La Plaza Central

Here is a study of Latino teens in Los Angeles that reinforces what we have been teaching in our program, Saludos a la Buena Salud (Greeetings to Good Health).  The study aimed to show that small changes in diet like reducing sugar and increasing fiber could reduce some risk factors for Type 2 diabetes.

The results were positive across the board.  Even the control group of teens that didn’t receive nutrition class or strength training lowered their sugar intake and increased their fiber consumption.  The researchers think this might be the case because all of the teens were informed of the purpose of the study, and so they may have made changes on their own.  At any rate, they found that 55% of the teens reduced their sugar consumption by the equivalent of a can of soda a day and increased their fiber consumption on average five grams a day.  These small changes led to significant improvements in certain risk factors for diabetes.

The point being that small changes can make a big difference, and just as important, considering that even the control group participants improved their diet, it doesn’t take that much to influence teens towards making healthy diet decisions.

UPDATE: The study was good enough to make the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, which I read every time it comes out.

And it’s a news roundup…

So about half of all new Americans admitted into the country last year were Latino, which is more than double the amount from last year.  And the increase came not solely from Mexico (+90%), but also from other countries such as El Salvador (+109%), Nicaragua (+120%) and Guatemala (+109%).

There is a new Pew Hispanic report out that found that 61% of Hispanics had confidence in their local police compared to 78% for whites and 55% for blacks.  Additionally, less than half, 45%, of Hispanics say police officers will treat Hispanics fairly and 49% feel that Hispanics are treated fairly by the courts.

It looks like there is significant support in both the U.S. Senate and the House for bills to lift the travel ban to Cuba, though some say that passing the bills this year looks rather dificult.  Only time will tell.

The U.S. Mint released the first ever coin with an inscription in Spanish.  It is part of the series of 50 quarter designs for all of the states, but this one is for Puerto Rico.  Here’s a photo of Puerto Rico’s governor Luis Fortuño standing behind the largest quarter you’ll ever see.

(AP Photo/Andres Leighton)

After visiting Puerto Rico last June, may I suggest instead of “Island of Enchantment” they use the phrase “Island of Calor Sofocante“.

Here’s an interesting video passed on to me by another RPCV from Nicaragua.  It’s a little something to ponder on your Friday.

Wouldn’t this be something?  Unfortunately, still just a dream for time being.

UPDATE: Nevermind.  It looks like the University of Nebraska said thanks, but no thanks.

And now for some news from the other side of the state.  This article just came out Monday about a program directed by Chadron State College, in collaboration with Bluffs Middle School and Roosevelt Elementary of Scottsbluff, that seeks to encourage minority children to attend college.  The program is a collaborative effort between Dr. Bill Roweton of CSC and Nora Porupsky, the principal at Roosevelt Elementary.  They are targeting fifth and sixth graders who are generally from Latino or American Indian backgrounds.  The kids get to tour Chadron State’s campus while their parents can talk to college officials about any questions they may have about college education.

I like this program because it starts to build relationships with the children at a very young age.  I think the earlier they can see, and hopefully believe, that it’s possible for them to go to college the better.  Creating that hope is a huge first step.  Then all they need to do is sustain it.

People are already talking about the 2010 census count that will begin April 1st next year. Both the importance and the difficulties behind accurately counting all Latinos in the U.S. were discussed in this recent MSNBC report.

Coming on the heels of Wine! Chocolate! Tango! I wanted to show a short video that one of my fellow Peace Corps volunteers in Nicaragua recently produced about the tango culture in Washington DC.

Enjoy!

We’d like to give a special thanks to Maria Elena Villasante and Lutheran Family Services for their donation of seven Dell Optiplex computers with keyboards and mice.  They were just what we needed to finally start up a computer lab for our clients in the office.  The computers came with Windows 2000, so I’ve formated them and installed Ubuntu with skins so they’ll look like Windows XP.  The lab will be a great addition to the office.  Once again, del profundo del corazón, muchas gracias!

Sometimes it takes months for the Pew Hispanic Center to produce a new report, but they’re always worth the wait.  This week, they issued a report on the condition and make up of suburban public schools.

The publication states that suburban education has grown drastically by 3.4 million students in the last 15 years, and 99% of those gains came from the new enrollment of Latino, black and Asian students.  Suburban school districts are now 41.4% non-white, which is up from 28% in 1993-1994.

But the interesting thing is that despite these significant gains in total numbers, the ethnic diversity in student populations has only risen modestly.  In 2006-2007, the typical suburban student’s school was 75% white, while in 1993-1994 it was 83%.  That leads me to think that the majority of the increases in minority suburban school populations came in a relatively few amount of schools.

With permission from Pew Hispanic Center, I think this graph indicates pretty succinctly where the enrollment gains are coming from.

(Pew Hispanic Center)

Anyways, it’s another interesting read from Pew.