ASPRIA

It is with great sorrow that we announce that Luis Alvarez, who championed ASPIRA all of his life and dedicated years to the organization since starting at ASPIRA of New York in 1967, passed away peacefully in New York City last week. During the next few years, Luis Alvarez and Louis Nuñez, both mentored by Dr. Antonia Pantoja, were instrumental in organizing the largest national expansion of ASPIRA, developing what were then called affiliates across the country: ASPIRA of Illinois, ASPIRA of New Jersey, ASPIRA of Pennsylvania and, months later, ASPIRA de Puerto Rico. ASPIRA of America was just establishing itself as a new national organization and at the same time it was organizing new affiliates in Puerto Rican communities that had unique environments and needs, very different from those of New York and each other. In his later years, Luis Alvarez became an active volunteer at ASPIRA of New York in fundraising and in organizing ASPIRA of New York's 50th  Anniversary celebration.

The Open Society Foundations has issued a Call for Applications for a new youth fellowship program designed to help develop a new generation of leaders for Puerto Rico, which was devastated by Hurricane Maria in 2017. Through the new Puerto Rico Youth Fellowships program, successful candidates will receive one-year grants of up to $35,000 in support of projects that address a range of human rights challenges, including health, housing, education, immigration, workers' rights, LGBTQI rights, criminal justice, food justice, and environmental justice, among other areas. Applicants are encouraged to consider a range of strategies for advancing their ideas, including grassroots organizing, public education, strategic communications, policy advocacy, and coalition building. The program is open to Puerto Rican youths between the ages of 18 and 27 with proposed projects focused on human rights and anchored in underserved communities on the island.

Mirta Ramirez was one of the founders of ASPIRA of Illinois, a nonprofit organization that has been devoted to the education and leadership development of Latino youth for the last fifty years. Mirta’s vision to expand the ASPIRA model to Chicago, when the high school dropout rate was seventy-five percent, served as a catalyst for others to organize and to advocate for Puerto Rican and other Latino youth. The ASPIRA community mourns and celebrates the extraordinary life of Mirta Ramirez, a resilient woman who dedicated so much of her life to empowering youth by creating pathways for them to obtain an education. ASPIRA of Illinois is a testament to the fact that a vision can transform the lives of so many and it is clear that Mirta Ramirez left behind a solid foundation for the Latino community.

ASPIRA strongly opposes any policy that promotes the separation of families and the dehumanization of children. Since the start of the zero-tolerance immigration policy, more than 2,500 children have been separated from their families. This trauma inherently violates Article 5 of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights, “No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. ASPIRA Mourns the Passing of Luis Alvarez an ASPIRA Pioneer and Champion Mirta Ramirez, a Founding Member of ASPIRA of Illinois Passes