Posted by Elena del Valle on April 28, 2006
Melquiades and Pete in “The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada”
Photo: Dawn Jones EuropaCorp
“The Three Burials of Melquiades,” a Sony Pictures Classic movie written by Guillermo Arriaga and produced by Tommy Lee Jones opens to audiences in Los Angeles Friday, April 28. It is a human drama with the U.S. Mexico border and illegal immigrant issues as a backdrop. The movie received Best Screenplay Award for Guillermo Arriaga’s script and Best Actor Award for Tommy Lee Jones from the Cannes Film Festival.
Actors include Tommy Lee Jones, Barry Pepper, Dwight Yoakam, January Jones, Melissa Leo, and Julio Cedillo as Melquiades Estrada. In addition to Jones, producers included Michael Fitzgerald, Luc Besson, and Pierre-Ange Le Pogam.
The movie house will donate five percent of the proceeds to the Mexican American Opportunity Foundation (MAOF). Founded on February 7, 1963 and a United Way member agency since 1970, the Foundation is a community based organization dedicated to human services for the Spanish speaking population of Californa.
“We are extremely grateful to Sony Pictures Classics for this much needed and generous donation,” said Martin Castro, president, MAOF. “Particularly in trying times like these when our country appears to be passionately divided on so many fronts, it is refreshing and encouraging to be able to partner with Sony and thereby come closer to realizing our mission of helping California’s predominately Mexican Hispanic community with invaluable educational and professional development programs.”
Posted by Elena del Valle on April 28, 2006
Sam Diaz, NAHJ conference presenter and board member
Photo: Sam Diaz
The National Association of Hispanic Journalists, NAHJ, will hold the 24th Annual NAHJ Convention and Media & Career Expo, June 14 to 17, 2006 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It will be held at the Greater Fort Lauderdale Broward County Convention Center with the theme “Fuente de Diversidad Hispana” (Source of Hispanic Diversity). The cost of on-site registration for the convention for the public is $525. Special rates are available for members, students and one-day passes.
Attendees will be able to participate in day-long sessions as part of the ñ Media Training Series about: Better Watchdog Journalism, Photojournalism A to Z, Business Journalism Boot Camp, Leadership: Less Stress, More Success, TV News Reporting, Boot Camp. Hands-on Multimedia Storytelling: There’s More Than One Way to Tell a Story, TV News Producer Workshop, Covering Latino Healthcare Disparities, Immigration: A Hands-On Workshop for Better Coverage in Your Community, El buen uso del español y ejercicios de redacción (presentador: Alberto Gómez-Font),and Visual editing for everyone.
Workshops will cover: Analizando la ética en los medios en español; Back Pack Journalists; Becoming a Multimedia Savvy Manager; Brave New World: Your Future In Online, Print, Broadcast or All Of The Above; Building the Latino News Room Pipeline; Citizen Media: Fad or Future; Covering A Pandemic – How to Build Awareness without the Hype; Covering Cuba after Fidel; El “boom” de los medios en español; From The Street: To the Photo Desk; Improve Your Voice Improve Your Confidence; Impunity and Human Rights in Latin America; Opinion Writing: Make Your Voice Count; Sound Salon; Surviving the First Five Years; and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly about Spanglish.
The National Association of Hispanic Journalists is dedicated to the recognition and professional advancement of Hispanics in the news industry. Established in April 1984, NAHJ was created to serve as a national voice and unified vision for Hispanic journalists.
The Association is governed by an 18-member board of directors that consists of executive officers and regional directors who represent geographic areas of the United States and the Caribbean. The national office is located in the National Press Building in Washington, D.C. NAHJ has approximately 2,300 members, including working journalists, journalism students, other media-related professionals and journalism educators. Additional information on the Convention is available online at NAHJ.org. Gabrielle Sarnese contributed to this article.
Posted by Elena del Valle on April 27, 2006
Yvonne Gomez, Latin creative director,West Coast and Mexico, Peermusic
Photo: peermusic
Los Angeles, California – Peermusic, a large independent music publisher, promoted Yvonne Gomez to Latin creative director,West Coast and Mexico. Gomez was formerly West Coast Latin creative manager. In addition to her responsibilities of running the West Coast division of the U.S. Latin operation, she will now oversee all creative activity originating from the peermusic office in Mexico City; including the signing of new talent, catalog acquisitions and maintenance of current peerMexico writers.
“I’m extremely excited about this opportunity,” said Gomez. “Mexico is such an incredible springboard for talent and it’s a natural for our two offices to work as one. I’m happy to play a part in its growth and future successes.”
Gomez, who joined peermusic in 2003, has overseen the work of peer’s roster of songwriters and performers including multiple Grammy® award winner Juanes, Micky Huidobro of Molotov, Martha Gonzalez of Quetzal, Facundo Monty, Fobia and Los Pinguos. In addition to nurturing the careers of these artists, as well as working with peermusic’s Spanish language catalog, she continues to scout and sign new songwriters. Since joining peermusic, Gomez has signed worldwide deals with Plastilina Mosh, Locura Terminal, Charanga Cakewalk, Eddie G, as well as a J.V. Publishing deal with the regional Mexican production and writing team of Omar and Adolfo Valenzuela, also known as Twins House of Music.
“We are very fortunate to have someone with Yvonne’s talent and diverse background running our West Coast Latin Operations in the United States. I am very pleased that her skills will now also benefit the important territory of Mexico,” said Kathy Spanberger, president and COO, peermusic.
Gomez was born and raised in the Los Angeles San Gabriel Valley. She has worked for more than 17 years in the music industry beginning her career in 1989 when she founded Club Rock En Español, a grass roots organization created to promote Latin Rock to the Latin American youth in Los Angeles.
Posted by Elena del Valle on April 26, 2006
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Julie Roehm, Wal-Mart Stores
Photo: Wal-Mart Stores
Strategic Research Institute’s 7th Annual Hispanic Boom conference is scheduled to take place at the Wilshire Grand Hotel in Los Angeles on June 14-15, 2006. The event’s advertorial content will include presentations by Monica C. Lozano, who will open the conference, Felipe Korzenny, Ph.D., and Robert Smith, a Baruch College sociologist. Julie Roehm, who has taken the marketing reigns at Wal-Mart Stores, will deliver a keynote presentation on partnership strategies.
Speakers from the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association, Information Resources Inc., and Forrester Research will share new data and insights of interest to packaged goods, entertainment brands, financial services, retail, and health and beauty industries represenatives.
“The agenda mirrors strategic initiatives in brand engagement being worked upon at Fortune 1000 companies. Clearly, Hispanic marketing and advertising have evolved way beyond the 30-second commercial and so the conference revisits new segmentation models, emerging product placement, brand activation and event marketing tools to help your brand teams keep pace with the energy and growth levels shown by the consumer,” said Rupa Ranganathan, senior vice president and ethnic strategist, Strategic Research Institute.
There will be two workshops entitled “Brand Activation Through Event Marketing” and “Brand Engagement and Product Placement Strategies.” Themes and topics will include: Transnationalism and new immigrants, new segmentation challenges for marketers, Spanish language usage and growing role for English, cultural nuggets from brand leaders, branded entertainment, product placements and tie-in promotions, cause marketing and celebrity volunteers, sports marketing builds Latino access, ROI issues: A look at what clients are looking at next, creative breakthroughs- beyond stereotypes, and new shopper data for CPG brands. More information is available at SRInstitute.com.
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Posted by Elena del Valle on April 25, 2006
“The Hug” by Romero Britto
Photos:David Siqueiros, 2006. All rights reserved. Ricardo Serpa/Lux Images
Internationally-known South Florida artist Romero Britto will sign “The Hug” posters during a visit to Fort Lauderdale from 1 to 4 p.m Thursday, April 27, 2006. The event, sponsored by the Broward County ”Public Art and Design” program, will take place at the Rental Car Center of the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.
Britto’s work, popular among many Hispanics, was nurtured in South Florida, where many Latinos make their home. Twenty one percent of the population in Broward is Hispanic, according to Broward representatives.
Artist Romero Britto
In the last 16 years, Britto’s reputation as one of the most famous new artists of his generation has been firmly established. Today his work is collected by many including personalities such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Jordan, Dustin Hoffman, Gloria Estefan, Andre Agassi, Eileen Guggenheim, and David Rockefeller.
Britto has been part of the international art scene since 1989 when he was commissioned by Absolut Vodka along with Keith Haring, Kenny Scharf and the estate of Andy Warhol, to design a bottle label for their advertising campaign. His recent corporate requests include: Disney, Evian, Pepsi-Cola, Volvo, Royal Caribbean, Unilever and BMW. He was also invited to paint eight cows for the famous public art exhibit, CowParade in New York.
In January 2006, he spoke at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland along with artists Christo and Jean-Claude, actors Warren Beatty, Michael Douglas, Morgan Freeman and Angelina Jolie as well as architect, Rem Koolhaas. Also in 2005, he was named the state of Florida’s Ambassador of the Arts.
Founded in 1976,the Broward County public art program took a dramatic shift in 1995 when the allocation from county construction was changed to two (2) percent. The program was renamed “Public Art and Design” to reflect a renewed dedication to enhancing architecture and urban spaces through the ideas and creations of visual artists.
Posted by Elena del Valle on April 25, 2006
Orishas to perform on LATV
Photo: LATV
In April, LATV “En Concierto” has brought viewers and the in-studio audience live performances by Latin and non-Latin artists with a mix of English and Spanish language music. Offerings have included a variety of music genres such as hip hop, indie rock, and electronic music.
LATV “En Concierto” airs in LATV Studios in Los Angeles every Monday and Wednesday evenings at 9. The program also dedicates nights to specific genres or styles and has events like Ladies Night, A Night of Hip Hop, and Puerto Rican Rock Night.
The program has had Hip-Hop with artists Ana Alicia, Rican, and Generalz; Rock with The Redwalls, The 88, OK Go, and Puerto Ricans Bletzung & Ardnaxela; and Electronic with Belanova & Cubiky. Other popular artists that have performed include Julieta Venegas, Natalie y La Forquetina, Ill Nino, Gian Marco, Obie Bermudez and Jorge Drexler.
Artists that will perform in the last week of April include Orishas, Glory, Juan Gotti, and Bimbo, as well as Calle 13, Voltio, Yaga, Mackie. LATV Network targets bilingual Latino youth and is predominantly in English. LATV is one of the only networks in Los Angeles that reaches the bilingual demographic. Sergio Carmona
Posted by Elena del Valle on April 24, 2006
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Tom H. C. Anderson, MBA, MEA, managing partner, Anderson Analytics
Photo: Tom Anderson
A podcast interview with Tom H. C. Anderson, MBA, MEA, managing partner, Anderson Analytics, is available on the Podcast Section of Hispanic Marketing & Public Relations, HispanicMPR.com. During the podcast, Tom discusses Latino youth market issues with Elena del Valle, host of the HispanicMPR.com podcast.
Tom has more than a decade of experience at some of the largest global marketing research companies such as TNS, NFO Worldwide, and AC Nielsen BASES. He has worked on product and market development projects across several countries and industries including financial services, telecommunications, packaged goods and travel and entertainment.
Prior to founding Anderson Analytics, Tom led the Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide account for TNS-NFO, where he managed market research studies in more than 80 countries and consulted for executive and brand management of Westin, W Hotels, Sheraton, Four Points, St Regis, Luxury Collection, and Starwood Vacation Ownership.
Before TNS-NFO, Tom helped found IQuestics.com, a ‘Gen-I’ consumer insights consultancy for Snowball.com, now IGN.com. While at IQuestics he perfected the online quantitative and qualitative skills required to understand and market to the technologically savvy 13-30 year old Gen-X & Gen-Y demographic.
Tom has knowledge in of market research and advanced multivariate statistical analysis. He has served as a consultant to dozens of fortune 500 companies and major marketing research suppliers and ad agencies including Visa, Microsoft, Hasbro toy Group, Kraft, Pfizer, Bayer, Colgate-Palmolive, Lexus/Nexus-Westlaw, Dunkin Donuts, Star-Kist, Philip Morris International, Lipton Tea, Evian, Braun, New Power, CNC.com. First USA Bank, Merrill Lynch, Delta Faucets, Loews, Greenfield Online, U30, TLP, Insight Express, ABB Ltd, SKF AB, Shanghai General Motors, and MBL, Inc.
He earned his bachelor of science in Marketing and MBA, Beta Gamma Sigma, in marketing, finance and international business from the University of Connecticut where he is a frequent guest speaker in graduate level marketing research and data-mining courses. He attained his Master of Economics with honors from Lund University, Sweden. During his thesis work he consulted for several joint ventures in Shanghai, China.
To listen to the interview, scroll down until you see “Podcast” on the right hand side, then select “HMPR Tom Anderson,” hit the play button or download it to your iPod or MP3 player to listen on the go, in your car or at home. You can also subscribe to the podcast by right clicking over the podcast box and selecting “copy shortcut” then inserting the URL address in the podcast section of your iTunes program listed under the “advanced” column. The podcast will remain listed in the April 2006 section of the podcast.
Click the button to hear the interview:
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Posted by Elena del Valle on April 21, 2006
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A 50-foot billboard attracts drivers’ attention at U.S./Mexico border
Photos: Joe Camporesi, Camporesi Productions
Las Vegas, Nevada – Call it the ultimate plasma TV or the world’s largest drive-in movie. Whatever you call it, since January 20, a larger-than-life 50-foot billboard has been playing to six lanes of traffic inching down the NAFTA highway where Laredo meets Nuevo Laredo. A sister billboard on the San Diego/Tijuana border has held 24 lanes of traffic interested since 2004, providing a valuable marketing tool for companies targeting the increasingly desirable Latino markets.
According to Border Billboard staff, Laredo is the number one inland port of entry between the United States and Mexico. More than four million drivers a month cross the San Diego/Tijuana divide, considered to be among the busiest border entrances in the world.
Because cars must wait for up to two hours to get across, most drivers take in the sight, sound and motion produced by two LED display video boards, one billion colors, two ticker displays, a 23 mm. pixel pitch and a 140-degree horizontal viewing angle, all communicated in English and Spanish.
Jennifer Stefano, owner and CEO, Border Billboard
Border Billboard owner and CEO Jennifer Stefano says no billboards exist in the U.S. like the two mega-signs she operates from the company’s headquarters in Las Vegas.
“The only billboard comparable to ours hangs above Times Square in Manhattan and you can’t hear that billboard and you sure can’t text-message it,” said Stefano. “We are capitalizing on the power of the $700 billion U.S./Hispanic market,”
A typical commercial sells for $10,000 a month and plays 144 times a day. To ensure optimum “face time,” Stefano places the billboard where cars are likely to see it, even where they “cannot even make a U-turn.”
The board is a hit with flirtatious young people who use cell phones to text-message each other across the 40-ft. amber ticker displays. “Hola Senorita, in the green Ford Explorer,” writes a high school boy to a pony-tailed teenager stuck in traffic near him. Within sight of thousands of commuters observing the exchange on-screen, the couple arranges to meet for a coke at a nearby McDonald’s.
Behind the scenes, security software, with a human editor as a back up, filters out inappropriate messages. Interspersed between commercials from advertisers such as Circuit City, Hummer, Best Buy, Coca Cola and Saturn, drivers are entertained by CNN news, weather and performances by Tejano recording artists. A low frequency radio station provides sound. Advertising is aimed at the 35 to 50-year-old demographic.
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Posted by Elena del Valle on April 20, 2006
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Jose Martin Samano, Azteca America reporter
Following Hurricane Katrina’s devastation on the gulf coast in late August, Azteca America anchor José Martín Sámano was one of the first reporters on the ground in Louisiana. His series of segments covering the storm’s effects on Hispanic residents earned him a plaque of special recognition presented by Lupita Colmenero and Tom Oliver president and executive director respectively of the National Association of Hispanic Publications (NAHP).
“The influence that we have as Hispanic media is growing every day. As we improve the quality of content, we will be able to attract new bilingual viewers to Hispanic media as well as maintaining viewership of existing Spanish speakers of the fastest-growing minority group in the nation,” said Sámano to a group of publishers at the NAHP Annual Conference.
Sámano stayed in the impact zone of Louisiana for two weeks. His segments focused on the disaster and the plight Hispanic residents of Louisiana dealt with as a result of the storm. Throughout his broadcast career in Mexico and the United States, Sámano has prepared special reports for the “Hechos” news show in Mexico and has covered Cuban balsero refugee issues. He also covered the United States invasion of Haiti, an earthquake in El Salvador, Mexican immigrants in Alaska and other migrant border issues.
Sámano anchors the evening and nightly newscasts alongside other award winning news staff. At 6:30 p.m. he co-anchors with six-time Golden Mike Award winner Nancy Agosto, a veteran of Univision’s local Los Angeles newscast. He co-anchors the nightly newscast at 11 p.m. with Jackeline Cacho, a former anchor of local Univision newscasts in San Antonio and recipient of the 2003 Hispanic Woman Award from Yellow Rose of Texas.
Azteca America is a wholly-owned subsidiary of TV Azteca S.A. de C.V, one of the largest producers of Spanish language television content in the U.S. Azteca America added two more stations in March, raising the number of markets that have presence with the network to 43. Azteca America moved its entire news operations to California earlier this year and is the only network that produces its broadcast news from Los Angeles. Sergio Carmona
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Posted by Elena del Valle on April 19, 2006
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Cristina Godoy, producer and host, “El 63 Para Ti”
Photo: Cristina Godoy
Los Angeles, California – Spanish-language television station, KBEH-TV Channel 63, Los Angeles debuted its second season of interactive interviews with Spanish-speaking political, business, education, legal and community on “El 63 Para Ti,” a public service program designed to integrate the growing Latino community with local, political and community resources.
“El 63 Para Ti’s goal is to give Latinos in Los Angeles access to the local, political and community resources that they need to have a greater voice in this market,” said Eduardo Suarez, director, Programming and Production. “Through interviews with our guests we seek to be a catalyst for positive change in this community.”
The show covers topics such as immigration law, finances, politics, education and health. Previous interviews have included: representatives from the California Highway Patrol; attorneys discussing Orange County’s proposal to enable the police department to act as immigration officers; financial experts speaking about taxes; government representatives from the cities of Santa Ana, Garden Grove, South Pasadena; and experts and counselors working against gangs. During the program, viewers can also call in to a toll-free number with questions or to make comments.
“We are also always interested in speaking with political leaders and experts who can assist us in explaining new proposals to the Hispanic community such as initiatives on providing drivers licenses for undocumented people, the pros and cons of using credit or information on tax preparation,” said Cristina Godoy, producer and host, “El 63 Para Ti.”
The program, which airs on Saturdays and Sundays at 4 p.m. with encore presentations Monday through Friday at 6 a.m., plans a monthly leadership section to recognize accomplishments by individuals in the Hispanic community.
“We are seeking recommendations for Latinos who are making important contributions in our community and who we can acknowledge on our show as role models,” said Godoy.
KBEH-TV Channel 63 Los Angeles airs 24-hours of Spanish-language programming and is targeting the elusive 18-34 generation of Latinos. The independent local broadcast station reaches more than 5.4 million households, including 3.8 million pay-TV households, in the Los Angeles and Santa Barbara DMAs. KBEH-TV is owned and operated by Bela Broadcasting, LLC; a privately held company based in Miami, Florida. For more information online visit Canal63.com.
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