Posted by Elena del Valle on December 16, 2009
U.S. Hispanic, Non Hispanic Youth – click to enlarge
What’s on Latino youths minds? Why should business people, marketers and mainstream Americans care? According to the Pew Hispanic Center, this is the first time in the history of the United States that a minority ethnic group has represented such a large a share of the youngest Americans. Eighteen percent of people 16 to 25 in America claim Latino ethnicity. These young men and women represent an important part of the future of our country and will continue to do so for years to come since one of every four babies born in the United States today is Hispanic.
A recent Pew survey indicates Latinos 16 to 25 years old believe in the value of education, hard work and a career. These young people have in common a degree of satisfaction with their lives and optimism about their future. At the same time the youths that responded to the survey appear more likely to drop out of school, live in poverty and be teen parents than mainstream youths. The Pew researchers also believe many of these young people are exposed to gangs and live between two cultures. That may not be surprising since the researchers estimate almost one of four (22 percent) Hispanic youths between 16 and 25 are unauthorized immigrants.
The 150-page report, Between Two Worlds: How Latino Youths Come of Age in America, authored by the staff of the center, is based on analysis of government demographic, economic, education and health data sets; a series of focus groups; and a survey conducted between August 2009 and September 2009 among a random national sample of 2,012 Hispanics ages 16 and older, with an oversample of 1,240 Hispanics ages 16 to 25. The survey was conducted in English and Spanish by cellular and land line telephones.
Paul Taylor, director, Pew Hispanic Center wrote the report overview and edited the report. Rakesh Kochhar, associate director for research; Mark Hugo Lopez, associate director; Rich Morin, senior editor of the Pew Research Center’s Social and Demographic Trends project; and Richard Fry, senior research associate, also contributed chapter work to the report.
The report offers a generational analysis of the behaviors, values and experiences of Latino youth who are immigrants themselves (about one-third) and those who are the children and grandchildren (or higher) of immigrants and who responded to the survey.
Two-thirds of Hispanics ages 16 to 25 are native-born Americans. This year marks the first time that so many, 37 percent, of Latinos in this age group are the U.S.-born children of immigrants. An additional 29 percent are of third-or-higher generations while only 34 percent are immigrants themselves. Although Latinos only make up 18 percent of all youths 16 to 25 in the country in some states the percentage of Latinos in that age group is significantly higher: 51 percent of all youths in New Mexico, 42 percent in California, 40 percent in Texas, 36 percent in Arizona, 31 percent in Nevada, 24 percent in Florida and in Colorado.
Survey respondents expressed a strong preference to be identified with their family’s country of origin (52 percent) over American (24 percent) or the terms Hispanic or Latino (20 percent). One third of the U.S.-born children of immigrants identifies first as American and half of the third and higher generation identifies as American first.
The Pew Hispanic Center is a project of the nonpartisan, non-advocacy Pew Research Center. The complete report is available on the organization’s website.
Posted by Elena del Valle on December 15, 2009
An article profiling Elena del Valle, principal LNA World Communications and HispanicMPR editor and host, was published in the October 2009 issue of Somos Magazine for Hispanic Heritage Month. The Spanish language article was written by Luisa M. Fournier-Padró and also appears in the online edition of the publication at Somosonline.com.
Posted by Elena del Valle on December 14, 2009
Photos: Cecilia Moreno Yaghoubi
A podcast interview with Artist Cecilia Moreno Yaghoubi is available in the Podcast Section of Hispanic Marketing & Public Relations, HispanicMPR.com. During the podcast, she discusses her strategy in making it in the arts world as well as marketing tactics, initiatives and how to get visibility as an artist with Elena del Valle, host of the HispanicMPR.com podcast.
Social and political imagery, religious iconography, found objects, and mixed media all combine in Cecilia’s work of mix media assemblages with found objects. A Colombian-born artist Cecilia emigrated at a young age with her family to the United States. In time, she earned her Bachelor’s in Business Administration in marketing and began a career in property management. Working and living in the suburbs for the greater part of her life, she decided a little over six years ago to focus on her artwork, create a studio and pursue this venture full-time.
Through a combination of influences, Cecilia’s art has traveled from the lush and beautiful, yet safe and mainstream landscapes of her homeland to the more challenging, riskier mixed media work. Featuring political and social imagery, religious iconography and found objects such as dolls, much of her current work is assembled from flea markets, thrift shops and recycled materials like wood and fabric.
Virgin Mary, Assemblage Found Objects (dimensions 20 X 20 X 8 inches)
In 2005, Cecilia premiered her paintings at “Origenes Latinos/Latin roots” gallery in Chelsea, New York. She has exhibited in New York and Connecticut at the Silvermine Art Center, Westchester Art Workshop, Cork Gallery at Lincoln Center, the National Academy of Art Museum and at the Colombian Consulate of New York. In Miami, her work has been featured at Opera Gallery and had a solo exhibit, “Girl from Cali,” at the Colombian Consulate in Coral Gables in October 2009. In December 2009, she will be one of 800 artists from around the world invited to exhibit her artwork at the Biennale in Florence, Italy.
To listen to the interview, scroll down until you see “Podcast” on the right hand side, then select “HMPR Cecilia Moreno Yaghoubi” 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 December 2009 section of the podcast archive.
Posted by Elena del Valle on December 11, 2009
In Four Generations of Norteños New Research from the Cradle of Mexican Migration (Center for Comparative Immigration Studies, $24.50) edited by Wayne A. Cornelius, David Fitzgerald and Scott Borger twenty nine authors share insights on the migration of people over decades between central Mexico and the United States. Their findings are based on many years of data gathered from fieldwork and thousands of recent interviews. The authors examine complex issues such as smuggling people across the Mexico United States border, border enforcement and its possible impact on immigration decisions, and migration’s effect on families, health and the economy of the region.
The 250-page paperback book is divided into eight chapters: The Dynamics of Migration: Who Migrates? Who Stays? Who Settles Abroad?; Is U.S. Border Enforcement Working?; Coyotaje: The Structure and Functioning of the People-Smuggling Industry; Jumping the Legal Hurdles: Getting Green Cards, Visas and U.S. Citizenship; Development in a Remittance Economy: What Options Are Viable?; Outsiders In Their Own Hometown? The Process of Dissimilation; Families in Transition: Migration and Gender Dynamics in Sending and Receiving Communities; and The Migrant Health Paradox Revisited.
Wayne A. Cornelius, director emeritus, Center for Comparative Immigration Studies (CCIS)
Cornelius is director emeritus, Center for Comparative Immigration Studies (CCIS), University of California-San Diego as well as Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Theodore E. Gildred Chair in U.S.-Mexican Relations at that university. Fitzgerald, associated director, CCIS is author of A Nation of Emigrants: How Mexico Manages Its Migration. Borger is a Ph.D. candidate in economics at the University of California, San Diego.
Click here to buy Four Generations of Nortenos
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Filed Under: Books
Posted by Elena del Valle on December 9, 2009
Angel Gurría, secretary-general, OECD
Photo: Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
In spite of the recent talk of job related improvements, millions of Americans have suffered the ill effects of unemployment. Teenagers have been hit especially hard. For example, in November 2009, more than 25 percent of 16 to 19 year-old Americans were unemployed compared to ten percent for all workers. This is said to be the highest rate of teenage unemployment in the U.S. since World War II.
According to Jobs for Youth: United States, a 170-page report released this month by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), in the year to November 2009, the youth unemployment rate in the United States rose by 8 percentage points to 19 percent representing an additional 1.6 million young people out of work.
“The short-term priority must be to help the young people most at risk to avoid the long-term scarring of a generation of young Americans,” said Angel Gurría, secretary-general, OECD in a news release. “Business must play its part in creating jobs but the government has to act quickly to extend financial support to more young people and increase funding for re-employment programmes. Longer-term, investing more in education to give young people the skills they need to succeed is essential.”
Unemployment in U.S. Youth 2008-2009 – click to enlarge
As recently as 2007, the youth employment rate was 53 percent. While not ideal, especially when compared with 60 percent in 2000; the youth unemployment rate, at 11 percent, was about 1 percentage point higher than its 2000 level. The report summary predicts African-American youth, youth with no qualifications and young women are particularly to face increasing challenges.
Jobs for Youth: United States is the latest in a series of OECD reports on youth employment policies that covers 14 countries. OECD provides a forum for member governments to compare policy experiences, “seek answers to common problems, identify good practice and coordinate domestic and international policies.”
Target Latinos effectively by understanding how they shop
“Hispanic Holiday Shopping Patterns” audio recording
Manuel Delgado, CEO Agua Marketing, gives a presentation and participates in an extended Q&A discussion about
- Hispanic shopping patterns national survey
- Why Latino consumers may be more desirable than general market shoppers
- Hispanics holiday shopping patterns and behaviors
Click here for information on “Hispanic Holiday Shopping Patterns” audio recording
Posted by Elena del Valle on December 7, 2009
Dr. Lepora with Dr. Krueger in surgery in Liberia
Photo and videos: Red Floor Pictures Production
In mid 2005, Mark Hopkins began production of a film about Medecins Sans Frontiers (MSF), the well known international emergency assistance organization spearheaded by volunteer physicians and health care providers, and its work, mostly in Africa. It required much convincing and gaining of trust on his part to win Doctors Without Borders, as it is known in English, over to the idea of a no holds barred film of their volunteers in the field. Hopkins describes the film as exploring the limits of idealism. Scroll down to watch two video clips of the documentary.
“I hope they get a sense of what life in the field is like for MSF doctors. Beyond that, hopefully an unburdened sense of interest in the humanitarian arena: an understanding that these guys are not heroes, they’re not saving the world, and that the work is engaging and rewarding in its own right – it doesn’t need ideas of big accomplishment to justify itself – the patient in front of you is more than enough. We didn’t make the film to deliver a message, the idea was more to immerse people in the MSF environment,” said Hopkins about the purpose of the project and what he hopes the audience gains from viewing the film.
Nearly four years after filming of Living in Emergency began the film is ready to open in theaters nationwide as a Red Floor Pictures release. Ten people worked on the project made possible with a modest $1.7 million budget provided by private individuals who the promoters declined to identify.
“The reason for the time delay is that documentaries take a long time to make. The crew began filming in mid-2005 and filmed on and off for 12 months. The editing ran for 18 months. The film was finished in 2008, premiered at the Venice Film Festival, spent the last 12 months playing at festivals, and is now building up to its widespread release,” a film spokesperson explained when asked about the delay between the film and release dates.
From July to September 2005, the crew filmed in Beni and Kayna, two towns in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), especially the MSF hospital and its environs. Next, they traveled to the Liberian capital of Monrovia to film at MSF’s Mamba Point Hospital, where MSF was providing emergency care following the Liberian Civil War; and to the remote northern towns of Foya and Kolohun.
In October 2005, the crew traveled to Kashmir, Pakistan to film the MSF emergency response to the 7.6 magnitude earthquake. In 2006, they returned to Africa, to revisit Mamba Point Hospital, and traveled to Malawi to see the MSF AIDS program. Additional film locations included Paris, France, Montreal, Canada, Niger, Kenya, and Tennessee, United States. The production was organized to cover the various facets of the MSF organization such as the administrative base, conflict and post-conflict missions, and response to natural disasters.
Hopkins, born in Puerto Rico and raised in Italy and Kenya, worked for producer Scott Rudin for several years before producing his first solo documentary film. He was most recently the producer of Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry. Living in Emergency is his directorial debut. Bruno Coulais, composer, and Bob Eisenhardt, senior editor, also contributed to the film.
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is an international medical humanitarian organization created by doctors and journalists in France in 1971 that strives to provide independent, impartial assistance to those most in need. The organization, a recipient of the 1999 Nobel Peace Prize, provides aid in more than 60 countries to people whose survival is threatened by violence, neglect, or catastrophe, primarily due to armed conflict, epidemics, malnutrition, exclusion from health care, or natural disasters.
According to promotional materials, on any one day, more than 27,000 individuals representing dozens of nationalities are providing assistance to people caught in crises around the world. They are doctors, nurses, logistics experts, administrators, epidemiologists, laboratory technicians, mental health professionals, and others who work together in accordance with MSF’s guiding principles of humanitarian action and medical ethics. The majority of these aid workers are from the communities where the crises are occurring; only ten percent of teams are made up of international staff.
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Posted by Elena del Valle on December 4, 2009
Watercooler: Behind the Scenes and Off the Record book cover
Photos: Ascot Media Group, Inc.
In Watercooler, Behind the Scenes and Off the Record, The Untold Stories from Broadcasters (Authorhouse, $16.98) Elizabeth Sanchez shares untold stories she gathered around the office while speaking with colleagues in newsrooms and broadcast studios. They are personal stories from nine women (including Sanchez) and four men reporters at networks like Fox News and CBS as well as local affiliates of the big networks in several areas of the country.
Sanchez, host of the national PBS TV show A Place of Our Own, dedicated seven chapters to the stories in the 112-page paperback book published this year. The chapter titles are: Mother Nature’s Fury, In the Thick of Things, Putting It into Perspective, Choosing Course, Perks and Punches, Reflections on Death, and Launching Pad.
The new book features stories about what the reporters thought were inspiring and horrific moments covering crime and natural disasters, including war zones, Hurricane Katrina and the Los Angeles riots. Rita Cosby, former Fox News correspondent and MSNBC talk show host, told Sanchez about how she was riding in a media helicopter to survey damage from Hurricane Katrina when the craft was recruited for rescue efforts.
“Our chopper became a crammed aerial ambulance transporting evacuees, some covered in blood from falling debris and broken glass,” said Cosby. “I remember asking a young rescued woman where she was going to go next. She simply responded, ‘Just away from here.’”
Barry Peterson, a CBS News correspondent, tells of his experience covering the war in Sarajevo and trying to catch a flight on “Maybe Airlines,” an unreliable United Nations airlift that sometimes dropped off supplies and picked up hitchhiking journalists and their gear, when there was no sniper fire, bad weather or mechanical problems. His old passport has the stamp of “Maybe Airlines.”
Other story contributors include Stacy Case, a TV host and producer; Juan Fernandez, a reporter for KCBS; Elise Finch, a WCBS-TV meteorologist; Sandra Gonzalez, a reporter with Fox; Kristine Lazar, a television reporter; Drew Levinson, a national correspondent for CBS Newspath; Jennifer Miller, a CBS reporter; Tracey Neale, a primary anchor for 9News; Sarah Schulte, a reporter with ABC; and David Whisenant, a reporter and anchor with WBTV.
Author Elizabeth Sanchez
Before becoming host of the Emmy-nominated PBS TV show Sanchez, winner of several Emmys, worked as a news anchor and reporter in San Diego, Charlotte, and Phoenix. She also has been a national correspondent for CBS NewsPath and covered the death of Michael Jackson, presidential elections, the Space Shuttle Columbia tragedy, the Kobe Bryant and Scott Peterson court cases, and the White House.
Click here to buy
Watercooler
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Posted by Elena del Valle on December 3, 2009
An article with comments by Elena del Valle, principal LNA World Communications and HispanicMPR editor and host, was recently published in Diversity Matters edited by Annette Merritt Cummings in the Bernard Hodes Group online publication (September/October 2009).
Posted by Elena del Valle on December 2, 2009
When my budget is tight I strive to obtain as much as possible for my money. I examine purchases to make sure they offer the best value for money. In doing so I look closely at new and existing vendors. I’m most likely to patronize those vendors that offer the same value I have received in the past. Vendors that offer additional benefits compared to past purchases and existing options are the most likely to receive my business.
I am in good company thanks to the spreading economic crisis. Many, if not most, consumers face the same decision issues today. According to a recent Mintel (“a global supplier of consumer, product and media intelligence”) survey, a majority of shoppers said they always look at sale items before shopping for non-sale items, especially in department stores (64 percent), at mass merchandisers (53 percent) and at discount apparel stores (53 percent). Four in 10 shoppers said they spend a lot of time looking for clothing sales and shopping around for the lowest price.
That is why I find it puzzling and self defeating to see the increasing number of companies that decrease benefits for the same cost. To illustrate I will tell you about a favorite restaurant my husband and I used to visit regularly. Although the food was nothing to write home about for years we stopped there on weekends for a quick bite and to enjoy the stunning and extraordinary waterside setting the historic restaurant offered.
It was a popular restaurant. Often there was a long wait (an hour or more) for a table, longer for the section we liked. As the economy soured the crowed thinned. Now here’s where it gets interesting. As fewer guests came the restaurant management began cutting back on the quality and quantity of the food. The prices remained the same. The cloth napkins were replaced with paper napkins. The yummy Hawaiian bread and warm cornbread had to be requested instead of being brought automatically as in the past. After a while, the nice bread disappeared completely to be replaced with boring buns. The guacamole was excised from the fish tacos plate. It could be ordered for a supplement of $1. The portion size became smaller than ever and the quality of the food diminished. The prices remained the same.
Eventually, and worst of all, the quality of the food dropped so much I couldn’t eat it. For a while we had struggled with the state of the restaurant but kept on going hoping that the management would realize that taking good care of the loyal customers that remained was the best avenue to surviving difficult times. Instead things continued to worsen. After several more disappointing visits we stopped going altogether.
Last week the Air Transport Association predicted holiday traffic would drop 4 percent and others speculated that the drop in air traffic would be ever greater during what is historically one of the busiest travel weeks of the year. It’s no wonder with high unemployment, a deep recession and airline surcharges for holiday travel. It’s bad enough having to travel through crowded often ill designed, uncomfortable airports; and run through the gauntlet of airport safety checks, removing sweaters, belts, shoes, watches, and even jewelry to pass through; sometimes being wanded or patted down by a stranger; and obliging any instruction an arbitrary security agent provides to get from Point A to Point B on an overcrowded airplane (although there are fewer passengers than in past years the airlines have reduced flights leaving remaining flights overcrowded) when there is so much stress in our lives already.
If they want to improve their bottom line and customer loyalty, should airlines be offering better deals and more incentives; and doing everything they can to make it more pleasant and easier than ever for passengers to travel? Are they doing that already? Is adding luggage fees and holiday surcharges producing the results they desire? Are passengers likely to eagerly book when they return from full flights that results in increasingly less comfortable travel experiences?
It seems counter intuitive to raise prices and lower quality and quantity when everyone is cutting back budgets and looking to maximize value for money. And yet that seems to be what so many companies are doing. From a marketing perspective to draw traffic you offer an irresistible product or service or the perception of it. There are many examples of this. A prominent one is the ubiquitous iPhone, and iPod. Thus far Apple has survived, some would even say thrived while so many others have gone the bankrupt.
In the absence of a product the customer can’t resist the vendor can offer good or better value for money to sweeten the deal. Should smart executives increase marketing and public relations budgets to spread the word and remind the public of their brand, product, or service and prompt a purchase as soon as the customer is ready? Instead so many companies are doing the opposite, offering poor or lower quality and lesser value for money than in the past. Why then are they baffled to see their bottom line affected?
