The corporate sponsorship of Latino civic organizations has been covered before on this site. Specifically, beer company sponsorships are popular with the traditional Latino organizations. A few years back, I even wrote about how the beer companies are so invested in cultural holidays such as Cinco de Mayo. Well, this time the United Farm Workers [...]

[Read more →]

Remember how Governor Jerry Brown liked to bring up his days working with Cesar Chavez and the UFW in the 70s during his heated campaign with Meg Whitman last year? Well it seems that those ties with the UFW under current President Arturo Rodriguez aren’t as strong as they were back in the day when [...]

[Read more →]

Supposedly the two years Cesar Chavez spent in the Navy were the “two worst” years of his life, but the Navy went ahead and named a ship after him anyway. You can read my comments about that in a piece linked here. I’m rarely on the side of Rep. Duncan Hunter, but I have noticed [...]

[Read more →]

Earlier today, I was on a press call with Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, and she and her chief economist discussed some new statistics on Latinos in the workforce. She was also joined by Cecilia Muñoz, the director of Intergovernmental Affairs at the White House. Here are some key stats that were shared: In 2010, [...]

[Read more →]

By Jude Soto In New York City, the United of Federation of Teachers (UFT) has another fight on its hands. On January 10, a judge denied the United Federation of Teachers request to block the release of Teacher Data Reports under the Freedom of Information Act. The union’s response has been expected, appeal the ruling [...]

[Read more →]

By Matthew Stieglitz This piece was inspired by a comment on my last blog post about abolishing Chicano Studies departments because “they doom aspiring minorities to a lifetime of poverty.” It reminded of the time-honored American tradition of emphasizing the necessity and superiority of certain fields over others. You’ll be hard pressed to find anyone [...]

[Read more →]

By Jude Soto In spite of the numerous protests against her appointment, this week Commissioner of the New York State Education Department, David Steiner, confirmed Cathie Black as Chancellor of New York City Public Schools. That sadness I am feeling as a school teacher, that my boss is someone who lacks a background in education [...]

[Read more →]

By Matthew Stieglitz As 2011 approaches, let us take a moment to review 2000-2010 through a lens of Latino disempowerment. During this decade, our community has weathered firestorms ranging from anti-immigrant rhetoric, to financial extortion, to exclusion from the American educational system. Make no mistake, when politicians refuse to provide access to higher education for [...]

[Read more →]