Talk about hitting close to home.
I can’t say that I blame state Sen. Chip Rogers (R-Woodstock) for his anger upon learning that a picture of his house and a map of his area appeared in Mundo Hispnico, a Spanish-language weekly owned by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. But the resulting controversy is an example of how cultural and language differences can lead to misunderstanding and false reports.
Rogers is the author of Senate Bill 529, Georgia lawmakers’ sweeping attempt at addressing illegal immigration. The bill won final approval Tuesday and is expected to be signed into law by Gov. Sonny Perdue.
Rogers and Sen. Sam Zamarripa (D-Atlanta) criticized the newspaper’s decision to include Rogers’ personal information, saying it could be used by extremists to target Rogers. In actuality, other than the photograph of Rogers’ home, no personal information was disclosed in the article, which was about the cultural and economic changes in Rogers’ district.
When discussing the story package, editors didn’t think of it in terms of outing where Rogers lives, said Lino Dominguez, the newspaper’s publisher. They believe it was important to give readers a look at the area Rogers represents and to show that Hispanics are a part of that district, he said. The story included quotes from businesspeople in the area about the possible impact of Rogers’ legislation.
“The map was simply an illustration, there was no [home] address,” said Dominguez. “I don’t think we crossed any boundaries.”
Dominguez, a native of Panama who has lived in Georgia for 30 years, said he’s heard from friends that talk radio hosts broadcast his home address as well as the address of Mundo editor Juan Arango.
Arango received four threatening telephone calls at his home. He said Rogers and his supporters overreacted without taking time to have the article translated. Some people concluded that Mundo had published Rogers’ address, he said.
“People reacted to his reaction,” said Arango. A small photograph of the house was shown so readers could see that Rogers lived in an ordinary house, “not a McMansion.” Had he known how people would react to it, he probably wouldn’t have run the photo, he said.
Rogers told Senate colleagues that the AJC had run a photograph of his house on the front page and that Mundo had run a map and picture. He talked about being the target of name-calling and harassment throughout the debate about the bill. It’s true that the AJC ran a partial photograph of Rogers home with a story that highlighted Rogers’ neighborhood and Cherokee County as one of five places that have seen significant growth in the Hispanic population.
“The polls show that a great majority of Georgians want to do something about illegal immigration. We wanted to know what was motivating it,” said state politics editor Charles Gay.
The package included a photograph of an undocumented worker doing construction on the home of one of Rogers’ neighbors. Rogers’ house could be seen in the background but we didn’t identify it as such because we wanted to protect his privacy.
“[Rogers] has talked a lot about the changes in his area, and he’s been the driving force behind this legislation. We wanted to go by his neighborhood and see what he sees every day workers on his street, Hispanic people working at a golf club he’s joined and a wall where workers wait for work that is on the way to his kids’ school.”
Given that context, I can understand the decision of both papers to highlight Woodstock.
Mundo’s mission is to report to the Hispanic community on issues impacting them. The paper, which has published in metro Atlanta since 1979 and was purchased by the AJC two years ago, has a circulation of about 65,000.
Mundo has aggressively covered the immigration legislation, as well as issues such as mortgage fraud. The paper will soon begin an editorial page and is launching Pasos on April 10, a publication aimed at new arrivals.
As Georgians continue to debate illegal immigration, the role Mundo plays in educating and informing Spanish-speaking residents is all the more critical.
