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Axios Latino is the newsletter that summarizes the key news for Latino communities throughout the hemisphere every Tuesday and Thursday.
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Before we begin: read our interview with Cindy Nava, the first
Dreamer
or DACA recipient to take a position in the White House and who is now running for the New Mexico Senate.
She says she will fight for undocumented communities.
1.
The topic to highlight: The Latino faces in the fight for abortion rights
in the US.
Activists who advocate for abortion rights find it unfortunate that, despite the fact that restrictions in several US states disproportionately affect Latinas and other minorities, their stories receive less media attention, according to analysis.
Why it matters:
The situation highlights the disparities that many Hispanic, Black or Indigenous women already face in accessing reproductive health care, especially since the constitutional right to abortion was repealed in 2022.
A recent analysis found that since 2021, when Texas established bans on voluntary termination of pregnancy, the fertility rate among Latina women and adolescents has skyrocketed.
The same did not happen with non-Hispanic white women, indicating that the restrictions impact Latinas more.
More details:
The Center for Reproductive Rights filed a lawsuit in 2023 against the state of Texas, alleging that the lack of clarity about possible exceptions to the anti-abortion law has resulted in some people in emergency situations not receiving critical health care. .
Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios
Analyzing the media coverage of that lawsuit, the stories of the Hispanic plaintiffs had 44% fewer mentions in the press than those of non-Hispanic white plaintiffs, despite testifying on the same day, according to a report by Muck Rack Trends made at the request of Axios Latin.
20% of the people included in the lawsuit are Latino.
In Texas, the Hispanic population is around 40%.
In their own words:
The same barriers that Hispanic women face in accessing a required abortion — such as less overall access to any type of health care;
jobs where it is very difficult to request time off for medical appointments;
or, in some cases, fears due to immigration status—prevent many from participating in class-action lawsuits, says Lupe M. RodrĂguez, executive director of the National Institute of Latinas for Reproductive Justice.
RodrĂguez adds that some of the organizations promoting the lawsuits also seek to have "people they consider to be more appropriate in front of the camera," perhaps referring to non-Hispanic white women with whom certain sectors of American society could empathize more.
The lead attorney
in the Center for Reproductive Rights v. Texas legal case, Molly Duane, says she is aware that some of the populations most affected by abortion bans are less represented in the lawsuits.
She finds it worrying how the health system's treatment of some of her Latina clients has been different compared to non-Hispanic white clients.
"It hurts me that these stories aren't told as much," she says.
He explains that when he initially sought out plaintiffs for the class-action case, he focused on women who had already spoken publicly about the difficulties they had, despite being in high-risk medical situations, in finding reproductive care services.
Duane said his team did not want to pressure anyone who would have preferred not to discuss the issue to be part of the lawsuit.
"Because we didn't know how much hate or hostility they were going to experience," he says.
Two cases of affected Latinas
Samantha Casiano
is a mother of four children and lives in East Texas;
she is also raising her goddaughter.
She is one of the women in the lawsuit against Texas' anti-abortion law.
She tells Axios Latino that when she found out about a pregnancy in 2022 she was very excited, until she was told at 20 weeks that the fetus had anencephaly, a condition in which the baby is born without parts of the brain or skull and dies shortly after. .
Ashley Brandt (left) and Samantha Casiano.Suzanne Cordeiro/AFP via Getty Images and photo courtesy of the Center for Reproductive Rights
Casiano was told that, under Texas law, she would have to carry the pregnancy to term even if the delivery was going to be a stillborn baby.
He comments that he could not afford to travel to another state where abortion is allowed under those circumstances.
At the end of March 2023, Casiano gave birth, which due to the condition of the fetus was also premature.
The baby, whom she and her partner named Halo, lived only four hours during which she was panting almost the entire time without being able to breathe well.
Casiano says he joined the lawsuit and wanted to tell his story regardless of the possible reactions he might receive.
For example, he tells Axios Latino that some of his relatives no longer speak to him.
"I knew I had to do everything I could to make sure no other baby had to go through that, no mother, because it's so hard... it's so, so hard," she says.
Ashley Brandt,
mother of a young boy, became pregnant with twin girls in May 2022. But shortly after, one of the two fetuses was diagnosed with a fatal disease that meant she would be unlikely to be born alive, which could also threaten the development of the other. twin and that the situation would perhaps result in Brandt's death or a miscarriage
.
Texas law did not allow Brandt to avoid further health complications for herself and the unborn twins.
She had to leave the state to access the necessary care.
Brandt tells Axios Latino that he spoke with friends and family about his situation, and was surprised to learn that several had faced similar situations.
For this reason, she decided to join the lawsuit and speak publicly about her case, even if that could mean she would receive threatening messages or if the attention would be somewhat uncomfortable for the son she already had or the twin who could have been born safely.
"These bans will continue to make it much more complicated, taboo and difficult to access proper medical care. I wanted to spread my case to at least raise awareness even if there are no changes politically," Brandt tells Axios Latino.
2. Congressmen criticize the Texas Government
The Republican governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, was criticized this weekend by Democratic members of Congress for comments that compared the arrival of migrants to an alleged "invasion," as well as for saying that it is "out of defense" that he encouraged people to visit the border to a caravan of people who have said that there must be civil war.
[The breakdown of what the Senate immigration agreement stipulates]
In short:
About 200 vehicles carrying supporters of former President Donald Trump, Christian nationalists and conspiracy theorists traveled to Quemado, Texas, over the weekend for a protest called "Take Back Our Border."
Following Abbott's comments in favor of these groups, six representatives from Texas in the federal Congress criticized the governor.
Democratic Congressman Henry Cuellar warned that among the members of the convoy there were people walking armed who said that it was their "turn to patrol."
His colleague JoaquĂn Castro indicated that he was concerned about reports that some members of the caravan had threatened a Customs and Border Protection facility.
Beyond:
The convoys, organized in Texas, Arizona and California, were organized when there is a pronounced confrontation between Abbott and other governors against the president, Joe Biden, in a dispute over state versus federal powers on the immigration issue.
3. After Bukele's victory
Some Salvadoran political observers and associations have expressed concerns about democracy in El Salvador, after the president, Nayib Bukele, ran for re-election despite being technically prohibited in the country's constitution and achieved a victory this Sunday devastating.
Count
: Bukele with his party, Nuevas Ideas, has obtained 83% of the presidential votes counted so far by the country's electoral court.
And although the counting of votes for the National Assembly is pending, polls predicted that Nuevas Ideas would obtain around 58 of the 60 seats at stake.
Bukele is hugely popular in large part for his anti-gang measures, a mass incarceration of people suspected of gang activity (in most cases without trial or arrest warrant) after which violent crime has fallen in the country.
Bukele has been unclear about plans for his second term beyond promises to continue those measures.
Although the vice president, FĂ©lix Ulloa, has been working on unspecified plans and drafts for a constitutional reform.
Since the content of these plans is not well known, some experts fear that undemocratic changes could be promoted with these potential reforms.
In the last year, Nuevas Ideas already promoted electoral changes so that the number of seats in the National Assembly was reduced from 84 legislators to 60. The official argument was that this way public salaries could be saved;
For some NGOs, however, the intention was to make it easier for Nuevas Ideas to have an absolute majority.
In his own words:
"They are laying foundations to be able to do what they want, whether or not it is in accordance with the Constitution," according to Ricardo Zúniga, from the consulting firm Dinámica Americas and former deputy assistant secretary of State of the United States.
"For now, people find it acceptable because they have been solving their problems" regarding the violence that was being experienced.
But, ZĂşniga warns, "history in the region shows that the concentration of power in this way in a single party or with a single family almost always ends badly."
For example, the dictatorial regime of the Somozas in Nicaragua or, more recently, the current regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo in that same country.
The other perspective:
Bukele, in a speech on Sunday in which he declared himself the winner when the official vote count had not yet advanced, defended a one-party government.
He celebrated that the opposition had been "pulverized" and said that El Salvador had made history by electing "a single party in a fully democratic system."
4. Summary of key news in Latin America and the Caribbean
1.
At least 122 people in ValparaĂso,
Chile, have died this weekend due to forest fires, making it the deadliest disaster in the country since the 2010 earthquake.
Authorities on Sunday arrested two men on suspicion of starting one of the fires near a botanical garden on Friday.
A constant drought and high temperatures, fueled by the El Niño phenomenon and exacerbated by climate change, have contributed to the rapid growth of fires.
The Government estimates that more than 15,000 homes have burned.
2.
Venezuelan President
Nicolás Maduro
said Sunday that he and his party will win the election "by hook or by crook," before his regime will begin final preparations for the electoral calendar — without the opposition present.
Maduro's statements also came after a ruling that reaffirmed attempts to politically disqualify MarĂa Corina Machado, democratically elected by the opposition to run for president.
She has said in interviews that she will maintain her candidacy.
5. Trajinera tradition
A Mexican, believed to be the only Xochimilco native still making artisanal trajineras, is already teaching his ancestral craft to the next generation.
Details:
The trajineras, also called acallis (boat or canoe in Nahuatl), are used daily by people who work in the so-called floating gardens of Mexico City and are also a popular tourist attraction.
It takes about 10 days to make each one, which is usable for up to 45 years, according to Pedro Torres LĂłpez, who uses a wooden mallet and handmade nails in his process.
It also repairs trajineras with coconut fiber.
Torres is training her son to follow in her footsteps, as well as Paola Valle, one of the few female canoe makers.
Namely:
The trajineras are used to move products or transport visitors through the chinampas of the canal.
These are traditional Aztec agricultural methods composed of floating farms, which are ecologically sustainable as the soil only absorbs the fresh water it needs.
Do you want to read any of the previous editions?
Why Bukele's re-election in El Salvador is almost assured
A four-day work week: change is beginning to take shape in Latin America
The border disputes between Texas and the Biden Government will affect “beyond immigration,” warns a lawyer