MERCURY POISONING IN THE BRONX

THE BRONX
Journal
A MULTILINGUAL NEWSPAPER FOR A DIVERSE COMMUNITY
SPRING 2005
Community
VOL. 8 NO. 1
My Bronx Roots 8 & 9
7
COMIC
ALBA SANCHEZ:
UNWANTED!
A Fordham Road
Drop-Off Center Saves
Abandoned Pets
Using Womanpower To Make
’Em Laugh And Think
MERCURY POISONING
IN THE BRONX
MULTILINGUAL SECTION
Italian
Remembering
Pope John Paul II
5
Health
French
IS YOUR CHILD
TOO FAT?
What You Can Do To
Save Your Kid’s Life!
B-3
Playwright Edward
Albee Looks Back
Spanish
14
Sports
B-2
B-11
Ecuador’s Ethnics
Find A United Voice
THE CONTENDER!
Will Boxer Joey Rios Be
The Next Junior
Welterweight Champ?
Japanese
B-8
A Return To
Home-Cooked Meals
PHOTO: OZZIE RAMOS
Why Your Religious Ceremony
May Be Hazardous To Your Health
PUBLISHED BY THE MULTILINGUAL JOURNALISM PROGRAM OF LEHMAN COLLEGE, CUNY
www.lehman.cuny.edu/depts/langlit/tbj
A2
TH E ENVIRONMENT
The Bronx Journal/Spring 2005
TIPTOEING AROUND
Photo: Ulises Gonzales
The Guadalupe Botanica (above), on the Grand Concourse and 183rd Street,
and La Division, on Fordham Road, sell items for use in Santeria ceremonies
Photo: Ozzie Ramos
Mercury, in the jar at right, and candles used to protect worshipers against evil,
envy, and other dangers, are for sale at many of the 41 botanicas in the Bronx.
WHY YOUR
RELIGIOUS CEREMONY
MAY BE DANGEROUS
TO YOUR HEALTH
OZZIE RAMOS
The Bronx Journal Reporter
n March, the Rockland County Department of Health
added an article to its health code that prohibited
keeping mercury in an uncovered container in
homes. It also required that all mercury sold in stores
must be correctly labeled in English, French and Spanish,
and must contain warnings about its danger. In addition,
vendors are required to inform buyers of the dire consequences of mercury spills and exposure.
“This was specifically done because of the knowledge
that people in the Afro-Carribbean neighborhoods of
Rockland were using mercury for ritualistic purposes,” says
Dr. Arnold Wendroff, the environmentalist and director of
the Mercury Poisoning Project, who has been monitoring
mercury use in these communities for more than ten years.
Is this a wake-up call for the Bronx?
Since the Bronx has a much larger Haitian and Latino
community than Rockland County, why is New York City’s
Department of Health not enacting similar laws banning the
use of uncontained elemental mercury in buildings? “There
I
is published hard data on mercury sales in the Bronx, and
on the influx of mercury into the sewage treatment plants
like Ward’s Island, which is highly elevated,” says
Wendroff. “But no one wants to rock the boat because they
know there’s a major mercury problem in the Bronx.”
Even Rockland County is careful about rocking the
boat. Which is why, says Wendroff, the Rockland County
Health Code sets its own level for the evacuation of buildings, using a measurement of mercury levels that is 100
times higher than those currently used in the rest of the
country. (The national standard for evacuation in mercury
spills is 1 microgram per cubic meter of air. For Rockland,
it is 100 micrograms.). “And the reason why it’s so high,”
he adds, “is apparently because the Rockland County
Department of Health believes there is a problem, but they
have no place to put people who would be displaced from
their homes during an evacuation.”
For years, elemental mercury, or azogue, has been used
in the Africo-Caribbean communities for ritualistic purposes. Families practicing Vodun, Santeria, Espiritismo, and
other underground religions often use the substance to
cleanse their homes of spirits, to put spells on loved ones,
even to improve the skin or cure intestinal disorders. “As a
girl, I used to watch my aunt cleanse her home with mercury,” says Evelyn Cordero of the Bronx, as she left La
Division Botanica on Fordham Road. “I remember wondering what made the water glitter as she mopped.”
Carmen Santiago sells religious items at the
Guadeloupe Botanica on the Grand Concourse and 183rd
Street. “Mercury wards off evil spirits in the home, and has
been used for that purpose for quite a while,” she says. “I
know mercury is bad for you and that the cops will close
you down if you sell it. I also know that you can still buy it
in some botanicas if you know someone. But I don’t sell it.”
Neither does the owner of La Division Botanica, a man
who calls himself “Professor” Eliseo, but refuses to reveal
his given name. Eliseo, 52, who has owned his botanica for
nine years and also teaches Espiritismo for $150 a session,
says, “I have seen men pour mercury from the jar into
gelatin capsules to sell it for a couple of dollars. And I used
mercury a couple of times myself by placing it in candles.”
Eliseo says he stopped after hearing about someone who
drank mercury to cure his intestinal problems, but damaged
his kidneys in the process. “I can tell you that mercury is
being sold and used today. But I do not either sell it or use
it,” he adds. Instead, he employs herbal preparations in the
rituals he practices.
Eliseo points out that since 9/11, paranoia has spread
throughout the botanica circuit. “I’ve heard rumors that if
you sell mercury, you can be arrested because the government would think you might be making bombs,” he says.
There is no truth to the notion that mercury is an ingredient for bombs. It is also not illegal, as long as it is properly contained and labeled. What is true, however, is that
mercury is a menace. Sprinkled on floorboards, it evaporates and seeps into the floors and walls for up to 15 years.
The Bronx Journal/ Spring 2005
TH E ENVIRONMENT
A3
MERCURY
Inhabitants of an apartment inhale the
invisible and undetectable vapors, which
can damage the brain, heart, lungs, and
liver. Children and fetuses are especially
vulnerable to mercury’s effects, which can
include insomnia, bronchitis, emotional
instability, neurological problems, gingivitis and developmental problems.
“As a girl, I used to
watch my aunt
cleanse her home with
mercury. I remember
wondering what made
the water glitter
as she mopped.”
“What users don’t know is how toxic
mercury is long after they’ve used it,” says
Wendroff, “and how compromised developmentally they may become if they have
been contaminated.”
Unlike lead or
asbestos, he points out, mercury breaks up.
“It’s a liquid and a gas at the same time. The
little droplets on the floor are continuously
evaporating. And the vapor is what’s toxic.
It is inhaled and absorbed into the blood.
The exposure is continuous and lasts for
years.” Which means that families who
move into apartments where practitioners
once sprinkled mercury are also at risk,
although they may not suspect it.
To get an idea of the extent of the mercury culture in the Bronx, doctors at
Montefiore Medical Center conducted a
1995 study, sending an Espiritismo practitioner out to locate Bronx botanicas and see
if she could buy mercury at each. All in all,
she unearthed 41 botanicas and bought
unlabeled mercury at 38 of them; 35 of
these shops estimated how many units of
mercury they sold a day (with one unit
being 9 grams). The average amount, based
on a 300-day retail year, fluctuated between
25,000 and 155,000 units a year, the median being 47,000 units or 930 pounds. In
addition, more than 29 percent of botanica
workers, customers, and others who were
queried suggested that the primary way to
use the mercury was to sprinkle it on floors.
As of 1995, says Wendroff,
“Somewhere between 8,000 and 50,000
homes per year are being contaminated
with enough mercury to warrant evacuation.”
Some local environmentalists like
Marian Feinberg, the environmental health
coordinator of the organization, “For A
Better Bronx,” believe that these statistics
are alarmist and that putting the blame solely on the Hispanic community is racist. “If
mercury is so dangerous, why are dentists
still putting it in our mouths?” she says.
“Most of the mercury in the environment
that we’re exposed to comes from power
plants. The tuna fish that you eat today is
more dangerous. It’s full of mercury.”
Wendroff, who has a Ph.D in medical
Photo: Ozzie Ramos
“Mercury can be cleaned up. But first you have to find it,” says Dr. Arnold Wendroff of the Mercury Poisoning Project,
who suggests that up to 50,000 homes are being contaminated each year with enough mercury to warrant evacuation.
sociology with a specialty in the traditional
medicine and witchcraft of the southeast
African country of Malawi, where he
served in the Peace Corps, first became
aware of the mercury problem in 1991
while teaching science at a Brooklyn junior
high school. Pointing to the symbol for
mercury, he asked if anyone knew what it
was used for, thinking that kids would
reply, “Thermometers.” However, one boy
volunteered that his mother sprinkled mercury on the floor to ward off what is known
in Santeria as brujo, or evil spirits. “It suddenly rang a bell,” says Wendroff, who also
noticed that the child was exhibiting signs
of mercury exposure such as anorexia, irritability and forgetfulness.
Wendroff claims that not only are individual homes tainted by mercury use, so is
the city’s water supply. It becomes compromised when excess mercury is either
flushed down toilets or poured down drains
after Santeria rituals are completed.
However, mercury in the community
has become a taboo subject. Few want to
talk about it, and even fewer want to own
up to the fact that it is a problem. The New
York City Department of Environmental
Protection tested New York City’s waste
water in late 2003 and early 2004 and discovered that there was an enormous excess
of levels of mercury in the Ward’s Island
plant, which serves Washington Heights
and the South Bronx .
Most politicians, like Congresswoman
Nydia Velasquez, Senator Bill Bradley, for-
mer Mayor David Dinkins, and former
Bronx Borough President, Fernando Ferrer,
have paid lip service to the problem, but little more. Wendroff claims to have written
to almost every local politician and says
that they have either ignored him or voiced
their concern with no follow-up. When The
Bronx Journal contacted Bronx Borough
President Alfonso Carrión and Ferrer for
this article, they both refused to comment.
“Little droplets on the
floor are continuously
evaporating.
And the vapor is toxic.
It is inhaled and
absorbed into
the blood.
The exposure lasts
for years.”
Mercury is a political hot potato, says
Wendroff, in part because politicians fear
alienating the Hispanic community by placing the blame on ritualistic mercury use,
and in part because any real solution is
expensive. “Cleaning up mercury spills can
cost up to $50,000 per apartment,” he
explains. “It can be cleaned up. But first
you have to find it, which is also expensive.
And embarrassing. Because all these political people know. And so does the media.
They’re treating it as a ‘potential health
threat’ and not doing the research themselves.” In the end, he believes, the government, because of its past negligence,
will be directly responsible for the cleanup.
What both Wendroff and Feinberg agree
on is that public health education is crucial.
“I don’t think it’s about politicians,” says
Feinberg. “It’s about health education. The
most affecting change will come when people will start to be more educated in general about the problem.”
Still, Wendroff remains skeptical. He
points out that in 2000 the New York City
Department of Health created two pamphlets, one for laypersons in English,
Spanish, and Creole, and another for health
care workers. “But they never adequately
distributed them to the public,” he says.
“They did a cover-your-ass operation. And
that was it. The city is at a fabulous, fabulous legal liability. After all, our officials
failed to seriously assess the problem. And
they never communicated their concern to
the people.”
For now, the Bronx – and the New York
City Department of Health – needs to take
inspiration from Rockland. As Dr. Joan
Facelle, Rockland’s health commissioner,
said bluntly, “We don’t know the extent of
the problem.”
O PI N I O N
A4
EDITORIAL
Commentary
Pro-Choice
BIENVENIDOS, BIENVENUE, & WELCOME!!
W
ith this spring’s issue, we are
pleased to be reinstating our
multilingual section of The
Bronx Journal. Here, among our features, is an article in Japanese on slowcooking foods; one in Spanish on how
ethnics in Ecuador are finding a political
voice; a Russian-language piece on the
KGB’s role in the 1981 assassination
attempt on Pope John-Paul; and, in
French, an article on the playwright
Edward Albee, whose acclaimed masterwork, “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”
is currently enjoying a Broadway revival.
We are especially proud of our talented reporting staff. Ozzie Ramos, who
this fall investigated the Parkchester
turkey plant that was violating
Environmental Control Board guidelines, visited the botanicas of the Bronx
and interviewed Dr. Arnold Wendroff of
the Mercury Poisoning Project in order
to write about how the ritualistic use of
mercury in Santeria, Espiritismo, and
other magical religions can affect Bronx
households.
Tahana Franklin wrote so well about
North Central Bronx Hospital’s Sexual
Assault Response Team (SART) last
November that this spring we sent her to
Jacobi Medical Center to talk with families whose children are trying to lose
weight and get healthy at Jacobi’s free
Family Weight Management Program.
Melissa Johnson, who interviewed
Sonia Manzano of “Sesame Street” last
go-round, wrote about her hometown,
Port of Spain, Trinidad, for our “Cities
of the World” feature.
New writers have made noteworthy
contributions to this issue as well.
Leandro Fortyz visited the Bronxchester
Boxing Club where he observed upcoming junior welterweight contender, Joey
Rios, punching up a storm during his
daily workout. Louise Valentine perceptively reviewed the recent movies,
The Bronx Journal/Spring 2005
“Million Dollar Baby” and “The Sea
Inside.” And Annika Harris set down, in
a funny and touching essay, her thoughts
on how looking good helped her feel
good – or, at least, better — during her
recent battle with cancer.
Accompanying most of our reporters
on their assignments, The Bronx
Journal’s crack photographer, Ulises
Gonzales, deserves special credit this
issue. Not only did he photograph the
children at Jacobi, the student dancers at
the Bronx Dance Academy, Rios, and
comedienne Alba Sanchez, but he also
drew the cartoon on this page and wrote
the Spanish piece, “Presencias Reales.”
The Bronx Journal will take a summer break, but we will be back in the fall,
ready to serve the Bronx community
with relevant, compelling, and entertaining journalism.
Publisher
Lynne Van Voorhis
Editor-in-Chief
Marjorie Rosen
Multilingual Editor
Nicholas Boston
Art & Design Director
Orlando Lorca
Design Consultant
Ulises Gonzales
Reporters and Writers:
Harvey Bien, Ángel Campoverde, Anibelka
Cortorreal, Rosa de Jesús, Yolaine Díaz, Leandro
Fortyz, Ulises Gonzales, Tahana Franklin, Annika
Harris,Toshiyuki Harada, Stella Ilieva, Melissa
Johnson, Anne Leighton, Mara Palermo, Bonnie
Quinn, Juan Ramírez, Ozzie Ramos, Louise
Valentino, Caroline Vaissière.
Faculty Consultants:
Patricio Lerzundi, Chair; James Carney,
Asako Tochika, Robert Whittaker
The Bronx Journal is published by the
Multilingual Journalism Program, Lehman
College, 250 Bedford Park Blvd. West,
Carman Hall 259, Bronx, NY 10468-1589.
Telephone: (718) 960-8217.
Fax: (718) 960-8218.
By Stella Ilieva
T
hree years ago Solvita Mulka, 29, a New York City resident, had to have an
abortion because she could not afford to provide for a baby. Even though
she was a college graduate, she could not find a good-paying job and had
just broken up with her boy friend.
Hundreds of thousands of women in New York State rely on Medicaid to
obtain the necessary health care. Our state is one of four in the country that offer
abortion for low-income women under Medicaid coverage. Mulka was one of those
to take advantage of the plan.
Last November 21, Congress passed a $388 billion spending bill permitting
federal, state and local agencies to deny women abortion services. This law encourages abortion opponents to pressure hospitals and clinics into ignoring state requirements offering abortion to needy women.
For more than 36 years, since the State Legislature enacted landmark legislation legalizing abortion, New York has protected the reproductive freedom of its
poorest women. The Legislature has long recognized that state Medicaid funding
for abortion is essential if reproductive choice is to be a reality for them.
But on December 8, President Bush signed the bill that Congress had enacted,
thus giving the right to hospitals in New York, Maryland, Washington, and Hawaii
to refuse abortion services to women covered by Medicaid.
This sounds bleak for women who believe in reproductive choice. Yet small
steps are currently being taken to ensure that women’s health is not endangered by
the sneaky political maneuvering of this administration.
On March 22, the Texas Senate Health and Human Services Committee
approved Senate Bill 747, sponsored by Senator John Carona (R-Dallas), allowing
for a Medicaid waiver. The bill expands the eligibility of women in Texas for pap
smears for cervical cancer, screenings for breast cancer, sexually transmitted diseases, hypertension, cholesterol and tuberculosis. The waiver covers the eligibility
of women who make up to $34,000 a year.
Of course, anti-abortion activists are already opposing the bill, fearing it
might be a way of using Medicaid for abortions.
It is time for American women to understand what is beginning to happen.
The ruling party did not waste any time in enforcing its political agenda. Taking
away women’s right to choose can divide the nation the same way slavery did. By
giving the medical agencies the right to refuse abortions covered by Medicaid, the
majority in Congress takes the first step to infringe upon the civil liberties of
women.
T
It’d be cool if
they build a new
Yankee Stadium
in front of
the old one.
Pro-Life
By Anibelka Cortorreal
he TV image showed an abortion clinic’s room full of buckets- —buckets
brimming with tiny bones. A group of eighth graders watched and cried. I
was one of them, sitting in a classroom at a Catholic seminary in the
Dominican Republic. That day I made a decision that if I was ever faced with an
unplanned pregnancy, abortion would not be an option. That was my choice.
It is infuriating that living in the 21st century in the United States, where
almost every method of contraceptives is available, more than one million abortions
take place every year.
Having an abortion should not be the solution for a night of passion gone bad.
It is an irresponsible and selfish way out of things. I believe that the life and breath
of people come from God, and even though many say that what is being aborted is
not yet a human being, I feel that, in God’s eyes, it is, because it has already been
given a soul.
Even Jane Roe (whose real name is Norma McCovey), the woman who
inspired the 1973 Supreme Court case, Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion in the
U.S., came to realize this and is now the director of a pro-life ministry. She never
had an abortion herself because by the time her case was resolved, she had already
given birth and given her baby up for adoption. However, since then, more than 43
million fetuses have been killed legally by abortion.
There are alternatives to abortion. A woman who finds herself in a situation
where she cannot or does not want to keep the baby can seek help. There are adoption agencies. A woman can ask for help from her minister, priest or rabbi, or she
can visit a pro-life center like Birthright that helps young women deal with
unplanned pregnancies.
Children are a heritage and a blessing from God, so it is time that America
wakes up. Don’t take the easy way out of a pregnancy because, after all, there are
other choices to pick from. So make the right one.
Really?
Why?
The Babe’s
spell is broken,
and we need
a new reason
to keep being
the best!
What about
a new
owner ?
Ulises
The Bronx Journal/Spring 2005
H EA LTH
A5
IS YOUR KID FAT?
How Bronx Families Are Weighing In Against Childhood Obesity
and how to combat it, is important. She p.m. and 6 p.m., they go to the hospital’s
discourages families from serving chil- gym, where the children ride stationary
dren undiluted juice, which is full of bicycles, play kickball, do relay races, and
sugar, and whole-fat milk, since skim or stretch.
“Parents have to find a way to allow
even two-percent fat is so much healthier.
“It is clear that obesity runs in families their children to play,” says Gyselle
and kids copy what parents do,” says Gonzalez, assistant coordinating manager
Bass. “That means parents have to get of the program. “Many children are not
coordinated because they don’t participate
rid of their own sodas.”
In other words, adults must improve in physical activity and cannot move as
their own eating habits if they have any quickly as others. They should use the stairs
hope of helping their children. For this instead of elevators when they can. They
reason, the Jacobi Weight Management should also walk and look for free exercise
Program heavily involves the entire fam- programs like the Police Athletic League.”
The Jacobi program offers open access.
ily. “Parents are weighed and measured at
visits with their kids,” Dr. Bass says. “We
get them all up on the scale. We promote
healthy living for the entire family.
Healthy eating and exercise is good for
“My daughter is
both overweight and skinny people.”
A referral from a child’s pediatrician is
eating too much,”
all that he or she needs to attend the tenone parent told
week program. The initial appointment
includes a full exam, lab work, and a
her doctor.
review of symptoms for any problems
“What can I do?”
that may be associated with being overweight. Among the team of experts on
staff are a psychologist, a social worker,
a dietician and a coordinator
Photos:Ulises Gonzales
Children at the Weight Management If a child misses one week, he can come the
“They’ve taught me to eat good food that helps you lose weight,” says Tyre Evans, Program range in age from 2 to 18. The young next week or even a month later, depending
10, who is back on track after gaining weight during summer camp last year.
ones participate along with their mothers, one-on- on the family’s needs.
Olivia Evans and her son, Tyre, 10,
one, rather than in a group.
help prevent childhood obesity. Physical
TAHANA FRANKLIN
Starting with the second visit and con- joined the program in 2003. At the time, he
activity and healthy nutrition are the keys,
tinuing every Tuesday between 4 p.m. and 5 weighed 148. Before that, Evans used to
The Bronx Journal Reporter
says Dr. Jennifer Bass, the director of the
p.m., the children and their parents meet fry most of her family’s dinners. Since
North Central Bronx Healthcare Network
with the dietician and the psychologist to learning what is healthy, however, she
wo months ago, Esquirina Family Weight Management Program.
discuss some of the struggles the families bakes her meals instead.
“Most parents are aware there is a probEspinar, a Bronx resident,took
At first, Tyre lost weight. But Evans and
are facing, including issues like making
her
10-year-old
daughter, lem in our society,” says Dr. Bass, “but they good food choices, acquiring self-esteem, her husband, Quentin, who live in the
Kiarabel to the Tremont Avenue do not see their own child as being over- and changing bad habits. Then between 5 Parkchester section of the Bronx, decided to
health clinic that’s affiliated with Jacobi weight. In fact, most parents themselves are
Continued on page 6
Medical Center. Here Espinar expressed her overweight, so when you criticize what they
concern about Kiarabel’s weight. “She’s are doing for their child, it’s like directly
eating too much, what can I do?’’ she asked criticizing them.”
While obesity is a serious problem
the pediatrician.
Espinar had first noticed Kiarabel start- throughout the U.S., Hispanic and black
ing to get chubby a little more than a year children in urban areas like the Bronx are
ago, but she was not sure how to go about the most heavily affected groups. And the
changing the girl’s eating habits. The clinic consequences go beyond social ostracism.
recommended a free program at Jacobi Recent studies conducted by the Centers for
Hospital on Pelham Parkway. Since join- Disease Control indicate that more children
ing it, Kiarabel has lost seven pounds, than ever before are being diagnosed with
going from 152 to 145, thanks in part to the health problems related to overweight.
fact that Espinar now cooks more balanced, These include Type 2 diabetes, high choleshealthier meals and sends her daughter to terol and blood pressure, fatty liver disease,
school with nutritious lunches such as and sleep apnea. Being fat also increases
cheese sandwiches on whole wheat bread. children’s risk for developing heart disease
“I eat better now,” says Kiarabel. “I feel and cancer.
“When you ask parents if anyone in
better, and I can run faster.”
The fifth grader encourages other children their family has experienced diabetes or
who may be chubby to attend the program. “You heart disease, it makes it easier to explain
get to exercise,” she says. “And when you grow the connection,” Dr. Bass says. “It motiup, you won’t have heart problems and stuff.” vates parents to change their own lifestyle
Kiarabel is not the only child eating too and that of their family.”
If factors like too much TV and too
much. The New York City Department of
Health and Mental Hygiene reports that many Big Macs help cause obesity, so does
nearly half of all New York City’s elemen- genetic predisposition. However, weight
tary school children are overweight or gain boils down to this, says Dr. Bass:
obese. And parents need to take the lion’s When a person eats more calories than he
Photos:Ulises Gonzales
burns through physical activity, he gets fat.
share of the blame.
“Now I feel better and can run faster,” says Kiarabel Espinar, 10, above, with her mother,
Dr. Bass and the staff at Jacobi believe
But just as they play a significant role
Esquirina. Together they have been attending Jacobi’s Weight Management Program.
in making their children fat, they can also that educating people about this epidemic,
T
A6
H EA LTH
The Bronx Journal/Spring 2005
Continued from page 5
Photo:Ulises Gonzales
As part of the Jacobi Weight Management Program, the nutritionist Cindy Sizemore teaches the children and their parents what kind of snacks are healthy, and what kind are not.
send Tyre to summer camp to increase his
physical activity. When he came home, she
said, “He was humongous. He had gained
all the weight back and then some, thanks
to the meals there.”
In May of 2004, Tyre returned to the
Jacobi program. Today he weighs 162, but
he has also grown substantially; now he is
4’8”. This summer, says Evans, she will
write on her son’s camp application, “Limit
sweets intake.”
Parents of obese children need to monitor city-sponsored school and summer
camp program lunches. While these are
well-balanced, they do not consist of lowfat, low-calorie foods. According to the
ing no. “If you give your kid a choice
between an apple and an orange, there is
only a good choice that can come out of
that,” says Dr. Bass.
Parents also need to help their kids step
up the level of their physical activity. Bass,
who has been working at Jacobi for three
years, understands that safety issues often
limit children’s physical activity. “They
don’t play outside like they used to,” she
says, adding that cultural and economic
factors come into play as well. “Often, people in the Bronx are living just below the
poverty line, so there can be food insecurity issues. Also, healthier, organic foods are
more expensive. Foods such as low-sugar
cereals are rarely on sale.”
In the end, parents must not only be
ready for change, they must be patient –
and caution their children to be patient as
well — because combatting this epidemic
is a process that takes time.
But most feel that it’s worth it. “I’ve
learned how to eat in portions and read
nutritional labels on food products,” says
Tyre, sounding very mature for his age.
“They’ve taught me to eat good food that
helps you lose weight, and I can do things I
couldn’t do before. That makes me feel
much better about myself.”
If you are interested in Jacobi’s Family
Weight Management Program, contact the
referral office at 718-519-4940.
Parents can keep children at a
healthy weight by following
the New York City Department
of Health guidelines:
1) Talk to your healthcare
provider to determine a healthy
weight range for your child
and yourself.
2) Set a good example. Kids
are more likely to do what you
do rather than what you say.
“Obesity runs in
families, and kids
copy what
parents do,”
says Dr. Bass.
“That means parents
have to get rid of
their own sodas.”
New York Department of Education, a
five-year plan is in place to change the
menus, but it is being phased in slowly.
At Jacobi, the staff works with mothers,
teaching them how to serve appropriate
portion sizes and healthy foods, and how to
set limits without feeling guilty about say-
MANAGING YOUR
CHILD’S WEIGHT
3) Keep in mind that people
get fat when they eat more
calories than they burn up.
Reaching a healthy weight is a
balancing act between what
you take in and how physically
active you are.
Photo:Ulises Gonzales
Tyre Evans’ mom, Olivia, his dad, Quentin, and sister, Toya, are part of his support group
at Jacobi. Now that he has lost weight, Tyre says, “I can do things I couldn’t do before.”
4) GET MOVING! Physical
activity improves your health
even if you do not lose weight.
Spend at least one hour a day
being physically active.
The Bronx Journal/ Spring 2005
A7
PETS
UNWANTED!
A Fordham Road Drop-Off Center Saves Abandoned Pets
Photo: Ulises Gonzales
A homeless cat waits at the A C & C to either find a new family or be shipped to another city-run adoption center.
ANNE LEIGHTON
The Bronx Journal Reporter
At the Animal Care &
Control Center,
Even Your Goldfish
May Find A New Home
J
ose, a middle-aged laborer, looked
worried as he and his pit bull terrier,
Annabel, 5, approached the Bronx’s
Animal Care & Control Drop-off
Center on Fordham Road near Webster
Avenue one recent Saturday.
”I have to turn over my dog,” he
moaned. “My landlord wants me to get rid
of her.”
Jose has had Annabel for more than four
years. And New York City law actually
supports pet owners in rent-stabilized apartments who have been open about owning
non-exotic pets like cats, dogs, fish, rabbits,
and birds for more than three months. (The
only exceptions would be if pets threatened
the health and safety of other residents).
Mary Pannazzo, one of three people on
duty, gave Jose the phone number of Legal
Action for Animals, a group of volunteer
attorneys who deal with landlords trying to
evict tenants with pets. Despite the 90-day
law, landlords continue to serve eviction
notices in hopes that tenants will move out.
Currently only one related bill is in any
committee of the New York City Council.
Intro 189 allows senior citizens to replace a
pet that dies. Although more than 30 members have signed on as sponsors, Intro 189
has yet to make it into the Council for a full
vote.
There still are no bills that would elimi-
nate the “no pets” clause in housing leases.
This means that New York City’s residents
who shop at more than 400 pet shops in all
five boroughs are a good deal more animalfriendly than their politicians.
The Fordham Road A C&C functions
chiefly as a holding center; animals are kept
there for three days before being shipped
out to the city’s other full-service adoption
facilities. While the city government pays
for such basics as AC&C staff salaries,
building maintenance, and spaying and
neutering dogs and cats, the drop-off center
survives, thanks to donations and fees paid
for adoptions and animal surrenders. As a
result, the shelter system still supports the
“kill,” policy; only the Staten Island branch
has had the resources to find homes for
every healthy animal that it has taken in.
Jose and Annabel were extremely lucky
because they had each other, as well as
some serious legal recourse. However,
according to Ed Boks, the director of the
AC&C, “There are more than 10,000
unwanted animals from the Bronx every
year.” These animals either die on the street
or are euthanized.
The AC&C staff keeps busy with a variety of people bringing in pets. The same
Saturday morning that Annabel’s life was
spared, a dozen people came in with cats
and dogs.
One man in his early twenties arrived
with two cats; he asked this reporter to
adopt them, then explained to the AC&C’s
technicians, Melissa Moore and Sabrina
James, that his sister was moving and she
couldn’t keep them. Moore instructed him,
“We have to find out from your sister if
that’s what she wants.”
The man left and brought in his mother,
who told a brand new story, adding, “I
can’t take care of them,”
James advised her that she would need
to pay $35 per cat for medical care.
Astounded at the cost, mother and son
picked up their cat carrier and headed for
the door. Minutes later, the staff checked
outside to make sure the cats had not been
More than 10,000
animals from the
Bronx are euthanized
every year.
abandoned. They weren’t.
A couple brought in a Pekinese dog, and
the wife explained, “We both have jobs and
can’t take care of him.”
Moore assured them that the dog would
be adopted quickly. Then a large pit bull
arrived with its owner, who was moving to
a building with a “no pets” clause.
“Years ago the city euthanized all the pit
bulls,” Pannazzo recalled. “Lately we’ve
been finding homes for some of them.”
This is thanks to Boks, who was previously the director of the Phoenix, Arizona,
shelter system, whose facilities he turned
into no-kill centers. He is determined to
accomplish this mission throughout New
York City’s five boroughs.
One of the major reasons such a large
number of cats and dogs are euthanized,
explained Moore, is that so many unwanted
animals are born each year. “People need
to spay their females and neuter their
males,” she says, adding that this has
proven to be healthier. “And it helps control
odor problems in the home as well.”
This year the AC & C has sponsored
two all-day spay-neuterathons, called “The
Big Fix,” in which vets, working in a
mobile truck, traveled the neighborhoods,
fixing hundreds of cats and dogs.
Part of Boks’ mission to prevent animals from becoming homeless includes
building a full-service shelter in the Bronx
over the next year or two. “It’s our feeling
that the Bronx and Queens are the most
under-served boroughs in the city,” he says.
Boks hopes to make the Bronx center a
community-oriented facility where families
can come to learn about animals. The
AC&C has a “TLC (Teach Love &
Compassion) Program,” he says, “for socalled at-risk kids, teens who need to develop interpersonal skills. Many of them are
from the Bronx. So they’re trudging either
to Manhattan or to Brooklyn to work with
animals.”
Pet Product News, the business trade
magazine, has reported that 69 million
homes in America have pets. And their
owners can be passionate – and activist.
For instance, Boks points out, last year
Governor
Arnold
Schwarzenegger
announced that he could save money for
California by trimming the amount of time
animals could stay in shelters. But pet people protested – loudly.
“He changed his mind within the first
day,” says Boks. “Clearly, he’s a very
astute politician.”
The AC&C’s branch at 464 E. Fordham
Road, (212-593-0078) is only open
Tuesdays and Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 4
p.m. However, the Manhattan office at 326
East 110th Street is open daily between 8
a.m. and 8 p.m
A8
The Bronx Journal/Spring 2005
M Y BRO N X RO O TS
MY BR O N X R O O TS
The Bronx Journal/Spring 2005
A9
WHEN LATINA POWER MEETS WOMANPOWER
Comic Alba Sanchez Makes ’Em Laugh – And Think
BONNIE QUINN
The Bronx Journal Reporter
A
lba Sanchez is something of an
enigma. The Puerto Rican comedienne, labeled “the female John
Leguizamo,” is as funny and raw
as she is guarded. Yet what informs all her
work, and her persona as well, is the fact of
where she comes from. “I love the Bronx; it’s
very special to me,” she says. “I’ll always be a
Bronx girl.”
Sanchez has crammed a multitude of
acclaimed, original comic pieces into a career
that is just picking up steam. One of her most
highly praised shows,
“The
Bronx
W i t c h
“I try
to
find
the heart
in the crazy
situation.”
Photo: Ulises Gonzales
“Anything and everything is funny.” says Sanchez, here hanging in her Bronx neighborhood.
Project,” opened the esteemed La Mama
Theatre Company’s 40th anniversary in 2002.
She was also selected as the face of HBO
Latino’s “Habla Campaign” and as a BRILLO
(Bronx Recognizes Its Own) award winner in
2003. And this June, coming straight from a college tour and a gig at the Remy Lounge on the
Lower East Side, she will be opening at the
famed Apollo Theatre in Harlem in an ensemble
show, “Latinas Don’t PMS.”
A self-described “change-of-life baby,”
Sanchez grew up with three much older siblings
and parents who had immigrated to New York
City in 1940 from Puerto Rico. They always
balanced each other out, she says; her father, a
sometimes-singer and sometimes-loan-shark,
would be lenient, while her mother, a spiritualist and full-time nurse, who would jokingly
characterize herself as a “white woman slave of
a black man,” would lay down the law — and
vice versa.
Sanchez claims to have inherited her flair
for performing from her father, whom she
describes as a cross between Ricky Riccardo in
“I Love Lucy” and Bill Cosby. Sanchez’s father
was an entertainer and singer who was an active
member of the growing mambo music scene of
the 1940s through 1960s. As a girl, she spent
many nights in clubs watching him perform and
believes that through listening to his stories and
stage work, she was able to learn how to craft
her own comedy, from the pacing to the punchline. “He really should have been a comedian
because I spent so many hours laughing with
that man,” she has said.
Sanchez says that she admires her parents
for the struggles they endured and also for their
hard work. “When they moved to New York,
Puerto Ricans were not the flavor of the week,
like we are now,” she says, “so it was not at all
easy for them.”
Yet they worked hard to provide their
daughter with a first-rate education, sending her
to Catholic boarding schools in Westchester
County and then New Jersey. When she saw the
musical, “Annie,” as a girl, she says, “I thought,
‘What are those kids complaining about?’ My
parents were paying good money to have me
scrub floors.”
Shuttling between upscale suburban schools
during the week and the South Bronx on weekends was not always easy. The neighborhood
kids, says Sanchez, were turned off because
“they thought I was trying to be ‘white,’
whatever that means.” Yet the disparity that
she observed between the rich and poor kids,
and her own isolation in both worlds, eventually became a source of humor. “It forced me
to become a better writer,” she says.
Still, living in two different worlds may not
have done much for her self-esteem. “I spent
too much of my youth not feeling okay, like I
just was not good enough,” Sanchez told Mija
Magazine. “Thank God I am over that. It’s a
lot more fun now. Just be who you are, and let
that be okay.”
For the tenth grade, Sanchez – happily —
returned to New York and attended high school
at the Professional Children’s School in
Manhattan. Although she was continually
“You can’t be afraid
that you’re not going
to be funny.
You have to try
out different things
and have no
fear.”
involved in theater, both as an
actor and writer, after graduation she
pursued other career avenues, just in case
the worlds of show biz and stand-up did not
greet her with open arms. She even attended
seminary school and says that she is an ordained
inter-faith minister.
At the moment, however, it looks like
Sanchez won’t need a fall-back career. She has
racked up a long list of acting credentials,
including the prestigious HB Studios, The
Harlem School of the Arts, the New Media
Repertory Theatre, and Chicago City Limits,
and she has performed solo shows at such wellknown venues as P.S. 122, Dixon Place, and
Franklin Furnace. Even the titles of her pieces –
among them, “The Tall Thin Blonde in the Short
Puerto Rican Body” and “Giving Up Religion
For Lent” — brim with pointed good humor. “I
try to find the heart in the crazy situation,” she
has said.
Sanchez, who was married for 15 years to a
doctor, draws material from her own life and
observations about being a Latina woman in
America today. One thing she regrets is not having had any Latina comedians as role models. “I
don’t think Latina women were given permission to be ballsy and funny until recently,” she
has said. “I find that a lot of Latina women shy
away from being funny professionally because
they’re afraid of looking ugly.”
She has taken inspiration, however, from
funny Latino men like Paul Rodriguez and
Cantinflas, as well as from Woody Allen and the
stand-up comedienne, Sandra Bernhard.
Bernhard’s “rawness, delivery and no-holdsbarred attitude,” Sanchez says, are ideals she
strives for.
Like Bernhard, Sanchez tackles difficult
and emotional topics such as politics, racism,
body image, sex and relationships. “Anything
and everything is
funny,” she says.
“The truth on any
subject
is
your
funny…it’s
view or take on a
topic that makes it
funny.”
Is she ever afraid
of flopping? “You
can’t be afraid that
you’re not going to be
funny,” she says. “You have to
try out different things and have no
fear.”
Sanchez’s “no fear” attitude is
what keeps her going.
For the past several
months she has
been traveling
to college campuses across
the country,
schools
such as the
University of Pennsylvania, to perform her onewoman shows.
She especially enjoys
working in front of young
Latino audiences. “I hope
that through my bilingual act
and jokes that they can see
themselves in me,” Sanchez
said. “I hope that they leave
feeling really good about
themselves.”
Her ultimate show
business goal, she says, is
to have her own television
show. She would like to
model it after Ellen
Degeneres’ current talk
show — “You know, a
monologue, some interviews and music, a little
bit of everything,” she
says.
As for any pressure
to dilute her ethnic
observations, Sanchez
says that there is none.
“I keep it real because I
was born and raised in
the Bronx and still live
there,”
she
says.
“‘Keeping it real’ is
about being a Puerto
Rican girl from the
Bronx, which is who I am
and also who I always will
be. The Bronx continues to
inspire me.”
A 10
ED U CATI O N
The Bronx Journal/Spring 2005
DANCE, DANCE, DANCE!
Keeping Students At A Bronx Middle School On Their Toes —-And On Point
Photo: Ulises Gonzales
“Our students come to us raw,” says dance teacher Sarah Sanford-Perez of the Bronx Dance Middle School 308. Here, a class warms up in the dance studio.
HARVEY BIEN
The Bronx Journal Reporter
L
ittle girls who have visions of
sugar plum fairies, pink tutus, and
toe shoes, and little boys who
prefer to leap and jump rather
than walk or run, may dream about attending a program like the one which the Bronx
Dance Academy Middle School 308 offers.
Standing in the northeastern part of the
Bronx just below Yonkers, this boutique
school for grades six through eight has
occupied an airy three-story red brick building at 3617 Bainbridge Avenue since July of
2003. Here is where tomorrow’s Paloma
Herreras, Julio Boccas, and Arthur
Mitchells, legendary dancers of the past and
present, may be rehearsing in one of the
school’s spacious dance studios.
But don’t be fooled. The BDA, as it is
known by students and teachers, is not a
school that teaches hip hop, tap, or even
Broadway-style dance. Its program is
designed to train serious classical dancers,
and to give students a sense of self-confidence, and an appreciation of the arts that
they will take through life.
“What I liked most about the Bronx
Dance Academy,” says Betzaida Fuentes,
the BDA parent coordinator, whose two
daughters graduated from the school, “is
that it’s a small school, and my daughters
received personal attention from the teachers.”
This unique center of learning, which
originally opened in a theatre space of the
Bronx Dance Theatre in 1995, accepts
about 300 students; this year 83 percent are
girls and 17 percent, boys, but their numbers are growing.
The curriculum covers basic academic
studies but emphasizes a “learning through
the arts” program. Through it, students use
exhibitions, projects, performances, and
portfolios to report on their work. They are
also expected to take classical, jazz, and
modern dance classes three times a week,
each in a 90-minute time block, and one
visual arts class such as painting, sculpting,
or drawing.
It is little wonder that with such an
enterprising program, the school is highly
competitive. Although only students in
Region 1 may audition for BDA, it accepts
approximately one of ten applicants. Even
so, students do not need to have prior dance
experience to gain entrance.
The audition is held at a group
Open House. Here, girls and boys participate in basic movement exercises
and drills. Faculty members then
invite those who show significant
potential to a second audition.
At this time, teachers evaluate the children’s
academic records and discuss the candidates. Guidance counselors and an assistant
principal make the final selection.
Once students are accepted at BDA,
they must be willing to wear uniforms and
pull their hair back in a bun every day. No
jewelry or long nails are allowed. Dancewise, sixth graders are schooled in the
Martha Graham technique and “foundational” dance moves such as body positioning.
By seventh grade, they begin school performances, and by eighth, they are expected to
learn ballet terminology, and, occasionally,
to give public performances.
“I feel that the Bronx Dance Academy is
my baby,” says Yvette Williams, the
school’s dance director, who has been with
M.S. 308 since its inception. “I have seen
it grow into what it is today.” Williams puts
the school into context when she adds, “I
wish there had been a school like the Bronx
Dance Academy when I was growing up. I
went to Catholic school, and I had to pay for
dance lessons.”
Sarah Sanford-Perez, one of the
school’s dance teachers, says, “Our students
come to us raw. They have never seen a ballet slipper and don’t have a clue what dance
is really about. In two years we have to prepare them for high school auditions and turn
them into well-rounded dancers. It has been
difficult.”
Some students are surprised at the discipline required to keep up with their classes,
and occasionally they bow to the pressure
and drop out of the school. Generally,
however, the BDA has legions of young
fans. Natasha Marquez, an eighth grader,
is one. “My parents encouraged me to audition for the school, and they gave me a lot
of confidence,” she says. “I am very proud
of the program here, and it’s a lot of fun.”
Her friend, Candace Saunders, a seventh grader, adds, “I never learned about
ballet before coming to this school. Besides
the teachers, we have demonstrations and
videos. It’s good to learn something new.”
Bonica Freeland, an alumna, is grateful for
her time at BDA. “This school is a great influence on you when it comes to enhancing your
passion and desire for dance,” she wrote on the
website, Insideschools.org. “There were a
number of schools that I went to before I found
BDA, but BDA was worth the travel time and
effort.” Besides, she added, “Bronx Dance
Academy helps keep kids off the street.”
Photo: Ulises Gonzales
Candace Saunders, left, and Natasha
Marquez find the BDA exhilarating.
The Bronx Journal/Spring 2005
CULTURE
A 11
UNCOMMON MUSEUM PIECE
Yolaine Díaz
The Bronx Journal Reporter
At El Museo Del Barrio,
Photographer Agustin Casasola
Captures Mexico’s Turbulent
20th Century History
A
lthough many in the Bronx community are not
even aware that El Museo del Barrio exists,
others derive great benefits from it. “It’s great
to find a museum in New York City that
enhancesLatino culture,” says Arelis Lachapelle, 29, an
Argentine exchange student majoring in history, who visits
El Museo regularly. “The current Casasola photo exhibition
is an excellent example of our heritage. It transports you to
those revolutionary times in Mexico.”
El Museo del Barrio, located at Fifth Avenue and 104th
Street, is the only museum in New York City dedicated to
showcasing Puerto Rican, Caribbean and Latin American
art. Its current exhibit, “Mexico: The Revolution and
Beyond, Photographs by Casasola, 1900-1940,” which
runs through July 31, features the photojournalism of
Agustin Victor Casasola, who captured the tumultuous
events of the early 20th century in Mexico with a style that
ranged from the celebratory to the unforgettably graphic.
Organized by the leading Mexican photographic specialist, Pablo Ortiz Monasterio, the exhibit showcases 92
photographs acquired from the image archives of the
Mexican National Institute of Anthropology and History.
One of the most dramatic images, in black and white,
shows police detectives triumphantly holding a child they
have rescued from a kidnapping. In another, Casasola captures the precise moment when the Mexican revolutionary,
Francisco Madero, and his troops storm a Mexican town on
horseback.
“This exhibition is as important for the Hispanic community as for the Mexican community because it is a way
to get closer to our culture,” says Julian Zugazagoitia,
director of the museum. “It shows that we Latinos have a
lot of talent.”
The photographer, Agustin Victor Casasola, was born in
Mexico City in 1874 and began working in typographic
workshops as a boy. By the age of 20, he had become a
reporter; it was later on that he began to establish himself as
a photographer. In 1912, Casasola, in partnership with his
brother, Miguel, opened the Mexican Information and
Photographic Agency, one of the first professional photography agencies. This agency helped Casasola to realize his
lifelong obsession: the creation of a photographic archive
that would record the turbulent history of Mexico as it
unfolded. In the course of his long career, the artist photographed all the major figures on the Mexican landscape –
from Emiliano Zapata and Pancho Villa to Mexico’s first
Republican president, Benito Juarez, to the acclaimed
painters Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, and even Leon
Trotsky during his Mexican exile.
This Casasola exhibition also contains pictures that
Casasola either contracted or purchased from other photographers. In all, it focuses on eight themes: Pax Porfiriana,
The Revolutionary War, The Work Place, The Eagle and the
Serpent (according to a myth, the Aztecs settled on a rock
in the center of a lake, where they discovered an eagle
devouring a serpent), Modern Times, Night Life, and The
Famous. The images document a positive view of a modern
Mexico that emulated Europe.
This past winter the museum showed 2000 years of
Latin American portraits as well as Latin and Caribbean art
from the Museum of Modern Art’s collection. El Museo’s
permanent collection includes works by recognized
painters like Diego Rivera and Beatriz Gonzalez, and by
photographers like Fritz Henle, as well as by emerging con-
Photo Courtesy of El Museo del Barrio.
During the Mexican Revolution,Casasola captured federal troops at the Buenavista train station in 1914.
temporary artists. This
encompasses more than
8,000 objects from the
Caribbean
and
Latin
America, including preColombian Taino artifacts,
traditional drawings, paintings, photography, and documentary films and video.
The museum originally
took its name from the
Spanish-speaking neighborhood in East Harlem called
El Barrio, which is mostly
populated by Puerto Ricans.
Founded in 1969 by a group
of Puerto Rican parents, educators and artists, El Museo
initially operated in a public
classroom in the heart of El
Barrio and then moved to a
series of uptown storefronts
on Third and Lexington
Avenues. After six years of
moving from one location to
another, the museum found a
permanent home at 1230
Fifth Avenue, right opposite
Central Park’s Conservatory
Gardens. This move allowed
El Museo to maintain its ties
with the community and yet
reach out to a wider, nonLatino audience. In 1978 the
Photo Courtesy of El Museo del Barrio.
museum became a founding
member of the Museum Casasola photographed the revolutionary leader, Emiliano Zapata, circa 1915.
Mile Association, which
helped to make it one of New York City’s major tourist the chance to see the Casasola exhibition, and I liked it so
much that I’m going to go back with my family. It’s a great
attractions.
“Its permanent exhibitions like ‘Point of View’ are family trip.”
amazing and interesting,” says Margarita J. Aguilar, the
museum’s assistant curator. “We also have pictures from El Museo del Barrio is open to the public Wednesday
contemporaries like Oscar Munoz and Gabriel de la Mora, through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Suggested admission is
$6 for adults and $4 for students and seniors. Children
who exemplify the talent of Latin American artists.”
“I always go to El Museo. There are amazing collec- under 12 accompanied by an adult may enter free. For
tions there,” says Yisel Silfa, 30, who is a senior studying information, call 212-831-7272, or visit the website,
criminal justice at John Jay College in Manhattan. “I had www.elmuseo.org.
EN TERTA I N M EN T
A12
The Bronx Journal/Spring 2005
MOVIE REVIEW
“Million Dollar Baby” and “The Sea Inside”
LOUISE VALENTINO
The Bronx Journal Reporter
“M
illion Dollar Baby”
pretty much swept
the Oscars this year,
winning honors for
Best Picture, Best Actress (Hilary
Swank), Supporting Actor (Morgan
Freeman) and Director (Clint Eastwood).
On the surface, it may seem like a boxing
story, but as written by Paul Haggis, it is
much more.
Eastwood, who also stars, plays an
emotionally closed-off trainer, Frankie
Dunn, who has been estranged from his
own daughter. Although he never discusses why, when he takes on Maggie
Fitzgerald (Swank), a 31-year-old hillbilly waitress who has the notion that she
can box, it is clear that she becomes a second chance for him to get this family relationship right.
Swank portrays Maggie, a spunky
young woman who is all heart and muscle. A waitress since she was 13, Maggie
believes that with Frankie’s help, she can
become a champion, but he tells her
bluntly, “I don’t train girlies.” Still, she
works out in his gym, and eventually,
with a little prodding from his pal, Scraps
(Freeman), he relents.
Frankie, needless to say, gets Maggie
into fighting shape, and together they
work their way up to a championship
match. Here, she takes on the German
woman known as “Billie the Blue Bear.”
The fight wreaks of backhanded brutality
because Billie fights dirty, jabbing at
Maggie’s head and neck even after the
referee calls a time-out. The results, as it
turns out, are devastating.
But the power of the film is not in its
fight scenes; rather, it is in how Frankie
and Maggie bond, and how a sudden tragic turn of events leads them to confront
the true meaning of love and dignity.
Eventually, Maggie becomes the daughter
whom Frankie never got to know. Which
makes the characters’ final choices that
much more poignant.
Spanish
director
Alejandro
Amenabar’s “The Sea Inside,” the Oscar
winner for Best Foreign Film, is based on
the true story of Spanish author, Ramon
Sampedro, a quadriplegic who for 30
years fought for the right to assisted suicide. Javier Bardem, who in 2002 starred
in “Before Night Falls,” about the exiled
Cuban writer, Reinaldo Arenas, plays
Sampedro. Confined to his bed as a
result of a diving accident at age 26,
Sampedro, now 50, is living in his brother’s farmhouse in Galicia, tended by his
family, when the movie opens.
The fact that he is so helpless and
such a burden contributes to his desire to
die. However, the Spanish government
has threatened to prosecute anyone who
helps him commit suicide
Written by Amenabar and Mateo Gil,
the movie allows Sampedro to talk
frankly about his situation.
“There is no dignity in being quadriplegic,” he says. He resists the help of a
wheelchair and the life it might open up
Photo: Fine Line Features
Photo: Warner Bros.
Bardem receives visitors in “The Sea Inside.” Eastwood trains hillbilly Swank in “Million Dollar Baby.”
to him because he feels it is accepting
what he calls “scraps of freedom”;
instead, he stays in bed, which is occasionally maddening for the audience.
The 35-year-old Bardem, who sat
through four hours of makeup daily to
play an older man, delivers a powerful
performance, relying on minute eye and
facial expressions to convey his emotions. But Sampedro is also wise, charming, learned, and witty. He is such good
BRIDGE:
company that it is difficult to imagine
allowing him to get his way and die.
The film is also a love story. Julia
(Belen Rudea), a lawyer suffering from a
progressive brain disease, decides to take
his case. As they become deeply connected, she comes to understand his wishes in
a way his family never does.
Neither “Million Dollar Baby” nor
“The Sea Inside” boasts car chases or
thrilling special effects, and both cover
Knowledge is power
JULIAN LADERMAN
Professor Julian Laderman (Math and Computer
Science) is a Life Master of ACBL
NORTH
♠ K6
O
ne of the first conventions new
bridge
players
learn
is
Blackwood. Most tournament
players use some variant of Blackwood.
A popular alternative is called Roman
keycard Blackwood, where the king of
the implied trump suit is treated with the
same respect as the four aces. A 4NT bid
asks partner about his possession of these
five keycards. When using this variation
of Blackwood the standard responses are
as follows:
A J 10 8
AK3
♣ KJ52
WEST
EAST
♠ QJ8
♠ 10 9 7 5 4
♣
52
7
96
Q J 10 8 4
7643
SOUTH
♣ AQ98
♠ A32
5♣ : 0 or 3 keycards
KQ9643
5
: 1 or 4 keycards
5
: 2 or 5 keycards without the queen
of trump
5♠ : 2 or 5 keycards with the queen
of trump
On the illustrated hand, North was very
optimistic when he decided to investigate
slam possibilities. He was extremely fortunate to learn that South had the trump
queen and two of the three missing keycards. With this information he bid 6 .
♠ response, he had no
Actually, after the 5♠
choice. With this form of Blackwood,
North has to be prepared to go to the sixlevel if his partner holds two keycards and
the trump queen.
There were two potential losers: a diamond
and a club. Since declarer and dummy had
a total of 28 high card points and East made
752
♣ 10
DEALER : EAST
Both Sides are vulnerable
West
Pass
Pass
Pass
North
4NT
6
familiar territory (Remember the 1979
play, “Whose Life Is It Anyway?” and the
1981 movie of the same title, starring
Richard Dreyfuss?). Yet both films move
us with real human stories, told intelligently and sensitively.
As Sampedro says, “A life without
freedom is not a life.” Maggie Fitzgerald
may come from a strikingly different
world than his, but she clearly shares
these sentiments.
East
1
Pass
Pass
South
1
5♠*
Pass
* See text
Opening lead: diamond 9
an opening bid, declarer realized that both
the ace and queen of clubs were held by
East, behind the king and jack. Armed with
this knowledge and the powerful club 10 an
opening bid, declarer realized that both the
ace and queen of clubs were held by East
behind the king and jack. Armed with this
knowledge and the powerful club 10,
declarer realized he held a winning club
trick. After winning the diamond lead, he
played two rounds of trump ending in his
hand. He then led the club 10 and played
the club 2 from dummy. Of course, as
expected, this trick was lost to the queen.
After winning the diamond return in
dummy, declarer led the club king. When
East did not play the club ace, declarer confidently discarded a diamond from the
South hand. If East had played the club ace,
declarer would have ruffed and eventually
entered dummy to throw his diamond loser
on the club jack.
The play of the king of clubs with the intent
of discarding a diamond if the ace does not
appear is called a ruffing finesse. The information that declarer learned from East’s 1
bid made it a sure thing. Even if East had
not opened the bidding, and declarer had no
information about which defender held the
club honors, the same technique should be
used in the club suit. This method has
approximately a 75% chance of success. It
will only fail if East holds the club queen
and West holds the club ace.
A ruffing finesse usually involves two
touching honors (such as, king-queen)
opposite a void.
On this hand, however, it was necessary to
drive out the queen with the 10 in order to
create a card combination where a ruffing
finesse was available. I hope you have
enough bridge finesse to recognize a ruffing finesse.
The Bronx Journal/Spring 2005
A13
IN MY VIEW
My Cancer, My “Evil Twin”
W
ANNIKA HARRIS
The Bronx Journal Reporter
e lived together for over
a year. We were inseparable. I fondly referred
to her as “Mini Me.”
She liked to rest her head on a little section of my
left side. She was my secret, a tiny treasure – a
lump about the size of a silver dollar that I discovered on my left rib cage. But, then the pain began
and she turned into my “evil twin.” When the pain
became unbearable, I sought help. After six months of
being poked and prodded, my “evil twin” was finally
gone. But, of course, she had the last word. That word
was CANCER.
When I was diagnosed, I was extremely angry for
three reasons. First, I had been misdiagnosed a year
earlier. A doctor had told me that my tumor was just
extra cartilage and that it was easier to live with it than
to have it removed. Then, I was further upset that I was
diagnosed with a particular type of lymphoma, one
which usually occurs in the elderly and spreads slowly. If I had been 40 or 60 years older, the doctors told
me, I probably would have died of natural causes
before the cancer had a chance to kill me. Since I
was 21 and in pain, my oncologist decided it was
best to treat me.
And most distressing of all, I would have to put my
life on hold for medical reasons. Two years earlier,
I had undergone major surgery for endometriosis
and was, consequently, on bed rest for six months.
Although I am the type of person who rolls with
the punches of life, my diagnosis meant that it
would take me even longer to graduate from
college. I thought I should have accomplished more during my 21 years and felt
like I was being left behind by others my
age. How would I catch up?
I later learned that my feelings about my
diagnosis were similar to other cancer
patients who were my age.
“This is a tough age—this is the beginning of your
adult years when you’re getting to do a lot of going
out and hopefully meet your future spouse; it’s also
the beginning of your career…All this gets put on hold
when you are receiving chemotherapy,” said Joanna
Mikhail-Powe, a nurse-practitioner at Sciode Medical
Center in the Bronx, where I received my treatment. I
found it difficult relating to the other cancer patients at
Sciode because they were much older than I. As
Mikhail-Powe said, “We don’t see too many people
between the ages of 20-30.”
As I went through chemotherapy, I had many questions: What was the best way to cope with side effect
of treatments that are worse than the symptoms? What
resources were there for young people affected by diseases that usually afflict older people?
I, like most cancer patients, feel that the side effects
of chemotherapy are worse than the symptoms of the
cancer. According to the National Cancer Institutes
website, these side effects are caused by damage to normal cells as a result of the chemotherapy and include
nausea, vomiting, anemia, infections, mouth and throat
sores, and constipation, among other unpleasant and
sometimes debilitating conditions. Although the side
effects can be severe, they are much more manageable
today than they were even a decade ago. “We have a
lot more drugs, and they are more effective,” explained
Mikhail-Powe.
Cancer and chemotherapy can also affect the patient
emotionally. I found that the best way to cope
with the emotional side effects is through the
help of family, friends, and health-care
providers. According to Mikhail-Powe, “Many
people without support lack the encouragement
and daily support that people getting chemo
need.” In addition, the National Cancer Institutes
advise that families and friends are able to “comfort
and reassure you in ways that no one else can.”
During my chemo experience, I surrounded myself
with supportive people. Those who did not support me,
I eliminated from my life. Small gestures from my
family and friends meant more to me than they would
have before my diagnosis. I looked forward to the
times when my mother would bring me a burger from
McDonald’s while I was having a treatment. I also treasured my friends for taking me to run errands or for just
calling to make sure I was okay.
At one point, because I had been constipated for more
than two weeks, my family actually prayed for me.
Okay, that was rather weird. But they all understood
how uncomfortable I was. Each morning, a different
person would tell me that she or he had prayed for me
the night before or had added my name to another
prayer circle. And I was grateful.
Another way that I coped during my chemotherapy
treatments was to dress like a knockout. I always made
My oncologist
asked me which
I would rather have—
a cure or clear skin.
I surprised myself
by saying,
“Clear skin.”
sure I looked my best and never like I was undergoing
serious medical treatment. Toward that end, I would put
on a full face of make-up, wear high heels, and completely accessorize my outfits.
My favorite activities during my treatments were
reading fashion magazines and watching makeover
shows. Getting a weekly manicure and pedicure also
made me feel better. My philosophy was: “The better
I look, the better I will feel.” And it worked.
No wonder that one of the most important doctors to
me, apart from my oncologist, became my dermatologist. I had struggled with acne throughout my teenage
years and had finally gotten it under control. But one
of the side effects of my chemotherapy was the breakout of huge pus-filled zits. When I complained to my
oncologist, he asked me which I would rather have: a
cure or clear skin.
I surprised myself by replying, “Clear skin.” Luckily,
my dermatologist prescribed medications that once
again put my acne in check. So in the end I did not
have to choose between my health and appearance.
Although I have been in remission for almost two
years, I am still dealing with some of the side effects of
chemotherapy, things like seasonal allergies and a postnasal drip that causes constant coughing. Also, I still
have the catheter in my chest that was used to administer the chemo. And I am picking up the pieces of my
life by finishing college.
I will not be considered cured until I have been in
remission for five years, but if I relapse, I know that I
have built the support network necessary to beat cancer
once again. I also know that focusing on what I could
control — my appearance — helped me to dwell on
something other than my disease, over which I had
absolutely no control. Although I figured that a day of
chemotherapy would be physically grueling, I looked
forward to wearing a certain pretty outfit or a pair of
chic new shoes.
In the end, I feel that looking good made it easier for
me to endure my treatments.
A14
CO M I N G TO A M ERI CA
The Bronx Journal/Spring 2005
THE IMMIGRANT EXPERIENCE
UNDERSTANDING
MY MOTHER
BY JUAN RAMÍREZ
I
always thought of
myself as a citizen. I was born
here and have
lived here my whole
life. But I never took
part in the history of
my family — especially
my mother’s history.
I have come to wonder about my
mother and how she felt about coming to America. And so I asked her.
Gladys Garcia, my mother, was
born in Guatemala City, Guatemala.
Even as a young girl, she did not
spend a lot of time with her parents,
who went back and forth between
the United States to Guatemala for
work. They told us stories about
how much better the United States
was than Guatemala. My mother
listened and started to wonder
about the good life in America.
She compared the job opportunities in Guatemala to those available here. She felt that she could
have found a decent job in
Guatemala. She could even have
gone to college there. However, she
would not have improved herself
over the years if she stayed there.
The chances to learn new skills, or
any skills, for that matter, were
limited. The United States, she felt
sure, would be a better teacher. So
my mother came here and learned
English easily. She had many tutors
within the ESL classes who wanted
her to learn.
In 1999 my mother finally
became a citizen. She studied the
United States history with a real
curiosity for it. But the reason why
she became a citizen was somewhat
different. She knew that by not
being a citizen, she was not eligible
for many important benefits such as
healthcare.
The right to vote was another
wonder to my mother. She wanted
to belong, to have a voice here. She
voted for the first time in the 2000
Bush vs. Gore race. Of course, like
so many others, she was disappointed with the outcome. Last fall’s
2004 election also failed to deliver
my mother’s candidate.
As a single mother of two boys,
she has devoted her life to her children. She works long hours at
Cookie’s Department Store in the
Bronx and sometimes feels guilty
that she cannot spend time with me
and my little brother, Miguel. Still,
she understands that she is the
breadwinner, and some things just
need to be done. Food, clothing and
shelter are all that matter. And her
job makes that possible.
My parents separated seven
years ago. Ever since then, I have
been living with my mother. Still, I
see my father about three or four
times a week.
My mother has been able to take
care of my brother and me financially. But now I have started working so that I can help her out. At 21,
I figure if I need something, I have
to earn it myself and give my mother a break.
Last summer, during my break
from Lehman College, I went to
The right to
vote was
another wonder
to my mother.
She wanted to
belong,
to have a
voice here..
Photo: Leandro Fortyz
Joey Rios won his May 6 bout with Derrick Moon by a unanimous decision.
THE
CONTENDER
LEANDRO FORTYZ
The Bronx Journal Reporter
work with my mother at Cookie’s. I
was a stock guy and would have to
be there by eight in the morning; I
would come home at eleven at
night. After two weeks, I quit and
never went back.
My mother is a manager there,
and she is twice as old as I am, but
she has those same hours. She has
been working there for as long as I
can remember. My experience at
Cookie’s has helped me to be able
to relate to her. What I feel about
that is that my mother works hard
to make my brother and me smile,
and I really appreciate it.
Undefeated Junior Welterweight Joey Rios
Is Jabbing and Hooking His Way to the Top
I
n a modest boxing gym behind a supermarket on Castle Hill Avenue in the
Bronx, Joey Rios pounds on the speed bag, creating a rhythmic cadence that
attracts everyone within ears distance. “I live for this,” he says during a break.
Rios, a professional boxer who fights as a junior welterweight, believes he will
be a champion in this unforgiving sport. And the truth is that he is rapidly filling out
his resume with boxing achievements. He won the Golden Gloves at Madison Square
Garden in 1999 and is currently 11-0 with five knockouts.
The guy is also telegenic enough to have been featured at age 12 on a Nickelodeon
Channel segment, “In a Minute,” about talented children, and on a 1999 PBS documentary, “In My Corner,” which took viewers behind the scenes and into his life outside the ring.
Rios has known what he wanted to do since he was 9. It was at about that time that
he caught the attention of a neighbor, the trainer and former boxer, Angel Alejandro,
The Bronx Journal/Spring 2005
SPORTS
A15
who saw that the young boy was always
getting into scrapes and suggested that he
channel his anger and spunk in the boxing
ring. Once Rios visited the Bronxchester
Boxing Club, where he still trains, he was
hooked.
Alejandro, a Golden Gloves boxer who
is Rios’s trainer, remembers how “Lil Joey”
used to clean spit buckets and do other
odds-and-ends jobs “because he just loves
being around the fighters.” As fate would
have it, Alejandro broke his nose during an
amateur bout and had plenty of time to
teach his willing young student the basics
“It plays into
my persona
when I fight
on the road,
and they announce
I’m from the Bronx,”
says Rios.
of the sport known as “the sweet science.”
More to the point, while Alejandro was
recovering, young Rios hounded him for
instruction. He was, from the first, eager to
learn.
“This is a home away from home for
these kids,” said Luis Camacho, who
helped train Rios as a boy. “This is their
neighborhood gym, this is where they learn
boxing, this is where they learn what life is
all about.”
Rios attributes his own toughness and
determination to growing up in an area
which, he says, is synonymous with slums,
gangs, and violence – the Throgs Neck
Project in the Bronx. “It plays into my persona when I fight on the road, and they
announce that I’m from the Bronx,” he
says.
Early on, Rios’s youthful neighborhood
struggles mirrored problems inside his
home. His mother, Rosie, from Puerto
Rico, played the role of both mother and
father to Joey and his five siblings, raising
them and simultaneously working at Albert
Einstein Hospital in the Bronx. “My father
was hardly ever around,” Rios said.
Young Rios loved to raise hell. “Joey
would get into scuffles around the neighborhood,” says Dave Malavé, 23, a center
fielder on Lehman College’s baseball team
and a 15-year friend. “He was aggressive
and sometimes violent, but boxing helped
turn that around for him. On the positive
side, he was dedicated and a hard worker.
These days he’s funny and has a great sense
of humor. And he’s very caring with his
friends and family.”
Rios graduated from St. Raymond’s
High School in the Bronx and briefly
attended Old Westbury College on Long
Island before deciding to throw his body
into the ring and turn pro.
Boxing has proven to be Rios’s ticket
out of the projects. In his fifth professional
bout, he fought in his neighborhood at
Jimmy’s Café on West Fordham Road. He
was so popular, says Alejandro,that the Fire
Department threatened to shut down the
Photo: Leandro Fortyz
“I want respect. And a world title,” says Rios, here working up a sweat during his daily training session in Bronxchester.
fight because so many people were trying
to gain entrance to the venue. “We used to
coordinate buses so Joey’s fans could travel to fights,” Alejandro adds. “First it was
one bus, then two, and finally three. It got
so crazy that we had to stop chartering
buses.”
Rios is grateful to “Team Rios,” his
tight group of supporters who have been in
his corner since the beginning, for helping
him to maintain his focus. First and foremost among them is Alejandro. The other
members are Rios’s manager, Rusty Ansell,
and his trainer, Carlos Ramirez. All have
weighed in on such career-shaping decisions as Rios’s opponents, his fight venues,
and the size of the purses he should accept.
Because this group is so nurturing, says
Alejandro, the aspiring champ is wellgrounded and cannot be lured away by the
promise of bigger fights or larger pots of
money from promoters looking to exploit
young talent. “When Joey turned pro,”
says Alejandro, “not one manager wanted
to sign him to a contract — until Rusty
Ansell put up the money.” Ansell was the
only one who had enough faith in Rios to
lay out the cash.
Until “Team Rios” thinks it is time for
Rios to challenge for a title, the men will
continue to handpick opponents who are
respectable in the rankings and have the
financial backing to make a bout feasible.
“Joey doesn’t fight for a slice and a soda,”
trainer Alejandro said. “We’ll fight King
Kong if they have King Kong money.”
Rios realizes that he is approaching his
window of opportunity to challenge the
likes of Zab Juda or Arturo Gatti for a
championship. Wilfredo Benitez, the former junior welterweight champion from
Puerto Rico, won the title at the age of 18.
Rios estimates that he is perhaps two years
away from contending for a title. “There is
no rush,” he said during a training break at
the Bronxchester Club. “When my manager and trainers say I’m ready, that’s when
we’ll make our move.”
Mention the name Edgar Santana, and
Rios quickly dismisses the idea that the
other junior welterweight is in the same
class. Santana boasts a record of 13-2, but
Rios claims that some of Santana’s wins
came only a few weeks after Rios had
already taken the wind out of his opponents’ sails.
“He has fought the same boxers I
defeated, and he has had better results
because I wore them down first and gave
Santana an easy win,” Rios gripes, then
adds, “I respect Edgar as a boxer, but personally I feel that he is trying to make a
name for himself by challenging the fighters who have not had the chance to train
thoroughly to fight him.”
A fight in the professional ranks seems
like an inevitability, and Rios awaits the
day when he can beat Santana a second
time. He refuses to let on just how he plans
to dominate his current archrival, but a mild
smile crosses his face when he suggests that
he will soon put to rest any confusion about
who is the better brawler.
In the meantime, Rios trains six days a
week, with Team Rios watching his every
move and guarding him against shark promoters and fights that do not serve his best
interest. His last fight was on May 6. At the
Westchester County Center in White Plains,
he pounded Derrick Moon and won a unanimous decision. “Joey gets a lot of offers to
fight other junior welterweights, but when
it comes time to signing the contract and
securing the money, the offers go by the
wayside,” Alejandro says.
Rios would like to make an impact in a
division that has recently restored life to the
sport of boxing, thanks to such colorful
fighters as Floyd Mayweather Jr., and the
Australian, Kosta Tszyu. “My first professional fight was a head rush,” Rios says. “I
look forward to an opportunity to fight the
guys I’ve been watching on TV.”
His goal? “You want to go as far as you
can in this business,” he says. “ Put simply,
I want respect. And a world title.”
THE
CONTENDER
With an 11-0 Winning Streak,
Joey Rios Is Hot Hot Hot!
Story on pages A 14&A15