Fronteras

Latino misrepresentation in the entertainment industry results from the lack of Latino representation in the media.

Brownsville native and writer, Oscar Cásares, penned an article last year after losing a cousin to COVID-19. Like many, he was left to grieve in isolation, but he turned to a cultural tradition as a source of healing: Día de los Muertos. Cásares’ article memorialized loved ones lost to the virus and will be featured in an upcoming collection by Texas Monthly.

In the book, “South to Freedom: Runaway Slaves to Mexico and the Road to the Civil War,” historian Alice Baumgartner examines the U.S. and Mexico’s complicated ties to slavery and how Mexico’s stance on slavery had a major influence on politics to the North.

The Underground Railroad to the North promised salvation for enslaved people in North America. But historian Alice L. Baumgartner explores how some slaves sought refuge in Mexico and how the country’s push to abolish the practice stirred white salve owners in southern U.S. states, eventually setting the stage for the U.S. Civil War.

The political careers of Julián and Joaquin Castro are well known in their hometown of San Antonio and beyond. The twin brothers' rise in public service, and the women in their lives who played a vital role in their success, caught the attention of award-winning children's author, Monica Brown, who chronicled their story in a new bilingual children's book, "Small Room, Big Dreams."

A devastating flood one hundred years ago served as a catalyst for community mutual-aid groups — including Cruz Azul Mexicana and Communities Organized for Public Service (C.O.P.S.) — as they rallied for more proactive responses from city leaders. The floods that landed Sept. 9, 1921 killed 51 people, but that figure is believed to be severely undercounted.

A devastating flood 100 years ago marked a critical turning point for San Antonio’s development. But the response efforts by local leaders at the time were largely driven by protecting economic interests of business elites while neglecting the barrios of the city’s West Side. A new book details what happened on that fatal night and the West Side community organizers who fought to protect their neighborhoods after city leadership failed them.

Teachers have faced an unprecedented amount of stress while navigating the challenges prompted by the pandemic. Now that's being coupled with the politicization of their jobs over the controversy of how they can talk about current events and America’s history of racism in the classroom.

The coronavirus pandemic has complicated daily life for all, but especially for students. Specifically, international students whose studies were burdened by travel restrictions and closures at U.S. ports of entry.

Writer and actor Anna De Luna tells the story of her mother’s immigrant experience filled with harrowing yet sometimes comical struggles in adapting to life in South Texas in her new solo play, “Carmen from Mexico.”

Blending historical events with contemporary civil rights issues, the Mexican American Civil Rights Institute (MACRI) will hold a two-day virtual symposium to spur conversations of how social issues are not constrained by past times and still persist today.

Somos Primos is a site dedicated to Hispanic heritage. Its founder Mimi Lozano says she hopes it inspires Latinos to take pride in their past.

People who have grown up or live on the U.S. southern border know there’s more to the region than the issue of immigration policy. The National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures and the Ford Foundation awarded more than two dozen grants to community organizations and artists to help reframe the border narrative through an arts and cultural approach.

Areli Morales, an elementary substitute teacher in New York, shares her story of coming to the U.S. as an undocumented child and her experience as a DACA recipient in her debut children's book, "Areli is a Dreamer."

In his debut novel, award-winning author and Brownsville-native Rudy Ruiz weaves together the past and present to tell the tale of a son of impoverished immigrants breaking a mystical family curse and fighting to win back the love of his doomed youthful romance.

A 1993 class action lawsuit against Levi Strauss & Co. was ultimately dismissed, but it catapulted the work of Fuerza Unida empowering women workers of color and fighting for social, economic and environmental justice.

News of inhalant abuse became a nationwide concern from the 1960s to the 1980s and it took its toll in San Antonio’s West Side barrios. A UTSA graduate research student dove into this lesser-known piece of the city's history and discovered the community effort that helped barrio youth find a path to addiction recovery.

San Antonio may get its first saint. Mother Margaret Mary Healy-Murphy made her way to South Texas in the late 19th century and created a church and school for Black children. She founded the Sisters of the Holy Spirit and Mary Immaculate in San Antonio 1893, which has since expanded across several Southern states and into Mexico and Africa.

A bicultural ethnographer at the University of Texas at San Antonio examined how a particular group of Mexican American youth actively adopted patterns in their online presence associated with African American English, an area of study that’s in and of itself, controversial.

A lot is at stake in Mexico’s midterm elections on June 6. Critics worry that a divided political opposition will be unable to mount an effective challenge against MORENA—President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's neoliberal party—potentially further weakening the checks and balances system that keeps the country's fragile power structure in place.