Press Release: Salsa in the MIX 2012

Rain Couldn't Stop Puerto Rican Pride at Salsa in the MIX

Bronx, NY -- What A Great Turn Out at the Salsa in the Mix Festival on Saturday, July 28, 2012, where crowds of more than 2,000 filled Crotona Park! As the Puerto Rican flags were flying strong, so did the culture and pride of those that came to dance the afternoon away! None of the success would be possible without the artists who performed- Herencia De Plena, E.C., Papito Surcuatro, Phillip Anthony, Gemini, Kandelo, Young Raze, Artie and Legit, the list goes on and on! Great dance performances from The Tanima Dancers and The South Bronx Kids. The main headliners didn't get to perform because of the sudden downpour of rain in the final hour, but NiteLine Radio and DJ Solo Remix kept the party going on the ones and twos while broacasting live!

You Know You're Latino If...

You have ever been spanked with chancletas.
You have later been spanked with the plancha chord.
You know your mom is sneaking up on you because you can hear her chancletas on the linoleum floor.

Your mother yells at the top of her lungs to call you to dinner and you only live in a one bedroom apartment.
You can get to your house blindfolded by the smell of the chuletas.
You light a candle the night of the Lotto drawing.

You get scared whenever someone mentions "el cucuuuuiii".
You got to the Pulga or Swapmeet every weekend for gear. (Two points if you actually enjoy it!)
You have gone to Titi's house and passed through the beaded curtain in the living room.

You step into a house that has all those little figurines taking up every inch of space on/under the TV
You have a porcelain cat, dog, or elephant in your livingroom.
You have plastic slipcovers on your sofas... Full Story Here

Midwife births raise questions about citizenship

If you were delivered by a midwife...and you're Latino, you may not be considered American?

ALAMO, Texas - The citizenship of hundreds, possibly thousands, of people who insist they are Americans is being called into question because they were delivered by midwives near the U.S.-Mexico border.

The federal government's doubts have arisen as many people in the border region try to meet a June 1 deadline to obtain U.S. passports so they can freely cross from one country to the other.

The people delivered by midwives have documents such as birth certificates and medical records.

But the agency that grants passports is challenging the credibility of those papers, citing a history of some midwives fraudulently registering Mexican-born babies as American.

Looking over to our Mexican neighbors while driving on Eastbound

Interstate 8 in Imperial County, CA. The border is just at the electric power lines.

The passport applications being questioned include those of children of Mexican women who crossed the border to give birth in the United States, and even employees of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency who were born on the border and now work to protect it.

The government has "effectively reduced to second-class citizenship status an entire swath of passport applicants based solely on their being of Mexican or Latino descent and having been delivered by midwives in nonhospital settings in Southwestern border states," according to a federal lawsuit against the State Department filed last year in the border town of McAllen, about 120 miles south of Corpus Christi.

Full Story Here