Thread: Latino forum spawns ideas for taking action

Latino forum spawns ideas for taking action

By Amanda H. Miller
March 15, 2007

Community members working on the best way to address Latino growth in Teton County have identified priorities such as getting facts straight, breaking down language barriers and engaging in cross-cultural activities.

About 75 people have been meeting in five small groups for the last six weeks to develop the best plans for dealing with the “challenges and opportunities” presented by a growing Latino population. They presented their conclusions at a forum Tuesday night.

“We tried to develop concrete actions that are really implementable,” said Jen Daniels, a landscape architect and meeting facilitator for the Center for Resolution. “We tried to stay focused on things we know we can do in this community.”

The Jackson Town Council sponsored the discussion.

“There’s no time like the present to start a dialogue in earnest,” Mayor Mark Barron said. “And to recognize that our community is changing.”

Several employers, teachers, volunteers and Latino immigrants participated in the discussions that led to Tuesday’s presentation. Representatives from each of the five groups mentioned some of the concrete ideas they had. Among the most popular suggestions was employer-sponsored language classes, which could come in the form of an hour during the workday, paid time off or stipends to help pay for classes. Committee members also liked the idea of helping Teton County School District develop a program that would teach all students in both English and Spanish.

Some committee members said they were surprised to a learn that a lot of things they thought were facts about the Latino population were false. So the group announced that one of its biggest priorities is to form a task force to gather and disseminate accurate information about the Latino population.

The group also hopes to develop greater cultural understanding by bringing people from the Anglo and Latino communities together for events.

Some other suggestions at the meetings included a lending library of tools so that new Latino construction workers can get access to the tools they need on the job before they have the money to buy the state-of-the-art equipment other workers have. Many also lobbied for allowing illegal immigrants to get Wyoming driver’s licenses in Teton County.

German Sanchez has a degree in administration in Mexico and has lived in Teton County nearly 10 years. He said there are many educated people who leave Mexico, where they were doctors, engineers or accountants, to come to Jackson, where they “clean toilets,” because there is still more opportunity here. Those people are tremendous assets to the community, he said. And he said he hopes to find space where he can teach Spanish classes and believes there are many other Latinos in town who would be happy to volunteer their services.

“This is building from a discussion into action,” Daniels said.


http://www.jacksonholenews.com/article.php?art_id=1547

Committee members also liked the idea of helping Teton County School District develop a program that would teach all students in both English and Spanish.

They should teach only in English. If you were serious about assimilatiing and becoming and American you would speak English.

This is just more multiculturalism, and forcing bi-lingual education.

Committee members also liked the idea of helping Teton County School District develop a program that would teach all students in both English and Spanish.

So apparently there won't be a need to know English to obtain citizenship. Why bother?

God didn't want the workers to continue building the Tower of Babylon. The best way to stop them was to confuse their language. Suddenly they all spoke in different languages and the work ended. This nation was a success because we were all on the same page, a melting pot, our language was English. They want to destroy us, bring our success to a halt, no better way to do that than have everyone that comes here keep their language, dry up the melting pot, eventually we'll be so divided and unable to communicate, they'll be no chance of success in this country.