Esther J. Cepeda

Esther J. Cepeda is an opinion journalist and expert on the issues of U.S. Hispanics/Latinos. She writes about that and much, much more on www.estherjcepeda.com

Stories from Esther J. Cepeda

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

 

If you're not intimately familiar with the terrifying phrase "February is FAFSA time," then you don't have college-age kids.

 

Or you're wealthy enough to be unencumbered by the gut-wrenching process of filling out the dreaded Free Application for Federal Student Aid, the gateway to federal and state student grants, work-study and loans for college.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

What happens when adults live in a world drenched in sexual innuendo, double entendre and sexually provocative media images? Children are inadvertently sexualized and become objects of suspicion.

Case in point: 7-year-old Mark Curran, a Boston first-grader, was recently accused of sexual harassment. He got into trouble for kicking a classmate in the crotch after the classmate allegedly choked him.

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

It would be nice to say that it's shocking that a mere five days after the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute recommended that children between the ages of 9 and 11 get tested for high cholesterol, Congress blocked what would have been landmark changes to the school lunch program designed to reduce childhood obesity.

But it's really no shock at all.

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

With less than a year until Election Day 2012, candidates for political office should be making sure they're not neglecting the most affluent, independent and now the fastest growing racial group of voters simply because they have routinely been overlooked in past elections.

Pity the candidates and political parties who haven't yet figured out that Asian-Americans are coming into their own and that failing to acknowledge their rising political power may someday prove to be perilous.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Fundamentally, American society doesn't value a college education as the necessary prerequisite to gaining knowledge or becoming a responsible citizen. Instead, it is promoted as the guaranteed means to gainful employment.

In fact, the value of a college education is dropping so much that certain graduates who are dissatisfied that their diplomas did not yield the job placements of their choice want to shirk their responsibility to pay back their student loans.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

When I was a kid, the Latin American holiday Day of the Dead – a two-day observance that celebrates departed loved ones – was a little-known tradition in the United States.

Back then, the only place you'd see the brightly painted sugar skulls and pan de muerto -- a sweet bread dusted with crystal sugar most commonly baked in the form of a human figure with its arms crossed at the waist, hug-like, or a mound with slender "bone" toppings -- was the nearest Mexican bakery.

Not so these days.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Just hours after Gov. Jerry Brown signed the California Dream Act, which will allow illegal immigrant students to be eligible for state-funded financial aid at public universities and community colleges, celebratory email began circulating.

"Wow, this great and wonderful news for our Hispanic students. This is winning!" said one jubilant respondent to a mass email about the new legislation.

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

 

If it weren't so tragic, it might be amusing.

Last week, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan had an op-ed article in The Wall Street Journal, co-authored with Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix, pushing "Digital Promise," a new program to use technology to "revolutionize" K-12 education.

It was published the day after Hastings sent an email to Netflix customers informing them that, in addition to having just ticked them off by both limiting their choices and hiking rates, he also planned to split the company into two separate and unrelated entertainment services.

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

I grew up bilingual in a city where as many as 64 languages were spoken by the public schools' diverse student body. And like everyone else in our nation of immigrants, I've navigated language-barrier challenges such as difficulty communicating with new American co-workers and taking college courses taught by non-native English speakers with limited English skills.

Today, I take Korean sword-fighting lessons from a wonderful family of recent immigrants whose efforts to speak our language delight my ears. Their careful pronunciations always amaze me; it's unbelievable how fast they've adapted to our way of speaking in just a few short years in this country.

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Joblessness, the general economic malaise and a never-ending stream of depressing statistics -- the number of people in poverty, the millions of dollars that corporate CEOs are being paid in bonuses or severance -- have made 2011 the year when it became OK to hate both the rich and the poor.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

 

The new PBS documentary "The Storm That Swept Mexico" should be required viewing for two distinct American audiences: U.S.-born Latinos who came to know the stoic faces of Mexican revolutionary icons solely from seeing them painted on the sides of Mexican-oriented grocery stores, and anyone who wants a peek at the roots of 100 years' worth of U.S.-Mexico relations.

 

The film, a two-hour special premiering Sunday, May 15, tells the story of how disparate Mexican regional interests came together to foment a revolution that rocked the world.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011
President Obama thinks Latino voters are stupid.

There's no evidence to the contrary, based on how he's mishandling his campaign promises on comprehensive immigration reform. It's already becoming a problem for him as he maneuvers toward the 2012 presidential election.

Saturday, April 30, 2011

You know you're in a different world than the one you grew up in when Superman stops believing in the American way. If you hadn't heard: The Land of Liberty's favorite super-powered illegal alien is abandoning his U.S. identity.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

The student arrived late to the honor roll ceremony at my son's middle school last week. Even though it was almost over, the teaching staff graciously presented him with his certificate for high honors. The tall, shy African-American walked across the gym floor to polite applause and a visible lack of camera flash. No parent was there to congratulate him.

Sunday, March 20, 2011

One thing I've learned about the catastrophe in Japan is that not only are the Japanese in for a long period of economic and emotional recovery, but some emotional healing needs to occur in the U.S. as well.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Maybe it's just because I'm desperate for some warm spring weather to go along with the longer, brighter days North America is enjoying. Maybe it's that this Friday President Obama is set to depart from Andrews Air Force Base and land in Brasilia for some long-overdue relations-building with Latin America's largest country.

Whatever it is, I just can't seem to get my mind off Brazil.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

If you happened to come across any media coverage of the White House's report "Women in America: Indicators of Social and Economic Well-Being," the headline that probably grabbed you was about women making, on average, only 75 percent of what men earn with similar education levels.

Besides the dispiriting gender pay gap, the scarce media attention to the first comprehensive federal report on women since 1963 focused on the notable gains in women's academic achievements. Yet the biggest story was completely overlooked: women's health.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Raise your hand if you're disgusted with the Wisconsin school teachers who selfishly left thousands of school children and their parents in the lurch to demand protection of their contractually guaranteed goodies.

Friday, February 4, 2011
I don't smoke, drink or do drugs. And I'm not a lead foot on the road. But I'll be the first to admit I engage in one seriously risky behavior: I'm a distracted pedestrian.

I learned this the way anyone who unwittingly puts themselves or others in harm's way finds out such a thing -- by reading about proposed legislation to put a stop to the deadly behavior.

Saturday, January 22, 2011

When people are forced to think about the issue of bullying -- either because of a high-profile tragedy or because some form of the practice has hit close to home -- several blind spots keep us from realizing its pervasiveness.

 

Perhaps it's a protective mechanism so as to not overwhelm the student, parent or school administrator who is forced to deal with a topic most of us wish never to confront -- or worse, have to confront again.

 

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