Various media sources provided coverage of GALEO’s 2014 Hispanic Heritage Month Breakfast

http://www.telemundoatlanta.com/3037_videos/2727876_video-galeo-celebra-la-herencia-hispana.html

http://atlanta.univision.com/videos/video/2014-09-26/mes-de-la-herencia-hispana

Crystal Muñoz, GALEO Student Intern

Walking up to the building one can already feel the nervousness and excitement in the air. Some people came with families, others alone, all waking up early to experience a once in a lifetime moment. They worked hard, studied all the questions, forward and back, and now all that time and dedication will pay off in huge ways. Becoming a United States citizen comes with great benefits, but it also comes with unforeseen responsibilities, such as civic engagement. One of the biggest responsibilities as a citizen is that of voting. As a citizen of the United States your opinions and ideas matter and it is your right as a citizen to go out on Election Day and make your voice heard.

By John Newton, La Voz Latina, Savannah, Ga.

President Obama’s deferred action (DACA) program for undocumented students celebrated its two-year anniversary last month and, owing to its controversial nature, still makes headlines on a regular basis. Republicans in the US Congress have vowed to end the program if they succeed in regaining control of the US Senate in November.

Under DACA guidelines, many young immigrants who were raised in the US and educated in public schools can qualify for a temporary but renewable two-year adjustment to their legal status, obtain a valid work permit, a social security number, and a drivers license (in most states).

By John Newton, La Voz Latina, Savannah, Ga.

Carlos Sanchez moved to Statesboro, Georgia from Mexico as a teenager in 2003. Like many immigrants he had big dreams, all of them dependent on getting a good education. That part of his story may sound typical but how Carlos is making those dreams into a reality is not.

Undocumented, Carlos lived with an uncle and enrolled in a local high school for one semester before dropping out. He found steady work picking tobacco leaves in the morning, then waiting tables in a local restaurant in the evening. But Carlos wanted more from life so he moved to Tifton, Georgia and enrolled in the migrant-worker G.E.D. program at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College (ABAC).

By John Newton, La Voz Latina, Savannah, Ga.

The human brain is hard-wired for fairness.

Behavioral scientists have demonstrated conclusively that even very young children react strongly when their elemental sense of fair play is violated.

This is why violent protests have rocked the streets of Ferguson, Missouri.

In a city where nearly 70% of the population is African-American, only three members of the 53-officer police department are black. To be sure, the lawless actions of some Ferguson protestors have tainted their message but, regardless of whether or not the ongoing investigation ultimately justifies the actions of the police officer who shot and killed an unarmed black teen, a substantial majority of black citizens in the US today feel they are not treated fairly by our country’s criminal justice system.

By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. — A gated community of regal brick homes with impeccable landscaping and $450,000 price tags might seem an unlikely place for a voter-registration drive. The neighborhood, with its swimming pool and tennis courts, evokes stability and a sense of having arrived.

But when Maria Palacios, 24, a part-time canvasser for a Latino rights advocacy group, knocked on doors on a sweltering summer afternoon, she was greeted by those who had never cast ballots, immigrants like herself — newcomers from Korea, Vietnam, India, Pakistan and Mexico, all faces of a changing Georgia.

“There are a lot of people here from Mexico like us,” said Hector Velazco, an information technology consultant, telling Ms. Palacios that he and his wife are awaiting naturalization so they can vote. “It’s not only workers to mow the grass.”

This is the new Georgia, a state whose transformed economy has spawned a population boom and demographic shifts that are slowly altering its politics. With African-Americans coming in large numbers from other states, and emerging immigrant communities like this one in Lawrenceville, Georgia is less white and less rural than it was a decade ago.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/19/us/politics/as-georgias-population-changes-its-politics-begin-to-follow.html?_r=1