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Tag: Hispanic

  • Google Launches .SOY, Its First U.S. TLD

    Google announced the launch of its first US top-level domain – .SOY. The company is targeting a U.S. Hispanic audience, saying the TLD “opens up a new place on the web for everyone to celebrate Hispanic culture – regardless of country of origin or language preference.”

    Soy means “I am” in Spanish. Google says in a blog post:

    .SOY is a space for this influential community to create, discover and connect with culturally relevant content and ideas online. It’s a place where you can build a website for your growing small business or new business venture, or share your passion with the world. When you visit a site that ends in .SOY, you’ll know it was created with a Latino audience in mind.

    Google has partnered with a handful of Hispanic organizations and small businesses. The following are on .SOY domains: Hispanic Heritage Foundation; ELLA Institute; LATISM; Webs; Starfish*Global; Republica; Pix-l Graphx; and Queen of Tacos.

    Google has also set up its own site at HolaGoogle.soy. You can claim a domain via iam.soy.

    Image via Google

  • George P. Bush: Beacon For Latino Voters?

    George P. Bush, son of former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and nephew and grandson of presidents, has put his hat in the political ring as a candidate for Texas Land Comissioner. What’s so special about that? Well, besides being the latest Bush to boldly step into the political arena, Bush is of mixed race. His father, Jeb is married to a hispanic woman named Columba, according to Reuters.

    Some are hoping that this will help draw more latino voters to support the Republican party. “This certainly helps the Republican Party present an image of a party that not only seeks Hispanic votes but is running Hispanics for office,” Mark P. Jones, a political analyst at Rice University in Houston.

    “This is clearly beneficial in Texas, because every other Republican candidate for a non-judicial statewide race in 2014 will be a white male,” Jones said.

    Bush, a lawyer and co-founder and chairman of the Hispanic Republicans of Texas, is active in the latino community, and would be good for the image white male-dominated party. According to CBS, he speaks Spanish and has worked to stifle the expectations caused by his family’s standing, but he is still being spotlighted by the Republican party, in order to garner attention from an increasingly influential latino community.

    However, the question is, when will we stop assuming that people are so, um, unintelligent that they will vote for a candidate or a party simply based on the color of the candidate’s skin? Do people really do that? Well, apparently a few, but not enough to make broad assumptions.

    State Representative Jose Menendez, a Democrat, said he considers the assumption “insulting”, as he should. “I think the Hispanic community is not a monolithic community, it is a community that is independent.”, he said.

    Menendez pointed out that he believes Hispanics support “policies over personalities” just like anyone else, and Cal Jillson, a political analyst at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, agrees with that sentiment.

    “There will be a few people who are attracted to Bush personally due to his connection to Hispanic Texas, but there will be just a few,” Jillson said.

    Surely we don’t think that little of our fellow man, to assume he will blindly follow someone else’s ideals because his skin is the same color? I know that a few will, but surely not the majority.

    What do you think? Would you vote for a candidate simply based on ethnicity?

    Image via wikimedia commons

  • Heart Disease Risks Higher, But Varied For Hispanics/Latinos

    A new study shows that heart disease risk factors, such as high colesterol and obesity, are far higher for U.S. Hispanic/Latino adults than for the general U.S. population. However, the results also show that those risk factors vary greatly for Hispanics and Latinos of different backgrounds.

    The Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos (HCHS/SOL), funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), was published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). It shows that 80% of Hispanic/Latino men and 71% of Hispanic/Latino women have at least one risk factor for heart disease. In the U.S. general population, around 49% of adults have one major risk factor for heart disease.

    “Heart disease is the leading cause of death among Hispanic/Latino people in the United States; however, prior research has underestimated the burden of heart disease risk factors in Hispanic/Latino populations,” said Dr. Larissa Avilés-Santa, project officer for HCHS/SOL at the Division of Cardiovascular Sciences in the NIH’s National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI). “Additionally, previous studies on heart disease risk factors among Hispanics/Latinos have mainly involved Mexican-American participants, or have considered Hispanics/Latinos as a single group.”

    Among the Hispanic/Latino population of the U.S., the study found that those born in the U.S. or who have lived in the U.S. for 10 year or more and prefer English over Spanish (what the study calls “acculturated”) are “significantly” more likely to have three or more risk factors for heart disease. Also, those with lower education or incomes were also significantly more likely to have more than one risk factor.

    “Clinicians now have more data to understand the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors in Hispanic/Latino communities,” said Dr. Greg Talavera, professor in the Graduate School of Public Health at San Diego State University, where the study took place. “For example, here in San Diego the majority of Hispanic/Latinos are of Mexican background and the study found that the prevalence of diabetes was generally higher compared to other Hispanic/Latino background groups.”

  • George Zimmerman To Be Charged In Trayvon Martin Shooting

    According to the Washington Post, Florida special prosecutor Angela Corey plans to announce as early as Wednesday afternoon that she is charging neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman in the shooting of Trayvon Martin.

    The announcement will be made at 7:30pm EST at either Jacksonville or Sanford.

    If he is in fact charged with anything of substance it will put to an end a contrived national drama brought about by the main stream media. We learned earlier in the week that the case would not be heard in front of a grand jury which had experts saying that this was ok because it meant that Corey had enough to put a case together against Zimmerman that would stick.

    Be reminded that this is the state that let Casey Anthony off, so even if charges are filed, there is no guarantee that Zimmerman will be convicted. If he is not convicted, look for riots to happen once again (see:OJ).

    (image)@KenJennings
    Ken Jennings    Sure, George Zimmerman is a household name now, but there was a time just a few weeks ago when he couldn’t get arrested in this town!(image) 5 minutes ago via Twitter for iPhone ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    (image)@PepperSprayCop
    Pepper Spraying Cop    What am I up to these days? Ah…nothing. Just hanging out with George Zimmerman waiting for the mob with torches and pitchforks to show up.(image) 2 minutes ago via web ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    (image)@askburgers
    Jake B    If you want to see a whole lot of legal ignorance, just search George Zimmerman in Twitter. People have zero clue what they’re talking about(image) 33 seconds ago via web ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

  • Trayvon Martin Case Sparks Racial Debate

    With new details of the Trayvon Martin case emerging every day, speculation as to whether or not the shooting was racially motivated is growing within the African American community.

    The incident, which involved self-appointed neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman following 17-year old Trayvon Martin–who was unarmed and walking home from the store–before confronting him for looking suspicious, led to Zimmerman fatally shooting the boy after a scuffle broke out between the two. Zimmerman claims he acted in self defense, but a lot of people are wondering if the fact that Martin was African American played a part in it.

    Adding fuel to this fiery topic is the fact that Martin’s father, Robert, released a statement last week to the Orlando Sentinel which claimed that Zimmerman is of Hispanic descent and grew up in a multi-racial family.

    “He would be the last to discriminate for any reason whatsoever …,” the statement reads. “The media portrayal of George as a racist could not be further from the truth.”

    The statement has raised many questions regarding racism and whether it’s strictly an issue for the white community, as reported on Fox News Latino. Writer Chantilly Pantino expresses concern that certain comments in a recent Breitburt.com article imply just that.

    The first paragraph of the article reads:

    “The media immediately portrayed the death as a case of white on black racism. CBS News, on its Crimesider website, immediately called Zimmerman a “white neighborhood watch volunteer.” Martin’s parents accused the police of racism for not arresting Zimmerman. There’s only one problem: Zimmerman is Hispanic.”

    Pantino explores the assertion that Zimmerman cannot be racist because he is Hispanic:

    “…Are we to believe then, that he can’t be racist because he’s not white? Is prejudice and discrimination restricted only to those who are direct European descendants?”

    There have been many reports over the years of suspected Hispanic/African American hate crimes, including one involving the 2006 death of a 14-year old girl in Los Angeles, which adds more weight to the argument that perhaps the fact that Zimmerman is Hispanic doesn’t excuse him from possibly being racist.

    And there are other avenues of thought to consider, such as why Zimmerman continued his pursuit of Martin despite a warning from police to leave him alone.

    This is certainly not an issue that will go away anytime soon, and the debate that has been raised will more than likely draw out for many years with no easy answer. The general public has flooded social media sites with their opinions and will continue to do so as the investigation into the shooting goes on.

    (image)@OohSquigglyLine
    josé juan.    People are trying so hard to paint George Zimmerman as a racist that they’re forgetting to paint him as a murderer(image) 12 hours ago via Twitter for iPhone ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    (image)@bmoreconnected
    Andy Ellis    Giving george zimmerman the benefit of the doubt, and assuming he is not a racist does not mean he did not kill trayvon because he was black(image) 56 minutes ago via web ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    (image)@PointWellTaken
    Booker T. Fair    George Zimmerman (the murderer of Treyvon Martin) was NOT a police officer. He was a racist pseudo vigilante that murdered an innocent kid.(image) 18 hours ago via web ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    (image)@Miami_Chica
    Amber Ortiz-Moreno    I figured George Zimmerman was Latino but just bc he is doesn’t mean he isn’t racist. Lord knows a lot of Latinos are racist against blacks.(image) 5 days ago via web ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto