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When analyzing today’s political landscape after the emmergence of the Donald Trump tidal wave, I could not help noticing the loyalty of some Hispanics to the Republican Party —specifically those that are of Puerto Rican origin, and especially those currently on the island— even after the party’s increase of extremist and racist slurs and policies […]

I know. I heard. We all remember what we were doing, at the exact moment we heard the disturbing rumor—that Calle 13 would be no más. I personally was attempting to cook arroz con habichuelas when my comadre called. I blacked out. I don’t remember a thing except the smell of beans burning. Breath easily—it’s […]

Trauma-induced bigotry is an all-too-common but rarely acknowledged phenomenon. An act committed by a person of a certain race or ethnicity leads the victim or their family members to resent all people of that culture. A critical thinker can easily look past a person’s skin color and accept that one person who commits a crime does not […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

When I lived in Old San Juan —en la calle San Fransisco— there was an old man who walked the streets of that grande dame for hours with a bullhorn, waving a huge Puerto Rican flag. Like a town crier, he yelled again and again: “La colonia se va, se va. Se va la colonia.” It […]

Kelly, mi’ja, la cagaste. Mate, you cagated it royally. And no amount of mealy-mouthed, yo-no-soy-racista-mea-culpas are going to be enough. Apologies not accepted. Not in my house. This was not a misspeak, or a foot in mouth, not a slip, nor a verbal stumble. This was a spectacular fall. Let’s go back to the particulars, […]

The office manager at my work, Nancy Trujillo, is obsessed with the Minions. On her desk are little post-it drawings of Minions, a Minion stuffed animal, a Minion bucket, a knitted hacky sack Minion and even a Minion sleep mask. Every time a coworker spots Minion-related merchandise outside the office, they feel compelled to buy […]

This past June, the scene at the Trump Tower resembled a promotional event for the WWE. Donald Trump was announcing his run for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination and in his infamous boisterous and unsavory way he said words that will forever will remembered by U.S. Latino voters. When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending […]

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 […]

Pro-statehood activists often tout about how the quality of life in the 50 U.S. states is superior to Puerto Rico’s. Pundits cite stateside per capita income, school retention rates and the lower cost of electricity of the mainland U.S. as reasons why Puerto Rico should become a state. About a year ago, the pro-statehood New […]

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 […]

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 […]

El Mismo, sí, ese mismo. Ese ejecutor de poder dictatorial disfrazado de agente del orden que nos detuvo porque supuestamente nos comimos la luz del semáforo, pero en realidad lo hizo por racista, a ese mismo echémosle la culpa. Échale la culpa al mismo. Si se le quema el cucayo biambe, Échale la culpa al […]

Yesterday, Rep. Luis Gutiérrez (D-IL) spent about five minutes speaking to the U.S. House of Representatives about Puerto Rico. This morning, Gutiérrez, who is of Puerto Rican descent, shared more thoughts about the current situation. Here is the transcript of Gutiérrez’s prepared remarks this morning, which his office released to the press: Rep. Gutiérrez on […]

This Saturday, Democratic presidential candidate Martin O’Malley will visit Puerto Rico to meet with residents of the U.S. territory and talk policy with the island’s political leaders, his campaign confirmed this morning to Latino Rebels. O’Malley would become the first 2016 Democratic candidate to visit Puerto Rico on an official campaign stop. (Republican Jeb Bush […]

This weekend, NPR’s Latino USA published a feature on Jose Gutierez Xtravaganza from the House of Xtravaganza, which created “vogue” and was the House featured in Madonna’s 1990 iconic video. It seems that “vogue” is back in vogue, but like the NPR piece said, the roots are much deeper and go beyond Madonna videos from 25 […]

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 […]