latino lingo

Watching the Latino White Sox (I mean Chicago) beat up on Houston the other night I almost fell out of my seat when a Chevrolet commercial completamente en Spanish aired on my local Fox channel (I often flip between Fox in Spanish and the Fox regular so I had to double check which channel I had at the time).

Back in February, Marketing y Medios wrote about Chevy doing this during last year's World Series in an article entitled, "Spanish Ads in English TV? Some Say 'No Way'" Evidently, according to the article, Fox received a lot of backlash from the English-speaking population.

Not sure about comments this year. But, as someone reminded me recently, as Carlos Santana once said, "You're in America now. Speak Spanish!"

In my last posting I wrote:

While little Johnny and little Chelsea prepare to dress up as action figures and princesses to trick or treat their way to some goodies, little Juanito and little Celia are getting ready to make sugar skulls as a way to embrace death as a natural part of their existence. Called Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) and around for thousands of years, it sits in stark contrast to Halloween. Read BellaOnline's article by Rebecca M. Cuevas De Caissie for more.

Rather than don Power Ranger costumes, people wear wooden skull masks, dance to honor dead loved ones and decorate altars. The sugar skulls are marked with the name of the deceased and then are eaten by a relative or friend. Grave sites are decked out with marigold flowers and candles. The favorite food of the deceased are eaten at the grave site, and toys are brought for dead children. People also bring bottles of tequila or cigarettes for the dead adults depending on their fancy on this side of the grass.

While Dia de los Muertos is celebrated by primarily Mexicans (though it is celebrated in Central and South America), I can't help but think about the notion of fatalism, which is a characteristic found in nearly all Latino countries. And, thus, in most first-generation immigrants here in the U.S. "Sí Dios Quire" (If God wants/If God Permits) is something most of us grew up hearing from our parents and grandparents. The notion that Sí­­­ Dios Quire or if los espiritus or la virgen dictate, things will happen -- good and bad -- runs rampant.

This is an important distinction for companies marketing health or life insurance, for example, to first generation Hispanics; many of whom may think their death is out of their hands for the most part. That's why it's often tough to get mami or papi or better yet abuela to see the doctor with frequency or to take preventative measures to control ailments that affect us disproportionately like diabetes. Thus, recent initiatives in the industry like consumer-driven health care or direct to consumer pharmaceutical advertisement can be a tough nuts to pitch if using the same pitch being given to the Anglo (or even the assimilated Hispanic) market.

So, have the candy corn and Snickers on hand, but maybe have some Fruit Atole on hand in case little Juanito is thirsty.

"Although most Spanish-speaking Internet users in the U.S. have been online for less time than their non-Spanish speaking counterparts, many expect to increase their online shopping in the coming year," says a report in e-Marketer.

It further says "Hispanic Americans represent an attractive demographic for online sellers, as they are more likely to be in a prime age group for active consumers (18-35 years-old) and have families with younger children, according to a study by Roper Public Affairs for AOL."

First-to-market advantages abound for companies looking for Latinos to "haz click" on links to their goods and services.

Thanks, Jack Nork, The Mason Technologist, for sending this to me ... good looking out!

The season the Chicago White Sox have put together has been a bit surprising to those of us who follow béisbol. What's not surprising is the way Latinos have rallied around the team with their deep roster of Latino players, and of course Venezuelan-born manager Ozzie Guillen -- the first Latino to manage a team into the World Series. With 30 percent of the roster of some Latino origin (11 of the 37 active players) "Las Medias Blancas" exceed the Major League average, where Latinos make up of 26% of the league (by comparison, African Americans make up 9%), according to Diversity and Ethics in Sports.

Even though we come from many different countries, we do love to root for "our own" in instances like these. Especially with baseball since most Latinos are very knowledgeable about game and the Latino pioneers. After all, the first minority to play baseball was not the great Jackie Robinson, but Colombian-born Louis Castro who played in 1902. Read Chris Cornell's excellent story in Sports Central about the history of Latinos in the game.

MediaWeek reports on the first round of ratings from the Arbitron summer survey (covering the period June 30 to Sept. 21) that showed "Hurban" stations (combo format of Hispanic/Urban music that includes a healthy dose of the music mami and papi can't stand: reggaeton) picking up significant market share. In Los Angeles, they report, newly "Hurban" station KXOL-FM jumped from a 2.0 to a 4.2 overall rating share, tying for No. 2 with Univision’s Romantica KLVE-FM.