Por Max Torres
March 5 2025
Boston está en el ojo de la tormenta, está bajo el endemoniado zar fronterizo del presidente Trump, Tom Homan, quien –según sus palabras– «viene con el diablo» a Boston contra la inmigración indocumentada y la mira de los republicanos en la audiencia en el congreso en Washington que pondrá a la alcaldesa Michelle Wu en el banquillo por liderar una de las ciudades santuario. Con Wu estarán los alcaldes de Nueva York, Chicago y Denver a quienes, según un video publicitario, se les acusa de dirigir «ciudades sin ley».
En una reciente reunión en la Colaborativa, una de las organizaciones proinmigrantes más vocales en Massachusetts con oficinas en Chelsea, una de las ciudades con más del 70 por ciento de inmigrantes, muchos de ellos indocumentados, la alcaldesa Wu defendió a Boston como «una de las ciudades más seguras» y con los más bajos índices de criminalidad, asegurando que las políticas de su ciudad promueven la confianza y apoyan la seguridad pública.
«Voy al Congreso a decirle a los legisladores quien es Boston, quienes somos como ciudad, que estamos haciendo y porque está funcionando. Estamos orgullosos de ser la ciudad más segura de los Estados Unidos».
La alcaldesa Wu tiene el apoyo de toda una comunidad no solo de Boston sino de otras ciudades santuario como Chelsea y Somerville no obstante las críticas de los republicanos que ven las ciudades santuario como «ciudades sin ley» por la falta de apoyo a las políticas migratorias del presidente Trump. En la audiencia en el Comité de Supervisión de la Cámara de Representantes, liderado por los republicanos, la alcaldesa de Boston y los otros alcaldes de las llamadas ciudades santuario tendrán una prueba de fuego porque en un «video publicitario» que está circulando se les acusa de dirigir «ciudades sin ley».
El video presenta a Wu y a los alcaldes de Nueva York, Chicago y Denver como protagonistas y responsables, por lo que la alcaldesa dijo a modo de broma «esta es la primera vez que he sido parte de un avance de película para una audiencia en el Congreso».
«Este es un tema importante sobre cómo en Boston mantenemos a todos a salvo y, por lo tanto, sin importar el drama que lo rodee, espero ir allí y decirles porque Boston es la ciudad más segura de los Estados Unidos». Las estadísticas lo demuestran, los residentes se sienten seguros, confiados y trabajan de la mano de las fuerzas del orden y del gobierno municipal.
Sin embargo, el video publicitario es el arma de los republicanos para captar la atención nacional sobre Boston y sus políticas de ciudad santuario. Basta escuchar a Janet Fogarty, miembro del Comité Nacional Republicano por Massachusetts, decir «no es justo para los contribuyentes que vengan personas de países de los que ni siquiera sabemos de dónde vienen, que vengan sin papeles y que vengan directamente a Massachusetts donde saben que pueden obtener beneficios gratuitos”.
Wu y los otros tres alcaldes van a testificar en las audiencias del congreso sobre sus políticas como ciudades santuario y si cooperarán con los planes de deportación del presidente Trump. ¿Veremos qué pasa?
¡Sigamos cuidándonos! Sin salud mental, no hay salud.
Hugo Balta
“It’s a huge honor,” Harvard student, Raquel Coronell Uribe told NPR. “Even if it took 148 years, I’m thrilled that I get to be in the position to be that first person.”
The Harvard Crimson, the nation’s oldest university newspaper elected Coronell Uribe as its first Latina president on November 12 after a five-week election process known as the “Turkey Shoot.”
Compartió preocupación de inmigrantes por desafíos económicos de vivienda
marzo 5, 2025
Con un verdadero compromiso de escuchar, comprender y apoyar a la comunidad inmigrante, la gobernadora de Massachusetts, Maura Healey, visitó La Colaborativa para hablar directamente con los líderes comunitarios sobre los urgentes desafíos económicos, de vivienda e inmigración que enfrentan Chelsea y las áreas circundantes.
«En un momento de incertidumbre y miedo, la presencia de la gobernadora Healey envió un mensaje contundente, somos vistos, somos escuchados y no estamos solos. Se tomó el tiempo para interactuar con nosotros, para presenciar de primera mano las luchas que soportan nuestras familias inmigrantes y para reconocer la resiliencia que define a nuestra comunidad», dijo la presidenta y CEO de la Colaborativa que tiene sus oficinas en Chelsea.
La gobernadora pudo observar el trabajo de La Colaborativa que, según dijo Vega, «va más allá de los servicios y programas; se trata de empoderamiento, dignidad y esperanza. Desde la defensa hasta el apoyo directo, estamos aquí para elevar y proteger a nuestra gente, y significa mucho que nuestra gobernadora esté a nuestro lado en esa misión».
La comunidad de Chelsea expresó su agradecimiento a la gobernadora Healey por escuchar las necesidades de la comunidad inmigrante. «No fue una visita simbólica sino un recordatorio de que el liderazgo significa escuchar, que el progreso comienza con la comprensión y que la lucha por la justicia y la equidad es una que debemos emprender juntos. Chelsea, Revere y East Boston forman una comunidad fuerte con líderes dispuestos a escuchar».
Recortar fondos federales
La gobernadora Healey reveló que el presidente Donald Trump planea recortar los fondos federales para todas las autoridades de vivienda de Massachusetts, citando que más del 33% de los residentes de viviendas son indocumentados.
Healey también condenó la política de dos años de «trabajar o licencia» propuesta por Trump para los residentes de viviendas, afirmando que no se alinea con los estándares de la Commonwealth de Massachusetts.
Para contrarrestar la agenda de Trump, Healey planea colaborar con la senadora de Massachusetts Elizabeth Warren para financiar internamente estos programas de vivienda aumentando los requisitos impositivos estatales en un 2%. Esto significaría que los residentes de Massachusetts contribuirían directamente a estos programas, siendo un ejemplo un salario de $60,000 frente a un aumento de impuestos anual de $1,200. Los trabajadores independientes estarían sujetos a una tasa de contribución más alta del 3%, añadió Healey.
Sarah Betancourt, GBH
February 10, 2025
Their social media photos reflect a life of faith, family and music, singing with their daughter at home and at church events.
That drastically changed for the Marlborough family on Monday after Suyanne Boechat Amaral kissed her husband Lucas Dos Santos Amaral goodbye before he went to work at their small painting business.
A few minutes later, Dos Santos Amaral, originally from Brazil, was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. He’s one example of a growing number of immigrants who are detained with no criminal record. Being in the country illegally is a civil violation, not a criminal one.
Trump made the deportation of undocumented immigrants a key point of his campaign platform, and has put into place a number of executive orders that change immigrants’ legal statuses to fulfill that promise.
Boechat Amaral and state Sen. Jamie Eldridge, who represents the area, described how ICE pulled over Dos Santos Amaral, and asked for his ID. Boechat Amaral called the traffic stop “random.”
“They said they were looking for someone who looked like him,” she said. She added that even though Amaral wasn’t the individual they were seeking, agents reviewed his name and discovered he overstayed his visa, then took him into custody.
Eldridge said it was “clearly racial profiling by ICE.
Shandra Back
January 27, 2025
In front of the Boston Night Center at 2 p.m., a line snakes along, its head marked by a green sleeping bag. A pedestrian straying one street too far from the main road might do a double take, wondering if the lime-colored lump is filled with clothing or a person. Yet this line is held not by people, but by things. Bags of all shapes and sizes sit out in daylight on the sidewalk, as if daring someone: Yeah, come on, steal from people experiencing homelessness.
The shelter system in Boston is a beast, consisting of both governmental and nongovernmental support for migrants and unhoused Americans who fall into a myriad of categories. While living in the same space, even sometimes in the same room, migrants and unhoused Americans receive different governmental treatment and support, causing a dissonance in perceptions of the other. Each group faces unique roadblocks and avenues for assistance. Yet one thing is clear: the crisis is real, and the needs are overwhelming. As icy air hits the city, this intensity only heightens.
Massachusetts is the only right-to-shelter state in the United States, a designation that legally obligates the state to provide shelter to families and individuals in need. This policy has made the state a destination for migrants and unhoused Americans seeking assistance, placing unique pressure on its shelter system. Boston has the second-highest rate of homelessness among major U.S. cities, according to a 2024 report by Boston Indicators. Yet the city also stands out with one of the lowest rates of unsheltered homelessness, ranking eighth nationwide.
Only 6% of Boston’s homeless population is unsheltered, starkly contrasting the national average of 40%. This difference highlights local policies’ effectiveness and underscores the immense challenge of meeting rising demand. As the number of families and individuals seeking assistance grows, the strain on state resources intensifies, testing the limits of what even a right-to-shelter system can provide.
Since its state of emergency announcement in 2023, capping the shelter capacity at 7,500 families or 24,000 individuals, Gov. Maura Healey has rolled out many new policies to tackle the overflow. Many of these include prioritization systems for shelter placement and stay limits. Healey has also continued urging the federal government to act more on immigration reform to help manage the influx.
Rise and shine and shut the doors is at 6:30 a.m. From there, yawning residents of the Boston Night Center head off in different directions. Some go to aid centers around Boston, some to work—authorized and unauthorized—and many to the St. Francis day shelter down the street to escape the encroaching Boston cold and have something to eat in the sleepy, fluorescent cafeteria space.
The doors reopen at 8:30 p.m., yet the line begins long before reprieve from the cold. There are 55 tickets handed out each night. No ticket, no entry. Thus, the bags holding spots.
Many government emergency shelters have strict rules and regulations, while nongovernmental ones have more leeway. Run by Bay Cove Human Services, the Boston Night Center on 31 Bowker St. is just a few minutes’ walk from the Government Center station. One just needs to show up—no identification or signing is needed. Unlike most shelters in Boston, men and women sleep together, making it an attractive choice for couples.
slow because this work was unprecedented, and the bureaucracy and creation of a whole new department proved more difficult than expected. In an ideal world, the process of moving someone out of the shelter after identifying the apartment would take three weeks at most.
Three weeks maximum. Andrew shakes his head. “Migrants get housed automatically, while we as American citizens would be out here freezing in the cold waiting,” he says.
Three years. That’s how long the average subsidized housing wait time in Boston is, according to the Public Health Post: an all-time high. “They’re getting more special treatment than us,” says Andrew.
“Tickets! Tickets!” calls out a Bay Cove employee managing the shelter’s door, who requested anonymity due to the nonprofit’s media policies. The doors aren’t supposed to open until later, but as nights get colder and darker, the staff opens earlier.
People who stayed the night before can automatically receive a ticket for the following night. Then there are six tickets reserved for people who work, he explains. Two are for people coming from another shelter in Cambridge, and any remaining spots by the end are let-ins at the door, he says.
A Dominican woman stands at the front, dressed head to toe in black. With her hood pulled up and hand holding the lip of the zipper above her nose, her eyes are all that peek out. Shivering in the cold, she waits for the ticketed ones to pass her by. The line now seems pointless.
Soon, all the ticketed people have entered in ones and twos. Three remain. Another Bay Cove head peeks out from the warmth. It looks like we’re at capacity, says the employee at the door, but wait just a second, and we’ll check.
They don’t wait. In Spanish, the woman mutters something under her breath about discrimination, and in English, she thanks him for everything and says not to worry.
The three figures silhouette against the lights beaming out from the parking garage as they walk away. The employee emerges again, sees the disappearing wisps, and the quiet, calm man lets out a deep, long yell. “Wait!” It echoes down the walls of the alley. But not far enough.
His shoulders droop. “I told them to wait.”
Nicole Garcia, GBH News
December 12, 2024
Roundhead Brewing Company, the first Latino-owned brewery in Massachusetts, is making its mark in the local craft beer scene. Founded in 2022 by Luis Espinoza and co-owner Craig Panzer, the brewery offers a Latin twist on beer and promotes a sense of community.
“We wanted to have a relationship that was with people in the door,” Panzer said on Boston Public Radio on Friday. “Our mission is cerveza que reúine — beer that brings people together. … A beer is a starting place to sit at the table and enjoy time together.”
Espinoza and Panzer met at the sidelines of their kids soccer games in Jamaica Plain. Their friendship turned into making a dream come true.
“I shared a couple of beers with [Craig] and was like ‘Yeah, let’s do it,’” Espinoza said.
Roundhead recently hosted a Latino Beer Festival with live music, food and beer from their own brewery as well as other Latino brewers.
“We were surprised when we did a couple events outside of Hyde Park — we went to East Boston and all these different parks around Boston. We find a lot of people … identify with the brewery, and they come back,” Espinoza said.
Read the full story at GBH News: www.wgbh.org/
Natalia Madera
September 29, 2024
ROXBURY—The pulsating sound of merengue reverberated from the jukebox. It’s a rhythmic love song playing for the crowd. Some of the customers swayed to the tune. They raised bottles of Heineken, as they laughed and plunged into the food in front of them.
It is a Sunday afternoon at El Mondonguito, a family-owned Puerto Rican restaurant and bar located in the heart of Roxbury.
“It’s always a party over here,’’ said owner Carmen Cartagena, as she served a steaming hot plate of carne guisada—beef stew. Her son, Ricky Rivera, was busily filling orders from behind the counter.
For nearly 50 years, El Mondonguito has been a staple on Dudley Street where residents get a taste of San Juan. It’s not just about the food or the socializing. El Mondonguito, adorned in original Puerto Rican street art and murals, transports people back to their island homeland.
But the past three years have not always been good for the restaurant. Hidden amid a whirl of activity on the busy stretch, the restaurant has weathered a grueling pandemic, financial instability, and creeping gentrification that has threatened other small businesses nearby.
But in recent months, El Mondonguito has seen a resurgence. Patrons have returned, sales have gone up, and the spirit of the community is back.
“El Mondonguito reminds people of home,” said Rivera, who co-owns the restaurant with his mother. “The food in the food warmer, the music, the decorations—this is exactly what [home] looks like.”
Cartagena and her late husband Domingo Rivera bought the restaurant—the site of an old barber shop—in 1974. They named it Mingo & Carmen, after their own names.
Since then, the restaurant has emerged as a go-to spot for much of the local Roxbury community. Some people travel from as far away as Medford, Revere, and Waltham to sample authentic Puerto Rican and other Caribbean food.
Marilyn Schairer, GBH News
July 12, 2024
The hallways inside the emergency overflow shelter in Chelsea are bustling with parents and children, many of whom stayed in day shelters and slept at Logan Airport before coming here.
This 200-bed shelter opened in April at the former Chelsea Soldiers’ Home, which closed earlier this year. It’s one of several overflow shelters the state set up to support the population of newly arrived migrants, which surged to over 11,000 last fiscal year — a 152% increase over the prior year — with more families arriving each day.
In the two months since opening the Chelsea shelter, advocates say “La Casita,” which it’s called informally, has become a successful model for housing migrant families and offering comprehensive services on site.
To get the shelter quickly up and running, the state is working with La Colaborativa, a Latino-focused social services organization based in Chelsea.
“I immediately said, ‘If you’re doing it, we want to run it,’” said Gladys Vega, La Colaborativa’s executive director.
“We have boots on the ground. We have done this work for decades, and we want to make sure that we take care of the recent arrivals as we are taking care of the community members at the new Survival Center,” Vega said, referring to the services offered at La Colaborativa’s own facility.
Read the full story at GBH News:
www.wgbh.org/
MA Latino News
May 30, 2024
The rhythm and beat of ping, clunk, crunch, bam, and “STOMP” is coming to Massachusetts!
Touring the U.S. since 1994, the show that debuted in New York City back in 1991 will be playing at the Lynn Memorial Auditorium in Lynn (May 30, 2024).
A unique and exhilarating experience, the internationally acclaimed “STOMP” has been captivating audiences for decades with its innovative blend of music, dance, comedy, and theatricality.
The talented performers use everyday objects such as brooms, trash cans, buckets, and even their own bodies to create an astonishing symphony of sound and movement. The result is a high-energy performance that leaves audiences breathless and in awe.
The Latino News Network (LNN) had the opportunity to sit down with cast member Jude Caminos while the production was in Chicago, Illinois, in December 2023.
“This show is about discovering sound,” said Caminos, describing “STOMP.” “Discovering music in a way that anyone can grab and reach.” Caminos was about to perform in his twenty-second show on the night LNN met up with him. He originally auditioned for “STOMP” in 2021 and did it again earlier this year. Caminos got the GREAT news about being cast on the show in late August 2023, and after four weeks of training, he’s been on the road touring with fellow performers.
The show’s creators, Luke Cresswell and Steve McNicholas were inspired by the music and rhythms they encountered in everyday life. They wanted to take these ordinary sounds and transform them into something extraordinary. Through their innovative choreography and infectious enthusiasm, Cresswell and McNicholas turned the most mundane objects into musical instruments and the stage into a playground for rhythm and creativity.
“Coming from a very classical background, to transfer something I have been playing with an orchestra -OK, (now) I have a trash can, a tire, and some other piece of trash that I have to learn how to make music out of. (It ) has been a very cool process to learn how to take those skills I have learned over the years and transfer that over,” shared Caminos about the experience of making music without traditional instruments.
Caminos is a music director and musician based in Brooklyn, New York. He moved to NYC in 2021, shortly after graduating from Carnegie Mellon University, where he majored in percussion performance and music education with a minor in Drama.
A freelance artist, preschool teacher, and children’s music performer, Caminos has music-directed and performed in various cabarets, including “Lizzie: The Musical.”
One of the most impressive aspects of “STOMP” is its ability to transcend language barriers. With no spoken words, the show is accessible to audiences from all over the world. No matter where you come from, you can appreciate the universal language of rhythm and the joy that comes from creating music with everyday objects.
Despite the success of shows with diverse casts, Latinos still need to be more represented on Broadway shows. Of the roughly 51,000 active Actors’ Equity Association members (in 2021), the union for theater performers, 3.1 percent were Latino.
For Caminos, whose parents are Cuban and Argentine, being one of a few Latino performers in “The Great White Way” is a truth he is aware of. “I never saw anyone that looked like me on stage,” he said. “When we were in Newark (New Jersey), I had a kid come up and ask for my picture.
MA Latino News
April 1, 2024
A recent study conducted by the Pew Research Center has shed light on how Hispanic Americans consume news and information in the United States. The study found that Hispanic Americans have unique patterns and preferences regarding staying informed, with a mix of English language and digital platform choices playing a pivotal role in their media consumption.
The report finds that just over half of U.S. Hispanic adults (54%) get their news mainly in English—far higher than the share who mostly get it in Spanish (21%). About a quarter of Hispanic Americans (23%) say they equally consume news in both languages.
There is an almost identical pattern regarding the preferred language for news: 51% prefer to get their news in English, 24% prefer Spanish, and 23% say they do not have a preference.
This finding may come as a surprise to some, as the Hispanic population in the US is often associated with Spanish-language media outlets such as Univision and Telemundo. Hugo Balta, Publisher of Massachusetts Latino News (MALN), says this misconception is compounded by mainstream media’s one-dimensional coverage of Hispanic and Latino communities.
“The incessant depiction of the community in mass media is that of the other,” said Balta. “A foreign-born person, and not an American. The U.S. Census finds otherwise.”
The 2020 census reveals that nearly 1 in 5 Americans, totaling 62.6 million people, identify as Hispanic, showing a 23% growth from 2010 primarily due to U.S.-born Latinos. Despite the rapid growth of the Hispanic population, there has been a decrease in the percentage of Latinos who speak Spanish at home.
According to the American Community Survey (ACS) data, the Latino population in Massachusetts, including Brazilians, was 1,005,500 in 2021. This represents 14.4% of the population.
69% of Massachusetts’ Hispanic population is native-born. This can be attributed to the large Puerto Rican population. The largest population of Puerto Ricans in the United States, per capita, is in Holyoke, Massachusetts, comprising 44.8% of all residents in the 2010 Census.
The Pew Research Center study illuminates the need for media outlets to adapt to meet the needs and preferences of the diverse audience. “LNN has an English-first, multimedia digital approach to best serving Hispanic and Latino audiences, reflecting how and where the emerging majority consumes news, information, and entertainment,” said Balta.
The report also found that digital sources are becoming increasingly important. Social media platforms are popular among Hispanic Americans for staying informed about current events.
Latinos get their news from various sources, but most say they prefer to use digital devices over other platforms. Nearly nine in ten (87%) say they get news from digital devices at least sometimes, and 65% say they prefer this form over TV, radio, or print. Digital devices have become an increasingly common source for news among Latinos—and among Americans overall – in recent decades, a shift driven by the rise of the internet.
Latinos are more likely than White Americans (55%) and Black Americans (50%) to prefer getting news from digital devices. Latinos are also more likely than White and Black adults to get news from social media, at least in part because Latino adults tend to be younger than other groups, and young adults are more inclined to use social media for news.
Nearly three-quarters of Latino adults under 50 (73%) prefer to get their news on digital devices, including 27% who prefer social media specifically.
Aniya Sumner
January 16, 2024
BOSTON—Born to Dominican immigrant parents in a low-income neighborhood in Brooklyn, Gezzer Ortega never thought he would be working with some of the top researchers and healthcare professionals in the country.
But now, working as a professor at Harvard Medical School and paving the way in research and innovation for equitable surgical care at Brigham and Women’s Hospital is all Ortega can imagine himself doing.
“In my little Brooklyn community, we just did every day whatever we could to survive and that was it,” Ortega said.
A “hustler mentality” paired with an insatiable desire to create a community for other Latinos in the medical field allowed Ortega to achieve what very few have been able to do.
In 2015, Ortega found himself on a call with two other Latino surgeons, which was extremely rare.
“We were like, oh wow … we’re responsible for surgical care in this hospital and it’s three Latinos,” Ortega said. “We were like, when has this ever happened in the history of the U.S.?”
What was supposed to be just another shift at the hospital turned out to be the start of a massive effort to create a community for other Latino surgeons across the country. Two years later, Ortega and a few other surgeons founded the Latino Surgical Society, which helps underrepresented minorities achieve higher levels of success in surgery.
“Gezzer and I are certainly both passionate about health equity and working towards that, particularly in surgery,” said Brittany Dacier, a surgical resident and research fellow for Ortega.
Driven by his own family’s struggles to receive proper health care due to language barriers, Ortega now focuses his work on addressing issues in medical care that patients with limited English proficiency commonly face.
“We have a challenge here,” Ortega said. “What are ways in which we can provide resources for patients who are not English speakers so that they can have better encounters with our healthcare system?”
To answer that question, Ortega is working closely with a team of healthcare professionals and engineers at Harvard’s Healthcare Transformation Lab to create a user-friendly translation tool that bridges the gap between medical professionals and non-English-speaking patients.
The language barrier not only negatively affects doctor-patient communication but can also play a huge role in creating errors in medical histories, treatment plans, and medication instructions, Dacier said.
