The 2008 financial crisis is long over, but its damaging effect on Hispanic families lingers in a pair of grim statistics: More Latinos are choosing to rent than to buy a home, and Hispanic homeownership rates are still in decline even nine years later. Homeownership, an important measure of wealth and middle-class status, has decreased 5 percent among Hispanics since its peak in 2007, according to a recent Pew Research study. In 2007, 49.7 percent of Latino households owned their homes, compared with 47 percent today.
On Tuesday, Adriano Espaillat made history when he was sworn in as the first Dominican American and first formerly undocumented immigrant in Congress. “It was always my aspiration to come to the U.S. Congress,” Espaillat told NBC Latino in a Facebook video posted Wednesday. The video shares a bit of the congressman’s background from his childhood in the Dominican Republic to the nation’s social climate (Civil Rights Movement, Vietnam War) when he arrived at nine years old.
On Tuesday, Adriano Espaillat made history when he was sworn in as the first Dominican American and first formerly undocumented immigrant in Congress. “It was always my aspiration to come to the U.S. Congress,” Espaillat told NBC Latino in a Facebook video posted Wednesday. The video shares a bit of the congressman’s background from his childhood in the Dominican Republic to the nation’s social climate (Civil Rights Movement, Vietnam War) when he arrived at nine years old.
Heard on Weekend Edition Sunday
Adriano Espaillat, the first Dominican American congressman, hopes his background as a formerly undocumented immigrant will help find him common ground with his colleagues on immigration policy.
WASHINGTON - Adriano Espaillat is about to make history, in more than one way. When Espaillat is sworn into Congress on Tuesday he'll become the first Dominican-American — and first formerly undocumented immigrant — sworn into Congress.
WASHINGTON - The new Congress opened Tuesday with the first Dominican American in Congress, the first Latina to serve in the U.S. Senate and the first Florida member of Puerto Rican descent in the House.
Representing New York’s 13th Congressional District, Adriano Espaillat fortified his victory as the first-ever Dominican-American elected into Congress on Tuesday (Jan. 3).