By SILVIO CANTO, JR. As my late father used to say, “la bola pica y se extiende,” or, loosely translated, “the ball hits the ground and keeps on rolling.” It’s actually an old Cuban baseball expression about a ball that lands between two outfielders and rolls to the wall. It’s used by Cubans when a situation just keeps on rolling
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By SILVIO CANTO, JR. As expected, when Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) met U.S. President Donald Trump for the first time on Wednesday, July 8, the show was very diplomatic and cordial. It usually is when heads of state visit the White House. My guess is that the “face-to-face” conversation was much more blunt and candid. In other
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By SILVIO CANTO, JR. As a kid growing up in Cuba, we were blessed in my family to have Uncle Joaquin, who was a fanatic about U.S. history, especially the Gettysburg Address. I don’t know of anyone else who could recite the speech in English and then translate it into Spanish. He was a very well-educated man who taught at
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By SILVIO CANTO, JR. During our early months in the United States, my parents were so impressed with just about everything in our new country, most of all, the new freedom and opportunity that America had given us. My father would always remind us of all of the benefits of being here. For example, he’d say someone with my big
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By SILVIO CANTO, JR. It started out as interesting, watching game #7 of the Pirates vs Orioles in the 1979 World Series. Or watching Reggie Jackson hit three home runs in game 6 of the 1977 World Series. Or crying once again when the Texas Rangers could not close the 2011 World Series with one strike to go in the 9th and
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By SILVIO CANTO, JR. As you have probably heard, Quaker Oats has decided that white liberals just couldn’t take all of that white privilege and systematic racism anymore on their pancakes. Consequently, after 1889 years of service, the company has relegated Poor Old Aunt Jemima – along with Uncle Ben — to the politically incorrect backwaters of commercial extinction. But
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By SILVIO CANTO, JR. Today, June 22, we remember Anne Morrow Lindbergh, who was born in New Jersey on this day in 1906. She died in 2001. In the late 1920s, Anne Morrow met Charles Lindbergh in Mexico City Her father, Dwight Morrow, was the U.S. ambassador to Mexico at the time. At the time, Anne was a college student
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By SILVIO CANTO, JR. For years, Mexicans living abroad have sent billions of U.S. dollars to their families back home. These remittances are a social safety net in rural small towns across Mexico, maintaining entire families who might otherwise have no income, and are an increasingly important source of foreign revenue for the country. According to a Fox News report, remittances
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By SILVIO CANTO, JR. During my time in Mexico, I learned about the huge number of U.S. and Canadian citizens who retire there, particularly in placed like San Miguel de Allende, in Guanajuato, and Chapala, in Jalisco. These expats constitute a vibrant community whose members support one another and have long had a positive influence in the country. A few
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By SILVIO CANTO, JR. Down in Mexico, the government is talking about reopening the economy. But not so fast in Cancun. According to Mexican news reports, Cancun just isn´t ready for its previously projected June 1 reopening. One English-language daily reported: “Quintana Roo Tourism Secretary Marisol Vanegas Pérez burst a few bubbles when she said that ‘it’s not true that
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