By Rina N. Risper
The New Citizens Press
LANSING, MI — Recently, headlines read: “U.S. Hispanic Population Surpasses 45 Million: Now 15 Percent of Total Population.” The nation’s Hispanic population increased by 1.4 million to reach 45.5 million in July of 2007, or 15.1 percent of the estimated total U.S. population of 301.6 million.
National and state estimates by race, Hispanic origin, sex and age released by the U.S. Census Bureau also show that the Hispanic population exceeded 500,000 in 16 states.
Hispanics remained the largest minority group, with blacks (single race or multiracial) second at 40.7 million in 2007. The black population exceeded 500,000 in 20 states. Blacks were the largest minority group in 24 states, compared with 20 states in which Hispanics were the largest minority group.
The Census Bureau numbers reflect the new majority minority in the United States. Hispanic’s have a rich cultural heritage and have made many contributions that will impact our lives for centuries to come.
Baca’s Journey
Judith Baca was chosen to be a part of a Smithsonian Institute exhibit “Our Journey/Our Stories:Portraits of Latino Achievement”. It’s a display that narrates the lives of twenty-four individuals along with one extended family. Their documented history reveal their visions, struggles and challenges while experiencing the American Dream.
Each participant has a commissioned photograph that’s accompanied by a biographical profile which is woven with the colorful details of their specific lives. The exhibit ends its thirteen-city tour in its only Michigan showing at Michigan State University’s Museum. The Smithsonian exhibit was made possible by the Ford Motor Company Fund.
Baca is more than an artist, she is also an activist. She organized the painting of GREAT WALL OF LOS ANGELES mural in the Tujunga Wash Flood Control Channe. Baca designed a work which incorporated forty ethnic scholars, four hundred fifty multi-cultural neighborhood youth, forty assisting artists and over hundred support staff to paint a half mile long mural on the ethnic history of California.
Our History
Local Latinos who aren’t featured in the exhibit, have made some interesting contributions to our communities on a small and large scale.
Ms. Marylou Olivarez Mason and Mr. John Roy Castillo credit their hard working parents for leading them both into public service jobs.
Homegrown Heroes
Many Mexican laborers moved to Michigan at the turn of the 20th century to work in agriculture. In Mexico they were considered skilled.
Many individuals and families were lured to Michigan with the promise of a job and housing. The Michigan Sugar Beet Company operating in Bay County since 1905, would travel to Texas to recruit workers. The company is still producing sugar and have expanded their line of products. Today, Michigan Sugar Company makes nearly one billion pounds of sugar under the Pioneer and Big Chief brand.
His Story
Mr. Castillo said, “My father was born in Texas, he never went to school. My mother was born in Mexico and she only went to school through the third grade in Mexico. They came to Michigan to work in the Sugar Beet fields and I was born in Port Huron, Michigan the following year. I am the oldest of seven children. I worked in the fields as a farmworker until I was twenty-two years old. I was the first one in my family to go to college and graduate from law school. When I started school I didn’t speak any English. I remember being made fun of by the other school children. I remember that my school counselor told me that I shouldn’t go to college and that I should go to trade school. I remember being told in college that I wasn’t law school material. I worked my way through college and didn’t get a scholarship until I was in law school.”
Mr. Castillo is graduate of Wayne State University Law School. He obtained his undergraduate degree from Western Michigan University.
He’s an attorney and currently serves as the Executive Director of the Cristo Rey Community Center in Lansing, Michigan.
He is responsible for the direction and management of the Center. His duties include supervising and managing over twenty-five major programs from a health clinic, employment and training, direct assistance, children services, people with disabilities, diversion program, counseling and substance abuse, senior and prevention programs, housing program, community kitchen and other various programs.
Before this position he also served as an adjunct professor at Thomas M. Cooley Law School, the Director of the Michigan Department of Civil Rights, Assistant Attorney General with the Michigan Attorney General’s Office and various other local government and private positions.
Her Story
Ms. Mason was born in San Antonio, Texas and came to Michigan with her family as a migrant farm worker and after a number of years the family settled in Saginaw, Michigan. She graduated from St. Joseph High School and received her nursing degree from Saginaw school of nursing in 1969. She held various positions at a local medical clinic as office manager/nursing supervisor. Her nursing profession included surgical nursing and private duty nursing. She started her work with the Michigan Department of Civil Rights in 1977 as the assistant to the District Director of the Saginaw Community Relations Bureau.
In 1981, she transferred to the Civil Rights Office in Lansing with the Enforcement Bureau as an investigator of civil rights complaints, and then obtained a job with the Commission of Spanish Speaking Affairs as the Assistant Director in March of 1986. Ms. Mason was appointed as the Commission's Executive Director in August of 1986, making her its first woman director. She is on the board of the Impressions Five Science Museum and serves as chairperson of the Mayor's Sister City Commission Committee to the city of Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, and the student exchange program sponsored by Lansing Community College/Universidad Automa De Guadalajara.
In March of 1998, she was one of twenty-seven Hispanics selected by the Mexican government to attend a Mexico/United States Summit and meet with President Ernesto Zedillo and members of his Cabinet to discuss issues and concerns that affect our communities in the United States and Mexico. She was one of the forty women from the United States to participate in a Women's Summit in Mexico City, referred to as Encuentro de Mujeres Mexicanas. Ms. Mason has served as Chairperson of the City of Lansing Human Relations Board, the Michigan Educational Opportunity Fund, and the Cristo Rey Community Center Board of Directors, Capital Area United Way and United Way of Michigan, Lansing Community College LUCERO Program (a retention program for Hispanic students) as well as a board member of many other local, state, and national organizations.
Ms. Mason has received various awards and recognitions such as the prestigious Diana Award presented to her by the Greater Lansing YWCA for her extensive work in government, as well as an Honorary Doctorate Degree from Great Lakes College in Saginaw for her outstanding community work throughout the state of Michigan and on the national and international level. In June 1998, she received the Richard Lett's, Hugo Luneburg Award, for demonstrating and encouraging the elimination of prejudice and discrimination and to advance the cause of human rights in the Lansing community.
In 2000, Ms. Mason received three more awards: the Cesar Chavez Community Service Award from the US Hispanic Leadership Institute in Chicago for her unselfish commitment to community service, the Ordinary Women Doing Extraordinary Things Award from the Michigan chapter of the National Women's History Project (Women's Hall of Fame) for significantly advancing the status of women and serving as a positive example for all people, and the Regional Mujer Award from the National Hispana Leadership Institute in Washington D.C. for contributing to the empowerment and well-being of the Hispanic community in the region.
In 2000, she was inducted into the Hispanic Business Alliance Hall of Fame. She is a graduate of the National Hispana Leadership Institute, class of 2002. Ms. Mason served on the Lansing Community College, Board of Trustees in 2003. In 2005 Ms. Mason was appointed to the Consejeros de los Mexicanos del Instituto del Exterior, Institute of Mexicans Abroad. Additionally in 2005, the Honorable De Icaza, Ambassador from Mexico, presented the “OHTLI” Award to Ms. Mason. This award is given to a Mexican citizen living abroad that has dedicated their personal time and professional efforts to open the road, build bridges of opportunities and help provide a better future for the next generation. In 2006, Ms. Mason was elected as the alternate representative for the National Council of La Raza, Midwest Affiliate Advisory Council.
Ms. Mason was married to the late George E. Mason, retired Assistant Attorney General. She has four sons and one daughter, fourteen grandchildren and one great-grand son.
Even though Ms. Mason and Mr. Castillo have achieved high levels of success there are many challenges facing the growing Latino population.
“The greatest issue for Latinos right now are employment, education, health and the current tone of this country as it deals with immigration and all the negative comments by talk host shows involving Hispanics. Crimes against Hispanics have risen over 100% from last year,” said Castillo.
For the purposes of this
article the word “Hispanic” and “Latino” are used
interchangeably.
Part II will be in the August 31, 2008 – September 13, 2008 edition.
