Tag Archive for 'Latinos'

Latinos and the Nonprofit Sector

Published on November 26, 2009 in Latinos and Spanish Language. 2 Comments Tags: , , , .

With the Hispanic segment of the U.S. population growing rapidly, it’s no wonder that retailers have begun to sit up and take notice of this group’s influence; however, it’s undeniable that the non-profit sector needs to engage Latinos as well in order to advance their agendas.  Hispanics have a great deal to offer nonprofit organizations in the way of volunteerism and monetary contributions, but just as corporate outfits must modify their advertising approach for the Hispanic market, non-profit organizations must also find new approaches to actively engage Latinos.  “A launch into the Hispanic market is essential to any organization’s survival…but it’s not something that can happen without proper planning and thought.” [1]

One of the key means of reaching out to Spanish-speaking donors or potential volunteers is by securing a professional translation of all copy such as brochures, press releases, and fundraising letters.  While many Latino communities in the U.S. prefer information in English, be sure to provide literature that shows sensitivity to the traditions, norms, and other cultural subtleties that are unique to your prospective donors or volunteers.  Avoid using the same English-language materials that were developed for your non-Latino audience.

While traditional written materials are a mainstay of any fundraising or volunteer campaign, the power of the Internet and social media should not be overlooked.  According to Vanguard Communications, a public relations and social marketing firm based in Washington, D.C., “The number of Latinos using social media is growing exponentially, but the number of organizations tweeting in both English and Spanish is still fairly small.  A Facebook fan page or Twitter account dedicated to your issue is a popular mechanism for providing Spanish-language updates and action steps and promoting the offerings through your other outreach efforts.” [2]

A nonprofit organization looking to establish loyalty toward its cause must focus on getting to know its audience, encouraging involvement and demonstrating a commitment to the Latino community.  “The U.S. census identifies Latinos as a young population, indicating the majority has not reached their primary giving years,” thus the development of a thoughtful strategy for capturing Hispanic donors and volunteers has the potential to reap great rewards in the future. [3]  Latinos who perceive themselves as valued, respected and an integral part of an organization’s agenda will prove to be an invaluable resource to nonprofits as they look to advance their worthwhile causes and efforts.

[1] Fundraising Success, Conference Roundup: Reaching the Hispanic Population
[2] Vanguard Communications, Understanding Trends in Hispanic Outreach
[3] Association of Fundraising Professionals, Diversity Essay: Latino philanthropy in the U.S.

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The Use of Neutral Spanish for the U.S. Hispanic Market

Published on October 14, 2009 in Latinos, Spanish Language, Spanish Translation and Tips for Translators. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , .

There is little doubt about the growing influence of the Hispanic demographic in the United States.  According to the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau, Latinos comprise 14.8% of the population for a total of 44.3 million people.  What’s more, Hispanics are projected to account for almost 25% of the total U.S. population by the year 2050.[1]  The incredible cultural and linguistic diversity of the U.S. Hispanic population presents a challenge for retailers and other businesses who want to reach out to the Latino segment and harness the economic potential within that group.  So, how does one effectively communicate with and market to an audience consisting of cultures from across the Spanish-speaking world?  The answer lies in the use of neutral Spanish.

When creating advertising campaigns, website content, or other materials geared toward the U.S. Hispanic audience, companies are wise to consider the use of neutral Spanish, which avoids regionalisms, colloquial language, and certain verb tenses and conjugations that hint at a particular dialect.  Translators and writers employing neutral Spanish seek to produce a text that is universally understood by Spanish speakers.  Given the dynamic nature of the Latino community, a translator should have contact with the Hispanic market in the U.S. in order to make the best decisions regarding word choice.

The use of neutral Spanish for Latino audiences is gaining traction in television and radio as well.  The rise in popularity of neutral Spanish on the airwaves signals a real change in how U.S. Hispanics view themselves as a unique community apart from their respective countries of origin.  Ilan Stavans, Professor of Latin American and Latino culture at Amherst College in Massachusetts, notes, “It is a widespread trend that is quite significant because it says much about how Latinos in the U.S. are consolidating their own identity.” [2]

Though neutral Spanish lacks an equivalent in the real world (think Received Pronunciation in the U.K. or Standard American English in the U.S.), erasing traces of a telltale accent from spoken Spanish or country-specific slang from the written word serves to avoid confusing or even offending the audience and goes a long way in appealing to the broad Hispanic demographic in the United States.

References:
[1] Hispanic Population of the United States, U.S. Census Bureau
[2] American Spanish?  Telemundo coaches “neutral” accents, Hispanic American Center for Economic Research (HACER)

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Notable Hispanic and Latino Americans – Part II

Published on October 1, 2009 in Latinos. 5 Comments Tags: , , , .

Part II of our list of some notable Hispanic and Latino Americans, citizens or residents of the United States with ancestry or origins in Hispanic America.

Education

Richard A. Tapia selected for the National Science Board (governing board for the National Science Foundation) by President Bill Clinton.

Richard A. Tapia (born March 25, 1939) is a renowned American mathematician and champion of under-represented minorities in the sciences. In recognition of his broad contributions, in 2005, Tapia was named “University Professor” at Rice University in Houston, Texas, the University’s highest academic title. The honor has been bestowed on only six professors in the Rice’s ninety-four year history. Tapia is currently the Maxfield and Oshman Professor of Engineering; Associate Director of Graduate Studies, Office of Research and Graduate Studies; and Director of the Center for Excellence and Equity in Education at Rice University.

Tapia’s mathematical research is focused on mathematical optimization and iterative methods for nonlinear problems. His current research is in the area of algorithms for constrained optimization and interior point methods for linear and nonlinear programming.

Music

Tito Puente (Puerto Rico)
Tito Puente, Sr., (April 20, 1923–May 31, 2000), born Ernesto Antonio Puente, Jr., was an Latin jazz and mambo musician. The son of native Puerto Ricans Ernest and Ercilia Puente, of Spanish Harlem in New York City, Puente is often credited as “El Rey” (the King) of the timbales and “The King of Latin Music”. He is best known for dance-oriented mambo and Latin jazz compositions that helped keep his career going for 50 years. He and his music appear in many films such as The Mambo Kings and Fernando Trueba’s Calle 54. He guest starred on several television shows including The Cosby Show and The Simpsons.

Carlos Santana (Mexico)
Carlos Augusto Alves Santana (born July 20, 1947) is a Mexican-born American Grammy Award-winning rock musician and guitarist. Santana became famous in the late 1960s and early 1970s with his band, Santana, which pioneered a blend of rock, salsa and jazz fusion. The band’s sound featured his melodic, blues-based guitar lines set against Latin percussion such as timbales and congas. Santana continued to work in these forms over the following decades. He experienced a sudden resurgence of popularity and critical acclaim in the late 1990s. Rolling Stone also named Santana number 15 on their list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time in 2003

Visual arts

Franck de Las Mercedes, painter
Franck de Las Mercedes, (b. 1972 in Masaya, Nicaragua) is a Nicaraguan American artist, based in New York. He was raised in a family of Nicaraguan folklore dancers, musicians and teachers, and spent his childhood immersed in the performing arts. In the mid-eighties, the Sandinista/Contra war forced Franck’s family to immigrate to New York where Mercedes grew up and worked in music and theatre, studying under Gail Noppe-Brandon. In the late nineties he began working as an artist.

He has painted small empty boxes, a public art project called the Priority Boxes, labelled with the words “PAZ”, “JUSTICIA”, “TRANQUILIDAD”, and “AMOR”, which he sends around the world for free. This mail art project started in 2006. “The Priority Boxes” project is a public art series that seeks, to make people reconsider their ability to influence change, question the fragility and priority of entities like peace, and also to communicate, interact through art and make it accessible to people from all walks of life.

Soraida Martinez, Artist, Creator of Verdadism (Mexico)
Soraida Martinez is a contemporary abstract expressionist artist who creates hard-edge paintings. She was born in Harlem, New York City, USA on July 30, 1956.

Since 1992 Soraida Martinez has been known as the creator of Verdadism, a form of hard-edge abstraction where each painting is accompanied by a written social commentary. Martinez is the only artist to write a social statement for every painting that she creates. Viewers are drawn to both the artist’s abstract paintings and her bold commentaries on humanity and the universal human condition. According to Martinez’ artist’s statement, “My art reflects the essence of my true self and the truth within me…My struggle is for recognition, acceptance and inclusion; and, against racism, sexism and the dominant eurocentric male society, which never expected much from me but still did not allow my voice to be heard. My belief is that one must empower oneself with one’s own truth…”.

Sciences
Fernando Caldeiro, astronaut (Argentina)
Fernando “Frank” Caldeiro (b. June 12, 1958 in Buenos Aires, Argentina) is an American astronaut (Class XVI) with a degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Arizona and the University of Central Florida.

Caldeiro, whose ancestors are from Galicia, is currently assigned to high altitude research flights in the NASA WB-57 aircraft.

In 2002, he was appointed to the President’s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans.

Mario Molina, Nobel Prize-winning chemist (Mexico)
José Mario Molina-Pasquel Henríquez (born March 19, 1943 in Mexico City) is a Mexican-born American chemist and one of the most prominent precursors to the discovering of the Antarctic ozone hole. He was a co-recipient (along Paul J. Crutzen and F. Sherwood Rowland) of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his role in elucidating the threat to the Earth’s ozone layer of chlorofluorocarbon gases (or CFCs), becoming the first Mexican-born citizen to ever receive a Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Basketball

Manu Ginóbili, NBA player (Argentina)
Emanuel David “Manu” Ginóbili (born 28 July 1977 in Bahía Blanca, Argentina) is an Argentine professional basketball player. Coming from a family of professional basketball players, he is a member of the Argentine men’s national basketball team and the San Antonio Spurs in the National Basketball Association (NBA).

Ginóbili spent the early part of his basketball career in Argentina and Italy, where he won several individual and team honors. His stint with Italian side Kinder Bologna was particularly productive, earning two Lega A Most Valuable Player awards, the Euroleague Final Four MVP and the 2001 Euroleague and Triple Crown championships. The shooting guard was selected as the 57th overall pick in the 1999 NBA Draft and is considered one of the biggest draft steals of all time. Ginóbili returned to Italy and only joined the Spurs in 2002. He did not take long to establish himself as a key player for the Spurs, and has since won three NBA championships as well as being named an All-Star in 2005. In the 2007–08 season, he was named the NBA Sixth Man of the Year.

Francisco García, NBA player (Dominican Republic)
Francisco García (born December 31, 1981, in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic) is a Dominican professional basketball player who currently plays for the Sacramento Kings of the NBA. A 6’7″, 195-pound guard–forward from the University of Louisville, García was selected by the Kings in the first round (23rd overall) of the 2005 NBA Draft. He now plays a variety of positions for the Kings, and on September 25, 2008, signed a five-year extension with the Kings. It was worth $23 million.

As a college basketball player at Louisville under coach Rick Pitino he enjoyed great success along with future NBA player Reece Gaines. He averaged 15.7 points per game as a junior and, along with teammate and best friend Taquan Dean, led his 4th-seeded team to the 2005 Final Four in Saint Louis, Missouri. Forgoing his senior season, García decided to go professional and enter the ranks of the NBA. In his rookie season for the Kings, García appeared in 67 games (11 starts) and averaged 5.6 points per game.

Source: Wikipedia

Notable Hispanic and Latino Americans

Published on September 21, 2009 in Latinos. 2 Comments Tags: , , , .

List of some notable Hispanic and Latino Americans, citizens or residents of the United States with ancestry or origins in Hispanic America

Architecture

Eduardo Catalano, architect (Argentina)
Eduardo Fernando Catalano (born 1917) was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina and came to the United States on a scholarship to the Universities of Pennsylvania and Harvard. In 1945, after earning his second Master’s Degree in architecture, Catalano taught at the Architectural Association in London until 1951, when he came back to the U.S. as a Professor of Architecture at the School of Design in Raleigh, North Carolina State University. In 1956 he began teaching in the graduate program for MIT, until 1977, when he moved on “to discover and participate in other endeavors as rewarding as teaching”
Catalano had an “understanding of the indivisible relationship between space and structure”, which earned him praise from Frank Lloyd Wright, who wrote to House and Home magazine when he saw the publishing of the “Raleigh House” AKA the Catalano House to say “It is refreshing to see that the shelter, which is the most important element in domestic architecture, has been so imaginatively and skillfully treated as in the house by Eduardo Catalano” Catalano sold the house when he moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts to teach at MIT. Years of neglect at the end of the 20th century culminated in the house’s demolition in 2001.

Other buildings designed by Catalano include the US embassies in Buenos Aires, Argentina and in Pretoria, South Africa, the Juilliard School of Music at New York City’s Lincoln Center, Guilford County Courthouse in Greensboro, North Carolina, and the Stratton Student Center at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Rafael Moneo, architect (Spain)
José Rafael Moneo Vallés (born May 9, 1937) is a Spanish architect. He was born in Tudela, Spain, and won the Pritzker Prize for architecture in 1996. He studied at the ETSAM, Technical University of Madrid (UPM) from which he received his architectural degree in 1961. From 1958 to 1961 he worked in the office in Madrid of the architect Francisco Javier Sáenz de Oíza. He has taught architecture at various locations around the world and from 1985 to 1990 was the chairman of Harvard Graduate School of Design, where he is the first Josep Lluís Sert Professor of Architecture. In 1997, he became Academic Numerary in the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in Madrid in May 1997.

Spanish constructions of his design include the renovation of the Villahermosa Palace (Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum) in Madrid, the National Museum of Roman Art in Mérida, Spain, an expansion of the Atocha Railway Station (also in Madrid), the Diestre Factory in Zaragoza, Pilar and Joan Miró Foundation in Majorca the headquarters of the Bankinter (again, in Madrid), Town Hall in Logroño. He also designed the annex to the Murcia Town Hall, which was completed in 1998. His latest work is the enlargement of the Prado Museum, its greatest expansion in 200 years of history.

Some of Moneo’s prominent works in the US include the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles, the Davis Art Museum at Wellesley College in Massachusetts and the Audrey Jones Beck Building (an expansion of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston). Moneo also designed the Chace Center, a new building for the Rhode Island School of Design. He is currently working on an Interdepartmental Science Building at Columbia University in New York City.

Dance

José Limón, modern dancer and choreographer (Mexico)
José Arcadio Limón (January 12, 1908 – December 2, 1972) was a pioneering modern dancer and choreographer. He was born in Culiacán, Sinaloa, Mexico, the eldest of 12 children. He moved to New York City in 1928 where he studied under Doris Humphrey and Charles Weidman. In 1946, Limón founded the José Limón Dance Company. His most famous dance is The Moor’s Pavane (1949), based on Shakespeare’s Othello and set to music by Henry Purcell.

Danielle Polanco, dancer and choreographer (Puerto Rico)
Danielle Polanco (born October 26, 1985) is an elite dancer and choreographer. She is probably best known for being the leading lady in Omarion’s music video Touch and for playing in the 2008 movie Step Up 2 the Streets, in which she portrayed Missy Serrano. Polanco has an impressive resume; she has choreographed for Beyonce and Janet Jackson and has also appeared as a dancer in numerous music videos for top artists such as Beyonce, Amerie, Janet Jackson, and Usher. Danielle is a member of the House of Ninja. She is of Puerto Rican and Dominican descent. She’s from and still lives in the Bronx borough of New York City. Most recently, she can be seen in the Broadway revival of West Side story as one of the Shark girls. She is the dance captain for the show.

Fashion

Gisele Bündchen, model (Brazil)
Gisele Caroline Bündchen (born July 20th, 1980 in Horizontina, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil) is a Brazilian model and occasional film actress. According to Forbes, she is the highest-paid model in the world and also the sixteenth richest woman in the entertainment world, with an estimated $150 million fortune.

Carolina Herrera, fashion designer (Venezuela)
Carolina Herrera (born María Carolina Josefina Pacanins y Niño on January 8, 1939), Marchioness of Torre Casa, is a venezuelan fashion designer and entrepreneur who founded her eponymous company in 1980.

Herrera was born in Caracas, Venezuela. Based in New York City since 1981, throughout the 1970s and 1980s she was named one of the best dressed women in the world. Her empire grew rapidly and steadily and she went on to dress Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis for the last 12 years of her life.

Herrera is married to Reinaldo Herrera Guevara, Marqués de Torre Casa, an editor at Vanity Fair magazine, with whom she had two daughters. She was previously married to Guillermo Behrens Tello, with whom she had two daughters as well.

Carolina Herrera is a Goodwill Ambassador and Facilitator for the Intergovernmental Institution for the use of Micro-algae Spirulina Against Malnutrition, IIMSAM, and its affirmative action programme, The Right to Food Campaign Initiative Against Malnutrition and Fashion United Against Malnutrition. IIMSAM works to promote the use of micro-algae Spirulina (Spirulina Platensis) to counter malnutrition and its severe negative impacts especially in the Developing and Least Developed Countries (LDC). Carolina states: “If my work at the IIMSAM were to save the life of even one child from the forty thousand children that die of malnutrition and related diseases each day, I would consider it the greatest work of my life.”

Ms. Herrera is a recipient of The International Center in New York’s Award of Excellence.

Film and TV

Jessica Alba, actress (Mexico)
Jessica Marie Alba (born April 28, 1981) is an American television and film actress. She began her television and movie appearances at age 13 in Camp Nowhere and The Secret World of Alex Mack (1994). Alba rose to prominence as the lead actress in the television series Dark Angel (2000–2002). Alba later appeared in various films including Honey (2003), Sin City (2005), Fantastic Four (2005), Into the Blue (2005), Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer and Good Luck Chuck both in 2007.

Alba is considered a sex symbol and often generates media attention for her looks. She appears frequently on the “Hot 100″ section of Maxim and was voted number one on AskMen.com’s list of “99 Most Desirable Women” in 2006, as well as “Sexiest Woman in the World” by FHM in 2007. The use of her image on the cover of the March 2006 Playboy sparked a lawsuit by her, which was later dropped. She has also won various awards for her acting, including the Choice Actress Teen Choice Award and Saturn Award for Best Actress (TV), and a Golden Globe nomination for her lead role in the television series Dark Angel. Her acting has also been criticized, as she has been nominated for numerous Razzie Awards throughout her career. Alba’s offscreen, personal life has been a frequent subject of media, celebrity

Benicio del Toro, actor (Puerto Rico)
Benicio Monserrate Rafael del Toro Sánchez (born February 19, 1967), better known as Benicio del Toro, is a Puerto Rican actor and film producer. His awards include the Academy Award, Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Award and British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Award. He is known for his roles as Fred Fenster in The Usual Suspects, Javier Rodríguez Rodríguez in Traffic, Jack ‘Jackie Boy’ Rafferty in Sin City, Dr. Gonzo in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Franky Four Fingers in Snatch and most recently Che Guevara in Che. He is the third Puerto Rican to win an Academy Award.

Literature

Isabel Allende, writer (Chile)
Isabel Allende Llona, (born in Lima, Peru; 2 August 1942), is a Chilean-American writer. Allende, whose works sometimes contain aspects of the “magic realist” tradition, is one of the first successful women writers in Latin America. She is largely famous for her contributions to Latin-American literature, novels such as The House of the Spirits (La casa de los espíritus) (1982) and City of the Beasts (La ciudad de las bestias) (2002), which have been hugely successful. She has written novels based in part on her own experiences, often focusing on the experiences of women, weaving myth and realism together. She has lectured and done extensive book tours and has taught literature at ten American colleges. Having adopted American citizenship in 2003, she currently resides in California along with her husband. Her writings are comparable to those of Gail Anderson-Dargatz, Louise Erdrich and Laura Esquivel. Isabel Allende is of Basque, Spanish and Portuguese descent.

Gabriel García Márquez, author (Colombia)
Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez (born March 6, 1927) is a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist. García Márquez, affectionately known as “Gabo” throughout Latin America, is considered one of the most significant authors of the 20th century. In 1982, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. He pursued a self-directed education that resulted in his leaving law school for a career in journalism. From early on, he showed no inhibitions in his criticism of Colombian and foreign politics. In 1958, he married Mercedes Barcha; they have two sons, Rodrigo and Gonzalo.

He started as a journalist, and has written many acclaimed non-fiction works and short stories, but is best-known for his novels, such as One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967) and Love in the Time of Cholera (1985). His works have achieved significant critical acclaim and widespread commercial success, most notably for popularizing a literary style labeled as magical realism, which uses magical elements and events in otherwise ordinary and realistic situations. Some of his works are set in a fictional village called Macondo, and most of them express the theme of solitude.

Source: Wikipedia

Police receptionist in Anderson helps break Spanish language barrier

Published on August 6, 2009 in Latinos and Spanish Language. 3 Comments Tags: , , , , .

ANDERSON — Nora Punales was happy to get a job at the Anderson Police Department as a receptionist.

Turns out, the police department got a bargain; Punales speaks fluent English and Spanish. Those skills have helped the department and Hispanic visitors or prisoners cross the language barrier nearly every day.

It’s not that she’s not needed as a receptionist – she does “a little bit of everything” in that job. But beyond some police officers with limited Spanish skills, she’s the only person staff members can call on to help translate.

Anderson, like most Southern towns, has seen the growth of its Hispanic population.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s three-year estimates for 2005-2007, about 2 percent, or 3,200, of Anderson County residents are Hispanic. But officials have long said the Census underestimates the number of Hispanics because they are reluctant to be counted.

The Pew Hispanic Center put the Anderson County number at 3,531 in 2007. The center reported that 2,500 Hispanics were living in Oconee County in 2007, about 4 percent of the population. In Greenville County, the number was more than 29,000 in 2007.

Punales, 53, was hired in November on a temporary basis, but officials have been able to find enough money to continue her job for another year. She moved here after her husband began a job as a welder.

Her daily duties involve answering the phones, filing, helping people with questions and other duties. But her translation skills now are put to use in “a good 40 to 45 percent” of the job, she said.

It may be helping someone who speaks little English who needs to know about visitation for an inmate, or translating an officer’s explanation of the charges against someone brought to the station. Or it could be simply giving someone directions to another government agency, such as Department of Motor Vehicles or to Social Security offices.

Punales, who moved to Anderson about a year ago, was not expecting to need her language skills much when she took the job. But that quickly changed.

“I was very surprised when I moved here there were so many Spanish-speaking people,” she said.

The three dialects she’s heard are from Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, she said.

She discovered there were a number of people coming to the police department front desk unable to explain what they needed.

“Some come in, and I notice they have a problem speaking,” she said. “When I talk to them, they say, ‘Oh God, thank you for having someone who speaks Spanish.’”

Some people bring their children to translate, but children may not know how to explain some words appropriately, Punales said.

Angela White, a medical assistant at the department, said Punales is able to put Spanish-speaking visitors or inmates at ease.

“Once she opens her mouth, and they realize someone understands what they are saying, they calm down,” White said. “That fear is gone.”

When a Spanish-speaking inmate needs medical help, Punales is called to translate for the inmate and the nurse.

Punales’ supervisor, Amy Sexton, said the staff members have done the best they could in the past, trying to write down information or find some common connection.

“We tried to talk ourselves, but usually they don’t understand,” Sexton said. “It’s made a great difference in being able to communicate.”

Now, people who know Punales can help them will seek her out at the station.

“We have Spanish-speaking people call and ask for her,” said Sue Miller, a detention officer.

Punales, who is originally from Cuba, said her family spoke Spanish at home, and she spoke English at school. She believes people who come to the United States should adapt to the culture.

“You are coming to a place that’s not your place, so you have to learn … the culture,” she said.

The police department is a good place to work, she said.

“Ever since I started working here, I have really enjoyed it,” she said. “It is a very nice atmosphere.”

Source: http://www.independentmail.com/news/2009/aug/01/police-receptionst-anderson-helps-break-spanish-la/

3 more schools add bilingual immersion programs

Published on July 15, 2009 in Latinos, News and Spanish Language. 5 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

The popularity of dual-language classes in Ventura County schools continues to grow, with three schools starting programs this fall.

Ventura Unified School District started a two-way immersion kindergarten class at Montalvo School about a decade ago. Five more dual-language programs have since come online at elementary and middle schools in Camarillo, Rio, Hueneme and Ventura.

In the fall, three more campuses are expected to be added to the list. Classes are set to start at Tierra Vista in the Ocean View School District; Juan Soria, a new campus in the Oxnard School District, and at Will Rogers in Ventura, which will start the district’s first schoolwide program.

“I think parents throughout the state recognize the value of having their kids be bilingual and biliterate. It’s a huge advantage,” said Associate Superintendent Roger Rice of the Ventura County Office of Education.

The county office plans to start regular meetings in the fall, bringing educators in the dual-language programs together to share best practices, Rice said.

All the local programs are offered in Spanish and English, and in most cases, classes are split evenly between native English and native Spanish speakers. The schools differ, however, in some aspects, including the amount of time students in the programs spend learning in each language.

“We’re really excited,” said Ocean View Assistant Superintendent Marcia Turner. Tierra Vista will have two dual-immersion kindergarten classes this fall, Turner said. Classes will have about one-third Spanish-speakers, one-third English-speakers and one-third bilingual students.
May attract students, funding

District and school officials had planned to reach out to the community with an information campaign to fill the available spots. But after announcing the move at the spring open house, families signed up, filling every seat.

In Ventura, the first class of two-way immersion students at Montalvo will move to high school this fall, having finished immersion classes at Anacapa Middle School. Many already have met college entrance requirements for foreign language studies.

“We knew there was plenty of interest to have a second program,” said Jennifer Robles, a bilingual education director for Ventura schools. This year, about 20 families were on a waiting list at Montalvo School.

Those students were offered a spot at Will Rogers, which will have dual-immersion in all four of its kindergarten classes this August.

Each year, as students move up a class, a grade level will be added to the program.

With the state’s fiscal crisis prompting layoffs and other cuts at local districts, officials said some might question why schools would start new programs. Dual-immersion doesn’t cost the district more money to run than current programs, Robles said, and it benefits students.

Turner said Ocean View officials think it might eventually bring more funding to the district by attracting more students.

Teaching students in Spanish began to disappear in California public schools after voters approved Proposition 227 in 1998, which banned bilingual education unless parents of English learners sign a yearly waiver consenting to the class.
Families see benefit

In two-way or dual-immersion programs, English learners and speakers learn two languages, unlike some bilingual programs in which native Spanish speakers learn in Spanish only until they master English.

Families want their kids to learn a second language while keeping their first language, Robles said, and the dual-immersion programs allow that to happen.

Carlos Avila’s daughter Penelope, 5, will start kindergarten at Will Rogers in August.

“I want her to know that it’s OK to speak a different language,” Avila said. His parents were fluent in English and Spanish, but he learned Spanish only by taking classes in school.

He took part in a student exchange program in Spain. There, he said, children are encouraged to learn multiple languages, unlike the culture he has experienced in the United States.

Because of his family’s Spanish-speaking history, Avila loves that his daughter will learn Spanish and English. But, he added, “I would love to see (programs) not just in Spanish but other languages, too.”

Source: http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2009/jul/15/3-more-schools-add-bilingual-immersion-programs/

Credit union staff learning to speak Spanish

Published on June 4, 2009 in Latinos, News and Spanish Language. 7 Comments Tags: , , , , .

In the basement below United Educational Credit Union’s lobby on Riverside Drive, nine employees commit to memory the phrases, “This is a deposit slip,” and, “How can I help you?” in Spanish.

Some of its credit union tellers, asset managers and maintenance staff were learning a few banking-related phrases to help bridge language and cultural barriers for potential clients who do not speak English fluently.

“It won’t be perfect, but we are definitely making an effort,” said Joan Miller, an executive assistant who presented the 2009 marketing plan to her employers. “We think it will be a mutual benefit to both.”

Most Spanish-speaking residents in Battle Creek are from Mexico, where personal banking is not as common or accessible as it is in the United States, said Yolanda Campos, who is leading the eight-week language course.

Instead of opening a savings account where their money can earn interest, many people chose to carry their money with them or keep it at home. They tend to turn to predatory lenders offering high-interest-rate loans and check service centers that charge exorbitant fees, said Kate Kennedy, Latino/Hispanic Community Project director.

“They are very unbanked for the most part and use a cash economy,” Kennedy said. “They’ll pay $30,000 down for a house — in cash.”

About five or six years ago, local banks started to realize the potential for new business in the Mexican-American community and began hiring bilingual staff who could help people apply for tax identification numbers. The nine-digit number acts like a social security number for non-citizens who want to open a savings account, Kennedy explained.

“Still a lot of people are tending to use cash,” she said.

Kennedy said United Educational has done more than any other credit union in Battle Creek to reach out to the Spanish-speaking community. It is promoting a bilingual staff member, Elizabeth Hurtado, from part-time to full-time and it is planning to hire another part-time, bilingual staff member as well, Miller said.

“Quite honestly that’s what’s going to attract people,” said Kennedy, who has worked with Hurtado on the Latino/Hispanic Community Project. “They’ll seek Elizabeth out.”

But often the first contact potential clients have is with a teller, so it is prudent that the member services representative at least know how to say in Spanish, “Wait, I’ll get a translator.”

The students joke that after six classes the only phrases they know by heart are “nada” and “no comprendo,” but they say learning about Mexican culture has proven to be an enlightening experience. They won’t make the mistake of forming an “OK” symbol with their thumb and forefinger touching with fingers extended, they said, because they learned that the gesture can be offensive.

They also have learned that the husband typically handles finances for the family. They have become familiar with geographic names of states in Mexico and their proper pronunciation.

“You’re eventually going to see people from all of these states,” Campos told the class.

They certainly hope so.

Source: http://www.battlecreekenquirer.com/article/20090604/NEWS01/906040320/1002/NEWS01/Credit+union+staff+learning+to+speak+Spanish

Study: Latinos now account for one in five American children

Published on May 29, 2009 in Latinos and Spanish Language. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Latinos now account for about one in five American children – up from one in 10 three decades ago – thanks largely to a huge influx of Mexican and Central American immigrants that began in 1980, a study released Thursday found.

The American-born children of parents who arrived since the 1980s now make up a majority of Latino youngsters in the United States, according to the Pew Hispanic Center in Washington, D.C.

This second generation of American-born children of at least one Latino immigrant parent now constitute 52 percent of the nation’s 16 million Hispanic children, the study found.

Many of those children are also well integrated into the mainstream of American society – assimilating to various degrees depending on how long their parents have lived in the United States. For example, third-generation Latino children are more likely to avoid poverty, but live in single-parent homes, than first generation Latino children.

Families like that of Carlos and Ann Alcaraz of Van Nuys, whose home in a tree-lined neighborhood has nurtured their two daughters and son in the American Dream, are a microcosm of the new report.

“My older sister, Marisa, just got her master’s degree from the University of Southern California, and I’ve been accepted at the University of California, Irvine,” says 18-year-old Christina Alcaraz, who is about to graduate from Cleveland High School.

“You can’t get much more middle-class American than that.”

The new report found a profound change in today’s population of Latino children from those of 1980, before the historic immigration wave from Mexico, Central America and South America.

Like many of today’s Latino youth, one of the Alcaraz’s parents is American-born – their mother – and their father was born abroad.

“My father came here from Tijuana and made a good life for himself and his family,” says Christina Alcaraz.

Sociologists and demographers say families like the Alcarazes show the fundamental change occurring in America.

“They are the future,” said Jorge Garcia, a Chicano Studies professor at California State University, Northridge.

“Historically, it’s the second generation that assimilates and becomes American.”

The new Pew Center study, called “Latino Children: A Majority are U.S.-Born Offspring of Immigrants,” underscores the impact of the immigration boom that began around 1980.

In that year, only three in 10 Latino children were second-generation, or born in the U.S. to at least one immigrant parent. That same year, six in 10 Latino children were in the third generation or higher, meaning their parents or grandparents were born in the United States.

Today, according to the study, those figures are almost reversed. While just over half of Latino children are second-generation, some 37 percent are third-generation or higher.

Latinos now make up more than one out of five children in the United States and, as their numbers have grown, their demographic profile has changed, according to the report.

Pew researchers say the shift in the generational status of Latino children is important because analysis of the most recent U.S. census data indicates that many social, economic and demographic characteristics of Latino children vary sharply by their generational status.

Various indicators of the socioeconomic status of Latino children of U.S.-born parents are higher than for Latino children of immigrant parents.

For instance, third-generation Latino children have better-educated parents than their second- and first-generation peers and were more likely to live in households with annual incomes of at least $75,000.

“Some of these children’s families have been in the country for many generations,” the report said. “In fact, persons of Hispanic descent resided in the United States before the American Revolution.”

But among first-generation Latino children, 43 percent are not fluent in English, compared with one in five second-generation Hispanic children and 5 percent of third-generation children.

“English ability matters because it is highly related to educational test score performance and high school completion,” the study said.

First-generation Latino children were more likely to live in poverty.

But the report said health-based and other indicators suggest Latino children in immigrant families fare better in some dimensions.

For instance, almost seven in 10 first-generation Latino children live in married-couple families, just below the figure for second-generation children. But only slightly more than half of third-generation and higher children live in a married couple household.

The report also concluded that the number of Latino children who are “second generation” may soon peak, though the percentage of Hispanics born in the U.S. with at least one immigrant parent is still on the rise.

“Demographic projections,” the report said, “suggest that among the entire Hispanic population, the second-generation will not peak until at least 2050.”

By Tony Castro

Source: http://www.contracostatimes.com/california/ci_12473828

MasterCard Preps Hispanic Push

Published on May 20, 2009 in Latinos, News and Spanish Language. 3 Comments Tags: , , , .

PURCHASE, N.Y. MasterCard is launching a Hispanic marketing and education initiative promoting the use of its debit and pre-paid products. While the Hispanic population and its buying power has been rapidly on the rise, the segment is still a relatively untapped market for the card issuer, as Hispanics tend to prefer using cash and checks to plastic.

“Hispanics are the largest and fastest-growing ethnic group in the U.S., representing about 15 percent of the total population, according to the U.S. Census,” said Chris Jogis, svp, U.S. consumer marketing at MasterCard. “But they’re much more used to cash, and in this campaign we are showing and educating them about the benefits of electronic payments.”

The MasterCard pitch includes a new 30-second Spanish-language “Priceless” commercial, “Quebradita,” which focuses on how consumers can better manage money through the use of debit and prepaid cards. (This is also the first time MasterCard has advertised prepaid cards on TV.) Two dancers are performing the Quebradita — translated as “little break” — an acrobatic Latin-American dance style known by its Western clothing, hat tricks and flips. As they dance, their cash flies everywhere, causing audience members to duck. The spot illustrates the message that prepaid is an easy and secure way to pay, rather than fumbling with cash. Spending support behind the campaign was not disclosed.

McCann Erickson, New York, handled creative development.

The commercial will be shown in 11 key U.S. Hispanic markets in California, Texas, Florida, Arizona, New York and Illinois. In addition to TV, MasterCard is using Spanish-language radio ads, as well as out-of-home and online advertising.

“As we look to continue to bring value to Hispanic consumers, it is important for MasterCard to be speaking in their language in channels that are relevant to them,” said Jogis, who added that MasterCard has used targeted-Hispanic advertising since 2000.

MasterCard is augmenting its mass-media push with a community approach that promotes financial literacy at a grass-roots level, taking the effort into cash-driven businesses like check-cashing centers and laundromats.

MasterCard is also working in partnership with the Hispanic Heritage Foundation, sponsor of the Hispanic Heritage Awards and Hispanic Heritage Youth Awards, and Spanish-language media company Univision, which will draw upon its on-air talent to create a financial education series.

During this difficult economic environment, Jogis said MasterCard’s broader underlying marketing emphasis in the “Priceless” campaign is “outsmarting the times.”

He added: “Value doesn’t just mean saving money; it means the convenience you get through electronic payments.”

Source:  http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/news/client/e3i7ee3d207fbb1fda3969c5c7c3cbfe874

Providing Financial Services to the “Unbanked”

Published on November 26, 2008 in Latinos, Spanish Translation and Translation Buyers. 6 Comments Tags: , , , , .

An article from the website Hispanic Bank Marketing cites that roughly 56 percent of Latinos are currently “unbanked,” meaning that they do not use financial institutions to keep their money safe and grow their savings.  Why such a high percentage?  The usual suspects of distrust, lack of accessibility, language barriers, and lack of understanding about how financial institutions can help come into play.

So what can banks and credit card companies do to reach out to this growing demographic in such a way that builds trust and shows Latinos how using financial institutions can be beneficial?

1. Having Spanish translations of flyers, publicity, forms, and contracts is always an excellent start.

2. Since online banking is becoming easier every day, a bank should have an easily navigable website available in Spanish.

3. At least one fully bilingual staff person should be available to answer questions, process transactions, and open accounts.

  • 4. Banks and lenders may want to consider providing financial literacy training in community settings (such as at churches or community centers) with the aim of educating potential customers rather than selling products.
  • 5. Once a bank representative finds a group to provide onsite financial literacy training to, she can offer add-on services such as one free credit counseling session at the bank.

Many Latino immigrants arrive in the U.S. with alternate ways of saving money.  An example of this is the Mexican tanda which allows a group of people to pool their savings over time so that each receives a large lump sum, then used to make a larger purchase or down payment.  And though remissions to family in one’s home country are decreasing in this economy, many Latinos continue sending potential savings back home. 

Most likely the latter situation will not change, and is indeed an important part of the Latino immigrant experience.  But by working with Latinos who are uneasy about putting their savings in the bank or nervous about cutting into their remissions, financial institutions can educate Latinos about alternate ways of savings and creating a long term safety net for their families both here and abroad.

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