Stories

In his most recent editorial, Art Cullen of The Storm Lake Times, a leading progressive and one of the more well-respected opinion writers in the state, says Hispanic immigrants have helped make Storm Lake “the American story.”

Cullen makes the case that Iowa — facing an epic worker shortage — desperately needs immigrants and should reject [...]

BOONE – The chairman of the U.S. House Select Intelligence Committee, a leading Hispanic political figure, says “as an American,” he’s offended by some of Iowa Congressman Steve King’s comments on immigration.

What’s more, U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, sees King’s strong rhetoric on immigration as contributing to a long-term national Democratic Party majority, something he [...]

In evangelizing for the fight against domestic abuse in western Iowa’s growing Hispanic community, Patty Ritchie says she sees herself as something of a “Selena of advocacy” — a reference to the late and wildly popular Latina singer whose work crossed over to the white community.

Extending the Selena analogy, Ritchie, a counselor/advocate with the Domestic/Sexual [...]

(Commentary)First it was Univision.

Now it is African-American commentator Tavis Smiley’s “All American Forum” on Public Television this Thursday.

Leading Republican presidential candidates are declining to participate in the debate with heavy Hispanic and decidedly black influences.

(Commentary)First it was Univision.

Now it is African-American commentator Tavis Smiley’s “All American Forum” on Public Television this Thursday.

Leading Republican presidential candidates are declining to participate in the debate with heavy Hispanic and decidedly black influences.

The editor of an influential newspaper in western Iowa’s Latino community tells us she thinks Hillary Clinton and John Edwards had the strongest perfomances in the Univision debate in Miami.

La Prensa’s Lorena Lopez, who says she is leaning toward an endorsement of Barack Obama, says Clinton appeared to command issues and seemed “calm” in her [...]

Moments before Bill and Hillary Clinton took the stage in Sioux City for Labor Day stump speeches my friend and sometimes Spanish-language interpreter Roxana Boteo, a Guatemalan with U.S. residency, swept her eyes across the Riverside Park crowd looking for other Hispanics in this Latino-rich area of Iowa.

“Am I the only one here, Douglas?” she [...]

The general manager of La Prensa, a western Iowa Spanish-language newspaper with a growing voice, says he believes U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Kiron, has a pattern of “taking rhetorical shots” at Hispanics.
“I don’t think he justifies his reasons,” says Carlos A. Arguello, the general manager of the newspaper, tells Iowa Independent.
Arguello’s comments come as the [...]

Presidential aspirants and their earnest staffers are awfully good at reading polls for the Iowa caucuses.

But they apparently don’t pay much attention to the most significant of American surveys: The Census.

The 2000 Census figures, and more recent upddates, show dramatic growth in the number of Hispanics in Iowa. A wise candidate would take note of [...]