Navidad sings carols of no-holds-barred celebration for Latinos. The season of snow, love, wonderment, and family togetherness promises a number of opportunities for Latino families to interact, reconnect and spend time over full plates of roasted pig, tamales, arroz con grandules and tostones. From nation to nation, the celebration is different, but some things remain the same: different items tend to cook on the stove, and different songs are generally sung in rejoice, but the generosity, the spirit, the nourishment and the respect for ritual remain the same. La Parranda, Misa De Gallo, Las Posadas, and Carta al Nino Dios are just four examples of how nations of Latinos celebrate during the holiday season.
Nochebuena (“the Good Night”), more frequently called Christmas Eve, is a night of celebration within Latino households. While most Americans sit in anticipation of Christmas day, Latino celebrate early, gathering family and friends for a big dinner; an evening that also has plenty of music and gifts.
Misa de Gallo (Midnight Mass) occurs on the eve of Christmas to commemorate the birth of Jesus, which took place at midnight. Many mass-goers attend service with a baby Jesus figurine so that it can be blessed before placing it back in their nativity.
The dermis layer of the skin is met with a hand-held device that utilizes electromagnetic coils to move an armature bar, which is connected to a barred needle that penetrates the skin, leaving behind permanent markings; known as tattoos. While tattoos have only been trendy in Western fashion since the 1970's, that in no way indicates that tattoos are a new concept, or are without a rich history.
Mark Clayton Hand, Oxford SBS Seed Fund co-founder, recently concluded a three-piece series on Latino startups, tracking some hurdles and high points that startups face as they move toward success.
When exceedingly high drop-out rates peaked as educational achievements were at an all-time low among Puerto Rican and Latino youth, a group formed with the mission of offering the community opportunities that would promote development, encourage empowerment, educational advancement, and deliverance from poverty. ASPIRA, which means “aspire” in Spanish, is the name of the organization, founded by Dr. Antonia Pantoja and a group of Puerto Rican educators and professionals in 1961.
New York City is alive with conversation, bright lights and people bumbling about with curiosity. Within the doors of one of its many restaurants, two individuals are undoubtedly sitting together for the first time, on a blind date, attempting to connect and find out if the person positioned across from him/her can better his/her life, or better yet, his/her evening. "First Date," the new Broadway play starring Zachary Levi ("Chuck") and Euro-Latina actress Krysta Rodriguez ("Smash"), captures that experience in a 90-minute performance that is over-run with wit and charisma.
McDonald's, Subway, Wendy's, Burger King, KFC, Checkers, Taco Bell, Starbucks and companies just like these are guilty of profiting off of black and Hispanic youth, nay, children, putting them at high risk of diabetes, obesity and other related diseases. Fast Food FACT 2013, issued by the Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, has released a new report that addresses fast food restaurants, the quality of that food, and the way that the food and beverages are marketed toward minority children and teenagers.
Research was recently done to investigate whether there were startups launching scalable businesses aimed to service the Hispanic community/ consumers, and surprisingly, there aren't very many.
Latinos are not belated when it comes to utilizing electronics and handheld devices. And, Pew Research Center’s recent analysis of three of their surveys supports this claim, stating that a majority of Latinos own smartphones and other mobile devices, access the Web, and visit social networking sites from remote gadgets at a higher rate than other groups of Americans.
The language barriers that Spanish-speaking Latino immigrants face whenever they enter a school hospital or courtroom, particularly in the South, is concerning. Very often, there are no interpreters present to answer questions or to respond when these individuals need to communicate with a teacher, a doctor or a judge, leaving them vulnerable and at the mercy of those individuals with whom they need to communicate. Nonetheless, things may be changing in one small city in Chatham County, Georgia.
Republican Governor Chris Christie may have appealed to Latinos in the Democratically-driven state of New Jersey to gain him his second gubernatorial victory, but both Democrats and Republicans are saying that doesn't mean he can win them over across the country in a 2016 presidential bid.
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which provides food assistance to the impoverished individuals of a certain income - including millions of Latino families, will suffer a $5 billion cut to their budget this coming Friday.
The American Music Awards, which was created by the late Dick Clark in 1973, will be hosted by the first Latino in the history of the show, Cuban rapper Pitbull. Mr. Worldwide's hosting debut was announced this past Tuesday. Born Armando Christian Perez, Pitbull will be the first host of the show since 2008.
"Saturday Night Live," who continues to receive admonishment for their lack of female cast members, is receiving a second round of tongue lashings after it has been realized that the show has never, not once, had a Latina as a regular cast member. And, it has only held one Latino as a regular cast member on the long-running show.
Springtime, also known as camping season, may be some time away, but it's already on the minds of many, including Latino leaders who are involved with national parks and historic sites. Latinos, on average, don't utilized national parks, greatly due the fact that camping isn't a cultural practice.
Jack Kerouac, the famed American novelist, wrote the postwar Beat Generation novel, "On the Road," which documented his travels as he journeyed across America. One chapter in the book focuses on Kerurac’s sexual relationship with a Latina farm worker, who Kerouac called “Terry, the Mexican girl,” a woman who was fleeing from an abusive husband and left her two children behind to do so. Novelist, performance artist and poet Tim Z. Hernandez uncovered “the Mexican girl’s” true identity, Bea Franco, and created his own work, "Mañana Means Heaven," about Franco’s life.
