02/15/05

LC050215

This program is made possible in part by a grant from the City
of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department.

Val Zavala>> Tonight on Life and Times --

Antonio Villaraigosa wants to be mayor so much that he's making
a second try, but what's different from the first campaign?

Antonio Villaraigosa>> This election will be about what has
happened in the last four years or what hasn't happened in the
last four years. It's going to be about whether or not people
think it's time for a change.

Val>> And then, the locations are spectacular and the music --

[Film Clip]

Val>> Beautiful sounds in historic sites.

All that and more straight ahead on tonight's Life and Times.

Life and Times is made possible through the generous support of
the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality
of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of
medicine, health, science and education.

And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg.

Val>> Tonight we continue our look at the five major candidates
for Los Angeles Mayor with a profile of Antonio Villaraigosa.
There's very little in his background that would predict that he
would end up running for mayor. He grew up in a rough
neighborhood in East Los Angeles, mostly without a father. He
even got kicked out of Catholic high school. Despite the odds,
he became Speaker of the California Assembly and, as Hena Cuevas
tells us, he's now running for mayor of the nation's second
largest city for the second time.

Hena Cuevas>> Four years ago, Antonio Villaraigosa was the man
who almost became mayor.

Antonio Villaraigosa>> "Tonight's going to be a long night and
we expect that it's going to be a good night."

Hena Cuevas>> But it didn't turn out to be such a good night
after all. Villaraigosa lost the election to James Hahn by
seven percentage points. Why do you think you lost last time?

Antonio Villaraigosa>> I don't think a whole lot about it
frankly. I say to people that I'm not nostalgic about four
years ago. It is what it is.

Hena Cuevas>> But political analysts have thought about it.
Many attribute his loss to an eleventh hour negative ad from the
Hahn campaign. The ad accused Villaraigosa of asking the
President to pardon a convicted drug dealer. Although many
declared the ad unfair, Villaraigosa's poll numbers plummeted.

Antonio Villaraigosa>> When people don't know you very well,
those kinds of smear campaigns work. When they know you better,
they don't. That's why I think, this time around, we're going
to have a different result. People know me. They've seen me.

Hena Cuevas>> So he's decided to try again this year, joining
the race almost five months after some of the other candidates.
Why the late entry? Villaraigosa is currently a city
councilman. He promised his constituents he would serve out his
term, but if he wins the mayoral race, he'll have to leave his
council seat early.

Antonio Villaraigosa>> One of the reasons why I got into this
race so late was that I talked it over with my constituents,
with friends and, most importantly, with my family. I didn't
want to run just to run. I wanted to run because it made sense
and, over time, it made sense.

Hena Cuevas>> Villaraigosa was born fifty-two years ago in the
Boyle Heights area. His name then was Antonio Villar.
Villaraigosa is a combination of his name and his wife's maiden
name, Raigosa. He was the oldest of four children raised by a
single mother and in a lot of ways, he says, his upbringing was
similar to others growing up in East Los Angeles in the 1960's.

Antonio Villaraigosa>> I lived in a home of domestic violence.
I didn't have a father. I was an angry young man for a long
time. It was my mother who said to me, you know, you can make
excuses all your life or you can just take responsibility for
your life, and I decided to take that road.

Hena Cuevas>> He was kicked out of a private high school his
junior year, but eventually graduated from a public one,
Roosevelt High, in Boyle Heights. He went on to UCLA where he
was active in student politics. After graduation, Villaraigosa
became a union activist working with organized labor. His first
job in government came in 1991 when he became a member of the
Board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, MTA. Three
years later, he won a seat in the State Assembly where he
quickly moved up through the ranks until he was sworn in as
Speaker in 1994.

>> "Congratulations, Mr. Speaker."

Hena Cuevas>> One of the issues following Villaraigosa is that
of race. He is one of two Hispanic candidates running for mayor
and, even though Los Angeles has a very large Latino population,
there hasn't been an Hispanic mayor here in over a hundred
thirty years. The last Hispanic to serve was Christobal Aquilar
in 1872. It's an issue Villaraigosa is downplaying this time
around.

Antonio Villaraigosa>> Well, if you notice, people aren't
talking about that as much anymore and I'm glad they're not
because I said, look, don't vote for me for those reasons. Vote
for me because I have a record.

Hena Cuevas>> Still, there are those like political analyst,
Raphael Sonenshein, who believes race also played a role four
years ago and not in a positive way.

Raphael Sonenshein>> Number one, he was the first Latino
candidate for this office, a serious candidate for this office,
and there was probably some sentiment against immigration at the
time.

Antonio Villaraigosa>> I don't buy that. I think most people
are good. I think Los Angeles is the one place where most
people realize that we have to judge people by the content of
their character, by their contributions, by what they offer, not
by those ancillary things like race or ethnicity.

Hena Cuevas>> According to analyst, Jaime Regalado,
Villaraigosa still has strong support among the Latino
communities, especially in the east side of the city.

Jaime Regalado>> His base remains, you know, the eastern
portion of Los Angeles, the Latino voters strength.

Raphael Sonenshein>> Don't forget, however, there's another
Latino candidate in the race, so he can't be certain that he's
going to get all the Latino votes going into the primary
election.

Hena Cuevas>> His website lays out his vision for Los Angeles.
To fight crime, he plans to raise thirty million dollars to hire
three hundred new police officers. His transportation plan to
help reduce Los Angeles's gridlock traffic includes
synchronizing traffic lights and expanding the city's rail and
bus systems. He opposes Hahn's proposal to expand LAX, favoring
instead an increase in the use of regional airports like the one
in Ontario.

But can he accomplish all this without one of his traditional
supporters? Unlike four years ago, Villaraigosa doesn't have
the backing of organized labor. According to Sonenshein, any
candidate hoping to win will need the support of at least two
traditional voting blocks like labor unions, Latinos, or the
Valley vote.

Raphael Sonenshein>> You need one to get you into the general
election, but then you need another to get you up to a majority.

Hena Cuevas>> Villaraigosa disagrees. Do you think you'll be
able to win without the support of the labor unions?

Antonio Villaraigosa>> Jim Hahn won without the support of the
labor unions and I believe that I can win as well.

Hena Cuevas>> As the election runoff approaches, polls are
showing that it might be Hahn versus Villaraigosa all over
again.

Raphael Sonenshein>> Villaraigosa has very large name
recognition in this city and don't forget that he's a candidate
who finished second in the last election, and he seems to have a
very deep base of support that's willing to reach into their
wallets and provide him support.

Jaime Regalado>> Some would say that his campaign lacks the
same kind of energy as it did in 2001 where he drew fabulous
crowds and had national media attention. He was the darling of
many in the media. So a lot of things have changed. The style
of his campaign has changed, the energy levels have changed, but
he's still a formidable candidate.

Hena Cuevas>> But this time around, Villaraigosa says he has an
advantage. Voters will be judging four years of the Hahn
administration.

Antonio Villaraigosa>> This election is not going to be about
what the election was about four years ago. This is a different
election. This election will be about what has happened in the
last four years or what hasn't happened in the last four years.
It's going to be about whether or not people think it's time for
a change.

Hena Cuevas>> What happens if you lose?

Antonio Villaraigosa>> I don't expect to lose.

Hena Cuevas>> Haven't thought that far in advance?

Antonio Villaraigosa>> I have thought that far in advance. I
don't expect to lose. I'm feeling really good about where we
are today.

Hena Cuevas>> With that positive attitude, Villaraigosa is
looking forward to an election night that, unlike four years
ago, will turn out to be a good one after all. I'm Hena Cuevas
for Life and Times.

Val>> Life and Times is profiling all five major candidates for
Los Angeles Mayor. If you've missed any, you can go to our
website where you'll also find links to all the candidates'
websites.

Kcet.org is the place to look for the very latest on Life and
Times. You'll find previews of upcoming stories, transcripts
and audio of past episodes and links to some of our most
interesting features. Just go to kcet.org and click on "Life
and Times".

Toni Guinyard>> Asians and Pacific Islanders are among the
fastest growing ethnic and racial groups living in the state of
California and this study tells us who they are and how they're
doing. We spoke with Stewart Kwoh. He's the President and
Executive Director of the Asian Pacific American Legal Center
and he talked about what he calls "the myth of the model
minority".

Stewart Kwoh>> What is surprising is that, when you look at the
data for each individual ethnic group, there's really distinct
characteristics and distinct needs. If you put it all together,
Asian Americans look as though they're doing okay.

Toni Guinyard>> It looks as if they're doing better than okay
in some cases.

Stewart Kwoh>> That's true, like household income. If it's
aggregated, it's slightly above white. But when you
disaggregate it, you find significant poverty. For example,
Southeast Asians and Pacific Islanders have much higher poverty
rates than any racial group, so we really have to look at the
individual needs and the individual characteristics of the
ethnic groups.

Toni Guinyard>> Now you have a chart behind you. Explain what
this represents.

Stewart Kwoh>> Well, you can see that the Los Angeles County
poverty rate, the rate of eighteen percent. But with Mongs and
Cambodians, you have fifty-one percent and thirty-eight percent
respectively. So what we're trying to show here is what is the
true picture of Asian Pacific American demographics? Where are
Asian Americans at? And from this information on poverty,
language, home ownership rates, educational achievement, we find
that there are very significant needs in these communities that
the stereotype of the model minority really is a myth that one
has to truly understand the full picture of the community to
know where it's at.

Sometimes what happens is, with stereotypes, people say, well,
that's fine, you're doing okay. We don't have to look at any of
your concerns or needs. So we really want to draw attention to
the real needs. We certainly believe in showing the progress
that has been made, but we also have to look at the distinct
needs. For example, in the household income, what we've found
is that there are more people per family working in the Asian
American community than, say, white families. We've found that,
when you disaggregated this, the per-person income is lower than
the average in the county.

Toni Guinyard>> Once you get all of this data, what do you do
with it? Who is your target audience and how has this been
received?

Stewart Kwoh>> This can be used by schools, for example, with
language proficiency being very low in the Asian American
community. Asian Americans are almost two-thirds foreign-born.
Almost half of the Asian American families in Los Angeles County
have limited English proficiency. Some of the kids speak
English, but the parents do not. And this is an example where
this really becomes crucial. We have an example where a doctor
told us a story where a young child was dying of cancer and
later died of cancer and the family complained to the hospital
later on that nobody told the mother and father that their child
was dying of cancer. The hospital looked at the records and
what they found was that the physician in charge depended on a
younger brother to tell his parents --

Toni Guinyard>> -- to translate essentially.

Stewart Kwoh>> Yes, to translate, and that brother was supposed
to tell his parents that his sister was dying of cancer. He
couldn't do it.

Toni Guinyard>> So he made a choice.

Stewart Kwoh>> He made a choice not to tell them. That was a
tragedy and yet a lot of hospitals, a lot of places in our
society depend on the young child to translate for the parents.
That's just not right. Now by bringing this information to
hospitals, to schools, we can hopefully urge the authorities to
provide that language proficiency, to allow people to
communicate and to understand what is happening in their lives.
So this type of program allows for information to be shared. It
allows schools, hospitals, law enforcement, businesses, elected
officials, to truly understand each community and each ethnic
group. There are a lot of common issues, but there are a lot of
distinct issues and needs as well.

Toni Guinyard>> If you could, give me a few statistics that
came out of this study that you think the general public needs
to be aware of.

Stewart Kwoh>> Well, in the state of California today, there
are 4.8 million Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. That is,
in the whole state. In Southern California, over fifty percent
of all the Asian Americans live and reside. So there's over two
million or two and a half million Asian Americans in Southern
California from San Diego to Los Angeles County. In the Bay
Area, the Asian American percentage is highest, so Asian
Americans now have become the second largest racial group in the
whole Bay Area region, surpassing Latinos in the year 2000 as a
whole. So this kind of unique information is not readily
available. People don't understand that there's been a huge
growth in the Asian American community.

Toni Guinyard>> An incredible growth.

Stewart Kwoh>> Yes. And there's over twenty distinct ethnic
groups each, as I said, with unique characteristics and distinct
needs. So what we're trying to draw attention to are those
common issues of language, but there are very unique issues of
poverty, language proficiency and other characteristics.

Toni Guinyard>> And finally, what would you like Southern
California to do with all of this information now that you have
compiled it?

Stewart Kwoh>> We want the public to understand who their
neighbors are. We want the various agencies, hospitals and
schools and law enforcement to truly understand what are those
unique needs in each community. It is very unfortunate, but
sometimes we see people through stereotypes and there's really
no room for stereotypes in this diversity. We really have to
understand who people are and then we can get to know them and
get to work together to deal with our common problems.

Toni Guinyard>> Mr. Stewart Kwoh, I feel as if I know you a bit
better and thank you so much for spending a little time with
Life and Times.

Stewart Kwoh>> Thank you, Toni. I really appreciate it.

To send a comment or a question to our program, you can reach us
by mail at this address:

Life and Times
4401 Sunset Blvd.
Los Angeles, California 90027

You can also call our viewer comment line (323) 953-5555) or
contact us the fast way by e-mail at kcet.org.


Val>> Have you ever wanted to step back in time to an era when
civilized people sat around in elegant salons and listened to
the music of harpsichords and violins? Well, you can relive
that era today. In fact, I did a little time-traveling when I
stepped into the Ebell Women's Club on Wilshire Boulevard and
listened to some music from centuries ago.

Its arched portal beckons. Once inside, it's like meandering
through an Italian villa. This Sunday afternoon, people have
gathered to hear a cappella masterpieces from the late fifteenth
and early sixteenth centuries by Italian, Spanish and English
composers.

[Film Clip]

Val>> Performing today is the Orlando Consort, a visiting
quartet from the Early Music Center of Great Britain. They're
known not only for their voices, but for their musical
scholarship and authenticity.

[Film Clip]

Val>> This concert is one of a series called "Music in Historic
Sites" sponsored by the DaCamera Society of Mount St. Mary's
College.

Mary Ann Bonino>> It comes from the Italian Musica Da Camera,
which was the original term for chamber music. In the
seventeenth century, they wanted to distinguish chamber music
from music in a church, music in a theatre, and chamber music
was music in a home, in a small room. It was a form of
entertainment.

Val>> Mary Ann Bonino founded the DaCamera Society in 1973.
She has the enviable job of choosing the artists and the venues
for twenty-five concerts a year.

Mary Ann Bonino>> Well, today we have the Orlando Consort which
is a vocal quartet which specializes principally in music of the
Renaissance. They're four of them, each fine singers, but they
also are a terrific ensemble.

[Film Clip]

Mary Ann Bonino>> They know how to really connect with an
audience and they engage them in ways that only somebody with
that kind of background and a great British sense of humor can.

[Film Clip]

Val>> The Orlando Consort adds another element to their
performances. They intersperse the music with bits of history,
readings from letters, like this one about the Black Plague and
a supposed remedy for the horrid disease concocted by the king's
physician.

>> "Only the other day, the king's physician, Dr. Fitzpatrick,
announced that he has made a breakthrough. He proposes to make
a mixture of herb and wax, stuffing into the stomach of a cat
roasted whole and apply the dripping grease from the said
mixture into the patient's armpits and groin. Good Lord Jesus,
if it is thy will that I fall ill, I beseech thee that I should
be as far away from Dr. Fitzpatrick as possible."

Val>> How did you get the idea for doing this in historic
places?

Mary Ann Bonino>> Well, I think it came out of the days when I
lived in Europe as a student and saw that they naturally did
concerts in historic places. They didn't think of it as
anything special. These were the buildings that were available
and it was such a wonderful experience to hear music in a
beautiful old building or church, especially when the music was
related to what the building was about.

Val>> There are three hundred historic locations in the
DaCamera Society's database. Over the years, they've brought
live music to the Hotel Bel-Aire, landmark churches, the
Egyptian Theatre, Chinatown, and elegant private homes.

Fluff McLean>> There are some that we return to all of the time
like the Doheny Mansion which is our home base. That's a pretty
spectacular environment with a Tiffany dome of 2,836 pieces of
gold glass and a room filled with marble and other beautiful
decorations. That's a wonderful and small room in which to hear
chamber music.

Val>> The Ebell of Los Angeles was the city's very first
woman's club started more than a century ago. Fluff McLean is
the current President.

Fluff McLean>> And it was founded by a man in 1894 for women
and the purpose was for educating women. And the women that
actually started in the club were professors' wives from USC,
which is really unusual. First of all, you have to realize that
in the 1890's -- we didn't build this then, but when they
started, women did not have clubs. They had, you know, sewing
circles, social groups and so forth. So for us to be able to
put a club together with women and clubs in the same sentence
was quite a step forward.

Donald Greig>> "These singers were also often composers."

Val>> For early arrivals, the baritone Donald Greig gave an
informal talk, a chance to learn a bit about how music has
changed.

Donald Greig>> "A lot of people start on the piano and one's
image of music often, I think, as a musician derives from the
keyboard. Dizzy Gillespie, the famous trumpeter for example,
said he couldn't improvise unless he could see the tune picked
out on a piano. Now for medieval musicians, their instrument
was a hand by which I mean that the notes, the range of notes,
the gamut indeed from gamma, the lowest note, to ut, the highest
note, was written down when they were choir boys probably in
ink. They would have looked at their hand and they would note
that that step sounded like that and then that step sounded like
that. That's their mental image they would have had of music."

[Film Clip]

Mary Ann Bonino>> When you perform this kind of music in an
architecturally appropriate setting, the acoustic is perfect.
There isn't any such thing as one acoustic fits all, but a
special acoustic for chant, a special acoustic for a Mozart
string quarter, a special acoustic for jazz. So each of these
places has a special atmosphere and a special sound.

Val>> And contrary to common impression, chamber music can be
contemporary.

Mary Ann Bonino>> Jazz is now considered a form of chamber
music. It takes place in social setting where people are
eating, drinking and having a great time, very convivial.

Donald Greig>> "The most illustrious Maria asks me to thank you
greatly for the effort you have made concerning the tenor,
Andrea. He wishes to have him and says that he pays tenors
twelve ducats a month, more than he does for any other voice,
obviously because tenors are more skilled than any other singers
(laughter)."

Mary Ann Bonino>> I think as the world gets bigger and more
media-driven, there's a real need for people to come together
closely in a small environment and get to know each other.

[Film Clip]

Mary Ann Bonino>> I'm very optimistic about the future. We
keep getting new audiences and relatively young audiences, which
is a good sign. As I say, how can you beat it in the
combination. It's something beautiful to look at and something
beautiful to hear. When you hear music in a small and intimate
and elegant environment, it takes on a whole other dimension.
It's incredible to be up close to the really great artists and
hear them perform. That's an experience that happens only with
chamber music.

[Film Clip]

Val>> For more information on upcoming concerts by the DaCamera
Society of Mount St. Mary's College, you can go to their website
at dacamera.org. And that's our program. I'm Val Zavala. For
everyone at Life and Times, thanks for watching. We'll see you
next time.

Life and Times was made possible through the generous support of
the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality
of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of
medicine, health, science and education.

And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg.

This program was made possible in part by a grant from the City
of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department.

Val>> Next time on Life and Times --

Divorce is hard enough on children, but what happens when one
parent wants to take the kids and move far away from the ex?

>> What if she wants to move to Oregon in two years? What if
she wants to move to Paris in three years? Am I supposed to
follow her around the world as she exercises her rights to be
selfish? I don't think so.

Val>> That's next time on Life and Times.