Joseph Santos-Lyons (left) explains the report card rating the 2011 Oregon Legislature as State Rep. Lew Frederick scans the Face Race information packet. Photo by Richard Jones, El Hispanic News

Richard Jones
El Hispanic News

Salem, OR — How good was the Oregon Legislature in 2011? If you were to look at the Oregon Legislative Report Card on Racial Equity, the answer would be pretty poor.

The “report card” was drafted by a coalition of seven organizations that represent minority groups.

The coalition considered 23 bills handled in 2011. The issues covered five major areas ranging from civil rights to criminal justice, education equity, economic equity, health equity, and immigrant and refugee problems. A sixth category — institutional racism — dealt with racial profiling by campus police and placing of industrial plants near minority neighborhoods. Ten of the bills came from the House and 13 from the Senate.

Overall, during 2011, the Oregon Senate drew a grade of C, while the Oregon House of Representatives merited a D. The group decided not to rate individual legislators in this report, but they plan to do so in the future.

On Jan. 18 more than 60 group members descended upon Salem to pass out information to Oregon’s 60 representatives and 30 senators. The packages included several position papers and a 40-page book — “Facing Race.” Whenever possible, the 15 teams spoke to legislators or their policy directors.

Team 3, headed by Joseph Santos-Lyons, arrived at the office of Rep. Lew Frederick (D-276) while Frederick was buying a box lunch. When Frederick arrived, he greeted the team and set his lunch aside so he could give full attention to the team’s presentation.

Frederick complimented the team for coming as a coalition of minorities, rather than as a handful of smaller groups. The Portland legislator said many lawmakers are ignorant of minority problems. That, he added, did not mean they were malevolent.

When Frederick heard of the grades of C and D, he smiled and said, “You were generous.”

A half hour later the team crossed paths with Frederick at the elevators. He legislator was still carrying his lunch box — apparently not opened.

Legal problems to address

The coalition’s six-page “executive summary” had a substantial list of problems.

“Racial disparities in Oregon reach across all areas,” the summary said. “They are smothering economic growth and hurting everyone.”

“State leaders and government official are in a unique position to respond to our changing demographics and inequities by advancing racially equitable opportunities and outcomes for all Oregonians.”

“Oregon’s communities of color are more likely to be sicker, have lower income, and experience poorer overall outcomes than White Oregonians,” the report said.

Minority children in Multnomah County, the report pointed out, were even worse off. Some 12.5 percent of white children live in poverty, as opposed to 33.3 percent of children of color. Across the state, 55 percent of Native Americans younger than age 5 live in poverty.

Oregon’s prison population shows that Blacks, Latinos, and Native Americans constitute a much higher proportion of prisoners than do Whites and Asians and Pacific Islanders. The report notes that several factors contribute to this. Racial profiling, poor access to appropriate legal counsel, and biased sentencing laws receive some of the blame.

Compounding this, the report says, “Oregon is one of a number of states that allows employers to consider arrest records in [the] hiring process … .”

In a complete flip, the report observes that due to a Supreme Court decision, “sovereignty for Indian nations has been limited in responding to violence on native lands. Tribal courts have no criminal jurisdiction over non-Indian persons who commit crimes on their reservations.”

Economic problems

If Oregon’s 9.5 percent unemployment rate were not bad enough, in 2009 that rate touched 15.2 percent among Blacks and 14 percent among Latinos.

“Poverty has a color in Oregon,” the report said. “While 13 percent of Whites are poor, 39 percent of Blacks, 23 percent of Native Americans, 40 percent of Pacific Islanders, and 28 percent of Latinos are living in poverty.”

As unemployment climbed from 1996 to 2009, the report noted, state assistance to poor families fell from 40,131 families to 25,795.

The group called for more state aid. “Oregon’s economic recovery must be equitable, upheld by a policy commitment to creating a vibrant safety net, and reducing racial and economic gaps in wealth, income, and poverty.”

Over a four-year period workers filed 1,832 claims for $5.2 million in unpaid wages. A 2008 study showed that Latinos were stung with the highest rate of being cheated out of their wages of any racial or ethnic group. SB 612, a bill to crack down on this fraud, passed in the Senate but died in a House committee.

Home ownership broke into two clear categories. The numbers ranged from 32.2 percent to 34.6 percent for Native Americans, African Americans, and Hispanics. Whites and Asian/Pacific Islanders had rates from 57 percent to 58.2 percent.

Oregon’s equal pay laws prohibit gender discrimination but not for other groups, the study stays. HB 2861 — equal pay for equal work — died in committee.

Education

Across the state minorities make up a small proportion of public school students, but they make up 45 percent of students in Multnomah County and 47.7 percent in the Salem-Keizer school district.

Statewide graduation rates for four-year high school students broke down to 76.1 percent for Asian/Pacific Islanders, 69.9 percent for Whites, 55.2 percent for Latinos, and 49.8 percent for Blacks.

The report said that foster care programs might factor into the disparity. “Black children are four times more likely than White children to be placed in foster care …,” the report said.

One hopeful sign, the study said, “In two Oregon school districts — David Douglas and Nyssa — implementation of full-day kindergarten has closed the achievement gap for children of color and low-income students.”

SB 248 will require schools to provide full-day kindergarten beginning with the 2015-16 school year.

Undocumented students may receive all their education in Oregon public schools and then have to face higher out-of-state tuition charges. SB 742-A would have allowed qualified immigration students to pay the same tuition as in-state residents. The bill passed the Senate but died in a House committee.

The cost of missing college? “An individual with a bachelor’s degree earns $750,000 more than course of their lifetime than an individual with only a high school degree.

Health equity

Considering the disparities in other areas, the same pattern appears in health care. According to the study, “More than 600,000 Oregonians are without health insurance, and people of color are two to three times as likely as their White counterparts to be without insurance.

In the matter of care for expectant mothers, 26 percent of Black women and 30 percent of Latinas are not able to access prenatal care in the fist trimester. Only 18 percent of White women lacked such care.

A parallel study shows that Black children are 50 percent more likely to be born with low birth weight than Whites.

Inspired by these figures, SB 99 established the Oregon Health Insurance Exchange. It will compete in the market place, offering a choice of plans.

Immigrants

Undocumented immigrants catch the short end of the stick going both ways. In one category, immigrants are the most likely to be cheated out their wages. On the other hand, the legislature denied the undocumented any path to earn drivers licenses so they could drive to productive jobs.

In the last session SB 655 — a bill to create an 11 member Commission on Immigrant and Refugee Affairs — died in committee. This bill, the report said, “would give immigrant and refugee leaders a way to engage with state agencies and advocate for smart policies to address the disparities facing immigrants and refugees.”

The summing up

The report’s panel noted that the House dealt with 13 racial equity bills and approved 10 of them. On the other hand, they found, “the House also approved two measures that would increase institutional racism and have a negative racial impact.”

“The House received a total of 8 out of 13 points, for score of 62 percent, which results in a grade of a ‘D’,” the panel calculated.

Looking at the other body, they said, “The Senate received a total of 13 out of 17 possible points, yielding a score of 76 percent, which results of a grade of a ‘C.’”

On an optimistic note, the report said, “We can end racial disparities and ensure fairness and opportunities for all Oregonians.”

Nathan Teske discusses some of the many steps required to create a Mercado Latino somewhere in Portland. Members had plenty of questions and suggestions about the planned cooperative venture. Photo by Richard Jones, El Hispanic News

Richard Jones
El Hispanic News

Portland, OR — A spirit of optimism filled the room at the January organizing meeting for Portland’s proposed Mercado Latino. Considering the pros and cons of seven operating procedures for the market, 22 voting members passionately debated the issues before casting their votes.

Nathan Teske of Hacienda CDC served as master of ceremonies, seeing that all had a turn to voice their opinions — and none monopolized the spotlight. Teske is Hacienda’s director of Community Economic Development.

Before the meeting started, the future market partners took the step of opening new accounts at the United Community Credit Union. This procedure will help market members save to buy shares in cooperative.

When the votes were counted, some issues were endorsed unanimously, some were neck and neck. However, all members seemed pleased with the results.

Several proposed locations were discarded, while others remained on the table. The search team planned to visit other potential sites.

The key to the Mercado Latino project is several potential grants that would support much of the construction of the mercado.

If the hoped-for support comes through, Teske sees the group acquiring a site in by the end of 2012. At that point, cleaning up the site and remodeling it will begin taking place.

Other, smaller grants from the Portland Development Commission (PDC) and other groups are expected.

Two North Portland sites survived the first step — 1.68 acres with a $2.34 million price tag and another property just shy of an acre priced at $1.68 million. The City of Portland owns both sites.

Several other potential sites should enter the picture in the next few months.

Previously, two sites in Portland and one each in Hillsboro and Gresham were eliminated.

A Portland architect, at no cost, sketched seven different concepts showing how the finished Mercado Latino might look. The group preferred the one in which pedestrians would enter into a central complex of open-air pathways. This would buffer customers from the sound and fumes of street traffic.

Many of the sketches include a cultural center to support artistic displays or to stage musical events.

Teske said that several architects and contractors have offered their services pro bono up to this point.

Kelsey Cardwell noted that the project has artisans and food specialists of all stripes that almost all mercados have, with two exceptions: a baker and a tortilla maker. Cardwell is marketing coordinator at Hacienda CDC.

Cardwell noted that Latinos create 50 percent more small businesses than any other ethnic group.

She also noted that the Mercado Latino has drawn from the research of the Kauffman Foundation of Kansas City, Mo., profiting from that institution’s positive results with similar markets elsewhere.

“The Mercado project is truly a community effort,” Víctor Merced, executive director at Hacienda CDC, stated in a press release. “Not only are we seeing the cooperation of three influential community organizations, but also a community of Latino business owners. This market will be an asset to the Latino population of Portland, by the Latino population of Portland.”

Community members packed into a room in PSU’s Smith Memorial Student Union Jan. 25 for a reception marking the release of the report “The Latino Community in Multnomah County: an Unsettling Profile” and a policy agenda for Latino progress by the Oregon Latino Agenda for Action (OLAA). Photo by Julie Cortez, El Hispanic News

Julie Cortez
El Hispanic News

Portland, OR — From income and homeownership levels to high school graduation rates, Latinos continue to lag far behind whites in Multnomah County, and in some cases the gap is becoming even wider.

Those are among the findings of “The Latino Community in Multnomah County: An Unsettling Profile,” a report that emerged from three years of research by Portland State University’s School of Social Work and the Coalition of Communities of Color.

Speakers highlighted the “alarming” and “startling” results of the report at a reception held for its release Jan. 25 in PSU’s Smith Memorial Student Union.

The disparities are “broader and deeper than I … ever imagined,” said the report’s author, Ann Curry-Stevens, an assistant professor in PSU’s School of Social Work.

“Mostly we’re getting worse across time,” she added.

Curry-Stevens said that in the county, about one in 16 white adults (6.3 percent) hasn’t graduated high school. Almost one of every two Latinos (43.7 percent) hasn’t graduated. “That number is not getting better,” she said.

Among the report’s other findings for Multnomah County:

• The percentage of whites earning below average incomes has held steady at 45 percent, while the percentage has risen from 56 percent in 1989 to 65 percent today for Latino households.
• Latinos fare worse economically in the county compared to elsewhere in the U.S., while whites fare better here than nationally.
• The number of Latino high school graduates moving into higher education has gone from 60 percent in 2001 to 55 percent in 2005. Fewer than half of the Latinos who enroll in higher education will graduate.
• Thirty-one percent of Latinos and 60 percent of whites are homeowners. This gap is getting larger due to the disproportionate impact of foreclosures on minorities. Nationally, the Latino homeownership rate is almost 50 percent.

Curry-Stevens said the data show that “institutional racism is alive and well.” She asked her audience to read the full report as a first step of action.

“Then we can get to work on solutions,” she said.

The report is available for download at www.coalitioncommunitiescolor.org/.

Carmen Rubio, speaking on behalf of the Coalition of Communities of Color, said “antiquated institutions” are struggling to serve a fast-growing Latino population. She called for greater investment, especially in the areas of early education, health, and civil development, if these disparities are to be eliminated.

“It’s my hope that we will all own these outcomes and we will work to improve them,” Rubio said.

Also on hand to speak in support of the report and pledge action were Gov. John Kitzhaber, Portland Mayor Sam Adams, and City Commissioner Nick Fish.

“We cannot afford to place this report on a shelf,” Fish said. “We must act, and we must act now.”

The reception also marked the release of the Oregon Latino Agenda for Action’s policy priorities, which were shaped during the group’s 2010 statewide summit. Among those priorities: more involvement of Latino parents in schools, support for Latino entrepreneurs, greater investments in public health and prevention education, and access to drivers licenses for undocumented residents.

For more information on the Oregon Latino Agenda for Action, visit www.olaaction.org/.

“Crossing the border” / Photo by Leonard Nadel, courtesy of Smithsonian National Museum of American History

Julie Cortez
El Hispanic News

Portland, OR —The good, the bad, and the in-between of this nation’s largest guest-worker program will be on display during “Bittersweet Harvest: The Bracero Program, 1942-1964,” a bilingual exhibition coming to the Oregon History Museum at the Oregon Historical Society (OHS) Feb. 18-April 1.

The exhibition opens with a “Family Day” on Feb. 18 that will include free admission and special programming celebrating Latino culture from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The event will feature children’s activities, information booths by local Latino organizations, gallery talks, and more.

The exhibition, which explores the Bracero Program from its war-time inception under President Theodore Roosevelt to its end in the 1960s, was created by the National Museum of American History and organized for travel by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service. It is primarily composed of panels of photographs of the braceros who came from Mexico to work under short-term contracts. The photographs are supported by text in Spanish and English and an audio-visual presentation.

The OHS will supplement the exhibit with photographs of braceros in Oregon and Washington from the collections of both the OHS and Oregon State University.

Marsha Matthews, director of Museum Services, finds the photographs from the Pacific Northwest particularly compelling.

“It brings home how difficult any kind of farming is,” she says, adding that the shots illuminate “not only the conditions of the time, but the back breaking work that it was and still is.”

Matthews says the “bittersweet” part of the title comes from the fact that poor working conditions and racism accompanied the benefits the program provided both to a nation in desperate need of labor and to Mexican workers in need of work and money.

“It’s not like, ‘happy camp,’” Matthews says. “The conditions were difficult, the food was difficult. There were racial conflicts.”

OHS Executive Director Kerry Tymchuk says more special programming is in the works for the run of the exhibition. He also adds that in addition to the Family Day that is free to all visitors, Multnomah County residents may come to the museum for free at any time for the next five years thanks to a levy passed in Nov. 2010.

For updates on the schedule and for visitor information, go to www.ohs.org.

Alejandro Mayorkas

Richard Jones
El Hispanic News

Portland, OR — The first week of 2012 brought a shift in immigration policy that will help bring some families together by speeding up access to green cards to spouses of U.S. citizens.

Alejandro Mayorkas, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced “a regulatory change that would reduce the amount of time that U.S. citizens are separated from their families while their family members go through the process of becoming legal residents of the United States.”

USCIS is an agency within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

If speedier, the new ruling also has its share of complexities. Those in doubt would do well to contact an expert — governmental or private — to learn how the new policy applies to specific cases.

Francisco López welcomed the policy shift, saying that it will affect at least 200 families currently served by Portland attorney Stephen Manning and the Immigrant Law Group. López is executive director of Causa, a Salem-based immigrant rights organization.

“Currently,” Mayorkas said, “children and spouses of U.S. citizens who have accrued a certain period of unlawful presence in the U.S., and have to leave the country in order to become a legal permanent resident of the U.S., are barred from returning to their families for as long as three or 10 years.”

By issuing “provisional waivers,” Mayorkas said, the process will be much quicker. “Not only will this proposal further the Administration’s commitment to family unity,” he said, “but the change would improve government efficiency by increasing the predictability and consistency of the application process.”

“We applaud today’s announcement by DHS,” López said. “This is a much needed change in the current flawed policy – making it one that favors keeping families together. For far too long, families were going through this process separated from one another, and often being placed in dangerous situations.”

“We look forward to the Obama Administration and Congress continuing to improve our immigration system for immigrants and families,” López added.

U.S. Representatives Charles González (D-Texas), Luis Gutiérrez (D-Ill.), and Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.) endorsed the change.

“I am happy and excited that the President is taking this step,” Gutiérrez said. “On the immigration administrative fixes I have been fighting for, the President spent the last year saying ‘no I can’t’ and now he is saying ‘yes we can’ and the community will get the message. This is a movement in a positive direction that will not fix broader issues of immigration, but for a certain number of families caught in a bureaucratic nightmare this is the common sense solutions I have been urging.”

“Americans in every corner of our country know that our immigration system is badly broken,” Becerra said. “The President deserves credit for setting in place another essential building block through administrative action [and] moving us closer to a common sense immigration policy.”

González added his applause for President Barack Obama as he called for even more advances. “President Obama must do everything available administratively to protect U.S. families, but we cannot lose focus on the dire need to overhaul our country’s inadequate immigration laws.”

The shift in USCIS policy recalled a previous thought from Obama. “We are the first nation to be founded for the sake of an idea — the idea that each of us deserves the chance to shape our own destiny. That’s why centuries of pioneers and immigrants have risked everything to come here. The future is ours to win. But to get there, we cannot stand still.”

Oscar flexes his muscle as he gets his vaccinations caught up to stay in school. Photo courtesy of Multnomah County Health Department

Lillian Shirley, RN, MPH, MPA
Multnomah County Health Department Director

February 15 is School Exclusion Day. Exclusion day is when local public schools, pre-schools, Head Start programs, kindergartens, private schools, and other children’s facilities will begin denying admission to students who do not have their required vaccines up to date. Families will receive letters stating that their children must have their shots (be vaccinated) by the school exclusion date of Feb. 15, 2012, or those students will not be admitted to school.

Throughout February, the Multnomah County Health Department will hold a series of immunization clinics for children who are uninsured or underinsured to bring them up to date on their vaccinations and enable them to stay in school. Families with health insurance are encouraged to see their regular medical provider. Parents are asked to bring letters they have received from the school or county health department and their children’s immunization records to their providers or clinics.

Immunizations in school-aged children help to ensure the health of our entire community, now and in the future. In addition to protecting the community from vaccine-preventable diseases, like whooping cough and hepatitis A, immunizations ensure children will not miss school days.

Frequently asked questions about childhood immunizations:

Q: My child missed his/her scheduled dose of vaccine. Do they have to start over?

A: No. If your child misses some immunizations, it’s not necessary to start over. Your doctor or clinic will continue the shots from where your child left off. Also don’t forget to bring any vaccine record you have to your child’s vaccine appointment so the doctor/clinic can tell what shots your child needs.

Q: Do immunizations make you ill or give you the disease the vaccine is supposed to prevent?

A: Vaccines are made from killed or weakened bacteria or viruses. None of these can cause disease except in very rare conditions. It’s common for babies and young children to have sniffles, ear aches, and colds. When a child gets one of these illnesses a couple days after a shot, parents sometimes think there’s a connection. However, the only connection between the child’s shot and the illness is timing.

Q: Will immunizations will give my child a bad reaction?

A: Like any other medicine, vaccines occasionally can cause reactions. Usually these are mild, like a sore arm or a slight fever. Serious reactions are rare, but they can happen. Your doctor or nurse can discuss the risks with you before your child gets his or her shots. The important thing to remember is that the diseases immunizations prevent are far more dangerous than the vaccines themselves.

Q: My child is getting more than one vaccine. Won’t it overload his/her immune system?

A: Several studies looked at this possibility and their data indicated that the recommended vaccines are as effective given in combination as they are given individually. Also, such combinations have no greater risk for side effects and are less traumatic for the child.

Para información específica acerca de las clínicas de vacunación y los costos, favor de llamar al 503-988-3406 o visitar web.multco.us/health/immunizations/.

The unprecedented Occupy Movement has given the American people a voice for their grievances and for their hopes and in doing so now have that voice on our side. The power elites are becoming rattled and fighting back knowing that the moral force behind our cause is now taking root in the public consciousness.

But to keep the public on our side we must visibly and consistently demonstrate that their concerns are our concerns and are being acted upon with wisdom, skill and, urgency. That includes moving beyond our paralyzing fear about the Citizens United decision asserting instead that we can and will out-organize corporate money with the power of organized people.

Every grievance, every issue we care about from student debt to foreclosures, from environmental challenges to living wages, from attacking countries that did nothing to us, to providing a doctor to anyone who needs one, this and more will not be decided on its own in the streets we occupy but in the buildings we don’t. The outcomes that matter most to us are decided almost entirely in one particular building the U.S. Capitol by corporate majorities controlled by Wall Street.

If we are serious about our grievances and truly committed to making this country our own, then We The People must occupy the US Congress — the major power center of the United States, and be there with majority control. The majority is defined as American citizens who regardless of political label have an unshakable, and DNA-induced loyalty to the common good.

Only by winning a 218-seat majority in the US House of Representatives and a 60-seat filibuster proof majority in the U.S. Senate will we have the numbers necessary to actually shift power from Wall Street to us. Without those numbers there is no way to take control of our country.

We have two choices. We can either aim high, honoring ourselves by taking power, or remain on the outside looking in endlessly reacting, constantly defending ourselves and forever appealing to corporate politicians. Street agitating and pleading alone will never get us more than a watered down imitation of what we need. We can challenge power or take power, the choice is ours. The question is, are we reactors or deciders?

As deciders our first step is to occupy our neighborhoods, with a face-to-face, house-by-house, street-by-street, relentless congressional district campaign that gets us the numbers needed for our ultimate occupation of the Congress. We now have the people to get it done but do we have the political will?

If we expect more from ourselves than just calling attention to our grievances or hoping that a Washington or local politician will throw us a bone, and if what we are doing is really more than ego or just beating up on the “bad guys”, then we must link our street dissent to the ballot box with the single minded goal of taking majority control of the Congress and later doing the same in the states. That’s where the power is and where we need to be if getting our problems to solution and reaching for our best as Americans is why we are really here.

An electoral strategy combined with ongoing visible street occupations (around foreclosed homes, student debt etc.) that not just talks to our 99% but mobilizes them, are the two essentials for reclaiming and remaking our country.

Rich Cohen is a participant in the Occupy Movement and can be reached at arpdirector1@comcast.net.

Alberto Moreno

Alberto Moreno
Community columnist

Last month, on a cold January morning, we as a country, as a state, as a people, celebrated the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King. Each year we are brought together as one global community to remember his legacy, to remember his dream. In one of the most celebrated and prophetic speeches of all time, Dr. King asks us to imagine a time when all of our children will be walking hand in hand, unabridged in our progress toward equality …

Each year we are asked to reflect on his legacy and to ask if we have arrived at the Promised Land. Dr. King left us with a question that we must collectively and individually answer. That question is: have we met our obligation — our promise — to equality? By this I believe that he meant to have us account for each person under this great nation, each woman, each man, and each child under the protection of the Constitution of the United States of America.

That is, have we all arrived in the land of opportunity or have we let some of our brethren behind? I believe we must ask this question not only of our nation but of our great state of Oregon.

This holiday, this remembrance then, is not so much a celebration, but an accounting. A time of reckoning. A time of narrowing the great divide between the reality of our marginalized communities and the great promise of this state. It becomes necessary to ask if we have kept our promise. It becomes necessary to ask if everyone in our great state enjoys the same freedom, the same opportunity and protection dreamed of by Dr. Martin Luther King — and I believe promised to us by our forefathers. Or have we, in our journeying to equality, to this Promised Land, left some behind?

Unfortunately, as I walk through this state, I see evidence that we have failed to bring everyone along. As I walk through the lush fields of the Willamette Valley and the great edifices of our great cities, I see evidence that this, our great state of Oregon, has failed to keep its promise. A promise carved deeply on the very stones of our great capital.

I see evidence that tens of thousands of children are intentionally excluded from such basic and inalienable human rights as health care in our state, evidence that each year thousands upon thousands of women are intentionally excluded from receiving prenatal care in our state, and that as a result over 25 percent more of our children die unnecessarily simply because of the color of their skin.

I am forced to witness as each year, year after year, farmworkers labor in the fields to feed our own children without enjoying the dignity of simple toilets, and must still squat into some ditch in this, our promised land of opportunity. I am forced to report that they are denied drinking water and the simple human courtesy of rest breaks that we accord every other man and woman in this state. As a result of these inequities, the life expectancy of farmworkers is only 49 years of age.

These inequities are not restricted to the verdant fields of our deep valleys but are evident on construction sites where our workers labor under a searing sun, pounding the nails into the very doors that will later be used to keep them out from the great halls of justice.

Indeed, on this cold January morning, in the face of these stark realities we must ask if we have kept our promise of equality for all.

On this cold, January day, I want to honor Dr. Kings dream by holding us each accountable to realizing it for all. Partial equality, or equality for some, is an incomplete equality. The stain of our failure to bring all into the same opportunities and protections will remain for us. The bitter taste of inequality and injustice will be preserved in the strawberries we consume with our morning prayer.

For me on this day, the dream is not fulfilled. But I do not despair. I do not despair, because on this cold January morning I have a certain faith that clothes me and gives me hope. And I take refuge in my unshakable faith that we, as a people, will in the end, do the right thing. That we will live up fully into our human- and God-given potential. Like Dr. King, I also “have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.’”

That we as a people shall not rest in our consciousness, nor in our dreaming, nor in our actions until all of us, until ALL of our children, ALL of our brothers and sisters, have arrived at the promised land.

Alberto Moreno is executive director of the Oregon Latino Health Coalition (www.oregonlatinohealthcoalition.org).

Diego Conde

Diego Conde
Attorney-at-Law

I have dedicated this column to the discussion of legal topics that affect our Hispanic community. One of the questions that more frequently arises is the access to justice for undocumented people in Oregon.

In 2006, 12 million people were estimated to be in the United States without proper documentation or authorization. That number has certainly increased since then. Those lawyers that, like me, have the privilege to assist the Hispanic community are always ready to face a situation where the client has not yet obtained his or her legal status. The fundamental question is: Do those clients have the right to sue in Oregon courts? The answer is: Yes.

Every person, local or foreign, citizen or not, has a right to sue for damages caused by the fault or negligence of others. Medical malpractice, motor vehicle accidents, and slip and fall victims, among others, have the right to demand compensation for their injuries regardless of their immigration status.

The U.S. Constitution guarantees its rights to all persons within the U.S. jurisdiction, not only its citizens or legal aliens. Dignity and justice require no green cards or visas.

Of course, every case is particular and it’s of the utmost importance to consult your specific situation with a lawyer. To contact a Hispanic or Spanish-speaking attorney, call the Oregon Bar Lawyer Referral Service at 800-452-7636, or call my office at 971-373-8920. You can also visit www.osbar.org or www.condelawgroup.com.

Diego Conde is Hispanic, fully bilingual, and licensed to practice law in the State of Oregon. He serves the communities of Portland, Gresham, and other cities in the counties of Clackamas, Multnomah, and Washington.