Wednesday, November 09, 2005
Speaking of "trabajadores"
My father turns 58 today. Born in Colombia in 1947, he did something I don't know if I could have ever done.
In his mid-20s, he set off to the "promise land" to build a better life for his wife and two young sons, both of whom were under 5 years old. For about 2 years he was here away from us working essentially two full-time jobs to save enough money to bring us to the States. When we finally joined him in 1974, he and my mother became factory workers at the same plant.
To ensure my brothers (Jeff came in 1976) and I always had a parent home to send us off to school, and a home-cooked meal to welcome us back, they worked separate shifts at the factory. One worked second shift and the other the dreaded third shift for many years. I still remember my father waking us up at 11:30 PM to drive with him to the factory. At about 1 minute before midnight, he'd leave us in the car to go "punch in." By 12:01 my mom was in the car ready to drive us back home. Today, they'd call that child abuse or abandonment, and I'd likely been taken away from my careless parents to be raised in foster homes.
We realized the American dream when we moved into our first home in the 80s. It wasn't the biggest house on the block but it was our casa and we were proud. We always had a family vacation, always had nice gifts as Christmas and always had what we needed. When we needed supplemental income, my dad got a job driving school buses on field trips. He was that "cool" bus driver everyone wanted, and the first to have speakers and a tape player in the bus. Granted what he often played was "Proud Mary" from Creedence Clearwater Revival, but it was fun.
He and my mom were pretty strict with us. We were spanked oh, my God, call DCF! deservingly-so, and taught discipline and respect. I remember telling him when I grew up I wasn't going to be like him.
Today, as a husband and father, I thank God that I am a lot like him, save for the corny jokes. For an immigrant, I'm not doing too bad. My brothers are doing pretty good, too.
All we have, we owe to him and my mother for having the courage to leave their homeland, separate for 2 years, and working their butts off so I can be here comfortably writing a blog from my corner office.
Gracias, papi.
In his mid-20s, he set off to the "promise land" to build a better life for his wife and two young sons, both of whom were under 5 years old. For about 2 years he was here away from us working essentially two full-time jobs to save enough money to bring us to the States. When we finally joined him in 1974, he and my mother became factory workers at the same plant.
To ensure my brothers (Jeff came in 1976) and I always had a parent home to send us off to school, and a home-cooked meal to welcome us back, they worked separate shifts at the factory. One worked second shift and the other the dreaded third shift for many years. I still remember my father waking us up at 11:30 PM to drive with him to the factory. At about 1 minute before midnight, he'd leave us in the car to go "punch in." By 12:01 my mom was in the car ready to drive us back home. Today, they'd call that child abuse or abandonment, and I'd likely been taken away from my careless parents to be raised in foster homes.
We realized the American dream when we moved into our first home in the 80s. It wasn't the biggest house on the block but it was our casa and we were proud. We always had a family vacation, always had nice gifts as Christmas and always had what we needed. When we needed supplemental income, my dad got a job driving school buses on field trips. He was that "cool" bus driver everyone wanted, and the first to have speakers and a tape player in the bus. Granted what he often played was "Proud Mary" from Creedence Clearwater Revival, but it was fun.
He and my mom were pretty strict with us. We were spanked oh, my God, call DCF! deservingly-so, and taught discipline and respect. I remember telling him when I grew up I wasn't going to be like him.
Today, as a husband and father, I thank God that I am a lot like him, save for the corny jokes. For an immigrant, I'm not doing too bad. My brothers are doing pretty good, too.
All we have, we owe to him and my mother for having the courage to leave their homeland, separate for 2 years, and working their butts off so I can be here comfortably writing a blog from my corner office.
Gracias, papi.
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work we go
Hispanic Business Magazine reports Hispanics gained 212,000 jobs in October and as a result Hispanic unemployment rate dropped to 5.8 percent in October from 6.5 percent in September, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. The overall U.S. unemployment rate also dropped, but only by 0.1 percent to 5.0 percent in October, thereby shrinking the Hispanic unemployment gap to 0.8 percentage points.
The article cites hurricane reconstruction as a factor for creating jobs that have been filled disproportionately by Hispanics, though the impact of this year's hurricanes have had less impact on labor markets than analysts have expected.
Interestingly, the report states that Hispanic men (20 years and over) tend to have the lowest rates of unemployment in the Hispanic population with a 4.4 percent unemployment rate in October (down from 4.8 percent in September).
According to the U.S. Census, the median income for Hispanic households was $34,241 in 2004, compared to Blacks with a median income of $30,134 (the lowest among race groups) and $48,977 for non-Hispanic white households.
Si somos trabajadores!
The article cites hurricane reconstruction as a factor for creating jobs that have been filled disproportionately by Hispanics, though the impact of this year's hurricanes have had less impact on labor markets than analysts have expected.
Interestingly, the report states that Hispanic men (20 years and over) tend to have the lowest rates of unemployment in the Hispanic population with a 4.4 percent unemployment rate in October (down from 4.8 percent in September).
According to the U.S. Census, the median income for Hispanic households was $34,241 in 2004, compared to Blacks with a median income of $30,134 (the lowest among race groups) and $48,977 for non-Hispanic white households.
Si somos trabajadores!
Monday, November 07, 2005
See, we told you so!
The Latin Grammys, done entirely in Spanish this year, attracted 1.8 million more viewers than last year's English version, according to a hot-off-the-press Univision press release on Hispanic PR Wire.
Other highlights mentioned in the release:
-- It was the most-watched broadcast in the history of the event among Adults 18-34
-- It made Univision the country’s #3 network, regardless of language.
-- It delivered 630% more Hispanic Adults 18-34 and 481% more Hispanic Adults 18-49.
-- In Los Angeles, the program was the #1 show in the key demos of Adults 18-34 and 18-49, beating all other stations in the market, regardless of language.
-- In Chicago, Adult 18-34 and 18-49 audiences increased an extraordinary 844% and 614% respectively.
-- In New York, Hispanic Adult 18-49 audiences saw a seven-fold increase over the previous year’s telecast.
Other highlights mentioned in the release:
-- It was the most-watched broadcast in the history of the event among Adults 18-34
-- It made Univision the country’s #3 network, regardless of language.
-- It delivered 630% more Hispanic Adults 18-34 and 481% more Hispanic Adults 18-49.
-- In Los Angeles, the program was the #1 show in the key demos of Adults 18-34 and 18-49, beating all other stations in the market, regardless of language.
-- In Chicago, Adult 18-34 and 18-49 audiences increased an extraordinary 844% and 614% respectively.
-- In New York, Hispanic Adult 18-49 audiences saw a seven-fold increase over the previous year’s telecast.
Calling all cars ... calling all cars ...
be on the lookout for a tall, brown-skinned man about 20-30 years old ... don't rough him up, though... we want to recruit him for the police force ... over..
OK, well maybe this isn't the best way to recruit Latino police officers, but neither are some of the approaches I read in an AP story picked up by KARE 11 in Minnesota about the struggle town police forces are having in recruiting Hispanics.
Putting aside the fact that it's muy frio up there for a minute, why are these police departments surprised that advertising in Texas to come work up in the tundra was not effective? Let me guess, a group of Anglo cops were looking at which ad was best to translate to Spanish when Barney (as in Fife, not the purple dinosaur) said, "hum, where are there many Hispanics? I know, Texas! Let's advertise there!" Not a good example for college Marketing 101 text books to say the least.
How about speaking to Hispanics in their area (i.e. a focus group) to truly understand the barriers to joining the police, or their mindsets and motivations? They might discover something, perhaps, to build a campaign around. Find out what attracted Hispanics up there in the first place and what are their perceptions of the police.
Speaking of questions, I have one for these police departments: Are you prepared for a Hispanic to join your force? Put yourself in their shoes then look at the environment and culture at your police department. Is it inclusive to Hispanics? Why would they want to join your department?
The notion of Hispanic readiness is an important one, because many companies put the caballo before the carrito and start marketing and promoting themselves to Hispanics before they are prepared internally.
This isn't a case of "be careful what you ask for" as much as it is "look at what you're offering." Sometimes the best approach is to put your ducks in a row first and not just jump into an advertising campaign.
Also, what's up with use of the word "refugee" in the story, and a department appointing someone a "refugee liaison" officer? Where are we in Kosovo or Somalia? Maybe the first way to attract Latinos is to not insult them by calling them refugees.
OK, well maybe this isn't the best way to recruit Latino police officers, but neither are some of the approaches I read in an AP story picked up by KARE 11 in Minnesota about the struggle town police forces are having in recruiting Hispanics.
Putting aside the fact that it's muy frio up there for a minute, why are these police departments surprised that advertising in Texas to come work up in the tundra was not effective? Let me guess, a group of Anglo cops were looking at which ad was best to translate to Spanish when Barney (as in Fife, not the purple dinosaur) said, "hum, where are there many Hispanics? I know, Texas! Let's advertise there!" Not a good example for college Marketing 101 text books to say the least.
How about speaking to Hispanics in their area (i.e. a focus group) to truly understand the barriers to joining the police, or their mindsets and motivations? They might discover something, perhaps, to build a campaign around. Find out what attracted Hispanics up there in the first place and what are their perceptions of the police.
Speaking of questions, I have one for these police departments: Are you prepared for a Hispanic to join your force? Put yourself in their shoes then look at the environment and culture at your police department. Is it inclusive to Hispanics? Why would they want to join your department?
The notion of Hispanic readiness is an important one, because many companies put the caballo before the carrito and start marketing and promoting themselves to Hispanics before they are prepared internally.
This isn't a case of "be careful what you ask for" as much as it is "look at what you're offering." Sometimes the best approach is to put your ducks in a row first and not just jump into an advertising campaign.
Also, what's up with use of the word "refugee" in the story, and a department appointing someone a "refugee liaison" officer? Where are we in Kosovo or Somalia? Maybe the first way to attract Latinos is to not insult them by calling them refugees.
