The Latino Newsletter

10/09/2025

We appreciate Mellon Foundation's support!

BOSTON / SAN JUAN — Today, The Latino Newsletter announced a $300,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation to expand the organization’s San Juan bureau and produce American Colony, a bilingual podcast series about Puerto Rico’s long and fractured relationship with the United States.

10/09/2025

The latest edition of The Latino Newsletter is a new opinion piece by Veronica Semler

Turning Hard Work Into Lasting Power

When we think about the values that unite us as a Latino community, I’m willing to bet that 90% of us will say “hard work” is our top value.

The importance of hard work as an indicator of success and social advancement is something we all experience in our own families. It could vary between cultures, but we are all chasing some version of our American Dream.

I’ve worked in the financial services industry for over 30 years, and I never thought I would choose to become an entrepreneur.

Recent data proves the Latino community has emerged as a vibrant and dynamic entrepreneurial force in the United States.

In 2023, a report from McKinsey & Co. unveiled a striking fact: Latinos were responsible for an impressive 36 percent of all new businesses launched across the country.

Recent data proves the Latino community has emerged as a vibrant and dynamic entrepreneurial force in the United States

10/08/2025

Latest edition of The Latino Newsletter is by Julio Ricardo Varela

U.S. Latinos Reach Record Highs in Population and Labor Force

Latinos now make up one out of every five people in the United States, according to a new analysis from UCLA’s Latino GDP Project and California Lutheran University, a media brief about the study noted Tuesday.

That milestone marks the highest share in American history, according to the media brief.

Using 2024 U.S. Census Bureau figures, researchers found the country’s Latino population has grown by 2 million since 2023, reaching more than 68 million people nationwide.

“In 1988, lacking the sophisticated data we now have, we projected that Latinos might grow to 58.8 million by now,” report co-author David Hayes-Bautista, distinguished professor of medicine at UCLA, said, “but obviously we were too conservative.”

Latinos now make up one out of every five people in the United States, according to a new analysis from UCLA’s Latino GDP Project and California Lutheran University, a media brief about the study noted Tuesday.

10/07/2025

A new generation of Latino leaders and voters are making their voices heard

by ⁦‪Julio Ricardo Varela‬⁩ in USA TODAY

A new generation of Latino political leaders — and voters — have arrived, and are ready to be taken seriously.

10/07/2025

For the first time in history, one out of every five people in the U.S. is Latino, according to a new data analysis by the Latino GDP Project from UCLA and Cal Lutheran. Using 2024 data from the U.S. Census Bureau, which was released in June, researchers discovered an increase of 2 million persons in this demographic compared to the updated 2023 population estimates. The total U.S. Latino population is estimated to be more than 68 million, they found.

One in 5 Americans is Latino, according to Latino GDP Project researchers.

10/07/2025

Pretty amazing news this week from us and will have lighter newsroom hours this week due to onboarding a new team. Next edition will be out later tonight.

10/06/2025

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Latino Newsletter Receives Six-Figure Grant to Expand San Juan Bureau and Launch AMERICAN COLONY Podcast

Seed funding from the nation's largest supporter of the arts and humanities will grow the nonprofit newsroom’s local reporting capacity and greenlight a bilingual series

BOSTON / SAN JUAN — Today, The Latino Newsletter announced a $300,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation to expand the organization’s San Juan bureau and produce American Colony, a bilingual podcast series about Puerto Rico’s long and fractured relationship with the United States.

“The Latino Newsletter was built so our communities aren’t a footnote to the story but set the terms of it,” said Julio Ricardo Varela, Founder and Publisher/Executive Director. “Puerto Rico has shaped me as a journalist and remains central to the work I do. The Mellon Foundation’s grant is transformational. It positions The Latino Newsletter for its next growth phase, and I am deeply grateful to Mellon for believing in our mission.”

Created by Varela and award-winning producer Joaquín Cotler, American Colony is now in pre-production as a nine-episode bilingual podcast that examines how more than 125 years of debate and history about Puerto Rico’s place within the United States continues to define the island today. Set to premiere in Summer 2026, the series will coincide with the U.S. Semiquincentennial.

Deputy editor Carlos Berríos Polanco leads the San Juan bureau, joined by award-winning journalist Susanne Ramírez de Arellano as columnist. The team will begin to produce at least one story each week for The Latino Newsletter directly from Puerto Rico. Reporting will run through the outlet’s newsletter-first platform and open syndication.

Too often, the lives of Puerto Rico’s 3.2 million people are only depicted as crisis headlines. The Mellon grant will help change that rhythm by supporting continuous, locally shaped reporting that connects policy to lived experience. It ensures Puerto Rican voices shape the national conversation, rather than be left out of it.

BOSTON / SAN JUAN — Today, The Latino Newsletter announced a $300,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation to expand the organization’s San Juan bureau and produce American Colony, a bilingual podcast series about Puerto Rico’s long and fractured relationship with the United States.

10/03/2025

The October 3 edition of The Latino Newsletter

Loíza: Where Investors and Politicians Conspire for Occupied Land

LOÍZA, Puerto Rico — This is one of Puerto Rico’s oldest towns, with a rich history dating back to when the Indigenous Taíno people discovered Columbus. It is also one of the coastal regions where Spain conducted its nefarious human trafficking of enslaved Africans.

10/03/2025

Journalist Mario Guevara deported to El Salvador after 100 days in ICE custody via The Guardian

Journalist Mario Guevara’s imprisonment by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) ended with deportation to El Salvador on Friday, his family announced on social media.

Guevara has been a media mainstay in the Atlanta area for about 20 years, after fleeing El Salvador to escape leftwing militias in 2004. Though he has a work permit and two of his children are American citizens, he has operated under the “administrative closure” of deportation orders for much of that time.

Removal comes after Emmy-winning Salvadorian reporter was arrested while covering ‘No Kings Day’ protest

10/03/2025

By Julio Ricardo Varela

Over the summer, the fabulous Sandra Guzmán assigned me a story about Latino political power as part of USA TODAY’s Hispanic Heritage Month magazine. That story is finally out.

The story featured quotes from Senator Alex Padilla (D-CA), Rep. María Elvira Salazar (R-FL), and Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX). As with any story, there were many quotes I couldn't include in my final piece, so I am sharing more of what they each told me about Latino political power in 2025. It wasn’t everything they told me, but I thought it was important to publish.

Over the summer, the fabulous Sandra Guzmán assigned me a story about Latino political power as part of USA TODAY’s Hispanic Heritage Month magazine. That story is finally out.

10/02/2025

The October 1 edition of The Latino Newsletter is via The Conversation US

No Quick Compromise to First Government Shutdown in 7 Years
What’s at stake for both parties

Congress failed to meet an October 1 deadline to adopt a spending measure and keep the federal government open, resulting in the first government shutdown in nearly seven years. With both Democrats and Republicans seemingly prepared for a long fight, Alfonso Serrano, a politics editor at The Conversation, interviewed Charlie Hunt, a congressional expert at Boise State University, about the prospects of a compromise and what’s at stake for both parties.

With both Democrats and Republicans seemingly prepared for a long fight, Alfonso Serrano, a politics editor at The Conversation, interviewed Charlie Hunt, a congressional expert at Boise State University, about the prospects of a compromise and what’s at stake for both parties.

10/01/2025

The September 30 edition of The Latino Newsletter is a personal essay by Ivan Fernandez

Trump’s ICE Raids Are Another Attempt to Break Los Angeles
The future looks bleak, but the past tells me otherwise

LOS ANGELES — This city remains under siege by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Numerous legal challenges have tried to limit ICE’s worst impulses while community organizers and rapid response groups continue to alert communities about activity. Raids and arrests, however, continue with no end in sight.

It’s not the first time my hometown (and home county) has suffered at the hands of immigration forces. As someone with a disdain for overused phrases and cliches, I will not say that history repeats itself, or that it rhymes, or that it’s a flat circle. Still, there are often parallels that help us reflect on the present with the benefit of the past.

One of my favorite childhood photos tells the story of the summer of 1984 and, by extension, that decade.

It’s not the first time my hometown (and home county) has suffered at the hands of immigration forces. As someone with a disdain for overused phrases and cliches, I will not say that history repeats itself, or that it rhymes, or that it’s a flat circle. Still, there are often parallels that help...