Nashville Mayor John Cooper this week appointed seven Nashvillians to Metro’s Christmas Day Special Review Committee, one of whom is affiliated with Nashville’s Community Oversight Board and the left-of-center Conexión Américas. This, according a press release that Cooper published Friday.
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Catholic Charities of Tennessee is receiving $7.3 million in state grant funds to expand social services to 10 Middle Tennessee counties, but part of the organization’s model is based on liberal services performed in Nashville.
The Tennessee Department of Human Services (TDHS) said it is giving $50 in grants to 23 organizations and educational entities through its Two Generation (2Gen) approach.
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Juliana Ospina Cano will lead Conexión Américas, a Nashville Latino advocacy group, as its new executive director beginning today. Ospina Cano succeeds Renata Soto, who co-founded Conexión Américas 17 years ago. “Juliana is the ideal leader for Conexión Américas’ next chapter,” said Board President Terry Maroney. “She brings with her a sharp mind honed by her doctoral studies, an empathetic heart grounded in her own immigrant experience, and deep knowledge of Nashville, the state and Conexión Américas. Her combination of vision, skill, work ethic and history with this organization will be invaluable resources for our community.” Ospina Cano said, “It is with great excitement that I come home to Nashville. I look forward to re-joining an organization that views economic, civic and social integration as the vehicle to equip, inspire and mobilize immigrant families to fulfill their potential while celebrating their roots. My commitment to these values has been the compass guiding my professional and personal journey. I look forward to honoring Renata’s unparalleled legacy and serving the Tennessee community alongside Conexión Américas’ team, Board of Directors and partners.” Conexión Américas is an affiliate of The National Council of La Raza. The National Council of La Raza, the largest Latino…
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NASHVILLE, Tennessee — Metro Nashville Council At-Large candidate Gicola Lane told a crowd of more than 1,000 people Monday she wants city officials to stop working with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Members of the crowd gave thunderous applause. Later in the evening, Nashville mayoral candidate Julia Clark-Johnson said she wants to turn Nashville into a sanctuary city. “The state of California has been successful into changing a lot of their cities into sanctuary cities,” Clark-Johnson said, suggesting Nashville follow that state’s example. Gicola and Clark-Johnson made these comments at Nashville’s Plaza Mariachi along Nolensville Pike this week for a forum devoted to immigrant rights Several other At-Large and mayoral candidates joined them on stage. The Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition sponsored the event, as did the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee, the American Muslim Advisory Council, and Conexion Americas. The forum was in question-and-answer format, with members of those groups asking, among other things, what the Metro Nashville government can do to disentangle itself from ICE and stop future deportations. At-Large candidate Bob Mendes, already on the Metro Council, said he will continue to do his part, especially with U.S. Republican President Donald Trump in office.…
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Gubernatorial candidates Karl Dean and Randy Boyd both considered Renata Soto’s Conexion Americas organization a worthy investment. Democrat Karl Dean used the government’s money while mega-millionaire Republican Randy Boyd used his personal wealth to help Conexion’s legal and illegal alien clients.
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The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 205 has endorsed Gini Pupo-Walker for the Metro Nashville School Board: ‘Gini has extensive experience in the school system and outside of it and will bring great leadership and professionalism to the board,’ said SEIU member Lilldeus Russell, a paraprofessional in MNPS. ‘She has consistently been an advocate for equity in our schools and we need more voices like that on the board.’ Pupo-Walker serves as the Education Policy Director for Nashville-based Conexion Americas, an affiliate of UnidosUS (formerly known as the National Council of La Raza). Conexion’s founder and co-director, Renata Soto, has had a long-standing leadership role with UnidosUS serving first as vice-chair of the board in 2012, until she was elected as chairman in 2015 when the organization was still named La Raza. She remains listed as Chairman for the 2017-2018 slate. In 2016, Conexion Americas launched the Tennessee Educational Equity Coalition (TEEC) which Pupo-Walker leads, tying GOP gubernatorial candidate Randy Boyd even closer to Soto and her Nashville organization. Boyd’s own education non-profit Complete Tennessee is listed as a State Partner on the TEEC website and Conexion’s Renata Soto serves on the Complete Tennessee Board. Mauricio Calvo, executive director of Latino Memphis serves on Boyd’s Complete Tennessee…
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Nashville-based National Council of La Raza affiliate partner, Conexion Americas, the beneficiary of a $250,000 donation from Randy Boyd and his wife Jenny, wants Governor Haslam to veto the anti-sanctuary city bill so that criminal illegal aliens can return to Tennessee communities instead of being handed off to federal immigration authorities. The founder and director of Boyd’s quarter-million dollar beneficiary, has put out a call to ask the Governor to veto the legislation. In 2015, the year before Boyd made his $250,000 donation, Renata Soto, co- founder and executive director of Conexion Americas, who had served for three years as vice-president of the National Council of La Raza Board, was elected to president of La Raza’s board, a position she still occupies. In July 2017, the George Soros-funded National Council of LaRaza changed its name to UnidosUS. Boyd’s support for Soto’s organization which serves legal immigrants and illegal aliens and Soto’s leadership with La Raza, has earned Boyd the nickname “La Raza Randy.” During an early radio interview, Boyd inferred that he is okay with illegal aliens using the Conexion Americas culinary incubator renamed “Conexion Americas Mesa Komal Kitchen & The Randy and Jenny Boyd Culinary Incubator” after his donation, to…
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Renata Soto, the Donald Trump-bashing chairman of the board of UnidosUS (the new name adopted by the George Soros-funded National Council of LaRaza in July 2017), and founder and head of Conexion Americas, the Nashville affiliate of UnidosUS, was one of the featured speakers at Saturday’s kickoff of the Transit for Nashville campaign to support the passage of the tax increasing transit plan on the May 1 referendum before Nashville/Davidson County voters. Soto was joined by former Nashville Vice-Mayor Howard Gentry and Rep. Jim Cooper (D-TN-05) as the featured speakers in the 22 minute kickoff event. Notably, embattled Nashville Mayor Megan Barry, who two weeks ago admitted to conducting a two-year-long extramarital affair with her bodyguard, was not one of the event’s featured speakers, though she was, apparently, in attendance. “My name is Renata Soto and I am with Conexion Americas, one of almost 120 coalition members who are so excited to get this campaign kicked off today,” Soto began. “Are we ready for transit?” she asked the crowd “Our coalition represents almost 300,000 Nashvillians. We have collected more than 30,000 signatures. We have hosted more than 200 community events. And we know that with your support, your enthusiasm, your…
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Conexion Americas, the convener and leading member of the Tennessee Educational Equity Coalition (TEEC), has issued a letter to Sens. Alexander and Corker asking them to continue Obama’s administrative bypass of Congress that unilaterally created the questionable DACA program. Gubernatorial candidate Randy Boyd’s education non-profit Complete Tennessee, on which Conexion Americas’ founder and executive director Renata Soto serves as a board member, is listed as a State Partner on the TEEC website. TEEC was established in March 2016. Complete Tennessee was established in September 2016, about the same time that Randy Boyd and his wife Jenny Boyd donated $250,000 to Conexion Americas. TEEC says that students who arrived in Tennessee in violation of U.S. immigration law deserve “educational equity:” As members of the Tennessee Educational Equity Coalition, we write you to express our support for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The Tennessee Educational Equity Coalition is a diverse group of civil rights and education advocacy organizations whose goal is to build a shared advocacy agenda to address achievement and opportunity gaps for students across the state. We write you to respectfully request that you support the DACA program and that you urge President Trump to keep the DACA program intact until…
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Conexion Americas and TIRRC (Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition) are taking action this Friday to defend recipients of Obama’s unilateral 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program who are euphemistically referred to as “dreamers.” After the “Dream Act” failed in 2010, the Obama administration used an administrative bypass of Congress to execute unilateral executive amnesty in the form of the DACA program. On Friday, Conexion Americas, a Nashville Latino advocacy organization and recipient of a $250,000 donation from Randy and Jenny Boyd, is offering a popsicle to anyone who stops by and sends a postcard to Tennessee’s D.C. legislators requesting support for the newest “Dream Act.” Recently introduced by Republican Senator Lindsey Graham and Democrat Dick Durbin, the bill provides even greater protection for the DACA eligible by offering a path to citizenship. Boyd is one of five announced candidates for the Republican nomination for governor of Tennessee. Conexion is taking a subtle approach to undermine the rule of law and preserve an unconstitutional action by the Obama administration, whereas TIRRC’s approach is more direct – they are asking Tennessee teachers to take their politics into the classroom. TIRRC’s Friday “Educator Day of Action” in defense of DACA…
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A clever and obviously talented follower of FACTS that have been reported about gubernatorial candidate Randy Boyd, penned this little ditty which arrived via The Tennessee Star tip line. After reading The Ballad of La Raza Randy, it’s only natural to wonder if and when the ode to “Mayor Moonbeam Megan Barry” will show up. In the meantime, see if you can make it all the way through to the end without having to wipe the tears rolling down your cheeks from laughing too hard… The Ballad of La Raza Randy Randy Boyd’s running all over the state, says he’ll spend whatever it takes. Money’s no object for this Governor who-would-be and his plan of “greater opportunity”. Greater opportunity for all citizens (or not), he’s the best friend illegals have got! He talks of education and jobs galore, all from a supporter of common core. Nothing we haven’t heard before, typical RINO campaign de jour. He’s Haslam 2.0, of that you can be sure! But Randy has a new name and it’s getting around! It’s sure to follow him from town to town! La Raza Randy is his new name , La Raza Randy, aren’t you ashamed? What is La Raza and for…
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Despite trying to use hands-contorted-into-hearts to try and soften the radical opposition of the progressive left’s “Indivisible” campaign, Conexion Americas’ “Indivisible” organizing is no different than any of the other self-identified “Indivisible” groups that have formed to resist President Trump’s agenda for America. A number of left wing Nashville political figures, including Mayor Megan Barry, have posed for photos with Renata Soto, co-founder and director of Conexion Americas, displaying the “hands-contorted-into-hearts” sign. Last week, Conexion’s Gini Pupo-Walker, senior director of education policy and strategic growth, told The Tennessee Star that “[w]e didn’t know there would be other groups using the same word.” However, looking at Conexion’s twitter promotion of other “Indivisible”groups, the Indivisible Guide itself, and alignment by Conexion on key issues included in The Guide, strongly suggest otherwise. Conexion Americas director Soto has stated publicly that “[w]e at Conexion Americas have launched a campaign called #Indivisible” using a hashtag of a Twitter site which promotes the original Indivisible Guide and Indivisible groups scattered across the country. On December 10, 2016, Soto, issued a public invitation to join her Indivisible campaign. Four days later, a link to the Indivisible Guide, written by former Congressional staffers, was tweeted out. Angel Padilla an Indivisible Guide author, was an immigration policy consultant at National Council of La Raza (La Raza) in 2014. After leaving…
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Next time you eat food prepared by a Conexion Americas culinary entrepreneur, thank Randy Boyd for his $250,000 donation that helped expand the kitchen incubator program. When asked about his donation during a radio interview , Boyd gushed, “I’m all about supporting entrepreneurs and creating spaces for entrepreneurs.” The Partnership for a New American Economy (PNAE), of which Boyd is a named member, last year issued a Tennessee report estimating that approximately 10,612 “undocumented entrepreneurs” in the state have started businesses: Large numbers of undocumented immigrants in Tennessee have also managed to overcome licensing and financing obstacles to start small businesses. In 2014, an estimated 10.3 percent of the state’s working-age undocumented immigrants were selfemployed — meaning Tennessee was the unique state where unauthorized immigrants boasted higher rates of entrepreneurship than either legal permanent residents or immigrant citizens of the same age group. Almost 11,000 undocumented immigrants in Tennessee were self-employed in 2014, many providing jobs and economic opportunities to others in their community. Undocumented entrepreneurs in the state also earned an estimated $244.3 million in business income that year. Boyd’s donation to Conexion Americas which renamed the space to “Conexion Americas Mesa Komal Kitchen & The Randy and Jenny Boyd Culinary Incubator,”…
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NASHVILLE, Tennessee — Michael Gilbert has worked in the restaurant industry for 15 years, but he’s only had his own business for about a year. The South Carolina native turned to Conexión Américas for help in getting his food truck off the ground. He is a member of the nonprofit’s culinary entrepreneurship program that offers people like him training in marketing and other skills they will need. Most importantly, it offers them use of a commercial kitchen. Gilbert said he values the chance to interact with other chefs in the program. “It’s a good learning experience,” he said Friday as he served breakfast fare from his City Kitchen food truck parked outside Casa Azafrán, where Conexión Américas held an Independence Day celebration. While Gilbert is an American citizen, the help he has received has come from an organization that promotes relief programs for illegal immigrants and provides services for them, as well as for legal immigrants. Conexión Américas co-founder Renata Soto is chair of National Council of La Raza, a national organization that has protested counterterrorism measures on grounds they violate immigrants’ rights. Conexión Américas’ progressive stances have created a problem for Republican gubernatorial candidate Randy Boyd, who last year donated $250,000 to help…
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Tennessee Star readers are the bomb when it comes to creative, but fact-anchored monikers for Tennessee’s public figures. Yesterday’s story about gubernatorial candidate Randy Boyd and his quarter of a million dollar donation to a Nashville La Raza affiliate while still not dissing Metro Nashville for wanting to formally become the MOST LIBERAL SANCTUARY CITY IN THE U.S., seems to have inspired a Tennessee Star reader to comment on our story Monday, “Gubernatorial Candidate Randy Boyd Donated $250,000 to La Raza Affiliate And Has Not Renounced Nashville Sanctuary City Ordinance,” that “La Raza Randy . . . shows his real colors.” So now, “La Raza Randy” joins “Boss Doss” in our list of favorite fact-anchored monikers, because public figures aren’t entitled to be insulated from ridicule for the decisions they may ultimately wish they hadn’t made. The Tennessee Star is in the business of reporting FACTS. Unfortunately, we can’t help it if the FACTS show that when Boyd made his $250,000 donation, “the single largest individual gift” to the coffers of a named La Raza affiliate the founder and director of the Nashville organization was also already…. the Chairman of the Board of….La Raza! “La Raza Randy”? Sort of rolls off your tongue.
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Almost immediately after the Metro Nashville Council voted on second reading to pass a sanctuary city ordinance last week, Congressman Diane Black (R-TN-06), State Rep. Judd Matheny (R-Tullahoma) and gubernatorial candidates, Mae Beavers and Bill Lee, issued strong rebukes to the city’s move to violate federal and state law. The Randy Boyd campaign, despite being asked directly by The Tennessee Star for a comment regarding the proposed Nashville ordinance, did not respond. In a state where The Tennessee Star’s polling results showed that 1,007 likely Republican primary voters rejected in-state college tuition for illegal aliens by a stunning 84 percent to 11 percent margin and where 1.5 million voters helped elect President Trump, Boyd’s silence on a key immigration issue, could prove costly to his campaign. Three days after announcing his candidacy for governor on March 6, 2017, The Star reported on Boyd’s $250,000 donation in 2016 to Conexion Americas, an affiliate partner of the National Council of La Raza (NC La Raza). Renata Soto, co- founder and executive director of Conexion Americas served for three years as vice-president of the NC La Raza Board and was elected to lead the NC La Raza board in 2015, the year before Boyd made his donation. Days later The Star asked Boyd whether he knew…
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The Tennessee Farm Bureau (TFB) is reputed to be the largest farm bureau in the country. Its mission statement is: To develop, foster, promote and protect programs for the general welfare, including economic, social, educational and political well-being of farm people of the great state of Tennessee. The American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF), is a non-profit organization with affiliate farm bureaus in all 50 states, including Tennessee. In 2016 the AFBF reported employing eighteen registered lobbyists. Among the services the AFBF provides is training new state farm bureau presidents. In 2013, like the AFBF, the TFB issued a statement of support for the proposed comprehensive immigration reform bill that the Congressional Budget Office concluded a category of “legalization” for illegal immigrants currently residing in the U.S. “The Tennessee Farm Bureau Federation is proud to stand today beside our friends with the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce and Industry and our fellow business families in support of S.744 the Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act. We believe this bipartisan immigration bill is a balanced reform bill, it includes fair and workable farm labor provisions, and it will help ensure an adequate supply of farm labor. After Congress failed to pass…
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Renata Soto, a native of Costa Rica and resident of Nashville, was elected to chair the board of the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) in 2015 after serving as vice-chair since 2012. In December 2016, she also became a Nashville “Indivisible” organizer. La Raza lobbies for Hispanic racial preferences, bilingual education, mass immigration, and amnesty for illegal aliens. La Raza’s commentary and position statements characterize the U.S. as a nation with widespread white racism and discrimination. The organization has opposed most of the post 9/11 U.S. counterterrorism efforts. George Soros has generously funded Soto’s NCLR organization over the years in amounts typically exceeding $2 million. Soto became an Indivisible organizer almost immediately after the election. In her December 2016 opinion piece, Soto invited others to join Indivisible, a campaign intended and designed to obstruct President Trump’s agenda for the nation including enforcing U.S. immigration laws. Soto’s December Indivisible event was held at Casa Azafran, the community space built and owned by Conexion Americas, the Nashville Latino advocacy organization founded and led by Soto. Casa Azafran has been developed to serve multiple purposes including as an Election Commission polling site and housing a Metro Nashville Public Schools pre-K program. It also…
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