"600 words by Esther J. Cepeda"

When family wishes and an immigration poster-child photo-op collide

2008-08-20T22:13:27-05:00

"600 Words by Esther J. Cepeda"

If you missed it, about two weeks ago the New York Times featured on its front-page a story about how U.S. hospitals deal with illegal immigrant patients beset by long-term illnesses.

Luis Alberto Jimenez, a Guatemalan native with a traumatic brain injury who had been treated for several years in a Florida hospital at a cost of over 1.5 million dollars was profiled.

At issue was the state court order (that later was declared invalid) which enabled Martin Memorial Hospital to lease an air ambulance for $30,000 to "forcibly" return Mr. Jimenez to Guatemala.

Chicago now has its very own Jimenez.

More to the point: at issue is a thirty-year-old Mexican man named Francisco Pantaleon who, no less tragically, suffered a "severe cerebral hemmorage," according to Sherry McGuiness, the University of Illinois at Chicago Medical Center’s spokesperson. He was to be transferred to a hospital in Acapulco (at the UIC’s expense) until some disgruntled family members and activists stepped in.

The story, reported in today’s Chicago Tribune and Hoy newspapers goes thusly: father of two with no health insurance who has been living in U.S. illegally for eleven years has a severe brain hemorrhage in mid-July, goes to Alexian Brothers Hospital falls into a coma, and must be transferred to the UIC Medical Center for long-term care.

UIC, realizing there’s little hope for recovery, arranges – with Mr. Pantaleon’s family’s permission – to pay for him to be returned to Mexico where he can live out the rest of his days.

Mr. Pantaleon’s sister freaks out and unleashes the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) on the hospital. They, gleefully waving the New York Times piece, get Chicago’s Mexican Consulate to shame UIC into halting the transfer on the grounds that UIC failed to inform the Consulate of their plans to move the patient back to his country of origin.

Drumroll please: despite the fact that Mr. Pantaleon’s wife has been toiling for over a month to get him back home to Mexico, according to her comments to Hoy newspaper.

In the printed version of the Trib’s story, Dr. William Chamberlin, UIC’s Chief Medical Officer, said: "We have worked with the individual who has had primary decision-making responsibility for the patient" and had that person’s full consent.

I don’t dispute the following: 1) this is a sad story. And 2) there’s no question that legal or illegal, no immigrant should be denied due process when it comes to being returned to their home country.

But: we can’t even afford to adequately care for U.S. Citizens! And: his wife wants him home!

Forget the "hospital as ICE agent" straw man argument, the real crime here is being perpetrated by the leftist, illegal-immigrants-should-do-as-they-please, we’re-in-your-face-so-there! activists who would go so far as to deny this man his dignity by allowing a photographer to take his picture in a most undignified state while denying his wife the right to care for her husband at home.

Howard Peters, a senior VP at the Illinois Hospital Association was quoted in the Trib saying that "the family ought to be grateful" that UIC found a facility in Mexico willing to take Mr. Pantaleon and volunteered to foot the bill for his transfer.

As far as I can see, in his comatose state Mr. Panaleon is a pawn, being victimized by the very people who claim to be fighting for the rights of illegal immigrants such as himself.

His family truly ought to be grateful he’s received such top-notch care so far. And I believe that once Mr. Pantaleon returns to his tierra, his wife will finally see him, feel his warm skin, talk to him and express her gratitude quietly - and far out of the glare of the TV camera’s lights.

Esther J. Cepeda writes the "600 Words" & "Pregunta del Dia" columns, and is also the Chief Marketing and Communications Officer for the Illinois Student Assistance Commission. Her views and reporting do not necessarily reflect those of ISAC. "600 words" is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2008. May be reprinted with permission, contact eejaycee@600words.com

Lower the drinking age to 18

2008-08-19T21:31:28-05:00

“600 Words by Esther J. Cepeda”

I don’t drink. At all. No beer, no wine, no champagne. It weirds some people out, but I don’t care, it’s just who I am.

That said, enough with this “21 to drink” business.

Monday the presidents of one hundred colleges and universities announced an initiative to lower the legal drinking age to 18. According to them, the change in the law – set to 21 in 1984 and which has supposedly “saved 25,000 lives” according to Mothers Against Drunk Driving – will reduce "a culture of dangerous, clandestine 'binge drinking'" on their campuses.

I agree.

I’ve been, as far back as I can remember, the designated driver. Yes, even when I started driving at 16.

And as far as I can remember, kids have been saying that it’s unfair for them to have the privilege and right to vote and to join the military and die for their country but not to drink a beer.

That sounded like all sorts of BS back in the day, but now – after thousands of young soldiers have been killed in the Middle East wars since 2001 and while the country is captivated by November’s historic presidential election – it doesn’t sound quite so self serving.

The real reason most people don’t want the drinking age to be reduced to 18 is because then parents would have to deal with it.

Yes, a 21 minimum drinking age means that parents can wash their hands of the uncomfortable task of talking to their kids about responsible drinking. Forget actually modeling responsible behavior – imagine that! – and forget about discussing the role alcohol plays in family life. As it stands today, parents are free to simply cross their arms across their chests and refuse to talk about drinking unless it’s the standard “don’t you dare drink!” admonitions.

They get ignored, just in case no one noticed, as do the “21” laws. MADD’s numbers speak for themselves:

In 2006, the average age at first alcohol use among [those] aged 12 to 49 was 16.6 years, earlier than any other drug except inhalants
It’s been found that family factors, such as parent-child relationships, discipline methods, communication, monitoring and supervision, and parental involvement, also exert a significant influence on youthful alcohol use
In a survey, 33 percent of 6th to 12th graders said their parents never, seldom, or sometimes set clear rules for them and almost half said their parents never, seldom, or sometimes discipline them when they break the rules
Between 1985 and 1996, there were 5,555 child passenger deaths involving a drinking driver. Of these deaths, 3,556 or 64 percent occurred while the child was riding with a drinking driver
Of the 306 children 0-14 years old who were killed in alcohol-related crashes during 2006, half (153) of those killed were passengers in vehicles with drivers who had been drinking.
Only 31 percent of parents of 15- to 16-year-olds believe their child had a drink in the past year, compared to the 60 percent of teens in that age group who reported drinking
Youth who reported that a parent or a friend’s parent had provided alcohol at a party within the past year reported drinking more on their last drinking occasion and were twice as likely to have consumed alcohol within the past 30 days and to have engaged in binge drinking

These numbers don’t paint the full picture, of course, but it does point to a serious lack of modeling, guiding and teaching healthy drinking habits on the part of parents. “There’s no reason to do so,” most parents – even the ones who wouldn’t dream of letting their kids drive without supervision – rationalize, “after all, by the time they can drink legally, they’ll be grown.” That’s called a false sense of security.

Let’s just take the fake security blanket away and drop the age for drinking to the age of dying for your country and voting for the top leader of the world.

Accepting what is (kids find ways to drink no matter what the age) rather than focusing on what should be (kids waiting to drink until they’re “mature”) will save way more lives than denying that a general lack of parental responsibility leads to more alcohol-related deaths than can be estimated by well-meaning moms’ groups.

Rick Bayless: Chicago's only Mexican Chef?

2008-08-18T06:26:00-05:00

This column originally appeared on the Huffington Post's new Chicago site:

He’s faster at rolling flautas than a speeding bullet, more powerful a chef than thousands of Marias and Juans in Chicago, able to leap into halls of fame while wearing huaraches…look up in the sky! It’s a taco vendor, it’s a Mexican it’s…Rick Bayless!

That’s right, Rick Bayless. Salt-n-pepper goateed chef/owner of the Frontera Grill and Topolobampo. Author, TV superstar, James Beard award collector, soon to be the third inductee into the Chicago Culinary Museum and Chef’s Hall of Fame, and seemingly Chicago’s only Mexican chef.

Yes, in a town with at least a handful of hot Latino chefs and restauranteurs – and where 1.44 million of its 1.8 million Hispanics are of Mexican descent – when you look at all the Mexican chefs whose books are featured on bookshelves, are written about, talked about, or referred to as Mexican food experts in Chicago’s media, there’s no list – it’s just Rick.

Google around and you’ll see what I’m talking about: whether it be a comment on the use of store-bought, pre-made sopes, what hot chocolate to pair with your churros, or a description of Chicago’s Mexican culture, Rick’s da hombre. The book which greeted me at the front of my local Borders a few weeks ago said it all. There was Rick’s smiling face, topped off by the proclamation: "Authentic Mexican."

I’ve heard some conspiracy theories – don’t think Chicago’s Hispanics haven’t noticed the Bayless phenomenon – but as far as I can see there’s no one to blame. Well, maybe some unimaginative reporters, but…Bayless is just that good.

He is, if I may, a fusion of cultures and flavors – Oklahoman by birth, Mexican by heart – possibly our time’s best ambassador to Mexican culture, and absolutely not shy about the Bayless Mystique.

"Yes, certainly, through the years I’ve heard it. They usually say it to my face: ‘Who’s this white guy making Mexican food and capitalizing on us?’" Bayless told me in an interview last week. "But for every one of those, I’ve had thousands of ‘thank you for showing the world the real Mexico.’"

The man has seen more Mexico than me, my mom who was born there, and my dad who immigrated to Mexico as a kid, combined. On his show I’ve watched him cook fish over a fire pit in old lady’s huts, eat truly frightening things out of market carts, and identify cheese that all my life my family knew only as "white cheese." He knows his stuff and can rightfully claim to be a Mexican food expert.

As we spoke, his take on things made sense to me, a girl who never once made tamales or baked Dia del Muerto bread.

"Somehow people think that if you're raised by a family of a certain culture you'll have a mastery, it’ll be in your genes, and that’s not always true," he said, "and in a sense that’s such a small part of it."

Then he hit a touchy nail on the head: "For instance, if you want to write about mole, as a Mexican, you are obliged to say your grandmother’s recipe is the only one that’s the best, and if you were to go to another town and say ‘that mole is better than my grandmother’s’ you’d get run out of town on a rail! But it’s not a problem for me; because I don’t have that Mexican grandmother I can embrace all of Mexico, all the regions all the styles, and bring it all together in one place."

Which, I’ll admit, is another unique Bayless viewpoint: many Chicagoans think Mexico is just one homogenous Mexico and don’t recognize what us Mexicans know – that Chicago is full of Mexicans from all over that country, with some extremely distinct socio-cultural norms, and super-varied foods. Once here it turns into a pastiche that has created a multi-regional Chicago-Mex food scene that’s a little bit Yucatan, little bit Norteňo, a little bit lots of other things (heck, I don’t even know what other things, I’d have to call him back).

My take on Bayless as ambassador frequently clashes with others’, I know, but Latinos are living through tough times; there’s a lot of hatin’ going on with all the immigration talk. And here’s one guy literally devoting his life to changing those attitudes – not a bad thing.

"I can say [I reach] a lot of people that don’t see eye-to-eye with me politically, socially or anything. Yet when we’re at the table, cooking an incredible paella over a wood fire, we have the most amazing time. All of a sudden all the differences fall away," he said. "I can bring people to the table with really beautifully crafted food. As our country becomes more and more Latino, I think a real Mexican table is really going to be an important step in sort of bringing the cultures together – I can't help but think it will influence others to look at what Mexican culture has done."

Still, I’m bummed few Hispanic chefs are getting any love from the MSM – there’s certainly plenty to go around – but there’s something to that as well. Jeff Bailey, a former Chicago-based New York Times reporter put it into a journalist’s perspective. In a recent travel section feature, Bayless was only one of many, many Latino chefs, and other experts, he sourced for his story on Pilsen. Last month we talked about his Bayless quotes. "The type of people who get in [to stories] are those who truly help stories move along, have a particular knowledge and expertise," Bailey told me, "Bayless has all kinds of views."

So I asked Rick – who I bet you didn’t know provides highly competitive full-ride culinary school scholarships and internships in his restaurants for Mexican-American students who flock to Frontera Grill from all over the country – to give the aspiring Hispanic chefs in Chicago some pointers.

"First you have to do your homework – you have to learn the history." Bayless said. "‘This is just how my mother makes it’ – that doesn’t make a story. This is how it was created in this part of Veracruz, and it was made this way, with that from there…is the story."

"But it’s also really the flavors – you have to be a good cook, you gotta do all the rest of the work, and have a good personal story, and tell a good story about the food, and you have to have inherent passion for what you're making," Rick, who has no shortage of that, said. "People love to be around passion. It’s very important to talk about the food with this great verve."

"The passion is the main ingredient."

visit the Huffington Post's new Chicago site

Act quickly: Hispanic population majority has major needs

2008-08-17T17:45:11-05:00

"600 words by Esther J. Cepeda"

The headlines are blaring it: Minorities will overwhelm whites to become the majority by 2042.

Thousands of newspaper articles, TV reports, and radio stories repeated these numbers: the Hispanic population will triple to 133 million, going from 16 percent of the population in 2010 to over 30 percent in 2050.

For the last three days I've been hearing the blaring from acquaintances – on Spanish-language radio, on the bus, all over – bravado, "ha-ha"-ing, and swagger, about "how will whites like being a minority?" Not constructive.

Feeling low from two years of being cast in the role of America's biggest pain in the butt because of the contentious immigration debate, some Latinos felt a particular glee in hearing that there will soon be power in numbers. The only problem is: there are some serious weaknesses in these numbers.

I didn't see many headlines screaming the chilling numbers the Pew Hispanic Center and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation released that same day; they basically outline a future health disaster waiting to happen.

The report found that more than one-fourth of Hispanic adults in the U.S. lack a steady health care provider, and about the same number got no health care information from a qualified professional medical source in the past year.

The most popular source for health information? More than eight in ten reported getting their medical advice from television and radio, which amount to this: white, black or brown – we're all screwed.

Just take the following estimate from the July 2007 Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine: the total cost of lost work and lost productivity due to lost work days was estimated at $63 billion per year (in 2003 dollars). With the burgeoning Latino population – and their medical habits – mixed in, what's that number going to look like in 2050?

And make no mistake, it's not just the living-on-the-edge, recently arrived low-wage-earning immigrants. Pew's report found that a significant share of Hispanics with no usual place to go for medical care are high school graduates (50%), born in the United States (30%) and have health insurance (45%).

The report's authors said, "Indeed, the primary reason that respondents give for lacking a regular health care provider is not related to the cost of health care or assimilation. Rather, when asked why they lack a usual provider, a plurality (41%) of respondents say the principal reason is that they are seldom sick."

Sure! Happy, happy, feel good… no problem, right? May be today, but by 2050, the Hispanic share of the elderly population will almost triple to 17 percent from 6 percent in 2005. Take into account Hispanics' present-day high prevalence of obesity, Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and asthma – not only in adults but in kids, as well – then sprinkle in the fact that most of the population growth will be in U.S. births (and U.S.-born Hispanics tend to be less healthy than Hispanic immigrants) and you have a recipe for disaster.

So forget culture, language and financial barriers, and forget that today's Latino's are overwhelmingly young, it's in the general public's best interest to launch a massive health information campaign aimed at teaching Latinos that health care is just, if not moreso, as vitally important when you feel well than when you don't.

And maybe after the "gotcha" moment gets savored, attention will be turned to the most important matter at hand: building the infrastructure of acculturation, social services, and educational and political opportunities we need to make the most of the power in numbers we could have come 2050.

eejaycee@600words.com

Modest proposal: never mind amnesty – eat the immigrants

2008-08-13T21:01:24-05:00

"600 Words by Esther J. Cepeda"

According to a new report "Immigration to the United States and World-Wide Greenhouse Gas Emissions," legal or not, immigrants are stinkin’ up the place. In other words, green cards are not "green."

The report, released by The Center for Immigration Studies – "an independent, non-partisan, non-profit research organization founded in 1985 and the nation's only think tank devoted exclusively to research and policy analysis of the economic, social, demographic, fiscal, and other impacts of immigration on the United States" – concludes this:

"Immigration to the United States significantly increases world-wide CO2 emissions because it transfers population from lower-polluting parts of the world to the United States, which is a higher-polluting country. On average immigrants increase their emissions four-fold by coming to America."

Other nuggets from the report:

• The estimated CO2 emissions of the average immigrant (legal or illegal) in the United States are 18 percent less than those of the average native-born American. However, immigrants in the United States produce an estimated four times more CO2 in the United States as they would have in their countries of origin. (Not including the impact of children born to immigrants in the U.S. – if they were included, the impact would be much higher.)

• U.S. immigrants produce an estimated 637 million metric tons of CO2 emissions annually – equal to Great Britain and Sweden combined. That’s 482 million tons more than they would have produced had they remained in their home countries. And if the 482-million-ton increase in global CO2 emissions caused by immigration to the United States were a separate country, it would rank 10th in the world in emissions.

• Of the CO2 emissions caused by immigrants, 83 percent are estimated to come from legal immigrants and 17 percent from illegal immigrants. Legal immigrants have a much larger impact because they are more numerous than illegal immigrants and because they have higher incomes, and thus higher emissions.

What shall we do about this malevolent scourge?! Don’t you worry, I’ve figured out the solution.
A modest proposal, sure, but try it on for size: eat the immigrants.
Savor this: world global food shortage + overcrowded American cities and schools + exported immigrant meat = a happy, healthy, greener America!

Of course, we Americans wouldn’t have to resort to cannibalism, no, no, no! We’ll round up all the immigrants, haul them over to that Agriprocessors meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa – where management had all the kid immigrants working in the slaughter house – and find some good, red-blooded Americans to dress ‘em, ice ‘em, and ship ‘em to poor, hungry countries.

Just think about it, there’s no downside!!! You get rid of the immigrants, gainfully employ U.S. Citizens, add to the faltering economy by making money off the sale of the meat, feed the world, and reduce the carbon footprint – all in one fell swoop!

Heck, it could be a unifying thing, too, after all the Koreans are terrified of our beef but there’s certainly no track record of tainted human ground chuck (or ground Carlos). And who doesn’t like Mexican food? Or Chinese? I, myself, love Polish sausage (it’s a Chicago thing, what can I say?)

In no way has the Center for Immigration Studies endorsed my plan – I’m still rolling it around on my tongue, so to speak. And they would not want you to think that they have anything against immigrants. Their press release says:

"Some may be tempted to see this analysis as ‘blaming immigrants’ for what are really America’s failures. It is certainly reasonable to argue that Americans could do more to reduce per capita emissions. And it is certainly not our intention to imply that immigrants are particularly responsible for global warming. As we report in this study, the average immigrant produces somewhat less CO2 than the average native-born American. But to simply dismiss the large role that continuing high levels of immigration play in increasing U.S. (and thus worldwide) CO2 emissions is not only intellectually dishonest, it is also counterproductive. One must acknowledge a problem before a solution can be found."

I, for one, am certainly glad CIS’ report found me and that I found a solution for them so we can solve all our immigrant-related problems and live happily-ever-after.

I’ll draft my proposal to them after I have a snack…I’ve worked up quite the appetite.
Esther J. Cepeda writes the "600 Words" & "Pregunta del Dia" columns, and is also the Chief Marketing and Communications Officer for the Illinois Student Assistance Commission. Her views and reporting do not necessarily reflect those of ISAC. "600 words" is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2008. May be reprinted with permission, contacteejaycee@600words.com

The Adler Planetarium’s star: Dr. Jose Francisco Salgado

2008-08-12T22:37:19-05:00

"600 Words by Esther J. Cepeda"

Take a moon-entranced kid who grew up scarfing down Isaac Asimov and tinkering with music and video, give him the boundless resources of Chicago’s Adler Planetarium then add the creative spark that only Chicago’s funkiest band of violins, cellos, flutes, and tubas can bring, and what do you get?

The kind of sensual, visually-arresting cosmic journey usually reserved for Grateful Dead concerts – in the form of sumptuous interstellar images pas de deux-ing with the Chicago Sinfonietta’s elegant wall of sound under a summery dusk.

The kid in question is Dr. Jose Francisco Salgado, an Adler Planetarium Astronomer and Science Visualizer who is quickly making a name for himself around our humble globe as a choreographer of – not to – the stars. His video journeys through the galaxy visit such notable hangouts as the Eagle Nebula and the surface of Mars, and have been such a hit that they’re making their way to stargazers in Spain and Paris.

You don’t have to travel that far, though. After a series of incredible collaborations with the Chicago Sinfonietta – aka America’s most diverse orchestra aka the Joffrey Ballet’s pit crew – the gang is presenting a free encore presentation of Gustav Holst’s "The Planets" on the Jay Pritzker Pavilion stage at Millenium Park Friday August 22nd.

"In 2005 the Sinfonietta came to the Adler looking for a visual backdrop for ‘The Planets’ performances and basically [the Adler] asked me because of all my interests in art, classical music, and graphic arts," Jose told me this week. "I’d been looking for the perfect project and this was it."

I had the pleasure of experiencing his visual choreography during the Chicago Sinfonietta’s May production of Astronomical Pictures at an Exhibition, where Jose choreographed real space pictures and computer generated images from astronomical data to Modest Mussorgsky’s "Pictures."

"The visualizations themselves looked like works of art," Jose said, adding that he gets only the best pictures from his peeps at NASA, the European Space Agency. Some he creates himself with raw data from Adler’s databases. "[Leading the viewer] through the promenade passages, walking through the "gallery," was the perfect way of showing cutting edge images and visualizations. ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’ took about four months, ‘The Planets’ took about six."

If you’re the type who regards the constellations as greatly-jeweled chandeliers that sail through our night sky, a mysterious scattering of eternally circumnavigating planets, their many moons and countless stars continually scanned for their secrets, you’re not alone. For others, the very mention of the term "solar system" causes a reflexive yawn.

"‘The Planets’ is about planting the seed, about inspiring people to learn more about the solar system in general and hopefully grab a book, got to the planetarium or next time they’re switching channels and see a documentary to stop and watch it," said the guy who got interested in astronomy as a third-grade boy when he happened upon a book about the first moon landing his dad owned in their native Puerto Rico.

"Astronomy uses cutting-edge technology and data for scientific purposes but for education and outreach also, it’s a great way to engage audiences who are not science attendant," he said. "My interests are not only in science but in technology, graphic arts, photography – I even compose [music] a bit – I use it all to engage people."

And he does it in two languages! Ever so humble, Jose doesn’t go on and on about how few Latinos there are in the sciences, he just works to change it. As the Adler Planetarium's webmaster, he’s got a web page devoted to Spanish-language astronomy resources and is working to create educational resources, such as a planetarium show in English and Spanish, for nationwide distribution.

"’The Planets’ is a good synthesis of the things we have achieved in solar system exploration. It doesn’t cover absolutely everything but it’s a very, very good summary," he said. "What’s interesting is that many people will come out of the concert learning so much just from looking at the visualizations."

"It’s so exciting, to see the conductor synching the music to the visuals," Jose said, "and to see people coming out of the hall and saying ‘Wow I didn’t know that Jupiter had so many moons!’ It’s so very rewarding."

(full disclosure: I am a Director on the Board of the Chicago Sinfonietta, and as such I personally invite you to join us for this FREE concert, under the actual stars, in Millennium Park on Friday August 22nd. I hope you can make it!)

Esther J. Cepeda writes the "600 Words" & "Pregunta del Dia" columns and is also the Chief Marketing and Communications Officer for the Illinois Student Assistance Commission. Her views and reporting do not necessarily reflect those of ISAC. "600 words" is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2008. May be reprinted with permission, contact eejaycee@600words.com

No adjective zone: forget the Hispanic part, I’m just me

2008-08-11T08:28:47-05:00

“600 Words by Esther J. Cepeda”

Doing what I do, I get a lot of love mail and a lot of hate mail. Much of it revolves around my ethnicity, and usually falls into one of two categories:

The love mail needs no description. The hate mail, however, frequently takes me to task for (take your pick) not being “Hispanic enough,” or alternately, “against our people.” There are also charges of (the black folks in the audience will love this one) “acting white.” My color-blindness turns some people off.

As I told a crowd of multi-ethnic journalists last month during a panel discussion on why bloggers “of color” are few and far between, I’ve been electronically served with the “Wet Burrito Award,” called a “coconut” – brown on the outside, white on the inside – and called a “Taco Tia” which I assume is the Mexi-version of the “Uncle Tom” insult. I explained that my writing and reporting doesn’t serve my ethnicity but, rather, informs it. I’ve become accustomed to the usual perplexed looks; not trading on one’s ethnicity seems wasteful to some.

Which brings me to Matt Bai’s deeply inspiring New York Times Magazine cover story Sunday: “Is Obama the end of Black Politics?” which stopped me dead in my tracks. Matt basically talked to both young and old African American politicians to gauge their sense of what an Obama presidency would do to the civil-rights-focused Black political machine and found that – president Obama or not – things have changed.

This passage which quotes Cory Booker, the 39-year-old mayor of Newark, NJ, jumped out and grabbed me by the throat because after years of trying to explain myself, this is the first time I’ve ever seen such an eloquent Cepedian declaration:

“When I asked Booker if he considered himself a leader of the black community, he seemed to freeze for a moment. ‘I’m Popeye,’ he replied finally. ‘I am what I am.’ He paused again, then tried to explain.

‘I don’t want to be pigeonholed,’ he said. ‘I don’t want people to expect me to speak about those issues.’ By this, presumably, he meant issues that revolve around race: profiling by police, incarceration rates, flagging urban economies. ‘I want people to ask me about nonproliferation. I want them to run to me to speak about the situation in the Middle East.’ Since the mayor of Newark is rarely called upon to discuss such topics, I got the feeling that Booker does not see himself staying in his current job for anything close to 20 years. ‘I don’t want to be the person that’s turned to when CNN talks about black leaders,’ he said.”

Thank you.

See here’s the deal…I pretty much devote myself to helping others to the exclusion of no one, as I’m sure is the case with Cory Booker, so when others put you in a category defined by exclusion, it hurts.

For instance, several years ago I was mentioned in the “neighborhoods” column of my local weekly newspaper as a “Hispanic leader.” I was very disappointed; the fact that I busted my hump as a publicly elected library trustee – the only Latino/a in board history – somehow made me less a regular community leader than the other members of the board, and more a champion of some “Latino agenda.”

As a point of fact, I squirm nearly every time I’m described as a Latino or Hispanic anything. Not because I’m not proud of my immigrant parents (Mexican and Ecuadorian, I’ll have you know), our culture or language. No, I can identify with C-level executives who happen to be Hispanic and with the illegal South American workers toiling quietly in restaurant kitchens and factories across the country. The real issue is the luxury – the right – to have others see you for who you are, not what the color of your skin is or what your country of origin implies.

Over the years, I’ve befuddled people by explaining: “I’m not a ‘Hispanic columnist,’ I’m a columnist who just happens to be Hispanic.” But I like Cory’s tagline better because I’m Popeye, too: I am what I am.

Esther J. Cepeda writes the "600 Words" & "Pregunta del Dia" columns, and is also the Chief Marketing and Communications Officer for the Illinois Student Assistance Commission. Her views and reporting do not necessarily reflect those of ISAC. "600 words" is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2008. May be reprinted with permission, contact eejaycee@600words.com

Nuclear Power Could Fuel Chicago's Economy

2008-08-08T07:03:00-05:00

This column originally appeared August 8, 2008 on the new Chicago Huffington Post website where I'm a new HuffPo/Chicago Blogger. The direct link is: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/esther-j-cepeda/nuclear-power-could-fuel_b_117636.html

John McCain just put it right out there last Wednesday: the answer to our pressing energy needs? Go nuclear.

While on the hustings in Michigan, and while ridiculing Barack Obama's suggestion to keep car tires inflated for better gas mileage, McCain suggested that 45 nuclear power plants built by the year 2030 would help decrease America's reliance on oil, sending shudders of revulsion over anyone who still has images of 1986's Chernobyl nuclear reactor disaster chemically burned on their brains.

Let's for a moment, set aside the Simpsonian three-eyed fish your mind's eye has conjured and give it a think: maybe these wouldn't be "your father's nuclear plants." And maybe there's more to gain than cheap energy: like scores of good old American jobs.

Months before Chicago-based energy giant Exelon announced their comprehensive plan to offset or eliminate over 15 million metric tons of greenhouse gases - the equivalent of taking almost three million cars off roads and more than Exelon's own carbon footprint - by 2020, John Rowe, the company's President and CEO, was getting nuclear power on Chicago's radar.

At a May Executives' Club of Chicago breakfast, Rowe pitched his plan to corporate America's elite. After ticking off reasons why natural gas reserves and coal coupled with wind, solar, and water power schemes are both unsustainable and too expensive he pitched nuclear (which I'm very happy to report he pronounced correctly) energy.

"I can't imagine society dealing with carbon without nuclear energy...to sustain [American's] way of life," he said. "The alternatives range from being substantially inconvenient to catastrophic."

In a room full of investment bankers and business wonks twisting in their seats, Rowe admitted the very term "nuclear" was enough to turn people off, but he insisted it was the only foreseeable path to energy independence. A path fraught with challenges but loaded with opportunities as well.

"One plant costs five to seven billion dollars and eight years to build, and even if we started now the new ones wouldn't replace those out of service - we need hundreds of new plants," he said.

And that's where the opportunity comes in. According to Rowe, a guy who has invested heavily in Chicago schools - many of them in rough inner-city neighborhoods - a nuclear push would require human capital on an epic scale. "We can design and operate them, but who will build them?" he asked. "We need people to build these things, everything from PhDs to welders to make it happen. We need people."

Imagine if you will the full weight of Chicago's corporate and governmental resources trained on a city full of young brown and black student cash cows - millions of dollars poured into neighborhood schools in 'hoods and townships across Illinois designed to build the next generation of resident engineers and skilled laborers tasked with building the next generation of safe, clean nuclear power plants across America!

Savor it: Chicago, epicenter of the world's sustainable energy brain and brawn trust.

Hey, it could happen...because at the end of the day it's all about making money. And at the end of Rowe's speech it was apparent that it's also about leveraging influence.

Peruse the latest polls on voter attitudes toward pro-nuclear candidates and you'll find no surprises: a July USA Today/Gallup poll found - shock! - that more Republicans (58 percent) feel favorably toward a pro-nuclear power plant candidate than Democrats (51 percent). They were certainly similar in May.

Rowe was clear on this point: "It's not going to be cheap and convenient but it will be a lot less [costly] if we face these issues squarely. And we need the political will to get these things done."

Perhaps McCain, and Chicago's corporate ruling class, were listening.

American Dream part two: Dream comes true…mostly

2008-08-06T23:58:44-05:00

“600 Words by Esther J. Cepeda”

Saturday, June 14th, four hundred and fifty miles from home on a patch of green Toronto grass, moments after the U.S. National Anthem’s last cymbal crashed and regulation play began for the Colorado Rapids’ twelfth game of Major League Soccer’s 2008 season, it happened.

Cesar Zambrano’s dream came true: he was a professional soccer player starting in his first game with his new team. The moment he’d been waiting for since he was a child was upon him complete with mom, dad and long-time girlfriend in the stands.

“That was the best moment – when I made the debut in Toronto – because that’s something I always told my parents I’d do,” Cesar, who had just turned 24 two days before that big match, told me over the phone after a long day of training this week.

“I couldn’t have asked for a better night – the greatest thing about it was it was a sellout crowd.” Savoring it again he continued, “I started playing and I just concentrated on the game to making sure I did good. I had fun and at the end I was really tired – it’s not the same as practicing! – and that was my first game. I did good.”

Cesar certainly did. The unspectacular Brother Rice student – who, despite great odds, actually graduated high school, somehow got noticed by the Flames soccer coaching staff at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and did hard time at City Colleges of Chicago to make the grades he needed to actually get on the UIC field – was drafted as the fifth overall pick in the first round of the 2008 MLS Supplemental Draft last spring.

This is the same kid who never ever thought he’d go to college – no one else in his Mexican immigrant family had – and had to take the ACT three times because his academics paled in comparison to his footwork.

The last time I’d spoken with Cesar was back in October he was just another Hispanic kid hoping to – somehow – play professionally in a sport that had migrated to the U.S., riding the wave of transplanted Latino culture, but hadn’t created many opportunities for its biggest fans. I hadn’t given Cesar much thought until I read the New York Times’ story about Edgar Castillo, a U.S.-born soccer player overlooked in his native country but now a rising star on Mexico’s professional soccer scene.

The story noted something I’d been talking about for awhile – that U.S.-born Latino players are often underrepresented in soccer-strong high schools and colleges and mostly ignored until other countries give them their big break. A FIFA adviser was quoted thusly: “Now we have more American scouts looking at the Hispanic community and trying to bring players into our national camps.” After I shrieked hallelujah, I got to wondering “whatever happened to…”

Well, in addition to adjusting to the rigors of playing with the big boys, number 33 Cesar Zambrano has also been adjusting to…the food.

“I miss my family, my girlfriend, and my mom’s cooking – all I do is eat out! We have Argentinian [teammates], his wife cooks and we always take advantage when she invites us over.”

Cesar also told me all about getting drafted: “The general manager, the coach and the assistant coach welcomed me to the family, I was like, wow – is it really true?!” and about leaving the Windy City: “I was nervous, I get back whenever I get a break.”

And he told me about fitting in. You see, at UIC, Cesar was the odd-man-out, the team’s first Hispanic co-captain and the only Latino as far as the eyes could see. The big leagues are different – he has two other U.S.-born Latino mates and three from Argentina, but still...

By my meticulous count, there are a total of 384 MLS players, 48 of whom are Latin American imports, and a mere 15 (maybe 18, the MLS people wouldn’t verify) U.S.-born Hispanic players out of a pool of 250 Americans. For a country inching toward a 30 percent Latino population, those aren’t stellar numbers.

“It’s the same but a little better. At UIC I was the only Mexican, but here I don’t really look at it. We all get along and there’s a lot of good competition, everyone wants to be a starter and be a better soccer player so nobody looks at who’s Mexican,” he chuckled. “We’re all just a big family.”

So all’s well that ends well, right? WRONG!

I was shocked to hear that Cesar did not finish his Criminal Justice degree at UIC before he was drafted. His coach had told me he was a super-talented guy headed for graduate studies, but that was…before.

I did not hesitate to remind Cesar that in our last talk he’d said, quote: “In the future, I think there are going to be more Mexicans, more Hispanics going to college. Hispanics never give up; they always want more. But the percentage is not high enough yet. People need to know if you have a dream you follow it.”

“Yeah, my dad’s always calling me asking about that,” he said, hoping I wasn’t going to have a full-on heart attack on the phone. “I only have two electives left and I can take two on-line courses to graduate with the Criminal Justice degree. Hopefully I’ll get to maybe walk on stage when I go back.”

He assured me he’ll never give up: “I have to graduate after everything I went through. And I wouldn’t want to be working a hard job like my dad’s in construction. It’s tough – I’ve worked it.”

I swore to hold him accountable to his own words and he practically promised to send me a Xerox of his diploma. “It’s funny how my life’s changed,” he finished. “I never thought I’d really be a pro or graduate from college, now I have two things at once. You never know what’s going to happen.”

Esther J. Cepeda writes the "600 Words" & "Pregunta del Dia" columns, and is also the Chief Marketing and Communications Officer for the Illinois Student Assistance Commission. Her views and reporting do not necessarily reflect those of ISAC. "600 words" is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2008. May be reprinted with permission, contacteejaycee@600words.com

American Dreamer: a Chicago kid’s story, part one

2008-08-05T23:33:16-05:00

(Editor’s note: this column originally appeared on pg. A16 in the Sunday October 21, 2007 Final Edition of the Chicago-Sun Times under the headline: 'If you have a dream, you follow it.' It is reprinted here as a prelude to tomorrow’s follow-up to this young man’s story.)

by Esther J. Cepeda

A Mexican kid uses his soccer skills to get into college on an athletic scholarship – an easy goal, right?

Think again.

"At Brother Rice Catholic school, my soccer coach used to always tell me, 'Get good grades, make sure to take your ACT, it'll be important,' and I'd say, 'Yeah, yeah.' I never paid attention," said Cesar Zambrano, a 23-year-old midfielder for the University of Illinois at Chicago Flames men's soccer team.

"I never did it. I had it in my mind I didn't want to go to college – nobody in my family went to college. Now I'm going to graduate in May."

Zambrano was like scores of Hispanic kids around the city who grow up with soccer in their veins but never turn that into a vehicle to college. Many, like him, think they'll join a pro soccer team "somehow," knowing that anything beyond high school is such an expensive, far-flung possibility that while families encourage "getting your education," the realities of getting into and paying for college rarely get real consideration.

"My friends started working – when you're young and start making $500 a week or more and live with your parents, life is nice and easy. That's why not a lot of Hispanics go to college," he said. "Some just didn't want to try, though the talent is out there."

Luckily his Brother Rice coaches, recognizing talent that made him an MVP and leading scorer in high school, pushed him to aim higher despite low grades. "I applied to all these colleges – I had to take the ACT three times, and I couldn't get in even though I played soccer well."

He ended up at Richard J. Daley College, where for a year, with the encouragement of UIC soccer coaches, he improved his grades.

"I was scared getting into it; I didn't think I was capable of doing it. Even while I was there I didn't know if this is what I wanted to do," he said.

Zambrano got on track to qualify for a partial athletic scholarship at UIC and a shot at a good career regardless of where soccer takes him.

Zambrano is now the first Hispanic co-captain of the team under head coach John Trask, making above-average grades toward his undergraduate degree in criminal justice, and spends time talking to middle-school Hispanic kids about doing well in school. "Not too many Hispanics end up with college degrees," he said. "I go talk about my whole experience and tell kids not to be in gangs or into drugs."

Hispanics don't get into college at the same rate as other ethnic groups. In 2002, the Pew Hispanic Center reported that of students enrolled in college, 1.3 million were Hispanic compared with 11 million white, 2 million black and 1 million Asian/Pacific Islander.

Once there, many can't hack it for financial and cultural reasons. U.S.-born Zambrano, who describes himself as Mexican American, took it all in stride.

"On the team, I'm the only Hispanic, so I'm 'the Mexican guy.' When we do marketing and pass out fliers, they turn to me and say, 'You go to Pilsen.' Some of them even think I was born in Mexico," he said. "It's much different now, and most of my friends are not Hispanic; they're English, Bosnian, African, black and white."

Trask says he's pushing for grad school. "There's so much more to him than being a soccer player. I told him he could be an alderman by 35. He's a Mexican-American kid paving the way for others."

Zambrano hopes that's the case. "I know I need to do good for the young guys that come see us. I set an example for them," he said.

"In the future, I think there are going to be more Mexicans, more Hispanics going to college. Hispanics never give up; they always want more. But the percentage is not high enough yet. People need to know if you have a dream, you follow it."

Esther J. Cepeda writes the "600 Words" & "Pregunta del Dia" columns, and is also the Chief Marketing and Communications Officer for the Illinois Student Assistance Commission. Her views and reporting do not necessarily reflect those of ISAC. "600 words" is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2008. May be reprinted with permission, contact
eejaycee@600words.com