The last two last Friday of the month meetings (August 26th and September 27, 2019 were of great interest. During the August 26, 2019 meeting, U.S. Congress Member Zoe Lofgren, (CA-District 17) and Chairman Victor Garza told several anecdotes concerning their long relationship as community activists. Lofgren supported having Garza appointed Director of Veteran’s Affairs, County of Santa Clara back during the 1990’s.
Lofgren is a lawyer whose specialty is Immigration Law. Do note that that issue has never been resolved even though the Democratic Party had control of the Presidency (Obama, 2009-10), the Senate and the House. The Obama Administration focused upon enactment of the 2010 Affordable Care Act. The long-time needed Immigration Reform Act was not addressed (nor will it be as long as many who profit from those 11.5 million undocumented skilled workers. Some 5.5 million are Hispanic Latinos).
When I saw the LRRT meeting August 26, 2019 agenda which had Congress member Zoe Lofgren (U.S. Congress; CA-District 17) and Raul Peralez, who represents District 3 (Downtown San Jose) on the City Council. The thought went through my mind that maybe Zoe was endorsing Raul Peralez as her successor. NOT SO! Zoe Lofgren announced her re-election. She has already served 24 years (12 x 2-year terms) and has enjoyed substantial support from local Hispanic-Latino registered voter.
Is it time for the Hispanic-Latino community of Congressional District 17 to find a potential successor who would oppose Zoe Lofgren in the coming elections? Recently, the San Jose City Council had five Latinos seated as elected officials on its 10 district SJ City Council. Is it time to consider the election of a Hispanic-Latino to represent District 17 so the community has another direct representative’?
EO does not think that there will ever be any change in the current immigration statutes until that community has more direct representation. It is simply difficult to unseat an incumbent because those who profit from their current ability to exploit those 11.5 million undocumented (of which 5.5 million are Hispanic-Latinos) all have lobbyists who make campaign contributions.
So, when will enough Hispanic-Latino registered voters have the opportunity to change things? What’s needed is a worthy qualified Hispanic=Latino opponent and enough motivation amongst the Hispanic-Latino registered voters in District 17. Whenever that happens, be assured that that Hispanic-Latino will become the next millionaire because all those lobbyists will curry favor with their campaign contributions.
For the past two years, I have paid my $100 per year membership fee to La Raza Roundtable organization. My personal check was accepted and cashed. No acknowledgement letter (or even a post card) was sent to me. Chairman Victor Garza has been elected chairman for some 24 years. Plus, several attendees have wondered if Victor has health issues. He has missed several meetings when Robert Nunez convened the monthly LRRT meeting.
So, who are the LRRT Board members? Why not post a LRRT Board membership listing so that those of us who want to give community feedback know who to communicate to.
My suggestion is that a binder be available during monthly meetings which has a copy of LRRT charter (It is an IRS Section 501(c)(4) non-profit CBO-NGO (Community = Non-Governmental organization).
The oligarchy (small group) which Victor Garza allegedly hand-picks are beholden to him and support him.
Some years ago, I was phoned by Victor Garza who asked me to be a member of this LRRT group. I was interested until I was informed that of course EL OBSERVADOR publication would be required to support La Raza Roundtable. As President & Publisher of EO, I declined because EO needs to operate as a fully independent community publication which presented factual, truthful and useful information to its Hispanic-Latino targeted readership. EO is accessible ONLINE at www.el-observador.com.
Any profits from EO’s business operations are used to support Hispanic-Latino students attending local universities/colleges. Since 1986 to date, Betty and Hilbert Morales were the fiscal angels who ensured that whenever revenues earned were not enough to underwrite EO’s operating costs’, the requisite funding was made available.
A consequence is that EO, as a bilingual community publication was enabled to be very reliable in its support of public policy changes and the effective development of the local Hispanic-Latino registered voter. Almost all Latino-Hispanic candidates who opted to campaign to become an elected official was supported gratis.
It is the reliable delivery of factual, truthful and useful information which permitted the local Hispanic-Latino Community to become informed enough to begin election of its own to public offices as elected officials. In fact, I enjoyed much personal satisfaction when Blanca Alvarado, who was supported by EO back during the 1980’s, as the first Latina SJ City Council member representing District Five.
And recently Five of Ten City Council District seats were occupied by elected local Hispanic-Latinos. All elected with EO’s gratis support. That has to change, because Information Technology, Amazon, Facebook and Google have absorbed much of the advertisement revenues. I encourage local Hispanic-Latino professional and business owners to insert (pay for) an $125 advertisement once or twice a year.
The Hispanic-Latino community, especially its professionals and small businesses are encouraged to place their newspaper advertisements in EO. Those revenues enable and ensure that our community is kept well informed and that its journalism students have access to accredited journalism internships. During 1986, four SJSU journalism students came to EO asking for internships after having been rejected by every WASP owned and managed local publication. EO’s publishers Betty and Hilbert Morales decided to fill that void and made requisite resource available. All four Latino students graduated with their 4-year Mass Communication and Journalism degree (1988).
Currently, the City of San Jose has no community newspaper because the former San Jose Mercury News no longer exists. The San Francisco Bay Area News Group consolidated its staffing of reporters, writers, editors, etc., who are now located elsewhere; even the S.J. Mercury News facility formerly located on Ridder Drive is no more.
Newspapers, as a printed source of community information plus national and worldwide news, will always have its niche because the electronic communications devices are not required to be truthful, factual and useful and are not as responsible as an adjudicated newspaper which will remain in the archives of libraries. It is those archives which contain the factual reliable information which historians will use in the future. EO’s past archives already exist in digital form in the cloud. The result is that our community’s involvement and history is already being recorded in collections.
WHY DO I REVEAL ALL THIS? It is because too many in the general community and especially its Hispanic-Latino sector, simply do not know nor make no effort to be informed.
AND MOST IMPORTANTLY: IT TAKES GOOD FACTUAL AND TRUTHFUL INFORMATION TO ENABLE A COMMUNITY TO LOOK OUT FOR ITS OWN BEST INTERESTS.
So, as EO’s Publisher-emeritus (which means I am retired; at age 90 I plan to retire soon), I ask that you make a personal commitment to support EO and its current Publisher/CEO, editor and employees. That is a requirement if EO is to continue being your source of good, reliable, truthful and factual information which is always accessible in local public library archives.
Also, consider supporting Ramon J. Martinez, Ph.D., and Fernando Zazueta, esq., who have just initiated LA RAZA HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF SANTA CLARA VALLEY. Make it a point to not throw away artifacts and documents which are old family records and photos. Deliver them to La Raza Historical Society of SCV.
Help Dr. Martinez and his colleagues collect, organize and create those archives which document the creative, innovative and supportive efforts of LA RAZA in the transitional developments of SILICON VALLEY. The local WASPs in positions of influence, power and authority have no idea about our supportive efforts and will not unless WE, THE PEOPLE tell them.
For once, We, Latino-Hispanics must document, record, and communicate our community efforts which enabled the creation of SILICON VALLEY as a unique center of excellence, innovation and creativity which is the envy of the entire world.
