Logo Cambio de colores 2003

cambio de colores (change of colors)
latinos
in missouri: neighbors in urban and rural communities

march 12-14, 2003
university of missouri-kansas city

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Last updated:
July 3, 2003

Opening Remarks:
Domingo Mart�nez, President, Hispanic and Latin American Faculty and Staff Association (HLAFSA)

A report contributed by

Diversity can be beautiful as well as important, Domingo Mart�nez told the plenary session of Cambio de Colores. It is essential in giving insight as to how people feel about their experience here in the world.

Mart�nez drew on a Spanish expression to expand on this theme.

�When someone is born, we say he was �given to light,� dar a luz,� he said. In a very literal sense, the Cambio de Colores conference is a new birth.

�It�s bringing to life something that was hidden, so that suddenly people start realizing things,� Mart�nez said. Participants in the project, chief among them employees of the University of Missouri, are changing rural and urban development to meet the needs of the incoming population. And that is as it should be, as MU is a land-grant institution, and so it has to take on the role to improve the lives of every individual in the state.

Latinos themselves are bringing life to the state, he noted, especially in small-town Missouri, where they are reviving dying Main Streets across the state. �There are a lot of good things happening,� he noted.

Three years ago, it became evident to the members of HLAFSA that something needed to be done to address the problem, he said. Cambio de Colores came about as a good example of how the University combines academic efforts with the extension mission of the University to learn from each other.

�There are important things that we know very little about,� said Mart�nez, �things like the direct and indirect impact of the new Latino settlers. We know that 85% of them have full employment. Do we know the amount they�re contributing to the economy through the multiplier effect? No!�

Very little is known about the newcomers� level of education, their level of bilingualism, their cultural or linguistic traits, he said. Subtle differences in language can result in big mistakes. One example is the word �eventually.� In English, it means that something will happen sooner or later. In Spanish, it means something quite different; that something might happen, or it might not.

�There are many words like that which are very tricky,� said Mart�nez. This is one reason why hospitals are facing liability issues with the new immigrants. Imagine the consequences of a Spanish-speaker being told they�ll be released �eventually.� A common response might be, �No! I want to get out sooner!� Which would make no sense to someone who was not bilingual.

HLAFSA has been working hard on these issues in Columbia, he said, but he wished that the organization could get rid of the word �Columbia� in its name and become a statewide organization. He also expressed a wish that its work could go beyond this project and become a permanent fixture of the University institution.

�In English, people do not die; they pass away. In Spanish, we do die. We expire. Let�s grab that euphemism and move over, not die. Let�s keep going to make a permanent effort. But the only way we can do it is with an open mind, and with sincerity.�