Violeta Ayala

Bolivian filmmaker

I grew up like most Bolivians with no notion of whether cocaine was good or bad. To me, it was a way to get out of poverty.

Juan Cartagena

President and General Counsel, LatinoJustice PRLDEF

The Supreme Court this week halted Arizona's attempt to thwart the will of Congress when it established national norms for voter registration in federal elections with the National Voter Registration Act of 1995.

Gloria Bonilla Santiago

Board Chair, LEAP Academy University Charter School

Too many American high school students are falling through the cracks -- and a large number of those falling short are minorities.

Rev. Al Sharpton

President, National Action Network

Nobody should be denied the right to vote, or face additional hurdles because of a strategic method to disenfranchise them. Just as no one should be racially profiled, no one should be racially blocked from the voting booth.

Elizabeth Romero

Experta en educación y tecnología educativa

Did you know that Latino students that enter high school with the plan to continue their studies by going to college have a much greater probability of achieving it? That's what a recent study has shown, and therefore, why New Futuro created the College Plan tutorial.

Tanisha L. Ramirez

Freelance Lifestyle & Pop Culture Journalist

I encouraged my friend to attend the screening of the film. My friend responded, "No, that's fine. It's a Latin film. I'm sure it'll just go over my head." That response made me want to scream, in part, because this is no novel sentiment. Why is it that so many people still believe that English-language media produced by and starring Latinos are for Latinos only?

Sandip Roy

Culture editor, Firstpost.com; editor, New America Media

Everyone ultimately wants a Superman on their side. The INS even has a citizenship category for that -- Alien of Extraordinary Ability or the O visa. The question is, does America want to legalize the not-so-supermen and women?

Adrian Grenier

Actor, filmmaker and entrepreneur

For too long we've exclusively emphasized punishment for non-violent offenders over treatment and rehabilitation. The current system is unbalanced, unsustainable, and unnecessarily cruel. It's time to legalize or at the very least, decriminalize all drugs.

Tony Diaz

El Librotraficante

You don't have to be Mexican American to enjoy this Renaissance. And you don't have to be a book either. You can also be a quilt.

Julio Pabon

Candidate for City Council South Bronx, NY; Founder, LatinoSports.com

As this Father's day coincided almost to the day with the six month anniversary of the Newtown school shooting, I think it appropriate to say a few words about guns, gun violence and violence in our society.

Ian Reifowitz

Author of 'Obama’s America: A Transformative Vision of Our National Identity'

He came to believe that Hazleton's immigrants, and the city itself, needed more than services. It needed to build bridges between immigrants and the native-born, whites and Latinos. It needed a real and shared sense of community.

Juan del Hierro

Pastor

This will be a very special Father's Day. It will be my first Father's Day since my husband and I adopted our baby boy Lucas. It will also be the first Father's Day in many years that I will get to celebrate in person with my own father, who's been living in Ecuador for many years.

Marielena Hincapié

Executive director, National Immigration Law Center

A year after the president announced DACA, the Republican-controlled House seems not to have read -- or to have lost -- the memo on what makes good immigration policy. The House has embarked on a destructive political and policy strategy that rejects the events of the last year.

Lynda Garcia

Soros Justice Fellow, ACLU Criminal Law Reform Project

The UCR's failure to track Latino arrests as a separate category also conceals the racially targeted policing that we suspect is at play in Latino communities, just as it is in black communities.

Kelly Welch

Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminology, Villanova University

Resistance to a legal path to citizenship for immigrants who have already come to the U.S. illegally may be rooted in dangerous stereotypes of Hispanics as criminals that hurt all of us and distract from greater threats.

Jeff Valdez

Serial Entrepreneur & President, Max360 Entertainment

Latino influence and spending power is undeniable, which leads me to ask: Just how does Hollywood, the liberal and creative capital of the world, view this exploding market?

Lilia Luciano

Journalist, documentary producer and literacy advocate. Periodista y productora

Issues affecting women and girls impact everyone. When half the population of a country, and half of a potential workforce, isn't entitled to an education, the effects are monumental.