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Sunday, November 6, 2005

Tensions Among Hispanic Groups Erupt in Schools

By Gabriela C. Guzman
Copyright © 2005 Albuquerque Journal; Journal Northern Bureau
   
Eighth in a series: New Mexico, which prides itself on its rich multicultural heritage, has seen an increase in traditions and businesses from south of the border in recent years. The reason? An influx of immigrants. That influx has also increased tensions in some areas between longtime Hispanics and newcomers from Mexico.
    SANTA FE— New Mexico has a long history that ties it to both Spain and Mexico, but that doesn't mean relations between longtime natives and new immigrants are always smooth.
    Even in Santa Fe— a self-declared haven for immigrants, a hotbed of liberal politics and a longtime beacon for Hispanic culture— tension sometimes rises to the surface as more and more newcomers from south of the border take up residence.
    In recent weeks that tension has come to the forefront in the hallways, cafeterias and parking lots of the city's public schools.
    Just last month, the tossing of a Frito pie ignited a melee between dozens of students at Capital High School. Students who started the fracas claimed to be from opposing gangs or cliques divided on ethnic and racial lines.
    School district officials are interpreting the clash as part of long-brewing tensions between "Hispanics"— northern New Mexico natives— and "Mexicans," tensions that exist in Santa Fe and other parts of New Mexico.
    Either way, say district staff members, it is not specific to schools.
    It's a community thing. It's a bullying thing. It's a family thing. It's a racial thing. It's about jobs. It's a lack of communication between students and adults.
    These mantras could be repeated across the state.
   
State history
    In New Mexico, state history affects how illegal immigration is seen, says Juan A. Delgadillo, president and CEO of Asociación de Comerciantes Latinos de New Mexico.
    During the period when the state transferred from a Mexican territory to American hands, he says, an identity crafted among New Mexican natives was more associated with Spain than Mexico.
    "To New Mexico native Hispanics, all Mexicans, Cubans, Salvadorians, etc., are an inferior race: those who were conquered by them (or by their ancestors, for that matter), the Spaniard conquistador," Delgadillo says.
    Some New Mexicans are against immigration altogether— legal or not— because they fear American culture will be replaced by Mexican culture, says Felipe Gonzales, University of New Mexico sociology department professor and chair.
    "It (their fear) comes out in reaction to the growing presence of Spanish being spoken" and is associated with a perceived decline in "American culture," he says.
    Gonzales adds, "It's kind of irrational, because 'American culture' has been evolving since its beginnings."
    Make no mistake, illegal immigration is an issue in northern New Mexico, said Española City Councilor Joseph Maestas. Just thumb through the editorial pages of the local newspaper and you'll see a mix of attitudes, he added.
    Part of the problem, Maestas said, is the lack of a comprehensive federal immigration policy. He said another problem is the perception that illegal immigrants are using up limited resources. That resentment will only grow as federal programs are cut to deal with the mounting deficit, he said.
    "I feel, as a nation of immigrants, we ought not forget our legacy as immigrants," he said.
    Besides, he said, they contribute to the economy.
    "I'm convinced that our nation's economy if not our local economy is sustained by immigrants— illegal or otherwise— that are filling these positions," Maestas said. They pay taxes, support their families and buy goods, he added.
    Juan José Peña, chairman of the Hispano Round Table of New Mexico and vice commander of the American GI Forum of Albuquerque, says he sees Mexican immigrants working their way into the fabric of society in Albuquerque and around the state.
    "Albuquerque has a sizable Mexicano presence and community which is beginning to establish itself as the largest minority group— larger than the Afro-American and Native American populations in Albuquerque," Peña says. "There is still a strong resentment of and discrimination against the Mejicanos, but more and more they are being incorporated into the fields of work which Neomejicanos used to dominate: construction, restaurant and service work, mechanics and body men."
   
Santa Fe County
    Generally, Hispanics around the state are more tolerant of illegal immigration than are Anglos, according to a statewide poll conducted for the Journal last month by Research & Polling Inc.
    The poll also found that residents in border counties in southern New Mexico are likely to be less apprehensive about illegal immigration than those who live in other areas of the state farther from the border.
    Brian Sanderoff, president of Research & Polling, says he's heard apprehension about immigration expressed anecdotally.
    "In Santa Fe focus groups I have heard native Hispanics express concern about Spanish-speaking immigrants taxing the resources of the school system with their special needs and requirements, particularly language-barrier issues," he says.
    Santa Fe County's immigrant population does stand out.
    Ten percent of Santa Fe County residents, or 13,075 people, were born in another country, compared to Bernalillo County's 8.6 percent.
    Santa Fe's politics also set it apart.
    In 1999, the Santa Fe City Council went so far as to pass a resolution specifying that no city resources are to be used to identify or apprehend a noncitizen resident on the sole basis of immigration status.
    In December 2001, Border Patrol agents joined State Police at a DWI roadblock in Santa Fe. Agents detained 17 undocumented immigrants, sparking an outcry from members of the community. Immigrant support groups again decried the Border Patrol's reappearance this summer in Santa Fe.
    Yet conflicts continue at Santa Fe's schools.
    At DeVargas Middle School recently, there have been fights between groups of boys who call each other names and take cheap shots— physical and verbal— at each other, school officials say.
    Aggression among students may come out at school, but it has its roots in the students' homes, says DeVargas principal Skip Hemperley.
    Mary Helen Kelty, a counselor at DeVargas, also suspects students are repeating comments they hear at home.
    Remarks about immigrants taking jobs away from locals or that "they should go back to where they came from" are some of the things students tell Kelty when they are brought into her office.
    "They hear from the adults," she says. "Their parents make the distinctions."
    These sorts of disputes are nothing new at DeVargas, both Hemperley and Kelty say.
    "The more immigrants we have, the more tensions we have," Kelty says.
   
Common ground
    DeVargas and other schools are trying to figure out ways to quash the tensions.
    Claudia Krause-Johnson, the new principal at Santa Fe High, was told by teachers that any effort to solve the problem was futile.
    This is just what happens in Santa Fe, some of her staff told her.
    But Krause-Johnson said she couldn't accept that explanation.
    She said she knows there is a way to get at the issue because of a breakthrough last year at DeVargas, when she was principal there.
    A feud was brewing between 25 girls whose families were native to Santa Fe and others whose families were from Mexico. On numerous occasions, the girls clashed in physical fights and verbal assaults.
    Punishment was not working, Krause-Johnson said.
    With the help of Mary Louise Romero, a well-known Santa Fe mediator, the girls discovered they had more in common than expected and even their fears followed parallel lines.
    Her work should not be dismissed as being "Kumbaya-like" mush, Romero says.
    The girls found common ground through a series of questions that progressively got more personal, Romero says.
    Since then she's been called by other schools in Santa Fe and Española to work with dueling students who are divided along ethnic lines.
    Separation is a real problem, she says, because it leads to inaccurate perceptions. "It's really an issue. We need to be innovative."
    In the hopes that she can repeat previous results, DeVargas is again looking to bring Romero into the school to mediate between boys.
   
Mariachi harmony
    There are pockets throughout the district where student ancestry is not a barrier.
    In music groups, acting classes or sports teams, young people are moving beyond their backgrounds and becoming friends.
    Inside a largely empty band room at DeVargas, Ernie Gonzales calls out the chords to keep eight girls strumming their guitars in time. Behind them are two trumpet players following their own sheets of music.
    They may be off key, but this assortment of middle and high school students is more in harmony than some of their counterparts around Santa Fe Public Schools.
    Here, tensions have eased between Hispanics native to northern New Mexico and students who come from immigrant families or are immigrants themselves as the students have gotten to know each other.
    Erika Soveranes, who can trace her roots in Santa Fe back generations, admits she did not have any Spanish-speaking friends before joining Mariachi Conquistador at DeVargas as a seventh-grader last year.
    "I wish I would have had more Spanish-speaking friends so I could have learned, but I just didn't," she says before storing her trumpet and guitar inside a school closet.
    Yoko Jalalon is Mexican, Japanese and Filipina. She says that, outside the mariachi group, she mostly sticks with other students who are immigrants or come from immigrant families.
    "They all speak Spanish," says Jalalon of her other friends.
    Soveranes says the group has taught her important life lessons.
    "We are pretty much the same in our own different ways," she says, regardless if they are native Santa Feans or from another country.
    Jalalon agrees.
    Fights and name-calling may occur during class time at DeVargas, but at mariachi everything is peaceful, Jalalon says.
    "We all know each other. We are all nice to each other," she says after a recent practice.
   

    Martin Salazar, Debra Dominguez and Rene Romo contributed to this story.