Ruben Navarrette Jr., a columnist and editorial board member of The San Diego Union-Tribune, is a fresh and increasingly important voice in the national political debate. His twice-weekly column offers new thinking on many of the major issues of the day, especially on thorny questions involving ethnicity and national origin. His column is syndicated worldwide by The Washington Post Writers Group. After graduating from Harvard in 1990, Navarrette returned to his native Fresno, Calif., where he began a free-lance writing career that produced more than 200 articles in such publications as the Los Angeles Times, The Fresno Bee, the Chicago Tribune and The Arizona Republic. In 1997 he joined the staff of The Arizona Republic, first as a reporter and then as a twice-weekly columnist, before returning to Harvard in the fall of 1999 to earn a master's in public administration from the Kennedy School of Government. He joined the editorial board of The Dallas Morning News in July 2000, and in 2005, moved to the Union-Tribune. His column has been in syndication since 2001. Navarrette draws on both his knowledge of policy and politics and his life experiences to provide meaningful and hard-hitting commentary. He is a gifted and widely sought speaker on Latino affairs, has worked as a substitute teacher in classes from kindergarten to high school, and has hosted radio talk shows. Navarrette has also served as guest host of public television's "Life & Times" and has discussed current affairs on CNN, CNBC, Fox News Channel, National Public Radio and The PBS Newshour with Jim Lehrer. He also does regular commentary for NPR's "Morning Edition." His book, "A Darker Shade of Crimson: Odyssey of a Harvard Chicano," drew favorable reviews after it was published in 1993. In 2000, he contributed an installment to "Chicken Soup for the Writers Soul," of the best-selling "Chicken Soup for the Soul" series. His columns won second place in the 2004 National Headliner Awards presented by the Press Club of Atlantic City. In 2002 and 2003, the Dallas Observer named him "Best Columnist at a Daily Newspaper." Navarrette was born May 11, 1967, in the farm country of the San Joaquin Valley. He attended public schools in Sanger, Calif., a town of deep roots where all four of his grandparents lived. His father is a 34-year law enforcement officer in Fresno. Ruben Sr. recently became an investigator for the California Labor Commissioner's Office where he enforces fair labor practices in some of the very same grape fields and peach orchards where he and his brothers, along with his parents, worked in the 1930s and 1940s. Navarrette lives in the San Diego area with his wife and daughter. http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RubenNavarretteJr http://media.townhall.com/TownHall/icons/TH-feed-icon-128x128.gif http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RubenNavarretteJr TownHall.com, Where your opinion counts. 128 Copyright (c) 2009 Townhall.com, A Salem Communications Web. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED jim.dearras@townhall.com (Jim De Arras) Sun, 19 Nov 2006 05:01:00 GMT Sun, 19 Nov 2006 05:01:00 GMT http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss RSS.NET: http://www.rssdotnet.com/ SAN DIEGO -- Warning: This column takes issue with a half-baked "solution," and thus will likely elicit angry letters accusing the author of "supporting illegal immigration." And since the author is Mexican-American,... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RubenNavarretteJr/2006/11/19/escondido_and_others_have_it_wrong_on_immigration ebb2f881-6023-400b-929a-cc83bd2f8cdf Sun, 19 Nov 2006 05:01:00 GMT SAN DIEGO -- There was this perceptive episode of the ``George Lopez" show where George and his wife Angie are squabbling over who contributes more to the household. They create a point system to keep track of who does... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RubenNavarretteJr/2006/11/15/mommy_or_daddy 6e3f19ca-8d72-4411-a2ea-6acddb1a0785 Wed, 15 Nov 2006 05:01:00 GMT Now that Democrats have taken control of both the House and Senate, questions are being asked about what this dramatic turn of events means for the immigration debate and for President Bush's chances to get a comprehens http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RubenNavarretteJr/2006/11/09/finding_a_common_ground 1ce3de56-8621-4691-92cd-03d7fe02dcab Thu, 09 Nov 2006 05:01:00 GMT SAN DIEGO -- Mexican President Vicente Fox recently raised eyebrows north of the border when he said that Mexicans ought to be grateful for their heritage and asked them to imagine what life would be like had they been... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RubenNavarretteJr/2006/11/08/mexicos_fox_has_it_backwards 33a3e8bd-7be1-4af8-b773-2cb5b84e055a Wed, 08 Nov 2006 05:00:00 GMT What's worse, being stuck in Iraq or stuck on stupid? We may have just witnessed the end of what was expected to be John Kerry's encore bid for the White House. Chances are the former Swift boat captain http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RubenNavarretteJr/2006/11/05/outswifted_by_himself 81d3f7c5-ad77-434a-acac-4a0a6bebebc9 Sun, 05 Nov 2006 04:01:00 GMT It's mind-boggling that folks at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue could spend so much time and energy over the last five years debating immigration reform, yet still manage to steer clear of some of the touch http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RubenNavarretteJr/2006/11/01/the_immigration_facade 4d26f223-6b24-4cd5-aab6-ba996899dae4 Wed, 01 Nov 2006 04:01:00 GMT Eric Liu is an accomplished, interesting and hard-charging member of Generation X. The 38-year-old writer graduated from Yale University and Harvard Law School, wrote three books, started a magazine, and worked http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RubenNavarretteJr/2006/10/29/no-lose_situation_for_obama 62da1dc3-b393-470c-ae83-a8831c64ca89 Sun, 29 Oct 2006 04:01:00 GMT We really are two Americas. The divide shows up in a recent CNN poll that asked people if they thought the American Dream was now impossible to reach. Fifty-four percent said yes, while 45 percent said no. http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RubenNavarretteJr/2006/10/22/two_americas 1fac9c79-05fe-4648-9158-936c56b500c5 Sun, 22 Oct 2006 04:01:00 GMT Democrats in Congress bristle when Republicans accuse them of wanting to "cut and run" in Iraq. But here at home, in terms of the politics of the war, that's exactly what they're doing. Democrats have decided that... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RubenNavarretteJr/2006/10/18/dems_flip_flop_on_iraq 3a8ba42e-512c-492f-8636-1fec765ceefc Wed, 18 Oct 2006 22:28:30 GMT