Im curious about the apparent predominant female purchasing power in these segments... or am I imagining it? Mind you, it sounds logical...

Excellent article. I find it parallels some of the conclusions of "City of Dreams", a new book about New York City immigration since colonial times. What I would like to know is what economic activities were developed by the new Latino immigrants to Lawrence, that are allowing it to get back on its economic feet.

Bilingual programs can be wonderful, but in my experience with NYC schools, bilingual programs were shortchanged in budgets and resources, and children were not given full opportunities to master their subjects. As a result, my children were forcefully "opted out" of the school bilingual programs and given home spanish language education so they could be excellent in both languages. Sadly, due to the low priority language education has in the NYC public schools, many NYC administrators see bilingual programs as a place to hold immigrant children and not a place to enrich their education.

Immigrants, of which I am one, typically only want to work hard to be successful in this wonderful country, and as a group do not want to risk their future here.. It is unfair for political interests some media sources to persecute good people because of the failings of a very old lie that has been repeated throughout history: that new residents in a town are responsible for crime.

Congratulations to the new DNC, with a latino leader and diverse Co-Chairs who can look torwards building the future instead of reinvindications or defending the past. Democrats lately have devoted too much effort to fundraising and too little efforts to grassroots organizing, and the Republicans took advantage of the vacuum in small rural towns whose people were looking for leadership. I'm in this for the long haul, and my focus is on "Freedom, Justic, and the pursuit of happiness" for everyone in this country, not just the rich. ;-) Arriba, mi gente! Manny Perez (no relation to the DNC Chair)

Congratulations to ASU for such a wonderful initiative that will serve to teach many more young people to write and do ethical journalism. the community experience is critical for letting young adults discover and strengthen their roots and basic values, and the inclusion of the spanish speaking, bilingual, community of Arizona will plant seends that can sprout in other states and countries. thank you!

Many latino students don't dare apply to highly selective universities, believing the advice of counselors and "experts" who say that public colleges are cheaper. Highly selective colleges are certainly more expensive on paper, but they offer non-loan financial aid and support that public institutions cannot and do not dare to match. The selective colleges, as princeton University officials once told me, do not want their students to fail, and will do all in their power to meet students half way. My experience and that of my family is that this is true. In my experience as a parent and a teacher, high achieving latino and minority students are of great interest by selective high schools, colleges and universities. These students (and their parents) are offered all sorts of support, when they make the effort to coordinate with the institution. Of course, the students and the parents have to work hard at getting through the years of study and additional expenses, but my personal experience with Ivy League colleges and my children, is that the opportunity and support is available. As a family living on one teacher's salary, you might be surprised to know that we have one astrophysicist from Wellesley College, now registered in Arizona State University for her PhD. a Harvard graduate working in NYC. A son who went to Washinton State University at St. Louis for his MBA after graduating overseas, and a daughter who also studied oerseas and then went to a public college in St. Louis, MO. The public college student had the toughest time with financial aid, even though she lived at home and not in a college dorm. My conclusion and advice to latino students and parents: dare to dream and then just do what you have to do! As the song says: "Paso a Paso, se hace camino al andar!" Manny

My experience is that parenting is the most important element in helping children - of any background - be successful. The statistics and facts are real, I went through them too, but my neighbors were italian, irish and hispanics who had similar problems. It is very easy to fall into the blame game, but what can our communities do to help parents keep the kids from getting in trouble and falling out of the educational system? That is a key element. Manny

A very true concept and one which is hard to correct. I would love to learn more about the project and how they plan to change these cultural paradigms.

The problem is that now all white candidates speak some spanish... and many would think that Ted Cruz's “Marco, si quiere, díselo ahora, ahora mismo en español, si quieres.” is good Spanish, though it has a very basic mistake in the "díselo" word, which should be "dímelo", since Ted ws pealing to Marco directly, and not asking for Marco to speak to another rhird party. On the other hand, why any immigrant or son of immigrants would want to support candidates that would punish us directly or through their party afficiates, that is another discussion. But, when we look at elections in Central and South America, we see that two-faced candidates get elected all the time... Get ready for the next election, where speaking some English, Mandarin, Urdu, Bengali and Spanish will be required. Making sense, of course, will be optional. :-) Manny

Dear Mr. Clark, I'm sorry to note you did not identify or define UNC until well into your article, and so make it difficult for the reader to engage with you. I personally thought it was related to Northern California, since the acronym made no sense to me. The topic is important and I suggest you rewrite the article with a clear introduction and even suggest that other college and University systems may be undergoing the same process, with all the implications this might have for public state education in the US.

My congratulations to Matt de la Pena and the Los Angeles community that inspired him, for this impressive achievement. I am surprised to hear that he is the first hispanic Newbury Award winner, considering the high quality of our writers, but - then again - it is an American Library Association award. Felicitaciones, Matt! Y que escribas muchos mas! Manny Perez

Ben, welcome to the club of envied Hispanics who are "Not poor enough" "Not misearble enough", "not into drinking and being irresponsible enough" and so on. Our critics would not have done all we did to succeed. I assure you. We have earned the few benefits we received. We took the criticism and pressure from above and below. And we did the best we could in any situation. A friend of mine who is a judge was told in law school that she could only be a secretary, being hispanic, female, short and brown. Now whe, I, and other successful immigrants in New York City laugh at our critics, and try to be a role model for young people who are willing to do what it takes to excel. The critics don't deserve our time or concern: the people working for a better future do. And to close, let me say that this nation migh not be perfect, but it has given many of us teh opportunity to go beyond the limits of poverty and mediocrity. Some might envy our receiving affirmative action, but you and I know that the award comes with a heavy price to our families. A scholarship does not mean a "free ride": it means studying hard, working during our free time, so that we don't lose the opportunity that has been given us. Felicitaciones, hermano! Now lest help others along the way!

This is a fascinating subject, one that has been present in my mind since a number of immigrant Bronx High School of Science student leaders, including me, received letters telling us we were to receive special training because we were "Culturally Deprived". We laughed it off, since we were regularly discriminated against in New York City, but it did leave its mark. Acculturation’s greatest failing, which you do not mention in your article, is that it presumes the new (American) culture is superior to the family culture the individual has. This presumption of superiority hurts individuality, and generates the belief that human equality means we are all copies of each other in our behavior and preferences. In fact, just as North America is a paradise for reedom and democracy, immigrants bring owrk values and disciplines that the USA no longer treasures. Why? Because every culture evolves, abandoning old values and absorbing new ones. Immigrants who try to assimilate by learning the new ways are always behind the native born in this process of change, and it can be very confusing for them. What you refer to as CrossCulturization, on the other hand, seems to be the mixing of cultural traditions and values in the media, and as I see it it does not promote individuality and self expression, tending to focus on popularity and consumption patterns instead. In the twentieth century, great marketing campaigns actually made their brands into values that were then promoted and became standards for Western civilization. These include Pepsi, Coke, McDonalds, IBM, Marlboro, to name a few, who over decades created an ideal that each culture incorporated and made its own. And Jazz and Rock and Roll did much of the same. They sold products but they also instilled concepts of community, identity, freedom of choice and work ethic that are now globally shared Some new immigrants want to leave their old culture behind, throwing out the good with the bad, and they lose one or two generations to the process. But a few families and individuals do not do so: they pick and choose from both or all cultures they are faced with, and create their own personal and family cultural framework. One example, is that of the first Cuban migrants of the 1960's, who came to this country and branded hispanic leadership in Florida and New York in a way that still exists. This process is the result of individual leaders participating in multiple communities and demonstrating/creating the new culture they will live in. They do not play catch up at all, preferring to lead so that others can follow. Manny Perez, MPA, CAMS

Accultularion's greatest failing, which you do not mention in your article, is that it presumes the new (American) culture is superior to the family culture the individual has. This presumption of superiority hurts individuality, and generates the belief that human equality means we are all copies of each other in our behavior and preferences. In fact, just as North America is a paradise for reedom and democracy, immigrants bring owrk values and disciplines that the USA no longer treasures. why? Because every culture constantly evolves, abandoning some old values and absorbing new ones. Immigrants who try to assimilate are always behind the native born in this process of change, and it can be very confusing for them. What you refer to as CrossCulturization, on the other hand, tends to focus on popularity and marketing, and does not promote individuality and differentiation. In the twentieth century, great marketing campaigns actually made their brands into values that were then promoted and became standards for Western civilization. These include Pepsi, Coke, McDonalds, IBM, Marlboro, to name a few, who over decades created an ideal that each culture incorporated and made its own. And Jazz and Rock and Roll did much of the same. Some new immigrants want to leave their old culture behind, throwing out the good with the bad, but a few families and individuals do not do so: they pick and choose from both or all cultures they are faced with, and create their own personal and family cultural framework. One example, is that of the first Cuban migrants of the 1960's, who came to this country and branded hispanic leadership in Florida and New York in a way that still exists. This process is the result of individual leaders participating in multiple communities and demonstrating/creating the new culture they will live in. They do not play catch up at all, prefering to lead so that others can follow.

Excellent article and video that point out that these words are often misused and that any attempt to define them more clearly creates controversy because it can affect how people identify themselves. Me? "Yo soy quien soy y no me parezco a nadie" "I am who I am, and I'm unlike everyone else" Yep, a Latino, Hispanic, Venezuelan, New Yorker, unofficially adopted Ecuadorian, Colombian by marraiage, Peruvian through godparent, Caribbean, fun loving unique individual! :-)

Excellent article, and accurately reflects the way the new hispanic community is integrating with their Missouri neighborhoods. This extends to colleges, hospitals and even chain stores, as my two eldest can attest after moving there a decade ago.

Nice article, and you write well. I feel you missed out on developing the "Cultural cue" topic. At most it is understated, and I feel cheated out of a good analysis. What music was played? Is the error the use of the "tejano" label for a small slice of hispanic music in Texas? Do Tejano Day aficionados prefer Bachata? Are other rodeo practices changing? I feel that this could have been a much more enriching article, besides taking so many words to say that Texas hispanics didn't care about the musical dispute. Note: I apologize for any and all typos... I am writing this on the run. (de carrera)

As I wll know, regional jokes from my hometown often do not translate well to US english speaking communities. Much worse, an intellectual joke bsed on the Colombian compliment of saying someone is "mona" or "mono". We bilinguals need to learn that some words have extremely negative connotations in some countries, and it is easy to make an innocent - but disastrous - mistake. Worse yet, if an american reporter had done the same to a hispanic first lady... well lets just say that I would not want to be that reporter. ;-) For the record, I have put my foot in my mouth (metido la pata - which has a totally different meaing in English), and can only say that I still prefer being bilingual or multilingual. I hope this helps.

Single issue focus is a big problem in modern media because "the topic of the day" underserves our community and generates mistrust. Sadly, "immigration" is a hot topic issue for right wing politicians as well as a few populist activists, so the programs can always get a really excited or angry soundbite to capture attention. The community, though, is interested in many other topics, specially those that are more complex because they deal with issues that mainstream USA considers non-critical. In my community in NYC, with very high diversity, we recognize that there are many points of view, and that simply satisfying one group will usually be unfair to another. Thus, all groups learn to work together. Not perfect, but better than the mainstream media "one issue" focus. Manny Perez

I applaud the initiative of working locally and within the hispanic community, though I have serious doubts as to the affiliation with the national party that opposes and punishes immigrants and the working class. Hispanic leaders have to be very careful not to be "co-opted" by those who do not share our interests. "Guerra avisada no mata soldado, y si lo mata es por descuidado."

In my opinion, the SOY domain name is not latino friendly, simply because SOY is usually at the beginning or middle of a sentence, not at the end. Google might simply have promoted it to get people talking about the new domain, albeit in a negative sense. The truth is that there are now so many domains out there that it is confusing and a mess... and a hacker's dream, since anything could be a domain group. Good domain groups for latinos that are 3 letters long are tough to find, what with our male/female endings... Personally, I'd go for a hispanic identity promotional campaign with "lo maximo", excelente, gente, audaz, etc."

we have two problems: one is the cost of promotion, both in terms of time and "tickets and ads" (as an example, the Queens Courier event for Latino Leaders charges 180$ for the gala dinner, and journal ads are also expensive), not to mention the fact that advertising is expensive, too. As for time, the hispamic media includes many small independent entrepreneurs that cover niche markets, and each must be attended in order to make it to the larger news media and national programming. This also requires a good wardrobe. ;-) the second large reason is that we hispanic have the saying "Alabate pollo, que mañana eres sopa" - basically telling a young rooster to keep crowing, since he will soon be soup. We are taught at a young age that boisterous self promoting individuals are usually not to be trusted. I will also point out that the NBA star promotion strategy is a commercial strategy designed to make more money for the NBA and its teams. The stars also make money, but that is a collateral benefit. Finally, as for Baseball, team owners have the choice to promote or not. In my country of origin, at least, top players are given star status and promoted heavily in local media.

This issue is complex, and has much to do with hispanic "quitate tu para ponerme yo" style of politics, in which strategic coalitions and empowerment of individuals is rarely used for constructive purposes. We latinos are slowly learning the value of joining forces with latinos from other countries, even with US born hispanics, to create better conditions for all of us. Sadly, we still have a ways to go to establish other stratigic coalitions with other minorities, but there is movement in that direction too, as hispanics and other minorities realize that we are all "the people" that the USA is supposed to be run by. In NYC Latinos are learning, though we are still often easily manipulated with emotional arguments that have nothing to do with the facts.

Parties in power often use and promote this strategy to stay in power: they get the voters angry and discouraged so people don't vote. And their electoral systems don't allow voters much choice, either. In the USA it is foolish not to vote. First of all, it makes politicians feel you are unimportant; Second, you give all your power as an voter to a small minority of politically active individuals (I am one of these); Third, you cannot even try to pull an upset through that marvelous american concept of the "write in" vote, where you can literally write in the name of a candidate or person who is not on the ballot. Tipically used as a protest vote, Mickey Mouse and other names appear regularly and are registered in the electoral results. This tool has been used in the past to get people elected even though they were total independents, and sends a powerful message to established politicians. When you are discouraged you need to make your voice heard! In spanish they say "El que calla, otorga", and in electoral politics this is specially true. Manny Perez