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HOST:
Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in SpecialEnglish.
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This is Doug Johnson. On our program today:
We play some songs nominated for an Academy Award …
Answer a listener’s question about the government office thatdeals with immigration …
And report about children’s literature in Spanish.
Immigration Service
HOST:
Our VOA listener question this week comes from the United ArabEmirates. Samatar Abdi Hirsi asks about the United StatesImmigration and Naturalization Service also known as the I-N-S.
The Immigration and Naturalization Service was responsible forhelping foreigners who enter the country legally and for removingthose who enter illegally.
But the I-N-S no longer exists. On March first, its job ofhelping immigrants was moved to the new Bureau of Citizenship andImmigration Services within the new Department of Homeland Security.
Government officials say that the creation of a new agency thathelps immigrants is designed to increase the quality of services forforeigners who are in the United States legally. The Bureau ofCitizenship and Immigration Services is known as the B-C-I-S. Aboutfifteen-thousand people work there. Its director reports to theDeputy Secretary for Homeland Security.
B-C-I-S services include helping refugees seeking asylum,supervising people who become American citizens and providingemployment documents for foreigners in the United States.
Most of the other services that were provided by the I-N-S willbe carried out by two new agencies in the Department of HomelandSecurity. One is the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.This agency brings together about fourteen-thousand workers. Theseinclude investigators and law enforcement officials of the I-N-S,Customs Service and Federal Protective Services. This agency wasdesigned to strengthen law enforcement by uniting investigation workthat had been done by several agencies.
The other new agency is the Bureau of Customs and BorderProtection. Its thirty-thousand workers include agriculturalinspectors and inspectors from the I-N-S, Customs Service and BorderPatrol. This bureau will supervise the movement of goods and peopleacross the nation’s borders. It will guarantee the inspection ofgoods and enforce border laws.
Hispanic Children’s Books
HOST:
Millions of Spanish-speaking people live in the United States.Many of them are children. Spanish-language publishing is expandingto serve these people. Steve Ember has this report on children’sliterature in Spanish.
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Lulu Delacre (duh-LAHK-ra) was born in Puerto Rico. She begandrawing pictures and hearing stories as a young child. As an adultliving in the United States, she wanted to write children’s booksthat would celebrate the stories and traditions of her childhood.Mizz Delacre says she started writing books in Spanish and Englishfor children like her own, born to Hispanic parents in the UnitedStates. She wanted to help these children know and enjoy theirpersonal history.
Now Mizz Delacre says she believes it is just as important fornon-Latino children to learn about the Latino boys and girls intheir schools and communities. Lulu Delacre has written a book ofPuerto Rican stories called “Shake it Morena!” She has writtenanother book called “Salsa Stories” that has stories about food. Nowshe has won both the Pura Belpre and the Americas Awards.
For ten years, the Americas Award has honored writers ofchildren’s books that honestly show Latin America, the Caribbean, orLatinos in the United States. The Pura Belpre Award honors a Latinoor Latina writer whose work celebrates the Latino experience. Thisaward is named for Pura Belpre. She was the first Latina librarianat the New York City Public Library. Across the United States,people come to libraries to read and borrow books for free.
Ina Rimpau is a librarian in the state of New Jersey. She is veryinterested in making sure that Spanish-speaking children have booksto read in their own language. She says it is very popular topublish the same book in both English and Spanish. Children whospeak English read the books with their Spanish-speaking parents orgrandparents. English-speaking adults often use children’s books tohelp them learn Spanish. Mizz Rimpau says it is important forchildren to keep the language and traditions of their family. Butshe says it is also important for Americans to learn otherlanguages.
Oscar-Nominated Songs
HOST:
People who make movies will be honored Sunday in Los Angeles,California. That is when the American Academy of Motion Picture Artsand Sciences presents its yearly awards, the Oscars. The movieindustry will honor the best work of directors, actors, technicalexperts and songwriters. Phoebe Zimmermann tells us about thenominations for best song.
ANNCR:
Five songs written for movies have been nominated for the AcademyAward for best original song. One is from the movie “Frida”. CaetanoVeloso and Lila Downs sing “Burn It Blue.”
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Another song nominated for an Oscar this year is “Father andDaughter” from the movie “The Wild Thornberrys.” A third nominatedsong is from the movie “Gangs of New York.” The group U-2 sings”Hands That Built America.”
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The fourth nominated song is called “Lose Yourself” from themovie “Eight Mile.” We leave you with the final song nominated asbest original song from a movie. It is from the movie “Chicago.”Renee Zellwegger and Catherine Zeta-Jones sing “I Move On.”
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HOST:
This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Joinus again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine inSpecial English.
Remember to write us with your questions about American life. Wewill try to answer them on future programs. Listeners whosequestions are chosen will receive a gift.
Send your questions to American Mosaic, VOA Special English,Washington, D.C. two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. Our e-mail addressis mosaic at v-o-a news dot com. Please include your name andmailing address.
This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Karen Leggett andNancy Steinbach. And our producer was Caty Weaver.