Thursday, January 16, 2025

Comentarios from Maria: Democrats Give Republicans Last Chance to Pass Comprehensive Immigration Reform

Last week we celebrated the one year anniversary of the introduction of the Immigration Reform bill in the Senate. In addition, the main sponsors of the HR15-immigration bill, introduced by Democrats in the House of Representatives in October of last year, announced a new strategy to demand action from the Republicans in the House of Representatives […]

Comentarios from Maria: Equal Pay is Key to our Economy

April 8th was declared National Equal Pay Day. This date signifies that a woman has to work until April 8, 2014 (adding all the time worked in 2013) to earn the same as the average earned by a man in 2013. In addition, women still earn only 77 cents on average for every dollar earned […]

Comentarios from Maria: Obamacare Exceeds 7 million Enrollments

Last week, the United States Department of Health and Human Services announced that over 7 million people have enrolled in an insurance plan under the Health Care Law by the May 31 deadline, surpassing the initial White House goal. And although a majority of Republicans did – and still do – everything in their power […]

Comentarios from Maria: Life Lessons in Public Service

Most everything I learned about public service, I learned from Secretary Ron Brown. He was the best kind of mentor, short on personal advice, long on teaching by example. The first time he walked into the Department of Commerce, he told his staff he wanted to meet the cafeteria workers and the janitorial staff. When […]

Comentarios from Maria: For Latinos, Climate Change is a Priority

In recent years, Latinos have seen firsthand how climate change and natural disasters have intensified across the world. The Latino community, being one of the demographic groups most affected by climate change, is very concerned about how this affects us and future generations. That’s why my work with Voces Verdes, a national organization of Latino […]

Comentarios from Maria: A Year after the Republican National Committee’s ‘Autopsy’, their Brand Continues to Fall to the Floor

Last year, after receiving the beating the Republicans did in the 2012 elections, the Republican National Committee (RNC) published a report entitled The Growth and Opportunity Project where the party highlighted the need to implement structural changes if they were to have a chance to win the White House in 2016. Among those changes, the […]

Comentarios from Maria: It’s Time to Enroll in Obamacare Before March 31

March 31 is the last day that Latinos can enroll in Obamacare during its first term of enrollment. With two weeks left, have you registered? I applaud those who have registered, but for those who have not, my question to them is, why not? The law offers health coverage to more than 10.2 million Latinos […]

Comentarios from Maria: GOP’s Problems With Diversity Are More Skin Deep

The GOP has a diversity and communications problem, and the solution is not as easy as they make it out to be. Many leaders have admitted the problem exists, including Puerto Rico Gov. Luis Fortuño, who published a recent op-ed in this space entitled, “For GOP Diversity, Look to the States.” But Republicans are delusional if they […]

Comentarios from Maria: The GOP’s Hypocrisy Regarding Immigration Reform

The truth is that in recent months we have seen how low Republican leaders in Congress are willing to go. The latest accusations from Speaker of the House, John Boehner, blaming the President for Congress’ inaction on immigration reform, shows how desperate the Republican leadership is and how they are running out of excuses to […]

Comentarios from Maria: Improving the Image of Latinos in the Media

The recent developments on the capture of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, who according to Forbes is the world’s most powerful drug lord, has led me to think about the image of our community and how we are portrayed in the media. Even though Latinos are the fastest growing community in the entire country, there is […]