Esther J. Cepeda Media Archive

WTTW Chicago Tonight: "When She Chose Life" interview with Phil Ponce

Posted to WTTW Chicago 11's website on March 26th, 2012

 

"Esther Cepeda's syndicated column about a woman's right to choose was in response to Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum's comments about prenatal testing." 

 CLICK HERE TO VIEW-> http://chicagotonight.wttw.com/2012/03/26/when-she-chose-life

 

 

Esther J. Cepeda on FOX Business: "Obama Helps Secure Olympics"

On Monday morning, September 28, 2009 at 7:18 am CST - after much speculation that the President was going to travel to Copenhagen to support Chicago's 2016 Olympic bid, despite adamant protestations to the contrary - the White House announced President Obama would go.

I immediately tweeted out the headline, a video - filmed on a commuter train (see it here) - and I emailed copies to editors at the Chicago Sun-Times and Huffington Post/Chicago and posted a short story with the White House release and a short summary putting it all into context. 

At 3:40pm CST I was on FOX Business talking about what the bid would mean to Chicago.

60 second Cepeda video commentary on U.S. citizenship application backlog

This is an excerpt from a column titled “Pregunta del Dia” originally published in the Chicago Sun-Times November 29, 2007, pg 22

GET COMFY, ITS GONNA BE AWHILE

After raising fees 66 percent last summer to provide better customer service, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is reporting a major citizenship application backlog. People who applied -- about 2.5 million in July and August alone -- are just now getting acknowledgement their application arrived.

With the immigration debate scaring/motivating legal permanent residents to become citizens for peace of mind and voting rights, you'd think there would be a better response from the feds than "We were certainly surprised by such an immediate increase with such a volume." Give me a break!

I've already heard rumors this is a "vast right-wing conspiracy" to keep the supposedly powerful Hispanic vote from driving the 2008 presidential elections toward the left.

Nah, don't forget the recent U.S. passport debacle that stranded double-digit millions of U.S. citizens who faithfully ordered their passports 12 weeks before traveling but were punked out by the the State Department, which was completely unprepared for the country to do what they were told.

Don't take it personally, soon-to-be citizens, this is just the sort of garden-variety, color-blind, government incompetence the U.S.-born have come to expect. Welcome to America!

 

 

 

'Pregunta del dia - in support of English-only laws' - Chicago Sun-Times

Chicago Sun Times

November 29, 2007 Thursday
Final Edition

Pregunta del dia

BYLINE: Esther J. Cepeda, The Chicago Sun-Times

SECTION: NEWS; Esther J. Cepeda; Pg. 22

This question of the day has been asked several times by Cepeda non-fanaticos: "Why do you use that Spanish in your column?"

 

Pure, unadulterated ego. I want to be credited with making the Spanish phrase for "Question of the Day" as instantly understandable as "soup du jour'" or "Yo quiero Taco Bell."

 

Besides, the melting pot's broth becomes richer when different flavors are added, right? Of course, the added tasty morsels should never overpower the base stock, lest you unexpectedly end up with a Hungarian goulash, Japanese miso soup or a Mexican menudo rather than a silky American fondue.

 

Enter Nancy Pelosi and other well-meaning but mostly politically pandering Democrats. She has decided to block a vote next week on an appropriations bill that includes legislation that would protect employers from Equal Employment Opportunity Commission lawsuits when companies enforce "English-only" policies, basically making it impossible for any employer to require employees to speak English on the job.

 

It's an issue because earlier this year, the Salvation Army fired two Hispanic employees for speaking Spanish while sorting clothes, and the EEOC alleges it amounts to discrimination based on race or national origin.

 

The reason this latest immigration-ish tango really bothers people is because they're afraid the great American assimilation machine is grinding to a halt because the monkey wrench of political correctness is making it so no one can say, "If you work in the U.S., you must speak English at work whether you're with a customer or in the break room," without being labeled a racist or a bigot.

 

Obviously, if your job is to translate for non-English speakers in a hospital, that's a different story, but otherwise what is the big deal?

 

Y'know, a Pew Hispanic Center report showed that 90 percent of Hispanics in the United States believe they need to learn English to be successful. Their desire is not in question, but learning a new language gets harder and harder when you're not immersed in it.

 

Between Spanish language TV, newspapers, magazines, Internet sites and bilingual everything everywhere for the sake of consumerism, the assimilation machinery is getting creaky.

 

Some point out that Latin Americans are just the latest in a long line of ethnic immigrants who've come here and quickly become Americanized and fluent in English.

 

Sure, but how long is that going to last if people come here knowing they won't be expected to conduct business in the national language?

60 second Cepeda videocommentary on Abuelita Mexican hot chocolate

This is an excerpt from a column titled “Happy Bird Day; All American tradition takes on ethnic flavor” originally published in the Chicago Sun-Times November 22, 2007, pg 24

 

 

Archeologists at the University of California recently found Mexicans and Central Americans might have been sluggin' down chocolate beer -- a frothy brew of ground cacao seeds -- as early as 1100 B.C., 500 years earlier than the previously established birth of modern chocolate. Coincidentally, Consumer Reports' December issue ranked hot cocoa mixes, naming Cacao Reserve Mayan Blend one of the top.

Not. Even. Close.

For the real deal, grab the Abuelita at your local supermarket or in a Mexican grocery. Grandma's secret is cinnamon.

I usually put the thick pucks in a Ziploc bag and pulverize 'em with a hammer before adding to gently boiling whole milk, stirring constantly 'til you have chocolate velvet. In Mexico, it's served with churros: thin, deep-fried sugar-crusted tubes of pleasure, but I always balance my sweet cho-co-la-teh with small chunks of savory cheese melted right in the cup and toasted white bread. Hot heaven.

60 second Cepeda on 'Mexican Nationals' in Eisenhower Expressway crash

This is an excerpt from a column titled "Soldiering On" originally published in the Chicago Sun-Times November 8, 2007, pg 23

PREGUNTA DEL DIA

Here's one from a Cepeda not-so-fanatico whom I won't name, not that he'd be embarrassed, regarding victims of the Oct. 28 Eisenhower Expy. crash.

"4 'mexican nationals'.....Is that the new name for illegal aliens???" He topped that off with "...oh boo hoo, let's feel sorry for [the illegals]"

Oh, how I rue the days I draw dead Mexican duty because I happen to speak Spanish. I shake my head at hatred that knows no bounds as mail rolls in from the very worst side of the immigration debate -- that subset of people convinced that every last one of the United States' estimated 12 million illegal aliens are not only strictly Mexican but also, without exception, bloodthirsty murderers, rapists and drunken drivers.

The four crash victims were gorgeous, hardworking, English-speaking young people born in Mexico who worked and played in our city just like you and me, by all accounts, legally -- not that I checked a national database or anything.

At the time details were scarce because victims' families were scrambling to get to Chicago to ID their loved ones' charred-beyond-recognition bodies. And too grief stricken to answer stupid questions like "were they illegal?" from the media. Can't say I blame 'em.

I'll spare you the gleeful vitriol that came the day after Leticia Barrera -- four months pregnant and presumably illegal -- got shot outside her South Side apartment while trick-or-treating with her kids.

My answer: Questioning the cost/benefits of immigration and wanting existing laws enforced doesn't have to be synonymous with being heartless. Have a modicum of compassion. This isn't the kind of America we want to barricade the door and lock ourselves in with.

60 second Cepeda: video commentary on John Tanner and voting access

from a column titled "Keep DREAMing" originally published in the Chicago Sun-Times October 25, 2007 pg 22.

Text:

YOU WISH!

Here's one for the "We're screwed!" file: Last week, John Tanner, the chief of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, in a bungled attempt to diminish the threat to voting access that GOP-backed photo identification requirements might have on the elderly (many don't have driver's licenses) told the National Latino Congreso that minorities shouldn't sweat it.

"Creating problems for elderly persons is just not good under any circumstance," he said. "Of course that also ties into the racial aspect because our society is such that minorities don't become elderly the way white people do. They die first."

No dice, John-John. But don't take the word of the brain trust at the Esther J. Cepeda Rule of Thumb Public Policy Institute, a bipartisan think tank. According to the Alzheimer's Association, Latinos' life-span will increase to 87 by 2050, surpassing all other ethnic groups and increasing -- as a proportion of the total elderly U.S. population -- from 5 percent to 16 percent.

Set aside the better prenatal and lifelong health care, nutrition, environment and education U.S.-born Hispanics will enjoy, research shows even undereducated, poor immigrants who come here from rough circumstances will live longer.

For example, one study of life-expectancy forecasts from the University of Pennsylvania showed a 65-year-old female immigrant will live about 11 months longer than a U.S.-born white woman.

I chalk this most recent slight up to the same sort of not overtly mean-spirited ignorance that plagues some corners of the country.

Sorta like Bill O'Reilly being shocked that no scary black people accosted him while he was dining at a Harlem restaurant with the Rev. Al Sharpton. But coming from the guy who's supposed to be watching my back on civil rights, it's truly disturbing.

So, don't reserve the burial plots yet, Mr. T. Let me break it to you: We're here to stay, and some of us just can't wait till the next election.

 

 

'Adios and good riddance, Elvira Arellano; Felon with huge sense of entitlement mocked law, gave immigrants stigma' - Chicago Sun-Times

Chicago

Sun Times

August 21, 2007 Tuesday
Final Edition

Adios and good riddance, Elvira Arellano; Felon with huge sense of entitlement mocked law, gave immigrants stigma

BYLINE: Esther J. Cepeda, The Chicago Sun-Times

SECTION: NEWS; Esther J. Cepeda; Pg. 14

LENGTH: 573 words

The faceoff has ended. The lady in the church snuck out, made it as far as L.A., got nabbed by the feds and is finally back in Mexico.

Most people couldn't pronounce her name and didn't know she slipped into the country not once but a second time after border officials made it clear she was not to return. After being welcomed with open arms by whoever hires the cleaning ladies at O'Hare Airport, she was snagged in a post-9/11 raid and, a newly convicted felon, was ordered out of the country in 2004.

She refused to go, saying it was unfair for the government to separate her from her son Saul, who she said needed to be here to get treatment for "severe attention deficit disorder and severe separation anxiety."

Saul, who on the Fourth of July 2006, after a long day of handing out pro-immigrant fliers in the hot sun, cried openly asking his "mami" why he hadn't played in sprinklers and watched fireworks like other kids.

Saul, who despite his supposed medical disorders, was trotted out in front of every TV camera and microphone that appeared at the church's door, then flown all over North America with a handler du jour to plead his mom's case.

Saul, who in those first weeks of sanctuary was said to have been in contact with his unnamed father -- who didn't want to be smeared in the press -- and months later would tell me, coldly, "I don't have a father."

Saul, whom I watched spend a long, miserable year holed up in a tiny apartment watching Spanish-language TV while trying to avoid the parade of people who stopped by to visit. Saul who had no mom or dad to take him to school everyday.

Saul who had to again watch his mother get arrested because she refused to go willingly.

Then there's Elvira who, after being convicted of stealing someone's identity, was given a pass on jail time in exchange for her departure. She proceeded to thumb her nose at the laws of the country she so desperately wants her son to grow up in.

Her entitlement complex turned off people who might have had a modicum of sympathy for the plight of illegal immigrants. Added bonus? It fueled the hatred from those who already wanted to see them all rounded up and shipped off.

In the process she made life more difficult for legal immigrants and U.S.-born Hispanics who will continue to endure the wrath of a country that's disgusted that there seem to be one set of laws for "us," and a more lenient set for the 12 million "them" who toil here for next to nothing at the cordial invitation of businesses and bargain-shoppers everywhere.

Though she only learned a rudimentary amount of English while in sanctuary -- enough to deliver a brilliantly written speech I'd bet my life she didn't compose -- her message was crystal clear. Maybe not with her words, but with her actions Arellano did in fact say, "Catch me if you dare."

Now that Immigration and Customs Enforcement called her bluff I can be clear, too: Adios and good riddance.

Elvira wasn't "the face" of the 12 million illegal immigrants she claims to represent -- they've been out working every day, unsheltered by the fear of the publicity disaster a church raid would have rained on ICE.

Those 12 million aren't out flaunting their illegality in people's faces or getting free food, shelter, child care, toys and cash donations delivered to their door daily while they spend their time doing radio interviews and posting protest songs to their MySpace pages.

Game over, Elvira.

'What happens in the meat locker?! - El Chorizo, Brewers sausage racer interview' - Chicago Sun-Times

Chicago

Sun Times

August 16, 2007 Thursday
Final Edition

What happens in the meat locker?!

BYLINE: Esther J. Cepeda, The Chicago Sun-Times

SECTION: NEWS; Esther J. Cepeda; Pg. 22

The sausages don't talk. That's rule No. 1. But I have my ways.

"El Chorizo," the spicy Mexican sausage, made his debut in July 2006 at the Milwaukee Brewers' "Cerveceros" Day during the sausage races at

Miller

Park

in

Milwaukee

.

In his rookie year, he's now in third place, having won 13 races, proving that when it comes to runnin' with the big dogs, he can cut the mustard.

The wide-brimmed hat, the traditional neckerchief, and those hot legs have made him the most beloved Mexican sports figure in

Wisconsin

.

We linked up last week to cover the bases about life in the bigs.

On the big leagues:

Let's not forget that I had a year of seasoning in the minors. The fan response has been tremendous, and while the Hispanic community has been very supportive, my fans come from all corners, in record numbers this year. You think that's a coincidence?

On his fellow sausages:

Nobody likes the new guy coming into their house and getting comfortable, but all things considered, we warmed up to each other pretty quickly. We like to have our fun off the field, as all sausages do, but between the lines it's all business.

On pre-race prep:

For me it's out of the freezer and into the frying pan. You can't go with a new strategy every race. It's a simple fact that the meat that runs fastest wins. I try to stay cool before the race, and I have a TV in the clubhouse that's usually tuned to the Food Network until about the fourth inning. After that, it's time for a quick stretch and then a sprint to the finish.

On the multinational/multilingual sausage locker room:

We speak as one meat, in a language that all links understand. As for the locker-room scene, what happens in the meat locker stays in the meat locker.

On keeping those sexy legs in shape:

You have to get your rest or the legs will get a little raw. Every other day, though, I'll take a run from

Miller

Park

back through the old neighborhood to catch up with the old boys. Maybe a nostalgic run around the Klement's sausage factory to get back to my roots, then a quick simmer in a pot of beer to condition the casing.

'Cepeda Vs. Cicada; Fed up with the bugs, Sun-Times columnist decides she has the stomach to take one on' - Chicago Sun-Times

Chicago Sun Times (IL)

Copyright 2007 ProQuest Information and Learning Company; All Rights Reserved.

May 22, 2007

Section: News

Cepeda Vs. Cicada; Fed up with the bugs, Sun-Times reporter decides she has the stomach to take one on

Esther J. Cepeda; The Chicago Sun-Times

I pencilled it in for the afternoon -- a hot lunch date: Ms. Cepeda and Mr. Cicada.

I jumped at the chance to eat one of these pesky insects that every 17 years squirm out of their crunchy exoskeletons, wet and sticky, to burden us with their multi-membranous mating calls just to get busy.

Our rhyming, ultra-alliterative names and the attendant silly Cicada-Cepeda refrains they elicit left a bad taste in my mouth last time around so I thought a little payback was in order.

Besides, people in Mexico eat insects all the time; they'll chow grasshoppers, scorpions -- they're high in protein, just ask Rick Bayless about it. So cicadas? Not kosher, but still no biggie.

I could have followed any one of the many recipes to be found on the Internet: cicada pizza, cicadas sauteed in garlic and butter, cicada tacos, cicada gumbo, cicada cookies, cicada bread.

All cicada-licious, but in the spirit of organic freshness, I thought I'd go au naturel.

Before it met my molars, the cicada -- freshly plucked from its home in south suburban Flossmoor, then generously donated by a co- worker -- sat on my desk, humping a lone green leaf and loudly flapping its strong wings mere inches away from its discarded exoskeleton, not a care in the world.

Its brethren are already poking out in River Forest, La Grange, Brookfield and Palos Heights, building up to the big buzz they generate three to five days after they emerge.

To get the full effects of what an unsuspecting person might experience in their yard I spent some quality time letting it tread its sticky, hairy legs on my crawling flesh. It flapped in my hair, eliciting a reflexive swat that almost prematurely did it in.

It struggled valiantly and strongly in my fingers -- antennae flailing, big red beady eyes bright -- before the big gulp.

Once in my mouth it only got off a few hairy-legged kicks before one decisive crunch did it in. Bye-bye!

Papery and bland, it was not gooey-sour and far less crunchy than I'd imaged. Hardly worth the sensation of feeling it slide -- quasi- flapping -- down my esophagus followed by a chaser of Diet Coke.

Next time I think I'll try the garlic and butter.