Boxer Marlen Esparza's fight for Olympic glory
The 2012 Olympic games in London are still months away but boxer Marlen Esparza is fighting to increase her chances at making the U.S. national team.
Esparza, who was featured in CNN’s documentary “Latino in America: In Her Corner,” won a silver medal at the World Cup of Petroleum Countries held in Surgut, Russia, this weekend.
It wasn't what she was hoping for. “I really thought I had won,” she told her coach, Rudy Silva, over the phone. The judges favored local champion, Svetlana Gnevanova, by 10 points to eight.
The tournament hosted boxers from 15 countries, which gave Esparza the chance to fight some of the women she could face at next year’s world championships or the 2012 Olympics.
Before any of that happens though, Esparza will have to make the national team and defeat her opponents at the U.S. Olympic trials in February.
Engage: Legal action against FAMU after death of drum major
Engage with news and opinions from around the web about under-reported, untold stories from undercovered communities.
Family of drum major to sue FAMU after death; Florida A&M band director wants his job back
The family of Robert Champion, the Florida A&M drum major who died in an suspected hazing incident, will sue the school. Dr. Julian White, FAMU's former band director, was fired after Champion's death. He released a statement hinting at legal action if his job is not reinstated. - MyFoxTampaBay.com
Economy decreases birth rate; decline sharpest among Latinos
All Americans are having fewer children, but the most significant dip is among Hispanics - 17.6 % from 2007 and 2010, according to preliminary 2010 data from the National Center for Health Statistics. - USA Today
Why Gingrich's immigration plan can't work
By David Frum, CNN Contributor
Editor's note: David Frum, a CNN contributor, was a special assistant to President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2002. He is the author of six books, including "Comeback: Conservatism That Can Win Again," and is the editor of FrumForum.
(CNN) - Immigration is the only issue where a political candidate can totally do the bidding of the K Street lobbyists and still be hailed as compassionate and humane.
At CNN's Republican National Security Debate this past Tuesday, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich reconfirmed his longstanding immigration policy:
- A commitment to enhanced border security
- A guest worker program
- Individual hearings for each of 12 million or so illegal aliens, at which those with long ties to the country will gain residency rights
- No citizenship for illegal entries
Reader react: 'Don't forget where you came from'
Editor's note: Readers have a lot to say about the stories we post, and we're listening.
"I sometimes feel insecure being around so many wealthy people and I’m having trouble with my extended family who think I’m being uppity by sending the kids to a private school," Susan Bodnar recalled in her essay, "Don't forget where you came from."
Bodnar shared with readers the experience of growing up in the impoverished coal mining community of McAdoo, Pennsylvania, and her attempts to fit in while attending a university and now that she lives in Manhattan. Bodnar's essay resonated with hundreds of readers, who commented on their own histories, struggles to belong and desires to honor their family members, even as their paths diverge.
Janet Fiedler said: "My life today is so much more comfortable than it was when I was growing up. I have recently re-started searching my family's roots and discovered that my great-grandmother was widowed at the age of 36, three months before giving birth to her fifth child. To support herself and her family, she became a washerwoman. I sat at my computer and cried for this woman and her hard life, comparing it to my soft one. Thank you for your heart-felt article about staying in touch with one's roots."
BlackYowe said: "We are a nation of immigrants and no one should feel shame about where they came from."
Lynn said: "I'm a city girl now... but remain proud of where I'm from. Despite the miles, I believe it is important to give back to the area which formed us."
FULL POST
Israel's backers step up efforts to win African-American support
By Heather M. Higgins, CNN
Brooklyn, New York (CNN) – The aroma of allspice wafted through the air as calypso melodies and gospel voices brought more than four dozen people to their feet, a typical community gathering in the heavily West Indian neighborhood of East Flatbush, Brooklyn.
But no one could remember a meeting like this happening before. Inside a former Seventh-day Adventist church, there were the beginnings of what some hope is a budding relationship between American blacks and Jews, with a major assist from some Christian Zionists.
The late October meeting was billed as “A Gathering of Solidarity with the State of Israel,” sponsored by Christians United for Israel, the biggest Christian Zionist group in the country.
Until relatively recently, “there wasn’t a voice for Christian Zionism in the black church,” said Pastor Michael Stevens, the African-American outreach coordinator for Christians United for Israel, speaking to the mostly West Indian crowd in Brooklyn.
Opinion: To help the United States, help Latinos lead
Editor’s note: David Gergen is a senior political analyst for CNN and has been an adviser to four presidents. He is a professor of public service and director of the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. Follow him on Twitter: @David_Gergen. Michael Zuckerman is David Gergen’s research assistant.
By David Gergen, CNN Senior Political Analyst, and Michael Zuckerman, Special to CNN
(CNN) – One doesn’t have to be Hispanic to recognize the importance of the Latino population to America’s future. With the Hispanic population in America up 43% during the past decade and projected to comprise nearly one-third of the U.S. population by 2050, our nation’s future is increasingly bound up with the fate of Hispanics. If Hispanics go up, we all go up; if they fall, look out below.
Unfortunately, nationwide social conditions are now looking grim. According to a recent report from Pew Hispanic Center, there are now more Latino children living in poverty – 6.1 million – than any other racial or ethnic group. The recession-impacted number is up a whopping 36% from 2007. (Poverty for white and black children was up 17.6% and 11.7%, respectively).
The education gap between whites and Hispanics at grades eight and 12 has persisted at roughly the same level since 1994, while the Hispanic dropout rate - 17.6% - remains nearly twice as large as that 9.3% rate of black students and more than three times the 5.2% rate of white students. Clearly, we are not doing all that we could be, and will reap the whirlwind if we continue to allow such a burgeoning part of our population to grow up impoverished and without a proper education.
How to solve this impending crisis? While there are many valuable ideas out there, one we would highlight is the nurturing of leadership capacity and civic engagement, particularly in the rising generation.
About In America
What defines you? Maybe it’s the shade of your skin, the place you grew up, the accent in your words, the make up of your family, the gender you were born with, the intimate relationships you chose to have or your generation? As the American identity changes we will be there to report it. In America is a venue for creative and timely sharing of news that explores who we are. Reach us at inamerica@cnn.com.
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