Roberto Lovato

Let the true campaign for migrant life begin. And may the best candidate win.

Obama did not, in fact, have a policy of separating children, but he did have the practice of separating thousands of children from their parents.

I think a lot these days about Luis Durán.

I find it unfortunate that Abrams chose the word “compassionate” to describe what I saw during my reporting on Obama’s border and immigration practices.

History cannot ever be forgotten.

Candidates like the former San Antonio mayor will need to exercise greater moral and political clarity.

We honor him by continuing La Lucha he loved.

The latest examples should worry us all.

My journalist’s hiking boots still have leftover feces and dirt from the ultimate shitholes of El Salvador: its mass graves.

In San Francisco’s historic Mission District, the battle between life and death is real, as gentrification continues to displace lifelong residents and expose an ugly truth about “The City.”

DAJABÓN, Dominican Republic—On a recent afternoon in this tense border town, a hub for the flow of goods and people between Haiti and the Dominican Republic, Haitian immigrants and their Dominican-born children were preparing for the worst: the mass deportations they’d been hearing about for months from railing Dominican politicians and, especially, the local media. […]

Editor’s Note: Earlier this afternoon, regular Latino Rebels contributor Roberto Lovato wrote this story from El Salvador. He emailed it to us for publication. All the photos in this piece are Roberto’s. Greetings from El Salvador, land of the soon-to-be sainted Archbishop Óscar Arnulfo Romero. I’m here as a journalist covering Romero’s formal beatification ceremony and […]

“They’re no better than the Republicans,” says Ramón, my 92-year-old Salvadoran immigrant father, while watching another local news report featuring a family sad and angry at the deportation of the male head of the household. “If this continues, I’m not going to have a reason to go vote next year.” Such refrains from Latino voters […]

The either-or future facing most undocumented immigrants in the United States can be found on the caramel-colored palms of Daniel, a six-year-old boy from El Salvador. I met him during a recent visit to the Karnes County Residential Center—or what he, his two immigrant siblings and mother call a “prison,” located about 100 miles south of […]

To see my 92 year-old father’s morning face on waking up to news of President Obama’s announcement about U.S.-Cuban relations was to see the future of U.S. politics. “What?” he asked in the crackly, sleepy voice that’s taken on a sadder cadence since my mother María, his partner of 60-plus years, died last year. “Obama […]

The first thought on hearing the man likely to become the new Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell, deliver another lifeless victory speech last night was, “And the winner is… The Walking Dead!” No, it has nothing to do with any resemblance between the gentleman senator from Kentucky and the flesh-eating zombies thrilling millions each week […]

Ever since machine-gun-wielding members of the Mexican military kidnapped, raped and then beheaded her daughter, forcing several members of her family to migrate, my friend Ana María (name changed to protect her) understands all too intimately the deep connection between mass immigration from Mexico and the mass graves that reside there. Yet, more than most, […]

MISSION DISTRICT, SAN FRANCISCO—A new age is upon us, the Age of Soy. No, I’m not talking about some new genetically-modified organism that will (further) fundamentally alter the corn in our tacos, the gas in our cars or the farmland of the Midwest. The development of which I speak has to do with how Mountain […]

Reading about Mexico reminds me of El Salvador. Older Salvadoran sensations —the smell of rotting flesh mixed with the sweet fragrance of almond trees, the sight of young faces burned into half skeletons that look like the masks our kids wear for Halloween, the unforgettably sad sound of a dead student’s mother screaming without ceasing— […]

“No Democrat is safe because they chose politics over giving relief to families.” With these words, DREAMer activist Erika Andiola gave voice to the new spirit infusing “Hispanic Heritage” celebrations taking place throughout the country from now until October 15. Andiola made these comments in Iowa, where last Sunday, she and other members of the […]

EDITOR’S NOTE: Latino Rebels contributor Roberto Lovato visited Venezuela last week and wrote the following opinion piece. As of this morning, according to reports, the death toll resulting from the protests in Venezuela is at 25. The most recent violent events have occurred in San Cristóbal, near the Venezuela/Colombia border. CARACAS—Reports and imagery coming out […]