Politics

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following piece first appeared at Latin America Is a Country. Both the site and the author have given us permission to repost the piece here. This past March, the murder rate in El Salvador soared to levels not seen in a decade. In just one month, some 481 people were murdered across the […]

Thirty-five years ago Rubén Berríos, the president of the Independence Party of Puerto Rico (PIP), made a very dramatic speech. He informed the world that both of the major parties in Puerto Rico were a complete fraud. The reason was very simple: both of them defined their candidates, and trolled for votes, and structured their […]

Phoenix, Arizona. Pale blue sky blushes at sunset. The heat still feels just warm on the skin this time of year. Food trucks serve up some of the best tacos this side of the border. It‘s been five years since SB1070 was signed into law. Governor Jan Brewer and state Senator Russell Pearce are out […]

As you know, we like to check out what’s new in Neo-Nativism, so we subscribe to the newsletters of several so-called “Patriot” groups. Last night we got this email from a Maryland group with the following subject line, “Can It Get Any Worse?” You can read more about the context of the email here and […]

A few weeks ago, I was turned on to poetry collection Detrás del Acero (Editorial Trance 2015) by Joseph Carvalko. His book examines life in 20th century America, placing special emphasis on the working class and the evolving relationship racial minorities have had with the greater society over that time. The book is both socially […]

Last week, my relatively progressive news feeds and media sources were (and continue to be) filled with unchecked exclamation over Hillary Clinton’s news. Though it goes without saying that I share in the understated joy of other women breaking glass ceilings, I am not ready to cheer. The rush to rejoice over Hillary Clinton’s position […]

During his appearance on a Sunday morning political program last weekend, Senator Marco Rubio insisted that, should President Obama somehow succeed in closing the U.S. military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and should Senator Rubio somehow win the presidency in 2016, he would “absolutely” reopen it. “We no longer—on an ongoing basis—detain terrorists, and so […]

Editor’s Note: A previous version of this piece appeared on the author’s blog. Harry has since expanded on it, given recent news pieces. In addition, all photos listed here are part of the public domain. According to the latest articles on Puerto Rico making the rounds in the U.S. mainstream media in the last months, Puerto […]

Dear Senator Marco Rubio, I must say that much of your announcement yesterday resonated with me. I saw a lot of myself in you. I also reminisce on the keys dangling outside the door at midnight when my father got back from work. What did you say about el “sueño americano”? I know it well. […]

This weekend we heard a story discussing the systematic “exporting” of drug addicts from many Puerto Rican municipalities to Chicago. We were disturbed both by the policy and by the way in which the story was framed in the pieces we heard. The stories we heard emphasized a corruption scheme in which Puerto Rican municipal […]

Last month, I was a guest on Hot 97 FM to discuss race relations and law enforcement with other invited guests. When the rest of the people in the discussion found out that I was a registered Republican, they were floored. My way of thinking, my views and the fact that I went on this […]

A week after I completed AIT (job-training school you go to after Basic Training), I found myself on a bus listening to three senior NCOs, each one close to retirement, having what seemed to me at the time to be a peculiar and surprising conversation: “I hate when people say we fight for freedom. I […]

This came from Mediaite. It explains itself. Just watch. Wait, people with Castro as a last name are not only Cuban?

Seven months have passed since the Mexican government said that there were no bodies: no bones, no teeth, no nothing. All 43 of them were burned up in a pile of trash, Attorney General Jesús Murillo Karam reported, and then he began to enumerate what was thrown on top of the bodies —diesel, gasoline, tires, […]

The recent news about the shooting death of Walter Scott in North Charleston, South Carolina, has Latino leaders in Pasco, Washington, wondering why the Pasco Police Department has yet to act on the February shooting of Antonio Zambrano Montes, whose death at the hands of officers was also caught on video. In a release to […]

This is a story about a book and a new friendship. When I first heard that Nelson A. Denis was publishing War Against All Puerto Ricans, and that it would release yesterday (already topping the Amazon charts in Caribbean History and Caribbean & Latin American Politics categories), to say I was intrigued would be selling my emotions short. I […]

Having spent the last 19 years between Prince George’s and Montgomery Counties in Maryland, there has been a noticeable and rapid demographic shift. Prince George’s County is famous for being the location of “Black Flight,” where more affluent African Americans ran away from the corner stores of the District to the cul-de-sacs, golf courses and […]

The following video was posted yesterday by the fabulous @Blabbeando. It shows Hipólito Mejía, President of the Dominican Republic from 2000–2004, talking at an event in New Jersey this month. As @Blabbeando writes: Standing before a campaign flag that promises “equality,” Mejía doesn’t mention same-sex marriage but jokes that his campaign handlers wanted him to […]

Here’s the latest Rebel Report. All about Rafael Edward Cruz.

This week 80 mothers detained with their children in Karnes County, Texas, began a Holy Week hunger and work strike to demand their immediate release. In a letter smuggled out of the facility they write: “[D]uring this [time], no mother will work in the detention center, nor will we send our children to school, not […]

I know I’m still a young man, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen or heard of a debate moderator personally attacking a candidate. If Phil Ponce’s questions were to come from anyone, you’d think they would be Mayor Rahm Emanuel or one of his supporters—and it still would’ve crossed the line. It was arguably […]