Nissan Americas opened its new headquarters south of Nashville yesterday, cementing the company's already significant role in the Hispanic identity of Music City.

Hispanic employees in the news

The Tennessean's photo gallery of the new building included this picture of Jaime Ortiz working on the fourth floor, just a small reminder to Nashville that our newest corporate neighbor employs a number of new Hispanic Nashvillians. Other Nissan employees in the news recently are Pedro Quiterio, engineer, who attended the Committee of Latino Parents' sendoff of former Metro schools director Pedro Garcia (story here), and Stephanie Valdez Streaty, originally from Colorado, who was recognized in the "Corporate Executive" category of the Nashville Business Journal's 2008 Women of Influence Awards (story here)

Other examples of Nissan's Hispanic identity in Nashville:

Importance of diversity

When the Japanese automaker announced its relocation to Middle Tennessee from California in 2005, Nashville city promoters found out that diversity in Tennessee was a top concern among employees considering whether to relocate (story here). In June 2006, Nissan announced that it was "committed to pursuing and encouraging minority, women-owned, and local businesses to participate in the project" and invited a local Hispanic chamber of commerce to attend a Diversity Subcontractor and Vendor Project Informational Meeting (story here).

History of Hispanic marketing

In November 2006, Nissan launched a marketing campaign called Shift_musica, which was designed to attract Hispanic customers through music (story here). In March 2007, Nissan announced its newest Hispanic PR partner (story here), and in May 2006, Nissan launched a pan-regional Latin America media campaign with Fox Sports (story here).

Cross-cultural business

In December 2006, Dominique Thormann, Nissan senior vice president, discussed "Working Across Cultures in a Global Company" at Vanderbilt (story here).

Philanthropic support of Hispanic non-profits

In July 2007, Nissan made a $35,000 contribution to the civil rights efforts of the National Council of La Raza (story here), and in September 2007 Stephanie Valdez Streaty, Sr. Manager of Philanthropy and Diversity Communications, announced a $50,000 donation to the Harding Place YMCA's Hispanic Achievers program (story here). In May 2008, it was reported that Nissan joined the League of Latin American Citizens with a $25,000 donation and would also be supporting a scholarship program with Nashville-based Conexion Americas. (story here).

Welcome

To Nashville's newest "Hispanic neighbor" (even though you've been in your temporary HQ in downtown Nashville for a while now, so you're not so "new" anymore), we say welcome!


Image source: Nissan

Labels: business

Berry Hill officer, Davidson County Sheriff's department draw questions, ire over arrest, jail stay, and entry into 287(g) system of Juana Villegas

Tim Chávez files Amnesty International complaint, warns against visits to Music City

Backlash over restraints

The New York Times reported Sunday on the Berry Hill arrest and Davidson County incarceration of a visaless, pregnant Juana Villegas*, who gave birth while in custody. Villegas is a current resident of Nashville who has lived in the U.S. as far back as 1996** and is originally from Las Cajones, Guerrero, Mexico.

Tim Chávez, the former Tennessean columnist who started his own blog Political Salsa in May of this year, brought local and national attention to the story of Villegas' arrest and, particularly, the restrictions over her and her baby during her incarceration. Chávez filed a complaint with Amnesty International and has promised to warn everyone he encounters outside the city not to visit Nashville, until state lawmakers step in (original post here).

Most of the voices crying foul in and outside Nashville are calling into question the restrictions over Villegas' movements while in the late stages of labor and delivery, as well as her ability to be with her child - which have all been defended by the Sheriff's department as standard procedures regarding a pregnant woman in custody. The practice and the policy are being described by the growing list of critics as a human rights violation that far exceeds the boundaries of humane and reasonable conduct.

Metro policy: citation, not arrest, with I.D.

The fact that Villegas was arrested at all is one that has dismayed local immigration advocates, including Gregg Ramos, who is trying to keep ordinary immigrants out of the local crackdown on illegal immigration and has been quoted in a few stories including the New York Times piece. The general understanding among advocates like Ramos is that an officer's decision to arrest a person turns on whether that person can be identified. In May, Metro police chief Ronal Serpas confirmed this to the Tennessean:

[I]t has long been our policy, as provided by Tennessee law, to issue arrest citations whenever possible. Officers have no choice but to make physical arrests in cases where the defendants cannot or will not offer satisfactory evidence of identification. Unlicensed persons who choose to drive without proof of identification will be arrested regardless of race or ethnicity.

In Villegas' case, she had on her person a photo I.D. with her name on it, issued by her country's consulate. According to the New York Times piece, her immigration status was neither checked nor confirmed until after she was arrested:

After Mrs. Villegas was taken to the Davidson County jail, a federal immigration agent working there as part of the cooperation agreement conducted a background check. It showed that Mrs. Villegas was an illegal immigrant who had been deported once from the United States in March 1996, Karla Weikal, a spokeswoman for the county sheriff, said. She had no other criminal record.

If Berry Hill officers are arresting people instead of giving them citations in the hope that their immigration status will be checked by the Davidson County Sheriff once in custody, that could be driven by racial profiling, which is illegal by statute in Tennessee as of this year. Reporting on this story has been too light to draw any real conclusions. One would want to know what the standards are for arrests in Berry Hill (a different police department from Serpas' department, even though both are inside the shared boundaries of Metro Nashville/Davidson County), and what information is available to Berry Hill officers on the street at the time the arrest-or-citation decision is made, and how that analysis was made in this case in particular.

287(g) designed with dangerous criminals in mind, but 80% of charges are for misdemeanors

The reason advocates want ordinary immigrants to stay out of the Davidson County jail, and therefore out of the 287(g) system, is that they say the program was promoted as a weapon against violent criminals. One of the sources listed below has a more recent quote from Immigration and Customs Enforcement ("ICE"), but when asked about a similar case in 2006 in which a Nashville woman was thrown into jail after a minor traffic offense, ICE spokeswomen Temple Black told the Tennessean here that the result was puzzling:

Temple Black, spokesman for ICE [formerly known as INS] in the Southeast, seems puzzled that Metro law enforcement would expend resources on busting undocumented workers who aren’t dangerous criminals. "What we are focused on is aggravated felons…. We don’t go down to the Shell Station and pick up [undocumented workers]."

Differentiating between ordinary immigrants and dangerous criminals was a point made by Rick Casares, in an interview here with HispanicNashville.com:

To my knowledge, we do not routinely jail those who jaywalk, litter, or trespass. At this time, mere presence without documents is not a crime, but is equivalent to a civil infraction like those listed above.

Casares also raised the possibility of human rights abuses:

Once we single out a portion of our population and determine that they are unworthy of basic human rights, it becomes easier and easier to justify.

When asked about the program before its implementation in this interview with HispanicNashville.com, Sheriff Hall advised that even misdemeanors offenders who are only issued a citation would be run through the system, but he could not predict the numbers of ordinary immigrants vs. dangerous criminals who would be processed as part of 287(g).

The number turned out to be 80% misdemeanors, 20% more serious violations (story here).

Roundup of coverage

Here is a sampling of the local coverage of Villegas' story:

Political Salsa: "Go to www.nytimes.com and read about the embarrassment brought to Metro Nashville by its sheriff, mayor and congressman"

Tiny Cat Pants: "National Attention"

GingerSnaps: "Outraged"

Women's Health News: "New York Times Covers Treatment of Juana Villegas DeLaPaz"

NewsChannel5: "Police Claim Legitimate Arrest; Woman Clams Racial Profiling"

WKRN: "Hispanic woman claims racial discrimination"

Nashville Post: "Eager To Hit That 287(g) Pinata"

Nashville Post & Nashville City Paper: "School board candidate arresting officer in controversial 287(g) case"

Here is some of the national coverage:

Associated Press by former Tennessean reporter Travis Loller

Beyond Chron: "Out of Public Limelight, U.S. War on Immigrants Intensifies "

Blue Collar Muse: "Tim Chavez on Nashville’s 287g-estapo"

The Curvature: "Immigrant Woman Abused By Government While Giving Birth"

Daily Kos: "Woman Gives Birth Under Torture: Homeland Security Hell"

Dream Act Texas: "Juana Villegas Part IV"

Delaware Libertarian: "Is this where the debate over immigration has taken us--to complete dehumanization?"

Latino Político: "Shackled Like An Animal During Labor"

National Immigrant Justice Center: "Detained immigrant woman shackled during labor"

National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health: "The Inhumane Treatment Towards Juana Villegas DeLaPaz (Nashville, TN)"

Our Bodies Ourselves: "Appalling Treatment of Jailed Pregnant Immigrant"

Standing FIRM: "Shackled While Giving Birth - Police Abuse 287(g)"

Vivir Latino: "Human Rights Abuses Against Pregnant Undocumented Workers"

*Due to the different rules for Latin American surnames and U.S. surnames, Villegas has also been identified by her mother's surname, de la Paz, so you will also see her identified as "Juana Villegas de la Paz" or "Juana Delapaz," depending on the U.S. source.

**The New York Times reported that Villegas has lived in the U.S. since 1996. Various sources have reported that Villegas was deported in 1996. It is not clear how long Villegas had been living in the U.S. before her 1996 deportation and how soon after her removal she returned.

Labels: 287g, immigrants, justice, mexico, reputation

Commentary by Cesar A. Muedas

Friday's Tennessean reported that our state is the third most obese. Today, the Jackson Sun picks up the AP story that ranks Tennessee as 47th in the nation for library funding.
Three quarters of my household are Tennessean by birth; I am a proud Nashvillean by choice. How do these types of stats rub us? Not a pretty picture, indeed. But if we are really tired of this curse of being top of the worst or bottom of the best, we must start taking personal responsibility, voice opinions, and trigger meaningful actions.
What happens in the privacy of our homes is each family's business. What happens in the confines of our public schools is highly regulated and subject to unavoidable bureaucracy. But unquestionably, a lot of educating must be going on in both places. Let's ramp up the quantity and quality of that education. Let's inject more discipline and clean fun to the positive activities that occur at both (home and school). And let's exercise (pun intended) our civic duty of voting knowledgeably for those who, once in office, will listen, care and act in favor of changes beyond fads.
I am glad I am not on cholesterol medication, and now publicly will make a commitment for more walking and less driving. Many friends have heard my complaints about some junk I occasionally spot on shelves at the downtown library, so now will be time for me to put some observations in black and white and email them to the powers that be. But enough soap box rhetoric and let's also be practical. Later today, I will walk my bike to the gas station to inflate the tires; and tomorrow morning I will pay the $12.60 I have accrued in late fees at the library ... So, I invite you first to read the two articles linked above and then do what your conscience and common sense dictate, not just for ourselves but also for the sake of those who will not be of voting age for a good decade or more.

The Tennessean published this list of the board members of the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce, and among the names are Ramon Cisneros and Marcela Gomez.

Cisneros is the publisher of the Spanish-language La Campana newspaper and is also the President of the Board of the Tennessee Hispanic Chamber of Commerce*.

Gomez is the President of Diversity Brands and the Hispanic Marketing Group.

According to the article, Cisneros and Gomez are returning members of the board. The changes, the Tennessean says, are as follows:

Bank executive Ron Samuels has been named the new chairman of the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce's board of directors, the organization said Wednesday.

Samuels, the president and chief executive of Avenue Bank, replaces Darrell S. Freeman Sr., the chairman and chief executive of Zycron Inc., an information technology company.


Bert Mathews, president of The Mathews Co., a real estate firm, was named vice chairman, and Bob Grimes, marketing manager for Turner Universal Construction Co., will be secretary.

Ralph Schulz remains president, and Freeman becomes the group's immediate past chairman.

The chamber also announced seven new board members for the 2008-2009 term: Dennis Alpert, senior manager of public affairs/government relations for Wal-Mart Stores Inc.; David Fox, a partner in the public relations firm McNeely Pigott & Fox; Kate Herman, president and publisher of Nashville Business Journal; Dr. Melvin N. Johnson, president of Tennessee State University; Larry Kloess, president of HCA Tri-Star Health Systems; Tom Oreck, executive chairman of Oreck Corp., a vacuum cleaner manufacturer; and Nick Zeppos, chancellor of Vanderbilt University.

Labels: business, chambers

Joseline Vasquez, a 2-year-old child from Guatemala, is at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital recovering from surgery to remove a large tumor that had grown to the same size as her head. The surgery was funded by Brentwood-based Shalom Foundation, which has a video on its site featuring Dr. Stephen Goudy, who conducted the surgery. As discussed by Dr. Goudy, the Shalom Foundation is currently focusing its donations on Guatemala.

Vanderbilt Children's Hospital International Services is blogging Joseline's visit here with both stories and a slide show.

WKRN and NewsChannel5 have text and video reports here and here.

From NewsChannel5:

A 2-year-old Guatemalan girl is recovering from surgery to remove a neck tumor at Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt.

Joseline Vasquez had a lymphatic malformation on her neck since birth. The mass has grown as much as she has as lymph fluid created a cyst on her neck.

"Obviously these things are big water balloons or cysts and if she gets a cold the cyst can swell which could compress her breathing tube and swallowing tube, which could be life threatening," said Dr. Steven Goudy.
...
Her surgery was funded by the Brentwood-based Shalom Foundation, which provides financial support and physical assistance for children and their families. A team of doctors perform surgeries such as this on two to three foreign children each year.

Image source: Vanderbilt Children's Hospital International Services

Labels: guatemala, health

Yesterday, the State of Tennessee welcomed Volkswagen to the growing list of major automobile manufacturers located here (Saturn and Nissan also have major operations in the state), as the German automaker announced that it will locate one of its manufacturing operations in Chattanooga (story here).

To communicate the cementing of the bond between Tennessee and the German company, a backdrop offering a welcome in the German language appeared behind Governor Phil Bredesen of Tennessee and Stefan Jacoby of Volkswagen Group of America.

As said here by Nashvillian elderj in 2006:

To greet Koreans in Korean as a non-Korean is always a sure fire way to elicit surprise and a bit of cultural cool points. It doesn’t matter how much I mangle the pronunciation or use the improper honorific or fail to conjugate the verb, it never fails to please at some level.

Trying to speak someone’s language is a sign of respect... It indicates that you value them, or at least care enough to recognize that they are not altogether like you, and that this is a good thing.

Photo by Chattanooga Times Free Press

Labels: business, english, spanish

100 volunteers needed for Nashville Adult Literacy Council alone

Somali student: four years to speak English proficiently, even more to read and write

"They say almost universally if I knew English other doors would open"

Janell Ross of the Tennessean reported here on the time it takes for a student to learn English, and on the need for teachers:

LaWanna Shelton, the director of Metro schools' English as a Second Language programs, said people don't learn languages simply because they are surrounded by them.

"How many people studied a foreign language in high school, or high school and college?" Shelton said. "How many have been on those Spanish immersion trips to Mexico for two weeks? How many can speak that language, I mean, really speak that language, read it, write it? Well, that should give people some idea how difficult, how individual, how much of a process it really is."
...
Fadumo Siyke, a native of Somalia ... said it took four years to speak proficient English in most settings, but she still couldn't read or write the language. When she took her citizenship exam for the first time in January, she passed the oral section but failed the written test.
...
When [Renata] Soto's agency [Conexion Americas] surveys Latinos in the Nashville area, one answer appears repeatedly.

"People don't talk about a better-paying job, sometimes they don't even talk about papers," she said. "They say almost universally if I knew English other doors would open."
...
[T]he Nashville Adult Literacy Council, which also works with U.S.-born adults who cannot read, is in need of nearly 100 volunteers willing to work one-on-one with foreign-language speakers or adults who want to learn to read.

Photo by Pete Zivkov. Licensed under Creative Commons.

Labels: education, english

The 2008 Miss Tennessee Latina pageant has been postponed until October. Interested contestants and sponsors should contact Marjorie Weller, Tennessee State Director, at (615) 506-1279 or misstnuslatina@hotmail.com

The reigning 2007-2008 Miss Tennessee Latina is Mariela Flores. She was crowned at last year's pageant on August 11, 2007.

Photo of Mariela Flores courtesy of Miss Tennessee Latina.

Labels: events

Over 500 people attended last night's "American Dream Banquet" hosted by the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition ("TIRRC") at the Loews Vanderbilt Hotel. Sean Braisted noted here the movers and shakers in attendance. Here are some of the salient announcements about TIRRC's recent achievements:

• TIRRC has won one of the 2008 National Council of La Raza/Ford Motor Company Affiliate of the Year Awards.
• Due in large part to the efforts of TIRRC and its allies on Capitol Hill, Tennessee was the only southern state that didn't pass anti-immigrant legislation this year (more here).
• TIRRC's Welcoming Tennessee Initiative is the model for similar initiatives in 13 other states, including Welcoming Massachusetts and Welcoming Idaho, and also a newly formed Welcoming America initiative.

Congratulations to David Lubell, the outgoing executive director of TIRRC, and Stephen Fotopulos, the incoming executive director. Congratulations also to honorees Bill Purcell and Johnny Hayes. All were recognized for their significant contributions to TIRRC and for helping ensure that Tennessee is a place where newcomers are welcome.

Tim Chávez also posts about the event here. Chávez repeats Charles Bone's comment from the podium that among the 500+ present, around 200 were hearing about TIRRC for the first time, having come specifically to support honoree Johnny Hayes.

Labels: immigrants

Nashville-based Carrie Ferguson Weir, author of the Bilingual in the Boonies blog, has been named as one of four "Parenting Post Bloggers" on Parenting.com, according to the site and Weir's announcement here. Weir is prominently featured on the Parenting.com home page.

You can follow all of Weir's posts on Parenting.com here.

"Refusal to Resegregate Nashville"

"Racial code ... permeates the culture of our community"

Former Metro Nashville Public Schools Director Pedro Garcia authored a document titled "Refusal to Resegregate Nashville" that has surfaced only now in the context of the city's school rezoning plan. In it, Garcia covers a wide variety of topics related to segregation and his history in the top job at MNPS, and he compares his working conditions under the Nashville school board to the dictatorships of his native Cuba.

From the Nashville City Paper:

According to the document, Garcia believed racial politics permeated life in Nashville.

“I had never lived in the south before I came to Nashville,” the document says. “This is a great city and we have many friends here. But, I have also had to adjust to many racial issues. There is some sort of racial code or expectation that permeates the culture of our community. Sometimes it is like having an elephant in the living room of your house but refusing to recognize it is there.”

The document compares the behavior of some school board members with life under dictatorships in Cuba.

“I spent the first fifteen years of my life in Cuba living under two dictatorships, Batista and Castro,” the document reads. “I saw and experienced hate, violence and abuse. I expected such behavior from tyrants and oppressive regimes. However, I never expected board members and community leaders would become acrimonious and demeaning.”

“I believe in parental choice and in freedom of expression. I fought against Castro for these rights from the age of thirteen. And yet, here in America, I was the target of behind the scenes manipulations and fear tactics. My tenure at MNPS should not have ended this way,” the document states.

Copies of the documents can be found here on the Tennessean's web site or here on the Nashville City Paper's web site.

The complete story about school rezoning and Garcia's document can be found in either this article in the Tennessean or this article in the Nashville City Paper.

Labels: cuba, education, negativity

Last night's episode of Nashville Star Season 6 saw contestant Gabe Garcia survive another week, putting him among the top 6 of 12 finalists. By making it this far, Garcia has passed Melanie Torres' seventh-place finish in Season Four.

Jeff Sampson of BuddyTV.com said that Garcia's performance for the night lacked "stage charisma," but that the judges and audience loved him:

Gabe Garcia is safe and will be singing Keith Urban's “Somebody Like You.” He apparently took dance lessons so that he could loosen up more on stage. He sings well but still lacks stage charisma, in my opinion. The audience and judges loved him though.

Also, Gabe has created this new Facebook page for his fans.

Photo source: NashvilleStar.com

Labels: arts

Irish-American song "Harrigan" among tributes to USA

The Sunday before July 4, Covenant Presbyterian put on a 2-hour choral and orchestral Independence Day celebration, including some typical patriotic songs (1812 Overture, Lee Greenwood, etc.) and some atypical ones, as well, including "Sound of Music" and "Harrigan." The latter, by George M. Cohan, is an Irish-and-proud-of-it theme that reminds us, in the words of Schoolhouse Rock's "Great American Melting Pot,"

How great to be American
And something else as well.

The Covenant Pres concert doubled as a final performance for retiring choir director Tom Ashcraft, who can be forgiven for not including my generation's Saturday morning cartoon ballad in the program. That, and the theme from Superman. If you're going to include snippets from the Sound of Music in an Independence Day medley, you might as well throw in the triumphant procession of the Man of Steel's soundtrack.

For the curious, here are the lyrics to "Harrigan" and "Great American Melting Pot":

Harrigan

Who is the man who will spend or will even lend?
Harrigan, That's Me!
Who is your friend when you find that you need a friend?
Harrigan, That's Me!
For I'm just as proud of my name you see,
As an Emperor, Czar or a King, could be.
Who is the man helps a man every time he can?
Harrigan, That's Me!
H - A - double R - I - G - A - N spells Harrigan
Proud of all the Irish blood that's in me; Divil a man can say a word agin me.
H - A - double R - I - G - A - N, you see,
Is a name that a shame never has been connected with, Harrigan, That's me!
Who is the man never stood for a gad about?
Harrigan, That's Me!
Who is the man that the town's simply mad about?
Harrigan, That's Me!
The ladies and babies are fond of me,
I'm fond of them, too, in return, you see.
Who is the gent that's deserving a monument?
Harrigan, That's Me!
H - A - double R - I - G - A - N spells Harrigan
Proud of all the Irish blood that's in me; Divil a man can say a word agin me.
H - A - double R - I - G - A - N, you see,
Is a name that a shame never has been connected with, Harrigan, That's me!

Great American Melting Pot

My grandmother came from Russia
A satchel on her knee,
My grandfather had his father's cap
He brought from Italy.
They'd heard about a country
Where life might let them win,
They paid the fare to America
And there they melted in.

Lovely Lady Liberty
With her book of recipes
And the finest one she's got
Is the great American melting pot.
The great American melting pot.

America was founded by the English,
But also by the Germans, Dutch, and French.
The principle still sticks;
Our heritage is mixed.
So any kid could be the president.

You simply melt right in,
It doesn't matter what your skin.
It doesn't matter where you're from,
Or your religion, you jump right in
To the great American melting pot.
The great American melting pot.
Ooh, what a stew, red, white, and blue.

America was the New World
And Europe was the Old.
America was the land of hope,
Or so the legend told.
On steamboats by the millions,
In search of honest pay,
Those 19th-century immigrants sailed
To reach the U.S.A.

Lovely Lady Liberty
With her book of recipes
And the finest one she's got
Is the great American melting pot
The great American melting pot.
What good ingredients,
Liberty and immigrants.

They brought the country's customs,
Their language and their ways.
They filled the factories, tilled the soil,
Helped build the U.S.A.
Go on and ask your grandma,
Hear what she has to tell
How great to be an American
And something else as well.

Lovely Lady Liberty
With her book of recipes
And the finest one she's got
Is the great American melting pot
The great American melting pot.

The great American melting pot.
The great American melting pot.

Labels: immigrants

"The officer was about to send me back"

"Free to fulfill the purpose of our lives in the United States of America"

The Tennessean published this story by Maria Pervatt, a new U.S. citizen from Costa Rica, in which she describes her immigration back to Gallatin and subsequent citizenship process. A harrowing close call is tucked in there:

The officer was about to send me back to Costa Rica, but was moved by my children's words, saying "We are Americans, and she is our mother."
...
Months later I got to return to my home sweet home in Gallatin, a place where I lived for years and had sold before I went back to Costa Rica. From here I continue working with my nephew's ministry, arranging meetings for him to spread the gospel worldwide and whose testimony is impacting today's youth.
...
This fourth of July, I got my own personal gift, freedom to travel as I finally received my own beautiful American passport.

Now the next time my girls and I will make that one stop at any immigration office, we all will be proud to say we are citizens of a nation under God and proud to be free to fulfill the purpose of our lives in the United States of America.

Photo by Daniel Lobo. Licensed under Creative Commons.

Labels: costa rica, immigrants