Report of the SCR 43 Task Force

THE CHALLENGE: LATINOS IN A CHANGING CALIFORNIA

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Before I came to America I had dreams of life here. I thought about tall Anglos, big buildings, and houses with lawns. I was surprised when I arrived to see so many lands of people -- Black people, Asians. I found people from Korea and Cambodia and Mexico In California I found not just America, I found the world.

Mexican immigrant student

Crossing the Schoolhouse Border

California Tomorrow

I. RESPONSE TO SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 43

Senate Concurrent Resolution 43 (Presley, et al, chaptered September 18, 1987) raised many important issues concerning California's growing Latino population. SCR 43 asked the University of California to establish a Task Force of scholars, professionals, and community leaders to examine these issues and to recommend to the State and to the University actions to address them. Shortly after the resolution was chaptered, the University established the SCR 43 Task Force and its Advisory and Executive Committees. The Task Force and its committees were organized into topic-specific working groups, bringing together researchers, practitioners and community and governmental leaders to discuss the issues, make recommendations, and formulate the report requested in SCR 43. This Executive Summary presents in a condensed manner the outcomes of this process: additional information and recommendations which bring together the sense of the working groups into a plan of action to be set in motion by the Legislature and the University.

The Report of the University of California SCR 43 Task Force reflects the challenges presented by the changing California population. Demographic forces are at work in the State which have ebbed and flowed through its two-hundred year history. California may represent the most culturally diverse society the world has ever known. Immigrants from virtually all the countries of the world, and from other regions of the United States, have been drawn to California, leading to its Asian, Black, European, and Latin American communities.

The forces of change are at a sensitive crossroads in the State, however. The Western European origin, or "Anglo" majority in the State is about to become less than one-half of its population. More importantly, much of the largely Anglo labor force is about to be replaced by new workers who are Asian and Latino. In this year's Kindergarten through twelfth grade enrollments, Latino, Asian and Black students together outnumber Anglo children for the first time in the history of the State.

California both celebrates and denies its diversity. The culture and arts that are Californian are fascinating combinations of Native American, Asian, Latin American, African and European influences. Yet this diversity is not so well reflected in the State's politics, education, economy and society. Beneath the colorful blanket of California's culture, there is a stratification of people largely drawn along ethnic lines. There is growing incidence of class and ethnic tension evidenced by incidents of racially and economically motivated violence. To prosper, to attain the highest ideals of civilization, California must accept its identity and build upon its many strengths.

This report focuses upon the Latino population of California for important reasons. Of the diverse groups of the State, the Latino population is expected to comprise more than one-third of the population by the year 2030; at the same time, the Latino population, and particularly those of Mexican origin, who comprise by far the largest number of Latinos, is much less successful economically and politically in the State than any other. This is seemingly paradoxical in light of the facts of Latino influence in the making of California which meet the eye every day. Consider the main source of California architecture; consider street and city names; consider art and movies and literature and music. Less apparent, but as important, are Spanish influences in California law; the California agricultural industry and the basis of its success; and the dependence of the California economy upon the labor of Mexico. Trade with Mexico is critical to California's economy, and the prosperity and success of Mexico and Latin America have important and direct influences upon California.

Thus while California is a state built upon, and by, Latino history, language, arts, and labor, it must be acknowledged also that many Latinos find the State inhospitable to their cultural and economic and educational needs. The recommendations which follow, then, are necessarily based in the resolution of problems.

The SCR 43 Task Force calls for research leading to action which must be undertaken by the University, by the legislature, and by public servants. By implication, the SCR 43 Task Force asks all Californians -- of all ethnic and national origins, including Latinos -- to recognize the potential which lies in the diversity of the State, to appreciate the importance of the Latino population in achieving that potential, and to work together toward a dynamic and rich future.