With the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor for the U.S. Supreme Court, conversations quickly turned into debates about race and, in particular, about the term ‘Hispanic’ and what it means, or may not mean, to be called a Hispanic.
Many newspaper articles, television editorials, and blogs about Sotomayor question whether or not it is even relevant that she is Hispanic. Is she a Hispanic, a Latino, a Puerto Rican, or just an American? There has even been a question as to whether or not she would even be the first Latino/Hispanic on the Supreme Court!
Some pundits wonder why race is even a part of the conversation. The confirmation process of Sotomayor should be based purely on the basis of her qualifications, her judicial track record, and her judicial demeanor. Race should not be a part of the process. Sounds good in a color-blind society, but in the real world it doesn’t work that way.
The question of what we call ourselves: Latino, Hispanic, or Mexican-American is a debate that has been swirling around for some time now. Here at La Prensa San Diego we have often been asked the questions, “What do you call yourselves? What is a Hispanic? Where does the term Chicano comes from?” READ FULL STORYRead more…
Adelante Mujeres, a Forest Grove non-profit that helps low-income Latino families gain job skills, has received a $135,000 grant from United Way of the Columbia-Willamette.
The funds will benefit Adelante Chicas, a program of Adelante Mujeres that reaches out to girls being raised by parents new to the U.S. or who may not have the support to address the challenges their daughters face as young Latina women.
United Way is funding projects that seek to improve high school graduation rates among young people from diverse communities, according to Adelante Mujeres program director Gina Bell. READ FULL STORYRead more…
What's best for Latino students who struggle with English? Should they be taught through bilingual education or are English-only programs the way to go? The answer for a school district in Charlotte, N.C., seems to be a strong combination of both.
At the Collinswood Language Academy (kindergarten through sixth grade) students spend half their day learning subjects like math and science in Spanish and the other half being taught history and social studies in English. The program has been around for a decade and in Charlotte, home to a huge influx of Latinos, it is in great demand. READ FULL STORYRead more…
I heard a cold truth again this week: “Not everyone is college material.” It was reiterated by a former teacher. Not one of mine, but a woman who had worked with enough students in her decades of secondary school teaching to make the claim with some authority.
I’ll concede the point and up the ante. Not everyone is high school material, either — at least, as high schools are currently constituted.
Sounds demeaning, right? It’s a tad impolite to say in public that large swaths of the population just don’t have the chops to earn even a high school degree. But if graduation rates are used as the measure of high school success, the evidence is mounting. READ FULL STORYRead more…
The six girls sitting in the church basement come here every Thursday to learn the 101’s of sewing and pattern making, but tonight they are in for a very different lesson.
“Do any of you watch the media or watch TV and say ‘I want to be that person and if I don’t dress like her I don’t feel good about myself?’” asks Kerstin Collett, who leads the class in Holy Cross Church in Chicago’s Back of the Yards. READ FULL STORY & VIEW VIDEORead more…
A Colorado Springs lawmaker is angry about a Colorado Department of Transportation public- service announcement aimed at Spanish-speaking drivers.
CDOT is expected today to introduce the PSA, in which the announcer, speaking in Spanish, asks drivers to buckle up. It will be up to television stations, such as Univision, to determine whether and when they run the ad.
Transportation department leaders decided to shoot the PSA after statistics showed that almost 60 percent of the 80 Hispanics killed in traffic accidents last year were not wearing seat belts, CDOT spokeswoman Stacy Stegman said. That accounted for a full 23 percent of the unbuckled accident deaths in Colorado, she said. READ FULL STORYRead more…
A group at the University of Virginia is trying to attract Hispanic students to the field of engineering.
UVA’s Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers hosted a leadership conference this weekend, hoping to build a network for future Hispanic engineers.
According to the Population Reference Bureau, Hispanics make up about 13 percent of the U.S. workforce but only around five percent of engineering and science professionals. READ FULL STORYRead more…
Hispanic Professionals of Greater Milwaukee (HPGM) will host a leadership conference to provide Hispanic professionals with valuable tools to enhance leadership skills and expand their professional networks.
“These resources can help set Latinos apart in this competitive, shrinking job market,” said Yvonne Brodsky, Executive Director of HPGM.
The half-day event will promote leadership development among Hispanic professionals. It will be held on Friday, March 20 at the Wisconsin Club from 7:30 a.m. - 1 p.m. This year’s conference will provide professionals with a forum to share leadership experiences across industry sectors, opportunities for professional development and a platform for networking. READ FULL STORYRead more…
The Latina Adolescent Suicide Prevention Campaign was launched this week at Woodhull Hospital in Brooklyn, N.Y., to help inform young Latinas about how to seek help and prevent suicide in their community, reports El Diario/La Prensa. Suicide is the fourth leading cause of death among young people between 10 and 24 years of age in the United States. Research shows that adolescent Latinas have the highest rate of attempted suicides among groups of teenagers in the nation: 21 percent of Hispanic women between 14 and 17 years have attempted suicide, compared with 10.8 percent of African American and 10.4 percent of white non - Hispanics the same age. READ FULL STORYRead more…
As it prepares to turn 100, the Boy Scouts of America is honing its survival skills for what might be its biggest test yet: drawing Hispanics into its declining — and mostly white — ranks.
"We either are going to figure out how to make Scouting the most exciting, dynamic organization for Hispanic kids, or we're going to be out of business," said Rick Cronk, former national president of the Boy Scouts, and chairman of the World Scout Committee.
The venerable Scouts remains the United States' largest youth organization, with 2.8 million children and youths, nearly all of them boys. But that is nearly half its peak membership, reached in 1972.
Its rolls took hits through the 1980s and '90s over a still-standing ban on gay or atheist leaders, and scandals surrounding inflated membership numbers. In addition, teenagers raised on TV and shoot-'em-up games had less use for learning to build a campfire or memorize the Scout oath.
The country changed too. One in five children under 18 is Hispanic, according to the U.S. Census. But they make up only 3 percent of Scouts. READ FULL STORYRead more…
A disporportionate number of black and Latino students are stuck in the city's worst schools, a Daily News analysis shows.
About 30% of students in schools given "report card" grades last month are African-American, yet blacks make up 41% of the classroom rosters in schools rated D or F.
Similarly, Latinos are 39% of the population in the graded schools - but they make up 47% of the kids in those with the lowest rankings. READ FULL STORYRead more…
Danielle Soto isn't wasting any time transitioning from college to a career in the family business.
The 22-year-old environmental studies senior will be sworn into the Pomona City Council on Dec. 15, two days after her last final this week. She won election Nov. 5 to a seat once held by her grandmother, Nell Soto, who went on to serve in the California Assembly and Senate, retiring this year at age 81.
Her grandfather, the late Philip Soto, was one of the first two Latinos elected to the Assembly in 1962. He served two terms before losing his seat in Ronald Reagan's landslide win for governor. READ FULL STORYRead more…
If you think it's embarrassing for an African-American to have to identify himself to the police while in his own house, imagine how humiliating it is for U.S.-born Latinos to have to prove their citizenship in their own country.
With racial profiling in the news lately, it's worth noting that America's largest minority has to endure the practice, too — but with a twist. Not only, according to several studies, do Latinos get pulled over by police and have their cars searched at a higher rate than whites. They also sometimes suffer the indignity of having to prove that they have the legal right to even be in the United States. READ FULL STORYRead more…
The Washington Attorney General's Office is alerting residents about a phone scam in which Spanish-speaking callers claim to be representatives of an insurance company. In some cases, the callers also provide the names of actual insurance companies and/or agents.
Hispanic residents from Seattle to Yakima have reported receiving phone calls from Spanish-speaking callers who claim to be from "the insurance company." The female callers ask for bank account information they claim is needed to process insurance payments. The callers have left messages if owners aren't home, along with phone numbers that start with 800, 877 and 752 area codes. READ FULL STORYRead more…
A state campaign aimed at reducing substance abuse among young Latinos has kicked off at a west Phoenix school. The campaign, sponsored by the Governor's Office of Highway Safety, Students Against Destructive Decisions and the Phoenix Union High School District, is designed to influence sound decision-making among Latino youths. "Be Smart, Be Safe and Be Alive - Piensa, Cuidate, Vive - is a campaign started at Trevor Browne High School and seeks to address alcohol, tobacco, drugs and driving.
The third-leading cause of death for Hispanics in the U.S. is motor-vehicle crashes, according to district officials. READ FULL STORYRead more…
Posted by HispanicPro on September 30, 2008 at 11:49am
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is working to pass a law that will improve the education of Hispanics and other minorities in California. According to La Opinion, the law would authorize hiring more teachers in schools with low achievement levels that lack professionals to teach math, sciences and special education. READ FULL STORYRead more…
Aimed at improving the lives of Austin Latinos, FuturoFund Austin is accepting applications from nonprofits for its first grant cycle, which will invest $50,000 via grants to the local community.
Founded last year by a group of young Hispanic professionals, FuturoFund was formed to support nonprofits that assist and serve Latinos, and to provide leadership training. The fund’s giving priorities are: arts and culture, community development, education, health and human services and social justice. READ FULL STORYRead more…
For the last three years, Lourdes Iglesias has seen scores of clients come through the doors of Hispanics United of Buffalo — all eager to work, most unprepared to do so.
The community outreach organization hopes a recent $50,000 grant from the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo will change that by funding an employment center to fill job preparedness and English language gaps in the Spanish-speaking population. READ FULL STORYRead more…
The KPMG Foundation is marking the 15th anniversary of its Minority Accounting Doctoral Scholarship program by announcing today it has awarded a total of $390,000 in scholarships to 39 minority doctoral scholars for the 2009 - 2010 academic year. Of the awards, eight are to new recipients scheduled to begin their accounting doctoral program this fall, three are to new recipients who have already begun programs, and 28 are renewals of scholarships previously awarded.
Each of the scholarships is valued at $10,000 and renewable annually for a total of five years. The Foundation established the scholarship program in 1994 as part of its ongoing efforts to increase the number of minority students and professors in business schools -- and has since awarded $8.7 million to minorities pursuing doctorate degrees. READ FULL STORYRead more…
Edinson Volquez ate lots of fast food while working his way from the Dominican Republic to Major League Baseball, and not just because he had little money.
"In the minor leagues we always went to McDonald's, Subway," the Reds right-hander said. "You point at the number for what you want. You try to talk, but you're scared because somebody may be laughing at you."
Volquez, like most Latin Americans in the major leagues, arrived in the United States speaking little or no English. The language and cultural barriers, an afterthought to most U.S. baseball fans, are something Spanish-speaking players face throughout their careers. READ FULL STORYRead more…
