Latino News

AIDS rates in the nation's Latino community are increasing and, with little notice, have reached what experts are calling a simmering public health crisis. Though Hispanics make up about 14 percent of the U.S. population, they represented 22 percent of new HIV and AIDS diagnoses tallied by federal officials in 2006. According to a survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation, Hispanics in Washington, D.C., have the highest rate of new AIDS cases in the country.

With explosive speed, a powerful left foot and a penchant for slicing through opposing defenses, Edgar Castillo has established himself as one of the top young American soccer players. At 21, he is already a premier player for Santos Laguna, the reigning Mexican league champion, just as he was as a high school phenomenon in Las Cruces, N.M., where he was born and raised.

Hispanic Culture offers many benefits to those who are a part of the culture as well as those who have an interest in learning more about it. One of the benefits of the Hispanic Culture recently discovered by studies, though long known to Hispanics is how learning two languages affects the mental process. According to recent studies conducted by Baruch College and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee conducted with Hispanic Women participants uncovered some very interesting things about those who speak two languages.

Hola Mexico, the first-ever Mexican film festival in New York, was conceived in Australia. Which makes all the sense in the world once you meet its 29-year-old creator, Samuel Douek. Living in Sydney since 2002 and earning a master’s degree, the Mexican-born Douek noted a number of festivals each year that showcased the latest films from Italy to Japan.

The only news/talk-radio station in the Valley aimed at Latino immigrants is going off the air, the victim of a faltering economy, ongoing crackdowns on undocumented immigrants and a tough market for Spanish talk radio. KNUV-AM (1190), also known as La Buena Onda, will sign off July 31, but the station has begun phasing out much of its programming. Its signature Enlace call-in show aired Monday for the last time. Its sister station in Denver, KNRV-AM (1150), signs off this month, too.

Stars of hit TV shows UGLY BETTY, WITHOUT A TRACE and WIZARDS OF WAVERLY PLACE are leading the nominations for the 2008 American Latino Media Arts (ALMA) Awards with three nods each. The cast of Ugly Betty is to be honoured with the Outstanding Performance of a Latino/Latina-Led Ensemble in a Television Series special achievement prize, while writer Silvio Horta is nominated in the Outstanding Writing for a Television Series category for the episode entitled Jump. Director Linda Mendoza is also up for contention in the Outstanding Director of a Television Series gong, for her work on the Betty's Baby Bump segment. Without A Trace star Enrique Murciano is up for Outstanding Actor in a Drama Television Series, and his co-star Roselyn Sanchez is nominated in the female equivalent. Scriptwriter Jose Molina has been recognised in the Outstanding Writing for a Television Series for the Without You episode.

President Bush on Tuesday seasoned his call to Congress to pass a free trade pact with Colombia with a little Latino music. The White House event was billed as a celebration of July 20, 1810, the day Colombia declared its independence from Spain. Bush also noted the Colombian government's recent hostage rescue and kept time with the lively music of Colombian singer Jorge Celedon, accordionist Jimmy Zambrano and their band members.

Sixty years after President Harry S. Truman desegregated the military, senior black officers are still rare, particularly among the highest ranks. Blacks make up about 17% of the total force, yet just 9% of all officers. That fraction falls to less than 6% for general officers with one to four stars, according to data obtained and analyzed by the Associated Press.

Stuck in Tijuana traffic, Heather Suarez fixes her strawberry blond hair, applies her makeup and listens to country music on the car radio. This morning, she sings along. Life ain't always beautiful You think you're on your way And it's just a dead end road at the end of the day. But the struggles make you

Hispanics colonized the New World, discovered Florida, fought for the United States in every major war, shaped cities like Miami and Los Angeles and have become a sought-after electorate. But no national museum exists to tell their story exclusively.

At a recent John McCain town-hall meeting in Bucks County, a woman began her question to the Republican presidential candidate with a complaint: "Why, as an American, do I have to push a button to speak English?" The crowd roared. "I think you struck a nerve," McCain said. "I tell you, I really get ticked," the woman continued. "You go into Lowe's and it says, Entrada."

John McCain portrayed free trade Tuesday as a win-win proposition for the U.S. and its Latin American economic partners, but labor leaders said it’s been a big loser for Rust Belt voters. The Republican presidential hopeful was beginning a three-day visit to Colombia and Mexico after a campaign swing through Indiana and Pennsylvania, two states hard hit by the loss of manufacturing jobs due in part to trade agreements like the North American Free Trade Agreement between the U.S., Mexico and Canada, which McCain strongly supports. On the day McCain left, Democrat Barack Obama repeated his vow to renegotiate NAFTA if elected president to include enforceable labor and environmental provisions. At a news conference in Ohio, a state hard-hit by job losses, Obama said, “The United States wanting to make sure that its ... standards aren’t being undermined isn’t imperialist.”

The Hispanic population is experiencing non-stop growth here in the valley and nationwide. But it's not because of immigration. Here in Las Vegas, according to this year's Las Vegas Perspective, the Hispanic population is at 26-percent. But that number is growing every day. It's a natural increase because it's now births that are accounting for most of the nation's Hispanic population, not immigration. Twenty years ago, motherhood led Heidi Herrera from Mexico, to the United States. "It was a choice because we didn't want out kids to go through what we did. We wanted for them to have a better life, a better education."

Mayor Lou Barletta, whose bid to unseat a 12-term congressman is based largely on his reputation as an anti-illegal immigration crusader, is trying to keep his signature issue alive even as voters turn their attention to the troubled economy and sky-high gas prices. The three-term Republican mayor on Tuesday announced his latest effort to rid Hazleton of illegal immigrants. Even so, he conceded that immigration may have been eclipsed as an issue in his campaign to oust Democratic Rep. Paul Kanjorski in a blue-collar, heavily Democratic district in northeastern Pennsylvania.

The number of foreigners landing in Los Angeles Immigration Court has surged in recent years, while the number of judges has remained about the same, causing crushing caseloads and lengthy delays. Expanded immigration enforcement, including the ongoing search for illegal immigrants in county jails, is causing much of the rise, according to judges, attorneys and experts. "I don't think it's possible for a court to implode from weight, but we may see," said former L.A. Immigration Judge Gilbert T. Gembacz, who retired last month after more than a decade on the bench.

Since its launch in 1999, the New York International Latino Film Festival has always had plenty to offer on a global scale - especially with the filmmakers coming from different Hispanic backgrounds here and abroad. Despite these differences, all share one common goal: the desire to change perceptions about Latino culture through the art of film.

Sen. Obama didn't do well with Latinos in the primary season, and he can't win the White House without their massive support. While most Hispanics have traditionally voted Democratic and have flocked in record numbers to the Democratic Party in the recent primary elections--courtesy of the Republican Party's increasingly harsh anti-immigration rhetoric--much of the Latino vote went to Obama's rival for the Democratic nomination, Sen. Hillary Clinton.

Shanta Driver is the national chairwoman of the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration and Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary (BAMN). BAMN formed in California in 1995 to stop Ward Connerly's attack on affirmative action as a University of California regent and then his campaign for Proposition 209 the following year.

U.S. Hispanic activists laid out plans on Friday to register 2 million new Latino voters to boost the clout of the United States' fastest-growing voter bloc in the November presidential election.

IMMIGRATION, THE issue which almost killed John McCain's candidacy before it began, is threatening his US presidential ambitions again. The gulf between Republican rhetoric and Hispanic expectations has never been wider. Somehow, though, he must walk a wire between the two. Based on his voting record, McCain is as progressive on immigration as Barack Obama. He has consistently supported the creation of a path to citizenship for people who have entered the US illegally, in tandem with a guest worker programme. To many in his own party this "amnesty" is a dirty word.