San
Antonio relishes Spain

SAN ANTONIO -- In San Antonio, a city where architecture, art and
food reflect the influences of its neighbor to the south, Spaniards
dominated this past week as Texas' second-largest city celebrated
the San Antonio New World Wine and Food Festival.
"The Reign of Spain" (Nov. 5-12) paid tribute to the
hottest trend in cuisine, effectively acknowledging that Spain has
moved to the head of the table.
While plenty of Tex-Mex dishes could be found at events, ticket
holders at vintner dinners and open-air tastings crowded around
stations belonging to visiting chefs, vintners and merchants from
Spain.
Madrid -
Bulgarian, Romanian migrants to become active citizens
The president of the Madrid Municipality, Esperanza Aguirre, called
on the 180,000 Bulgarian and Romanian migrants, who live in the
area to take part in shaping Madrid's future as EU citizens.
Aguirre announced that a Hispanic-Bulgarian-Romanian Center will
soon open in Spain's capital during a celebration under the motto
"Romania and Bulgaria: new opportunities for building Europe."
Immigrants
establish Latin Kings as a cultural association in Spain
BARCELONA, Spain. Spain's biggest cities, riding an economic boom,
were eager for immigrant workers to build roads, clean offices and
wash dishes at their tourist hotels. No one bargained that the notorious
Latin Kings would be among the new arrivals.
City
workers first spotted the street gang's graffiti in 2002. Police
began inquiring when a school reported that an immigrant teen, who
claimed to fear the gang, returned to Ecuador in 2003. Then Anna
Collado, a youth center director from a poor neighborhood, was startled
last year to see youths, who had nicely asked to use a meeting room,
turn up flipping odd hand signals and chanting "Love to the
King."
"We're not surprised by a lot," Collado said dryly. "But
this was strange. This was not usual."
Months later, Barcelona has taken on gang life in a way that is
anything but conventional. A group of Latin Kings has been christened
a cultural association the kind of recognition given to groups like
the Boy Scouts in an effort to integrate foreigners and, more importantly,
stifle criminal elements at a time of record immigration.
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