If you look in the dictionary for the definition of inspiration and perseverance, a photo of Dominican born Hansel Enmanuel Rodriguez will be the one to come up. This one-armed hooper, who is following his Dad’s footsteps in professional basketball, is a force to be reckoned with. He can dunk like the best of them, has a crossover as mean as A.I., and can silence an opposing teams cheering crowd with his killer three pointers. As of recent, he received a D1 scholarship offer from HBCU Tennessee State University. Stay tuned because this is only the beginning for Enmanuel!

In other news, with everything going on in the world today we are in need of a superhero to come through and save the day, am I right? Forget about Spider Man or Superman, there’s a new kid on the block - La La Liu, the first LGBTQ+ Latin Asian superhero to hit the comic book world. La La Liu makes her debut in the third edition of “La Borinqueña” comic book series about an environmentally conscious female superhero who gets her dope powers from the Indigenous Taíno gods of her Puerto Rican ancestors. Created by Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez, who’s characters represent & reinforce the Caribbean heritage & ancestry, Luz was created to symbolize an underrepresented group within the Latin community. Did you know there’s a Barrio Chino in the Dominican Republic? Yes, you read that correctly, D.R. has its own China town. Thank you Edgardo for shedding light on the spectrum of people that make up the Latino community!

In celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month our very own Tony Peralta was featured in a special episode of All Hands on Cheddar News -  “Building a Hispanic Business” where he speaks of the importance of the Washington Heights community, his reasons for having his Taller Peralta shop in Inwood, and how we look out for one another as Latinos knowing the hardships that come from the immigrant experience in this country. Check it out ( for a quick find of his appearance, he comes on at 36:06 in the episode)!