Jacob Lewin

The agriculture industry in California is in the midst of its worst drought in decades and that may inadvertently be having a positive impact on Oregon. It's caused some growers to look north.  One Oregon crop that is being affected is hazelnuts, which are drawing record sales and prices. 

Half of all Oregonians play the state lottery and up to five percent of them are problem gamblers. The Lottery is now aiming more help at Latino problem gamblers.  At the same time, in a departure from the past, it is also now promoting its games to Latinos and other minorities. 

Octavio would head to the video poker machines at Shari's before work and Denny's after work every day and all day on weekends:

"El juego no fue algo divertido despues, fue una necesidad..."

Oregon spends Cadillac prices to teach English Language Learners in its public schools, but only gets Chevy results.  That's because the formula for spending more than 200-million-dollars a year on tens of thousands of students provides an incentive to keep kids in E.L.L. as long as possible. E.L.L. was formerly known as E.S.L.  The Oregon Department of Education is now proposing to make some major reforms. 

When she was in elementary school, this was about the extent of Stephanie Castañeda's Spanish:

"Hola...adios."

It's a milestone for Oregon's only professional Latino theater group...30 years of performances.  Milagro Theater comes to Roseburg next month.

(sounds of set building)

Milagro is getting a show ready to go on the road. The painted cloth, canvas and rope emulate a circus. Co-founder Dañel Malan says that goes back to the roots of Latin American peasant theater:

"The campesino came from the old tradition of carpa, so that was how they would do the shows, in a tent."

It's a milestone for Oregon's only professional Latino theater group...30 years of performances.  Milagro Theater comes to Roseburg next month.

(sounds of set building)

Milagro is getting a show ready to go on the road. The painted cloth, canvas and rope emulate a circus. Co-founder Dañel Malan says that goes back to the roots of Latin American peasant theater:

"The campesino came from the old tradition of carpa, so that was how they would do the shows, in a tent."

This Christmas, Catholic churches in Oregon will likely be seeing a decline in the number of Latino parishioners.   A new Pew Research Center study shows that Latinos are increasingly leaving the Catholic church with a quarter of the Latinos in the U.S. saying they are ex-Catholics.

(Sound of church bells)

At Mount Angel seminary, there's been a sustained effort to recruit students from Latin American countries.  Still, while more than 50-percent of Catholics in Oregon are Latinos, fewer than 10-percent of priests are:

"I think we've been falling short."

When an Oregon Latina gets breast cancer, there is a significant chance that it will be more serious than breast cancer found among other women. A variety of groups are trying to do something to change that:

Proportionately fewer Latinas in Oregon get breast cancer, but 36-percent of Latinas who do get breast cancer have it detected at an advanced stage compared to 26-percent of other women. Thomas Bruner is former CEO of the Susan Komen Foundation of Oregon:

September is one of the big harvest months for Oregon agriculture--apples, pears, hops.  It's also a time when the fields are full of farmworkers.....a large percentage of whom may be subject to sexual harassment.  It's a subject that's long been taboo, but a growing number of women are speaking out.

Every day at her job at a vineyard outside Salem, things were the same for Clarisa:

"Pues como chiquita, mi hijita, esos cosas de decía..."

Kids from around the Northwest come to summer camp in the hills west of Salem this week.  But this camp is like no other in the region.

(sound of splashing in a pool)

Like most summer camps, Camp Starlight has swimming, games like Sharks and Lifeguards, archery, movie night.  But there's a difference:

"My name is Randy Bodkin and I'm the Camp Starlight director.  This is a camp for kids that are affected by HIV/AIDS.  Doesn't necessarily have to be them themselves who are affected with HIV/AIDS. It could be a direct family member,  Mom, Dad, Grandma, Grandpa, aunt."

This month marks the 50th anniversary of the signing of the U.S. Civil Rights Act. We celebrate it at a time when Oregon's population is not quite two-percent African-American.  A Portland State University professor is criss-crossing the state asking this provocative question: Why aren't there more blacks in Oregon?

It was a bittersweet commemoration as a packed auditorium listened to the Northwest Freedom Singers and heard Portland State University professor Walidah Imarisha says that in the 1840's, Oregon became the only U.S. territory with a racial exclusion law:

It is a colorful ritual that many Latinos brought with them when they immigrated to Oregon, and it is now more popular than ever. Quinceaneras celebrate the 15th birthday of Latino girls, but they are much more than just a big party.

Ileana Torres is being fitted for her quinceanera dress (zipper sound) at a Salem shop that specializes in them.  Quinceaneras once were a way to present girls as ready for marriage. Now they're a rite of passage when, at the age of 15 girls, like Ileana, are expected to take on more responsibility:

It's called the Latino Paradox. It's what happens to the health of Latinos after they migrate from Mexico and other Latin American countries to Oregon.  KLCC's Jacob Lewin has the latest in our ongoing series on health disparities amongst Latinos:

An ironic thing happens to immigrants when they come from relatively resource-poor Central American countries to the resource-rich U.S, according to Alberto Moreno of the Oregon Latino Health Coalition:

The spring chinook salmon fishing season is now underway in Oregon. Lots of Oregonians take salmon fishing seriously, but possibly none take it as seriously as the tribes of Grand Ronde, a group that's had a role in restoring the health of the fish that's become a symbol of the Northwest.

In a way, the journey of some salmon starts here....

(Sounds of casino)

Compared to other Oregonians, a lot of Latinos in Oregon don't drink alcohol. Yet those who do drink face bigger problems. Some of the reasons are cultural.  This is the latest in KLCC's series on health disparities amongst Oregon Latinos.

(Mariachi music)

The number of H-I-V cases in Oregon is declining, but not amongst Latinos.  They are twice as likely to contract the virus as non-Hispanic whites.  This is the first in an ongoing series on Latino health disparities in Oregon:

"Buenos días.  Mi nombre es Diana Herrera......"

Twice a month, dozens of Latinos from throughout Oregon come to the Mexican consulate in Portland to see about documentation.  They also get a primer on HIV and AIDS and an HIV test if they want one:

"A empezar el timbre...lista?..."

This week marks 50 years since a lethal tsunami hit Oregon's shores. A lot has changed since then.

Fifty years ago, here at Beverly Beach, on a star-lit night, the McKenzie family, from Tacoma, was camping in a lean-to. A tsunami took away their children. A magnitude nine quake off Alaska in 1964 generated a series of waves that grew dramatically higher as they reached the coast four hours later.  In Cannon Beach, the downtown was flooded and houses floated away.  Peter Lindsey watched from high ground:

When grass seed prices crashed in 2008, a group of Willamette Valley farmers decided to switch part of their production to food crops.  Now, not only are their results successful, but they may be laying the foundation for a different kind of food economy in Oregon.

The number of Latinos in Oregon schools has reached 22-percent, but an achievement gap between Latinos and whites stubbornly continues. A program in Corvallis may be having some success in improving outcomes for Latino students.

Over tacos, a group of parents and peer facilitators draw up a list of obstacles to going to college.  First is money, then motivation, and then teen pregnancy.  Although they are talking about college, this is a group of parents of elementary school kids being taught the skills they need to be more involved:

Twenty years ago this month President Bill Clinton signed the North American Free Trade Agreement into law.  Few foresaw that it would change the face of Oregon.

Downtown Woodburn seems to be in good economic shape. Anthony Veliz, who owns a marketing firm here, shows us around:

"All of these businesses here, as we're walking are Latino-owned businesses. King's Den barbershop and we have these little tienditas, little stores, shops, zapateria y joyeria.   We have a Mexican grocery store....we can go in...."

The aim of the Lincoln County School District is ambitious: To become the best district in the world for integrating the ocean into the lives of its students. This school year students, teachers and administrators—and their partners in the community—are doing more than ever to meet that goal. The sea lions on the Newport bayfront (sounds of sea lions barking) welcome a group of Lincoln County teachers. The teachers are down on their bellies, using car ice scrapers under the docks.The results go under portable microscopes. It's an exercise that they will later share with their students.