Author Archive: Muñoz

Natalia Muñoz is a bilingual communications and marketing consultant specializing in cultural competence, community engagement and social justice. After 25+ years as a journalist in her native Puerto Rico, the United States and Spain, Natalia founded and is director of Verdant Multicultural Media, a communications and marketing company. She is a writer and editor for English- and Spanish-language media including The Associated Press in Barcelona, having covered breaking news, business and the national soccer teams; The New York Daily News; The San Juan Star and El Vocero, then the two largest newspaper in Puerto Rico. She has extensively interviewed people from all spheres of life, from the youth who shot an off-duty police officer (for which she was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize) to Nelson Mandela. She was a communications consultant for the Mayor of San Juan, Sila Calderón; media coordinator for Puerto Rico's representation in Spain at the Sevilla Expo 1992, co-producer of the critically acclaimed documentary "Vieques: Worth Every Bit of Struggle," broadcast worldwide on Link TV and Russia TV, among other venues. She was the chair of Diversity Committee at Holyoke Community College, where, as a trustee, she successfully moved the college from using the word "minority" from the colleges's vernacular to "people of color." She was appointed by the mayor of Northampton, Massachusetts, to the Human Rights Commission, one of a few municipal entities nationwide.

Liberals: Don’t Blow It Again

Muñoz April 18, 2017

President Donald Trump and his key advisers are incompetent, mean-spirited, elite tontos who fooled 63 million voters into believing that he cares about the working Joe. Meanwhile, 66 million other voters have been organizing marches across the land in reaction…
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opinion

bernie bros, democracts, gorsuch, hillary, liberals, progressives, trump

Maddow’s Awkward Moment

Muñoz March 21, 2017

For the most part, the national media can’t quite tell the truth about the liar in chief. There are exceptions. On MSNBC, Lawrence O’Donnell calls 45 a liar often. He repeats the lies because the job of a journalist is…
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opinion

fake news, journalism, journalism ethics, MSNBC, Rachel Maddow, Trump taxes

Sen. Stan Rosenberg’s $45,000 Unearned Pay Raise

Muñoz February 16, 2017

State Sen. President Stan Rosenberg blurred the lines between himself and Wall Street’s greed when he sought a jaw-dropping $45,000 pay raise last month, from $97,547 to $142,547. here others were organizing strategies and events to push back against the…
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opinion

attorney general maura healey, bernie sanders, democratic party, gov. charlie baker, greed, Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito, massachusetts legislature, pay raise, stan rosenberg, state treasure deborah goldberg, trump, wall street

Time to Leave Gracefully, President Obama

Muñoz January 12, 2017

President Obama finally found his muscle on Israel, dispatching the US Ambassador to the United Nations to draw a line against the expansion of Jewish settlements on Palestinian lands. Then Secretary of State John Kerry explained why the US cannot…
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opinion

Jewish Settlements, Obama, Oscar Lopez Rivera, puerto rico, Syria

Dear Bernie: What Happened to You?

Muñoz December 3, 2016

You divided liberals and made a cottage industry of it: social media bots and trolls, fake news, now a book about how you and your angry followers can ignite a revolution, Part 2. Clouded by mean ambition, you traded…
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opinion

bernie sanders, hillary clinton, presidency, primaries, white house

Hillary Clinton Makes America Great Again; Bernie Sanders Agitates

Muñoz November 17, 2016

Hillary Clinton, Democratic Party Presidential Candidate

Hillary Rodham Clinton is now blamed by pundits and Bernie Sanders because a lot of white people left the Democratic Party, installing Republican Party majority wins in the House, the Senate and the White House. Sanders, who is not a…
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opinion

3 million more votes, democratic party, hillary clinton, more perfect union

Who Voted This Era of Hate into the White House?

Muñoz November 11, 2016

I am at the gas station and wonder about the cashier, who sincerely wishes me a great day. Did you vote for him? Did you vote for the man who wants to ban Muslims from entering the United States? The same…
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opinion

hate, president, trump, WTF

Cowardly Congress Aided by Silent Democrats

Muñoz June 18, 2016

If the 20 children and seven teachers of Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT, killed in 2012, do not convince Republicans governors and lawmakers nationwide to make buying weapons a bureaucratic nightmare, then dozens of LGBTQ Latinos killed this…
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opinion

congress, democrats, gun control, lgbtq, orlando

That Burning Sensation is Sexism

Muñoz March 9, 2016

The small but loud Hillary Haters Club has grown even more spiteful. Maybe they know the truth already. That even as Sen. Bernie Sanders wins, he will not be the Democratic nominee because he lags far behind in delegates. And…
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newspaper

bernie sanders, hillar clinton, progressives, sexism

Puerto Rico and the United States 101

Muñoz February 10, 2016

In 1898, the exhausted Spanish empire illegally gave away Puerto Rico to the United States at the end of the Spanish-America War. Gen. Nelson Miles, an architect of the massacre of indigenous peoples in the 19th century in this country,…
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newspaper

Our politics are divided. They have been for a long time. And while I know that division makes it difficult to listen to Americans with whom we disagree, that’s what we need to do today.
I recognize that repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act has become a core tenet of the Republican Party. Still, I hope that our Senators, many of whom I know well, step back and measure what’s really at stake, and consider that the rationale for action, on health care or any other issue, must be something more than simply undoing something that Democrats did.
We didn’t fight for the Affordable Care Act for more than a year in the public square for any personal or political gain – we fought for it because we knew it would save lives, prevent financial misery, and ultimately set this country we love on a better, healthier course.
Nor did we fight for it alone. Thousands upon thousands of Americans, including Republicans, threw themselves into that collective effort, not for political reasons, but for intensely personal ones – a sick child, a parent lost to cancer, the memory of medical bills that threatened to derail their dreams.
And you made a difference. For the first time, more than ninety percent of Americans know the security of health insurance. Health care costs, while still rising, have been rising at the slowest pace in fifty years. Women can’t be charged more for their insurance, young adults can stay on their parents’ plan until they turn 26, contraceptive care and preventive care are now free. Paying more, or being denied insurance altogether due to a preexisting condition – we made that a thing of the past.
We did these things together. So many of you made that change possible.
At the same time, I was careful to say again and again that while the Affordable Care Act represented a significant step forward for America, it was not perfect, nor could it be the end of our efforts – and that if Republicans could put together a plan that is demonstrably better than the improvements we made to our health care system, that covers as many people at less cost, I would gladly and publicly support it.
That remains true. So I still hope that there are enough Republicans in Congress who remember that public service is not about sport or notching a political win, that there’s a reason we all chose to serve in the first place, and that hopefully, it’s to make people’s lives better, not worse.
But right now, after eight years, the legislation rushed through the House and the Senate without public hearings or debate would do the opposite. It would raise costs, reduce coverage, roll back protections, and ruin Medicaid as we know it. That’s not my opinion, but rather the conclusion of all objective analyses, from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, which found that 23 million Americans would lose insurance, to America’s doctors, nurses, and hospitals on the front lines of our health care system.
The Senate bill, unveiled today, is not a health care bill. It’s a massive transfer of wealth from middle-class and poor families to the richest people in America. It hands enormous tax cuts to the rich and to the drug and insurance industries, paid for by cutting health care for everybody else. Those with private insurance will experience higher premiums and higher deductibles, with lower tax credits to help working families cover the costs, even as their plans might no longer cover pregnancy, mental health care, or expensive prescriptions. Discrimination based on pre-existing conditions could become the norm again. Millions of families will lose coverage entirely.
Simply put, if there’s a chance you might get sick, get old, or start a family – this bill will do you harm. And small tweaks over the course of the next couple weeks, under the guise of making these bills easier to stomach, cannot change the fundamental meanness at the core of this legislation.
I hope our Senators ask themselves – what will happen to the Americans grappling with opioid addiction who suddenly lose their coverage? What will happen to pregnant mothers, children with disabilities, poor adults and seniors who need long-term care once they can no longer count on Medicaid? What will happen if you have a medical emergency when insurance companies are once again allowed to exclude the benefits you need, send you unlimited bills, or set unaffordable deductibles? What impossible choices will working parents be forced to make if their child’s cancer treatment costs them more than their life savings?
To put the American people through that pain – while giving billionaires and corporations a massive tax cut in return – that’s tough to fathom. But it’s what’s at stake right now. So it remains my fervent hope that we step back and try to deliver on what the American people need.
That might take some time and compromise between Democrats and Republicans. But I believe that’s what people want to see. I believe it would demonstrate the kind of leadership that appeals to Americans across party lines. And I believe that it’s possible – if you are willing to make a difference again. If you’re willing to call your members of Congress. If you are willing to visit their offices. If you are willing to speak out, let them and the country know, in very real terms, what this means for you and your family.
After all, this debate has always been about something bigger than politics. It’s about the character of our country – who we are, and who we aspire to be. And that’s always worth fighting for.