The rise in the influence of the Hispanic business community has not gone unnoticed in the tourism industry.

Latinos are gaining footholds in a variety of industries in Southern Nevada, and airlines are creating connections to the south to help foster those growing business relationships.

While the population centers of Mexico have always been fertile ground for direct flights, big plans are on the horizon to reach into Central and South America with connecting service that should open new markets.

Since May 2011, the number of seats from Mexican markets has grown 38 percent to 4,838 a week — and that’s with a decrease in seats from AeroMexico, the nation’s major air carrier.

AeroMexico flies nonstop between Las Vegas and Mexico City and Monterrey. Discounter VivaAerobus links Las Vegas with Monterrey. And upstart discounter, Volaris, which has a partnership with Southwest Airlines, flies to Mexico City and Guadalajara.

Southwest and Volaris have hinted at a desire to grow the partnership, and Southwest has even said it eventually plans to fly its own planes to Mexico, although that won’t likely happen any time soon from McCarran International Airport. READ MORE

The Houston piñata controversy started with a few signs.

At parks in the northwestern reaches of Houston's Harris County, alongside the "Leash law will be enforced" and "No littering" warnings, authorities have posted signs saying, "No piñatas allowed" and "No confetti eggs."

Recently, Latino activists took issue with the signs, which they insist unfairly target Mexican Americans, because piñatas and confetti eggs, or cascarones, are popular Mexican party favors.

" ‘Piñatas prohibited' is not a synonym for ‘Do not litter’; it’s a synonym for ‘No Mexicans allowed,’ " Tony Diaz, founder of Houston-based El Librotraficante, told KHOU-TV News. "It’s almost as if all the signs that talk about the speed limit were to say ‘20 mph for your low-riders.’"

"If you condone this, it’s condoning a lot of negative stereotypes about Mexican Americans," Diaz said.

The county adopted the piñata policy six years ago, and officials noted that it covers a wide variety of party accessories. It reads: "All party favors containing paper, confetti, rice, silly string, glitter, or other filling which is designed to pop/break/shatter or otherwise burst and litter our parks are prohibited. This shall include but is not limited to: poppers, piñatas, confetti eggs, and silly string."

The policy only applies to Precinct 4, the largest precinct in the county -- one that includes more than two dozen parks and is at least 26% Latino. READ MORE

The importance of the Hispanic vote to President Barack Obama’s re-election chances is practically impossible to overstate. Yet the significance of the Hispanic vote to the long-term prospects of the Republican Party is arguably greater still.

A Latino Decisions poll of 5 swing states released June 17 revealed that Obama’s executive action to ease the pressure on young illegal immigrants, enabling them to avoid deportation and apply for work permits, has resonated with Hispanic voters.

A previous Latino Decisions poll had found widespread discontentment with Obama’s record 1 million deportations; in January, 41 percent of Hispanic voters said they had grown less enthusiastic about the president as a result. In the swing state poll released Sunday, however, 49 percent of Hispanics surveyed in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Nevada and Virginia said the president’s halt on youth deportations would make them more enthusiastic about Obama, with only 14 percent saying it would make them less so.

If a rise in “enthusiasm” leads to a rise in Hispanic turnout to close to 2008 levels, it could make the difference for Obama in some or all of those five states -- and possibly others besides -- in November. Colorado, for example, has 455,000 eligible Hispanic voters. In 2010, Democrat Michael Bennet won a U.S. Senate seat there by a margin of about 29,000 votes. READ MORE

President Obama has new campaign ads on health care, and they're in Spanish.

The new spots, featuring Hispanic television host Cristina Saralegui, are airing in three states where the Latino could make the difference for Obama's re-election: Florida, Colorado and Nevada.

"President Obama's new health care law guarantees that by 2014 the vast majority of Hispanics will have access to quality, affordable health insurance," Saralegui says in the new ads.

That assumes, of course, that the Supreme Court doesn't strike down the law that Obama signed in 2010.

The justices are expected to issue their ruling sometime over the next 10 days.

The new Spanish-language ads come less than a week after Obama announced a new plan to stop deportations of the children of illegal immigrants and offer them a chance to obtain work permits.

Later this week, Obama and Republican opponent Mitt Romney have separate speeches to a convention of Hispanic lawmakers. READ MORE

For all the latinas who dreamed of starring in a telenovela, Suave Professionals® set out to make one lucky winner's wishes come true! Creating a "first-ever" landmark in TV sponsorship Unilever and Univision Network have taken their creative partnership to the next level. Suave Professionals®, as the official hair care sponsor of "El Talisman," offered one lucky fan the opportunity to win a walk-on role, setting a new standard and making history in the U.S. Hispanic marketing industry.

"For 50 years Suave® has made beautiful hair accessible to all women, by providing salon-quality products and benefits at a reasonable price. Our partnership with Univision and 'El Talisman' takes that promise another step further, making TV stardom possible for one lucky consumer," said David Rubin, U.S. Haircare Marketing Director for Unilever. "We provided a one-of-a-kind opportunity to bring Latinas closer to their favorite novela stars and for the first time put a fan on the show."

The "Estrena Tu Transformacion" (Reveal Your Transformation) contest tasked consumers with sharing their most dramatic hair transformations on Suave's Spanish-language Facebook® page, Belleza Suave, for the chance to make their grand debut on the telenovela, receive a make-over by Suave Professionals® celebrity stylist Leonardo Rocco, and win a five thousand dollar cash prize. Suave Professionals® is proud to announce Mayra Mendoza as our lucky grand prize winner.

Taking the integration a step further, a dedicated section on NovelasySeries.com featured Talisman-inspired hairstyle how-to videos, recreated by Leonardo Rocco. Throughout the telenovela, the Suave Professionals® Keratin Infusion™ range was integrated into three pivotal moments of the ever-dramatic story. One of these moments included a crucial wedding scene where the contest grand prize winner, Mendoza, starred in. READ MORE

These are not the tired, poor, huddled masses of your grandparents’ generation.

They are the most educated and wealthiest immigrants in U.S. history, happier than the general public with their lives and more optimistic about the direction of the country.

And now, Asian Americans are the fastest-growing wave of immigrants in the United States, surpassing Hispanics, according to a survey released today by the Pew Research Center.

"It has happened somewhat under the radar screen," Paul Taylor, executive vice president of the think tank, said from his office in Washington, D.C.

In 2010, 36 percent of new immigrants to the U.S. were Asian and 31 percent were Hispanic, according to Pew.

That’s a reversal from the beginning of the decade in 2000, when 59 percent of new immigrants to the U.S. were Hispanic and 19 percent were Asian. READ MORE

MiTu Network https://www.youtube.com/mitu which successfully launched on April 30, reported today that the new digital video network on YouTube, exclusively dedicated to Latin lifestyle content for today's Hispanic women, is quickly garnering an impressive critical mass. To date, the network has 83 dedicated Latino lifestyle channels, compiled over 11,000 videos, 780,000 network subscribers, over 260 million total network views, and more than 20 million monthly network views. Furthermore, Beatriz Acevedo, MiTu's President, officially announced today that Machinima CEO, Allen DeBevoise, has joined The MiTu Network as an advisor and investor in the company.

"I was drawn to MiTu for many of the same reasons why I started Machinima - both networks target and appeal to loyal, passionate and under-served (though rapidly growing) audiences, who have a deep emotional connection to the content they seek and the tightly knit digital communities they're a part of. I am incredibly excited by the opportunity and programming potential I see in MiTu and its team," stated Allen DeBevoise, Chairman and CEO of Machinima.

"Hispanics represent the fastest growing consumer segment in the U.S. and this is reflected in both traditional and digital platforms. Our launch numbers reflect an enthusiastic Latina audience with a healthy appetite for digital content focused on lifestyle programming," stated Roy Burstin, MiTu's CEO. READ MORE

Daddy Yankee was at a Verizon store located at Brickyard Mall on June 13 to promote the "My Fabulous Quince" composition contest.

Verizon offers to pay all the party expenses, a higher education scholarship, and the presence of famous urban singer Daddy Yankee at the winner's cotillion party. The young women may send compositions until July 31, 2012 online at www.myfabulousquince.com

In 1972, Raul Soto immigrated to the U.S. from Mexico, expecting to work for only a few years before returning to his home country.

Forty years later, the 69-year-old former fruit picker is growing old in America.

"I still think about going back to Mexico, but I have never returned," said Soto, now a U.S. citizen. "I never thought I would stay in this country, but I did."

In Washington state, the number of older Hispanic or Latino people now tops 20,000 — twice the number in 2000, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The large numbers are driven in part by migrant workers who came to the U.S. in the 1960s and 70s. The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 made American citizenship a possibility for those who entered the U.S. before 1982, encouraging many — like Soto — to stay.

"My dad's generation — they came here to work for a few years then go back," said the Rev. Felipe Puleto, a Catholic priest at Saint Joseph's Parish in Yakima. "But once they were here, and the kids were growing up and learning the language and culture, Mexico seemed to get farther and farther away."

That older population now presents a unique challenge for medical, social and housing organizations. READ MORE

Jobita Hernandez has been looking forward to today for a long time.

This morning, with a salsa band providing festive and fitting music, the businesswoman will snip a ribbon commemorating her business's most recent expansion, this time to a cavernous space in Bluffton's Sheridan Park.

Seemingly more like an airplane hangar than a store, the 22,000-square-foot El Super International dwarfs neighbors such as Sonic and KFC in a symbolic affirmation of the ascension of local, Hispanic-owned businesses in southern Beaufort County.

Their proliferation is itself emblematic of a Hispanic population that's not just booming, but becoming better assimilated into the business community.

'BETTER EVERY DAY'

Hernandez, who was born in Houston but raised in Mexico, says she can't remember ever wanting to be anything but a businesswoman.

"My mother was in business, and I think that's where I get it from," she says. "For me, business is everything."

She smiles, but it's clear she isn't kidding. READ MORE

The number of Latino children and youth under 20 years of age diagnosed with diabetes is growing at an alarming rate -- the fastest of any ethnic group in the U.S.

It might be hard to tell a chubby-cheeked gordito that he can have only one helping of flan after dinner, but doctors say a healthy diet and good exercise habits are the key to fixing one of the Latino community's scariest health problems.

A new study released by research affiliates with the American Diabetes Association found that the number of Latino children and youth under 20 years of age diagnosed with diabetes is growing at an alarming rate -- the fastest of any ethnic group in the U.S.

While Type 1 diabetes is growing at an annual rate of about 3 percent, with a 23 percent increase in 8 years, in children and young adults, about 33 percent of Americans under 20 years of age now have Type 2 diabetes, a 21 percent jump in eight years, according to data collected between 2001 and 2009 by the SEARCH for Diabetes in Youth study. But the trend has affected Latinos the worst, according to researchers. READ MORE

Anna Maria Chávez took over as the country’s chief Girl Scout last November. She's the first Latina to head the 3.2 million member organization.

Chávez grew up in the tiny town of Eloy, Ariz., between Phoenix and Tucson. And, of course, she was in a troop.

“I went away for the first time to go camping without my family. That was a huge thing," she recalled during a recent visit to San Diego. "And since that point it really charged me up to think about boundaries outside of Eloy.”

Chávez went to law school and later worked in the administration of former Arizona governor, Janet Napolitano, now U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security.

Chávez said Girl Scouts of the USA is making a major effort to stay relevant to an increasingly diverse population of girls and their parents. They can still go camping, if they want, but the options for activities and learning have greatly diversified as girls have changed, she said.

“You know, nowadays girls are into technology. They’re figuring out how to be global citizens. They’re wondering how can they start their business at 10 years old,” she said.

Faced with lagging membership, the organization has also made a major effort to recruit more Latina girls and get their parents to volunteer. READ MORE

The story of population growth in the United States is a story about Latinos reshaping our landscape. Over the past decade, they have accounted for 56% of America’s growth, now reaching 16% of the population, or more than 50 million citizens, even surpassing African-Americans to become the country’s biggest minority group. Latinos are certainly making their voices and preferences heard.

Such a phenomenon can also be seen in the showbiz world, as we’re finally starting to see a positive shift in the portrayal of Latinos in Hollywood. Cultural stereotypes are giving way to cultural authenticity. As a result, New Generation Latinos, also known as NGLs, are making waves and changing the conversation. They’re influencing traditional media and making Latinos the biggest and fastest growing users of online and interactive technology, mobile devices, and social media. READ MORE

Reaching out to a fast-growing population of young Latinos is key to the country’s economic future, U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis said Friday in Des Moines.

A conversation with more than three dozen people from area Latino communities focused on jobs, a topic of intense interest among Hispanics across the country, Solis said.

To reach the next generation of Americans entering the workforce, Solis said her department has launched a social media campaign to connect people with job search resources such as MySkillsMyFuture.org and MyNextMove.org.

Jose Robles, 21, a student at Des Moines Area Community College, said he’s enrolled in a GED and welding program through a federal Department of Labor grant. Robles said the program drew a lot of interest: He was one of a dozen young people chosen out of about 40 applicants. READ MORE

Although 20% of the US Population is Latino, only 2% of all healthcare executives are prepared to address Latino healthcare challenges. The Association of Hispanics Healthcare Executives (AHHE), together with politicians, policy makers, and healthcare leaders, is providing a unique healthcare dialogue and solutions for the Latino community at its 2012 Annual Healthcare Diversity Awards Gala. Keynote Speaker, Commissioner of the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Thomas Farley, MD, MPH, will be promoting health in Latinos at this Awards Event, to be held at the New York Academy of Medicine on June 20, 2012 from 6:00pm to 10:30pm.

The Latino community is the largest and youngest minority group in the US, yet it is one of the minority groups that faces the biggest challenges in the healthcare area:

highest rates of preventable diseases

a high percentage of Latinos are uninsured. READ MORE

NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY NEWS

MEDIA CONTACT: Hilary Hurd Anyaso at (847) 491-4887 or h-anyaso@northwestern.edu

FOR RELEASE: June 13, 2012

TALE OF THREE SEGREGATIONS
Poor other-race neighbors contribute to poverty of Black and Hispanic neighborhoods

EVANSTON, Ill. --- Unlike most whites, blacks and Hispanics tend to have neighbors from other racial groups who are disproportionately likely to be poor. This contributes importantly to the high poverty rates of the neighborhoods lived in by black and Hispanic families and to high poverty rates of schools attended by black and Hispanic children.

Lincoln Quillian, professor of sociology and faculty fellow at the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University, analyzed data from the 2000 census and found that the disproportionate poverty of blacks’ and Hispanics’ other-race neighbors plays an important role in creating racial disparities in neighborhood poverty. The other-race neighbors of black and Hispanic families are disproportionately likely to be poor regardless for black and Hispanic families of all income levels.

Concentrated poverty in minority communities results from three segregations: racial segregation, poverty-status segregation within race and segregation from high- and middle-income members of other racial groups, according to the study. Past work has emphasized racial segregation and poverty-status segregation within race, but has missed the important role played by the disproportionately low-income levels of other-race neighbors of blacks and Hispanics.

Quillian hopes his study continues to shed light on the phenomenon of concentrated poverty in neighborhoods and racial inequalities in neighborhood environments.

“Nationally there is evidence that as racial segregation has been slowly going down that income segregation has been going up,” Quillian said. “Blacks and Hispanics often are co-residing with poorer members of their racial groups.”

White middle-class families overwhelmingly live in middle-class neighborhoods and send their children to middle-class schools. But many black and Hispanic middle-class families live in working-class or poor neighborhoods and send their children to high-poverty schools.

Less appreciated is the influence of other-race neighbors of blacks and Hispanics on the high poverty rates of neighborhoods blacks and Hispanics reside in.

“So much emphasis in sociology has been on the role of racial segregation and how that contributes to poverty concentration by separating high-income race and ethnic groups from low-income groups,” Quillian said. “But that only is part of the story.”  

Decreasing racial segregation through aggressive enforcement of anti-discrimination policies in housing would significantly reduce poverty concentration, Quillian concluded. But attention must be paid to income segregation taking its place in a complicated way, he said.  

“Policies that aim to provide broader housing choices may not deconcentrate poverty if blacks and Hispanics can only find places in the most disadvantaged desegregated neighborhood,” Quillian concluded.

“Segregation and Poverty Concentration: The Role of Three Segregations” will be published in the June issue of the American Sociological Review, a journal of the American Sociological Association.

NORTHWESTERN NEWS: www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/

Nova Southeastern University (NSU) was recently ranked as the number one institution in the nation for the number of doctoral degrees awarded to Hispanic students. The ranking was published in the Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education Magazine's 2012 "Top 100 Colleges for Hispanics" edition.

For the fourth consecutive year, NSU earned the top spot on the list for doctoral degrees awarded in such high-demand fields as education, business, psychology, dental medicine, law, osteopathic medicine and others, with 279 degrees conferred on Hispanic students out of the 1,699 total conferred in 2011. NSU was also the highest ranking private non-profit university, coming in second overall, conferring master's degrees to Hispanic students, with 812 degrees conferred in 2011.

NSU prides itself on providing a quality education for those who want to excel in their studies and chosen field. The university had 6,492 students who identified as Hispanic as of fall 2011, which makes up 23% of the overall university population of 28,457 undergraduate, graduate, doctoral and first-professional students. Thirty-three percent of the university's undergraduate population is Hispanic.

"We are honored to be ranked number one nationally in conferring doctoral degrees to Hispanic students for the fourth year in a row," said NSU President George L. Hanbury II, Ph.D. "Diversity is one of NSU's eight core values and we pride ourselves on being as diverse as the South Florida community that we call home." READ MORE

Who is Latino? Who counts as Native American?

The debate over who is considered a minority was brought to the spotlight by the Senate race in Massachusetts. Democratic candidate Elizabeth Warren claimed she had Native American heritage, but there's no records to indicate that. Still, Warren insists that she learned of her background through family stories and that she is proud of her heritage.

Today, The New York World ran a story that talks about the real-world implications of these questions. Essentially a New York City program that assists minority business owners is asking Latinos to provide proof of their ethnicity by showing a birth certificate and an affidavit confirming their ethnic identity. READ MORE

President Obama and his supporters continue to roll out efforts to woo Latino voters, but Latino and immigrant advocates say Mr. Obama's message will be hard to swallow without better attempts to reform the administration's deportation policies.

The Obama administration has pledged to focus its deportation efforts only on illegal immigrants who could be considered the "worst of the worst," as some have put it, and in November the Department of Homeland Security began reviewing about 300,000 backlogged immigration cases. However, data released by the department last week showed that few of the undocumented immigrants with pending cases -- fewer than 10 percent -- qualify for relief from the system, or "prosecutorial discretion."

"It's just outrageous [that] an administration that says, 'we're only going to after the worst of the worst' has concocted a system... that says 90 percent of the people are eligible for deportation," Frank Sharry, executive director of the group America's Voice Education Fund, told reporters on a conference call Monday.

Sharry and other immigrant advocates say the "prosecutorial discretion" efforts have fallen short because of a lack of leadership from the top -- pointing both to Napolitano and Mr. Obama. They charge the president and his cabinet members have the power to improve the program, but haven't in the face of Republican criticism. While polls show Mr. Obama still has strong support from Latino voters, those advocates say the continued high deportation rates will take their toll. READ MORE

The nation's rapidly growing Latino population is one of the most powerful forces working in President Barack Obama's favor in many of the states that will determine his contest with Mitt Romney. But Latinos are not registering or voting in numbers that fully reflect their potential strength, leaving Hispanic leaders frustrated and Democrats worried as they increase efforts to rally Latino support.

Interviews with Latino voters across the country suggested a range of reasons for what has become, over a decade, an entrenched pattern of nonparticipation, ranging from a distrust of government to a fear of what many see as an intimidating effort by law enforcement and political leaders to crack down on immigrants, legal or not.

In Denver, Ben Monterosso, the executive director of Mi Familia Vota, or My Family Votes -- a national group that helps Latinos become citizens and register to vote -- gathered organizers around a table in his office and recited census data demonstrating the lack of Latino participation.

"Our potential at the ballot box is not being maximized," Mr. Monterosso told them. "The untapped potential is there." READ MORE