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Sonny Melendrez with Eduardo Villareal Elementary "Teachers of Strength"

One of my greatest joys in life comes when I am standing in front of an audience delivering my message of the power of enthusiasm. This is especially true when the audience is made up of all ages.

While many of my engagements are keynotes at universities, conferences, corporate awards programs, and charity galas, I also enjoy speaking to smaller groups and schools. I’ve found that one presentation always leads to another.

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Flowers Communications Group (FCG) appointed Ignacio H. Carrillo as Vice President.

Carrillo has previously held senior-level posts at the Experiencia Agency, Weber Shandwick/Axis, and The Jeffrey Group. He has delivered counsel and expertise in top US Hispanic and Latin American markets across a comprehensive range of consumer categories, including QSR, beverages, sports apparel, and telecommunications, and has led programs for major corporations and brands, including McDonald’s, US Army, AT&T

Business is looking good at El Fat Cat Grill in Kennewick.

Felix Sanchez, who opened the restaurant three months ago, said it has attracted a diverse group of customers to the Mexican-infused American restaurant, where everything is made from scratch.

He is one of what the U.S. Census Bureau said is a growing number of Hispanic business owners in the Tri-Cities.

The number of Hispanic-owned businesses in Benton and Franklin counties grew by 33 percent between 2002 and 2007, according to census

Reading High School marked a milestone this month: a graduation ceremony with its first Hispanic valedictorian. Noe Cabello is unlikely to be the last.

The Hispanic population of this historically white city shaped by English and German ancestry — along with the surrounding Lehigh Valley— has skyrocketed in the past decade, echoing a national trend highlighted by the 2010 Census.

Reading, now 58% Hispanic, is the latest harbinger for a more diverse America in regions where Hispanic migratio

A documentary to be unveiled this week will revisit the tumultuous busing riots in Boston in the 1970s, with a rarely seen look at its effects on Latinos and Asian-American families.

The toll the riots had on those communities had gone largely unnoticed by media and historians.

"We have so much ground to cover," said Donna Bivens, a coordinator with a wide-ranging project that will accompany the documentary. "We're just getting started ... finally."

The documentary, of course, primarily focuses

Maria Alejandra Salazar will graduate in August with a bachelor’s degree in education and social policy from Northwestern University. Though she needs to take one more class, she was thrilled to participate in the school’s graduation ceremony in Evanston last week.

Salazar, who turns 22 in a few weeks, is a graduate of Niles North High School in Skokie, where she got used to being the only Latina student in a classroom. At least at Northwestern, where Latinos are about 7.5 percent of the underg

MI VIAJE (MY JOURNEY)

Young Latinos—ages 14 to 34—are eager for bilingual, bicultural content, says a new study co-sponsored by Tr3s: MTV, Música y Más—a bilingual, bicultural channel.

The Máximo report, conducted by Latino media and marketing firms Motivo Insights, LLC and the New Generation Latino Consortium (NGLC), focused on U.S.-born Latinos and those who had been in the U.S. for at least 15 years. Like most consumers, it found, these “New Generation Latinos” want to see content in which “they are the star”—i.e

The largest gathering of Latino elected officials in the United States projects a record number of Hispanic voters in next year's election.

The National Association of Elected and Appointed Officials -- NALEO -- kicked off Thursday with the release of the groups' projections of Latino participation in the 2012 elections.

They expect 12.2 million Hispanic Americans will go to the polls, which would be an increase of 25% from 2008.

But Arturo Vargas, NALEO's executive director says his group expe

Virginia's banks and credit unions could be gathering millions of dollars in additional deposits by reaching out to Hispanic households that lack checking and savings accounts, University of Virginia researchers said.

Almost 39,000 Hispanic households in the state have no accounts with banks or credit unions but generate an average annual income of $23,500 that could flow into the banking system, according to the report by the Darden School of Business' Tayloe Murphy Center.

Some banks and cred

Martha de la Torre is the CEO and co-founder of El Clasificado, a directory of classified ads that is targeted to Latino immigrants and functions as a 'Spanish-language PennySaver.'

The gig: Martha de la Torre is the chief executive and co-founder of El Clasificado, a Spanish-language publication distributed weekly throughout Southern California. The 60-page directory of classified ads is targeted to Latino immigrants and functions as a "Spanish-language PennySaver," said De la Torre, 53. The p

Latinos are the fastest growing demographic in the United States. The 2010 U.S. Census revealed that there are 50.5 million Latinos in this country, comprising 16% of the total population and 14.3% of the workforce. These numbers are expected to increase rapidly in the next few decades. By 2030, it is estimated that Latinos will make up more th

an 20% of the population and over 22% of the labor workforce, increasing their standing as a major driving force in the U.S. economy and labor market.

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If you're looking for a fight dog, googling "pitbull" can take you to a different place. Not only because the successful rapper will be at the top of the searches, but also because this stage English name can be misleading. Behind Pitbull, there's a Latino called Armando Pérez, the real name of this Cuban American artist.

As Latinos online continue to grow, this fight for identifying and targeting them is becoming more and more challenging. Reaching Latinos online can be, as the pitbull example

Join the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (USHCC), Fortune 500 companies, Hispanic Business Enterprises (HBEs) and local Hispanic Chambers of Commerce from across the country on September 18-21, 2011 in Miami where Hispanic business is hot. The USHCC will host its 32nd Annual National Convention & Business Expo at the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach.

"This year's National Convention will be the premier event for Hispanic business in America," says Nina Vaca-Humrichouse, USHCC Board

A Hispanic group is criticizing U.S. President Obama for not attending its annual meeting for three years running, despite his pledge as a candidate to do so.

Members of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials also question Obama's commitment to immigration reform, noting that deportations have increased during his presidency even as he courts the Hispanic vote, Politico reported Sunday.

The organization, which includes more than 6,000 Latino leaders representing huge

The fan vote for the MLB All-Star Game is still going on, and if one group has its way the starting lineups will be comprised entirely of Latino players.

According to ABC 15, Dr. Rebecca Alpert, who wrote a book about baseball and is a professor at Temple University, wants fans to stuff the ballot box for Latino players.

Last summer, calls for a boycott of the All-Star Game spread across the country in the weeks after the immigration law was passed. The fervor has fizzled in recent months as th

The University of Virginia Darden School of Business and its Tayloe Murphy Center released the findings of a major study today that outlines specific steps for how banks and credit unions can capture billions of dollars in deposits by reaching out to Latino and other “unbanked” households across the United States.

The year-long study titled “Perdido En La Traducción: The Opportunity in Financial Services for Latinos” also demonstrates for the first time that persuading households to keep their

This week, Groupon subscribers in Austin, Texas, are offered deals on rock climbing, Indian food and a produce delivery service. Meanwhile, within the same city, users of the Latino-oriented deals site Descuento Libre can buy discounted vouchers for dental care, prepaid mobile phone services and family fun pizza parlors.

Descuento Libre wants to be the Groupon for the Latino market, but its efforts also show how culturally specific such deal sites can be. Last week in Austin I met Descuento Lib

President Obama’s visit to Puerto Rico, the first official state visit by a president in five decades, has been widely recognized as an attempt to reach out to voters back home, where winning the Latino vote is a key part of Obama’s re-election strategy. What’s still unclear is whether his visit, the latest in a line of high-profile speeches and symbolic gestures aimed at keeping his name in front of Latino voters, can substitute for the substantive reforms that Latino have been pushing for.

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Recent census reports show Midwestern cities are shrinking and people are moving out. But at least one group is growing - the Hispanic population. For the series Changing Gears, Niala Boodhoo reports that’s a good thing for our region and our economy.

Drive down the main strip of Aurora, Illinois, a town about 50 miles west of Chicago, and strip malls like the “Plaza del Sol” are a common sight on the landscape. In the 2010 census, Aurora ranked as the state’s second most populous town – a jump