Twelve-year-old Francisca Abreu was anxious. It was February 20, 2007, and she laid her head down on her desk in her seventh-grade science class. "I was crying; I was very depressed. I had written a note to myself," Francisca remembers. "I just said I can't do this anymore. I want to kill myself."
Francisca's school called home, and her mother, Isabel Valdez, learned for the first time that her daughter was in serious trouble. "I never told her," says Francisca. "I never bothered her; she prob
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More than 40 local business, social and cultural leaders are scheduled to gather at city hall Tuesday for a summit on issues that affect the Hispanic community.
Mayor Lois Frankel, who is convening the noon meeting, said it's intended for frank discussion on the state of the community and ideas for the future. "I want to focus on these economic times and what are some of the issues the Hispanic community faces that we need to be more sensitive to," Frankel said.
The Hispanic community continue
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Fired hotel workers, relatives and other town citizens are picketing in protest outside of a Taos, New Mexico hotel. The new owner has told the Hispanic employees at the hotel to change their names.
Larry Whitten purchased the struggling hotel over the summer. His plans were to revitalize it. Whitten has done this for 20 other hotels.
The beauty of Taos goes deeper than the southwestern landscape. Taos is rich in Spanish history. Most of the residents speak Spanish.
Whitten speaks no Spanish
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Bank Founded by Former U.S. Treasurer Continues Mission of Service to Latinos
Pan American Bank (Los Angeles) today announced that it will celebrate 45 years of service to the Latino community on October 24, 2009. Pan American Bank, California’s oldest Latino-owned bank, will honor founder and former U.S. Treasurer, Romana Acosta Banuelos, at a community celebration hosted at Pan American Bank’s headquarters.
“Pan American Bank and Mrs. Banuelos pioneered Latino-focused banking decades before
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In their straw hats, rolled up sleeves and work boots, a dozen or so Latinos gathered by a field of ripening strawberries still look like farmers. All but one of them, however, have lost their land.
Now they ring up purchases in stores, drive tractors — and hold the U.S. Department of Agriculture responsible for denying or delaying the loans that could have saved their farms.
"I used to be a farmer — now I'm a farmworker, working on someone else's fields," said Juan Atayde, who lost his 90 ac
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The NBA announced Monday it is beginning a new marketing campaign that will attempt to bring in additional Hispanic fans to the game.
According to recent statistics from Simmons Market Research, Hispanics account for 15 percent of the NBA's fan base - totaling 120 million people.
"With Hispanics comprising such a large percentage of our fan base, we have a responsibility to connect with them in meaningful ways," NBA Director of U.S. Hispanic Marketing Saskia Sorrosa said in a statement.
The
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The United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (USHCC), the leading advocate for nearly 3 million Hispanic-owned businesses and over 200 local Hispanic chambers throughout the United States, described a mixed reaction to today's announced improvements to small business lending, noting a move in the right direction, but also an expansion of old measures that have not yielded desired results.
As part of February's stimulus package, Congress allocated $730 million to the Small Business Administrat
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The National Museum of the American Latino moved one step closer to reality Tuesday with a kickoff event at the U.S. Capitol for the museum’s commission featuring Hollywood actress Eva Longoria Parker of Texas and Miami music producer Emilio Estefan.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar asked the congressionally created commission to report to lawmakers on the viability of the museum in one year instead of two years. Key organizers predicted that a museum celebrating the Latino experience, possibly
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Rep. Yvette Clarke and about 100 New York clergy members have a message on immigration for President Obama: It’s not just about Latinos and it’s time to get moving on reform.
Clarke and the clergy, many representing Caribbean and African immigrants, are set to deliver that message today to fellow members of Congress and the media in a 1 p.m. press conference.
“I think if the President applies himself to immigration the same way he applies himself to health care, we can pass immigration reform
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My grandfather pulled my mother out of school when she was fourteen. The reason: she clunked a geography test. The fact that the teacher went to my grandfather to explain many kids in her class had failed that test and to beg grandpa not to make the biggest mistake of his life did not make a difference. Unfortunately, my mother did not have her mother—who died four years earlier—around anymore to help persuade the old man.
For my mother this was traumatic. She swore that if she ever had childre
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"I'll take two chili, uh..." a hungry customer stammers at the front of a two-hour-long line. "Chile rellenos," the money-handler trills back in perfect Spanish. This is not a trendy Tex-Mex restaurant; and it's more than 1,000 miles from the Mexican border.
The stuffed pepper causing the stutter is the hottest menu item at St. Cecilia's Lenten fish fry in St. Louis, Missouri. Chile rellenos, a traditional Mexican dish, have replaced fish as the main draw for Catholics giving up meat on Friday
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CNN is airing a four-hour special on Latinos in America this week that ignores its own commentator Lou Dobbs, whose persistent advocacy against illegal immigration has angered many Hispanics.
Some activists have started an anti-Dobbs petition drive, and an advocacy group's effort to criticize Dobbs within the documentary was turned down by CNN. This week's special has left many Latinos with mixed feelings: proud that CNN talks about issues important to them but disappointed the network isn't a
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DeeDee Blase founded "Somos Republicans" to recruit to Arizona Hispanics to the Repubican Party, but not the official state party or the official local party. Somos Republicans (which translates to "we are Repubicans") deliberately distances itself from all official Republican Party entities, citing the dissatisfaction of Hispanics with Republican leaders.
According to the Arizona Republic, Blase believes that it "helps her cause to not be associated with either the state or county GOP." Arizo
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As Hispanic Heritage Month draws to a close today, it’s worth noting that while most of us have been affected by the current recession, much of our nation’s Hispanic population has been mired in its own recession for some time.
The National Institute for Latino Policy cites a Hispanic poverty rate in 2007 of 22 percent, compared to 8 percent for whites. Those numbers have no doubt soared for both groups since last year’s economic downturn.
Sonia Sotomayor’s appointment to the U.S. Supreme Cou
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University of Nevada, Reno Professor Emma Sepulveda Pulvirenti was one of 23 people in the country recently appointed to the National Museum of the American Latino Commission, as announced by The White House.
The Commission is tasked with studying the feasibility of, and creating a plan for, a new national museum in the nation’s capital that would be dedicated to portraying the art, history and culture of the Latino population of the United States.
The Commission members were appointed by Pre
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Latina voters with access to the internet are more likely to be informed about new state laws and the legislative
process in general than non-connected Latina voters, according to a report released today by HOPE (Hispanas Organized for Political Equality). The poll was conducted by Bendixen & Associates and highlights the importance of
bridging the digital divide to engage the Latina voting bloc for civic participation. The poll, Public Opinion Study Of California Latina Electorate, is the firs
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Every year, Metropolitan State College of Denver honors Richard T. Castro's dedication to social change through a visiting professorship.
This year's visitor is Delilah Montoya, a pioneer artist and educator at the University of Houston.
Castro, who died in 1991, was seen as a Denver bridge builder, uniting disparate communities through conversations about human rights, social justice and equality.
Montoya builds bridges, too, but focuses her efforts on the Latina community.
She emphasizes
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The United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (USHCC), the leading advocate for nearly 3 million Hispanic-owned
businesses and over 200 local Hispanic chambers throughout the United States, is pleased to announce the appointment of Javier Palomarez as its President & CEO.
"A pioneer in multicultural marketing, Javier brings more than two decades of corporate experience and entrepreneurial insight from which the Chamber and its members will greatly benefit," said David C. Lizarraga, Chairman o
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All midlife and older Americans have been feeling the impact of the recession. But the effects have been even harsher for African-American and Hispanic retirees and baby boomers heading for retirement, according to a new AARP study.
AARP's "Closer Look" survey of nearly 1,000 Americans ages 45 and older shows that in the past year ethnic boomers and elders have struggled to pay their medical costs; had trouble paying for food, heating and other essential needs; lost jobs or saw their hours cut;
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Scores on the most important nationwide math test increased only marginally for eighth graders and not at all for fourth graders, continuing a six-year trend of sluggish results that suggest the nation will not come close to bringing all children to proficiency by 2014, a central goal of the Bush-era federal education law, No Child Left Behind.
Thirty-nine percent of fourth graders and 34 percent of eighth graders scored at or above the proficient level on the test, administered this spring.
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