By Marina E. Franco and Russell Contreras
Welcome to Axios Latino, a newsletter to tell you every Tuesday and Thursday the stories that have a special impact on the Latino communities in the United States and in Latin America.
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1 Topic: The Latino Victims of September 11, 2001
Members of the Puerto Rico Urban Search and Rescue Task Force, which was promoted by firefighter Dennis Mojica, who died on September 11, 2001, honors rescuers who lost their lives in the attack a year later, in 2002. José Jiménez / Primera Time / Getty Images
As the United States prepares to commemorate
the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, popularly known as 9/11, activists are working to commemorate Latino victims, whose sacrifices that day are often overlooked.
Why it matters
: About 250 Latinos died in the terrorist attacks.
That number includes some undocumented immigrants whose families faced very difficult times to even prove that such people existed and were near the towers.
Nine percent of the more than 2,700 people killed at the World Trade Center were Hispanic, according to the New York City Department of Health.
Details
: Several Latinos who worked near ground zero of the attack and who have been missing since then also do not appear in the official death toll, as is the case of Fernando Jiménez Molinar, 21, from Oaxaca, Mexico.
The documentary
Rostros sin voz (Seen but not Heard)
follows the lives of four women from Mexico who lost loved ones that day, who were undocumented and worked as waiters or delivery men.
The women struggled to convince the authorities that their husbands and boyfriends even existed.
Hospitality workers union UNITE HERE said 43 mostly Latino immigrant workers were at the Windows on the World restaurant in New York's Twin Towers and lost their lives that day.
Fallen Rescuers
: Dennis Mojica, 50, was a lieutenant in the New York Fire Department and was killed trying to save people in the towers.
Manuel Mojica Jr., 37, and also a firefighter, is another of the Latino rescuers who lost his life that day.
His son, Manny Mojica, followed in his firefighting footsteps and took the oath as a firefighter two years ago.
Of interest
: There were undocumented people who helped as part of cleaning teams in Manhattan after the attacks, and several developed health problems from the dust and asbestos.
For years they have asked to be considered for residency, but have been unsuccessful and continue to face possible deportation.
A 2017 legislative proposal sought to speed up the process for between 1,000 and 2,000 immigrants who were first responders and janitors after 9/11 to obtain
green cards
.
But that bill got nowhere.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is considering reintroducing that measure, The Associated Press news agency reports.
2. A milestone in Mexico similar to Roe vs. Wade
With cries in favor and prayers against, they react in Mexico to the decriminalization of abortion
Sept.
7, 202101: 54
The Supreme Court of Justice of Mexico ruled unanimously
this week that abortion cannot be considered a crime, in a decision described as "historic" in a predominantly Catholic country, and reached while the United States is restricting those procedures a one more time.
Why it matters
: At least 850 women have been criminally charged and more than 200 of them imprisoned throughout Mexico in the past two decades due to state laws that impose fines or jail time for voluntary abortions, and even spontaneous abortions, according to organizations .
Between 750,000 and 1 million women in Mexico each year terminate their pregnancies;
many of them in clandestine and unsanitary conditions, since most states do not recognize the right to abortion.
In Mexico City, abortion has been legal since 2007, and support has been growing slowly in the rest of the country: Oaxaca decriminalized it in 2019, followed by two more states, Hidalgo and Veracruz, just this summer.
What's next
: The court decision originated from a case in Coahuila, so it only automatically repealed parts of that state's penal code.
But the precedent means that other states that still criminalize procedures to end a pregnancy will have to reform local laws or risk having them struck down by lower courts.
"From now on it will not be possible, without violating the criteria of the Court and the Constitution, to prosecute any woman who has an abortion in the cases that this court has considered valid," said the president of the court, Arturo Zaldívar.
Between the lines
: Since 2019, the Supreme Court of Mexico has made a series of progressive decisions.
Between them:
Claiming that prohibiting the recreational use of marijuana is unconstitutional, thus allowing the cultivation of cannabis for personal use without penalty.
Ensure that people undergoing the gender transition can obtain new birth certificates that reflect their identity regardless of different state laws.
3. What the heart wants: better socioeconomic status
Latinos who think they have a good social position in the US
are more likely to have better cardiovascular health, according to a study.
Aïda Amer / Axios
The general situation
: The researchers analyzed how the perception of status, success and prestige in relation to other people correlates with health factors such as body mass index, blood pressure and cholesterol levels.
The analysis found that how Latinos feel about their social position may have more pronounced cardiovascular effects than those resulting from more specific issues such as income level.
Important note
: The study included thousands of participants born in other countries, mainly Mexico and Cuba.
For those who had extremely low-wage jobs before migrating, earning dollars in the United States can make them feel like they have a better social position and lead to better health, according to the study.
While those who before migrating had professions that they cannot practice directly in the United States, such as doctors or lawyers, had a markedly lower self-perception of their social position, with corresponding worse levels in cardiovascular risk factors such as glucose levels.
In his own words
: The study shows how, for some, “the experience of migration coincides with a sense of diminished social status”, which can “influence health and behavior” in a way that data on migration educational level, annual income and employment cannot show, said lead researcher Lissette Piedra.
4. Increasingly successful vaccination campaigns
The proportion of Latinos getting vaccinated against COVID-19
is increasing in some of the largest cities in the United States after months of problems and delays and as delta infections spread.
The delta variant triggers the number of deaths from coronavirus throughout the country
Sept.
4, 202100: 29
The Big Picture
: In New York, the percentage of fully vaccinated Latino adults has surpassed that of non-Hispanic whites, at 59% and 56%, respectively.
The Houston Department of Health has administered about 32% of its vaccinations to Latinos and 28% to non-Hispanic whites to date.
In Philadelphia, 72% of Latinos and 66% of whites had received at least one dose as of Sunday.
Nationally, more Latinos than non-Hispanic whites have received at least one dose since early August, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Important note
: In Los Angeles, that vaccination rates for non-Hispanic whites (69%) are still higher than for Latinos (60%).
But more than half of the eligible Latino population has already been immunized.
Bottom line
: Doubts about whether to get vaccinated in the country are diminishing and fewer adults say they will never get vaccinated.
This could be due to the dominance of the delta variant, the full approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine by federal authorities, and the return to face-to-face classes, among other causes.
5. Summary of key news from Latin America and the Caribbean
Chile has been vaccinating people over the age of 12 since July and is now looking to start vaccinating people over the age of 6 as well.Martín Bernetti / AFP via Getty Images
In Chile, children from the age of 6
can now be immunized against COVID-19, after the Ministry of Health extended the emergency approval of the Sinovac vaccine, in an attempt to protect “school-age children” .
The South American country has already fully vaccinated 72% of its population and has begun experimenting with booster vaccines.
In Peru this week there are debates
about whether the cultural preservation authorities were right to grant permits to the huge Hollywood production of
Transformers: The Awakening of the Beasts
to film at the archaeological site of Machu Picchu.
Spoiler alert: the director of the Inca archaeological site has jokingly assured that "none of the robots will enter Machu Picchu, not even a robot hand."
Venezuela has
received
its first batch
of COVID-19 vaccines through the organization that makes available doses at a lower cost through the World Health Organization.
Less than 9% of the population in the crisis-ravaged country have received a first dose.
Nicolás Maduro's regime and the opposition have pledged to work together to secure more vaccines and distribute them.
6. Recover features and smiles
Here's how this Colombian brings smiles back to acid burn victims
Sept.
1, 202102: 27
Women in Colombia who survived acid attacks
are recovering some of their facial features, such as eyebrows, thanks to the work of dermatologists and estheticians like Tatiana Qulloa.
In detail
: Qulloa specializes in micropigmentation, or cosmetic tattoos, on skin affected by burn scars.
She offers that service for free.
There have been more than 1,100 cases of acid attacks against Colombian women since 2008, according to a special crime unit.
Most were perpetrated by former partners.
In 2016, those attacks were punishable by up to 30 years in prison, thanks to a law named after activist Natalia Ponce de León.
Thanks for reading, until next Tuesday.
Do you want to see any of the previous editions?
- Previously exposed to cancer
- Past drinks
- The racism of immigration laws
- The multiracial revolution
- The political battle that is coming
- Shooting against Latinos
- Recommended Reading: New Latin American Voices