Why I Marched for Puerto Rico
On November 19th, at 4:30 a.m. on a cold, rainy Sunday morning in New York I joined one of many busloads of citizens traveling to Washington D.C. to participate in the Unity March for Puerto Rico. The march w...
The Politics of Skin Complexion: What Sammy Sosa’s Change in Appearance Says About the Stigma Attached to Color and Race
In 2009, after appearing on a television show donning noticeably lighter skin complexion, rumors soared claiming that major league baseball legend Sammy Sosa was ill. To quell rumors he went on record stating t...
Trayvon Martin’s Death 5 Years Later…What, If Anything Has Changed?
It’s been five years since then the death of Trayvon Martin. By now the entire world knows the story. A 17 year-old Trayvon – a black unarmed teenager – was killed by George Zimmerman. Zimmerman, a neighborhood...
Trayvon Martin: Through a Latino Lens
On February 26, 2012 a young African American man named Trayvon Martin was shot by a neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman, who is Caucasian and Peruvian. When I initially heard of the Trayvon Marti...
Surviving Trump’s America
Isat in silence the morning of the 9th, coffee cup in hand, staring at a wall. Having had no sleep, I was thinking about how to talk to my children about what had just occurred with this election, when I be...
A Latino Man’s Perspective on Day One of Trump’s America
This op-ed was originally written and published by Jesse Mejia and appears on jessemejiaspeaks.com
On Tuesday, November 8, 2016 I was at Wellesley College. My wife, a Puerto Rican woman, graduated from Welle...
How Trump Symbolizes the End of American Exceptionalism
Originally Published August 2, 2015
Trump. The blogs are ablaze; the talking heads can’t seem to get enough of the blathering “birther.” It was no surprise that Donald Trump would enter the 2016 presidential...
5 Takeaways for Latinos from the Democratic National Convention
With Secretary of State Hillary Clinton accepting the nomination of the Democratic Party in Philadelphia last week, the battle lines for November were officially set. Here are five things that Latinos learned f...
5 Takeaways for Latinos from the Republican National Convention
The dust has settled on the chaotic novella otherwise known as the Republican National Convention. There were among other things, allegations of plagiarism, refusal to endorse the Republican nominee and materia...
My Life As an Undocumented Latino in the U.S.
In 1989, my family and I left our small Maya community in Yucatán, México due to poverty, violence and lack of opportunity. My parents wanted the best for my sister and I; they were willing to leave everythin...