http://quezada.net/
ULTIMA HORA Agosto 2009.
En un comunicado, la Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores (SRE) dio a conocer el caso de Cirila Baltazar Cruz, indígena originaria del sureño estado de Oaxaca y hablante de chatino, a la que ha decidido defender.

Aseguró que el pasado 13 de mayo una corte estatal en Mississippi retiró a Baltazar la custodia sobre su hija -considerada ciudadana de Estados Unidos por haber nacido en ese país- y se la concedió, en primera instancia, a una pareja estadounidense.

Según la SRE, esto se hizo "bajo los argumentos de que la madre mexicana no habla inglés, carece de medios económicos y se encuentra en Estados Unidos de manera indocumentada".

El caso es seguido por el Consulado de México en Nueva Orleans que, en alianza con organizaciones civiles, ha realizado gestiones desde febrero pasado, cuando Baltazar solicitó protección.


Racism taints Texas justice
James Harrington, GUEST COLUMNIST

Texans recently received yet another startling reminder of a lingering racism that still infects the judicial system of the Lone Star State.
In June, our highest criminal law court, the Court of Criminal Appeals, made the astonishing announcement that a Smith county judge had the authority to jail a family man, Aristeo Lara Flores, rather than to grant him probation, because he spoke only Spanish.
Then, late last month, Amarillo District Judge Samuel Kiser amazingly accused Martha Laureano of child abuse because she conversed with her 5-year-old daughter in only Spanish, "relegating her to the position of housemaid," causing her to be "ignorant."
It's difficult to cast the judge's comments, during a hearing on a custody arrangement between the girl's mother and father, as anything short of racism.
His words are too far outside the realm of reality and decency to reflect anything but crass stereotyping.
How can it be child abuse for a mother to talk with her little daughter in the language with which she grew up?
As in the Flores case, this judge interposed his personal bias to the detriment of a loving and nurturing family situation. Indeed, Laureano's performance with regard to her daughter's two older siblings is admirable. They do well in school and obviously benefit from a supportive mother. The girl's father converses with her in English.
And since when is a person who speaks two languages "ignorant," as the judge says? All educators, to a person, attest to the easily ability of young children to learn two (or more) languages.
Countless Mexican-American professionals, political leaders and just generally good folk grew up in homes where their parents spoke only Spanish. They went on to master English and even excelled beyond many a native English speaker.
A Spanish proverb has it that an individual who speaks two languages is worth two persons. That's hardly ignorance.
Worlds are opened to those who speak Spanish that remain closed to those who do not. Judge Kiser, despite having lived in Argentina for two months, is not proficient in Spanish.
According to my lights, he is the ignorant one in this context, but his pride interferes with him admitting such -- just as it caused him cynically to apologize to "housemaids" for his comments but not to Laureano.
What to do about this situation? The judge lacks the courage and respect for others to confess his grievous error. Nor have we heard a peep from the Texas Supreme Court, which oversees this state's judiciary, nor from the State Bar of Texas that speaks for lawyers, nor from the commission that regulates judges' conduct. Their silence is deafening and tends to reinforce the racism that has historically riddled the state's legal system throughout this century.
The people tried to correct this dishonorable past by ratifying the Texas Equal Rights Amendment on a 4-1 margin in 1972, proclaiming that all Texans have equal status, regardless of race, national origin, color, creed or sex.
Apparently, some judges have yet to hear the resonance of that declaration.
Judges like Samuel Kiser undercut our legal system, and they hold our state up to the ridicule of the rest of the nation.
Were it not for the media, Judge Kiser's conduct would stand still unreprimanded. The state's press served us well in this case, as a true watchdog against the abusive power of judicial authority. (less info)