Ricky Martín's Babies - Twins Matteo and Valentino

Not to be outdone by Jennifer and Angelina, Ricky went and had his own twins--Matteo and Valentino--via surrogacy. And they're adorable!

As per Hollywood tradition, Ricky's now 4 month old babies are introduced to the world via the cover of People, too. Jennifer and Angelina collected seven figure fees for their work; unclear what was Ricky's take. But that's not what's important, is it? It's really all about the babies--and they're really very cute.

Enrique Martín Morales (aka, Ricky) tells the magazine he's balancing his career while caring for twins himself. What? No nanny for Ricky's little hombres! Hmmmm. Either the next installment of La Vida Loca can be done very quietly from his tropical mansion or his partner--not that I'm saying he has one--is on diaper duty.

One question: What's with the Jacksonesque grasp?

Tío Pablo: Jibaro, Borinqueneer, Sage

My Tío Pablo, a Jibaro from Carite, served in Korea with the 65th. He was a Borinqueneer. Memorial Day is his day, too.

I vaguely remember as a small child hearing him talk to the men about the 65th. I didn't understand what it all meant--other than it clearly meant a great deal to them.

Forty years later, at his farmhouse on a Carite slope, Tío Pablo--his body riddled with multiple cancers--rested quietly waiting for the end. Framed above the bed was a photo of a young, vital Pablo in his 65th dress uniform and cap.

A young Boricua, one of many braves, was sent to fight an enemy on the other side of the world. The Boricuas fought bravely--and a huge number of died.

Afterward, many of the Boricua veterans followed Yankee buddies to U.S. Northern cities in search of their rewards. It was the 50's and the U.S. industrial machine was humming with the muscle of so many war veterans. Instead, too many Boricuas found low-paying, dangerous factory jobs, racism and long stints in VA hospitals to treat mysterious illnesses.

Of course, that was Tío Pablo's experience.

I always viewed Tío Pablo as a pretty smart man, proud, skilled--and so I always wondered why it was that he choose to return to Carite so early. He was may be in his early 30s. There on our ancestral land--still referred to as El Conuco and the rise above--Tío Pablo spent the rest of his days as a man of the land.

Never a rich man, Tío Pablo confided that he had all he needed: his wife, Tía Irene; his land; his health--even when it was failing; and his freedom.

Randy Pausch's Last Lecture: Enable the Dreams of Others

Take a few minutes and watch this very moving "last lecture" by a young professor to his prized students--his children--and to all of us. Enable your dreams and the dreams of others.

Jennifer Lopez & Marc Anthony: Babies Safe at Home

According to Life & Style now: kidnap threats against J.Lo's babies, Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony fortified their 10,000 square-foot Brookville, Long Island estate in preparation for their recently delivered twins.

J. Lo's million-dollar gates protect babies (RealLI -2.26.08)

Twin babies for Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony

Jennifer Lopez has given birth to twins -- one girl and one boy -- early Friday, February 22nd. The baby girl arrived at 12:12 a.m. and the baby boy at 12:23 a.m.

Congratulations to Jennifer and hubby Marc Anthony!

Obama's Sister Dr. Maya Soetoro-Ng & the Hawaii Caucus

Hawaii for Obama.org

Michelle Obama's interview with Soledad O'Brien

First Lady? Si, Se Puede!

Danielle's Graceful Babies

My niece Danielle--like her mother Rafaela, and her mother's mother Antonia--has that Taino ability to easily create beautiful and useful things.

I remember watching my mom, a seamstress by necessity and a sculptress by choice, easily and lovingly craft beautiful garments and art.

My sister has the same knack -- applying her gifts to designing beautiful ceramic dolls and crafts.

And her daughter Danielle, a lovely 20-something SAHM raising two little ones in very rural New York, has that same creative touch.

She is the founder, chief designer, seamstress and webmaster of an emerging enterprise called Graceful Babies. Graceful Babies designs durable and fun hand-crafted baby and toddler clothes and accessories at modest prices.

Check out the Graceful Babies collection at these websites:
http://www.gracefulbabies.etsy.com/
http://www.gracefulbabies.blogspot.com/

Latinas Having Babies: Jessica Alba

Stunning U.S. Latina actress Jessica Alba is pregnant. The bebe is due in late spring.

Congratulations!

BTW: Walls can't stop the babies.



Related:

Jessica Alba pregnant to Cash Warren
Latinas Having Babies: Christina Aguilera
U.S. Latinos by the Numbers
Christina Aguilera Finally Admits It: “Yes, I’m Pregnant”
Latinas Having Babies: Thalía, JLo, et al
New Orleans' Latino Boom
California's Booming Latinos: 52% by 2042
Boomers' retirement tied to Latino immigrants
Bilingual Babies -- a Sign of the Times
Jenny Responds to Heather Mac Donald's Screech Against Latinas
The Right's Attack On Latino Parents

Salma Hayek's Valentina Paloma

Two month old Valentina Paloma Pinault and mom Salma Hayek.

Latinas Having Babies: Thalía, JLo, et al

People En Espanol reports that Mexican-born Thalía Sodi, 35, gave birth Sunday to a little girl who will be called Sabrina Sakaë.

Mama y bebé are resting on their ranch in Colorado.

Today, Us Magazine reports that Jennifer Lopez is expecting twins--although the Lopez-Anthony camp has yet to make it official. However, the Nuyorican couple is busy preparing their Long Island estate for the arrival of their matching bundles of joy.

Congratulations to all--and welcome to the family, Sabrina.

While these growing families may be OK with the likes of Nancy MacDonald, Pat Buchanan, and other rightwingers, they are still part of the larger Latino population surge they so despise.

That is, aside from their wealth and visibility, Thalía, JLo and Marc are reflective of the nation's young and fertile Latino population. While it seems a mystery to MacDonald and Buchanan, Latinos are building families because that's what young people in their prime do.

It's a human thing.

It's also a primary contributor to the U.S. Latino population surge which is giving so many old-timers and racists seizures.

The bottomline? It may be a harsh biological and demographic fact, but Thalía, JLo and Marc are members of a people in their prime; while MacDonald and Buchanan are literally and figuratively members of a quickly fading lot.

BTW: You can't turn back the clock.

Related:
The Right's Attack On Latino Parents
Jenny Responds to Heather Mac Donald's Screech Against Latinas

W's Priorities: War, Yes; Children's Health, No

The Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) provides health coverage for 6 million of America's disadvantaged children. The modest program's costs are shared by the federal governments and the participating states.

Recently, the U.S. Congress overwhelmingly approved a re authorization of the program with an expansion in an effort to reach more of the estimated 9 million still uninsured children--most of which are members of working class families. That is, American families that make too much for government Medicaid and too little to afford private health coverage.

The legislation was sent to the White House for the President's approval and signature. Instead, President Bush vetoed it--putting the program in jeopardy and denying millions of uninsured children health coverage.

We don't have money to insure children but we have plenty for misguided wars. We have already wasted $458,000,000,000 in Iraq--and President Bush has just sent Congress a bill for another $42,000,000,000. An enterprise which most people agree is really dumb war and wasteful. For example, the government's own accounting office reports billions in war funds are missing or stolen.

Think of all the good that could be done with $458,000,000,000.

According to The National Priorities Project, half of the funds spent in Iraq thus far would pay for health coverage for all of America's children. That's right! All of America's 80,000,000+ children. Just a fraction of the war budget would cover all 15 million uninsured children targeted by CHIP.

Is it me or does this government have the most backwards of priorities?

Related:

Reaction to Children's Health Veto
Why Bush Was Dumb To Veto SCHIP
States sue Bush administration over children's health insurance
Campaign for Children's Health Care

Latino Families Scramble to Keep Homes

In an editorial on the looming mortgage crisis, the NYTimes (Myths Spun by Lax Lenders - 7.10.07) noted that...

Mortgage defaults are rising, and worse is yet to come. Between now and the end of next year, the interest rates on $660 billion in adjustable-rate mortgages will increase for the first time. Over half of that is in subprime loans — those made to borrowers with weak credit — and is at high risk of default as monthly payments rise.

That same week, MarketWatch issued this warning (by Ruth Mantell, Minority Families Face Wave of Foreclosures - 7.6.07):

More than a quarter million black and Hispanic families are expected to lose their homes in the next few years due to foreclosure. For many, the financial trouble will be traceable to a mortgage they should never have been given.

The reason? According to Mantell...

The heads of these households signed up for mortgages that appeared affordable, some with enticingly low starter rates. But what they were really agreeing to were loans with ultimately onerous terms, high costs and prepayment penalties that make refinancing the loan difficult.

As predicted, Latinos and Africans Americans have begun losing their homes in large numbers. Enlace's Hiram Soto (translated by New American Media's Elena Shore) captures this evolving story in Latino Families Scramble to Save Homes.

Araceli Flores was so happy to buy a three-bedroom house that she didn’t ask many questions about the mortgage. “Everything I’ve achieved is suddenly falling apart.”

What's encouraging is that Latinos are a spunky people--and many of the homeowners are scrambling to preserve their hard-earned piece of the American Dream. However, the combination of expensive loans, language barriers and the unscrupulous practices of real estate agents, mortgage brokers and lawyers is too much for them to overcome.

Thankfully, a Latino professionals are mobilizing with the goal of providing assistance to distressed homeowners.

With volunteers from the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Agents at the forefront, this coalition has begun offering clinics in Spanish to provide one-on-one help for families that have problems paying their mortgage. The workshops have been crowded to maximum capacity, with experts analyzing each family on a case-by-case basis and lawyers available to help with any irregularities.

Of course, much more needs to be done by the government, financial institutions, the real estate industry and by civic organizations to educate and protect new home buyers.

However, it is unconscionable that Latinos and African Americans are 2.5 times more likely than whites to receive risky, high-cost loans--even when they have similar credit. Where are the civil rights groups, prosecutors, Congress and the Courts?

Related:

Disparities persist between white, minority mortgage applicants
Foreclosure Wave Bears Down on Immigrants
More minorities denied mortgages
Subprime Loan Sharks
Minority Borrowers Steered Toward Predatory Loans
Mortgage Discrimination Is Alive And Well
US: Banks prone to sell minorities pricey loans
Wealthier minorities still face loan rejection

Elvira's Faithfilled Fight

NO WAY OUT (by Don Terry, Chicago-Tribune - 8.5.07) is a moving account of Elvira Arellano's life in sanctuary in the aftermath of the rightwing's victory over immigration reform.

The article begins with Elvira waving a small Puerto Rican flag as she watches the local Puerto Rican Day parade from within the Adalberto Church. In a sign of Latino solidarity, Elvira's son, Saul, marches as an honorary grand marshall.

Shamefully, the spirit of solidarity is punctured by the profound ignorance and hate of someone the article describes as a Puerto Rican woman. Pathetically, this woman screeches out the ever popular "go home" racist taunt.

Nonetheless, there are wonderful and poignant moments in Elvira's story--examples of the human spirit rising above the pathetic constraints of the debased and the faithless.

Here are my favorites:

Beti Guevara, the assistant pastor at Adalberto, holding onto Saul's hand jumps on a bench and leads the crowd in a passionate chant in Spanish, "Puerto Ricans and Mexicans fighting hand in hand!"

Arellano and Saul's food and clothes are mostly donated by friends and strangers, like the man in Vermont who sends a check for $7 each week.

Elvira's only escape is to step-out onto the tiny fenced-in and blacktopped space behind the church. It's where two long, wooden planters where peppers, avocados, mint and tomatoes grow in what she calls "a garden of hope."

Elvira lights charcoal and incense in a conch shell and a bowl she calls a Poposhcome, waving the smoke into her face. It's an ancient Aztec ritual in which she asks her ancestors and the Great Creator for energy and strength and wisdom to continue her fight.

Finally--and for me the most moving, a delegation of African-American ministers gathered around Elvira in prayer, placing their hands on her bowed head. She said, "At that moment I felt very protected." The humanity and faithfulness of that image is very profound--and filled with hope.

Click here for an account of Elvira's story in her own words.

Hurting the Children Through Father Absence

In Father absence "decimates" black community in U.S. (Reuters - 6.14.07), Joyce Kelly writes about the tragedy of so many children growing up in America without fathers.

More than 19 million children -- about one in four -- were living in households where no father, biological or other, was present, according to a Census Bureau report in 2005.

But the burden falls more heavily on African American children, while a huge number of Latino and White children are also deprived.

Some 56 percent of black children lived in single-parent families in 2004, with most of those families headed by mothers. That figure compared with 22 percent of white children and 31 percent of Hispanic children.

Phillip Jackson, executive director of the Chicago-based Black Star Project, which helps children in mainly minority schools, is quoted as saying:

"Father absence...has hit those communities with the force of 100 hurricane Katrinas."

Some will argue that in some cases the children are better off without their biological fathers in their lives--and that's probably true. But the point is that there are so many men--African American, Latino and White--that care so little for their offspring to do the right thing in the first, second and third places.

The level of selfishness and disregard for the lives of their children (and often for the children's mothers) is of truly horrific dimensions. And worse is that we're just letting it happen to more and more children.

"It is literally decimating our communities and we have no adequate response to it."

Best Cities for Relocating Families

Best Cities for Relocating Families (2007) focuses on the ease with which a family can move to a new city and settle into a new life. The study was conducted by Worldwide ERC and Bert Sperling's BestPlaces.

Here are the top 10 in large, medium and small city markets:

Large Cities
1. Forth Worth, Texas
2. Nashville, Tennessee
3. Kansas, Missouri
4. Indianapolis, Indiana
5. Austin, Texas
6. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
7. Minneapolis, Minnesota
8. Cambridge, Massachusetts
9. St. Louis, Missouri
10. Cincinnati, Ohio

Medium Cities
1. Knoxville, Tennessee
2. Wichita, Kansas
3. Raleigh, North Carolina
4. Salt Lake, Utah
5. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
6. Richmond, Virginia
7. El Paso, Texas
8. Little Rock, Arkansas
9. McAllen, Texas
10. Tulsa, Oklahoma

Small Cities
1. Provo, Utah
2. Ogden, Utah
3. Durham, North Carolina
4. Corpus Christi, Texas
5. Colorado Springs, Colorado
6. Madison, Wisconsin
7. Shreveport, Louisiana
8. Des Moines, Iowa
9. Spokane, Washington
10. Rockingham County, Hew Hampshire