Injustice

It’s not true that Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump only represents the extreme wing or “crazies” of the GOP. As a leader in numerous polls, Trump exemplifies the party’s true colors: xenophobic, mean-spirited and pro-1 percent. Despite how the other GOP presidential candidates or Republican leadership try to distance themselves from his vitriolic language, Trump’s boorish […]

A new partnership between CultureStrike, Mariposas Sin Fronteras and End Family Detention has resulted in the creation of the Visions From the Inside project, where 15 artists interpret letters written by detained migrants at Karnes Detention Center. As the project’s Tumblr site says: By visually illustrating these letters, we aim to bring awareness and a better sense of the realities that […]

En julio de 2015 visité la comunidad kichwa de Sarayaku, en la selva amazónica ecuatoriana. Mis razones eran dos y tenían nombre y apellido. Meses antes, había conocido a Patricia Gualinga Montalvo, dirigente de relaciones exteriores de Sarayaku; y a Eriberto Gualinga Montalvo, hermano suyo, productor documental y representante del departamento de comunicación visual de […]

What do Sonia Sotomayor, Jennifer López, Anthony Romero, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Mario Vázquez and Jon Oliva have in common? These Latinos called Bronx their home. So did Tito Puente, Prince Royce, Willie Colón and many others. I’ll throw in a couple of honorary Latinos such as Edgar Allan Poe, Marian Zazeela, Woody Allen, Neil Simon […]

Via VICE News and the New York Review of Books: In this episode, Alma Guillermoprieto discusses her article “Mexico: The Murder of the Young,” in which she follows the story of 43 students from a teacher’s college in the Mexican state of Guerrero who disappeared last year at the hands of corrupt police and a […]

When many of us see Black faces on Spanish-speaking outlets, our heart rate increases. The left hemisphere of our brains becomes more stimulated. We are in disbelief—a surge of cortisol hormone increases and our rational prefrontal lobes shut down. The vast majority of Latinos in the United States refuse to discuss or even have conversations about […]

In 2010, President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) into law. One of the law’s accomplishments gave low-income families access to affordable health care by expanding Medicaid. The passing of ACA was a momentous occasion for many U.S. citizens, especially those who earn lower wages. Nonetheless, ACA still excludes a large portion of […]

Many in the Latino social media community have been intensely focused on Donald Trump’s and Colin Cowherd’s cultural racism and nativist attacks on our Latino identities. But even the well-intentioned can sometimes be equally harmful. In fact, we as a community need to evaluate the subtle ways that our communities are being undermined everyday. A […]

Late last week, Sandra G. Hassink, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), wrote a letter to Secretary Jeh Johnson of the Department of Homeland Security, stating that even though AAP applauds Johnson’s recent annoucement about policy changes in immigrant family detention centers, the organization “remain[s] concerned that continued detainment of any children and […]

Here is the video of a TEDxClaremontColleges talk I gave this summer. It is based on my writings about this topic. As the video’s ABOUT page says, “Throughout history, human beings, especially the global poor, have been in constant movement. Huerta says we should view this migration as a universal human right and treat honest, […]

The following video was produced today by AJ+: “More than 200 (sanctuary) cities don’t cooperate with U.S. Immigration to deport undocumented immigrants. Police say it helps them to fight crime by building trust with immigrants, but does it really make a city safer?”

Two days ago, this video was posted to the Explore Branson Facebook page by Luis Diaz. This is what Diaz posted with the video: I arrived to Branson, MO on Thursday, July 16,2015. Never had I experienced racism until today. My family and I walked into a store (Visitor Information By Westgate Resorts in Downtown […]

What follows are several videos about the #BlackLivesMatter protest that happened today at Netroots, when Democratic presidential candidates Martin O’Malley and Bernie Sanders spoke at the event, moderated by Jose Antonio Vargas (@joseiswriting). Here is a five-minute clip, posted by The Benjamin Dixon Show, during O’Malley’s appearance. It is this video where O’Malley said the […]

When I was an undergrad at the University of Tampa, one of my Latin American History professors made the point that the wars of independence in the 19th century were not so much popular rebellions as they were one social class (the Criollos, or direct Spanish descendants born and raised in the Americas) fighting another (the […]

This week, as President Barack Obama commuted sentences for 46 non-violent drug offenders, we revisit the story of Jay Hernandez, the first Latino given clemency by President Obama in 2012. Earlier today, President Obama went to El Reno, Oklahoma, where he visited a prison to push criminal justice reform. Jay served time in that very […]

If you or a loved have ever been a victim of injustice, I invite you to read this very personal story. At times, fear and intimidation make us waiver in our attempt to stand up for what is right. I invite you to read on and join the fight to make our nation and our […]

Maricopa County’s Sheriff Joe Arpaio is the personification of hate. As a result, the man who made his career putting children in chain gangs and ritualizing acts of humiliation in the name of law and order may finally be seeing the end to his reign. But for Arizona to recover from its reputation as the […]

The government of the Dominican Republic has recently been at the center of international criticism regarding the treatment of Haitian immigrants and their offspring. The government has launched a domestic and international publicity campaign to counter the negative press it has received. However, it must be clarified that this recent criticism does not and should […]

At a Pride Reception this past month at the White House, Latina Trans organizer Jennicet Gutiérrez of Familia TQLM and GetEqual interrupted an all too jovial speech from President Obama about what his administration has done for the LGBT Community in the U.S. The interruption led to him dismissing her and ordering she be escorted […]

Editor’s Note: A longer version of this op-ed appears on the author’s site. On April 27 of this year, Latino Rebels published my op-ed How to End Puerto Rico’s Public Debt…Right Now. The central solution presented in that article was eliminating the Jones Act (aka the Cabotage Law) in Puerto Rico. In other words, Puerto Rico must […]

“Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed.” So reads what is arguably the most emulated political statement in the history of the Western world, whose proclamation in July 1776 Americans celebrate annually as the birth of their republic. In […]