Latest News

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 […]

Just five days after a social media controversy about a new “Bandidos” restaurant opening in San Francisco’s Castro district caught owners off-guard, this afternoon, the owners posted the following statement on their restaurant’s Facebook site: Reaction to the name change has been generally positive, although some think the owners were being too sensitive. Nonetheless, the […]

Oh, boy. Our least favorite time of the year is upon us: Hispandering (sorry, Hispanic) Heritage Month, where everyone wants a piece of the action, because, you know… Latin@s are a hot market! HMM is on, and we are already seeing some of the same sadness that has happened in previous years. Are you ready? […]

The following video of Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) essentially shredding Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) this week on the floor of the Senate says it all. The video was posted by the Senate Democrats. It’s pretty obvious why. Durbin 1, Canadian-born Senator 0.

Once again, Obama has put the interests of his party and corporate sponsors above those of the people. After promising an executive action on immigration by the end of the summer, he is now backing away deciding to delay it until after the elections in November. At the same time, thousands of families are separated […]

In response to an appearance by White House Policy Council Director Cecilia Muñoz yesterday on MSNBC’s Jose Díaz Balart show, immigration rights activist Erika Andiola issued the following statement, essentially calling out Muñoz for using Andiola’s family to defend a decision by President Obama to delay any additional action on immigration reform: As a Latina, […]

The latest from the Immigrant America series is out.

Earlier today, White House Policy Council Director Cecilia Muñoz appeared on MSNBC with José Díaz-Balart. Let the spin begin. Can this get any more complicated and out of whack? Can it get any more political? Can it get any more shameful? Now all this delay is based on this summer’s “border crisis.” The irony of […]

I seem to be choking a lot on my Smoking Loon these days. First it was watching Sofía Vergara rotating like a Christmas lechón at a Vega Alta party. The #lechonasadogate. This time, I lobed invectives and inanimate objects like hand grenades at my computer screen. Target? The Dickensian face of El Gordo y la […]

Yesterday in Bakersfield, California, Merri Silva, the mother of David Sal Silva —a father of four who died in the custody of Kern County deputies and California Highway Patrol officers last May— told the local press that she will continue to demand justice for her dead son. These 16 months…I’ve had all kinds of emotions. […]

This is a story about the villas of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Not a story about the usual stigmas and stereotypes, but one about human rights. Today marks one year since a nine-year-old boy named Kevin Molina was killed by a stray bullet while he watched the Disney Channel with his siblings in the Villa Zavaleta. […]

LATEST UPDATE, September 11, 2014: The name has been changed. UPDATE, September 7, 2014: Bandidos has responded on its Facebook page. In case you want more context, meet the owners. That led to Gómez, who lives in The Castro, to write the following: “Hi Bandidos thanks for responding—we would like you to change the name. […]

Recently, a reporter asked me why I was going to be performing at the second annual Americas Latino Eco Festival in Colorado. Billed as the “the new shade of green,” this festival asks for all Latinos to fight for our planet and become leaders in the ecological movement within the Americas. During the interview, the […]

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 […]

Recently, author Luis Alberto Urrea, one of our favorite authors ever (yes, ever), gave a TedX talk called “The Answer, and Then The Question.” This is a 19-minute must watch. Simple as that. And while you are it, give Luis a follow on Twitter.

Is this 2012 all over again? After what seemed to be progress in 2013 when it came to addressing the Kennedy Center’s abysmal “Latino problem,” this morning the Kennedy Center released its 2014 list of honorees. This morning’s news did not sit well with Felix Sanchez, chairman and co-founder of National Hispanic Foundation for the […]

The following video of three Houston Independent School District (HISD) police officers has led to controversy at Sam Houston High School this week. Yesterday, Ixel Perez, the student in the video, spoke to local Houston media about what she said happened: video platformvideo managementvideo solutionsvideo player Perez said it all started because she refused to […]

This week we received an email from Raúl Pérez, a Ph.D. student in sociology at the University of California, Irvine. Pérez wanted to let us know about his latest study (full document below)—a critical and scholarly analysis of the 1960s “José Jiménez” character. As Pérez states in his summary: This study examines US comedian Bill […]

Not a day goes by where we don’t get pitched. The vast majority of emails we get come from independent artists, musicians, filmmakers or authors asking if we can check out their work and if we like it, can we help promote it. Most of the the time we do. However, here is an example […]

You would think that by 2014 —after years of seeing fish stick fails or Latino-inspired bleaches— companies and the agencies they hire would finally get a clue about how best to thrive in a U.S. market that is becoming more diverse. You would think that these companies and their agencies would go beyond the stale […]