Civil Rights : Latinos |
Continuing struggle for equal opportunity and social justice among Americans of Latin American descent; impact of U.S. immigration on the welfare of these people.
2/15/10
NATIONAL
Websites Latino websites: http://tigerx.com/holidays/latino.htm
Analysis & views: 2/15/10 2/8/10 6/18/09 Zapatista comes to Harlem. Glen Ford describes an active movement of Mexicans, whose numbers among Latinos are being felt in New York City, who perceive their struggle as tenants against the gentrification of Harlem as being of a piece with the struggles of Mexican peasants in Chiapas. The villain of both pieces is the neo-liberalist agenda of transferring wealth and property from the poor to the rich. The recent downturn has left a "developer from hell" (actually London) with many uncompleted "renewal" projects and given tenants a new life in their struggle against dispossession. http://www.blackagendareport.com/?q=content/holding-east-harlem-and-points-west-north-and-south 4/23/09 New study issued by Southern Poverty Law Center, based on interviews with Latinos in Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina, Tennessee and Alabama, reports a self-described "hellish" life based on hostility and discrimination practiced both by the public at large and local officials. The harassments they experience make no distinction between "legal" or "illegal" immigration status, as all are tarred the same brush of discrimination. 3/30/08 Beyond black and white; where is brown? Latino writers note with approval Barak Obama's attempt to raise consciousness of both blacks and whites of the continuing racial divide in the country. The "change" that they "hope" for is that this dialogue may extend to a greater awareness of whites and blacks on discrimination against Hispanics, especially in the devastating effects on them of trade policies like NAFTA. Comments on this article indicate a profound lack of consensus on whether Obama himself is the best choice to provide leadership on this issue, given his contested history regarding NAFTA. http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/03/29/7958/ 3/22/08 "Mortgage crisis" gets a human face (A Latina one). Honduran immigrant woman in Alexandria Virginia with marginal employment and income fulfills a "dream" in 2005 by buying a home for $400 k at "sub-prime" interest rate that takes up most of her and her husband's monthly income. In 2007 the mortage was foreclosed, yet another victim of the "predatory lending" of the period of housing boom in which realtors and financial institutions were able to profit handsomely from what turned out to be the misery of vulnerable people, including a disproportionate number of Latinos. 3/7/08 Backup in processing of citizenship applications threatens to deprive hundreds of thousands of Latino voters of the opportunity in November:. A suit in federal court demands that government work through its backlog of citizenship applications, so that anyone who files for citizenship in March will have that application acted on by September, in compliance with a congressional guideline of 180-days maximum for processing. Such fast-tracking would be a reversal of federal action stalled for 16 or more months of waiting to allow for new "security" checks mandated by anti-terrorist legislation. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/07/us/07immig.html?_r=1&oref=slogin 2/12/08 New report shows 20% of U.S. population expected to be of Hispanic origins by 2050. http://www.kansascity.com/news/nation/story/485857.html 1/30/08 Stereotype of teenage pregnancy of Hispanic girls is among the issues discussed at a summit in Houston bringing together students of various social backgrounds. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5497168.html 8/27/07 Mostly Mexican neighborhoods near the border have practiced a form of "incremental building" that relies on their own resourcefulness along with some renewed Hispanic political power to create viable communities for themselves. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/27/us/27colonias.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&th&emc=th 4/24/07 Recent notoriety of Alberto Gonzales leads a Los Angeles Latino writer to comment on Gonzales as typical of a large number of "Mexican American Princes" who have overcome adversity to lead charmed political lives. http://www.laweekly.com/general/features/mexican-american-princes-mas-suave/16094/ 3/25/07 Pasadena TX: from honky-tonk heaven to growing majority Hispanic population. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/4659310.html 10/3/06 Blacks and Hispanics are struggling to reach an uneasy accommodation in the U.S. South. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/03/us/03georgia.html?th&emc=th 6/23/06 Harsh new Georgia immigration law is causing a drop in home purchases by Lations: http://www.gwinnettdailypost.com/index.php?s=&url_channel_id=32&urlwell_id=2 6/23/06 Confusing immigration laws are breaking up Lation families across the country: http://www.sltrib.com/utah/ci_3970630 4/6/06 National immigration debates awakens a "sleeping Latino giant." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/05/AR2006040502543.html?referrer=email 3/21/06 Latino employees in U.S. forest industry working under appalling working conditions: http://newstandardnews.net/content/index.cfm/items/2975 3/14/06 Mexico wall and ethnic profiling of Arabs and Muslims in the U.S. described as using fear of terrorism an excuse to express American racist nativism: http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0314-21.htm 3/10/06 Face of Spanish language TV is changing with demographic shift of Hispanic population: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/10/business/media/10visi.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin
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FLORIDA:
STATEWIDE
Websites: Latino Florida: http://www.latinoflorida.com/
Analysis & views: 6/17/09 IF MARCO RUBIO REPLACES MEL MARTINEZ AS U.S. SENATOR FROM FLORIDA, WILL HISPANICS PRESERVE AN ETHNIC "VOICE" IN THE SENATE? If he is Florida's senator, he had best be prepared to express that voice in the English language, as he says there is only a "nuance" of difference between himself and Jim DeMint, a rabid supporter of English-only school instruction and of making English the "official language" of the country http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/riptide/2009/06/marco_rubio_supports_demints_r.php 5/29/08 South Florida Hispanic voters no longer a "stronghold" of support for Republican party as voters divided about evenly between the two major parties. http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-flrndhispanicvote0529sbmay29,0,3623197.story 1/23/08 "Viva Rudy" This slogan is about the only vestige of Hispanic presence in the presidential primaries to be held next week. Rudy Guiliani is the only Republican candidate who has made any serious effort to campaign among Hispanics. With leading Democratic candidates boycotting campaigning at direction of the DNC and with Republicans only representing 22% of registered Hispanic voters, the vaunted enhanced "influence" of Florida on the outcome of the presidential contests with the moving forward of its primary date has been a bust, at least for Hispanics. 9/15/07 "Viva Cuba Libre" is less a war-cry for politicians in Florida campaigning as Republicans begin to lose their hold on Cuban-American vote and Democrats move toward more nuanced opposition to Castro. http://www.sptimes.com/2007/09/15/State/GOP_losing_its_grip_o.shtml
Other information sources:
FLORIDA LOCALITIES
Websites:
Analysis & Views: Immokalee: 2/6/10 Clearwater: 1/5/09 In Clearwater FL and across the U.S., Hispanics are special targets of robbery as they are often paid in cash and because some of them are in a tenuous legal status so they are reluctant to contact police if they are victimized. http://wire.jacksonville.com/pstories/state/fl/20090104/373813888.shtml Daytona Beach: 12/7/08 Federal court in Daytona Beach dismisses suit of Hispanic group against the state for failure to make available "Hispanic-themed" speciality license plates http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/Local/newWEST02120508.htm Palm Beach Co.; 5/12/08 Palm Beach County moves toward requiring more English linguistics skills for taxicab drivers. http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2008/05/11/0511taxidrivertest.html Miami: 12/7/07 Spanish language UNIVISION plans Sunday GOP debate at the University of Miami as the party tries to regain some of its support from a disappearing constituency. Ocala: 11/27/07 Marion County, Ocala and University of North Florida are encouraging the influx of Hispanic entrepreneurs into the area. http://www.ocala.com/article/20071126/NEWS/211260323/1001/NEWS01&MaxW=270&MaxH=200 Miami: 6/7/07 Univision is trying to arrange a presidential debate in Spanish language at University of Miami, but so far few candidates are taking the offer. http://www.miamiherald.com/569/story/131340.html Orlando: 1/25/07 Low election turnout rates of Hispanics in Orlando is attributed, among other things, to a pervasive "cynicism" about the electoral process and their pre-occupation with the struggle to get ahead in America. Orlando: 10/3/06 Hispanics are displacing blacks as the dominant force in the Orlando Pine Hills neighborhood at Ferdinand Drive, just as blacks had displaced whites from the same area in the 1990s. Osceola County: 9/21/06 Federal judge says he will order Osceola County to replace its at-large elections for county offices with elections from districts one of which will contain a majority of Hispanic voters. http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/orl-voting2106sep21,0,6876519.story?coll=orl-news-headlines Volusia County: 8/21/06 English-only ballots will face Volusia County Hispanics in 2006 elections because Voting Rights Act only require Spanish language ballots if 5% of a county's residents are Hispanic. Volusia is just below that percentage, but will probably obtain in by 2008 elections. http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/Headlines/frtHEAD02082106.htm Miami: 6/9/06 Wave of McCarthyist paranoia sweeps over Florida Atlantic University as a Cuban psychology professor and his wife are arrested on suspicion of being "Cuban agents." http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/14776215.htm Miami: 2/14/06 Expansion of Spanish-language newspaper publishing is expected in South Florida: http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/13865715.htm
Orlando: Orlando based Spanish paper La Prensa acquired by new conglomerate,. ImpreMedia: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/F/FL_IMPREMEDIA_LA_PRENSA_FLOL-?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US
Other information sources
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