Latest news with #LatinoCommunity
Arab News
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Arab News
What We Are Reading Today: LatinoLand by Marie Arana
'LatinoLand,' by Marie Arana, explores the diverse politics and historical roots of Hispanic Americans. It is a compelling and insightful exploration into the diverse tapestry of Latino culture in the US. Arana, with her profound understanding and personal connection to the Latino experience, crafts a narrative that is both illuminative and deeply resonant, according to a review on The book is not just a mere compilation of statistics and historical facts; it's a vibrant journey through the lives, struggles, and triumphs of the Latino community. Arana draws on her own experience as the daughter of an American mother and Peruvian father who came to the US at age nine, straddling two worlds, as many Latinos do. She delves into the socio-political challenges facing Latino Americans, from immigration policies to economic disparities, without losing sight of the individual stories that illuminate these issues. Arana's work shines in its celebration of the cultural contributions of Latino Americans to the fabric of American society The book 'unabashedly celebrates Latino resilience and character and shows us why we must understand the fastest-growing minority in America.'
CBS News
12-08-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Fear of immigration raids turns California community into ghost town
Huntington Park, California, a working-class community of more than 50,000 people, has recently felt like it has a bullseye on its back because of ramped-up raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The town is 95.6% Latino, and as many as 45% of the residents are undocumented, according to the city. City Council member Jonathan Sanabria, who grew up in Huntington Park, says the local community is scared. "We are a target for them because we know that they are stereotyping and they're racially profiling us. And they're targeting folks that look like me," he said. Sanabria took a CBS News crew to Pacific Boulevard, the city's main commercial thoroughfare. The once-vibrant city center was eerily quiet. "I remember Pacific Boulevard was always packed, but since the raids have been going on, it's a ghost town," said longtime resident Jose Lomeli. "I don't even know how these places are surviving." Some business owners are trying to provide a sense of safety to bring customers back to their stores. "There's people inside conducting business, but they now have their doors locked. They're saying, 'Hey, knock, let us know that you're here so we can open the door, provide the service for you,'" Sanabria said of one store. ICE agents would need a warrant to enter. "We see stores that are open, but they remain with the gates locked. So this is another way of the stores protecting themselves and their customers from unwanted interactions with ICE," Sanabria said. A woman who runs a bridal shop, which is keeping its doors locked, told CBS News that business was "very bad." "The reality is that folks are scared of coming in. That folks are scared of being taken," Sanabria said. "Some folks that are coming, they do feel that with it being locked, that the business owner is doing what they can to protect them." Asked what impact this was having on the economy, Sanabria said, "It's very obvious that our sales tax numbers are gonna be a lot lower than they were, which means it's gonna be less money to provide services for our community." According to the latest CBS News poll, fewer people overall approve of the Trump administration's deportation program, compared to earlier this year. But approval among Republicans remains high. Many of them say immigrants who have entered the country illegally should be deported. Sanabria disagrees. "When we look at a lot of different sectors of our economy, the reason we are able to keep it (prices) at a lower rate is because of the undocumented," he said. "I think the community, seeing that we are behind them, that's making them feel safer," Sanabria added.
Yahoo
13-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Workers living in fear of ICE raids in Los Angeles are hiding ‘like Anne Frank'
Ongoing raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Los Angeles have reportedly driven members of the city's Latino population into hiding, with one man claiming: 'It's like Anne Frank.' A month after protests erupted in opposition to ICE's actions in L.A. – leading President Donald Trump to send in the National Guard and active-duty Marines to maintain order over the wishes of California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Mayor Karen Bass – a climate of 'insanity and terror' abides, according to The Wrap. The report quotes anecdotal evidence from locals who say that Latino residents, both documented and undocumented, are preferring to absent themselves from work and stay indoors. Doing otherwise would mean risking detention by armed agents in combat gear, who have been storming homes, businesses and even medical clinics with 'faces obscured, no warrants and no identification' over the last month. The Department of Homeland Security reports that over 1,600 immigrants were detained in southern California in the two weeks leading up to June 25, equating to 101 arrests per day in support of Trump's roundup of illegal migrants, the Republican having promised the biggest mass deportation push in American history on the campaign trail last year. Among those cited in the report is a local father who is struggling for childcare because his nanny is too scared to come to work and owners of car washes, grocery stores and restaurants across the city who say they have been forced to stay closed to protect their work forces, whom they feel are being arbitrarily targeted. 'People are staying home. It does feel very scary out there right now,' immigration attorney Jaclyn Granet said. 'It's incredibly disturbing to witness as a human and also as an immigrant attorney, who works with foreign talent. I support the idea that America is better when we have a global community within our borders. 'It really feels like this program of mass ICE raids and mass detention is extremely short-sighted… If you're raiding the farms, the restaurants – how long does it take until a restaurant has to close, or we don't have this crop or that crop?' She added: 'Do I think that this level of force is necessary? Absolutely not. That is part of the chaos and scare tactics meant to be communicated through these raids. Part of Trump's plan is to create chaos.' Residents have been routinely posting videos of clashes between agents and citizens to social media, seeking to document what they regard as scenes of harassment and intimidation unfolding in their neighborhoods. With tensions running high, Cynthia Gonzalez, the vice mayor of Cudahy, a city southeast of L.A., faced calls to resign last week for challenging the notorious 18th Street and Florencia gangs to help local residents stand up to ICE, which she referred to in an Instagram video as 'the biggest gang there is.' Gonzalez subsequently issued a statement via her attorney stating that she 'in no way encouraged anyone to engage in violence.'
Yahoo
01-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
The Dodgers told me not to sing the national anthem in Spanish. I knew in my heart that I had to.
Normally, the performance of the national anthem at a baseball game isn't major news. When the pop singer Nezza arrived at the Dodgers Stadium in Los Angeles on June 14, she was excited to perform the song in front of the crowd, then grab a hot dog and a Michelada and chill in the stands to watch the game. What happened instead knocked the wind out of her — and later made headlines nationwide. Given the audience demographics at the game and the ICE raids that have rocked Los Angeles, Nezza (whose full name is Vanessa Hernández) planned to perform "The Star-Spangled Banner" in Spanish to uplift the Latino community and honor the protests on "No Kings Day." She even practiced the version commissioned by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1945 to ensure that her performance was respectful. But as fans later saw in a viral video, the team told her on the day of her performance that it had other plans. She'd need to perform the anthem in English. Devastated, Nezza was faced with a choice: follow orders or raise her voice. She chose the latter. In doing so, she hopes she has inspired others to stand up and speak out. In an interview with Yahoo's Laura Bradley, the singer shares why she made the decision she did — and why she doesn't consider it an act of rebellion but a gesture of love. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. Until that day, I'd never been involved in anything political. I'd never broken a rule in my life. But when a Dodgers rep told me I'd be singing the national anthem in English, I couldn't breathe. I felt like the wind had been knocked out of me. Immediately, I was clenching my teeth from crying. About a month prior, my manager had asked if I wanted to perform the anthem at the Dodgers game. I was already scheduled to sing for the A's, which felt really cool because they're one of my hometown teams. So I agreed to perform on June 14. At that time, I was unaware of what would lead up to that day in Los Angeles: ICE raids, protests and, eventually, the National Guard. Both of my parents are immigrants who are now U.S. citizens. Watching those videos we've seen of families being ripped apart is gut-wrenching. I can't imagine my parents getting ripped away from me. Where would I be today had they not come over here and had that struggle in the beginning? I'd planned to sing in Spanglish at the Dodgers game until my friend pointed out a few days before that I would be performing on "No Kings Day." Eighty percent of the people in the stands would be Latino. There was no way I could go out there and sing the anthem fully in English on that day of all days. So I stayed up all night for two days straight learning the whole version of 'El Pendón Estrellado,' the Spanish-language version of the national anthem that President Franklin D. Roosevelt commissioned in 1945. It wasn't meant to be disrespectful because the lyrics and the storyline are near the same, the melodies are the same. It was supposed to be an uplifting gesture for my community. I thought I was fully welcome to do this. In our emails leading up to my performance, no one with the Dodgers had told me I couldn't sing in Spanish. When I'd suggested I sing the national anthem in both languages, they only said I would have just 90 seconds — not enough time to sing two songs. No one previously ever said, 'We'd prefer you to do it in English.' It could have been such an easy, simple email. But obviously now, knowing everything I do, I know they were avoiding the topic. When they said I had to sing in English, I just honestly couldn't believe it. Everyone could see it in my face. It was pure shock. The only reason we captured that moment on video is because my boyfriend was filming my sound check, and he happened to still be standing there recording when the Dodgers rep walked in. When I told her I wasn't comfortable performing in English, she walked away to give us some private time to discuss. I bawled my eyes out. There was no way I was doing it in English. I asked my manager, 'Do I leave? Do I walk out?' He supported me to do whatever I needed to do to support my community. My boyfriend agreed, but he also told me something else: You're gonna regret it for the rest of your life if you don't do this today. He was right. So I sucked in the tears. When the rep came back about an hour before my performance, she made sure I sang the whole song in English. Then, I think I spent literally 45 minutes in the bathroom stall — shaking, freaking out, just trying to gain the confidence to do what I needed to do. Because again, none of this is me. It's not my personality at all. I hate getting into trouble. It's my worst fear. When I got onto the field and sang in Spanish, I didn't feel rebellious. I was singing from a place of heartbreak, from a place of oppression. I don't know how I got myself to do it, because I've never done anything like that in my life. I just felt this fire from being told no. But it was a different kind of no. It wasn't like your parents saying, 'No, you can't have a cookie.' This was about something deep and personal, not just to me, but to most of the crowd in the stands that day. What reality are we living in where kids are being ripped away from their parents? When some people watch the video I posted of my Dodgers experience on TikTok, they say, 'Oh, she's crying because she got banned.' (Nezza has said the Dodgers told her she was not welcome back at the stadium following her performance. The Dodgers have stated publicly that Nezza is not banned from the stadium.) That's not it. I'm crying because I'm imagining my parents being ripped away from me at such a young age. At the end of the day, I was fighting for my parents. Everything I have in life is because of them. When we had nothing — like, nothing — somehow they were pulling pennies for my dance classes. It was already hard enough to come over here with nothing, and getting papers was really hard. I want them not to worry about anything anymore. As much as I really, truly love being on a stage and songwriting and doing it all, it's for them. It's to give my mom her dream car, her dream house. Because they deserve it. They've worked so hard. As I was singing, I didn't know what the reaction was going to be because my in-ear monitors were in. I did not expect anything from this. Of course, my friends and family were there and calling and supportive, but so were celebrities like Kehlani, Becky G, George Lopez and [Los Angeles City] Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez. It was just as aggressive a response from the right side, but the love outweighed the hate. Morals are morals, and empathy is empathy. I have a lot of friends who are on the right side of the aisle politically, but they also realize that what's happening right now is wrong. Human beings are being caged up like animals, and that's not what God intended for us. I've loved seeing the people that I idolize stand up for what's right, and they're not getting backlash, and I hope that other artists feel like they can raise their voices too. A lot of families are undocumented, so I get the fear of not wanting to speak up. But I hope that younger generations really acknowledge that this country was built on immigrants, aka our parents. We've got to stand up right now. Looking at what I did and the outcome, I hope they see that the Latin community has our back, period. I know everyone who has had my back will also have their back.
Yahoo
30-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
The Dodgers told me not to sing the national anthem in Spanish. I knew in my heart that I had to.
Normally, the performance of the national anthem at a baseball game isn't major news. When the pop singer Nezza arrived at the Dodgers Stadium in Los Angeles on June 14, she was excited to perform the song in front of the crowd, then grab a hot dog and a Michelada and chill in the stands to watch the game. What happened instead knocked the wind out of her — and later made headlines nationwide. Given the audience demographics at the game and the ICE raids that have rocked Los Angeles, Nezza (whose full name is Vanessa Hernández) planned to perform "The Star-Spangled Banner" in Spanish to uplift the Latino community and honor the protests on "No Kings Day." She even practiced the version commissioned by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1945 to ensure that her performance was respectful. But as fans later saw in a viral video, the team told her on the day of her performance that it had other plans. She'd need to perform the anthem in English. Devastated, Nezza was faced with a choice: follow orders or raise her voice. She chose the latter. In doing so, she hopes she has inspired others to stand up and speak out. In an interview with Yahoo's Laura Bradley, the singer shares why she made the decision she did — and why she doesn't consider it an act of rebellion but a gesture of love. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. Until that day, I'd never been involved in anything political. I'd never broken a rule in my life. But when a Dodgers rep told me I'd be singing the national anthem in English, I couldn't breathe. I felt like the wind had been knocked out of me. Immediately, I was clenching my teeth from crying. About a month prior, my manager had asked if I wanted to perform the anthem at the Dodgers game. I was already scheduled to sing for the A's, which felt really cool because they're one of my hometown teams. So I agreed to perform on June 14. At that time, I was unaware of what would lead up to that day in Los Angeles: ICE raids, protests and, eventually, the National Guard. Both of my parents are immigrants who are now U.S. citizens. Watching those videos we've seen of families being ripped apart is gut-wrenching. I can't imagine my parents getting ripped away from me. Where would I be today had they not come over here and had that struggle in the beginning? I'd planned to sing in Spanglish at the Dodgers game until my friend pointed out a few days before that I would be performing on "No Kings Day." Eighty percent of the people in the stands would be Latino. There was no way I could go out there and sing the anthem fully in English on that day of all days. So I stayed up all night for two days straight learning the whole version of 'El Pendón Estrellado,' the Spanish-language version of the national anthem that President Franklin D. Roosevelt commissioned in 1945. It wasn't meant to be disrespectful because the lyrics and the storyline are near the same, the melodies are the same. It was supposed to be an uplifting gesture for my community. I thought I was fully welcome to do this. In our emails leading up to my performance, no one with the Dodgers had told me I couldn't sing in Spanish. When I'd suggested I sing the national anthem in both languages, they only said I would have just 90 seconds — not enough time to sing two songs. No one previously ever said, 'We'd prefer you to do it in English.' It could have been such an easy, simple email. But obviously now, knowing everything I do, I know they were avoiding the topic. When they said I had to sing in English, I just honestly couldn't believe it. Everyone could see it in my face. It was pure shock. The only reason we captured that moment on video is because my boyfriend was filming my sound check, and he happened to still be standing there recording when the Dodgers rep walked in. When I told her I wasn't comfortable performing in English, she walked away to give us some private time to discuss. I bawled my eyes out. There was no way I was doing it in English. I asked my manager, 'Do I leave? Do I walk out?' He supported me to do whatever I needed to do to support my community. My boyfriend agreed, but he also told me something else: You're gonna regret it for the rest of your life if you don't do this today. He was right. So I sucked in the tears. When the rep came back about an hour before my performance, she made sure I sang the whole song in English. Then, I think I spent literally 45 minutes in the bathroom stall — shaking, freaking out, just trying to gain the confidence to do what I needed to do. Because again, none of this is me. It's not my personality at all. I hate getting into trouble. It's my worst fear. When I got onto the field and sang in Spanish, I didn't feel rebellious. I was singing from a place of heartbreak, from a place of oppression. I don't know how I got myself to do it, because I've never done anything like that in my life. I just felt this fire from being told no. But it was a different kind of no. It wasn't like your parents saying, 'No, you can't have a cookie.' This was about something deep and personal, not just to me, but to most of the crowd in the stands that day. What reality are we living in where kids are being ripped away from their parents? When some people watch the video I posted of my Dodgers experience on TikTok, they say, 'Oh, she's crying because she got banned.' (Nezza has said the Dodgers told her she was not welcome back at the stadium following her performance. The Dodgers have stated publicly that Nezza is not banned from the stadium.) That's not it. I'm crying because I'm imagining my parents being ripped away from me at such a young age. At the end of the day, I was fighting for my parents. Everything I have in life is because of them. When we had nothing — like, nothing — somehow they were pulling pennies for my dance classes. It was already hard enough to come over here with nothing, and getting papers was really hard. I want them not to worry about anything anymore. As much as I really, truly love being on a stage and songwriting and doing it all, it's for them. It's to give my mom her dream car, her dream house. Because they deserve it. They've worked so hard. As I was singing, I didn't know what the reaction was going to be because my in-ear monitors were in. I did not expect anything from this. Of course, my friends and family were there and calling and supportive, but so were celebrities like Kehlani, Becky G, George Lopez and [Los Angeles City] Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez. It was just as aggressive a response from the right side, but the love outweighed the hate. Morals are morals, and empathy is empathy. I have a lot of friends who are on the right side of the aisle politically, but they also realize that what's happening right now is wrong. Human beings are being caged up like animals, and that's not what God intended for us. I've loved seeing the people that I idolize stand up for what's right, and they're not getting backlash, and I hope that other artists feel like they can raise their voices too. A lot of families are undocumented, so I get the fear of not wanting to speak up. But I hope that younger generations really acknowledge that this country was built on immigrants, aka our parents. We've got to stand up right now. Looking at what I did and the outcome, I hope they see that the Latin community has our back, period. I know everyone who has had my back will also have their back.
