5:42 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Health| Justice| Labor · 1 Comment
24 Nov 2006A group of janitors in Houston have won a tentative case for higher pay and health insurance, helped by the SEIU (Service Employees International Union). The win comes after the moving testimony before attorneys and executives during which one Salvadoran janitor, Ercilia Sandoval (see video), told her story of battling cancer without health coverage:
Last September Sandoval began feeling worn out on the job. She scrubbed bathroom fixtures through headaches and fevers, emptied trash cans with sore arms and a tight back. Lacking health insurance, she couldn’t afford to see a doctor. Nearly a year passed before she forked over $200 for a consultation. A mammogram confirmed her worst fears: She suffered from advanced-stage breast cancer. Yet hospitals in Houston wouldn’t treat her because she was uninsured. She waited two months to be approved for state disability coverage. In June, doctors finally began chemotherapy treatments but say she probably has only a few months to live.
3:00 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Celebrities| Politics · Comments Off
24 Nov 2006
While Gilberto Santa Rosa celebrated his 30 year salsa career at Madison Square Garden, he took time out to tell the crowd his opinion on the escalating crisis in Iraq.
We have many of our fellow countrymen fighting in this absurd war…and the best Christmas will be when they return. I am speaking for the innocents who are fighting and dying over there on both sides.
The Latin Grammy winner and featured artist on the new Cocorocos album has spoken in public about his position against the war in Iraq before, specifically at a concert in Puerto Rico earlier this year.
Via / El Diario/La Prensa
12:03 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Education| race · 1 Comment
24 Nov 2006
Most people know that $250 won’t you that far in any college or univeristy these days, but the amount offered by the College Republican’s of Boston Univeristy vie their Caucasian Achievement and Recognition Scholarship isn’t really the point.
The application itself offers an explanation: “We believe that racial preferences in all their forms are perhaps the worst form of bigotry confronting America today.”According to Joe Mroszczyk, president of the College Republicans, his group is offering the scholarship to point out “how ridiculous it is to have any sort of racially based scholarship.”
Of course this hardly addresses the real issue behind affirmative action, the disadvantage that people of color and women have from jump because they are people of color and women, combined with poorer quality educational resources available to people of color. But we all know racism and sexism aren’t that serious anymore, right?
Via / ABC News
Image Via / Boston University News
VivirLatino is a daily publication published by 2 Mujeres Media, dedicated to featuring all the latest politics, culture, entertainment of interest to the diverse and influential Latino and Latina community in the U.S.
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