The National Hispanic Corporate Council announces its spring member meeting April 7-9, 2009. The conference will include a CEO Forum on Diversity to be held on April 7, at Sprint Nextel Corporate Headquarters, Overland Park, Kansas. The member meeting, April 8-9, 2009, will convene in Kansas City, Missouri, at the corporate headquarters of Hallmark Cards, Inc. The Forum and Member Meeting are co-sponsored by Hallmark Cards, Inc. and Sprint Nextel Corporation.
CEO Forum: Capturing the Competitive Advantage: The New General Market - The Changing Face of America
Sprint CEO, Dan Hesse, will host John Bluford, Truman Medical Center, President and CEO; Don Hall, Jr., Hallmark President and CEO; and William Zollars, President and CEO of YRC Worldwide. The CEOs will discuss insights and perspectives on the strategic importance of the multicultural market in enhancing brand equity in emerging markets and in developing diverse talent to improve competitiveness in their respective companies. Ralph Reid, VP, Corporate Social Responsibility will welcome the NHCC members. David Gonzales, Chairman and CEO, The Gonzales Group, a global management consulting firm, will moderate the CEO Forum. READ FULL STORYRead more…
With their prospects in Congress sinking along with the economy, liberal advocates of giving undocumented immigrants a path to citizenship are launching a risky strategy to push lawmakers and the White House to take up their cause.
They propose that Congress legalize millions of undocumented workers now, in exchange for reducing the number of temporary foreign workers allowed to enter the country in the future.
Their calculation could win a new and powerful ally - organized labor - but risks alienating businesses that rely on temporary workers, and could turn off key Republicans such as Sen. John McCain of Arizona. READ FULL STORYRead more…
It's fitting that San Francisco's Latino Community Foundation should be honoring Herman Gallegos at its gala this week. The foundation is cultivating a new generation of Latino philanthropists. And Gallegos, who is 78, is really the abuelo of Latino philanthropy.
A pioneer who helped start a number of national and local Hispanic civil rights groups, Gallegos also was one of the first U.S. Latinos to serve on some heavy-weight corporate and foundation boards. Not only that, he wrote the book (literally) on Hispanics and the nonprofit sector (way back in 1991). READ FULL STORYRead more…
The ax fell without sound or shadow: Tatiana Gallego was suddenly called into human resources and laid off from her job as an admissions counselor for a fashion college.
"The way people tried to explain it to me was, I was the last one hired so I was the first one out," said Gallego, 25, who had worked there for 17 months.
Last hired, first fired: This generations-old cliche rings bitterly true for millions of Latinos and blacks who are losing jobs at a faster rate than the general population during this punishing recession. 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 lot of attention has been focused on the remarkable economic success of China, India and other Asian countries. So much so that the rise of Latin American companies as major players on the international economic scene has almost gone unnoticed.
“Latin American companies have fallen through the cracks,” says Lourdes Casanova, a lecturer in strategy at INSEAD and author of Global Latinas: Latin America’s emerging multinationals. “While other emerging market economies have been oversold, Latin America has been undersold. This book wants to celebrate the success of the region and its multinationals.” 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…
The recession has hit Hispanic immigrants especially hard. They have suffered more job losses than most other workers, and their earnings remain lower than those of other groups. Among foreign-born Hispanics, an estimated 47 percent are illegal immigrants. Although some of those immigrants have been pushed by the economic slump to leave the United States, most have stayed and are struggling to hold on to jobs.READ FULL STORYRead more…
Amid fears that millions of people may be overlooked during next year's census, the Census Bureau will launch a $250 million promotional campaign to encourage participation in the decennial head count, especially among hard-to-reach minority groups in urban areas.
More than half those funds will go for advertising across traditional and social media, and nearly a quarter will be devoted exclusively to Asian, black and Hispanic outlets. READ FULL STORYRead more…
This month we celebrate National Nutrition Month. This is a perfect time to think about our own diet and make nutritional and physical activity changes to improve our health. Many of you might think that you are in optimal health because nothing seems to hurt, right? However, according to a survey by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and stroke ranked in the top 5 leading causes of death in the Latino population. So you might ask, “Why do I have a high risk for these diseases and what can I do to prevent them?”
The fact that many Latinos are not eating healthy foods helps explain why many of them are at high risk for health problems. For example, when Latinos acculturate to mainstream society, their consumption of many healthy foods decreases and begin to eat more “American” food, for example, McDonalds, Chinese fast food, and other foods high in fat and lack nutrients. Furthermore, eating foods high in fat are very damaging to your health. READ FULL STORYRead more…
When Mama reached her eighties, we assumed that she would move in with us but cardiac problems meant specialized support. In the Latino culture, it is expected that families bring their aging parents home when that time comes. So, was it okay to consider assisted living?
One of the fastest growing groups in the nation, elderly Latinos are estimated to number nearly 15 million in the next ten years. Some will have no choice but to live with family due to cultural and socio-economic barriers, particularly as more elders find themselves financially strained. Approximately one out of every 12 elderly Hispanics has no health insurance. READ FULL STORYRead more…
Thomas Perez's selection for a Justice Department post concerns some civil rights advocates, who believe Villaraigosa aide Thomas Saenz was passed over to avoid sparking an immigration battle.
Thomas Perez is Maryland's highest-ranking Latino, but his selection as the nation's leading civil rights enforcer has provoked sharp criticism from some Latino civil rights advocates.
The criticism isn't directed at Perez, the state's secretary of labor and a first-generation Dominican American, or his qualifications.
Instead, it revolves around a belief that the administration passed over another Latino attorney for the position as head of the Justice Department's civil rights division, possibly out of a desire to avoid a fight over immigration. READ FULL STORYRead more…
Posted by Ruben Torres on March 20, 2009 at 8:30pm
Not to long ago I had the pleasure of talking with Robert Renteria, author of one of the most amazing books I have read, "From the Barrio to the Board Room". This incredible piece of art both moved me from laughter, to tears. It truly is a dynamic story that will have you on the edge of your seat, and you will not want to put the book down. I read the entire book from cover to cover in one sitting.It is a message of hope, purpose and destiny. A story that MUST be read, MUST be told, MUST be shared to millions. It is my belief that the words in the pages of this book will enlighten you, inspire you, motivate you from being a spectator to a participator, from being a bench warmer to getting into the most important game, the game of LIFE.I urge you to join me and Robert Renteria in putting this book into the hands of every young person, our sons and daughters, nephews and nieces, into our school systems, anywhere we can bring this message of hope, and that yes you can DREAM BIG, THINK BIG, and you can become anyone and anything in this life. We have the responsibility to sound the alarm and bring the "I CAN" attitude to our youth, individuals of all walks of life, that we can aspire to be anything we dream.Our Attitudes today will determine our Altitudes tomorrow. Do we want to be in the same place tomorrow where we are today? What we believe is what we eventually we will achieve. What are you believing about yourself today? Are they thoughts of success? Where we are today is what we thought about ourselves yesterday, and where we will be tomorrow is linked to how we see ourselves, and picture ourselves today. In this book, Mr. Renteria, inspires us to be all that we can be, and be all we were born to be, and that is a success, that we have a life of purpose.Someone once said, “Man can live about forty days without food, about three days without water, about eight minutes without air, but only for one second without hope.” Or as the Vietnamese monk, activist and writer, Thich Nhat Hanh, said, “If we believe that tomorrow will be better, we can bear a hardship today.” I am here to tell you that together united we can have a better tomorrow. Mano a mano y corazon a corazon si se puede." If you can imagine it you can create it. If you can dream it, you can become it " Lets start dreaming again. Lets start believing that we can attain our dreams, our hopes, our goals, our aspirations. Lets start to instill these dreams and thought patterns into our children, our youth. After all they are our tomorrow."The thoughts we think and the words we speak create our experiences." I truly believe with all my heart and have seen it come to pass in my own personal life that hat we believe, we will achieve, what we imagine will come to passOur thoughts become our actions. I urge you to begin to see yourself as a world changer and a history maker. You are a legacy in the making. You are a role model. Your children are modeling after you. Leave them an awesome legacy.I want to leave you with this powerful quote by Marianne Williamson. Read it and memorize it to heart.“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”Ruben TorresMotivational Speaker/Life CoachBeauty Consulting Company Entrepreneur
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Today Rose Mary Bombela-Tobias and I launched Latinos@Work Blog and daily tips on Twitter.We look forward to joining with you in conversations that contribute to the advancement of Latinos in their careers and accelerat e diversity and inclusion in the workplace. Our goals are to:- Build the premier forum on Latino career issues and related employer diversity-inclusion best practices.- Provide resources for Latino careerists / jobseekers, diversity practitioners, employers and career services providers.- Create a 360˚ communication tool or stakeholders in the entire Latino career pipeline.We encourage you to comment and participate in our ongoing dialogue.Saludos,Murray and Rose MaryMurray A. Mann and Rose Mary Bombela-TobiasPrincipals, Global Diversity Solutions Group -Forging Diversity Partnerships, Building Inclusive WorkplacesAuthors, Barron's The Complete Job Search Guide for Latinosmurray@globaldiversitysolutions.comrosemary@jobsearchguideforlatinos.com
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A team of physicians at the San Francisco VA Medical Center and University of California, San Francisco recommends more effective use of interpreters, greater awareness of potential areas of mistrust and misunderstanding, better communication with families, and better knowledge of cultural differences in general when planning end-of-life and palliative care for Latino patients in the United States.
The recommendations, which are based on a case study and an extensive literature review, appear in a paper in the March 11, 2009 issue of the “Journal of American Medical Association.” The paper is part of an ongoing series called “Perspectives on Care at the Close of Life.”
“Latinos make up 15 percent of the U.S. population, and are projected to be at 30 percent by 2050,” notes lead author Alexander Smith, MD, MS, MPH, a staff physician at SFVAMC and an assistant professor of medicine at UCSF. “Unfortunately, however, most studies on palliative and end-of-life care have not included discussions of cultural differences between Latino and white patients and families. As a result, we don’t know very much about preferences, attitudes, and behaviors among Latino patients regarding end-of-life care.” READ FULL STORYRead more…
AUSTIN – Republicans may win their fierce battle to require voters to present photo IDs, a vibrant issue to grassroots conservatives. But doing so could help them lose the larger, future war for political dominance.
Many Latinos, who are the fastest-growing bloc of voters in Texas, feel the bill is aimed at them, with Republicans raising the specter of illegal immigrants casting ballots and swinging elections. This bill, coupled with Republican efforts to crack down on illegal immigration, has led experts to see the Texas GOP quickly losing inroads in the Hispanic community that took years to build.
Republican leaders dismiss the notion that promoting a requirement for voters to present a picture or other forms of identification before they vote will damage the party among minorities. READ FULL STORYRead more…
Three Rawls College of Business professionals address the booming Hispanic population in the U.S. and its economic, political and social impacts.
As the Hispanic population in the United States booms, fallacies surrounding the economic and social impact of Hispanics on America thrive. Two Texas Tech University professors and an alumnus argue that there are opportunities within the challenges that many people do not see.
In their new book, “Hispanic Heresy: What is the Impact of America’s Largest Population of Immigrants?” the three authors work to dispel many of the misunderstandings about how Hispanics in America impact the country’s socio-economics.
The book is by Angel L. Reyes III, a 2008 graduate of the Rawls College of Business Executive MBA program and Dallas-area attorney; Bradley Ewing, the Jerry S. Rawls Professor in Operations Management; and James Wetherbe, Rawls College of Business Stevenson Chair in Information Technology.
Perceptions and Misconceptions
The problems, which are well-publicized, pertain to illegal immigration which can burden the educational, social welfare and medical care systems. Income tax may not be collected and labor abuse may occur.
The opportunity, said Reyes, pertains to the historical value of immigrants and their willingness to take on the entry-level jobs and work their way up to achieve the American dream. READ FULL STORYRead more…
The United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (USHCC), the national advocate for America’s nearly three million Hispanic-owned businesses, issued the following statement questioning the logic behind the statement and inferences made by Mr.Lou Dobbs on CNN in reaction to President Obama’s speech on education reform during the organization’s annual legislative conference:
On March 10th, President Barrack Obama addressed the members of the US Hispanic Chamber of Commerce at its 19th Annual Legislative Conference. During his speech, he announced key policy initiatives concerning education reform in America. Later, Mr. Dobbs criticized the President for discussing education before the United States Hispanic Chamber and slandered the USHCC by suggesting it is engaged in illegal drug trafficking. READ FULL STORYRead more…
Wauconda's village board candidates are divided over comments one hopeful made about the village's Hispanic community.
During a group interview at the Daily Herald's Lake County office on March 10, trustee candidate Mark Kwasigroch said Spanish-speaking residents "need to learn how to read English if they're going to live in Wauconda." READ FULL STORYRead more…
