Politics

Yesterday, Al Jazeera English’s The Stream covered the recent events from the Dominican Republic. Here is the full episode.

NATIONAL HARBOR, MD— Cecilia Muñoz, the White House’s Director of Domestic Policy Council, was met with silence, jabs and jeers, and booed off the stage at the annual American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) conference yesterday. Several immigration attorneys and advocates who have been at the frontlines of the fight to end the detention of refugee mothers […]

Word that a New York City tabloid had smeared the Puerto Rican community yet again with an offensive depiction of our annual parade came as no surprise though the immediate outrage and indignation from the parade’s board was, at the very least, comforting. In recent years, the Puerto Rican flag has gone from causing controversy […]

[View the story “Social Media Images and Videos from Dominican Republic Deportation Crisis” on Storify]

If ever there were a time for a comprehensive Latino and African American political coalition, it is in the 2016 presidential election. Issues that affect the nation’s two largest “minorities” have dominated recent news cycles and are sure to be introduced and addressed in coming debates, town halls, and stump speeches. Together, we are far […]

Today in New York as part of my duties as Digital Media Director for Futuro Media Group, I will be attending the Ravitch Fiscal Reporting Program’s journalism seminar about Puerto Rico’s fiscal crisis. A portion of the agenda will include a Skype appearance by Alejandro García Padilla, Puerto Rico’s governor. As I was preparing for […]

NEW YORK, NY—Politicians, celebrities and organizations at the Puerto Rican Day Parade today endorsed a campaign aimed to reverse recent federal government cuts to Medicare Advantage benefits in Puerto Rico. Among the supporters who raised their voices at the annual New York City event were the Governor of Puerto Rico Alejandro García Padilla, NYC Council Speaker […]

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 […]

Another new video from our friend César Vargas, founder of UPLIFTT (United People for Latinos in Film TV and Theater). You can catch César’s first video here.   A Message to the Black and Latino Youth Hola, Pueblo. Soy Cesar Vargas. Founder of UPLIFTT ( United People for Latinos in Film TV and Theater). Today, […]

Editor’s Note: After we published a bilingual essay from four authors about Nelson A. Denis’ visit to Puerto Rico to promote his new book, we invited Nelson to share his own impressions from his seven-day book tour. Here is what Nelson sent us. Last month I went to Puerto Rico to introduce my book War Against […]

Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this post appeared on the author’s personal blog. Last June, President Obama declared the mass migration of unaccompanied Central American children across the U.S.-Mexican border as an “urgent humanitarian situation” and directed federal agencies to coordinate a response toward providing housing and other services. National media quickly picked up […]

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 […]

In August of last year, I wrote an op-ed in the Orlando Sentinel where I predicted Hispanics playing a key role in the next presidential elections and the possibility of Hispanics running for President or Vice President of the United States. As of today, everything seems to be happening as predicted. Two Hispanics within the Republican Party […]

As the story goes, when Louis XVI of France learned of the storming of the Bastille, he asked if it was simply another revolt, to which the Duke of La Rochefoucauld is said to have replied, “No, sire. It’s a revolution.” Given the recent unrest ignited by corruption scandals across Latin America, regional leaders must […]

Puerto Rico’s social situation is a bit more complex than the traditional bourgeois versus proletariat class conflict. Puerto Rico has a large underemployed class, heavily dependent on government social programs and handouts and commonly referred in a derogatory fashion, mantenidos or cuponeros. More than half of Puerto Rican families in 2007, for example, received food […]

Last month, UCLA’s Chicano Studies Research Center held a two-hour panel to discuss how a leaf blower ban in Los Angeles was defeated by a group of activists and workers. The panel features professor Álvaro Huerta, community activist Adrián Álvarez, and lawyers Scott L. Cummings and Victor Narro.

In my op-ed last week I suggested that, instead of voting for presumptive Democratic nominee (and lesser-of-two-evils) Hillary Clinton, Latinos should vote for a third party. As expected, this promptly led to more than a few readers pointing out that under America’s two-party system, at least in presidential elections, voting for a third-party candidate amounts to […]

Since an online White House We the People petition calling for the ouster of Puerto Rican govenor Alejandro García Padilla reached the necessary 100,000 signatures in a span of 30 days earlier this year, the White House last week had to draft a formal response. Here is what the White House said (as we suspected):

Author’s note: This creative essay was a collaboration between Rafael Acevedo-Cruz, Jorge Román Ortiz, Omaris Zamora Reyes and William García Medina. The Spanish version of this piece is here. Part I A play in two acts in a small public auditorium The plot: Nelson A. Denis recently published a book about a history of Puerto […]