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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 […]

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 […]

La versión en inglés se encuentra aquí. Honduras nunca fue tan popular, de hecho para muchos no era más que un nombre en el mapa mundial y un pequeño país tercermundista. Sin embargo los niveles de violencia, las cifras de muertos, la proliferación de las maras y pandillas y el aumento del crimen organizado y […]

You can read the Spanish version here. Honduras has never been well-known, rather simply thought of as a small Third World country and not much more than a name on a world map. Yet the levels of violence, the death toll, a proliferation of gangs and gang activity, and an increase in organized crime and […]

Despite garnering over 50,000 signatures to an online petition asking that the Obama Administration not cut back on health care benefits to Puerto Ricans living on the island, this past Monday the Puerto Rican Healthcare Crisis Coalition (PRHCC) issued a strong statement, saying that June 8 decision by the government’s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid […]

Police-on-Police Racism Last year, a Black Fort Worth police officer discovered a noose on a snowman dressed as a policeman holding a banana on his desk. That launched a series of exposés on the institutional and blatant racism at the Forth Worth PD, which led to the city’s police chief resigning. Earlier this week, in McKinney, […]

This year, CASA, the largest immigrant rights organization in Maryland, celebrates its 30th anniversary. Since 1985, the organization has been a leader in empowering, supporting and advocating for immigrants’ rights. Through a multifaceted approach of building a powerful immigrant movement, providing direct social services to individuals from over 90 countries and shaping the political process in […]

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 […]

Please click here for Part 1 of this article, where the background of these potential consequences is laid out. The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a free trade agreement being negotiated in secret. And yet, of its 29 known provisions, only five deal with trade. Ostensibly, the TPP is a U.S. response to the potential of being […]

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 […]

St. Patrick’s Day is very special in Mexico because it is a time when Mexicans remember the San Patricios, or the Battalion of St. Patrick.

On the morning of February 11, in a park in the city of Santiago, Dominican Republic, a Haitian man was found hanging from a tree. Bound hand and foot, the corpse of Jean Baptiste Harry has prompted special investigations, incited fiery protests on both sides of Hispañola and become the flashpoint in an international debate […]

(Spanish version here.) This essay does not judge or condemn Luis Muñoz Marín. We all know that President Barack Obama, Governor David Patterson (New York) and Congressman Trey Radel (Florida) used cocaine, Mayors Marion Barry (Washington, D.C.) and Rob Ford (Toronto)  smoked crack, and innumerable politicians and CEOs do a little “something something” on the regular. But […]

During my travels and with many different endeavors, I have the privilege of meeting several bright and charismatic leaders from across the globe. As someone who has dedicated his life to developing positive, social change in a society where quantifiable progress comes slowly, we as Latinos often become tired of fighting, resisting and advocating for […]

On December 13, we received the following email from a student a Cal State Long Beach: The university promotes itself as a “liberal” institution that promotes diversity speaks or teaches about “white privilege” but deeply embedded in its institutional culture and in other pockets of the campus culture is a white supremacist, individualistic and hateful […]

Ay, Cuba. The media tend to ignore you until they can’t anymore. That certainly happened when President Obama announced the U.S. would seek to normalize relations after a hiatus of more than half a century. It was a plot worthy of Graham Greene, involving spies in Havana and Miami, secret negotiations in Canada, and even […]

On December 22, 1997, 45 Tzotzil Indians were massacred in the village of Acteal, Mexico. Of the 45 who died, 21 were women and 16 were children. With the focus on Ayotzinapa continuing in Mexico along with the news that Mexican authorities were complicit in the recent Iguala mass kidnappings, the 17th anniversary of the […]

Each year, more and more Latinos are choosing to pursue a postsecondary education. Latinos pursuing a postsecondary education are vital to our nation’s economic, political and social future. Simply making the choice to postsecondary degree, however, is not enough. An overwhelming number of Latinos that start a degree do not finish. We need to ensure […]