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Not all of the key players in the 2012 election were politicians. Here’s a list, that by no means is comprehensive, that gives us a look into the Latinos and Latinas that were instrumental in the 2012 election.

Latino volunteers – Those who basically made campaigning across the country possible, from registering voters to fundraising, phone banking, getting out the vote, and organizing for local and national candidates.
Latino voters – Accounting for 1 in 10 votes this cycle, Latino voters took

In the United States, our diverse population translates into a wide variety of ways people ring in the New Year. Latinos across South and Central America celebrate with a multitude of traditions. My Salvadoran husband, for example, tosses a bucket of water out the door to symbolize doing away with the old to make room for the new. Here is what other Latinos in the U.S. told me when I asked, "How will you be celebrating when the clock strikes midnight on New Year's Eve?"
"We first watch 'It's a

The recipe for success isn’t so much about emulating a dog-eat-dog mentality, but rather it’s building a base of networks or what Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis called “hermandad.”

Solis explained to a crowded room of Latina leaders at a luncheon Monday during the National Hispana Leadership Institute annual conference in Washington D.C., that growing up she sought “hermandad” or a support system.

“There’s this synergy that exists among Latinas that we support each other,” said Solis. “Whatever

Even as rightwing pundits like Ann Coulter and Bill O’Reilly paint the Latino community as over-reliant on government, a new study highlights that Hispanics often do not receive enough of the benefits they are entitled to.

Latinos are less likely than non-Hispanic whites to apply for unemployment insurance benefits or to receive them once they apply, according to the study published in the Monthly Labor Review and publicized in a briefing by the National Employment Law Project.

Based on the 200

For Paula and Manuel Cisneros, every day is a challenge of survival. At 73, he cuts and bag cactus to sell on the street to pay for basic expenses and she is looking for a job. A peaceful retirement for them just looks like a very distant dream.

"Aging is very easy, but to do it with dignity and wellness is not that easy," said Manuel, who came from Mexico as an undocumented immigrant in 1972, worked as a construction worker and after a dozen years became a United States citizen.

The Mexican im

Latino voters overwhelmingly support tax increases on the wealthiest Americans as a way to reduce the deficit and deal with the looming fiscal cliff.

According to a new impreMedia/Latino Decisions survey of more than 5,600 Latino voters, a whopping 77 percent favor increasing taxes on the wealthy. While the vast majority of Democratic Latino voters -- 86 percent -- fall into that category, so do 51 percent of Republican Latino voters.

Only 12 percent say they favor a spending cuts-only approach

I recently received an email from Vicky, an NCLR supporter, who thanked me for reporting each month on how Latinos are doing in today’s economy. She also shared that she is unemployed and has come to realize that being bilingual is not enough to help her land a job. Vicky does not have postsecondary education has found that employers want the whole package in a worker: adequate training, in-demand skills, and education beyond high school.

Many jobseekers like Vicky are keenly aware of what it t

Having command of Spanish and English means, for Latino women, a competitive advantage, several outstanding Hispanic figures from the political, activism and business spheres said Monday.
"Being bilingual is an incredible opportunity. I have two children and I'm concerned for both to speak Spanish as well as English, because that's going to help them in their professional careers just like it helped me," Lidia Soto-Harmon, CEO of the Girl Scout Council of the Nation's Capital, told Efe.
The maj

John Villegas recently opened a State Farm Agency in Palatine, and a ribbon cutting ceremony was held by the Palatine Chamber of Commerce.

John Villegas is a bilingual, first generation immigrant who graduated from Maine West High School in Des Plaines, and earned a BS in Finance from DePaul University. He has more than 15 years of experience in the financial services industry and is passionate about financial literacy and giving back to the community.

Also active as a planning committee volunt

Telemundo has long been like a remote Caribbean island, cut off from its sprawling media homeland.

NBCUniversal acquired the Spanish-language television network a decade ago for $2 billion but became discouraged by its seemingly limited prospects. But Comcast Corp.'s takeover of NBCUniversal last year may be building Telemundo a bridge to the mainland.

"Telemundo now has the full support of Comcast and NBCUniversal," said Emilio Romano, a former Mexican airline chief executive who was hired a y

The future of the American labor movement may lie just off the Las Vegas Strip, inside a squat building huddled in the shadow of the Stratosphere casino.

That's the home of the Culinary Workers Local 226, a fast-growing union of hotel and casino employees that has thrived despite being in a right-to-work state and a region devastated by the real estate crash.
More than 90 percent of Culinary's 60,000 predominantly immigrant workers opt to be dues-paying members, even though Nevada law says they

Latinos are the fastest-growing demographic in the nation, yet few companies are reaching out to this group in their sustainability initiatives, according to research by advertising giant Saatchi & Saatchi.

According to The Myth of the Sleeping Giant: Why Latinos are the Fastest Growing Segment the Sustainability Industry has (N)ever Seen, “the vast majority” of US companies – even those who are spending serious dollars to connect with Latinos – are not messaging to this audience about environm

The future success of California and the nation lies in successfully educating Latinos so they can bolster an increasingly skilled workforce, according to speakers at a forum put on by California Assemblyman Das Williams Tuesday at Ventura College.

"While Latino college completion rates are important in the United States, they are even more so in California with the highest population of Latinos in the United States," Williams said. "Only 16 percent of Latinos have college degrees. If this conti

Talks of the fiscal cliff continue to escalate, and the Obama administration is leading a strong PR campaign telling the American public to call, write, or even Tweet members of Congress. The White House wants citizens to pressure Republican representatives to pass a tax increase on the wealthy and avoid cuts on federal programs.

All Americans will be affected if an agreement isn’t reached by January 1, but one group who may face the toughest hardships are the families largely responsible for pu

A second generation of Hispanic TV channels has arrived in the US, with a new take on language and its staple series, the telenovela. Sean Davidson reports.

The recent Democratic National Convention in the US included among its many speakers Julian Castro, mayor of San Antonio and a rising political star. Together with his brother and fellow politician Joaquin, he is expected to be a key player as the party looks to attract more Hispanic voters in campaigns to come.

Castro gave a rousing speech

For Latino and foreign businessmen, working towards the American Dream may get a little easier, thanks to a new tool found in cyberspace.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services this week launched a website at the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship in Cambridge, Massachusetts that aims to ease the immigration process for entrepreneurs.
The website was part of an initiative announced by federal immigration services in October designated to provide tools for employment-based and high-s

A new study is sounding the alarm about the number of dropouts from the Chicago public high schools.

A study prepared for a conference on re-enrolling dropouts, not surprisingly, found the problem is acute among minority students.

Jack Wuest, director of the Alternative Schools Network, said there’s more.

He said foreign-born Latinos appear to have the highest school dropout rates.

The study, written by Andrew Sun of Boston’s Northeastern University, found Latino school dropouts have seen their

A national group of Hispanic Republicans is demanding that columnist Ann Coulter apologize for a recent column they say is anti-Latino and anti-immigrant.

In an open letter posted to their website over the weekend, the Cafe Con Leche Republicans criticized Coulter for her column "America Nears El Tipping Pointo," which she published on Wednesday. In the column, Coulter mocks the current move by the GOP to appeal to Latinos, saying that Hispanic immigrants are not conservative. She claims that H

BERWYN, Ill. – Diego Marquez, a first-grader at Pershing Elementary School, is the winner of the Verizon Wireless Show-N-Tell contest who received a special visit from Chicago Bears center Roberto Garza this past Monday, Dec. 3^rd. Additionally, Garza spoke with the entire student body at a school assembly.

Marquez won the visit by participating in the Verizon Wireless Show-N-Tell contest. From Oct. 5 through Oct. 28, parents in the Chicago area were encouraged to visit one of four ne

As financial institutions urge their customers to bank anywhere anytime by using their phones and tablets, a new survey finds that Latinos don’t trust a mobile device to keep their funds and personal information secure.

Some 44 percent of Latinos said they don’t turn to mobile banking because they are worried about information security, data released on Tuesday by Zpryme and ThinkNow Research shows.

The online survey, which included 500 adult Latinos between the ages of 18 and 70, was conducted