OCR Text |
Show beaf advocates volunteer to translate for rescued KL B work for the rescued captives. "When the situation broke out. the investigators realized they would need translators fluent in English, Spanish and American Sign Language. And there just arent many around," said Isura Cruz, DALE'S vice president. "They reached out to us." Even for veteran, trilingual IN McCOY - NEW YORK In Spanish, dale means give. In New York, DALE stands for Deaf for Advocates Latino Empowerment, a group giving voice to 55 deaf Mexicans who prosecutors say were held in virtual slavery. translators, the assignment Since the discovery of the hasn't been easy. Signs that horror last month, volunteers convey one idea in ASL often from the organization have mean something entirely differworked ent to someone from another days providing highly specialized translation country. 18-ho- ur uuuuuuuu gram ts punt I - For instance, a deaf would signal "I understand" by placing a fist near the forehead, then flicking the forefinger upward. For a Mexican, New-Yorke- said Cruz, that same sign means. "I don't remember" "Different countries have their own sign languages," she said. "You have to be careful to get it right." The translators work in pairs to guard against errors. One watches hand signs, while the other focuses on facial expressions to make sure they dtai match edge the relate personallv to the deal Mexican.- As women of Puerto Hican The translators also have difficulty conveying abstract ideas such as the individual freedom guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. "This is very difficult to translate for deaf people from a country who have never been told tJiey have any rights." said Terry Becerril. DALEs presi- share a backgrounds. the Latino ancestry with the group. Beceml. 33. was born deaf, and studied hard to learn English. Spanish and sign language. Cruz. 2M. whose hearing is fine, studied ASL in college and became interested in helping dent. The translators would not reveal what the Mexican immigrants have told investigators. But Becerril and Cruz acknowl spin Mexican captives the deaf communicate The two women helped form DALE in 1992 with the aim of assisting others among the ! oxer-com- members. "We've sevll ia.-e- s w here eh dren didn't know things about their nun families because they and couldn't lomiminKate there wa- - no one around who knew the ditfeit r.t languages." Cruz said "We teach the parents to sign and help them understand each other." support for B TRACI CARL WKMted Prv. Writer fat-righ- ts organization , GARDEN CITY. Kan. The j! Asian market in this Kansas cowtown is crammed with coolers of fresh fish. Metal shelves are packed with cans of pickled .bamboo shoots and exotic i sauces with Asian names. f . l r T u uags oi nee are K) 6 feet stacked j high, like nearly a bunker against the window. ' Down the street, a family for work eats tortillas j looking i filled with spiced pork at the restaurant in El Remedio mar-- j ktt. The market also offers B s - ien-poun- V if: . Mexican-bran- pinatas, l. K.WXISON - 5 delegates attending the convention of the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance i.AAFA that the seats in the theater were just too small. "I thought. 'Wouldn't it he a great idea to have larger seats to accommodate everyone?"" Rendell said at a rally .yesterday at the Liberty Bell Rendell. who has put on a few extra pounds himself, was the big attraction at the rallv The actual convention was m Cherry Hill. N.J. "I could totally relate to gro- -' d JM For PHILADELPHIA Mayor Rendell. all it took was a visit to a local movie theater That was where he got a deeper understanding of the plight of the overweight The mavor told a crowd of ! j e r- Mayor voices S GDDD ili.it growing numbers Latinos in New York Cm communication barru From a founding nui leu ot five. DALE now has about 2mi ceries, tortilla presses, mole, 150 different types of healing herbs and cowboy boots. The boots are perhaps the only clue that the two ethnic stores aren't in a big cosmopolitan city like, say. Los Armeies. This is Garden City, population 30,000. one of several southwest Kansas cowtowns learning to incorporate new cultures into its Old West her- I ? what he was saying. aid Marv Brown Patten, of South Jersev Before becoming a member of NAAFA. Patten said she would because she wallow in self-pitcouldn't fit into a movie theater seat. And she was too ashamed to complain to management. Now. she said she feels comfortable enough with her body to speak out about discrimination in public accommodations "Now if the seat doesn't fit. -- itage. Garden City, which has more ethnic restaurants than was the first to deal with large numbers of immigrants that have followed jobs to the area's growing meatpacking industry over the last two decades. Minorities make up aboutjhalf of the city's resi, steak-house- dents.- s, BKI)NI)IV, IlK Dragon dance: Members of the Garden City Vietnamese Dragon Dancers troupe perform at Victor Ornelas Elementary School in Garden City. Kan., as part of the school's celebration of the Chinese New Year in February. lots crammed with cattle are more frequent than towns along the highways " that run through southwest Kansas. The cattle are the lor the enormous meatpacking plants in Garden City, Dodge City and Liberal, run largely on immigrant labor. y I'l two-lan- e - WS other Old WeWlbwnl iff Kansas Dodge City and also experienced Liberal e immigration over the past few years as the meatpacking industry spread. A study by the Center for Immigration Studies, released last year, found that immigration was just as intense in five counties in southwest Kansas as it was in California, Florida ajjd along the US. Mexico borlarge-scal- -- der. The story of immigration here isn't a new one. Many southwest Kansas residents can trace their ancestors to European immigrants who came to the state to farm, or Mexican workers who came to Garden City to work in sugar beet fields at the turn of the century. "To me there is some comparison between the Old West and the New West," says Mary The large, rapid influx of people, many of whom stay ofily a short time, creates challenges for the small communi- tlfcs. All three Kansas cities Regan Wildeman, executive have struggled with housing director of the Finney County shortages, school overcrowd- - Historical Society. "They left ing, high student turnover, strife or they left political probcfime and sudden population lems in other countries looking for a new place." increases. Than Nguyen, for example. The area is true to its ranch-- t The owner of Kieu Fashion, he and Dodge cowboy heritage. iag came to Garden City 22 years City has Boot Hill, a old in seen town of the frontier ago from Vietnam. "We had to leave," he says. Western movies. Visitors can "We need freedom." tike rides in stagecoaches. His store is packed with Garden City is remembered dresses designed for Hispanic asthe small, agricultural shaken by the 1959 celebrations, tiny tuxedos for njurders of four members of the toddlers, matching outfits for Clutter family, the subject of work. Rosa Hernandez was shopTruman Capote's book "In Cold of town Blood." But the tiny ping one morning with relafor a bridesmaid dress. tives Garden outside rjolcomb, just When they brought one dress to the Clutter where family Qty f&med, is now home to the Nguyen, he nodded, smiling, state's largest meatpacking and said "bonita," the Spanish word for pretty. Nguyen and his plant. ,' Liberal sits on one of the wife have learned several largest natural gas fields in the Spanish phrases because many world. It has a Wizard of Oz of their customers are Spanish. The town has several grotourist attraction that features stores tailored specifically the and house cery yellow Dorothy's to immigrant populations, brick road. ' 53ut it's not hard to find for- offering Mexican shampoo or spices from Vietnam. Even eign influences. Signs in severgro al languages are posted at pub- - Dillons, the Kansas-basededicated has store chain, the cery grocery licplaces. including stijre and post office. One of the entire aisles to foods popular roost popular restaurants in among the Hispanic population mm serves cilantro. corn nusks. pigs City Qrden tortillas even beauty Garden The food. ears, Vietnamese i. i from and medicine products telegram newspapei Mexico. in Itjijy weekly editions Most residents trace the finish. ) flood of immigration in south- between thread t t Tim mmmrai ' ., "" v vvcat musub to tne open t,tf old and new culLuies is tne i .. of the IBP plant just outing luuuuauun. eionomys Kwdiots a maze of fenced side Garden Citv in Holcomb. - demand v!T- T - ImV''H 1 1 . ! hlifi-r'-.-4?- : 1 'b i : 5 com-marii- ty ... V JX . . , iyj theater they had garnered the support v ' ' :':vj ! Vi'T'T : Shopping and eating: Lone Nguyen, left, who owns Kieu Fashion with her husband in Garden City, Kan., sets aside a dress that was chosen by Rosa Hernandez, center, who was shopping with her brother-in-laFredis Benitez. Below, Carlos Rubio, left, and Araceii Bdiraza. both of Dodge City, Kan., eat lunch at El Remedio Market in Garden City. Kan. t nV '- (5T4 $8.74 to $12.14 an hour at the Excel plant in Dodge City and $7 to $10.65 an hour at IBF. plus benefits. But the work is hard, and turnover is high. v. , rr 'N It-- f 'A d j the of Philadelphia's mayor. "What you are fighting against is as discriminatory as anything else." Rendell told them. "The hurt, prejudice and discrimination that you face is every bit as real." Since 1969. NAAFA has i ' that accommodate me." Patten said It's been no easy road for most of the obese people at yesterday's rally who said they've been on one diet after another, to no avail. So when they heard about NAAFA. which doesn't believe in dieting, but instead focuses on making sure that overweight people have tiquaj rights, they signed on. And they were glad to see although there were other meatpacking plants in the area before that The IBF plant is the largest in the state, with 2.750 employees and a $64 million annual payroll Five meatpacking plants in southwest Kansas employ a total of 9.600 people Two of the plants are in the Garden City area, two are in Dodge City and one is in Liberal Immigrants are drawn to the work because it is physical labor that doesn't require English Wages range from "There's always another truckload of folks coming that want to work," says Mark Krikorian, executive director at the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington-based- , research organization that examines the impact of immigration on the United States. After the meatpacking plants opened, clusters of trailer parks with narrow streets and hundreds of boxy, metal dwellings collected between the edge of town and the open space of the prairie cheap housing for new arrivals with little money. Some of the trailers house entire families, while others are home to groups of men who send monev to faraway been fighting discrimination that fat people face in employ- ment, health care, education and public accommodations Marilyn Wann. editor of "Fatso" magazine, got involved in NAAFA alter she was denied health insurance for being "morbidly obese." At 250 pounds. Wann said she is and always has been healthy. The ralliers say they support a bill introduced in New York by state Assemblyman Daniel L Feldman that would prohibit discrimination against anyone on the basis of size. "At the moment, fat people who are being discriminated against, don't really have a recourse," Feldman said The ralliers also resolved to boycott corporations that dis- criminate against their employees on the basis of size They charge that Coca-Colengaged in anti-fa- t prejudice when a sales manager in a northern California office sent a memo urging district sales managers not to hire fat and slow workers "We're going to say no to any advertisement that discriminates against fat people."' said Betty Travis of Berkeley. Calif chanting to the crowd "We're going to tell them we won't take it." Travis said "We n d of this counti s and v can make a big. fat. differenci a one-thir- ( (POOR COPY |