Saturday, August 08, 2009

Judge Sonia Sotomayor Sworn In As Supreme Court Justice

Coverage of Judge Sonia Sotomayor as she is officially sworn is as an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court by Chief Justice John Roberts in Washington, D.C. Her mother and brother are with her. Felicidades to this boricua who hails from the Bronx.

source: PoliticsNewsPolitics, YouTube

Wednesday, August 05, 2009

Salsa in the Park at Crotona


Community calendar

Salsa in the Park
Crotona Park, Claremont Avenue and Crotona Park East
noon to 6 p.m., August 8
Free
This is an event of the Bronx Puerto Rican Parade.
For more information, www.bronxprparade.com.

(photo of a little girl participating in the Bronx Puerto Rican Parade earlier this year by Clarisel Gonzalez)



Monday, August 03, 2009

Manny Hernandez Jr. chats with PRSUN Radio


Manuel Hernandez Jr., writer and educator, is my guest Wednesday on PRSUN Radio at www.blogtalkradio.com/prsunradio. Hernandez has presented workshops, coordinated symposiums, conducted television interviews and moderated panels on the literature written by United States based Latino writers in Puerto Rico, the United States and Mexico. He also writes commentary essays on education for several websites and newspapers in Puerto Rico and The United States. He published a textbook titled, Latino/a Literature in The English Classroom (Editorial Plaza Mayor, 2003). The book was nominated for Latino Book of The Year 2004. He also published a semi-auto-bio titled, The Birth of a Rican. The self-published narrative is in the index catalogs at Latino Studies at  Michigan State University and El Centro at Hunter College, CUNY, NY. His vision is to promote Latino Literature to motivate teens to read and write. Having an encounter with Latino Literature will help teens (especially Latino teens) to improve their scores on city, national and statewide exams and will prepare them for further literary analysis. He is currently in professional staff development in the English department at the DE in Puerto Rico. 
Manny will speak on English teaching in Puerto Rico, his writings and more.
(photo courtesy of Manuel Hernandez Jr.)
UPDATE: To listen to my interview with Manny, go to the PRSUN Radio widget box right here in this blog or go directly to www.blogtalkradio.com/prsunradio.

Sunday, August 02, 2009

Bronx News Network: Protest Over Controversial Art Piece Fizzles

Bronx News Network: Protest Over Controversial Art Piece Fizzles

While the so-called protest fizzles, the Bronx News Network wants to know what are your thoughts in the use of the word "Spic" in art. Check out this entry.

Friday, July 31, 2009

Broken Promises

American Values Network Releases White Paper: Vieques Today, A Sea of Broken Promises
 
Washington, DC (CapitalWirePR) - A new white paper by American Values Network examines the current situation in the island municipality of Vieques, Puerto Rico. Vieques is a small U.S. territorial island located eight miles from the main island of Puerto Rico. The people of Vieques are American citizens who have made tremendous sacrifices for our country’s national security. For over 200 days per year from 1941-2003, the Navy used significant portions of the Island of Vieques for training exercises and munitions testing.

During this period, the Navy tested nearly every kind of munitions employed by the military, dropping over 80 million pounds of ordnance on Vieques from 1984-1998 alone. The Navy has refused to disclose the complete list and amounts of all materials sprayed, dropped, tested, or disposed of on the island and surrounding ocean during the 62-years of weapons testing.
 
The people of Vieques have a 25% higher infant mortality rate, 30% higher rate of cancer, a 381% higher rate of hypertension, a 95% higher rate of cirrhosis of the liver, and a 41% higher rate of diabetes than those on the main island of Puerto Rico a mere 8 miles away. Despite these facts, the Navy denies any culpability and refuses to help alleviate the suffering it has caused.
 
The health claims of the American citizens in Vieques have been supported by a multitude of groups and faith-based organizations, including the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC), the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO), the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), and the American Values Network, among others.

The full white paper is at 
http://americanvaluesnetwork.org/vieques/white-paper/