Ruth Fernández, ‘The Soul of Puerto Rican Song’, Dies at Age 92
By Arturo Mendoza
The “soul of Puerto Rican song,” Ruth Hernández died Jan. 9 in San Juan at age 92. Born in Ponce, she was gifted with a deep, strong voice and iron will from childhood. As a black woman in a white man’s world, she broke countless barriers as a singer and civic leader nationally and globally. By age 14, she was performing professionally, and in the 1970s, served eight years in the island’s Senate.
Supercommittee: All GOP Members Are White Males
Hispanic Link News Service
When Congress created the Joint Committee on Deficit Reduction in early August, it handed over the jobs of 535 congressional members to a politically diverse group of just 12. Now, the “Super Committee”, as the chosen dozen is known, has until Nov. 23 to recommend or reject at least $1.2 trillion in spending cuts and revenue increases in an up or down vote by Dec 23.
Extreme Alabama Immigration Law Heads to Court
Equal Voice Newspaper, Kathy Mulady
ALABAMA -- A coalition of civil-rights, human-rights and faith groups filed a class action lawsuit Friday challenging Alabama's recently enacted immigration law, House Bill 56.
Tough anti-immigrant laws have been recently passed in a half-dozen states – Arizona, Indiana, Georgia, Utah, South Carolina and Alabama -- mainly out of frustration with the federal government's failure to enact comprehensive immigration reform.
Double Jeopardy: Femicide and Disappearances at the Border
New America Media, Jose Luis Sierra
SYNOPSIS: Mexico is increasingly plastered with photos of disappeared and murdered women. Despite protests, though, few killers are brought to justice.
JUAREZ, Chih., Mex. -- Photocopies bearing the logo of the state attorney general's office are everywhere in this nightmare border town. They are taped under the counters of neighborhood grocery stores; stuck on shopping center walls and electricity poles; and posted on walls, in buses or on the sheets distributed by anonymous hands on street corners.
This is what people usually see: a black-and-white photo of a young woman or teenager. She is calm in the photo. Or she is smiling in better times. Now she has vanished.
A FERRY-TALE REMEDY FOR OUR COLD WAR HANGOVER
By Ricardo Chavira
Hispanic Link News Service
A few weeks ago David Plouffe, senior advisor to President Obama, e-mailed me and, I assume, lots of other folks to ask if I had any ideas for creating jobs.
I actually do.
Just as important for our nation’s recovery, most of the 300 jobs that I have in mind would likely go to Hispanics, a group hit particularly hard by the recession. Eventually, more jobs would follow and the economy would receive a boost of several hundred million dollars.
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WOULD BEN HAVE MADE A DIFFERENCE?
By José de la Isla
Hispanic Link News Service
HOUSTON — The question recently came up whether the GOP debates would have benefitted if someone like Ben Fernández were among the presidential aspirants.
Dig back. Who’s Ben Fernández?
In 1972, Fernández was responsible for organizing the Hispanic National Assembly for the Republican Party. He was a fundraiser who supported Richard Nixon. When that activity led to a chapter in the Watergate investigation, he changed tactics and began registering more Latinos for the party.
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SEXUAL ABUSE: PENN STATE VS. IMMIGRANT DETENTION CENTERS
By Jim Lamare
Hispanic Link News Service
The shocking events that unfolded at Penn State last week are a stark reminder of the sludge that rises to the surface when a sexual abuse scandal is uncovered. Victims often fail to speak out — perhaps out of embarrassment, perhaps out of fear, perhaps out of the sheer fact that no one will take them seriously.
Accused perpetrators hide their behavior. If discovered they deny, minimize and often blame the victim.
Dreamer Says Good Night, Takes Gun and Gives Up on Life
By Aviva Kamler
Dressed in his Sunday best, the teenage boy said goodnight to his family, stepped into the bathroom and gave up on life in the United States as an undocumented immigrant.
Joaquin Luna, 18, took a gun on the day following Thanksgiving and fired a shot to his head that killed him instantly at the family residence in Mission, Texas where he was raised by his mother, Santa Mendoza Lorma.
70% of Ethnicity Hate Crimes Are Against Hispanics
By Deniz Sonmez-Alpan
Nearly 70% of victims of ethnicity-based hate crimes in 2010 were Hispanic, according to this year’s edition of the FBI’s annual Hate Crime Statistics Report.
There were 1,122 hate crimes reported to the FBI in 2010, and 747 of them were Hispanic. Only 45% of the ethnic-bias hate crimes were against Hispanics in 2009. The release of the FBI report has come when anti-illegal immigration legislation has been spreading to several states.
Jim Lamare
Ricardo Chavira
José de la Isla
