Category Archives: News
2023 La Fiesta del Otoño Celebrates Literature and Culture
Join neighbors and friends in celebrating the City of Bloomington Fiesta del Otoño at the Switchyard Park Pavilion on Saturday, September 16 from noon to 4 p.m. This event commemorates National Hispanic Heritage month, which is recognized each year from September 15 through October 15, and is a time to recognize and celebrate the many contributions, diverse cultures, and extensive histories of the American Latino community.
Ven y únete para celebrar la Fiesta del Otoño de la Ciudad de Bloomington en el Pavilion de Switchyard Park el sábado 16 de septiembre a partir del mediodía y hasta las 4 p.m. Este evento conmemora el Mes Nacional de la Herencia Hispana, que se reconoce cada año del 15 de septiembre al 15 de octubre, y es un momento para celebrar la diversidad de culturas latinas, sus historias y contribuciones en Estados Unidos.
How diverse is IU’s freshman class in 2023?
Indiana University Bloomington welcomed 9,550 students this August as a part of its incoming undergraduates. But how diverse is IU Bloomington’s most recent freshman class?
Of the 9,550 undergraduates welcomed onto campus this year, 918 students are first-generation undergraduate students and 1,873 are members of historically marginalized populations, a record for the Bloomington campus, according to an IU press release.
Hoosier Latinos: A Century of Struggle, Service and Success
Using oral history and archival records, Hoosier Latinos: A Century of Struggle, Service, and Success recognizes the impressive lineage of Latinos in Indiana across time and space. Since the 1800’s Latino residents comingled with the English and German families, Irish workers, and freed Blacks who made Indiana home. The book explores how Latino Hoosiers navigated home and belonging in the Midwest from Northwest Indiana to Indianapolis and south to Evansville.
It Takes a Village like Bloomington
A free community resource fair for parents, expecting parents, grandparents, and little ones. April 29, 2023 from 11am to 3pm. 1525 S Rogers St. Bloomington IN 47403
Indiana’s Hispanic population
A person is Hispanic if s/he identifies him/herself as Hispanic. The most recent Census Bureau data (2021) reveal about 494,000 Hispanic persons living in Indiana. That’s just 0.8% of the nation’s Hispanic population, ranking this state 21st among the 50 states.
When you talk about Hispanics in Indiana, who are you talking about? These Hoosiers didn’t just arrive in the U.S. Most (72%) were born in America.
Madrigal named chief of staff for Bloomington mayor
Josefa Madrigal, a former Bloomington police officer and current city employee, will become chief of staff Friday for Mayor John Hamilton.
Madrigal has lived in Bloomington for 20 years and is originally from northwest Indiana. She graduated from Indiana University with a bachelor’s degree and later worked as a police officer for the IU and Bloomington police departments. She has served as a domestic violence survivor’s advocate. For the last six years, Madrigal has served as the Latino Outreach Coordinator for the Department of Community and Family Resources.
Bipartisan bill allows undocumented Indiana students pay resident tuition for college
Students in Indiana without citizenship or permanent U.S. residency could finally pay the same tuition for state colleges and universities as classmates, instead of the much more expensive out-of-state or international rate.
Proposed bipartisan legislation would make it easier for undocumented students who complete their K-12 education in Indiana to access higher learning, said Sen. Blake Doriot (R-Goshen), one of three bill authors, instead of a future with scant opportunities.
“This problem has come to us, not from what the state of Indiana has done, but what the federal government has failed to do,” Doriot said Wednesday during the Senate Education and Career Development Committee. “We have not been able to get together and find a clear pathway to citizenship and we are addressing children, young adults who want to further themselves.”
Latino students are rapidly increasing in this Tennessee county and it’s fueling a racist rhetoric
While the county’s more than 366,000 residents largely identify as White and about 7.4% identified as Hispanic or Latino in the 2020 Census, their presence has pushed a community with a dark racial history to face the inequalities that persist and adapt to a new normal that goes beyond the fractured Black-White paradigm that has characterized the South for a long time.
Although there are ongoing efforts by the city and school officials to better serve Latino families, the demographic shift has also come with reminders of how heavily divided this region is and the fact that many Latinos live afraid of authorities because of their current or past immigration status.
A North Carolina Farmer Was Accused of Abusing His Workers. Then Big Tobacco Backed His Election.
Tobacco-picking is is often done by migrant Latino workers, both H-2A and undocumented. They can face abuse and exploitation from when they are recruited in Mexico, before they even set foot on US soil. But they are essential to the economic stability of North Carolina, providing a steady supply of labour for agricultural jobs that can’t be filled by Americans.
Tobacco is a labor-intensive crop. It begins life in a greenhouse before being transplanted into the soil. It grows to a few feet tall and you often start by only picking the leaves at the base of the stem, which has to be done by hand. The early-morning dew makes it give off a greasy chemical smell and the tar slowly turns your gloves black. The nicotine in tobacco keeps smokers hooked, but for workers in the fields who are exposed to nicotine day in, day out, it can cause “green tobacco sickness”—a condition that leads to headaches, abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting. A day off is a welcome respite.
