PRSUN Featured @ Briz

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PRSUN is a featured business on the site's homepage today, I just learned.

Support independent community media. -- Clarisel

Originally uploaded by Moliniano.

Today's featured shot from the Puerto Rico Sun photo group is by Moliniano. Image depicts a protest at UPR.

'¡Alabanza! Corretjer' in El Barrio

Community calendar


Saludos,
For those who are interested in purchasing tickets for the ¡Alabanza! Corretjer event. Tickets are now available @ Camaradas El Barrio
2241 First Avenue/115th Street
El Barrio, Manhattan
212-348-2703
Or you can e-mail me and I will make the necessary arrangements to get them to you.

Gracias,
Sery Colón
Agüeybaná Productions
serycolon@aol.com


(Click on image to see larger text.)

CIRCA Puerto Rico 09

Opportunity

The First International Art Fair in the Caribbean
San Juan, Puerto Rico (Fourth Edition)

CIRCA PR 09, fourth edition of the premier
international art fair in the Caribbean and Central America, will be
held from April 17 - April 20, 2009 at the new Puerto Rico Convention
Center in San Juan.

To download application form, go to http://www.circapr.com

For additional information, please write to us at: info@circapr.com.

Deadline for all applications Circa Puerto Rico 09: November 10

Sports Spotlight: Boxing's Melissa 'Huracan' Hernandez

Bronxite Melissa Hernandez is known in the boxing world as “Huracan,” Spanish for hurricane.
This boricua boxer made history earlier this month in Las Vegas, winning her third world title belt, the vacant Women's International Boxing Association's super featherweight crown.
She defeated Elsa Nuñez, scoring a unanimous 10-round decision. This is the latest addition to her titles. Hernandez is also the winner of the International Female Boxing Association’s Super Bantamweight title and the Global Boxing Union’s Female Lightweight Title.
Described as fiery, highly entertaining, and confident, Hernandez says she loves the challenge of the sport.
"I am pound for pound one of the best female boxers in the world and I don’t want to just talk about it," she says. "I want to show it. In New York City, I am without a doubt the best female boxer, and I want to prove that I am the best wherever I go."
She now holds a title in three different divisions, which is a real accomplishment in the boxing world. If she were a male boxer, she would probably be a millionaire and more of a household name.
Based on her number of titles alone, she joins her fellow Puerto Rican male boxers Wilfredo Benitez, Wilfredo Gomez, Hector Camacho, Felix Trinidad, and Wilfredo Vazquez who have won three or more division titles.
Hernandez, who was born in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, and raised in the Bronx, says she always "wanted to be up there with all the great Puerto Rican boxing champions from the past."
Although boxing is a male-dominated sport, Hernandez believes there is a market for female boxers. She is outspoken about the need for the sport to be fairer to female boxers.
"Women boxers get the short end of the stick all the time cause promoters feel women have a set pay already," she says. "For example, women don’t get that much for title fights. The men get well you up to millions. The women don’t."
But this does not deter Hernandez's love for the sport.
Her family is not crazy that she's a boxer because "they don't want me hurt."
Still, Hernandez is never really outside the ring.
“Things I like to do when I’m not boxing is training my fighters," she says. "I have a stable of fighters from amateurs to world champions at the famed Gleason’s Gym. Crazy thing about me is I eat, sleep and box."
On her spare time, she enjoys spending time at home with her family and friends.
"My home girl Belinda Laracuente, also a boxing champion, often times comes over to help out with the cooking, where we often share recipes," she says. "Nice place to relax when I don’t have a fight coming up. Everyone comes to the house to get the best Latino cooking in town." -- Ismael Nuñez

Ismael Nuñez is a freelance writer based in East Harlem who contributes his writings to Puerto Rico Sun.

(photo courtesy of Melissa Hernandez)