La Raza and L'chayim

The Hispanic Ledership Group (of St. Louis) had a meeting last night at A.G. Edwards, and featured a high-powered guest speaker: Dina Siegal Vann, first generation Mexican-American of Jewish decent, and head of the Latino and Latin-American Institute of the American Jewish Committee.

A delegation of U.S. Hispanic leaders traveled to Israel in April 2006, co-sponsored by Dina's organization and Project Interchange. The result was a statement pledging to support Israel and United States foreign policy concerning Israel.

Its always a positive thing to see minorities support each other, even if Latin-America and Judaism aren't exactly common word associations. What is odd is that the Hispanic Leadership Group chose to host this speaker at this time, considering we are in the midst of a proposal to send troops to the border, and especially considering a looming Missouri bill (SB 1250) that severely cracks down on illegal (undocumented) immigrants.

Strangely enough, only 10 or so minutes were dedicated solely to the topic of the bill, with Joan Suarez of Jobs with Justice Immigrant Rights Action Task Force filling in the details. In any case, the Arch City Chronicle plans to closely follow the result of the bill and its effect on St. Louis' Hispanic population.

On a side note, La Clinica recieved a federal grant to provide free pre-natal care to interested immigrants, though it was not clear whether or not the women had to be "documented".