Mounting student debt in this economy is not only rising but an Occupy Wall-Street-affiliated chart that has been floating around in cyberspace doesn’t accurately portray this rising debt among the nation’s youth.

Via Yahoo! News

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The latest report from NY Times highlights an almost doubling of the Latino voting community in Arizona. Many are wondering wether the influx of anti-immigrant bills and sentiment, birthers, ethnic studies bans, proposals to deny citizenship at birth and a whole slate of issues negatively impacting Latinos are prompting to consider this a battleground state?

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Via NY TIMES

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Immigration Reform is NOT just an issue up for debate!  Joaquin Luna took his own life, because he feared he could never go to college and achieve his dream to make a better life for his family.  We need to make others look past the legislature and the numbers and SEE the faces and HEAR the stories of who are really being affected by immigration.  RIP Joaquin.  We WILL tell your story.

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Via The Sun Valley News

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Two housekeepers at the Hyatt Hotel in California say they were fired for tearing down ‘degrading’ swimsuit photos, but now they are fighting back.  Why do you think the Hyatt is standing by their unjust decision?

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Via AOL.com

Two sisters who have a combined 30 years experience working as housekeepers at a California Hyatt have been fired. They say they were let go by the Santa Clara Hyatt after complaining about being depicted as swimsuit-clad surfers for Housekeeping Appreciation Week.

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The Latino community is reviving this small town town in more ways than one–

Via The New York Times

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ULYSSES, Kan. — Change can be unsettling in a small town. But not long ago in this quiet farming community, with its familiar skyline of grain elevators and church steeples, the owner of a new restaurant decided to acknowledge the community’s diversity by adding some less traditional items to her menu. Cheeseburgers. French fries. Chicken-fried steak.

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Today we honor all our veterans for their service. Whether male or female, gay or straight, documented or undocumented, we thank you.

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Via The HuffPost Latino Voices

A few minutes ago I was standing in front of a room filled with four and five year-old kids at my son’s preschool. The school’s director asked parents who were vets to come in today or to bring memorabilia to honor someone in the family who is a veteran.

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Our voices are the most powerful thing we have.  Here is some guidance from award winning author Junot Díaz for young authors who want to create powerful stories with strong voices.

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Via The HuffPost Latino Voices

Junot Díaz is the author of Drown and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, which won the John Sargent, Sr., First Novel Prize; the National Book Critics Circle Award; the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award; and the 2008 Pulitzer Prize. Now through November 30, Figment and the National Writing Project are sponsoring a contest for writers that Díaz is judging.Click here to find out more.

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This story details a systematic and widespread practice, from racially based predatory lending (or as they referred internally to “ghetto loans” ) to donating to anti-immigration candidates, managing investment in private detention facilities to the tune of $160 million, abuses in payday loan industry where they are heavily invested and accusations of fraudulent or excessive fees on their wire -services for money sent to Mexico and other L.A. countries. All while they promote a marketing campaign “SABEResPODER” which spends millions in luring more Latinos into their system.

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Altagracia Guzman, 81, marches to Washington Heights to Wall Street with Occupy Protesters…and the media is saying there’s no Latinos?  Even our abuelitas are marching!

 

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Via The HuffPost Latino Voices

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It’s no surprise that new Census reports show that Latinos are now the poorest of the poor with record unemployment rates–what will this mean for the 2012 election and beyond?

Via The Guardian

The ranks of America’s poorest poor have climbed to a record high — 1 in 15 people — and spread widely across metropolitan areas, as the US housing bust pushed many inner-city poor into suburbs and other outlying places and reduced jobs and income.

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What does Day of the Dead mean for you?  Do you think Day of the Dead has become too commercial and the real tradition is being lost?

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Via HuffPost Latino Voices

Once a little-known and misunderstood tradition celebrated in Southern Mexico and Latin America, the Day of the Dead is crossing over into mainstream U.S. culture with a whirlwind of exhibitions, parties, educational projects, art classes and parades throughout the country.

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Did you watch Cuéntame‘s videos exposing the injustices taking place against workers in the car wash industry?   If not please check out our Carwash website at  http://mycuentame.org/carwash/.

Felicidades carwasheros!

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Via The LA Times

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Street murals are finally getting the recognition they deserve in the street mural capital of the world–

City ordinances make it illegal to create murals on the vast majority of private properties. Officials estimate that more than 300 murals have been painted over in the last several years, a fact that has frustrated artists as well as property owners who commission the murals.

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On top of the harsh economic situation many face within our community, we have also seen the negative effects of corporate greed on many Latino workers and families – add it to the anti-immigration narrative in the media and many state legislatures, and the abuse by private prison corporations and it becomes quite easy to understand why Latinos are joining the occupy movement.

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Via Huffington Post
By Aurelia Fierros

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An in-depth interview with Soledad O’Brien on her latest documentary about a Latina boxer (Latino in America 2: In Her Corner), what it means to be Latina and the diversity and complexities that make up the Latino community. O’Brien provides a refreshing outlook on what it means to be “Latino.” Yes, you can be black, Latino and have freckles–

Via The Venture

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