"600 words by Esther J. Cepeda"

“We’re on a mission from God”

“Pregunta del Dia” translates into “Question of the Day,” and today’s question is from a young woman who preferred to remain nameless:

Q. Why are you doing this?

A. Like Jake and Elwood Blues, I’m on a mission.

Set aside Spanish-language media, Major League Baseball, Jennifer Lopez, Ugly Betty and George Lopez.

Do you watch news on TV? Ever looked on the op-ed pages of major American newspapers? Or watched political shows Sunday morning? Or checked out the covers of best-selling books at Borders? Take note: there’s a whole lot of white, and a good amount of black. But the brown barely exists.

When the whole “Will Barack Obama capture the Latino vote?” issue was hot, how many Latino op-ed contributors did you read in the Wall Street Journal or the New York Times? How many Hispanics did you see opining on “Meet the Press” or “Real Time?”

There are 45.5 million of us, according to the newest U.S. Census data – 15% of the population, projected to be 30% by 2050 – but we’re still largely invisible in the mainstream media. Do you think “The View” could get away with not having a black woman (or two?), how about any other major network entertainment or news show? Not happenin’, but there seems to be no problem with the stunning lack of brown.

Any idea how the “last in, first out” hiring/firing policies at major American newsrooms are affecting the historically low number of Hispanic journalists working in English-language media – most of whom are relegated to the status of “Hispanic/Immigration reporter,” few of whom ever decide what is considered “news?” Not pretty.

Is there any wonder that the overwhelming majority of news stories about Hispanics almost always paint us all out to be immigrants (possibly illegal at that), criminals, or – even worse – victims? The few “positive” news stories talk about our consumer buying power, and projected voting power (though that tide is turning).

I could go on, but I’d rather just spring into action. The internet and self-publishing are not the wave of the future, they are the reality of today. Rather than try to get a foothold on the traditional  media structures, I’m doing my own thing on the internet were all the cool kids hang, writing about everything and anything whether it’s “Hispanic” or not – just ‘cause I can.

Hope you’ll hang with me.

Post your comments on http://www.pregunta-del-dia.com and visit “600words.com” to read this week’s columns.

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

Twenty-dollar Cheetos

Can Global Food Shortage + Obesity Epidemic = better nutrition?

"600 Words" by Esther J. Cepeda

Food prices are through the roof. It's gettin' ugly out there: Australia, North Korea, Zimbabwe, Haiti are all facing severe food shortages.

But why leave the Americas? Millions of Mexicans took to the streets last year because the Sponge-Bobian fantasy that cars running on corn would save the world drove the humble tortilla into caviar-land.

Too "third world" for you? How about the rice restrictions at Costco - ahhh, now they're hitting us where it hurts! You don't pull basics from overly-lit suburban temples of excess without grabbing a headline or two.

But where some see another kick to the groin of our ailing economy, I have a grand vision: the Twenty-dollar Cheeto.

First some facts: according to the Endocrine Society of America and the Centers for Disease Control, obesity is "the number one health threat facing America." Based on numbers from 2004, they say obesity currently results in an estimated 400,000 deaths annually and costs the U.S. nearly $122.9 billion bucks. Think globally, and we're talking over 1 billion overweight adults and 300 million clinically obese. Ouch.

And corn prices - you could pick up 56 pounds for $2 in January 2006, by January 2008 the predictions looked closer to $5 per bushel, according to the USDA National Agriculture Statistics Service. Meat that starts out as cows and pigs eat...well, you get the picture.

Which brings me back to my fantasy: the twenty-dollar Cheeto.

I loooove Cheetos, who doesn't? Poor people who buy their food at the corner store love 'em, working class folks who get groceries from the food shelter love 'em, rich people who didn't fill up at Charlie Trotter's love 'em.

Now take higher demand and lower supplies of corn products, add it to the US and Mexico - the numbers 9 and 19 fattest countries in the world, according to the World Health Organization - factor in a plunging economy and 24-hour news cycles, and that equals a prime teaching moment for getting people to eat healthier.

Inexplicably, spokespersons for the Centers for Disease Control, the U.S. Health Department, the American Heart Association and the few med schools I called hadn't even considered the possibility that the challenge of global food scarcity might be a perfect opportunity.

But never mind the policy wonks, the wheels have already started turning at food banks and pantries.

These are the people who beg the industrial food complex for left-over mac-n-cheese, canned ravioli, and pretzels to give to people who can't afford it otherwise. People like the good folks at the Greater Chicago Food Depository.

"Rising costs for food is affecting everything we do," Bob Dolgan of the GCFD told me. "Our most recent numbers show we're up 12% over last year - it's really affecting our pantry and soup kitchens."

But like me - worried the processed, packaged food the poorest of our communities swallow in even greater amounts during an economic downturn creates more health problems in later years - Bob sees the up-side. And GCFD had already decided to wean themselves off the corn.

"With higher costs for food producers we're relying less on donations and more on fundraising. But that lets us control the nutritional value of the products, so we're actually purchasing more fresh fruits and vegetables."

Bob didn't want to speculate what sort of ultra-effective nutrition education campaigns this conundrum could spur, instead we took a moment to savor the possibility of the twenty dollar Cheeto - so delicious, so expensive. A lunchtime staple today, a pleasant, distant memory running through the minds of 1.3 billion thinner bodies tomorrow.

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

Many happy returns!

“Pregunta del Dia” by Esther J. Cepeda

"Pregunta del Dia" translates from Spanish to “question of the day” and today’s comes from Ernesto O., a former loyal Chicago Sun-Times reader who asks:

Q. “How have you been? I heard all sorts of things. One was that you had skin cancer.
Hope that it was not true and if it was hope everything is ok. I have missed you – there has been much to laugh at with political figures. And much in world events that is not funny.”


A. Don’t fret Ernesto, I’m alive and kicking. Yes, there was a brief flirtation with some cancerous moles but they, along with my columns at the Sun-Times, are but distant memories, and as you can see I am very well and ready for all kinds of fun:

Find "600 Words" and "Pregunta del Dia" every day at http://www.600words.com where you can post comments anytime and email me more questions.

I can’t promise I’ll answer every question, but I’ll definitely take a crack at the best ones.

Visit soon...

-EJC

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

Marching to a different drummer

"600 Words" by Esther J. Cepeda

It’s that time of the year, folks.

The time when thousands of mostly-Hispanic defenders of immigrants’  rights will declare to non-Latino America how much they love and want to stay in the United States by marching around major cities bearing the flags of their homeland.

Yes, the time when the same people who will press you on the myriad ways immigrants thanklessly toil for this country, working endless hours in fields, restaurants, and factories, will skip work to parade through the streets en masse to call attention to their very existence.

Yep, the time when the same parents who look you in the eye and tell you they came to the U.S. to give their children hope for a bright future through the benefit of an American education will pull them out of school to stroll down crowded streets chanting “Si se puede” in the name of federal immigration law reform.

Yes, “yes they can.” But they shouldn’t.

In 2005 hundreds of thousands of Hispanic across the country, infuriated by the proposal of the Sensenbrenner bill which would have criminalized any one aiding illegal immigrants, rose up seemingly out of nowhere to say: “we’re mad as hell and we’re not going to take it anymore!”

It is two years later; nothing and everything has changed, but the usual suspects are at it again – minus the fanfare. And actually, some of the usual suspects are nowhere to be found this year.

“Luis Gutierrez, he’s hiding, he says he’s going to be in Washington,” march mastermind Jorge Mujica of the March 10 Coalition, told me yesterday after a pre-manifestation press conference. “No Hillary, no Barack, either.” Mr. Mujica didn’t want to get too specific but did add, “Some Democrats told us not to march because it’s an election year, and we shouldn’t interfere with the democratic process.”

Really? After an unprecedented amount of hype was given to the effect of the “Latino vote” on the never-ending presidential race? Interesting.

Still, not to be denied, and despite America’s collective yawn on the immigration issue because of the tanking economy, the organizers of this year’s May Day marches have decided the show must go on.

This year’s indifference is what we would have seen last year had the Feds, in their infinite wisdom, not decided to raid a discount mall in the heart of Chicago’s extremely Mexican Little Village community, offering a national stage for activists to literally weep and gnash their teeth in the streets and on camera. No such luck this time.

Fast forward to 2008: march fatigue has clearly set in. Let’s face it, after the swift failure of immigration law reform last July – now dormant until well after the next American President is in place – it’s time to be more constructive.

Yes in 2005 the sleeping giant awoke, people came out of the shadows, and everyone who hadn’t noticed that their Chop Suey, escargot, and sushi is cooked by Mexicans paid attention. But it’s time to give it a rest.

This Thursday, making sure the kiddies don’t miss any reading time at school and demonstrating how much you want your job by actually showing up should be the order of the day.

Making Bob and Jane Smith burn several gallons of four-dollar gas while idling in their SUV as a few thousand rabble-rousers clog intersections yelling “march today, vote tomorrow” slogans isn’t going to change the laws any time soon. It’s been proven time and again.

“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