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Univisión: Una Relación Amor/Odio

28 Sep
Don Francisco Presenta

Don Francisco Presenta

Univisión- si trabajas en el marketing hispano, no lo puedes evitar, y si crecías en una familia hispana, a lo mejor conoces los programas y los personajes del canal televisivo.  Para mí, y creo que es igual para muchos hispanos jóvenes, les choca la programación de Univisión.  Y a la vez, les encanta.

Admito que aún esta noche, hace unas horas, no vi nada en la tele que me interesaba.  Y cuando eso pasa, pues, qué hago? Muchas veces, voy a Univisión.  Ahí encuentro telenovelas sobre galanes que siempre terminan enamorándose de una mujer hermosa, de orígenes humildes, y siempre tiene que luchar Contra Viento y Marea para estar al lado de su enamorado; programas de entretenimiento que dan a la gente sin talento una oportunidad de cantar frente a un Chacal enmascarado; partidos de fútbol con el mejor comentarista, Andrés Cantor; y mucho, mucho más.

Da vergüenza admitir que conozco toda clase de programa ofrecida en Univisión, pero sé que no soy la única. Me considero una persona culta, bien educada y con gustos refinados.  Conozco la poesía de Gabriela Mistral, las películas francesas de Francois Truffaut, y más.  Pero todos tenemos nuestros gustos que admitimos al mundo y los que ocultamos.  Y Univisión es un secreto que escondo de los demás.

Como feminista, me ofende que las mujeres en Univisión deben ser ex Miss Universos para ser presentadoras de televisión, y que en algunos programas de entretenimiento, pues…olvídalo.  El sentido de humor muchas veces es misógino.  Los valores promovidos en las telenovelas- la forma de avanzarse en la sociedad es casarse con un hombre rico- vienen de otro siglo.  Para resumir, mirar Univisión es como escapar de un mundo moderno y vivir en el mundo (y los valores) de nuestros abuelos.

Y sin embargo…es entretenedor. Esas telenovelas pueden hacer que una hora pase en unos segundos.  Y Sábado Gigante, a pesar de todo, me recuerda mi querida bisabuela.  Tengo muchos lindos recuerdos de pasar los sábados con ella mientras se moría de la risa al mirar las tonterías de Don Francisco- y muchas veces junto con mi papá, que no habla ni una palabra del español! Durante el día laboral, hablo un español de empresas.  Pero si no fuera por eso, simplemente no tendría la oportunidad de escuchar mi querido español.  Creo que para muchos de nosotros, ver Univisión nos da la oportunidad de escuchar el español, no importa si lo hablamos con soltura o si sólo entendemos unas palabras.  Es la lengua de nuestra infancia.

Latinos Networking : Thoughts on Latino2

20 Sep
Latino2

Latino2

Though I am feeling tired after 5 hours on Highway 5 from L.A. back to the Bay Area, I write this from my home in San Francisco with a sense of pride and contentment that I am working, though in a small way, to improve the landscape for Latinos in social media.  I feel like I ended up in this field almost by accident, but I’m so glad I’m here, participating in the conversation.

Held at the L.A. Convention Center, Latino2 brought together the efforts of blogueras, like Ana Flores of  SpanglishBaby, ad agency executives representing firms such as Sensis, and culminating in awards presented to top contributors to the California Latinosphere (I helped assemble the awards, woohoo!).  Despite valuable presentations by the different panelists, I always feel at professional conferences that the best part of attending is meeting interesting people who are passionate about the same things I am. And in this sense, Latino2 did not disappoint.

What can I say? Latinos who are passionate about technology, about connecting, about pride in their cultural heritage and in helping brands and marketers reach us in the best way possible- this is what I found at Latino2. Intelligent, passionate creative individuals who are doing their part to advance the conversation around Latinos, marketing, and social media.  I met some great people- young, old, male, female, Mexican, Cuban, Puerto Rican, and more. And all Latino.

Still Waiting for That Latino Revolution…

14 Sep
San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro

San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro

Last week, I just missed the Thursday night chat on Twitter for Latinos in Social Media, and so was grateful to be able to peruse the transcript that was later posted by Elianne Ramos, one of the forces behind LatiSM.  I admit to perusing the chat and not reading it all (4 hours or so worth), but I noticed a trend.  When will we Latinos become a force in politics? When will our voices be heard? When will we stand up and be heard?  When, when, when.

I don’t know if this strain of self-pity/self-questioning is unique to Latinos, but I have always noticed it- and I admit, I’ve participated. A lot.  We tend to look at the African American community and wonder why we don’t have an Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson (to which I say, THANK GOD).  We tend to look at the Asian American community and wonder why we don’t have similar levels of success (i.e. college graduation rates, test scores). The mainstream media often speaks breathlessly about the impact Latinos will have on elections, entertainment, sports, and more.  And yet we still feel invisible.  Por qué?

Perhaps it’s because we feel that our power in numbers is not reflected in mainstream media news stories (an abysmally low number of stories are about us).  Perhaps it’s because we watch mainstream American sports and don’t see ourselves reflected in the teams (I mean American Latinos, not foreign-born Latinos.  But we still love you, Big Papi). And my theory as to why we seem invisible politically? Time zones.  By the time Pennsylvania and Ohio had helped put Obama into the win column in the 2008 presidential elections, the heavy get out the Latino vote campaigns in Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico were an afterthought.

My personal pet peeve regarding the national dialogue about Latinos? This constant idea that we’ve just arrived.  And hey, many of us have.  But many of us, perhaps even most of us, have roots in the United States that go far back. My maternal grandmother was born to a Mexican family in Garden City, Kansas.  My Mexican-born mother grew up in East L.A. listening to Elvis (sorry to reveal your age there, Mom). Her friends all grew up in the barrio and all have deep roots in this country.  So we have been a part of the fabric of this country for a long time. When will our impact be felt?

Who knows.  I sympathize with those who wonder when it will be our time.  I still see portrayals of Latinos in the media that make me cringe (most provided by Carlos Mencía).  I wonder when our political impact will be felt.  Yet I feel hopeful.  Poco poquito, we’re making our presence known.  We’ve got Sofia Vergara on Modern Family. Zoe Saldana in the highest-grossing movie of all time. Robert Rodriguez making a movie starring the most feo actor in Hollywood.  And in the political arena, mayor of San Antonio Julian Castro is impressive.  No se preocupen.  Organize and act.  Our day is coming.

Let’s Bury the Term Anchor Babies Now and Forever

7 Sep
Anchors Away

Anchors Away

There are a lot of angry white people in America these days, and they are angry about many many, things, such as that insidious problem known as the anchor baby.

Ah, the anchor baby, a two-word term that makes my blood boil. Which came first- the movement to strip babies born to non-citizens of their citizenship, or the term which reduces the mothers of said children to bulky ships, using their children to “anchor” their lives of living high on the hog in America?  One ugly idea, it seems, supports and breathes life into the other.

I will leave for the sociologists the question of why, at this historical moment, during the presidential term of our first President of color, there has been a rise in elderly white angst.  Though I’m no expert, I’ll wager that most of the individuals rallying around this cause (how we determine who is worthy of earned citizenship and who is not has yet to be addressed by these yahoos) feel that a) America is becoming latinized, and b) that is a very, very, very scary thing.

So what’s to be scared of?  In addition to sociology, I am also not an expert at economics.  But I know that this country has a dire need for fresh workers during this recessionary time.  And during these lean times, it is easy to scapegoat the people who look and sound different from us for our woes.  Yes, there is an economic argument for not clamping down on immigration, or the children of people in this country with no papers.  But there is a moral argument, too.  Referring to a mother giving birth to a child as someone dropping anchor is crass and wrong.  It shows a profound misunderstanding of why immigrants, be they legal or illegal, come to this nation.

People go through harrowing conditions, traversing nations, dangerous highways and scorching deserts, leaving homes and families and starting from zero in a foreign land, for the chance to drop a kid or two in the land of the free and the home of the brave, right? Right.  In reality, people live their lives.  They come here with children, or they come single.  Husbands and wives welcome additions to their families, and formerly single people meet in a new land, fall in love and have children.  As simple as that.

As my Dad, a second generation Lebanese-American, once elegantly put it, “Everyone talks about Mexicans coming to this country and multiplying as if it was a bad thing”.  Now, the man married a Mexicana.  But he has a very good point.  Dad, my sentiments exactly.

Inaugural Post

30 Aug

Bienvenidos!  What do I envision with this site? Not a self-indulgent list of what I ate, thought, drank and otherwise consumed, media and food-wise, throughout the day (that’s what Twitter’s for, silly).  This site is for thoughts, reflections, analysis and pithy musings on Hispanic culture, Hispanic marketing in particular, and of course, the mixed-race experience, both my own and that of others.  Mixed? Gee, what’s your mix? See name of blog, above.