Tag Archives: Massachusetts

Chicks Make Flicks

November 1, 2009CorrientesCarmen Oquendo-Villar, Harvard, Latin America, Massachusetts, MIT, MIT campus, MIZERY and BOQUITA, php, United States, visual artist and curator, West Africa, www.oquendovillar.comescalona

New England Women in Film and Video presents:

Chicks Make Flicks:
Short Documentaries by Carmen Oquendo-Villar
7pm Thursday February 8

Carmen Oquendo Villar (www.oquendovillar.com) is a visual artist and curator of Puerto Rican and Spanish descent whose work has been exhibited in museums and galleries around the world. Educated in Latin America, West Africa and the United States, she is currently completing a PhD at Harvard. Screening will include the films MIZERY and BOQUITA, from a series of film portraits about members of the Boston Latin@ transgender community.

http://www.wifvne.org/programs.chicksmakeflicks.php

On the MIT campus
77 Mass. Ave.
Room 6-120
Free and open to the public.

Latinos in US Media

November 1, 2009CorrientesAmerica, Americas, Argentina, Armando Robles Godoy Filmmaking School, Associate Professor, Associate Professor of Hispanic Studies and Director of Graduate Studies, Boston, Boston College, Boston University, Brandeis University, California, Carmen Oquendo-Villar, Cristina Kotz Cornejo, Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, Department of Romance Studies and the Program, Department of Visual and Media Arts, DIRECTOR, Director of Graduate Studies, Director of the BFA Program, Doris Sommer, Emerson College, Ernesto Livon-Grosman, Florence Levy Kay Fellow, Fox Latin America, Harvard University, Howard Thurman Center, interdisciplinary artist, Jose Barriga, La Opinion, Latin America, Los Angeles, Marisol Negron, Massachusetts, media, Media The Boston Latino International Film Festival, Professor of Romance Languages, Ricardo Palma de Lima, social psychologist, Spanish, The media, United States, Universidad Catolica de Lima, Universidad Ricardo, University of California, West Africa, www.bliff.org, www.bu.edu/thurmanescalona

The Boston Latino International Film Festival (www.bliff.org) the Boston
Area Spanish Exchange – BASE present:

Latinos in US Media
(panel *mostly* in Spanish)
Saturday October 20, 2pm, Howard Thurman Center at Boston University (FREE)
775 Commonwealth Ave.
Boston, MA 02215
www.bu.edu/thurman

“Boston area Spanish-speaking media, film and arts experts meet to discuss in Spanish the present state of Spanish language (and bilingualism) in these U.S. media. The media have played an active role in the creation of many of the stereotypes related to the Latino community in the United States. By addressing the role of language in the inscription, and subversion, of these stereotypes, this panel seeks to provide a space for reflection about how these issues affect the very communities represented in the screen and other media, as well as their relationship with other
communities in the US.”

Moderator:
Carmen Oquendo-Villar

Panelists:

-Ernesto Livon-Grosman, Associate Professor of Hispanic Studies and Director of Graduate Studies of the Dept. of Romance Languages & Literatures at Boston College; he has also made the documentary “Cartoneros”, about the paper recycling process in Argentina, and how many people become trash pickers to be able to make a living.

-Cristina Kotz Cornejo, Associate Professor, Director of the BFA Program, Department of Visual and Media Arts, Emerson College; who has made several films. The last one, titled “3 Americas”, about the relation between an Argentinean-American girl, her anti-American grand-mother in Argentina, and America.

-Doris Sommer, Ira Jewell Williams Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures, Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, Harvard
University; her work focuses mainly on issues of bilingualism and cultural agency.

-Marisol Negron, Florence Levy Kay Fellow in Latino Studies, Department of Romance Studies and the Program in Latin American & Latino Studies, Brandeis University; her dissertation is “Salsa as commodity and cultural signifier: an analysis of nuyorican musical form.” Her research interests are migration and diaspora, popular culture and comodification, and Cuban-American, Dominican-American, Chicano and Puerto Rican cultural production.

-Jose Barriga, He is a social psychologist by training and specializes in Latino media in the U.S. He has worked in Los Angeles with Telemundo, Fox Latin America, La Opinion newspaper, and Enigma Entertainment in different executive positions. He attended: la Universidad Catolica de Lima, la Universidad Ricardo Palma de Lima, the University of California, Los Angeles, and the Armando Robles Godoy Filmmaking School.

-Carmen Oquendo-Villar, (Harvard Ph.D) is a Boston-based interdisciplinary artist and writer-scholar of Puerto Rican and Spanish descent, educated in Latin America, West Africa and the United States. She has been lecturing, exhibiting, and curating internationally since 2004.

Island crisis could fuel more Puerto Rican migration to U.S.

October 15, 2009The ForumBerkeley, Broward, California, Caribbean, Chicago, Columbia, Columbia University, Commonwealth Day, Commonwealth government, Connecticut, David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, Florida, Guest Writer Orlando Sentinel, Hamden County, Hartford, Harvard University, Hillsborough, Jorge Duany, Massachusetts, Miami, Miami-Dade, New Haven, New York, Orange, Orange County, Orlando, Osceola, Philadelphia, Piedras, Professor of Anthropology, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico Ports Authority, the University of Chicago, United States, University of California, University of Puerto Rico, USDescalona

by Jorge Duany, Ph.D., Guest Writer
Orlando Sentinel (Oct 15, 2009)

The signs of Puerto Rico’s acute socioeconomic crisis are everywhere.

The Island’s economy is expected to decline by 5.5 percent this year. Local consumer debt reached almost 23 billion U.S. dollars in 2008. The unemployment rate was 16.5 percent in July 2009. Since 1996, 45,000 manufacturing jobs have been eliminated. For the first time in years, the poverty rate increased during the current decade. The massive layoffs by the Commonwealth government have caused public dismay. Many people are extremely worried about keeping their jobs and paying their bills, taxes, insurance, and mortgages.

One of the traditional strategies in the face of economic difficulties in Puerto Rico has been emigration. An increasing number of Puerto Ricans is seriously considering that alternative, despite the recession of the U.S. economy.

During the current decade, at least one-quarter of a million Puerto Ricans has moved to the continental United States. According to the Puerto Rico Community Survey, nearly 428,000 residents of the Island relocated to the mainland, while about 224,000 returned from abroad between the years 2000 and 2007. According to the Puerto Rico Ports Authority, the net passenger movement to the United States totaled around 297,200 persons between 2000 and 2009. In 2008, 51.6 percent of all persons of Puerto Rican origin lived outside the Island.

Aside from the massive resurgence of the Puerto Rican exodus, the latest census statistics confirm the migrants’ changing settlement patterns. In 2008, the state of Florida had the second largest number of Puerto Rican residents (744.4 thousand), after New York (1.1 million). Between the years 2000 and 2007, five of the ten leading destinations of Puerto Rican migrants were in Florida: Orange, Miami-Dade, Broward, Hillsborough, and Osceola counties.

During the same period, 38,257 residents of the Island resettled in Orange County, the center of the Orlando metropolitan area, which has displaced Philadelphia and Chicago as the second concentration for Puerto Ricans in the U.S. mainland. Other popular destinations for the migrants are Hamden County, Massachusetts; Philadelphia; the Bronx in New York; Hartford and New Haven, Connecticut.

On average, contemporary Puerto Rican migrants are younger, better educated, more skilled, and more likely to be bilingual than the Island’s population. Still, it is exaggerated to characterize the entire new migrant flow as a “brain drain,” since the bulk of the migrants has a secondary education and a blue-collar or service job.

At the same time, a growing proportion consists of highly qualified professionals, including medical doctors, engineers, nurses, and teachers. Among the main motivations for this continuous exodus are the gaps in wages, working conditions, and opportunities for professional development on the Island and in the United States. Furthermore, many migrants are seeking a better “quality of life,” referring especially to public services, housing costs, safety, and tranquility.

Finally, the most recent census estimates allow a comparison between the living conditions of Puerto Ricans on and off the Island.

In 2008, Puerto Rico’s unemployment rate was 14.8 percent, compared to 10 percent for Puerto Ricans in the United States, 9.3 percent in Florida, and 10.4 percent in Orlando. The median income for Puerto Rican households on the Island ($18,190) was less than half than in the United States ($39,039), Florida ($41,892), and Orlando ($39,778). In turn, Puerto Rico’s poverty rate (45 percent) was much higher than for Puerto Ricans in the United States (24 percent), Florida (17.5 percent), and Orlando (16.2 percent).

Given such wide discrepancies in employment opportunities, income levels, and other economic indicators, the new migrant wave will probably persist, until living conditions on the Island improve substantially. Let’s hope that happens soon.

Jorge Duany is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras. He is currently the Wilbur Marvin Visiting Scholar at the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University. He earned his Ph.D. in Latin American Studies, with a concentration in anthropology, at the University of California, Berkeley. He also holds an M.A. in Social Sciences from the University of Chicago and a B.A. in Psychology from Columbia University. He has published extensively on Caribbean migration, ethnicity, race, nationalism, and transnationalism. His most recent coedited book is “How the United States Racializes Latinos: White Hegemony and Its Consequences” (2009).

All Ranks Salute Olga Méndez, Political Trailblazer

August 4, 2009The ForumAnnette Vasquez, Bronx, cancer, Carmen Villegas, Charles B. Rangel, chess, Church of the Holy Agony, city comptroller, Congress, David Gonzalez, district leader, E. Serrano, Fernando Ferrer, fire-breathing columnist and political commentator, Gerson Borrero, Gloria Quinones, Governor, honor guard, Isabel, Judge, law school, lawyer and activist, Marty Torres, Massachusetts, mayor, Monin Paez, New York Times, Nydia M. Velï¿½zquez, Pedro Espada Jr., President, Puerto Rico, Rafael Hernandez's "Lamento Borincano, Senator, several members, St. Patrick's Cathedral, State Senate, the mayor, United States, USD, Victor Elia, William C. Thompson Jr., workerescalona

By DAVID GONZALEZ
New York Times (August 3, 2009)

Befitting a scrappy, independent political pioneer – in 1978 she was the first Puerto Rican woman elected to a state legislature in the United States – her funeral attracted the governor, the mayor, several members of Congress and countless local officials. She was lauded for many things: her tenacity; her willingness to cross party lines; her embrace of labor, housing and educational rights for the poor. She was eulogized as a loyal friend, a fierce competitor and a proud Puerto Rican.

Outside the Church of the Holy Agony, on Third Avenue at 101st Street, beyond the honor guard of construction workers that flanked her hearse, groups gathered by the housing projects to remember La Senadora, and the friends and relatives who got a hand up because of her.

“I don’t think we’ll ever see another one like her,” said Monin Paez, who said she always voted for Senator Méndez. “When she spoke, you had to listen. The politicians today don’t talk to us. They only come by when they want your vote.”

Senator Méndez died from cancer last week at age 84. Married into a politically savvy East Harlem family – and possessed of no small measure of education and determination herself – she found her resolve tested in the State Senate, friends said. But she threw herself into her work, giving as good as she got.

“Many of you have gone toe to toe with her in political battles,” her niece, Annette Vasquez, told the mourners. “But later you would walk away with her arm in arm in friendship and respect.”

Just don’t play games with her.

“When you played Risk with Olga, it was never a game,” she said. “It really was about world domination!”

Among the politicians attending were Representatives José E. Serrano, Nydia M. Velázquez and Charles B. Rangel; the former Bronx borough president Fernando Ferrer; the city comptroller, William C. Thompson Jr.; and State Senator Pedro Espada Jr. Efraín González Jr., Mr. Espada’s predecessor, who recently pleaded guilty to using $200,000 in state funds for vacation homes and other personal expenses, was also there.

Some may have felt themselves in the crosshairs as Gerson Borrero, a fire-breathing columnist and political commentator, delivered his eulogy praising Senator Méndez.

“She worked hard behind the scenes while others pranced around like peacocks,” he said. “They still prance around like peacocks.”

Outside, there was a plainspoken pride among the construction workers who sweated for the duration of the Mass.

“Olga always did the right thing for El Barrio,” said one worker, Marty Torres. “She was about change. She was no punk.”

The plain setting for her funeral was fitting: not the marbled St. Patrick’s Cathedral – though she was well-connected enough to have had her service there – just the simple linoleum tile and plywood walls of Holy Agony, where she had been a loyal parishioner since the 1950s. Opened in 1953, it was built for the Puerto Ricans settling in El Barrio – old timers said it was the first local church where they celebrated in the main sanctuary, not hidden in some basement.

In the days before the funeral, friends recalled Senator Méndez, too, as visible and approachable. She asked about your children and treated you like family. She relished telling stories with a mischievous smile and a raspy voice. And she was fiercely Puerto Rican – not Latina, not Hispanic.

“She is the last of her kind,” said Gloria Quinones, a lawyer and activist often on the far left of the senator. “She represented reassurance that the community had a fighting voice and someone who loved them.”

Ms. Quinones remembers when she finished law school and Ms. Méndez asked her if she wanted to become a judge.

“To get me out of the way,” she said.

“But she always asked me how my boys were,” she added. “She was like that with everybody. At the same time she was always calling and asking me if I was going to run against her.”

Others noted that while she had sharp political instincts, they were further honed when she married into the Méndez family, whose patriarch, Antonio Méndez, was the first Puerto Rican district leader in Manhattan. Her mother-in-law, Isabel, was equally political.

“She pushed Olga,” said Carmen Villegas, a family friend. “She knew how to move the chairs like chess pieces. She worked in the senator’s office until she died. And she never called her Olga. She always called her La Senadora.”

The two women were just as devoted to Holy Agony, staying active and donating statues to the church over the years.

An urn with her ashes was set before the altar, flanked by the United States and Puerto Rican flags. Two state troopers stood smartly on either side. The Rev. Victor Elia did the final blessing, and people applauded as the urn was carried to the waiting hearse for burial in the Bronx.

Outside, under a glorious sun, a group of elderly women broke into song as the hearse prepared to leave. Wrapped in the Puerto Rican flag, they intoned Rafael Hernandez’s “Lamento Borincano,” the unofficial anthem of Puerto Rico. It is a song about hardship, hope and heartbreak.

It can never be sung without tears.

Major Latino Organizations Speak Out Against PBS series THE WAR

August 20, 2007The ForumAldo Lauria Santiago, America, Amherst, and National Bronx Member, Armando Rendon, Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Associate Professor of Education, Associate Professor of Spanish, Austin Angela Valenzuela, Austin Armando Vazquez-Ramos, Austin Miguel "Mickey" Melendez, Austin Richard Valencia, Boston, Brown University, CA National Institute for Latino Policy, California, California State University, Candida Tapia Donato Tapia, Carlos Molina, Carlos Rodriguez, CEO and president, Cepeda, Chair, Charles Pitt Robinson, City College of New York, City University of New York, Clara E. Rodriguez, Clinical Coordinator, co-chair, Commander, Commissioner, Congressman, Coordinator, Cynthia Garcia Coll, D. Tanya K. Hernandez, DC National Association of Latino Independent Producers, Department of Curriculum & Instruction, Department of Educational Psychology, Department of History, Department of Political Science, Department of Sociology, Department of Urban Studies, Dolores M. Fern, East Region Area Organizing Director, Ed (Gato) Castillo-Rubio, Edgar De Jesus, Educational Administration, Edwin Karli Padilla, Emilio Zamora, Esteban Torres, Eugene Rivera, Evelyn Collazo, Executive Director, Federal Communications Commission, Florentine Films, Frances Aparicio, Francisco J. Gonzalez, Franklyn Perez, Frederick W. Hall Scholar, Gabriel Haslip-Viera, Gloria Tristani, Grissele Camacho, Gus Chavez, Hector Soto, Herbert H. Lehman College, Hilda Hern, Hill Health Center, Hispanic Media Coalition, Hispanic War Veterans of America, Hostos Community College, Illinois, Investigator, Jaime Estades, James Jennings, Jess Quintero, Jessica Gonzalez-Rojas, John Palmer, journalism professor, Jr., Juan Flores, Ken Burns, La Resurreccion UMC Social Justice Committee, Labor Council for Latin American Advancement, Latin American and Latino Studies, Latina, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Los Angeles League, Louise Bonanova, Luis Aponte-Par, Luis O. Reyes, Luis Urrieta, LULAC, Luz Rodriguez, Maggie Rivas-Rodr, Major, Marta Garc, Martin Espada, Massachusetts, Medger Evers College, Middletown, Minerva Delgado, Miriam Jim, Myra Y. Estepa, National Association of Hispanic Journalists, National Endowment for the Humanities, national president, Nelson Sierra, New York Chapter, New York, New York University, Newark, NY National Latino Council on Alcohol and Tobacco Prevention, NY Izzy Sanabria, Office for Civil Rights, Officer, one of the founders, Panama, Paula Kerger, PBS President and CEO, Placido Salazar, President, Professor, Professor of Education, Professor of Law, Professor of Social, Puerto Rico, Queens College, Raul Madrid, Ricardo R. Fernandez, Rights, Rosa Rosales, Rosalina Diaz, Rudy L. Ramos Civil, Rudy L. Ramos Civil Rights Chapter, Rutgers University, Rutgers University School of Law, San Anotnio Carlos Sanabria, San Antonio, San Francisco, San Juan, Sharon Percy Rockefeller, Texas, The War, Tuft University, United States Department of Education, United States, University of Illinois at Chicago, University of Houston, University of Massachusetts, University of Puerto Rico, University of Texas, USD, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Viet Nam Veterans, Washington, WETA, WETA-TV, Williams College, Williamstown, WWIIescalona

Major Latino Organizations Speak Out:
The WAR AGAINST KEN BURNS / PBS’
“THE WAR” IS NOT OVER
Why the Latino Community Can’t Let This Matter Rest

The Latino “war” against Ken Burns’ upcoming documentary, “The War,” to be aired on PBS is not over. Despite recent press statements, key Latino organizations and leaders across the country today publicly announced that the issue is far from resolved and that they will continue pressing for a respectful resolution. Latino organizations and leaders called on Ken Burns and Florentine Pictures to meet with a representative cross-section of the national Latino leadership to explain in detail the changes they have made to the film, how they plan to include the Latino experience in their future projects and how they plan to include Latinos on the Florentine team. They also call on PBS President and CEO Paula Kerger, as well as WETA-TV’s CEO and president, Sharon Percy Rockefeller, to explain the measures that will be taken to assure that such a gross exclusion of the Latino community does not occur again in their current and future programming, and how they will supplement The War with other programming and activities to include the Latino experience, in particular with the educational programming.

At the urging of a corporate sponsor, Burns met with two Latino groups in early May and reiterated that he would include interviews with some Latino veterans in the 14.5 hour documentary, without offering many details. This was a commitment that he and PBS had already made publicly. Citing the results of this meeting, Burns and PBS officials at both the national and local levels have declared the issue closed. “Ken Burns cannot choose to make a secret deal with only two of the many Latino groups that were involved in this issue and in discussion with him and PBS, and then claim that the matter is resolved,” explains Marta García, co-chair of the New York Chapter of the National Hispanic Media Coalition and one of the founders of Defend the Honor, a Latino grassroots mobilization that first raised the alarm about Latino exclusion from this PBS documentary at the beginning of this year. “He must bring closure to this issue by paying the Latino leadership of this country the respect, respeto, of meeting with us to explain himself and his future relationship to the Latino community.”

Some progress had been made on the issue over the past several months in that Burns has added interviews with two Mexican American veterans and one Native American to the 14 hour and 28 minute documentary. “But make no mistake,” said Iván Román, executive director of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, “we will withhold judgment on how meaningful that additional material is – whether it truly speaks to the Latino experience and whether it is reflected in the companion book and educational material.” In subsequent statements to the press, Burns has been dismissive of the arguments that the inclusion of Latinos is about historical accuracy rather than political correctness.

“It is unfortunate that Ken Burns continues to see this issue as one of politics and rhetoric that he must rise above,” said Dr. Maggie Rivas-Rodríguez, the University of Texas journalism professor who co-chairs the Defend the Honor Campaign. “It has nothing to do with politics and everything to do with historical accuracy andinclusion.” Rosa Rosales, national president of LULAC, said that it was crucial for the Latino
organizations to publicly challenge statements in the press by Burns and PBS that the issue had been resolved. “As Ken Burns travels across the country as part of the $10 million promotional effort by PBS, he still characterizes this as a terrible misunderstanding,” Rosales said. “It’s no misunderstanding. We understand perfectly that he only added the new interviews under pressure and, right now, it looks like he’s not very proud of that new material.”

Another sticking point are the discrepancies between the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) grant proposal that provided federal funding for the film, and what he and PBS have said in recent months. For instance, Burns has said repeatedly in news interviews that in the more than 6 years of production, “no Latinos came forward” to be interviewed about their WWII experiences. But he apparently excluded Latinos from the beginning: in the NEH grant proposal submitted in 2004, Burns and Florentine Films said that the film “will celebrate American diversity” and that
it will be about the “diversity of wartime America . . . African-American, Japanese American and white.” “This is certainly very different from the way he discusses his film today in defending himself against Latino criticisms,” observes Jess Quintero, president of the Hispanic War Veterans of America. That documentary will shape how Americans view WWII, and if short shrift is given to the Latino contributions, there will be a reinforcement of the widespread ignoranceof the Latino contribution to the building of the U.S. “Ken Burns and PBS are playing recklessly with our history, both as Latinos and Americans,” observes Gus Chavez,one of the co-chairs of the Defend the Honor. He concludes, “This is something every
American should be upset about.”

“We are very uncomfortable with taking Burns and PBS’ word that they have addressed the Latino community’s concerns before actually seeing the product,” Armando Rendon of Defend the Honor Campaign of Northern California adds. “The anger in the grassroots Latino community continues unabated by the manner in which he and PBS have handled this matter.”-30-

Preliminary signatories to this statement include the following, with additional signatures to be added through Sept. 22, 2007.

Organizations:
Afro-Latino Project, Queens College (CUNY), Flushing, NY
APITO Centro Cultural de Puerto Rico (ACCPR), San Juan, Puerto Rico
Defend the Honor
Latino Literacy Now, Los Angeles
League of United Latin America Citizens (LULAC)
Lic. Rudy L. Ramos Civil Rights Chapter of the American GI Forum, San Antonio, Texas
National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ), Washington, DC
National Association of Latino Independent Producers (NALIP), Los Angeles, CA
National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC), Los Angeles, CA
National Institute for Latino Policy (NiLP), New York, NY
National Latino Council on Alcohol and Tobacco Prevention (LCAT), New York, NY & Wash., DC

Individuals (affiliations for identification purposes only):
Vicente “Panama” Alba, New York, NY
Frances Aparicio, Ph.D., Professor, Latin American and Latino Studies, University
of Illinois at Chicago
Luis Aponte-Parés, Boston, MA
Louise Bonanova, Civil Rights Investigator (Retired), Office for Civil Rights, United
States Department of Education, San Francisco, CA
María Cabán
Grissele Camacho, Esq.
Ed (Gato) Castillo-Rubio, Commander, Viet Nam Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Post
9305 of Imperial County
María Elena Cepeda, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Latina/o Studies, Williams College,
Williamstown, MA
Evelyn Collazo, New York, NY
Edgar De Jesus, AFSMCE East Region Area Organizing Director, and National Bronx
Member, Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LACLA)
Minerva Delgado, Bronx, NY
Dra. Rosalina Diaz, Associate Professor of Education, Medger Evers College (CUNY), Brooklyn, NY
Martin Espada, Professor, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Jaime Estades, Brooklyn, NY
Myra Y. Estepa, Brooklyn, NY
Dolores M. Fernández, Ph.D., President, Eugenio Maria de Hostos Community College
(CUNY), Bronx, NY
Ricardo R. Fernandez, Ph.D., President, Herbert H. Lehman College (CUNY), Bronx, NY
Juan Flores, Ph.D., Visiting Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis, New York University, New York, NY
Cynthia Garcia Coll, Ph.D., Charles Pitt Robinson and John Palmer Barstow Professor
Professor of Education, Psychology & Pediatrics, Brown University, Providence, RI
Jessica Gonzalez-Rojas, Queens, NY
Gabriel Haslip-Viera, Ph.D., Chair, Department of Sociology, City College of New York, City University of New York, New York, NY
Hilda Hernández-Gravelle, MSW, Ed.D.
Tanya K. Hernandez, Professor of Law and Justice, Frederick W. Hall Scholar, Rutgers University School of Law, Newark, NJ
James Jennings, Ph.D., Professor, Tuft University, Boston, MA
Miriam Jiménez Román, Afro-Latino Forum, New York University, New York, NY
Francisco J. Gonzalez, Cottage Grove, MN
Aldo Lauria Santiago, Ph.D., Rutgers University
Raul Madrid, Ph.D., Department of Political Science, University of Texas at Austin
Miguel “Mickey” Melendez, New York, NY
Carlos Molina, Ph.D., New York, NY
Edwin Karli Padilla, Associate Professor of Spanish, University of Houston-Downtown
Franklyn Perez, Esq., Hostos Community College, Bronx, NY
Luis O. Reyes, Ph.D., New York, NY
Eugene Rivera, Clinical Coordinator, Hill Health Center, Middletown, CT
Clara E. Rodriguez, Ph.D., Bronx, NY
Luz Rodriguez, New York, NY
Carlos Rodriguez-Fraticelli, Ph.D., University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras
Placido Salazar, USAF Retired Vietnam Veteran, State Veterans’ Affairs, Officer
of The American GI Forum of Texas, San Anotnio
Carlos Sanabria, Ph.D., Coordinator of Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Eugenio
Maria de Hostos Community College, City University of New York, Bronx, NY
Izzy Sanabria, publisher, Latin NY Magazine; Salsamagazine.com
Dr. José Ramon Sánchez, Chair, Department of Urban Studies, Long Island University, Brooklyn, NY
Nelson Sierra, Albany, NY
Hector Soto, Esq., La Resurreccion UMC Social Justice Committee, Bronx, NY
Candida Tapia
Donato Tapia, JD, San Francisco, CA
Hon. Esteban Torres, former U.S. Congressman, California
Gloria Tristani, former Commissioner, Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
Luis Urrieta, Jr., Ed.D., Department of Curriculum & Instruction, University of Texas at Austin
Richard Valencia, Ed.D., Department of Educational Psychology, University of Texas at Austin
Angela Valenzuela, Ed.D., Department of. Curriculum and Instruction and Educational Administration, University of Texas at Austin
Armando Vazquez-Ramos, Ph.D., Chicano & Latino Studies Department, California State University, Long Beach
Emilio Zamora, Ph.D., Department of History, University of Texas at Austin