Tacos for dinner became a reality

The Latino community in Connecticut has spoken and tacos will be served for dinner! Days ago Connecticut Mayor Joseph Maturo Jr. said he was eating tacos for dinner. This was what he was doing to serve his Latino community. So what do angry activists do? They send tacos! Fox News Latino reported, "The office of East Haven's mayor was blasted with prank phone calls and a delivery of hundreds of tacos Thursday after his now-famous quip that he would address accusations of anti-Latino bias by eating tacos, a remark that left emotions raw in the town's large Hispanic community."

New Haven has roughly 29,000 residents and of course is mostly white-collar. But with a 10% of Latinos living there, the comment turned those 3000 residents into angry activists. Although Mayor Maturo will not be resigning, I'm sure he'll think twice before he says anything to a minority reporter again. Yes we know he apologized but come on...stop generalizing. These days more and more people always come up to me and start bringing up generalizations about Latinos including food and dancing. -_-.

Glee in Spanish is...Glee?

Is it me or is Glee playing more tributes this season? Anyways, according to the Huffington Post, the first crossover music celeb. hits the Glee stage as a Spanish teacher. Ricky Martin plays a night school teacher and helps the kids perform to Spanish songs. I wonder what music they'll sing to? Will it be typical music, or the obvious Ricky Martin? I'm glad to see another Latino cast member even though it's only for one episode. Although Santana is hardly Latina which is also good, she doesn't need to be your typical stank attitude Latina...wait? She is lol. We'll see how this episode goes, I expect to hear some "Sh** Latinas Say" references as well.

Change in the Latino community = Tacos for dinner

I usually don't say anything when I'm offended but this takes the cake. Wow. In East haven, CT., Mayor Joe Maturo made himself look completely ignorant in a WPIX interview. The original story was about police allegedly targeting Latinos but the story turned for the worst.

• Reporter 1: What are you doing for the Latino community?
• Mayor: I might have tacos for dinner.

-_-. <--- That's the face I would have had and then went on a rampage about why that is the most racist thing in the world. Not only because the Mayor judged that ALL Latinos eat tacos but also because he thinks eating tacos for dinner will bring change. Yes the Mayor has apologized but that's not something people are going to forget. Maybe he saw the Sh** White Girls Say to Latinas video. Maybe not. Either way, Mayor Maturo just proved to the world that racism clearly still exists. And um, it's definitely not cool to play the I'm-of-Italian-descent card. Really? Really!?

A win for Colombia in Sustainable Transportation

Medellin, Colombia (in addition to San Francisco, CA) recently received the 2012 Sustainable Transportation Award. Talk about awesome news right? I'm glad to see Colombia being recognized in sustainable transportation and beating out competition like Buenos Aires, Argentina and Cape Town, South Africa. It's time for a visit right?

Read a little about Medellin's sustainable efforts:

• Medellin, Colombia, and its metropolitan area is being recognized for its public space improvements, and providing urban transport options to its citizens, such as its existing cable car and metro systems, and the recently inaugurated BRT project, Metroplús. The city created 1.6 million square meters of new park space through 25 parks and 11 urban promenades. Medellin also made progress with a new public bicycle program, EnCicla, that integrates universities and mass transit with popular city destinations; improved pedestrian crossings; and a ridesharing program, Comparte tu carro; as well as vehicle exhaust emissions controls and sulfur content improvements.

Your benefits of blogging

Earlier today I went to an event hosted by the Philadelphia Public Relations Association titled Benefits of Blogging for Business. Panelists included Stefan Frank, National Constitution Center; Jessica Sharp, Maven Communications; Allison Stadd, uwishunu; and Amanda Walsh, Furia Rubel Communications. A very mid-level type of event, all the speakers had great insight for non-profits, businesses, agencies and more. Key insights included keeping a strong voice, "content is king," and making sure you link all your social media properties (and then some) to promote your posts.

The audience had great questions as well including, "How long should a blog be?" as well as "How do you sustain a blog when a company doesn't have the 'person' to do it full-time?" I was actually hoping to ask if it's okay for CEO's and Executive Directors to blog but we ran out of time. Does anyone want to chime in?

So why do I blog? To be honest I started this blog (in 2008) to better my writing and to hopefully bring some positive news to the world. It started out a little small with no readership but thankfully now I have a good following. I even get pitched! Unfortunately people are more interested in gossip news and the most random things like "Dora the Explorer" and "From Prada to Nada." These two topics have been in my top read feed for the longest.

Photos of the Day: Alegria Ball

Thanks to my new fancy (work) camera I'm able to capture awesome video and photos. I attended the Greater Philadelphia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce's Alegria Ball last Friday evening and took some nice photos. Enjoy! You can find more at holaciudad.com. 

Yes I'm not a photographer but this camera is going to turn me into one. :)

Community organization wins big...again

Talk about a boost in fundraising. Today Congreso de Latinos Unidos announced the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) has awarded Philadelphia non-profit Congreso $1.5 million over three years as a 21st Century Community Learning Challenge Grant awardee. Congreso was one of 119 applicants, and one of only 57 award recipients in Pennsylvania selected to receive this federal funding, established under the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.


The grant will help Congreso serve 420 students through existing and expanded programming at Clemente, Fairhill and Sheppard Elementary Schools as well as Edison High School. A wonderful opportunity, hopefully this funding helps keep our children out the streets and safe. I also hope there was research to back up the "existing and expanded programming" considering new initiatives always work with backed up research.

Did you also know Congreso is in the middle of building a third building on N. American Street? This new building, a 57,000 square-foot, three-story space, will house Pan American Academy Charter School and Harcum College at Congreso, educational components of the agency’s cradle to career pipeline of services. Here's to a great future for our gente!

Reaction: Losing Our Spanish Heritage

Today I read two articles about losing our Spanish-language heritage. Wow. But to be quite honest, it really is happening. Although I am a bit biased because I live in Philadelphia where the predominant population is Puerto Rican. However, if you go to these area schools, there isn't a lot of Spanish-speaking going around. The author of the Huffington Post - Latino Voices article said, "I was often invited to meet up with the other blogueras here in Los Angeles, but I denied or ignored their invites. I didn't feel Latina enough for them." Should she not feel Latina enough?

It's the never ending question of what does it really mean to be Latino? I was very disappointed when my mom and dad one day called my brother and I, "Gringo." It really hurt and the only reason they called me that word was because I was born in the United States. According to the Pew Hispanic Center, only 38 percent of third–generation Latinos—United States-born kids with foreign-born grandparents—are proficient in Spanish, compared to 79 percent of the second generation. I speak Spanish, not super-awesome-great Spanish, but I can survive and work with the Spanish I know. Of course it can be better, but that doesn't give you the right to put me down.



A Latina.com article stated, "But this loss of language across the generations cuts deeper than simply being unable to communicate with older relatives. It impacts Latino identity as well." And it's completely true. If you're younger and can't communicate with older relatives, your sense of pride and culture are lost. You all of a sudden don't want to order arroz y abichuelas, you don't want to listen to Grupo Niche or anything even remotely close to your culture. It's sad. It's not just our fault though. If Arizona can ban Mexican-American studies then what's next?! Let's just hope one day no one ever tells me to NOT speak Spanish, that might get a negative reaction from me :).