The 11th annual Hispanic Heritage scholarship art competition sponsored by Latino Art Beat for high school juniors and seniors living in Miami, FL, Chicago, IL, Houston, TX, Los Angeles, CA and Washington DC is underway.

This year's theme is "What Hispanic Heritage & Culture Means to Me"!

There are several ways budding artists (and we're not just talking about painters here) can show off their skills and get a chance to win either a $1,000, $750 or $500 scholarship towards college.

The competition categories are: Drawing & Painting, 3-D Artwork, 3-D Sculpture, Photography, Computer Generated Art (Advanced level) and Film & Animation (i.e. Short videos or flip-books).

Winners of the competition not only receive scholarship awards, but if accepted by an academic partner of Latino Arts Beat, are also eligible for higher scholarship awards. In addition to the scholarships, winners will be recognized locally during this year's Hispanic Heritage Month and the specialty retailer, Nordstrom, a partner of the competition, will feature winning artwork from the 2008 competition in window displays of select stores and online at Nordstrom.com during 2008 Hispanic Heritage Month.

2006 National Winner painted by Kandy Lopez of Miami, FL.
(Source: Latino Art Beat)

Also, the competition and its winners will be highlighted in the Nordstrom September fashion catalogue.

The deadline is fast approaching — May 29, 2008.

Details for the contest are only available at public high school art departments in those cities mentioned above.

If you're not sure it's worth all the trouble, last year's national winner was awarded a $60,000 scholarship to attend the Maryland Institute College of Art - an academic partner of Latino Art Beat.

For lovers of Tejano music, this week has been rough with the news that Grammy award-winning Tejano superstar Emilio Navaira almost lost his life, and remains in grave condition, after his tour bus wrecked on a Houston highway Sunday morning.

Fans have been praying for his recovery all week and there is late-breaking news that he is regaining consciousness. Yet, no one can receive too many prayers. That's why the city of Laredo is partnering with Guerra Communications, parent company of two local radio stations where Emilio's songs have always gotten plenty of airtime, in hosting a special prayer vigil for the hurt singer.

The prayer vigil is scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. this Friday, March 28, 2008, at the Laredo Civic Center grounds; local Laredo artist Pete Astudillo and popular DJ Luis (The Bird) Rodriguez of Guerra Communication will be on hand to emcee the vigil.

Out-of-town artists are also scheduled to appear: Javier Galvan from Fama; Rueben Martinez; song writer Beto Ramon and a possible appearance by Emilio’s manager, Joe Castilla, are some of the artists scheduled to appear. Many of the artists will be performing Emilio’s songs for all who attend.

Candles will be distributed to everyone and a slideshow of Emilio with many of the local residents will be shown along with photos of Emilio’s performances at many Laredo events, as well as his performances from the surrounding areas.

Obviously, prayers work miracles.

BBC Mundo journalists, José Baig and Carlos Ceresole, are coming back to the USA.

Well, the duo are back with camera and laptops in tow and starting this Friday, March 28 they're going to concentrate on traveling along a northern route, but they have a new mission.

To say there's a presidential race going on these days is an UNDERSTATEMENT. Never before have people been so energized, passionate and involved.

The people at SiTV and Voto Latino want even more people involved. So, they've created a cool contest for anyone who wants to get close and personal with the presidential candidates at the national party conventions.

But unfortunately, for many of us, the only way we'll be attending the party conventions is if we crash those parties — and that's the idea!

"Crash the Parties" is an online contest designed to break down the barriers between the old media and the new era of internet news.

The winners will get to ask presidential candidates questions at the Democratic and Republican National Conventions. They will attend an award ceremony at the National Press Club in Washington D.C, receive political press training to prepare them for the big event and score backstage press passes to the national conventions.

Yet to enter the contest involves more than just filling in the blanks.

First, you do have to register at "Crash the Parties" and then you have to upload video footage showing why you should represent the community. The rest is up to your amigos and amigas who must vote you all the way to DC.

Submissions will be accepted from March 18 to May 6. Public voting for their favorite is between May 7 through June 18.

There is one catch — you must be registered to vote by July 1, 2008, if you're not already a registered voter.

Now, you don't just have an opportunity to change the world — you can be right in the middle of it.

Time magazine dubbed Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez, author of the groundbreaking book “Dirty Girls Social Club,” as the "Godmother" of chica lit — that genre of literature featuring modern stories with sassy, professional and educated women who just happen to be Latinas or chicas.

The "Godmother" of Chica Lit, Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez

Valdes-Rodriguez is a multi-creative chica herself having already published four chica lit novels. Yet she is savvy enough to know that in this day and age of mortgage meltdowns, credit crunches and federal bailouts, it’s going to take some ingenuity to get people to want to invest a few spare dollars on books — and she has an idea.

Die-hard fans of Ugly Betty know that America Ferrera isn't the first actress to portray the ugly-duckling-who-eventually-transforms-into-a-beauty character.

In fact, the show has had many versions spanning South America and Europe. Yet, for many Latinos in the U.S., the epitome of the franchised series is Mexico's version which starred Angelica Vale and Jaime Camil.

One of the longest running telenovelas in Mexico's history and certainly the most popular (7.4 million viewers saw the finale), La Fea Mas Bella (the Spanish title for the series) has finally been released this week in the United States on DVD.

But if you feel your Spanish isn't where it should be to keep up with the Mexican version, don't worry — this one has English subtitles.