News (Noticias) for Missouri

Many people are getting a chance to visit countries such as Mexico without ever leaving the Ozarks.

It’s all part of an on-going program being offered to the community by the Springfield Sister Cities Association.”*

While departments across the country are making illegal immigrant arrests a larger part of their daily duties, police in Kansas City are leaving the citizenship busts to federal agents and focusing instead on community policing efforts in the city’s growing Hispanic communities.”*

The Gonzalez Cos., accepted the Hispanic Company of the Year Award for 2008 at the 26th anniversary and awards dinner for the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, held on June 13 at the Sheraton Westport Chalet Hotel.”*

A summer pilot program in Columbia aims to introduce Hispanic preschoolers to the English language before they head to kindergarten.

The three-week !Listo! Summer School starts next Monday and will serve as many as 16 Spanish-speaking children who haven’t already been introduced to English at another preschool, said Phil Peters, director of First Chance for Children and one of the program’s organizers. “*

¡Adelante!, the bilingual newsmagazine published by the Columbia Missourian, will not be returning from its summer hiatus as usual, but in its place will be a radio program.

The magazine has provided mid-Missouri’s Latino community with news and cultural stories from the local area and abroad.”*

During a ceremonial signing of a new immigration bill on Monday in Joplin, Gov. Matt Blunt said the state of Missouri could not wait for the federal government to respond to what has become a serious national problem.

“This significant legislation will protect the safety of Missouri families and the security of our jobs from the threat of illegal immigration, and I am pleased that Missouri’s legislators responded to my call for action where Washington has failed to act,” Blunt said.”*

It is one of a Hispanic community that is divided between well-established Latino families living here since the turn of the last century and thousands of newcomers.

To assimilate into mainstream America, Bustamante’s parents and others like them never taught their children Spanish. She didn’t insist that her sons learn it either.
But that has created problems. Newcomers tell them they’re not “true Mexicans” because they don’t speak Spanish. “*

Missouri will get $17 million to help develop and test the Real ID program and will house a verification hub to help states validate identification cards.

The federal Real ID Demonstration Grants were announced Friday by the Homeland Security Department.”*

Christina Medina takes a big leap - 100 markets - landing as a reporter at CBS affiliate KCTV-5 in Kansas City, Missouri. “*

Contributors to the new anthology “Primera Pagina: Poetry from the Latino Heartland” — including one with ties to Wichita — say they want to express and draw attention to the Hispanic experience in the middle of the country.

“I don’t think Hispanics in the Midwest have really been able to have a voice,” said Marcelo Xavier Trillo, 30, who was raised in Wichita and participates in the Kansas City-based Latino Writers Collective.

A sense of isolation exists because there are fewer Hispanics in the Midwest than on the coasts or in the Southwest, said collective vice president Linda Rodriguez.”*

“I got nominated right on the spot,” Jenny Mendez remembers.

Mendez is an accomplished local artist and curator, best known as the director of the Mattie Rhodes Art Center. Her experience recently landed her on the board of the Azteca De Greater Kansas City Guild of Latino Fine Arts. Mendez’s appointment came quickly, at the first meeting she attended.

For her first act as a chairwoman, she has prepared “Comunidad/Community” at the Urban Culture Project’s La Esquina gallery. The exhibition opens this Friday — with a huge block party thrown in for good measure.”*

Smith-Cotton High School junior Ceci Perez and senior Cecilia Sotelo shouldn’t have any trouble coming up with a list of extracurricular activities to include on their high school resumes.

Perez could include the A+ program, which offers scholarships to students who serve as teaching assistants; foreign language club; pep club; student council; class secretary; Future Teachers of America; and soccer. She was recently elected to be a senior class officer.”*

There’s this outfit calling itself Secure Arkansas. It hopes to get on the general election ballot a proposed initiated act by which public services could not be extended in the state unless would-be recipients proved their American citizenship through authoritative documentation.

In other words: If you’re Hispanic-looking and go to a public health clinic for a flu shot, you’d better bring your Yankee bona fides.

The point person for this group is Jeannie Burlsworth of Bryant, whose public profile has been low, but who, apparently, sat for a visit the other day with a reporter for the Little Rock newspaper.”*

Making Movies, a Latin alternative rock trio out of Kansas City, will make the I-70 trek and play Cicero’s Tuesday.

Led by Enrique Chi, the band is touring the region (and Miami) in support of their debut EP, “Tierra Firme.” They will also be here on June 21 for the Hispanic Festival in Florissant’s Knights of Columbus Park.

The songs on the release conjure the Police and Latin electronic rock trailblazers Cafe Tacuba.”*

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Within hours of the end of the 2008 session, the Missouri House and Senate have passed a major illegal immigration bill.

The wide-ranging bill includes items that would bar cities from adopting sanctuary policies, bar illegal immigrants from receiving public benefits, require driver’s license tests be given in English, and a scaled-back amendment that would fine employers who misclassify workers as “contractors.”"*

Senators have approved legislation adding penalties and restrictions on illegal immigrants and employers.

Senators passed the bill 27-7 today, but it has a provision House leaders don’t like. It would allow employers who misclassify workers as “contractors” instead of “employees” to be fined up to $50,000.”*