A FUTURE WITHOUT HIV. The rate of HIV has gone down among Latinos in general, but it has risen among Latino youth in their early 20’s. Prominent researchers and experts in HIV joined forces last week at a Latino forum on HIV as part of the activities of the AIDS 2012 International Conference in Washington, DC. Some of these experts join this edition to share news about AIDS-fighting drugs and discuss how to create a future without HIV/AIDS.

Guests: Dr. Britt Rios-Ellis, Director, National Council of La Raza (NCLR)/California State University Long Beach (CSULB) Center for Latino Community Health, Long Beach, CA, http://www.csulb.edu/centers/latinohealth/ ; Daniel Leyva, Director, Prevention Services, Latino Commission on AIDS, Nueva York, NY, www.latinoaids.org ; Bambi Salcedo, Community Advocate, Trans Latina Coalition, Los Angeles, CA, http://translatinacoalition.org

VOTER PURGE. The U.S. Department of State is suing Florida over the purge of voters months before the 2012 presidential elections. Florida is using department of motor vehicles information to identify voters that could be non-citizens. The federal government says the information is outdated and does not reflect current citizen status. Voting rights advocates say the program is unfairly targeting Latinos and other voters of color.

Guests: Alejandro Reyes, Counsel, Legal Mobilization Project, Lawyer's Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Washington, D.C., www.lawyerscommittee.org ; Elizabeth Pines, Director, League of Women Voters of Florida, Tallahassee, FL, www.thefloridavoter.org

ALSO, RADIO BILINGUE DIRECTOR NAMED TO CSU BOARD. Radio Bilingüe director Hugo Morales has been named by California governor Edmund "Jerry" Brown to the Board of Trustees of the California State University. Morales comments on his expectations and the challenges ahead.

DON’T CALL ME OAXAQUITA! A Southern California school district banned an epithet used by many Mexicans to put down people of indigenous descent, who are estimated to make up about one third of the state’s farmworker population. The decision made by Oxnard schools is part of a larger campaign to ban the racially charged and widely used word “Oaxaquita”, as well as encourage lessons about indigenous Mexican culture and history throughout the state.

Guests: Arcenio López, Associate Director, Mixteco/Indígena Community Organizing Project, Oxnard, CA, www.mixteco.org/; Denis O'Leary, Member of Board of Trustees, Oxnard School District, Oxnard, CA, http://www.oxnardsd.org

BANNED BUT NOT SILENCED. Public school administrators in Tucson, Arizona first banned Mexican-American Studies from their classrooms and stored away the books. Then they fired the head of the department, Sean Arce. Now, they have rejected an offer by Chicana writer Ana Castillo to come speak in the schools. She showed up anyway, and now joins this edition to discuss current events in Arizona.

Guests: Ana Castillo, Writer, New Mexico, www.anacastillo.com ; Richard Martínez, Attorney, Tucson, AZ.

CHICANO POET LAUREATE. The first Latino to be appointed California Poet Laureate is Juan Felipe Herrera. Herrera grew up in a migrant farmworker family and now teaches creative writing at the University of California, Riverside. He has written dozens of books and won numerous national and international awards. This special edition in honor of Cinco de Mayo features a live interview with the poet.

Guest: Juan Felipe Herrera, California Poet Laureate, Riverside, CA, http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/1822.

STUDENT DEBT. Tuition and fees for U.S. universities have more than doubled in the past twenty years, forcing students to borrow ever-growing amounts of money to pay for college. With college graduates now owing an average of more than $25,000, interest rates on subsidized loans are set to double in July, which could affect almost one million Latino students. President Obama is calling on Congress to act to stop the interest rate hikes.

Guests: José Rico, Executive Director, White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics, Washington, D.C., http://www2.ed.gov/about/inits/list/hispanic-initiative/index.html ; Lucero Castañeda, Student of Ethnic Studies at University of Oregon, and Board of Directors of United States Students Association, Eugene, OR, www.usstudents.org

GUIDE FOR DREAMERS. A graduate student in California published a guide to help young undocumented students succeed after graduation. The Life After College Guide for Undocumented Students offers tips for these immigrants living in the shadows to legally open their own business, work as independent consultants, or finance postgraduate studies. Also, a group of high-tech leaders from California’s Silicon Valley are funding scholarships for undocumented young people to attend college.

Guests: Iliana Guadalupe Pérez, Student of Education Doctorate, Claremont Graduate University, and Author, Life After College Guide for Undocumented Students, Claremont, CA; Eva Grove, Board Member, The Grove Foundation, Los Altos, CA.

BOOKS SMUGGLED INTO ARIZONA. The “book smugglers” or “librotraficantes” have crossed Texas and New Mexico and are heading to Arizona. These writers are setting up underground libraries and holding readings along the way to promote the literature that was banned in Tucson, Arizona after the prohibition of ethnic studies in the state.

Guests: Tony Díaz, Founder, Nuestra Palabra La Voz de los Escritores Latinos, Houston, TX, http://librotraficante.net ; Sergio Troncoso, Author, New York, NY, http://www.sergiotroncoso.com

WETBOOKS. Authors of the books banned in the public schools of Tucson, Arizona organize to “smuggle” books across state lines. Calling themselves “librotraficantes”, or “book smugglers”, a caravan of writers, teachers, and activists will cross Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona, donating books to community organizations and conducting teach-ins, aiming to promote Chicano and Latino literature and literacy.

Guests: Tony Díaz, Founder, Nuestra Palabra La Voz de los Escritores Latinos, Houston, TX, www.tonydiaz.net ; Carmen Tafolla, Author, San Antonio, TX; Roberto Rodríguez, Assistant Professor of Mexican-American and Raza Studies, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, www.mas.arizona.edu

LIVE FROM AN INTERNET CAFE. SECOND HOUR. This is a live remote from an internet café in the heart of San Francisco’s Mission District, where many Latino immigrants come to chat with their loved ones, scan documents, email, and use Facebook and other social media sites. The café has even hosted live video broadcasts of quinceañeras, baby showers, and other family events, so that family members can celebrate in two countries at once. A representative from Latinos in Social Media also joins the show to discuss the importance of social media for Latinos in the United States.

Guests: Marcela Gutiérrez, Director of Bay Area Chapter, Latinos in Social Media, San Francisco, CA, http://latinosinsocialmedia.com ; Altagracia Leibowitz, General Manager, The Network Store, San Francisco, CA, www.the-network-store.com