"600 words by Esther J. Cepeda"

Say goodbye to XP and embrace change

"600 words by Esther J. Cepeda"

There is no life after death for hard drives – not mine anyway. Having lost everything a few weeks ago, I started anew. Which is how I came to learn a lesson in death, rebirth, change, and surrender through Microsoft's Vista operating system.

I ordered "one of everything" from my favorite PC manufacturer, knowing I was getting all the newest stuff but not predicting that the moment that baby fired up, I'd be reduced to a computer novice, unable to execute the simplest function – "save as" – at the worst possible moment: on deadline.

After several days of chanting "change is good, change is good, change is good…" while bumbling through folder architecture that only vaguely looked familiar, then finally coming to some rudimentary ability to navigate my electronic life, I let go of my self image as "tech savvy" and blew in a call.

"When in doubt, hover," said Adam J. Hecktman, a Director at Chicago's Microsoft's Technology Center, referring to the instantly expanding and, for my taste, waaaay too smart tool bars crowded at the top of Microsoft Word. I sheepishly admitted to him that after about two weeks of typing like a tourist strolls down Michigan Avenue, I finally realized that the circular logo on the top left hand corner was clickable and contained the "save as" function I so desperately needed. Like on Michigan Avenue, there's a lot to look at.

"We call [the toolbars in the office suit] the ribbon. It's laid out so that the tools you need are grouped together by functionality and instantly accessible and fully customizable based on what you're trying to do," he said. Which brought me back to what I was trying to do: that is, the same thing over and over again – type a text document – in the same way I always have, so I didn't have to think about the process, only the final product. But that's not how life is, is it?

Sure, when I bought my new computer I could have ordered XP, and stayed in my comfort zone, but I saw the storm clouds gathering and decided to just get wet now.

"The magic date [for XP] is the 'end of sales' date – June 30, 2008 – but that's not an 'end of support' date. We will continue to provide security updates and other critical updates for Windows XP until April, 2014 – there are some people who will keep their Windows-based PCs for many, many years."

Adam and I had a hardy laugh at the thought of there being people "somewhere out there" still proudly running their PCs on DOS, writing manifestos in WordPerfect. Then we laughed hardily at me who has a step-by-step guide to installing DOS on Vista – so a certain video game can be played – sitting on the desk in front of me. Some things, after all, are worth holding on to.

I stopped to think: Adam and I have had full, rich lives in the twenty-two years since Microsoft launched Windows. That's twelve versions, and a whopping six years since the last new opsys, XP, was released. Many, many, lifetimes in the computer world – it was time to get used to something new, and in no time all my pals will be asking me for tech support again.

Until then, I'm meditating on the teachings of Buddha who said, "Everything changes, nothing remains without change." And I'm keeping in mind the words of Adam, my new Microsoft friend, who gave me wisdom I believe I'll be able to carry with me for a lifetime: "When in doubt: hover."

Esther J. Cepeda writes the "600 Words" & "Pregunta del Dia" columns, and is also a Director at the Chicago-based United Neighborhood Organization. Her reporting and opinions do not necessarily reflect those of UNO. "600 words" is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2008. May be reprinted with permission, contact

eejaycee@600words.com

Who loves ya, baby? McCain, Obama court Latinos

"600 Words" by Esther J. Cepeda

Oh look! It’s a slow news day and the topic of immigration has come up, so the mainstream media all of a sudden actually cares what the presidential candidates think about Latinos.

And how could they resist? John McCain and Barack Obama both showed up to a sleepy Saturday gathering of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) in full woo mode – all smiles and happy Hispanic messages.

The two candidates – who, of the 20 votes they both cast out of 30 immigration-related votes since May 17, 2006, voted identically 11 times – turned on the charm with such pithy quotes as this one from John McCain who became a target in the Republican party for championing immigration law reform but had recently taken a harsher tone:

"It'll be my top priority yesterday, today and tomorrow. We must also understand that there are 12 million people who are here, and they're here illegally and they are God's children," Bloomberg quoted McCain as saying.

Reuters quoted Obama’s gushing thusly: "I'm hoping that somewhere out in this audience sits the person who will become the first Latino [presidential] nominee of a major party." Gee, I wonder what Hispanic pre-candidate and former Clinton devotee Bill Richardson thought of that one!

So we’re alternately the chosen ones and next in line for the White House after the black guy, huh? Gee, thanks a lot fellas.

And why the fuss?

Because this utopian "Hispanic vote," estimated to be approximately 9 percent of the national electorate and always referred to as the "fastest growing minority group in the U.S., is up for grabs now that Hillary is out of the picture.

Take their not-completely-opposite voting records on immigration matters and weight their actions versus their words: by all accounts, even from those inside the campaign, Obama has had a blind spot for Latinos throughout the race.

Contrast that with John McCain who was the only Republican candidate who agreed to Univision’s Spanish-language presidential debates last August (it was subsequently cancelled due to lack of Republican interest). Oh, and McCain is touring Mexico and South America early next month, presumably on a listening tour.

Barack must not be compelled to the poor south, though he’ll be gallivanting through more affluent Europe and the Middle East next month well. Still, I’ll give him brownie points, pun intended, for actually trying to give Latin America attention even though his viewpoints on our neighbors to the south rarely make it on the air or into print.

I don’t fall for sugary political pandering so, frankly, I don’t care who makes the better pre-election overture but this is just the beginning. There’ll be plenty of immigration finger-pointing – probably punctuated by some ethnic stereotype mishap – and wobbly, unsubstantive Spanish-language pleas in targeted media.

I suggest both McCain and Obama proceed with caution. If either of them go overboard – I can just hear promises of "a taco in every pot!" – they’ll stand a chance of turning off a ton of U.S.-born Latinos who are much likelier to vote come November than the May Day marchers you see on the TV everyday.

Here’s a thought, John and Barry: not all of our votes hinge on your stance on immigration, so when you see me, think of something compelling to say other than something along the lines of: "Gosh I love immigrants! My ancestors were immigrants, y’know?!"

Esther J. Cepeda writes the "600 Words" & "Pregunta del Dia" columns, and is also a Director at the Chicago-based United Neighborhood Organization. Her reporting and opinions do not necessarily reflect those of UNO. "600 words" is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2008. May be reprinted with permission, contact

eejaycee@600words.com

Diaz the Lionheart

"600 Words" by Esther J. Cepeda

You haven't seen the true heart of a fighter until you've seen a man – a heavily unfavored hometown underdog matched against a legend – still jabbing in the 12th round, still counting points, still believing he could win even though half his world has gone red from blood squirting out of the shiny eggplant of an eye that's getting pounded.

You haven't seen a man really fight until you've seen him forget the paycheck, forget the stats, and fight for something more important than his life: his honor.

After David Diaz "won" the WBC Lightweight Title in August of 2006, he didn't shout it from the rooftops. His victory came after he beat a guy in a come-from-behind tenth round TKO, was set to fight the reigning champ, then was handed the belt after a cheating scandal. Not exactly bragging rights material.

Diaz, a Chicago native, three-time Golden Gloves champ and 1996 Olympic boxing team fighter, was welcomed into August 2007's cham-peen-chip "War for Four" bout against Mexican boxing legend Erik "El Terrible" Morales as a minor obstacle in Morales' quest to become the first Mexican boxer to win four world championships in four different weight classes.

The snickers about David's 2006 "victory" didn't get whispered behind his back so much as they were aired out in public. No one was snickering, though, when David won the 2007 fight – in Chicago, in front of a crowd roaring Morales' name – by a unanimous decision, forcing Morales to retire on the spot, grumbling he "was robbed" as he slinked back to Mexico. Of course, it took only moments for the new whisper to become that Diaz only won because Morales was over the hill.

It's now a year later and 32-year-old Diaz (34-1-1, 17 KOs), is still the underdog (4-1) and scheduled to take on Manny "The Mexicutioner" Pacquiao (46-3-2, 34 KOs), a 29-year-old Filipino with a penchant for beating down Mexicans, this Saturday night, June 28, at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.

So I had to know: what's going to keep Diaz on his feet through what promises to be a brutal meat grinding between two lefties this time?

"This is the one where I get the recognition," he told me over the phone after a Wednesday afternoon presser in Las Vegas. "I'm fighting a guy who's in his prime – he's pound for pound the greatest boxer in the world. This is the moment I gotta get my star, this is it right here and I've got to go for it."

And, props aside, the money's not too shabby, either. Diaz is looking at an $800,000 payday and the opportunity to make way more in subsequent match-ups. "Winning this fight, with this purse, I’m going to set up my kids for college no ifs, ands, or buts about it," said the guy who's told every cash-mentioning reporter that he is, in fact, currently tooling around the northwest side of Chicago in a '91 Honda with no air-conditioning. "If I capitalize on this, I can set up a bigger purse and for me my family, for my parents, this is a big deal."

It is a big deal – this one's for bragging rights. "The good thing about it is me, Mike (Jabb Gym trainer Miguel Garcia), and Jim Strickland (the ace cut man who kept David's eyeball from popping like a tick last year) and the coaches, we’re together cracking jokes hanging out and just enjoying the companionship," he said. "I'll keep it loose for the next few days, we can start getting all uptight and fussy the night of the fight."

It's an HBO pay-per-view bout but I'll be giving you the proverbial blow-by-blow on this site in real time starting after the pizza arrives but before the intros start at about 10 pm central standard time.

I asked David what pre-fight ritual I can look for to report as he steps into the ring Saturday, he said: "I always, every time I step into the ring, I just pray and put myself in the Lord's hands and that’s pretty much it."

Esther J. Cepeda writes the "600 Words" & "Pregunta del Dia" columns, and is also a Director at the Chicago-based United Neighborhood Organization. Her reporting and opinions do not necessarily reflect those of UNO. "600 words" is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2008. May be reprinted with permission, contact

eejaycee@600words.com

See me in the funny papers

"600 Words" by Esther J. Cepeda

She came around! I knew she would!

I'm talking about Janis Day, the middle-aged mom on the comic strip Arlo and Janis, a 23-year-old nationally-syndicated comic strip which appears in Chicago's Sun-Times. She'd been struggling, for the last two weeks, with conflicting feelings about her son Gene's co-workers at his new summer job.

In last week's strips, Gene, home from college, is working outdoors with a presumably-all-Mexican lawn care crew. When he casually mentions to mom, and his dad Arlo, that his co-workers call him "gringa" – the Spanish, female form of an arguably derogative term for "whitey" – she got all upset.

Gene assured both Arlo and Janis that his crew-mates were just busting his chops, shared how much he was learning about the Spanish language and their culture, and even wished he had taken Spanish classes is school.

Last Friday, though, Janice was having protective mom thoughts that flirted with the kind of protectionist, almost racist stereotyping that's making things hard on all Latinos these days. She fretted: "I wonder what trash those awful men are talking to Gene today!!" even as they were teaching Gene the value of honoring your mother.

  Woah! I kinda freaked because I've been loving A&J for well over a decade and wasn't sure where creator Jimmy Johnson was going: are those scary Mexicans actually going to corrupt young Gene? Will Janis be proven right to be concerned or will there be a painfully beautiful slice-of-life learning moment for everyone reading? Why even bring such a controversial topic to a fun, 30-second diversion to begin with?

And that's really what I was excited about: Arlo, Janis, and Gene – just as white as 99.9 percent of all other mainstream comic strip characters – interacting with real, live, Mexicans. Stereotypical yard hands, sure, but give Jimmy Johnson credit – this is a huge act of bravery.

Don't get me wrong, I love Lalo Alcaraz, the Hispanic LA Times cartoonist who pens La Cucaracha – also nationally syndicated and, coincidentally appears only a few panels above A&J on the third comics page of the Sun-Times – but his audience is limited.

Some people don't read it because they think "I'm not Latino, it's not for me." Some Hispanics think he's too this or that and also don't tune in for Lalo's brilliant and funny social commentary.

But A&J is read by millions of people of all stripes, colors, and walks of life. This is big!

After Friday, I was on the edge of my seat but the story line was dropped Saturday through Tuesday. My attempts to contact JJ were fruitless, and I wondered if he'd gotten barraged with hate mail for bringing the contentious immigration debate into what's usually a light family 'toon and decided to drop the whole thing.

Unlikely. "Most of them are written so far in advance it's really hard pull back in a day or two, though the newspaper could decide not to run it, I suppose," Chicago Tribune columnist Mary Schmich, and Brenda Starr cartoonist, told me yesterday as I struggled with the lack of new developments in the scary Mexican plot. Mary – no stranger to making waves with the dialogue of her characters (don't get her started on the use of the term "threesome!") – told me she doubted any cartoonist would be influenced either by backlash, hate mail, or even partial censoring.

The chances the writer would change it are very, very small. For a long time, people couldn’t give feedback and that was one of the beauties – it’s not like being a columnist where they can kick you in public – there was anonymity. It’s not like now where feedback is everything to everybody," Mary said. "And there is this notion, that I think is wrong-headed, that comic strips aren’t supposed to offend, this idea that comic strips are for kids – I don’t buy that. There was a time for kids but that’s not who reads the papers. I think readers could be well served with some edginess."

Edginess is good and it turns out I needn’t have fretted so. Today Janis – still crabby in the first panel where she "worries" about the heat Gene’s working in – takes lemonade to his job site and learns a little something about how Mexican lawn care workers respond to kindness.

I like to think Arlo and Janis’ readers will learn a little something, too.

Esther J. Cepeda writes the "600 Words" & "Pregunta del Dia" columns, and is also a Director at the Chicago-based United Neighborhood Organization. Her reporting and opinions do not necessarily reflect those of UNO. "600 words" is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2008. May be reprinted with permission, contact

eejaycee@600words.com

Some of "them" are "us"

"600 Words" by Esther J. Cepeda

If you've seen TV footage of a community reeling from an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement raid – like this weekend's in Lake County, IL – you've likely seen a Latin American family upset about their family members' arrest, followed by what's called "b-roll" video footage of past immigration reform marches where thousands of Latinos hold enraged protest posters demonizing ICE.

But what you don't know is that Latinos are the largest minority subset of ICE's workforce, providing jobs that, with overtime, can pay a person without a high school or college degree up to $70,000 a year. Those great benefits, coupled with a pressing need for more warm bodies, has led ICE to target African American recruits for border patrol duty, as reported in Monday's New York Times. Their story, focusing on the need for recruits to bring the number of agents patrolling the U.S.' southern border up to 18,000 by the end of the year, mentioned that 52 percent of border patrol agents are Latino.

Agency-wide, the Department of Homeland Security agency known as ICE has 17,272 employees of which 3,792 (21.95 percent) are Hispanic according Tim Counts, a spokesman I spoke to Monday.

Can you just imagine what Thanksgiving is like for those families? Talk about being caught in a cultural cross-fire!

Having gotten interested in the dissonance of Hispanics at DHS last year, I spoke to several Latino ICE employees mostly in the Chicago area, and a few close to the border that I correspond with occasionally, none of whom wanted their names used because it's…a touchy subject. I detected two camps: the "make no apologies" group and the "don't ask don't tell."

I'm not naming names so I can't quote directly, but, one female border guard out west told me it's very simple for her: she's doing a government job and her duty is to use her special language skills and cultural insights to smooth the process for everyone involved. The spirit of her comments were along the lines of: "I don't give a damn about people who consider me a sellout or a traitor."

Another agent, who's not in the field, told me she understands how emotional the whole issue of immigration is and never wants to be put in the position of bringing up the boogey-men ICE agents, so she just never brings it up. Her family has gotten used to her refusing to be called to account for every violent or saddening enforcement action that makes headlines.

One agent whose sole job is to interact with immigration-related detainees in the McHenry County Jail in Illinois told me last year, when I was investigating living conditions there for the Chicago Sun-Times, that his family and friends have a totally different take on things, though he tries to always keep his job out of conversations. I'm paraphrasing: "They figure I'm there, I'm doing my best everyday to help [the detainees] get in touch with advocates, resolve their problems as best they can – it's a good thing. Aside from a few people who can't stand that I work for ICE, it's usually not a problem."

Indeed, there are lots of Latinos out there who think the Department of Homeland Security is evil incarnate. But like with everything else in life, when you scratch beneath the surface – and see the many Hispanic agents who are enabling their families to live the American Dream through their steady, good-paying work at ICE – some of "them" are "us." And "we" aren't so different.

Note: In case you were wondering about the June 20-21 raids in Lake County, you didn't hear about them because none of the mainstream media reported on them – I read about it in HOY, the Tribune's Spanish-language daily newspaper.

Esther J. Cepeda writes the "600 Words" & "Pregunta del Dia" columns, and is also a Director at the Chicago-based United Neighborhood Organization. Her reporting and opinions do not necessarily reflect those of UNO. "600 words" is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2008. May be reprinted with permission, contact

eejaycee@600words.com

In defense of 75 degrees

"600 Words" by Esther J. Cepeda

I'm cold.

Yes, I know I was saying that in the middle of February but it's still true.

Sandals? Tank tops? On the 23rd day of June? You've got to be kidding me! I wore shorts once on the first actual warm day of summer but instantly realized the error of my folly once I innocently stepped into a favorite haunt, where it's brrrrrrrrrrr cold!

Shorts or not, that ubiquitous dark Dallas Cowboys down jacket you saw me in last March? It's still with me wherever I go. And let me tell you: I might get a funny look or two but it only takes about 8 minutes before I'm the envy of the grocery store, coffee shop, library, restaurant, movie theater, train, you name it.

Room temperature in public spaces is a distant memory. Seventy-five degrees used to be that hallmark of cool comfort, dialed down to about seventy-three when an extra kick was needed to shake off the heat of the oppressive summer sun. No more.

Observed while sitting in my favorite coffee shop on the afternoon of a perfect summer day: women and small children paying for an iced coffee suddenly clawing at themselves to cover their bare arms and shoulders. Elderly couples toting coats. Tall, burly, master-tattooed tough guys in cutoff shirts and shorts, taking their bagel and cream cheese mid-meal outside to the patio tables. And me snug as a bug in my coat on my favorite couch.

And it's not just the coffee shop. Grocery stores – they have product to keep cool even as doors open and close letting hot bursts of air in right by the fresh fruit – have gone from cold to sub-zero. Movie theaters – an oasis for hot movie lovers – are places where you can see your own breath. Public transportation! We thank the god of planes, trains, and buses when we're not traveling in convection ovens, but I've seen children cry from well-meaning arctic blasts.

I've complained, but it's done no good. I've gone to the manager of my home away from home coffee shop, which happily collects a good fifteen percent of my annual income in coffee and cinnamon rolls alone, and asked for the temperature to be dialed down from "tundra" to "lake breeze" but what I get from the manager is a blank look.

She doesn't get it. Of course, she is about 185 pounds overweight – a baker, she's got the latitude – and breaks a sweat when it's over fifty. Me: I'm on the "athletic" range of the Body Mass Index, so sue me.

But it's not just her, its every manager of every public venue across the country, whether they be rail-thin, just right, or packin' a spare tire and they've all told me the same thing when I –and other more thickly-padded customers – complain: the comfort temperature has gone down. Unspoken, but obvious to anyone with eyes: the average weight of children and adults has gone up. A lot.

The Centers for Disease Control reported last November that more than one-third of U.S. adults – over 72 million people – were obese in 2005-2006. That’s 72 million people living in a society where not only is personal comfort king, but personal discomfort – the body’s natural way of telling us our bodies are injured or otherwise unhealthy – is controlled with external measures. In other words: "I’m carrying around an extra hundred pounds so therefore you must make it colder for me."

Can I convince you to dial the A/C up? Do it for whatever your favorite reason like to lessen the chemicals being released into the environment. Do it for those who need to realize maybe they shouldn’t be feeling quite so hot, or do it because the price of energy is skyrocketing and your wallet hurts.

Just please, let it be room temperature, and let those of us with normal body weights leave the coat at home.

Esther J. Cepeda writes the "600 Words" & "Pregunta del Dia" columns, and is also a Director at the Chicago-based United Neighborhood Organization. Her reporting and opinions do not necessarily reflect those of UNO. "600 words" is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2008. May be reprinted with permission, contact

eejaycee@600words.com

The Tao of Jack Black

"600 Words" by Esther J. Cepeda

He's fat. He's jiggly. He can belt out a tune and makes me laugh. He is my sage.

Jack Black, in his cinematic tromp through the wisdom of the ages, has done it once more. He is, again, the protagonist in a film whose undercurrent is the power of positive belief in your grandest dreams.

This time he scatters Lao Tzu and Taoism's "10,000 things" of inner love and outer peace across the silver screen in Kung Fu Panda, where he "stars" as "Po," the fat panda who emerges as the unlikely Dragon Warrior who will save the animal populace of the Chinese Valley of Peace from the evil Tai Lung who himself is bent on snatching the powerful Dragon Scroll from the temple of wisdom.

This is not the first time the jelly-bellied comic actor has contorted himself within a story-line featuring a sweet underdog who sees beyond the practicalities of those who tell him it can't be – when he knows it can – then makes it so.

From his debut in one of my favorite movies, Bob Roberts, as a true-believing devotee of the eponymous questionable senatorial candidate (Tim Robbins) to the bumbling and Shallow Hal who falls in love with a big, fat blonde but only sees her true inner beauty, Black has mostly picked projects with undeniably uplifting themes.

Who can forget Black's turn in School of Rock as Dewey Finn who literally manifests a rock band out of a pack of spoiled rich kids? Or Nacho Libre where the once-orphaned brother Nacho realizes his dream of becoming the greatest Lucha Libre "luchador" in the world? Long before he triumphs in a dusty Mexican ring against such prize-fighters as "Silencio" and "Ramses," he tells himself: "I am the gatekeeper of my own destiny, and I will have my glory days." He sure does.

Kung Fu Panda pushes major tenets of Taoism to a mainstream audience in a way that that Mike Myers' new film The Love Guru, replete with penis jokes and other entendres, couldn't, though I think it half-heartedly wanted to.

Take Oogway: "There are no accidents." And "Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the present."

Also: "One often meets his destiny on the road he takes to avoid it." And my very favorite: "There is no good news, there is no bad news, there is only news."

Shifu, the kung fu teacher, tells us: "I ask you to trust in your master as I have come to trust in mine." Beautiful.

Po, in his opening dream – before he begins to fulfill his destiny as the true Dragon Warrior – says of his kung fu prowess: "It is said that his enemies would go blind from over-exposure to pure awesomeness!" (That's so "hard core!") If that isn't the power of positive thinking to manifest your own destiny, then I'm Deepak Chopra.

Obviously, I'm not Deepak, and Jack Black is no Lao Tzu. But sitting in a darkened room with popcorn and JB's jiggling inspiration, I call him "teacher."

Esther J. Cepeda writes the "600 Words" & "Pregunta del Dia" columns, and is also a Director at the Chicago-based United Neighborhood Organization. Her reporting and opinions do not necessarily reflect those of UNO. "600 words" is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2008. May be reprinted with permission, contact

eejaycee@600words.com

Black Star Project: shining a light on the darkness

"600 Words" by Esther J. Cepeda

It’s June 19th – not even officially summer yet – and the wave of violence in Chicago has already kicked into high gear.

Just in the last two days more shootings, more death. This morning the Chicago Tribune reports two teens, 19 and 15, are dead and one 14-year-old is struggling to live through a gunshot wound to the head.

Faced with this community-wide epidemic of violence, some look away or gnash their teeth and weep. Some have made a fuss about forming commissions to figure out what to do about murder in their streets. The folks over at The Black Star Project are just out there solving the problem themselves – one kid at a time.

"People say the way to end violence is policemen or with helicopters or automatic weapons. That’s not going to stop violence! If you can teach these young people to read, if we can give them some hope, some vision, and some skills…that’s the only way," Phillip Jackson, BSP’s Executive Director, told me Tuesday afternoon as the media whipped itself into a frenzy over 19-year-old Jose Rivera’s bloody end on a south side playground. "It’s not very popular, it gets almost no funding and people say to me ‘It’s too hard.’ I don’t care how hard it is, it’s the only way."

The "way" to stop the street killings Phil’s referring to is best described by the 165,000 black, Hispanic, and other-wise underserved young students BSP has tutored, mentored, and inspired at public and private schools all over Chicago and its suburbs during a 12-year quest to use education to lift kids above the clamor of their neighborhood’s dangers.

Not to mention the 4,000 parents at BSP’s Parent University program, who get classes and support, in both English and Spanish, on how to guide their kids toward becoming life-long learners.

Oh, and let’s not forget the hundreds of thousands fathers who have come out en masse across 238 American cities on the first day of school to pledge their commitment to their kids' education during BSP’s wildly successful, four-year-old Million Father March.

The Black Star Project is, as I've come to think of them, the most effective, nationally-recognized anti-violence program you've never heard of.

"I try not to do things that are sensational, we do work of substance with all children, even if they're gangbangers," said Phillip, a retiree of Chicago Public Schools' system, "but the newspapers [and television] want more pizzazz – it's only front page news whenever we have a weekend when people are shot and there's a child or woman killed. We're working on solutions not gimmicks so there's almost no interest."

Barriers like media interest matter little to Phil and his team of 5 full-time employees; there's work to be done BSP has put the power of the internet to it. Lucky you if you're one of the 16,000 readers who get their bright, yellow-topped, e-blasted newsletters exclaiming "He who controls the education of the children control the future of that race."

Though that might sound politically incorrect, in reality, the color-blind organization services children of all races and ethnicities but their niche is African-American. "Our board members, mentors and volunteers are diverse – we don't discriminate, we make no apologies," Phil said, "But when you make a concerted effort to reach black boys– the Consortium on School Reform found that of black boys in kindergarden only 3 out of 100 will graduate college by age 25 – then you curtail the pipeline to jails and prisons."

But there is a price to pay for being bold, and nationally lauded but locally ignored. Not being the most quoted, or "go-to" social service organization makes it difficult to get people with money excited about the work that gets done each and everyday out of the glare of camera flashes and TV lights. Though BSP does make up part of their meager budget with earned income from CPS payment for mentorship programs, and enjoy generous donations from The Chicago Community Trust, ComEd, and Toyota Motor sales, the needs are many.

"We need funding stability, I spend 50-60 percent of my time making sure the lights stay on and people are going to get paid rather than spending time with the children but it doesn't matter. I'm going to be leaving this planet soon but what does matter is that the children we leave behind are going to be able to live together, work together, and learn together. That's what really matters."

You want an antidote to the daily "violence in our neighborhoods!!" news drama? Sign up for the Black Star Project's e-blast and get ready to receive a dose of real solutions.

Esther J. Cepeda writes the "600 Words" & "Pregunta del Dia" columns, and is also a Director at the Chicago-based United Neighborhood Organization. Her reporting and opinions do not necessarily reflect those of UNO. "600 words" is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2008. May be reprinted with permission, contact

eejaycee@600words.com

"Suicidio:" death translates to Hispanic teens

"600 Words" by Esther J. Cepeda

Hispanic teens are screaming for your help, can you hear them?

The Centers for Disease Control, in their biannual National Youth Risk Behavior Survey, recently reported that in 2007 the attempted suicide rate for Hispanic teens was 17.5 percent, compared to 11.6 percent for blacks and whites.

In their survey of 14,000 U.S. high school students, the CDC also found that while fewer whites and blacks drink, smoke and engage in sexual activity now than 16 years ago, Hispanic teens have made no progress. Sadly, horribly – in the death department, they've gotten more organized: more than one in ten (1.3) Latinos and Latinas (1.4) had a suicide plan.

Having been a high school bilingual algebra teacher I can tell you it wasn't just the gang-banger-wannabes, the straight-from-the-farm-immigrants, or the "emos" (those sporting a style of dress reminiscent of the 80's new-wave style which leans into all-black "Goth" clothing indicating depression, but features splashes of color which symbolize strong emotions), who have serious emotional issues they want you to recognize, it’s the good, popular students, too.

In a story published in Hispanic Link Weekly Report, Glenn Flores, professor of Pediatrics and Public Health at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, is quoted thusly about why the rates of suicide attempts are higher among Hispanic youth. "One can speculate that it may relate to a combination on the extra stress of being caught between two cultures and languages…along with poor mental health care for Latinos," he says.

Understatement of the year!

According to the data, in 1991, the number of Hispanic high school students attempting suicide one or more times in the previous months was 7.9 percent. It spiked at 13.6 percent in '93, fell with some blips – one in 2005, which coincided with the rise in public animosity toward illegal immigration – and settled at 10.2 percent in 2007.

During all this time, few of the environmental factors have changed: these kids were still living in a society completely new and in many ways completely at odds with their parents' country of origin – a reality universal to all first generation Americans. Even when language isn't a barrier, trying to navigate the "old culture" while trying to fit into the new one they're immersed in is no walk in the park.

The culture at home – I generalize Hispanic households here – is one where rigid Catholicism is a main driver, and "depression" doesn't exist. If you're reading this and you're Hispanic, raise your hand if you ever heard the following statement: "Sad? What in the world do you have to be sad about? When I was your age we didn't have shoes or running water, we had nothing. You have nothing to be sad about."

And forget, for a moment, troubled kids – those with alcoholism or abuse in their families, those tied to rough gang-types, those who don't have a lot going for them – the "good kids" have serious struggles as well.

Again, raise your hand if you know what it's like to be the shining beacon of hope for your family, with all the promise of the family's future – and, not coincidentally – and all the weight of the world on your shoulders. First to go to college? Going to get in trouble if you don't get straight A's? Depended on to better the family's life? Some of you already know what I'm talking about.

These are but few examples from the spark-eliciting process of blending cultures with generations with sexes and new experiences during the torrid teen years.

None of these are judgements – many of these cultural norms and expectations have positive aspects, and a rightful place in the context of the immigrant and first-generation experience – they are simply realities you, and everyone who comes into contact with a young Latino man or woman, should know.

And don't fall into your own despair, there's nothing but upside here: now that you know, keep your eyes and ears open and just be there. Your informed, nosy, well-intentioned intrusion into a surly teen's life can make all the difference in the world.

Esther J. Cepeda writes the “600 Words” & “Pregunta del Dia” columns, and is also a Director at the Chicago-based United Neighborhood Organization. Her reporting and opinions do not necessarily reflect those of UNO. “600 words” is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2008. May be reprinted with permission, contact eejaycee@600words.com

The power of family

"600 Words" by Esther J. Cepeda

Almost everyone dislikes stereotypes, but there are some similarities, some characteristics so strong, that it’s fair to say they're generalize-able across Hispanic culture from all different age groups, Latin American countries, and socio-economic strata. One is love of family.

A few will roll their eyes at this old saw, but some stereotypes really are true. Try this experiment for yourself: next time you're with a group that has a Latino in it, ask each person what they'd do if they won a million bucks. I can almost guarantee you the Hispanic will be the only one to say without hesitation, "Buy my parents a house."

George Burciaga – a Pilsen kid who's hit it big – is no different. He was brought to my attention as a Cepeda "aaahh, life as it should be" subject because his wildly successful Chicago-based tech boutique, SmarTECHS.net, is not a "successful Hispanic business," it's simply a successful business which happens to be Latino-owned.

On Thursday George is set to be honored as Illinois' Small Business Person of the Year, and not for nothin', either. He leads a team of 24 tech wizards of all races, ethnicities, and backgrounds in a 10-year-old, 9 million dollar venture that offers Information Technology services to businesses all over the country. And he started it all out of his two-room apartment as a 23-year-old.

"I started off consulting as an intern at a financial institute and one day I asked my boss: 'If I came in as a business would you hire me?' He said 'yes' and a week later I walked into his office with my incorporation papers and he allowed me the opportunity."

It took the thirty-three year old Burciaga all of two seconds to tell me why he even dreamed of getting into technology – a field well-known to be seriously in need of qualified Latinos – and why he decided to take the risk of being a business owner.

"It had nothing to do with technology! I was raised in Pilsen by my grandparents who were very poor and my entire goal was to move them out of their neighborhood. Pilsen at the time was not the Pilsen we know now – my uncle was shot in the street," Burciaga said. "I saw my grandparents taking a beating by working two jobs and dealing with the drugs and violence... I simply saw the technology niche, which wasn't oversaturated, as the opportunity."

Niche?

"Well, at the time there weren't a whole lot of IT companies, not even just by Latinos, back then [late 90's] it was a fresh, new, cutting-edge market and was not oversaturated. Today I'm trying to build the Latino growth within IT, it's very low as it was then, but we're a great firm that happens to be Latino, not a Latino firm that became great. I never leveraged that and said, 'Hey, I'm Hispanic.' I kicked the door open and I do a hell of a job."

Indeed, he's done such a good job that in April of this year he was also named the second place winner in the National Small Business Person of the Year Award, which came with a trip to DC and dinner with the President ("He congratulated me and then gave a really long speech on the importance of small business to the country").

And now that smarTECHS.net is a resounding success, and the grandparents got their dream home, George is off to open opportunities for other kids to follow in his footsteps.

"We're launching 'smarTECHS on Campus' at Robert Morris College this fall. We're creating IT residents who train like doctors do in a hospital. We'll be opening a 3,000 square-foot facility on campus where the kids will train, then they'll come to us for 10-12 weeks and we'll fill their skill gap before they leave school by putting them right in the line of real fire with real clients who will participate.

It's an opportunity to connect people and actually bring technology into the community; I'm so excited about it."

I'm sure his family is thrilled, too.

Esther J. Cepeda writes the “600 Words” & “Pregunta del Dia” columns, and is also a Director at the Chicago-based United Neighborhood Organization. Her reporting and opinions do not necessarily reflect those of UNO. editor's note: neither Ms. Cepeda, nor www.600words.com, pays for or receives free of charge, technical assistance, production assistance, or even unpaid advisory from SmarTechs.net, or any subsidiary or representative thereof. “600 words” is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2008. May be reprinted with permission, contact eejaycee@600words.com

Doctors, please: “habla culture,” not language

"600 Words" by Esther J. Cepeda

If the English language unites us as a country, and other languages are what supposedly divide us, then cultural understanding is the bridge – and the best hope – for fixing health care inequities for U.S. minorities.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation recently announced it was going to devote $300 million to setting national standards to fix the problem, noting – just to take diabetes as an example – that African Americans lose legs to amputations at a rate nearly five times that of whites.

While the Johnson Foundation grant is designed to "reduce racial and ethnic disparities," none of their information even mentioned Hispanic/Latino patients, but I can tell you we aren’t far behind. The National Diabetes Education Program of the National Institutes of Health says that on average, about 2.5 million, or 9.5 percent of Hispanic and Latino Americans aged 20 years or older have been diagnosed with diabetes. Mexican Americans and residents of Puerto Rico are almost twice as likely to have diabetes as non-Hispanic whites of similar age, and are two to four times more likely to have their legs amputated due to the disease.

As with diabetes, obesity, breast cancer, Alzheimer’s, and so many other diseases, the impact on minorities is far greater than on white populations. And though the most-prescribed salvo is eliminating medical professionals’ language barriers, it’s obviously not just about linguistics.

Constantina Mizis, a nationally-recognized expert in the field of cross-cultural healthcare and the Multicultural Outreach Manager for the Greater Illinois chapter of the American Alzheimer’s Association, says, "You can’t think about speaking a language, you have to speak culture. I tell doctors and nurses that culture – the collections of how different groups of people see and feel life, death, joy and even their health – paints everything."

With such a wide assortment of cultures – not just in the population of sick people, but in the corps of doctors and nurses practicing medicine today – the most important cultural/linguistic tools for healthcare providers are open ears and eyes.

Understanding that, according to a June 2007 study titled Cultural Characteristics of African Americans: Implications for the Design of Trials that Target Behavior and Health Promotion Programs, African Americans’ driving cultural forces are religion, family structure, general mistrust of Caucasians, a feeling of being undervalued and not respected as a people, a feeling of limited resources and limited opportunities to make lifestyle changes and a deep desire to preservation their ethnic identity, is crucial.

Knowing that level eye contact, warm greetings that include hugs and hand-holding, chit-chat before and after asking for a count of ailments, and showing reverence are key to winning over Latino patients is also very important.

And yes, the highly educated doctors and nurses caring for us should know that certain cultures aren’t going to respond to "prescriptions" such as cutting down on rice – a staple in Latino and Asian households – or to going out for long walks which are, sadly, a danger in many minority communities.

But most important are the skills of trained observers, which might really go a long way to bettering healthcare for patients of all colors and ethnicities.

"It’s not just what [health care practitioners] say or in what language," Mizis says, "it’s how they say it. Notice if the patient is intimidated, look at the body language, talk in simple language and be friendly. It’s all about gaining patients’ confidence."

Esther J. Cepeda writes the “600 Words” & “Pregunta del Dia” columns, and is also a Director at the Chicago-based United Neighborhood Organization. Her reporting and opinions do not necessarily reflect those of UNO. “600 words” is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2008. May be reprinted with permission, contact eejaycee@600words.com

How 9/11 killed the newspaper

"Pregunta del Dia" by Esther J. Cepeda

"Pregunta del Dia" translates from Spanish into "Question of the Day" and today’s come from an anonymous woman in the audience at the Chicago Headline Club's June 11 panel discussion "Deadline: will newspapers survive?" where the tops of the Chicago news shops came together for what was more a wake than a vibrant discussion of the bright future of old-school journalism on a new digital stage.

Q. "Why are newspapers giving [reported content] away for free? No one's going to pay for it now that they're used to getting it for free!"

A. The stunned silence of the panel members gave way to the obvious "train has already left the station" explanation of why that's no longer an option.

But here's what none of the experts ever say: That train left the station on 9/11/2001.

I've said this in roundtable discussions time and time again, though not this one, and I always get to see the light bulb blink on. Before 9/11 newspapers were merely toying with the idea of putting content on-line. That was, at best, an afterthought.

Then 9/11 hit and in a nearly unprecedented move, after the second tower fell, managing editors across the country started the presses rolling on a special afternoon edition. "America Attacked" – Tallahassee Democrat, "Terror" – Tampa Tribune, "Horror" the Washington Times. People were glued to the TV. Radios thrummed all night.

Then came the next day, and – let's face it print runs are horribly expensive – that afternoon edition just was not happening. But people wanted constant updates on what was happening everywhere.

Meanwhile frantic family members across the country started pleading their on-line case for any, any information about their loved-ones whether it be flight information, last-spotted posts, pictures, information on what to do if another attack occurred – and newspapers noticed, though super late.

A study published in 2003 by the Newspaper Research Journal found these today-unimaginable statistics: "[An] analysis of 89 U.S. daily newspaper Web sites on Sept. 11, 2001, shows that 65 percent of the home pages in the late morning and 38 percent in the late afternoon said nothing about the World Trade Center bombings. By late afternoon only 43 percent of the home pages had at least one photo or video of the 9/11 attacks."

Crashed web sites and high demand made the lightbulb come on: free "afternoon editions" on the web.

And who could have conceived of charging people for information critical to the safety of a nation under attack? Who was thinking about "monetizing page views?" No one. No one with a soul, anyway.

The "American tragedy" that those with genuine love for the printed newspaper call the tidal wave of internet "user-generated content," and "up to the minute news" that's "killing" newspapers is one born of an actual tragedy.

A tragedy that journalists – like the police, fire fighters, nurses and doctors who streamed to New York, Washington, DC and Pennsylvania to help in any way possible – selflessly, and with little regard to personal safety, flocked to in order to deliver the stories of the dead, hurt, and missing to eager news consumers.

And that's how it came to be that news became ubiquitous, never-ending, and free on the internet; the result of one horrible "freedom of information act."

Esther J. Cepeda writes the “600 Words” & “Pregunta del Dia” columns, and is also a Director at the Chicago-based United Neighborhood Organization. Her reporting and opinions do not necessarily reflect those of UNO. “600 words” is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2008. May be reprinted with permission, contact eejaycee@600words.com

Hatless "Drunkard" doesn't give up his ship

"600 Words" by Esther J. Cepeda

For those who followed columnist Neil Steinberg's public meltdown in September 2005, when he was arrested on charges of domestic battery, the money shot of his new book "Drunkard: A Hard Drinking Life" comes early:

"We are arguing just outside [Kent's] door. I'm yelling, she has the phone… she's dialing…she has the phone up against her head and I suddenly swing, an arcing, open-handed slap, knocking the phone hard against the side of her head."

There, on page 22, Steinberg pulls back the curtain on an episode that made headlines from the pages of his own paper, the Chicago Sun-Times, to the front page of rival Chicago Tribune and even his old haunt the New York Daily News, making a spectacle of the sometimes wicked, sometimes sweet curmudgeon from Berea, Ohio who climbed the ivory tower of journalism into a four-times-a-week column at a major American newspaper.

The slap that changed everything.

The slap that changed readers' image of Steinberg, 48, from doting dad to two young boys and devoted – if oft-times bumbling – husband to a beautiful lawyer, into a stereotypical sauced newspaper man and, worse, wife-beater.

That slap confined him not only to jail – if only for a night – but many nights to a cold guest bedroom, and sometimes even to chillingly welcoming bars where fellow journalists revel in the tradition of downing drinks once deadline is met.

And the slap wasn't even the worst part! There was the indignity, sure, but there was also the parade of disappointed friends and family, clueless counselors, way-too-Jesus-y AA devotees and, of course, glorious, ever-beckoning alcohol which, if you don't drink much, you might not notice is almost literally everywhere.

So why – why?! – would anyone who'd gone through that miserable trial relive it nearly three years later, again so publicly, as he steels himself to embark on press engagements in support of his sixth book "Drunkard: A Hard Drinking Life", published by Dutton.

"People ask me if I'm embarrassed about it," Steinberg told a crowd of family, friends and award-winning journalists at an intimate book party in downtown Chicago Wednesday night, "but I tell them: 'I wasn't embarrassed to down every drink in sight, why would I be embarrassed to talk about how I got myself out of it?'"

A few days before, he'd answered my first question – why!?! – in his inimitable Steinbergian tone: "If you don’t write about something, then it's lost and I thought it was valuable to remember this," he said as Sun-Times news men and women flitted in and out of his office. "I really did it because I really wanted to redeem this experience. As Dante said, if you've got to go to hell you've got to take notes."

Some notes!

Harrowing, painfully lonely notes. Notes no one wants to fess up to when the hangover hits. Notes you wouldn't wish on an enemy. And yet, notes that at the most unexpected moments ring brightly, reverberating with hopeful – and really funny – timbres.

"I was writing it as it was happening, so I like to think they're fresh," he said. "The editing was excruciating – that was as difficult, if not more difficult, than the writing. At the time [of recovery] the book was the one thing I could control. I couldn’t control the drinking, the law, or the case but I could control the book. During the editing I had to really battle to keep control if it."

And was it worth it?

"If I wrote ‘Ulysses’ it was," he says, reasonably tired of pondering it. "Given the pain, ‘The Sun Also Rises’ would not have been worth it to me, I would have much rather avoided the whole thing."

"That said, I feel I did the best I could with a bad situation. I at least rose to the occasion and didn’t move to a Red Roof Inn and continue drinking. At least not yet."

Esther J. Cepeda writes the “600 Words” & “Pregunta del Dia” columns, and is also a Director at the Chicago-based United Neighborhood Organization. Her reporting and opinions do not necessarily reflect those of UNO. “600 words” is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2008. May be reprinted with permission, contact eejaycee@600words.com

Chicago columnists unite!

"Pregunta del Dia" by Esther J. Cepeda

"Pregunta del Dia" translates from Spanish into "Question of the Day" and today’s comes from K.C. (not of the Sunshine Band), a Lemont, IL reader who asks:

Q. I looked at your "events" page and so what’re you doing June 18?

A. Oh, K.C., bless your heart! Now I don’t have to contrive some way to plug this performance (and great timing, by the way).

Next Wednesday I’ll be moderating a pre-performance panel featuring my Sun-Times pal Neil Steinberg, the Tribune’s incredible Rick Kogan, Accessible Contemporary Music’s Executive Director Seth Boustead and The Moving Architects’ choreographer Erin Carlisle Norton.

You see, ACM and TMA are putting on two performances of "1,001 Afternoons in Chicago," a live, newly-composed music and modern dance piece interpreting a few of the stories of legendary Chicago newspaperman Ben Hecht.

Who?

Yeah, I didn’t know either, but Hecht was – during the 1920's – a writer at the Chicago Daily News who challenged himself to write a short story each day and publish it in the paper. Despite how ridiculously unlikely it would be that any editor today would allow such a thing – apparently back then newspapers actually printed more than five "column inches" on any given topic – Hecht’s stuff was wildly successful, spawning the "1,001 Afternoons in Chicago" column.

Was he "the Royko of his time?" Perhaps even better. Hecht was such a rock star in Chi-town he left for New York City, then to Hollywood to screenwrite movies (Scarface, A Farewell to Arms, A Star is Born) before being tarred, black-listed and…well you’ll just have to come to the panel Wednesday June 18 at 7:30 pm at the Music Institute of Chicago, 1490 Chicago Ave., Evanston to hear much more, but suffice it to say, the guy who once wrote this:

"Trying to determine what is going on in the world by reading newspapers is like trying to tell the time by watching the second hand of a clock."

was fascinating.

But never mind all that, the real star of the evening will be the collaboration of Accessible Contemporary Music’s sounds paired with The Moving Architects’ corporeal expressions mixed in with video, all telling a selection of Ben Hecht’s stories.

New music sometimes scares people but I find if I can listen to it a bit before I experience it onstage, which you can do at http://www.acmusic.org/concert_1001.html (read some BH stories, too), I can really get into it live.

If I could even begin to describe the music along with the movement, it would take me 1,001 words and I still wouldn’t do it justice. I could try to convey Seth and Erin’s enthusiasm but I might overload you with breathless quotes like: "This project celebrates the golden era of journalism, when the newspaper was part of everyone’s daily routine!" Oh, if only there were millions more Seths around to save printed newspapers from certain extinction.

Don’t fret if you can’t make it next Wednesday – or if you don’t need the geeky newspaper-lovin’ pre-performance fawning – just don’t miss this Saturday June 14 ‘s show. It’s at 2 pm in Curtiss Hall of the Fine Arts Building, 410 S. Michigan Ave. on the 10 floor. It’ll be a perfect afternoon of "Afternoons."

Esther J. Cepeda writes the “600 Words” & “Pregunta del Dia” columns, and is also a Director at the Chicago-based United Neighborhood Organization. Her reporting and opinions do not necessarily reflect those of UNO. “600 words” is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2008. May be reprinted with permission, contact eejaycee@600words.com

How long are you Hispanic?

"600 Words" by Esther J. Cepeda

Did you see the Hispanic woman on the cover of June’s InStyle magazine? I didn’t either, though technically she’s there.

America’s sweetheart Cameron Diaz, graces that cover and she is, as she describes herself in the story, "a Cuban." She’s light-skinned, blond and doesn’t speak Spanish. According to Wikipedia, she once said:

"I go, ‘God, you know, it all sounds so familiar. I know what you're saying, I really do. I just cannot respond to you back in Spanish. I can barely speak English properly.’ I didn't grow up in a Cuban or Latin community. I grew up in Southern California on the beach, basically. And I'm third generation. I'm of Cuban descent, but I'm American."

But she did say she’s Cuban.

How about America’s hottest Latino quarterback?

What, you didn’t know about Tony Romo, QB of "America’s Team" aka the Dallas Cowboys? Yep, the good folks at Wikipedia verify he’s "a third-generation Mexican American on his father's side." Growing up the son of a Polish-German mom and US-born dad,TR didn’t speak much Spanish and like Cameron, he probably never got pulled over for "driving while Hispanic."

Here’s what I’m getting at: How long before "Hispanic" no longer applies? Does it wear off? Is it a label you can wear or discard depending on the immediate circumstances, or are you stuck with it if you’re dark-skinned and you have the "nopal en la frente" which means the cactus leaf on your forehead (a popular way to say someone "looks" Mexican)?

I was at a conference two years ago when a wise man said, in reference to a question about which term is more politically correct – Latino or Hispanic – "You know you’re an American if you call yourself either because those terms don’t exist anywhere but in America. Anywhere else in the world you’re just from your country."

Well, after seeing Cameron on the cover lookin’ gorgeous and innocent of any traffic violations which might result in her being asked for her "papers," I had to know: How long is one Hispanic? I blew in a call – to the wise man himself.

"Every group has had to face that transition, it’s not a unique phenomenon," said Dr. Jorge A. Girotti, himself a real-live Hispanic, who isn’t usually pegged Hispanic at first sight. Aside from being a cool Argentinian around town he’s also a top dog at the University of Illinois at Chicago’s College of Medicine. He hopes Latin-American descendents can find a better way to describe ourselves, since the terms have been hijacked into negative-ville by those who think "we" all illegally drag ourselves over the Mexican border (my imagery, not his). He notes it gets especially hairy when kiddies are involved. "I married a Venezuelan woman and I know my kids feel allegiance to both my ancestry and my wife’s, but those lines are going to keep blurring."

Indeed! Who knows what my cousin’s half-Filipino, quarter-Mexican, quarter-Ecuadorian kids will consider themselves. My other cousin grew up here but was born to a Mexican and Ecuadorian in Mexico, how will the baby girl he had with an African-American woman identify herself?

Cameron and Tony are about as far from Hispanic/Latino as I can imagine but they’re happy to identify themselves as such, even though they’re pretty far removed generationally and linguistically from their Latin American roots.

I went the other direction and had a couple of kids I knew to be English-only speaking and maternally Latino/paternally white fill out a form that asked to check off race/ethnicity. I don’t know if they fully understood the question but their answers were illuminating: Stimpson, age 9, said without missing a beat: "I’m white." When asked why not Hispanic or Latino, he elaborated: "I don’t know, 'cause I look more white." Asked if he would he want to be considered Hispanic because of his mom, he innocently said, "No, I don’t think so. I’m white, I want to be white."

His little brother Dignan, 7, first responded with "Peach, I think I look more peach." After explanation, and even throwing in hypothetical bilinguality in, he stood firm with, "I think I’d still like to be white."

Sort of shocked, but not really, was their father, John, who said, "On a technicality they’re Hispanic but I’m white, so I think of them as white." Mom plead the fifth.

Who can say when one stops being Hispanic when in this multi-cultural world it’s not even always clear when it begins.

"I direct the medical school admissions office and we see this every day," said Dr. Girotti, "it’s a struggle when we read applications. It’s not just the surname but the person’s identification with the label. Just checking the box ‘Latino’ per se doesn’t mean you have any pride or identification with [the label] or speak the language. It’s not only about a person’s identification but how society identifies them."

Bottom line: English/Spanish/Spanglish-speaking, white, Latino, Hispanic, Blacktina, Hispanasian, Wexican – whatever you want to call it – it’s all really only a state of mind.

Esther J. Cepeda writes the “600 Words” & “Pregunta del Dia” columns, and is also a Director at the Chicago-based United Neighborhood Organization. Her reporting and opinions do not necessarily reflect those of UNO. “600 words” is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2008. May be reprinted with permission, contact eejaycee@600words.com

The cracked ceiling: Hillary's last bow

"Pregunta del Dia" by Esther J. Cepeda

"Pregunta del Dia" translates from Spanish into "Question of the Day" and today’s popped into my mind Saturday as I happened to be still in DC, just a few blocks from the National Building, when Hillary bowed out.

Q. What have we learned from Hillary Clinton's historic quest for the Democratic nomination to run for President of the United States of America?

A. Clinton spoke a beautiful metaphor: "Although we weren't able to shatter that highest, hardest ceiling this time, thanks to you, it's got about 18 million cracks in it."

This time.

I didn't like Clinton any more or less than I liked Obama, so I wasn't one of her 18 million cracks. Yet thanks to Senator Clinton, and without any effort on my part, I now live in a world where the idea of a female president seems just as attainable as that of a black president. Ok, maybe not a female Commander in Chief with a slightly abrasive personality and an ex-impeached president tagging along for the ride, but still.

Just like Obama, Hillary made it seem all things were possible and in fact, in her own way, she made it so. Her true legacy will not be in how far she went but in how much farther women across this country believe they can go.

I saw the hollow-eyed women on their way to grieve for their dethroned queen-to-be, Saturday morning as I made my way to a meeting. Their slumped shoulders said it all.

Only a few hours later, Hillary tried to brighten their spirits; "To those of you who are disappointed that we couldn't go all the way, especially the young people who put so much into this campaign, it would break my heart if in falling short of my goal I in any way discouraged any of you from pursuing yours."

I'm not disappointed – there's nothing but upside here because I've no doubt she's executed the most noble sort of leadership; she's cleared the path and paved the way for whoever does become the first female president, whenever (not if ever) it happens. Not the moment of glory Clinton had hoped for but a tremendous feat of courage in the face of adversity in its own right.

"Discouraged?" No reason to be. No matter what, history has been made, barriers broken and I'm sure Clinton knows full well that where there is an end there is also a beginning.

Esther J. Cepeda writes the "600 Words" & "Pregunta del Dia" columns, and is also a Director at the Chicago-based United Neighborhood Organization. Her reporting and opinions do not necessarily reflect those of UNO. "600 words" is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2008. May be reprinted with permission, contact

eejaycee@600words.com

Eight national views on Chicago's Olympic Hopes

"Pregunta del Dia" by Esther J. Cepeda

(WASHINGTON, DC) "Pregunta del Dia" translates from Spanish into "Question of the Day" and I posed today’s question to my fellow Columbia University American Assembly Next Generation Project Fellows as we took a cocktail break during our three-day bull session on U.S. Global Policy & the Future of International Institutions in Washington, DC.

Q. Now that Chicago has been named one of four finalists – Tokyo, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro round out the list – to bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics, what do you think about Chicago city residents who might be skeptical that an Olympics will be no more than a big hassle whose funds and energy could go to other projects?

A. I asked several of the amazing brainiacs I was with, wondering if any of them would even care. In this ultra-elite group?– of course they cared! Here's what the country's best, brightest, and really young leaders had to say:

· "How much infrastructure is there – that would be my first question – but it would be great for global policy. The violence there? – it's horrible, but I don't think it'll have any effect on the bid." – Julie Schumacher Cohen, Legislative Coordinator, Churches for Middle East Peace, Washington, DC

· "Would da co-ach light da torch? It seems to me Chicago is always the second city for some reason, but it's a world-class city and this could be the opportunity to showcase that. Frankly, Atlanta is half the city that Chicago is and this is a tremendous opportunity for the city to show it's on the first tier with New York and L.A." – Tim Graczewski, Director, Strategic Alliances & Corporate Development, Intuti, Mountain View, CA

· "It's the perfect way to showcase the city! Largely, Chicago's self-esteem problem is the reflection of our own feeling of being the 'second city.' Of course, getting chosen is the number one big challenge now, then if we're chosen, getting the players to come through with funding, there'll be construction issues, opportunity for strike issues – it's phenomenal. We don't want to be like Greece, hopefully." – John M. Syrek, Citizenship Program Director, McCormick Foundation, Chicago, IL

· "It could be a lot of fun, I lived in LA during the last Olympics and it was fun and generally a good thing. If you do it right, it could show people that they don't have to drive anywhere for two weeks, though O'Hare could be an impediment. Will there be a 'Barack Obama Stadium?'" – Andrew Gettelmen, Scientist, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Climate and Global Dynamics Division, Boulder, CO

· "I'm from Vancouver, Canada and all I can remember from the Olympics was what a pain in the ass it was when things were shut down for construction."- Michael Levi, Fellow for Science and Technology, Council on Foreign Relations, New York, NY

· "People in the American press have been criticizing China saying its build-out disenfranchised the community because they were focused on revenue rather than rights. The question is, can we take this golden opportunity to put that rhetoric to practice and get capital and development to play a role in bringing communities to life?" – Mohammad Hanif Jhaveri, Chief Executive Officer, Hera Capital, Dubai via Texas

· "An Olympics puts the city that achieves that stature on the global platform. Chicago is ideally poised – not just from an infrastructure and cultural diversity aspect – to be a positive influence on global policy after that. A by-product of the Olympics could be a theoretical reduction in violent crime. The Olympics could mobilize the citizenry to be involved and have a tremendously positive impact. And it is a privilege – you are representing all the cultures in your city. Tell all your people to empower the youth with that." - De'Edra S. Williams, CRM Lead Consultant, Wipro Technologies, Dallas, TX

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