HispanicTrending: June 2013 posts

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June 2013 posts

This is the Latino community’s time – and it’s about more than immigration

June 21, 2013
By Juan Tornoe

If Paul Revere were alive today, he might be spreading the alarm that "The Latinos are coming! The Latinos are coming!" in order to appropriately prepare for the growth of America's Hispanic community, already the largest minority group.

According to the US Census, Latinos contributed more than any other ethnic group to population growth last year. And no, it's not all from immigration. Of the 1.15 million new Latinos, less than a quarter came from any sort of international migration. The rest were born to Hispanics already living in America.

How should "average red-blooded Americans" react to the fact that individuals with Hispanic heritage lead US population growth? There is the fear route (a la Paul Revere) or embracing as their own these new and diverse faces that are becoming an integral part of the American fabric and economy. I vote for the latter. How about you?

As an immigrant myself, I have had many interesting experiences while interacting with non-Hispanic friends and acquaintances. I understand that being Guatemalan, Evangelical Christian, fully bilingual (although with a "Puss in Boots" accent) and working in the marketing industry, among other things, does not fit with the stereotypical image people have of a Latino immigrant in Austin, Texas.

I have seen reactions all across the spectrum. Some have honest ignorance about my background accompanied by a true desire to learn more about what I am all about. They seek to find all the things and interests we have in common. Others simply decide that we are way too different to waste their time interacting with me. I can assure you the former has been a mutually enriching experience every single time.

America is first and foremost a country of immigrants, but it is also a country of descendants of immigrants. As of 2009, 63% of the Hispanic population was native-born, and that domestic growth is likely to continue. As has happened with many immigrant waves in the past, Latin Americans came in droves in the latter half of the 20th century. Now the new immigrant inflow from south of the border has somewhat watered down, especially during the recession and with increased border security. Today the real vibrancy of the Latino community is those families – and their sons and daughters and grandchildren – who are already here and growing up completely American.

As for the Latino community, this is our moment of truth. In the political arena, Texas dynamic duo Joaquín & Julián Castro, White House top staffer Katherine Archuleta, Texas Senator Ted Cruz, US supreme court justice Sonia Sotomayor, New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez and Florida Senator Marco Rubio are showcasing the diversity of Latino views and influence. In sports, Carmelo Anthony, Mark Sanchez, Danell Leyva, Sergio Romo, Sergio Peña, and Alec Martinez are starting to reach household name status. I could go on and on. I am not a fan of "celebrities" of any ethnicity, but certainly Jennifer Lopez's project to get more Hispanics on TV is another wake up call for our community.

Everybody is addressing the benefits of the enviable position in which we Hispanics find ourselves at this moment in history. They say it is "our time to harness our newfound power". Yes, but with this new power and influence come responsibilities. We are responsible for preserving America as we know it for future generations – ours and everyone else's who calls this land of liberty home. We must protect the American Dream and yet make it our own.

We need to study harder, get more experience, learn more, maintain our work ethic, and always keep striving to improve. A recent report from the US Census reveals that only 13% of Hispanic adults have a bachelor's degree of higher, compared to 27.9% of the total adult population in the US. We must get civically and politically involved and pursue becoming business leaders. Embrace the good things the American Culture has to offer, while never letting go of all the amazing things that our culture infuses into this society.

According to the revised numbers released by the Pew Hispanic Center, merely 48% of Latino eligible voters casted their vote in the 2012 general elections, compared to 64.1% of non-Hispanic whites. As for civilian employment, according to the Census bureau's 2010 American Community Survey, only 19% of Hispanics hold management positions v 39.5% of the entire US population. These numbers must improve, and must do so promptly.

We must stand in the shoulders of giants – the exceptional persons from all ethnicities and walks of life – who have built the infrastructure and conceived the principles that make this the exceptional country that it is, an continue moving forward on the path they have laid out for us.

Like it or not, from now on we Latinos will be carrying a lot on our shoulders. This is our time to shine.

Source: The Guradian

Posted by Juan Tornoe on June 21, 2013 in Current Affairs, Hispanic Business, Hispanic Culture, Hispanic Education, Hispanic Labor, Hispanic Market Size, Immigration | Permalink | Comments (1)

Study: ‘Latino Education Gap’ threatens Arizona’s economic future

June 20, 2013
By Barbara Grijalva

There's a warning that Arizona is ignoring a big part of its population, and that could have far- reaching consequences for Arizona's economy.

Arizona State University put out the warning about the "Latino Education Gap" more than ten years ago.

ASU researchers say not much has changed since then and Arizona is heading for a crisis if something is not done.

Hispanics are a growing part of the workforce in Arizona.

They say under-served Hispanic-American children are in danger of becoming an under-educated, unskilled workforce.

Researchers say it's not a cultural issue, but an issue of poverty and a lack of spending on education.

Educators, business leaders and others heard about the problem and possible solutions at a forum on the "State of Hispanic Education" in Tucson Thursday.

The Tucson Hispanic Chamber of Commerce hosted it.

The numbers show Hispanic-Americans will be the majority of Arizona's future workforce.

The conclusion is that leaving the "Latino Education Gap" wide open puts Arizona's economy at risk.

"What that's creating is a workforce that's coming up which is largely Latino–that's the young workforce coming up– that is going to be under-skilled, under-educated, and therefore not able to compete for the top jobs which has a ripple effect of Arizona not being able to compete regionally, nationally, internationally," says ASU Morrison Institute Latino Public Policy Center Director Joseph Garcia.

Garcia says, "We're creating a permanent underclass and it's not serving anyone. And the economic case is that if we don't do anything, looking just at straight-line projections, Arizona's median income actually drops by about $3,000 over the next 15 years, 20 years. And that means there's less spending money, with people buying goods and services. Less money in the economy."

There's agreement in education circles that education is the key.

"For me it's quality early childhood education," says Tucson Unified School District Superintendent Dr. John Pedicone.

He says anyone who says early childhood education doesn't matter is wrong

Pedicone says the research shows preschool and kindergarten are important to a student's success.

He says, in his opinion it starts there and "then it's about getting the resources targeted in the right way, in the right way, the right manner. The methodologies used with students that don't have the experiences that some students have have to be specific. They have to be research-based and they have to be driven by the motive to make sure that achievement occurs."

In some cases it's about money. In others, it's about policy changes.

For instance, it can take several years to turn around a failing school, but Arizona threatens the jobs of educators if they are at failing schools.

"If you're in a failing classroom or a failing school for two years in a row, your certificate is in jeopardy. Your employment is in jeopardy. You'll still have people that will go there because we've got champions, we've got crusaders going into these schools, but they're (Arizona is) discouraging people from doing that. Whether they be teachers or principals, school people are discouraged from doing the work that needs to be done to get at exactly the problem we're talking about," Pedicone says.

"It's going to take years, but we can find the solution to help our students, for our students to be proactive, for our parents to be proactive, politicians to decide to make a commitment to give more funding to education, to recruit teachers and prepare them better," says Pima Community College Senior Assistant to the Provost Dr. Dolores Duran-Cerda.

ASU's Garcia stresses the importance of Arizona students going on to college or learning a skill after high school.

Garcia says Arizona needs a "game changer."

"Every business knows R-O-I, return on investment. We have to have more investment if we're going to do anything. There has to be a statewide, concerted effort to close the gap because it is a statewide crisis. We have to recognize it as a crisis and quit fooling ourselves and somehow think it's going to fix itself.

Arizona is ranked 48th in the United States in spending on education.

Source: Tucson News Now

Posted by Juan Tornoe on June 21, 2013 in Hispanic Education | Permalink | Comments (0)

An Attack on Some Latinos Is an Attack on All Latinos

June 19, 2013
By Clarissa Martinez de Castro

After losing the Hispanic vote by a whopping 44 points last November, the Republican National Committee (RNC) commissioned an autopsy report to examine what went wrong, a much-needed effort that NCLR applauded. The report noted that "the key problem is that the Republican Party's message offends too many people unnecessarily" and that "it's imperative that the RNC changes how to engage with Hispanic communities." So let's check in to see how the Republican-led House of Representatives is doing on this important new front in the electoral battle.

Two weeks ago, the House passed an amendment to withhold funding for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which provides temporary but long-overdue relief to the nation's "DREAMers," young people who were brought to the U.S. through no decision of their own and know no other country as home. The amendment was authored by outspoken anti-immigrant Congressman Steve King (R-Iowa) who, among other things, has likened immigrants to breeding dogs.

It is hard to imagine a more gratuitous, petty, and mean-spirited amendment. The program was created a year ago and is self-funded by applicant fees. It is a small, commonsense fix for a group of young people with no other options. Not to mention, it is very popular with most Americans and has near unanimous support among Latinos.

In other words, King-style bullying on immigration like this has been soundly rejected by the Hispanic community, yet here he is as the de facto leader on this issue for his colleagues in the House. Last week, King sent out a couple of tweets saying his office had been "invaded by brazen illegal aliens" and chiding Senators McCain and Schumer for not "guarding" him.

The "invasion" was actually a group of about 20 students dressed in caps and gowns — brandishing pieces of paper with their career aspirations printed on them — who went to his office to ask the congressman about his amendment. Yet King could not muster either the courtesy or the decency to explain to these kids why he was so determined to snuff out their dreams.

Instead of being chastened by the odd actions of their colleague and the damage he is doing, a group of other House members are following his lead and passed a bill out of committee that would not only make the reviled SB 1070 the law of the land, but would also throw in some provisions from the notorious Sensenbrenner bill of 2006.

Let's set aside the myriad policy concerns about resurrecting not one, but two failed policies that have been rejected by everyone from the Supreme Court on down, and simply give these guys a much needed political history lesson. The Sensenbrenner bill, that criminalized being undocumented, which had been and still is a civil offense, prompted the largest peacetime demonstrations this country has seen since the civil rights era. SB 1070 led to boycotts and other protests, and its embrace by Mitt Romney is a big reason why we are not 100 days into the Romney administration right now.

And the anti-immigrant movement, which kicked off with the Sensenbrenner bill in 2006 and reached its zenith with SB 1070 in 2010, helped fuel Latino voter registration and Hispanic voter turnout in in 2012.

For anyone who read the RNC report, this seems like madness. Yet in the minds of many in the Republican Party who have pushed back on the RNC's assessment, there is a method to their madness. They believe that by leaving the 11 million undocumented in this country in perpetual limbo, they won't need to worry about the Latino vote. They are dead wrong. They haven't just alienated 11 million people who they believe have no power, they have alienated the other 40 million plus Latinos who are U.S. citizens. These are the people who marched in 2006 against the Sensenbrenner bill; these are the people who went to the polls in 2012.

That's because an attack on some of us is perceived, rightly, as an attack on all of us, something Hispanics have amply demonstrated by their voting choices. The issue isn't going away. These actions are shaping Latinos coming of age. In fact, there is already a rich pool of Latino citizens not yet registered, and between now and 2028 nearly 900,000 Latino citizens will turn 18 every year. If the House continues on this path, it will alienate these young people permanently. We believe that the Republican Party still has a chance at redemption with our community, but first they must stop treating us like criminals.

Source: The Huffington Post

Posted by Juan Tornoe on June 20, 2013 in Current Affairs | Permalink | Comments (0)

Latinos’ Stake in the Education Bubble

June 19, 2013
By Michelle Fields

he good news is Latinos are enrolling in college at record rates. The bad news is this means that when the education funding bubble bursts, it is likely to send devastating shock waves throughout the Latino community.

The country’s bad economy, high Hispanic unemployment rate, and soaring tuition costs have forced more and more Latinos to take out massive student loans to finance their education. According to the Center for American Progress, 67 percent of Latino college graduates leave school with some student loan debt and two-thirds of graduates leave with more than $25,000 in debt. Couple that with the rapid growth of Latinos in college enrollment and the percentage of Latinos graduating knee-deep in debt will undoubtedly increase.

This could result in more Latinos unable to qualify for home loans after graduation and unable to save for retirement, which could ultimately weaken our overall economy.

The student loan crisis is now coming to a head this month with interest rates on federally subsidized student loans set to double on July 1 to 6.8 percent. Lawmakers in Washington have come up with several solutions, including suppressing interest rates, providing more subsidies, and offering generous re-payment options.

Unfortunately, none of these proposals offer a real, long-term solution. They fail to encourage students to take on less debt, they do not address the problem of rising tuition costs and they do not solve the looming student loan crisis facing the Latino community as well as the country.

The student loan crisis is not about interest rates — it is a result of the cost of education rising to levels unattainable for the average American family. Moreover, the families who are often hurt the most are Latinos since many suffer from lower wages and must take on more debt to finance higher education.

If we want to fix the out-of-control college tuition prices, we need to rethink government subsidies. Although federal aid is supposed to help American families by offsetting college tuition costs, it is actually one of the main forces driving the growth in college tuition and fees. Federal subsidies, in the form of loans and Pell grants, raise the cost of tuition and lead to even higher subsidies and higher tuition costs. We constantly hear politicians calling for more federal dollars to fund higher education. However, when the government hands out free money, it not only increases a student’s willingness to pay more, but it also encourages colleges to set tuition and fees higher so that they can capture those free, additional government funds.

Federal subsidies also create an artificial demand for higher education while diminishing the return on investment for graduates. Students are graduating with massive debt and graduating into a market with jobs that do not demand a degree. According to the Center for College Affordability, almost half of college graduates are working at jobs that do not require a college degree. Furthermore, only seven of the 30 occupations expected to have the largest growth in the next decade require a college degree. The people who ultimately benefit from these subsidies are the colleges, not the debt-ridden students.

If we want college tuition and fees to decrease, we must start talking about the perverse effects of federal government aid. The subsidies, though well intentioned, are causing students to take on massive debt, while inflating the cost of tuition and diminishing the worth of a college degree. By stripping away federal subsidies so that we have something that looks more like a free market, college institutions will have an incentive to be more innovative and lower the cost of education.

However, if Latinos choose to ignore the need for a real solution to the higher education bubble –and instead insist on short-term solutions like lower interest rates– they risk being hurt the hardest when it bursts.

Source: Fox News Latino

Posted by Juan Tornoe on June 20, 2013 in Hispanic Education | Permalink | Comments (0)

Significant increases in broadband access have greatly benefited Latinos

June 19, 2013
by Rafael Fantuazzi

In recent years, the percentage of American households with a broadband connection has increased dramatically—from 4.4 percent in 2000 up to 67 percent in 2010—according to a report released by the White House late last week. Additionally, average broadband speeds have doubled since 2009, and more than 80 percent of American homes can now access high-speed broadband networks. The report, “Four Years of Broadband Growth,” illustrates the nation’s progress in expanding broadband access and outlines President Obama’s plan to reinforce America’s leadership in high-speed mobile broadband and to encourage continued technological innovation.

This impressive increase in broadband subscribership and service speeds would not be possible without our nation’s hypercompetitive broadband market. This broadband growth and competition continues to strongly benefit the Latino community who regularly connect to the mobile Internet to explore new opportunities in education, professional advancement and civic engagement. U.S. broadband providers invest billions in building their networks each year and further competition by constantly striving for better services, faster speeds, and innovative capabilities for the communities they serve. In fact, broadband providers have increased their annual investments into U.S. networks by more than 40 percent between 2009 and 2012, an increase from $21 billion up to $30 billon. This investment is expected to increase to $35 billion in 2013. All told, the U.S. wireless broadband industry contributes more than $150 billion to our country’s GDP each year.

Clearly, our current pro-competition and pro-investment regulatory environment serves our country, our economy and American consumers, who now enjoy unprecedented choices when it comes to service, speed, applications, and devices. Access to high-speed broadband service has become critical to Americans. It provides access to educational enrichment and higher education, job training and opportunities, health care and information, professional and social networking, and civic engagement in our Latino communities. The ability to connect with the people who matter most to each of us enhances our quality of life, while easy access to information and news helps communities as a whole become better informed. Enjoying increased access to a full range of new possibilities also delivers a real chance for equality of opportunity for all Americans.

But for some communities, broadband subscribership rates still lag behind. For example, the report showed that only 56 percent of Hispanic households have adopted broadband service at home, a rate that still lags far behind our white or Asian counterparts. And although the total percentage of the Latino community using the Internet has increased from 64% in 2009 to 78% in 2012, in order to continue to increase this number and to deliver the benefits of broadband to more Hispanic American communities, it’s imperative that Washington reinforce policies that strongly encourage continued private investment in next-generation broadband infrastructure and help advance education and awareness programs that demonstrate the benefits that high-speed broadband brings to all Americans.

As this report clearly shows, our government has already discovered the best way to foster a thriving, hypercompetitive broadband market, in which more people benefit from access and U.S. providers contribute to economic growth while simultaneously developing new technological innovations.

Common sense tells us that if our current approach to broadband regulation and policy isn’t broken, we shouldn’t fix it. If we want people to continue to benefit from this technology, economic growth, and innovation, then the best way to move forward is with policies that encourage enhanced investment and education on why high-speed Internet services helps improve lives. Impressive strides have been made in recent years, and we need polices that will help more people, including our Latino communities, benefit from broadband technologies and greater access to those next-generation digital services.

Source: NBC Latino

Posted by Juan Tornoe on June 20, 2013 in Hispanic Websites | Permalink | Comments (0)

Diverse Origins: The Nation’s 14 Largest Hispanic-Origin Groups

June 19, 2013
by Mark Hugo Lopez, Ana Gonzalez-Barrera and Danielle Cuddington

The nation’s Latino population is diverse. Represented among the 51.9 million Latinos in the United States are individuals who trace their heritage to more than 20 Spanish-speaking nations worldwide. But one group—Mexicans—dominates the nation’s Latino population.

In 2011, nearly two-thirds (64.6%) of U.S. Hispanics, or 33.5 million, traced their family origins to Mexico, according to Pew Research Center tabulations of the 2011 American Community Survey (ACS). By comparison, Puerto Ricans, the nation’s second largest Hispanic-origin group, number about 5 million and make up 9.5% of the total Hispanic population in the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Following Mexicans and Puerto Ricans are Salvadorans, Cubans, Dominicans, Guatemalans, Colombians, Spaniards, Hondurans, Ecuadorians, Peruvians, Nicaraguans, Venezuelans and Argentineans. Together these 14 groups make up 95% of the U.S. Hispanic population. Among them, six Hispanic origin groups have populations greater than 1 million.

Mexican-origin Hispanics have always been the largest Hispanic-origin group in the U.S. In 1860, for example, among the 155,000 Hispanics living in the U.S., 81% were of Mexican origin—a historic high. Since then the origins of the nation’s Hispanic population have diversified as growing numbers of immigrants from other Latin American nations and Puerto Rico settled in the U.S. For example, between 1930 and 1980, Hispanics from places other than Mexico nearly doubled their representation among U.S. Hispanics, from 22% to 41%. But with the arrival of large numbers of Mexican immigrants in the 1980s and 1990s, the Mexican share among Hispanics grew, rising to a recent peak of 66% in 2008. Since then it has declined slightly—to 65%—as Mexican migration to the U.S. has slowed (Passel, Cohn and Gonzalez-Barrera, 2012).

The nation’s Hispanic-origin population differs in many other ways as well. For instance, U.S. Hispanics of Mexican origin have the lowest median age, at 25 years, while Hispanics of Cuban origin have the highest median age, at 40 years. Venezuelans are the most likely to have a college degree (51%) while Guatemalans and Salvadorans are among the least likely (7%). Argentineans have the highest annual median household income ($55,000) while Hondurans have the lowest ($31,000). Close to half (46%) of Hondurans and Guatemalans do not have health insurance while 15% of Puerto Ricans and Spaniards do not have health insurance. Further comparisons and rankings of the nation’s largest Hispanic-origin groups are shown in the appendix of this report.

Hispanics are the nation’s largest minority group. Estimates released last week by the U.S. Census Bureau (2013) show that the Hispanic population in 2012 was 53 million, making up 17% of the U.S. population. By comparison, non-Hispanic blacks, who are the nation’s second largest minority group, represent 12% of the nation’s population and non-Hispanic Asians rank third at 5%.

Hispanics are also the nation’s largest immigrant group and one of its fastest growing populations. According to the Census Bureau, Hispanic population growth between 2000 and 2010 accounted for more than half of the nation’s population growth (Passel, Cohn and Lopez, 2011). Among the nation’s 40.4 million immigrants, nearly half (47%) are Hispanic (Motel and Patten, 2013).

Accompanying this report are 14 statistical profiles—one for each of the 14 largest Hispanic-origin groups. Each statistical profile describes the demographic, employment and income characteristics of a Hispanic-origin population residing in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Each origin group’s characteristics are compared with all Hispanics and the U.S. population overall.

Source: Pew Hispanic Center

Posted by Juan Tornoe on June 20, 2013 in Hispanic Culture, Hispanic Facts and Figures, Hispanic Market Size | Permalink | Comments (0)

Latinos Learn English Faster Than Past Immigrants

June 18, 2013
By Cristina Constantini

Many who oppose high levels of Latino immigration argue that these new immigrants don't learn English as quickly as prior waves of European immigrants did.

A series of new studies, however, reveals a different picture. Latinos are doing pretty well at learning English, especially when compared to many German immigrants of the 19th century, who were considerably slower to acquire the language.

The research, conducted by Joseph Salmons of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Miranda E. Wilkerson of Columbia College, indicates that a significant portion of second and third-generation descendants of immigrants in Wisconsin did not learn English, and spoke only German. The difference doesn't quite have to do with geographical isolation or lack of educational resources. It seems in such communities there was not as much of a cultural emphasis or need placed on learning English.

Today, 92 percent of the Latino second generation (children of immigrants) speak English "very well," and by the third generation nearly one hundred percent of Latinos are either English dominant or fully bilingual, according to a Pew study from last year.

In the late nineteenth century, in contrast, more than a third of all residents of Wisconsin were native German speakers, and in some counties, like Hustisford, Wisconsin, 35 percent of American-born (second generation) immigrants spoke only German.

Salmons says there are no Latino communities in the U.S. that mimic these patterns.

"I challenge anybody to show me a third generation person in this country who speaks Spanish and no English, whereas we can find in the Census records, we can find those people in German speaking communities," said Joseph Salmons, who studies language acquisition in immigrant communities. "Find me a place where you have a third of the community speaking only Spanish, and over half of them are born in the U.S. I don't believe it, and I don't know of any evidence to suggest as much."

Their findings are based on an analysis of Census data from 1910 as well as more qualitative research of community records.

Much like today, many in the 19th and early 20th centuries feared that immigrants would threaten the prosperity of the nation as a whole. Even founding father Benjamin Franklin wrote in 1753:

"Few of their children in the country learn English… The signs in our streets have inscriptions in both languages … Unless the stream of their importation could be turned they will soon so outnumber us that all the advantages we have will not be able to preserve our language, and even our government will become precarious."

But turns out, we were alright and today, more Americans say their ancestry traces back to Germany than to any other foreign nation.

Salmons believes looking at history is a good way to shape how we think about the present immigration debate.

"In a country like ours where immigration has been going on for hundreds of years, the rhetoric has remained almost the same for those hundreds of years," Salmons said.

"It's really useful for people to consider the history, even their own family's history, and their own community's history as they consider the current debate."

Source: ABC News / Univision

Posted by Juan Tornoe on June 20, 2013 in Language | Permalink | Comments (0)

Who’s Hispanic? Gabriel Gomez faces litmus test

June 18, 2013
By Raul A. Reyes

Gabriel Gomez is having his moment in the spotlight. The son of Colombian immigrants made Massachusetts history in April when he became the first Hispanic to win a major Republican primary there.

On June 29, he faces 16-term Democrat Ed Markey in a special race for the U.S. Senate seat formerly held by John Kerry. But not everyone sees him as a Hispanic trailblazer. The Boston Spanish-language newspaper El Planeta ran a column wondering if Gmez is a “LINO” (Latino In Name Only).

It’s bad enough that La Planeta raised this question — and worse that its answer was “yes.”

Litmus tests for ethnicity serve no purpose besides dividing our community. They are pointless, unnecessary and borderline offensive. Yet as more Hispanic candidates join the political arena, these questions seem to be the new norm.

That’s unfortunate. Consider that in Los Angeles, Eric Garcetti ran for mayor amid ongoing questions about his heritage. Garcetti is Jewish on his mother’s side while his father’s ancestors are Italian immigrants to Mexico. Garcetti identifies as Mexican and speaks fluent Spanish. Nonetheless, his roots became an issue during his race to succeed Antonio Villaraigosa as Los Angeles mayor.

California Assembly Speaker John Prez told a local radio station, “There isn’t a Latino candidate running for mayor that I know of.” And a Hispanic city council member said of Garcetti, “He says he’s Latino but, you know, that’s for the voters to see or the constituents to see.”

As it turned out, Garcetti was elected by a comfortable margin, including support from 60 percent of L.A.’s Latino voters. However, it is troubling that fellow Hispanics challenged his background. The first and last word on Garcetti’s heritage ought to belong to Garcetti.

While Garcetti faced scrutiny on account of his actual ethnicity, other Latinos are challenged because of their politics. Bill Richardson, New Mexico’s former governor, told ABC News that Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, should not be “defined as a Hispanic” because he doesn’t support immigration reform. Richardson later said his remarks had been misinterpreted. Still, since when did there become an officially sanctioned Latino viewpoint?

Richardson would be wise to think about the dangers of a checklist approach to ethnicity. If we’re going to question whether a person is truly Hispanic, some might say that Richardson, raised as a youth in Mexico by his U.S.-businessman father and Mexican mother who still lives there, does not measure up.

Is that fair? Of course not. Nor is challenging a person’s heritage because he or she has independent views.

Fact is, a Latino can be libertarian, oppose immigration reform or be half Chinese. That doesn’t make him less Latino.

The irony here is that few of us call ourselves “Hispanic” or “Latino.” According to the Pew Center, 51 percent of Hispanics self-identify by their family’s country of origin, such as Mexico or Cuba. Only 24 percent use the broader terms “Hispanic” or “Latino.” So all this fuss about the authentic Latino / Hispanic identity is a waste of time. Most of us don’t describe ourselves in those terms anyway.

For Gabriel Gmez, being Latino is one aspect of an interesting candidacy. He is a former Navy SEAL, Harvard Business School graduate and successful businessman. He supports immigration reform and same-sex marriage, but has yet to receive the full backing of the national GOP. La Planeta was off base in calling him a LINO. If what they meant is that Gmez has not been active in the Hispanic community or causes, then they should say so. Or call him out for his conservative ties. Let’s just drop the ethnic jabs.

Yes, ethnicity matters to us. We are often thrilled by the successes of fellow Hispanics such as Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor and San Antonio Mayor Julin Castro. Diversity within our community should be celebrated, not scorned. Like them or not, Garcetti, Cruz and Gmez each is “one of us.”

Latinos have fought too long for respect and inclusion. The last thing we need to do is attack each other on the basis of our heritage.

Source: The Reporter

Posted by Juan Tornoe on June 20, 2013 in Hispanic Culture | Permalink | Comments (0)

CNN Latino expanding to court more US Hispanics

June 16, 2013
Via AFP

CNN Latino is expanding its broadcast channel in Miami looking to win over a bigger share of the growing Hispanic market, a top executive said Monday.

"CNN is a broadcast television offering that has more variety, that is offering news but with very current ideas about what news people are interested in. It's not just hard news, round-the-clock," CNN en Espanol vice president Cynthia Hudson told AFP.

Hispanics are the largest minority group in the United States.

More than half of Latinos (over 60 percent) are of Mexican origin or descent. But other large groups of Hispanic-Americans come from Puerto Rico, Cuba, Central America, Colombia and Venezuela.

In the past, Mexican-owned channels broadcasting in Spanish and catering to US Hispanics often were criticized for aiming their programming only at people of Mexican origin or descent.

CNN Latino, part of the US network's Spanish-language network, started broadcasting in January in Los Angeles, New York, Orlando, Phoenix, Salt Lake City and Tampa.

Now it is expanding its operation in Miami, one of the largest US Hispanic markets.

But "we know perfectly well that we are not just targeting one group of people, one demographic," Hudson stressed.

"Thinking that there is some one homogeneous community we are aiming at would just be a mistake. And that is the heart of our strategy."

In US East Coast markets, there is more Mexican and Central American news.

But in New York, the biggest Hispanic communities are Puerto Rican and Dominican, she said. And in highly-diverse Miami, the largest Hispanic groups have their roots in Cuba and Venezuela.

Ratings firm Nielsen says Hispanics make up 17 percent of the US television market but 19 percent of the 18-49 adult demographic — the people to whom advertisers are keenest to sell.

"As long as the majority of Hispanics are still speaking Spanish, Spanish will remain a growth opportunity for us," she said. "We are seeing that new generations (of immigrants) want their kids to be bilingual. So Spanish isn't disappearing, in fact, it's growing."

Source: Tuoitre News

Posted by Juan Tornoe on June 20, 2013 in Hispanic Media, Language | Permalink | Comments (0)

Fewer Junk Food Ads on Spanish-Language TV

June 18, 2013
By Cole Petrochko

Advertisements for nutritionally poor quality food were significantly more common on English-language television versus Spanish-language television, researchers reported.

Food advertisements in English-language children's television aired more than three times as often as ads on Spanish-language programming (3,179 versus 1,037), with significantly more fast food and other poor-nutritional-quality foods appearing in those English-language programs (P<0.05), according to Frances Fleming-Milici, PhD, of Yale University, and colleagues.

Despite the disparity in food advertising between English- and Spanish-language channels, English- and Spanish-speaking children were exposed to roughly the same amount of food advertisements across age groups, they wrote online in JAMA Pediatrics.

The authors noted that childhood obesity occurred in more than 10% of children ages 2 to 5 and reached nearly 20% among those ages 6 to 17 in 2009 to 2010. They added that youth-targeted television advertising was the primary route of promoting food and beverages to younger consumers, and that "more than 85% of these ads promote products high in saturated fat, sugar, and/or sodium."

They also noted that Hispanic youth have a higher prevalence of overweight versus whites (39.1% versus 27.9%) and higher lifetime risk for developing diabetes than whites and blacks. Prior research has also shown that Hispanic youths may watch more television and, as a result, consume more advertising for unhealthy foods.

The study is being published just as the World Health Organization's European office is calling for stricter limits on junk food advertising to children there.

"There is a strong link between TV viewing and obesity in children," Zsuzsanna Jakab, WHO Regional Director for Europe, said in a statement Tuesday. "Recent data suggest that children become obese not just because they watch TV instead of being active, but also because they are exposed to advertising and other marketing tactics."

The study quantified the amount of food and beverage advertising Hispanic youth were exposed to on Spanish- and English-language television compared with the number of advertisements seen by non-Hispanic youth through data from a 2010 Nielsen panel on household viewing habits of Hispanic and non-Hispanic children 2 to 5 years old, 6 to 11 years old, and 12 to 17 years old.

Data were collected through a Nielsen database of surveys and panels from population samples that were "multistage, stratified area probability samples of U.S. housing units" and represented national broadcast and cable English- and Spanish-language television advertisements for food, beverage, and restaurant products for the three youth age groups.

Food, beverage, and restaurant advertisements were categorized as:

    Fast-food restaurants
    Breakfast cereals
    Other restaurants
    Candy
    Prepared foods
    Snack foods
    Dairy products
    Fruit juices and noncarbonated beverages
    Carbonated beverages
    Baked goods
    Energy and sports drinks
    Fruits and vegetables
    Frozen and chilled desserts
    Carbonated diet beverages
    "Other"

Additional data included average time spent watching advertisements, number of advertisements watched, and time spent watching advertisements by language and Hispanic versus non-Hispanic group.

Hispanic children watched over 4,000 food and beverage advertisements on average in 2010, representing 11.6 to 12.4 commercials daily, though the majority were seen on English-language television.

Of any food, beverage, or restaurant advertisement category, fast-food restaurant commercials were the most commonly seen advertisement by language and age group.

By age group, the proportion of fast-food restaurant advertisements was significantly greater on Spanish-language television versus English-language television, though the raw number of ads were more than double that of Spanish-language television. For example, among preschool age viewers, there were 306 fast-food restaurant commercials on Spanish-language television and 685 on English-language television. However, this represented 29.5% of food advertising in that age category on Spanish-language television and 21.5% of food advertising on English-language television.

"Three product categories comprised approximately one-half of food ads viewed on Spanish-language television by Hispanic youth: fast food, breakfast cereals, and candy," they wrote, noting that fast food made up a significantly higher proportion of those advertisements.

Additionally, "Hispanic preschoolers viewed equal numbers of carbonated beverage ads in English and Spanish, even though they watched three-times as much English-language television," Fleming-Milici and colleagues noted.

The authors also wrote that, overall, Spanish-language television viewed by Hispanic youth contained fewer food and beverage ads per hour than English-language television — an average of 2.7 to 2.9 ads per hour on Spanish television versus an average of 3.7 to 3.9 ads per hour on English-language programming.

The data also showed that youths who spoke predominantly Spanish spent greater amounts of time watching Spanish-language programming, while those who spoke a mix of languages or predominantly English watched much greater proportions of English-language programming. Additionally, Hispanic preschoolers watched 24 more minutes of television daily compared with non-Hispanic preschoolers.

The researchers also found that Hispanic preschoolers who only spoke Spanish watched an average of just over 4 hours of television daily, more than preschoolers who spoke Spanish and English equally (3 hours and 42 minutes) and those who spoke only English (3 hours and 35 minutes).

The authors concluded that the findings "demonstrate the need for additional commercial-free Spanish-language programming for young children."

They cautioned that the study was limited by lack of data on language preference and missing data on more recent advertising trends, which show, based on 2010 to 2011 data, that "ad spending on Spanish-language network and cable television increased by 13% to 21%."

Source: MedPage Today

Posted by Juan Tornoe on June 20, 2013 in Hispanic Health, Hispanic Marketing & Advertising | Permalink | Comments (0)

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