www.pahrumpvalleytimes.com

August 17, 2005


Se habla Espanol?
KHMP-CHANNEL 62 TELEVISION TO CATER TO PAHRUMP'S GROWING HISPANIC POPULATION
By PHILLIP GOMEZ
PVT

KHMP-Channel 62 in Pahrump launched a new Spanish language television program Saturday morning. "Dialogando Con Pahrump" ("Talking With Pahrump") is a 60-minute educational show on public services available to the Spanish-speaking community that airs at 10 a.m. Saturdays.

"It's an educational program to inform the Latino community in Pahrump of events, things they need to know regarding services in the community," said the Rev. Oscar Reconco who co-hosts the show with Keily Miller, general manager of Channels 30 and 62. Topics that will be presented range from art to domestic violence to business opportunities and employment, Reconco said.

"A lot of times you're looking for services and you're terrified because you don't speak English," Reconco said in explaining the show's format. "This will be a vehicle for them to find out what is available."

Reconco also will host "Mundo Esterico," ("The Esoteric World") showing at noon on Saturdays. Astrology, motivation, personal growth and wellness are some of the topics to be dealt with. Reconco owns Ancient Secrets, a metaphysical book and gift store on South Loop Road, off Highway 160 in Pahrump.

Saturday's live show had as its guest immigration attorney Jon Eric Garde of the law firm Garde & Velasquez in Las Vegas. Garde has specialized in family issues revolving around Hispanic immigration to the United States. He has spoken before in Pahrump with the Nye Communities Coalition.

Channel 62 is planned as an all-Spanish channel, while Channel 30 will continue its programming in English.

Reconco said that Pahrump has a large contingent of Guatemalans, Salvadorians and Cubans, as well as Mexicans.

KHMP's Saturday programming was only scheduled for three hours, Miller said. "We are trying to help the Latino community but unfortunately we're having a hard time getting the big programs from the networks," she said.

The Federal Communications Commission prohibits the duplication of franchise programming in a single region, and larger Las Vegas TV stations, already broadcasting Mexican programs, are included in the southern Nevada region. Nevertheless, the goal for Channel 62 remains to make it a 100-percent Spanish station, Miller said.

Sponsors lined up for programming so far include Mi Ranchito Market on Highway 372, Su Mesa Mexican Restaurant on Calvada Boulevard and Specialty Medical Center, also on Calvada Boulevard.

Halfway through Saturday's show, the telephone lines were opened for call-in questions. The first caller yelled, "Hey, you guys need to speak in English. This is America!"

He was immediately cut off and a policy was put into place limiting calls to only to those who spoke in Spanish.

"They are in the minority," said Garde about the caller's xenophobic assumptions in the face of multi-cultural America. "Todos somos gueros." ("We are all immigrants.")

Garde urged listeners to call their senators and congressmen to register their support for the bipartisan McCain-Kennedy immigration bill recently initiated in the U.S. Senate by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass. The bill calls for a broad overhaul of the procedures for granting citizenship to illegal aliens, would increase the number of immigrants to the U.S. by 400,000 annually while calling for restrictions to tighten up the security of the nation's southern border.

"Otherwise, they don't know you're here," Garde said in Spanish.

"Even our founders came here from England. We are all immigrants," agreed Miller, who married an American, while Garde, born in New York, is married to a Latina and learned to speak Spanish as a second language.

"Everyone who comes here becomes a citizen once they are here," Miller said, suggesting that civil rights follow from citizenship, including the right to public services advertised in a language new citizens can understand.

"I think that this (difficulty) has always been a problem in the U.S.," said Reconco, "because there are people who really don't want information in Spanish that is very important to the community."

Currently Channel 62 broadcasts with 10,500 Watts of power to Pahrump and Amargosa Valley, where a sizable number of Spanish-speaking people live and work in the agricultural industry.