Latina Initative inspires – Rhonda Solis – Greeley, Colorado

“Rhonda Solis has lived most of her life in Greeley, Colorado, a fast-growing city with an agriculture-focused economy and a substantial Latino population. A Latina herself, Rhonda is constantly struck by the divisiveness that is caused by adverse attitudes toward Latinos in the region. Whether the subject is education, politics, or society, Latinos are marginalized – largely invisible – except when they are in the spotlight for conversations about immigration, crime, or other controversial subjects. But Latinos have important contributions to make that aren’t recognized by the average citizen. Rhonda, a naturally quiet person who didn’t attend college, became determined to take a stand on the inequities that marginalize Latinos and contribute to an inadequate Latino voice in public discourse.

Rhonda’s specific concern lies in the fact that there is a lack of Latino faces in elected office, representing a great void in Latinos’ ability to shape public policy. Children have few Latino public role models to look up to, and thus, our society’s disparities are allowed to continue through the generations.”*

• In El Salvador, a grim reflection, and a glimmer of hope – The president has bestowed the country’s highest honor on six Jesuit priests massacred 20 years ago, more evidence that peaceful change is possible, if slow to come.
• Mexican farmers reeling from worst drought in decades
• At-risk Hispanic students get a hand up in after-school program at Bonnabel – Louisiana
• Mexican doctors pointed to parents as the reason Mexico leads the world in child obesity, a problem made worse in this country by the lack of sports training.
• “They” Are “Us”: The Devastating Effects of Broken Immigration Policy on Children in Immigrant Families
• Angel Reyes Interview About Child Safety In Cars On Good Morning Texas
• Interview with Children’s Author Lucia Gonzalez – Gonzalez’s latest children’s book, The Storyteller’s Candle, is dedicated to Pura Belpre
• Police in Peru say gang members killed people to drain their fat for cosmetics
• Outreach program targets Latino farmers in northern Michigan
• US indicts 19 members of Hispanic street gang – Maryland branch of the “Latin Kings”
• USDA data shows more Latino children going hungry
• Puerto Rican, Latino Clergy, Theology Professors, Community Members To Condemn Brutal Hate Killing of Gay Puerto Rican Man
• Mexico’s Drug Violence Gives Rise To Vigilantism
• 70% of Cuba’s Farmland Threatened by Erosion
• The wave of crime besetting Puerto Rico seems to be out of control with 800 murders being committed here so far this year, but the island’s top police official says the problem does not fall exclusively within his department.
• Murder charges were filed Wednesday in the slaying of a gay teenager, Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado, whose decapitated, partially burned body was found last week, while U.S. authorities said they were still considering whether to make it a hate crime case. – Puerto Rico
• There are 16 million children in immigrant families in the United States
• CIS Report Attempts to Erase 100 Years of Data on Immigrants and Crime
• Video: Senator Menendez Speaks on Behalf of Hispanic Farmers’ Discrimination Lawsuit + update
• Hispanics are 9% of the Virginia’s schoolchildren, but 5% of gifted students.