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Osceola schools candidate blasts illegal migrants
VICtor Manuel Ramos
Sentinel Staff Writer

June 14, 2006

An Osceola County School Board candidate seeking to represent a district that includes parts of largely Hispanic neighborhoods blames illegal immigrants for everything from homicides, the spread of AIDS and drug abuse to epidemic diseases and prostitution.

The candidate, expressing his opinion in a letter that he submitted to a weekly publication, said that those immigrants "constitute an attack force from the Third World against America."

But the words that some Hispanic activists see as offensive -- and embarrassing -- didn't come from a U.S.-born candidate complaining about an alien invasion.

They came from a candidate born in Venezuela who says he is courting the vote of Hispanics.

Eduardo Montalvo, a real-estate sales agent who is a first-time candidate for the Osceola School Board, said he meant the letter as a declaration in favor of legal immigrants and not as a statement of his policies should he gain a seat on the board.

"This subversive attack from the Third World is bringing its products to America: poverty, violence, crime and prostitution," Montalvo, 46, went on to say in the piece that appeared as a letter in The Reporter, a Four Corners area weekly. ". . . I want to get rid of these Third World people who really do not benefit our country."

Montalvo said he is not saying anything new, referring to comments he has made in the past about immigrants needing to learn English and assimilate to be successful.

"I have been writing the same for the last six years, so some people will like my ideas, some won't," said Montalvo, who has written columns for Spanish-language newspapers.

The episode is reminiscent of the controversy sparked last year when then-Orange County schoolteacher Jan Hall wrote a letter to a member of Congress in which she said that Puerto Ricans, Mexicans and immigrants in general were burdening the area's schools and services.

At the time, parents, teachers and community leaders were outraged when that leaked letter was published in the Spanish-language media. The teacher eventually resigned.

"That letter he wrote is worse than the teacher's," said Armando Ramirez, who is running for an Osceola County Commission seat against another candidate. "He put all the immigrants together, and he portrayed them as subversives from Third World nations, carrying infectious diseases . . . and as people who engage in violent criminal acts. I have never read anything, not even from George Wallace, that is so offensive."

This time around, the letter has been making its rounds in the community through e-mail, photocopies and word-of-mouth, prompting other Hispanic activists who are seeking elective office to condemn Montalvo. The majority of immigrants in the United States, legal or otherwise, come from Latin America, though most of Metro Orlando's Hispanics are U.S. citizens.

"I am angry," said Carlos Cayasso, 55, a Poinciana ninth-grade teacher who is running for a different School Board seat. "This letter sort of reminded me of the kind of statements Hitler would have made decades ago to get into office. He is picking on a group to generate a lot of hatred and ride their backs to office."

John Cortes, a candidate for Kissimmee mayor who works with foster children, said the comments are "a slap in the face" to all immigrants and Hispanics, not just those in the country illegally.

Leaders of the Parent Leadership Council, a group of parents of bilingual and immigrant children with district chapters in Orange and Osceola counties, had similar reactions to Montalvo's words.

"It's hurtful," said Elizabeth Castillo, co-chair of the group's Osceola chapter. "Those problems are not the fault of immigrants, but of people like [Montalvo] who complain about everything instead of helping and saying, 'Let's unite to improve and move forward as a community.' "

Montalvo, who said he wrote the letter to raise his profile, seemed surprised at the reactions, even though he is running in a district where 35 percent of voters are of Hispanic ancestry.

Besides, Montalvo said, he researched the subject well by reading newspaper stories, Web logs and studies about immigrants posted on Web pages.

"I am Hispanic," Montalvo said. "I [migrated] to this country 10 years ago, so I'm not saying what I'm saying because I'm not Hispanic or against Hispanics. . . . If you have nothing to do with criminality, prostitution or epidemics, then you have no reason to be offended."

Montalvo is running for the School Board seat of incumbent Jay Wheeler in Osceola's District 1 -- an area that includes not only Montalvo's Celebration neighborhood, but also some of the schools with the largest Hispanic populations, in Kissimmee and Buenaventura Lakes.

Wheeler, who read the letter online, said he is sitting out this controversy.

"Honestly, I'm focused on making sure kids can read and write and that we can pay teachers enough money," Wheeler said. "I am not going to ask if a little boy comes in to a classroom whether he is illegal, Canadian or American."

Victor Manuel Ramos can be reached at vramos@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-6186.