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Top 1 issue: Republicans speed up their outreach to Latino voters
Republicans in South Florida are trying to build on the success they had in 2020 in attracting Latino voters, now heading into the November midterm elections.
The Republican National Committee has opened a Hispanic Community Center in Doral, an area with a large Venezuelan population just two miles from a golf course owned by former President Donald Trump, according to Niala Boodhoo and Alexandra Botti of Axios.
Aïda Amer/Axios
By the numbers
: About 54% of Latinos in Miami-Dade voted for Trump in 2020. Although Biden won Miami-Dade County, those votes for Trump helped give the Republican victory in Florida.
The Other Side
: The Democratic National Committee says it is also launching its efforts to attract voters in November.
The steering committee announced a $20 million investment to start the process months earlier, according to Lucas Acosta, chief spokesman for the Democratic National Committee.
Acosta indicated that part of that approach in South Florida will try to combat successful disinformation campaigns to which he attributes much of the success of the Republican Party in 2020.
The Fact
: The Cuban population of South Florida has long been a Republican stronghold, and in 2020 voters of Venezuelan origin also favored that party to a greater extent than before, according to exit polls.
Bottom line
: Florida has 30 federal seats up for grabs in November, so it will remain a centerpiece of political strategy in 2022.
2. Eliminating fashion waste
The Atacama Desert in Chile
has become a clothing graveyard where some 35,000 tons of unsold second-hand garments are dumped every year.
But
: There are organizations working to reduce and reuse such pollution.
What's Happening
: The problem begins when used clothing arrives from the United States, Europe, and Asia in Iquique, a free port zone (free of duties and taxes) near the desert.
In theory, the garments should be resold in Chile and other neighboring countries.
But what is not sold ends up in a desert dump: in total, 60% of the 59,000 tons that arrive in Iquique each year, according to environmental groups.
The fabrics could take up to 200 years to decompose, these groups denounce.
Planet Earth: The excessive consumption of clothing is destroying the flowery desert of Chile
Jan. 22, 202203:19
More details
: Local circular economy companies Ecocitex and EcoFibra combat this problem by giving clothes new life
Ecocitex, led by women, uses clothes to make new materials, such as yarn and wool hats.
It also donates garments to migrant and homeless communities.
EcoFibra grinds clothing into tiny pieces which it then uses to create heat and sound insulating panels, which can be recycled.
To wit
: The fashion industry annually produces more carbon emissions than all international flights and shipping combined, according to the UN.
The United Nations places most of the blame on fast-fashion brands, which churn out short-lived, on-trend collections in bulk and at low prices.
That is, clothes that fall apart more quickly and are discarded more quickly.
Important note
: Chile and Guatemala are the largest importers of used clothing in the Americas, according to the MIT Observatory of Economic Complexity.
3. An award for young artistic stars
Latino teen filmmakers, musicians and playwrights
are among high school seniors nominated for the US Government's US Presidential Scholars Program.
Samuel Correa, Colombian adolescent filmmaker, during the shooting of one of his shorts.Courtesy of Samuel Correa
What You Should Know
: The US Presidential Scholars Program was established in 1964 by President Lyndon Johnson to recognize academically outstanding high school seniors.
Since 1979 there are also specifically arts fellows as part of the program.
Nominations for the arts award are made exclusively by the nonprofit organization YoungArts, which each year hosts a workshop with more than 100 teen applicants.
From there it determines YoungArts Award winners, who receive additional training and potential funding for their arts endeavors, and nominees for Presidential Scholars.
YoungArts counts among previous winners of its award: actors Timothée Chalamet, Hunter Schafer and Viola Davis;
inaugural poet Amanda Gorman; and jazz musician Terence Blanchard (who also often scores Spike Lee movies).
A White House commission will review the 60 arts nominees and select 20 of them for presidential recognition by the middle of this year.
Samuel Correa, Colombian-American who is among 60 nominees for the arts component of the Marina E. Franco Presidential Scholars Program
In his own words
:
“I never would have thought that I would be recognized with one of the most important awards in the country, not only because I am Latino but also because I come from a public school that does not give much impetus to the arts.”
Samuel Correa, Colombian-American filmmaker nominated
Correa added, "It's a great validation to be recognized, especially because, in a way, when I started making films it was a process of letting go of worrying about fitting into American culture" after migrating at age 9.
Other Latino YoungArts winners and nominees for Presidential Scholars this year include flutist Rodrigo Rodríguez Hernández, filmmaker Ryan Diaz-Rousselot, writer Anya Jiménez, and pianist Adrián Zaragoza.
Don't Miss
: Performances, readings, screenings, and online exhibits of the 60 nominees' works will air for free at 8:00 pm from this Saturday through February 4.
Sign up to view them here.
4. Latino veterans join forces
A new veterans association seeks to promote the recognition of Hispanics in the Armed Forces.
Santiago Erevia, a Vietnam War veteran, received the Medal of Honor in 2014 after a Pentagon study found he was one of the soldiers denied recognition for decades because of race or ethnicity.Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images
Why it matters
: Latino veterans have been underappreciated for decades.
A Pentagon analysis completed in 2016 found that they had been denied promotions and medals by the military for decades.
Hispanic veterans also face health disparities.
For example, they have less access to mental health services for post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD), which studies show is more serious for Latinos.
Many Latino active duty members and veterans have been deported despite their service.
Hispanics are the fastest growing population in the military.
They make up 16% of all active duty military, according to the Department of Defense.
More Details
: The American Latino Veterans Association was established on January 20 in an effort to improve veterans' access to resources and highlight their contributions.
Biden signs an executive order to make sexual harassment a crime in the Military
Jan. 26, 202200:34
News Momentum
: The
Yo Soy Vanessa Guillén
law , named for a 20-year-old Latina with the rank of Army specialist, passed last week.
The legislation changes how cases of sexual harassment or abuse in the armed forces are investigated and punished.
It was written in response to Guillén's murder after she reported that a superior was harassing her.
Guillén's case exposed the vulnerabilities that Latinx, Black and Asian women and people face at military bases like Fort Hood, which has the highest rates of sexual violence and murder in the Army, according to former Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarty.
5. Summary of key news in Latin America and the Caribbean
Xiomara Castro took office this Thursday
as the first woman to preside over Honduras.
The ceremony came despite a legislative dispute in which rival factions of the ruling Libre party appointed two different boards of directors for Congress.
Instead of Castro being sworn in by one of the two supposed legislative presidents, a judge protested.
By losing political immunity, the outgoing president, Juan Orlando Hernández, could face drug charges in the United States, where his brother was convicted in 2018 for a similar accusation.
Xiomara Castro at her swearing-in ceremony, along with her husband, former President Manuel Zelaya. Moisés Castillo / AP
El Chapo's most recent appeal
against his network for drug trafficking in New York was dismissed this week.
Joaquín Guzmán's defense argued that the jury acted inappropriately when reading the news during the trial and that the Mexican drug trafficker's prison conditions have been extreme.
His wife, Emma Coronel, pleaded guilty in November to conspiracy to traffic drugs, and was sentenced to 3 years in prison.
6. 🎺 Make Trash Music
Latin Lata, a group based in Bogotá, makes music out of trash to raise awareness and promote zero waste.
Planet Earth: These Colombians make music with garbage to raise awareness
Jan. 14, 202202:13
More Details
: The band recycles and reuses items like discarded toothbrushes or hair dryers and keyboards to make synthesizers, drums and microphones.
Vocalist Andrea Defrancisco founded the band in 2011 after realizing it was an affordable way to create instruments for her music lessons for underprivileged children.
Latin Latas' song lyrics also allude to recycling, and the band holds material reuse workshops after their performances.
Thanks for reading, we'll be back on Tuesday.
Do you want to see some of the most recent previous editions?
The Latin pulse after a year with Biden
The impact of economic pessimism among Latinos
Fighting the climate emergency
The risk of 'eternal chemicals'
Technology for the inclusion of Latinos with disabilities
Hispanics make their way into the tattoo world
