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Site set up to encourage Hispanic participation

April 15, 2008

Nuestro TahoeIt’s the American dream that brings them here, and it may end up being their downfall, one Kings Beach resident said at a community meeting. An immigrant from Colombia, David Escobar, 38, said he sees Hispanics coming to the United States in pursuit of a better life. To achieve that, they often work long hours with few days off. As a result, he said, their children are left to be raised by the television, not belonging to either the Latino or the Anglo culture.Escobar and his wife, Alejandra Barrón, 30, are participating in a citizen journalism workshop being offered in Kings Beach through the Reynolds School of Journalism at the University of Nevada, Reno.The focus of the project, a bilingual blog called Nuestro Tahoe, is to create a forum where issues facing the Hispanic community can be raised and addressed.The Escobars attended the first meeting, which are held each Monday at the North Lake Tahoe Conference Center, after reading a flier posted in the bus stop. They said they wanted to participate to express their concern for the future of the Latino youth at the Lake.“Many young people don’t have goals,” Barron said. “Many of them have parents who go back and forth depending on the season, and they never plant themselves.”She said the lack of a sense of belonging is causing a higher dropout rate among Hispanic teens. It’s a sentiment statistics support.According to the Washoe County School District, 85.2 percent of students enrolled at Incline High School graduate. The graduation rate of white students there is 91.8 percent, but drops to 65 percent of Hispanics.However, statistics in Incline are much higher than statewide where only 67.5 percent of students graduate, with whites graduating at 75 percent and Hispanics at 55.3 percent.Another participant, Marcelo Castro expressed concern that the problems don’t center only around high school. He lamented the higher-than-average dropout rate of Hispanic students, but worried it extends to college as well.“Even among those who finish high school, few go to college,” he said. “This is very sad, and we need to find out why.”Mario de la Rosa, editor of Ahora, a Spanish-language newspaper in Reno, moderated the meeting,He encouraged those in attendance to remain optimistic.“There is a solution,” he said.He said the community could create programs where youth could go for advice and counseling.“They need another type of program that’s different than for other youth,” he said. “They’re caught between two cultures.”He told them of groups being formed in Reno where Latino parents gather to talk about problems specific to their children, and debate solutions.De la Rosa pledged his support in helping the fledgling group publicize its concerns and generate ideas.Escobar said he will continue in the project in hopes of changing the future, not only for his 5-year-old daughter, but for all children.“We all have a responsibility to each other on this earth,” he said. “We hope that our child, that all people, will learn, grow, mature and develop well.”Author’s note: As part of my work as a graduate student at the Reynolds School of Journalism at the University of Nevada, Reno, I have been involved in a citizen journalism project aimed at increasing community participation amongst the Hispanic population at North Lake Tahoe. The following is a story concerning that project. Quotes in this story have been translated from Spanish.Related Links:Nuestro TahoeIncline teen tells his story

Related posts: [ Telling their own stories ] [ Freshman sets sights on graduation ] [ Talking about immigration ] [ Understanding diversity ] [ Community newspaper struggles to reach Hispanics ] 

Written by Teri Vance · Filed Under Feature #1, Nuestro Tahoe, Voices 

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