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WHY ARE HISPANICS RALLYING AGAINST BANK OF AMERICA?

March 6, 2012 by 2 Comments

THE HISPANIC BLOG IS THE LATEST HISPANIC NEWS BY JESSICA MARIE GUTIERREZ

Hispanic Community Rallies Against Bank of America‘s Attack on Minority Business

Members of the Chicago-area Hispanic community are sending a loud and clear message to Bank of America officials: stop the unjust attacks on Illinois’ third largest minority-owned business that have placed more than 1,400 jobs in jeopardy.
Bank of America has taken extreme and unprecedented measures to intimidate and put the Hillside- and Downers Grove- based direct mail and financial marketing company out of business, which would result in 1,400 lost jobs, nearly 1,000 of which are held by Hispanics.
VMark workers as well as elected and business officials and community activists are asking BOA to serve the very taxpayers who helped bail out the banking giant by working with the company to resolve the matter and ensure the employment of thousands of local residents and the economic health of the community.
“This is simply unacceptable,” said State Sen. Kimberly A. Lightford (4th District), who represents the district where the Hillside facility is located. “I’m not going to stand by and watch Bank of America victimize minority communities. These hard-working employees and their families are being punished for failed corporate boardroom policies.”
Some of VMark’s owners, who are the minority shareholders in the company, defaulted years ago on $39 million in loan guarantees unrelated to the company. But while the owners have sought to fulfill all of their obligations during the past year, BOA has curiously refused their offers and is now leveraging that debt to put the company out of business. Meanwhile, VMark is currently pursuing other legal avenues to remain in business and retain jobs.
“We’re here to show Bank of America that we’re not going to let them ruin a successful business that serves as a lifeline to thousands of local Chicago and suburban families,” said State Sen. Martin Sandoval (12th District), whose district is home to many VMark employees. “We cannot let the big corporate banks turn their backs on a successful company and the Hispanic community when working families are struggling to make ends meet.”
VMark supporters noted that the issue comes on the heels of the U.S. Justice Department‘s recent order that Bank of America pay $335 million to settle claims that its subsidiary Countrywide discriminated against minority borrowers. It was charged with hiking interest rates and fees for more than 200,000 African-American and Hispanic borrowers who qualified for lower rates. The fees and interest rates were higher than those of non-Hispanic white borrowers.
Cook County Commissioner Jeff Tobolski, whose 16th District includes VMark’s Hillside facility, was hopeful the two sides could work something out to retain the jobs.
“These workers serve on the front lines and help drive growth of the company and the region,” Tobolski said. “Through no fault of their own, they stand to lose their jobs and benefits, which impact families and the overall economic health of Cook County. We need to do all we can to create a business friendly environment in the county to not only retain existing jobs but attract new ones and spur economic growth.”
VMark has been a valued member of the corporate and Hispanic community since 1974, when it started as a magazine subscription service. Since that time, VMark has expanded to include eight separate companies that service a diverse client base.
“VMark is an anchor of the Hispanic community and a true American success story, growing and thriving as a small business that contributes to the overall financial health of the Chicago area,” said Chicago Ald. George A. Cardenas (12th Ward). “Bank of America needs to resolve this matter so VMark can continue to operate and families can keep their jobs and survive.”
Nilda Esparza, Executive Director of the Little Village Chamber of Commerce, noted that VMark plays a vital role in the Hispanic community.
“Minority owned-businesses are among the fastest growing segment of new business and job creation among small businesses,” Esparza said. “Companies like VMark create jobs and opportunities in the Latino Community. As a fellow minority group, we stand with VMark and their employees in the hopes they are able to reach an amicable resolution that allows them to continue to prosper and generate jobs in Illinois.”

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Filed Under: LATINO MARKETING Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

SXSW’s SOCIAL REVOLUCIÓN NOMINATES GUTIÉRREZ FOR THE MOBILIZER CATEGORY

February 29, 2012 by 20 Comments

THE HISPANIC BLOG BY JESSICA MARIE GUTIERREZ

SOUTH BY SOUTHWEST PRESENTS
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Hola Revolucionario,

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You have been nominated for The Revolucionario Awards! The awards are taking place as part of The Social Revolución – An interactive movement of Latinos using social media as their platform to create and inspire change.

As a nominee, you have the opportunity to win the Revolucionario Award for The Mobilizer category.

The Mobilizer
An interactive movement of Latinos using social media as their platform to create and inspire change. These ambitious individuals are using hashtags, pixels, and live updates to spread ideas, foster communities, and inspire their worldwide audience into action. These are Latinos with international and local causes using social media as a strategy to mobilize their audience.

Awards will be announced soon and will be presented at The Social Revolución Latino Lounge at SXSWi on March 12, 2012.

Check out your nomination Jessica Marie Gutierrez with The Hispanic Blog, Los Comandantes (the official judges), and The Other Revolucionarios creating and inspiring change.

Congratulations once more and don’t forget to share the news.

¡Que Viva La Revolución

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Filed Under: LATINO MARKETING, MISCELLANEOUS Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

HOW MUCH IMPACT DO THE SWING STATES HAVE ON THE NEXT ELECTION: WILL THIS AFFECT MITT ROMNEY?

February 27, 2012 by Leave a Comment

THE HISPANIC BLOG BY JESSICA MARIE GUTIERREZ

20120227-213114.jpg Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney campaigns at The Hispanic Leadership Network’s Lunch at Doral Golf Resort and Spa in Miami, Fla., Friday, Jan. 27, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

If there was still any doubt about Mitt Romney’s position on immigration, it was erased last Thursday during the CNN Republican presidential debate in Mesa, Arizona.

The former Michigan governor referred to Arizona’s controversial HB1070 law as “a model” for the nation. The initiative approved in 2010 that cracks down on illegal immigration has been denounced by Hispanic and immigration rights groups as extreme.

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photo is of a Romney double-sided mailer used in South Carolina Image from News Taco

Romney also said that “the right course for America is to drop these lawsuits against Arizona … I’ll also complete the (border) fence. I’ll make sure we have enough border patrol agents to secure the fence and I’ll make sure we have an (employment eligibility federal database) E-Verify system and require employers to check the documents of workers.”

20120227-213331.jpg photo from CNN

Hispanic voters won’t decide Tuesday’s primaries in Arizona and Michigan, because few are registered as Republicans in those states; but it will be an entirely different story during the November presidential elections.

Arizona’s Hispanic voters could give the candidate of either party enough of a margin to win the state in November. According to the Pew Hispanic Center, Arizona has 766,000 eligible Hispanic voters, close to 20% of all eligible voters in the Grand Canyon state.

Making statements that can be perceived as anti-immigrant is risky, according to Jennifer Sevilla-Korn, the executive director of the Hispanic Leadership Network, a center-right advocacy group based in Washington, D.C.

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Photo more campaign material from the Romney campaign http://www.newstaco.com/2012/01/05/romney-uses-anti-immigrant-mailers-to-campaign-in-south-carolina/

“Tone and rhetoric absolutely matter, because the use of language that can be perceived as inflammatory turns the Hispanic community off even if they agree with the candidate on other issues like how to deal with the economy and fiscal responsibility,” Sevilla-Korn said.

Mark Lopez, associate director at the Pew Hispanic Center, said, “Latinos have played a growing and important role in the nation’s presidential elections over the last few election cycles. There are now more than 21 million Hispanics who are eligible to vote, and Latinos reside in some key states.”

According to the U.S. Census, in the 2008 presidential election, Latinos represented 13% of all voters in Colorado, 14% in Nevada, 15% in Florida, and 38% in New Mexico. Those four states will likely be swing states again in 2012. “Even the participation rate among Hispanics in presidential elections has been growing” in those states, says Lopez.

In 2004, former President George W. Bush won more than 40% of the Latino vote. Four years later, 67% of Hispanic voters went for Barack Obama. Experts say anybody getting that kind of support from Latinos next year, whether Democrat or Republican, has a good chance of winning the presidency.

Florida-based political analyst Charles Garcia says he’s confident Latino voters will decide the U.S. presidential election in 2012. He points to states like North Carolina, where the number of registered Hispanic voters has almost doubled to more than 130,000 since the last presidential election.

“President Obama won North Carolina in 2008 by 14,000 votes,” Garcia said. “In 2008 there were 68,000 registered Latino voters and a whopping 84% of them participated in the election.”

According to research done by the CNN Political Team, based on U.S. Census figures there will be 15 swing states in the 2012 presidential elections: Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin.

In a tight race, Garcia said, Hispanic voters could be the margin of victory in 12 of the 15 swing states. The reason? The number of eligible Latino voters in those states has grown by more than 700,000 in the last four years.

“So the important message for the Latino community that’s living in one of these 15 swing states is ‘Get off your couch and go register to vote because you’re going to determine the next election’ — and that’s powerful,” Garcia said.

On the Democratic side, Garcia points out, President Obama hasn’t delivered on a promise he made while campaigning: comprehensive immigration reform.

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photo by citizen orange blog

“What he’s done is he has deported 400,000 immigrants a year — a total of 1.2 million so far — and he hasn’t delivered on the Dream Act,” Garcia said. The Dream Act is a bill that would give a path towards citizenship to undocumented young people attending college or serving in the armed forces.

As the GOP primaries play out and as the focus shifts toward the general election in November, Latino voters likely will find themselves more and more the focus of candidates’ attention in those key swing states. Which candidate will get those voters’ attention in the polling booth is a question that will be answered in the weeks and months ahead.

Read More: By Rafael Romo, Senior Latin American Affairs Editor http://inamerica.blogs.cnn.com/2012/02/27/the-latino-vote-a-factor-in-swing-states-come-november/?hpt=hp_c2

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Filed Under: LATINO POLITICS Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

WHAT IS PRESIDENT OBAMA DOING TO FIX THE IMMIGRATION SYSTEM?

February 24, 2012 by 2 Comments

THE HISPANIC BLOG

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FROM THE WHITE HOUSE

“We are the first nation to be founded for the sake of an idea—the idea that each of us deserves the chance to shape our own destiny. That’s why centuries of pioneers and immigrants have risked everything to come here…The future is ours to win. But to get there, we cannot stand still.”

President Obama is calling for a national conversation on immigration reform that builds a bipartisan consensus to fix our broken immigration system so it works for America’s 21st century economy, but he can’t do it alone. Help bring the debate to your community by hosting a roundtable.

CONTINUE THE CONVERSATION IN YOUR COMMUNITY AND HOST A ROUNDTABLE.

President Obama is calling for a national conversation on immigration reform that builds a bipartisan consensus to fix our broken immigration system so it works for America’s 21st century economy and security needs, but he can’t do it alone. That is why we are asking you and other Americans, including business leaders, faith leaders, law enforcement leaders and all Americans that understand that we cannot continue to live with the broken system the way it is – to continue the conversation in your community by hosting a roundtable.

Step 1:
Download the toolkit. Click on link below.

Step 2:
Tell us about your event using the form to the right.

Step 3:
Tell us how your event went and submit the completed toolkit on the follow up form.

http://m.whitehouse.gov/issues/immigration/roundtables

President Obama recognizes that our current immigration system is broken and he is deeply committed to building a new 21st century immigration system that meets our nation’s important economic and security needs. In his State of the Union Address, the President laid out his vision for winning the future. To secure prosperity for all Americans, we must out-innovate, out-educate, and out-build the rest of the world, and fixing our immigration system plays an important part in that plan. As we work to rebuild our economy, our ability to thrive depends, in part on restoring responsibility and accountability to the immigration system.

President’s Vision for Reform
The President plans to create a 21st century immigration system by:

-Continuing to fulfill the federal government’s responsibility to securing our borders;

-Demanding accountability for businesses that break the law by undermining American workers and exploiting undocumented workers;

-Strengthening our economic competiveness by creating a legal immigration system that reflects our values and diverse needs; and
Requiring responsibility from people who are living in the United States illegally.

-Building on Progress
During the last two years, the Obama Administration has taken important steps to improve our immigration system within the boundaries of existing laws. For example, the Administration has:

—-Dedicated unprecedented resources to secure the border;

—-Made interior and worksite enforcement smarter and more effective; and

—-Worked to improve our legal immigration system.

BLUEPRINT FROM THE WHITE HOUSE

Click to access immigration_blueprint.pdf

ACCORDING TO THE PRESIDENT:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama, expressing confidence he will win re-election in November, told a Hispanic audience he would use a second term to seek comprehensive immigration reform.

“My presidency is not over,” Obama said in an interview with Univision Radio when asked about his failure so far to push through an immigration bill. “I’ve got another five years coming up. We’re going to get this done.”

Obama is seeking to shore up support among Hispanic voters, whose strong backing helped him win the White House in 2008. But some in the Latino community are disappointed over the lack of progress toward overhauling the immigration system.

Obama – in an interview broadcast the day before his Thursday trip to Florida, an election battleground state with a large Hispanic population – sought to reassure Latinos he was committed to trying to pass broad immigration reform.

He rejected suggestions that he had broken a campaign promise and put the blame on Republicans in Congress who he said were “unwilling to talk at all about any sensible solutions to this issue.”

“So far, we haven’t seen any of the Republican candidates even support immigration reform,” Obama said, taking aim at his potential opponents in the November 6 election.

The White House hopes that hard-line positions taken by Republican presidential contenders on illegal immigration and border control will help Obama with Hispanic voters in vital swing states like Florida, Nevada and Colorado.

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God Bless and may you have a fabulous day!

powered by Influential Access – “Transforming the Ordinary to EXTRAordinary!” – CEO – Jessica Marie Gutierrez – Creator of The Hispanic Blog #thehispanicblog

Filed Under: LATINO POLITICS Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

ARE LATINOS A “SLEEPING GIANT?”

February 22, 2012 by 1 Comment

THE HISPANIC BLOG NY JESSICA MARIE GUTIERREZ

Mainstream media and politicians have sold Latinos short for decades. (Flickr: Beverly & Pack)

I can remember back to 1980 when President Carter was running for reelection against a list of Republican candidates, including Ronald Reagan. Ruben Bonilla, the then-National President of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) was being encouraged to endorse the president’s campaign. He backed Carter, but Reagan went on to win easily.

This common, apparently benign scenario, has played out for decades but it’s representative of the underlying problem when it comes to how media and politicians treat Latinos.
From 1980 to the mid-1990s, Latino voters were always referred to as the “sleeping giant.” Our population growth has constantly risen at a rapid pace, thus many in politics and the media have recognized the potential political strength of the Latino community and politicians desired the endorsements of top Latino officials.

But at the same time, the disturbing reality is that we have not yet realized that potential at the ballot box. We continue to have a very young population and we have experienced a great deal of obstacles to voting because of state and local barriers. Instead of addressing these issues head on, politicians and the media have just rolled with the punches. Presidential candidates have made lightweight political overtures to Latinos in nearly every election. And the media only gives scant coverage to Latino issues.

How did this happen?

Every four years, beginning in 1980, I would read the traditional “sleeping giant” article in virtually every major newspaper in the country. It was telling that in non-election years, most media in those days seldom focused much attention on Latino politics or policy concerns. Despite our population growth and political aspirations, one would seldom see a Latino or Latina on any of the established political talk shows, such as Meet the Press. Heck, we were overjoyed if we were simply able to make the nightly news on ABC, CBS, or NBC.

Then, the Spanish International Network (SIN) opened its Washington, D.C. office and we were as close to media nirvana we would ever get. SIN would cover the work of Latinos in D.C. and throughout the nation. SIN would become Univision and through those years, the every-four-year syndrome on the “sleeping giant” changed. We began to see more articles and attention, but at the same time there was little depth and dimension to this coverage. We still weren’t at the tables of the evening news and we didn’t have many Latino reporters, but at least the frequency of attention was growing.

Over the last fifteen years, Univision has become a major player in U.S. media and has helped draw attention to Latino and Latino issues in this country. However, it appears one of the downsides of this development has been that the English-language media has abdicated coverage of Latinos to Latino-centric outlets.

Mainstream media spouts their hypocritical interest in the “Latino vote” and community interests. But they have become quite adept at having non-Latinos speak for Latinos on issues that “you have to be there” in order to provide an honest and informed perspective. But what’s the problem? They mention us, they eat our food, some of the their best friends are Latino, and after all they know our concerns better than we do.

I asked a distinguished Latino journalist recently why the media was completely ignoring Romney, Santorum, and Gingrich campaigns and their outreach to the Latino community since Florida. Despite the caucuses in Nevada and Colorado, and the Arizona primary coming up next week, there was no discussion of how Latinos were being courted or ignored by the campaigns.

The journalist responded that the media’s assumption is that, in a GOP primary, the lion’s share of Latino voters will come out of Florida, where Cuban-Americans live, and not elsewhere. The media thinks Latino Republicans and their minds doesn’t leap to Colorado, Arizona, or New Mexico — even though these states could play a decisive role in the primary and general elections.

With the largest number of Latinos in history expected to vote in 2012 and the constant questions about the importance of the Latino vote during the past 19 Republican presidential candidate debates, one would have thought that, this time around, the interest would be more intense.

Read More: http://univisionnews.tumblr.com/post/18024024761/opinion-notion-of-latino-sleeping-giant-has-pitfalls

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If you have any questions, concerns or simply would like to get a quote on my Marketing, Public Relations, Social Media and/or Events services, please feel free to contact me at thehispanicblog@gmail.com.

God Bless and may you have a fabulous day!

powered by Influential Access – “Transforming the Ordinary to EXTRAordinary!” – CEO – Jessica Marie Gutierrez – Creator of The Hispanic Blog #thehispanicblog

Filed Under: LATINO POLITICS Tagged With: , , , , , , ,
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