9 Ways to Avoid COVID-19 as You Make Holiday Plans


9 Ways to Avoid COVID-19 as You Make Holiday Plans

The Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays are a wonderful time to express your gratitude and share food with the people you love most in this world. However, the 2020 hits just keep coming. Family gatherings are still not safe during the COVID-19 pandemic. The CDC discourages in-person family gatherings for the holidays. Instead, you can safely deliver/swap traditional dishes to nearby familia, ship gifts, and use a video conference to stay connected. “It is the holidays, but it’s also a global pandemic. Safety has to be a priority over tradition,” said Dr. Amelie G. Ramirez, director of the Salud America! Latino health equity program at UT Health San Antonio. See our “Juntos, We Can Stop COVID-19” bilingual campaign to encourage you─juntos/together─ to do ...

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Denise Hernández: Finding Herself by Unlearning Implicit Bias and Embracing Her Chicana Heritage


Denise Hernández salud hero chicana implicit bias

Denise Hernández is a proud Chicana and a 5th generation San Antonian. She is the founder of Maestranza, an organization based in San Antonio that empowers community members through education, activism, and collaboration with other local social justice groups. She also coordinates events and constituent services for San Antonio City Councilman Roberto Treviño. MySA named her a “Rising Star in Their 20s.” She’s led speaker series, workshops, and even a TEDx talk. Denise Hernández is an educator, activist, and advocate for her community. And at only 29 years old, she’s just getting started. But the journey here was anything but easy. It took years of self-discovery, unlearning biases, and confronting the discrimination that her family has faced for ...

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Extremely COVID-19 High Rates among Latino Farm, Food Workers


COVID-19 Latino Farm Food Workers

Nearly three-fourths of all coronavirus cases in some of the country’s most critical industries are happening among Latinos, the group already experiencing harsh burdens from the virus. Of the 5,721 workers in food processing, food manufacturing, and agriculture fields who tested positive for COVID-19 early in the outbreak, 72.8% were Latino, according to October 2020 data from the CDC. These numbers shouldn’t come as a total surprise, based on the conditions these laborers face in the workplace, said Dr. S. Patrick Kachur, a population and family health professor at Columbia University. "Workers come and go from the workplace on a daily basis,” Kachur told TODAY Food. “If they are living in communities with widespread transmission, or households with other persons who ...

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Police Departments Move to Diversify Workforce to Better Reflect Population


Police Departments Move to Diversify Workforce to Better Reflect Population

Across the country, police departments are making efforts to diversify their workforce to better reflect the populations they serve. With more Latino, Black, and other non-white police officers, law enforcement may have a better opportunity to connect with the community. “Having better representation within the department may help address some of the reservations about police,” according to WGN9. However, many police departments are facing challenges in recruiting diverse officers. Cities That Are Diversifying Police Departments Despite hiring more people of color in the past 30 years, the majority of police departments are still predominately white and do not proportionately represent people of color. “The share of minority officers nationally has nearly doubled in ...

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Ángela García: Helping Her Community Through Art and a Free Fridge


Ángela García Free Fridge

Ángela García wasn’t planning on becoming an artist. She entered college in the pre-med track, intending to go into a medical career. But then she started taking art history classes. And she kept taking them, despite still being in the pre-med track. “I was like, ‘You know what? I don’t like this. Maybe I don’t like the sciences as much as I thought I did. And I’m really interested in this art history curriculum.’ So, I switched over at the end of my sophomore year,” García said. Now she’s a senior art history major at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, with several large-scale art projects under her belt, having rekindled a passion for creative work from her childhood. “I used to do painting when I was younger but I kind of fell out of it for a ...

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Universities across the U.S. Move to Address Systemic Racism


University Students Address Racism

With student pressure, universities across the nation are beginning to make statements and take action to address the systemic racism that impacts students, staff, and faculty of color. These statements from universities come as a result of the Black Lives Matter movement. As the discussion about injustices that Black people, Latinos, and other people of color face from law enforcement and other authorities continues to grow, it gave room for students to confront university administrators about racial injustices happening on campuses. Many universities are committing to change and putting new policies in place. Others are making statements in solidarity, but with less of a commitment to change. How can students be sure their universities are serious about these ...

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