Melissa Mark Viverito: NYC's Next City Council President

Melissa Mark Viverito is on the verge of becoming New York City's next Council President. She has the backing of mayor-elect Bill DeBlasio, SEIU and 30 or so of her peers on the City Council. If victorious in the January 8th election, Mark Viverito -- who's Puerto Rican -- becomes the first person of Latino heritage to hold the powerful post.

As City Council President, Mark Viverito would be on a trajectory to higher office. NYC's 1st woman mayor? 

Rhode Island's Tavares and Elorza

Followers of US Latino electoral politics should watch Rhode Island! 

A year from now its leading political executives could be Latino: Angel Tavares, 43 year old mayor of Providence, is running to become the state's next governor; and law professor and former housing judge, Jorge Elorza, 36, is seeking to follow Tavares to the Providence mayoralty. 

Harvard Law School graduates -- Tavares is of Dominican and Elorza of Guatemalan heritage. The state's small size, changing demographics -- along w/the Ivy League launch pad available to a select few -- are combining to fast-track the Rhode Island Latino political ascent.

Jorge Elorza (Credit: Brown Daily Herald)

El Grupo Ecos Borincanos: Keeping Jibaro Music Alive!

El Grupo Ecos Borincanos played at this past weekend's Puerto Rican Festival in Rochester, NY; next, Market Street Park, Auburn New York, 6 pm!

Here's a clip of their rendition of Preciosa.

Zainnia Vegas and Her Lakota Grandmother Blackwolfe

Zainnia Vegas (left) is with beloved Lakota grandmother Blackwolfe on the prairie in South Dakota. Born to Irish/Blackfoot and Puerto Rican parents, Zainnia traces her Borikua heritage on her mother's side to the early migrations of Puerto Rican farmworkers and merchant marines to California and Hawaii -- where she still has family. She's never been to Boriken, but Ziannia is very proud of her Taino heritage.

Big John Astacio -- A fiercely proud Taino in Seneca Country

Mercedes Vazquez Simmons and son at the Rochester PR Festival for the Ruben Blades Concert

The lovely Mercedes Vazquez Simmons takes a break from her role as Founder & CEO of Pretty Girl Productions- Boxing Pretty Girl Promotions to enjoy the music of Ruben Blades with her son Taylor at yesterday's Puerto Rican Festival in Rochester, New York. 

Beautiful Faces: Rochester, NY's Puerto Rican Parade

A mother and daughter enjoy yesterday's 43rd Annual Puerto Rican Parade in Rochester, NY. 

Bristol, PA Keeps PR Jibaro Culture Alive!

Photo series from the 42nd Annual Puerto Rican Day Festival of Bristol, PA - 7.28.13.

Latina Converts to Islam Growing in Number

Among the reasons for the growing number of Latino converts to Islam in the US is this curious suggestion by Ahmad Akhar, the Ibn Khaldun chair of Islamic studies at American University:

[By converting to Islam, some Latinos may also feel as if they're connecting to their Spanish roots, which are embedded for 800 years in Islamic history in Spain's southeast population centers of Granada, Cordova, Seville and Andalusia.] 

See the full article.

Also -- 

Your Spanish Ancestors Were North Africans

Puerto Rico's Canary Islands Connection 

New Muslim Cool: The Hip Hop Life of Hamza Pérez

Your Spanish Ancestors Were North Africans

Were your 'Spanish' ancestors European as most Puerto Ricans believe, or African -- North African, to be precise? 

It's an intriguing question. 

Chances are they were African. Here's why: 

1) The indigenous of the Canary Islands -- Guanche -- are genetically Berber, i.e., North African. Berber bloodlines predominate among the people of today's West North Africa (Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria). Spain's Canary Islands lie off the coast of North West Africa and are geographically part of the continent of Africa. Recent genetic studies found a high percentage of Berber (upwards of 72%) mtDNA [direct maternal] lineages among Canary Islanders.

2) Records show the migration of Canary Islanders to Puerto Rico in successive waves beginning with Columbus' 2nd voyage in 1493 and continuing to the Spanish American War, 1898. Actually, the first Guanche to Puerto Rico were brought forcibly as slaves to replace the devastated Tainos. The later waves of Canary Islanders arrived as poor, rural Spanish colonial 'subjects' who migrated to Puerto Rico's agricultural regions in search of a better life. It is their music, food, dialect, community life and olive skins that make-up the "Spanish" component of the island's Jibaro culture.

3) Recent DNA sampling in Puerto Rico found strong evidence of mtDNA matches for Guanche genetics. In some sampled communities 55% of the residents contain the markers, while in others, particularly in the Western portion of the island, it's as high as 82%.
Tinguaro was a Guanche leader who defeated the Spanish conquistadors at a battle in the hills of Acentejo, Island of Tenerife, Canary Islands. The area is now called La Matanza de Acentejo because the Spanish returned and slaughtered all of the local Guanche people.