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Hispanic and Latino unemployment remained essentially unchanged at 11.0 percent, according to the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics report released Friday. It remains at sky-high May levels, which further complicates things for President Barack Obama heading into November.

That's down from 11.6 percent last June, but the rate has gone steadily up for much of the calendar year at a seasonally adjusted rate.

Despite the popularity of Obama's shift in immigration policy, most Latino voters place it

They once were hawked on street corners, displayed like the finest artwork with their images of Aztec warriors, Virgin Marys, lions, pandas and unicorns.

Laura Genao saw them growing up but never pictured herself owning one.

"Too tacky," she thought.

Years later, her mother slyly left one on her couch: a blanket with a giant tiger woven in shades of gray, black and white.

It was then Genao learned what most Latinos in Los Angeles come to understand as children: Love it or hate it, chances are yo

Snacking is about to get a bit more picante. Convenience retail giant 7-Eleven Inc. added Mini Tacos to its vast inventory of items to munch on to appeal to the growing Latino population and the grazers who snack all day.

More than 500 of the chain’s Southland stores will feature the diminutive snacks, selling four for $1, which add to the growing trend of Latin-inspired foods, said Margaret Chabris, director of corporate communications for 7-Eleven.

“We’ve been in the fresh and hot food busines

Pizza Patron Inc., a Dallas-based pizza chain largely geared toward the Hispanic market, has given the green light to a group of investors who want to open 10 new locations in the Rio Grande Valley.

Pete Donbavand, a partner with Valley PP Partners LLC, said the plan is for two new stores in Brownsville, one in San Benito and the rest elsewhere in the Valley. Harlingen probably won't get a new store, due to the company's two-mile "radius requirement" mandating at least two miles between location

McDonald's announced today the latest extension to its national Hispanic education program with the launch of Latinos Rumbo al College, a free webinar series developed in conjunction with non-profit organization Latinos in College (LIC) and LULAC National Educational Service Centers (LNESC). The new webinar series was created to make the college process simple and attainable for both Hispanic students and their parents by leveraging LIC's expertise in developing interactive content that will be

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AMERICAN voters are getting an earful these days about how decisive the Latino vote will be in the presidential election. Let's remember the high stakes for communities of color in state and local elections. Local leaders make most of the crucial decisions that affect our daily lives.

Washington state is doing a dismal job of electing Latinos that represent their rapidly growing populations in many parts of our state. We can, and should, enact state voting reforms to change that.

At Whitman Coll

Both political parties agree that the country's 21.3 million registered Latino voters could make a crucial difference in this year's presidential election.

Yet in a race defined by massive spending on television ads, fast-response Internet videos and sophisticated social media efforts, both President Obama and challenger Mitt Romney have fallen short thus far when it comes to targeting Latino voters electronically, according to some Spanish-language media experts.

Republican candidate Romney tra

The latest census numbers tell a surprising story of how the racial makeup of Chicago’s suburbs has changed over the past 20 years. In many places, Latinos now outnumber whites. West suburban Elgin is one of those places. But as the population in Elgin has taken off, Latino representation at all levels of local government has not kept up.

“Just look at this stuff, the ethnicities represented here,” said Gil Feliciano, standing in the lobby of Elgin’s Gail Borden Library. On a summer afternoon, t

It's been a few years since the big collapse and slowly the economy is starting to recover. Now that a few more companies are hiring and banks are lending again, it's a perfect time to play the blame game. Every week it seems as though there's a new study pointing the finger at someone else for the collapsed housing market.

This one's interesting. According to the Center for American Progress, Latinos are bearing the brunt of mortgage foreclosures. Nearly 12 percent compared to 9.8 for African A

If the importance of the Latino vote in this year's presidential election weren't already clear, two major events last week made sure to drive that point home: first, President Obama announced that he would defer deportations for some, younger undocumented immigrants; then, just days later, both the President and Mitt Romney made sure to show up to address the largest gathering of Latinos in the country: the 29th Annual NALEO conference in Florida.

NALEO stands for the National Association of La

MundoFox, the new Spanish-language broadcast network, slated to launch in August, announced today that it has already secured

“It furthers our strategy of reaching Hispanic consumers while providing us with a new platform on which to share relevant content that resonates with this important group.”

L’Oréal USA, Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc. and T-Mobile USA as major advertisers and charter sponsors for the network’s debut.

MundoFox plans to go above and beyond for its advertisers. For all thr

Alberto Perez started out as a street performer and then an aerobics teacher in Colombia, making extra cash on the side teaching the wives of businessmen how to dance in nightclubs in his hometown, Cali. Today, he stands at the center of the Zumba exercise craze, having helped transform Zumba Fitness, a private company, into a rapidly growing fitness empire with heavyweight investor backing. “I’m not a businessman, but I knew this had the potential to be something special,” said Perez, who along

Vocalo acquiring Radio Arte (WRTE 90.5FM) license
to expand community programming

(June 22, 2012) Chicago Public Media (CPM) is partnering with the National Museum of Mexican
Art to expand community programming. CPM is purchasing the community signal of WRTE 90.5 FM
(Radio Arte), the Museum’s youth-driven Latino public radio station. As part of the partnership, CPM is
also pursuing options to purchase key programs from the Radio Arte line-up to expand programming of
WBEW 89.5 FM (Vocalo), siste

Millward Brown, in conjunction with BrandAnalytics and WPP, today announce the inaugural BrandZ Top 50 Most Valuable Latin American Brands.

The value of the BrandZ Latam Top 50 is dominated by retail, financial, communication, beer and energy brands.

Petrobras, the Brazilian energy giant, topped the ranking with a brand value of $10.6 billion. The remainder of the Top 5 consists of brands from the financial and communications categories.

Brazil, the world's sixth largest economy, is the most dom

The Castilla-La Mancha US Tour will stop in San Francisco, San Diego, and Seattle in July
Featuring Tasting Seminars and a Walk-Around Grand Tasting in Each City

New York, June 21, 2012 – After a well-received tour through Atlanta, Chicago and New York in May, the wineries of Castilla-La Mancha look forward to bringing their distinctive wines to the West Coast during the week of July 9th. Just as local ‘celebrity’, Don Quixote, traveled through his region seeking adventure and noble experiences,

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 marke

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

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 previou

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 Co