Julio Ricardo Varela

As of this posting, there have now been a total of 537 more deaths in September 2017 when compared with September 2016, and 657 more deaths in October 2017 when compared to October 2017.

“We always expected that the number of hurricane-related deaths would increase as we received more factual information —not hearsay— and this review will ensure we are correctly counting everybody.”

“With this, I suggest that the number of total deaths in Puerto Rico is not a fixed one.”

A comment was made 36 hours after requests to both the White House and Department of Homeland Security.

“Our findings suggest that the actual mortality burden attributable to Hurricane María may be far higher than current official statistics,and may exceed the current official death toll by a factor of 10, or more.”

“Of course, we welcome the information that the journalists stated.”

So this weekend is the 2015 Baseball Hall of Fame’s Induction Weekend. Although I don’t plan to drive from Boston to Cooperstown to catch it, I am a bit (okay, VERY) excited because Pedro Martínez is one of the honorees. In his prime, Pedro was the best pitcher I have ever seen. In fact, he […]

FOXBORO, MA, July 10, 2015 I am driving down Route 1 headed to the stadium normally reserved for Patriots. My middle schooler (and fútbol-obsessed) son is in the back seat with his friend. They talk Clint Dempsey, Ronaldo and if they will ever get the chance to watch an FA Cup Final at Wembley. Did […]

A few things you need to know. Phillip Arroyo, the young Puerto Rican law student who appears in the video below, is a new contributor to Latino Rebels. Similar to what I have been writing about for years, Phillip believes that the only way to solve Puerto Rico’s status issue (mired in decades of mediocre […]

Today in New York as part of my duties as Digital Media Director for Futuro Media Group, I will be attending the Ravitch Fiscal Reporting Program’s journalism seminar about Puerto Rico’s fiscal crisis. A portion of the agenda will include a Skype appearance by Alejandro García Padilla, Puerto Rico’s governor. As I was preparing for […]

There was this surreal moment last night at Harvard’s Science Center during the beginning of the Latin@ Graduation that hit me hard—not the violent hard you would feel if a brick fell on your head, but more like the hard you get when your heart is about to burst with joy and happiness. The fabulous Erika Ontiveros Carlsen, a […]

Earlier this year, Latino Rebels wrote about the language policy used by local administrators of VarageSale, a fast-growing Canadian app that allows people to run virtual garage sale groups in their local communities. Several Spanish-speaking members had let us know that one local Texas VarageSale group (the town of Brenham) had instituted an English-only policy […]

This is a story about a book and a new friendship. When I first heard that Nelson A. Denis was publishing War Against All Puerto Ricans, and that it would release yesterday (already topping the Amazon charts in Caribbean History and Caribbean & Latin American Politics categories), to say I was intrigued would be selling my emotions short. I […]

Earlier this week, Latino Rebels received an email from a freelancer writer looking for opportunities at LatinoRebels.com. Part of the email said the following: “I used to write for the website VOXXI.com. Sadly, the website will be discontinued and I am looking for any freelance positions in other Latino websites.” After several emails and phone […]

Who knew that a March 12 tweet from The Ecomonist’s Américas account would lead to this week’s hot (no pun intended) issue in the U.S. Latino media space? On our cover: The rise of Latinos is a huge opportunity. The US must not squander it http://t.co/Jw7aPIbchM pic.twitter.com/oUo4dqAUK8 — The Economist (@EconAmericas) March 12, 2015 Not […]

I do wonder that if former Univision host Rodner Figueroa had said what he said on Spanish-language television 10 years ago, he would still be part of the Univision family today, for the very reason that Spanish-language media didn’t have as much of a mainstream national or digital reach as it does now. Maybe a […]

A few things you need to know: tax stories are really complicated and quite frankly, a bit geeky. You should also know that Puerto Rico is on the brink of bankruptcy. I’m pretty sure that you haven’t heard about that fact, nor about the story that governor Alejandro García Padilla and his status-quo pro-Commonwealth Popular […]

I’ll admit: when our group decided to do a quick goofy story about really insane Twitter reactions to the news that one of the winning Powerball tickets came from Puerto Rico, there was nothing out of the ordinary. We had done these types of stories for years, and quite frankly, we had been doing less […]

Last year, when Jorge Ramos was grilling President Obama for an immigration record that has done more to damage the U.S. Latino community than help it, personalities like Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity (who called him RAY-mos) had the Univision and Fusion anchor on their respective shows. They were somewhat complimentary about what Ramos had done. […]

Let’s get the cliché right out the way: it was just another cold winter January weekday morning in the town where I live, just seven miles from the center of Boston, Massachusetts. Wake up in the dark, get the kids going, make the coffee and breakfast, turn on the radio, start the cars up and […]

Now that President Obama has spoken about immigration and Cuba, the White House has several speech templates it can adapt to pay attention to the one issue no one wants to discuss but is just as important: Puerto Rico. Understanding that Puerto Rico might not be a priority for the Obama administration, not to worry. […]