Julio Ricardo Varela

No one saw it coming. And when news started circulating just 56 hours ago that something big was happening about US Cuba policy, we all couldn’t believe it. The United States of America would actually begin to change a 54-year-old policy towards an island that was once its neighbor, its conquest, its playground and most recently […]

Cue Al Pacino again. I really was trying my best to not revisit the false U.S. Latino narrative that continues to spin from David Leonhardt, editor of The New York Times‘ The Upshot blog, and Nate Cohn, Upshot’s appointed U.S. Latino political expert—both clear examples of  “Latinidad without Latinos”, to quote Blanca Vega. You think that […]

It has been a heady 48 hours from the lead-up to “what will President Obama say about immigration?” to what he actually said last night in a national address to the nation that mainstream networks ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX didn’t think was important enough to pre-empt its prime time programing. Nonetheless, the close to […]

To paraphrase that wonderful Al Pacino overacting moment by a tired Michael Corleone in The Godfather Part III, just when I thought I could walk away from Google’s .SOY initiative, they pull me back in. You see, after people in our social circles (G+!) let Latino Rebels know about “the place for Latinos online” and […]

I have become highly skeptical of immigration movies. I don’t know why, but maybe it’s because our collective has received so many emails this year, that it suddenly feels like overkill. Immigration rights is a “hot topic,” and while more and more projects have become real movies and even Oscar winners, very little has happened […]

This past July, Janet Van Huysse (@janetvh), Twitter’s Vice President of Diversity and Inclusion, wrote a rather high-profile post about the company’s serious diversity challenges, promising that Twitter was going to make “diversity an important issue for ourselves.” Van Huysse shared some rather disheartening data reflecting how Twitter’s diversity problem confirmed the tech industry’s own […]

UPDATE, October 14, 2014: Diana Durán has uploaded the entire 12-minute video to YouTube. She also said via telephone today that her husband is now having problems at work because initial media report incorrectly stated that her husband was undocumented. She insists that he is not and that he has legal status in this country. […]

Now that Scotland has decided to remain a part of the United Kingdom by saying “no” to a very simple question, “Should Scotland become an independent country?, the wall-to-wall global news coverage of the country’s historic referendum will surely subside. By last week before the vote, everyone I knew in my media circles was talking […]

I am fully aware that by the time I finish writing this piece and you will finish reading it, some will a. accuse me of working for neo-nativist Republican Rep. Steve King (not true) or b. tell me I have no brain and that I should step in line or else I am I just […]

Earlier this week, I received an email from Lance Hannon, a Professor of Sociology at Villanova University. Professor Hannon wanted to let me know that he and Robert DeFina, Professor and Chairperson of Villanova’s Department of Sociology and Criminology, had just published a working paper entitled, “Controversy in the Sociological Meaning of Changes in Latino Racial […]

Last night, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) was the featured speaker at a dinner, lecture and book signing hosted by The Ronald Reagan Library in Simi Valley, CA. A group of veterans from the American GI Forum of California and immigrant rights activists (sponsored by SEIU, CHIRLA and Mi familia vota) attended the event together. Members […]

A recent Twitter exchange between Washington Post reporter Wesley Lowery (in between his Ferguson coverage) and Politico’s Dylan Byers and Kenneth P. Vogel about the political site’s lack of black reporters led to a rather detailed report by All Digitocracy’s Tracie Powell, confirming (not surprisingly) that Politico’s newsroom is not that diverse at all. “Politico veterans […]

Calling a Border Convoy hotel evacuation media alert “false” and “fake,” Culberson County (Texas) Sheriff Oscar Carrillo condemned the group for spreading “sensationalized” information about events that did not occur within his jurisdiction. The media alert, published early today said Border Convoy had to be evacuated Monday morning at 4:30 AM from “a Van Horn, TX Comfort Inn” because […]

Yesterday, my Twitter feed led me to the following link from AdWeek: “Honda Targets Hispanic Millennials by Mocking the Way Brands Target Hispanic Millennials Bilingual.” If you are one of those people who feel that agencies and brands have been pandering to Latinos for decades, the following videos from Honda kind of explain themselves. Watch […]

Before I start, a word: there are outlets that present a fuller picture when it comes to the root causes of current immigration issues, and those outlets that hide behind “journalism” to feed into your fears. It is a digital media game all too common now, because in the end, like Natalie Merchant once sang, “Give […]

As with any embarrassingly disappointing opinion piece that gets my attention, I usually find out about it via Twitter. This weekend was no different, when @RachelDecoste tweeted this: @julito77 Historical amnesia: @EnriqueKrauze in NYTimes «Latin America’s Talent for Tolerance» http://t.co/7HtHdJT0N7 #latino #racism — Rachel Décoste (@RachelDecoste) July 12, 2014 After tapping my laptop to make sure […]

I am starting to wonder if we are living in 2014 or whether it’s 1902 or 1857 because all of sudden the paranoia of unaccompanied minors invading the United States with plague, pestilence and illness is beginning to dominate the comments of people like this woman (yes, an actual photo from Monday’s shameful Murrieta protests): […]

Ever since Latino Rebels formed more than three years ago, we never tended to shy away from raw and honest discussions relating to culture, identity, ethnicity and race. It is what we do, so it was no surprise to see the comments from a June 20 Facebook post go completely insane.  Just another normal day at […]

After receiving a May 22 email about reporting issues surrounding a May 21 New York Times “Upshot” piece by Nate Cohn proclaiming more and more Latinos are becoming this country’s next whites, “Upshot” managing editor David Leonhardt sent the following response to me this morning: Mr. Varela, Thanks very much for your e-mails, and I’m […]

Cuando sonó la trompeta, estuvo todo preparado en la tierra, y Jehova repartió el mundo a Coca-Cola Inc., Anaconda, Ford Motors, y otras entidades: la Compañía Frutera Inc. se reservó lo más jugoso, la costa central de mi tierra, la dulce cintura de América. When the trumpet sounded everything was prepared on earth, and Jehovah […]

When I wrote an opinion piece on May 21 basically questioning an incredibly misleading piece by Nate Cohn of The New York Times’ “Upshot” blog, I never would have thought that 1) Latino Rebels would still be covering the story; 2) The Times would not yet respond to my emails about Cohn’s reporting; and 3) […]