USA Weekend interviews Roslyn Sanchez

Getting to know ... Roselyn Sanchez
Her nose is fodder for Internet gossip, but this rising star's career really has legs.
http://usaweekend.com/07_issues/070930/070930celebs-roselyn-sanchez.html

Orlando Sentinel reviews "Ladron que roba a Ladron."

The Sentinel praises "Ladron" as a movie that squarely targets immigrant Latinos, a target not seriously addressed before.



http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/PrintStory.pl?document_id=2003911184&zsection_id=2003682219&slug=ladron29&date=20070929

ChicagoTribune digs on Cane

The Trib lauds CBS for taking on Latino roles, but pans the resulting effort as stereotypical.
http://www.hispanicbusiness.com/news/news_print.asp?id=77292

MSNBC examines entrepreneurship for Latino Heritage Month

Viva entrepreneurship!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20993803/print/1/displaymode/1098/

Future of Latino Marketing - End of the Mass Market Myth

The other night as I sat down to watch "From Mambo to Hip Hop: A Bronx Tale" - a PBS documentary from the folks from Latino Public Broadcasting - that I had Tivo'ed, it struck me - Latino marketing is about to undergo a radical change.

The documentary retells the story of the South Bronx from the end of WWII to the early days of hip-hop in the early 80s, linking the two music forms in time. It also details the US (specifically NYC) form of Caribbean music known as "Salsa" and the inter-cultural melting pot between African-Americans and Latinos that gave rise to hip-hop.

What struck me is how this South Bronx experience was fundamentally Latino and American and fundamentally unlike my experience growing up very Latino and American as a Mexican-American in Texas.

That goes again everything that Latino marketers have said since the 80s - that all Latinos in the country are united by a common culture that can be tapped into through a single platform like television.

Latino marketers nurtured the myth to hype the market size, to inflate the total potential of audience, that they could in turn sell to corporate America. To date, it's worked and driving the stock price of Univision and others.

In my opinion, that myth will destroy itself and crumble apart from its deceit within the next five years as corporate marketers become more sophisticated about targeting and using data to reach customers.

The first evidence of this is the complete failure of pan-Latino web sites to resonate with audiences as a cultural or language play.

Starmedia attempted to take the myth from across the United States to across the Spanish-speaking world. In doing so, it make the total size of the potential business seem much grander and lucrative than it ever was. The myth held long enough to get investors to open up their wallets on the hope of quick returns. But the end result was that the hype could not last without any underlying substance.

Expect big changes in the next few years.

More on the "The War"

San Antonio Express News reporter Elaine Ayala writes on the subject:

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/printer2/index.asp?ploc=b&refer=http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/visualart/333123_latinos27.html

News flash - one more US born Latino joins the world

At 8:59 am Monday Sept. 24, 2007, Jonathan Maximo "Max" Gonzales was born in Arlington, Va. Weighing in at 10 pounds four ounces and 22 inches long, he'll live up to his nickname.

USAToday: Cane not sweet enough for Latinos on TV

Even top Latino talent can't raise 'Cane'
http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/reviews/2007-09-24-cane_N.htm

NYT: Profile of Grupo Gallegos in Long Beach

The New York Times sits down with the team from Grupo Gallegos.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/23/magazine/23gallegos-t.html?_r=1&ref=media&pagewanted=all

LA Times: No black-Latino violence trend

Black/Latino Violence? Scholars find no clear trend
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/homicidereport/2007/09/blacklatino-vio.html

"The researchers said that, although some cross-racial crimes involving blacks and Latinos have been "sensationalized," the numbers suggest that offenders preying on people of their own race is a much bigger problem, and should remain the focus of police attention."

If you're an immigrant, at least Uncle Sam wants you

Yo Soy el Army
If you're an immigrant, at least Uncle Sam wants you
http://www.metroactive.com/metro/09.19.07/news-0738.html

E&P: Spanish-dominant Latinos read newspapers

Editor & Publisher
Spanish-Speaking Hispanics Are 'Avid' Newspaper Readers, Study Finds
http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003643740

Link to the study
http://hmc.comm.fsu.edu/OldandNewMedia091307.pdf

HoustonChronicle: cartoonist of Baldo to tell WWII story of Latinos missing in Ken Burns' "The War"

Latinos plan protests of Burns' "The War"
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/5145311.html

Hector Cantu - the writer of the cartoon Baldo - has been a friend of mine since way back. We were cub reporters together at the San Antonio Light.

ChristianScienceMonitor: Univision a contender

Among networks, Spanish-language Univision is now a top contender
Univision has surpassed the networks in young adult viewership, according to recent Nielsen ratings. This prominence of Spanish-language media has some concerned about the cultural isolation of Hispanic immigrants.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0917/p01s03-ussc.htm

"Because [producers] assume the real Latinos just watch Spanish-language TV, when they do put a Latino in their shows it's usually a stereotypical representation," says Rose. That leaves younger US-born Latinos stuck: "Their parents' TV is corny, but on English-language shows they are just the drug dealer or the maid."

Also look for the audio link for comments from the reporter on how young Latinos comedy values differ greatly from those of their immigrant parents.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0917/p01s03-ussc.html?page=2

Disconnect: Latino media companies management and audience

I was watching a Latino Public Broadcasting show on Latino arts movements around the country and it hit me - the management of Latino media everywhere in the country doesn't look like the folks in this show.

In the United States, the two single largest groups of Latinos are Mexican-Americans and Puerto Ricans. But in the management of Latino media you find mostly foreign-born Cubans and South Americans. The former - the Mexican-Americans and Puerto Ricans - tend to be "brown" and Democratic while the later - the Cubans and South Americans- tend to be white and Republican.

Is it any wonder Latino media management doesn't get Chicanos or Nuyoricans - US born folks of Mexican and Puerto Rican descent?

Must Si TV - Latino Public TV's Lalo Guerero - The Original Chicano

I tivo'ed "Lalo Guerero - the Original Chicano" - and finally watched it this weekend. What a joy to learn more about this treasure of a man who put to song in so many forms the struggles of Mexican-American identity.

The hour-long program - which won an Alma Award in 2006 - takes you through the history of this original Chicano from the 20s up until the '00s and his impact on Latino music. Along the way, the documentary eloquently conveys the quagmire of Chicano identity - being treated as a Mexican in the United States and a Gringo in Mexico.

Thank you Latino Public Television for producing this and thank you Edward James Olmos, Paul Rodriguez, Cheech Marin and Luis Valdez for your work on the project.

It's definitely "Must Si Tv."

Here's the website of the show, but it's super basic.
http://www.originalchicano.com/

WSJ - GOP losing Latino votes by immigrant bashing

REVIEW & OUTLOOK
Hispanics and the GOP
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118982449974228504.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

"To understand this remarkable erosion of Latino support for Republicans, look no further than the most recent Presidential debates. While GOP candidates debated the urgency of erecting a fence from California to Texas along the Mexican border, Democrats debated in Spanish on Univision."

WP: Univision overhyped Demo debate ratings

Correcting the Univision Record
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2007/09/12/post_67.html

."... Univision claimed that the Democratic debate reached 4.6 million people. That figure, touted by the network and originally reported on here, wasn't entirely accurate. It refers to the overall reach of the broadcast -- the total number of people who, at any given six minutes (ask Nielsen why six minutes), tuned in. In fact, the total average viewers for Sunday's debate was 2.2 million, more than a million short of last week's Republican debate on Fox News."

WSJ Opinion- Univision strongly biased against Republicans

WSJ COMMENTARY - The World According to Univision By LESLIE SANCHEZ
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118964478980025903.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

"Faced with an onslaught of biased reporting, Republicans are right to have reservations about Univision. .....

If their views were presented fairly, it's likely that Republicans would connect with Hispanic voters. That may be why the network's news coverage often downplays issues that make Hispanics dislike Democrats (abortion, same-sex marriage, taxes) and sensationalizes the immigration issue as a way of demonizing Republicans -- even those who are not anti-immigrant."

Ultimate Reason why pan-Latino sites failed - Ignorance and Deceit

My wife was a television reporter and anchor in Laredo, Texas - one of if not the most Hispanic city in the United States with 98 percent of the population classified as Latino.

Her station - located on the Rio Grande so close to Mexico you could throw a stone or even shout a conversation across the border - was and is in English.

It wasn't the only English-language channel in town. Yes Virginia, Latinos are Americans and can speak English.

However, whenever non-Hispanic media execs get exited about Latinos they start speaking in tongues and remembering foreign vacations to overdeveloped resort towns.

Why? Ignorance, ignorance perpetuated by two very different forces - anti-immigrant, anti-Latino bigots and .... the owners of traditional Spanish-language media.

• Anti-immigrant groups say Latinos are foreigners who can't speak English and remain loyal to their "home" country.
  
• Sales people at Spanish-language media say Latinos prefer Spanish, remain rooted in the culture of their "home" country, and enjoy content from their "home" country.

It's a myth that refuses to die.

As a web analyst, I believe the failure of pan-Latino sites is rooted in that myth, one of ignorance and deceit. Traditional Spanish-language media has sold on that myth for decades. Corporate America has bought based on that myth for decades. In the relatively untrackable world of off-line media, it's worked wonders. In the hyper trackable world of on-line, it failed.

As a web analyst, I believe the trackability of on-line will prove the downfall of the myth, ending the ignorance and deceit.

L:ATimes: Univision debates only symbolic for Latinos who can vote

The symbolic Spanish debate
Democrats roll their r's on Spanish-language TV, even though most Latino voters speak English.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oew-pandey12sep12,0,1151010.story?coll=la-opinion-center

"The largely bilingual second generation and the mostly English-only third generation make up the bulk of the Latino electorate."

Newsweek: The Fight for Latino Loyalties

The Fight for Latino Loyalties
The Democrats’ Sunday night Univision debate was just the first step in a drive to reverse George Bush’s gains among Hispanic voters. On to 'Latino Tuesday.'

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20712323/site/newsweek/page/0/

MediaPost: Nielsen favors Spanish-langauge TV

Nielsen Sample Favors Spanish Programming, Campaign Says
http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.showArticleHomePage&art_aid=67114

The article details a group's gallant effort to pressure Nielsen to account for the nativity of its Hispanic sample - something the advocacy group and I believe is a strong indicator of media language preference.

"Rose argues that Nielsen's general market sample--which now includes Hispanics and bases its estimates on 12.1 million Hispanic TV homes in the U.S. (11%)--"does not address the nativity issue." His belief is the sample places an inaccurate weight on foreign-born Latinos and hurts programmers like himself--and he wants Nielsen to change its methods in building the sample to better reflect the number of U.S. born Latinos who speak English."

SanDiegoUnionTribune: Great review of PBS's Brown is the New Green documentary

Documentary explores how the quickly rising Latino population fits into U.S. society
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/features/20070910-9999-lz1c10lopez.html

“We came here not to be separate, but to be part of the American project,” he said. “Appeal to that aspiration of ours. Don't give us the rearview mirror. That's why we left.”

HoustonChronicle: GOP losing Latino support

GOP losing support with Hispanic voters
Party is paying a price for rhetoric on immigration, some say
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5119809.html

NYC's largest Spanish-language bookstore to go Internet only

AP: U.S.'s largest Spanish-language bookstore closing to concentrate on Internet
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/09/07/america/NA-GEN-US-Spanish-Bookstore.php

ABC News reviews the Latino presdential debate

Democratic Candidates Court Latino Voters
Hispanic Debate Highlights Democratic Effort to Attract Latinos
http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=3565816

As if we didn't have enough to worry about it - Marketwatch: Latinos face foreclosure at higher rates.

MarketWatch: Minorities at higher risk of foreclosure: study
Detroit had highest percentage of high-cost mortgages in 2006
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/minorities-higher-risk-foreclosure-study/story.aspx?guid=%7B5E8F1DC8-9DA2-42B4-8504-BE6E0FC22CC6%7D

Holaviptv.com underwhelms

I got the press release of this site's launch. The Internet as part of the public imagination is about a dozen years old. So why do we still see fanfare launches for brochure sites?

http://www.hispanicprwire.com/news.php?l=in&id=9290&cha=14

WSJ: Chavez book excerpt shows support from Venevision's Gustavo Cisneros

Wall Street Journal BOOK EXCERPT - 'Hugo Chavez: The Definitive Biography of Venezuela's Controversial President'

"Müller himself confirms that Gustavo Cisneros, the wealthiest man in the country, supported the Chávez cause with cash donations and free airtime on Venevisión, his television channel. This gesture of confidence is an interesting example of the enigmatic and ambiguous relationship that has always existed between the president and the magnate."

http://online.wsj.com/public/article_print/SB118849995314413748.html

Victor Landa: Can Richardson pick up momentum?

I wonder about Richardson. Victor Landa of the San Antonio Express News does a fair job accessing his role in the Democratic presidential campaign.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/opinion/stories/MYSA090207.02H.landa_.253322b.html

ChicagoSunTimes - Latino political story includes gaff - equates Latinos with Spanish speakers

Is it any wonder that the mainstream market thinks of Latinos as permanent foreigners?

This Chicago Sun-Times story uses Spanish-speakers as a synonym for Hispanics. But otherwise, the story highlights the rising political power of Latinos in Chicagoland.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/elections/538214,CST-NWS-hispanic02.article#

SF Chronicle: Latino arts center celebrates 30 years.

Mission Cultural Center celebrates 30 years of Latino art
Chuy Varela, Special to The Chronicle
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/09/01/DDOERP0MA.DTL&type=printable