REFERENCES: APPENDIX C 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Amsun Associates Socio-Economic Analysis of Asian American Burchette, Wilfred, G. The Second Indochina War: Cambodia and Caroll, John, Araneta, Francisco; Arnoldo, Carlos; Keane, John Philippine Institutions Solidaridad Publishing House Manila, 1970 Chung, Susie Myung-Sook Health Needs Assessment of Asian/Pacific Division of Asian American Affairs, Office of Special Concerns. 6. Howell, Barbara and Howell, Leon eds. Southeast Asians Speak Out Los Angeles Unified School District, Research and Evaluation Branch Racial and Ethnic Survey, Fall 1977 7. 8. United States Commission of Civil Right, California Advisory Committee Asian Americans and Pacific People: A Case of Mistaken Identity, 1975 Los Angeles City Fire Department Immigration & Naturalization Service Los Angeles County Department of Public Social Services Los Angeles County Department of Health Los Angeles Unified School District Los Angeles Police Department Pacific Asian Consortium in Employment State of California, Department of Social Services. Mr. DYMALLY. Our next witnesses are Mr. Mario Perez and Mr. Andrade. Will the witnesses identify themselves and their organization for the record, please. STATEMENTS OF MARIO PEREZ, CHAIRPERSON, HISPANIC EMPLOYMENT PROGRAM MANAGERS COMMITTEE, AND RUDY ANDRADE, LOS ANGELES AIR FORCE STATION, SPACE DIVISION Mr. ANDRADE. I am Rudy Andrade, from the Los Angeles Air Force Station, Space Division. Mr. PEREZ. I am Mario Perez. I am the chairperson of the Hispanic Employment Program Managers Committee. It is a Federal committee. We are both here on our own time. Mr. DYMALLY. Very good. Proceed. Mr. ANDRADE. The Hispanic employment program is not new to the Federal Government. There has been some type of program involved with Hispanic employment since the early 1970's. The program is an integral part of the Government's total equal employment opportunity effort under the Executive Order 11491, and Public Law 92-261, the Employment Act of 1972. The objective is to assure equal employment opportunity for Hispanics in all aspects of Federal Government employment. Although the title of the program has gone through several changes, much of the initial concept is the same. Some legislation that has been passed to enhance the program objectives, but little progress has been made in increasing the number of Hispanics in the Federal Government. In November 1977 the Office of Personnel Management published Federal civilian work force statistics, equal employment opportunity statistics, which showed the percentage of Hispanics employed in the various Federal Governmental agencies throughout the Nation to be as low as 3.5 percent. Generally speaking, there is only an average of 6 percent Hispanic employees in all Federal agencies in the Greater Los Angeles area and surrounding communities. The 1980 census indicates as high as 50 percent of the minority population, 28 percent of the entire population, and 22 percent of the Los Angeles County labor force to be of Hispanic origin. It is because of this wide disparity and underrepresentation of Hispanics in the Federal Government work force that a different approach should be made and serious consideration be given to the Hispanic program. It should be noted that our program is strongly encouraged by the Federal equal opportunity recruitment program, specifically in FLM 720-2, dated September 19, 1978. As stated, there has been some type of program involved in Hispanic employment since November 5, 1970, when the President announced a 16-point program to assist Spanish-speaking American citizens in Federal employment. The program has evolved to its present status by first a title change to the Spanish-speaking program, now known as the Hispanic employment program. This has brought about little effect on Federal Government employment as supported by statistics which clearly show the underrepresentation of Hispanics. Mr. Mario Perez will give us some additional information on the program. Mr. PEREZ. I have been the chairperson of the Hispanic employment program managers' committee since September of last year. During that time, my eyes have been opened to a number of bureaucratic problems that we have in recruitment of Hispanics. I will briefly touch upon that. But I would also like to get into some other things about the community and how we can help the community. First of all, I think there is no secret that Los Angeles has the largest Hispanic population in the United States, and actually outside of Mexico City. Our problem has been information, how do you get the information out to the community. We have tried to be innovative. We have tried to be creative. We have tried to work within the system. We have tried to do everything that we could possibly do to recruit Hispanics. We have not been as successful as we would like to be, for a number of reasons. And I will not knock my supervisors and my management people, but I think there is a lack of sensitivity in the area. You do not look at the Hispanic problem through white eyes or black eyes or any other kind of eyes unless you can really do it through brown eyes. Our problems are many fold. They start with the educational system. Our educational system is not responsive to the Hispanic in the community. I think it is well documented that the Hispanic was the first one who filed a Federal court case regarding education here in California, and how moneys are allocated to the schools. Things have not improved that much in the community. We see now proposals of year-round education which has very, very strong implications for the Hispanic community. Regarding costs, regarding the cutbacks which are being implemented now in the Federal programs, as far as our lunch programs, our breakfast programs. We have child-care problems, et cetera. Within the Federal service, which is what we would like to speak to you about, our problems stem from, one, money. Those well-educated Hispanics who are getting out of school look at the Federal service suspiciously first of all. They take a look at the efforts that they have put into get this education that they so dearly and hard fought for, and say "You are going to pay me $12,000 a year to start? I am sorry, I cannot afford that." One problem. Second problem. Resources allocated to our Hispanic employment program managers. Many times the resources are not given to our equal employment opportunity people to do the job and do it effectively in getting out to the community, in getting out to the schools. The other side of the problem is when do we have the jobs. We have such a difficult problem in determining when are we actually going to have the jobs. Agencies differ greatly from one to the other. Is HUD hiring, is the Department of Transportation hiring? Is the Internal Revenue Service hiring? When are you actually hiring? We recruit at sometimes the worst times of the year. Currently my agency is trying to recruit. It is summertime, colleges are out, very difficult to get out and find people who are qualified for the jobs that we have, in trying to raise the numbers of people to pass the professional career examination that has been dragged through the courts-we are still using it, and finding it very difficult to meet our EEO obligations through this exam. We take alternatives, which means paraprofessional positions, take less money for an interim period of time. People do not want to hear it. I think it has been well documented today the economic situation that we have in our communities; the current atmosphere throughout the country. You cannot afford to pay rent and child care and the various other expenses daily to take a job at $5.27 an hour when you have a bachelor's degree in English or history or business administration or what have you, because you cannot pass the PACE exam. That is an educational problem. And it continues to be an educational problem. I would like to get off of the employment problem for a minute and really discuss I think more important things, because Hispanics are not asking to be given anything. We expect to be given what we earn. And I think that is the crux of the problem. There is much talk about the immigration problem, the illegal problem, the numbers of Hispanics that we have here. I think that throughout the Hispanic community, and if you take a look at it, people want to work. They are dying to work. They risk their lives to come here to work, not to live in any social program or off any social program. In fact, they contribute to the welfare of this country by not only the work they do, but the taxes that they do pay, social security, by purchasing in the community, they are very community oriented, and they help their community survive. OK. Some of the things that we have problems with in being Hispanic employment program managers, for any agency, or being in equal employment opportunity, you go into a vast number of things that are closely related. I have already touched upon the educational aspects. Certainly not only the Hispanic community, but in the black community, we find fewer and fewer well-educated minorities. They are not going into college in the numbers they were going to in the early 1970's. They are not in the graduate schools. They are not being trained in the technical areas. They are not receiving the counseling from the educational system that you would expect them to receive. They are often channeled into the labor market, the hard-labor market, not the business administration, not into the medical schools or the law schools. Yes, we have more in numbers, but I would venture to say that percentagewise we have no greater percentage. Our population is increasing very, very rapidly. It is a problem that the Los Angeles city, county, and Federal Government will have to take a look at. The way expenses are going, housing costs, interest expenses, our communities are bursting at the seams with population, with the inadequate housing, the cost of housing. And yet we see vast amounts of money being spent in community redevelopment for hotels, other funded projects in other areas. The east Los Angeles community specifically has very, very little money spent there for building, I would say. I cannot back that up with facts. But I think if you tour the city with me, Boyle Heights and east Los Angeles, which are somewhere in the 85 percent Hispanic population, you go there and you show me federally funded housing, and I would be surprised. Very tough problem. Again, our community is expanding, and we would like to see some of the Federal money being spent out in the valley and in some of the other communities coming into east Los Angeles. We are tired of seeing politicians coming into east Los Angeles during elections and then closing their eyes during the rest of the year. That leads to distrust in the community. Hispanics know the meaning of sacrifice. We have been doing it for a long, long time. We feel that those of us who have contributed to the welfare of this community-to not only the welfare of our communities, but to this Republic-and I will remind the committee there are more Hispanics that have received the Congressional Medal of Honor than any other ethnic group by percentage, we have given our blood and life. I am a Vietnam veteran. I know what I speak of. We have many veterans in our community. As you well know, minorities constitute large percentages of our Armed Forces. They are not receiving the services of the Federal Government. In fact, we see veterans centers that are being closed down in our communities. And we ask why-do we not need, like everyone else? We have a need. In speaking about these things, I hope the committee takes a look at it. Do not go back to Washington-Washington does have its own problems. But I think taking a look at Los Angeles, and the numbers of people we are talking about, the disenfranchised people here, Hispanics, and blacks, and other minorities, that you really take a look at what is happening. Why is the school board not prepared for the kinds of population explosions in the inner city? Are they so unintelligent? Are they so unforeseeing that they cannot plan construction of new schools where they are most needed? We do not see an overcrowding situation in the valleys, in the San Fernando Valley. We do not see that. But we do see it in the inner city. We have a school not more than about 3 or 4 miles from here that has over 4,000 students. It is way overcrowded. The school board does not plan those things ahead of time. Personal observation. We look around as Hispanics at some of the Asian gains in the community, and we look at it I think with somewhat of a jealousy, but also with some bewilderment. If you take a look at some of the communities in the east Los Angeles community, and you stop at a grocery store, you find many times, more often than not, that grocery store is owned by an Asian, whether it be Japanese or Korean or Vietnamese. And you wonder, where are they getting the money, how are they doing it? After a year or two of being in the country, here they are, they own that corner store that had traditionally been owned by a Hispanic. And you wonder why. And you find the Federal programs are being geared to these refugees. Why are not we as Hispanics, who have been here-and lo and behold we helped to establish this very city-that is another matter-why are we not being given the opportunity or being informed about these programs sufficiently so that we can take that opportunity, |