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Posted inOpinion

COMMENTARY: Raíces, learning my immigrant history saved my life

by francisco aviles pino

It was during a mandatory program I attended during the summer of my junior year that I met Cal State Fullerton Professor of Chicano Studies, Alexandro Jose Gradilla.

Part of his curriculum was to share the history of Latinx/o movements across the century and how it has shaped both the forms of identity-making for our community but also how it has also furthered the liberation and lives of all people of color. It wasn’t until we got to the part about immigrant rights movements, from Prop 187 to the blowouts of 2006 that my ears truly sprang up and where I saw a mirror in my academic journey for the first time.
Growing up, I knew I was an immigrant from Mexico. From hiding when the cops would drive by, to avoiding San Diego or never being able to travel back home to family in Mexico the way my friends were, I knew as I kept getting older that I was different.

Posted inOpinion

COLUMN: Raíces, Finding family in Mexico

by Teresa Puente

I went to Mexico to look for relatives of my great grandfather, who left there in 1890. My grandfather was a cowboy who rode cattle from Texas to the Midwest. I told a woman, who could have been a cousin, how my mom was born in Carrizo Springs, Texas and grew up in a migrant worker family. They picked cotton in Texas and beets in the Midwest and then wound up on a tomato farm outside Chicago. My mom’s sisters convinced the family to move to the city where they could make more money working in factories. My mom was the youngest, so she was allowed to go to high school if she got an after-school job. She found a job in a department store. My mom and dad, also a migrant from Texas, met in the high school cafeteria. They married and had five children, all who went on to graduate from college.

Posted inOpinion

COMMENTARY: Tony Tijerino, advocating for Latinos in the arts and beyond

by Patricia Guadalupe

Tony Tijerino is President and CEO of the Hispanic Heritage Foundation. He is a native of Nicaragua and a graduate of the University of Maryland. Tijerino’s experience includes stints at the public relations giant Burson Marsteller, and at Nike and the Fannie Mae Foundation. He’s been showered with numerous honors and awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National PTA, and recognition from Hispanics in Philanthropy and the MALDEF Award for Human Rights. Tijerino is also a recipient of the Ohtli Award, the highest honor bestowed by the Mexican government to an individual. He’s also worked on immigration issues and was recognized by FWD.US for his work with migrant families on the border.

Posted inOpinion

COMMENTARY: I’m in this country because of my gay Latino uncles

by francisco aviles pino

That experience of freedom, of support, and patience, however, isn’t common among Latino families. Studies continue to show that Latinos have some of the largest LGBTQ populations in the U.S. and continue to struggle with the effects of homophobia in their families and communities. Latinx LGBT adults are more likely to be unemployed and to experience food insecurity than non-LGBT Latinx adults.

Posted inOpinion

COMMENTARY: My father never told me “I love you”

by Álvaro Huerta

I ask, “Why was my father incapable of saying the three magic words—’I love you’—to his children and wife?” Without getting all Freudian, I’ve learned that it goes back to his turbulent and harsh upbringing in a small Mexican rancho in the beautiful state of Michoacán: Zajo Grande. At the rancho, along with his parents and 10 siblings, he experienced/witnessed poverty, violence and death.

Posted inOpinion

COMMENTARY: Mexican president, LULAC and NAACP slam DeSantis’ plans to shut down border and his anti-migrant agenda

by Patricia Guadalupe

DeSantis recently signed legislation that among other things places criminal penalties on anyone who transports an undocumented person across state lines, requires employers with 25 or more workers to verify their immigration status, and demands hospitals who accept Medicaid ask immigration status to patients and report the data. It also repeals a law that allows some undocumented immigrants to obtain a license to practice law in the state. Barring any potential court action, the DeSantis legislation goes into effect on July 1.
Some undocumented workers in South Florida are not showing up for work or leaving job sites because of the law.

Posted inOpinion

COMMENTARY: Democrats criticize Biden sending troops to the border

by Patricia Guadalupe

Members of the president’s own party are smacking down the plan for troops at the U.S.-Mexico border around the same time that Biden announces his reelection bid. So the administration’s strategy appears to stress that the military deployment is temporary (just 90 days, for now) and that it has been done in the past, including during the Obama administration. Then-president Obama sent nearly 1,500 military to the southern border, and they were there for nearly a year at one point.

Posted inOpinion

COMMENTARY: ICE data breach puts asylum seekers at risk 

by Khatia Mikadze

While ICE has released some people from detention and some have secured relief through representation, but many still do not have legal representation and remain detained because ICE refused to release them for unknown reasons. Thus, while little progress has been made, most people affected by the data breach remain detained. A typical length of detention can be anywhere from three to four months to almost three years in cases of arbitrary prolonged detention.

Posted inOpinion

COLUMN: Migrants killed in fire reveals broken immigration policies

by Teresa Puente

But what the fire reveals is broken immigration policies in the U.S. and Mexico. Mexico is detaining and holding migrants, including those expelled from the U.S. They don’t have the facilities or the resources to do this humanely.
Under U.S. immigration law, migrants fleeing persecution can request asylum regardless of how they arrive on U.S. soil. But the Biden administration proposed a more restrictive immigration rule to take effect in May.