Opening Remarks:
Domingo Mart�nez, President, Hispanic and Latin American Faculty and Staff
Association (HLAFSA)
A report contributed by 
Diversity can be
beautiful as well as important, Domingo Mart�nez told the plenary session of
Cambio de Colores. It is essential in giving insight as to how people feel about
their experience here
in the world.
Mart�nez drew on a Spanish expression to expand on this theme.
�When someone is born, we say he was �given to light,� dar a luz,� he
said. In a very literal sense, the Cambio de Colores conference is a
new birth.
�It�s bringing to life something that was hidden, so that suddenly people
start realizing things,� Mart�nez said. Participants in the project,
chief among them employees of the University of Missouri,
are changing rural and urban development to meet the needs of the incoming
population. And that is as it should be, as MU is a land-grant institution,
and so it has to take on the role to improve the lives of every individual
in the state.
Latinos themselves are bringing life to the state, he noted, especially
in small-town Missouri,
where they are reviving dying Main Streets across the state. �There are
a lot of good things happening,� he noted.
Three years ago, it became evident to the members of HLAFSA that something
needed to be done to address the problem, he said. Cambio de Colores
came about as a good example of how the University combines academic
efforts with the extension mission of the University to learn from each
other.
�There are important things that we know very little about,� said Mart�nez, �things
like the direct and indirect impact of the new Latino settlers. We know
that 85% of them have full employment. Do we know the amount they�re
contributing to the economy through the multiplier effect? No!�
Very little is known about the newcomers� level of education, their
level of bilingualism, their cultural or linguistic traits, he said.
Subtle differences in language can result in big mistakes. One example
is the word �eventually.� In English, it means that something will happen
sooner or later. In Spanish, it means something quite different; that
something might happen, or it might not.
�There are many words like that which are very tricky,� said Mart�nez.
This is one reason why hospitals are facing liability issues with the
new immigrants. Imagine the consequences of a Spanish-speaker being told
they�ll be released �eventually.� A common response might be, �No! I
want to get out sooner!� Which would make no sense to someone who was
not bilingual.
HLAFSA has been working hard on these issues in Columbia,
he said, but he wished that the organization could get rid of the word �Columbia� in
its name and become a statewide organization. He also expressed a wish
that its work could go beyond this project and become a permanent fixture
of the University institution.
�In English, people do not die; they pass away. In Spanish, we do die.
We expire. Let�s grab that euphemism and move over, not die. Let�s keep
going to make a permanent effort. But the only way we can do it is with
an open mind, and with sincerity.�
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