ustxtxb_obs_1981_05_01_50_00001-00000_000.pdf

AID FOR SALVADOR In the Gulf of Fonseca the 50 American advisors will teach the fish how to swim. They will bring no other weapons but the teeth of sharks. Such things are needed in Salvador to tear off the flesh from the trees, and teach the fish how to swim, and prune the mountains with fire. The 50 American advisors are needed in Salvador to drain the Gulf of Fonseca of most of Nicaragua, and prepare the bloody harvest of thousands of campesinos. They will reap cotton wool bandages to staunch the peoples’ wounds, and they’ll teach all the Pacific fish to swim on their right sides only so the peasants get to know the bowels of the volcanos. They’ll bring peace to the countryside, and stillness, as in dead mens’ dreams. Don’t ask me if they were sent for. They are coming because they are needed to even Nature’s score with Salvador. They will disinfect the capital so it no longer stinks of fish, and, with accurate riflery, bring the people down from the trees. They are coming to teach the fish how to swim because they’ve learned Spanish and have been trained in the Canal Zone on all the Central American species, and are compassionate, up to a point: Just watch how the volcanos will bloom, and the people will die secure in their beds. RICHARD ELMAN 1981 Richard Elman Photo by M. P. Rosenberg Sen. Carlos Truan, leader of legislative forces for bilingual education, with a sign on his office wall, “I am bilingual, bicultural, and proud of my people.” TETBSERVER May 1, 1981 A Journal of Free Voices 75 Bilingual Ed: A Report By M. P. Rosenberg Austin Texas is fast being pushed into an era of expanded bilingual education for non-English children too fast, in fact, to suit many Texans. Two federal district court orders issued this year, in January and April, mandate the phasing-in starting in September 1981 of a statewide, kindergartenthrough-twelfth-grade bilingual education program. The court decrees are the culmination of a decade-long political and legal campaign for equal educational opportunity for Mexican-American children, who are 95% of the state’s non-English speaking public school population. However, the struggle is not over. The determination of state officials to oppose the court’s action and a change in the political wind from Washington, D.C., means that bilingual education is destined to be a headline subject in the months and years ahead. Though bilingual education is fraught with symbolic significance particularly for the many Hispanics who regard it as “the number one” issue for the advancement of their people and though it has the earmarks of a classic civil rights \(Continued on