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1 topic to highlight:
Latinos and Martin Luther King Jr.
The family of Martin Luther King, Jr. is asking people not to honor the civil rights activist next Monday, when the US holiday is celebrated in his honor.
The relatives of the murdered activist explain it as a sign of rejection of Congress, which is incapable, they say, of defending the right to vote of black, Native American and Latino citizens.
The famous phrase of one of the speeches of Martin Luther King Jr., displayed in an exhibition dedicated to his fight for civil rights, in Mexico CityMiguel Tovar/LatinContent via Getty Images
In context
: Democratic legislators are promoting a reform of the Senate voting system that facilitates the approval of laws with a simple minority (such as their electoral reform to shield the right to vote), but for now they lack sufficient support even within their own ranks .
That lack of results has angered the family of King, who was a great defender of the universal right to vote.
In his own words
:
“It is critically important to stress that King would not allow Latino farmworkers to feel that they do not have the same support as Black farmworkers or feel alienated from the civil rights movement in general.”
Reverend William Barber, Co-Chair of the Poor People's Campaign
Barber is part of the Poor People's Campaign, an organization that has taken up the model of the March of the Poor led by Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968. The group seeks to organize low-income people under one umbrella. income whether they are Black, non-Hispanic White, Asian, Latino, or Native American.
Recount
: King began working with Mexican-American leaders fighting for civil rights in Texas and California a few months before he was assassinated.
At the time I was trying to organize the March of the Poor.
At a meeting in Atlanta of Latino and black activists, dedicated to planning the march, King met with figures such as Reies López Tijerina, a prominent Mexican social activist.
Some historians, such as Iowa State professor Brian Behnken, comment that King used to confuse Mexican-Americans with Puerto Ricans at the time.
Maria Varela, a photographer and Chicana activist with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, said King and other Black leaders at the time didn't know much about the racial discrimination and violence Latinos also faced.
After King's assassination, activists like Cesar Chavez and United Farm Workers co-founder Dolores Huerta allied themselves with Coretta Scott King, an activist and the reverend's widow, and worked together to defend civil rights.
2. Racism hidden with traffic cameras
A ProPublica investigation has revealed that Latino and Black drivers in Chicago are disproportionately ticketed by traffic cameras with supposedly neutral software.
A red light camera in Queens, New YorkLindsey Nicholson/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Why It Matters
: Chicago's automated camera system is one of the largest in the country, but similar systems exist in other cities.
People in Black and Latino neighborhoods are less likely to have remote jobs and therefore more likely to have to drive.
In addition, they tend to live in areas that are less walkable due to the lack of sidewalks and with fewer signs.
ProPublica research suggests that means fewer people walking on the streets of nonwhite neighborhoods, which means fewer incentives for drivers to slow below the mph limit.
What's going on
: Residents of Chicago's majority-Hispanic and black neighborhoods received traffic camera tickets at twice the rate of those in white areas, according to ProPublica.
The disproportionate burden of fines ($100 on average) drove some drivers into bankruptcy, the analysis found.
Chicago now has a pilot program that could cut fees in half and has put payment plans in place.
Read between the lines
: Artificial intelligence and automation in surveillance are coming under increased scrutiny.
Some say those tools are racially and ethnically biased based on the data sets used to program them.
3. Latinas are at higher risk of diabetes from toxins we are all exposed to
Latina teens are at increased risk of developing diabetes from exposure to substances known as eternal chemicals, which are found more frequently in black and Hispanic communities.
Shoshanna Gordon / Axios
Why it matters
: Childhood diabetes rates have skyrocketed for all children, but are higher for Latinos: the incidence is nearly five times that of non-Hispanic whites.
A recent peer-reviewed study found how that rate could be worse for Latina girls, as their glucose intake changes when they've been exposed to certain chemicals known as PFAS.
These are nicknamed everlasting because they don't break down, whether they're in food packaging, drinking water, or inside the human body.
Levels of these chemicals were up to 147% higher in the bodies of Latina girls in California than in other demographic groups, according to the analysis.
Previous studies have found that Hispanics newly diagnosed with diabetes are less likely to receive timely care to prevent health complications.
Bottom
line: Researchers say that reducing PFAS could go a long way in reducing cases of diabetes.
In October, the Biden administration laid out a plan to combat PFAS, calling it an "urgent public health and environmental problem."
4. A dose of justice in Guatemala
Five former patrolmen accused of raping
36 Maya Achí women in the 1980s, in the midst of the civil war, are finally being tried on the charges.
Achí women outside the Palace of Justice in Guatemala, where a trial is taking place over their allegations of sexual violence in the 1980sJohann Ordóñez/AFP via Getty Images
Why it matters
: It is only the second time since the Guatemalan Civil War (1960-1996) that the courts have opened the door to indigenous women who survived the sexual violence of the conflict.
The trial hearings began last week, 40 years after the reported violence and a decade after the first class action lawsuit was filed through an NGO.
The men were arrested in 2018, but were released the following year by a judge who was removed from the case because of the controversy.
By the time the process restarted, with procedural advances last year, one of the defendants had already fled (he was recaptured) and another had died.
Background
: 93% of the war crimes and atrocities committed during the Guatemalan conflict were attributed to state and paramilitary forces, according to a UN commission.
The five defendants belonged to the now-defunct Civil Self-Defense Patrols, units created by the Guatemalan Army (which was backed by the United States) to patrol indigenous areas during the conflict.
Overview
: Security forces and guerrillas also perpetrated sexual violence against women during the major conflicts and dictatorships of the 1970s and 1980s in Latin America.
The region remains one of the worst for violence against women to this day, with particularly high rates of gender-based violent murders (femicides).
5. Summary of key news in Latin America and the Caribbean
Argentina is experiencing one of the hottest summers on
record, with power outages and average temperatures of 104°F (40°C).
The heat wave that is spreading through the Southern Cone has caused and fueled forest fires in Chile and Uruguay.
2021 was Earth's fifth hottest year on record.
Latin America is trying to gain access to green investments to deal with the climate emergency.
The streets of Buenos Aires are virtually empty during a heat wave on January 12, 2022. Anita Pouchard Serra/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Dozens of Cuban protesters
will be tried this week for their participation in summer protests against the regime over food and medicine shortages, according to their relatives.
Since July, more than a thousand people have been arrested.
Of them, 223 have been convicted, 98 were fined, and the rest await a court date, the Justice 11J group told the AP.
Many of the people accused of protesting, with alleged crimes such as causing public disorder, have been sentenced in mass trials, in some cases without the presence of lawyers, according to activists.
6. 🧑🎤 A church-friendly rap
Colombian Lore Rangel left her novitiate in 2021 when she found a new religion: the world of rap.
Details
: Rangel is the artistic name of the former sister María Valentina, who was a nun for 12 years but now dedicates herself full time to her singing career.
Rangel has been turning heads since 2016, when he competed in an American Idol-style show in Bogotá.
Meet Lore Rangel, the nun who left her religious habits to be a rapper
Dec. 30, 202102:02
General panorama
: Latin rap and hip-hop have made their way throughout the region especially in the last decade, with Afro-Caribbean bands, Andean indigenous rappers or trap artists such as Puerto Rican Catalyna or Argentine Paulo Londra.
But those artists have not reached the international heights of reggaetoneros, with the recent exception of the Cuban rap song
Patria y Vida
, which became an anthem on the island and beyond during the protests in Cuba last summer.
Thanks for reading, we'll be back on Tuesday.
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