A New Year's Day ritual in city newspapers across the country is to identify the first baby born in the New Year in that particular city. On the heels of the news that former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's 18-year-old daughter gave birth last week, teenage pregnancies as some of the first births of the New Year shouldn't be surprising or alarming.

Axel Bladimir Ortiz, weighed in at 6 lbs., 11 oz. and is 19 1/2 inches long and was the first baby born at Washington Hospital Center.
(Source: myfoxdc.com)

Yet, when Dallas' local newspaper reported that the first baby of the New Year was born to a 15-year-old eighth grader, it's hard to be happy about that bundle of joy.

Justin Daniel Ramirez was born to Dallas eighth-grader Fernanda Rios, 15, who couldn’t stop smiling as she cradled her new son in her arms Thursday morning.

“I was nervous at first about what my mom would say, but I told her I would try my best and she said okay,” Fernanda said.

Fernanda will take six weeks off from school, and be home schooled while she gets to know Justin. She said her mother and cousin will help raise him, along with the boy’s father who also lives with her mother.

With 53 percent of Latina teens already getting pregnant before the age of 20, according to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, it's time that there be a federal response in creating a national program that combats this increasing trend before more young Latinas embrace motherhood before they're even eligible to drive.

While the Obama Administration would prefer to make race a footnote issue, a new study illustrates that race is very much an issue regarding Newbery-awarded children’s books and warrants serious attention.

While every New Year is seen by most as the start of a fresh chapter in our lives, it’s especially true for 2009. Barack Obama’s inauguration as the nation’s 44th President and first biracial Commander in Chief signals a new national chapter on racial awareness.

What does that mean?

For a nation where people of color totaled 102.5 million in 2007 — that’s 34 percent of the total population — the Obama presidency marks a milestone that may finally get the attention of some of the other 66 percent who still see people of color as the stereotypes perpetuated by popular media. Or at the very least, see people of color in narrowly defined roles in society.

Not even after eight years of watching such high-profile political figures as Colin Powell, Condoleeza Rice and Alberto Gonzalez come and go in the White House did it count towards elevating the national dialogue on race.

Now it does.

The ramifications of Obama’s presidency go well beyond what he will directly do to lead this country. It will hopefully impact areas that could benefit from a heightened awareness of race— like children’s literature.

Thanks to Brigham Young researcher Tony Nisse, who authored a Diversity in Newbery Children's Literature - AEJMC.doc analyzing diversity in Newbery Medal-awarded books, we find disappointing news when it comes to the track record of awarding the elite children’s literature award to books that feature children of color as the main characters.

According to Nisse, the last time a Newbery-awarded book had a black protagonist was eight years ago. For a book with a Latino main character, it’s unbelievably worse —43 years ago!

Continue reading A new year creates a new level of racial awareness in children’s literature

The news that New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson withdrew his name for consideration for Obama's Cabinet is leaving those of us who advocated for his inclusion with huevo all over our faces.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson

Now, it appears it was a blessing that the Gov. wasn't awarded the Secretary of State position that so many in the Latino community wanted him to get. If he had been, chances are media pundits would still be talking about him. But seeing that it was the Commerce position, a position that many of us didn't see as an ideal fit utilizing his experience and attributes, it's a topic that has gone on the back burner while all eyes have shifted on whether or not the Senate accepts Obama's replacement.

In the meantime, we must all wait to see if the New Mexican Grand Jury decides whether or not Richardson or any of his aides are as innocent as they claim in the latest "pay-to-play" allegations.

If he's found guilty, then another great political hope for the Latino community has let us all down. There will be reflections of how Latino politicians are either very bad at playing this game of politics or have just become too drunk with their own power and greed that they develop a Superman complex that makes them think nothing can touch them or bring them down.

If the guilty verdict should arise, then it will be time for the Latino leadership to seriously address the lack of ethics among our politicians and take a cue from the Obama Administration and get everyone into the practice of making their relationships — political, business and personal — as transparent as possible to avoid any embarrassing downfalls like this in the future.

If he's innocent, then it's likely that Richardson may join Obama's Administration once his term in office is over. Yet, instead of awarding him a position for the sake of only appeasing Latinos, there should be a new position created for which Richardson would be a perfect fit — and one which may not be able to wait until the Governor finishes his term in office.

President-elect Obama's recent doomsday assessment of the economy underscored a sad fact —the worsening economy isn't just hitting people's pocketbooks but someplace where it really hurts — the dinner table.

Feeding America (formerly known as Second Harvest) released a press release last month citing how the nation's food banks experienced a 30 percent increase in emergency food assistance.

A family takes advantage of their local food bank.
(Source: Feeding America)

The economy is affecting all Americans, but it is low-income Americans who are suffering the most,” said Vicki Escarra, president and CEO of Feeding America. “Skyrocketing unemployment rates, increasing food costs and high fuel prices for the majority of this year have put an unprecedented level of need on our food banks. Unemployment projections indicate that the situation is likely to get worse in the near future. Low-income Americans need increases in food stamps and our network needs more food from the federal government to ensure that we can keep feeding the millions of people turning to us for help.”

More than 90 percent of food banks respondents cited increases in food prices and unemployment as the primary factors contributing to the increase in requests for emergency food assistance. More than 60 percent cited fuel, and 52 percent cited the inadequacy of food stamp benefits.

Seventy-two percent of food banks reported that they are not able to adequately meet the needs of their communities without adjusting the amount of food distributed – offering smaller amounts of food and groceries to those in need – or their operations.

Unfortunately, it's no longer just the poor who are feeling these hunger pangs. It's also the working poor. It's reported that 40 percent of those seeking food assistance are employed.

Working poor have jobs but still need extra help to provide for their families. More than 41 percent of households served by food banks last year reported having to choose between buying food and paying for utilities or heat. More than one-third - 35 percent - of the same households reported having to choose between paying for food and paying their rent or mortgage.

It was this kind of grim news that spurred one Connecticut man to do something he'd never done before.

Between today and yesterday, my Inbox has been filling up with emails from students who are undocumented but want to go to college, earn a degree and put it to use. Due to laws in most states, that dream is just a dream.

Yet all these students have a rekindled hope that this dream will become a reality. Not because Congress is showing signs of resurrecting the failed bill but because of a web site called change.org that is running a very unique contest called Ideas for Change in America.

I actually wrote about the ideas competition on change.org last week but didn't specifically point attention to the one idea that all these email writers want Latina Lista readers to notice — Pass the DREAM Act - Support Higher Education for All Students.

Because it happens to be an issue I personally support, I am republishing in part the original blog post and urge Latina Lista readers to support the idea that college be made available to all those students who want to go, regardless of citizenship.

But I believe the message is much stronger in the voices of those who are fighting for it:

My name is Maria and I am a DREAM Act beneficiary. I arrived in this country at the young age of 12, with my parents, from Peru. I am now 21 years old and undocumented. I have grown up in the United States and consider this country my only home. If sent back to Peru, I would be banned from the U.S. for 10 years and the chances of coming back are slim to none. I graduated from high school in 2004 and since then, it has been difficult for me to continue my education as a result of my status.

My name is S.Aran, I am a representative of Dream Activist where we are currently conducting a massive awareness and recruitment campaign in order to garnish support for the Dream Act.

I am an undocumented student, and find it extremely difficult to pursue my college education due to a status I inherited from my parents. Being brought to the United States at the age of 12, raised and brought to an American lifestyle, to graduating high school in 2007 at the top of my class. The DREAM Act would help me, and students in my situation, realize our dreams of becoming active members of society by allowing us to attend school or join the military.

Change is afoot in Washington and Obama hasn't even been sworn into office yet. But the anticipation of the changes Obama pledged to do once he assumed office has been enough to get people to take the initiative in helping him steer a course on change.

One of those initiatives is known as change.org.

At change.org, a competition called Ideas for Change in America was created to take advantage of Obama's claim that he wanted an increase in citizen involvement in government. What better way to get involved than to propose new ideas on what Obama and his administration should tackle in the 100 days, if not term.

The first part of the competition was held last month where over 7,000 great ideas proposed by Americans were voted on by the public and the list was whittled down to a second stage featuring just 90 ideas — the top 3 ideas from each of the 30 categories.

But don't think it's over.

The top 10 rated ideas from the final round will be presented to the Obama administration on January 16th at an event at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, co-hosted by the Case Foundation. At the event we (change.org) will also announce the launch of a national advocacy campaign behind each idea in collaboration with our nonprofit partners to turn each idea into actual policy.

But before Obama can be presented with the top 10 ideas, they first must be voted on from the 90 that are still vying for a top 10 spot.

From January 5 - January 15, people can vote for their favorite ideas to be presented to Obama — and hopefully see their ideas turn into action.

The 11th hour decision by Attorney General Michael Mukasey (And we do mean 11th Hour since it was only a few hours before he delivered his farewell remarks to Department of Justice employees) was meant to serve as a last parting shot from the Bush Administration when it comes to influencing the proceedings in the nation's immigration courts system.

U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey.

It wasn't enough that this administration oversaw the selection of immigration judges based, not on merit, but political affiliation. Now, it seems that those immigrants who were represented by incompetent, lazy or mistake-prone lawyers and lost their cases, have no legal recourse to reopen their cases.

"This order will have a tremendous negative impact on countless people who will be deported simply because they had the bad luck to be represented by the wrong immigration attorney," said American Civil Liberties Union Immigrants' Rights Project Deputy Director Lee Gelernt. "This is a dangerous move away from the U.S. tradition of fairness and due process. Losing your case because your lawyer missed a deadline or made some other egregious error can never be considered a fair process."

Yet, in the government's haste to strip immigrants of any legal rights, they inadvertently clarified an issue that has been a driving force among critics of undocumented immigrants in justifying the immigrants' removal from the United States.

At long last, the government has settled the question of whether or not undocumented immigrants are criminals.

The Obama administration is ushering in a new political era by holding politicians to a higher standard. Yet, the Latino community must seize our own political destiny by enforcing today the kind of change needed to create tomorrow’s Latino leaders.

News of New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson’s withdrawal as the commerce secretary-designate was a major disappointment to those in the Latino community who were counting on having one more “voice” in Obama’s inner circle.

Yet Richardson’s actions, along with past disappointments of high-profile Latino politicians, is leading people to realize that the practice of politics may have a long way to go before the change Obama promised during his campaign happens.

It’s good to see that there has been some movement towards the promised change. We only have to look at the demands of the incoming Obama administration on their current crop of cabinet and White House nominees. Setting a high political bar that requires everyone to be accountable and transparent in the handling of their professional and personal relationships, Obama’s administration is setting the example for all politicians who insist on playing by the old rules of pretending to be ignorant about what happens on their watch.

Since this is only the beginning of the next four years, no one wants to start off on the wrong foot. So, in that light, it’s not surprising that Richardson would rather jump ship and clear his name before subjecting himself as the first “example” of the new political era.

Smart move.

Had he waited to admit that there was something more than just a common grand jury inquiry into contracts awarded to political donors, Richardson would not only have garnered the despise of the Latino community, who tirelessly advocated for his cabinet nomination, but he would have committed his own political suicide amid a changing Capitol Hill landscape.

Continue reading It's time to create true change in Latino political leadership

Today's meeting between President-elect Obama and Mexico's President Felipe Calderon was basically a get-to-know-you affair with small talk over a lunch that featured tortilla soup, choice of fish or steak with cilantro and for dessert, a coconut cream custard.

President-elect Obama meets Mexico's President Felipe Calderon.

Yet, with the gravity of the issues now facing Mexico and threatening the security of the United States, it's hard to imagine that "small talk" dominated today's meeting. Yet, unfortunately, that just may be the case.

Pool reporters reported that "Calderon said their conversation was general but productive. They spoke about organized crime, immigration reform, the financial crisis, energy and other hemisphere issues."

However with a published report making the rounds that declares Mexico could become a narco-state in the coming decade, today's dialogue should have bypassed general topics and focused on setting up a definitive partnership between our two countries to combat Mexico's lawless spiral, acknowledging the role the U.S. has in it and how to keep drug cartel violence from impacting U.S. citizens.

Unbelievably, the issue of immigration is still being used by some Congressional politicians to prove a point. That they want to make an example of defenseless children who are legal immigrants to continue making their point illustrates their contempt not just for undocumented immigrants but immigrants overall.

But the surprising twist in this new round of immigrant-punishing legislation is that it doesn't emanate from the House of Representatives, where comprehensive immigration reform failed, but in the Senate.

It seems "Congressional Democrats said they had decided to add a major provision allowing states to restore health insurance benefits to legal immigrants under 21" in the new State Children's Health Insurance Program, known by the acronym S-CHIP.

Whereas the House Democrats are set to take the bill directly to the floor, that's not the story in the Senate. "Senate Democratic leaders plan to work through the Finance Committee, led by Senator Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana. Mr. Baucus has drafted a bill similar to the House measure. As of late Monday, his proposal did not include benefits for immigrants."

In a new administration where the President-elect has made it clear that it's a new day when it comes to the rights of children, this posturing by the Senate starts the new era in Washington on an old and discriminatory page.

As the new legislative season gets underway in the Capitol and across the nation, there are state legislators and city politicians who still insist on demoralizing, intimidating and targeting Spanish-speaking immigrants, both legal and undocumented, with legislation that is racist in nature.

As Latina Lista noted yesterday, Senate congressmen still have not decided to add coverage of legal immigrant children in its version of the State Children's Health Insurance Program — despite the news that the House of Representatives passed its version of the bill today which included the option for states to provide coverage for these same children.

Abraham Rodriguez, 39, weeps as he talks about a vision of the Virgin Mary he says appeared to him. More than 150 people gathered Saturday at the altar he created inside Plaza San Miguel flea market. (Source: Photo Jim Beckel, The Oklahoman)

From Texas, where a dozen anti-immigration bills are waiting to be debated in the state legislature in Austin to Arkansas where legislators will decide on the fate of allowing undocumented students from receiving in-state tuition to the city of Nashville where there is a campaign to make English the only language, immigrants continue to be under siege.

Time will tell just how committed the Obama administration is towards changing the national dialogue when it comes to immigration but if a recent holy vision in Oklahoma City is any indication patience may be waning.

While doubts still linger over whether or not Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano is the right choice to lead the Department of Homeland Security, one fact that was made abundantly clear in today's confirmation hearing of her nomination was that she will have her hands full.

Homeland Security Secretary-designate Janet Napolitano, left, is greeted on Capitol Hill by Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee Chairman Sen. Joseph Lieberman, right, and the committee's ranking Republican Sen. Susan Collins, prior to testifying before the committee's hearing on her nomination.
(Source: Kevin Wolf/Associated Press)

From worrying about where to house Katrina evacuees whose trailer housing comes due in March to thwarting any national cyber attacks to being on the lookout for terrorists at the nation's airports to preventing any biological weapons from being launched on the public to, of course, enforcing immigration laws and overseeing border security.

Yet, given the deteriorating conditions in Mexico, it's time that a separate department dealing only with Mexico and the United States be formed before what's happening south of the border finds its way into this country on a more prevalent scale.

By Wendy Young

Wendy Young, Executive Director of KIND

Kids in Need of Defense or KIND was kicked off last October with the announcement that movie actress Angelina Jolie had teamed with computer software maker Microsoft to create a unique non-governmental organization that provided pro bono legal counsel to the thousands of immigrant children who find themselves alone in immigration courts across the country.

Scared, confused, and many times, traumatized by their experiences, these children, from under ten to teenagers, find themselves in the midst of very adult situations within the U.S. legal court system without a clue as to how to defend themselves and explain why it was important that they come to the United States.

Seeing the injustice in subjecting these children to these kinds of proceedings alone, KIND was created to defend and speak on behalf of these children. Now, KIND has an official spokesperson and her name is Wendy Young.

Ms. Young is the new founding executive director of KIND. With a background in immigration and refugee policy, Ms. Young is passionate about championing the rights of defenseless immigrant children and explains KIND's mission and her hopes for the future treatment of these children.

As we prepare for the Inauguration of our nation’s first African American President, many of us are pausing to reflect on the true meaning of this historic event. From our earliest roots as a nation, the United States has represented a place where people of all ages, incomes and backgrounds come in the hope of finding shelter from poverty, war, and persecution and building a new life for themselves.

The most vulnerable among these are unaccompanied immigrant and refugee children. Every year, more than 8,000 unaccompanied immigrant children arrive in America seeking protection, freedom and safety from the indignities of abuse, mistreatment, torture and even human trafficking that they have been forced to endure.

They come to the United States seeking its promise of a better life, yet the majority of these children – possessing limited education and English skills – become lost, traumatized, impoverished and ultimately forgotten.

Yesterday, the web site change.org announced that they have finally culled a list of ten winning ideas (from the hundreds they received) that they will present to the Obama administration for consideration to implement.

Though not in any particular order, the list leads with Pass the DREAM Act: Support Higher Education for All Students. Congratulations to all the students who worked tirelessly to get the necessary votes to bring it to the top ten.

An education report reveals that in the next five years there will have to be significant investment in higher education for Hispanic immigrants if the country is to remain globally competitive. Yet, passage of the DREAM Act would address some of those concerns of the future economy while providing the quickest impact on students and setting the tone for true educational reform.

Reforming education is usually a standard political campaign promise for politicians who want to garner easy votes. A quick review of the planned educational reforms on the Obama-Biden agenda reveal that the new administration made a wide range of campaign promises: improving early childhood education options, reforming No Child Left Behind, addressing the dropout crisis and simplifying the financial aid process for college applicants among several others.

One reform that is noticeably absent, but was supported by Obama during the campaign, was passage of the DREAM Act. It is a bill that would enable undocumented students to attend college and pay in-state tuition.

Part of the criticism against the DREAM Act has always been the cost to educate undocumented students. In contrast, the cost for all the reforms the incoming administration wants to undertake will be supported because it will be argued that it is in the best interest of the country’s future to fund them.

Yet, it’s funny how the same argument is never applied to those students who have lived their whole lives in the United States, are academically prepared to tackle college and ready to give back to the country in ways that would far exceed the costs of their college education. Well, perhaps a report that found the nation’s economic future hinges on the need to fund higher education programs specifically targeting “Hispanic immigrants” will shed new thinking on a tired argument.

Continue reading Educational reform must include the rights of undocumented students to achieve collegiate dreams

There's no denying that today's observance of Martin Luther King, Jr. is especially poignant for the nation and for African Americans. With Barack Obama's inauguration mañana, it would seem that Dr. King's dream is well on its way to fruition.

(Source: goatmilk.files.wordpress.com)

While there still does exist rampant discrimination against people of color, it is the collective hope that a President-of-color will renew sensitivities towards acts of racial discrimination.

Yet, while African Americans celebrate how far they've come since Dr. King was alive, the Latino community, while celebrating our accomplishments thus far, are left to ponder why we still lag behind African Americans when it comes to garnering one thing — R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

My fellow citizens:

I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors. I thank President Bush for his service to our nation, as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition.

Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath. The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace. Yet, every so often the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms. At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because We the People have remained faithful to the ideals of our forbearers, and true to our founding documents.

So it has been. So it must be with this generation of Americans.

That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age. Homes have been lost; jobs shed; businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly; our schools fail too many; and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.

These are the indicators of crisis, subject to data and statistics. Less measurable but no less profound is a sapping of confidence across our land - a nagging fear that America's decline is inevitable, and that the next generation must lower its sights.

Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America - they will be met.

While everyone (for the most part) has a great deal of hope in what President Obama can do for the country, there's no group probably hoping harder than the hundreds of immigrants languishing in detention facilities across the nation.

A new report by the Arizona-based Southwest Institute for Research on Women (SIROW) found that Arizona houses about 300 immigrant women who are caught up in the fastest growing form of incarceration in the country.

Their problems are not unique to Arizona but thanks to the research performed by the report's authors, their stories give insight to the "Unseen Prisoners."

In UNSEEN PRISONERS: A Report on Women in Immigration Detention Facilities in Arizona, researchers found a host of problems that negatively impact the welfare of the female immigrants.

Before Congresswoman Hilda Solis accepted the nomination to be Labor Secretary, she was known to those of us who aren't her California constituents for being a champion of women. Women who suffered as victims of domestic violence and women who were suffering across the border in Juarez, Mexico as victims of faceless assailants who kidnapped and murdered the women's daughters.

Congresswoman Hilda Solis

Solis didn't just sponsor bills as a congresswoman; she got involved and championed issues. If her nomination passes the Senate, then the Latino community has lost one congressperson who went beyond the call of duty to actively support those bills that most directly resonate with the greater Latino constituency.

To some this may sound like a love letter to Rep. Hilda Solis, but it's a sad realization that too few Latino congressional representatives take advantage of their positions to champion causes that touch the heart of the collective Latino community.

Given the small number of Latino representation on the Hill, Latino politicians' jobs in Congress are a little harder than that of their colleagues because while they represent the immediate interests of those whose votes put them in Washington, they also must answer to the collective Latino pride that continually sees them and uses them as role models.

Even as Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States, residents along the Texas-Mexico border reported that construction of the mandated border fence was underway. Since the day it was announced that the Department of Homeland Security was going to enforce the Secure Fence Act and ensure its construction, a dedicated group of activists, environmentalists, community leaders and border residents have banded together to fight the government's decision. Through protests, collaborative strategies, binational events and even the arts — from filmmaking to song to poetry — opposition to the construction of a physical barrier has taken many forms but delivering one clear message — No border wall wanted.

Dr. Kamala Platt

Kamala Platt is an independent scholar, writer/artist, activist and profesora who has worked in South Texas, New York, New Mexico, Oregon, Kansas, and Chicago. Her scholarly work, including the manuscript, "Environmental Justice Poetics: Cultural Representations of Environmental Racism from Chicanas and South Asian Women" investigates cultural poetics promoting environmental and social justice.

She teaches courses in Literatures, Writing, Latin@ Studies, Cultural Studies, and Women's Studies and is currently working on "sabbatical" projects in San Antonio.

The following post has been adapted from a presentation Dr. Platt delivered at the Modern Language Association Convention in December 2008.

And if enough of our voices join together, we can bring those walls tumbling down. The walls of Jericho can finally come tumbling down. That is our hope -- but only if we pray together, and work together, and march together. --Barack Obama (Sermon, Spring,08)

From Robert Frost to Pink Floyd to Barack Obama to Rachel Corrie, from Berlin to Palestine to China to South Texas, wall-building poetics are expressed in poetry, song, sermon, e-mail, photography, paintings and other means. In the last two years, such poetics have countered, delayed and in some places terminated the building of walls in the Texas-Mexico Borderland.

In this struggle, landowners stand up to intrusion onto properties that date back centuries to Spanish Land Grants and to Indigenous communities prior to European occupation. Anti-wall activists renounce plans that endanger habitat and migration trails, the richest of wildlife concentrations in the US.

Statements from Indigenous and environmental groups denounce the threat inherent in the philosophy of wall-building and militarization: degradation of spiritual and material relations with Nuestra Tierra Madre.

“Border Ambassadors,” declare “No Wall Between Amigas/os.” The suspension of wall-building and of waivers of constitutional rights have been called for in letters to President Obama sent within hours of his inauguration. This poetics of the anti-wall movement in Rio Grande Valley, when analyzed in conjunction with the rhetoric of fear pushed forward by US Homeland Security among others, offers understanding of wall-building in relations between cultures, and between nations and nature that have global, as well as, local implications.

In the aftermath of the 2008 presidential election, Republicans are beginning to regroup and strategize how to carry their party forward. Yet, though it’s recognized that Latino voters pushed Obama’s victory in several key states, Republicans have yet to figure out how to include Latinos in their future.

Since President Obama’s win, attention has been focused on the role of the Latino vote in his successful bid for the White House.

In fact, everyone has been so focused on this aspect of the vote that not nearly enough attention has been paid to the flipside of the election outcome — that the Latino vote was also instrumental in Republicans losing their bid for the White House.

It goes without saying that this sober consequence of the election wasn’t lost on Senator McCain. However, there are few signs that his party yet understands the ramifications of alienating the Hispanic vote or who today’s Hispanic voters are and how to do effective outreach that communicates a different message from the past eight years.

It was reported that when Senator McCain returned to the Senate in early January he was a man on a different kind of mission. He met behind closed doors with his party colleagues and told them in no uncertain terms that the anti-immigration rhetoric was going to have to be toned way down.

Also, he was spearheading the Republican effort of taking a chapter out of the Obama playbook to transform staid political action committees into grassroots organizing committees. His reasoning was that it will take a grassroots approach to strengthen the Republican Party. Not a bad idea. Of course, it’s his hope that through word-of-mouth, rather than canned rhetoric, the party can better define their ideals and message to everyone, especially Latino voters.

Continue reading "Republicans need more “ideas” to reclaim Latino voters"

The Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) documented the fact that 60 percent of Latinos who died in Colorado traffic accidents last year weren't wearing their seat belts. Seeing that it's a sizeable number, CDOT authorized a public service announcement (PSA) be made in Spanish to get people to buckle up.

It's the first foreign language PSA for CDOT. Yet, in an odd argument, one Colorado Springs legislator has voiced his displeasure of airing the Spanish-language life-saving advertisement because he believes it will keep local Hispanics from speaking English.

According to Republican Sen. Dave Schultheis, the seat belt PSA will:

• Further segregate the Spanish-speaking community from the rest of Colorado's population
• Keep immigrants from learning to speak English and being able to read road signs.
• Keep them from assimilating

In the next breath, the Senator observed:

This is not a Hispanic vs. non- Hispanic issue. We have to look at people as people, not as a race.

Obviously, if Schultheis believed that statement, or better yet, understood what it meant, he would see that he has clearly made a non-race issue into one that is "Hispanic vs. non-Hispanic." If he really was concerned about looking at people just "as people," he would then agree that the main objective of the announcements is to save lives by delivering a message as clear as possible to the target audience.

Though Schultheis' justification for his opinions shows a clear bias against his state's Hispanic population, he should be credited for not hiding the fact that he his racist.

Unlike the group of donors who funded the failed English First campaign in Tennessee and who did everything they could to keep from having their identities revealed.

One of the "hallmarks" of the Bush Administration was its knee-jerk responses and "half-ass" preparations to matters that impacted the country or various portions of the populace.

Remember the fiasco with the passports? Not enough planning was done by the administration to consider the deluge of passport applications that would be submitted before the deadline when new fees and requirements would be implemented for travel to Mexico, Canada and other points that never before required a passport. As a result, there were a lot of unhappy people who missed going on long-planned vacations or business trips and the government was forced to push back the deadline.

The switch from analog to digital television.

Or the construction of the border fence along the Texas-Mexico border? In their enthusiasm to build it, the Department of Homeland Security failed to realize that they had planned the fence through a college campus and the middle of some towns and people's backyards. It was only after some residents saw the blueprints and pointed it out to government officials did they discover they had a problem — again, a knee-jerk reaction that resulted in unprofessional execution.

Though the Bush Administration is history now, its presence is still being felt. The latest example is with the upcoming digital transmission changeover. And as before, the execution of this national matter lacks professional preparation to the point that it threatens to disenfranchise low-income and "multicultural" (minority) households.

When it comes to politics, it's understood that it can be a rough sport between the opposing parties. Extreme exaggerations, outright lies, name-calling — and that's the civil part of it.

However, Republicans have taken politics to a whole new low level. It's one thing for a party to be against an issue but when that same party goes to great lengths to maliciously ridicule or lie about a particular group then it's time for concerned party members and voters to draw the line in the proverbial sand and take a stand.

If you're wondering what could be so bad, it has to do with a particular song that possible RNC Chairman Chip Saltsman included on a CD he gave RNC members back at Christmas. It's the same CD that had the title track "Barack the Magic Negro," written by Saltsman by the way.

The questionable song on the CD is titled the "Star Spanglish Banner."

Now, when it comes to Spanglish, Latinos are the first to embrace the mix of English and Spanish. In fact, we write books and create movies about it.

Yet, the Republican's "Star Spanglish Banner" had less to do with the skill of mixing two languages and instead chose to ridicule those Latinos who speak with a Spanish accent and rewrite the lyrics to our nation's anthem to poke fun at the struggle of Hispanic immigrants and the larger Latino community.

by Carlos Fernandez

Carlos Fernandez is the CEO of the Clinton Giustra Sustainable Growth Initiative (CGSGI), a partnership between the William J. Clinton Foundation and a host of private sector, governments and local communities working together to increase economic development in areas where there is widespread poverty.

Carlos Fernandez

The initiative was established in June 2007 by former President Bill Clinton and Frank Giustra. It focuses on alleviating poverty in Latin America by helping create jobs and strengthening support for local health and education initiatives that, in turn, help strengthen the local economy.

Going from the idea stage to reality, Mr. Fernandez oversees a range of programs that are taking off in countries all over Latin America. Each program either targets the health and education of children or supporting the creation of small businesses by people who never would have had the opportunity.

In a special "Guest Voz," Mr. Fernandez explains the important work being done by CGSGI and the difference it's already made in the lives of our neighbors to the south of the United States.

Today, many people around the world are giving back - and giving to each other. More than ever, we know the communities and economies of our planet are connected by a thousand threads of language, culture, hopes, and ideas – but not by equal access to education, health, or opportunity.

Responding to this challenge, former U.S. President Bill Clinton and Frank Giustra are working together to reverse the rising rates of inequality and the yawning gap between rich and the poor. Recently, they established the Clinton Giustra Sustainable Growth Initiative (CGSGI) to create real improvements in the lives of the most disadvantaged in Latin America – and beyond – and to transform the way that businesses do business in the developing world.

We are not doing this by giving away money; we instead are showing new ways for businesses to both do well and do good. By using the resources of the private sector to reduce obstacles in peoples’ lives and provide more tools for people to succeed, we are making progress. And by working with local communities, leaders, non-governmental organizations, governments, and businesses, we are hopeful these gains will be sustained.