With budget cuts straining California's public colleges and universities, some are worried about the effects on Latinos, who are particularly difficult to recruit to higher education in the best of times.
The California State University system, where more than one-quarter of students are Latino, plans to cut enrollment by 10,000 next year. Although the university still plans to guarantee entry to the vast majority of qualified California residents, the plan could discourage students from applying.
Several organizations have worked for years to increase college-attendance rates among the state's 14.3 million Latinos, and some are concerned the new challenges could roll back gains. More than 43 percent of California's 18- to 24-year-old population is Latino, compared with 27 percent of the state's public college and university enrollment. READ FULL STORYRead more…
With his choice of New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson as commerce secretary, President-elect Barack Obama broke with tradition, putting a longtime public servant in a position that has recently been held by private-sector executives.
Richardson, who was one of Obama's rivals for the Democratic nomination, has spent almost his entire career in prominent government roles -- as a governor, congressman, United Nations ambassador and energy secretary. Obama cited the range of Richardson's experience in naming him to his economic team Wednesday, saying he would be a domestic strategist and "a leading economic diplomat." 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…
Diversity within the group of men -- and still only men -- who have been president of the United States will change significantly when Barack Obama is sworn in next month.
But when he looks across the highest level of civil servants managing the government, he'll see a mixed bag when it comes to improving the diversity of the federal Senior Executive Service. A new report by the Government Accountability Office says representation of women and people of color in the senior corps grew overall between October 2000 and September 2007, but not at all agencies. Representation at the departments of Agriculture, Education, and Health and Human Services fell in certain categories, and sometimes those dives were steep. READ FULL STORYRead more…
La depresión y la Navidad en ChicagoRebecca Sánchez22 de diciembre, 2008Para quienes festejan la Navidad, las luces resplandecientes, la música alegre y la comida festiva suelen inspirar paz, armonía y esperanza. Para muchos latinos es la época más bonita del año. Desafortunadamente, esta Navidad no será así para algunos en nuestra comunidad. El 2008 fue un año complejo y estresante. El país e Illinois atraviesan dificultades como la recesión, el alto desempleo y la falta de fondos estatales. La incertidumbre también aumenta sobre las leyes migratorias dejando a miles de hispanos angustiados por su futuro. Tantas contrariedades y la falta de seguridad causan estrés.Mientras en la cultura estadounidense se aplaude que alguien hable de sus ansiedades personales, algunos hispanos perciben la depresión como una falla en el carácter o un signo de debilidad. Sobre todo, los hombres temen que se les vea como "llorones". Un machismo excesivo dicta que no deben demostrar inseguridad o miedo cosa que no facilita sus vidas cuando necesitan ayuda.Según algunos expertos, en Chicago hay más hispanos estresados y deprimidos que antes. El centro Cicero Medical ha tenido un incremento de casos de depresión. Gerardo Licea, director de esta institución, dice que "más pacientes se quejan de tener grandes dudas sobre sus ingresos, de perder sus empleos, y en algunos casos de su situación legal". Agrega que: "este año, la clínica ha referido más pacientes a psicólogos y psiquiatras que en 2007". En general, estos pacientes no hablan fácilmente de sentirse deprimidos y son los médicos quienes reconocen los síntomas.La edad y la situación económica también influyen. Las personas mayores suelen ser aún más reservadas sobre este tema al igual que las personas con pocos estudios.La directora de un centro de servicios de ayuda a domicilio para personas mayores de 60 años y discapacitados en Chicago dice que la mitad de sus clientes se sienten deprimidos. Rebecca Cruz, de "Así Community Service Leader en Bucktown", dice que en sus 32 años en el centro "nunca había visto tantos deprimidos". La mayoría de los más de 300 clientes hispanos viven solos y dependen del Estado para pagar a sus ayudantes de domicilio. Como otros empleados estatales, estos trabajadores también han recibido pagos atrasados. Cruz dice que esto crea un gran estrés para sus clientes.No obstante, los usuarios de "Así" no se abren fácilmente. Cruz asegura que "los recién llegados no hablan de su estrés o depresión y sólo los que llevan años allí lo consiguen". Este centro les ofrece grupos de apoyo para conversar con compañeros que también atraviesan por depresión.Hay otros servicios que ofrecen asistencia en español. El primer paso es reconocer que se necesita ayuda, sin apenarse por ello. Y es que es más penoso pasar por momentos difíciles a solas. La crisis no discrimina, la vivimos todos.Hay quienes sufren más o menos según su situación, pero casi todos estamos en la misma. Dejemos a un lado los prejuicios culturales que dicen que la depresión es una falla personal. No sabemos si la economía, el desempleo, o las leyes migratorias mejorarán en 2009, pero seguramente la vida será más fácil si buscamos apoyo moral.En pocos días será Navidad y muchas gente no tendrá los recursos para festejar como antes. Es momento para recordar que además de ser época de fiesta, también es un periodo de esperanza. Y ésta si que la debemos mantener, porque al fin y al cabo, la esperanza es lo último que nos queda. •
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Valley’s Latino consumers appear to buck national economic slowdown
It's a week till Christmas, and Itzel Garcia is looking to buy a gift for her daughter.
Armed with a gift card, she decides for a dress at Union Gap's Macy's store. The 19-year-old Garcia says that though there's a recession, she still feels she has to buy gifts for her friends and relatives.
"I guess you still need to buy, you still need to shop around," says Garcia. "You feel so bad not to get people stuff. You just manage around and try to go for the sale."
Garcia is just one of the Yakima Valley's countless Latinos who are braving the recession and turning out in droves to local small businesses and national stores like Wal-Mart, Sears, Target and Macy's to do their Christmas shopping.
There's no breakdown of sales for Latinos, but anecdotal evidence suggests that local Latinos -- who make up more than 40 percent of the Valley's population -- account for a growing portion of the holiday season's sales. Jason Ostrer, Macy's store manager, says the Union Mall store did better than last year during the busy day after Thanksgiving, or what merchants call Black Friday.
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What's made up of five women, four African-Americans, three Latinos, two Republicans and two Asians, including a Nobel Prize winner?
The answer: President-elect Barack Obama's Cabinet.
Obama is taking the big-tent approach to governing and wanted a Cabinet that stretches the tent wide.
"I think people will feel that we followed through on our commitment to make sure that this is not only an administration that is diverse ethnically, but it's also diverse politically and it's diverse in terms of people's life experience," Obama said December 16.
It might be diverse, but not everyone is happy. Some women's groups are disappointed. Among Obama's strongest backers during the election, they now say they don't have enough seats at the table. READ FULL STORYRead more…
The Asian American Donor Program is launching a new initiative that seeks to register more Hispanic marrow/stem cell donors, New America Media reports. In the last 19 years, the program has been working to expand the availability of potential marrow/stem cell donors in the Asian community, and more recently has targeted Hispanics. AADP holds roughly 300 bone marrow/stem cell drives annually nationwide (Avila, New America Media, 12/14). READ FULL STORYRead more…
New Census numbers show whites no longer in majority in Dodge City and Liberal
Hispanic people now account for slightly more than half of Dodge City's population, leaving non-Hispanic whites in the minority, according to new Census figures.
The Hispanic segment of Dodge City's population has risen to 53.6 percent since 2000, while non-Hispanic whites dropped to about 41 percent, the figures show. Blacks now account for 1.5 percent of the population, and Asians make up another 2.2 percent.
Dodge City Commissioner Jim Sherer said Sunday he had not seen the figures, but he was not surprised by them.
"I just think that this has been happening over the last 20, 25 years," he said. "To me, it's a very positive thing that we all need to know about, first of all, and understand."
Sherer said that he viewed the increase in Dodge City's Hispanic population as a positive trend, saying it would bring more opportunities for cultural exchanges. He also said that the trend indicated that the community's economic health was strong. READ FULL STORYRead more…
Rising unemployment leaves both citizens, aliens battling for jobs
News reports around the country tell of illegal aliens struggling to find work in a slumping economy and some workers thinking about returning home; but at least one analyst is warning that "hostility" between unemployed citizens and out-of-work immigrants is more likely to strike first.
Jim Gilchrist is founder of the Minuteman Project, an organization that advocates for enforcement of U.S. immigration law. Gilchrist told WND that illegal immigrants may be out of work, but that doesn't mean they're re-crossing the border.
"It's not the reverse exodus, the repatriation back to their homelands, that the media or government bureaucrats might want you to think it is," Gilchrist warned. "There are still 3 to 4 million illegal aliens entering this country every year and not going home."
The Wall Street Journal reported last week on the story of a Hollywood job center that is seeing an increase of all sorts of people seeking jobs.
"Everybody is coming to look for work," Rene Jemio, outreach coordinator for the hiring hall, told the Journal. "It's not just your average immigrant anymore; it's African-Americans and whites, too."
"For the first time in a decade," reports the Journal, "unskilled immigrants are competing with Americans for work."
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Henry Solano, former U.S. attorney for Colorado, has let Gov. Bill Ritter know he's interested in being appointed to the U.S. Senate.
Solano is at least the third prominent Hispanic the governor is considering to succeed U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., who will step down early next year, when he becomes Interior secretary.
The other Hispanics are Salazar's brother, U.S. Rep. John Salazar, of the San Luis Valley, and former Denver Mayor Federico Pena. READ FULL STORYRead more…
A little more than two years after this city of 27,750 put itself in the national spotlight by trying to ban illegal immigrants from renting apartments, life for Hispanics has changed in Farmers Branch.
Among working-class Hispanics, there are rumors that the city "doesn’t want us." They are jittery around police, and some know families that have moved out since the city started trying to prohibit illegal immigrants from renting in 2006.
The controversy has also inspired Hispanic professionals to organize, with the goal of gaining representation in a city where Latinos — who make up nearly half the population — have had virtually none. READ FULL ARTICLERead more…
Iowa has never elected any Latinos as state senators or representatives even though the population represents the largest minority group in the state.
With major issues such as illegal immigration before lawmakers, local civil rights advocates say Latino representation is crucial to help better link a key segment of the population with the rest of the state. More importantly, the representation would lead to better laws that would be beneficial for the entire state, they say. READ FULL ARTICLERead more…
Some 234,000 working-age Latinos who immigrated to the United States between 1990 and 1999 no longer are part of the American labor force, a new report says.
Those workers left the work force over the past year as the economy slid into recession, according to an analysis released Monday by the Washington, D.C.-based Pew Hispanic Center. READ FULL ARTICLERead more…
U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez said he’s taken himself out of the running to fill the Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama.
“The Senate selection process has been tainted, and it is clear that we need a new process to fill the seat that will represent Illinois in the U.S. Senate,” Mr. Gutierrez said in a statement. “I will not be a candidate in that process but rather look forward to returning to the House and continuing my fight for comprehensive immigration reform.”
Mr. Gutierrez was one of a number of people considered by Gov. Rod Blagojevich to fill the Senate seat. The appointment is at the center of a federal investigation that alleges the governor was trying to auction the seat in exchange for political favors. Mr. Gutierrez, a Blagojevich ally who attended a political fundraiser for the governor on Dec. 5, isn’t accused of any wrongdoing and his aides said he hasn’t been contacted by federal officials about the probe.
“In no way did we ever discuss anything of an inappropriate nature,” Mr. Gutierrez said in his statement. He previously said he was interested only in filling the unexpired Senate term and had no plans to run for re-election in two years when Mr. Obama’s term expires.
Mr. Gutierrez attended an event last Friday night hosted by a group of prominent Chicago-area Latinos aimed at raising $100,000 in campaign contributions for Mr. Blagojevich.
A Gutierrez aide says the congressman attended the fundraiser only to speak to the governor about the Republic Windows & Doors sit-in and did not contribute money.
The event at O’Brien’s Restaurant in Old Town was held days before the governor was hit with a criminal complaint alleging that Mr. Blagojevich was trying to raise as much campaign cash as possible before stricter guidelines took effect—and was trying to auction the U.S. Senate seat.
Omar Duque, CEO of the Illinois Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, helped organize the fundraiser but said the chamber group was not a sponsor. He said he was contacted about hosting the event months ago by the governor’s brother, Robert, who heads up Mr. Blagojevich’s campaign fund. READ FULL STORYRead more…
Attracted by reasonable rents, a lower cost of living and relative quiet, Anthony Rodriguez moved to Allentown three years ago from Queens, N.Y., to start his own floral business. It didn't hurt that the city has a sizable Hispanic community.
''It's great because we get along with each other,'' said Rodriguez, 32. ''Spanish people help Spanish people.'' READ FULL STORYRead more…
Nearly two years after complaining that Chicago's 2016 Olympic bid was being spearheaded by an "elite, white man's club," minority aldermen learned Monday that not much has changed.
Testifying before the Finance Committee on the $86 million purchase of Michael Reese Hospital, Chicago 2016 Chairman Pat Ryan disclosed that minorities got only six percent of the contracts awarded by Olympic planners this year and that blacks and Hispanics hold only nine of 50 full-time Olympic jobs. READ FULL ARTICLERead more…
A small but significant decline has occurred during the current recession in the share of Latino immigrants active in the U.S. labor force, according to a new analysis of Census Bureau data by the Pew Hispanic Center, a project of the Pew Research Center.
The proportion of working-age Latino immigrants active in the labor force has fallen, at least through the third quarter of 2008, while the proportion of all non-Hispanics as well as of native-born Hispanics has held steady. Among Hispanic immigrants, the decrease is sharpest among those from Mexico and those who arrived in the U.S. since 2000. Also, the increase in the number of foreign-born Latinos in the labor force is much smaller than previous years. READ FULL ARTICLERead more…
I was curious about how that might go over with someone who was the highest-ranking Hispanic Cabinet member in history and who had been rumored to be on the short list for the high court.
So I called Alberto Gonzales. The former attorney general isn't ready to talk publicly about the U.S. attorney scandal that forced him from office. Although he was cleared of criminal wrongdoing by the Justice Department's inspector general, there may be more investigations. READ FULL ARTICLERead more…
More than half of directors (55 percent) at U.S. publicly-traded companies said they would not like to see their boards become more diverse by increasing their minority representation, according to a recent survey conducted by Heidrick & Struggles International, Inc. (NasdaqGS:HSII - News) and the Center for Effective Organizations (CEO) at the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business. READ FULL ARTICLERead more…
