This past weekend, I attended the Syracuse Latino Festival in Clinton Square. The festival was to together in order to showcase local Latino talent, promote Latin culture, and expose Syracuse residents to Latino culture within the city. However, upon arrival, it became crystal-clear that the city's Latino population is in desperate need of help. Not only were the majority of the people at the festival young, middle-high school aged children, there were very few adults keeping tabs on them. Within minutes of getting to the festival, I witnessed fist fights, water bottles thrown into the crowd, and an increase police presence. Upwards of 200 kids would run from one end of the square to other alerting police to possible fights. Luckily, festival organizers quickly spoke to the crowd, asking to family's to control their children, asking participants to show some pride in their community, and threatening to end the festival if the running continues. Unfortunately the last time that the crowd ran from one end of the square to the other, ended in the stabbing/murder of a 20 year-old man and the stabbing of a 16 year-old child. http://www.cnycentral.com/news/news_story.aspx?id=337764
This got me thinking about Syracuse and other CNY cities with growing numbers of Latino/as, and the continued violence and high school drop-out rates for Latino/as in these cities. According to Education Week - New York State had a 33% graduation rate for Latino/as; 56% is the national average. Various sources place the Syracuse Latino/a graduation rate as high as 51%. Not only is the dropout rate atrocious, the number of teen pregnancies is one of the highest in the state. The girls/children at the festival were dressed the way I expect young women to be dressed in the club, with men of all ages staring at the scantly dressed pre-teens/teens. The ultimate lack of self-respect is at the heart of that issue, along with the little supervision. The city, along with its growing crime problem, is in jeopardy. One can only hope that among the people of color in the city, there are individuals willing to continue to work toward helping the community.
2 comments:
Hola Realist Latina,
I live in Syracuse and attended the festival, leaving after one hour because of the fights. I think that you touched on a big problem, teen violence.. our young people are killing each other for stupid reasons. The young man who died was 21, 200 people were there and none is coming forward yet to say what happened. Really sad. Another concern is the bad organization of the festival, the lack of concern for representing diversity in the festival and the organizers selling beer (when they are a non-profit organization that should be putting the example).. well Syracuse does need help.
Saludos.
Hi Rebecca,
Thank you for your input! I hope the new mayor has some suggestions on how to change the teen violence problem. I can only be hopeful!
Thanks!
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