News Roundup
Great story in the Journal Star today about a lady who teaches her neighbors English. She noticed something amiss and took action. It sounds like her methods are pretty similar to those of volunteers from Lincoln Literacy Council, except she is able to use Rosetta Stone. People think it takes a lot of time and effort, but really you can start making a difference with one hour a week.
The World-Herald has an interesting article about something we don’t hear about very often; Latinos returning to their home countries to run for office. One story involves a man who came to the U.S. illegally in the trunk of a car, became a millionaire by inventing a tomato planting machine, and returned to Mexico a few years ago when he was elected into their Congress. I was in Guatemala in 2007 when Rafael Espada ran successfully for vice president alongside Alvaro Colom, and his work in the States was widely acknowledged as a great asset. The article doesn’t speak to it, but I wonder to what extent these candidates face jingoistic arguments from their opponents.
This isn’t very new, as it came out in October of last year, but the Pew Hispanic Center released a report on Latino population growth in the U.S. since 2000. Not surprising is they accounted for a full half of the U.S. population growth over the same period and the dispersion patterns indicate large concentrations in southern California, Texas and Florida. But check out the maps of population growth, and you’ll notice eastern Nebraska grow steadily darker. In the growth map, I’m pretty sure that is Lancaster County, along with Saline County (Crete), in dark red, indicating fast growth of 41% or more.
