Welcome to Nuevo Porlando

Salir Adelanted
A needs and assets assessment of the Hispanic community of Multnomah County

Funded by:
Multnomah Board of County Commissioners
Multnomah County Department of Community and Family Services
Really funded by: YOU!!!

The desire of Latinos/as is to salir adelante, which is a process of personal and community improvement that leads to increased self-determination and empowerment. Accordingly, this document focuses on the issues and recommendations that can transform that hope into reality. In particular, it examines low income Hispanics in Multnomah County, most of whom are Mexican and foreign born.
The desire of Americans is for La Migra to deport these illegal aliens.

A few umbrella recommendations that are developed further in this report include:

Hire more bilingual/bicultural staff in all types of services, and
encourage more individuals to train and apply for these jobs by
offering pay incentives reflective of their additional linguistic and
cultural skills.
Waste tax dollars catering to criminals.

Continue to encourage greater participation in the health care
system, and respond to the voices that expressed a need for
urgent care services.
Further bankrupt the hospitals and public health care systems. Raise rates for the rest of us.

Incorporate into public policy those elements that encourage
the strong Latino/a family unit in areas such as housing design,
social service access, childcare, and senior living.
We have "public policy" centered around making social service access conveniant for one race? God help these people if I had a law degree...

Remember that Latinos/as are people first, regardless of the
type of labor they provide, their legal status, or other differences
with mainstream society.
Do we apply the "people first" standard to other criminals too?

Solidarity is what has enabled Latinos to make remarkable political gains as a group, in spite of their internal diversity. Solidarity is the basis of the concept of La Raza (your own people). Loyalty to the group starts by recognizing paisanos (those from your country) wherever one goes.
Ah yes, much like the Klan was all about "solidarity." This is sick shit. I'm sorry, but here we have our ultra-leftist county whose only goal is to worship at the altar of diversity writing a report that if you simply switched names/country/race could have been written by Hitler.

Why it is politically correct for Latinos to have loyalty to "The Race" and their home country is beyond me. If I suggest that they shouldn't have Spanish signs at the bank I get branded a "monoculturalist*" and a bigot.

*I believe that this is a word that tenured proffessors at UC Berkely made up while high on acid.

Many migrants live binational lives
Many of the focus group participants described their lives as living in two countries. Research shows that, many Mexican people migrate back and forth to Mexico several times a decade, sometimes keeping two residences9. Many people make one trip north with little intention of living permanently in the United States, butwith each successive trip, more and more of them end up staying. Such binational lifestyles may limit the acquisition of English and disrupt education. It also challenges continuity of service provision and can stymie the formation of community in Portland.
They are breaking the laws of our country repeatedly and Serena Cruz is worried that their travel could "disrupt education" of these criminals. Nice.

Not having legal documents exposes workers to abusive employers and practices.
Here is a sampling of comments:

The undocumented get exploited more.
If you don’t have papers, they do whatever they want with you.
Boo hoo. You aren't allowed to legally work in this country. By working you broke another law.

Of all Hispanic family households in Multnomah County, 26 percent identified themselves as female headed, no husband present, according to U.S. Census data40.

Single parents expressed the difficulty of finding employment near their homes that pays well, that is accessible with public transportation, and that allows the parent to be home when the children are home.
Nice family values. I suppose that the single moms, in addition to their above requests, would also like to be able to eat chocolate all day long and not get fat.

The hidden world of undocumented workers and the informal economy
A significant number of Latino/a men, women, and children, most of them undocumented, are working in the informal sector of the Portland Metropolitan area economy. Informal activities are different from criminal ones in that they include goods and services that are legal, but whose production and marketing are unregulated and untaxed.
The only unregulated and untaxed activity in Portland that the Multnomah County Commisioners support! Seriously, what do Serena Cruz and co. want to do about this?

Recommendations
Convene task force consisting of representatives from Oregon Health Science University, Portland State University, University of Portland, Portland Community College, Mt. Hood Community College, Hispanic Access, Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Latino Network, Hispanic Services Round Table and community members. This task force can begin to identify strategies that can support community members in accessing careers for which they have been trained in their country of origin.
For all their self-proffessed multi-culturalism it seems that Cruz and co. don't know much about Mexico. The only thing they teach you is to go to America and send money back!

This "report" goes on for 45 pages. You eyes probably glossed over after read just these highlights from the first 19 so I'm going to stop now. I think that I've made my point. If you want to make yours:

For more information about Salir Adelante please contact:
Office of Multnomah County Commissioner Serena Cruz
501 SE Hawthorne, 6th Floor
Portland, Oregon 97214
(503) 988-5219
E-mail: serena@co.multnomah.or.us
Website: www.co.multnomah.or.us/cc/ds2