Latinidad

Sephora University was created by the global cosmetics store to “transform each employee into a genuine Brand Ambassador and guide them through their careers.” Recently, an internal document obtained by Latino Rebels and branded by Sephora University was shared with Sephora employees. It shows a step-by-step makeup guide for employees to celebrate Día de los […]

President Obama recently proclaimed part of the San Gabriel Mountains in Southern California as a national monument. Like the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks and the Río Grande Del Norte National Monuments, proclaimed by President Obama in the last 18 months, the San Gabriels designation was the result of years of advocacy from local residents. These monuments, […]

An Change.org petition by Armando Cruz Velasco of Hesperia, California, is calling to get rid of a “Fiesta de los muertos” Scare Zone at Knott’s Scary Farm (part of the famous Knott’s Berry Farm theme park). Cruz Velasco’s petition says: For the last few years, Knott’s Scary Farm has had a Day of the Dead […]

For the last couple of weeks Holyoke, Massachusetts, has been at the center of a dispute over the place of Puerto Rican identity in its public art. The controversy started when Mimi Wielgosz objected to having David Flores’ mural, depicting a standard Puerto Rican license plate saying “Puerto Rico, Holyoke, Isla del Encanto” on her […]

Just when I think that the notion of “white Hispanic” has faded away, several more commentaries continue to appear. All raise important points yet miss others that are equally important. (I want to thank Christina Saenz-Alcánatra for effectively and succinctly explaining the arguments of various commentaries.) To discuss “white Hispanics,” means to discuss two issues: one […]

The plane lands at Luis Muñoz Marín Airport. The passengers erupt in spontaneous applause. No matter how many times I go back home, it never ceases to amaze me. Puerto Ricans so happy that in only minutes they will walk out and, like returning sons and daughters, defy the ending of the tearful national anthem […]

Since The New York Times’ ridiculous piece in May claiming that more Latinos are identifying as “white” between the 2000 and 2010 Census, Latino and non-Latino commentators alike have been weighing in on the many shades of color within the Latino community and the role of the “white Hispanic” within it. An intense discussion about […]

We got the following video from a loyal Latino Rebels Facebook fan, along with this text: “In honor of Hispandering month are any of you old enough to remember this scene from Hill Street Blues with René Enríquez where he laid the smack down?” This scene needs no explanation. Watch. Now for all of you […]

 “…porque tus anhelos no bastaron para borrar el color de mi piel en las manos del mundo.” -Irma Pineda “Did you hear about the rose that grew from a crack in the concrete? Proving nature’s laws wrong, it learned to walk without having feet. Funny, it seems to by keeping its dreams; it learned to […]

Last month The Federalist published an article by Mike Gonzalez, vice president of communications for The Heritage Foundation, in which he does a fairly decent job of summarizing the origins of the term “Latino” as it is used today. “The Spanish-language term Latino America,” he writes, “from which Latino derives, was in fact created by […]

Yesterday, HuffPost Live host Marc Lamont Hill had Raúl De Molina of El Gordo y la Flaca (you know, that show with all those women in sexy bikinis) to discuss diversity in media. Considering the fact that Spanish-language television in the United States is perhaps one of the biggest perpetuators of the “hot Latina stereotype,” […]

Scarcely do I remember the day a Census worker came to the apartment I shared with my then-girlfriend and future wife a few years back. I fail to recall what the weather was like, nor do I even remember if the worker was male or female. What I do remember, however, is the look on […]

Earlier this week, I received an email from Lance Hannon, a Professor of Sociology at Villanova University. Professor Hannon wanted to let me know that he and Robert DeFina, Professor and Chairperson of Villanova’s Department of Sociology and Criminology, had just published a working paper entitled, “Controversy in the Sociological Meaning of Changes in Latino Racial […]

Back in 2010, Arizona’s education chief John Huppenthal ordered Tuscon’s school district to remove Mexican American Studies courses from its curriculum or lose 10 percent of its funding. This came after an audit commissioned by Huppenthal himself that recommended the program on the basis of, among other things, its promotion of critical thinking. Huppenthal and his […]

EDITOR’S NOTE: Published this week in LatamThought (via Aleszu Bajak), Ivan also approached us to cross-publish his piece. He gave us permission to share his article on our site. Ivan posted it originally on his own page. I was born and raised in Los Angeles, California to a Mexican father and a Salvadoran mother. Both came to […]

Remember earlier this year when Nate Cohn of The New York Times let the world know that a significant number of U.S. Latinos were becoming more “white” by misrepresenting a study that had yet to be finalized? This week that study was finally published. Here it is: America's Churning Races: Race and Ethnic Response Changes […]

As with any embarrassingly disappointing opinion piece that gets my attention, I usually find out about it via Twitter. This weekend was no different, when @RachelDecoste tweeted this: @julito77 Historical amnesia: @EnriqueKrauze in NYTimes «Latin America’s Talent for Tolerance» http://t.co/7HtHdJT0N7 #latino #racism — Rachel Décoste (@RachelDecoste) July 12, 2014 After tapping my laptop to make sure […]

By now regular visitors to this site will have seen the images coming out of Murrieta, California, where an angry mob this week blocked three buses from delivering immigrant detainees apprehended in southern Texas. Presumably among the close to 140 detainees on-board the buses were unaccompanied child migrants from Central America, tens of thousands of […]

Ever since Latino Rebels formed more than three years ago, we never tended to shy away from raw and honest discussions relating to culture, identity, ethnicity and race. It is what we do, so it was no surprise to see the comments from a June 20 Facebook post go completely insane.  Just another normal day at […]

After receiving a May 22 email about reporting issues surrounding a May 21 New York Times “Upshot” piece by Nate Cohn proclaiming more and more Latinos are becoming this country’s next whites, “Upshot” managing editor David Leonhardt sent the following response to me this morning: Mr. Varela, Thanks very much for your e-mails, and I’m […]

The Proyecto Más Color campaign is using an online petition and social media “to promote the awareness of the lack of representation of Afro-Latinos and other minority groups in Latin American media.” The following video explains more about the project: As the Proyecto Más Color organizers say on their petition site: This is important because […]