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I'm Maria Hinojosa. This time on Latino USA, perspectives on the confirmation of John Ashcroft as the new U.S. Attorney General.

In advance of President Bush's first foreign trip to Mexico later this month, Secretary of State Colin Powell recently met with his Mexican counterpart.

The changes in the U.S.-Mexico relationship may be more attitude than policy. Immigration was a big focus in talks between Secretary of State Colin Powell and Mexico's Foreign Minister Jorge Castaneda.

Castaneda says Mexico wants to fight violence along the U.S.-Mexican border. He believes the problem can be minimized with a guest worker program to allow Mexicans to temporarily work for American businesses. Powell agreed immigrant safety is a top priority.

On the issue of Cuba, Powell says the U.S. will maintain sanctions against the Communist Island. Castaneda criticized that U.S. policy as counterproductive. He says Mexico intends to improve its ties with Cuba. These are among several issues expected to dominate discussions between Presidents Bush and Vicente Fox in Mexico February 16.

If statistical methods had been used to make up for the differential undercount, Latino and other minority communities would have had additional opportunities in at least 40 different districts to elect the candidates of their choice.

President Bush has stayed clear of the headcount versus sampling debate, but may finally show his hand when he names a replacement for Kenneth Pruitt, Census Director under the Clinton administration. Bush has agreed to meet with Democrats during their caucus retreat in early February to discuss this and other issues.

After a grueling debate regarding his fitness to head the Justice Department, John Ashcroft has become the nation's new Attorney General. Among the estimated 200 organizations which opposed his confirmation were a number of leading Hispanic groups.

Latino USA's Maria Martin spoke to Latinos with varied perspectives on the Ashcroft nomination and has this report.

Never in this nation's recent history had Latino organizations been so vocal in opposing a president's nomination to the cabinet. Coming together under the banner of the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda to oppose John Ashcroft had been such organizations as the National Council of La Raza, the League of United Latin American Citizens, LULAC, and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, MALDEF.

Most of the attention has focused on his opposing an African American nominee and an openly gay nominee as well as an Asian American nominee. But it has been less publicized that he also has opposed well-qualified Latino nominees including Judge Sonia Sotomayor as well as Richard Paez who also eventually did get confirmed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Raul Izaguirre of the National Council of La Raza had made the case that Ashcroft's record on issues such as racial profiling, he voted against keeping statistics on it, showed, in Yzaguirre's words, a consistent, aggressive, even hostile opposition to the fundamental civil rights of Hispanic Americans.

It's important for people to understand that this is one of many nominations we're going to have to deal with and it sets a very important tone. It sends an extremely important message to President Bush about future appointments at the INS and the associate attorney general positions in the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice. They're only going to want so many fights. So this is a very, very important battle for a variety of reasons.

I understand they have some concerns about certain things that Ashcroft might have, some positions he might have taken 15, 20 years ago.

Lupe Saldana, who served on the Bush-Cheney transition team, says those Latinos who have concerns about the new attorney general really have nothing to worry about.

First of all, he's going to be under the leadership of George W. Bush, number one. And number two is that Ashcroft is a very, he's an honorable person, you know. He's a person of high integrity and character. We must not forget that. That's very important to us Hispanics, you know, because I think that he, I think, represents very much the character, you know, Hispanics, you know. And I think that, you know, I think he's more in step, you know, with the majority of Hispanics, you know, than not, you know.

Tony Ramirez holds a favorable view. About 15 years ago, he says, when Ashcroft was Missouri's governor, he was responsive to the concerns of the state's then small Latino community.

When we asked for the celebration of the Hispanic Heritage Month, there would always be something coming from the governor's office. In the city of St. Louis, there was an effort to build a dome stadium here. We wanted to make certain that Hispanic businesses were included, and we were included at these meetings. That was something that I remember that Governor Ashcroft did in regard to the Hispanic community.

I'm aghast. This person can be actually the leading force in our country. Just, it just keeps me from sleeping.

Dr. Cristina Lindal of Columbia, Missouri, is a university employee, the host of the radio program La Hora Latina, and a self-described Hispanic advocate.

He stands on his morals and his religious beliefs, and he says, for example, that here in Missouri, you know, we've had towns around us like Boonville, Missouri, that has been wanting to have gambling boats open, you know, for, and he has definitely been instrumental in making that an impasse and divisive. He's on grounds of morality, but yet he's pro-tobacco. I mean, just, the man makes absolutely no sense. You know, he's against gun control. He's against the right to choose.

For his opponents, John Ashcroft's confirmation by the U.S. Senate indicates how little representation minorities have in that upper body of the Congress. Again, Marisa de Mayo of MALDEF.

We do not have any Latino senators. We also do not have any African American senators. It just goes to point out that we still lack a lot of political power in this society.

The Department of Justice, which regulates immigration through the INS, as well as legislation such as the Voting Rights Act, is especially important to Latinos. Angelo Falcón of the Institute for Puerto Rican Policy says that now that Ashcroft has been confirmed, Latinos need to mobilize. To dispel the idea held by many Republicans, the Latino organizations represent fringe, liberal interests.

We get these contradictory kinds of things that basically the administration, the new administration is talking about reaching out to the Latino community. On the other hand, many of our leaders are said to be fringe people who really don't represent anybody. And I think what happens with this Ashcroft nomination is just kind of, it becomes the first kind of round of battles that hopefully clarify a lot of these issues and stake out different positions. So that people don't get lulled into believing that this administration is going to be any better for the Latino community than any other administration. So I think we need to stay critical as a community on these things. I think we have to be ready to mobilize and ready to really start exercising our growing political clout.

After John Ashcroft's confirmation by a 58 to 42 vote in the U.S. Senate, El Paso Congressman Silvestre Reyes, chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, issued a statement declaring his readiness to work with the new attorney general. I take Mr. Ashcroft at his word and hope that he will enforce the law of the land fairly, judiciously and equitably.

In his documentary series Jazz, Ken Burns looks into the history of the music as a way to look into the history of the country, especially the issue of race. It is a great idea, but in Jazz, Burns has construed the art form and the society that created it almost completely in terms of black and white.

Back in the late 1930s, the great Jerry Roll Morton said, quote, "If you can't manage to put pages in Spanish in your tunes, you'll never get the right seasoning for jazz." But in Burns' Jazz, there is no mention of historic Latin Jazz figures such as saxophonist and bandleader Mario Bauza, timbalero Tito Puente, or arranger and composer Arturo Chico O'Farrill. And when he looks to the future, Burns does not see fit to mention young artists such as Panamanian pianist Danilo Perez or Puerto Rican saxophonist David Sanchez.

These are not small-time Latin Jazz players working obscurely in some stylistic ghetto, but superior musicians who happen to be Latinos, and who, for the past decade, have been developing a pan-Latin view of Jazz that might very well be the music's future. Early on in Jazz, trumpetist Wynton Marsalis, who was also a crucial advisor to the series, speaks about how, quote, "the real power of jazz is that a group of people can come together and negotiate their agendas with each other." That in Jazz is a prime example of such negotiation. Here is a music drawn from several cultures and traditions, played by groups made up of musicians with often profoundly different backgrounds, and more. Here is a music with all deep roots, embracing the new world. A music rich with memories, but looking for a future unburdened by history. A music street-wise and brash, but also touchingly familiar with the past. Here is a music with all deep roots, embracing the new world. It is a soundtrack for a nation of immigrants. But you won't hear any of it in Jazz, and that's too bad. By perpetuating the notion of a United States and an American culture drawn only from two races, Jazz doesn't just fail Latinos or Latin music fans. It fails us all.

No, I don't feel like a burden. I don't feel loaded by what I have written. I mean, for me, you know, I feel happy about it. I mean, it's just a proof that I'm not... Remember, I think it was Jean-Paul Sartre who said once that writing is a useless passion. And I think it's a quite useful passion as soon as it allows you to be the friend of so many people. I mean, that's the way I feel it. I write like embracing others. So for me, it's not a burden at all.