He had carefully painted, using bright red capital letters, the names "FIDEL" and "RAUL" onto two squirming piglets. It's traditional in Cuba between Christmas and New Year's to release pigs to be kept by anyone who can catch them. But Danilo never got to release his pigs.

I challenge Iñárritu and every established Latino filmmaker to produce more films with complex Latina or Latino leads and supporting roles. Let's be the change we want to see, especially if you are in a high position to do so.

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We are much more important to each other than we realize: pivoting to North America can be the way to ensure that in a turbulent 21st century, our three countries are partners in success rather than accomplices in failure.

This novel is as stunning as it is truthful, a narrative shaped by history and love that honestly explores racism, abuse and a young woman's tenacity to fashion a life on her own terms. Pérez has contributed an important, meticulously crafted book to young adult literature.

By describing myself as a "first-time Latina filmmaker," was I buying into the notion of being good, but not that good? Was I conveying that somehow I fell short of the industry bar?

For the past decade, the Latino population in Iowa has been growing faster than the national rate, and has resulted in a larger Latino population within the Hawkeye State. As a result, the Latino community can impact an important caucus, provided they turn out and participate.

Clean is in the air. The wave of good news about clean energy fills us with optimism in the fight of our lives. Since the Paris Climate Agreement in December, the 21st Century's clean energy revolution is unstoppable.

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As a nation, we're nibbling around the edges with accountability measures and other reforms, but we're ignoring the immutable core issue: much of white and wealthy America is perfectly happy with segregated schools and inequity in funding.

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For most of my youngest years, my mom cleaned wealthy people's homes and offices so they didn't have to -- so they could focus on their own families and their own careers. Intelligent and talented women of color, like my mother, make up nearly one third of the nation's workforce, but when compared to white women, they are twice as likely to be employed in lower-wage sectors.

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A study found that the percentage of Hispanic actors onscreen increased from 6.6 percent before the merger to 7.3 percent afterward. That's good news, right? Well, even that mild improvement comes with a caveat. Basically, more shows were hiring more Hispanics to appear as servants and thugs. Yay for progress!

Now, when I stand in front of the lines at La Coubre terminal in Havana and observe the disaster that is rail transport in Cuba today, I ask myself if the era of the "sons of the railroad" will come to an end.

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We need a leader who won't endlessly parse their words and weigh their statements. We need a leader who is genuine, sincere, and with a record that tells us that our candidate will not only be consistent on immigration, but will also make it a priority after the election.

Schools are often rundown and unable to address the students' basic needs. Crumbling infrastructure leads to uncomfortable and unsanitary conditions for students and teachers. When these conditions are accompanied by a lack of basic school supplies, learning becomes virtually impossible.

The U.S. work to normalize relations with Cuba is still just beginning. The U.S. certainly cannot rest on its laurels, and the President indicated as much in his recent State of the Union address when he repeated his call to Congress to support the new policy with Cuba.

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Federal law has banned pay discrimination since 1963. But more than 50 years later, many in the American workplace -- because of their sex, race or ethnicity -- don't get equal pay for equal work.

The Zika virus has been in circulation in Africa for some time, but in the last two years it made a decisive crossing into South America. In any event, in this previously unexposed population it is producing a particularly horrifying havoc.

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Implementation has proceeded slowly, and both U.S. and Cuban officials have described the process as akin to peeling an onion arduously, layer after layer.