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Life & Times Transcript

11/27/07

Val Zavala>> Tonight on Life and Times --

A side of Tijuana that American tourists seldom see, a disturbing growth in the spread of AIDS.

Dr. Remedios Lozada>> We have a concentrated epidemic. We should really recognize that we have populations that are very vulnerable with a lot of risks that we should take care of.

Val Zavala>> And then, translating the emotion from a medieval painting into a twenty-first century work of art.

It's all straight ahead on tonight's Life and Times.

Announcer>> 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 James and Anne Rothenberg.

Val Zavala>> This Saturday is World AIDS Day and there is some good news to report. The U.N. says that a lot fewer people have AIDS than originally estimated, about seven million fewer people worldwide. But that's not the case in a city about a hundred fifty miles south of Los Angeles, Tijuana, Mexico.

Tonight we begin a special report on AIDS in Tijuana. It was produced by the Cal State Northridge Journalism Department and reporter and professor, James Hill. They went to Tijuana to see this disturbing trend for themselves.

James Hill>> The threat of HIV is not hard to find in the border city of Tijuana, Mexico if you know where to look. It's here in an AIDS hospice where volunteer nurse Alberto Ramirez Rojas helps ease the pain of a dying man. It's in the red light district where prostitutes sell themselves openly day and night.

[Film Clip]

James Hill>> Or in the filth of so-called Shooting Galleries, a growing subculture of injection drug users who often share infected needles. Mexico has a lower rate of HIV and AIDS than the United States, but in Tijuana the rate is rising. Dr. Remedios Lozada and Professor Kimberly Brouwer are among researchers on both sides of the border who have studied Tijuana's rate of HIV infection.

Dr. Remedios Lozada>> We have a concentrated epidemic. We should really recognize that we have populations that are very vulnerable with a lot of risks that we should take care of.

James Hill>> The researchers estimate up to one in every one hundred twenty-five people aged fifteen to forty-nine is infected with HIV.

Kimberly Brouwer>> And in all of that risk groups, we have just in the past decade seen an alarming increase. It's still considered low compared to other countries, but the amount of change in the past decade is very concerning.

James Hill>> In central Tijuana, UC San Diego is working with a nonprofit to help prevent HIV among the group's most at risk of infection. Free condoms, information and packets of clean syringes are handed out in neighborhoods like Mapa, Cajon and Zata, areas where prostitution and drug use are rampant.

Alicia Vera>> The people live in living quarters, if you can call that. It's really unhealthy and there's trash all around and it's just contaminated water. In these conditions is when they're conducting their activities, sexual and drug use.

[Film Clip]

Alicia Vera>> We're really presenting an alternative for people to consider their high risk and to put their health as a priority.

James Hill>> People are offered free blood tests for HIV and syphilis. This admitted drug user was fortunate. His test revealed that he is not infected with HIV. About twenty miles away on the southeastern edge of Tijuana, an AIDS hospice cares for infected men and women who have no money or family support.

Here at the bottom of a slope sits Casa Hogar Las Memorias. The thirty-five to forty patients here at any given time form a who's-who of risk groups. Injection drug users, gay men, displaced immigrants and pregnant women, the sexually careless.

Dr. Remedios Lozada>> If they don't have anywhere to go, they need a home where they can go on with their treatments, care, clothing, food, love.

James Hill>> Lozada helped establish the nonprofit and her husband, Dr. Manuel Gallardo Cruz, treats the patients.

Dr. Manuel Gallardo Cruz>> Many patients are drug users. They have abandoned prior treatments. They abandoned them for a while and then they come back when their condition is already too complicated.

[Film Clip]

James Hill>> The hospice depends on a hierarchy of patient help. The able-bodied perform chores. They cook meals of donated meat, rice and beans; do their best to control the erratic behavior of patients with mental problems.

[Film Clip]

James Hill>> And they give basic care to those who are too ill to care for themselves. Once a month, patients are driven to doctors appointments at Tijuana General Hospital where they are checked and their prescriptions are refilled. Mexico's health system, Sucaro Popular, pays for it.

[Film Clip]

James Hill>> These are the anti-retroviral drugs that help keep HIV from advancing to AIDS, the condition in which the body's immune system can no longer fight off illness. One of the first and last jobs Hector Beltran does each day is to hand out the life-saving medication to hospice patients. Each mix of anti-retroviral drugs is tailored to a patient's individual needs. Two pills here, three pills there and, finally, three pills for Beltran himself, for he is a patient as well.

The sickest people in the hospice are those who have developed full-blown AIDS. They need skilled care and, once again, volunteers do much of the work.

Raul Ramirez Rojas>> My role here at the hospice is to look after patients with HIV and other illnesses such as tuberculosis and administration of intravenous medicines according to the doctor's prescriptions.

Courtney Crane>> A lot of the people who come here, this is going to be the place where they spend the rest of their lives.

James Hill>> United States Navy nurse, Courtney Crane, drives in from San Diego several times a year.

Courtney Crane>> They're terminal and they are coming here to be taken care of while they die. Palliative care is focused on keeping them comfortable during that part of their lives.

James Hill>> That was all that could be done for Jose Villa. Battered by illnesses, his AIDS-weakened body could no longer fight. He died like roughly six hundred patients before him here in the hospice. In Tijuana, Mexico, I'm James Hill for Life and Times.

Val Zavala>> Border crossers have to take their chances these days along the United States-Mexico border, but during World War II, it was a very different story. Then the United States government welcomed Mexican workers through the Bracero program and now the Smithsonian Institution wants to preserve their experiences. As Hena Cuevas tells us, Los Angeles is a key collection point for personal stories that would otherwise be lost.

Hena Cuevas>> Some walk in alone, signing their names, eager to share their stories. They're Braceros, men who more than sixty years ago came to the United States from Mexico to work.

Guadalupe Garcia>> We need the history. You know, the story of us.

Hena Cuevas>> Seventy-five year old Guadalupe Garcia first came to California in 1954. Today he's sharing his story with researcher, Mireya Loza.

Mireya Loza>> What did your mother say when you told her you wanted to come as a Bracero?

Guadalupe Garcia>> My parents cried. I said, "Look, things are better there." And I said, "Mom, I'm leaving" and my parents started crying. In those days, you realize how difficult it was to leave your kids and parents behind.

Mireya Loza>> Braceros are at a point in their lives where they want the story told and they want their story preserved. Many are in their eighties with deteriorating health and they realize that their story can be lost.

Hena Cuevas>> And that's what the Bracero history project is trying to do through stories like Garcia's.

Guadalupe Garcia>> We work hard over here, pretty hard, ten or twelve hours. No Sundays, nothing sometimes. When the work come up, you work day and night sometimes. I used to work at nighttime too.

Hena Cuevas>> The project, sponsored by the Smithsonian Institute's National Museum of American History, is traveling around the country collecting these men's stories. Researcher Loza and former Bracero Garcia meet for more than an hour in front of a tape recorder.

Mireya Loza>> Tell me about your hometown. How was it?

Guadalupe Garcia>> It was pretty before, but now it's not. Everybody has left. It's a ghost town.

Hena Cuevas>> The Bracero guest worker program between Mexico and the United States ran for more than twenty years from 1942 to 1964. The workers were given temporary contracts, sometimes as short as six months or as long as a year and a half, most of them working in the fields.

George Sanchez>> A lot of people debating the current projects don't realize that, in the past, United States history is full of guest worker programs.

Hena Cuevas>> Professor George Sanchez teaches American History at the University of Southern California. He and his students are helping with the Bracero history project.

George Sanchez>> Some of them have grandparents who were Braceros. A couple of students are researching Bracero history. So when this opportunity came, they really jumped at the chance.

Hena Cuevas>> Knowing the exact number of Braceros still around is a challenge. Here at the Casa de la Americano in East Los Angeles, between two to three hundred of them including the widows of those who have passed away gather together once a month to talk about their past lives, but also to discuss one of the most pressing issues facing them today and that's figuring out how to make sure they get the money that they say is owed to them.

That's one hard lesson learned from the Bracero program. Back wages are a frequent topic at these monthly meetings. When these men were in the Bracero program, ten percent of their pay was withheld by Mexico. When they returned, the money was supposed to be waiting for them, but there was a problem. Many did return to Mexico, but never saw the money.

George Sanchez>> The money never got to them, so there are various lawsuits underway to try to obtain that money from the entities involved at this point. That tells you how problematic some of the previous efforts have been in kind of ensuring that Braceros abide by their contract, but also that they're paid fair wages.

Hena Cuevas>> Sanchez says President George Bush's proposed guest worker program is very similar to the Bracero one as one solution for illegal immigration.

George Sanchez>> So part of what we're trying to do is make sure that we know that history so that people are fully informed in terms of proposals that are on the table now for future guest worker programs.

Hena Cuevas>> One of those attending the meetings and now sharing his story is seventy year old Jose Delgado. He arrived in the United States in 1955 when he was only twenty.

Jose Delgado>> In Mexico, life was very difficult. You could make between four to five pesos working from dusk until dawn. Coming here and making seventy-two cents an hour, that was a big difference.

George Sanchez>> It's incredibly important to make sure that they understand that their histories are part of American history, that they play a critical role. They played a critical role not only in World War II, but all the way up to the 1960s in providing critical labor for the United States.

Hena Cuevas>> But it's not just their stories. The museum is also looking to collect any artifacts, anything the Braceros may be interested in donating for the exhibit.

Mireya Loza>> The Braceros do not get any monetary compensation. All of this is on a donation basis, so we try to make it clear that part of the reason why is because we also want to make this accessible free of charge to everyone.

Hena Cuevas>> How difficult is it, then, to convince somebody to part with something that they've had for so many years and that they're so attached to?

Mireya Loza>> We do not pry. We do not push. We do say that, you know, if you are willing to and ready to let go of your object, we are willing to take it. We're willing to preserve it. We're willing to archive it and conserve it for you and willing to make sure that this object exists for generations to come.

Hena Cuevas>> So far, Loza says the exhibit has gotten mostly photographs and letters which are scanned and preserved. But every once in a while --

Mireya Loza>> A son donated a hat that his father used in the field. He had kept it. His father had passed away a couple of years before he donated the hat, but we were happy to receive that.

Hena Cuevas>> But the longer time passes, says Loza, the more of these objects will be lost forever like Delgado's photographs of his time working in the United States with his best friend.

Jose Delgado>> In the photographs, we were always together. We were inseparable and he took them. He died, his wife died and I don't know if his kids have them. That's why I wouldn't know how to get them.

Hena Cuevas>> That's why Loza always lets the Braceros know the Smithsonian is a place where their precious items will be kept safe.

Mireya Loza>> You know, they might not feel comfortable donating today or tomorrow, but if ever they feel as if, you know, they are willing to let it go, they have contact with our curator. I give out the direct number to the curator at the Smithsonian who can talk them through the process.

Hena Cuevas>> Last year, researchers visited California, Illinois and Texas. This fall, they'll hit Ventura County and add Colorado to their list. The project has also launched a website through George Mason University. It has a digital memory bank where Braceros can also share their stories. Once the collection is complete, the museum plans on turning it into a traveling exhibit.

Guadalupe Garcia>> Because we worked like animals, we deserve to have a history, have a book or something or a movie or whatever.

Hena Cuevas>> There's still no movie in the works, but at least for now they'll be getting a spot in the Smithsonian and the chance to have their contributions recognized as a part of American history. I'm Hena Cuevas for Life and Times.

Announcer>> 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 Zavala>> Artist Bill Viola does with video what no Hollywood filmmaker would ever think of doing. Instead of fast cuts and action-packed scenes, Viola lets video unfold at an excruciatingly slow pace. Viola has been experimenting with videos since the 1970s and we talked with him about these slow-motion masterpieces.

Bill Viola>> All of this work started when I was a scholar-in-residence at the Getty Research Institute in 1998. There was a group of authors, writers, philosophers who were looking at this issue of the human emotions and how can it be discussed and represented. At the same time I was there, on a personal level, my father was dying. He spent most of the year just gradually sliding downhill.

So on the one hand, I had this incredible intellectual experience with a group of really extraordinary people. On the other hand, I was dealing with my father's imminent death. I think those two forces, the heart and the head, so to speak, sort of came together in this work.

The piece that I'm making for the Getty was inspired by this painting by Massalino who worked with Masaccio in the very beginnings of the Italian Renaissance. It's a fresco. It's a pieta. What's going on here is that Mary and St. John are placing Christ in the tomb.

I was excited by it and I even sketched it, which I don't do that often. And then, you know, you put it away and you don't think about it. That's absolutely key because it does not interest me whatsoever to restage historically any of these kind of images. That doesn't interest me at all.

What interests me at all is what happens when these images go into us and sort of live in there and transform and grow into other kinds of things. What I saw in my mind was this young man rising up out of the water. As he's rising up, the water's overflowing over the top of this cistern or well or whatever. He comes out and there's two women on either side of him who are shocked and surprised and emotionally overcome with the appearance of this young man.

So if I look at this from the point of view of our contemporary eye, it's the aftermath of a drowning. It's two women pulling a limp, lifeless figure out of water. If I look at it with the inner eye, what I see is a birth, of water overflowing and a young man who's practically naked being taken out by women, almost in the function of mid-wives, of bringing a being into the world.

I don't want to specify that image and lock it in. For me, images have their life because they're untethered and free-floating and that's where I want them to be. So I've probably said too much already.

John Walsh>> These are images that have enough power, have enough suggestive power, have enough, you could say, ambiguity to allow all kinds of different readings. The main thing about it is that it happens in extreme slow motion so that you see something that's neither quite a still nor a movie. It gave you a chance to look and feel the shifting relationships between the figures which painting doesn't let you do in quite the same way anyway.

Bill Viola>> Like I'll lock down the camera and I won't move the camera and I'll just keep recording. So instead of, okay, John talks, we get you. Then you move the camera over here and then Bill talks. Then we have this kind of -- then we come back here and we shoot us together with the painting and we're both talking.

Then in the editing room, they will cut those things together in a language that is so obvious and familiar to people that they don't even see it as a language. It's a way of structuring space and time.

But when you keep the camera still, you're in this kind of space where time is unfolding as a continuous process. The motion I was after is the motion of the continuity of an emotional wave that comes up and passes through a person and subsides.

It's really about the feelings that we live in. We are bathed in feelings like fish is bathed in water and we don't even see it sometimes. You just pull those feelings into you and you can transform them and transmute them into something. That's what artists do.

Val Zavala>> You can see one of Bill Viola's video pieces. It's called "Emergence" and it's on display at the Getty along with sixty other California video artists. For details, you can go to their website.

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

Val Zavala>> So, are you all finished with those turkey leftovers? Good. Now we can get back to chicken. Chicken, in fact, is what most Americans prefer throughout the year, but there's one man in Silverlake who raises chickens so exotic that they will never end up on a dinner plate.

Sam Louie>> We've heard the phrase "different strokes for different folks" and it's no different when it comes to pet ownership. Here in Silverlake, one man raises exotic chickens as pets.

Carl Hunter>> "Hey, girls. Come on. Do you want to go out and play? Okay, go play."

Carl Hunter>> What fascinates me is their variety and because I like chickens and I don't like just plain white chickens. I like things that are unusual and interesting and varied.

Sam Louie>> Carl Hunter has eight different breeds of exotic chickens from around the world scampering through his property.

Carl Hunter>> I have two Cuckoo Marans. Those are from France. I've got Polish. There's a White Crested Black Polish here. I have a Golden Polish in the other pen. The Japanese Silkies come from China and Japan. They're either named Chinese Silky or Japanese Silky.

Sam Louie>> Carl enjoys raising chickens as a hobby. It brings back fond childhood memories of his grandfather's farm.

Carl Hunter>> He had a little farm when I was a kid and I would go out there and play with the baby chicks or get the eggs or whatever. I'd just be totally fascinated with them.

Sam Louie>> As an adult, Carl was able to carry on that tradition. He and his partner own a house on three-quarters of an acre in Silverlake.

Carl Hunter>> The chickens are kept in an environment that lets them be chickens. I like to let them out and run around and fly a little bit, dig in the dirt and have a dust bath. All of those kinds of things that they need to do to be real chickens.

Sam Louie>> The exotic chickens come in a variety of sizes and colors. Similar to typical hens, they lay eggs.

Carl Hunter>> "Did you lay your egg yet? Let me see. Oh, you did. Look at that. Look at that nice big brown egg she gave. Well, thank you. Someone will enjoy that for breakfast."

Sam Louie>> But the beauty of these hens is that their eggs also come in a rainbow of colors.

Carl Hunter>> Blue-green, olive, pink. Each hen has her own color and will lay the same color on every egg.

Sam Louie>> Most of these chickens originated from a hatchery in Iowa. The postal service delivered them as baby chicks within seventy-two hours from the time they hatched.

Carl Hunter>> When I walked into the post office, I could hear them the minute I opened the door. I said, "Those are my babies out there (laughter)".

Sam Louie>> Carl points out that they all have their own personality. He's even given some of them names. His favorite is Carol.

Carl Hunter>> She's the star. She's been on several shows and she just was rented out last weekend for a benefit show where a dancer used her in a couple of numbers. Every feather fluffs out and she has the feel of a cat as opposed to the feel of a regular feathered bird.

Sam Louie>> While he has his favorites, he loves all of them dearly. So when predators like coyotes get to them, the loss can be hard.

Carl Hunter>> I feel very badly about that, especially a young rooster out of this group from this spring that was pulled right through the fence and killed and eaten by a coyote. He was a very, very tame rooster and I'd had a lot of fun with him.

Sam Louie>> Despite the occasional threat from coyotes, Carl says that raising chickens gives him a great sense of pride and satisfaction, as well as keeping him young at heart.

Carl Hunter>> You know, for me it's a lot of fun, a great hobby, and I get to go on an Easter egg hunt every day (laughter).

Sam Louie>> I'm Sam Louie for Life and Times.

Val Zavala>> And that's our program. I'm Val Zavala. For everyone at Life and Times, thanks for watching. We'll see you next time.

Announcer>> 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 James and Anne Rothenberg.

Sponsored in part by:


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