Play Ball
It took a surprising reversal in the form of a personal agreement from President Bush, but the Cuban baseball team will play in the World Baseball Classic this month. The U.S. Treasury Department initially blocked the team’s participation. After it was established that no money would go to the Castro regime as a result of the event, and limiting the Cuban entourage to 30 players and 15 coaches, Bush—a baseball fan and former partowner of the Texas Rangers—allowed the Cubans to play. The Classic is the first professional international baseball tournament. Sixteen nations will field teams with the championship game to be played March 20 in San Diego. The last time the Cuban team played in the U.S. was in 1999 when they beat the Baltimore Orioles in an exhibition game.

Mapping Change
After planning to distribute 70,000 area maps to Mexican migrants intending to illegally cross the U.S. border, a governmental group has changed its mind about doing so. The Mexican Human Rights Commission pulled the plug on the plan after border state human rights workers voiced concern that the maps would tip off anti-immigrant groups as to where to find the interloping migrants. The maps were to show highways, rescue beacons and water tanks in the Arizona desert and would have guided travelers to the aid signals and cellphone reception.

Mapping Change
According to a new federal report, 45 percent of all births in Puerto Rico are done by caesarean section, a figure that places it among the highest in the world. Meanwhile, Puerto Rican women in the U.S. have a C-section rate of only 26 percent, a difference of almost 20 percent. More studies will be needed to pinpoint the cause of the significant disparity.

“To me, it’s about signing the best players possible. … I don’t think about the player’s race, his color, his religion, his sexual orientation. I don’t get into that stuff.”

New York Mets General Manager Omar Minaya—the first Hispanic general manager in Major League Baseball— upon being accused of preferring to hire Latin baseball players.
WFAN Sports Radio, New York City

“Minorities have been coming into the profession more and more, but have not been as involved. … There has been much progress, but it needs to be continued.”

Florida Bar President-elect Frank Angones on the state of Hispanics in law.
Broward Daily Business Review, Ft. Lauderdale

“[In Cuba] there is democracy. …For me, [Fidel Castro] is a democratic man who defends life, who thinks about human beings. If you think he’s a dictator, that is your problem, not mine.”

Evo Morales, president-elect of Bolivia, discussing the Castro regime with Univision anchor Jorge Ramos. Six minutes and 40 seconds into the interview, Morales got up and ended the interview.

“The notion that one test can work for thousands … of students … tells me how clueless some adults are about the needs of students.”

Andy Peterson, a 12th-grade student from Austin who states that he is fed up with President Bush’s No Child Left Behind education initiative.
San Antonio Express-News

“To those who wanted to be here, we respect your protest. To those who didn’t want to be here, we’re sorry for the inconvenience.”

Electronic billboard message displayed at the U.S. Interests Section in Havana responding to the Cuban government’s anti-U.S. “March of the People” on January 24 of this year.

Guy and Dolls Gregg Ortiz, a Puerto Rican-American of Orange County, Florida, has taken dollmaking into the realm of fine art. His creations sell for up to $15,000 and often attract celebrity buyers. The “dolls” are actually closer to sculptures than to playthings. His works have attained international acclaim and were featured at this year’s International Doll Expo (IDEX) in Orlando, Florida.

Brain Trust
Jessica Carballo, 18, of Miami’s Archbishop McCarthy High School, won the National Hispanic Scholar Award after receiving one of the highest SAT scores in the country for a 12th grader, answering 99 percent of questions correctly. The Nuyorican Carballo, who moved to Florida in 1990, wishes to pursue a career in journalism and has already written news reports about her high school for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel daily newspaper. She has also received scholarship offers from several universities throughout the U.S.

Bootleg Cola

While Mexican-made Coca-Cola, smuggled into and sold in the U.S., has some soda connoisseurs salivating, it has also left Coke execs frothing at the mouth. The Mexican variety of the soft drink, made with cane sugar instead of highfructose corn syrup, is tastier, say aficionados who acquired the taste south of the border. While corporate protocol forbids the selling of the Mexican variety outside of that nation, many grocery stores throughout the U.S., in order to lure Hispanic customers, stock up through underground suppliers. And their efforts have paid off. The bootlegging costs authorized bottlers in the U.S. millions annually.

Cuba Online
On-line publication Cuban Affairs Journal (www.cubanaffairsjournal.org), published by the University of Miami’s Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies (ICCAS), was recently launched. The electronic journal, available for a $25 annual subscription, targets academics and serious students of the island. It will publish book reviews, articles and other specialized information about Cuba.