In the News

In Washington last week, President Bush signed legislation establishing a commission that will spend two years looking into the creation of a National Museum of the American Latino.  The Washington Post reported that the Commission will discuss whether the proposed museum should pertain to the Smithsonian Institute or be independent.  The Museum would highlight the cultural and historical contributions of the 45 million Latinos in the United States. 

The U.S. Census Bureau's recently released estimates show that one in four children younger than age 5 in the United States are Hispanic.  In Virginia, 11 percent of children under age 5 are Hispanic, according to The Washington Post.  Births within the United States have led to more population growth than immigration for the past decade. 

National

Time Magazine featured a number of Latinos in its annual list of "The100 most Influential People in the World".  Michelle Bachelet, Chile's first female president; Evo Morales, president of Bolivia; Yoani Sánchez, author of the Generación Y blog which has given the world an inside view of Cuba; Mexican golfer Lorena Ochoa and Carlos Slim, "Mexico's superbillionaire," made the list. 

The Musical "In the Heights," which portrays Latino life in upper Manhattan, received 13 Tony Award nominations, more than any other show this year. 

International

In the latest episode of escalating drug violence in Mexico, Federal Police Chief Edgar Millán Gomez was assassinated in Mexico City.  "A sense that violence by organized crime had spun out of control seemed to hang over the country," The New York Times reported.  The possibility that someone within the police department tipped off Gomez's killers is being investigated.  President Felipe Calderón promised not to back down on the pursuit for order in Mexico. 

Rafael Correa, president of Ecuador, said he will not renew an agreement allowing the United States to maintain an Air Force base in his country, The New York Times reported.  The Bush Administration considers the station in Manta, on Ecuador's Pacific Coast, of critical importance to finding drug boats smuggling cocaine up the coast from Colombia.  Many Ecuadorans see the base as an abuse of American power. 

The Guardian newspaper reported that Gabriel García Márquez, author of "Love in the Time of Cholera" and "100 Years of Solitude," is working on a new novel - several years after announcing his writing career was over. 

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