In 1917, President Woodrow Wilson signed into law the Jones Act, which granted American citizenship to the people of Puerto Rico. The territory had come under U.S. jurisdiction after the Spanish-American War of 1898. Between 1898 and 1917 any Puerto…

With the appointment of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court, an old song has suddenly gone viral on the Internet. Originally written by the Norwegian-Cuban group Mambo Compañeros in 1998 for an Olympic athlete from Cuba, the song is…

Writer Joe Pacheco

Memorial Day was created to honor those veterans who have given the ultimate sacrifice in defense of their country. With war casualties growing in Iraq and Afghanistan, Memorial Day takes on greater urgency. But, as poet and writer…

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS - March 31 - DOHA, Qatar (AP) – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez sought Arab support Tuesday for a proposed oil-backed currency to challenge the U.S. dollar in his latest swipe at Washington’s dominance in global financial…

By Alex Avila, LatinoUSA.org

The 2008 Presidential campaign obviously shattered many racial barriers. But for some people, old habits die hard. For example, there were reports from campaign workers in the South who encountered intense racism as they went door-to-door. This…

Quique Aviles

Being bilingual doesn’t just mean that someone speaks two languages. Often, the bilingual in this country are also bi-cultural. Mexican-Americans along the southern U.S. Border, for example, have for decades celebrated belonging to two-cultures. And for other groups, like…

The Faces of the Purepecha from Latino USA on Vimeo.

As the New Year begins, there’s been lots of talk of Hope. Given the economic realities we all face, that’s a little surprising.

Rev. Ignacio Castuera

It is a beginning and an end to many things: companies, jobs, homes…

Sometimes out of…

It’s been said that the greatness of a society is determined by how it treats its most vulnerable members.

When U.S. authorities take undocumented, unaccompanied children into custody, too often the welfare of the child is not the top priority. Instead,…

Herbert Klein is Director of Latin American Studies at Stanford University, and a Fellow at the Hoover Institution.