Expressing Brown pride is not racist. What these youth demonstrated is pride in their culture and in themselves. It’s no different than a student who wears green, or an Irish flag, to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.
Author Archives: Teresa Puente
Teresa Puente has spent her career reporting on immigration and Latino issues in the U.S. and has also reported extensively from Mexico. Previously, she was a staff reporter at the Chicago Tribune and was on the editorial board at the Chicago Sun-Times. Early in her career, she worked as a reporter for the Press-Telegram in Long Beach and The Orange County Register. Her recent journalistic work has been published in TIME, Newsweek, The Guardian, The Daily Beast, The Hill, The Miami Herald, Latino magazine, In These Times and more. Puente also is a senior facilitator, coach and mentor with The OpEd Project, a social venture that helps promote and publish underrepresented voices in the media.
Puente, an assistant professor at California State University, Long Beach, teaches News Reporting and Ethics, Social Media Communication and Bilingual Magazine Reporting & Production. Her students publish the Spanish-language magazine Dig En Español, the first magazine of its kind in Long Beach.
Puente received the Studs Terkel Award from Public Narrative for her coverage of Chicago’s diverse communities. She has served on the board of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, the California Chicano News Media Association and JAWS – Journalism & Women Symposium. She is a past president of the Chicago Association of Hispanic Journalists.
Puente holds an MFA in creative writing from Columbia College Chicago and a bachelor’s degree with a double major in journalism and political science from Indiana University-Bloomington. Before returning to Long Beach, she taught journalism for 10 years at Columbia College Chicago. She was also a visiting assistant professor in the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University and taught journalism and communications at the Tecnológico de Monterrey campus in Guadalajara, Mexico.
Posted inOpinion
COLUMN: Don’t ban the term Latinx or the culture
The new governor of Alabama, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, has banned the word Latinx in state government business. Republican governors, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, are waging a cultural and political war against immigrants and people of color.
Posted inOpinion
Wakanda Forever elevates Black and Brown superheroes
Tenoch Huerta Mejía is vocal critic of racism, colorism and supporter of Brown pride, the title of his newly released book, “Orgullo Prieto.”
Posted inOpinion
COLUMN: As a college professor, I’m no longer using Twitter as a teaching tool
The future of Twitter is uncertain. Some predict it may soon fail. A few journalists have argued that Twitter should be preserved to defend democracy.
Posted inOpinion
COLUMN: We can’t ignore Trump (again)
If you don’t like candidates from either party then it’s important that we put forth and support candidates who actually have values that include support for human rights, immigrant rights, workers rights, women’s rights and more.
Posted inPolitics
COLUMN: Diversity and democracy win in this midterm election
The country is divided. But voters also elected some historic firsts.
Posted inOpinion
COLUMN: Hate has no place on LA City Council or in our Latino Communities
Many of us in the Latino community have heard friends and family members use racist language. We also have been the victims of racist language- anti-Black, anti-Brown and anti-Indigebous – and sometimes from those within our own community.
Posted inOpinion
COLUMN: When you are the first Latino/a/x
Only around 5 percent of college professors nationwide are Latino/a/x and at CSULB it’s higher around 9 percent. But this is still low when almost half of the student body is Latino/a/x.
Posted inEducation, Opinion
COLUMN: Half of Latinos may soon see their student debt forgiven
Among undergraduate students who began in 2012 (the latest data available), 51% of Latino students borrowed to pay for their undergraduate or graduate education, according to Excelencia in Education.
The initial $10,000 of federal student loan forgiveness will allow about half of all Latino borrowers to have their entire debt forgiven, according to Excelencia.
Posted inJustice
COLUMN: Stop killing journalists in Mexico
The government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador has said the government does not attack journalists and the crimes are being committed by criminal groups.
It’s naive to think that some of these crimes against journalists, or against the citizens of Mexico, have nothing to do with government actors such as police, the military or elected officials.
Posted inJustice
COLUMN: Bad Bunny, the Apagón and power failures in Puerto Rico
There’s been a recent privatization of the electric company and huge rate increases, which led to residents protesting this summer in San Juan. There also are concerns about gentrification of the island with mainlanders coming in and buying up property.
Posted inOpinion
COLUMN: Support Afro-Latino journalists in U.S. media
The National Association of Hispanic Journalists, which represents many working journalists and editors and joined forces with the National Association of Black Journalists to host their national conventions together last week in Las Vegas, is working to support Afro-Latino journalists.