Patricia Guadalupe

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Chanting several slogans, including “up with liberation, down with deportation” and “we are the mighty, mighty immigrants fighting for justice,” a coalition of immigrant rights groups held a small rally today in front of the Capitol building, demanding that Congress consider completely defunding the Department of Homeland Security and its agencies within, such as U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Last week, Presiden...

José Andrés is out with a new book that tells of his groundbreaking efforts in Puerto Rico after Hurricane María ravaged the island last year. In “We Fed an Island,” he recounts how he and his army of volunteers dealt with red tape, disorganization, outright incompetence and a U.S. president “who seemed to have no idea what his role was” to help displaced residents, cooking some 100,000 meals a day throughout the island and bringing supplies to others so they could feed even more people.

Shor...

According to Alice Rodríguez, when Latino entrepreneurs do well, so does the rest of the country. That’s why she joined the board of the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (USHCC), which represents the 4.37 million Hispanic-owned businesses.
Rodriguez is a Managing Director and Head of Community and Business Development at JPMorgan Chase, responsible for a portfolio of more than $2 billion in revenue. She is not just one of the highest-ranking Hispanics at
the firm, but in her field as well. A...

José Urias owns a construction company in suburban Boston, where he has lived since he was a teenager. This year, he and his wife had the “what if” talk: What will they do if they have to say goodbye to the life they’ve built?
Urias, 40, and his wife are among the 195,000 Salvadorans who have lived in the U.S. since 2001 under Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, which granted temporary legal status to immigrants from certain countries fleeing natural disasters and civil wars.
Through almost t...

Charlyn Gaztambide Janer, a Puerto Rico-based public relations specialist, lived for several years in New York City, near Times Square. Though she lived in a bustling part of the city, she avoided the Christmas holidays in New York, and it wasn't just because of the "cold and darkness."
What she really missed when she heard traditional Christmas carols like "Silent Night,” were the Puerto Rican parrandas.
"It’s such a dramatic difference," said Gaztambide Janer. "Everyone is partying and hang...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Thanksgiving is one of Manuel Iguina’s favorite holidays. The Washington-based chef and restaurateur, who hails from Puerto Rico, likes to add his special touches to the quintessential American tradition.
“I do all kinds of different things, such as a five-chili rub on the turkey, or a pavochón, which is a turkey seasoned like a roast pork (the word is a combination of pavo, which is turkey, and lechón, which is roast pork) and stuffed with mofongo (a dish of mashed plantai...

In an island thirsting for a sustainable economic future, Hurricane Maria made visible Puerto Rico’s untapped entrepreneurial potential.
For Puerto Rico-based entrepreneurs, whether they were locals or recent transplants who had set up shop in the island, the worst storm in a century proved to be the ultimate test in keeping and growing a business despite unimaginable setbacks.
Yet the U.S. territory has to prioritize how to facilitate and promote business creation, especially for those who l...

WASHINGTON — Young immigrants have seen solid wage and job gains under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which allows them to study and work without fear of deportation. Despite the benefits, a significant number of DACA recipients whose protections expire this year have not reapplied, a study released this week has found.
The Obama-era DACA program has clearly brought tangible benefits to its recipients. About 96 percent are in school or working and 78 percent have seen an ...

WASHINGTON — She has one of the most influential positions in the country, but as a girl who did not grow up privileged, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor credits her incredible journey to one thing.
“The key to success in my life, it’s the secret that I want to share with kids and how I became successful. I’m here as a Supreme Court Justice only because of books," said Sotomayor.
The first Latina Supreme Court Justice spoke to a packed main hall of over 2,000 people at the Walter E. Wash...

WASHINGTON —As students return to high schools and colleges across the country, a number of Latino groups are ramping up efforts to register young voters with midterms less than 80 days away.

“Our goal is once they get their class schedule and get settled where they’re living, we can approach them and they can see what their (voting) options are,” said Jared Nordlund, a Florida-based civic engagement senior strategist with UnidosUS, a national Latino advocacy organization.

Earlier this year,U...

WASHINGTON — Hundreds of marches took place across the United States on Saturday as thousands of people demanded the Trump administration reunite families separated at the U.S.-Mexico border.
The protests, marching under the banner "Families Belong Together," are hoping to push the Trump administration to reunite thousands of immigrant children separated from their families after crossing into the United States.
More than 600 marches occurred throughout the country, from liberal, immigrant-fr...

The UFW had been allies of Kennedy going back several years prior to 1968, when he traveled to the union’s home base of Delano, California to participate in a Senate Labor subcommittee hearing on farm worker issues. He excoriated the county sheriff for arresting picketing workers who the sheriff said were “ready to violate the law.”
Kennedy questioned how people could be arrested without committing a crime, and suggested — to cheers and applause — that the sheriff should “read the Constitutio...

WASHINGTON, DC – When Vicente Fox left the Mexican presidency in 2010, he did not remain quiet or on the sidelines as former leaders have done, opining on a slew of issues ever since. Most famously, he came to prominence in the United States as one of President Trump’s most vocal Twitter critics.
Since then, critics in Mexico have called Vicente Fox out, saying that he’s more popular among the American public than his own. They’ve also noted Fox’s racist and sexist remarks during his own pres...

WASHINGTON — Homeland Security Secretary Kirsten Nielsen was in New Mexico last week looking at border wall construction efforts and meeting with local sheriffs about enforcement. At the same time, the administration has cracked down on immigration enforcement and increased deportations, part of Pres. Donald Trump's pledge during the campaign trail for tougher immigration measures.
As part of his push, Trump announced last year he would end DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), the O...

WASHINGTON — Long before the growing #MeToo and #TimesUp movements of female empowerment, there was what I’d like to call the Puerto Rican Puig "posse," four feisty women who took no prisoners and opined their way into every situation.
They happened to be my mother’s aunts: Ana, Alejandra, María and Luisa Puig. Separately or together, for a young girl like me growing up in Puerto Rico under their imposing shadows, they were the most aggravating and exasperating bunch of people. They were alwa...