Free Republic

MEXICO CITY - New investment from Mexico's Televisa in Spanish-language U.S. broadcaster Univision will tighten the company's grip on a growing U.S. Hispanic market. Televisa, the soap-opera powerhouse that is the top media company in Mexico and one of Latin America's biggest, is investing $1.2 billion for a stake of up to 40 percent in Univision, rekindling a relationship damaged in recent years by royalty payment disputes and management fights. The news propelled Televisa's stock up nearly 10 percent in trade in New York and nearly 9 percent in Mexico City. The agreement makes Televisa the main provider of content...

HHS launches first of its kind consumer focused website in SpanishThe U.S. Department of Health and Human Services today unveiled CuidadodeSalud.gov, the first website in Spanish of its kind to help consumers take control of their health care by connecting them to new information and resources that will help them access quality, affordable health care coverage.

During a meeting which took place about ten days ago between left oriented organizations and representatives of the Spanish government, it was decided that a campaign funded by the Spanish government will begin in the coming days to promote the continuation of the construction freeze in Judea and Samaria. The details on the new campaign were revealed by David Bedein, journalist and Director of Israel Resource News Agency and Center for Near East Policy Research. During an interview with Arutz7 on Tuesday, Bedein said that the meeting was attended by members of the Peres Center for Peace, Peace Now, the...

A California "sanctuary city" has fallen victim to illegal immigration – going bankrupt and firing all of its public employees, Jerome Corsi's Red Alert reports. The city of Maywood, Calif., hit the budget wall after it decided not only to be a sanctuary city, but to be a completely "safe haven" for illegal aliens seeking protection from deportation. "Predictably, mainstream media newspapers, including the Financial Times in London, chose to present Maywood as a victim to the recession, rather than to tell the whole story – that Maywood fell victim to illegal immigration," Corsi wrote. "Crushed by the recession and...

Created under the orders of Bernardino de Sahagun by 20 tlacuilos or painters and 4 Indigenous masters, Florentine Codex is one of the greatest expressions of the Renascence in America. Bilingual and bicultural, this ancient encyclopedia was written in two columns, one in Nahuatl and the other in Spanish as a summary, and is integrated by 4,000 handwritten pages with 2,686 colored images; each book has a prologue where Sahagun places the work in its dimension and time. Restorer Diana Magaloni had access to the original document at the Laurentian Library (Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana) in Florence, Italy, to deepen research:...

As the academic year winds down, Creighton School Principal Rosemary Agneessens faces a wrenching decision: what to do with veteran teachers whom the state education department says don't speak English well enough. The Arizona Department of Education recently began telling school districts that teachers whose spoken English it deems to be heavily accented or ungrammatical must be removed from classes for students still learning English. State education officials say the move is intended to ensure that students with limited English have teachers who speak the language flawlessly. But some school principals and administrators say the department is imposing arbitrary fluency...

WASHINGTON, - A U.S. Census Bureau report indicates 20 percent of residents 5 years and older speak a language other than English at home. The report, which analyzes data collected between 1980 and 2007, found the number of residents speaking a language other than English at home more than doubled during the past three decades, the Chicago Tribune reported Thursday. The census said the number of Spanish speakers in the United States increased by 211 percent, or 23.4 million. The report also said Chicago, once home to the largest population of foreign language speakers, has been overtaken in the category...

The current edition of Gun Facts, the de facto desk reference for firearm policy, has been translated into Latin American Spanish and released on the Gun Facts web site at www.GunFacts.info. “Freedom is not negotiable,” said Guy Smith, author of Gun Facts. “This includes the human right of self-defense. People in Latin America, encouraged by freedoms in the United States, are resisting gun control. It is time for Gun Facts to help refute the anti-freedom factions in the South as it has in the North.” For more than a decade, Gun Facts has debunked common gun control myths. In 118...

Teenage Spanish matador kills 6 bulls By DANIEL WOOLLS Associated Press Writer CACERES, Spain (AP) - A 16-year-old Spanish matador killed six bulls in one afternoon Saturday, pulling off a feat normally attempted only by seasoned veterans and winning trophies for his skill—ears from animals he had just slain. Jairo Miguel Sanchez Alonso, who nearly died from a horrific goring in Mexico in 2007, smiled broadly and waved to a friendly hometown crowd after a pageant that took about two and a half hours. A tall and slender boy who is also amazingly articulate for his age, he showed off...

As the Tennessee General Assembly debates education as a whole, it should be noted that offering in-state tuition is an unfair, unjust and incredulous smack in the face to the thousands of Tennessee college students who are American citizens and who are facing dropping out of college because of the tough economic times and the expense of rising college costs. Furthermore, the Assembly and Governor debate on the viability of transfer credits from a community college to a four-year Tennessee university for these same students so that their degree attainment is quicker and without delay.

Habla Ingles? Bill White, former Mayor of Houston and current front-runner for the Democratic Party heading into the Texas Governor's primary. was in Amarillo today. Education was the main topic. In doing some research I think I actually discovered what is wrong with the Texas education system, and I discovered, too that Bill White is already part of the problem, not part of the solution.

Anchorage, Alaska, Jan 5, 2009 / 05:47 pm (CNA).- Nearly 230 years ago, three Roman Catholic priests sailed from Mexico to Alaska where they would celebrate the first Catholic Mass in the state and bring the Body and Blood of Christ to the Last Frontier. Racing north According to the Catholic Anchor, by the year 1779, the race to explore and claim rights to the far north had already reached Alaska.  During the previous year, the English Captain Cook had sailed into the inlet that now bears his name, and the Russians were already trading furs with Native Alaskans. The...

At a huge rally in the capital, Cardinal Antonio Rouco, the leader of Spain's Roman Catholics, told protesters the birth rate in Europe will be depleted unless Christian values are maintained.Catholics attended a huge open air mass beside Real Madrid's Bernabeu stadium.The mass marked the Feast of the Holy Family. But Catholic leaders from across Europe joined their local counterparts and members of the Spanish centre-Right opposition to castigate the socialist government's policies."Europe will be practically without children," warned Cardinal Rouco, 73, the conservative Archbishop of Madrid. "Who denies to defend a human being so innocent and weak, already conceived...

Hi all. My 11 year old daughter has joined the girls chorus at her school. The chorus just decided its name will be "Las Chicas de Moda." My daughter doesn't like the name. She wanted it to be "Voces Scholasticae" (Latin for School Voices). Question: does this name sound inapproriate? To me it sounds slutty. I've told her teacher we don't like the name but they are pretty much saying it's a done deal (the first concert just happened). Any thoughts/comments/suggestions/linguistic or cultural analysis of "Las Chicas de Moda" would be great!

Results from 34 swine flu victims in New York were released by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in a December 7 bulletin. The swine flu symptoms and effects on the lungs of the victims were similar to the effects of the 1918 Spanish flu, which had an extremely high mortality rate around the world. Other reports of H1N1 infections deep in the lungs have been reported around the world, including Ukraine, China, Brazil, Norway, and the United States, in Iowa and Utah. These infections have been linked to a change in the receptor binding domain of the virus. Swine...

SNIPPET: "Three Spanish aid workers were kidnapped in the North African nation Mauritania on Sunday. Spain’s Interior Minister, Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, expressed his concerns that kidnappers could be members of the North African branch of Al Qaeda." SNIPPET: "The names of the workers kidnapped are Alicia Gámez, Roque Pascual and Albert Vilalta. Vilalta’s father, Albert Vilalta is a former regional councilor for the environment."

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....

"Texas has a very diverse heritage, but all Texans expect our leaders to be accountable and responsible to the people. We are taking the message to the people."

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

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 (he thought they'd be talking about him), and ordered some to Anglicize their names. No more Martin (Mahr-TEEN). It was plain-old Martin. No more Marcos. Now it would be Mark. Whitten's management style had worked for him as he's turned around other distressed hotels he bought in recent years...