LatinaLista — A tweet making its way through the Twittersphere over the last few days is one with a simple message: “Don’t be a DIC.” The double-meaning is supposed to startle the reader into finding out more — something that the issue the tweet is about has failed to do among a majority of Americans.…
Video Showcase
Video: College entrepreneur has big idea on how to “close loop” in creating bigger landfills
Video: Increasing the minimum wage — a debate that doesn’t add up
Viernes Video: Al Jazeera English creates reality show thrusting ordinary Americans into the heart and death of undocumented immigration
Intrn’l Video: Inspirational documentary about blind Brazilian ballerinas illustrates “beauty of perseverance”
Video: First female Asian comic editor dispels myth of how being different sucks
Video: Focusing a lens on Venezuela’s out of control spiral
Video: Young New Jersey Latina ‘slams’ ecology and captures state Poetry Out Loud championship
Intrn’l Video: Mexican film highlights the inner strength of women
Video: Remembering that no wave of immigrants had an easy welcome
Viernes Video: Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal delves into U.S. immigration issue in search of “Dayani Cristal”
Intrn’l Video: Showcasing the creative minds of Bolivia’s design world
Video: Dark money already casting a pall over mid-term elections
Palabra Final
Immigrant advocates launch national campaign highlighting Obama administration’s deportation record
Community Stories
The Undocumented Race to File U.S. Taxes
By Alexandra Garretón Mission Local On the Monday before taxes are due almost every seat in the waiting room at the Mission Economic Development Agency’s (MEDA) Free Tax Preparation Program was filled. As workers bustled around carrying big folders and envelopes in their hands, a group of tax preparers debated bringing another person to help.…
BlogBeat
Hispanics Building Ladders of Opportunity for Economic Development
By Wendy Rivera-Aguilar Broadband & Social Justice Recently, the Washingtonian highlighted extraordinary success stories of some of the most influential Hispanic achievers of our time. Among the Latino faces featured on the cover was Andres W. Lopez. A Harvard Law graduate and trial attorney from Puerto Rico who is often described as having a “steamrolling…
Life Issues
New education report underscores the still existing void of Latino degree-holders
LatinaLista — The face of today’s public schools, in the majority of states, is a student of color. In the U.S., 22 percent of the K-12 population is Latino. Yet, it can’t be repeated often enough that too few Latinos ever make that transition from mandatory schooling to higher education. In fact: For the U.S.…
New study finds low-income Latino parents encourage obesity behaviors in their children beginning in infancy
LatinaLista — One of the main reasons most often cited as to why school-age children huff and puff their way across the playground is because they’re not getting enough exercise. Experts and healthcare providers agree that this kind of behavior, if not corrected, can only lead to a fat adulthood. Yet, a new study by the…
Viernes Video: One son’s tribute to his mother’s legacy of taking a stand against a “Stolen Education”
LatinaLista — The old saying — “history is written by the victors” — is never more true than when it comes to Latino U.S. history. Unless an egregious incident involving Latinos reached a U.S. court, chances are no one heard about it. Sometimes not even a victory in court was enough to warrant a historical…
Video: Fifty years after the March on Washington, some question if racism still exists in the U.S.A.
LatinaLista — Every year on March 21, the world celebrates the International Day of the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. Yet, as the anniversary observance of the March on Washington illustrates there is a need to battle racial discrimination more than just one day. But like in the 1960s, challenges persist. The challenge lies in that…
New education report underscores the still existing void of Latino degree-holders
LatinaLista — The face of today’s public schools, in the majority of states, is a student of color. In the U.S., 22 percent of the K-12 population is Latino. Yet, it can’t be repeated often enough that too few Latinos ever make that transition from mandatory schooling to higher education. In fact: For the U.S.…
Multi-million dollar scholarship movement launches granting “The Dream” to more DREAMers
Video: Puerto Rican astrophysicist set to inspire next generation to reach for the stars with new science show
Video: Education expert credits ‘racist logic’ in public schools acting as pipelines to prison for some students
Video: Futurist Juan Enriquez asks viewers to consider seeing social media as the new tattoo
LatinaLista — What does big data, tattoos and immortality have in common? They are the elements of an eye-opening TEDx talk delivered by Futurist Juan Enriquez. Enriquez is used to thinking about the broader picture and in this particular talk he challenges listeners to take a fresh look at today’s social media, its capabilities and…
Deepening crisis in Monarch butterfly population has one researcher calling on states to help in special way
LatinaLista — The Monarch butterfly has long been a symbol of international migration that underscores how borders, a human invention, has no bearing on the natural order of life. Yet, what does have an impact is something that both man and nature have had a hand in creating — climate change, which is only intensifying…
Video: College entrepreneur has big idea on how to “close loop” in creating bigger landfills
LatinaLista — Holly Chan is a graduate of Purdue University and an up-and-coming entrepreneur. But if Chan has her way, other businesses that like her idea would steal it. To Chan, it wouldn’t be thievery but validation that she is creating change in a sector of industry that is contributing 152 billion pounds of containers…
Seven Boyle Heights Latina teens become empowered creating photo exhibit around saintly icon
LatinaLista — Visit any Mexican American community or family home and chances are there is a statue or portrait of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the patron saint of Catholic Mexicans. In fact, Our Lady of Guadalupe has reached such iconic status that her image has gone from church pedestals and home altars to pop art, t-shirts,…
Intrn’l Video: Latino filmmaker exposes universal challenge — balancing love for family with need to provide
LatinaLista — The sea has a long history with Hollywood. Sometimes used as merely a backdrop, other times as the nemesis or a confidante, the sea is a character unto itself that can mirror the highs and lows of human characters. It’s the sea, once again, that figures in a short film titled Contra El…
Hitting the Ground Running: The story of Clemente Rodriguez
By Virginia Brooks LatinaLista It’s before dawn and Clemente Rodriguez hits the ground running. He pulls on his work clothes and heads out to meet his power line crew somewhere in East Texas to start a 10-hour day of demanding and sometimes dangerous work. Clemente is a lineman, and he spends much of his days…
Latino youth remain high-risk for HIV/AIDS infections
LatinaLista — A recent CDC report revealing that Latina teens have the highest birthrates before the age of 18 appears to underscore a troubling trend among sexually active Latino teens — lack of practicing safe sex. It’s a revelation further supported by the findings of Thursday’s National Youth HIV & AIDS Awareness Day. The CDC…
Intrn’l Video: Rural Colombian town fights Canadian gold mining company for survival
LatinaLista — Indigenous and rural people throughout the Americas have long been under constant threat of attack against their way of life since the days of the Spanish conquistadores. What used to be outright murder and enslavement has evolved into displacing them or endangering their health when seizing their lands for drilling, mining or deforestation.…
Video: Dark money already casting a pall over mid-term elections
LatinaLista — In 2010, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Citizens United in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission which said “that the First Amendment prohibits the government from restricting political independent expenditures by corporations, associations, or labor unions.” Since that ruling, more money to influence politicians and political election outcomes as been spent…
Latina inventor puts a new ‘edge’ to the traditional favorite empanada
By Juan Miret LatinaLista Who would have thought that the delicious Latin American – okay, and Spanish too! – turnovers, better known as empanadas, filled with meat, seafood, vegetables, cheeses and a never-ending list of ingredientes could be reinvented? And I am not talking about changing the frying or baking of this popular Latino street…
Education expert says Latino parents must create mandate for their children to succeed in school
By Maria de Lourdes Perez Ramírez LatinaLista María and Luis Durán do not speak a word in English nor have a formal education. Yet, the couple who came to the US from El Salvador in 1989 was the critical element in their two children’s educational success. Success that happens because of what Mariela Dabbah, a…
New report finds Latino retirees largest group without savings and facing bleakest future
LatinaLista — Headlines always seem to scream about the dire future of Latino children. Yet, thanks to a new study, we now know that the future of Latino retirees isn’t any better. Race and Retirement Insecurity in the United States paints a chilling picture of what awaits Latino Baby Boomers. According to the study, Latino retirees…
Intrn’l Video: Colombian comedy underscores there’s more than one sueño in playing futbol
LatinaLista — For those futbol lovers in South America for whom playing in the World Cup is a sueño, it always begins with bolaetrapo (Rag Ball). Director Guillermo Iván’s Colombian comedy “Bolaetrapo” sets the stage for a story about one player named Nutria and his unfortunate accident during a final match of the bolaetrapo world…
Intrn’l Video: Mexican film highlights the inner strength of women
LatinaLista — As one viewer wrote on the YouTube page of the film Amazing Catfish: “Finally, a Mexican movie that is not about drug cartels or predictable and stupid jokes. I really wanna see this.” The Mexican-made film, with English subtitles, has been garnering awards since its release in Mexico. Premiering recently at the San…
New CDC report shows Latinas lead way in teen pregnancies before age 18
LatinaLista — The Center for Disease Control’s latest report on teen pregnancy rates in the United States has the usual good news and bad news. The good news is that the rate of teen births is continuing to decline — it’s at the lowest level ever recorded over the last 20 years. The bad news…
Global Views
Mexico: The fight to end kidnapping
By Sergio Ramos Infosurhoy.com MEXICO CITY – Isabel Miranda de Wallace thought her son’s life was saved when she paid a US$114,642 ransom demanded by the three kidnappers who took Hugo Alberto Wallace Miranda, 33, in the nation’s capital on July 11, 2005. But she never saw him again. Nearly nine years later, de Wallace…
Team of Spanish astronomers to deliver bilingual online coverage of lunar eclipse from ancient Inca site
“BBoy for Life” documentary shows a different side to Guatemala´s ghettos
World Cup: Interpol helps Brazilian authorities prevent violent soccer fans interfering with world soccer’s largest event
Causes
Video: Increasing the minimum wage — a debate that doesn’t add up
LatinaLista — The issue of what is a fair wage has garnered increasing debate with the House of Representatives’ opposition to federally increase the minimum wage. This legislative void has spurred more states to take up the cause and pass their own minimum wage increases. In this featured video, journalist Bill Moyers interviews activist Saru…
Culture
Guest Voz: World War II generation of Mexican-Americans made huge strides in civil rights movement
By Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez LatinaLista For the Mexican-American World War II generation, the call for action arrived at different times: In Corpus Christi, physician Hector P. Garcia, recovering from a serious kidney ailment in 1947, listened to Spanish-language radio as veterans complained they were refused veterans services, and grew incensed. Enough. San Antonio attorney Pete Tijerina…
Guest Voz
Guest Voz: World War II generation of Mexican-Americans made huge strides in civil rights movement
By Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez LatinaLista For the Mexican-American World War II generation, the call for action arrived at different times: In Corpus Christi, physician Hector P. Garcia, recovering from a serious kidney ailment in 1947, listened to Spanish-language radio as veterans complained they were refused veterans services, and grew incensed. Enough. San Antonio attorney Pete Tijerina…