Thread: Latino USA wins grant to expand service

8/14/08
Latino USA wins grant to expand service


By Teresa Mioli


Latino USA, a nationally syndicated radio program based at UT, will expand its 15-year history of covering immigrant families in America with the help of a Seattle-based organization.

The Marguerite Casey Foundation, a grant-making organization that provides services to working families, donated $250,000 to the weekly English-language public radio newsmagazine. The program, a partnership between KUT Radio and the UT Center for Mexican American Studies, reports on Latino news and culture through such topics as education, health care, elections and immigration.

"The primary focus is to tell Latino stories to a national audience that often sees the world in black-and-white terms," said Alex Avila, senior producer of the program. "We're really trying to focus on telling deeper stories than what you hear in the media."

The program, which first aired in 1993 and was created through a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the Center for Mexican American Studies, now airs on 130 National Public Radio member stations and 40 community radio stations nationally.

The Marguerite Casey Foundation is leading Equal Voice for America's Families, a campaign to develop and communicate a family-focused platform to drive national discussion on policy and attitudes toward poor and working families.

The foundation saw Latino USA as a partner that would continue to bring forward the voices of families that are not often heard, said Kathleen Baca, spokeswoman for the foundation.

"In the spirit of the campaign, we're looking at how we elevate the voices of families," Baca said. "Latino USA covers a segment of families and communities whose voices we want to ensure people hear from."

Maria Hinojosa, host and managing editor of Latino USA, said the grant affords the program the opportunity to change and expand the dialogue on immigrant working families in the U.S.

"Part of what we'd like to do with Latino USA in terms of immigrant coverage is to document for all Americans that the immigration issue is not just a Latino issue," Hinojosa said. "Something I've come to understand more and more is that what we're experiencing here in the United States is a worldwide phenomenon in terms of migrants moving across the globe from one place to another."

The program's producers said they are aware of an often-negative portrayal of the Latino immigrant experience in the U.S. media and said the they actively try to show opposing points of view.

"Essentially, the immigrant is always at fault," said Mincho Jacob, deputy producer of Latino USA. "Our job is usually to counter that, to bring up really what motivates immigrants to come, what are their lives like, what are they going through."

Latino USA airs Fridays at 4 p.m. on KUT 90.5 FM.


http://www.dailytexanonline.com/media/s ... 8791.shtml

the immigrant is not at fault, we are. We are the fools kneeling at the altar of diversity and misplaced compassion. Wake up people.

This is basically what you would expect from a Seattle group.