RECENT ARTICLES

2010 LULAC NATIONAL WOMEN’S CONFERENCE

HACU’s 24th Annual Conference

Unscrupulous Employers Robbing Latino Wages

Latinos Twice as Likely to be Food Insecure

$2 million in scholarships available to Latino students

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2010 LULAC NATIONAL WOMEN’S CONFERENCE

April 9, 2010

to

April 10, 2010

Excerpt from: www.lulac.net

“Latina Contributions…..To a Stronger Nation”

When: Friday, April 9 and Saturday, April 10, 2010

Where: Caribe Hilton
Los Rosales Street
1 San Geronimo Street
San Juan, Puerto Rico 00901

LULAC is proud to request your presence and sponsorship at our annual National Women’s Conference to be held April 3rd and 4th at the beautiful Caribe Hilton in San Juan.

The theme for the conference is “Latina Contributions…..To a Stronger Nation”. We are doing so in the areas of business, education, and political empowerment. Now is the time to highlight the important accomplishments of women who have progressed in their areas of expertise and have them share their experiences with our participants.

To read more about the conference click here

Reservations: (800) 468-8585 or click here

HACU’s 24th Annual Conference

September 18, 2010

to

September 20, 2010

Excerpt from: www.hacu.net

“Championing Hispanic Higher Education Success: Expanding Opportunities in Challenging Times”

When:  September 18-20, 2010

Where: Hilton San Diego Bayfront
San Diego, CA

Who: Top undergraduate, graduate and professional school students from colleges and universities throughout the Americas will be active participants at HACU’s 24th Annual Conference in San Diego, September 18-20, 2010. These students represent a wide range of academic disciplines. They arrive with resumes, eager to discuss career, internship, research and advanced education opportunities. Students represent a wealth of study, internship, workplace, research and community service experience. Special Student Track Workshops, Leadership Forums, Student Mixers and a Career Fair will be part of HACU’s 24th Annual Conference. You can be an active part of the Student Track by becoming a Student Track Sponsor or by sponsoring a Student Ambassador. Students can also submit an application for a scholarship to attend this conference.

How:  “Student Conference Scholarships” pay for the student’s conference registration, travel, lodging, and meals with conference-sponsored events.  The “Student Ambassador” program enables colleges and universities to sponsor students to attend HACU’s Annual Conference. Applications for both programs are available online. You may also contact studenttrack@hacu.net for more information.

Why sponsor Student Conference Scholars? 
Please contact Ana Esquivel, Executive Director of Development, for information about how corporations, federal agencies/organizations and colleges and universities can support the HACU Student Track at (210) 576-3224 or aesquivel@hacu.net.

For more information click here

Source: www.hacu.net

Unscrupulous Employers Robbing Latino Wages

(CNN)  Low-income Latinos are routinely discriminated against in the South, a  report released by the Southern Poverty Law Center says.  The study’s author and others say the problem exists nationwide, with millions of Spanish-speaking immigrants living “beyond the protection of the law.”

The report, released by the Southern Poverty Law Center, documents the experiences of 500 immigrants in the South, finding that Latinos routinely are cheated out of wages, are denied basic health protection and fall victim to racial profiling.

“Under Siege: Life for Low-Income Latinos in the South” details stories such as that of a Tennessee woman who says she was jailed at a cheese factory for asking for pay, a bean picker in Alabama who says his life savings were taken by police at a traffic stop, and a rapist in Georgia who was not arrested because the suspect’s victim was an undocumented immigrant.

Forty-one percent of the people surveyed said they had experienced theft of their wages by employers. Forty-seven percent said they know someone who was treated unfairly by police. Seventy-seven percent of women surveyed said they have been sexually harassed by bosses, many saying that bosses used their immigration status as leverage.

“This report documents the human toll of failed policies that relegate millions of people to an underground economy, where they are beyond the protection of the law,” said Mary Bauer, author of the report. “Workplace abuses and racial profiling are rampant in the South.”

But such discrimination is also rampant nationwide, she said. The human-rights law center focused on the South because that’s the area the Montgomery, Alabama-based group knows best, she said.

Teodoro Maus, president of the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights, has heard thousands of discrimination complaints from Mexican immigrants during the past two decades.

“It’s absolutely correct that there’s generalized discrimination,” he told CNN. “There’s a general feeling that discrimination is valid because these people are illegal, because these people have no right to be here.”

But the attitude toward discrimination has changed throughout the years, said Maus, who was also the Mexican consul general in Atlanta, Georgia, from 1990 to 1994 and from 1995 to 2001.

“The big difference from previous years is that there were discriminatory acts before, but not the belief that discrimination is allowed,” he said.

Bolstered by what Maus called “an ultraconservative element,” some people “realized they could have open aggression against a group of people who could not defend themselves.”

Bernardo Mendez Lugo, Mexico’s deputy consul in Tucson, Arizona, said he sees three main forms of discrimination: racial profiling by law enforcement officers, problems in the workplace and difficulties in the rental housing market.

In the workplace, he said, employees often find they are passed over for promotions despite their qualifications or length of employment. The abuse, Mendez Lugo said, is generally aimed at undocumented workers.

“They are told, ‘I’m going to call immigration [authorities] if you keep asking,’ ” Mendez Lugo said.

Federal officials say there are more than 12 million undocumented immigrants in the United States. Most of them come from Mexico and other Latin American countries.

The center urged the federal government to strengthen labor laws and crack down on racial profiling.

“We’re talking about a matter of basic human rights here,” said Southern Poverty Law Center President Richard Cohen. “By allowing this cycle of abuse and discrimination to continue, we’re creating an underclass of people who are invisible to justice and undermining our country’s fundamental ideals.”

Source: CNN

Latinos Twice as Likely to be Food Insecure

This document is taken from the President and CEO of NCLR, Janet Murguia’s presentation to the Subcommittee on Department Operations, Oversight, Nutrition, and Forestry on The Effect of Food Insecurity in the Latino Community.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Hispanic household food insecurity rate (17.9%) is twice as high as the rate for non-Hispanic White households (8.2%), the most food secure.6

In addition, Latino households with children have even higher rates of food insecurity; 21.6% of these households experience food insecurity compared to 11.8% of similar White households. Because of the dearth of resources in many Latino households, their ability to make food purchases is restricted.  While the typical non-Hispanic White U.S. household spends $45 per person each week for food, Hispanic households spend 25% less, just $33 weekly per person.7

A survey in the Journal of Nutrition found that some of the consequences of food insecurity include hunger pangs, fatigue, lack of concentration at school, low work capacity, stress, disrupted household dynamics, and distorted means of food acquisition and management. 9

Respondents to the survey reported depression, increased need for health care, and decreased participation in social activities. 10 Families will go to great lengths to keep their children from going hungry, which is why it is so alarming that many Latino children do not have adequate resources for a nutritious diet. Food insecure children are twice as likely to be in fair or poor health.11

Further, a survey of parents of low-income, young Latino children who are food insecure found that they are two times more likely to note developmental concerns, including risks of developmental delays or disabilities, than households with children who have adequate resources for food.12 Even small cognitive changes can have lasting impacts on a child s education. Even when a child experiences even mild levels of food insecurity, data suggest that school performance and social skills are comprised.13

The coping mechanisms associated within adequate food resources such as overeating when food is available, compromising the quality of food in order to consume higher quantities, and even skipping meals, which causes metabolic shifts can result in a higher propensity for weight gain. While food insecurity persists in the Latino community, there is also a rising trend of obesity. One recent study found that among Latino preschoolers children in the critical stages of growth nearly one-quarter (24.4%) were identified as obese.15

Food insecurity also has a broader impact on society. The increased risk for and severity of sickness and disease that results from food insecurity can create a demand for more physician time, extensive levels of treatment, and greater rates of hospitalization all of which require more money and resources. The health care costs associated with increased illness due to food insecurity not only fall on individuals who suffer from these effects, but ultimately add strain to the entire health care system.

There is also mounting evidence that the overweight and obesity trends in the United States are due, in part, to high levels of food insecurity.14

The educational benefits of participating in government assistance programs include contributing to families achieving a higher level of nutrition. Program participants are more likely than low income nonparticipants to lack confidence about their knowledge of good dietary practices and the quality of their diet. However, they benefit from nutrition education, which promotes consumption of healthier foods, a balanced diet, and physical activity. The results can be seen in the healthier choices they make in grocery stores.17 Further, the education of adult participants is likely to have lasting impact on the younger family members, encouraging children to make healthy choices in and outside of the household. Although it is difficult to establish a direct causal relationship between participation and health outcomes because of the added effects of the program on reducing poverty and improving socioeconomic status, data show that participants are able to make more deliberate choices that maximize the nutrition content of their food. In fact, despite rising obesity rates throughout the country for the population overall, women who
participated in the Food Stamp Program from 1999 to 2002 were less likely to be overweight and
were able to keep their weight relatively steady compared to nonparticipants.18

Document sampled from the House Committee on Agriculture website.

For more information on Food and Nutrition Assistance Programs visit: www.fns.usda.gov

$2 million in scholarships available to Latino students

The Orange County Register reported that more than $2 million in college scholarships will be awarded this year to Latino students through the Washington, D.C.-based Hispanic College Fund, program officials have announced.

The scholarships range from $500 to $10,000 and are based on merit and financial need.

Last year, five Orange County students won a Hispanic College Fund scholarship, out of 592 recipients total.

More than 500 students nationally are expected to receive a scholarship this year.

“Hispanics are the fastest-growing population in America, and we owe it to them – and our country – to make sure that young Latinos pursue higher education and productive careers that will strengthen our economy,” the scholarship fund said in a statement.

To qualify, undergraduate and graduate students must maintain a 3.0 out of 4.0 GPA; be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident residing in the United States or Puerto Rico; be enrolled full-time at an accredited university for the 2010-2011 school year; and demonstrate financial needs.

Santa Ana native Uriel Guadarrama, who received a $4,000 scholarship, attends USC, where he’s majoring in international business and Chinese.

“The HCF scholarship has been a blessing to myself and to my family,” Guadarrama said in a statement. “The financial support that I have received has made it easier for me to focus on my academic and career goals.”

The scholarships are supported by a number of private donors, including Denny’s, Ford Motor Company Fund, Google, Kaiser Permanente, the Manuel Candamo Memorial Scholarship, Verizon, PepsiCo, and J. Willard and Alice S. Marriott Foundation.

To apply, go to http://scholarships.hispanicfund.org.

Source: www.ocregister.com