Blog

I recently received an email from Vicky, an NCLR supporter, who thanked me for reporting each month on how Latinos are doing in today’s economy. She also shared that she is unemployed and has come to realize that being bilingual is not enough to help her land a job. Vicky does not have postsecondary education has found that employers want the whole package in a worker: adequate training, in-demand skills, and education beyond high school.

Many jobseekers like Vicky are keenly aware of what it takes to stand out in today’s job market, where the ratio of unemployed workers to job openings is more than three to one. Just over five years from now, in 2018, only 10 percent of jobs in the U.S. economy will be open to workers with less than a high school degree. READ MORE

Having command of Spanish and English means, for Latino women, a competitive advantage, several outstanding Hispanic figures from the political, activism and business spheres said Monday.
"Being bilingual is an incredible opportunity. I have two children and I'm concerned for both to speak Spanish as well as English, because that's going to help them in their professional careers just like it helped me," Lidia Soto-Harmon, CEO of the Girl Scout Council of the Nation's Capital, told Efe.
The majority of female Latino leaders participating in the 25th anniversary of the National Hispana Leadership Institute in Washington agreed.
"There are occasions on which speaking Spanish has negative connotations and that makes the second generations want to distance themselves from the language of their parents," said Soto-Harmon, something that has to be "avoided at all costs," since it would mean "that the doors to infinite opportunities would close on them." READ MORE

John Villegas recently opened a State Farm Agency in Palatine, and a ribbon cutting ceremony was held by the Palatine Chamber of Commerce.

John Villegas is a bilingual, first generation immigrant who graduated from Maine West High School in Des Plaines, and earned a BS in Finance from DePaul University. He has more than 15 years of experience in the financial services industry and is passionate about financial literacy and giving back to the community.

Also active as a planning committee volunteer with the Latino Summit, Villegas participated as a panelist at the 12th annual Harper College Latino Summit event in mid-November.

Villegas plans to conduct free financial literacy seminars to parents of ESL students in Palatine, Elk Grove and Des Plaines. READ MORE

Telemundo has long been like a remote Caribbean island, cut off from its sprawling media homeland.

NBCUniversal acquired the Spanish-language television network a decade ago for $2 billion but became discouraged by its seemingly limited prospects. But Comcast Corp.'s takeover of NBCUniversal last year may be building Telemundo a bridge to the mainland.

"Telemundo now has the full support of Comcast and NBCUniversal," said Emilio Romano, a former Mexican airline chief executive who was hired a year ago to run Telemundo. "For them, Telemundo is clearly a diamond in the rough."

The Miami-based network, which began in 1954 as a single Puerto Rico TV station, had long been viewed as an "East Coast" outlet infused with Caribbean flavor -- not the right ingredients for the majority of U.S. Latinos, two-thirds of whom are from Mexico or are of Mexican descent. READ MORE

The future of the American labor movement may lie just off the Las Vegas Strip, inside a squat building huddled in the shadow of the Stratosphere casino.

That's the home of the Culinary Workers Local 226, a fast-growing union of hotel and casino employees that has thrived despite being in a right-to-work state and a region devastated by the real estate crash.
More than 90 percent of Culinary's 60,000 predominantly immigrant workers opt to be dues-paying members, even though Nevada law says they cannot be forced to pay unions for their services.

As a result, housekeepers in most Strip hotels start at $16 an hour with free health care and a pension. Culinary's track record gives a dispirited labor movement some hope even as it hemorrhages workers and reels from the approval of a right-to-work law last week in union-strong Michigan.

"National unions need to look at what some of the folks out here have done," said Billy Vassiliadis, former chair of the Nevada Democratic Party. In a right-to-work state that for years was relatively conservative, "they had to be smart. They had to be nimble."

As a result, he said, "labor here is a big pillar in the political debate." But that's less true on a national scale. American labor has been on a downward trajectory for decades: Unions represented 30 percent of the workforce when the federal government first began tracking membership in the early 1980s. Now they represent less than 12 percent. READ MORE

Latinos are the fastest-growing demographic in the nation, yet few companies are reaching out to this group in their sustainability initiatives, according to research by advertising giant Saatchi & Saatchi.

According to The Myth of the Sleeping Giant: Why Latinos are the Fastest Growing Segment the Sustainability Industry has (N)ever Seen, “the vast majority” of US companies – even those who are spending serious dollars to connect with Latinos – are not messaging to this audience about environmental sustainability.

The recent presidential election was an acute demonstration of how influential the Latino population is, and will increasingly be, but a series of myths exist in the sustainability community as to why this “sleeping giant” should not be targeted, the report says.

The first myth is that Latinos are not environmentalists. In reality, “deep-rooted cultural connections and health reasons” give rise to an innate support of environmental conservation and stewardship among Latinos, the report says. Other myths include thinking that Latinos don’t want to buy green – but, in fact, that demographic tends to be more loyal to brands that contribute positively to their communities and the environment, the report says. READ MORE

The future success of California and the nation lies in successfully educating Latinos so they can bolster an increasingly skilled workforce, according to speakers at a forum put on by California Assemblyman Das Williams Tuesday at Ventura College.

"While Latino college completion rates are important in the United States, they are even more so in California with the highest population of Latinos in the United States," Williams said. "Only 16 percent of Latinos have college degrees. If this continues we will not have the skilled workforce we need to depend on for the future."

The forum, titled "Improving Latino College Completion: Promising Policy and Practice," featured presentations by various educators, including new California Community Colleges Chancellor Brice Harris. He called on Williams and newly elected state Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson to focus on repairing the damage done by years of cuts to the state's community college system.

"We need to focus on restoring access to higher education. In the past four to five years we've cut enrollment from 2.9 million to 2.4 million," Harris said, explaining that 500,000 students are no longer being served by the state community college system. He said the system would have been serving more than 3 million students by this time if it weren't for the cuts in classes. He also called for restoring classes so students can move through the system "in an expeditious manner." READ MORE

Talks of the fiscal cliff continue to escalate, and the Obama administration is leading a strong PR campaign telling the American public to call, write, or even Tweet members of Congress. The White House wants citizens to pressure Republican representatives to pass a tax increase on the wealthy and avoid cuts on federal programs.

All Americans will be affected if an agreement isn’t reached by January 1, but one group who may face the toughest hardships are the families largely responsible for putting the president back in office: Latinos.

On Wednesday, December 5, the White House held a telephone conference with the country’s largest Hispanic civil rights and advocacy group, the National Council of La Raza (NCLR). READ MORE

A second generation of Hispanic TV channels has arrived in the US, with a new take on language and its staple series, the telenovela. Sean Davidson reports.

The recent Democratic National Convention in the US included among its many speakers Julian Castro, mayor of San Antonio and a rising political star. Together with his brother and fellow politician Joaquin, he is expected to be a key player as the party looks to attract more Hispanic voters in campaigns to come.

Castro gave a rousing speech to the assembled delegates, after which a commentator on one of the US cable news networks remarked it was good to get “an immigrant’s perspective” on the political issues of the day.

The thing about that is, Castro was born in Texas. He attended Stanford and Harvard and speaks English without so much as a glimmer of Español. And yet, to the irritation of many Latino viewers, he was assumed to be a recent arrival.

It is a sign, says Johnathan Gwyn, CEO of Latino media firm Mi Casa Broadcasting, that something is askew in US television and its treatment of Hispanics.

“That’s how we’re looked at, unfortunately,” he says from his office in Houston, Texas. “Even though we see a lot of Latinos in the mainstream media, we’re never the analyst or the head correspondent.” READ MORE

For Latino and foreign businessmen, working towards the American Dream may get a little easier, thanks to a new tool found in cyberspace.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services this week launched a website at the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship in Cambridge, Massachusetts that aims to ease the immigration process for entrepreneurs.
The website was part of an initiative announced by federal immigration services in October designated to provide tools for employment-based and high-skilled immigrants to make a living in the U.S. and contribute to the U.S. economy.

The initiative was part of a wider effort by the White House and the federal Department of Homeland Security to grow the U.S. economy and create more jobs in the U.S.
As ABC News Univision reports, the site--described to them by a USCIS spokesperson as a "one-stop shop" where would-be immigrant entrepreneurs can learn about the application process and what documents are required--would not alter immigration procedure in any way.
Instead, it aims to "close the information gap between USCIS and the entrepreneurial community," as the USCIS website reads. READ MORE

A new study is sounding the alarm about the number of dropouts from the Chicago public high schools.

A study prepared for a conference on re-enrolling dropouts, not surprisingly, found the problem is acute among minority students.

Jack Wuest, director of the Alternative Schools Network, said there’s more.

He said foreign-born Latinos appear to have the highest school dropout rates.

The study, written by Andrew Sun of Boston’s Northeastern University, found Latino school dropouts have seen their economic potential fade more quickly than any other group studied.

Wuest said joblessness is rising more and wages falling.

So while the Latino population is gaining in political power, Wuest said young people in the community are lagging in earning power. READ MORE

A national group of Hispanic Republicans is demanding that columnist Ann Coulter apologize for a recent column they say is anti-Latino and anti-immigrant.

In an open letter posted to their website over the weekend, the Cafe Con Leche Republicans criticized Coulter for her column "America Nears El Tipping Pointo," which she published on Wednesday. In the column, Coulter mocks the current move by the GOP to appeal to Latinos, saying that Hispanic immigrants are not conservative. She claims that Hispanic immigrants are less likely to be married or go to church regularly, and are more likely to support gay marriage.

Coulter then mocked the idea that Latino immigrants are moral people. "(Michael) Barone has been assuring us for years that most of these Third World immigrants pouring into the country would go the way of Italian immigrants and become Republicans. They're hardworking! They have family values! Maybe at first, but not after coming here, having illegitimate children and going on welfare." READ MORE

BERWYN, Ill. – Diego Marquez, a first-grader at Pershing Elementary School, is the winner of the Verizon Wireless Show-N-Tell contest who received a special visit from Chicago Bears center Roberto Garza this past Monday, Dec. 3^rd. Additionally, Garza spoke with the entire student body at a school assembly.

Marquez won the visit by participating in the Verizon Wireless Show-N-Tell contest. From Oct. 5 through Oct. 28, parents in the Chicago area were encouraged to visit one of four nearby Verizon Wireless stores to enter their child for a chance to receive a visit from a Chicago Bear at school. Marquez was selected from more than 200 entries.

“Verizon Wireless is proud to be able to give back to the community through this unique program for area students,” said Mike Milbourn, district manager, Verizon Wireless, Berwyn, Ill. “We’d like to congratulate Diego on his win and hope he enjoyed his visit with Chicago Bear Roberto Garza.”

In addition to spending some time in the classroom with Marquez, Garza also spoke with the entire student body about the importance of staying in school and living a healthy, active lifestyle.

“We are happy that Roberto visited our school to have a conversation with our students,” said Amanda Vanderhill, Vice Principal, Pershing Elementary School. “Students can never have too many positive role models. Roberto is a great example of an individual who works hard on the football field, but also is dedicated to working hard in the community.”

Verizon Wireless

Verizon Wireless operates the nation’s largest 4G LTE network and largest, most reliable 3G network. The company serves nearly 96 million retail customers, including 90.4 million retail postpaid customers.  Headquartered in Basking Ridge, N.J., with more than 75,000 employees nationwide, Verizon Wireless is a joint venture of Verizon Communications (NYSE, NASDAQ: VZ) and Vodafone (LSE, NASDAQ: VOD).  For more information, visit www.verizonwireless.com. To preview and request broadcast-quality video footage and high-resolution stills of Verizon Wireless operations, log on to the Verizon Wireless Multimedia Library at www.verizonwireless.com/multimedia.

###

As financial institutions urge their customers to bank anywhere anytime by using their phones and tablets, a new survey finds that Latinos don’t trust a mobile device to keep their funds and personal information secure.

Some 44 percent of Latinos said they don’t turn to mobile banking because they are worried about information security, data released on Tuesday by Zpryme and ThinkNow Research shows.

The online survey, which included 500 adult Latinos between the ages of 18 and 70, was conducted in October. Participants were asked about their overall use and experience of mobile banking.

Another 21 percent of Latinos said they don’t have smartphones, cell phones, or tablets, while 16 percent said they don’t have Internet access on their mobile gadgets. Those who used mobile banking, about 69 percent used a smartphone and 47 percent used a tablet.

Latinos, the nation’s largest ethnic group, is impacting the nation culturally, economically, and politically. Their purchasing power, at $1.2 trillion a year, is larger than the economies of all but 13 countries, according to Jeff Humphreys, director of the Selig Center and author of the annual report “Multicultural Economy.” READ MORE

This year, one-in-four public elementary school students is Latino, an indication that the young Latino population is growing quickly. But, Latino students still lag behind their white peers in high school graduation rates across the country, according to preliminary data released last week by U.S. Department of Education.

The report shows that in a state-by-state breakdown of high school graduation rates, Hispanic students were less likely to graduate from high school than whites and Asians in all but two states over the 2010-2011 school year. Maine and Hawaii, where Hispanic students had slightly higher graduation rates than their white peers, are the only exceptions to the troubling data. While the department of education says the estimates are more reliable than prior data, because all states had to use the same "rigorous measure" for the first time, Idaho, Kentucky, and Oklahoma did not meet the deadline for data submission, making the dataset for the entire nation technically incomplete. Puerto Rico also was not included.

Of the states that did submit, however, Minnesota has the largest Hispanic achievement gap with Latinos lagging 33 percent in graduation rate than their white counterparts. Only 51 percent of Latinos graduated from high school in the state (the worst Latino graduation rate of any state), whereas 84 percent of whites graduated from high school in the same state. Our nation's capitol, the District of Columbia had the second biggest achievement gap, with 30 percent. READ MORE

Like many of his third-grade classmates, Mario Cortez-Pacheco likes reading the “Magic Tree House” series, about a brother and a sister who take adventurous trips back in time. He also loves the popular “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” graphic novels.

But Mario, 8, has noticed something about these and many of the other books he encounters in his classroom at Bayard Taylor Elementary here: most of the main characters are white. “I see a lot of people that don’t have a lot of color,” he said.

Hispanic students now make up nearly a quarter of the nation’s public school enrollment, according to an analysis of census data by the Pew Hispanic Center, and are the fastest-growing segment of the school population. Yet nonwhite Latino children seldom see themselves in books written for young readers. (Dora the Explorer, who began as a cartoon character, is an outlier.)

Education experts and teachers who work with large Latino populations say that the lack of familiar images could be an obstacle as young readers work to build stamina and deepen their understanding of story elements like character motivation. READ MORE

CNN en Español will launch CNN Latino, a new Spanish language syndicated programming block custom made for the U.S. Hispanic market, in late January 2013.

CNN Latino targets the growing and diverse U.S. Hispanic market, delivering a broad spectrum of programming that will include news, lifestyle, documentary, talk and debate as an alternative to traditional Hispanic networks.

Cynthia Hudson-Fernandez, senior vice president and general manager of CNN en Español and Hispanic strategy for CNN/U.S., made the announcement this week.

"There is a real demand for relevant, dynamic, quality programming and CNN Latino is a unique product designed specifically for the growing U.S. Hispanic audience, representing the dual reality of U.S. Latinos today who are multigenerational and proud to be bilingual. The launch of CNN Latino is the first step to bringing this syndicated programming block to local broadcast stations in key Hispanic media markets across the country."

According to the latest census, Hispanics made up more than half the nation's population growth from 2000 to 2010. The Hispanic audience in the United States is at 52 million and counting, and its purchasing power totals more than a trillion dollars, according to the Pew Hispanic Center. READ MORE

Lack of educational attainment among Hispanics is one of the biggest crises facing the American labor force, according to a report by Excelencia in Education, a Washington research organization that focuses on education of Hispanics.
“You can’t meet our national goals and our workforce needs without having a tactical plan for Latinos,” says Deborah Santiago, vice president of policy and research for the organization. “This is just a factual statement given what the current population numbers are.”
Of the 47 million new workers entering the labor force between 2010 and 2050, a projected 37.6 million, or 80 percent, will be Hispanic, according to a Bureau of Labor Statistics report. Their share of the workforce will grow to 18.6 percent by 2020 and to 30 percent in 2050, doubling from 15 percent in 2010, according to the BLS. READ MORE

Illinois State University is being recognized among the top 25 public institutions in the country by The Education Trust for improvements in the graduation rates of Hispanic students.

ISU was ranked 19th in two categories: improving Hispanic student graduation rates and narrowing the gap between the graduation rates of Hispanic students and white students in the education advocacy group’s recent report, “Advancing to Completion.”

ISU Provost Sheri Everts attributed the accomplishment to “our talented faculty and staff” and the university’s commitment to diversity and individualized attention.

“It’s very unusual in a college of this size to have such individualized attention,” she said, pointing to programs that provide mentoring, tutoring and other assistance. These apply to all students, not just Hispanics and other underrepresented groups, and are part of why the school’s overall graduation rate is improving, she said.

No other public university in Illinois made either top-25 list. READ MORE

If how you do lascosas is not working out, would a new angle be better? Sí, according to successful Latina professionals, who urge us to challenge our perception of la vida we can really attain, by shutting off our automatic pilot.

Recently, asa pasajeroon a road I drive daily, I noticed a beautiful mural, “Is this new?” I naively asked. “It’s been there for years,” was the reply. Just one example, I thought, of how our lives, and careers, go on automatic. My next thought was very scary, Is going on automatic the beginning of looking and acting old-fashioned? Ma, get the gun. No! So, here is your wake up call, amigos:

Move out of your comfort zone. Fear, disguised as failure, embarrassment, anger, hurt and jealousy (just to name a few) keeps you in your comfort zona. You are afraid of failure and of what “otros” may say. Don’t get me wrong; I need to be reminded of this daily. Mix up your environment, try new things, take a zumba class. As a Latino, get involved and participate in mainstream happenings.  READ MORE