Tonight is the final Republican debate before the March 6 “Super Tuesday” nominating contests in 10 states. The debate, sponsored by CNN, is being held in Arizona, which has been at the center of the immigration debate because of its crackdown on illegal immigration and for its ban on Tucson’s Mexican-American studies program.

The candidates will no doubt have to face tough questions on immigration that they have thus far avoided. The candidate’s answers tonight could prove pivotal in the general election against President Obama who has ramped up his efforts to win over Latinos, particularly in Arizona.

It’s no secret Republicans have all but erased the inroads George W. Bush made with Latinos. Poll after poll show Latinos overwhelmingly backing the Democratic Party.

If the GOP wants a real shot at winning in the general election, they should endorse a Chicano. Not just any Chicano, but the Confused
Chicano!

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The University of Houston’s Student Program Board announced that there will be a Gym Class Heroes concert on campus, free for all students.

On Feb. 9, the surprise announcement of the Gym Class Heroes concert was made after the Dr. Seahorse concert. Student Program Board had been keeping this under wraps in order to build anticipation.

Gym Class Heroes are best known for their recent hit song “Stereo Hearts feat. Adam Levine.” Lead vocalist Travie McCoy is known for his individual hits “Billionaire feat. Bruno Mars,” “We’ll Be Alright” and “Need You.”

Students are recommended to go to the Student Program Board website for the recent updates about the concert. Only UH students can get into the concert with a student ID and it will be first come, first serve. University of Houston’s Student Program Board is excited to bring this to the students and is proud of how far the university has come.

“It’s nice to be recognized as a Tier One university and to have a Tier One performance at the University of Houston is a honor in itself. I feel like our organization is at the top of their game and to have a performer that is also at the top of their game just tells us that we are doing something right,” said Brittney Mathis, Student Program Board concert chair.

The Gym Class Heroes concert will be held on Feb. 23 from 7p.m. – 10p.m. For more information, visit http://www.uh.edu/spb/upcoming-events.html.

Somos Republicans claims it's the fastest growing Latino Republican organization in the U.S.

Somos Republicans Florida 2012 Primary Election Statement

We were hoping our Cuban American and Puerto Rican brothers would disregard their leadership lead to support anti-immigrant Mitt Romney. The Florida primary results show the total disregard a good majority of Cuban Americans have for conservative Mexican Americans, South Americans, and Central Americans who aspire, like Cuban Americans, to be an integral part of this country.

This vote shows the lack of solidarity with the majority of Latinos, even while Cuban Americans and Puerto Rican serve themselves with the big spoon when it is time to distribute the political and economic/business opportunities/leverage generated by the critical mass of Latinos, mainly Mexican Americans (65%), but also Central Americans and South Americans.

These latter don’t have the same opportunities of citizenship that Cuban Americans and Puerto Ricans enjoy, and thus, in general, Cuban American put aside the priorities of the majority of Latinos. For a long time we have put the Latino agenda in the hands of Cuban Americans, and look where we are. It has been a tremendous disaster; we could not be more despised and disadvantaged in this country, in spite of our numbers and great contributions.

The overwhelming vote of Cuban Americans and Puerto Ricans for anti-Latino immigrant Mitt Romney should open the eyes of conservative Latino Republicans not belonging to the Cuban and Puerto Rican communities, to the fact that we do not count on their support for our political, economic/business agenda, and thus, they should not count on us, except on a previously negotiated basis on which we, Mexican Americans, hold our votes and power in the hands of our own leadership.

For this, we must accelerate the pace to build this Mexican American leadership that this major ethnic group needs to hold to represent the interests of its constituency within the Republican party. No more leaving our issues in the hands of other “Latinos”. If the Republican Party wants the votes of the largest Latino Group, Mexican Americans, and its brothers Central and South Americans, they will need to negotiate with us, not with Cuban or Puerto Rican Americans.

In Light of the Cuban American leadership support for anti Latino immigrant Mitt Romney (“illegal immigrant” is a code word for Latino immigrants, and Cuban Americans fool themselves if they think the Latino haters do not put us all in the same basket – as a small sample, you just had to hear the expressions of disgust within the Georgia Republican party when Mel Martinez was head of the RNC; Latino students at GA state reported that a professor coming from Florida said in class, in front of all the students, that Miami was a third world country infested with Cubans).

We welcome the friendship and brotherhood of those few Cubans and Puerto Ricans who embrace us, and who will accept our rightful leadership role. The Republican Party should know, and we will make it evident through our organization and future coalitions, that we will not align with Cuban Americans and Puerto Ricans any longer, except when there are clear mutual interests, and that Mexican Americans no longer consider themselves represented within the party by Cuban Americans and Puerto Ricans.

If the Republican Party wants the Mexican American community’s support, the by far largest Latino group, they need to have one of us, Mexican American.

A member of Somos Republicans registers a Latina to vote.

Republicans must acknowledge that if Mexican Americans are marginalized, we will not fulfill our potential as a key pillar to America’s economic and political future in the world. America will be poor if Mexican Americans are poor and powerless. We will not allow this. To the innuendo and racist rhetoric through the construction of code-alkaloid language such as “illegals” and “Anchor babies”, we will respond with harder work, greater love for this country, and greater organization.

We will not give up the Republican Party because these are our values, but we will support only those who embrace us. We will identify and clearly explain to Republicans that they have substituted Republican values for hate, and that the “hate coalition” which has taken over the party uses hate to hide and distract from the fact that they are big spenders, big government, big brother policy. They use a minor civil violation to dehumanize “some” immigrants.

Those who call themselves Reaganites do not belong in the immigrant hate coalition. We Mexican Americans are more than willing to work hard to contribute to build the bright future of this country, and warmly embrace all of those who embrace us. Likewise, we will be well aware of those who do not.

For more information on Somos Repubicans visit their website:

In response to the arrests of two Houston Dynamo players earlier this month, Quanell X, the leader of the New Black Panther Party and a local community activist, organized a march against racism on Washington Avenue.  The protest was to be held on February 12.

He decided to postpone the protest after Roosevelt Lounge representatives contacted him. He, along with other members of the community, was on hand to release a press statement.

Quanell X addresses the media over racial discrimination allegations outside of Roosevelt Lounge / Photo by Erika Andrade - Xpozure

“The owners of the club mentioned that they were even desirous of selling the club, because of the negative publicity and the problems they’ve had in the past with men and certain individuals being turned away,” Quanell X said. “He’s heard these complaints . . . he has worked to change that environment, but unfortunately, it has not changed.”

Quanell X said he would re-establish the protest if an agreement with owners could not be reached to avoid similar incidents from occurring in the future.
Allegations of racial discrimination at Washington Avenue establishments are nothing new. There are several ratings and review websites full of complaints about Roosevelt Lounge over racial discrimination.

Rodney Foster has tried on several occasions to get into Roosevelt Lounge and has never been allowed entry.

“We arrived at the club and were told everything was booked, all the tables were reserved, but they let Anglo people in,” Foster said in disgust. “It has to do with race because it was obvious that Latino and African American individuals were not (allowed entry.)”

Nancy Finkelstein Shaddock alerted Quanell X about the arrests / Photo by Erika Andrade - Xpozure

After hearing about the Houston Dynamo players’ arrests and racial discrimination allegations, Nancy Finkelstein Shaddock, a Houston Dynamo Charities board of directors member, contacted Quantell X. She did so as a concerned citizen and not as a representative of the Dynamo organization.

“Passive acceptance, I feel, should not be allowed any longer,” Finkelstein Shaddock said. “In this day and age this is something that should not be accepted and perpetrating that kind of racial profiling should not be allowed to continue.”

Creavalle was arraigned on misdemeanor interference charges, while Deric is charged with felony assault of a police officer in the case.

Both players are currently training with the Houston Dynamo, and open their season against Kansas City Sporting next month.

Launched in March 2011 by Secretary Napolitano and USCIS Director Alejandro Mayorkas, the announcement delivers on the goal of expanding Self Check nationally within one year.

“We are pleased to complete, ahead of schedule, our expansion of this important tool for employees,” said USCIS Director Alejandro Mayorkas during a press conference at the agency’s field office in Orlando, Fla. “Since our initial launch in March, approximately 67,000 people have used Self Check and we anticipate that participation will dramatically increase with service now available to individuals across the country.”

The accuracy of E-Verify has been called into question by the National Council of La Raza and other Hispanic advocacy groups. According to NCLR, foreign-born U.S. citizens and legal immigrants are 30 times more likely than native-born workers to be wrongly flagged as ineligble to work.

Names that sound “foreign” or “ethnic” to employers, regardless of their immigration status, are at a higher risk of being entered into E-Verify incorrectly because of data entry mistakes like misspellings.

“Workers cannot afford to lose jobs in this economy because of database errors or employer misuse of a verification system, and layering the mass expansion of this flawed program on top of our broken immigration laws will neither address concerns about immigration nor solve our unemployment problem. It is time to stop playing with the issue of immigration and with the needs of the American workforce,” said Clarissa Martínez De Castro, NCLR Director of Immigration and National Campaigns, as she denounced legislation that would require all employers to use E-Verify.

In a report released in December 2010, The Government Accountability Office found that 97.4 percent of almost 8.2 million newly hired employees were immediately confirmed to work during fiscal year 2009, compared to 92 percent from fiscal year 2006 to second quarter of fiscal year 2007.

GAO did note that errors still persist and incorrect name matches disproportionately affect foreign-born employees. The report cited identity theft and employer fraud as other vulnerabilities.

Employees who have been wrongly flagged as not eligible to work are limited in their ability to find the source of the incorrect information in the DHS databases, they have to use such complicated methods as Privacy Act requests to get the issue resolved.

Self Check was developed through a partnership between the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration to provide individuals a tool to check their own employment eligibility status, as well as guidance on how to correct their DHS and SSA records. It is the first online E-Verify service offered directly to workers. Available in English and Spanish, Self Check enables individuals to enter the same information into Self Check that employers enter into E-Verify.

The online tool also offers guidance on how to correct potential record discrepancies prior to the hiring process.

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At long last we’ve done another FUHA Mmm…Food segment. This time we checked out the Good Dog Hot Dog short bus, recommended to us by one of our directors, Alex Olivares.

These are not your run of the mill hot dogs. They are Texas-made and all-natural served in local artisan buns. Good Dog food truck is co-owned by Daniel Caballero and Amalia Pferd. It can be found in various trendy locations in the city. You can track their current location online at: Twitter or Facebook

Join the FUHA as they eat wait in the cold and talk more than they should.

Thanks a thousand times over to the folks from Good Dog for letting us shoot their short bus! And be sure to keep up with FUHA’s latest rabble rousing on our facebook page.

One year ago this month (February 15, 2011) Oscar Lopez Rivera, a Puerto Rican Patriot imprisoned now for over 30 years by the U.S. was denied parole.

He is 68 year old. Oscar Lopez was given an additional 15 years to return to the parole board for “consideration for parole” in some future beyond that. If Oscar was to be granted parole 14 years from now, and the “ÏF”is a big one, he would be 83 years old.

What was done by the parole board was to issue him a death sentence.

Twelve years ago, when President Clinton released the last group of political prisoners, Oscar was offered a release 10 years after their release. Oscar refused the offer because two other patriots, Carlos Alberto Torres and Haydee Beltran Torres had not been offered a release date. Since 1999 Haydee and Carlos Alberto have both won their release, and Oscar remains in a U.S. Federal prison.

A “possible” window of opportunity to put an end to this travesty is that President Obama orders his release before the end of his presidency. However, no president will take such as step while running for re-election.

One possible scenario is that Obama does not get reelected this coming November. His Presidential term would end in January of 2013. This scenario would provide a very small possible window of opportunity, the two and one half months between the day of the election and his last day in office.

The more likely scenario is that President Obama will be reelected. This would make the possibility of Oscar’s release to occur at some point in Obama’s next presidential term, if we make it an issue so important that he realized the political importance and acts on it.

When President Obama came to Puerto Rico for a few hours in June of 2011, he was twice confronted with the issue of Oscar’s release, the first time immediately upon setting foot on the tarmac by pro-statehood senator Norma Burgos and again later while being interviewed on television. His response was to divert from the issue by pointing to the fact that the issue needed to be petitioned to him by the established process, something that to my understanding has not yet been done.

I believe that the timing of the petition for a presidential pardon coincides with the assessment I described above. When the petition is reviewed it needs to have as much political backing as we can generate. This is the only opportunity that Oscar Lopez Rivera will probably have at living his remaining years en su patria, entre su pueblo. Obtaining the political backing for this effort is the reason that I am writing to you.

We can expect no commitment from President Barak Obama on this issue before the Presidential elections. It would be suicidal for his reelection. Neither should we expect any action on his part if there is no down side to his in-action.

All the members of the Puerto Rican Congressional delegation must be at the forefront of the political support that we generate for the success of this effort. We need to have our Congressional delegation negotiate a commitment from the Obama campaign, in exchange for their support to his campaign objective, his re-election.

With intelligent negotiations on the part of our elected officials it is our belief that Oscar Lopez Rivera will be released at some point during President Obamas tenure and we can make preparations to bring and to receive Oscar home. A sad truth is that the Puerto Rican people have been the only community to win the release of our political prisoners not once, but on two separate occasions.

Two of those Congress members are from NewYyork Bity. We need to get Congresswoman Nydia Velasquez and Congressman Jose Serrano to do what they can do on behalf of obtaining Oscar Lopez Rivera’s release; and the time is NOW!

* We need to set up meetings with both congressperson in order to impress upon them the importance of their acting on this matter. They need to make Oscar’s release a commitment from the Obama campaign in exchange for their active support. Both congressperson supported the efforts to win the release of Oscar’s compañeros during the Clinton administration.

Nydia went further and visited the women political prisoners held in Dublin, California. As I understand it, unlike the credit that has been rightfully given to Chicago Congressman Luis Gutierrez, recognition for Nydia and José’s contributions to those efforts has never been properly given. I raise this because this may be a source of some discontent on their part. It is important that we stress that support for Oscar should not suffer because of any possible missteps by those who headed the campaigns in the past.

* We should ask the Congresspersons to consider organizing a delegation of public officials (together or independently) to visit Oscar in prison

* The congresspersons should be encouraged to participate on a call with Luis Nieves Falcón and Tuto Villanueva, who head the Puerto Rican Human Rights Committee, which is spearheading the campaign in Puerto Rico for Oscar’s release.

* The congressperson should be encouraged to consider making a public statement of support for Oscar’s release at the most advantageous time for this effort, and hopefully in coordination with the campaign..

I hope that you join in this effort. A meeting and/or teleconference needs to take place to organize ourselves for a meeting with our Congressperson. We also need to strategies on other political objectives i.e., organized Labor support, city council resolutions, seeking the support of other elected officials, religious organizations, etc.

This independent effort is being taken as a means of complementing the work that has for years been carried out both in Puerto Rico and within the U.S.

By Vicente “Panama” Alba

Vicente “Panama” Alba is a longtime community and labor activist on Puerto Rican and other progressive issues.

MAES students help Reagan High with robotics kits. Photo Courtesy of MAES

This spring, students from the University of Houston chapter of MAES began volunteering with the robotics program at Reagan High School, located in the Houston Independent School District. The high school students in the robotics club, under the instruction of Mr. Fernando Blasco, design and build robots using FIRST robotics kits. The students will compete in a FIRST robotics regional competition this April, where their robots will be put to such challenges as balancing on a narrow plank, and launching basketballs at targets. The high school students invest many hours of free time into their project, usually staying after school for several days each week.

Robot created by the Reagan Robotics team.

The goal of the UH MAES chapter is to encourage the high school students to pursue higher education, particularly in the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. While the MAES volunteers are helping to build the robots, they can answer questions about college life, the experience of studying in a STEM major, and the University of Houston atmosphere. Assisting with the robotics programs of local area high schools has been a long-standing tradition at the UH MAES chapter. The leadership hopes to strengthen ties with the communities in the greater Houston area by providing both community service and positive university student role models.

By: Dylan Quiroz

For more information on MAES visit their website.

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HCC students at the MADE casting call

The casting call went out for HCC students wanting to be part of MTV’s three-time Emmy award winning series, MADE, and the students showed up in force.

So many students clamored for a chance of being on the show that the producers closed the casting call 10 days before auditions.

Michael Santos is optimistic about his chances of making the series.

Michael Santos, an HCC student, made a Facebook fan page for people to vote for him to be on the show. The page had 307 fans.

“I made this page for people to show support to me trying to make my dream come true.” says Santos, “The auditions went great and the last thing the caster said was ‘see you later’. I should know something within two weeks.”

Producers of the show were looking for HCC students who want an opportunity to change the rest of their lives. MADE gives people a chance to make their wishes come true.

Made is a self-improvement reality series on MTV. The series follows teens who are joined by a “Made Coach” who try to help them attain their goals.

The auditions were only open to HCC students. Second round of auditions starts today at HCC Central.

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In a tough year, donations nearly double to Latino Giving Houston.

A growing membership helped raise 43% more in donations to support the group’s grant making efforts

Houston, Texas – February 9, 2012 – Latino Giving Houston, an organization which formed in 2009, plans to award its largest grant ever, $8,000, to a deserving nonprofit organization in Houston. The group which has a donor advised fund at the Greater Houston Community Foundation raises money from individual members to fund a grant award to a local nonprofit serving the Latino community. Latino Giving Houston was formed by small group of Latino professionals who saw a gap that needed to be filled.

“Foundations and philanthropic organizations give less than 2% of all charitable donations to Latino organizations,” said Frances Valdez, former President and co-founder of Latino Giving Houston. “Our goal is to teach individuals that they can come together, pool their resources, leverage their expertise and make a difference right here in Houston.”

In 2010, as a result of a competitive grant process and member voting, Latino Giving Houston provided a $4,500 grant to MECA, a Latino arts and educational organization. “The great thing about Latino Giving Houston is that it empowers individuals who care about their community to support nonprofits that are doing great work,” said Mario Salinas, the current President.

It also helps educate members about personal philanthropy. The members of Latino Giving Houston review the grant applications and decide which organization receives the grant award each year. In 2009, the first grant was awarded to the Academic Achievers Program in Austin High School. They focus on tutoring and college preparation programs to increase high school graduation and college enrollment rates in the East End area of Houston.

“Our hope is that we can grow the fund so that one day, we will be able to give out multiple grants, in many issue areas,” says Mr. Salinas.

The group is careful to avoid taking foundation resources away from local groups, so they focus instead on individual giving.  “We are about growing the pot, so there are more dollars available to fund organizations that are making a real difference in people’s lives,” says Ms. Valdez.
 
Their strategy seems to be working, as they continue to grow membership (up 32% since 2010). Latino Giving Houston also works to increase capacity of these nonprofits by helping them learn and refine their skills, from grant writing and reporting to funder cultivation.

The 2012 grant application is now available on Latino Giving Houston’s website at www.latinogivinghouston.org. A March RFP Madness workshop will take place in early March to answer questions for prospective applicants.
More information about the March RFP Madness event will be available shortly.  Attached is a picture from our grant to the Austin High School Academic Achievers Program.

To learn more about Latino Giving Houston or to schedule a media interview, contact Yasmin Yavar, Vice-President at 713.839.6085. or visit latinogivinghouston.org