Latinos at NASA are essential in Artemis I's trip to the Moon. And now they open "the door to the next generation"

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1 topic to highlight: Airbnb causes friction in Mexico

Mexico City authorities are betting big on attracting so-called

despite concerns from activists that the arrival of these remote workers from other countries, such as the United States, will drive up rental costs to the point of leaving many locals without access to housing.

General panorama

: A record number of Americans have applied for temporary residence in Mexico since the pandemic began, according to data from the National Institute of Migration.

Many are remote workers using Airbnb rentals.

According to the company, extended stays have increased 30% since 2019.

• Mexicans are not happy: they have seen very strong increases in rental costs (of around 15% compared to last year) and they affirm that many neighborhoods are gentrifying.

Current situation

: Airbnb and the Government of Mexico City signed an agreement in October to facilitate extended stays for "creative tourists and remote workers."

• The capital's government calculates that the economic benefit will be $1.4 billion dollars a year and that it will benefit local residents.

Illustration: Allie Carl/Axios

But tenant advocacy organizations

and people who had to leave their apartments when owners turned them into Airbnbs have criticized the deal.

• They say it will make rents even more expensive and "segregate" the city by evicting those who cannot afford the higher prices, especially indigenous people, the elderly and the young.

  A recent local government report acknowledged that housing is already unaffordable for many people.

What is happening

: Paty Maciel had been renting an apartment in La Condesa, a central neighborhood of the capital that also attracts many tourists, for nine years.

Maciel tells Axios Latino that this year the landlord told him just a few days before his lease was due to expire that he was no longer going to renew it.

• He did not explain why to Maciel and the other tenants of the building.

  But the apartments are now listed on Airbnb for extended stays, according to Maciel.

• The rates for those apartments are up to 10 times higher than what she paid for rent, in an amount that might seem affordable for those who earn in dollars but that is far higher than the average monthly salary of Mexicans.

In his own words:

"I am perfectly clear that the owner can do whatever he wants with his property within the framework of legality. But just because it is legal does not mean that it is okay," said Maciel.

• He regrets that there is a "legal loophole" and that the government, instead of regulating for the welfare of vulnerable tenants, supports Airbnb's practices with the recent agreement.

• Cities like Barcelona (Spain), Amsterdam (Netherlands) and San Francisco have put in place rules and restrictions on how Airbnb can operate long-term rentals in response to concerns about the impact on housing.

The other perspective

: The governor of Mexico City, Claudia Sheinbaum, said that there is no evidence that Airbnb is behind the increases in rental prices.

She defended the agreement with Airbnb, assuring that it will help attract people to less visited areas with the collaboration of Unesco for cultural experiences.

2. Hispanic power in the Artemis mission

Latino scientists were part of the critical work that allowed NASA to launch the Artemis I mission en route to the Moon this week.

Why It Matters

: The successful liftoff lays the foundation for humanity's return to the Moon on future crewed voyages (Artemis II and Artemis III), which will be the first lunar walks for a female astronaut and for a non-white astronaut.

• And although Artemis I is not manned by humans, there is a Latino presence in the cabin on board: the Moonikin Campos mannequin, named after electrical engineer Arturo Campos, who helped rescue the Apollo 13 astronauts in 1970.

There's such a Latino presence here, and it's from every country."

ivette rivera

Big Picture

: Only 5.7% of the NASA workforce identifies as Hispanic.

Even so, Latinos have had an important influence in the space agency in recent years with trips to the International Space Station or key collaborations for the Perseverance mission on Mars.

In their own words

: Latinos at NASA hope that this week's launch and future liftoff of Artemis II will attract an entire generation to careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) in which many Hispanics and Latin Americans are underrepresented.

• "It's the beginning of something great," Puerto Rican engineer Ivette Rivera Aponte told Axios Latino: "the launch put an end to one stage, and began another that will inspire the

  Artemis generation

  ."

NASA's Ivette Rivera Aponte, Luis Zea, and Diana TrujilloCourtesy of NASA

• Rivera Aponte celebrated that there is "so much Latino presence here, and it is from all countries."

  He added that the many Latinos currently at NASA came thanks to the "tremendous legacy of those who started before [...] and those of us who are here now are also opening the doors for the next generation," he said.

More details

: The Colombian Diana Trujillo and the Puerto Rican Jose Marcos Flores were present at the launch of Artemis I, since they are NASA flight directors.

Peruvian Rosa Ávalos-Warren helped coordinate it as missions manager.

• Engineer Carolina Restrepo, raised in Colombia and Bolivia, is part of the team that will make the most detailed maps of the Moon to make it safer to land and explore the satellite.

• Others who also helped get Artemis off the ground include Guatemalan aerospace engineer Luis Zea;

  the Salvadoran Zaida Hernández, engineer of the Orion capsule;

  and Puerto Rican Rey N. Diaz, deputy chief of the Integration Office of the JFK Space Center.

3. Lula seeks funds for climate damage

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva

, president-elect of Brazil, announced this Wednesday at the UN climate summit that he will again promote environmental conservation through diplomatic channels and as a central policy of his government, which will start on January 1.

Lula in OctoberNelson Almeida/AFP via Getty Images

• It is a twist on Jair Bolsonaro, the outgoing president.

  Activists denounce that he allowed mining and illegal logging in the Amazon to continue instead of punishing them;

  Bolsonaro also dismissed global calls to prevent growing deforestation as "interference."

Up close

: At the COP27 summit, which is being held in Egypt, Lula promised to rigorously punish those who commit illegal extractive activities in the Amazon.

She proposed a new ministry to defend indigenous peoples and strengthen environmental monitoring agencies.

• He also addressed the issue of a compensation fund for weather damage.

  She criticized industrialized countries for reneging on a promise made in 2009 to allocate $100 billion a year to developing nations to deal with the impacts of the climate crisis.

• The fund was proposed because the countries hardest hit by the effects of global warming are, in general, those that have contributed the least to this climate emergency.

But the dialogue

at COP27 has so far not resulted in any progress in the discussion on whether and how the most industrialized nations, such as the United States, should compensate those countries.

The current drought has caused the food crisis of 18 million people

Nov 7, 202201:00

In his own words

: "We cannot postpone this debate any longer. We need to deal with the reality of these countries that have the very integrity of their territories under threat and the conditions for the survival of their inhabitants in jeopardy," said Lula.

4. Help is also available in Spanish

There is increasing access to key mental health services for Latinos and Spanish-speakers in the United States.

Why it matters

: Suicide rates increased in 2020 among Hispanics and non-Hispanic blacks in the country, according to data released this week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, for its acronym in English).

• A higher percentage of Latinos than non-Hispanic whites have reported symptoms of depression since the start of the pandemic.

• However, the availability of mental health services in Spanish in the country decreased between 2014 and 2019, according to studies.

Katherine Frey/The Washington Post via Getty Images

In figures

: Only 6% of licensed psychologists identify themselves as Latino, according to the American Psychological Association, a figure that falls short of the population weight of Hispanics, who are one in five people in the country.

• Also, only 5.5% of therapists can provide services in Spanish.

  In contrast, 13% of the population speaks Spanish at home, according to the Census.

Details

: Crisis Text Line provides free 24/7 support and counseling via text message.

Last year it launched a Spanish version of its services and a number to contact them via WhatsApp.

• Latinos, including Spanish-speakers, account for 19% of those who use mental health services, Crisis Text Line medical director Shairi Turner tells Axios Latino.

• Turner said the service recruits volunteers and bilingual mental health professionals because it doesn't want an automated translation service that leaves people seeking help feeling misunderstood.

  Counselors are trained to respond to the language nuances and dialects of those who come to the service, and to assist gender-neutral Spanish-speaking LGBTQ+ individuals.

• Crisis Text Line also received help from NGOs to develop a bilingual toolkit for schools and parents trying to help teens in a difficult time.

Other mental health services

have also expanded their reach in the last year.

The Suicide and Crisis Prevention line, managed by the federal government, launched in summer the 988 contact number for calls or messages, in Spanish and English.

• The Trevor Project, a leader in suicide prevention services for LGBTQ youth, now operates in Mexico and fine-tunes its Spanish-speaking outreach to also serve Latinos in the US.

• You can contact by sending a text message that says “Start” to 678-678 if you are in the United States or a message or Whatsapp that says “Start” to 55-9225-3337 from Mexico.

5. Summary of key news in Latin America and the Caribbean

1. Deportation flights from the United States to Cuba

will resume in the coming weeks.

• The arrival of Cubans at the US border with Mexico has risen as the island sinks deeper into the economic crisis.

2. Former Peruvian congressman

Kenji Fujimori, son of former president Alberto Fujimori, was sentenced on Tuesday to more than four years in prison, accused of orchestrating a vote-buying of congressmen to prevent the removal in 2018 of the then Peruvian president, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski.

Kenji Fujimori in 2018Luka Gonzales/AFP via Getty Images

• The Peruvian authorities affirm that Kenji Fujimori wanted to block the vacancy process against Kuczynski so that he would release Alberto Fujimori from prison, who is serving a sentence for crimes against humanity.

  Kenji will be on probation while his appeal process is reviewed. 

Pachanga Thursday

Nora Vargas, San Diego County Board of SupervisorsPhoto illustration: Axios Visuals.

Photo courtesy of District 1 Media

Our warmest congratulations to Nora Vargas, who is the first Latina, the first immigrant, and the first non-white person to be elected to the San Diego County Board of Supervisors.

• Nora is a fervent supporter of the binational community in San Diego and has been instrumental in a project to expand the east side of the Otay Mesa port, according to a colleague of hers and an Axios Latino reader.

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