When it comes to food, Latino culture offers more than tacos and tamales.
Like the culture, the food is intense, colorful, spicy and full of variety. Each country and region within those countries has its own cooking techniques and key ingredients that add certain characteristics and authenticity to their dishes.
"It all starts with the ingredients," said Jesus Medina, chef at the recently opened Aztek Grill in downtown Richmond, which serves dishes from all over Latin America. "The number one ingredient in Mexican food, for example, is the hot pepper."
Preparation techniques, too, are different all across the region, said Medina, a native of Mexico.
Corn tortillas, for example, a staple in Mexico and Central America --and now increasingly popular in the U.S. market -- are made and used differently and vary in size and thickness depending on the region. Flour tortillas -- even more popular in the U.S. -- also have their own purposes and often accompany meals as flatbread.
Mexican cuisine, the most popular Latin food in the U.S., has very strong flavors. Key ingredients include cumin and cilantro. The commonly used hot peppers include jalapeño, poblano, serrano, guajillo, chipotle and habanero. One of Mexico's most popular dishes, chiles rellenos, uses poblano peppers.
Peruvian cuisine, not as well-known as Mexican food, also offers mouth-watering and distinctive dishes including various recipes of the country's staple dish, ceviche (raw fish marinated in lemon juice). Aside from fresh fish, a key ingredient in Peru's gastronomy is the aji (pronounced ah-hee) pepper, which is found all across the country.
The cuisine of El Salvador, similar to that of its neighbors and Mexico, relies too on indigenous foods like corn, beans and tomatoes. The influence of Mayan culture is strong, and it is mixed with the contributions of Spanish food. The most popular dish, pupusas are similar to corn tortillas, only thicker and stuffed with cheese, beans and/or meat.
Using fresh produce and ingredients native to each region is important to making authentic food, said Mercedes Giron, a native of El Salvador and owner and cook of Pupuseria Mercedes on Meadowdale Boulevard in Chesterfield County.
For instance, she said, Salvadoreans use loroco, a perennial plant native of El Salvador, in the cuisine, including as stuffing in pupusas.
U.S. consumers these days find products such as loroco at ethnic grocery stores or sometimes even in mainstream supermarkets. Avocados, mangos and cilantro are easily found in produce departments, and many supermarkets have aisles assigned to Hispanic food, a sign of the increasing demand for the cuisine.
"The Hispanic culture is becoming more and more influential here, and the food is such a big component," said Medina. Proof of this, he said, is that Richmond residents have several options in town where they can try authentic Latin American food and at the same time learn about Latin culture.
Stars from Ugly Betty – including America Ferrera and Vanessa Williams – have teamed up with the United Nations to raise awareness of malaria.
The first episode of the new season of the ABC show – which starts on October 16 – will feature the U.N.’s Nothing But Nets initiative and a plotline that will “reveal the role mosquito nets play in preventing the disease”.
The show is the first comedy to be shot inside the U.N.’s New York City headquarters.
Whoever cast the new NBC show Trauma — airing Monday nights at 9 p.m. — must have done some market research when it came to Aimee Garcia, at least based on what I learned about her within my own household.
Besides being a beautiful, talented young actress, she is immediately recognizable among several constituencies. My 13-year-old daughter knows her from watching endless repeats of The George Lopez Show this summer, where Aimee played Veronica, Lopez’s “spoiled brat niece” — my daughter’s description. So she can apparently draw young people. AUDIO EXCERPT: "It's more physical. I am physically sprinting down the Embarcadero. And I am inside a helicopter that is held by a crane, four stories high. There was not that kind of risk on The George Lopez Show!"
And the Lopez show also brought her to the attention of Latin audiences as well; she was nominated for numerous acting awards as a result of that show.
Now she plays badass helicopter pilot Marissa Benez on Trauma. (You can learn more about Aimee Garcia on her personal website or follow her on Facebook or on Twitter.)
WASHINGTON — The White House is taking on a Latin flair next week.
President Barack Obama plans to host a concert next Tuesday to honor Hispanic musical heritage.
The White House says Marc Anthony, Gloria Estefan and Jose Feliciano plan to join the event. Other entertainers will include Jimmy Smits, Pete Escovedo, George Lopez, Thalia, Los Lobos, Tito "El Bambino" and Aventura. Sheila E. will lead the house band.
The concert will be taped for a PBS broadcast to air on Oct. 15. It will then air on Telemundo on Oct. 18 and on V-me on Dec. 25.
Chef Maricel Presilla will be a guest chef for the event, called Fiesta Latina.
The White House previous hosted a jazz session in June and country music performance in July. The White House plans a night of classical music in November.
When you have a name like María de la Soledad Teresa O'Brien, you have a lot of explaining to do. My mother is black and also Latina, more specifically Cuban. She is a devout Catholic who credits the Virgin Mary with any success she's had in this country. But it was my father, a man who spoke no Spanish, who chose the name María de la Soledad to honor the Blessed Virgin Mary of Solitude ("solitude" in Spanish is soledad).
My name is altogether too long for Americans, who've always struggled with it. It's even too long for a driver's license. African-Americans assume I'm named after the notorious Soledad prison or Mount Soledad in California. Latinos want to know if I'm lonely. That doesn't fit because I grew up with five siblings and I have four kids of my own, so I'm not lonely at all, though I do often seek solitude, the actual meaning of my name.
My father was Irish and Scottish, but from Australia, and my parents added Teresa when I was confirmed. My parents named all their children after people they loved and admired, and when it got to me, it was the Virgin Mary's turn. When I married, I thought about taking my husband's name (Raymond), but I realized that, odd as it is, the name I have works. I have a mass of kinky hair, light brown skin and lots of freckles. I'm black and Cuban, Australian and Irish, and like most people in America, I'm someone whose roots come from somewhere else. I'm a mixed race, first-generation American.
My ethnic roots are relevant when you look at the broader picture of who brings us the news. Who you are matters oh so very much when, according to the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ), just 6 percent of the people working in TV news and 4 percent of the newspaper reporters in this country are Latinos. The NAHJ presents a report on media diversity called the "Brownout Report," and it determined that less than 1 percent of the stories aired by the networks include Latinos, and that tiny amount is heavily concentrated on immigration, crime and drugs.
The Latino population is set to nearly triple by 2050. This month, Soledad O'Brien journeys into the homes and hearts of a group destined to change the U.S. Witness the evolution of a country as Latinos change America and America changes Latinos.
October 21 & 22, 9 p.m. ET
It's hard to be the lone ethnic face in the room. People look to me to explain a community that is diverse and ever-changing, a community with which sometimes I don't have a great deal in common. There is so little in-depth reporting on people of color that I set the bar high for myself and the people around me. I see the job I have now as my opportunity to get good reporting about black and brown people on TV, as a chance to bring people together, and to tell a fair and accurate story of communities of color, not just rehash stereotypes for the sake of drama.
More than anything, the stories have to be good, the story lines compelling and the people in them interesting. If no one watches, then I've accomplished nothing. The communities I cover have their own high expectations. People see this as a rare chance for good reporting about their communities to make it to television and they expect a lot. It can be exhausting to be reduced to your race and ethnicity. You can be made to feel bad about where you come from or feel bad about succeeding or feel like you're not a part of a community because your experience is different. My Cuban-born mother is wonderful on this topic. This woman who didn't teach her children Spanish did teach us pride.
"Don't let them tell you you're not black," she tells me. "Don't let them tell you you're not Hispanic or not Cuban." And I don't. The fact that I work for CNN has fostered my commitment to telling great stories about people of color.
CNN, a part of the Time Warner company, lives for news about everything and anyone.
In the office, the bosses openly discuss the need for a diverse staff and diverse stories, and each time we draw new viewers, the effort intensifies. There is an active diversity council, aggressive diversity training, regular speeches from the highest officers of the company about how our country is changing and CNN has to be a part of that change. They see the demographics of the future and know they have to look at their hiring and reporting practices so that they appeal to the widest possible audience.
As CNN saw our growth in African-American viewership, they affirmed a fundamental truth of news coverage -- people will watch you if they see themselves in what you report. It doesn't hurt if the people doing the reporting look like them, too.
In 2007, CNN's coverage was altered dramatically by the launch of a series called Uncovering America, and the entire staff was asked to find compelling stories about the broadest range of people possible, not just people of color but folks of every race and ethnicity from all walks of life. That series was followed by the launch of a documentary project called Black in America, and I was tapped to be the correspondent.
The yearlong effort of Black in America was exhausting for me. I was one of a handful of black voices on the staff, and each day was a meshing of ideas and backgrounds and cultures. In other words, we argued a lot. I compiled everything. I learned new things about the black community that I'd lived in and covered my entire life. The result was a four-hour documentary that earned terrific reviews, got more viewers than almost any CNN documentary and started a discussion about the community of which I continue to be proud.
Not everything was perfect.
It's critical in covering a community well to report both the good and the bad. I learned so much about reporting on race and some unexpected lessons about the stress of being a woman of color in the media. But by the time the project ended, I felt like I had started an important conversation about the struggles and the successes of the African-American community.
It became time to bring the same focus to bear on Latinos. So CNN began reporting Latino in America in the fall of 2008 with the goal of showing a community that was changing the United States even as the United States was changing them. I was tapped to be the correspondent once again.
My first thought was what a terrific opportunity this was for me! After so many years of fighting for fair and accurate coverage of people of color, I finally had a chance to work on a wide-ranging project that could show all Americans a fuller picture of who Latinos are and what they mean to this country. I vowed to give voice to the part of the community I knew, an optimistic, family-centered people who infuse U.S. culture with the warmth of their humanity.
My community embraced this project from the outset with an enthusiasm I'd not expected. Total strangers approached me with advice and assistance. Over and over, I was asked to please report on the people who are so often ignored, the Latinos who do not reflect the "illegal alien" who crosses the border "to steal American jobs."
People, many of them my own co-workers, asked me to push past the rancor of the immigration debate, which has strayed from being a discussion of policy and law enforcement to one that demonizes and stereotypes and hurts people whether they are illegal immigrants or not.
Latinos saw this documentary as a wonderful opportunity to showcase the cultural struggles and contributions of Latinos; to focus on education, community and faith and show the broader public a more complete picture of how we live.
It was clear that the community felt starved for good solid coverage. No one asked me to do a snow job. Just please don't reduce us to crime, immigration and racial conflicts, they asked. Folks just didn't want to see their community hurt anymore and were very blunt about it. One afternoon I had lunch with Lupe Ontiveros in Los Angeles. She is a beloved Latina actor who has been reduced to the role of the maid or the nanny in scores of movies. I asked Lupe to be a major character in our documentary, and she offered an enormous amount of assistance.
When I left the table she turned to my producer and said bluntly in Spanish, "Please, just don't f-- us."
In the end, that wasn't hard because there are so many great untold stories to tell about Latinos that I knew would interest an audience of any racial or ethnic origin. The numbers of Latinos are exploding and spanning out into places where Latinos have never been seen before. Their impact on the United States is awesome.
I knew from the outset I had to have as broad a focus as possible to cover such a large story. My team of producers, photographers and editors had to look at the Latino community through many sets of eyes. I urged our team to break new ground, to not end up rehashing the same old story told of any minority community, that there are Anglos unhappy they've arrived. That is not what it means to be Latino in America. We had to step back and watch a more complex human story unfold.
As we did our reporting, I realized quickly how challenging this was going to be.
Latinos are an extremely diverse ethnicity that can be of any race and have many different origins, history and traditions. You can't easily group people who come from as far away as Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with people of Mayan, Incan and Taino descent who have mixed with Spaniards, Africans and Jews. We are about so much more than where we came from or how we look.
The essential point is that we don't come together in a real way until we set foot on U.S. soil. That's when our "Latino" experience begins. Latino is an American identity.
It is a word to describe Americans who are drawn to each other by this intangible cultural link, the similarity of the way we run our families, our devotion to faith, the warmth of our personalities and our connection to a history that recognizes no border to the south.
Latinos are a people who celebrate the new culture they've created in the United States while struggling each day with whether we need to assimilate or integrate into this new society. We ask ourselves what good things we want to preserve from our culture and what American values we want or need to adopt. And that question never goes away, not one, two or three generations beyond immigration.
That is the major reason I was compelled to take my project further, to write this book and crisscross this country speaking publicly about my community.
I truly believe more Latino journalists need to be talking about the future; about what will happen if this nation does not embrace the biggest cultural change of its lifetime and to educate people about it.
I feel I am up to the task.
If I had any unease defining who I am, reporting this story has shown me my place in this Latino community. That place is as the Latina journalist charged with telling the story of the culture my mother gave me, the culture that is changing America and being changed by America. I need to show America the beauty of my culture, the work ethic of my people and their unflagging faith.
I need to introduce America to the wonderful music, food and sport our culture has brought to the American mix, just as previous immigrant groups -- the Germans, Jews or Irish -- did before Latinos. I need to be the one who explains that our American Dream is not the same as those of other immigrant groups because our journey to the United States, back and forth across the border, predates the journeys of all those immigrant groups and will obviously continue into the future regardless of what happens. Latinos have a plan, not a dream, and it is to mix the best of ourselves with the best of this country.
I want to talk about a people who hold fast to familiar roots however distant they are from immigration, who believe that humility and pride can come together, that resentment and fear are a toxic mix, that you have to have a bit of fight in you to get ahead but cherish the ability to smile at yourself at the end of the day. I have never wanted to be defined by the color of my skin, my funny freckles or my mother's obvious accent. But I am happy to let it determine how I stand in the world.
Latinos are already the majority minority in the United States, and their numbers are so great that they will be the future of this country even if immigration stops tomorrow. The number of Latinos who are U.S.-born now surpasses the number of immigrant Latinos. The average age is in the teens. This young population wants to identify as Latino, they want to speak the Spanish of their ancestors no matter how many generations they are removed from immigration. They are proud of who they are, just as I am.
I worry about our future if the current young Latino generation feel like strangers in the land where they were born or end up resentful because they have seen their parents and their culture demonized by the people around them. I came to love who I am because I had parents who allowed their kids to prosper as individuals. I was well-educated in a community that valued difference. I have a high investment in the future. One of four children in this country is Latino, and four of them are mine. So I will tell the story of Latinos the way I know it should be told.
COPENHAGEN — The country's president was blunt. "It is," Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said, "Brazil's time."
And the International Olympic Committee agreed with him.
Snubbing Chicago on a chilly Danish evening of high drama, the IOC sent the 2016 Olympics to Rio, Brazil's bustling fun-loving but crime-ridden city of beaches and mountains, romance and slums.
President Barack Obama's appeal fell on deaf ears. Chicago was knocked out in the first round — in one of the most shocking defeats ever handed down by the committee of former Olympians, sports administrators, royals and other VIPs.
They were wowed by Rio's enchanting sales pitch: some 400 million sports-mad people on a giant untapped and vibrant continent just yearning, hoping, that the Olympics finally might come to them.
Silva wept and Rio partied as only Rio can when the long-awaited announcement came.
"From the bottom of my heart I can say that this is the most exciting day of my life. I feel much more proud to be Brazilian," Silva said.
The IOC closed its eyes to the risks, the huge projected costs of the Rio Games, the concerns about how athletes will get around and where people will sleep, to focus on the reward of lighting the Olympic cauldron in one of the last corners of the globe yet to be bathed by its light.
The indignity suffered by Chicago was such — it got just 18 votes despite long being considered a front-runner — that some IOC members squirmed. Obama flew overnight from Washington to sell his adoptive hometown and its plans for Olympic competition on Lake Michigan's windy shores to the IOC. Mrs. Obama, with Oprah Winfrey and sports stars in tow, jetted in first and spent two days buttering up IOC members, an essential part of the secretive and unpredictable selection process.
IOC members seemed wowed, posing for photos with Michelle Obama and taking souvenir shots of the president with their mobile phones. But, in the vote, Chicago was shunned.
While blues legend Buddy Guy twanged "Sweet Home Chicago" in a promotional video the city played to the IOC, bad blood between the committee and its U.S. branch — they've had flare-ups over revenue sharing and lucrative broadcasting rights — proved to be a note of discord. IOC members said the slap to Chicago was more directed at the U.S. Olympic Committee than to the Windy City itself.
Chicago was dignified in defeat. Obama called Silva to congratulate him. But the nature of the loss still rang as a stinging anti-American rebuke. Close to half of the IOC's 106 members are Europeans.
"To have the president of the United States and his wife personally appear, then this should happen in the first round is awful and totally undeserving," senior Australian IOC member Kevan Gosper said.
French IOC member Guy Drut said "an excess of security" for the Obamas unsettled some of his committee colleagues. He complained that he'd been barred from crossing the lobby of his hotel for security reasons, and he grumbled that "nothing has been done" to resolve the financial disputes between the IOC and the USOC.
Of Obama's performance, Drut said: "He didn't do too much. Michelle Obama was exceptional."
"This morning the city was closed because of Barack Obama," he added.
In Chicago, there was bewildered silence when IOC president Jacques Rogge announced: "The city of Chicago, having obtained the least number of votes, will not participate in the next round."
On Rio's Copacabana beach, the party headed into the night.
Rio spoke to IOC members' consciences: the city argued that it was simply unfair that South America has never hosted the games, while Europe, Asia and North America have done so repeatedly.
"It is a time to address this imbalance," Silva told the IOC before it delivered its verdict. "It is time to light the Olympic cauldron in a tropical country."
The win was decisive: Rio beat Madrid by 66 votes to 32. Chicago got just 18 votes in the first round, with Tokyo squeezing into the second round with 22. Madrid was leading after the first round with 28 votes, while Rio had 26.
In the second round, Tokyo was eliminated with just 20 votes. Madrid got 29, qualifying it for the final round face-off with Rio, which by then already had a strong lead with 46 votes.
Madrid's surprising success in reaching the final round came after former IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch made a morbid appeal for the Spanish capital, reminding the IOC's members as he asked for their vote that, at age 89, "I am very near the end of my time."
Samaranch ran the IOC for 21 years before Rogge took over in 2001.
Beating three rich, more developed nations that had all previously held the games represented a giant, morale-boosting coup for Brazil, an emerging nation bounding up the ranks of the world's biggest economies but which still has millions of people living in poverty.
Like a football team before a big final, Rio's bid leaders and Silva held hands and had a silent prayer before walking out to deliver a flawless and impassioned presentation to the IOC. A bid official said Silva's last words of encouragement were "let's stay calm, and stick with our plan."
Brazil's central bank governor reeled off some impressive statistics about an economy predicted to be the world's fifth largest by 2016. The state governor pledged that taxes would not be raised to fund the games and played down the concerns about safety. Computer-generated bird's eye images of how venues will spread across the city, with sailing in the shadow of Sugar Loaf mountain and volleyball on Copacabana, provided the wow factor.
And Silva delivered the knockout.
"Among the top 10 economies of the world, Brazil is the only country that has not hosted the Olympic and Paralympic Games," he said. "For the Olympic movement, it will be an opportunity to feel the warmth of our people, the exuberance of our culture, the sun of our joy and it will also be a chance to send a powerful message to the whole world: The Olympic Games belong to all peoples, to all continents and to all humanity."
Silva, a bearded former union leader, disappeared into a huge group hug with the joyous Rio team after Rogge announced that the city had won. Football great Pele had tears in his eyes. Silva wept into a white handkerchief at a post-victory news conference. Brazil will now hold the world's two biggest sporting events in the space of just two years: in 2014, it is organizing the World Cup.
"There was absolutely no flaw in the bid," Rogge said.
Now, Africa and Antarctica are the only continents never to have been awarded an Olympics.
"We have sent out a message that we want to go global," IOC member Gerhard Heiberg said.
Obama held out the enticing prospect of a Chicago games helping to reconnect the United States with the world after the presidency of George W. Bush. He told the IOC that the "full force of the White House" would be applied so "visitors from all around the world feel welcome and will come away with a sense of the incredible diversity of the American people."
But the IOC's last two experiences in the United States were bad: the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics were sullied by a bribery scandal and logistical problems and a bombing hit the 1996 Games in Atlanta.
Former IOC member Kai Holm said the brevity of Obama's appearance — he was in and out in five hours — may have counted against Chicago.
"Too businesslike," Holm said. "It can be that some IOC members see it as a lack of respect."
IOC members said Asian voters may have banded together, at Chicago's expense, in the first round in favor of Tokyo, which offered reassurances of financial security, with $4 billion already banked for the games.
"The whole thing doesn't make sense other than there has been a stupid bloc vote," Gosper said.
Chicago can only rue what might have been.
Ten-Time World Champion in six weight divisions Oscar de la Hoya will be recognized for his impact not only in the boxing community, but the Hispanic community as a whole, when he receives the prestigious Hispanic Heritage Award for Achievement in Sports this evening.
"I feel truly privileged to be receiving this award," said De La Hoya. "To be recognized along with such influential members of the Hispanic community, is a great honor."
This year marks the 22nd edition of the Hispanic Heritage Awards, which recognize six Latinos each year who are achievers, visionaries and who have thecharacter to make a difference in their community.
The awards will be presented inthe Senate Russell Building's Russell Caucus Room on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. and will feature performances by Olga Tañon, Chichi Peralta, Don Omar, Cristian Castro and La Quinta Estación.
Other honorees this year include Mexican rock band Maná, who will receive the 2009 "Green Award"; artist Romero Britto will be presented with the Humanitarian Award; Nickelodeon Cable Television will be recognized for the strides made in education; singer Olga Tañon will receive the Arts Award; mathematician and professor Richard A. Tapia will be honored with the Math and Science Award; and Senator Robert Menendez will be recognized with the Leadership Award.
The Hispanic Heritage Awards were created in 1987 by President Ronald Reagan to commemorate the creation of Hispanic Heritage Month. The awards have grown to become the most prestigious Hispanic honor and event in America; celebrating Hispanic pride, culture and accomplishment. The ceremony is held annually in Washington, D.C. and boasts honorees like Dolores Huerta, José Feliciano, Rita Moreno, Sammy Sosa, Julia Alvarez, Carlos Gutierrez, Derek Parra, Gloria and Emilio Estefan, Juan Marichal, John Leguizamo, Sandra Benitez, Ricky Martin, Isabel Allende, Sonia Manzano, Antonio Banderas and Jaime Escalante, among others
The Obama administration launched a new Web site on Tuesday that officials hope will make citizenship and other immigration services more accessible.
The new Citizenship and Immigration Services Web site was unveiled Tuesday at an event with Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, as well as White House and Homeland Security staff.
Napolitano said USCIS' Web site gets 230,000 visits a day, therefore it's important that it be easy to use and provides "the kind of information that people seek."
The site was revised in 90 days using in-house resources, officials said. CIS officials could not immediately provide a total cost for the revisions. Parts of the service, including its Spanish-language sections, were still under construction.
Citizenship and Immigration Services is responsible for processing millions of applications for citizenship, immigration to the U.S. and legal residency as well as claims for asylum and refugee status.
One of the highlights of the new site is a tool allowing users to get e-mail updates or text alerts about the status of their cases, as well as to check them online with their case number.
Alejandro Mayorkas, the Citizenship and Immigration Services director, planned to travel to Los Angeles, as well as New Mexico and Nevada this week to "capture the issues of importance" on making his agency more responsive to the public.
Last week, Mayorkas announced the creation of an office to focus on gathering feedback from the community.
The sexy songstress has been tapped to play herself in an upcoming episode of Ugly Betty, ABC confirms.
A network rep tells us Shakira "will be shooting her scenes in New York, but they will [appear] in the Bahamas episode—which will most likely air in November."
In an interview with People, show runner Silvio Horta explains the inspiration behind the pop star's casting. "We had a very memorable moment in the third episode where Betty has a makeover that goes wrong and she struts down the street to 'Hips Don't Lie,' " says Horta. "She's an enormous Latina icon, as is Betty, and we thought it was a perfect fit."
Meanwhile, 3rd Rock From the Sun alum Kristen Johnston will also guest on the campy hit, filling the role originally created for Paula Abdul, and CSI:Miami's Adam Rodriguez is making the move to New York.
Season four of Ugly Betty premieres Friday, Oct. 9 at 9 p.m. on ABC.
