Free Republic

Troy Senik The Surge Comes to Salinas A plan to apply counterinsurgency doctrine to gang violence Communities beset by seemingly unbreakable cycles of violence; law enforcement overmatched to the point of essentially ceding sovereignty to an organized and heavily armed resistance; citizens so intimidated by thugs that they won’t report them to authorities, for fear of retribution. Eight years into the War on Terror, this scenario sounds familiar. But its location isn’t the Sunni Triangle in 2006 or southern Afghanistan today; it’s a farm town on California’s Central Coast. In Salinas—a predominantly Hispanic, blue-collar community best known for producing John...

Hispanic New York Woman Killed in Botched Legal Abortion Queens, NY -- More details are emerging on a botched legal abortion that killed a New York Hispanic woman that took place on Monday at an abortion center in Queens. Officials say 37-year-old was killed after a botched abortion claimed her life at the A-1 Women's Care abortion center located in Jackson Heights. http://www.lifenews.com/state4759.html

Someone please tell me why this is.... Every job application out there askes me if I'm Hispanic or Latino! Why not Black? ...or non-White?

The history of the United States includes a number of names and events that are little known among the general public and are directly related to the significant legacy of Hispanics in this country. The Hispanic history of the U.S. was forged by courageous figures such as Soto, Ponce de León, Coronado, Menéndez de Avilés and many others. It is time to highlight the events and honor the people who contributed to our rich culture and to explain the importance of the Spanish, and by extension, Hispanic role in the history of the United States. George Washington himself recognized the...

Democrats have let down Latino voters again. President Obama promised Hispanic voters he would tackle immigration reform during his first year. He didn't. Big surprise...another broken promise. ...We'll let the left who voted for Obama tell this story. We looked for a Latin American Obama voter and we found one. In a recent article in the UNLV Rebel Yell Eva Rodriquez-Saenz wrote, "It was not long ago that Latinos voted overwhelmingly for President Barack Obama in hopes of attaining a greater presence in the minds and votes of legislators." "..."The chants of “¡Si se puede!” have died down...During an interview...

In 1998, Californians voted to pass Proposition 227, the “English for the Children Act,” and dismantle the state’s bilingual-education industry. The results, according to California’s education establishment, were not supposed to look like this: button-cute Hispanic pupils at a Santa Ana elementary school boasting about their English skills to a visitor. Those same pupils cheerfully calling out to their principal on their way to lunch: “Hi, Miss Champion!” A statewide increase in English proficiency among all Hispanic students. Instead, warned legions of educrats, eliminating bilingual education in California would demoralize Hispanic students and widen the achievement gap. Unless Hispanic children...

Now that the holidays are upon us, it’s time to get annoyed with the consumerism, secularism and political correctness that continue to whittle away at the meaning of the holiday season. The secular and consumption-driven nature of the season has become so routine that one has to work hard to remember to take time for the traditions and religious observances that once defined the season. I thought I had seen every example of how religious meaning has been stripped out of Christmas until a friend showed me the label on a festive seasonal bottle of Coca Cola the other day....

TAOS, N.M. – Larry Whitten marched into this northern New Mexico town in late July on a mission: resurrect a failing hotel. The tough-talking former Marine immediately laid down some new rules. Among them, he forbade the Hispanic workers at the run-down, Southwestern adobe-style hotel from speaking Spanish in his presence

Geraldo Rivera on Thursday lambasted Lou Dobbs for the outspoken CNN host's views concerning illegal immigration. Speaking at a luncheon sponsored by El Diario La Prensa NY, Rivera disgracefully said, "Lou Dobbs is almost single-handedly responsible for creating, for being the architect of the young-Latino-as-scapegoat for everything that ails this country." Rivera also told the audience that he had spoken to his boss, and was assured Dobbs was not coming to Fox (video embedded below the fold with partial transcript): CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO "One of the aspects of our reality in the United States now is the...

Last week was Columbus Day, once considered a major event, the holiday has been undergoing a decline in recent years. Columbus Day parades have met with protests and some have been deemphasized or outright eliminated. In California, Columbus Day become Indigenous People’s Day, which sounds vaguely like a Marxist terrorist group’s holiday. But while it’s tempting to put that down to California’s political correctness, in South Dakota, Columbus Day became Native American Day, and that is a trend that other states are likely to follow, as protests mounted under the aegis of La Raza (The Race- the Hispanic KKK) continue...

In Texas and across the Southwest, Hispanic farmers have been fighting the Agriculture Department for close to a decade. The farmers say the department's Farm Services Agency discriminated against them — denying or delaying loans, and refusing to investigate when they cried foul. The government settled a similar complaint brought by African-American farmers for $1 billion. And while the claims of discrimination and other factors are almost identical, the Hispanic farmers have gotten nothing. ..."I would go and apply, and it would take about two to three weeks," says Obregon. "Then they would turn me down, say it was a...

The Use of "Illegals" as a Noun and "Illegal Alien" Distorts Coverage, Dehumanizes the Subjects in This Important Public Policy Debate WASHINGTON, DC -- (Marketwire) -- 09/15/09 -- As the heated debates over health care and immigration reform collide, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists calls on our nation's news media to stop using the dehumanizing term "illegals" as a noun to refer to undocumented immigrants. NAHJ has long advocated for accurate terminology in news coverage of immigration. NAHJ is concerned with the increasing use of pejorative terms like "illegals" -- which is shorthand for "illegal aliens," another term NAHJ...

In a FOXNews.com story on September 21, a member of the Rhode Island Republican Hispanic Assembly, Ivan Marte, quit the party after Wilson called out the president. Wilson’s now-famous cry of “You lie!” was directed at the Barack Obama had claimed that his health plan would not give benefits to illegal aliens. While Wilson has been excoriated, very little journalistic research has been done on the Democrat bill, which makes no provision to prohibit benefits for illegals. Marte, whose input and contributions to the GOP were valued, according to state chairman Giovanni Cicione, called Wilson’s comment “shameful” and “uncivilized.” The...

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 15TH, 2009 AT 7:15 PM Celebrando la herencia hispana Posted by Luis Miranda El presidente Barack Obama proclamó hoy el Mes de la Herencia Hispana a celebrarse del 15 de septiembre al 15 de octubre. Celebramos la cultura, las contribuciones y el triunfo de nuestros hermanos hispanos en los Estados Unidos. MES NACIONAL DE LA HERENCIA HISPANA, 2009 - - - - - - - PROCLAMA HECHA POR EL PRESIDENTE DE ESTADOS UNIDOS DE NORTEAMÉRICA La historia de los hispanos en Estados Unidos es la historia del propio Estados Unidos. Los valores de la comunidad hispana —el amor...

DENVER (AP) -- The U.S. Forest Service has apologized for suggesting that campers who eat tortillas, drink Tecate beer and play Spanish music may be armed marijuana growers, calling it "regrettable" and "insensitive

HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. — Four men were arrested and a fifth is being sought in connection with the campus gang rape of an 18-year-old female Hofstra University student. The four suspects — only one of whom is a student at the school — were arrested on Long Island, N.Y., on Monday; a fifth is still at large. ... Police say 19-year-old Jesus Ortiz and 21-year-old Rondell Bedward, both of the Bronx, were arraigned on rape charges Monday. The other two, 19-year-old Stalin Felipe, of the Bronx, and 20-year-old Kevin Taveras, of Brentwood, are to be arraigned Tuesday in Hempstead. Police didn't...

Area Hispanics are observing a milestone with the arrival of National Hispanic Heritage Week next week: Luzerne County tops the nation for Hispanic population growth over the past year. Among counties with Hispanic populations higher than 10,000, Luzerne County saw the greatest percentage increase in Hispanics between July 1, 2007 and July 1, 2008, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The Hispanic population here leapt 15 percent – from 12,083 to 13,912. As for actual growth in population size, the county ranks in the nation’s top 6 percent with an increase of 1,829 Hispanics. Los Angeles County saw the largest...

On September 3, Vice President Joe Biden said: "The Recovery Act is doing more, faster and more efficiently and more effectively than most people expected." In July, U.S. President Barack Obama told CNN that his $787 billion stimulus package is "working exactly as we had anticipated…" Well then, perhaps they anticipated driving legal Hispanic immigrants out of the workforce because this group, along with the lesser-educated in general, is very clearly the hardest hit. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) unemployment among (legal or counted) Hispanics in August was 13.0%. That is up 60.5% from August 2008 and...

The national unemployment rate as reported Friday stands at 9.7%, about 15 million people or is it? In August, the total civilian workforce as calculated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) was estimated to be 154.6 million. However, that is down 0.16% from 154.8 million in August 2008. The decline of approximately 256,000 (rounding error) is highly unusual since the workforce population is ever increasing thanks to immigration and other factors (graduation, divorce or other catastrophe (e.g., Bernie Maddoff)). In August alone,1.09 million people entered the workforce according to the BLS. Population growth in the U.S. is a given....

A federal warning to beware of campers in national forests who eat tortillas, drink Tecate beer and play Spanish music because they could be armed marijuana growers is racial profiling, an advocate for Hispanic rights said Friday. The warnings were issued Wednesday by the U.S. Forest Service, which is investigating how much marijuana is being illegally cultivated in Colorado's national forests following the recent discovery of more than 14,000 plants in Pike National Forest. "That's discriminatory, and it puts Hispanic campers in danger," said Polly Baca, co-chairwoman of the Colorado Latino Forum. A spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service had...