Latinidad

Here’s the history lesson you should have been given before filling out the census with Hispanic or Latino. During the 1830s, a French intellectual named Michel Chevalier imagined that the romance language-speaking people living in this part of the world constituted a Latin race that could align itself with European countries that also spoke a […]

—Pues primo, titi’s behavior is what happens in colonial societies. You don’t learn to value yourself let alone other people. Your mom is an empty shell full of rah-rah American bullshit fed to young Puerto Ricans that tells them they can never be satisfied unless they chase the American dream and leave the island behind. […]

Latinos are receiving increasing attention in American politics. Candidates and their campaigns must decide how best to reach out to this growing community. Trump has chosen to double-down on anti-Mexican rhetoric, but other candidates have chosen another language altogether. Democrats and Republicans alike have chosen to address Latinos in Spanish. Hillary Clinton tweeted how to say “Go […]

In Latino literature and film, a common narrative is assimilation, where the protagonist wrestles with preserving the “traditional value” of the old world while embracing the “progress and enlightenment” of the new. By the end, even as the protagonist learns to appreciate and respect the values of their elders, what they really embrace and love are […]

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 […]

EDITOR’S NOTE: An earlier version of this piece was published on the author’s blog. Maira has given us permission to republish her essay on our site. Time is money and money is time. I know, I’m a first generation art student who has to constantly shoot down any sporadic spurts of adventure to get to […]

Two years ago, the Pew Research Center stated that Salvadorans were to become the third-largest U.S. Latino group in the United States behind Mexicans and Puerto Ricans. And last summer, Ivan Villanueva wrote an excellent piece about the marginalization first-generation Salvadorans experience despite our growing presence. However, what many people do not know is that geography […]

I just got off the phone with my mother. She just wrapped up a short account about how much work they have had at their business in the past couple of weeks—most of it centered around the sheer amount of clients and calls they have received, all good things, but also about how tired she […]

Tonight, I received an email from my friend Katherinne Balboa Oviedo, a Chilean educator currently living in Colorado. She wrote me asking to contribute to a project to show solidarity with Chilean teachers currently on strike. The conditions facing Chilean professors is horrendous, yet frighteningly comparable to those faced by adjunct professors in the United […]

Latino Rebels contributor Jonathan Marcantoni filed the following post about the YouNiversity Project he co-founded with Chris Campanioni: Since the inception of the YouNiversity Project in June 2014, authors Chris Campanioni and Jonathan Marcantoni have built a program that has attracted attention from people in 33 countries in six continents, has connected aspiring writers to […]

When La Galería magazine launched this past February, I personally didn’t expect that it would grow so quickly. But it did. A collective effort that started with a vision to become one of the platforms for the Dominican Diaspora is growing into a multimedia venue with an entity of its own. Our site has already garnered over 10,000 […]

CHICAGO—It’s May 2015, which means the start of the 2016 presidential campaign season is only a blink away. Already hopefuls are throwing their hats into the ring. So far only one person has mounted a challenge to Hillary Clinton, the presumed Democratic nominee—though why Bernie Sanders, a self-styled democratic socialist and the independent junior senator […]

“Latino writer” is a label whose purpose is to make you feel like you are a part of something big, important and ultimately has nothing to do with you as an individual. “Latino writer” does not denote quality or innovation, it is not a movement nor does it embody a single worldview, but what it […]

This month at Intelatin, I am featuring two entrepreneurs working their food businesses. Sabrina Valle of The Jam Stand and Abigail Wald of The YES Bar. I feature these ladies for the inspiration and benefit of my DACAmented homegirls. Music for the podcast is performed by Chancha vía Circuito, Willie Colón & Héctor Lavoe, Héctor Guerra, Mr […]

I think we’ve all agreed that racism and ethnic slurs are not OK in 2015, haven’t we? Maybe we haven’t. In today’s world, a lot of bigoted/racist/xenophobic sentiment creeps up not overtly, but in the subtle ways that are less perceptible. For example, we all constantly hear racist jokes, see stereotypical costumes and read publications […]

Cuando leí sobre el esfuerzo del Departamento de Educación en eliminar las clases de estudios sociales quede consternado en creer que tal cosa fuera posible. El Secretario de Educación Rafael Román Meléndez y subsecretario de Asuntos Académicos Harry Valentín Gonzales incoherentemente aprobaron una carta circular para integrar las clases de español y estudios sociales de […]

Cristela, the little show that could, just ended its first season. However, it is not certain if the recent season finale will in fact be a series finale, and I was inspired to write this article after reading creator and star Cristela Alonzo’s heartbreaking, thoughtful and important blog post about her show and what it […]

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 […]

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 […]

My own Selena story started long before she became a legend.

Editor’s Note: Earlier this year, we received from following email. We have decided to share it with all of you. Dear Editor: I’m just a Mom that got up this morning and after breakfast (Mexican with eggs and beans and coffee) we settled in the living room and my husband watched the news like every […]