Esther J. Cepeda Media Archive

The Washington Post Writers Group 'Groupblog': "Welcome, Esther J. Cepeda"

posted to the Groupblog on Tuesday, October 12, 2010...

 

Welcome, Esther J. Cepeda
Posted by James Hill on Tuesday, Oct. 12, 2010

　

One of my weekly tasks here at The Writers Group is to go through a stack of manuscripts gathering in the in-box, looking for potential talent that could join our lineup of award-winning columnists.

On occasion, I'll write a personal letter asking the writer to submit more material. Other times I explain why a proposed column wouldn't be a good fit, and suggest the writer try another, more general-purpose syndicate than The Writers Group, which lives off of Washington's bread and butter -- politics and policy.

Yet a couple of years ago after reading a package of clips submitted by Esther J. Cepeda, I picked up the phone. Cepeda was one of several journalists let go in a round of cost-cutting at the Chicago Sun-Times, and I first wanted to know if she had other work lined up (she did). Then, because she was going to be employed by the state of Illinois, I wanted to know what she was going to do about her writing career. That's when I discovered that losing a newspaper job wasn't going to stop Esther Cepeda.

She had a lot of ideas she was going to pursue, including a blog to be called 600 Words, a weekly collection of her thoughts and comments, and she also hoped to place a column somewhere (she did, in the Sun-Times no less, in 2009).

I wished her good luck and said we would keep an eye on her work. We did, which was not too difficult since Cepeda added me to her e-mail list to receive the 600 Words blog each Thursday. I also began to notice links to it on various websites.

This past summer, editorial director Alan Shearer and I were thinking out loud about everything in general and new columnists in particular. We wondered if it wasn't time to approach Cepeda and see if she thought she was ready to write for a nationwide audience.

Don't need to tell you how long it took for that e-mail to come back.

Cepeda was already in the process of leaving her state job to devote full time to writing, and was eager for the chance to possibly join The Writers Group. But wanting to write a column twice a week and actually doing it are two very different things, so we asked her if she would be willing to go through an audition, in which she would file on deadline, we would edit and make suggestions, then clear changes with her (the same steps all of our columnists go through before publication).

During this trial period, Cepeda showed us that she could deliver columns on breaking news, hot-issue subjects such as education, and pieces that focused on the offbeat and the unpredictable. She was also a joy to work with.

One Sunday in August, Shearer visited Cepeda at a Starbucks outside Chicago and offered her a contract. Her column makes its debut next week and I, for one, think Cepeda can be a game-changer much as Ellen Goodman was when her column first went into national syndication back in the 1970s.

Esther is the daughter of immigrants (from Ecuador and Mexico) who took blue-collar jobs to raise their family with the hope for a better life. Her first language was Spanish, yet she self-taught herself English by watching "Sesame Street" and looking at the many newspapers her parents kept around the house.

Cepeda is a journalism graduate of Southern Illinois University, and has taken graduate courses at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, where she studied in the Integrated Marketing Communications program. She also spent two years as a public school teacher, and holds a master's degree in education.

In everything she has done, Esther J. Cepeda exemplifies the American experience. She's got a great story to share with her readers, and I think she'll make quite the contribution -- in ways that surprise you -- to the great American debate. We're excited. Welcome aboard, Esther.

James Hill is managing editor of The Washington Post Writers Group

.

The Washingon Post Writer's Group includes George F. Will, David Broder, Richard Cohen, Michael Gerson, David Ignatius, Charles Krauthammer,  Dana Milbank, Ruben Navarette, Fareed Zakaria, Kathleen Parker, and Eugene Robinson, among others.

 

Richard Prince's "Journal-isms" blog featured Esther this week http://mije.org/node/1252/cepeda

'Chicago gets its very own HuffPo site' - Chicago Tribune

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/columnists/chi-wed-phil-rosenthal13aug13,0,5060471.column

chicagotribune.com

Chicago gets its very own HuffPo site

Phil Rosenthal

Media

August 13, 2008

As Arianna Huffington talked on the phone about hopes and dreams for one child, she was interrupted in midsentence by another.

The Huffington Post Chicago, her national Web site's first local franchise, is set to make its debut this week. But it was Huffington's 17-year-old daughter who bounded into her home office with news she had just passed her driver's test for a full license and wanted to take the Prius out for the first time by herself to lunch with a friend in Santa Monica, Calif.

"Text me as soon as you arrive," Huffington said. "If you have any doubt about where you are going, stop and call me."

One rite of passage out of the way, she returned to talking about the birth of the The Huffington Post's first offspring. By midday Thursday, The Huffington Post Chicago—a local amalgam of news, commentary, features and personal reflections that's part media outlet, part salon in the fashion of The Huffington Post—should be linked and loaded, ready for viewing off thehuffingtonpost.com.

"I just got a great blog post from John Cusack," Huffington said. "People who are from Chicago have all these amazing warm feeling and memories of Chicago. … It is tribal. John is in Bangkok making a movie, and he was kind of emotional with this ode to Chicago."

Chicago-raised actress Jami Gertz is working on a submission, as is Fred Armisen of " Saturday Night Live." On tap are such familiar bylines as Jonathan Alter, Lynn Sweet, Cornelia Grumman, Lee Bey and Esther Cepeda. Others, such as environmentalist Howard Lerner and chef Gale Gand, bring a particular expertise to the party.

"I don't know that any other city would get that kind of response and resonance," Huffington said.

It's not clear whether this local Post fills a void or creates its own real estate in the media landscape, which is in retreat and recession on several fronts of late. So much is changing so fast, it's not even clear to some whether existing papers, broadcast outlets and Web sites are its rivals or allies.

But if it can make it here, the assumption is it make it anywhere.

Huffington and Willow Bay, the wife of Walt Disney Co. boss Bob Iger and a former "Good Morning America" weekend co-host who is the Huffington Post editor-at-large overseeing the local rollouts, expect there could be 10 to 20 more sites in a couple years.

"This [Chicago site] is a work in progress," Bay said from her own home office, down the block from Huffington. "I'm always surprised, which is part of the fun of what we do, but there will be a ton of news and politics writers. There will be food, because it's one of the great food cities in the country, and certainly sports. We have a bunch of environmental writers because Chicago [wants] to be a leader in growing its green economy."

Ben Goldberger, 25, a former Chicago Sun-Times staffer, will be the only paid employee here. Ad sales will be handled from HuffPo's office in New York. Writers work pro bono. So the chief risk for Huffington is less financial than to the HuffPo brand she has nurtured.

Like her household's newly minted driver, a crash is less likely than the new baby losing its way.

philrosenthal@tribune.com

Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune

'Former Sun-Times Columnist Ventures Syndicated Column' - Extra Bilingual Newspaper

http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:fJyrV-JOoE8J:www.extranews.net/news.php%3Fclan%3D1%26nid%3D3667+esther+cepeda+jessica+del+curto&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us

Former Sun-Times Columnist Ventures Syndicated Column

Extra Bilingual Newspaper

05-09-2008

by Jessica Del Curto When Esther J. Cepeda put down her pad and pencil at the Chicago Sun-Times a couple of months ago, she knew it would not be the last column she would ever write.

Cepeda was a popular columnist at the Sun-Times, but was laid off in January during a recent round of cuts in the print media industry.

On April 29, the former Sun-Times columnist started her own Web site, www.600words.com, along with its sister site, pregunta-del-dia.com. Every Tuesday and Thursday, Cepeda will post a new "600 Words" column, where much like her Sun-Times column, she will write about various issues from the perspective of an opinionated Latina. Then Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, she will write on shorter topics and answer readers questions in "Pregunta Del Dia." "I knew I wanted to keep writing," she said. "The [Chicago] Tribune told me, ‘We have already got a Latina,’ because you know, just one is enough."

So she turned to various syndicates across the country, like the New York Times Syndicate and the Washington Post Syndicate, where she was told over and over, "We love you, but the economy is so bad right now, we can’t even sell our own columnists – we have newspapers canceling left and right, because everyone is tightening their belt."

It was then Cepeda decided to do it the modern way, by purchasing a domain name and opening up shop for herself.

While she doesn’t know the official number of hits her site received that first week, Cepeda said hundreds of e-mails came flooding in from people supporting her return.

"I had an outpouring of people who said, ‘Oh my God, we missed you.’ All kinds of readers, white readers, tons of really nice men and women readers," she said.

In Cepeda’s columns she poses interesting questions that others in the media or in the spotlight aren’t always asking. In an upcoming article, she plans to tackle the violence in the city.

She plans to ask various experts about their perspective on gang violence. For instance, she’ll ask an economist ‘With your background, what would you do," and see what kind of answers he or she comes up with.

"Because obviously, the Chicago Police Department doesn’t know what to do," she said.

For a full-time gig, Cepeda was hired as a director for United Neighborhood Organization, a non-profit that focuses on empowering the Latino community. But since she was a child, writing has been her passion.

"My parents moved here from México, and they always had the Sunwith them, they were using it to learn English, so the newspaper was always at my house," she said. "My whole life I wanted to grow up and be a newspaper columnist." -Times

She went to Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism. She studied Integrated Marketing Communication at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, then went on to be a teacher.

"Finally, I went, ‘Ok, I am 30 years old, if I don’t live my dream now, I am not going to do it,’" she said.

By day she was teaching, by night she was freelancing for the Daily Herald.

"I was filing five, sometimes six or seven news stories a week," she said. "I had these great clips, and after about seven months of that, I mailed them off to Don Hayner, [the managing editor of the Sun] and said, ‘Dude, give me a chance.’" -Times

And up until January, Cepeda was making friends and enemies writing about everything from the immigration marches to nuclear weapons in Iran for the Sun. -Times

"You know what’s beautiful? I get criticism from all sides," she said. "When I feel most successful is when the pro-illegal immigration and the anti-illegal immigration people both e-mail me about the same topic and say ‘You are so blah blah blah.’ You could hate what I am saying, but just be kind of happy that I am there."

The whole reason Cepeda continues to write is to keep the Latino voice in the media.

"There are no mainstream Latino opinion leaders," she said. "Who is out there talking about stuff? When Hillary and Barack were fighting over the Latino vote, you saw it on ‘Meet The Press,’ but there was no Latino person talking about these issues, it was all white people – and that’s good – but there has to be some kind of representation."

To read Cepeda’s columns, go to www.600words.com

'May Day march creates dilemma for Hispanics' - Globe Gazette

May Day march creates dilemma for Hispanics
Globe Gazette ^ | Mar. 8, 2008 | EMILY C. RUIZ, Hispanic Link

Pro-immigrant groups across the country are preparing to stage a series of marches May 1, pressing the White House and the Homeland Security Department to halt immigration raids and move forward on comprehensive immigration reform.

"Change is in the air," Juan Jose Gutierrez, director of the Los Angeles-based Latino Movement USA, promises.

This year marks the third grass-roots-organized May Day event with two unique factors:

— The marches are being guided by a national coordinating committee — The First Parliament of Mexican Migrant Leaders Living in the U.S.A.

— This is the first time that the marches will be held during a presidential election year.

Pro-immigrant groups from throughout the United States met in Mexico City in November to form the First Parliament of Mexican Migrant Leaders Living in the U.S.A. Attracting minimal press attention, they formed the first national coordinating committee for the May Day marches. The initiating body consists of 46 members representing 23 states.

"The idea is that every single state and territory in the Union where we have Latinos living and working should have representation," says Gutierrez.

National political analysts have been in open agreement for months that the outcome of the 2008 presidential election will depend heavily on the Latino and immigrant vote.

Where the experts part ways is in assessing the impact national demonstrations will have on other voters. Even among Latinos, opinions range widely.

National Council of La Raza President Janet Murguia handles the subject with cautious concern.

"Marches visually demonstrate to each of us that we are not alone, but this year there is only one march that will truly empower our community and demonstrate our clout. Our next march must be to the voting booth this November."

Elena Rios, president of the National Hispanic Medical Association, counters, "If the marches are anything like they have been in the last few years, where more of our community are showing their pride and commitment to their fellow Latinos, whether they’re documented or not, I think it’s fantastic. I hope it gets media attention — and more than just Univision and Telemundo. I hope we get on CNN and mainstream English media talking about the importance of the Latino vote in this election year. It will have an impact."

Former Chicago Sun-Times columnist Esther Cepeda has doubts: "The marches have become unproductive. They cause a yawn among news editors and reporters and create a backlash from anti-Hispanic forces. I don’t think the mass demonstrations get people who otherwise aren’t energized about the upcoming presidential elections to go out and get registered to vote. Is there even enough time left? There certainly isn’t to get citizenship."

Gutierrez bristles at those who insist that immigration reform can’t happen in an election year.

"They say everyone should wait until sometime after the November elections. I disagree. Nothing can hurt the pro-immigration-rights movement more than doing nothing."

He offers as evidence: "Never before have the candidates had to deal with the issue of immigration in a very direct way."

Jose Garza of Dallas, executive director of the League of United Latin American Citizens’ National Housing Commission, notes, "We need to take whatever action is necessary to get this Congress, the future Congress and the future president to really deal with the issues of the immigrant worker. What we are asking for is fairness and equity. When it’s time to mobilize, we can do it correctly."

The turnout of marchers has decreased nationally since 2.5 million participated in 2006.

Gutierrez blames "the lack of nerve on the part of significant members of the Spanish-speaking media who have helped persuade the community not to continue to participate in the mobilization."

But, he contends, "that slogan, ‘Hoy marchamos, manana votamos’ — ‘Today we march, tomorrow we vote’ — has crystallized the movement. People are beginning to feel their power, both when we take to the streets and when we go to the ballot box."

— Emily C. Ruiz is a reporter with Hispanic Link News Service in Washington.

'Pregunta del dia - in support of English-only laws' - Chicago Sun-Times

Chicago Sun Times

November 29, 2007 Thursday
Final Edition

Pregunta del dia

BYLINE: Esther J. Cepeda, The Chicago Sun-Times

SECTION: NEWS; Esther J. Cepeda; Pg. 22

This question of the day has been asked several times by Cepeda non-fanaticos: "Why do you use that Spanish in your column?"

 

Pure, unadulterated ego. I want to be credited with making the Spanish phrase for "Question of the Day" as instantly understandable as "soup du jour'" or "Yo quiero Taco Bell."

 

Besides, the melting pot's broth becomes richer when different flavors are added, right? Of course, the added tasty morsels should never overpower the base stock, lest you unexpectedly end up with a Hungarian goulash, Japanese miso soup or a Mexican menudo rather than a silky American fondue.

 

Enter Nancy Pelosi and other well-meaning but mostly politically pandering Democrats. She has decided to block a vote next week on an appropriations bill that includes legislation that would protect employers from Equal Employment Opportunity Commission lawsuits when companies enforce "English-only" policies, basically making it impossible for any employer to require employees to speak English on the job.

 

It's an issue because earlier this year, the Salvation Army fired two Hispanic employees for speaking Spanish while sorting clothes, and the EEOC alleges it amounts to discrimination based on race or national origin.

 

The reason this latest immigration-ish tango really bothers people is because they're afraid the great American assimilation machine is grinding to a halt because the monkey wrench of political correctness is making it so no one can say, "If you work in the U.S., you must speak English at work whether you're with a customer or in the break room," without being labeled a racist or a bigot.

 

Obviously, if your job is to translate for non-English speakers in a hospital, that's a different story, but otherwise what is the big deal?

 

Y'know, a Pew Hispanic Center report showed that 90 percent of Hispanics in the United States believe they need to learn English to be successful. Their desire is not in question, but learning a new language gets harder and harder when you're not immersed in it.

 

Between Spanish language TV, newspapers, magazines, Internet sites and bilingual everything everywhere for the sake of consumerism, the assimilation machinery is getting creaky.

 

Some point out that Latin Americans are just the latest in a long line of ethnic immigrants who've come here and quickly become Americanized and fluent in English.

 

Sure, but how long is that going to last if people come here knowing they won't be expected to conduct business in the national language?

'Adios and good riddance, Elvira Arellano; Felon with huge sense of entitlement mocked law, gave immigrants stigma' - Chicago Sun-Times

Chicago

Sun Times

August 21, 2007 Tuesday
Final Edition

Adios and good riddance, Elvira Arellano; Felon with huge sense of entitlement mocked law, gave immigrants stigma

BYLINE: Esther J. Cepeda, The Chicago Sun-Times

SECTION: NEWS; Esther J. Cepeda; Pg. 14

LENGTH: 573 words

The faceoff has ended. The lady in the church snuck out, made it as far as L.A., got nabbed by the feds and is finally back in Mexico.

Most people couldn't pronounce her name and didn't know she slipped into the country not once but a second time after border officials made it clear she was not to return. After being welcomed with open arms by whoever hires the cleaning ladies at O'Hare Airport, she was snagged in a post-9/11 raid and, a newly convicted felon, was ordered out of the country in 2004.

She refused to go, saying it was unfair for the government to separate her from her son Saul, who she said needed to be here to get treatment for "severe attention deficit disorder and severe separation anxiety."

Saul, who on the Fourth of July 2006, after a long day of handing out pro-immigrant fliers in the hot sun, cried openly asking his "mami" why he hadn't played in sprinklers and watched fireworks like other kids.

Saul, who despite his supposed medical disorders, was trotted out in front of every TV camera and microphone that appeared at the church's door, then flown all over North America with a handler du jour to plead his mom's case.

Saul, who in those first weeks of sanctuary was said to have been in contact with his unnamed father -- who didn't want to be smeared in the press -- and months later would tell me, coldly, "I don't have a father."

Saul, whom I watched spend a long, miserable year holed up in a tiny apartment watching Spanish-language TV while trying to avoid the parade of people who stopped by to visit. Saul who had no mom or dad to take him to school everyday.

Saul who had to again watch his mother get arrested because she refused to go willingly.

Then there's Elvira who, after being convicted of stealing someone's identity, was given a pass on jail time in exchange for her departure. She proceeded to thumb her nose at the laws of the country she so desperately wants her son to grow up in.

Her entitlement complex turned off people who might have had a modicum of sympathy for the plight of illegal immigrants. Added bonus? It fueled the hatred from those who already wanted to see them all rounded up and shipped off.

In the process she made life more difficult for legal immigrants and U.S.-born Hispanics who will continue to endure the wrath of a country that's disgusted that there seem to be one set of laws for "us," and a more lenient set for the 12 million "them" who toil here for next to nothing at the cordial invitation of businesses and bargain-shoppers everywhere.

Though she only learned a rudimentary amount of English while in sanctuary -- enough to deliver a brilliantly written speech I'd bet my life she didn't compose -- her message was crystal clear. Maybe not with her words, but with her actions Arellano did in fact say, "Catch me if you dare."

Now that Immigration and Customs Enforcement called her bluff I can be clear, too: Adios and good riddance.

Elvira wasn't "the face" of the 12 million illegal immigrants she claims to represent -- they've been out working every day, unsheltered by the fear of the publicity disaster a church raid would have rained on ICE.

Those 12 million aren't out flaunting their illegality in people's faces or getting free food, shelter, child care, toys and cash donations delivered to their door daily while they spend their time doing radio interviews and posting protest songs to their MySpace pages.

Game over, Elvira.

'What happens in the meat locker?! - El Chorizo, Brewers sausage racer interview' - Chicago Sun-Times

Chicago

Sun Times

August 16, 2007 Thursday
Final Edition

What happens in the meat locker?!

BYLINE: Esther J. Cepeda, The Chicago Sun-Times

SECTION: NEWS; Esther J. Cepeda; Pg. 22

The sausages don't talk. That's rule No. 1. But I have my ways.

"El Chorizo," the spicy Mexican sausage, made his debut in July 2006 at the Milwaukee Brewers' "Cerveceros" Day during the sausage races at

Miller

Park

in

Milwaukee

.

In his rookie year, he's now in third place, having won 13 races, proving that when it comes to runnin' with the big dogs, he can cut the mustard.

The wide-brimmed hat, the traditional neckerchief, and those hot legs have made him the most beloved Mexican sports figure in

Wisconsin

.

We linked up last week to cover the bases about life in the bigs.

On the big leagues:

Let's not forget that I had a year of seasoning in the minors. The fan response has been tremendous, and while the Hispanic community has been very supportive, my fans come from all corners, in record numbers this year. You think that's a coincidence?

On his fellow sausages:

Nobody likes the new guy coming into their house and getting comfortable, but all things considered, we warmed up to each other pretty quickly. We like to have our fun off the field, as all sausages do, but between the lines it's all business.

On pre-race prep:

For me it's out of the freezer and into the frying pan. You can't go with a new strategy every race. It's a simple fact that the meat that runs fastest wins. I try to stay cool before the race, and I have a TV in the clubhouse that's usually tuned to the Food Network until about the fourth inning. After that, it's time for a quick stretch and then a sprint to the finish.

On the multinational/multilingual sausage locker room:

We speak as one meat, in a language that all links understand. As for the locker-room scene, what happens in the meat locker stays in the meat locker.

On keeping those sexy legs in shape:

You have to get your rest or the legs will get a little raw. Every other day, though, I'll take a run from

Miller

Park

back through the old neighborhood to catch up with the old boys. Maybe a nostalgic run around the Klement's sausage factory to get back to my roots, then a quick simmer in a pot of beer to condition the casing.

'Cepeda Vs. Cicada; Fed up with the bugs, Sun-Times columnist decides she has the stomach to take one on' - Chicago Sun-Times

Chicago Sun Times (IL)

Copyright 2007 ProQuest Information and Learning Company; All Rights Reserved.

May 22, 2007

Section: News

Cepeda Vs. Cicada; Fed up with the bugs, Sun-Times reporter decides she has the stomach to take one on

Esther J. Cepeda; The Chicago Sun-Times

I pencilled it in for the afternoon -- a hot lunch date: Ms. Cepeda and Mr. Cicada.

I jumped at the chance to eat one of these pesky insects that every 17 years squirm out of their crunchy exoskeletons, wet and sticky, to burden us with their multi-membranous mating calls just to get busy.

Our rhyming, ultra-alliterative names and the attendant silly Cicada-Cepeda refrains they elicit left a bad taste in my mouth last time around so I thought a little payback was in order.

Besides, people in Mexico eat insects all the time; they'll chow grasshoppers, scorpions -- they're high in protein, just ask Rick Bayless about it. So cicadas? Not kosher, but still no biggie.

I could have followed any one of the many recipes to be found on the Internet: cicada pizza, cicadas sauteed in garlic and butter, cicada tacos, cicada gumbo, cicada cookies, cicada bread.

All cicada-licious, but in the spirit of organic freshness, I thought I'd go au naturel.

Before it met my molars, the cicada -- freshly plucked from its home in south suburban Flossmoor, then generously donated by a co- worker -- sat on my desk, humping a lone green leaf and loudly flapping its strong wings mere inches away from its discarded exoskeleton, not a care in the world.

Its brethren are already poking out in River Forest, La Grange, Brookfield and Palos Heights, building up to the big buzz they generate three to five days after they emerge.

To get the full effects of what an unsuspecting person might experience in their yard I spent some quality time letting it tread its sticky, hairy legs on my crawling flesh. It flapped in my hair, eliciting a reflexive swat that almost prematurely did it in.

It struggled valiantly and strongly in my fingers -- antennae flailing, big red beady eyes bright -- before the big gulp.

Once in my mouth it only got off a few hairy-legged kicks before one decisive crunch did it in. Bye-bye!

Papery and bland, it was not gooey-sour and far less crunchy than I'd imaged. Hardly worth the sensation of feeling it slide -- quasi- flapping -- down my esophagus followed by a chaser of Diet Coke.

Next time I think I'll try the garlic and butter.

'English only, please - in rare agreement with Newt Gingrich' - Chicago Sun-Times

Chicago Sun Times (IL)

April 8, 2007

  

Section: Controversy

English only, please

Esther J. Cepeda ; The Chicago Sun-Times

   Despite himself, Newt Gingrich has a good point about how to teach native Spanish-speaking students. This writer ought to know; she speaks Spanish and has taught bilingual education. 

   Newt Gingrich stuck his foot in his English-only- speaking mouth last week in a speech to the National Federation of Republican Women when he said Spanish was "the language of living in the ghetto." 

   Not good. 

   But what drove me nuts is that his dumb comment invalidated his original point. He started off with "We should replace bilingual education with immersion in English so people learn the common language of the country and they learn the language of prosperity."

   That I can get behind. 

   For a few years, I was a bilingual teacher, the kind old Newtie would have liked. The kind who insisted on getting my students out of their Spanish comfort zone and into that language of prosperity he so values. The kind other bilingual teachers hated. 

   My parents -- like many parents who come here to give their kids a better education -- wanted me to speak perfect English; they'd take care of the Spanish part themselves. So off I went to kindergarten knowing only what Big Bird had drilled into me. Guess what? I, like all my other classmates, soaked that English up like a sponge and spoke only Spanish at home. 

   I vowed that as a bilingual teacher I would push my students hard to become fluent in English, hard enough to get them out of the bilingual education ghetto and into mainstream classes where they could start their lives with U.S.-born peers. 

   Yes, I used the word "ghetto." It's true: Kids who stay in bilingual education year after year end up getting short shrift. Illinois law says that if a school has 20 or more students who speak the same language, they get "support" in their native language. That support is defined by each school and could range from a fully certified teacher teaching in a certain language to a paraprofessional with special language skills. 

   The Illinois Resource Center, an organization that supports school districts that provide second-language services, estimates that 150,000 to 175,000 kids all over the state get some form of bilingual or English-as-a-second-language services, with Chicago Public School kids comprising a little less than 50 percent of the total. Spanish, at 80 percent of services provided, is by far the most common native language. 

   I taught both first grade and high school, and it shocked me how willing some bilingual teachers were to adamantly and passionately keep kids in self-contained Spanish-speaking classes. I'd ask them, "Well, if you keep teaching them in Spanish, when are they going to learn English?" I'd usually get a blank stare. Yet, there I was, teaching algebra to 17-year-olds, including a few who, although born here, had been in bilingual education their entire academic careers and still couldn't speak English! 

   I was always the weirdo bilingual teacher who was looked at sideways by the other bilingual teachers because I insisted on speaking and teaching primarily in English with some Spanish explanations. And -- can you believe it -- my students picked up English! 

   First-graders were no problem, but my high schoolers hated it. They'd whine constantly for me to speak in Spanish like all their other teachers. "You're supposed to be talking to us in Spanish," they'd demand. But I wasn't buying it. I'd tell them, "If you want to make it here and not end up mowing lawns or waitressing at Tacos El Norte for the rest of your lives, you'd better start learning." More than a few of them thanked me at the end of the year. 

   Keeping Spanish-speaking kids in separate but equal programs kept them from interacting with English-speaking peers, further isolating them from the culture they eventually have to be able to navigate for that "better future" their parents sought. 

   In high school, it was too late. All the bilingual ed kids were so self-segregated they didn't even hang with the U.S.-born Spanish speakers. Homecoming? Prom? Those events were not for them, they believed, they stuck to their own and spoke Spanish to each other. 

   So, I have to hand it to Newt, even with his foot in his mouth. He's right. 

   The prevailing wisdom is transitioning students to English through Spanish while giving them core curriculum such as language arts and math in their native language -- often remediating poor Spanish language skills first -- is best. Maybe in a perfect world, with well-run bilingual education programs with high-quality teachers, that would be true. But that's not what I saw. More often than not, when students had to sink or swim, with a little help, they swam. 

'A president Obama: Hope, hype or hypocrisy?' - Hispanic Link News Service/ Scripps Howard

Column No. 4351                      Length: 700 words

HISPANIC LINK

01/28/07

   PRESIDENT OBAMA: HOPE, HYPE OR HYPOCRISY?

   By Esther J. Cepeda

   Hispanic Link News Service/ Scripps Howard

   Barack Obama, our great brown hope, where will you lead us?

   Now that the freshman U.S. senator from my home state of Illinois has thrown his hat into the ring for the 2008 presidential race by forming an exploratory committee, many of the black, Hispanic and Asian voters throughout the country who’ve actually heard of him are titillated by the possibility that a new shade of president might actually take the Oval office.

   Topping a list of previous presidential contenders populated by the likes of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, Obama, with his Hawaiian, African-American, and Caucasian roots, has a certain appeal to Hispanic voters looking for a candidate who’ll take up our unique causes. Chief among them is fair and reasonable immigration law reform.

   While Obama, our new national “rock star,” had a decent voting record in the Illinois Senate on several issues important to the estimated 1.5 million Hispanics residing there, that sensitivity hasn’t translated to his choices in the U.S. Senate where 44 million Hispanics nationwide need his understanding.

   Obama famously voted in favor of last October’s mostly symbolic but costly Secure Fence Act, walling us off from our neighbor

Mexico

but doing little to address our international terrorism concerns.

   There was also a bipartisan immigration reform bill that included a path to legal residency for a productive law-abiding, longer-established portion of undocumented

U.S.

residents who are now an integral part of our society and work force. Like nearly all Democrats, Obama supported it, but he later backed a bill by Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) to force every one of them to leave the country for three years before becoming eligible to apply for re-entry.

   He backed another bill that could have, among other regressive elements, turned religious group members into felons for feeding or providing shelter to abused undocumented women and their children.

   In yet another move to appease nativists, our senator gave his “yea” to an amendment that established English as our “national unifying language.”

   Not exactly the type of record that inspires confidence in the guy who is promising “real change” that “a different kind of politics” can deliver.

   On

Chicago

’s streets, there is buzz because not a single one of Obama’s well-publicized inner-circle of confidants and advisors is Hispanic. Additionally, there’s some indignation over the fact that his original rubber-stamp support of undocumented constituent Elvira Arellano dried up the minute she took sanctuary from immigration authorities in a barrio church with her seven-year-old U.S.-born son Saúl. The

Mexico

native, a single mother who has always worked and never drawn welfare, has proclaimed herself the nation’s face of immigration reform.

   So far, among

Chicago

’s Latino activists, only Juan Andrade, president of the U.S. Hispanic Leadership Institute, has dared to challenge the senator publicly on his lack of commitment to Hispanic interests.

   It’s possible that some are waiting for Obama to clarify the issues he’ll run on for the presidency. Others are asking, what’s the alternative?

   Four days after Obama made his move, Hillary Clinton, whom the polls show as his main competitor in the Democratic primaries, officially entered the presidential contest, declaring she’s “in and in to win.” But her voting record on the Senate’s 2006 immigration legislation proposals, as well as the English-as-a-unifying-language amendment, is identical to that of Obama.

   U.S. Rep. Luís Gutiérrez, a Chicago Democrat and leader in pressing for comprehensive reform, says he knows what’s going on behind the scenes. I spoke with him in the immediate aftermath of the media frenzy over Obama’s presidential exploration committee announcement.

    “I’ve had many conversations with Barack and I think he heard loudly and clearly from many in the community about the position he took on the border fence,” Gutierrez told me, expanding, “He’s had extensive dialogue, he hasn’t arrogantly walked away from the conversation, and he is taking steps to address it.”

    What steps? That remains to be seen.

    We’re waiting, Mr. Senator, are you with us or against us?

   (Esther J. Cepeda is a Chicago-based journalist. She may be reached at xxxxxxxx.)

   © 2007

   END