welcome to a special edition of beyond the headlines, i'm cecilia vega. today we bring you a latino round table. we've invited three bay area leaders representing various fields to talk about their personal experiences and the opportunities and challenges facing the local hispanic community. but before we begin, let's take a look at a story from earlier this year. it's about 2010 census and the effort that went in to make sure that every latino was counted. ♪ ♪ >> a campaign to coach many out of shadows. >> in 2000 at least million

latinos didn't fill out the census, many feared deportation even though they don't ask about citizenship. some republicans tried to exclude them from the count. >> i don't think the democracy should have non-citizens represented in the united states congress. >> but census determines how federal dollars are distributed. >> it's been estimated that $1400 perke. stake. add up the up in of people in your community that don't get counted in the census and multiply that by $1400 and that is what you are losing. >> so to encourage involvement are being mailed to hispanic neighborhoods. events are being held to ease fears that go beyond immigration

matters. >> we told them, no, it's confidential. >> the out reach effort brings stars in and it's aimed also at kids. >> spanish language network even wrote a census story line into it's soap opera. >> at the end of the day you are the one to determine who gets on the census. >> so trying to count all. >> with that, let's introduce our distinguished panel. we're going to start with san francisco police chief george gascon. san francisco supervisor david compost that represents the ninth district. and jean garcia, from the

oakland health care based provider. thank you for being here. let's start with you because you have an interesting story how you came to this country without papers as a teenager. how do you think that up bringing and that journey influenced who you are as an adult today. >> the product of our experiences it gives me a perspective in terms of what the immigrant community is going through. i think it's important to underscore that my story is not that different from so many people, not only in san francisco but other parts of california, other parts of the country. it's a country of immigrants and especially in this climate where you see anti-immigrant receipt remembering it's good to hear about my experience. >> talk about how the journey started from your home country. >> i was brought here by my parents and like many others, i had no choice in the matter.

i did have a choice in trying to make something of myself. my parents, typical latino family believed how work and education. i was lucky enough to have enough opportunities to be able to get through myself in college and law school and now working as an elected official. it's a testament to what this country is to the fact that here you can come with nothing and make something of yourself. that is really the american dream. the thing about being an immigrant it means that you love this country probably more than most people because you know what it's like to be outside of the country, what it's like to live somewhere else. >> how many years were you in the country before you became a citizen awlgs number of years, probably five or six years. at some point i became a citizen. >> i want to talk about your work, so much what you do is dealing with latinos, reaching out on latinos and their

culture. what do you think it means for a latina for you individually? >> i think a number of important things about this. clearly that we are role models. that is role model in business but as a community member and even in terms of health care and the decisions we make about our personal lives. >> chief, you have a story, somewhat similar that you came to this country as a teenager, as well. tell me about your background? >> in our case we were refugees, my parents and i fleeing communist cuba. my parents decided they wanted to come here. we settled in l.a., and us bringing over working class family, working class neighborhood, basically worked

my way through school. went into the military, came back and went to school, finished by college education, went to the police department and law school. the experience as david indicated, it gives us a broader perspective a belief that immigrants can to be better americans because we do know the difference. it's like history repeats itself. you look at prior immigration wave, with the irish, italians and chinese, it seems like we're repeating history again. i think people like david and i have a lot to offer. >> are there challenges that you feel like you had to overcome in your current position as chief because of the fact that you are a latino. did you bring some of that to the table with you in your job? >> it's a yes, and no. one of the things i tell people,

it's very important for me, i'm a police officer chief of police first and latino second. unyes bli we are a product of our environment and i bring issues because of the way i was raised english is a second language to me. i know what it's like to go to school through an esl program and to have struggle. you need to get flew it and certainly many cases, immigrants have to work harder in order to get there. >> we've got to take a quick break.

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welcome back to beyond the headlines, there are so many i for latinos. perhaps the biggest one, arizona and immigration. perhaps the biggest story. we just heard from the sheriff of maricopa county. chief gascon is no stranger worked in arizona. let's take about that law. what is your sense on the

legislation pas arizona? >> obviously for many reasons i think clearly the courts have indicated most of the major components of it appear to be ceral. certainly you have the constitutionality of the law but i think socially it's wrong. it's a law that is based on fear misin it it's creating incredible problem for nw arizona. i think when you started using, start trying to commonize people and start blaming -- demonize people, it's taking about social and economic problems and put them all in the back of immigration without looking at the root causes of what the problems are or the contributions that immigrants have made to the country. i'm very pleased that the courts ruled wait they did.

it sent a clear message that laws that transcend what the local political environment is. unquestionably what is going on in arizona is very toxic. it creates a significant amount of hate. it's very counterproductive. >> i want the ask you because you work with so many first generation immigrants, many recently arrived people, what do you say when you hear the other side of the debate, when people say, these people broke the law. they are here without papers. they came here illegally? >> i think a lotrhetoric rhetors hypocritical. my father came as an undocumented immigrant, yet when they needed him to fight in world war ii, we were willing to turn on that and recruited my father. he is a very proud army man. i think we pick and choose when to use the issue of illegality.

the truth of the matter is i am immigrants or vital part of the economy. we are a young population. i think in the future, given the babyboomers, the latina community will be taking care of many of our elders. we would do well to educate our community and to provide health care so that this can be a vital contradict community as it has in the past and is presently. >> when you speak of rhetoric, when do you think the debated as ugly as it is now? >> i think it's been ugly for have that you have players like that sheriff involved, it fans the flames. people who i think, in my opinion, are not interested in dialogue. they are really trying to exploit an issue for political gain. in so doing, essentially

desecrating what people stand for. this unamerican because it opens the door for the entire community to be targeted. that is not what this country is about. that is not what we are about. we are better than that. as the chief indicated it's good the courts have stemmed in. president has also stepped in. it's also a call on the rest of the population to say that we people of goodwill in this country are not going to let some people exploit an issue for political gain, we're not going to let that happen. >> somewhere out there this is a solution to this. both sides wanted the see immigration reform. how do you start the work towards that. what do you think some of the possible solutions are? >> i do think we need to create a path to citizenship and have an honest discussion about what are the consequences that have

come here illegally. i think the latino community wants to discuss and wants to resolve it. >> amnesty at this? >> perhaps -- amnesty? >> perhaps. it provides a political space to clear their status here. we have to go back because i think we talk about most everyone wants to deal with the immigration issue, i think there is a lot of code talking that is going on. you talk about secure borders first we talk about immigration reform. i find in many cases, it's used in a disingenuous manner. they want to seal the border before we talk about immigration reform. basically what they are saying we do not want illegals here for a variety of reasons. i think the economic realities

that existed in this country and will continue to do so for don't don't produce enough people to deal with all the labor needs we have. we have a tendency to pick and choose. quite frankly, it's immoral. >> we'll talk more about the issues that bay area latinos face in 2010 beyond.nd beyond.

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to bring the family together on sunday mornings than with thwarmth and aroma of freshly baked pillsbury cinnamon rolls. [ wink! ] [ wink! ] ♪ welcome back to a special edition of beyond the headlines, i'm cecilia vega. we're joined by chief george gascon and compost and garcia. there are 14 million latinos in the united states which makes it

the largest. 13.7 million latinos live in the state of california alone. 22% of the bay area is latino and the median age is 27.4 years of age. that is a really lot of the population and let's talk about health care. you are literally on the ground with this. what needs to be done in order for latinos to get through that door of health care and access and access fors available for them. >> i think there are many opportunities for the latino community. as you know, health coverage is mostly based on employer offerings of insurance. so this the beginning of opening that up. a bigger focus on prevention. i think education process that will go with that is a huge

opportunity for the latino community. >> do you feel like latinos are even getting through the door at this point. i heard an interesting story whose person father it was a physician and people have to drive through counties to access a doctor that speaks spanish. do you feel like there is access in health care? >> there is an issue in the united states, an issue of work force, it's not particular to latinos but we're all going to be facing the lack of available primary care physicians. the system that is set up makes the priorgs to seek the specialty careers where there is more money to be made. so t are goingd we are going toe facing an issue of availability of services. when you add another factors such as language or culture, then you begin to see that play

out in the availability of services. >> your neighborhoods that you represent, mission and bernal heights is very heavily latino districts. do you feel like these neighborhoods, people who live in these neighborhoods are able to access competent care? >> i don't think we are where we need to be. in fact, i think there is something specific in terms of the inadequacy of health care. local, state and federal governments have to do a better job. in facti have legislation that is trying to close some of the gaps requiring that we as a city have a master plan that looks at the specifics needs of various communities. i think if you look at the issue of health care, it has been impacted by the discussion on i am breaks. progress was made by reform that was passed, we have people who

should know better, even people like the president of the united states talked about illegals in the context of health care without recognizing that hearlt has to be addressed for all people irrespective of the immigration status. it's not just republicans that is actually looking in a negative way. you have people in the democratic party who actually don't get it, who don't understand that we collectively as a society should want health care to be available for all people. i don't know what we got that yet. >> on in health care front but more of a cultural competency issue, how do you teach that to law enforcement? when you are talking with people who may not nextly speak spanish yet you have to teach a message on the street, how do you do that? >> you have to start at the

recruitment level. one of the things strive is have a diversion work force. the training reflects the community that you are serving and you are also refreshing training and policy that drives a certain behavior from your employees. unquestionably the language is a barrier, but when you have good policies it works out. >> i want to ask what role of latinos play in all this, in respo language. a language. where d comes into play? >> we're the only country in in the world that shuns learning of a second language. do we have a responsibility to learn whether it's computer language or english? absolutely, but i think there is a stigma that has been created when they want to retain the mother language.

we're the only other country. every other country speaks english or another language. we would shun somebody because of language is ugly. >> another break. when we come back, we're going to wrap things up on

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welcome back. a special round table discussion today we've been talking about all these important issues in the latino community. i want the talk about this issue of political clout. we have been growing by the divide decade but where are we in terms of the voting bloc. >> president obama would not have been elected without the latino vote. jerry brown is not going to be elected governor unless he gets a percentage of the latino vote, but i think we need to be more involved. we need to make it clear by our

vote but also allies to give them a reason to vote for them. it's not just the republican party that dismiss go point. democratic party has failed to give the message to the latino community. latinos to become more involved. >> take out your crystal ball, what do you think this country and california is going to look like in 50 years with our latino population? >> i think l.a. is setting the trend. l.a. today is over 50% latino and i think you'll see that across the country. we are a younger population and the reality the babyboomers, they're going away very rapidly. i agree, it is the latino population that is going to support the elderly.

>> how about you, if you had a crystal ball, what do you think the population is going to look like? >> i'm optimistic, we are making improvements, people that are voting and registering. i think because so much the decision-making is at the ballot initiative level, hat we that we continue to enroll people to to register and to vote. but there is no question we are going to be the majority. to the extent with other immigrant communities and form alliance, i think the potential is huge. >> and hispanic heritage month, how do we carry this forward so this is not just taking place in september, this conversation? >> i think we have to keep talking about it. we have to talk about it publicly but also at the dinner table and also engage our young people. >> chief, do you think this is a conversation that needs to be

had throughout the rest of the year? >> we need to continue to talk. we have to educate everyone, including ourselves. by the way, it's so important for the latino community to participate. we generally we are not the type of people that segregate ourselves. if you look at our culture, it's an inclusive>> ulture. >> good message. thank you all so much for being here. we are all out of time again. our special thanks to all our guests. that is it for this special edition of beyond the headlines. information about our panel and today's show is on our website at www.abc7.com. just click on the community page. if you are looking for information and community resources in your neighborhood, dial 211r help. i'm did you know go-gurt is specially made

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