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The Communicator
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| Region 8 member works to
empower newcomers to USA Immigrants’ values shape life of public service By SHERRY HALBROOK A steward in PEF Division 177 at the state Transportation Department (DOT) in Albany, Gustavo (Gus) Santos is a minority business specialist 1, which means that he spends his days reviewing state transportation contracts to ensure the rights of businesses owned by women and minorities to compete for the state and federally funded work are protected. When he leaves his state job at the end of the day, Santos goes right on working to protect the rights and advance the cause of minorities, especially immigrants who have come to the US looking for a chance to take root, grow and flourish. Santos is president of the Capital District Chapter of the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA), a group he helped to found less than a year ago because “I wanted to work with a grassroots organization.” Familiar struggle “Basically, it’s about empowering people who might not have the opportunity to succeed,” Santos says of the long list of community activities in which he invests his life. “Being an immigrant myself, I certainly understand what it’s like for them. I still have relatives and friends who are in that position. My goal has always been to make their lives easier.” At the age of 10, Santos and a younger brother left Honduras to join their parents and two brothers in New York City. He spoke no English when he arrived. Adjusting to the sudden, dramatic change in his life “was a challenge,” he recalls. “It was not easy.” Nevertheless, Santos admits he was “an excellent student” who went on to college at the state University of NY in Albany because “I wanted to major in political science. I had seen what government could do for people, and I decided helping people was my goal.” After graduation from SUNY, he went to work as a program director in charge of outreach to the Hispanic community for Catholic Family Charities in Albany. In 1989, he took a job with the state Department of Social Services as assistant to the director for Medicaid Assistance. And in 1992, he transferred to his present position at DOT. Nurturing the grassroots His concern for others and his interest in government have led him to take on many responsibilities in PEF Division 177, including those of steward, delegate to the PEF convention delegate to the Capital District Area Labor Federation, and chair of the division’s elections committee. He’s also a member of PEF Region 8’s Political Action Committee and its Civil Service Committee. He’s a PEF political action liaison (PAL), chair of the Hispanic Committee of PEF and a member of the Capital District Chapter of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists. As LCLAA president, Santos is rallying local support for a nationwide post-card campaign to pressure President George Bush into providing proper documentation to undocumented immigrants already living and working in the US. It’s the direction Bush’s policy on immigration was headed before the terrorist attacks of last fall, Santos says, and it makes more sense than ever now to ensure all immigrants are properly documented. “Hard-working, tax-paying immigrants should not have to live in fear of arrest and deportation for simply going to work and contributing to America’s economy,” Santos told reporters at an April news conference held in Albany to announce the post-card campaign. More than half of all New York City residents are foreign born, and the casualties at the World Trade Center reflect that. “A lot of undocumented immigrants died on September 11, and their families are probably going through considerable hardship,” Santos says. His parents’ values Santos says, his childhood transition from Honduras to Manhattan combined with the struggles his parents faced and the values, courage, patience and integrity they brought to them have formed his own character and sense of mission. “My father worked for Ford Motor Co. in New Jersey,” he says. And although his family had left Honduras, they never forgot “the custom of always helping your relatives and neighbors.” “I couldn’t feel good about myself without helping someone in need. Both my father and mother were very giving people and helped instill those values in me,” Santos says. “I need to give something back — transfer on to others some of my parents’ values and respect for other human beings. If it means I have to give up a few nights a week, I don’t mind. I feel I’m doing something for humanity.” |
