Injustice

Today we heard this story from This American Life: the systematic exporting of Puerto Rican heroin addicts to scam drug rehabilitation programs on the U.S. mainland. The story has been originally covered by Adriana Cardona-Maguigad for WEBZ in Chicago. The situation is tragic, yet the question remains: Who should be blamed? A corrupt Puerto Rican political […]

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 […]

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 […]

On October 31, 1950, a barber looked out the window and saw 40 policemen and National Guard soldiers surrounding his barbershop. “Ay coño,” said the barber, and started to prepare himself. He dimmed the lights in his shop. He pulled some weapons from a hidden stash, and distributed them around the shop. He prayed to a […]

I never met my grandfather Adolfo. All I knew about him is that he was from Michoacán, he was a bracero and that he died fairly young. As I grew up, I started to piece together a picture from the bits of information I got here and there. I know he died when my mom […]

César Chávez, the biopic of the Chicano labor leader and civil rights activist directed by Mexican director/actor Diego Luna, hit theaters nationwide last year to a mixed reception of acclaim and criticism. While some critics pointed out the historical inaccuracies that exist throughout the film, most focused on Luna’s near-omission of Filipino farmworkers, and the peripheral […]

Central America is in trouble. Correction: Central America has been in trouble. The region—south of Mexico, north of Colombia—has withstood blood-thirsty conquistadores bearing rifles and disease, rapacious business interests which ruled over banana republics, and the occasional invasion, civil war or golpe. In the past few years alone, at least 50,000 people were killed in the […]

Originally published at Drug Policy Alliance. As I walked to the Mexican Consulate on a blustery winter day in New York City last week to join a protest calling for justice for the 43 missing university students of Ayotzinapa, Mexico, I began to think of warmer days that did not require layers and gloves. For […]

Editor’s Note: You can read Part I here. The following diagram provides a map of the Ponce Massacre tragedy. With tommy gunners at the top of the photo, 15 armed cops at the bottom and nowhere to turn for safety, hundreds of unarmed Puerto Ricans were trapped in an intentional crossfire —a classic killing zone— […]

The Ponce Massacre was a complete horror. Over 200 unarmed Puerto Ricans were seriously wounded. Dozens were maimed for life. Seventeen were killed, including a woman and a seven-year-old girl. 78 years later, many people have seen the famous photo of this slaughter. But few people know the antecedents, the sequence of events and the […]

Editor’s Note: You can read Part I here and Part II here. JM: What are your thoughts on the immigration issue in the United States and how it pertains to Latinos? ND: The immigration debate is important, and it must be continued until everyone —Latinos and other groups— receive the same consideration that was extended […]

Editor’s Note: You can read Part I of the intreview with Nelson Denis here. Part III is here. JM: Do you feel the close ties between the Puerto Rican independence movement and Castro has hurt the cause? ND: Anything that enabled J. Edgar Hoover and Gov. Muñoz Marín to characterize the Nationalist movement as part of […]

Recently, I had the great pleasure of speaking with Nelson Denis, author of War Against All Puerto Ricans. I have long had an interest in the subject of Puerto Rico’s 1950 Revolution and whether you are familiar with this largely suppressed moment in our history or not, Denis offers sharp and exciting insights on mid-century […]

Here is a new video from AJ+ that tells a story we have known for quite a while now.

Another weekend, another “Rebel Report.” Here’s the latest episode.

Earlier this month in Virginia, Richmond School Superintendent Dr. Dana T. Bedden issued an apology for a February 2013 incident involving the bag searches of Latino students. The students reported that the school staff threatened deportation. While the apology was long overdue and accepted by the students, it was an admission to guilt of the […]

Here is a release shared this week by the Washington State Commission on Hispanic Affairs: The Listening Session comes at a time where questions continue about the February shooting death of Antonio Zambrano-Montes. Today an opinion piece by Raúl Reyes in USA Today said the following: The Pasco killing is worthy of further scrutiny by the […]