Recent Stories
CEPEDA: Rubio and Cruz -- GOP superstars
CHICAGO -- It's fascinating that two Hispanic men -- both of whom are further to the right of where most Latinos stand on immigration -- are at the epicenter of the current reform debate.. Both Cuban-Americans, Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Ted Cruz, R-Texas, represent the young
CEPEDA: When leaders are seen as scolds
Judging from reactions to remarks by the president and first lady during separate commencement speeches recently, I have to imagine that it'll be a bit of a bummer for Hispanics if a Latino is ever elected president.. I don't particularly care for Barack Obama's politics, but I hate seeing him
CEPEDA: Our hang-ups with official languages
I’m into “Missing una investigacion,” the latest book by Chilean novelist Alberto Fuguet. I’m reading it in Spanish since I have to consciously practice my native language or it vanishes. My family speaks English, lest we leave spouses and children out.
CEPEDA: Missing school -- for vacation
CHICAGO -- It's that time. If you're a teacher in a school with a large concentration of Hispanic students, you're doing end-of-year reviews and preparing for final exams -- and you have kids trickling up to you to let you know they won't be around for them.. This
CEPEDA: A very lethal plaything -- real guns that look like toys
CHICAGO -- I can easily imagine either of my boys, now 11 and 14, innocently picking up a pint-size, colorful rifle and squeezing the trigger under the assumption that such an item couldn't possibly be anything other than a toy.
CEPEDA: Accommodation Nation
CHICAGO -- Our society is on the path to random chaos because our willingness to make exceptions for people has morphed into never-ending feelings of grievance and expectations of entitlement.. Let me illustrate:. While earning my master's in special education, I became aware that the 1975 Education for All
CEPEDA: Shrugging off words that hurt
What do you do when you get trapped in a stereotype that doesn't apply -- or just plain hurts?. This is not a trivial question. As Hispanics start populating academia, newsrooms, boardrooms and courtrooms across the country, they face the tricky terrain of interacting with people who have different backgrounds
CEPEDA: Hollywood still doesn't get it
Unbelievably, the entertainment industry's dearth of ethnic diversity and surplus of stereotypical Latino portrayals have devolved into something unsettling. We've gone from seeing poor representation in films and TV shows to wanting that diverse characters be played by people of the same ethnicity.. My recent compulsion to do a name
CEPEDA: Stealing an identity and a childhood
CHICAGO -- A few years back, I profiled an identity theft victim who didn't learn that someone had been using his very common Hispanic name to obtain jobs and credit until the IRS came after him for thousands of dollars in unpaid taxes.
CEPEDA: Staying together to get ahead
Thank you, US2010 Project, for stating the so-often misunderstood obvious: "Hispanic" is not synonymous with "Mexican.". The project, based at Brown University and dedicated to researching changes in American society, has released a report titled "Hispanics in the United States: Not Only Mexicans." For non-Mexican Hispanics
