NewsTaco

I believe in the power of neighborhoods and barrios. I believe public institutions devoted to our leisure, education, and civic engagement are sacred spaces. The people make the place, but the place defines the people. And, I want to live in a place where I know my neighbors will alert me if they see my child acting a fool, or if they see strange people lugging my crap out the door — I am not talking about living on a street known for chisme, I am talking about people who work for a living helping out other people who work for a living do the difficult deed of raising young, impressionable people.

I am talking about a place where I see myself reflected, and where the shadows don’t need deciphering

My wife and I don’t have a lot of money, and we definitely have the smallest television on the block (a paltry 19 inches). But, what we do have is a public library branch that’s basically in our backyard, and we borrow heavily from this library: cookbooks, DVDs, comics, magazines. We even borrow children’s books for our one year-old son, and “Baby Einstein” DVDs that he can watch instead of the brash and ultra-violent programming my wife and I like to consume.

We believe in neighborhoods because the institutions in them deliver services which help us to relax, take stock, and replenish our minds (and fill them with books). However, even though we are both professionals, owning a home for us, and staking a claim in our neighborhood seems more like a dream or flight of fancy.

If you hadn’t heard, Latinos were the most affected by the Great Recession of 2009 ( and 2010, 2011, 2012?). According to the Pew Hispanic Center:

Median household wealth among Hispanics fell from $18,359 in 2005 to $6,325 in 2009. The percentage drop—66%—was the largest among all racial and ethnic groups, according to a new report by the Pew Research Center’s Social & Demographic Trends project.

Likewise, “median household wealth declined 53% among black households and 16% among white households.”

The largest reason for the decline in wealth among Latinos was plummeting home values; also, the states that were in the “vanguard” of the housing fubar also happen to be states with a majority Latino population.

They say hindsight is 20/20, but my parents were able to buy the lower floor of a duplex in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn a little more than 10 years after having first landed in New York City. And, because their legal residence status was determined after my birth, the sum they were able to scrimp was a figure they had earned on an undocumented person’s wage — typically half the federal minimum wage.

So, my fears of never being able to own a home are not necessarily unwarranted or overblown. Latinos, as a group, seem to be losing wealth at faster rates than African-Americans or whites. I understand that many of the more beautiful things in life are not material things, but why, as a Latino, should wealth be yanked away from me faster than any other race?

If you think I am crying wolf, then chew on this: “the median wealth of white households is 18 times that of Hispanic households and 20 times that of black households.” If that alone doesn’t scare you, then maybe the fact that these, “lopsided wealth ratios are the largest in the quarter century since the government first published such data.” Basically, it seems that our representatives still haven’t learned their lesson from the “yarn” of trickle-down Reaganomics and the ones who are going to suffer as a result are people like me and my family, and you and yours.

Yago Cura is a writer based in Los Angeles. He edits the online journal Hinchas de Poesia and moderates the blog Spicaresque. Follow him on Twitter @theshusher.

[Image By Iconspedia]

By Ralph De La Cruz, Florida Center for Investigative Reporting

Everybody’s hurting. But, as usual, the level of hurt isn’t quite equal.

Last week, the Pew Research Center released a study that looked at how white, black and Hispanic households have weathered the current financial storm.

All groups experienced significant drops from 2005 to 2009, the years looked at by Pew. But a particularly steep tumble by black and Hispanic households has pushed the wealth gap to thehighest level since the U.S Census began breaking down information by ethnicity.

The median net worth of white households was 19 times greater than that of black households and 15 times greater than Hispanic households. Asian families’ net worth actually had the steepest drop, from $168,103 (which led all groups in 2005) to $78,066 – still almost 13 times greater than Hispanics.

When the groups were first compared in 1984, white households’ net worth was 12 times that of blacks and eight times greater than Hispanic households.

That the gap has widened shouldn’t be too much of a surprise, given that blacks and Hispanics have historically struggled to keep up with the economic gains of whites. Because of that economic head start, whites have a higher level of participation in the stock market, which has performed much better in the four-year period than real estate and other investments. In the last six months of 2009, Businessweek points out, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index climbed 21 percent.

Time magazine notes that, “the demographic groups that have perhaps lost the most in the Great Recession are two that historically lag behind the rest of the country on key financial issues like income, savings and percentage of homeownership: African-American and Hispanic households.”

The last ones lifted are typically the first ones to fall.

And nowhere is that more evident than in the housing market.

“From 2005 to 2009, the median level of home equity held by Hispanic homeowners declined by half — from $99,983 to $49,145 — while the homeownership rate among Hispanics was also falling, from 51% to 47%,” read the Pew report. “A geographic analysis suggests the reason: A disproportionate share of Hispanics live in California, Florida, Nevada and Arizona, which were in the vanguard of the housing real estate market bubble of the 1990s and early 2000s but that have since been among the states experiencing the steepest declines in housing values.”

The effect of the nation’s real estate woes is exacerbated for Hispanics by the fact that, as Dan Fastenberg reminds us on AOL.com, blacks and Hispanics are concentrated in manufacturing and construction – two industries particularly hard hit in this recession.

So a widening of The Gap during a real estate meltdown really shouldn’t come as a surprise.

But even if the gap isn’t surprising, the median net worth of black and Hispanic families should be.

The average white household had a net worth of $113,149.  The typical Hispanic family’s net worth was $6,325, and it was just $5,677 for black households. That’s a total net worth of about $6,000 per family. And a third of black and Hispanic households had zero or negative net worth.

And remember that those figures are from 2009, when states such as Florida were just beginning to really feel the collapse.

Roderick Harrison, a former chief of racial statistics at the Census Bureau told the Associated Press: “I am afraid that this pushes us back to what the Kerner Commission (a 1960s presidential commission that examined U.S. race relations) characterized as ‘two societies, separate and unequal. The great difference is that the second society has now become both black and Hispanic.”

Ralph De La Cruz, is a reporter/blogger for Florida Center for Investigative Reporting, a nonprofit, digital and bilingual investigative journalism organization working to expose, corruption, waste and miscarriages of justice. To learn more about FCIR, go to fcir.org and to see the original blog click here.

Sonia Marie De León de Vega is a Latina conductor in California whose mission it is to bring classical music to the Latino community. She was recently honored by Latina Style magazine for her contributions as a Latina and professional, New Latina reported:

De Léon de Vega is celebrated in educational circles for creating “Discovering Music” in 1998, a two-year program that takes orchestra members into elementary schools in underserved Latino neighborhoods to introduce children to classical music and the instruments of the orchestra.  Santa Cecilia Orchestra is the only orchestra in the nation with a specific mission to take classical music to the Latino Community…

De Léon de Vega is a Latina in a male-dominated occupation with extraordinary inspirational musical talent who has not only become world renowned for her skills on the podium as the music director and conductor of the Los Angeles-based Santa Cecilia Orchestra, but she has created her own organization–the only orchestra in the nation with a specific mission to take classical music to the Latino community. To learn more about Sonia or about the SCO, please visitwww.scorchestra.org.  For media and appearance inquiries, contact Lucia Tovar-Matthews of DIÁLOGO Public Relations at lucia@dialogo.com

I think this is awesome. There have been times when I have been interested in classical music, but I didn’t think it was for me or that I’d understand it. A big “bien hecho” shoutout to De León de Vega for all her great works!

Our weekly segment, “Bien Hecho,” highlights the good deeds and achievements of Latinos across the U.S. If you feel that someone you know is deserving of recognition, let us know at tips@newstaco.com.

Follow Sara Inés Calderón on Twitter @SaraChicaD

[Photo By Santa Cecilia Orchestra]

The Wall Street Journal reported an interesting list recently, “Five Reasons to Embrace Migrants” and we wanted to re-share that list here, in a nutshell the gentleman who wrote the piece, Ian Goldin, derives from his forthcoming book, “Exceptional People: How Migration Shaped Our World and Will Define Our Future”.

1. Migrants are good for economies because they “promote innovation, connect markets, fill labor gaps, reduce poverty and enrich social diversity.”

2. But what about the downside? The benefits are generally greater than the costs in the macro, but not necessarily in the micro.

3. What are the economic benefits? Well, “even modest increases in the levels of migration would produce significant gains for the global economy. Developing countries would benefit the most.”

4. Migration does not lead to job losses. It may in some sectors, but overall, migration pushes and sustains economic growth.

5. We’re going to need migrants more than ever before.  The U.S. is getting older, and there’s not a big enough native workforce to sustain the current economy.

Read the rest of the list here, what do you think? Do you agree, or not?

Follow Sara Inés Calderón on Twitter @SaraChicaD

[Photo By noborder network]

There’s more to the border than drugs and violence, says Noel Poyo, executive director of the National Association for Latino Community Asset Builders. On the contrary, Poyo told News Taco, the border is a place where a lot of economic activity is born, a place that should be heralded for its economic potential, not just its drawbacks. This is precisely what Poyo hopes to highlight at a conference to be held in McAllen, Texas this weekend, Empleos, Empresas y el Desarrollo Económico.

“We are trying to change the conversation about the border, “ Poyo told News Taco. “You read in the newspapers that the border is a place to be scared of, we are looking to change [that] conversation. the border is an extraordinarily dynamic place.”

The conference will gather builders, community members and financiers from all over the country, Poyo told us, and the schedule includes a variety of thoughtful topics, for example: best practices for non-profits, state-targeted border initiatives, working with the feds on local projects and intregrated asset building.

For more information about NALCAB or the conference, check it out here.

Follow Sara Inés Calderón on Twitter @SaraChicaD

[Photo By Noddy]

Latinitas Magazine started off in 2002 as a way to help empower young Latinas with media and technology. By allowing young women to participate in school programs, teen internships, Saturday and summer camps, special events, and the an online e-zine especially by and for young Latinas, the non-profit hopes to help young Latinas succeed.

And, as a writer myself, I find it incredible that Latinitas Magazine allows young women to create an e-magazine featuring their own writing, photography, poetry and other content. This is a great if you ask this Latina.

The organization is currently fundraising, set to hold an event on June 9, Fotos de mi Alma, photography auction at the Emma Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center in Austin. Latinitas Magazine has been quite active since 2002, here’s a list they shared with News Taco:

• 30,000 readers per month accessing www.latinitasmagazine.org
• Served 20,000 elementary, middle and high school Latinas with after school enrichment programs.
• Provided over 19,000 hours of free digital media production and literacy lessons.
• Published over 1500 empowering articles for and by Hispanic girls and teens.
• Developed Spring & Summer camps.
• Incorporated mentors, interns and community partners to enrich the program and provide positive role models for the girls.
• Expanded the program to ten cities; new office opened in El Paso.
• Developed a Teen Reporter-in-Training program for high school students.

Please check out Latinitas Magazine and help if you can. And if you do not live in Texas you can still help out here. Our weekly segment, “Bien Hecho,” highlights the good deeds and achievements of Latinos across the U.S. If you feel that someone you know is deserving of recognition, let us know at tips@newstaco.com.

Follow Sara Inés Calderón on Twitter @SaraChicaD

[Video By LatinitasMagazine; Photo By Latinitas Magazine]

And now for a great story out of California, where a group of young Latinas and other high school students organized to protect their families from a harmful pesticide, convincing the Watsonville city council to adopt a formal resolution against methyl iodide as a pesticide.

The story by the Sierra Club talks about how young high school students were able to successfully change hearts and minds in their community against the billion-dollar strawberry business and to the favor of the health of those that pick them. Here’s a snippet:

After getting their schoolmates on their side, Carolina and Jojo, with the help of the Brown Berets and other community groups, went further. They made anti–methyl iodide presentations to the school board, the Watsonville City Council, and the mayor, all of whom adopted formal resolutions against the fumigant. They handed out bilingual flyers at the Friday mercado, got campesinos to sign their petition, and talked about the health risks to their moms, dads, brothers, sisters, tias, and tíos—anyone who would listen.

Carolina and Jojo were well on their way to embodying Laskin’s bold style of activism when they learned a hard lesson. On December 1, the day after the girls’ triumphant presentation to the Watsonville City Council, the DPR [California Department of Pesticide Regulation] announced its approval of methyl iodide.

It’s the same fight people have been fighting for so many decades, but it’s pretty heartwarming to see it taken on by young women who are taking charge of their communities. Read the rest of the story here, and let us know what you think.

Thanks to Melissa for the tip!

Follow Sara Inés Calderón on Twitter @SaraChicaD

[Photo By jronaldlee]

Carlos Flores went from being a doctoral student in Mexico to pushing an ice cream cart to selling shaved ice out of a truck to being the successful owner of two businesses in San Antonio, Texas that are the first stop for anyone trying to brave the heat here during the summer.

Flores speaks frankly and honestly about his business — that of ice cream, shaved ice specifically, also known as nieve de garrafa in Mexico. The lowdown is this: Flores left his doctoral program in topography in Mexico in 1988. Relatives in San Antonio worked making paletas, Mexican popsicles, and so he and his brother joined in.From 1992 to 1996 the brothers made popsicles, then they sold them out of a cart, then on a tricycle, then via an ice cream truck from 1996 to 2001. All along, Flores told News Taco, he saved his money to be able to open his own business. Eventually in 2001, he and his brother opened up their first business on Blanco Road, then in 2009 his second location on Hildebrand.

Flores said his secret ingredient is that his shaved ice is made from natural ingredients, but you get the impression his real secret is a crazy hard core work ethic. In addition to selling shaved ice, the brothers sell raspas, popsicles, fruit cups, strawberries and cream, corn in a cup and other Mexican snacks and delicacies. For 11 months of the year, closing only for a month after Christmas, the brothers work from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., except on Sundays, when they only work noon to 9 p.m. Oh, and they also take Thanksgiving and Easter off.

http://youtu.be/Drt6370MwDE

Originally from Zacatecas, Flores says no one is his family ever really liked working for others. He’s worked as a dishwasher, in restaurants, installed carpet, and always the goal to save as much as possible to open up his own business. Now that he’s done so — and you should see the long lines at this place during the summer — he wants a better life for his children.

Flores recalls that most of his friends from Mexico went on to finish their degrees to become engineers or lawyers, and he would have liked to, as well. But, now he hopes his children won’t have to work as hard, that they can study and perhaps earn a Master’s degree. Because in the U.S. people with education earn well, and only work 40 hours a week, he said. They have free time.

Check out the video to see more of Flores (who speaks in Spanish) and his yummy, yummy shaved ice. And make sure to watch until the end when I make a fool of myself before the deliciousness of the shaved ice! [Editor’s Note: I’m sorry the video is so rough, I’m a journalist learning to make movies, I'm working on it!]

Follow Sara Inés Calderón on Twitter @SaraChicaD

[Video And Screenshot By News Taco]

Remembering Latinos On Memorial Day

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis Talks Benefits Of Immigration

North Carolina Diner: “No Speak English. No Service.”

U.S. Secretary of Labor, Hilda L. Solis is accustomed to highlighting issues that, for others, are easily forgotten. At a town hall at East Los Angeles College Friday, Solis participated in a conversation that lasted 90 minutes and included the expertise of civic leaders like Dolores Huerta, noted labor activist Father Richard Estrada from Our Lady Queen of Angels Church, and Laphonza Butler, president Service Employees International Union.

Solis spoke with preternatural ease to an auditorium pulsing with ELAC students, card-carrying SEIU members (clad in purple T’s), a column of cameras pointing at overdressed telejournalists, and a cadre of local reporters snapping indiscriminate shots of the proceedings. Plus, the amount of pressing flesh, handshakes, and brown man pounds was enough to make any person blush.

According to the Department of Labor the event was, “a continuation of the national conversation that President Obama started in a speech in El Paso, Texas on May 10, 2011.” Solis spoke in a conversational manner about immigration reform, and allowed the “stories” that lose volume behind jingoistic doggerel to speak leagues. She spoke with great conviction, adagio, so that every phrase carried the strength of time. And even though the purple acoustic panels in the Recital Hall surely helped Solis’ timbre, her tone became resounding, and her credentials obvious: First Latina in the California State Senate, First Latina Secretary of Labor, etc.

In short, her speech advocated for the nation to realize the “economic benefit immigrants bring” and that “comprehensive misrepresentation is not in our best interest.” In terms of whether states or the federal government should decide the future of immigration, Solis was transparent. She said it was “not about 50 states entering legislature, but about a federal program,” hinting that it was up to the federal government to decide what should be done with illegal immigrants (asylum versus extraction). Solis used the power of stories about immigrants to drive the point home; she even cited her story of sacrifice and struggle being raised by immigrant parents, who experienced great bouts of anxiety over their work situation in the U.S.

She cited compelling statistics to reinforce her contentions that immigrants are a positive, vital, and law-abiding sector of our society. ”For example,” Solis said, “In the U.S., immigrants file three times as many patents as non-immigrants.”

Therefore, what needs to change is the perception of immigrants; what needs to stop is the rampant scapegoating they are constantly subject to, and the vitriol our more conservative citizens like to concoct every time dismal unemployment figures go public. Solis’ introduction was given by Dolores Huerta, the co-founder of the United Farm Workers of America. Huerta’s introduction emphasized Solis’ commitment to all the people of California, reminding us that Solis went after exploiters in her district, but did not let that stop her from going after agricultural employers in, say, Pescadero, California.

Yago Cura is a writer based in Los Angeles. He edits the online journal Hinchas de Poesia and moderates the blog Spicaresque.

[Photo By DOL]

[Editor's Note: The following post is excerpted from remarks made by William C. Dudley, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York on April 1, 2011.]

Remarks at E-3 Summit of the Americas: Export Trade Basics Forum 101, San Juan,Puerto Rico (Excerpt details the economic conditions in Puerto Rico.)

Now let me turn to economic conditions in Puerto Rico. In contrast to the situation during my last visit, I am pleased to see signs that the Commonwealth may finally be emerging from this painful recession. Nevertheless, conditions remain difficult for many families.

The recession here has been deeper than the downturn on the mainland. By mid-2010, total employment in Puerto Rico had fallen by 13 percent or 138,000 jobs from its peak in 2005. This is almost double the 7 percent job loss on the mainland from the employment peak to its trough. Furthermore, the recession in Puerto Rico has lasted about five years—three times as long as the mainland downturn. The recovery has also lagged that of the mainland. While the mainland’s economy began to recover in mid-2009, Puerto Rico’s economy continued to decline for another year.

But, since mid-2010 there have been promising signs: Recently released revisions suggest that job growth on the island, while still very weak, improved modestly since last summer. And most of the weakness since then has not been broad-based, but instead concentrated in construction and manufacturing. The unemployment rate has come down by a full percentage point since its peak. However, at just over 16 percent, it remains unacceptably high.

Inflation generally remains subdued on the Commonwealth—although there has been some recent volatility. After a period of falling prices in 2009, inflation picked up in December 2009 with annualized rates of around 4 percent for a few months—with medical care a key driver for these increases. Since June 2010, reported inflation rates have reverted to a range between 1 percent and 2 percent. However, the rise in food and energy prices is likely to push inflation somewhat higher over the next few months.

To help keep track of conditions in Puerto Rico, we can now look at the Institute of Statistics’ new Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PR-PMI), which is conducted in conjunction with the Puerto Rico Manufacturers Association and Scotiabank. The survey shows that business conditions on the island were steady in January, following improvement at the end of 2010. The PR-PMI has signaled growth for seven of the past nine months. It will take some time before this new index has a clear track record, but we welcome this source of timely information on economic activity in Puerto Rico.

Now, what about credit conditions in Puerto Rico: how much debt do families have and how have they been doing in terms of meeting their obligations? I needn’t tell you how important it has been to monitor these trends over the course of the Great Recession. Using a new source of information—the New York Fed’s Consumer Credit Panel—we can now track how families in the mainland and Puerto Rico have managed their credit in recent years.

Overall, compared with the mainland, Puerto Ricans avoided much of the recent boom and bust in the use of household credit. Yet, signs of distress are readily apparent, owing to the long and deep recession here. Unlike the mainland, households on the island did not raise their borrowing much in the run-up to the recession. Thus, it is not surprising that Puerto Rico did not see the sharp spike in loan delinquencies that many areas saw from late 2007 to early 2009. Instead, Puerto Rico’s delinquencies on household debt—that is, the proportion of debt where payments are 90 or more days late—have risen gradually as the recession has persisted. In 2005, households were behind on about 5 percent of the total debt. As of 2010, they were delinquent on about 9 percent of the debt, about the same as the national average—reflecting the stress imposed on many families by the deep and long recession.

The Outlook and ExportsLooking ahead to the rest of 2011, I see grounds for cautious optimism. In particular, exports, which have been so important to the economic recovery on the mainland, have the potential to contribute to growth here in Puerto Rico as well.

Currently, Puerto Rico runs a sizable, trade surplus, selling more products to the world than it buys. In 2009, the latest year for which full-year data are reported, the value of exports was roughly $60 billion compared with roughly $40 billion of imports. Based on data through November, exports grew briskly, by about 10 percent, in 2010.
What does Puerto Rico export? Pharmaceuticals are by far the island’s largest export. In addition, Puerto Rico is a successful exporter of medical equipment, computer and electronic products, and electrical equipment.

The mainland is Puerto Rico’s primary trading partner, accounting for half of the island’s imports and three-quarters of its exports. There are many reasons for this. While Puerto Rico interacts with many other economies, for generations the mainland United States and Puerto Rico have had a special multifaceted economic relationship. One of the most obvious of these ties is the free flow of goods between the mainland and the island. Another link is our common use of the dollar. This means that tourists from the mainland can visit without worrying about changing currencies. In addition, businesses can make long-term investments in Puerto Rico without worrying that currency fluctuations against the dollar will undermine their competitiveness.

The island runs a surplus with the mainland that accounts for much of the island’s overall surplus. So the signs of a further pickup in economic growth on the mainland bode well for the island.

Puerto Rico’s export markets also extend overseas. Aside from the U.S. mainland, the top export markets for the Island are Germany, Netherlands, Belgium and Spain. Exports to these four countries combined exceeded $11 billion in 2009 and have grown by more than 30 percent since 2007.

The success that Puerto Rico has in selling its goods and services to industrialized countries bodes well for the island’s future. As more emerging economies narrow the gap between themselves and the more developed countries, the market for Puerto Rico’s goods could well expand accordingly. Going forward, I would not be surprised to see Puerto Rico’s exports rise further as your companies take advantage of the opportunities presented by the rapidly emerging economies.

At your upcoming forum and summit, you’ll learn more about how to develop export markets for your products. I applaud your efforts to do so, as an important component of sustaining the vigor of the economic recovery in Puerto Rico.
The Long View and the New York Fed’s Role Although the signs I’ve mentioned suggest that the recession is over, the road to sustained economic growth is likely to be challenging in the near term.

In its favor, Puerto Rico has some important intrinsic advantages. These include natural beauty, a hospitable climate and unique status as a major U.S. economic and population center in the Caribbean. Perhaps just as important, the island has a relatively well-educated workforce. Research shows quite convincingly that abundant human capital is an important ingredient for a thriving economy.

We at the New York Fed aim to do our part to help sustain growth in the Commonwealth. For example, we co-sponsor a financial awareness video competition for college students here and the Community Reinvestment Act Week activities with the Puerto Rico Bankers Association. And, as a member of the Alliance for Economic and Financial Education we promote economic and financial education via teacher training, a high school economic competition, and a speaker series. The New York Fed also has several ongoing programs of technical assistance in Puerto Rico. We partnered with other organizations throughout the year to help provide technical training for community development professionals. We cover the costs of two to three professors who are engaged in macroeconomic and monetary policy research to attend our annual symposium on current economic conditions held at the New York Fed.

We also recognize that a healthy banking system and accurate economic statistics are both important components of a favorable business climate. To improve our understanding of the Puerto Rican economy, the New York Fed joined a group of local businesses to sponsor and fund a household survey, undertaken by the Center for the New Economy to benchmark Puerto Rican consumer finances. To help businesses and government in Puerto Rico, we have also been providing technical assistance to Puerto Rico’s new Institute for Statistics in launching the new monthly manufacturing survey I mentioned earlier. We applaud this and other efforts to improve the measurement of economic conditions in Puerto Rico.

As a financial regulator, the New York Fed works to help the financial system run smoothly so that it can support economic growth. We are working hard to prevent the type of financial crisis that we recently experienced from recurring in the future, in a way that does not inhibit businesses from growing and prospering.

We are working closely with all of the banking supervisors and other key parties to facilitate an effective resolution to the problems facing the island’s banking sector. Last year, some of Puerto Rico’s banks were consolidated and many improved their balance sheets by selling underperforming assets. Both of these steps are likely to produce stronger, healthier institutions more able to make the sound lending decisions that support economic growth.

All of these activities, ranging from effective monetary policy and prudent financial regulation to fostering economic literacy and measurement, complement and reinforce each other to help support a strong economy in Puerto Rico.

To sum up, the mainland economy experienced a pick-up in activity during the second half of 2010 that shows signs of continuing in 2011. The recovery in Puerto Rico has taken longer to get off the ground, but now shows signs of firming. On the mainland and in Puerto Rico, unemployment remains stubbornly high, but many indicators suggest that conditions are in place for stronger employment growth in the coming months.

With government and business leaders like yourselves working together to build a better future for Puerto Rico, I am hopeful that we will soon be able to look back at 2010 and see not only the end of the island’s long recession but also the beginning of an era of growth and prosperity for Puerto Rico.

The Center for American Progress has put together both an interactive map with Census data and an infographic called “The New Demographics,” see it below. The map, “America’s Changing Demographics,” shows ethnic demographic data for counties across the U.S.

[Image Courtesy CAP]

The government is on the verge of a shutdown as Republicans and Democrats have been unable to come to an agreement over the budget.

A beheaded bald eagle was found in a ditch in Louisiana; authorities are investigating.

The fight over union rights continued in Wisconsin yesterday when supreme court candidates faced off, resulting in an election too close to call.

The population of white children is declining; by the end of the decade they will be the minority.

The teenager birth rate in the U.S. dropped; even though Latina and African-American women are 2-3 times more likely to give birth as teenagers than whites.

[Photo By John Schanlaub]

A recent report by the Department of Labor released last week found that Hispanics earn less than whites or African Americans.

Last week, La Plaza reported on some of the key findings of the study, which is the first of its kind to examine Latino workers at the national level.

In 2010, Latino workers earned less per week than their white and black counterparts.  Latinos made about $535 a week, compared to $765 for whites and $611 for blacks.

Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis said that in order to close the gap, educational attainment must be boosted among Latinos and called it one of the “principal challenges” facing the Latino community.

The study also examined disparities in pay by gender and found that within the Hispanic community the gap in earnings is less between men and women.  White women earned about 24.8 percent less than white men, but the disparity between Hispanic women and men was twice as less, with women earning 10.2 percent less than the men.

La Plaza also reported that the report found that Hispanics need more help finding jobs than other groups, even as the economy continues to recover.

References:

Fox News Latino

[Photo By AMagill]