Dr. Benjamin Hooks, former executive director of the NAACP and civil rights icon, passed away on Thursday morning at his home in Tennessee following a long illness. He was 85. Hooks was born in Memphis, Tennessee the fifth of seven children and experienced first hand the sting of racism and segregation. A graduate of Howard […]
GOP Finds it Difficult to Find Hispanic Support
In 2008, two-thirds of Latinos in the country voted for Barack Obama. His historical campaign erased any advances that had been made by the Republican Party during the Bush administration to woo Hispanic voters and solidified this bloc in the Democratic column. According to a poll by the Pew Hispanic Center, over the course of […]
Joe Garcia Announces Bid for Congressional Seat in Miami
Former Miami-Dade Democratic Party chief Joe Garcia resigned his post at the Department of Energy on Tuesday and announced his bid to run for the South Florida Congressional District 25 seat being vacated by U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-FL. Diaz-Balart is, in turn, planning to run for the seat currently held by his retiring brother, […]
Hispanics Lack Access to Colon Cancer Screening
According to the journal Cancer, colorectal cancer screening tests such as colonoscopies are more difficult to find in areas of the U.S. with large Hispanic populations. A group led by Dr. Jennifer Haas of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston analyzed statistics on colorectal screening taken from a national health survey, […]
First Lady Visits Mexico in First Solo International Trip
Drawing comparisons to her famed predecessor, Jaqueline Kennedy, first lady Michelle Obama will kick off what aids call her “international agenda” by traveling to Mexico City this week. While there, Mrs. Obama is expected to meet children, tour an anthropology museum and dine at Los Pinos, the president’s residence. According to the Mexican Ambassador to […]
Pope Names Latino Archbishop to Head Archdiocese of Los Angeles
On Tuesday, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Jose Gomez, the current archbishop of San Antonio, Texas, to the position of co-adjutor archbishop for the archdiocese of Los Angeles. This position puts him first in line to succeed the current archbishop, Roger Mahony, who will reach the mandatory retirement age of 75 next February. Gomez, who became […]
Earthquake Strikes U.S.-Mexico Border
On Sunday evening, a magnitude 7.2 earthquake occurred in Mexico’s Baja California peninsula, jolting millions of people from Los Angeles and San Diego to Phoenix and scattering destruction along the U.S.-Mexico border. It was the region’s most powerful earthquake in decades, but damage was limited in part because the temblor had a shallow depth of […]
US Labor Secretary Tells America’s Under-Paid and Under- Protected “We Can Help!”
On Thursday, Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis unveiled the U.S. Department of Labor’s “We Can Help” campaign at Chicago’s famed Jane Addams Hull-House Museum, on the Chicago campus of the University of Illinois. Solis announced the launching of the new marketing campaign that will let workers know that they can contact the federal government if […]
Legendary Latino Educator Jaime Escalante Dies
Jaime Escalante, 79, passed away on Tuesday afternoon from cancer. A native of La Paz, Bolivia he was the son of two teachers and came to America in 1963 at age 33. In 1974 he obtained a job at Garfield High School in East Los Angeles where he encountered low expectations, gang activity and administrative […]
Hispanic: Not a Race
From community groups and national organizations to churches and the federal government, a highly orchestrated and concerted effort is underway to ensure that Latinos in the US respond to the 2010 Census. This year’s form is, as boasted by the Census Bureau, the shortest one to date. However, despite its simplicity, one large question looms […]