This week our Navigators will be providing enrollment services in different locations throughout Chicago. We have partnered with Rincon Family Services to provide enrollment in their location. You will also find our Navigators at El Valor Cantu Center, Wilbur Wright College, Irving Park Community Pantry, Cicero Public Library, CVS Pharmacy (on Albany Park), Central States SER, and Blue 1647.

Please join us this Saturday, February 22nd at Mozart Park (2036 N Avers Ave.) of the Chicago Park District to get covered and enroll in the Affordable Care Act.

Visit us to enroll! Health insurance is a human right and it is the law!

ACA has recently partnered up with Rincon Family Services and is offering on site enrollment all of this week.  From 8am to 12pm, PRCC will be having navigators offering education and enrollment services.  The first founder of Rincon Family Services was Oscar López Rivera with the help of his brother Jose Lopez so this is a very exciting partnership for PRCC.   ACA has also been working with the Chicago Public Libraries in offering education and enrollment Services as well.  We recently also partnered up with Mozart Park District in the neighborhood of Hermosa where PRCC will have navigators offering enrollment services.

Along with Rincon Family Services, PRCC is also partnering up with our local state representative office's, which include 3rd District State Representative Luis Arroyo, 4th District State Representative Cynthia Soto and 39th District State Representative Maria Antonia "Toni" Berrios.  The constituents of each of these wards will be able to visit their respected offices to discuss and enroll in health coverage. 

Posted: February 15, 2014 - 12:01 am ET

When Billy Ocasio learned that Norwegian American, the hospital where he was born, was in danger of shutting its doors, he knew right away he needed to get involved. As a native of Humboldt Park, a largely Puerto Rican community on Chicago's northwest side where Norwegian is located, Ocasio says the hospital has always played a critical role in the working-class community. The loss would have been tremendous.

"There are so many families that cannot afford medical care, supplies or food," he said. "For a community like this, where you have a lot of people uninsured or underinsured, the hospital means a lot." 

After serving 16 years as a city council member representing the Humboldt Park area, in 2009 Ocasio joined the board of Norwegian, a 200-bed, acute care facility originally established in the late 1800s. He was named to the selection committee to search for a new CEO and knew he wanted someone with the skills and experience to pull the hospital out of dire straits who also connected with the community.

Ocasio's committee selected Jose Sanchez, who at the time was the senior vice president of Generations+/Northern Manhattan Health Network in New York City. "One of the first questions (Ocasio) asked me was about my involvement in New York with the Puerto Rican and Latino communities," recalls Sanchez, who accepted the position as president and CEO in 2010, moving to Chicago from the Bronx. "Mr. Ocasio wanted to make sure the person elected would bridge the gap between the hospital and the community." Last year, Ocasio was elected to serve as chairman of the board of trustees for Norwegian.

Sanchez says he has continued to be impressed by Ocasio's relentless and proactive efforts to create opportunities to bridge the gap between residents and the hospital, and to engage the community in battling health disparities.

For his accomplishments, Ocasio, 52, is Modern Healthcare's 2014 Trustee of the Year for large hospitals, those with 100 or more beds.

One of Ocasio's most noteworthy efforts is his role in Hope Fest, considered to be the largest back-to-school event in Chicago. Started in 2006 by New Life Covenant Church, the end-of-summer festival provides free resources, including school uniforms, notebooks, groceries and haircuts, to ensure children start the school year with everything they need. The church had been holding the event in Humboldt Park. But in 2012 Ocasio saw an opportunity for Norwegian American to get involved. He worked with the hospital and the Rev. Wilfredo DeJesus, pastor of New Life Covenant, to move the event from the park to the hospital grounds. The festival, which already included free medical screenings, dental care and health education, added volunteer aid from the hospital's physicians, nurses and emergency services staff.

Register to read the rest of the article at Modern Healthcare.

In celebration of Lincoln's birthday and Presidents' Day, the senior class at Roberto Clemente High School participated in "Civics Day" on Thursday, February 13th.  The goal of this day is to remedy disturbing trends in the civic engagement of American teens.  Nationwide data suggests a general decline in students' civic skills and knowledge over the last several decades. Perhaps even more disturbing is the widening "civic empowerment gap" that has emerged between wealthy school districts and their minority and/or economically disadvantaged counterparts. This Thursday, the senior class at Roberto Clemente took measures to correct that imbalance.

The senior class participated in different Civics Activities that followed an engaging sequence, beginning with the foundations of democracy and the tensions inherent in it; social organization; election of leaders; the creation, execution and review of laws; and ending with how groups organize to challenge structures and laws when necessary. This learning trajectory brings us full circle to re-consider our core identity, values, and strategies to organize ourselves. It was a great day for the senior class at Roberto Clemente and helped build a better understanding of civic duty and pride.

Jan Susler

Como abogada de Oscar López Rivera siempre estoy agradecida que la campaña por su excarcelación siga creciendo y expandiéndose luego que él ha cumplido más de 32 años en prisión. El profesor Edgardo Rodríguez Juliá recientemente se unió a esta lista, la cual sigue creciendo, en una columna de opinión publicada en El Nuevo Día el 9 de febrero. Cabe destacar que la misma requiere de unos puntos de clarificación. 

Para mantener a Oscar tras las rejas, el FBI ha llevado una campaña de desinformación enfocada en el bombazo de 1975 en el Fraunces Tavern en Nueva York, con la idea principal de la "culpabilidad por asociación". En este caso, la "culpabilidad por asociación" manejada por el FBI funciona de la siguiente manera: las FALN (la letra F es de Fuerzas, no de "Frente") asumieron responsabilidad por el bombazo en Nueva York en 1975; en el 1981, Oscar fue convicto en Chicago por conspiración sediciosa al pertenecer a las FALN; por tanto, a pesar de que Oscar nunca fue acusado ni convicto de participar en el bombazo, él debe ser culpable. Esta es la desinformación que usó el FBI para lograr que le denegaran la libertad bajo palabra en el 2011. 

La verdad sobre este caso es que Oscar nunca fue acusado y nunca fue convicto por hacerle daño o matar a nadie... no en el bombazo de 1975, ni nunca; no en Nueva York, o en ningún sitio. Tal como el presidente Clinton destacó en el 1999 sobre Oscar y sus compañeros prisioneros políticos: "Nuestra sociedad cree... que el castigo proporcional es la forma adecuada de responder a un delito. Cualquiera que haya sido la conducta de otros miembros de las FALN, estos peticionarios -aunque convictos por delitos serios- no fueron convictos por delitos que involucraban asesinatos o mutilación de cualquier persona".

El cargo de conspiración sediciosa -conspirar para usar la fuerza en contra de la autoridad de Estados Unidos sobre Puerto Rico- es una herramienta que ha sido utilizada históricamente por el gobierno estadounidense desde la década de los 30 para criminalizar selectivamente a independentistas. Este cargo se presta para acaparar una zona amplia, ya que se necesitan pocas pruebas y crea una base para sentencias largas y políticamente punitivas, además de condiciones inhumanas y crueles en la prisión, tal como Oscar las ha sufrido por más de 32 años.

De esta forma, el Comité de Descolonización de las Naciones Unidas, iglesias de diferentes denominaciones, el Colegio de Abogados, laureados de Premios Nobel por la Paz, funcionarios electos, sindicatos y miles de personas más, reconocen que el encarcelamiento de Oscar es un asunto sobre derechos humanos. 

Jan Susler
Illinois, EE.UU

Con un llamado para liberar al preso político Oscar López Rivera, los cantautores Tito Auger y Walter Morciglio agradecieron el reconocimiento que la Fundación Nacional para la Cultura Popular hizo hoy con el fin de destacar "La lucha es vida toda" como el álbum independiente más sobresaliente del 2013 en Puerto Rico.

El disco, que es un tributo a Oscar López Rivera, coronó la lista de las veinte producciones discográficas más destacadas del año pasado como parte de unos premios que la organización entrega en la Isla desde el 1997.

Dentro de la sede de la fundación en el Viejo San Juan, Clarisa López Ramos, hija de Oscar, no pudo contener las lágrimas, pero tuvo las fuerzas para alzar la voz por su padre.

"Mi papá tuvo el privilegio de escuchar el cd el año pasado. Para mi papá (fueron) muchas emociones mixtas. Era mucho sentimiento, mucho amor, mucho respeto, mucho agradecimiento. Porque por una hora lo transportaron hacia la tierra que lo vio nacer y es la misma tierra que lo va a recibir en algún momento. Podemos seguir diciéndole a las personas que hay un preso político puertorriqueño que el 29 de mayo de este año cumple 33 años en cárcel de Estados Unidos. Aunque su fecha de excarcelación es el 2023 ,ya es tiempo de que regrese a  casa con nosotros", dijo.

Como productores y cantantes del álbum, Tito Auger y Walter Morciglio volvieron a solicitar públicamente la excarcelación de Oscar.

"Esto es un trabajo para nosotros que significa más allá de la música. Hicimos esto con el propósito de ver si este pueblo nos apoya en esta misión que tenemos de excarcelar a este gran patriota puertorriqueño", sostuvo Auger.