Institute of Puerto Rican Arts & Culture's 4th Annual Navi-Jazz a Success!
On Friday, December 7th over 450 people packed the auditorium at Roberto Clemente High School for the Institute of Puerto Rican Arts & Culture's 4th Annual Navi-Jazz, featuring the Grammy award-winning Latin Jazz bassist, John Benitez. Their electrifying performance mesmerized the crowd and closed with a standing ovation. The highlight of the performance was a piece composed by John Benitez's son, Francis Benitez (the group's drummer) dedicated to the freedom of Oscar Lopez-Rivera, a Puerto Rican political prisoner who has served 31 years in jail. For more information about the Institute of Puerto Rican Arts & Culture, please visit our website at www.iprac.org
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Humboldt Park
No Se Vende
Apartment Listings
2733 W. Division
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Maplewood and Division
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Crystal and Kedzie
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Rockwell and Cortez
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Boricua, Return
to El Barrio
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AVELINO GONZALEZ CLAUDIO RETURNS TO PUERTO RICO
Avelino González Claudio was greeted by dozens of supporters Thursday as he arrived home to finish serving a prison sentence.
Avelino eluded the FBI for more than two decades before he was arrested in Puerto Rico in 2008 for involvement in a $7 million robbery of a Wells Fargo & Co. armored truck depot in Connecticut in 1983. At the time, It was the biggest cash robbery in U.S. history.
Gonzalez was sentenced in 2010 to seven years in prison, and spent most of the past two years at a federal prison in Ashland, Kentucky. Prison spokesman Brian Sparks said in a phone interview that Gonzalez was cleared for placement in a residential re-entry center in Puerto Rico to help integrate him back into society.
Gonzalez will be freed Feb. 5, Sparks said.
As Gonzalez emerged from the main international airport in San Juan, supporters applauded and shouted, "Homeland or Death!" and "Free Puerto Rico!" while furiously waving the island's red, white and blue flag.
Despite the raucous welcome, the independence movement has dwindled in recent years, with mostly college students and aging activists embracing a cause that once dominated the Caribbean island's political scene. [sic]
Gonzalez, who is nearly 70, hugged a few supporters but did not speak to anyone as ordered by authorities. Family members took him to the re-entry center in the San Juan area.
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Send a Message of Love and Support to Oscar for the Holiday Season
 Imprisoned since 1981, Oscar López Rivera is the longest-held political prisoner in the history of Puerto Rico and Latin America, and among the longest-held political prisoners in the US. He is a caring community organizer; a creative, self-taught artist; a voracious reader; a brilliant thinker. More importantly, he is a father and grandfather who has watched while his daughter and granddaughter grew up from behind bars. On Three Kings Day, 2013, the Twelfth Day of Christmas, he will turn 70. His release from prison is supported by numerous world leaders, as well as religious and political leaders from across the theological and political spectrum in Puerto Rico, and the Puerto Rican people as a whole.
In this holy season of love and reconciliation, we ask all who love justice and freedom to write to Oscar. It is past time to bring Oscar home.
Oscar López Rivera #87651-024 FCI Terre Haute PO Box 33 Terre Haute, IN 47808
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Our Websites:
View our Photos on Flickr!
(Over 13,000 pics!)
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Guided tours of IPRAC and the surrounding Paseo Boricua community will be available at IPRAC with Eduardo Arocho serving as a docent. If you're interested in arranging a tour for your organization, school or church, please contact IPRAC at 773-486-8345.
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Puerto Rican Cultural Center 2739-41 W. Division St Chicago, Illinois 60622 P 773-342-8023 F 773-342-6609
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PANCAKE- WAFFLE
Breakfast
- Sun Dec. 16, 2012 - Pancake/Waffle Breakfast to benefit Puerto Rican political prisoner commissary. Casa Puertorriqueña, 1237 N. California Ave., from 9:00am-12:00pm.
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Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos Puerto Rican High School Student Testifies at "Homegrown Solutions" Conference
 José Cruz, a junior at Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos Puerto Rican High School, testified before an audience of over 400 and Matt Rodríguez, the principal of the same, spoke as part of a "What is working" panel at the "Homegrown Solutions" held Monday, December 10 at the Union League Club in downtown Chicago. View the video here.
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The employment and earnings prospects of high school dropouts continues to decline as The Great Recession has eased, leaving the poorly educated young adults of the 2010s considerably worse off in the city of Chicago, its metropolitan region, and Illinois as a whole, according to a new report commissioned by the Alternative Schools Network and prepared by the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University, Boston, Mass.
The report found that Latino dropouts have seen their economic potential wane even more quickly than any other demographic -- male Latinos in particular have seen joblessness rise and wages fall in the city, region and state -- even as that ethnicity's power in the voting booth continues to rise.
"The crucial need for a high school diploma in achieving stable and even moderately paying employment over a lifetime continues to grow with each passing decade -- and yet our fastest-growing demographic groups continue to lag behind in achieving that goal," said Andrew Sum, Director of the Center for Labor Market Studies, who prepared the report with Ishwar Khatiwada. "Policy-makers at all levels must find the wherewithal to invest in these youth before they go over the educational cliff."
The report High School Dropouts in Chicago and Illinois and Their Persistent Labor Market Problems was released today at the Home Grown Solutions: Policies and Programs to Re-Enroll Out of School Youth policy convening with more than 300 policy leaders and re-enrolled youth. Illinois State Senate President John Cullerton, Illinois General Assembly Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie and Chicago Board of Education members Jesse Ruiz and Andrea Zopp spoke at the policy forum at The Union League Club of Chicago with other policy leaders.
Convening co-sponsors included the Chicago Urban League, Youth Connection Charter School, the Alternative Schools Network, WTTW 11 Chicago, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Illinois Network of Charter Schools and the Illinois State Council on Re-Enrolling Students Who Dropped out of School.
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La Canasta Básica in Humboldt Park!
PRCC Underscores Importance of
Healthy Eating
 The Healthy Bodegas program will start a new project designed to provide community residents with improved access to fruits and vegetables. Through the project, named La Canasta Básica, participants will receive 12 pounds of fresh, affordable produce on a weekly basis for $10. Among the produce to be included in La Canasta are bananas, oranges, apples, tomatoes, lettuce, onions, zucchini, green peppers, and carrots. La Canasta Básica will start on January 2nd. Start the New Year in a nutritious frame of mind. To sign up or for pricing or delivery information, please contact Abel Fernández at 773-450-2055 or
abelf@prcc-chgo.org to sign up.
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PRCC Board President Wins Dean's Award
Dr. Margaret Power, President of the Puerto Rican Cultural Center Board of Directors, won the College of Letters and Science Award Dean's Award for Excellence in Teaching at the Illinois Institute of Technology. The annual prize is awarded based on student evaluations and letters.
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INTERNATIONAL AND PUERTO RICAN LEADERS MEET IN SUMMIT ON HUMAN RIGHTS IN SAN JUAN
United for the freedom
of Oscar López Rivera
Click here to view video.
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Family Learning Center Holiday Happiness for Young Families Campaign
MESSAGE FROM FLC DIRECTOR DANETTE SOKACICH: The holidays are quickly approaching. This campaign has been more successful than I had imagined.  However, I want to call you to rise to the challenge to help us meet our goal. If you can donate and share with friends and family our message, we would be greatly appreciate it. Please take a moment to hear how Jessamir and her daughter benefit from our program. If every visitor donates $5, we will reach our goal by Friday, December 14 - the last day of the campaign. Click here to view video.
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English language "Oscar Lopez Rivera: Between Torture and Resistance" Available Soon on Barnes and Noble
 The life story of Puerto Rican freedom fighter and leader Oscar López Rivera, outlined in this book, is one of courage, valor, and sacrifice. In 1981, Oscar was convicted of seditious conspiracy and other crimes for which he is still imprisoned, making him the longest-held political prisoner in the world. This is the story of his fight for the political independence of Puerto Rico based on letters between him and the renowned lawyer, sociologist, educator, and activist Luis Nieves Falcón. Also included is Oscar's art, including photography and paintings created in his many years behind bars. Readers will explore his early life as a Latino child growing up in the small towns of Puerto Rico, following him as an adolescent as he and his family ... Purchase the book here.
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