“Fabian Nunez, who as California Assembly Speaker became one of the state’s most prominent Latino lawmakers, is taking on a new media career — joining a team of 2012 election analysts with powerhouse Spanish-language Univision Communications.

Democrat Nunez joins a pair of GOP analysts — journalist Helen Aguirre Ferre and Dr. Emilio Gonzalez, who served as director of the Homeland Security’s immigration services — in the new analyst job with Univision. The new team is charged with delivering political analysis  on the issues and the candidates of the 2012 presidential election on Univision’s evening newscasts, “Noticiero Univision,” for the network’s popular Sunday news show, “Al Punto” (To the Point), and its morning program, “Despierta America.” The network will use the team as part of a plan to marshall more social network and interactive coverage with its “Destino 2012? coverage, according to a Univision news release.

”As Hispanics continue to grow innumber and influence, and become  even more engaged with technology and social platforms, Unvision will….keep audiences abreast of the news that will impoact their lives, so in turn they can make informed decisions,” according to a statement Monday by Isaac Lee, president of News/Univision Communications.”

Since leaving his position as the Speaker of the California Assembly and the controversial pardon of his son’s manslaugher case, Nuñez has maintained a rather low profile. I think that this might be a step toward reshaping his image in taking this public step as a media analyst. It will be interesting to see how the viewers of Univision react to him. I’m not too surprised that he’s stepping back out into the public sphere — are you?

“Obama later visited the Spanish-style mansion of Antonio Banderas and Melanie Griffith for what promoters billed as “the first ever Latino fundraiser” for the president.

Actress Eva Longoria, one of the stars of television’s Desperate Housewives, introduced Obama by saying he “speaks to the Latino community because he knows he’s the president of all Americans.”

“And we applaud you from our community,” Longoria told Obama. “We thank you for everything you’re doing.””

Meanwhile on the immigration front, which is a key issue that Candidate Obama touted on the campaign trail in 2008 when he was in front of Latino audiences, we have continued to see record breaking deportations and even suggestions that those same tough enforcement policies will continue. Last week an important documentary aired on PBS’s Frontline, Lost in Detention, in which an Obama official, Cecilia Muñoz said, ““As long as Congress gives us the money to deport 400,000 people a year, that’s what the administration is going to do.”

Watch Lost in Detention on PBS. See more from FRONTLINE.

Understandably, immigration rights advocates are upset, and some people feel a disconnect between the administration’s courting of the celebrity wing of the Latino community versus the needs and desires of the grassroots. Presente.org even has a petition for Cecelia Muñoz to “set the record straight.”

Going into the 2012 election cycle, which message do you think will resonate with Latino voters? Will people support the President because some of our high profile celebrities are lining up behind Team Obama or will the Latino community simply not vote for a candidate for President as Professor Gary Segura of Stanford implies in the documentary?

By Luis Alvarado

Last Week one of the most respected Latino organization in the US, (NALEO) National Organization of Elected Officials and Appointed Officers held their annual convention in San Antonio Texas.  In 2008, NALEO invited then Presidential Candidate Sen. Barack Obama to speak, and Obama addressed NALEO promising to return and address the members if he became President.  This year President Obama was invited to attend and once again has declined.  Juan Zapata, President of the Education Fund of NALEO said on Univision’s show  “Al Punto con Jorge Ramos” that the first year he did not show was understandable, the second year was also understood and now on the third year his absence is clearly disrespectful.

The media picked up the tensions between NALEO and Obama, and soon there was media frenzy.  I wanted to see how the Spanish-Speaking media were characterizing this riff, so I Google’d “Obama+NALEO” and found over 350 articles under the News tab.  Surprisingly very few Spanish-speaking articles were written on the story.  ImpreMedia, which claims to be the leading Hispanic News and Information Company in the U.S. in Online and Print, did not write on the riff at NALEO, they just talked about the importance of the Latino vote.  Not a peep on the repeated request to address the convention.

As the 2012 election enters into full swing, there is no question that Spanish-speaking media will once again play a large roll in how candidates communicate with the Latino voter, Latinos will be heavily courted and campaigns will spend fortunes to win their vote.  During the 2008 Presidential race, there was a love fest between the media and Obama’s presidential campaign, even more evident with the Spanish-speaking media, which has demonstrated great resistance to calling the President out on his record or lack of participation with the Latino Community.  Hence why I conclude the subject did not receive any ink on any of the ImpreMedia periodicals.

Another motive to understand this behavior is that of economics.  On the last election cycle unions and Democratic candidates spent millions of dollars attacking Republicans and painting them as anti-Latinos, thus enraging Latinos in hopes of punishing Republicans and raising voter turnout.  Feeding a captive audience with the anti-Latino strategy has propelled Democrats to public offices in heavy Latino districts as well as increased profits to Spanish-speaking media corporations.  Introducing an anti-Latino message against Obama dilutes the formula and both Democrats and Spanish-speaking media lose out.  In the end, ImpreMedia‘s silence on the main issues that mater for Latinos to understand and participate in the political process is deafeningly silent, my hope is that Latinos soon learn to use new information media and join mainstream America in how they select their candidates.

For those of you who follow media, you may know Jose Antonio Vargas as a journalist who had been at The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, and has had the privilege of interviewing high profile celebrities and leaders. Like many others, I enjoyed reading his profiles and his pieces about technology and society. Vargas was even part of The Washington Post team that earned a Pulitzer Prize for its reporting on the Virginia Tech shootings.

Like many young people who are undocumented, Vargas found out about his status while in high school although he had been in the US since the age of 12 having arrived from the Philippines. Since discovering that he was an undocumented immigrant, he has relied on a network or “an underground railroad” that has helped provide cover for him so that he could finish school and obtain work. With a fake passport and a photocopied Social Security card, Vargas was able to navigate the employment system. He even knowingly checked off the citizenship box on I-9 employment eligibility forms despite feeling a strong sense of guilt for doing so.

Vargas explains:

“For more than a decade of getting part-time and full-time jobs, employers have rarely asked to check my original Social Security card. When they did, I showed the photocopied version, which they accepted. Over time, I also began checking the citizenship box on my federal I-9 employment eligibility forms. (Claiming full citizenship was actually easier than declaring permanent resident “green card” status, which would have required me to provide an alien registration number.)

This deceit never got easier. The more I did it, the more I felt like an impostor, the more guilt I carried — and the more I worried that I would get caught. But I kept doing it. I needed to live and survive on my own, and I decided this was the way.”

This admission of deceit at this level is going to make many uncomfortable — even those who may be more sympathetic to undocumented workers and open minded about reforming the immigration system. I will admit that I felt a little uneasy when I first read Vargas’ story this morning, especially in light of all of the recent news about professional journalists being laid off from their jobs. For all these years, this guy was “gaming the system” in a profession where ethics and guarding sensitive information and sources are paramount. Yet at the same time, Vargas’ story is one of a young person trying to prove his “worthiness as an American” with hard work and perseverance. And he does explain how guilty he felt for continuing the lies and has apologized to employers for doing so.

As I see it, there are many shades of grey in this situation, and Vargas’ admission is definitely going to spark debate. I doubt that the Obama administration’s Department of Homeland Security will want to make an example of Vargas by throwing him into deportation proceedings given his public prominence, but where does that leave the other undocumented people who aren’t Pulitzer Prize winners and who don’t have friends in high places who are willing to vouch for their work and character? Much like the larger American community, you have the dynamics of privilege playing out with those who are undocumented.

I encourage you to check out the video below of Jose Antonio Vargas sharing his story as he attempts to “Define American“, and do share your thoughts:

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I still am of the opinion that McCain could have better qualified his initial statement. If he doesn’t have evidence that can be released to the public about who started the massive fire, he shouldn’t try to place blame publicly.

Randy Parraz, who was the Democratic candidate challenging McCain last year, offered this:

“He could have said that Boy Scouts of America started this fire. When you claim that there’s substantial evidence, you need to be able to produce that and he did not do that.”

And even if this current massive fire was started by an undocumented person, a case probably could be made for immigration reform that allows the US to better track who enters the country. If an immigrant can cross at an official point of entry, there would be no need to start a fire for warmth.

The Phoenix New Times summed it up pretty succinctly here:

“Keep in mind that Senator McCain was asked generally about Arizona’s current wildfire epidemic, and he generally answered that these argued for a “secure border” due to all of these illegal border crossers setting fires.

Right. As if building the “dang fence” would somehow stay Sand Land’s triple-digit heat, low humidity and the wind itself, leaving the yearly plague of forest fires a bitter memory.”

What are your thoughts? Does Senator McCain make any more sense on this issue today?

As of the 2000 Census, a little over three quarters of the town population was white, and there were roughly the same percentage of blacks and Latinos. And in recent years, there has been an influx of Somali immigrants, who are primarily Sunni Muslims. Shelbyville also has a Tyson Foods processing plant. For those who have followed immigration issues, you may remember that Tyson Foods was involved in an immigrant smuggling scheme years ago, but the company ended up being acquitted. The Tyson Foods aspect is important because many immigrants come to work in meat processing plants especially in the south.

I spoke with Welcoming America‘s Executive Director David Lubell about his involvement in Welcome to Shelbyville. And he said that Shelbyville was chosen because his organization had witnessed the changing demographics in the town and that they could more closely measure the impact of collaborations and the community building that his organization works on between U.S. born citizens and newly arrived immigrants in a smaller municipality. I asked if there had been any hate crimes or violent incidents that made this particular place ripe for this kind of organizing, and he did mention a mosque burning in nearby Columbia, Tennessee. Lubell explained, “Progress has been made in Shelbyville. This is not a story of complete success, but progress and community building between the ethnic groups is occurring especially when people make a concerted effort to do it. Welcome to Shelbyville is a hopeful film.”

Check out this clip, and do check your local television listings for tomorrow’s PBS premiere:

And if you can’t catch this on television, you will be able to watch the documentary in it’s entirety via this link. Welcome to Shelbyville is a recipient of a Gucci-Tribeca Documentary Fund grant and was a selection of the U.S. State Department’s 2010 American Documentary Showcase.

Since being arrested last spring, Private Manning has been held in solitary confinement for 23 hours out of the day and has been stripped naked during the night. Currently, he’s being detained inside the Brig of the Marine base in Quantico, Virginia. There have been multiple criticisms of how Manning is being treated in his detention with even the U.N. examining the case. The key thing to remember here is that Manning is a suspect — he has not yet been put on trial, but he is already being subjected to treatment and conditions that one can liken to punishment.

Last week State Department Official P.J. Crowley said that the treatment of Manning was “ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid” at a seminar at M.I.T., while adding that the Private was in the right place (meaning he thought that the Private should be held as a suspect). And today, he resigned as spokesman for the State Department for those remarks. My feeling is that Crowley spoke the truth and did not say anything controversial — it is ridiculous to deprive a suspect of sleep or have him endure prolonged nudity. But I understand the protocol of towing the administration line. What is problematic about this episode is that candidate Obama campaigned against the mistreatment of prisoners, and this Manning case appears to be a case study in said mistreatment.

If there is one positive to come out of this Crowley statement and subsequent resignation, I hope to see Mr. Crowley speak more freely as a private citizen.

What are the odds of walking into a bar, ordering a drink and then a tear gas missile hitting the journalist instead of a barfly or drunk? And what are the odds of dying from a tear gas missile? This incident still smells fishy.

I encourage you to read the LA Times piece, and tell us what you think about this new report and Sheriff Lee Baca’s reluctance to release documents about this case.

As I peruse the Latino landscape in this country, I can’t help but come to back the same thought: Soledad O’Brien let me down. As many of you will recall, last year Soledad filmed Latino in America, the Latino version of Black in America. Refusing to miss the program, I got my popcorn ready Terrell Owens-style and prepared for what I thought was going to be an insightful view on Latino contributions to the US. Not only was I disappointed by what I watched, I was angry. Stereotypes prevailed the entire program, and our lone example of Latino entrepreneurial success was a chef no one outside of the Univision faithful have heard of. While this all needs to be mentioned, it leaves a great deal to be desired. My anger ultimately subsided, but that doesn’t mean this piece should go unwritten.

Where Latino in America failed is in what I so badly wanted: inspiration. Soledad had the opportunity to do what so few of us can: use her credibility and popularity to both document and highlight the plight of the Latino. This means addressing the negative and the positive. While she found a variety of meritorious topics to touch on, she struck out looking when it came to uplifting this community and advancing an image of Latinos that does not involve pregnant teens, loss of culture, and illegal immigration. None of our accomplishments in business and politics were highlighted, and the program failed in its ability to inspire. Instead, the program did a great job of reminding everyone which immigrants are hated, who holds the highest high school dropout rate, and who isn’t measuring up.

Sure, Soledad trotted out the usual suspects of Edward James Olmos, Eva Longoria, and George Lopez to remind us that celebrity status is right around the corner with hard work and sacrifice. But after that, it was back to the barrage of negativity that essentially illustrated the following: a demographic that just doesn’t measure up.  I didn’t allocate my time to that program to hear that broken record of failing students, subtraction of culture, and anti-immigrant (i.e. anti-Latino) communities. What I wanted to know were the stories we don’t hear but need to hear about what we’re doing right. The stories about how far we’ve come and what wonderful accomplishments are on the horizon. OK, so I didn’t get what I wanted. There are greater ills in the world. But here’s how it’s actually relevant.

For non-Latinos who watched for an inside look of our community, their perception of Latinos right now is probably pregnant teens, loss of culture, and limited success. Taking it a step further is how Latinos felt after watching the program. In general, all we’re fed are the negatives. A down economy, a failing education system, inadequate healthcare, two wars, global warming, anti-immigrant sentiments, and you get the picture by now. It’s a very negative landscape, and one that seldom offers inspiration. Underscoring all of this is a political system that reeks of a pissing contest between politicians who are more interested in blaming their opposing parties than legitimate bi-partisan collaboration. And within all of that is an image of Latinos that these days is not positive, which Latino in America did little to dispel.

Never mind that we have a Latina Supreme Court justice, Latino elected officials, prominent athletes, and a growing presence in every sector of American society. The negatives had to prevail. While knowing how popular the name Garcia is makes for an interesting conversation piece, I’m not particularly interested in triviality. Instead, I’m interested in inspiration, particularly in light of the continual deterioration of society taking place in Arizona. As such, since Soledad got to give her opinion on Latinos in America, here is mine.

To be Latino in America in the 21^st century is to be the backbone of this nation. Certain sectors of the economy would crash tomorrow if Latinos stopped working, and our military would be severely depleted without Latino soldiers. We peacefully assemble in the face of bigots who would rather see the entire community deported, and in so doing carry ourselves with a grace we often are not afforded. Beyond that, our culture is rich and our societal contributions will only continue, making our presence in this country significant. Simply stated, we are America. But none of that was highlighted by Latino in America. Thus, I write this piece to call on our community to not fall into the trap that Soledad did. I urge you to find and highlight what we do correctly, find our inspiration, and flaunt it.

Matthew Stieglitz received his BA in Communication from the University of Delaware. He is currently a 2011 Master of Public Administration candidate at Cornell University concentrating in Government, Politics, & Policy Studies. After receiving his MPA, Matthew will attend law school in order to merge his public affairs background with a legal education to most effectively advocate for Latinos.

1. The big press conference that the Huizar campaign was going to have today was cancelled.

2. In addition to being fired yesterday from Huizar’s campaign, Michael Trujillo was fired from his job working for school board member Vladovic’s campaign.

3. The LA Weekly’s Jill Stewart writes how the Trujillo e-mail brought Los Angeles politics to a new low.

4. And finally, the LAPD opened an investigation into the threats made by Trujillo. You can see the police report here.