LATINOS PROTEST LIQUOR INDUSTRY

Health workers say alcohol abuse widespread

A statewide coalition of health advocates who contend that Latino
neighborhoods are being unfairly saturated by the promotion and
availability of alcohol lashed out against the beer, wine and liquor
industries at a symposium Friday in San Jose.

The disproportionate amount of alcohol-beverage advertising in those
neighborhoods -- coalition members said, citing several studies -- is
leading to disproportionate cases of alcohol abuse.

Members of the coalition also pledged to work with grass-roots
organizations to encourage local, state and national politicians to develop
and enforce polices they say could reduce the share of alcohol-related
problems among Latinos.

``We need to keep up the pressure,'' Jeannette Noltenius, executive
director of the Washington DC-based Latino Council on Alcohol and Tobacco,
told a gathering of about 150 people at a San Jose State University
auditorium in her keynote address.

``California -- you are 30 percent of the nation -- you have more power
than you think,'' she said.

The first-annual Alcohol Policy Symposium, sponsored by the newly formed
Latino Leadership United for Healthy Communities, brought together an
assortment of participants from throughout California.

Alcohol industry officials could not immediately be reached for comment
late Friday. It is not uncommon for beer companies to emphasize their
positive contributions to the Latino community. Some companies, for
example, award scholarships to Latino students.

A number of studies by university researchers and non-profit groups were
presented at the daylong symposium. Among the local and statewide findings:

Five times more advertisements for alcoholic beverages were visible in
certain Latino communities than in nearby areas where most of the
population was white.

Nearly a quarter of Latino men were frequent, heavy drinkers in 1992,
compared with 15 percent of African-American men and 12 percent of white men.

A study in Los Angeles found that cirrhosis of the liver accounted for 52
percent of all deaths of Mexican men, more than twice as high as white men.

Homicides and violent crimes were reported to be the fifth leading cause of
death among Latinos, while they ranked 15th among whites.

Some studies chided alcoholic-beverage companies for advertising and
selling in some Latino neighborhoods frequented by children.

``Our communities are contaminated with alcohol outlets, and we do see it
as a form of environmental racism,'' said Maria Luisa Alaniz, a San Jose
State associate professor of social science and study director of the
Prevention Research Center in Berkeley. ``Children that live in
predominantly white communities don't have to deal with this going from
school to home,'' said Alaniz, who helped organize the symposium.

Maricela Morales of Ventura County encouraged participants to take a stand
against alcohol-company sponsorships at local events, such as parades. A
group she worked with in Santa Paula, she said, persuaded the city council
to develop a policy that banned parade floats that depicted alcohol.

Among the symposium's participants were local activists who in the past
have asked the San Jose City Council to ban alcohol and alcohol
sponsorships from Cinco de Mayo and Fiestas Patrias, two downtown
celebrations that attract tens of thousands of Latinos. The events are
sponsored by the San Jose chapter of the American GI Forum, which says it
uses the alcohol-related money to award scholarships.

The symposium's steering committee made several recommendations after
hearing the presentations.

Among the recommendations: develop Latino Leadership United for Healthy
Communities into a strong, statewide organization and hold annual
symposiums in each of the next four years.

It was also recommended that the coalition seek funding to conduct more
studies. In addition, the coalition will train organizations to make
changes in their communities.

``The result of all this,'' said Joel Obeso, a psychology doctoral student
and counselor at Alum Rock Counseling Center in San Jose, ``is that Latinos
will be more conscious of the opportunities that we have to better our
community and our society in general.''

Checked-by: Pat Dolan