Wednesday, December 08, 2004

In the News

COMING UP ON DEMOCRACY NOW!

Thursday, December 9:
* A look at the contested Puerto Rican election of 2004: The candidate
narrowly leading in last month's governors race is charging the U.S.
government with acting as a colonial ruler for seizing control of
ballot counting in the protracted election. A Boston-based federal judge has
decided to step in and overrule Puerto Rico's Supreme Court on how to
run the recount. Last week 20,000 people protested outside the federal
courthouse in San Juan to denounce the decision of U.S. District Judge
Daniel Dominguez. Some demonstrators held signs reading "Stop the
federal coup, respect Puerto Rico." Gubernatorial candidate Aníbal
Acevedo Vilá said the U.S. judge's move "tortures the island's
residents and holds them hostage."

* A discussion on the future of the nation's labor movement
For more information, www.democracynow.org.

Sunday, December 05, 2004

Guitar, maracas, oh my!


Guitar, maracas, oh my!
Originally uploaded by clarisel.
!Feliz Navidad!

Thanks for your support of the Puerto Rico Sun project.

Peace and love always.

Clarisel

Saturday, December 04, 2004

Boricuas in Gotham forum

Community News

IPR Policy Forum

BORICUAS IN GOTHAM
Puerto Ricans in the Making
of Modern New York City

Wednesday, December 8, 2004
6:00 pm (followed by a book signing reception)
PRLDEF Conference Room
99 Hudson Street, 14th Floor
(between Franklin and Leonard Streets in Manhattan; #1 or 9 subways to Franklin St.)

This forum will critically examine issues in the writing of the history of the Puerto Rican community in New York City as presented in the newly-published book, Boricuas in Gotham: Puerto Ricans in the Making of Modern New York City -- Essays in Honor of Dr. Antonia Pantoja (Princeton, NJ: Markus Wiener Publishers, 2004).
Boricuas in Gotham, edited by Gabriel Haslip-Viera, Angelo Falcón and Félix Matos-Rodríguez, attempts to recover that history from 1945 to the present through the writings of leading scholars in the field. The book’s contributors are: José Cruz (SUNY-Albany), Angelo Falcón (PRLDEF and Columbia University), Fernando Ferrer (NYC Mayoral Candidate), Gabriel Haslip-Viera (City College of New York), Antonia Pantoja, Francisco Rivera-Batiz (Columbia University and the Russell Sage Foundation), Clara Rodriguez (Fordham University), Virginia Sánchez-Korrol (Brooklyn College) and Ana Celia Zentella (University of California-San Diego).
A panel of respected experts has been invited to critique the book and discuss its implications for the Puerto Rican community and New York City. These are:
Javier Castaño (Hoy Newspaper; author of New York Colombiano)
Juan Flores (Hunter College; author of From Bomba to Hip Hop)
Lillian Jimenez (Latino Educational Media Center)
Ed Morales (freelance writer; author of Living in Spanglish)
John Kuo Wei Tchen (New York University; author of New York Before Chinatown)

Lillian Jimenez will be showing clips from her documentary, "Antonia Pantoja: Abriendo Caminos," chronicling the Puerto Rican community's educational and language rights struggles in New York. The documentary features interviews with Dr. Antonia Pantoja and other members of the Puerto Rican community from the 1950s to the early 1970s. It includes rarely seen archival footage and never-before-seen 8mm home movies of the era.
This IPR Policy Forum is organized by the PRLDEF Institute for Puerto Rican Policy, and co-sponsored by the New York Regional Office of the Puerto Rican Federal Affairs Administration (PRFAA), the Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños at Hunter College, the Latin American and Hispanic Caribbean Studies Program at the City College of New York, and Markus Wiener Publishers.

Please RSVP with Myra Y. Estepa at MEstepa@aol.com or 212-739-7499.
Myra Y. Estepa
Policy Networking Program Coordinator
PRLDEF, Inc.
99 Hudson Street, 14th Floor
New York, NY 10013
(212) 739-7499 (Direct)
(212) 431-4276 (Fax)

"Querer ser libre es empezar a serlo"

Zero Improvement for Hispanic Workers: Hispanic Unemployment Rate Unchanged, Significantly Higher Than National Rate

WASHINGTON, Dec. 3 /PRNewswire/
-- Today the government reported that the Hispanic unemployment rate continued to be disproportionately higher than the national average. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate for Hispanics was 6.7 percent, with 1.3 million Hispanic Americans looking for work -- a 16 percent increase since President Bush took office.
The national unemployment rate was at 5.4 percent; with today's weak job numbers, 1.2 million private-sector jobs have been lost over the last four years. The average length of unemployment is at a 20-year high, and manufacturing jobs have been lost three months in a row remaining at a 54-year low. Americans working hard to provide for their families need good jobs and a growing economy.
"Today's lackluster jobs report makes clear that the economy has not 'turned the corner,' as President Bush claimed during the campaign," House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said. "Under Republican leadership, the manufacturing sector has been devastated, wages have not kept pace with inflation, and we have the worst record of job creation since the Great Depression."
"The Latino unemployment rate did not improve and it remains staggeringly higher than the national rate," Congressman Xavier Becerra (D-CA), member of the House Ways and Means Committee, said. "The policies of this Administration and the Republican Congress ignore the economic realities facing the hard working Latino community, making matters worse for Latinos, and benefiting the very wealthy at the expense of American workers."
"According to the President's spokesman, the Bush Administration is planning an economic summit in two weeks, to 'force' the President to focus on economic issues," Pelosi said. "Instead of using this summit to push the radical Republican plan to cut retirement benefits, or to discuss the merits of exporting American jobs, Republicans should use that time to come up with a real plan to create good paying jobs here at home, control the deficit, and help the middle class achieve financial security. Bipartisan solutions exist. But first, the Republicans must replace economic theory with real-world strategies that focus on job creation."
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, an additional 1.3 million people fell out of the middle class and into poverty last year, with paychecks flat and household income down. While annual average incomes remained flat, incomes for Hispanics dropped by 2.6 percent, the only group whose incomes fell last year.
House Democrats have always fought on behalf of Hispanic American working families. The Democrat's Hispanic Agenda, Compromiso Democrata con el Pueblo Latino embodies this commitment. The proposals put forth by House Democrats would create 10 million new jobs, would fully fund education programs so that all our children can reach their potential, including migrant and seasonal worker's children. The Democratic commitment to Latino families is the same that produced 20 million new jobs during the 1990s and that has always defended the interests of the Hispanic community, especially during the last four years of insensitive neglect from Congressional Republicans and President Bush.

Source: Office of House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi

CONTACT: Federico A. de Jesus of the Office of House Democratic Leader
Nancy Pelosi, +1-202-225-0100


Web site: http://democraticleader.house.gov/



Wednesday, December 01, 2004