About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 9, 2018)
4D Sunday, December 9, 2018 The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com VIEWPOINT Bush: Distinguished servant, loyal friend I never had the honor of meeting George H.W. Bush, but I was lucky enough to meet one of his oldest and dearest friends. That man’s name was Don Gaylien. Bush was a businessman, congressman, CIA director, U.S. ambassador to China, vice president, and the 41st president of the United States. When I met Gaylien, he was a 75-year-old Mexi can-American retired postal worker in Phoenix living on a pension and Social Security. Bush grew up in Con necticut as the son of a U.S. senator and attended the prestigious Phillips Acad emy. Gaylien started high school in bare feet, because his family couldn’t afford shoes. He remembered that movie theaters in Phoenix had signs in the front win dow that read: “Absolutely no Mexicans or Negroes.” We already know part of the story. Bush enlisted and became one of the youngest RUBEN NAVARRETTE ruben@rubennavarrette.com bomber pilots in the Navy. He was assigned to the USS San Jacinto, and completed about 50 successful bomb ing missions before he was shot down over the Pacific Ocean in September 1944. He parachuted into the water, and he made his way to a life raft. He drifted for hours, and he wasn’t sure if he’d survive. Indeed, his two crew members did not. At this point in his life, Bush was just 20. Fast forward 55 years. It’s April 1999, and I’m a metro columnist working at the Arizona Republic in Phoe nix. In the world of politics, two things seemed certain at the time: Texas Gov. George W. Bush was going to run for the Republican nomination for president the following year; and Ari zona Sen. John McCain was going to be running right alongside him. My editor sent me to follow up on a rumor that George Bush had qui etly crept into town, into McCain territory, for a high-priced fundraiser at a swanky hotel. I got to the hotel and tried to enter the building for a closer look. But I was turned away by Secret Service agents. Secret Service? For the governor of Texas? George Bush was in town alright — but it was George H.W. Bush. A proud father, and former president, had come to the desert to raise money for his son’s upcom ing presidential bid. Gaylien was there that day, too. He had been invited to the fundraiser by an old war buddy who had left a comped ticket with his MARY ALTAFFER I Associated Press “The Birthday Book/Las Mananitas” lift-the-flap book by Susie Jaramillo is shown. BOOKS ■ Continued from 1D Friends Chiara Arroyo and Celene Nava rette were on the book fair committee of their children’s bilingual school in Los Ange les when they noticed the spotty Spanish-lan- guage selection. They persuaded Mexican publishers to send some titles, set up two tables and quickly sold out. They founded their business five years ago, selling books at other school fairs and then online. By 2015, they had opened La Libreria, a store in central Los Angeles and nationwide distributor of books from Latin America and Spain. U.S. sales of children’s Spanish-language books rose 6 percent over the past year to 1.5 million units, according to NDP BookScan. Overall Spanish-language books jumped 15 percent. But that still represents less than 1 percent of the overall book market in a country with more than 41 million Spanish speakers. Major publishers and distributors have pursued the Spanish-language market for years with mixed results. Some closed or downsized Spanish-language imprints after sales fell short of expectations during the Great Recession, and as the industry struggled to adjust to the Amazon era that squeezed traditional booksellers. In an internet-driven age of fractured con sumer markets, Jaramillo and Santamaria Wolf said strategic partnerships have been key, particularly with brands and retailers like Target, which considers Hispanic moth ers a key customer base. Pam Kaufman, president of global con sumer products at Viacom/Nickelodeon, said the company had been looking for a baby brand when she was introduced to Canticos at an industry conference. When she showed the videos to her Hispanic col leagues, some teared up. “I thought, OK, we have something here,” Kaufman said. “We are excited about it because it is authentic.” Nickelodeon, which also added a Spanish- language hub to its video subscription service NOGGIN in the spring, is planning a line of Canticos toys, clothing and decor for next year. With sales picking up, major players in the traditional book industry are expanding their Spanish-language business. HarperCollins launched a new Spanish-language division in 2015. Chicago-based distributor IPG, already a key distributor of Spanish-language books, added two publishers from Spain and one from Mexico to its list in November. Arroyo and Navarette, owners of La Libre ria, said the rise of dual-language programs in schools is driving interest in children’s books originally written in Spanish. The trouble is keeping up with demand. Latin American and Spanish publishers tend to have printing cycles that are too slow and small for the U.S. consumer market. Often, by the time a school orders a title, the books will have sold out in the original country, Arroyo said. In the United States, a growing number of Hispanic authors are pushing for Spanish translations of their books or weaving the language into stories with bilingual themes. Juana Martinez-Leal wrote both the Span ish and English versions of her award-win ning “Alma and How She Got Her Name” and insisted on a publisher that would release them simultaneously, said her agent, Stefanie Sanchez Von Borstel. Of the seven publishers who bid on the book, only two agreed. Candlewick Press released the two editions in April, and the English version is in its second printing. Von Borstel said sales of the Spanish edition have been a little slower, partly because bilingual and Spanish-language books face a tough battle for shelf space. Rodriguez and Stein understand that prob lem well. Once, they were once stunned to find Lil’ Libros — an American series — upstairs in the “foreign section” of an Oregon bookstore. Stein scooped them all up and marched them downstairs to the children’s section herself. HAAS ■ Continued from 3D Fifty-eight nations are considered “partly free” and 49 as “not free.” Airbnb conducts business in more than 190 countries so, by definition, it offers rentals in some of the world’s most abusive places. Want to work for Airbnb? Check out its office in Bei jing, the capital of China, where Xi Jinping is brutally “re-educating” Uighur Muslims in concentration camps. Want a rental in one of Airbnb’s busier cities? Try Istanbul, showcase city of Turkey, where Recep Erdogan jails opponents and journalists under an increas ingly autocratic rule. What’s Airbnb’s real motive? Well, the company announced its policy a day before Human Rights Watch was to report on its West Bank listings. It also was reportedly on a blacklist of companies operating in Israeli settlements that the U.N. Human Rights Council plans to issue. So, to protect its brand, Airbnb is imposing a singular and wholly baseless standard on Israeli settlements in the West Bank. How inspiring! Lawrence J. Haas, former communications director for Vice President Al Gore, is a Senior Fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council. Readers may write him at AFPC, 55 W. 12th Avenue, 509 C St. NE, Washington, DC 20002. QUIGLEY ■ Continued from 3D The treaty establishing the International Criminal Court at the Hague lists various acts that constitute war crimes. The act of trans ferring civilians into occupied territory is on the list. The International Criminal Court’s pros ecutor in fact is currently collecting evidence with a view to leveling indictments against persons, presumably Israeli officials, for the West Bank settlements. At the Hague court, criminal liability falls not only on direct perpetrators of war crimes, but on accomplices as well. This meant that Airbnb executives were in jeopardy for being complicit with the Israeli officials who promote settlements. Airbnb, by listing settlement properties as sites for housing, was benefiting financially and was helping Israel’s settlers financially, thereby solidifying the settlements. Airbnb understandably does not want its executives to have to worry about going to jail. Israel has responded to Airbnb with threats to hurt its business elsewhere. Israel would do better to take a hard look at its own behavior. A graduate of Harvard University’s Law School, John B. Quigley is a distinguished professor of law at Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law. Readers may write him at Moritz, 55 W. 12th St., Columbus, OH 43210. name on it. I noticed him as he came out of the hotel, this dark- skinned elderly man in a simple suit. I approached him and asked if he had been at the fundraiser. He smiled and said yes. I asked how he had found himself there, and he explained that former President Bush was his friend and that, in fact, the two had been friends for more than a half-century. I had to hear more. So I invited the man to lunch. There, he told me his story. Gaylien was in Bush’s life, and vice versa, because the Phoenix native was also present that fateful day dur ing World War II. Like Bush, Gaylien served aboard the USS San Jacinto from 1943 to 1944. And like Bush, Gaylien flew bombing missions as part of the VT-51 torpedo squadron. Bush was a pilot; Gaylien was a radio man and gunner who received the Distinguished Flying Cross. When Bush was shot down, Gaylien was one of the radio operators who called in a submarine rescue. The two had been friends ever since. After World War II ended, Bush came home and started his climb. Gaylien came home and confronted a familiar mountain. “Here we were, coming back from the war, and we were still discriminated against,” Gaylien told me with tears in his eyes. He and other Latino vet erans set out to change that, and they did. For Latinos, that’s our version of the Greatest Gen eration — defeating evil in Asia and Europe, then doing the same here at home. Bush never forgot about Gaylien. Over the years, he invited his old friend to special events like the 1988 presidential inauguration and reunions of the VT-51. It’s a great story. To back it all up, Gaylien brought to our lunch a scrapbook full of photos. I’ll never forget the one of a couple of baby faced Navy flyers, grinning aboard an aircraft carrier in the Pacific with no clue about what the future held for either of them. It has been noted that George H.W. Bush cher ished his friends. You had better believe it. Ruben Navarrette’s email address is ruben@ rubennavarrette.com. His daily podcast, “Navarrette Nation,” is available through every podcast app. SUNDAY CARTOON GALLERY WALT HANDELSMAN I Tribune News Service DANA SUMMERS I Tribune News Service VO "FOREVER" STAMPS REALLY LAST EOREVfcR?/ mi, for THE LIFE O? T\\E POST OFFICE, \ OR THE LIFE op the yimj. \ r~ .WHICHEVER CPtm FIRST. \ DAN WASSERMAN I Tribune News Service LOOK! UP iSTMB SKY! its f\ iTsTARiFf * ☆ iTS A o J a ga aid □ ID □ ■B nnn PHIL HANDS I Tribune News Service Today’s TV news shows ■ ABC’s “This Week” — White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow; Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Chris Murphy, D-Conn. ■ NBC’s “Meet the Press” — To be announced. ■ CBS’ “Face the Nation” — Rubio; Sen. John Thune, R-S.D.; Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif.; U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer; Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund. ■ CNN’s “State of the Union” — Rubio; Reps. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., and Adam Kinzinger, R-lll. ■ “Fox News Sunday” — Kudlow; Sen. Angus King, l-Maine. Associated Press
