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
CEPEDA: A gesture that translates
CHICAGO -- Something bordering on the miraculous happened at my community high school the other night: The parents who speak only Spanish were included and respected in a meeting in a way that did not turn the whole thing into a big
CEPEDA: Jeb Bush's contradictions
CHICAGO -- After reading former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush's book, "Immigration Wars: Forging an American Solution," it's very hard to imagine how any moderate, willing-to-compromise person could find much fault with this ode to the many benefits of earnest, hardworking, U.S.-loving immigrants.. Naysayers have already declared
CEPEDA: Voices for the voiceless
CHICAGO -- As we begin to see what comprehensive immigration reform could look like, I tend to grit my teeth in frustration with the all-or-nothing crowd.
CEPEDA: In reading, the experience counts
In reading, diversity trumps 'seeing yourself'. CHICAGO -- It's "Too Many Tamales" season in selected classrooms across the country. The book, a contemporary classic written by Gary Soto and illustrated by Ed Martinez, tells the story of Maria, a young girl who loses her mother's diamond ring as she and
CEPEDA: Stereotype busters
CHICAGO -- Last year, I took some heat for writing about my favorite books that were "Diverse-But-Not-About-Diversity.". I described these works as "really engrossing books I read in 2011 where race, ethnicity or legal status were present -- but only as interesting side details."
CEPEDA: Georgia documentary opens some eyes on immigration
CHICAGO -- The main thing I took away from previewing the upcoming PBS special "America by the Numbers with Maria Hinojosa: Clarkston Georgia" is that though the phrase "strength in diversity" has achieved platitude status, it is particularly true when it comes to assimilating new Americans into historically homogeneous communities
CEPEDA: Making lunch something to chew on
CHICAGO -- Last week, as I basked in my son's glowing account of his first full day of school, I thought about Talia Bradley and Antonia Ritter.
CEPEDA: Hispanic voters are in the mainstream on most issues
For me, the most difficult thing about a full week of news reporting and punditry regarding President Obama’s historic embrace of same-sex marriage has been getting buffeted by worn-out stereotypes about how Hispanics will act on the revelation at the ballot box in November.
CEPEDA: In classrooms, quality counts
CHICAGO -- Every few months, a handful of education reform advocates push the idea that the public education system's woes could be fixed if only there were more black or Hispanic teachers in classrooms.
ESTHER CEPEDA: Not a fan of the new 'lady' Legos.
CHICAGO — My sons are aghast at what we call the new "Lady Legos." So am I.
ESTHER CEPEDA: Fixing my smile
CHICAGOThis column is for all the crooked-toothed adults out there: Tell me if you can relate to this story.When I was a child, I dreamed of getting braces.. As my more-affluent schoolmates started getting them, my own request was denied because the cost put them out of my
ESTHER CEPEDA: Florida's Latino vote is up for grabs
All eyes are on Florida because it's the first primary where Latino voters can have a significant impact on the presidential contest. Expect it to offer meaningful predictions for future elections because the Latino vote in Florida is evolving quickly.Conventional wisdom says that Florida's Hispanic Republican vote is composed of
CEPEDA: Bloated hype aside, it's still a crisis
Friends, don't believe the hype.
CEPEDA: The ostrich factor and childhood obesity
Ostrich factor doesn't serve vs. childhood obesity issue. CHICAGOIt would be nice to say that it's shocking that a mere five days after the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute recommended that children between the ages of 9 and 11 get tested for high cholesterol, Congress blocked what would have
CEPEDA: The fluency challenge
CHICAGO — I grew up bilingual in a city where as many as 64 languages were spoken by the public schools' diverse student body. And like everyone else in our nation of immigrants, I've navigated language-barrier challenges such as difficulty communicating with new American co-workers and taking college courses taught
CEPEDA: Obesity's a health, not an image, problem
Half the United States will be obese by 2030 unless government interventions -- making healthy foods cheaper, junk food more expensive, and regulating the marketing of unhealthy foods -- are put in place, according to a report in the Lancet, a British medical journal.At the
Cepeda: Obesity's A Health, Not An Image, Problem
CHICAGO — Half the United States will be obese by 2030 unless government interventions -- making healthy foods cheaper, junk food more expensive, and regulating the marketing of unhealthy foods -- are put in place, according to a report in the Lancet, a British medical journal.At the news conference for the report's release, one of the authors, Harvard professor Steven Gortmaker, said, "Governments certainly need to lead obesity prevention, but so far few have shown any leadership. If we have no measures and don't set any targets, we're not going to make a lot of progress."
Cepeda: Our Immigration Quandary: States Can't Act, Feds Won't.
CHICAGO --In the most recent example of sending mixed signals about illegal immigration, a federal judge has temporarily blocked Alabama's far-ranging new immigration law, which is widely seen as tougher and more cruel than the infamous "papers, please" one that Arizona adopted a little over a year ago.Voted into law last May, the Alabama statute was supposed to go into effect on Sept. 1. It raised the ire of immigrant advocates and religious groups with its requirement that local police officers check the immigration status of certain suspects and detain the illegal ones. It also put U.S. citizens and legal residents such as employers, landlords and good Samaritans in danger of becoming criminals themselves for knowingly employing, harboring, transporting or renting apartments to illegal immigrants.
CEPEDA: Our immigration quandary: States can't act, feds won't.
Our immigration quandary: States can't act, feds won't. CHICAGO --In the most recent example of sending mixed signals about illegal immigration, a federal judge has temporarily blocked Alabama's far-ranging new immigration law, which is widely seen as tougher and more cruel than the infamous "papers, please" one that Arizona
CEPEDA: Unmet needs of a 'model minority'
They are known among educators as the "model minority" -- the "good students" with disproportionately high enrollment in elite universities, often to study science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
CEPEDA: Summer a time when many teachers learn
An elite group of teachers across the country is finishing the last grueling days of a hard-core, brain-splitting, tear-inducing boot camp in science, technology, engineering and math.
CEPEDA: Atlanta's trouble shines light on school reforms
In a recently released report by Georgia authorities, the ridiculous lengths to which some Atlanta public schools went to raise test scores were exposed in what's being called the nation's largest-ever cheating scandal.
CEPEDA: An epiphany in Arizona
I have just returned from visiting the so-called craziest state in the union. I'm talking about the one with both an official state reptile and a state gun (the ridge-nosed rattlesnake and Colt single-action Army revolver, respectively).
CEPEDA: Journalist's admission will backfire
In retelling last week's revelation that Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas is an illegal immigrant, civil rights metaphors have been trotted out to describe the plight of a talented young man who got caught up in an immigration mess but, through his shocking confession, has become to some people a new American hero.
CEPEDA: Don't know much about our history
The nation's history report card is in, and the poor grades it contains may say more about needed changes in teacher recruitment and classroom assignment policy than they do about how students are performing.
CEPEDA: No one reason leads kids to commit crimes
Last week, a 10-year-old boy in Riverside, Calif., who was charged with his father’s murder said he did it to stop the daily abuse with which he, his brothers, sisters and stepmother were living.
CEPEDA: Honest conversation beats lecturing kids on violence
From the moment I heard the tensely throbbing music and soaked in the stunning views of 1940s Los Angeles, I knew I was going to spend my precious time on the just-released video game “L.A. Noire.”
CEPEDA: Immigrants' kids deserve better than this
Viewed in a certain context, the disruptions that 4-year-old Emily Ruiz suffered when she was unwittingly caught up in an immigration debacle were tame compared to the treatment of many other families with mixed immigration status.
CEPEDA: Immigrants' kids deserve better than this
Viewed in a certain context, the disruptions that 4-year-old Emily Ruiz suffered when she was unwittingly caught up in an immigration debacle were tame compared to the treatment of many other families with mixed immigration status.
CEPEDA: American mothers should be treated with much more respect
Hug a mother or grandmother extra tight this Sunday because no amount of pink carnations and chocolate can possibly make up for how tough moms have it in this country.
CEPEDA: Supercitizen of the world
You know you're in a different world than the one you grew up in when Superman stops believing in the American way. If you hadn't heard: The Land of Liberty's favorite super-powered illegal alien is abandoning his U.S. identity.
CEPEDA: Mystery of the missing
On April 15, Melissa Ann Best went missing — “vanished into thin air,” her husband said.
CEPEDA: First the dream, then gridlock
There is beauty in watching a group come together to realize a dream — even one you don't believe in.
CEPEDA: Celebrate this nip and tuck
The May issue of Harper's Bazaar treats readers to never-before-seen pictures of outrageous pop singer Lady Gaga's new cone-shaped protrusions. They're now jutting out of her forehead, shoulders and cheek bones, but she swears her new look isn't the result of plastic surgery.
CEPEDA: The parental factor
The student arrived late to the honor roll ceremony at my son's middle school last week. Even though it was almost over, the teaching staff graciously presented him with his certificate for high honors. The tall, shy African-American walked across the gym floor to polite applause and a visible lack of camera flash. No parent was there to congratulate him.
CEPEDA: No call to action
After a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the Justice Department in keeping parts of Arizona’s controversial immigration law from going into effect, some interpreted the ruling as a victory against states that would create what one advocacy group called a “racial reign of terror in which police racial profiling is mandated.” Others simply dismissed the decision as typical of a liberal court.
CEPEDA: FDA's calorie-count rule a good start
In proposing new rules to better inform consumers of how many calories they eat, the Food and Drug Administration got it partly right.
CEPEDA: Dark skin won't protect you from sun's deadly rays
Did you know that Latinos, blacks and other dark-skinned people are as susceptible to skin cancer as those who are light-skinned — and even likelier to die from it? If you did, then you’re smarter than I am, because I learned the hard way.
CEPEDA: Latinos have challenge to take up bigger roles in US
When the U.S. Census Bureau released its population estimates from the nation's 2010 headcount, Hispanics across the country rejoiced in the power of their numbers.
CEPEDA: Jumping to conclusions
On March 11, Emily Ruiz, a U.S. citizen, was traveling back to New York from Guatemala with her grandfather when U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents detained them because of a two-decade-old infraction on the grandfather's temporary work visa. They told him he would be deported.
CEPEDA: Educated, but for what?
Vice President Joe Biden asked America's governors last week to increase the number of college graduates in their states by 50 percent in order to create at least 8 million additional graduates by the end of the decade.
CEPEDA: Nothing stirs melting pot like 'English only'
Today’s quintessential American melting-pot story comes to you courtesy of Greg Simons, the proprietor of the Reedy Creek Family Diner in Lexington, N.C., who put a sign on the front door that read “No Speak English. No Service” along with translations in French, Gaelic, Russian, German and Spanish.
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