Drag is political! The reality drag queen competition “RuPaul’s Drag Race” has always centered around stories of discrimination, while celebrating an art form at the heart of the LGBTQ+ civil rights movement in this country.  And Season 12 is ready for an election year by calling the winner…

Fat Joe recently said, “all Latinos are Black.” He was trying to highlight the fact that Latinos have a mixed culture that often traces us to Africa, but he confused the Latino ethnicity with race.  He’s not alone in this mix-up. We often forget that not all Latinos…

On Jan. 26, basketball great Kobe Bryant died in a helicopter crash along with his 13-year-old daughter Gianna, and seven other passengers. Bryant played all 20 seasons of his career with the L.A. Lakers. There, he became popular with the Latino community. Fans recalled his influence on American…

You may have noticed something missing as you enjoy your favorite NBA game: Latinos on the court. Latinos made up just 2.4% of players in the 2019 season. You should get to know some of them…   Al Horford was born and grew up in the Dominican Republic. He…

Presidential candidates are paying attention to the Latino vote more than ever because we have 32 million eligible voters. This is especially true in “swing states” (AKA “purple states”) teetering between being Republican or Democrat. Here are the states Latinos can turn blue…  In Florida, 20% of eligible…

There aren’t many bands that sound like the Los Angeles-based ensemble Las Cafeteras. The seven-piece group plays Son Jarocho, a traditional music genre from Veracruz, Mexico that stems from Indigenous and African musical traditions.  Part of what makes Las Cafeteras special is that their sound shatters the stereotype…

When Afro-Mexican Marilyn Leiva was younger, she “hated my skin tone because everyone was a different color than I was.” And worse, she “hated having to prove that I spoke Spanish.” This is a struggle many Afro-Latinos in the United States experience, feeling like they have to prove…

Iowa, a state with a 90% White population, is the first to decide who should represent them in the presidential primary race. Then it’s followed by New Hampshire, a state that’s 93% White. Since these states often end up determining the initial frontrunners in the race, the results…

Before it was a haven for private university students, Manhattan’s Lower East Side (LES) was a working-class neighborhood for immigrants from across the world. In the mid-1900s, the Latinos who lived there called it “Loisaida”.  Puerto Ricans and other working-class people made Loisaida ground zero for activism in…

Pro football player Aaron Hernandez was with the New England Patriots, when the unthinkable happened. In 2015, Aaron was convicted of killing his friend Odin Lloyd. 2 years later, while serving a life sentence, he committed suicide. Investigations and documentaries share theories about Aaron’s actions. But one reason…