September 2021
Volume 17 No. 10
Un Periódico Diferente / A Different Kind of Newspaper
Un Periódico Diferente / A Different Kind of Newspaper
Alvilda Sophia Anaya Alegría
Un Periódico Diferente / A Different Kind of Newspaper Jorell A. Meléndez Badillo
Voces de la Experiencia Puertorriqueña
Un Periódico Diferente / A Different Kind of Newspaper
Joaquín Villanueva
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Editorial / Editorial
contents
Voting is safe, easy and convenient. Vote September 21, 2021! MESSAGE FROM THE SECRETARY OF STATE, William Francis Galvin:
MENSAJE DEL SECRETARIO DE ESTADO, William Francis Galvin:
Dear Voter,
Estimado votante,
Voting in Massachusetts is safe, easy and convenient.
Votar en Massachusetts es seguro, fácil y conveniente.
State laws were recently changed to allow you to Las leyes estatales se cambiaron recientemente cast your September 21st City Preliminary Election para permitirle emitir su boleta, o papeleta, ballot by mail, with no excuse needed. electoral para las elecciones preliminares de If you prefer to vote in person, you can still vote at la ciudad del 21 de septiembre por correo, sin necesidad de proveer una excusa. your polling place on Election Day. If you would like ti vote by mail, you can print an application form from my website at www. MailMyBallotMA.com Apply soon! Your Vote by Mail application must reach your local election official by 5 pm, on Wednesday, September 15th.
Si prefiere votar en persona, aún puede votar en su lugar de votación el día de las elecciones. Si desea votar por correo, puede imprimir un formulario de solicitud desde mi sitio web en www. MailMyBallotMA.com ¡Aplica pronto! Su solicitud de Voto por Correo debe llegar a su funcionario electoral local antes de las 5 pm, el miércoles 15 de septiembre. Para más Información - Oficina del City Clerk de Holyoke
Por TELÉFONO: (413) 322-5520 En PERSONA: City Clerk Office, 536 Dwight Street 36 (alcaldía) - Room 2 LUNES – VIERNES - 8:30 A.M. - 4:30 P.M. Por CORREO: City Clerk, 536 Dwight Street - Holyoke, MA 01040 Por EMAIL: clerks@holyoke.org Fuente: Holyoke Media / Agosto 23, 2021
Latinx Journalism Matters Support Publishers of Color The impact of COVID-19 has been especially devastating for communities of color. Now, more than ever, independent, local journalism needs your support.
2 Editorial / Editorial Puerto Rico Religious Leader Stimulus Letter to Congress 3 Portada / Front Page Episodios de El Sol Latino Podcast 413 - Agosto 2021 4 2020 CENSUS Data Indicates that Puerto Rican Residents are no longer Identifying as “ White “ 5 Cambios Dramáticos en el Número de Puertorriqueños en la Isla que se Identifican como “Blancas” 6 Puerto Rico Men Charged with Hate Crimes for Shooting Transgender Woman with a Paintball Gun New Data on the Black-White Wealth Gap Before and During the Pandemic 7 $80 Million To Advance Racial and Ethnic Justice 8 Educación / Education STCC celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month Marisol Ramos joins the University of California Santa Barbara Library 9 UPR’s role in economic development in Puerto Rico: Research and Development 10 Partnership Brings CHD Clinical Services to HCC Campus 11 Libros / Books The Lettered Barriada 12 Arte / Art University of Massachusetts at Amherst Fine Arts Center Announces Line-Up for 2021/22 Performing and Visual Arts Season 13 Política / Politics UCLA receives funding for research resources on Latino policy 14 Medios /Media PBS Strengthens Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion 15 Salud / Health Más Embarazadas con COVID en Cuidados Intensivos, Expertos Enfatizan que Deben Vacunarse
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Volume 17, No. 10 ! September 2021
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Manuel Frau Ramos manuelfrau@gmail.com 413-320-3826 Assistant Editor Ingrid Estrany-Frau Art Director Tennessee Media Design Business Address El Sol Latino P.O Box 572 Amherst, MA 01004-0572
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El Sol Latino acepta colaboraciones tanto en español como en inglés. Nos comprometemos a examinarlas, pero no necesariamente a publicarlas. Nos reservamos el derecho de editar los textos y hacer correcciones por razones de espacio y/o estilo. Las colaboraciones pueden ser enviadas a nuestra dirección postal o a través de correo electrónico a: info@elsollatino.net. El Sol Latino welcomes submissions in either English or Spanish. We consider and review all submissions but reserve the right to not publish them. We reserve the right to edit texts and make corrections for reasons of space and/or style. Submissions may be sent to our postal address or via electronic mail to: info@elsollatino.net. El Sol Latino is published monthly by Coquí Media Group. El Sol Latino es publicado mensualmente por Coquí Media Group, P.O Box 572, Amherst, MA 01004-0572.
UNIVERSITY OF AMHERST Announces Line Performin Season
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Episodios de El Sol Latino Podcast 413 - Agosto 2021 Esta es la lista de los episodios producidos grabados el mes de agosto de 2021. Todos los episodios del Podcast 413 están accesibles en la página web de Holyoke Media (holyokemedia.org/programming/public-programmingarchive) al igual que en su página de Facebook y en su canal de YouTube. También se pueden ver en la página de Facebook de El Sol Latino. Episodio #62 – Agosto 11, 2021 Artista Alvilda Sophia Anaya Alegría (Galerialalvilda.com / alvilda.anaya@gmail.com).
MASSACHUSETTS AT Tema - La Gestión Cultural T FINE ARTS CENTER en Tiempos de Pandemia e-Up for 2021/22 Alvilda Sophia Anaya Alegría, el orgullo de la ng and Visual Arts ciudad de Guayama es un conocida artista de arte contemporáneo, expresionismo abstracto e instalaciones visuales y profesora universitaria . Anaya-Alegría tiene una maestría en economía de Southern University of New Hampshire y por muchos años fue profesora de Economía y de Arte en Cambridge College, y de Desarrollo Económico en Springfield College. Bomba de Guayama, Puerto Rico.
Estudió con el renombrado artista de acuarelas Bombero Rafael Velázquez. Óleo Richard Yarde y con Selina Trieff, arte moderno, y Acrylico en Lino en Fine Arts Work Center en Provincetown, MA. Fué alumna el renombrado maestro de vitrales (stained glass art) y restaurador Matías Arroyo en Theophilus Art Center, Guayama, Puerto Rico. Anaya-Alegría fue premiada por su mural “Dulce Sueño Regresa a su Plaza” el cual fue exhibido en el Fine Arts Center, University Gallery, en la Universidad de Massachusetts en Amherst.
En el 2018, la artista, junto al historiador y educador de Museos del Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña (ICP), Aníbal Ernesto Rodríguez Ayala, (ICP), organizaron de la exitosa exhibición Museo Casa Cautiño-Insúa: Romance, Arquitectura y Economía en El Wistariahurst Museum en Holyoke, Massachusetts. Este año 2021, Anaya-Alegría fue una de las 20 artistas que recibieron asistencia financiera a través del programa ValleyCreates del Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts. El mini-subsidio d tiene el propósito de ayudar a los artistas locales a navegar la difícil situación de la pandemia del COVID19. En julio de 2021, la propuesta artística de un mural de arte mosaico de Michelle Falcón Fontánez (Boston, MA) y Alvilda Sophia Anaya-Alegría fue una de las 8 propuestas seleccionadas del SPark! Igniting Our Community Public Art en Pynchon Plaza, en Springfield, MA.
anarquismo en Puerto Rico (Secret Sailor Books, 2013 y co-editor de Without Borders or Limits: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Anarchist Studies (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013). Entre sus nuevos trabajos se encuentran: (1) The Lettered Barriada: Workers, Archival Power, and the Politics of Knowledge in Puerto Rico (Duke University Press, Nov. 2021). Narra la historia de cómo un puñado de trabajadores autodidactas fueron capaces de producir saberes dentro de sus talleres y uniones en los márgenes de la elite cultural e intelectual puertorriqueña, para luego convertirse en políticos y hombres de estados muy respetados. Aun así, al seguir este grupo de intelectuales en harapos, el libro también demuestra cómo operaban las técnicas de silenciamiento y exclusión racial y de género. En fin, es un libro sobre las intersecciones entre la política, los saberes y las relaciones de poder en la producción intelectual obrera a principios del siglo XX. (2) Páginas libres: breve antología del pensamiento anarquista en Puerto Rico (Editorial Educación Emergente, 2021). Breve antología del pensamiento anarquista en Puerto Rico (1900-1919) que suma hilos a una recuperación histórica imprescindible en nuestro país. Con el junte de textos de Venancio Cruz, Luisa Capetillo, Juan Vilar, Juan José López y Ángel María Dieppa esta nueva entrega de la serie Otra Universidad pone en circulación ideas, conexiones, aciertos y silencios de y sobre nuestrxs anarquistas. Así abona la genealogía de esta ignorada propuesta política en nuestro archipiélago y sus filiaciones tanto locales como internacionales. Episodio #64– Agosto 16, 2021 Profesor Joaquín Villanueva jvillanu@gustavus.edu / www.ricanstudies.com / ricanstudies@gmail.com
Temas - El Futuro de Puerto Rican Studies Asociation - Los orígenes de la crisis de la deuda en Puerto Rico El Dr. Joaquín Villanueva es Profesor Asociado de Geografía y Peace Studies en Gustavus Adolphus College, MN. Villanuava es nuevo presidente de la Puerto Rican Studies Association (PRSA), organización interdisciplinaria que promueve el desarrollo y la circulación del conocimiento sobre Puerto Rico y su Diáspora. La PRSA. (PRSA) es una organización sin fines de lucro fundada en White Plains, Nueva York, en 1992. Reúne a académicos, educadores, expertos en políticas públicas, comunidad activistas y estudiantes cuyo trabajo se centra, al menos parcialmente, en Puerto Rico, los puertorriqueños en Estados Unidos o ambos.
Episodio #63– Agosto 18, 2021 Profesor Jorell Meléndez Badillo Jorell.A.Melendez-Badillo@Dartmouth.edu
Tema - The Lettered Barriada: Workers, Archival Power, and the Politics of Knowledge in Puerto Rico. (Duke University Press, Nov. 2021) Dr. Jorell Meléndez Badillo es Catedrático Auxiliar de Historia en Dartmouth College. Tiene un Doctorado en Historia Latino Americana de Connecticut University. Meléndez-Badillo es historiador de América Latina y el Caribe con un enfoque particular en la circulación global de ideas radicales desde el punto de vista de las comunidades intelectuales de la clase trabajadora. Meléndez Badillo es autor de Voces libertarias: Los orígenes del
Logo de la Puerto Rican Studies Association. Diseño de Daniel J. Vázquez Sanabria.
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2020 CENSUS Data Indicates that Puerto Rican Residents are no longer Identifying as “White” NEW YORK, NY | CENTER FOR PUERTO RICAN STUDIES at HUNTER COLLEGE - CUNY | August 17, 2021 – Newly released 2020 census data shows a dramatic decline in the number of Puerto Rican residents who selfidentified as White going from 75.8% in 2010 to 17.1% in 2020 — a drop of 80%. A new study in the journal American Anthropologist by Dr. Yarimar Bonilla (Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College-CUNY) and Dr. Isar Godreau (Institute for Interdisciplinary Research at the University of Puerto Rico—Cayey) provides insight into the numbers.
The findings offer new insight into how political status and state agencies shape racial perceptions. “Governments do not only produce infrastructure and bureaucracy. They also produce racial identities,” explained Bonilla. The researchers argue that cuts in public funds for educational and cultural programs, as well as the inability of a financially strapped government to carry out its own census (which until the year 2000 did not include a question about race), resulted in weakened narratives of mestizaje and color-blindness. “The economic crisis meant that there were no funds with which to produce state-sponsored narratives about race-mixture and blanqueamiento.” explained Godreau. In the study, the authors predicted that recent events would further transform Puerto Rican racial identities. “The federal response after Hurricane Maria, the global resonance of the Black Lives Matter movement, and local antiracist efforts have all pushed Puerto Ricans away from identifying with the normative kind of whiteness that is associated with the US census,” said Godreau.
Dr. Yarimar Bonilla (Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College-CUNY)
Although the study focused solely on residents of Puerto Rico, the findings help understand the move towards mixed race identification among Latinos within the fifty states as well. “During the Trump administration it was made clear to Latinos that they were not considered white by federal agencies— this includes the Census Bureau,” explained Bonilla.
Researchers attributed the decline in identification with whiteness to the island’s economic and political crisis. “We argue that in the wake of both Puerto Rico’s debt crisis and Hurricane Maria, residents gained a new awareness about their place within the racial formation of the United States,” said Bonilla. Among those surveyed 68% categorized Puerto Rico as a US colony. “That awareness challenges the notion of being white,” said Bonilla who was recently appointed director of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College.
For her part, Dr. Mariluz Franco Oritz, who is also a researcher at the Institute for Interdisciplinary Research and a member of the anti-racist group Colectivo Ilé, highlighted the impact of community and grassroots organizations within Puerto Rico on the census results. “We launched a public campaign to encourage Puerto Ricans to affirm their blackness and avoid whitening themselves in the 2020 census. We see the newly released Census data as an affirmation of our success and a recognition that racial identification is a political act” she said.
The study is based on a 2016 survey of more than 1,000 people in 9 municipalities in Puerto Rico. The newly released Census data affirms the findings. However, unlike the census, the anthropological study utilized an open-ended question format that allowed respondents to answer freely, allowing the researchers to not just document responses but also probe further about the context behind shifting attitudes.
The researchers stressed that their findings should be interpreted with caution. “This does not mean that Puerto Rico is a less racist society,” said Dr. Franco-Ortiz. All three scholars agreed that whiteness as an ideal is still highly valued in Puerto Rico and that there is still much work to be done to dismantle racial inequalities and anti-black racism within Puerto Rico. “The events of the last decade have transformed how Puerto Ricans understand their place within the racial fabric of the United States” said Bonilla, “but there is still much work to be done to recognize and address our own internal prejudices and racial hierarchies.”
“Among those who identified as white, nearly half tended to qualify their answers by clarifying that they were “white Latinos” or “Puerto Rican whites” —thus recognizing that there is an normative white group, to which local residents do not feel they belong,” explained Isar Godreau from the Institute of Interdisciplinary Research at the University of Puerto Rico-Cayey. The researchers also found a direct correlation between age and racial identification with 33% of those over 77 identifying as white as opposed to 9% of those under 24, suggesting that whiteness is an identity on the decline.
The complete study “Nonsovereign Racecraft: How Colonialism, Debt, and Disaster are Transforming Puerto Rican Racial Subjectivities” can be found on the American Anthropologist website anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley. com/doi/abs/10.1111/aman.13601
Episodios de El Sol Latino Podcast 413 - Agosto 2021 continued from previous page Desde 1994, PRSA ha organizado una Conferencia Bienal en la que sus miembros presentan sus últimos trabajos en investigación académica y aplicada, pedagogía, artes creativas y activismo comunitario. En el 2020, la PRSA celebró su cuarta conferencia en el oeste de Massachusetts la cual fue organizada por UMass-Amherst con la colaboración de Amherst College, Hampshire College y Holyoke Community College.
de París han tendido a concentrar altas tasas de pobreza, desempleo y delincuencia entre una población, la mayoría de origen inmigrante, que no ha podido integrarse plenamente a Francia..
El Dr. Villanueva tiene un B.A. de la Universidad de Puerto Rico Río Piedras. Concentración en Italiano y Francés con una sub-concentración en Geografía. Tiene una maestría y doctorado del Departamento de Geografía de la Universidad de Syracuse.
Recientemente ha comenzando un nuevo proyecto que explora los orígenes de la crisis de la deuda en Puerto Rico. Basándose en el trabajo revolucionario de Frantz Fanon, el proyecto explora la transformación del paisaje urbano por parte de la Junta de Planificación de Puerto Rico en la década de 1940 y como esta, desde sus inicios, diseñó ciudades que privilegiaban la urbanización del capital y la alienación de los miserables de la tierra.
En su tesis doctoral, Villanueva estudia las políticas contemporáneas de control del crimen implementadas en vecindarios desfavorecidos en las afueras de París. Las urbanizaciones sociales ubicadas en las afueras
Enseña cursos de geografía humana: geografía regional mundial; introducción a la geografía humana; geografía urbana; geografía política; geografía de paz, crimen y violencia; y geografía deportiva.
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Cambios Dramáticos en el Número de Puertorriqueños en la Isla que se Identifican como “Blancas” CAYEY, PR | UNIVERSIDAD DE PUERTO RICO - CAYEY) | Julio 17, 2021 - El Instituto de Investigaciones Interdisciplinarias de la Universidad de Puerto Rico en Cayey (UPR-Cayey) reveló el 17 de julio los resultados de una investigación realizada por la Dra. Isar Godreau, investigadora de este instituto y la Dra. Yarimar Bonilla del Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños de Hunter College-CUNY con el propósito de explicar la dramática caída en la tasa de personas que se auto-identificaron como blancos en el Censo de 2020. El estudio fue publicado en la prestigiosa revista American Anthropologist. “Los resultados del censo del 2020 Dra. Isar Godreau demuestran que hay una dramática reducción en la cantidad de personas que se autoidentificaron como “blancas” en Puerto Rico. De nuestra parte, desarrollamos una investigación para evaluar el impacto de la crisis fiscal y colonial de Puerto Rico en la percepción racial de los puertorriqueños, y obtuvimos resultados que son cónsonos y ayudan a explicar las sorprendentes cifras del censo del 2020. La investigación reflejó tendencias muy similares a las del censo, pues solo un 20% de los encuestados dijeron ser blancos. El estudio parte de una encuesta realizada en el 2016 a más de 1,000 personas en nueve municipios de Puerto Rico. A diferencia del censo, esta investigación incluyó una pregunta abierta que le permitía a los encuestados contestar libremente cuál es su identidad racial”, explicó la Dra. Godreau, quien es antropóloga. Recientemente, el censo realizado en la Isla reportó que la cantidad de personas que se auto-identificaron como blancas solamente bajó de un 75.8% en el 2010 a un 17.1% en el 2020. Mientras, hubo un aumento significativo de personas que escogieron más de una raza, de 3% en el 2010 a un 50% en el 2020. En el 2000, la cantidad de personas que se identificó como blanca fue de un 80.5%, lo cual hace aún más sorprendente la reducción a 17% en sólo dos décadas. “La poca cantidad de personas que dijeron ser blancas en el 2016, se puede explicar a través de dos factores importantes: el recrudecimiento del estatus colonial en Puerto Rico y la bancarrota del ELA. Por ejemplo, el 68% de los encuestados afirmó que Puerto Rico era una colonia. Esa conciencia pone en tela de juicio la noción de ser blanco”, expresó la Dra. Yarimar Bonilla, quien recientemente fue nombrada directora del Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños en Hunter College-CUNY. Según la Dra. Godreau, “casi la mitad de los participantes del estudio que se identificaron como blancos, le ponían un apellido al término, indicando que eran Blancos Hispanos,Blancos Latinos o Blancos Puertorriqueños. Esto sugiere un deseo de distinguirse de una blancura normativa estadounidense”. Ambas investigadoras coinciden en que esta tendencia de cualificar la blancura es afín con el patrón de respuesta de un nutrido grupo de personas (42%) que escogió blanco junto a otra categoría racial en el censo. “Algunos pudieran atribuir estos cambios en los resultados del censo a la migración. Sin embargo, la migración no es la única razón. Los puertorriqueños llevan décadas migrando y las olas migratorias anteriores
no tuvieron el mismo efecto. Lo que ocurre en este momento de bancarrota es que la colonia es más evidente y el ELA tiene menos recursos para encubrirla. La gente se va porque el gobierno no tiene fondos para proveer servicios ni las condiciones para que se queden. Del mismo modo, tampoco hay fondos para producir programación educativa, televisiva o cultural o un censo criollo que nos convenza de qué blancura criolla del jíbaro nos representa. La noción de que la identidad racial de los puertorriqueños es autóctona y que lo que se considera blanco o negro en Puerto Rico no tiene nada que ver con la ideología racial y racista estadounidense ya no es sostenible”, opinó la Dra. Godreau. De su parte, la Dra Bonilla analizó que, “los gobiernos no solo producen infraestructura y burocracia. También producen identidades. Nosotras encontramos una relación directa entre edad e identidad: las personas de edad avanzada, quienes crecieron con los discursos raciales del Estado Libre Asociado pre-quiebra, eran mucho más dadas a identificarse como blancos, que los jóvenes que se han criado bajo un estado racial en bancarrota”. Luego de la encuesta realizada en el 2016, se sumaron otros factores que las autoras pronosticaron que agudizarían las tendencias de su estudio. “El maltrato y mal manejo del gobierno federal luego del Huracán María, las políticas de Donald Trump, el efecto del movimiento de Las Vidas Negras Importan (Black Lives Matter) y otros esfuerzos antirracistas locales han sacudido el mito de la blancura criolla”, sentenció Godreau. Por su parte, la Dra. Mariluz Franco Oritz, quien también es investigadora del Instituto de Investigaciones Interdisciplinarias y parte del Colectivo Ilé, destacó el impacto que han tenido los esfuerzos realizados por organizaciones comunitarias y de base. “El Colectivo Ilé, en alianza con más de 50 organizaciones, lanzó una campaña sobre el Censo en el 2020 para que los puertorriqueños y puertorriqueñas afirmaran su negritud o afrodescendencia y evitaran blanquearse en el censo. Es clave entender la identidad racial como identidad política para visibilizar que todavía existe el racismo. Celebramos que nuestra campaña haya contribuido a detener el patrón racial de blanqueamiento como resultado del racismo en su expresión personal, institucional y cultural”, afirmó la doctora Franco Ortiz. Las tres investigadoras afiliadas al Instituto de Investigaciones Interdisciplinarias coinciden en que todos estos factores se conjugaron en una expresión contundente que declara que los puertorriqueños ya no se piensan tan blancos como antes a la hora de contestar el censo. “Esto no quiere decir que seamos menos racistas”, dijo la Dra. Franco-Ortiz. Las tres estudiosas coinciden en que todavía queda mucho trabajo por hacer. “Los resultados del censo apuntan a un cambio significativo en cómo los puertorriqueños se posicionan vis a vis el marco federal racial de los Estados Unidos. Pero todavía hay que seguir desmantelando los patrones de empobrecimiento racial, el sesgo anti-negro institucional y el discrimen racial vigente entre nosotros”, concluyó Godreau. La referencia completa del estudio “Nonsovereign Racecraft: How Colonialism, Debt, and Disaster are Transforming Puerto Rican Racial Subjectivities” y otras publicaciones relacionadas al estudio pueden accederse a través de la página del Instituto de Investigaciones Interdisciplinarias de la UPR- Cayey y a través del enlace: https://yarimarbonilla.com/project/nonsovereign-racecraft
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Puerto Rico Men Charged with Hate Crimes for Shooting Transgender Woman with a Paintball Gun Washington, DC | U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE - Office of Public Affairs | August 6, 2021 – A federal grand jury in San Juan, Puerto Rico, returned a three-count indictment charging Jordany Rafael Laboy García, Christian Yamaurie Rivera Otero and Anthony Steven Lobos Ruiz with hate crimes for assaulting a transgender woman because of her gender identity. Rivera Otero and Lobos Ruiz were also charged with obstruction of justice. The indictment alleges that on Feb. 24, 2020, Laboy García, Rivera Otero and Lobos Ruiz were traveling in a car when they recognized the victim on the side of the road in Toa Baja, Puerto Rico. According to the indictment, the conspirators recognized the victim from social media posts previously identifying her as a man who entered the women’s restroom at a local restaurant. After identifying her, Laboy García, Rivera Otero and Lobos Ruiz verbally harassed the victim. The three men then drove to get a paintball gun and paintballs to be used to shoot at the victim. The men returned to the same place where they had spotted the victim and fired paintballs at her. During both encounters, the men used a cell phone to record their actions. The men then shared these recordings with others. The indictment further alleges that after the alleged assault, Rivera Otero directed Lobos Ruiz to delete at least one video recording of the paintball gun assault and
verbal harassment of the victim from his cellular phone, and that Lobos Ruiz, in response, did so. If convicted, the defendants face a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison for the hate crime charge, five years in prison for the conspiracy charge, and a fine up to $250,000 with respect to each charge. If convicted, Rivera Otero and Lobos Ruiz also face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a fine up to $250,000 for the obstruction of justice charge. The case is being investigated by the San Juan Field Office of the FBI. The case is being prosecuted by Special Litigation Counsel Rose E. Gibson and Trial Attorney Laura B. Gilson of the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division along with Assistant U.S. Attorney José A. Contreras of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Puerto Rico. The indictment was announced by Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, W. Stephen Muldrow, U.S. Attorney for the District of Puerto Rico and Special Agent in Charge Joseph González for the FBI’s San Juan Field Office. An indictment is merely an allegation, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilt
New Data on the Black-White Wealth Gap Before and During the Pandemic Washington, DC | CENTER FOR AMERICAN PROGRESS | July 28, 2021— A new analysis from the Center for American Progress shows that the long-standing Black-white wealth gap hurt Black households’ ability to weather the COVID-19 pandemic. It also describes how, without policy interventions, the pandemic may lead to a widening of the wealth gap between Black and white Americans.
s The fortunes of Black and white homeowners diverged during the pandemic. A much larger share of Black homeowners than white homeowners—17.6 percent versus 6.9 percent—fell behind on their mortgage from August 2020 to March 2021.
Even before the pandemic, centuries of policy choices by federal, state, and local governments led to the typical Black household holding just one-tenth of the wealth of the typical white household. In “Wealth Matters: The BlackWhite Wealth Gap Before and During the Pandemic,” authors Christian E. Weller and Richard Figueroa find that during the pandemic, Black households faced more financial emergencies with fewer economic resources, resulting in a widening gap in economic opportunity between Black and white households.
s Among Black households that borrowed from family and friends, 43.9 percent canceled their postsecondary plans, and another 12.9 percent decided to take fewer classes. In comparison, 29.1 percent of white households that mainly used their income for expenses decided to cancel their postsecondary plans, and another 10.1 percent decided to take fewer classes. Again, less access to emergency savings often translates to more borrowing from friends and family, fewer future opportunities, and less economic mobility for Black households, compared with white households.
Key findings include: s Many more white households than Black households were able to use their savings during the pandemic to fill financial gaps left by job losses and/or higher health care costs. While 45.9 percent of white households that saw a drop in job-related income used their savings to pay for current expenses, only 30.6 percent of Black households did so. Similarly, more white households than Black households—28.5 percent versus 18.8 percent —used their savings when they were out of work due to health reasons. s During the pandemic, a higher percentage of Black households had to borrow money than white households. For example, 44.5 percent of white households that used savings to pay for expenses also borrowed on credit cards, and 16.1 percent borrowed from family and friends. In comparison, more Black households in this situation borrowed money, with 45.8 percent taking out loans and 28.5 percent borrowing from family and friends. Essentially, Black households substituted more debt for limited emergency savings, widening the wealth gap between typical Black and white families.
s Homeownership among African Americans grew more slowly than it did for white households during the pandemic. Black Americans were less able to take advantage of historically low interest rates. The Black homeownership rate stood at 44.1 percent by the end of 2020, almost equal to the 44 percent rate at the end of 2019. In comparison, the white homeownership rate rose from 73.7 percent to 74.5 percent during the same time period. Simply put, Black households faced more obstacles to becoming and staying homeowners because they had less money to fall back on.
The new CAP analysis makes the case that given the sheer size of the Black-white wealth gap, it would take a wide range of policy measures across an extended period of time to eliminate it, including direct targeted financial transfers to African Americans to overcome their inherent wealth disadvantages across generations. The brief also takes a look at steps the Biden administration can take to close the racial wealth gap, based on the National Advisory Council on Eliminating the Black-White Wealth Gap’s work over the course of 2020.Those solutions include: s )MPROVING ACCESS TO UNBANKED AND UNDERBANKED HOUSEHOLDS THROUGH postal banking s )NCREASING ACCESS TO FEDERAL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT FUNDING FOR "LACK innovators and inventors s 0ROVIDING ADDITIONAL SUPPORT FOR "LACK ENTREPRENEURS TO START AND GROW their businesses continued on page 14
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$80 Million To Advance Racial and Ethnic Justice Chicago, IL | MacArthur Foundation | July 27, 2021— MacArthur announced roughly $80 million in grants centered on advancing racial and ethnic justice. The Equitable Recovery grants are funded by MacArthur’s social bonds, issued in response to the crises of the pandemic and racial inequity. “As we emerge from this moment of crisis, we have an opportunity to improve the critical systems that people and places need to thrive. Our systems and structures must be rebuilt,” said MacArthur President John Palfrey. “We are committed to ensuring that our response to the pandemic is focused on supporting the reimagining of systems that create a more just, equitable, and resilient world.” MacArthur is supporting work in four areas:
Self-determination of Indigenous Peoples
In Self-determination of Indigenous Peoples, MacArthur approved 15 grants totaling $16 million to organizations including: s #ULTURAL 3URVIVAL WILL RECEIVE TO SUPPORT ITS WORK FOR A FUTURE THAT respects and honors Indigenous peoples’ inherent rights and dynamic cultures and empowers Indigenous peoples to pursue their selfdetermination and sustain their lands, cultures, and ecosystems. s !LLIED -EDIA 0ROJECTS WILL RECEIVE MILLION FOR THE $ECOLONIZING 7EALTH Project, which will increase investment in Native American-led and -serving organizations that focus on issues such as self-determination, climate change, and COVID-19 recovery.
s 2ACIAL *USTICE &IELD 3UPPORT WITH A FOCUS ON COMBATTING ANTI "LACKNESS supports building Black power by supporting Black-led and -focused philanthropic organizations. MacArthur also will take a leadership role in positioning reparations and racial healing as issues that philanthropy helps to meaningfully address.
s .ATIVE "IO$ATA #ONSORTIUM WHICH IS LED BY )NDIGENOUS BIOMEDICAL scientists and governed by a board and community advisory group that includes tribal experts in precision health, technology, law, policy, business, ethics, and cultural matters—will receive $2 million to use health data for quality-of-life improvement and to ensure that advances in genetics and health research benefit all Indigenous people.
s 3ELF DETERMINATION OF )NDIGENOUS 0EOPLES SUPPORTS UPLIFTING )NDIGENOUS communities to enable autonomous pursuit of a recovery guided by their priorities, cultures, and practices.
Public Health Equity and COVID-19 Mitigation
s 0UBLIC (EALTH %QUITY AND #/6)$ -ITIGATION AND 2ECOVERY SUPPORTS improving access to resources for immediate health challenges while advancing new policies, models, and structures to support a more equitable and resilient public health sector in the future.
s (EALTHCARE 2EADY WILL RECEIVE WHICH IT WILL USE TO MAKE THE 5 3 healthcare supply chain more resilient to disruptions and to promote an equitable response, especially in communities of color.
s !N %QUITABLE (OUSING $EMONSTRATION 0ROJECT SUPPORTS RESTORING communities and reducing incarceration and housing instability by generating an array of housing solutions that can help to permanently end the use of jails and prisons as housing of last resort. MacArthur identified the areas through a participatory process with a diverse group of external advisors, who informed our strategic approach. Our participatory process aimed to center the voices of communities that are affected by our decisions and have a stake in our grantmaking outcomes.
In Public Health Equity and COVID-19 Mitigation, MacArthur approved 35 grants totaling $22 million to organizations including:
s ,ATINO 0OLICY &ORUM WILL RECEIVE WHICH IT WILL USE ADVANCE A Illinois racial equity reform agenda and to support Illinois Unidos, a collaborative COVID-19 vaccine access and public health initiative. s 3OCIO ,EGAL )NFORMATION #ENTRE WILL RECEIVE MILLION TO HELP PUBLIC AND community organizations in ten states in India build awareness and learning about healthcare and other social protections associated with COVID-19 relief and recovery.
Almost two-thirds of the awards represent new grantee relationships, and most of the organizations are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color-led or -serving. The grants also reflect MacArthur’s global reach: 45 percent of the new funding supports work outside of the U.S., including 12 percent in India, and 14 percent in Nigeria, where MacArthur has offices.
Racial Justice Field Support
In Racial Justice Field Support, MacArthur approved 37 grants totaling $36 million to organizations including: s )NSTITUTE OF THE "LACK 7ORLD ST #ENTURY )"7 WILL RECEIVE million to build the capacity and power of Black communities in the U.S. and globally to work on cultural, social, economic, and political upliftment, including support for the National African American Reparations Commission. IBW-21 will serve as the fiscal sponsor for National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations (N’COBRA), which will receive $1.5 million for non-lobbying activities to support the movement for reparations for people of African descent in the United States and the global Black diaspora. s ,%!0 !FRICA WILL RECEIVE MILLION TO CREATE THE .IGERIA 9OUTH &UTURES Fund in partnership with the Ford Foundation, to build on momentum from the youth-led #ENDSARS movement and to inspire, empower, and equip a new cadre of leaders with skills for personal, organizational, and community transformation. s 4HE "ARACK /BAMA &OUNDATION WILL RECEIVE MILLION TO DEVELOP programming space within the Obama Presidential Center that will focus on leadership training, racial healing, and civic engagement on Chicago’s South Side.
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biingüe arte, cultura, media politics Natalia Muñoz
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Educación / Education
STCC celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month SPRINGFIELD, MA | SPRINGFIELD TECHNICAL COMMUNITY COLLEGE | August 13, 2021 – Springfield Technical Community College (STCC) will celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month with planned events, including the kickoff of the college’s popular Heart of a Man virtual series. The first of the fall Heart of a Man series is scheduled on Oct. 14, with a Zoom Webinar titled Con Todo Corazón: Perspectives on Healthy Masculinity.
El Sol Latino September 2021
“We’re thrilled to bring back the Heart of a Man series this fall,” Breunig said. “The series is relevant to what’s happening in our community and across the country in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. Each segment generates engaging and thoughtful discussion.”
Heart of a Man is a virtual series engaging men in dialogue on topics of identity, gender stereotypes, interpersonal violence, race, politics and social justice. Each event features a panel of men from diverse backgrounds, professions and experiences who will share their stories and engage in dialogue with participants.
STCC, a federally designated Hispanic Serving Institution, serves a diverse population of students, including about 30 percent of whom identify as Hispanic.
Open to students and the public, the series is an opportunity to hear community leaders and campus members share their stories about how men engage from the heart in creating healthy relationships, healthy communities, and platforms for social change.
Interested in applying to STCC? Visit stcc.edu/apply or call Admissions at (413) 755-3333.
“The series was created to engage men in very important conversations that impact communities of color as well as provide a space to connect students who are men with leaders in our community,” said Vonetta Lightfoot, Multicultural Affairs operation manager, and one of the series’ creators. Cynthia Breunig, Violence Prevention Coordinator at STCC and a co-creator of the series, said the first event for the fall will focus on Hispanic Heritage Month, which runs Sept. 15-Oct. 15.
Vice President of Student Affairs Darcey Kemp said the college is planning other events to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month. The events will be announced around the beginning of the fall semester on Sept. 7.
Springfield Technical Community College, the Commonwealth’s only technical community college, continues the pioneering legacy of the Springfield Armory with comprehensive and technical education in manufacturing, STEM, healthcare, business, social services, and the liberal arts. STCC’s highly regarded workforce, certificate, degree, and transfer programs are the most affordable in Springfield and provide unequalled opportunity for the vitality of Western Massachusetts.
Marisol Ramos joins the University of California Santa Barbara Library SANTA BARBARA, CA | UC SANTA BARBARA –LIBRARY | August 9, 2021- Marisol Ramos joined the UCSB Library last year as the subject librarian for Latin American and Iberian Studies, Spanish and Portuguese, and Chicana/o Studies. She made the move to the West Coast from the University of Connecticut, where she served for 13 years as the librarian for Latina/o, Caribbean, and Latin American Studies, Spanish, Anthropology, and Sociology, and curated their Latina/o, Latin American & Caribbean Collections. Ramos became fascinated by history while growing up in Puerto Rico, where she earned her BA in Anthropology from the University of Puerto Rico. She was particularly interested in the question of irrigation for the island nation and the importance of water for civilizations, so she applied for graduate school at SUNY Albany, where she earned her MA in Latin American and Caribbean Studies in 1997. While in Los Angeles trying to figure out what type of job she would pursue, she considered becoming a librarian and applied to UCLA in 1999, where she graduated with her MLIS, though ended up working initially as an archivist. “I was looking for a job, but what I encountered was a career,” she said.
Ricky Renuncia Project, which seeks to document the July 2019 protests calling for the resignation of Puerto Rican Governor Ricardo Rosselló through Tweets, photographs, and videos. Her hope is that this project can serve as a model others can use to document movements that play out on social media. Ramos is also pursuing a number of projects outside of her work at the Library. She is the lead editor of a book about Puerto Rican anthropology, which began in 2016 but was delayed due to Hurricane Maria, earthquakes on the island, and the pandemic-induced financial crisis.
MARISOL RAMOS
When released, she wants this project to be in English and challenge common outsider perceptions of Puerto Rico. Ramos is also pursuing her doctorate and hopes to complete her dissertation this year.
Fluent in both Spanish and English, she started working at the Los Angeles Public Library, specializing in Marine Sciences. After experiencing the large Mexican and Hispanophone community in LA, she applied to attend the Guadalajara Book Fair, one of the largest in Latin America. Ramos says that all of her experiences and degrees have honed her skills as a Latin American specialist.
“My experience as a student and as a scholar helps to make me a better librarian and archivist,” she said.
Coming to UCSB, Ramos is interested in connecting primary sources to the classroom, putting more small presses for Indigenous groups into the spotlight, and adding more primary sources to the Library collections.
After spending her first year at UCSB online, she’s most excited to meet the community face-to-face.
Ramos’s work is not limited to the past but is also centered on current geopolitical events. Starting while she was at the University of Connecticut and in collaboration with the University of Maryland, Ramos worked with the
Outside of her research, Ramos loves to relax with manga, science fiction, and Afro-futurism literature. She also loves spending time at the beach, hiking, cooking, and being outdoors.
On COVID, Ramos said, “It’s really hard to connect with people when you’re in Zoom. It’s just not the same as eating together, drinking together, laughing… I’m finally going to be able to meet faculty, students, colleagues, and get into the life and rhythm of being on campus.”
Educación / Education
El Sol Latino September 2021
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UPR’s role in economic development in Puerto Rico: Research and Development by RAÚL SANTIAGO-BARTOLOMEI The Center for a New Economy (CNE) -August 16, 2021 Given that it provides higher education for the largest share of total students enrolled, the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) is an essential institution in ensuring social mobility in Puerto Rico. Likewise, it is a central institution in furthering the arts and humanities, which are essential disciplines for producing critical thinkers, sensible human beings, and fostering cultural exchanges between Puerto Rico and the rest of the world. In this section, however, we will focus on examining the UPR’s role in research and development (R&D) in the archipelago, a basic component of any industrial and economic development policy.
Puerto Rico R&D in numbers According to the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES), Puerto Rico’s output in R&D in 2017 totaled 0.54% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Using Gross National Product (GNP), this measure increases to 0.81%. Regardless of the measure used, Puerto Rico’s output of R&D as a percentage of total economic output is far below that of the United States (2.79% of GDP in 2017), let alone the leading nations in the world in this regard, South Korea (4.3% of GDP) and Japan (3.2% of GDP). Higher education institutions in Puerto Rico represent around a third of total R&D output (businesses and private enterprises almost comprise the remaining two thirds). Therefore, if Puerto Rico is to become competitive in R&D, it must substantially increase its R&D output by higher education institutions. Examining the UPR’s role in R&D in Puerto Rico requires breaking down how it performs in comparison to private higher education institutions. Data from the Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) Survey, compiled by the National Science Foundation (NSF), show that, between 2010 and 2019, total higher education spending in R&D peaked at $162 million in 2011 and had been in decline until 2019, when it reached an uptick of $123 million (Figure 1). Regardless of total spending, R&D output by UPR comprises around 80% of total higher education spending in R&D in Puerto Rico. The data also show that, even when UPR campuses reduce their R&D output, private institutions do not reflect an increase in their total R&D output. Furthermore, between 2010 and 2019, campuses from the Ana G. Méndez University System and the Universidad Central del Caribe reduced their total R&D output by almost half. In this regard, only the Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico and the Ponce Health Sciences University saw increased R&D output in that same period among private institutions, with the latter comprising more than half of total R&D output by private institutions in 2019.
Breaking down spending in R&D in FY2019 by source of funds also reveals additional important insights (Table 1). Although funding from the federal government totals around two thirds of total funds for both UPR campuses and private institutions, more than a quarter of R&D spending in the UPR comes from its own institutional funds. This includes funding used for cost-sharing, seed funding, and administrative costs, among other expenditures. UPR institutional funds represent more than a fifth of total higher education R&D spending in Puerto Rico (around $25 million, close to half the Fiscal Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico’s (FOMB) budget).
Table 1: Share of total higher education spending in R&D in Puerto Rico by institution and source of funds for FY 2019. Source: FY 2019 Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) Survey, NSF
It is also worth considering that UPR houses research centers and facilities that are unique among higher education institutions in Puerto Rico. Many of these not only provide research opportunities for UPR faculty, but also for faculty in private institutions. Some highlights include: s 4HE $R &EDERICO 4RILLA (OSPITAL IN #AROLINA s 4HE MANY !GRICULTURAL %XTENSION 3ERVICE CENTERS ADMINISTERED BY 502 Mayagüez s 4HE 0UERTO 2ICO 3EISMIC .ETWORK s 4HE #ENTER FOR (EMISPHERICAL #OOPERATION IN 2ESEARCH AND %DUCATION and Engineering and Applied Science (CoHemis) s 4HE #ARIBBEAN 2EGIONAL )NTEGRATED /CEAN /BSERVATION 3YSTEM (CARICOOS) s 4HE #OASTAL 2ESEARCH AND 0LANNING )NSTITUTE OF 0UERTO 2ICO s 4HE #ENTER FOR )NNOVATION 2ESEARCH AND %DUCATION IN %NVIRONMENTAL Nanotechnology s 4HE !TMOSPHERIC 3TATIONS ADMINISTERED BY 502 2ÓO 0IEDRAS s 4HE 2ESOURCE #ENTER FOR 3CIENCE AND %NGINEERING s 4HE ,UQUILLO ,ONG 4ERM %COLOGICAL 2ESEARCH ,4%2 s 4HE 0UERTO 2ICO %XPERIMENTAL 0ROGRAM TO 3TIMULATE #OMPETITIVE 2ESEARCH (EPSCoR) s 4HE #ARIBBEAN 0RIMATE 2ESEARCH #ENTER s 4HE .!3! 0UERTO 2ICO 3PACE 'RANT #ONSORTIUM
Possible consequences of proposed budget cuts by the FOMB
Figure 1: Yearly research spending and share of total spending by higher education institutions in Puerto Rico. Source: FY 2019 HERD Survey, NSF
To remain competitive in R&D funding, universities in the U.S. offer competitive salaries and benefits to attract and retain researchers in the cutting edge of their respective disciplines. Universities must also have in place an administrative structure with highly skilled staff that can manage the rigorous administrative requirements set forth by federal and private funders to ensure efficiency, transparency, and proper oversight. continued on page 11
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Educación / Education
El Sol Latino September 2021
Partnership Brings CHD Clinical Services to HCC Campus HOLYOKE, MA | HOLYOKE COMMUNITY COLLEGE | August 19, 2021 –– Holyoke Community College (HCC) is partnering with the Springfieldbased nonprofit Center for Human Development on a new, grant-funded venture that will allow HCC students to access a wide range of mental health and other support services on campus and in the community as they pursue their educations. Building upon HCC’s existing student support systems, the partnership will help embed CHD services on campus to help support students as they face both academic and personal challenges. In addition to ensuring mental health counseling services are available to students on campus and through telehealth, the partnership will connect students with other critical supports through CHD for a range of needs, including substance use and addiction recovery services; housing, hunger and family support. “Mental health supports, I believe, are integral for students to complete their education because as students they are voluntarily taking on more stress in service of their future success,” said Elizabeth Barron, CHD’s (ACCS) Adult Community Clinical Services clinic director. “Any time we increase our stress, we also need to increase our support system in order to manage that stress.” The partnership was born out of an HCC initiative with JED Campus launched in October 2020 to help the college evaluate and strengthen its mental health, substance misuse and suicide prevention programs to ensure the strongest possible safety nets for students. In November 2020, 611 HCC students responded to the Healthy Minds Study conducted by the University of Michigan for the JED Foundation, and 86 percent of those surveyed said emotional or mental difficulties had negatively affected their academic performance. “Through this partnership with CHD and with the support and guidance from the JED Foundation, HCC will help students develop the life skills necessary to decrease the negative consequences of mental health distress, leading to increased perseverance and degree attainment,” said Renee Tastad, assistant vice president of Student Affairs and dean of Enrollment Management. “HCC is known for its strong network of support services for students. This is one more way that we have dedicated ourselves to providing the support necessary to help students overcome barriers to success.”
They’ll also serve as a resource to students to help them navigate care. In addition to mental health and substance use services, CHD also has resources to help students with challenges with housing instability, including emergency shelter and relationships with different stakeholders around housing. Plus, all CHD outpatient clinicians are able to help people served access housing, apply for subsidy and for low-income housing. In tandem with HCC’s student services, CHD’s own breadth of communitybased services will help offer students unique wrap-around supports to meet their needs for a range of challenges they may face—and continuously offer support so students trying to manage stressors don’t feel as through their only option is to drop out. “It’s a symbiotic relationship between the student, the communities and the supports,” Barron said. “While they’re are committed to improving their own lives and subsequently the communities around them, there seems to me like a duty that the communities would provide support for them while they walk through that process.”
¡No es tarde! ¡Puedes estudiar este otoño en STCC!
The partnership is supporting the placement of two full-time Licensed Counselor positions, one to serve as a clinical coordinator and the other as a clinician, who will provide services and care coordination on campus and also collaborate with key HCC staff to create systems of care, reporting, and service delivery.
FLEX TERM acelerado de 7 semanas desde el 27 de Octubre hasta el 23 de Diciembre
The clinician position will support the development and implementation of on-campus clinical services and will provide much of the face-to-face care on campus. The clinician will accept referrals from HCC staff, and provide triage assessments in order to respond effectively and quickly to students experiencing distress so they can be connected to therapy, HCC resources, or other community resources based on their assessment.
Mix & Match ¡Selecciona entre clases presenciales, en línea o híbridas para que hagas un programa que funcione para ti!
Working with HCC staff, faculty, and other key stakeholders, the coordinator will serve as an expert on services offered on campus, through CHD, and in the community. They will serve on HCC committees and task forces and will provide training to faculty, staff, and student leaders in areas of Emotional CPR, substance use/misuse, and risk-seeking/safety seeking behaviors.
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Para más información
stcc.edu/flex
Libros / Books
El Sol Latino September 2021
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The Lettered Barriada: Workers, Archival Power, and the Politics of Knowledge in Puerto Rico by JORELL A. MELÉNDEZ-BADILLO s $UKE 5NIVERSITY 0RESS .OVEMBER PAGES In The Lettered Barriada, Jorell A. Meléndez-Badillo tells the story of how a cluster of self-educated workers burst into Puerto Rico’s world of letters and navigated the colonial polity that emerged out of the 1898 US occupation. They did so by asserting themselves as citizens, producers of their own historical narratives, and learned minds. Disregarded by most of Puerto Rico’s intellectual elite, these workers engaged in dialogue with international peers and imagined themselves as part of a global community. They also entered the world of politics through the creation of the Socialist Party, which became an electoral force in the first half of the twentieth century. Meléndez-Badillo shows how these workers produced, negotiated, and deployed powerful discourses that eventually shaped Puerto Rico’s national mythology. By following these ragtag intellectuals as they became politicians and statesmen, Meléndez-Badillo also demonstrates how they engaged in racial and gender silencing, epistemic violence, and historical erasures in the fringes of society. Ultimately, The Lettered Barriada is about the politics of knowledge production and the tensions between working-class intellectuals and the state. Duke University Press Scholars of Color First Book Award recipient. Editorial Reviews “No one has treated the foundational texts of the Puerto Rican labor movement as comprehensively and organically as Jorell A. MeléndezBadillo. Uniquely compelling, The Lettered Barriada makes a significant
addition to labor studies, Latin American history, and Puerto Rican and Caribbean studies.” -- Francisco A. Scarano, author of Puerto Rico: Cinco Siglos De Historia “Jorell A. Meléndez-Badillo’s focus on the ‘politics of knowledge production’ explodes our understanding of the internecine struggles within the early Puerto Rican Left and the politics of race and gender in the construction of radical social movements in Puerto Rico. Meléndez-Badillo exposes to historians of Puerto Rico how the historical narratives to which we all have contributed have been shaped irrevocably by the aspirations and interests of the flawed male radical visionaries of the turn of the century. His book is simultaneously empirically fresh, epistemologically challenging, and inspirational in its revisiting of Puerto Rican history and those who made it.” -- Eileen J. Findlay, author of We Are Left without a Father Here: Masculinity, Domesticity, and Migration in Postwar Puerto Rico About the Author Jorell A. Meléndez-Badillo is Assistant Professor of History at Dartmouth College, author of Voces libertarias: Los orígenes del anarquismo en Puerto Rico, and coeditor of Without Borders or Limits: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Anarchist Studies. Also he is editor of Páginas libres: Breve antología del pensamiento anarquista en Puerto Rico (Editora Educación Emergente, 2021). He holds a Ph.D. in Latin American History from the University of Connecticut.
UPR’s role in economic development in Puerto Rico: Research and Development continued from page 9 When interviewed by CNE colleague, Jennifer Wolff, Dr. Elvia MeléndezAckerman, Professor of Environmental Sciences at UPR Río Piedras, highlighted how past budget cuts have made research an increasingly precarized affair. The UPR already provides less than competitive salaries and benefits, causing research programs to lose key staff and hindering the recruitment of potential researchers. Budget cuts have also pushed university departments to increase the undergraduate teaching load to their faculty, while decreasing both research and graduate-level teaching loads. In addition, administrative consolidations have reduced the availability of experienced and dedicated administrative staff in managing researchrelated endeavors. Furthermore, hiring freezes for both faculty and administrative staff are likely already overly burdensome to ensure competitiveness in ensuring external funding and sustaining an administrative structure that can comply with regulatory requirements. Our analysis of R&D activity in Puerto Rico shows that private institutions have been unable to increase their R&D output to a degree that can compensate for reduced R&D activity by UPR campuses, and that UPR
institutional funds are an essential component of total R&D activity in the archipelago. Thus, the proposed budget cuts by the FOMB will very likely reduce total R&D output in Puerto Rico, render the archipelago increasingly less competitive in R&D, and doom the possibility of success of any serious industrial and economic development policy focused on fostering high added-value activities. RAÚL SANTIAGO-BARTOLOMEI is a Research Associate at CNE. He has a Ph.D. in Urban Planning and Development from the University of Southern California (USC). His research interests lie in the intersection between institutional change, social networks, and economic development, and how these relate to urban change. He is applying this approach to his current research on economic reforms and changes in the housing rental market in Havana, Cuba. CENTER FOR A NEW ECONOMY (CNE) is one of the most credible, influential and sought-after voices on Puerto Rico’s economy. Founded in 1998 as Puerto Rico’s first think tank, CNE has evolved into a powerful nonpartisan advocate on behalf of the island in policy circles as well as an important participant of diaspora and Latino groups in the US mainland.
Publish your bilingual ad in El Sol Latino! Call us today at (413) 320-3826.
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Arte / Art
El Sol Latino September 2021
UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AT AMHERST FINE ARTS CENTER Announces Line-Up for 2021/22 Performing and Visual Arts Season with Five College Dance and the Amherst College American Studies Department. July 2022 (from the 11 to the 22) will also see the in-person return of our nationally-respected Jazz in July music education program, founded in 1980 by Dr. Frederick Tillis, Dr. Billy Taylor, and Max Roach. Jazz in July just celebrated its 40th Anniversary with our first in-person concert, co-presented in Downtown Amherst with the Amherst Business Improvement District.
KRONOS QUARTET, ALVIN AILEY AMERICAN DANCE THEATER, JENNIFER KOH, AMOS LEE, BILL T. JONES/ARNIE ZANE DANCE COMPANY, CHRISTIAN SANDS, ANAT COHEN QUARTETINHO, MARTHA REDBONE, KENNY ENDO CONTEMPORARY ENSEMBLE and many more Season Begins on September 28 In-Person Events Start on October 14
Tickets On Sale Now
Hampden Gallery Opens September 7 Augusta Savage Gallery Opens September 10 University Museum of Contemporary Art (UMCA) Opens September 23 After nearly a year and a half of in-person programming lost to the pandemic, UMass Amherst Fine Arts Center is proud to announce the return of its performing arts season for 2021/22 and to share the roster for the reopening of the Augusta Savage Gallery, Hampden Gallery and the University Museum of Contemporary Art (UMCA). In concert with new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control, UMass Amherst’s 2021-22 policy requires all faculty, staff, and students to be vaccinated. Until further notice, all patrons, and visitors to Fine Arts Center in-person performances, the University Museum of Contemporary Art, Augusta Savage Gallery and Hampden Gallery must wear a face mask. The 2021 Fine Arts Center season will feature a mix of virtual and on-site programming, beginning with online performances by the famed classicalcrossover collective Kronos Quartet (9/28); a conversation with violinist Jennifer Koh, opera singer Davóne Tines, composer Ken Ueno, and dramaturg KeeYoon Nahm on their anti-racist artistic collaboration (9/30); and the familyfriendly musical theater piece Sugar Skull, celebrating the tradition and spirit of Día de los Muertos (10/17). In-person shows are currently scheduled to begin in late October with the Massachusetts premiere of Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company’s new work on the nature of recovery, Afterwardsness (10/24 and 10/25). Additional in-person performers taking the stage at the Fine Arts Center in 2021 will include violinist Jennifer Koh (10/28), singer/songwriter Martha Redbone (11/9), classical guitarist Christopher Ladd (11/13), pianist and Billy Taylor Jazz Artist-in-Residence Christian Sands (11/18) and circus troupe Acrobuffos (12/4). The Fine Arts Center’s 2022 lineup includes dance, jazz, rock, folk, and traditional sounds from around the globe with ticketed shows from Nobuntu, the female a cappella quintet from Zimbabwe (2/8); Canadian circus troupe Cirque FLIP Fabrique (2/16); classical guitarist and multiple Latin Grammy nominee Berta Rojas (3/5); a Saint Patrick’s Day celebration with Irish ensemble Danú (3/11); a family-friendly Pacific and Indian Ocean islander production of music, film and dance from Small Island Big Song (3/27); cross-genre taiko drumming from the Kenny Endo Contemporary Ensemble (4/7); innovative jazz clarinetist Anat Cohen Quartetinho (4/9); Philly folk-rock star Amos Lee (4/16); a confluence of wide ranging jazz, classical and Indian traditional sounds from Adam Rudolph/Go Organic Orchestra and Brooklyn Raga Massive (4/21); and ending with a set from the unparalleled masters of modern dance, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (4/26). Additionally, on February 28, the Fine Arts Center will set the stage for the free, ticketed performance of the acclaimed Yup’ik Nation dancer and choreographer Emily Johnson’s new work-in-progress Being Future Being, developed on campus in a residency made possible by the Five College Native American and Indigenous Studies Program with funding from the Mellon Foundation, hosted in partnership
Following a nearly eighteen-month hiatus, UMass Amherst’s Augusta Savage Gallery, Hampden Gallery and University Museum of Contemporary Art galleries will all reopen their doors for in-person shows in September, each with major new exhibitions. The Augusta Savage Gallery’s opening exhibit, Rising Waters/ Blazing Earth with works from Zea Mays Printmaking, highlights issues related to natural resource exploitation and environmental sustainability. The exhibition runs from 9/10 to 10/20 and, beginning 10/4, will feature work by UMass HFA students. In her first solo exhibition, painter Eesha Suntai reflects on her perspective as a person of color growing up in American in this evocative series of portraits, opening 10/27 and running through 12/10. At the Hampden Gallery, beginning on 9/7, sculptor and mixed media artist Peter Dellert will exhibit in the gallery’s Sculpture Garden and Incubator Space, alongside a new site-specific work by poet and visual artist Christopher Janke entitled “The Thing Itself.” The Hampden Gallery also expands beyond the UMass campus into digital space with online exhibitions by Daniel Zeller, whose work is included in the collections of MoMA and the Whitney in New York, as well as MacDowell Fellow Joyce Conlon; and, a Zoom Curator Talk with international exhibiting glass artist and current UMass Amherst instructor (formerly at Pilchuck Glass School, Niijima Glass Art Center, and more) Sally Prasch, all timed to premiere online as of September 7. Following a free-to-attend Grand Re-Opening Party on September 23, The University Museum of Contemporary Art will launch a first-of-its-kind exhibition focused on the printmaking work of Carnegie Prize-winning artist Nicole Eisenman, an exhibition in partnership with the artist-led civic engagement organization For Freedoms, and a deep dive exploration of the 1981 collaborative cultural masterwork, Artifacts at the End of a Decade. Over the next several months, all three visual art venues will present regular in-person artist talks and special events, including a free-to-attend interdepartmental celebration at Bowker Auditorium of the late, legendary western Massachusetts choreographer-dancer Pearl Primus on October 14, featuring a panel conversation with Primus’ contemporaries and a screening of the new documentary, Pearl Primus, Omowale, Child Returned Home. For 46 years, the UMass Amherst Fine Arts Center has been a nationally recognized presenter of inclusive programming and a leading platform for jazz and multicultural arts. The University’s commitment to diversity and access is reflected through its world-class performances and exhibitions, its consistent and ongoing support of renowned and emerging artists of color, and its efforts to present, preserve and advance both Western and non-Western art forms through its performances, education programs and permanent collections. Over the past 18 months, the Fine Arts Center team worked nearly around the clock to deliver a broad array of world-class arts experiences through 75 virtual programs that engaged over 25,000 people. Notable highlights included performances by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Septet, led by Wynton Marsalis; Silkroad, led by Rhiannon Giddens; Black Violin; Kristina Wong; and a performance by Ladysmith Black Mambazo. The Center also presented many powerful and timely visual arts programs, including Breathing While Black, a juried exhibition created in response to the George Floyd murder, which featured 72 artists from 17 countries. UMass Amherst returns after the pandemic with a noticeable change: the Arts Center has a new name, the Randolph W. Bromery Center for the Arts. Dr. Bromery rose from being one of seven faculty members of color at the college to become the campus’ first African American chancellor. The Fine Arts Center is honored to have our building selected to memorialize the impact of this transformative leader. Under his tenure, the Fine Arts Center building opened
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Política / Politics
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UCLA receives funding for research resources on Latino policy by MARISOL RAMOS LOS ANGELES, CA | UCLA LUSKIN SCHOOL OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS | August 16, 2021 - The UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Initiative has received an 18-month, $2.5 million grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. The funding will support two new research databases that will help identify and analyze the unique public policy issues surrounding Latinos.
Ultimately, research based on the information in the databases should help decision-makers in the public, private and nonprofit sectors understand how policies that improve the lives of Latinos will benefit the entire nation. “As the largest nonwhite minority group in the United States, Latinos are integral to building a prosperous future for all Americans,” said Sonja Diaz, founding director of the Latino Policy and Politics Initiative. “Yet Latinos face significant barriers to economic opportunity, political representation and social mobility. This funding will enable us to reliably collect data that brings Latinos and the issues that impact them out of the shadows and to create real policy solutions that build a truly inclusive economy and democracy.” Both databases will be freely available to policymakers, advocates, scholars and the public as a comprehensive resource to broaden understanding of issues affecting the Latino community. The first database, the Latino Data Hub, will contain data from verified sources on demographics, socioeconomics and civic participation that will help policymakers, community organizations, philanthropists and businesses design and promote policies that benefit Latino communities. Drawing on UCLA’s unparalleled depth of expertise on issues that impact the Latino community, the database is intended to become a go-to resource for national, state and local data. It also will include statistics and information on climate change and the environment, economic opportunity and social mobility, education, health and housing, all of which contribute to Latino well-being.
As it evolves, the hub will enable users to track progress and setbacks in efforts to ensure a more equitable nation for Latinos. The importance of clear, reliable and actionable data on Latino communities has been demonstrated repeatedly by the Latino Policy and Politics Initiative, particularly throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. In the past 18 months, the group has produced research reports focusing on safe access to voting, the costs of excluding undocumented workers from socioeconomic relief programs and other critical issues. “The global pandemic has laid bare long-standing inequities that permeate virtually all our systems and institutions,” said Ciciley Moore, program officer at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. “It also opened a door of opportunity to correct this legacy of inequity, and now is the time to be proactive in building the future we want. Investing in the UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Initiative to provide cutting-edge data and research resources means investing in the future where equity is realized.” The second database, the Latino Research Redistricting Hub, will include statistical, geographic and historical data and analyses to help illuminate how the drawing of state and federal electoral maps affects Latino communities. Redistricting impacts a wide range of issues, from the number of parks in a neighborhood to congressional representation, and the hub will be a resource for officials engaged in redistricting decisions. Its goal is to ensure fair representation in politics and government for the nation’s diverse Latino communities. “Before we can address inequity, we must tell the truth about our conditions, and that is what data does,” Moore said. “We are proud to invest in creating tools that help us see our biggest challenges clearly and identify equitable solutions that enable us all to thrive.” Other recent research by the Latino Policy and Politics Initiative has highlighted the growing political power of the Latino electorate and paths to creating long-term engagement among Latino voters. The initiative also helped secure court victories around voting rights in Texas and Pennsylvania and pushed for the creation of a Latino-focused Smithsonian museum.
UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AT AMHERST FINE ARTS CENTER continued from page 12 and, through his efforts to attract national talent and create a vibrant and diverse campus, the Fine Art Center’s beloved founding director emeritus, Dr. Frederick Tillis was recruited to join the faculty. The name of the building may change, but the Fine Arts Center’s mission to serve as a cornerstone for the campus and larger community will not. Fine Arts Center Director Jamilla Deria says, “We are honored that the Fine Arts Center building will be named after such a visionary leader as Chancellor Bromery. As he was so instrumental in diversifying the UMass Amherst campus, it seems fitting that a building that houses so many creative endeavors by our diverse community of students, faculty and professionals alike should bear his name and continue this legacy.” Devastating as the pandemic was to the UMass Amherst campus, the 2020/21 lockdown nevertheless gave University administrators the necessary space and time to address other overdue infrastructure concerns. The college’s administrative team applied for and received state and federal grants to provide for a more accessible box office and improved air quality in the Bowker Auditorium via a new HVAC system. Additional grant funding has allowed the university to increase the program budget and purchase new infrastructure with the intention of providing increased outdoor programming and the ability to commission artist residencies in service of new work exclusive to the university. With these strategic enhancements, the Fine Arts Center has become a multiplatform presenter, bringing high quality performances and exhibitions to the community through a carefully balanced panoply of digital, in-person, and open air venues. Amherst students and residents can expect an increasing degree of world-class performance and visual arts from the Fine Arts Center this year and in forthcoming seasons.
As previously noted, UMass Amherst’s 2021-22 policy requires all faculty, staff, and students to be vaccinated, and until further notice, all patrons, and visitors to Fine Arts Center in-person performances, the University Museum of Contemporary Art, Augusta Savage Gallery and Hampden Gallery must wear a face mask. As both UMass and Massachusetts’ state safety guidelines for public gatherings quickly change in response to the ongoing success of the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination program, UMass Amherst continues to reassess its on-site protocols for upcoming shows with the intention of safely accommodating attendees. For the most current guidelines, program updates and additional venue information and restrictions, please visit umass.edu/coronavirus. GALLERY AND MUSEUM HOURS Admission is free to all Fine Arts Center galleries and museums. COVID NOTICE: Based on current state and University Covid-19 restrictions, Fine Arts Center venues including Bowker Auditorium, the Concert Hall, Augusta Savage Gallery, Hampden Gallery, and the University Museum of Contemporary Art, are only open for in person visits to the on-campus UMass community. For more complete information about our virtual events, please visit our FAQ page. Timed entry tickets are required for Augusta Savage Gallery and the University Museum of Contemporary Art. Note: Hours are for the academic year. The galleries and museum are closed when the university is not in session. University Museum of Contemporary Art Tues-Fri, 11am to 4:30pm UMass Community Only Closed during State and University holidays. tel: (413) 545-3670
Augusta Savage Gallery Tues-Fri, 2pm to 5pm UMass Community Only tel: (413) 545-5177
Hampden Gallery Currently closed Closed during State, Federal and University holidays.
tel: (413) 545-0680
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Medios /Media
PBS Strengthens Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion ARLINGTON, VA | Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) | August 10, 2021 — On August 10, 2021 Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour, PBS introduced updated producing criteria, which will roll out across all platforms, including PBS General Audience Programming, PBS Digital Studios and PBS KIDS. Reporting and accountability are essential to advancing PBS’s mission to serve and represent all communities. As such, PBS will require producers to provide their own diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) plan as a deliverable at the proposal stage and for all new agreements, series renewals, and direct-to-PBS programs. For General Audience and PBS Digital Studios content, producers must submit a plan that outlines: 1. A description of how the production includes perspectives of underserved populations. This should include content subject matter, on-screen talent and key editorial personnel/behind-the-camera staff. Due prior to preproduction. 2. Diverse representation for production team members, including abovethe-line talent (directors, writers, producers, creators) and below-the-line positions. Due prior to pre-production. 3. For each area of reporting (e.g., above-the-line, below-the-line, on-screen talent, etc.), producers must indicate whether DEI goals outlined in the plan were met, surpassed or missed. When goals were not met, producers must provide details on which aspects were found challenging to address and why. Due within 45 days of completion of principal photography. 4. A final report addressing the project’s successes and challenges related to DEI. Due with final reporting/delivery. “PBS works closely with producing partners, station producers and individual creators to distribute educational and thought-provoking content to millions of viewers each year,” said Sylvia Bugg, PBS Chief Programming Executive and General Manager, General Audience Programming. “Our updated criteria and reporting standards will ensure that the content distributed across PBS platforms continues to reflect the diversity of the audiences we serve.”
El Sol Latino September 2021
For all PBS KIDS proposals, producers must submit a written overview of how their projects and staffing efforts support the values outlined in PBS KIDS’ Commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, which recognize that the work of accurately reflecting a diverse audience on-screen requires a commitment to embracing diversity and inclusion behind the camera as well. Producers are asked to reflect on how their productions support PBS KIDS’ mission for all children living in America to see their lived experiences reflected and celebrated through authentic stories and smart, funny characters. “All children should grow up believing that the world is full of possibilities, and so are they,” said Linda Simensky, Head of Content for PBS KIDS. “When children see authentic, positive representations of themselves in media, it has a measurable effect on their self-esteem and long-term success. PBS KIDS and our partners believe that authenticity doesn’t happen by accident, but rather through intentional efforts affecting all areas of production—and that the resulting content is made richer and more impactful in the process.”
New Data on the Black-White Wealth Gap Before and During the Pandemic continued from page 6 s %STABLISHING GREATER ACCESS TO RETIREMENT SAVINGS THROUGH A NATIONAL saving plan s )NVESTING IN EARLY CHILDHOOD CARE AND EDUCATION TO LOWER COSTS AND increase income stability s 0ROVIDING lNANCIAL SUPPORT FOR HIGHER EDUCATION TO SHRINK THE WEALTH gap through lower debt burdens and higher career earnings s )NCREASING HOMEOWNERSHIP AND PROTECTING HOUSING ASSETS FROM climate change “If left unchecked, the pandemic may result in the Black-white wealth gap growing even larger,” said Weller. “The wealth gap is the result of policy choices dating back to centuries of slavery, decades of Jim Crow policies, and discriminatory policies that continue today. But the past and present don’t have to be our future. Policymakers can choose to shrink and eventually close the wealth gap. The Biden administration has already made meaningful steps in the right direction, but truly closing the wealth gap and addressing Black families’ lack of financial security and opportunity is a generational challenge that will require sustained momentum from all levels of government over the coming years and decades.”
Salud / Health
El Sol Latino September 2021
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Más Embarazadas con COVID en Cuidados Intensivos, Expertos Enfatizan que Deben Vacunarse por ASHLEY LÓPOZ, KUT
especializan en atención obstétrica, recomendaron el 30 de julio que todas las embarazadas reciban la vacuna contra covid.
KAISER HEALTH NEWS | Agosto 12, 2021 - Los Centros para el Control y Prevención de Enfermedades (CDC) están duplicando su recomendación de que las mujeres embarazadas reciban la vacuna contra covid-19, a la luz de nuevos datos que subrayan su seguridad y eficacia durante el embarazo. Esta recomendación llega en un momento en que los médicos de todo el país informan de un aumento en el número de embarazadas no vacunadas que deben ser hospitalizadas con casos graves de covid. La baja tasa de vacunación en este grupo es sorprendente, señalan médicos. Al 31 de julio, solo el 23% de las embarazadas habían recibido al menos una dosis de la vacuna contra el coronavirus, según estadísticas de los CDC. Esta recomendación llega en un momento en que los médicos de todo el país informan de un aumento en el número de embarazadas no vacunadas que deben ser hospitalizadas con casos graves de covid. La baja tasa de vacunación en este grupo es sorprendente, señalan médicos. Al 31 de julio, solo el 23% de las embarazadas habían recibido al menos una dosis de la vacuna contra el coronavirus, según estadísticas de los CDC. La doctora Alison Cahill, especialista en medicina materno-fetal y profesora de la Escuela de Medicina Dell de la Universidad de Texas-Austin, dijo que ha estado promoviendo la vacunación a todo el que quiera escuchar. Trabaja principalmente con personas embarazadas que están enfermas de covid y ve el daño que puede causar el coronavirus. Cahill recordó haber tratado a una mujer no vacunada que llegó al hospital con dificultad para respirar. Contó que, en 24 horas, el cuadro empeoró mucho y la mujer necesitó una enorme cantidad de oxígeno para mantenerse con vida. “Estaba en su segundo trimestre. Si hubiera tenido que dar a luz, habría tenido un bebé extremadamente prematuro con un alto riesgo de tener una discapacidad de por vida o incluso la muerte”, dijo Cahill. Dijo que a los dos días de haber sido internada, la mujer ya no podía respirar por sí misma. La intubaron y luego le pusieron un ventilador. Finalmente, la mujer necesitó ECMO, oxigenación por membrana extracorpórea, una máquina que “saltea” los pulmones oxigenando directamente la sangre. Cahill dijo que estuvo en ECMO, un proceso que a menudo es un puente hacia un trasplante de corazón o pulmón para personas en estado crítico, durante varias semanas. “Eventualmente pudo salir adelante”, dijo Cahill. “Milagrosamente no requirió un parto prematuro. Permaneció embarazada y después de dos meses y medio en el hospital pudo irse a casa”. El bebé nació sano, pero la mujer puede enfrentar toda una vida de discapacidades a causa de covid. Cahill dijo que todo podría haberse evitado si se hubiera vacunado. “Creo que es una oportunidad increíble que tenemos en los Estados Unidos, y todos deberían aprovechar esta tremenda vacuna para evitar que sucedan ese tipo de cosas”, dijo. “Es realmente trágico”. Estos casos son la razón por la que el Colegio Americano de Obstetras y Ginecólogos (ACOG), y la Sociedad de Medicina Materno-Fetal, las dos organizaciones líderes que representan a médicos y científicos que se
“Es una ‘tormenta perfecta’”, dijo el doctor Mark Turrentine, profesor de obstetricia en Baylor College of Medicine, quien también es copresidente de un grupo de trabajo sobre covid para ACOG. “Tenemos una variante altamente infecciosa del virus que causa covid-19 en un grupo en el que la mayoría no está inmunizada. Así que sí, estamos viendo mucha gente enferma”. “ACOG anima a sus miembros a recomendar enfáticamente la vacunación a sus pacientes“, dijo el doctor J. Martin Tucker, presidente de ACOG, en una declaración escrita. “Esto significa enfatizar la seguridad conocida de las vacunas y el mayor riesgo de complicaciones graves asociadas con la infección por covid-19, incluida la muerte, durante el embarazo”. Vacunar a las embarazadas se ha vuelto especialmente urgente en estados como Texas, donde la variante delta altamente contagiosa representa actualmente más del 75% de los casos nuevos. El porcentaje de personas en Texas que están completamente vacunadas es del 44,6%, en comparación con el 50,3% de toda la población del país. A medida que aumentan las tasas de infección en el estado, la doctora Jessica Ehrig, jefa de obstetricia del Centro Médico Baylor Scott & White en Temple, Texas, dijo que ha visto un aumento significativo en la cantidad de embarazadas hospitalizadas e intubadas; con algunas muertes. Y esos casos graves de covid también son peligrosos para el feto, remarcó. “Las complicaciones incluyen el parto prematuro y un mayor riesgo de preeclampsia para estas mamás, lo que también puede requerir un parto prematuro”, dijo Ehrig recientemente en una conferencia de prensa en Austin sobre el tema. “Y, desafortunadamente, también aumenta el riesgo de muerte fetal”. Es una situación especialmente peligrosa cuando una mujer embarazada tiene un caso sintomático de covid, anotó Turrentine. “Hay un aumento de tres veces en la admisión a la unidad de cuidados intensivos”, dijo, “un aumento de dos veces y medio en el riesgo de recibir ventilación mecánica o soporte de bypass, e incluso hay un aumento en el riesgo de muerte”. Los profesionales médicos y los científicos no saben exactamente por qué las embarazadas corren un riesgo tan alto cuando se infectan con el virus, pero les preocupa que esta población sea especialmente vulnerable porque muchas de ellas siguen sin vacunarse. Los CDC han recomendado las vacunas para las embarazadas como la mejor manera de protegerlas a ellas y a sus bebés del coronavirus, desde abril. Aunque las embarazadas no fueron parte de los ensayos clínicos iniciales de las tres vacunas contra covid autorizadas para uso de emergencia en los Estados Unidos, los datos recopilados desde entonces han demostrado que son seguras y efectivas para este grupo. Turrentine dijo que es importante enfatizar que los beneficios de vacunarse superan con creces cualquier tipo de riesgo. Especialmente para una mujer embarazada, dijo, los costos de no vacunarse son demasiado altos. “He visto a algunas mujeres embarazadas muy enfermas. He visto a algunas morir”, dijo. “Y, ya sabes, entras en este negocio como obstetraginecólogo porque las pacientes son jóvenes y están sanas. Y la mayoría de las veces tienes excelentes resultados. Este es un virus muy malo”.
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Deportes / Sports
El Sol Latino September 2021
Fine Arts Center
Septiembre 2021
Únase a nosotros para celebrar la apertura de la Temporada 2021-2022 del Fine Arts Center con una serie de eventos virtuales y presenciales que celebran la humanidad presente en todos nosotros. ARTS.LIVE.HERE. UMass Amherst Fine Arts Center
Kronos Quartet: Fifty for the Future (Presentación en Línea)
Martes, Septiembre 28, 2021 | 7:00 p.m. ET $12, gratis para estudiantes de UMass Fine Arts Center Commission ¡El legendario grupo de cámara de la nueva música clásica trae su último proyecto a UMass para dar inicio a nuestra temporada! Fifty for the Future es nada menos que la gran visión de Kronos Quartet para el futuro del repertorio del cuarteto de cuerdas. La presentación cuenta con selecciones elegidas por los artistas de entre 50 nuevos trabajos comisionados durante seis años. Este programa de conciertos será un festín de vista y sonido, estrenado por los artistas especialmente para el público de UMass, y seguido de una conversación livestream después del espectáculo.
Codemakers: Jennifer Koh, Davóne Tines, Kee-Yoon Nahm and Ken Ueno (Presentación en Línea)
Asian and Asian American Arts and Culture Program Jueves, Septiembre 30 | 7:00 p.m. ET | gratis Continuamos nuestra serie de conversaciones destacando artistas de color socialmente comprometidos con la violinista de renombre mundial Jennifer Koh, el cantante de ópera Davóne Tines, el compositor Ken Ueno, y el dramaturgo Kee-Yoon Nahm discutiendo sus experiencias y desafíos como artistas asiático-americanos y afro-americanos, y su nueva colaboración antirracista, Everything That Rises Must Converge.
¡Próximamente! Sugar Skull! A Virtual Día de los Muertos Adventure! (Presentación en Línea)
Domingo, Octubre 17, 2021 | 3:00 p.m. ET | $14 por familia o dispositivo electrónico. Gratis para estudiantes de UMass. El programa de 30 minutos será seguido por una presentación en vivo con los artistas y es apropiado para mayores de 3 años. Únase a nosotros para una aventura familiar con Sugar Skull, un carismático esqueleto de dulce. Mientras el sigue una música que lo conducirá a una gran fiesta, conocerás a los coloridos personajes que le enseñarán cómo el Día de los Muertos es una celebración de vida. Esta especial versión virtual es una experiencia teatral cautivadora que celebra un día de fiesta tradicional que trasciende fronteras.
Eventos Auspiciados por
Para nuestra programación de la temporada completa o boletos de entrada llamar al: 413-545-2511 ó al 800-999-UMAS ó en línea fineartscenter.com
