1 big thing: Latino workers rise up

2. Square goes Spanish

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3. Visionaria:  Sylvia Mendez

Sylvia Mendez speaks with a microphone after being honored at an event in Colorado

4. Gen Z's dreams of homeownership

5. Stories we're watching

Colombian President Gustavo Petro stands with shadows behind him

6. 🪅 Pachanga: David Plazas 

We made it almost to the end of the week. How's everyone doing? 

Have you recently accomplished a major milestone that you'd want featured in this newsletter? Reply to this email with a photo and details. 

Puede leer la versión en español aquí.

🚨Join Axios’ Russell Contreras and Jay Jordan in Houston, Texas, at 8am CT Tuesday as we celebrate the launch of the Axios Houston newsletter with an event focused on sustainability efforts and eco-friendly initiatives in the city. Register here to attend in person or virtually. 

This newsletter, edited by Astrid Galván and Laurin-Whitney Gottbrath, is 1,439 words, a 5.5-minute read.

Thank you for reading! And a big thanks to Carlos Cunha for copy editing today's newsletter. 

National

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Keep tabs on the stories that most affect the U.S. Latino community on both sides of the border, a collaboration with Noticias Telemundo. Weekly - Thursdays

Axios Latino

1 big thing: Along the way we lost the accents

Illustration of a letter n with a missing virgulilla (tilde) mark indicated by a dotted line. 

2. Why tech is barely catching up 

3. Reclaiming culture through accent marks 

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4. In your own words: Reader responses 

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5. Stories we're watching 

📢 A couple of weeks ago, we asked whether you use accent marks in your surnames and your reasons for doing so or not. Your responses blew our minds! 

Today's newsletter is devoted entirely to this topic. Check below to see if your response was published!

🚨Axios and Noticias Telemundo invite you to join us virtually for the inaugural Axios Latino Visionarios event on Thursday, Sept. 29 at 6pm ET, featuring interviews with White House senior adviser Julie Chavez Rodriguez, U.S. Rep. María Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.), U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), and Siete Family Foods co-founder and CEO Miguel Garza. Register here.

This newsletter, edited by Astrid Galván and Laurin-Whitney Gottbrath, is 1,204 words, a 4.5-minute read.

Thanks for reading! Thanks to Patricia Guadalupe for copy-editing this newsletter. 

1 big thing: Latino output eclipses U.K. and India GDPs

2. Interview: Rigoberta Menchú Tum

3. Most Latino workers don't feel fully included

A disappearing briefcase held by one hand 

Space satellites monitor pollution daily to find impact to US cities

4. How pollution hurts neighborhoods

An airplane flies above an orange-yellow Los Angeles skyline. The smog nearly obscures the city skyline. 

NASA astronaut Frank Rubio waves to a crowd before boarding a spacecraft

6. 🪅 Pachanga: Helen Torres 

💌 You are invited to join us virtually for the inaugural Axios Latino Visionarios event Sept. 29 at 6pm ET. 

The event will feature interviews with top newsmakers like White House senior adviser Julie Chávez Rodríguez, Rep. María Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.) and Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.)

Request an invitation to join us in-person here. 

This newsletter, edited by Astrid Galván, is 1,340 words, a 5-minute read.

Thanks for reading and thanks to Laurin-Whitney Gottbrath for helping edit and Carlos Cunha for his copy edits. 

1 big thing: Grim outlook for Puerto Rico

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2. Budding wealth threatened

an illustration of giant hands holding wads of cash

Duolingo founder on his Guatemala roots and recipe for success

3. Visionario: Duolingo's Luis Von Ahn 

Photo collage of Duolingo founder, Luis Von Ahn, with abstract shapes.

4. Where are the Latinos on-screen? 

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6. Smile to go: Back in Tenochtitlán 

It's Visionarios week! Make sure you register and tune in here on Thursday at 6pm ET for our inaugural event!

It'll feature interviews with White House senior adviser Julie Chávez Rodríguez, U.S. Rep. María Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.), U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), and Siete Family Foods co-founder and CEO Miguel Garza.

This newsletter, edited by Astrid Galván and Laurin-Whitney Gottbrath, is 1,585 words, a 6-minute read.

Thanks for joining us! And thanks to Carlos Cunha for the copy edits. Don't forget to send us your pachanga entries by replying to this email. 

1 big thing: Childhood poverty gains threatened 

2. Puerto Rico's new hurricane ordeal

A man in a hoodie cleans floodwater in Puerto Rico 

3. Mexico's tremors sow trauma 

A couple embraces after an earthquake that struck Mexico City 

4. Ecuador's U.S.-China straddle

Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso sits on a wooden engraved chair, with a microphone in front of him

Chilean president Gabriel Boric speaks at a podium at the UN General Assembly 

6.🧵Smile to go: Sew to grow

Hi! Are you following the UN General Assembly? We have a little bit about the speeches from Latin American leaders so far. 

This newsletter, edited by Astrid Galván and Laurin-Whitney Gottbrath, is 1,385 words, a 5-minute read.

See ya Thursday! Don't forget to send us your 🪅Pachanga submissions by replying to this email. And thanks to Carlos Cunha for the copy edits!

Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Indigenous rights activist Rigoberta Menchú Tum says she sees signs of hope in her native Guatemala despite the government’s intensifying crackdown on journalists and anti-corruption prosecutors.

State of play: President Alejandro Giammattei's government over the past couple of years has charged or jailed nearly two dozen prosecutors working on anti-corruption cases and journalists whose coverage exposed government wrongdoing, according to local media reports. 

The government has also targeted judges, several of whom have gone into exile, mostly in the U.S.

The U.S. government in July added Attorney General Consuelo Porras to a State Department list of "corrupt and undemocratic actors.”

What she’s saying:  In an interview with Axios conducted after she spoke at a summit on digital innovation in Mexico City last week, Menchú Tum said she is optimistic despite the crackdown.

Menchú Tum cited the legal victory for a group of Mayan women sexually assaulted by members of a paramilitary group during the civil war as one reason to be encouraged. The men were each convicted and sentenced to 30 years in prison this year. 

The women’s determination to push that case forward “shows Guatemala is still the cradle of many brave people,” Menchú Tum said.

“I think it’s a blessing that we lived through an era of such violence and are still alive, and having life compels us to keep fighting against impunity, violence, femicide … to prove that violence, discrimination, racism should not and will not be forgotten,” Menchú Tum told Axios Latino.  

Flashback: Menchú Tum was born in 1959, a year before Guatemala’s civil war broke out, in a remote community that is majority Mayan K'iche'.

Her dad, mom and younger brother were murdered at separate times in the late 1970s as part of a government campaign against Indigenous peoples and anyone considered a “subversive domestic enemy.”

She was forced to flee to Mexico in 1981 over her activism and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1992.

More than 200,000 people — over 80% of them Mayan — were assassinated or forcibly disappeared in Guatemala between 1960 and 1996, according to a UN-backed report from a truth commission.

Subscribe to Axios Latino to get vital news about Latinos and Latin America, delivered to your inbox on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Nobel laureate says she's hopeful despite Guatemalan government crackdown

Rigoberta Menchú Tum was forced to flee to Mexico in 1981 over her activism and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1992.

Photo illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios. Photo: Horacio Villalobos/Corbis via Getty Images

Latin America

Latin America and Latinos

Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Indigenous rights activist Rigoberta Menchú Tum says she sees signs of hope in her native Guatemala despite the <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="government’s intensifying crackdown" data-vars-click-url="https://www.axios.com/2022/08/30/guatemala-crackdown-human-rights-defenders-journalists" data-vars-content-id="2b26397e-397a-4543-adef-c365ad3e3d7f" data-vars-headline="Nobel laureate says she&#x27;s hopeful despite Guatemalan government crackdown" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.axios.com/2022/08/30/guatemala-crackdown-human-rights-defenders-journalists" target="_self">government’s intensifying crackdown</a> on journalists and anti-corruption prosecutors.State of play: President Alejandro Giammattei&#x27;s government over the past couple of years has charged or jailed nearly two dozen <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="prosecutors" data-vars-click-url="https://apnews.com/article/noticias-9e390a84d47210048d33dc9e0a433342" data-vars-content-id="2b26397e-397a-4543-adef-c365ad3e3d7f" data-vars-headline="Nobel laureate says she&#x27;s hopeful despite Guatemalan government crackdown" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://apnews.com/article/noticias-9e390a84d47210048d33dc9e0a433342" target="_blank">prosecutors</a> working on anti-corruption cases and <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="journalists" data-vars-click-url="https://www.axios.com/2022/08/02/guatemala-elperidico-newspaper-president-arrest" data-vars-content-id="2b26397e-397a-4543-adef-c365ad3e3d7f" data-vars-headline="Nobel laureate says she&#x27;s hopeful despite Guatemalan government crackdown" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.axios.com/2022/08/02/guatemala-elperidico-newspaper-president-arrest" target="_self">journalists</a> whose coverage exposed government wrongdoing, according to local media reports.

China is becoming the most formidable rival America has faced, and the risk of confrontation with Russia, North Korea or Iran still looms. Authoritarians are rising, the chaotic Afghanistan exit revealed the limits of U.S. power, and the pandemic, climate change and other critical challenges continue to pose grave threats.

World

One of the biggest payment-processing companies now offers its services in Spanish.

Why it matters: Spanish is the second-most used language in the U.S. after English; over 41 million people speak it at home, according to Census data. 

Details: Square, which allows  millions of small businesses to accept credit card payments, announced this week that all of its services and hardware will work in both English and Spanish in the U.S.

Businesses — Hispanic-owned and otherwise — will be able to choose which language to use for any banking and loan services hired through Square. 

Those businesses’ customers will be able to select either language when looking at order totals and tipping options or to input their contact information for a digital receipt.

Square, part of a conglomerate that also runs Cash App and the “buy now, pay later” service Afterpay, says it has “millions of users.”

The big picture: Financial tech companies increasingly offer an avenue for Latinos to access cash and payment transactions. 

Banks have historically underserved Hispanic customers, charging people of color higher fees, for example. They have in the past also denied Latinos loans at higher rates than white non-Hispanics. 

Over 12% of all U.S. Hispanic households said they don’t have a bank account in 2021, as many Latinos say they distrust banks or fear not having the minimum amounts to maintain an account.

What they’re saying: “By providing fair and accessible financial services tools spelled out in Spanish and backed up by Spanish-language customer service, Square is taking one step further toward ensuring Latino entrepreneurs have the tools they need to start, run, grow, or adapt their businesses,” Christina Riechers, head of product for Square Banking, said in a statement.  

 Subscribe to Axios Latino to get vital news about Latinos and Latin America, delivered to your inbox on Tuesdays and Thursdays. 

Square adds Spanish to small business services

Spanish is the second-most used language in the U.S. after English; over 41 million people speak it at home, according to Census data.

Small businesses

One of the biggest payment-processing companies now offers its services in Spanish.Why it matters: Spanish is the second-most used language in the U.S. after English; <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="over 41 million people " data-vars-click-url="https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2022/acs/acs-50.html" data-vars-content-id="5625c294-c39e-4f46-a4f9-c5168456cf46" data-vars-headline="Square adds Spanish to small business services" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2022/acs/acs-50.html" target="_blank">over 41 million people </a>speak it at home, according to Census data.

After a record economic expansion, the coronavirus pandemic sent the U.S. economy into a recession as unemployment soared to staggering heights. The country now faces urgent questions about how much stimulus is needed for reeling consumers and businesses, and what a recovery might look like.

Economy & Business

The Chilean government and opposition have started talks over how to proceed after voters soundly rejected a new progressive constitution.

The big picture: Nearly 62% of the 12.8 million votes cast Sunday were against the proposed draft, which would have drastically changed the country. Voting was mandatory. 

The draft would have set up national health care and pension systems, as well as enshrined reproductive, education, housing and Indigenous rights. But the wording of how those would come about was vague and misinformation spread, creating uncertainty.

President Gabriel Boric on Monday afternoon convened the first of various meetings with all political parties to coordinate possible next steps.

Boric, who championed the text, had said prior to the vote that there should be another drafting process if the proposal was rejected.

Some opposition members in Congress have expressed support for restarting the process, but others say lawmakers should just make amendments to the current constitution instead.

Between the lines: Writing a new constitution has been slowly gathering support since Chile’s return to democracy in 1990.

The current one dates to Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship, and critics say it fostered a highly unequal society.

Ex-President Michelle Bachelet launched a process to rewrite the constitution in 2015, but it didn’t go anywhere.

Two years ago, after mass protests demanding changes and a social safety net, almost 80% of Chileans voted in favor of drafting a new constitution and chose mostly non-politicians to do so.

What's next for Chile's constitution

Nearly 62% of the 12.8 million votes cast Sunday were against the proposed draft.

Chile President Gabriel Boric stands behind a podium and in front of two microphones during a news conference on Sunday 

President Gabriel Boric of Chile after Sunday’s referendum. Photo: Presidencia de Chile/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Chile

The Chilean government and opposition have started talks over how to proceed after voters <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="soundly rejected a new progressive constitution" data-vars-click-url="https://www.axios.com/2022/09/05/chile-constitution-referedum-results-reject-rights" data-vars-content-id="7f7b0c3f-b529-4be5-88a9-17d1b7a8170f" data-vars-headline="What&#x27;s next for Chile&#x27;s constitution" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.axios.com/2022/09/05/chile-constitution-referedum-results-reject-rights" target="_self">soundly rejected a new progressive constitution</a>.The big picture: Nearly 62% of the 12.8 million votes cast Sunday were against <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="the proposed draft" data-vars-click-url="https://www.axios.com/2022/09/04/chile-constitution-vote-progressive-abortion-climate" data-vars-content-id="7f7b0c3f-b529-4be5-88a9-17d1b7a8170f" data-vars-headline="What&#x27;s next for Chile&#x27;s constitution" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.axios.com/2022/09/04/chile-constitution-vote-progressive-abortion-climate" target="_self">the proposed draft</a>, which would have drastically changed the country. Voting was mandatory.

Puerto Ricans are scrambling to figure out how — or whether — to rebuild after yet another major disaster.

State of play: About 33% of homes and businesses were still without power Tuesday morning  — more than a week after Hurricane Fiona hit, according to Luma Energy, the island's grid operator. Thousands still don’t have running water. 

Some roads remain blocked by flooding and rock slides, leaving several communities in the south isolated, without access to supplies. 

Driving the news: While Fiona — a Category 1 hurricane when it made landfall — was considerably weaker than 2017's Hurricanes Maria and Irma, both Category 5 storms, its devastation is expected to compound the already strained recovery efforts from the past disasters. 

Estimates put the damages of Hurricane Maria at $100 billion. About $28 billion in federal funds had been earmarked for recovery projects at the beginning of August.

Many homes destroyed by Maria and the island’s power grid were still being rebuilt when Fiona hit. 

Plus, the pandemic hit Puerto Rico’s economy especially hard. More than 40% of the island's population lived below the poverty line last year, according to Census data.

For small business owners, the cascade of disasters on top of the island's long-standing bankruptcy issues has made even the thought of rebuilding again hard to bear.

“This is the fifth time everything floods, the fifth time I lose it all," Carmelo Vázquez Rivera, who owns a TV and electronics repair shop, told Noticias Telemundo after Fiona hit. "I’ve started back up before, but this time I just … don’t have the strength,” he said.

The big picture: A U.S. Congress-established financial oversight board, nicknamed La Junta, remains mostly in charge of the island’s budget. La Junta has been criticized by some lawmakers, who argue the board's austerity measures after Hurricane Maria made recovery harder.

La Junta agreed to release up to $250,000 to each of Puerto Rico’s 78 municipalities for Fiona's recovery. President Biden also approved a major disaster declaration for the island and ordered federal aid to assist with recovery efforts.

But many worry the money and declaration won't be enough, especially for an island with a history of corruption, delays in aid distribution and budgetary mismanagement. 

Others have taken authorities to task for not enacting more programs that could make the island more resilient.

“There should have been more investments in weather-resistant designs of roads and the grid line,” Martha Quiñones, professor at the Universidad de Puerto Rico, told El Nuevo Día. 

Puerto Rican authorities in 2019 set a goal of transitioning to renewable power by 2050, which would help more people weather the storms by having a grid that doesn’t get as easily knocked down by winds and rain.

But as of February about 3% of the island’s electricity comes from renewables, mostly pushed by NGOs working with solar power.

There's also a concern that the island will continue to experience the brain drain that worsened after Hurricanes Maria and Irma.

The island saw an 11.8% drop in its population between 2010 and 2020, according to Census data

Part of that is due to the island's struggling economy made worse by crisis after crisis. Many people who’ve remained on the island have been pushed out of their homes by land developers and cryptocurrency investors, who have bought out apartment buildings and other properties, making rents soar and prompting more Puerto Ricans to leave for the mainland U.S.

The bottom line: The island was still years away from fully recovering from Maria and Irma when Fiona hit.

Those recovery efforts are expected to take longer now, leaving many Puerto Ricans fearing for when the next disaster may strike.

Puerto Rico's grim outlook

The island was still years away from fully recovering from Maria and Irma when Fiona hit.

General view of an inundated Cooperative Rice Winter Nursery on Sept. 20  in Lajas, Puerto Rico. Photo: José Jimenez/Getty Images

Puerto Rico

Extreme weather

Puerto Ricans are scrambling to figure out how — or whether — to rebuild after yet another major disaster.State of play: About 33% of homes and businesses were still without power Tuesday morning — more than a week after Hurricane Fiona hit, according to <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="Luma Energy" data-vars-click-url="https://twitter.com/lumaenergypr/status/1574738675367305216/photo/1" data-vars-content-id="eb627172-e08c-423d-946a-61b9f4c09a03" data-vars-headline="Puerto Rico&#x27;s grim outlook" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://twitter.com/lumaenergypr/status/1574738675367305216/photo/1" target="_blank">Luma Energy</a>, the island&#x27;s grid operator. Thousands still don’t have <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="running water" data-vars-click-url="https://www.telemundo.com/noticias/noticias-telemundo/salud/puerto-rico-bajo-alerta-por-casos-de-leptospirosis-tras-inundaciones-d-rcna49515" data-vars-content-id="eb627172-e08c-423d-946a-61b9f4c09a03" data-vars-headline="Puerto Rico&#x27;s grim outlook" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.telemundo.com/noticias/noticias-telemundo/salud/puerto-rico-bajo-alerta-por-casos-de-leptospirosis-tras-inundaciones-d-rcna49515" target="_blank">running water</a>.

A look at the scientific breakthroughs changing the world, explorations in space and in worlds beyond our own and the threats posed to us by our own planet, both out of our control and of our own making.

Science

The Guatemala-born founder of Duolingo, one of the biggest language education companies in the world, hopes his business can help more Latinos see themselves in tech and create a more inclusive industry.

Why it matters: Luis Von Ahn is one of few Latinos at the highest levels of a major U.S.-based corporation. 

Latinos make up around a fourth of the total U.S. workforce, but only 8% of workers in STEM fields. 

What they’re saying: “It’s not just about seeing more diversity in C-level positions, it’s about representation at all levels,” Von Ahn tells Axios Latino through email. He added that Duolingo has worked hard to build an inclusive culture and that some of its most senior leaders are Hispanic. 

His company, which recently celebrated its 10th anniversary, has also had a near 50-50 gender ratio in engineering hires in the past few years.

“I hope this kind of representation helps younger people imagine a future for themselves in the tech industry,” Von Ahn adds.

Von Ahn credits part of his success to his mother enrolling him in private school and English classes. 

He says that motivated him to build Duolingo, “so money will never be a barrier” because “teaching languages for free has the power to change people’s lives.”

“I will never forget where I’m from and I’m proud to be able to give back to Guatemalan society now,” Von Ahn says.

Luis Von Ahn is one of few Latinos at the highest levels of a major U.S.-based corporation.

Photo illustration: Allie Carl/Axios. Photo: ITU Pictures/Flickr/CC BY 2.0/Collaged

Education

The Guatemala-born founder of Duolingo, one of the biggest language education companies in the world, hopes his business can help more Latinos see themselves in tech and create a more inclusive industry.Why it matters: Luis Von Ahn is one of few Latinos at the <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="highest levels" data-vars-click-url="https://www.axios.com/2021/06/19/hard-truths-deep-dive-biz-ownership-corporate-pipeline" data-vars-content-id="fb1de6e3-f515-4145-8d51-1749571b0b1d" data-vars-headline="Duolingo founder on his Guatemala roots and recipe for success" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.axios.com/2021/06/19/hard-truths-deep-dive-biz-ownership-corporate-pipeline" target="_self">highest levels</a> of a major U.S.-based corporation.

From the Valley to D.C., Big Tech players like Facebook, Google and Amazon are under more scrutiny than ever as new technology develops and privacy and antitrust concerns grow in lockstep with companies’ ambitions.

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Stories

Duolingo founder on his Guatemala roots and recipe for success

Puerto Rico's grim outlook

Nobel laureate says she's hopeful despite Guatemalan government crackdown

Square adds Spanish to small business services

What's next for Chile's constitution

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💰Obstacles to wealth

💸 Latino economy grows

🇲🇽 Quake trauma

🏘 Homeownership dreams

⌨️ Reclaiming accent marks