Morning NewsTaco
Monday October 1, 2012
From Cesar Chavez to the Denver Debate: Mexican-American Voters Finally Have Their Say (Time): Fifty years to the week after Chicano activist Cesar Chavez put Mexican Americans on the political map, their long-overdue electoral clout will be felt at Wednesday night’s presidential debate.
Kennedy Center’s Kaiser sorry for rude response to Latino demand (Los Angeles Times): Michael Kaiser, president of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., has apologized for cussing out the head of the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts over the phone in mid-September, in response to a demand to stop overlooking Latinos in the annual Kennedy Center Honors awards.
Latino groups, Kennedy Center officials to talk over lack of artistic award winners (The State): The Kennedy Center Honors may seem like a genteel tribute to the world’s greatest performers, but a public squabble about the selection process has revealed behind-the-scenes resentment over the lack of Latino honorees.
Religion Not A Factor In Latino Politics (OPB): Religion is one of the most defining characteristics of Latino culture. But pollsters say it plays virtually no role in how they vote. And for two Mexican-American siblings, faith shapes the lives but not their politics.
Why Latinos are key in election (CNN): We start with the obvious question: Why do the media, political observers and presidential campaigns spend so much time talking about the Latino vote? Many Americans resent the implication that some votes are more important or have more impact than others. (No one is saying that’s the case.)
Some Latino voters are still undecided as presidential election nears (Voxxi): Luis LaRotta knows there are less than 40 days before the presidential election. This Latino voter knows that President Barack Obama and Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney have laid out most of what they are going to say before the Nov. 6 election. But the 31-year-old financier from Houston, Texas, still isn’t sure which candidate he will vote for though he’s leaning more toward Romney.
Latino Americans torn between Obama, Romney (The Observer): Early this year, Mary Sirvent, a Latino American citizen, was undecided on whether to vote Barack Obama or the Republican challenger, Mitt Romney in the imminent US elections. Once, she liked Obama for being pragmatic – she liked his new health law, dubbed Obamacare, which is expected to raise the insurance cover. But Mitt Romney won the Republican nomination and talked about Obama’s unfulfilled promises. Sirvent crossed and rooted for Romney. But this only lasted a while, before Sirvent crossed over to the Democratic camp again.
Mayor gets taste of Puerto Rico during Florida campaign visit (San Antonio Express-News): When Mayor Julián Castro stepped out of the black Ford SUV that had delivered him to La Lechonera El Barrio restaurant, he was greeted by the rhythmic pounding of bongo drums and the hissing rattle of maracas.
U.S. immigration to treat same-sex partners as relatives (Reuters): The Obama administration has directed immigration officials to recognize same-sex partners as family members in deportation cases, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said on Friday.
Microsoft Pushes Jobs, Immigration Reform, U.S. Tech Investment (eWeek): Microsoft went to Washington to lobby for immigration reform and increased federal investment to drive more workers to the high-tech industry, which the company says is in “crisis” mode.
California immigration bills going down to the wire (San Jose Mercury News): High-profile immigrant advocates are unleashing a final surge of pressure on Gov. Jerry Brown, who has until Sunday to act on two bills that would make life easier for California’s undocumented immigrants. One of them, AB 2189, would allow the state to grant driver’s licenses to thousands of young Californians getting temporary work permits through a new Obama administration deportation relief policy.
California bill would halt unfair deportations (CNN): Arizona’s immigration law, Senate Bill 1070, has generated a lot of ink recently, especially with a court ruling last week that allowed a controversial provision that in my view will result in racial profiling to move forward.
Arizona to appeal judge’s ruling against part of immigration law (Reuters/Chicago Tribune): Arizona Governor Jan Brewer plans to fight a federal judge’s ruling against a part of Arizona’s tough immigration law that would have made it a crime to harbor illegal immigrants, court papers showed on Thursday.
U.S.-born Latinos snubbed by entertainment kingmakers (Washington Post Writers Group/ San Antonio Express News): A few years ago, I noticed that Latin American artists get a lot of play in the States compared to U.S.-born Hispanics. For instance, in 2010, Mario Vargas Llosa of Peru won the Nobel Prize in literature and it seemed as though no one could stop commenting about what a big deal it was. People were talking to me about it as though his achievement would somehow change my life.
