1	In the News From politics to art, the headlines of Hispanidad. read more...
2	UPFRONT Ruben Navarrette, Jr. The political forecast may be stormy on issues that affect Hispanics. read more...
3	Dr. Eduardo Padrón It’s time to get passionate about the complicated questions of our day. read more...

panorama

internet
embracing hispanic
identities
Yahoo! recently launched the Spanish-language version of avatars called avatares, making this popular community available to the millions of Spanish-speaking users in Latin America and the U.S. Avatars are a computer user’s representation of himself or herself. These graphical and customizable characters allow users to create, animate and personalize their cyber personas, from changing their face and hairstyle to glamorizing their outfits. The new Spanish version will allow Internet users to further engage and explore the Avatar community in their language of preference.

culture
ride ’em, cowboys
An analysis of Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo visitors shows Hispanic attendance jumped more than 46 percent in the past decade. Now, some Tejano activists are demanding Hispanics play a larger role in it’s leadership, scholarship program and contracts.

hate crime
violence against hispanics
Anti-immigrant fervor is translating into an increase in the number of hate groups and hate crimes targeting Latinos, according to a watchdog group.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, in a report titled The Year in Hate, contends there is a link between anti-immigrant activism and the significant rise in hate crimes against Latinos in recent years. According to the latest FBI statistics, 819 people were victimized by anti-Latino hate crimes in 2006, compared with 595 in 2003.
“The immigration debate has turned ugly and the result has been a growth in white supremacist hate groups and anti-Latino hate crime,” Mark Potok, director of the law center’s Intelligence Project, told the Associated Press. “The majority of anti-Latino hate crimes are carried out by people who think they’re attacking immigrants, and very likely undocumented immigrants.”
Potok said hate groups were proliferating because a growing number of Americans were agitated by the immigration debate. He said many new groups had appeared in the border states of California, Texas and Arizona where illegal immigration has been a particularly volatile issue.

politics
a different presidential ticket
The first Hispanic vice presidential candidate has been selected for the upcoming election, and it is not Bill Richardson. It is Matt Gonzalez. Perennial presidential candidate Ralph Nader, who is making his fourth run at the Oval Office, has named Gonzalez his running mate on the Independent ticket. Gonzalez, a lawyer and former public defender, served as president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.
At a press conference, Nader said he met Gonzalez during a speaking tour against the Iraq War and realized they shared many ideals. “I wanted someone who is ready and able to stand up and fight the good fight,” Nader said. Nader and Gonzalez face an uphill battle as they are working on getting on the ballot in all 50 states. But they hope their candidacy changes the conversation.
“I have no illusions about what is happening here today,” Gonzalez said at the news conference. “I understand what stands before us. But ... I’ve never entered a political contest with the idea that it couldn’t be won.”

TEXAS, CALIFORNIA AND NEW MEXICO
The Pew Research Center reports that
presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) would not have won these key states in the spring primaries without Hispanic voters, which accounted for slightly more than her margin
of victory.

Buzzwords

“At a time when Hispanics are the youngest and fastest-growing segment of the population and increasingly key to the American workforce, the national investment in Hispanic education needs a quantum leap upward rather than a reduction.”
Antonio Flores, president and CEO, Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities, on President Bush’s proposed 2009 budget, which the organization says would result in a 20 percent funding reduction to the Developing Hispanic-Serving Institu

"For the average Hispanic homeowner, equity in a residence represents about 88 percent of net worth.
Anything that could eliminate some of that equity would, in turn, erase Latino wealth."

Shannon Buggs, in a story on how the subprime mortgage crisis is erasing the financial gains Latinos have achieved so far this decade. Los Angeles, The Houston Chronicle

“In an election year when the only thing politicians are discussing with regard to the Latino community is immigration, there seems to be a lack of understanding. Latinos, African Americans and other minority groups also care deeply about health and education.”
Luis Vasquez-Ajmac , co-author of a survey delivered at a U.S. Health Disparities Forum.

"The one-sided resolution adopted by the OAS blatantly ignores the reported complicity of the governments of Ecuador and Venezuela with the FARC."

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) on a resolution passed by the Organization of the American States (OAS) condemning a recent Colombian raid into a guerrilla camp in Ecuador that resulted in 25 dead, including a top leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.
The Miami Herald

“I have been troubled by the demonization of immigrants—specifically Hispanics—by too many in this country. Hate crimes against Hispanics are rising as a direct result and now, in tough economic times, people look for scapegoats and I fear that people will continue to exploit our racial differences—and place blame on others not like them.”
Gov. Bill Richardson, New Mexico, in a letter explaining to his supporters why he has decided to endorse Barack Obama
for president.

Immigration
denial of due process
Determined to give a voice to Hispanics and other immigrants, the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund has filed suit against the U.S. government, seeking to force immigration authorities to complete hundreds of thousands of stalled naturalization petitions in time for the new citizens to vote in November. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in New York, charges that undue delays in granting citizenship are denying the right to vote to more than 1 million applicants, mostly Latinos.
“We’ve already witnessed unprecedented numbers of Latinos going to the polls during this election season. Hundreds of thousands more are being denied that same opportunity,” says Cesar Perales, PRLDEF’s president and general counsel. “They have been fingerprinted, passed background checks, paid their application fees, they passed their English test, proven their knowledge of our nation’s history and still their citizenship is being withheld.”
Though Congress has declared that applications should be acted upon within six months, hundreds of thousands of people across the country have been waiting up to three years. Immigration officials say security checks are partly to blame.
The suit demands that the agency meet a nationwide deadline of September 22 to complete any naturalization petitions filed by March 26. PRLDEF says the delays in gaining citizenship not only affect the applicants’ ability to vote, but also makes them ineligible for certain benefits and jobs, unable to sponsor their children, parents and spouses for citizenship, and hamper their ability to travel freely.