valle." we'll meet the new chancellor of san jose evergreen. why do we need more latinos become foster parents. this is "communidad del valle." ♪ >> we begin with a new documentary on the plight of immigrants. javier claudio is the producer and narrator of the documentary. welcome to the show. >> thank you for having me.

>> you recently mentioned you met michael moore and tell us about that real briefly if you can, and we'll talk about your documentary. >> i met michael moore a few days ago. very interesting character. he was telling me how difficult it is to produce a documentary and how difficult to talk with the truth. he bases everything he talks about on facts. >> all right. let's take a quick look at the documentary, what is the name? >> "road to nowhere." >> here it is. ♪ >> the road to nowhere, the

gabriel story. >> i earn a living selling roses. the highest grade i went to was junior high, the first year of junior high. the reason being, i wasn't able to study is because we didn't have enough money for me to do it. and then i met my wife, and now we live here together. >> it's not our fault we have such a bad mexican government, and because of the corruption that exists, that's why we see a lot of people who become thieves, a lot of people become very desperate. >> the road to nowhere. i've been to polanco. it's like the fifth avenue of mexico city. when we do news reports on any tv station, we try to have the big picture and tell the story around one person so we can relate to what the big picture story is about. you kind of did that with this documentary. tell us about that. >> well, i picked gabriel because i wanted to give a face to immigration and he had a very

compelling story, so i decided to pick gabriel as my subject. fortunately enough, i come from middle class mexican family, gabriel used to work on the corner of the street where i used to live at. he was always very, you know, hard worker who worked eight hours. he had to work long hours because if he doesn't sell, he doesn't have enough money and it took him almost two hours to get there. and like you mentioned, it's a very exclusive neighborhood, and he comes from a very, very poor neighborhood. >> eight hours, seven days a week. >> yes. >> what compelled you to put that face on the plight of immigrants? >> i think what i wanted to show was a lot of unfair, how sometimes life is very unfair for some people. and how some people have to struggle more than others. i thought also this is not your typical hollywood ending story.

he's not successful. he doesn't end up, you know, having a lot of money. he ends up in jail, ends up in immigrati immigration, deported and living under extreme poverty conditions. >> what do you think -- what do you want folks who watch your documentary, what do you want them to go home with at the ends of the viewing? >> i want the documentary to show people like -- like to show people like jim brewer who are in politics who are supposed to serve the public and are very, very against undocumented immigrants to show that these people don't have another option. these people sometimes have less education than they do. and janua brewer and meg whitma are on top. and i wanted to show them so they can put themselves on the foots -- in the shoes of these

people. >> does michael moore have a copy of your documentary? >> i did give michael moore a copy of your documentary. >> where have you aired this? what do you plan to do with this? >> i went to the university of georgia, i talked to over 100 students who are studying landscape and horticulture. i talked to them about undocumented immigrants. let's face it. they will be the bosses of undocumented immigrants. iment them to know where they are coming from, what their background is. i showcased it here on channel 15 in san jose. right now, i'm trying to promote it to get it out there, which is one of the most difficult things to promote it, because i do want people to see it. >> if you are a promoter out there or have any avenues that javier can seek. give him a call. he is the producer of "road to nowhere." any number where people can call you? >> they can call me --

>> is that your number right there? >> yes, sir. >> javier, "road to nowhere." congratulations and thank you for taking on this issue. >> thank you. and i hope everything gets better for the people. they do struggle a lot. we have a hispanic community that is struggling, and this does need to be looked at. >> thank you, javier. up next, how to become a foster parent. stay with us.

a friend of the program. we do need more latinos to become foster parents. we give it a slot and became a very successful one. we are here to recruit more latina parents. with us is juliana and sonia

with the social services agency here in santa clara county. welcome to the show. >> thank you. >> i'll start with you, what has it been like with your child? >> well, i mean, you see him here in the studio. >> right over there. >> god has blessed us. and we were fortunate to get miho when he was two days old. he's 28 months, and he's -- >> look at him go. >> he's ours. he's ours. my mom and dad said -- [ speaking spanish ] >> what is it like to see the unification of a child who needed the support and care? >> that's what we hope for for all of our children. for them to be able to lead as normal life as possible. it's a beautiful thing to witness. and your thoughts as well. this is pretty ingreedible. you become a foster parent first and at the same time you are able to adopt. >> absolutely.

firstly all, there is a great need for latino parents, latino homes. we have a lot of children in there, and i'm very -- our first goal is to reunify with the fame, but in an event that doesn't happen, people, wonderful people like this eventually do adopt the children who have not reunified with their families. >> we are locking atll ethnicities, but latinos in particular, from there is a strong need? >> yes, there is a strong need for latinos in particular. right now, we have 56% of the child welfare population is latino children. as well as african-american children who are only 2% of the san jose community, but we are 14% of the child welfare system. so there is a great need for not only latino, but african-american children as well. >> how easy it was to bond? >> wow. like said, he came to us when he was two days old, and he was in

our home at two days old, and so you being a parent, when you got your first child into your home, that bonding happened right there. and the same thing happened with miho with me and rosa. >> and he looks like a heart breaker. >> he likes to sing. >> how do you qualify? i'm sure there are background checks and everything. >> yes there, is. first of all, there is requirements. we do like to have people do 27-hour course for parenting. included in that is also a fingerprinting, criminal background check. we also do have a cpr and first aid course requirement as well. and -- and also too, we do require that you live in santa clara county, because the children we serve are here in santa clara county. >> if you live in any other county in the bay area, i'm sure your social services agency

provides the same type of service, but sonia, is the goal ultimately -- the goal of family reunification? >> absolutely. >> is the second goal adoption? >> in the event that reunification cannot occur, then another permanent plan is considered and adoption is one of them. >> tell us what you -- i mean this child is yours. but for someone who might be considering becoming a foster parent, what should they do? >> you have to participate in the course, which is supplied training. awesome training. i guarantee it to anybody who is natural birth parent. they go from newborn to adolescent years and teach and you discuss and educate you about the court system. and that's what takes the longest. part of the reunification is that once the parental rights are terminated, then the parents can still appeal, the birth parents can still appeal.

after that, you go to court, it's a done deal. so anyone whether you're single, whether you're in heterosexual relationship or not, you know, anyone that qualifies, as long as they pass the qualification, fingerprinting, classes, and a commitme commitment. >> and you your wife have a great marriage. you have had it -- i've known your family for a long time. what has this done to your marriage? >> well, rosa and i, we've had to start all over in our relationship almost. there are certainly things you learn in class, but then life talks about other issues, and so how we were brought up as kids, everyone has their own way. so we had to come really to an agreement this is our child this is how we'll rear him. with the influences of our family. we take that into consideration. the whole process, you know, i love my wife and we have an extension and that's our son. and that completes our circle.

>> have you final thoughts? >> i want to say this family was very luxury because they were able to adopt a baby. now we're doing targeted recruitment. we're finding we need homes for youth 11 to 17 years old. homes for childrens that are brothers and sisters that need to be placed together. we need homes for children who are physically or emotionally challenged. we are targeting recruitment, not only for babies, but for youth that are older that need to be placed with loving families. >> we want to know what would happen to these kids if they weren't in the foster program. any final thoughts? >> i would like to say -- [ speaking spanish ] >> 408-299-kids to begin the process. >> thank you for what you're doing. congratulations. and up next, dr. rita, the new

chancellor at evergreen community college. stay with us. ring ring ring ring

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we have the new chancellor at evergreen community college district. she is here on talk about her vision and about the future of public education, higher education, what happens next. welcome to the show and welcome to the area. >> thank you. >> tell us about yourself so the viewers can get to know you a little better. >> well, you know, it's finally that one of your previous guests spoke about immigrants and immigrants and giving a face to immigrants. i need to begin by telling you that i am an immigrant. english is my second language. i arrived in this country as a child 11 years old and grew up in southern california. just by virtue of fate or timing, some of us come to this country and have no problems, able to come with documentation, and others suffer greatly. that's not why you invited me to talk, but the issue of immigration and the issue of

education and the issue of language is one that is very near and dear to my heart. now, in terms of community colleges, i have to tell you, as i say to everyone else, next to my family is the love of my life. >> i mean, why would you choose this job right now? the budget -- you should be worrying about the education of students, not about budgetary issues, and everybody is worried about the budget now. >> as you know, sadly, the state of california has over time disinvested in education, so it's not just community colleges. as you know, it's k--12 and four-year colleges. we're making definitively wrong choices when it comes to policy. and i know the budge set tremendous and we have many competing priorities, but the future of this nation, the future of the state, the future of silicone valley certainly lies in our ability to educate our children.

the california master plan when it was passed recognized that. california became great because of nearly free access to post-secondary education and we're surely going in the wrong direction. community colleges continue to be one of the greatest access and lowest cost of all segments of post-secondary education, and that's why as an immigrant looking at the issue of education have decided and decided quite a while ago, 30 years ago to be exact, to make community colleges my life. >> what's the outlet? is community college the insubpoenaive way to get a good, quality education, to get your aa, associates degree, or it is becoming more difficult like we've been reporting? >> it's becoming more difficult from the perspective that we don't have the same capacity to offer as many courses. in order to cope with the budget reductions, one of the immediate things we've had to do, which i thought i would never have to do in my history as a community

college educator is to cut courses, we thought that that was really the last thing we would ever do. it's been extremely difficult for people like myself for faculty, staff, thinking about having to cut courses, we are the open door of the community colleges, by being close by virtue of having to not have courses available. basic they will come knocking on the door, and there isn't room. we're try our best to accommodate as many students. our faculty, staff, redoubling their efforts to accommodate as many as possible. it is still the way to access -- i don't know if you know this, but 80% of all latinos in public post-secondary education attend a community college. their road to a baccalaureate, the road to master's, the road to a doctorate is a community college. the associate degree in and of itself is proven a highly valuable degree, because you

kern currently have to have more than a high school did i ploploma in economy. we have some expert kay indicates that are a great payout in terms of graduation. >> thank you very much. we'll be back and talk more about opportunities at the community college level. stay with us.

dr. rita sapalla, chancelllor at evergreen community college district. she is here so we can introduce her to the best of the bay area. why should voters vote for measure g? >> community colleges stand for opportunity and access. we need capacity to be able to provide the education and training for the workforce, for the silicone valley and make

sure that we will be enabled to have the kind of ability, infrastructure and development that is necessary for us. >> and right now you have to go to the bank to borrow money to keep the doors open. how ridiculous is that? >> for the first 100 years -- it felt like 100 years, believe me. for the first 100 days before the budget was signed, indeed, we had to go to the bank to borrow money, and it was about 17 million we needed to borrow to keep the doors open and it cost us $320,000 in interest. which, again, comes out of our budget. it was absolutely a horrific thing to do. i'm glad we had the possibility to do it, but we were not the only district having to do that. 73 districts up and down the state of california were in the same boat. >> i spoke at your college, evergreen college last week and i told students whether you come from vietnam and you think being

an immigrant is being an obstacle, it's an excuse. we have to stop making excuses and challenge ourselves to better ourselves. the fact that they are going beyond high school and challenging themselves, that has to be a terrific outlook for you, knowing that they are going forward with it. >> that's why i'm in community colleges, we have the capacity to take someone who doesn't speak english as a first language, who may have a ged, to enter a post-secondary institution and from there, as we like to say, we take you where you are, and wherever you want to go. and community colleges are quite frankly the only institution of higher learning that can do that. >> all right. will things get better? what's your crystal ball? >> of course things will get better. if for no other reasons that community colleges will continue to do amazing work, and we look at perhaps another two or three years of budget woes, but thereafter, we are resilient, learning a lot from this desire set of circumstances, and i'm

sure we'll come out the other end better than ever. >> what do we need to do at the junior high school level, the high school level to better prepare them for you? >> create a culture, a college-going culture. start in third grade, start in first grade, start in ginger garden. the notion that college is not a dream, but a factual reality. that's highly critical for children, and as you well know, if we don't have that by third grade, our children start dropping out from that point forward, particularly those that are most underrepresented. >> and parental involvement being so crucial, my daughter mel inna goes to a school that is dual immersion. and parental involvement is critical. you have to commit to 30 hours of work in the classroom. >> it begins in the home, doesn't it? no question but that are you going to college should begin at birth as far as i'm concerned.

>> and your colleges are second to none in the area. talk about the administrators and staff and leadership team that you have that convinces you this is the place to go? >> these are individuals that are themselves committed to the movement of community colleges. they understand the mission. they will leave no stone unturned in terms of the shy capacity. we have to build our board. we are very courageous in putting the bond measure on the ballot. we have to skilled educators, but we have to have the heart to see the mission of our dis trikt in terms of equity and focusing on those most unrserved. i'll i'm delighted to be working with every one of them. >> lawmakers in sfraacramento a busy pointing the finger at each other. what would you say to those laying blame on somebody else. who might need to pass budgets

sooner with education in mind? >> first, i would say to the votered, vote. because legislators get the message that way, don't they? but i also say that the responsibility is all of ours. we need to recognize it's not just sacramento or local government that we as individual citizens when we vote and make determinations about how the state is managed, what the priorities are for the resources we do have, and we can make our voices known, so i'm particularly as a naturalized citizen, vote, vote, vote. >> san jose evergreen community college. any final thoughts? >> any final comments? >> yes. >> just that i'm delighted to be here. it's a vibrant community and that the intellectual voo tallity that i see in our community, in our faculty staff, and students is nothing short of first class. >> congratulations. welcome to the area.

>> gracias. >> and now here is what's happening in your communidad. and saludodos for those celebrating a special day.

a lot of birthdays this week. here is the address. pick up a copy of our newspaper partner and support your bilingual weekly all across the area. thank you for being part of our sunday morning once again. next week, we'll be back with you at the same time, 10:30 a.m.