by Michael Guillén
I just returned from a week-long trip from Mexico to my mother’s hometown of Matehuala, San Luis Potosi. It’s been about 18 years since I last went and surprisingly, it was almost as I never left. My cousins and family were as welcoming and warm as always and I even still knew my way around town, remembering all the places I went to as a kid, running through the hot, dusty streets.
by Eric Cortes
Puerto Rican. Colombian. Venezuelan. Chicano. Mexicano. Dominican. There are millions of us in the United States. Some consider themselves Latino, some don’t. Some speak perfect Spanish, some speak not a word. Some dance to reggaeton music, and some of those do not know how to dance salsa or merengue.
by Adriana Villavicencio
In 2007, Junot Diaz injected new vida into the literary world with his best-selling masterpiece, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. To his readers, he is a genius who dazzled and delighted them with the richness of his storytelling and the music of his language (not to mention his Klingon references). For Latinos, there’s a special satisfaction in knowing this Pulitzer Prize winner is one of ours. We look on his accomplishments with pride, as if saying, That could be my brother, son, cousin, friend. That could be me.
By Nick Baez
We have seen many articles written about the growing U.S. Latino population, and the subsequent positive outcomes that result, particularly with respect to purchasing power. Irrespective of cultural differences and varied generational perspectives, the Latino community will undoubtedly be a significant force in shaping the global trajectory of this world throughout the 21st century. We must remember that the task of establishing ourselves as such a force is difficult, and will require a desire to define the world we want our unborn grandchildren to inhabit.
Being Latino Online Magazine 