English-only Hits Meriden, Connecticut id SAA09887; Wed, 24 Sep 1997 18:17:24 -0400 Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit Wed, 24 Sep 1997 06:11:01 -0700 (PDT) source: ipr-forum@igc.org from the Institute for Puerto Rican Policy (IPR) 1982-1997: Celebrating 15 Years of Service! IPR Note: Here is another case of Puerto Rican workers being targeted by an employer banning their right to speak English in the workplace. The place this time is the city of Meriden, Connecticut. Below is a front-page article in the Hartford Courant that describes the situation. It is followed by an earlier article on a statewide poll of Latinos in Connecticut where they identified language discrimination as a major problem. Last night, Puerto Rican workers from the Meriden Housing Authority authorized the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund (PRLDEF) to represent in court on this case. PRLDEF Attorney Sandra Del Valle, along with UConn Law Professor Angel Oquendo, will be representing the workers. As part of the case, these boricuas will be needing broad-based community support. For ways you can help, contact: Fernando Betancourt Executive Director Latino and Puerto Rican Affairs Commission 18-20 Trinity Street Hartfod, CT 06106-1628 860-240-8330 Fax: 860-240-0315 Angelo Falcon ipr-forum Modeator -------------------------------------------------------- ACTIVISTS DENOUNCE BAN ON SPANISH MERIDEN HOUSING DIRECTOR NOT WILLING TO BACK DOWN by Eric Rich; Courant Correspondent and Colin Poitras; Courant Staff Writer Hartford Courant (Friday, September 19, 1997) Page:A1 Section:MAIN Edition: STATEWIDE Type: Illustration Civil rights leaders converged outside the city's housing authority Thursday to condemn a directive requiring workers there to speak only English -- and specifically forbidding them to speak Spanish. "The bottom line is [this rule] needs to be rescinded," said Juan A. Figueroa, a lawyer and president of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund. "It's wrong and it's illegal." The housing authority's executive director, W. James Rice, unwittingly stepped into a roiling national debate that has divided workplaces as English-only laws and policies run headlong into First Amendment freedoms. But nine days later, Rice is standing by his edict despite the backlash it has generated. "Basically, my thoughts are the same," Rice said Thursday. Rice's Sept. 9 memo instructed staff members that only English is to be spoken at the housing office whenever English-speaking workers are present. He said he issued the directive in response to complaints from staff, board members and clients. Rice said speaking Spanish at the office -- even in the break room or during lunch -- can generate feelings of distrust among staff members and visitors who don't speak the language. "I'm only asking that if the situation comes up where there are two Spanish-speaking individuals who are conversing, just have the compassion to say, if you don't mind we're going to continue to speak Spanish," Rice said. It was unclear what action would be taken against an employee who disobeys the directive. "I haven't even thought about it," he said. Rice said he had no idea he was stepping into an impassioned national debate, or possibly trammeling constitutionally protected rights. "I was shocked by the big hullabaloo," he said. Opponents say the rule is presumptively illegal and they are threatening to bring a lawsuit if it is not rescinded or justified. At least one housing authority employee -- Victor M. Carrasquillo -- has already filed a complaint with the state Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities. Joining Figueroa in the call for rescinding the rule were Americo Santiago, assistant secretary of the state and chairman of the Connecticut Latino and Puerto Rican Affairs Commission; and Fernando Betancourt, the commission's executive director. Figueroa and Betancourt say such English-only rules are a form of discrimination based on national origin or ethnicity under Title VII of the federal Civil Rights Act. There are nearly 300,000 Latinos in Connecticut, Santiago said. About 13 percent of Meriden's 60,000 residents are Hispanic. Joe Grabarz, executive director of the Connecticut Civil Liberties Union, said the directive opens the door to a federal anti-discrimination lawsuit as well as one under state law. "It smacks of xenophobia, and it smacks of racial and ethnic prejudice," he said. But Rice has at least one supporter on the housing authority. "Mr. Rice is right," said board member Urseline Boutin. "We're here in America, we should speak English." "Sometimes they speak in Spanish and you don't know if they're talking about you or what," said Boutin, a native French speaker. "If I have a meeting with the public, I speak English." Board member Michael D. Quinn, who disagrees, said if the directive is not rescinded he would raise it at the next meeting. "I don't think he had any intention of infringing on anybody's constitutional rights, but unfortunately that's what seems to have happened," Quinn said. Opponents of the directive also fear it will add to the burden of non-English speaking clients by requiring them to bring an interpreter when they have business in the office. With many clients already strapped by low incomes, Betancourt said the edict would become another barrier to those seeking essential services. Rice's memo is ambiguous on the point, acknowledging that receptionists will need to speak Spanish at times, but suggesting that clients should bring in interpreters. "If you are Hispanic and you walk into our office you are going to be serviced by a Spanish-speaking person," Rice said Thursday in response to the criticism. For now, Figueroa and Betancourt are more interested in working with Rice to clean up the directive than taking him to court. They have yet to get a formal response from Rice. In the meantime, the two Latino groups are urging Rice to seek legal advice and to explore other alternatives such as cultural sensitivity training for his staff. By the end of 1996, 23 states and more than 40 cities had enacted laws declaring English their official language, although they are largely symbolic and unenforced. Some of those laws have been challenged in court, and an increasing number of bias lawsuits are growing out of private employers' strict English-only policies. Raymond A. Jordan, state co-ordinator for the U.S Housing and Urban Development agency in Hartford, said his agency would review the facts before making a public statement or taking action. "We're going to have to look into it, find out what was said and what the context was," Jordan said. Another HUD official, John Carella, said funding for the local housing authority would not be held back unless there was a pattern of discrimination and significant violations of fair housing policies. "There's no evidence of that, to our knowledge," said Carella, director of public housing at HUD's Hartford office. -------------------------------------------------------- MERIDEN HOUSING AUTHORITY MEMO -------------------------------------------------------- This is the text of the memo issued by W. James Rice, executive director of the Meriden Housing Authority, on Sept. 9: Memo to all staff in reference to office procedures: I have noticed, and other people have brought to my attention that even though people can speak English, there is again a prevalence of Spanish being spoken in the office. Please keep in mind that this can offend individuals who are in close proximity who do not speak Spanish and can generate feelings of mistrust among staff and/or visitors to the office. I therefore feel it is necessary to implement an English speaking only directive for all office communications effective immediately. I recognize that the receptionist must communicate in Spanish with those residents and applicants who do not speak English, however I do expect that people who need translation would bring their own interpreters into the office. If any staff member has a problem with this memo, he or she may schedule an appointment to see me. ******************************************************* POLL: MANY LATINOS UPBEAT ABOUT LIFE IN STATE by Mike SwIFT; Courant Staff Writer Hartford Courant (Friday, August 22, 1997) Page:A3 Section: CONNECTICUT Edition: STATEWIDE Type: POLL Illustration They remain near the bottom of the income scale and they worry about being victims of prejudice, but Connecticut Latinos are surprisingly bullish on life in the Nutmeg state, according to a newly published survey. Connecticut Latinos were more than twice as likely as the general population to say their overall quality of life has improved over the past three years. Statistically, 47 percent of the Latinos surveyed said their quality of life has improved, compared with 20 percent of the nation's general population. The data come from a random telephone survey conducted for the Latino and Puerto Rican Affairs Commission, a state agency. In addition, about 63 percent of Connecticut Latinos said they were better off financially than they were three years ago. The rate was significantly higher than the 47 percent of the U.S. general population that felt that way. At the same time, just 21 percent of Latinos surveyed reported owning their homes, a fraction of the state's overall rate of homeownership. The state's Latinos remain grouped at the bottom of the income scale and few reported occupations as professionals or in management. The findings show, however, that Connecticut's Latino population is setting its roots deeper in the state and is poised to take a more prominent role in the state's public life, said Americo Santiago, chairman of the commission. "The sentiment of the people we interviewed was, regardless of what status they are socioeconomically, the majority of them think they have a future in front of them, for their children and their family -- that they have a role to play in the state of Connecticut," said Santiago, an assistant secretary of the state. Santiago said he and other members of the commission were "very surprised" at how upbeat respondents to the survey were given the economic and social challenges facing Connecticut Latinos. Regardless of problems such as relatively high unemployment and lower incomes, "they will stay here in Connecticut and their numbers will contine to grow," he said. As a result, state policy-makers must pay more attention to helping Latinos gain access to public economic development dollars and private capital, he said. "We don't have a statewide elected official yet, and I think that should be the next goal," said Santiago, a former Democratic state representative representing Bridgeport. Many of the concerns recorded by the survey -- a telephone sample of 1,005 adults conducted in 1996 by the Center for Research and Public Policy of New Haven - - reflect the concerns of a population that remains concentrated in Connecticut's poorer cities, including Hartford, Bridgeport and New Haven. For example, 92 percent of respondents to the survey said they were very concerned about crime, and 93 percent were very concerned about drugs on our streets. Those issues, often identified as conservative concerns, also showed up in the conservative political leaning of many respondents. While the greatest number of respondents -- 47 percent - - were registered Democrats, just over 50 percent of respondents identified themselves as "moderate" or "mostly conservative." Just 12 percent said they were "mostly liberal." About four out of five respondents were very concerned about the "general lack of cultural sensitivity in Connecticut," and were very concerned about language discrimination. About 87 percent were very concerned about unemployment. Nearly two-thirds, 65 percent, were very concerned about immigration issues, although 79 percent said they were U.S. citizens. Puerto Ricans, who are U.S. citizens, continue to make up a large majority of Connecticut Latinos, although the survey hints that could be changing slightly. The 1990 Census found that 68 percent of Connecticut Hispanics were Puerto Rican, while 28 percent were Mexican, Cuban or another Hispanic ethnic ancestry. The telephone survey found, however, that 64 percent of respondents were Puerto Rican and 36 percent were Cuban, Mexican or from a South or Central American nation. Santiago said unfriendly immigration laws in states such as California and Texas are luring more people to Connecticut who come from El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico and other nations. "I will say that not too long from now, the Central and South Americans will be the largest Latino groups in Connecticut," he said. "It's not going to be tomorrow, but it's going to happen." Other changes are happening in the expectations and dreams of the state's Latinos, Santiago said. "More people are getting into homeownership. A lot of our folks before didn't get into buying houses, because they always had a dream that they were going back to Puerto Rico," he said. "I say that is changing quite a lot." ******************************************************** The above was posted on the ipr-forum of IPRNet: The Information Service on Puerto Rican Issues of the INSTITUTE FOR PUERTO RICAN POLICY, Inc. 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