Photo by moi

!Feliz Día del Padre! I hope all of you have plans to celebrate your fathers and grandfathers! We’re not doing much, just hanging out in the backyard, bbqing, taking advantage of the fact that Summer has finally arrived to Colorado! Well in case you missed it, NBC’s Today Show dedicated a whole week to a series of issues facing the Hispanic community. Check out some highligths in the links below…

1) NBC: Kerry Sanders: What I Learned from Living in Perú – “My American mother grew up in Lima, and it only seemed natural to her that I’d one day know what her upbringing was like. I attended high school there (and you thought chemistry was difficult in English!), played futbol and most importantly, jumped with two feet into the rhythms of a different culture.” I grew up watching Kerry Sanders on TV in Miami and I had no idea he had spent part of his life in my country. The best way to really understand and get to know another culture, in my opinion.

2) allDAy: Living on a Hyphen – “There are a whole lot of us out there trying to figure out the in between. I am born, raised and educated in America, but my ties to Hispanic culture are undeniable. The Latin warmth and strong family values of South America are rooted deeply within me.” An interesting look at how this Today producer lives on a hyphen.

3) NBC: Carl Quintanilla: Families Torn Apart by Immigration – “It’s about what they call “mixed-status families” — families made up of both legal and illegal residents who are trying to stay together despite being separated by immigration laws that they have violated.” Extremely sad story. Something needs to be done so families are not broken apart like this.

4) HispanicTrending: Hispanic Identity has no Easy Definition – “After living in Latin America and covering Latinos for years as a journalist, one thing is clear. No one really knows who exactly is a Latino, an Hispanic, a member of “La Raza” or even a Chicano. But ever since President Obama nominated Sonia Sotomayor as a Supreme Court justice, the media has gone wild with the mantra “the first Hispanic justice.” Oh, really?” More on what it means to be Hispanic or Latino. I guess it’s just not that easy to define us…

5) AdvertisingAge: NBC Just Can’t Quit Same Old Hispanics – “Will mainstream media ever get past the likes of Gloria Estefan, Dora the Explorer, Shakira and “West Side Story” to illustrate how Hispanics are “changing the face of America,” like, for the millionth time?” Definitely true, although as the article says, we must give credit to NBC for exploring issues like bilingual education and what our outdated immigration laws are doing to families.

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