Boyas said in regards to the cholesterol and obesity issues.
Ana Aguayo, a UA student on the panel, said that Hispanic Americans also needed to focus on their children and making sure Latino youth stay in school. She said the dropout rate of Latinos in Northwest Arkansas is so high because “ family is not involved in the children’s education to push the students. ”
She added that skyrocketing college tuition is making it more difficult for young Hispanic Americans to afford a post-high school education, especially those not born in the U. S.
“ It’s becoming a dream that’s out of reach, ” Aguayo said.
For Charlie Cervantes, state director of Arkansas LULAC, Hispanic Americans need to stop treating each other like subcitizens.
“ Our own culture tends to put up with slave work, ” Cervantes said.
He pointed out that Hispanic business owners tend to hire Hispanic workers, which is a good thing, but those business owners tend to work their employees too hard — 10- to 16-hour days with only one day off a week. He said that in order for Hispanic Americans to stop the mistreatment of their people by non-Hispanic employers, the Hispanic employers have to stop doing the same thing.
“ We are in a struggle in the front and in the back, ” Cervantes said.
Finally the topic of immigration was tackled. Jim Miranda, a Hispanic American civil rights activist, said that the problem is most people don’t look at undocumented immigrants as real, breathing people with feelings who have left desperate situations in their own countries in hopes of a better life. Miranda said that immigration could be at the heart of all the issues the Latino population in the U. S. faces. He said fear of deportation keeps them from reporting abuse from employers, crimes committed against them, not receiving paychecks, and even keeps them from accessing available health care services.
He said that the solution to immigration cannot be found in an open border or a 10-foot high wall.
“ The answer is somewhere in between, ” Miranda said. “ And the way to find it is to do what we’re doing now. Having conversations in a civil manner. ”
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