Entries tagged "History"
Comments on the book: OUR HISPANIC ROOTS: What History Failed To Tell Us, 2nd ed.
May 5, 2014 12:21 PM by Carlos Vega
For hundreds of years the great Hispanic contribution to the making of the United States has been systematically glossed over by history books and the nation at large. Yet, we can say based on undisputed historical fact, that without the Hispanic contribution it is quite probable that today’s United States would not exist. That contribution extended for a period of over 300 years, from the discovery of North America by the Spaniard Juan Ponce de León in 1513, up to and beyond the American Revolution. In fact, without the ...
Condes de la Torre Family Story
September 17, 2013 11:24 AM by Yvonne Condes
Latino Americans premieres tonight on PBS and it’s a thoughtful and entertaining documentary tracing Latino History in North America going back 500 years. As I was watching a screener of the show that airs tonight, I thought about my own Latino History.
My uncle chronicled that history in a family newsletter Confidencias Los Condes. The story begins in 1884 in Chamela, Jalisco, Mexico when my great grandfather Pedro was born. He was forced into work as a boy when his father, a federal judge, died. Pedro joined the Navy ...
Boricua Christmas in New York
September 3, 2013 10:14 AM by Aurora Flores
I met my grandparents for the first time in 1958. They came from the mountains of Lajas, Puerto Rico. A toddler living high in the towers of the projects of New York, my grandfather asked me to bring over the curious black box he had with him. He unsnapped the leather straps, slipped his hands through both loops on each side and stretched it open. My mouth opened and my eyes widened as I heard life breathe from the crinkled accordion skin. An uncle pulled out a cuatro, a cute ...
Hard Living in the Big Easy: Latino Immigrants & the Recovery of Post-Katrina New Orleans
September 1, 2013 3:17 PM by Jose Torres-Tama
At no other time since my arrival in 1968 have I been witness to such blatant defamation of immigrants as I am seeing today, and the passing of Arizona’s SB 1070 by the Republican Governor Brewer in 2010 has spawned other copycat anti-immigrant laws in states like Georgia (May 2011), Alabama (June 2011), and South Carolina (June 2011).
I call these states the New Confederacy of the South passing Juan Crow laws that redirect their previous vitriol and racial poison towards African Americans towards brown Latinos today.
Basically, people ...
Jewish-Latino
August 31, 2013 11:31 AM by Aurora Flores
As clichéd as it sounds a picture really does paint a thousand words. Recently, I posted this photo to Facebook that generated over a thousand impressions and comments. The subject: Latinos and Jews.
In my research for an upcoming book on the life and times of salsa music legend Larry Harlow, known as El Judio Maravilloso, (“the Jewish marvel”), I came across an interesting coffee table tome by Myrna Katz Frommer & Harvey Frommer “It Happened in the Catskills.” As I skimmed its chapters my eyes scanning the various black and ...
Este es Sherman Jackson Reporting for NBC News
August 28, 2013 4:17 PM by Sherman Jackson
Following the urban riots throughout the country in the 1960’s, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed a Commission to review the incidents and assess the causes for the disturbances. The Kerner Commission, as it was known, worked extensively and made dozens of recommendations to address the disparities in employment, housing and policing of mainly African-American communities.
Significantly, the Commission also made recommendations about the media coverage of the riots, and outlined steps that the news industry and government could take to present a more balanced view of communities of color ...
The Spirit of La Carlota Lives On
August 26, 2013 10:22 AM by Sara Monteagudo
For the past 200 years, solidarity among women of African, Spanish, and Indigenous backgrounds, collectively known today in the Americas as Latinas have sought to obliterate oppression whether it be with pen in hand or with a sword. One woman in particular, a Cuban freedom fighter known as La Carlota passed forward her spirit of abolition to generations that now expand two centuries.
Today, this spirit of freedom is expressed as leaders join forces to implement steadfast plans in aiding our youths in achieving the greatest form of empowerment: Critical ...
A Return to Cuba Thaws Cold War Fears
August 25, 2013 4:05 PM by Raul Ramos y Sanchez
At the heart of almost every Cuban-American family is a tragedy. Most of us were torn apart from loved ones by the passions of ideology. In some cases, this included fear of reprisals and imprisonment. Many also lost personal property. Wounds like these do not heal easily. So my first visit to Cuba after 52 years in exile began with heavy apprehensions.
From the airliner’s window, my first glimpse of the Cuban coastline was a smudge of white in a bluish haze. Emerging from the clouds, a familiar sight ...
Stamped by our Heritage
August 23, 2013 10:18 AM by Soldanela Rivera
When I was growing up in Puerto Rico during the 70s, and 80s the Spanish pop ballad, salsa, and protest song were everywhere.
I remember Saturday mornings when my mother would hose down the patio and balcony and clean the house blasting Lucecita Benítez, Chico Buarque, Valeria Lynch, Amanda Miguel, Pablo Milanes, Isabel Pantoja, Silvio Rodríguez, Violeta Parra, Sandro, Joan Manuel Serrat, or Mercedes Sosa.
Going to a bank, mall, restaurant, or just being in the car meant Roberto Carlos, Juan Gabriel, Julio Iglesias, José José, FANIA, Jose Luis Perales ...
Latino Americans: Arriving, or greeting, the ships?
August 22, 2013 10:11 AM by Roberto Rodriguez
There is something unsettling when peoples from this continent mark their identity or origins as a result of invasion or war – that is, colonialism or imperialistic wars of annexation.
Questions of identity are complex and multi-layered, but it is indisputable that of those that are identified as “Latino Americans” in the United States, the vast majority trace a large part of their heritage to this very continent, long before the arrival of Columbus.
Many of us are Indigenous to these lands and if there was an alternative way to identify ...