Posted by Elena del Valle on May 12, 2009
Jeremias, Valeria Gastaldi and Baby Bash
Smirnoff Ice and Univision are partnering for Fiestas Chulas, a summer concert series scheduled to take place in San Antonio, Miami and Los Angeles beginning this month and ending in September. Tickets are free and available through Coolcontodos.com, the concert series website (subscription required), and Univision Radio stations.
The first event will take place May 22 at the Pavilion at Sunset Station where Baby Bash and Valeria Gastaldi will be performing. The next event is scheduled to be held July 3 at the Gibson Showroom in Miami. Jeremias is expected to perform unplugged. Finally, Ozomatli and Valeria Gastaldi will perform September 11 in Los Angeles.
Posted by Elena del Valle on May 11, 2009
Hip Hop Hoodios Carne Masada album cover
Photos, video, song: Hip Hop Hoodios
The Latino Jewish urban singers Hip Hop Hoodíos released a new album, Carne Masada: Quite Possibly the Very Best of Hip Hop Hoodíos late last month on iTunes and this week it will become available at other digital stores, with a money back guarantee to anyone who didn’t like it. Instead the album reached the eighth top spot on iTunes Alternativo Chart. Scroll down to watch Gorritos Cosmico, a video, and listen to Times Square, a single from the album.
The album features the bilingual single “Times Square (1989)” and guest performances from members of Ozomatli, The Klezmatics, The Pinker Tones, Delinquent Habits and Los Abandoned. The Hip Hop Hoodíos are named with hoodio a play on the word “judío”, Spanish for Jewish. The album spans the group’s career, includes liner notes written by Ernesto Lechner, a Rolling Stone and Los Anteles Times music critic.
Hip Hop Hoodios
The band may be the only act to have co-headlined the Salute to Israel Parade and the Barrio Museum in Spanish Harlem. The 2007 Hip Hop Hoodíos release Viva la Guantanamera, benefiting for Amnesty International’s efforts to close Guantanamo Bay Prison, rose to the number nine spot on the iTunes Latino albums sales chart and the top overall slot on eMusic. The band’s music has been featured in Pride and Glory, MTV’s Life of Ryan and a national Volkswagen campaign.
Josh Norek of Colombian decent and Abraham Velez of Puerto Rican decent make up Hip Hop Hoodios, part of a collective of Latino hip hop artists based in New York and Los Angeles. They mix Latin rhythms with hip hop beats and trilingual lyrics (English, Spanish and Hebrew).
Click on the play button to listen to Times Square.
Posted by Elena del Valle on May 8, 2009
The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire book cover
Photos: Teresa Castracane
C.M. Mayo, a resident of Mexico for many years, recently published The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire (Unbridled Books, $26.95) a historical novel set in that country during the reign of Emperor Maximilian von Hapsburg. While the Civil War was tearing the United States apart, Louis Napoleon invaded Mexico and installed Austrian Archduke Maximilian von Hapsburg as emperor. Mayo’s story is set against this post war background. Her debut novel, the result of extensive research, is based in fact.
In the 430-page hardcover book she sets the tale of ambition, heart break, intrigue and politics. A year after becoming emperor the childless monarch took custody of a two-year old half American boy, Prince Agustin Iturbide y Green, making him the Heir Presumptive. The boy was the son of a Mexican diplomat and an American woman; and the grandson of Mexico’s first emperor, who fought for independence from Spain and was executed before a firing squad. Maximilian’s refusal to return the toddler to its saddened parents even while his empire crumbled and the empress toyed with madness catapulted the country into scandal.
Author C.M. Mayo
The author, a part time resident of Washington, D.C., is a translator of contemporary Mexican literature and founding editor of Tameme Chapbooks Cuadernos. Mayo’s other books include Sky Over El Nido, winner of the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, Miraculous Air: Journey of a Thousand Miles through Baja California, the Other Mexico, a travel memoir and Mexico: A Traveler’s Literary Companion.
The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire
Click here to buy The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire
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Filed Under: Books
Posted by Elena del Valle on May 6, 2009
By Jon Glass, M. Ed.
Doctoral candidate
Psychology Department
Gannon University
Jon Glass, M. Ed.
Over the past thirty years, social scientists have expanded our understanding of the role that fathers play in child development. Prior to this time, researchers looked almost exclusively at mothers; it was as if fathers’ mere presence, or lack thereof, was enough. Not surprisingly, current data suggests that fathers play a critical role in the family. Positive paternal involvement leads to improved school performance, positive self-esteem, better sibling relationships, and improved mental health outcomes for children. Furthermore, when fathers remain responsible for, engaged with, and accessible to the family, marriages are stronger and pooled financial resources lead to a higher standard of living. Thus, fathers have both a direct and indirect influence on family relationships and stability.
Click here to read the complete article
“Latino Family Dynamics” audio recording
Brenda Hurley and Liria Barbosa
Discuss
- Latino purchasing habits and products they favor
- Latino family characteristics
- Latinos and extended families
- Division of duties, responsibilities within the family
- Who is the decision maker in the Latino family
- Who is the information provider in the Latino family
Click here to find out about Latino purchasing habits and “Latino Family Dynamics”
Posted by Elena del Valle on May 4, 2009
Author Tom Gjelten
Photo: Paul J. Richards
A podcast interview with Tom Gjelten, author of Bacardi and the Long Fight for Cuba: The Biography of a Cause is available in the Podcast Section of Hispanic Marketing & Public Relations, HispanicMPR.com. During the podcast, Tom discusses his new book with Elena del Valle, host of the HispanicMPR.com podcast.
Tom covers intelligence and national security issues for NPR News and is a regular panelist on the PBS program Washington Week. From 1986 to 1990 he was NPR’s Latin America correspondent in Mexico, and from 1990 to 1994 he was in Berlin as Central Europe correspondent. He covered the wars in Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala and Colombia, as well as the Gulf War of 1990-1991 and the wars in Croatia and Bosnia.
He based his first book, Sarajevo Daily: A City and Its Newspaper Under Siege, on his experiences while reporting from Sarajevo from 1992 to 1994. The book was praised by The New York Times as “a chilling portrayal of a city’s slow murder” and selected by the American Library Association as a Notable Nonfiction Book. Tom is also the author of Professionalism in War Reporting: A Correspondent’s View (Carnegie Corporation) and a contributor to Crimes of War: What the Public Should Know (W. W. Norton).
He has also reported extensively from Cuba in recent years, visiting the island more than a dozen times. He has won numerous awards for his work including an Overseas Press Club award for “Best Business or Economic Reporting in Radio or TV,” the Overseas Press Club’s Lowell Thomas Award, a George Polk Award and a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award. A graduate of the University of Minnesota, he began his professional career as a public school teacher and a freelance writer.
To listen to the interview, scroll down until you see “Podcast” on the right hand side, then select “HMPR Tom Gjelten,” listen to it on your cell phone through VoiceIndigo (click on the Mobilize button), click on the play button below or download the MP3 file to your iPod or MP3 player to listen on the go, in your car or at home. To download it, click on the arrow of the recording you wish to copy and save it to disk. The podcast will remain listed in the May 2009 section of the podcast archive.
Bacardi and the Long Fight for Cuba book cover
Click here to buy Bacardi and the Long Fight for Cuba
Posted by Elena del Valle on May 1, 2009
Capitalizing on Kindness
Kirstin Tillquist, a former attorney turned chief of staff to the mayor of the City of Riverside, California, has experience working with politicians and influential people. She firmly believes one of the most, if not the single most, important attitude in business today is kindness. She explains why in her newly published book, Capitalizing on Kindness Why 21st Century Professionals Need to Be Nice (Career Press, $15,99).
The 255-page softcover book is divided into seven chapters: Kindness Capital, The Power of Reputation, The Power of Reciprocity, The Power of Personality, The Power of Thanks, The Power of Connecting, and From Success to Significance. In it she explains that the type of kindness she refers to is a combination of a caring attitude with a smart and strong business approach. Self sacrificing give til you drop and quiet types will not necessarily reap the benefits she speaks of although they may feel rewarded for their actions in private.
She argues that many business people believe falsely that there is a choice between being kind and being successful. Instead, kind people become successful. She sets out to explain to her readers how to be kind in business and develop “kindness capital,” a concept she defines loosely as “what is built up when you consciously set out to be kinder and develop your skills at applying kindness.”
According to Tillquist, kindness results in higher productivity, lower absenteeism, and lower likelihood of being sued. The author emphasizes the benefits of the five Powers of Kindness: Reputation, Reciprocity, Personality, Thanks and Connecting. She is a business consultant, speaker, columnist, and trainer on business kindness.
Capitalizing on Kindness
Click here to buy Capitalizing on Kindness
