How I know people are struggling right now is the line to the food pantry at Episcopal Church The Redeemer near where I live in Shelby, N.C., has grown longer and longer with each passing week.
When I was teaching from 2011 to 2017, social studies was my favorite subject—not just for the maps and timelines, but for what they revealed about how power moves. The classes explained who makes decisions, who carries their cost, and how geography and governance collide.
What I’ve realized is that pride in being Latina is also pride in survival. We come from people who endured colonization, displacement, migration, and discrimination. And through it all, they carried their recipes, songs, and stories across generations. They built homes in unfamiliar lands, worked long hours, and sacrificed so much just so we could dream bigger. Their resilience flows in our veins, and it’s something no one can ever take away from us.
Unfortunately, this holiday season is different. Our business has been impacted by the reckless tariffs from Washington, DC. The tariffs are driving up prices of our goods 20 to 50 percent, and some vendors have used the tariffs to further raise the price of goods and even shipping. Some of our customers’ favorite brands have stopped shipping to the United States entirely. And unlike corporate retailers, we don’t have any negotiating power.
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas – at least on our TVs. As you wind down for the year, gather with your loved ones, and curl up on the couch – check out these holiday movies, filmed or set in various locations throughout North Carolina.
ICE no respondió de inmediato a una solicitud de comentario. A comienzos de esta semana, la subsecretaria asistente de Seguridad Nacional, Tricia McLaughlin, dijo en un comunicado que no podía confirmar actividades de ICE. “Todos los días, DHS hace cumplir las leyes del país en todos los Estados Unidos. No discutimos operaciones futuras o potenciales”.
En medio de una intensificación de los operativos federales de inmigración bajo la administración, ha surgido una preocupación: ciudadanos estadounidenses y residentes legales, en su mayoría latinos, están siendo detenidos, interrogados y en algunos casos arrestados por agentes migratorios, pese a tener plena documentación que acredita su estatus. Reportes recientes en el área de Chicago ofrecen un retrato inquietante de cómo estas redadas han traspasado los límites del control migratorio tradicional.
“My office is intervening to make sure we find the right balance between investing in our energy infrastructure and protecting North Carolinians’ wallets,” AG Jackson said in a statement released earlier this month.
With food pantries, toy drives, and other community outreach programs in full swing, there are a number of ways to help out and spread holiday cheer to some of the most vulnerable people across the state.
North Carolina Democratic Governor Josh Stein has announced that he, along with the North Carolina Department of Commerce and the Economic Development Partnership, has brought over 33,000 new jobs to North Carolina this year.