Featured Blog Posts (1,791)

It's 1925. You're sitting at home (yet again) with your mother as she shows you how to make a home-cooked meal for your father. And once again you ask the question you always ask her in times like this: and although you know the answer, you still bother to ask the question. "Why do we have to do this? Why can't dad or my brothers stay home for once?" You already know the answer, she replies with the ever-popular phrase "A woman's place is in the kitchen". 

This was just the…

In the past week, I have become quite aware of my own ability.

On Monday, we did a disabilities in media lesson with the Latinitas girls at Langford Elementary.  Preparing for the lesson, I jotted down some TV shows and movies I have seen with characters with disabilities. My list consisted of Glee, Game of Thrones, American Horror Story, I Am Sam, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, Benny & Joon, Daredevil, Mary and Max, and CSI and West Wing, which featured…

As we close poetry month, I decided to do it with a bang. Yearly, the Spanish club at our school hosts a poetry reading from any language you may choose, but the method it's been done is so boring that I decided to spice things up a bit. If you know any other language than ENG you will be asked to join. No way around that. I did a Native American poem title, "Please don't cry grandfather" by Charles Phillip Whitedog, a Native American. I CAN say that as soon as I…

Lately, I've been really interested in zines - how to create them, where to buy them, etc..

First of all, you may be wondering... what is a zine? A zine is a cheap, self published magazine. In fact, the word zine is a shortened version of the word maga(zine). Zines became popular in the 1970's when science fiction fans began publishing their own stories, then in the 1980's zines became an important way for…

Tuesday night, MTV premiered a new show called "Girl Code." It focuses on, yes you guessed it, a girl code that women should follow. Yeah, I know. You've heard about a guys code, right? Something about bros before women and other dumb stuff. Well, I guess MTV thought women needed the similar rules within their gender. The show consisted of female commentators, comedians and celebrities. There's a lot of snarky commentary, but it has potential with its underlying important themes. 

The…

This post is late in the making, but it’s not any less relevant now.

Earlier this year in Latinitas after school clubs, we did a video game activity. The girls used scratch.mit.edu to develop their very own video game ideas. The girls really enjoyed the activity!

Encouraging the girls to use their creativity was just one part of the lesson. When we first introduced the lesson, I wanted the girls to think about why this lesson…

As the weather starts to warm up in Austin, I’m starting to notice a very interesting new fashion trend. There seems to be more and more people wearing clothing items that resemble traditional Mexican clothing. I have seen a handful of people wearing shirts with Mexican-style embroidery and even seen a few people wearing ponchos and huaraches. I started wondering if someone had raided my grandparents' closet! …

Earlier this year, I went to a conference on crisis and risk communication. As a journalist, it was interesting to hear how the other side (public relations folk) worked. In the midst of what seemed like hundreds of white, rich, old, white PR men, I found a woman who spoke my language. Her name was Maria Paula Martinez. Martinez stuck out to me for many reasons. She was a woman, a Latina, a journalist and a professor, and she was going to discuss digital media during her session at the…

I wish I had something as politically charged as other women on here have written.

Lately, because I am almost done with school, I am overwhelmed to finish already. I've become impatient.

I want to leave, I'm getting antsy.

Perhaps because I plan on taking my mother to CA in August, just her and I, I want to become weak and just not do a thing.

The thing is that she's never been on a plane, but she told me once that she'd like to feel the rumbling of the wheels,…

As I've been consuming media, my favorite pass-time, I've thought more and more about the topics folks don't usually talk about in media awareness/education circles.

Disability in the media is something that often gets excluded in conversations and I want to explore this with Latinitas. We should all be allies to each others stuggles in life and this area is definitely one of them. Whether or not you have a disability and whether or not you have friends or family members…

There is no doubt that Hispanics, as a minority group, are growing in numbers at increasingly fast rates. It is thus easy to understand why it is important to foster a positive environment for young, Hispanic women to flourish in.  Currently, young hispanic females are at a higher risk for depression, substance abuse, teenage pregnancies, and high school dropouts (MMWR 2011).…

Just recently, I have started dating a boy that I had talked to for awhile, and built a friendship with. Thanks to my inner shyness and introvertedness, I was hesitant to pursue the relationship. On top of that, I couldn't stop (and still can't) thinking about what couples do these days, and what it seems like girls are expected to do...and that scared me.

From observing my friends relationships, and from hearing about what couples did last weekend, I was intimidated into not even…

Sexual harassment sounds pretty serious, right?

I think so too, so when I learned what it was in high school, I was shocked and uncomfortable to realize that I had been experiencing sexual harassment since middle school. I never had a name for it, but I knew that it made me feel uncomfortable and ashamed of my body. 

According to the New York City Alliance Against Sexual Assault, sexual…

Rotaract is composed by a group of young individuals who in solidarity collectively strive to respond to various social inequalities that emerge as a result of global coexistence.  Having its origins as a Rotary International youth program in 1968, Rotaract has grown into a major Rotary-sponsored organization worldwide. Rotaract is a service, leadership, and community service organization for young men and women between the ages of 18-30 whose primary focus is to develop young adults into…

Is anybody else out there as excited as I am for the movie The Great Gatsby to come out? Not only will the movie feature great actors such as Leonardo Dicaprio, Carey Mulligan, Tobey McGuire and Joel Edgerton, it will also feature beautiful and intricate 1920s inspired fashion. The 1920s was an era full of glitz and glamour with flappers and their sequined drop waist dresses, feathers headbands, and Mary Jane shoes. In order to create all the costumes we will see in the movie, producers…

Most major news outlets have a branch they like to associate with latinos. For example, CNN Latino and NBC Latino were created to have a Latino voice in news, or as I like to think about it: a way to translate everything into Spanish to serve a Spanish-speaking audience, but still separate from the major brand. Although I may have some issues with this concept, of…

Ever been volunteering?

Ever volunteered on the condition that you did it on your own?

Project Share is a local volunteer service that gets volunteers to distrubute food for people in the area who may not have enough food to eat.

I've been on their side of the line before. I…

I was sitting in class Monday afternoon when my phone received several alerts from my CNN app. Two hours later, I was sitting in my friend's living room, watching the live coverage of the Boston Marathon bombings. We just sat there, wondering what was happening and mad at the world at the same time for being such a horrible place. My heart goes out to all those affected by Monday's tragedy. 

Like most people, I was angry and upset that this happened. I couldn't believe an attack like…