By Special Correspondent Arturo R. García
For a review of Part 1, click here
No way around it: Latino In America was a failure.
At the very least, Thursday’s conclusion, “Chasing The Dream,” seemed equal parts melodrama and bait-and-switch, with the broadcast component weakened by a lack of questions that undercut even its’ more compelling segments.
For instance, [...]

By Special Correspondent Arturo R. García
Soledad O’Brien says she wants Latino In America to “start a conversation.” Unfortunately for viewers, the series’ message seems to be, what? Woe is us? Abandon ship? What did Brown ever do to you?
Grounded in depressing case studies and missed questions, the series’ first installment was less “Latinos In America” [...]

by Guest Contributor Andrés Duque, originally published at Blabbeando

The Austin American-Statesman reported yesterday that a local Hispanic contractors’ organization had removed a video from its website and given apologies after a local television station received complaints that it contained demeaning portrayals of gays (”Hispanic contractors’ group pulls video called demeaning to gays“).
The U.S. Hispanic Contractors [...]

by Guest Contributor Hannah Miller
The media reform movement is an offshoot and part of the civil rights movement. It was born in 1963, when Dr. Martin Luther King and Rev. Everett Parker of the United Church of Christ initiated a lawsuit against white-owned TV stations in the South for consistently portraying African Americans in a [...]

By Special Correspondent Arturo R. García, also Posted at The Instant Callback

Continuing a semi-yearly tradition of mine since my days working at my college paper, just a few notes about today:
1. This is not Mexican Independence Day
Nope, that’s September 16th. 5/5 commemorates an unlikely Mexican victory over the French at the Battle of Puebla in [...]

by Guest Contributor Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez, originally published at Write.Live.Repeat

This photo shows my mother on her wedding day. That’s her, in the middle. Her sister “Sis” is on the left, her sister Janis on the right.
Notice how the sisters exchange a strange look across my nervous, uncertain mom (who was 24 at the time). Knowing my [...]

by Latoya Peterson
Reader Kheng sent in this video, currently being aired in California. Kheng writes:
I am watching TV and I come across this commercial. It made me sick to my stomach. I don’t know if you want to feature it on the blog, but I found it quite offensive and I am surprised it [...]

by Guest Contributor Marisol LeBron, originally published at Post Pomo Nuyorican Homo

A friend of mine from college recently sent me a link to an AfterEllen.com article about the movie Bitch Slap coming out in December 2008. She asked me for my thoughts and here they are…
I think I might be the wrong person to ask.
Reason [...]