Education

Faces of America, a new look at race and immigration in America!

Last week I tuned into the debut of Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr.’s new PBS series, Faces of America that traces the roots of a dozen Americans in an effort to answer the questions: What made America? What makes us? I have always been a fan of his work, but frankly I was blown away by the way the show! Not only because it highlights the importance of immigration in America without falling into typical clichés but also because it brings to the forefront of our consciousness the real conversation that we all need to have about race in this country.

By Chiqui Cartagena. To view El Blog CLICK above.

Lopez Negrete Communications, Inc. is encouraging students to apply for the company’s scholarship fund. The deadline for all students who wish to apply for the Lopez Negrete Hispanic Marketing Education Fund scholarship is March 1, 2010.

Zimmerman Advertising is headed back to school – this time as the creator of a newly approved business advertising degree program at the University of South Florida.

State of the Dream 2010 report explores the current racial economic divide in the U.S. in terms of unemployment, income, poverty, net worth, and rate of foreclosures. Download report here.

This report by the Southern Education Foundation (SEF) finds that the South’s public schools have a majority of students of color for the first time in history. In the school year ending 2009, African American, Latino, Asian-Pacific Islander, American Indian, and multi-racial children constituted slightly more than half of all students attending public schools in the 15 states of the South. Download report here.

As part of the semi-idyllic period that is the sabbatical between Christmas and New Year’s I read a clever book by Mexican writer Jorge Volpi entitled “El Insomnio de Bolívar,” which loosely translates to “Bolívar’s Insomnia.” In this tome Volpi explores whether the concept of Latin America exists or is an exotic construct crafted by foreigners. The author doesn’t seem so convinced about Latin America, at least as most of the world sees it in the form of a quaint form magical realism, balmy banana republics or a whole other slew of extreme stereotypes.

Published by Roberto Ramos – the vox collective. To view El Blog CLICK above.

The School of Journalism and Mass Communication (SJMC) at Florida International University (FIU) announced it has created a program of Hispanic Communication Studies to address communications trends and issues relevant to the U.S. Hispanic community. The school plans to continue upgrading the program in the future in order to position itself as the premier thought-leadership institute on issues relevant to the U.S. Hispanic community.