escalona
Alejandro Escalona biography
Alejandro Escalona is the former editor of Hoy Chicago, the Tribune Company's Spanish- language daily, as well as ¡Exito!, a weekly publication of the Chicago …Read More
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17-year-old knows: ‘Being able to speak Mandarin looks great on my resume’
Last I checked, the high school dropout rate among Latinos continued unabated and there were few reasons for optimism. Then I met Nuri Navarro, a bright and assertive high school student whose story reassured me that getting a college education is possible and the opportunities …Read More
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Obama and Romney should visit grocery stores to know the pain
I’d love to go grocery shopping with Barack Obama or Mitt Romney. The nearby Jewel, though, would have to do instead of the pricier Whole Foods. As we in the 99 percent already know, they might find shopping for food to be a terrific learning …Read More
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Teen who found job at T.J. Maxx knows too many others who can’t find work
Jason Banderas, a 17-year old student at Antonia Pantoja High School, considers himself lucky. Last summer, after applying at six other places, he landed a job at a T.J. Maxx store. Jason got the five-week summer job through a placement program at his school. He …Read More
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Mexican ‘invasion’ slowed to a trickle
Even as the Republican presidential candidates vie to show who’s toughest on illegal immigration, the United States is no longer attracting undocumented workers the way it once did. Few are talking about this, but the flow of undocumented immigrants — mostly from Mexico — has …
Library is heart of a neighborhood
Last Tuesday, a sign in the Rudy Lozano Public Library in Pilsen posted new hours for student tutoring. There no longer would be tutoring on Mondays. Why? Because, for the first time in recent memory, the Chicago Public Libraries will be closed on Mondays. And …
Mayan doomsday offers no tax break
The end is not near. Rather than heed the warnings of those predicting the apocalypse in 2012, prepare to pay more in city, state and county taxes and fees. And don’t blame the Mayas when you pay more for parking, tolls, vehicle stickers, Metra tickets, …
Call from Mexico pierces a holiday peace
Bad news still comes by phone. No email, text message or tweet can replace the human voice to communicate a devastating event. Bad news also has a way to find you when you least expect it — like the last days before Christmas. Last Friday …
Science & Latinos: It’s in their blood
Samantha Avalos dreams of becoming a surgeon and Thalia Chiquisala wants to be a pediatrician. The high school students tell me they love science and that their parents encourage them to do well in school. They are students at the Instituto Health Sciences Career Academy, …
We all pay price for dropout rate
The abysmal high school dropout rates of Latino and African American students come periodically to light when a report is published or during an election season. After a while, however, most people forget about it. I’ve covered Chicago as a reporter for almost 20 years, …
Gangs learning to infiltrate cops
It is alarming enough that two Chicago cops are accused of taking orders from the Latin Kings, but even more worrisome is that the notorious gang-bangers might be pursuing the same general strategy the Mexican drug cartels have found to be so effective, corrupting police …
Ex-con is thankful for second chance
Eddie Bocanegra credits his mother and God for turning his life around. Now he want to transform the lives of kids who belong to gangs, as he once did. If that is not enough, Bocanegra also hopes to go to Harvard. On this Thanksgiving Day, …
Let this soldier’s wife stay in U.S.
I doubt that President Barack Obama — or, for that matter, any other Democrat or Republican public official — has the guts to look in the eyes of a U.S. soldier who has served in Kuwait and tell him that his wife will be deported …
Could we have prevented a teenager’s brutal murder?
The brutal murder of 14-year-old Kelli O’Laughlin in her own home horrified people across Illinois and throughout the country. I could not help thinking about my own 15-year-old daughter while reading and watching the news of the vicious attack. As a father, I felt despair …
Chilean miners: Life’s tough above
The first anniversary of the Chilean miners’ amazing rescue on Oct. 13 of last year came and went without fanfare. No one is even considering wearing a rescued miner costume for Halloween, as some people did last year. The 33 miners did not find fame …
Trashing neighborhood murals is affront to Latino community
In the last few weeks, two murals have been defaced in the predominantly Mexican neighborhoods of Pilsen and Little Village. First, vandals defaced on two occasions the mural in memory of Jeff Abbey Maldonado Jr., an aspiring hip-hop artist who was gunned down by a …
Yo-Yo Ma makes music for all
Students at Telpochcalli Elementary in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood were excited because they knew a famous musician was going to perform at their school. And it took only a few minutes for the students to share the joy and enthusiasm of world-renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma. …
Pretrial skirmishes give Chicago closer look at drug cartels
Al Capone wouldn’t stand a chance. In Chicago, the mafia has a long and bloody history. But the wealth, global reach and extreme violence of the Mexican drug cartels make the gangsters of the 1920s pale by comparison. The pretrial proceedings of Mexican drug kingpin …
Illinois takes lead in humane reform of immigration law
Illinois continues to take sensible steps to deal with illegal immigration, rejecting the harsher approaches taken by other states, in the absence of a federal solution. The State of Illinois and the City of Chicago have taken the lead in showing the rest of the …
Drop the drama and get to work on longer school day
I was invited last year to talk to students at Ruben Salazar Elementary School about journalism. I was impressed by the kids’ enthusiasm, their knowledge of current affairs and their informed questions. I left Salazar thinking that the future of Chicago was in good hands …
Reciting names of 2,977 victims of 9/11 is like praying
Few experiences could possibly be filled with more sadness, anger and hope than listening to a reading of the long list of names of the victims of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and four fateful flights on that sunny morning …
