By Bruno Gaston

International Editor

ATLANTA, July 15, 2007, 12:20 p.m.

Afro-Latino communities in the United States may be just as invisible to the average American as they are hidden in their many countries of origin. Now, more than ever, their voices are grabbing the attention of the American government and challenging the concept of race and identity in Latin America.

Robert Asprilla, executive director of the Afro-Latino Development Alliance in Washington D.C., spoke to Redding News Review about the historical advances made by Afro-Colombians at home through the efforts of the Diaspora in America.

"White Colombians have traditionally migrated to Miami and Queens," Asprilla said. "Afro-Colombians went Houston and Chicago."

Read full articule using the link

http://reddingnewsreview.com/newspages/2007newspages/us_afro_Latinos_push_rights_07_09100101.htm

A Puerto Rican Woman Claims Her Place In The African Diaspora

June 20, 2007 by Rosa Clemente, Writer

Rosa Clemente, founder of the R.E.A.C.Hip Hop Coalition

An interesting thing happened to me the other day. I was told I am not Black. The kicker for me was when my friend said that the island of Puerto Rico was not a part of the African Diaspora. I wanted to go back to the old skool playground days and yell: "You said what about my momma?!" But after speaking to several friends, I found out that many Black Americans and Latinos agree with him. The miseducation of the Negro is still in effect!

The article was first reported in Black and Brown News

Read full article using the link

http://www.blackandbrownnews.com/front/341041570_story.php

by Walter A. Ewing, Ph.D. and Benjamin Johnson for the American Immigration Law Foundation's Immigration Policy Brief

(May 2007)

A recent report from the Heritage Foundation is one in a long line of deeply flawed economic analyses which claim to estimate the contributions and "costs" of workers based solely on the amount of taxes they pay and the value of the public services they utilize. According to this line of thinking, if the taxes paid by workers do not cover the cost of the public services and benefits they receive, then these workers are draining the public treasury and, ostensibly, the economy as a whole. However, this kind of simplistic fiscal arithmetic does not accurately gauge the impact that workers of any skill level, foreign-born or native-born, have on the economy. It also is a dehumanizing portrayal of all workers who labor for low wages in physically demanding jobs that are essential to the economic health of the nation.

Among the findings of this report:

Those with lighter skin make more money; height also factors in

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Light-skinned immigrants in the United States make more money on average than those with darker complexions, and the chief reason appears to be discrimination, a researcher says.

Read full article, which appears at MSNBC.com