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Column No. 4600 Length: 675 words
HISPANIC LINK
07/27/08
IF YOU ARE FEMALE OR HISPANIC, BEWARE OF NASHVILLE
By Tim Chávez
Hispanic Link News Service
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — It’s not my Nashville anymore. It’s Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib. We have replicated the water-boarding this nation used against the untried captives we stored on Cuba’s edge and the various degrees of degradation we forced on Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib.
Mrs. Juana Villegas was literally tortured this month by the Davidson County Sheriff's Department here in Nashville as she went through childbirth.
She was handcuffed by the wrist and leg to the hospital bedrail during most of her labor, restrained by skin-peeling shackles on her legs for trips to the bathroom and, worst of all, denied by the sheriff’s department the use of a breast pump to feed her newborn and ease the pain from her swollen breasts.
Separated from her mother, the infant developed a dangerously high blood level of a chemical that induces jaundice.
All the while, the 33-year-old Villegas was under visible guard by the sheriff's department, including the watch of a male sentry as she changed from jail jumpsuit into hospital clothes.
Attending nurses left her hospital room in tears.
Villegas, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, was arrested three days before giving birth. She was charged with operating a vehicle without a driver’s license and careless driving.
State law recognizes a photo ID card and registration as sufficient proof that a person will show up in court for a traffic offense. However, despite having a Matricula card, vehicle registration, and three children who are U.S. citizens, Juana Villegas spent seven days in sheriff's custody.
Ironically, over the Fourth of July weekend, Nashville was host to an episode of torture that the United Nations forbids.
Nothing in state or federal law required that Villegas, an undocumented immigrant who had been ordered deported once before, be treated so mercilessly. It was the department's policy and politics under one man, Sheriff Daron Hall, that led to her inhumane treatment.
In Nashville and Davidson County, more than 3,500 heads of households have been deported in the past 14 months. More than 1,500 human beings LEGALLY in this country have been arrested and questioned for hours by the sheriff’s department. Law enforcement authorities in 57 U.S. communities now have the power to enforce federal immigration law.
Nashville considers itself a progressive city. It is home to Vanderbilt University and a host of other institutions of higher education. Democrats, or what passes for a Democrat in the South, dominate politics here. Yet what is transpiring reinforces the portrayal of the small town run by a Southern sheriff.
The sheriff is allowed to torture expectant mothers by virtue of the 287g deportation program, authorized by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Amnesty International USA points out that only three states forbid the kind of treatment that Villegas endured. Sick and pregnant female prisoners are chained to their hospital beds all over the USA, it reports.
Because of what happened to Juana Villegas, the organization should investigate and put Nashville under its "human rights watch." Public servants such as Nashville Mayor Karl Dean, our Congressional Rep. Jim Cooper and Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen — Democrats all — have failed to speak up about this outrage. They should be put on notice that our popular tourism sites will be much less appealing until they open their mouths and call for the termination of 287g.
Only California and Illinois have laws forbidding the torture of expectant mothers in custody. Wisconsin has recently improved its Department of Corrections policy. There is much work to do in other states, too.
For your own good, stay away from Nashville. It is not mine or anyone else’s anymore. It belongs to those who create and support public policy rooted in bigotry and flee from the responsibility of public service to all through the cowardice of silence.
(Tim Chávez writes political commentary for Hispanic Link News Service in Washington, D.C. A columnist with the Nashville Tennessean for nine years, he has his own web site, www.politicalsalsa.com.
©2008
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Column No. 4507 For op-ed or religion page
HISPANIC LINK Length: 775 words
01/13/08
OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE BRINGS A SMALL MIRACLE TO TENNESSEE
By Tim Chávez
Hispanic Link News Service
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – My mother married my father more than a half century ago in a church dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe. It was located in a Topeka, Kansas, barrio populated with a growing number of Latinos recruited to fill meat-packing jobs and keep the Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad running across this nation.
The barrio’s most famous citizen, Mike Tórrez, pitched the New York Yankees to victory in the 1977 World Series, winning two games,
Every U.S. city that realizes a critical mass of Hispanics, especially mexicanos, will be home to a Catholic church dedicated to La Virgen de Guadalupe. Venerated as a protector, she appeared in 1531 near Mexico City to an Indian boy, Juan Diego. A great cathedral stands there now.
In the United States, a church dedicated to her signifies the maturation of the local Hispanic population as merchants and homeowners and leaders and taxpayers. A church dedicated to her means “This is our home, too. Our Lady is always with us. We also are children of God.”
Such deep faith has always been a defining characteristic of Hispanics. That faith has been recognized now in Nashville with the opening of Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church. Amid the ongoing onslaught against immigrants – particularly in the South – this bodes well for more sane discourse and decision-making in 2008.
A spectacular dedication mass spotlighted our rich culture and history in this city. Our children clutched bouquets of roses to put before a giant painting of the Mother of God. Our families showcased the youthfulness of a workforce that will increasingly serve this country’s welfare and defense as Baby Boomers retire. I sat in the pews with my brothers and sisters from another country who risked so much to come here and put their futures in God’s hands. At no time has this kind of faith been more needed.
In the South, Hispanics are being targeted physically. There is a one-in-11 chance they’ll be pulled over on Tennessee state highways and interstates. That compares to a one in 19 chance for whites and blacks, a Nashville TV station reported.
Some county sheriffs are making a priority of rousting job sites of undocumented workers. Once the lack of needed documents is discovered, immigrants are held for federal authorities.
Against this backdrop, the year concluded on a hopeful note. The location of Our Lady’s church is perfect. It’s on a primary traffic artery where Hispanics have revitalized the neighborhoods and the business community after locals moved to the suburbs. The church will be more than a place to worship. It will be a visible English-language education and cultural center.
An unlikely partnership came together to make this miracle happen. Primary mover and shaker is a blue-eyed Irish-American priest who speaks barely a word of Spanish. But this Nashville native used his bully pulpit and reputation to remind members of his congregation at nearby St. Edward Catholic Church that it’s payback time.
Father Joseph Patrick Breen continually preaches about our immigrant history. He reminds his parish – and Nashville as a city – that others were here to help the Poles, the Italians and the Irish to set up their own churches and institutions.
There has never been a Statue of Liberty on the Rio Grande to greet Hispanic newcomers. By naked conquest, migrants from the East took over the richest lands Mexicans originally inhabited from Texas to California.
For the past several years, St. Edward has opened its doors to more than 1,300 Latinos at two extra masses. But Father Breen knew more was necessary. In a matter of months in 2007, the mostly white congregation responded.
Our Lady’s church is located in a Baptist church that closed after losing much of its congregation to the suburbs. Property owners agreed to sell it and its school buildings for a third of their appraised value. Of a total $1.5 million in total costs, more than $600,000 has been raised.
My father is gone now. When he returned from World War II, Mexicans were still segregated in a roped-off section of pews in the Catholic church of his rural Kansas hometown. But an Our Lady of Guadalupe church in nearby Topeka welcomed my parents and offered them simple respect as they began their union and family.
Our Lady brings hopeful momentum into 2008 and a reminder to this nation of a moral obligation to its immigrant history.
©2008
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