The Hispanic Fanatic is Daniel Cubias, who lives in Los Angeles. He is a business writer and has had fiction published in numerous obscure literary journals that you have never read. He and his wife agree that their cat and dog call all the shots.

He blogs at http://hispanicfanatic.wordpress.com/.

Daniel can be reached at hispanicf@gmail.com.

Blog Entries by Daniel Cubias

2012 Supplies One More Victory for Pseudoscience

7 Comments | Posted November 18, 2009 | 11:53 AM (EST)


I have to finish this post quickly, before the world ends. At the very least, I have to wrap it up before 2013, when it will not only be irrelevant but even more embarrassing for the paranoid among us to read.

As you are no doubt aware, the blockbuster movie...

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The Health Care Bill and Latinos

67 Comments | Posted November 14, 2009 | 07:22 PM (EST)


I've avoided commenting on the health care controversy too much because, first, it's a massively complex issue that would require several posts to do justice, and second, I have no desire to spend time purging my inbox of illiterate screeds that insist I'm a socialist under President Obama's evil spell.

...
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Should Americans Adopt the Immigrant Mindset?

15 Comments | Posted November 10, 2009 | 12:31 AM (EST)


I've spent some time in the corporate world, and as such, I despise phrases like "paradigm shift" or "new dynamic." Still, it's clear that something new is forming within the American psyche.

As result of the cataclysm we jokingly call our economy, Americans are moving less than they have...

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The Strange Bedfellows of the Census Boycott

20 Comments | Posted October 31, 2009 | 12:27 PM (EST)


One of the wonders of modern society is how even minor controversies can snowball into intense political and sociological debates where, apparently, the future of the country hangs in the balance. Really, even Halloween costumes are enough to create verbal fisticuffs.

That's why I'm not surprised that the 2010...

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Are Hispanics Just Plain Dumb? Many of Us Think So

9 Comments | Posted October 7, 2009 | 01:29 AM (EST)


I admit that I'm a little late to the party, in that I just recently read Freakonomics, the bestseller from a few years ago. Like everyone else who read the book, I'm amazed at the bizarre factoids and surprising conclusions that it supplies. And it's also convinced me never to...

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How to Quit Smoking (Meddling Hispanic Style)

24 Comments | Posted August 29, 2009 | 11:51 AM (EST)


With all the fevered debate over health care, I'm surprised that few people have addressed the root cause of so much misery: the failure of our society to keep people from getting sick in the first place.

It's actually pretty simple to get people to adopt healthier habits. Well, actually,...

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The Death and Possible Rebirth of Racial Profiling

1 Comments | Posted August 12, 2009 | 04:04 PM (EST)


Now that the Beer Summit has resolved any lingering issues over the arrest of Henry Louis Gates, we can get back to our perfectly harmonious post-racial society.

I for one am relieved. Like most Latino males, I've had some uncomfortable interactions with cops (go ahead, ask your minority friends; most...

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The Horror, The Horror: The Latino Love Affair with Scary Movies

1 Comments | Posted July 14, 2009 | 12:46 PM (EST)


Some of my posts may have given the impression that I base everything upon logic, and disdain the supernatural or unexplainable. That's not true, of course, because I love a good ghost story.

I just don't love them as much as my mom does.

For proof, I refer to...

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The Great American Melting Pot (?)

1 Comments | Posted July 2, 2009 | 05:01 PM (EST)


You will not catch me dissing Schoolhouse Rock.

Like all good Gen Xers, I grew up with the infectious tones of the Saturday morning series permeating my brain. Before I could stop it, Schoolhouse Rock told me how a bill becomes a law, informed me that zero...

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In the Black: Should There Be a Latino Version of the Empowerment Experiment?

13 Comments | Posted June 22, 2009 | 03:55 PM (EST)


We often measure a group's cultural power by that most base of indicators, the theoretical root of all evil itself: Money.

By that gauge, Hispanics lag far behind the majority culture. However, as befits the largest ethnic-minority group (and the fastest-growing demographic) in America, Latinos are a growing economic...

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Why I Don't Volunteer

3 Comments | Posted June 16, 2009 | 03:03 PM (EST)


Among my numerous flaws is the fact that I'm not very charitable. Yes, I give money to worthy causes, but I'm stingy with my time. My wife does volunteer work, which is one of the eight thousand things that I admire about her. Still, I've rarely found the motivation to...

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Insecurity Complex: Who Wants to Be Latino?

2 Comments | Posted June 6, 2009 | 12:23 PM (EST)


I've mentioned before that Hispanics are now the number-one ethnic minority in America. On a related note, I'm sure you've heard that salsa is more popular than ketchup (it's true, more or less).

But this numerical advantage in population hasn't amounted to much for Latinos, except...

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That's All You Got? The Attacks on Sotomayor Come Across as Desperate

117 Comments | Posted May 28, 2009 | 04:05 PM (EST)


I'm not in the habit of giving advice to the Republican Party, which is just as well, because they're not in the habit of accepting it. But in the spirit of bipartisanship, I offer the following: Drop the lame attacks on Sonia Sotomayor, because they're not going to work.

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A Nation of Laws?

3 Comments | Posted May 23, 2009 | 12:12 PM (EST)


Just like President Obama, Dick Cheney, and many other Americans, I've been thinking a lot about torture lately. I've been thinking how bad it is... unless it's, like, you know, really needed and stuff... to stop bad people... right?

In any case, we've all heard the wobbly rationales justifying the...

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It's Much Prettier in Spanish: The Allure of Cursing in a Foreign Tongue

3 Comments | Posted May 16, 2009 | 12:52 PM (EST)


I've been blogging for the Huffington Post for about a year now. My emphasis, of course, is on Latino culture and the issues that affect Hispanics. However, as I enter my second year of ranting, provoking, and prophesying, it's clear that I need to get one thing out of the...

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A Latino Rodney King?

44 Comments | Posted May 9, 2009 | 01:05 PM (EST)


In my last post, I wrote about how many conservatives used the H1N1 flu outbreak to launch xenophobic attacks on Hispanics. But if the right wing's reaction to the swine-flu outbreak was a depressing example of the disgust that many Americans hold for Latinos, what are we to make...

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Was Anyone Surprised at the Right Wing Attacks on Latinos Over H1N1?

8 Comments | Posted May 6, 2009 | 11:48 AM (EST)


The swine-flu outbreak, at least the initial stage of it, appears to be subsiding. If it turns out that H1N1 is not the massive death-wave that right-wing extremists predicted, they will no doubt move on to another "end of America" crisis.

But I have to give credit to conservative commentators....

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Does Anybody Know What Cinco de Mayo Is All About?

72 Comments | Posted May 5, 2009 | 11:59 AM (EST)


I have one simple question for all the white Americans out there: What is the significance of Cinco de Mayo? I mean, what historical event does this day commemorate besides the advent of the two-for-one margarita special?

I do not mean this to be bitchy or accusatory. I may be...

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How the Swine Have Stopped Us from Hugging

Posted April 28, 2009 | 04:31 PM (EST)


By now, you've no doubt heard about the killer flu that originated in Mexico. Dozens of people are dead in that country, and cases have sprung up in the United States. In all likelihood, this virus -- an offshoot of swine flu -- will run its course long before...

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More Than Money: When Downsizing Takes an Extra Bite Out of Us

Posted April 22, 2009 | 05:21 PM (EST)


As I wrote in a recent post, I was just laid off from my job of six years. It's disgruntling to go from analyzing the plight of unemployed Latinos to becoming part of the story.

I'm not worried about the future or in dire financial straits, for which I'm grateful....

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