Latinohoosier

With the 2010 election season already under way, gun-rights groups are ramping up the pressure on lawmakers to side with them on every vote. By telling senators that a vote for Sotomayor was a vote against gun rights, the National Rifle Association and other leading Second Amendment advocates forced a handful of conflicted legislators to choose between their long-standing support for gun rights and their urge to confirm the first Hispanic justice in U.S. Supreme Court history.

It is a decision that could have serious political ramifications next year in states as different as Texas and New York.

Among the Republican senators with significant Hispanic constituencies who chose to oppose Sotomayor were Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn of Texas, John McCain and Jon Kyl of Arizona, and John Ensign of Nevada. Hutchison and McCain face 2010 GOP primaries against 100 percent pro-gun opponents.

Gun advocates weigh key votes – STLtoday.com

He has stayed with the Amish in Pennsylvania, Arabs in Michigan, African-Americans in New Jersey, Latinos in Iowa, cowboys in South Dakota, Jews in Connecticut and “red necks” in Indiana.

Bangor Daily News

Even after Juana Watson came to Indiana from Mexico, became a professor and achieved the American dream, she dared to dream once more — that her new and old homelands might work together for the mutual benefit of their citizens.

Last week, more than 30 years after Watson arrived in Indiana from the central Mexican state of Hidalgo, the two states cemented a long-developing relationship that she helped create.

Indiana, Mexican state to cooperate on 3 fronts | IndyStar.com | The Indianapolis Star

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) – Close to 20,000 Hispanics live in Fort Wayne; many are closely watching Supreme Court Justice nominee Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation hearing.

Sotomayor excites local FW Hispanics

The 2007 Census of Agriculture, which was released in early February, found the operators of American farms have become more diverse in the last five years.

The count of Hispanic operators grew by 10 percent, and the counts of American Indian, Asian and black farm operators rose as well, according to the census.

Census finds more minority-run farms

That’s fine and dandy for our unemployed amigos to the south. With all due respect for my Latino brothers and sisters, I’m sure they’ll do their best and we probably won’t even know the difference unless they get creative and add some jalapenos or cumin to the mix. But that’s not the point.

J.P. DEVINE: Saying adios to a cool, crisp friend

“Latinos can tip a state if others are finely balanced. In Indiana Obama got 77 per cent of the Latino vote – the highest of any state – and won it by 26,000 votes,” Mr Wijewardena said.

Boy from Oz who won Latino voters for Obama – World – smh.com.au

Sanford, Fla. – Wendy Martinez Canelones grew up Catholic and Seventh-day Adventist. But she always felt drawn to Judaism. She once had a vivid dream of herself embracing a blue volume of the Torah. She tears up recalling the dream.

Eventually, she found out why. While studying her family history, she found that she is a descendant of Jews who were killed during the Spanish Inquisition.

Some Latinos Trace Their Jewish Roots

African-American voters waited more than twice as long as others to vote in last month’s presidential election, and Hispanics were asked to show identification more often, a survey released Tuesday showed.

Although Election Day ran smoothly for most voters, the survey of 10,000 people by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found at least one in four voters lack confidence that their votes were counted correctly.

Survey reveals voting disparities on Nov. 4 – USATODAY.com

Here in “Real America,” (a.k.a. South Texas), we might enjoy breakfast tacos from Joe’s Texaco in the morning and then venture over to our favorite panaderia in the afternoon for sweet bread and coffee.

That’s hardly a news flash, but how about this: In the deep red state of Indiana, a Spanish-language radio station is handing out pan dulce at get-out-the-vote rallies for Hispanics, reports Politico.com.

Enjoying Pan Dulce in `Red America’ – The Daily Chisme : Brownsville Herald

Some three dozen workers at a telemarketing call center in Indiana walked off the job rather than read an incendiary McCain campaign script attacking Barack Obama, according to two workers at the center and one of their parents.

Dozens Of Call Center Workers Walk Off Job In Protest Rather Than Read McCain Script Attacking Obama

WITH only two weeks to go before the election, talk has turned to the Bradley effect. The phenomenon is named for Tom Bradley, the African-American mayor of Los Angeles, who lost the 1982 California governor’s race even though exit polls predicted he’d defeat his Republican opponent, George Deukmejian. Some white people, the theory goes, tell pollsters they will vote for black candidates and then, once in the voting booth, don’t.

Op-Ed Contributor – What Bradley Effect? – NYTimes.com

bradley effect

Last time this came up there was no clear winner between Memin and Speedy?

For more than 60 years Mexicans have followed the adventures of “Memin Pinguin.” But the dark-skinned Memin’s exaggerated features in “Memin for President” came as a shock to Houston, Texas, Wal-Mart shopper Shawnedria McGinty.

Mexican comic-book character called racist – CNN.com

Tags: memin, speedy

Gilchrist, a former California accountant, founded the project in October 2004. In two years, the grass-roots border-control group had grown to boast more than 200 chapters across the country.Today, Gilchrist says, a host of internal problems are bringing the movement to its knees.More than 20 chapters, including the Skokie-based Illinois Minuteman project, have disbanded, leaving fewer than 180 in operation.Dozens of chapters are fighting with one another and vying for attention, he said.

Daily Herald | Could infighting end Minuteman movement?

Tags: infighting, minuteman

According to a radio report on NPR yesterday, Latinos make up about five percent of the total population in Indiana. According to the same radio report, most of these Latinos are Mexican and Puerto Ricans.

The Face of Indiana Latinos » VivirLatino

Listen to a sincere man in Martinsville, Indiana go through the process of elimination

Tags: Obama, Martinsville, Indiana, NPR

Former Fort Wayne City Councilman Dr. Tom Hayhurst raised the most popular topic of the rally- namely, immigration. Candelaria Reardon said Obama offers the best hope to address immigration issues. She said Obama’s “priority is to safeguard the borders.”According to Candelaria Reardon said Obama favors a plan of “passion that does not separate families and does not take ten years to navigate.”She shared how difficult an issue this is for her. Candelaria Reardon said she is the “only Latino in the Assembly or Senate in Indianapolis.”I put aside that it (immigration reform) targets Latinos and I know it will apply to all,” she explained. “We have won small battles but we have not won the war.”Candelaria Reardon urged that action “at the federal level recognize that this is much bigger (than a Latino border issue).”

Frost Illustrated: Hispanics rally for Obama, promote immigration reform

Tags: Obama, hispanics, immigration

Sen. Clinton’s ace could be Puerto Rico, whose 2.4 million registered voters will hold their first-ever presidential primary on June 1. Puerto Rico doesn’t have an electoral-college vote, but it does have 63 delegates to the Democratic convention and enthusiastic voters — 80% of them turned out in each of the island’s past four gubernatorial elections. Sen. Clinton is popular among Hispanics nationally, and her home state has the country’s largest Puerto Rican-immigrant population.

Clinton Says Votes Count – WSJ.com

Tags: puertorico, clinton

The New World Cinema Series will present six independent Latin American films in 20 U.S. cities during 2009.The traveling festival will visit theaters throughout the country, screening a new film every other month and giving directors an opportunity to travel with the film to speak to the public and the press.Organizers plan to target markets that have both large Latino populations and crossover potential, like Los Angeles and Miami, but also smaller cities like Bloomington, Indiana and Tucson, Ariz.

Latin American films showcased in traveling fest | Entertainment | Film | Reuters

“I think that those institutions that decide to run the model as it’s been so successfully run over the last decade and a half will see their admission rates go up,” said Kurt M. Thiede, vice president for enrollment management at Bucknell.Nationally, the population decline is projected to be relatively gentle, with the number of high school graduates expected to fall in the Northeast and Midwest, while continuing to increase in the South and Southwest.The number of white high school graduates will go down nationally, and the number of African-American graduates will remain relatively steady. But the number of Hispanic and Asian-American graduates will increase sharply, according to projections by the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, whose demographic estimates are highly regarded by admissions officials.

Math Suggests College Frenzy Will Soon Ease – New York Times

MILWAUKEE is a striking example of how much America owes to German immigrants. The city is a paradise for beer-swillers and sausage-scoffers (it was the scene of the “sausage summit” between Bill Clinton and Helmut Kohl in 1996). The grandest hotel is the Pfister, the local theatre is the Pabst, and one of the main streets is North Teutonia Avenue. The phone book lists 40 pages of Schmitts and Schmidts.And yet today this frozen chunk of Greater Germania is being transformed by people from much sunnier climes. Milwaukee’s 80,000 or so Hispanics make up almost 15% of the population.

Lexington | The newest frontier | Economist.com

Fittingly, the first person to detect a faint signal in all the noise was the interpreter. The 33-year-old woman who worked for eight years working with Spanish-speaking patients at a medical clinic in southern Minnesota noticed something familiar as she translated the story of a young meatpacker last September.Earlier last summer, she had heard a version of it from two other workers at the same slaughterhouse, and had told it to their doctors, who were different from her current patient’s. When the consultation was over, she pointed this out.The interpreter’s insight set in motion a story, still unfolding, that may be making envious the ghost of Berton Roueche, the legendary chronicler of medical mysteries at the New Yorker magazine.

Inhaling Pig Brains May Be Cause of New Illness – washingtonpost.com

Tags: inhaling, pig, brains, illness

Proponents of the bill claim Indiana’s estimated 85,000 undocumented residents cost taxpayers more than $200 million a year. At the same time, various studies credit Indiana’s estimated 300,000 Hispanics — documented and undocumented — with paying $200 million in state and local taxes and packing $4.8 billion in buying power.

Haste on illegal hiring bill risks long-term regrets | IndyStar.com

Tags: Delph, costly, risk

Allen County’s sheriff plans to crack down on crime by keeping an eye on illegal aliens. The sheriff wants to train officers to also do immigration enforcement. He believes it will reduce crime, but immigrants are concerned it could lead to racial profiling.Sheriff Ken Fries wants some of his officers to wear another badge. He hopes to make 10 to 20 officers immigration agents.

Sheriff Wants To Have Immigration Agents in Allen County

While historically concentrated in the Northeast, especially New York City, and the Midwest, the U.S. Puerto Rican population has not only increased but has become more dispersed during the last two decades.[5] In the 1990s the Puerto Rican population in Florida dramatically increased, making it the state with the second-largest concentration. Puerto Rican populations are also growing fast in other parts of the South, in smaller cities, and in suburban and ex-urban areas where a Puerto Rican presence is new. This new spatial distribution was accompanied by new patterns of migration from Puerto Rico and new professional and middle classes moving to these new areas, raising the potential for a new north-south economic polarization whose political implications are yet to be fully clear. This raises challenges to the more traditional stateside Puerto Rican political and economic narratives as a Northeast urban population loyal to the Democratic Party and New Deal policies.

U.S. Boricuas Poised to Debate P.R.’s Colonial Status as Congress Re-visits Issue

Tags: PuertoRico, debate

“Can’t we have a situation where race becomes a secondary factor?” Dickson asked.Miklos argued the defense was trying to control the racial makeup of the jury.There were eight Caucasians and four blacks sitting on the jury, Schlesinger said. Four jurors were Hispanic, but the law does not distinguish Hispanics as a separate race, he said.Justices are expected to make a decision on the case sometime next year.

nwi.com :: Attorney: Race bias affected jury

Tags: race, bias

When they met, Ariza de Gomez and Gomez would talk on the phone. Soon, Gomez asked Ariza de Gomez if she wanted to go out sometime. But she said no.”I’m a lady,” she told him. “You have to marry me.”And so he did.His daughter was a witness at the short civil ceremony, but the couple does not remember much else. When you’re old, they explained, memories tend to fade. Afterward, they ate a shrimp dinner.

HispanicTrending: Latino seniors finding life renewed at center

Tags: latino, seniors

“The strange thing is that (Gomez) made romantic music,” said Ildefonso Carbajal, editor of Indianapolis-based newspaper La Ola Latino-Americana. “When you hear about this kind of thing, it’s usually because someone got killed for singing ‘narcocorrido’ (music glamorizing drugs and guns). Supposedly, this guy never did that.”Mayraelisa Arroyo, on-air personality at Spanish-language radio station WSYW-AM (810), said Gomez moved from Chicago with his parents, siblings, wife and three sons to Indiana to live closer to relatives in the Alcauter family, who own and operate several locations of Merry’s Bakery.

Singer slain in Mexico lived in Avon since ‘03 | IndyStar.com
Body of popular musician killed in Mexico returning to Indiana

Tags: Sergio, Gomez, K-Paz

The draft regulations and the Senate bill assume that any remains found belong to federally recognized tribes, said Cleone Hawkinson, a founding member of the Portland, Ore.-based Friends of America’s Past. That includes remains from small bands of people who died out and left no descendants, and remains of indigenous ancestors to modern-day Latinos, including those who died just a few hundred years ago.”By changing the definition to include everything found as Native American, (the grave protection act) automatically applies to everything, before any scientific study. Then tribes can decide if they want to allow study,” Hawkinson said.

The Associated Press: Power Struggle to Control Ancient Bones

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Tags: ancient, bones, modern-day, latinos

Nearly 5,000 people (including 3,000 Iowans) braved a storm in the Midwest to pack an auditorium in downtown Des Moines and listen. Family farmers spoke of their community being invaded by the stench and pollution of industrial hog farms. Immigrants spoke of round-ups and police paying visits to kindergartens to yank children out of class. Longtime urban homeowners talked about the foreclosures and bankruptcies piling up in their neighborhoods. “Some things aren’t right and other things ain’t right,” said Barbara Anderson of the adjusted rate mortgages that had ensnared her Cleveland neighbors. “Predatory lending ain’t right.”

Heartland Forum Tackles the Real Issues

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Tags: Heartland, Forum, Iowa