SAP use among Latinos revealed

Screen Actors Guild Releases New Report Detailing Use of SAP by Spanish-Speaking Television Audiences
The Latino Journal E-News Weekly, Vol. 2, Issue 3

(October 28, 2009) – More Hispanics would watch English-language programming dubbed into Spanish if more were available and easier to find, according to the 2009 Hispanic Consumer Survey on SAP commissioned by Screen Actors Guild, which reveals the viewing habits of Spanish-speaking audiences in the United States and the use of Secondary Audio Programming (SAP).

According to the survey results:
•80% of the respondents had used SAP (59% within the past week and another 15% within the past month)
•88% would watch more SAP enhanced programs if they were easier to find
•82% are watching an individual show more often if it is in SAP •69% say they can better understand the story when it is via SAP •64% would watch more English-language TV if more TV shows offered SAP
•48% watch shows, that they normally would not watch, because they offer SAP
•91% of the 2008-2009 network primetime shows that offered SAP were renewed for the 2009-2010 season.

“This report shows that there are Spanish-speaking consumers eager to watch English-language programs if they are dubbed with Spanish audio,” said Carlina Rodriguez, SAG’s Director of Spanish Language Organizing. “At a time when Spanish Language television networks dominate the ratings, the U.S. English language networks and advertisers may be missing out on a lucrative opportunity to expand their audience nationwide.”

When respondents were asked which network primetime shows they had watched in the past three months via SAP, the top five results were as follows:
•35% The Simpsons (FOX)
•23% Ugly Betty (ABC) *
•22% CSI Miami (CBS) *
•16% Desperate Housewives (ABC) *
•16% Dancing with the Stars (ABC)

Three of the top five shows on primetime TV available via SAP are dubbed by Screen Actors Guild members.

The Nielsen Company estimates a 2.3% increase of Hispanic TV homes this season, making the Hispanic television audience in the U.S. approximately 44.3 million. This is faster growth than the total U.S. television audience or any other major ethnic market. The report also highlighted some hurdles that must be overcome. For example, very little marketing has ever been done to promote SAP and when there has been, the promotion is in English neglecting the Spanish-speaking audiences.

The 2009 Hispanic Consumer Survey on SAP was conducted by the Latino Print Network, which surveyed 633 readers from 39 Spanish language newspapers in 17 markets around the U.S. who are considered Spanish-dominate and Spanish-preferred readers; the respondents have an average household of 4.1.

“The main purpose of this study is to raise the awareness of this growing market and to promote our qualified dubbing SAG members who are ready to do this work in the United States,” said Hernán de Béky, chair of SAG’s National Spanish Language Media Task Force.

To read the Screen Actors Guild report, visit the “Resources” section of: http://www.sag.org/organizing/spanishlanguageorganizing

Latino crooner sets attendance record

Marc Anthony sets new milestone at Miami's American Airlines Arena
CMN.com

CMN announced that its concert Saturday night, featuring salsa sensation Marc Anthony at Miami’s American Airlines Arena, drew a standing-room only crowd of 15,000 and garnered gross box office receipts of $1.2 million, becoming the single highest grossing Hispanic act ever at the renowned venue.

As a way to recognize this impressive achievement, American Airlines Arena will be presenting Anthony with a special award after the artist helped bring more than 125,000 fans at the arena through 10 shows during the last three years. The combined shows generated a total gross of $9.3 million.

A fixture in the fast-growing Latin pop culture, Anthony’s seemingly tireless energy was confirmed yet again Saturday night, as the 41-year-old crooner offered another electrifying performance during the two-hour star-studded show. The New York native belted out some of his greatest hits including “Hasta Ayer,” “Hasta Que Te Conoci,” and “Te Conozco Bien” in his usual seductive, powerful voice.

One of the highlights of the evening included a surprise visit on-stage by Miami Heat and NBA stars Dwyane Wade and Carlos Arroyo, who presented Anthony with a personalized “# 1” Heat jersey. “You know Marc, this is usually my house, but tonight, mi casa es tu casa,” said the 2006 NBA Champion before a thunder of applauses.

In a more romantic encounter, Anthony was joined by wife Jennifer Lopez as the couple performed the popular ballad, “No Me Ames.”

Saturday night’s concert also marked CMN’s second straight sold-out show following Mexican ranchera artist Vicente Fernandez’s Oct. 18 show at the Allstate Arena in Chicago, where Marc Anthony is scheduled to perform early next year. Details of that show will be announced soon.

Hispanic holiday play includes Aztec version

A Los Angeles Holiday Tradition: 'La Virgen De Guadalupe, Dios Inantzin'
PRESS RELEASE

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 25 /PRNewswire/ -- For years now, the Latino Theater Company has presented a holiday gift to the community, its production of "La Virgen De Guadulupe, Dios Inantzin." Adapted for the stage by company member and playwright Evelina Fernandez from the mid- Sixteenth Century text The Nican Mopohua, it relates the story of how the Virgin Mary appeared on four occasions to the lowly peasant Juan Diego in the mountains of Tepeyac near Mexico City in 1531. Miracles attributed to her intercession included the blooming of roses during a time of frost, and the recovery of Juan's uncle from the deadly plague. Juan's devotion to the Virgin was a catalyst for a spiritual renewal in the area. Perhaps two decades after the events occurred, they were recorded on paper in an Aztec language by the Indian scholar Antonio Valeriano.

Ms. Fernandez has transformed the story into a work for the stage whose themes of faith, hope and perseverance can speak to people of all backgrounds.

The show is presented in Spanish with English subtitles.

V.I.P. seating is available for $35 and can be acquired online at www.thelatc.org, or by calling (213) 489-0994 ext. 107.

Preferred seating is available for subscribers to the Face of the World season of Los Angeles Theatre Center and holders of its Flexible Pass.

General admission is free to the public (all are welcome to attend) at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, 555 W. Temple St., Los Angeles, CA 90012, on Thursday and Friday, December 10 and 11, 2009 at 7:30 p.m. A goodwill donation of $5 is suggested. No one is turned away for lack of funds.

Renowned opera singer Suzanna Guzman stars as the Virgin, and Sal Lopez plays Juan Diego, in a cast of over 100 professional actors, singers and dancers that also includes children and seniors from the community.

The production is directed by Latino Theater Company's Artistic Director, Jose Luis Valenzuela. Original music composed by Alfredo Lopez Mondragon.

The famed show has been the subject of feature articles in The New York Times and Los Angeles Times.

You have an alternative when you want a choice besides "A Christmas Carol" or "The Nutcracker" for enjoyable, moving, uplifting holiday entertainment. That alternative is "La Virgen de Guadalupe, Dios Inantzin."

Time Warner Launches First Hispanic On-Demand Channel

Time Warner Launches First Hispanic On-Demand Channel
by Erik Sass, Media Post

Univision and Time Warner Cable are partnering to launch a new video-on-demand service for Spanish-language content, called Lo Mejor On Demand ("The Best On Demand").

Lo Mejor offers Time Warner Digital Cable customers a range of free programming drawn from Univision and its sister cable networks TeleFutura and Galavision. The launch of LMOD comes six months after Time Warner and Univision announced the renewal of their partnership.

The new free video-on-demand service was launched with some fanfare in Times Square with live public broadcasts of popular Univision shows, including Despierta America ("Wake-Up America"), Escandalo TV ("Scandal TV," which Univision translates as "Showbiz TV") and El Gordo y La Flaca ("The Fat Guy and the Skinny Girl," which Univision translates as "The Scoop and the Skinny").

Time Warner Digital Cable subscribers will also be able to get popular telenovelas, talk shows, news and sports programming, including "Cristina," "Sabado Gigante," "Republica Deportiva" and "Nuestra Belleza Latina."

Lo Mejor on Demand is available to Time Warner Digital Cable customers in a number of big cities with large Latino populations including New York, Los Angeles, Dallas, San Antonio and San Diego. More launches are planned for the near future.

TWC and Univision also announced they would collaborate on new products like Spanish-language VOD as well as StartOver, which allows viewers to restart a show already in progress, and LookBack, which lets them see a show after it has aired.

Hispanic civil rights leader honored

Albert Armendariz, Hispanic civil rights leader, honored with federal courthouse
Dallas Morning News, Oct 21, 2009

Rep. Silvestre Reyes is a busy guy. This morning alone, as chairman of the House intelligence committee, he's presiding over closed-door hearings on Mexico and the Patriot Act.

But, like other mortals in Congress, every now and again Reyes tries to get a post office or federal courthouse named. On Monday, President Barack Obama signed a Reyes bill naming El Paso's new federal courthouse after Albert Armendariz Sr., a local judge and civil rights leader.

Armendariz, who died two years ago at age 88, served as national president of the League of United Latin American Citizens and of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

In 1954, during his tenure as LULAC president, he helped argue Hernandez vs. the State of Texas, a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case that established Latinos as a distinct class entitled to protection under the 14th Amendment.

"This is a proud moment for the El Paso community and for Hispanics around the nation," Reyes said Tuesday. "Judge Armendariz's contributions to the advancement of civil rights helped change the landscape for Hispanics throughout America.... I hope future generations of El Pasoans will not only appreciate his important contributions to our country but also be inspired by his life story and achievements."

Calle 13 and Ruben Blades Set to Perform Together for the First Time on Television at the 10th Annual Latin Grammy(R) Awards

Calle 13 and Ruben Blades Set to Perform Together for the First Time on Television at the 10th Annual Latin Grammy(R) Awards
The Latino Journal E-News, Vol. 2, Issue 2

Calle 13 and Ruben Blades, David Bisbal, Alejandro Sanz, Shaila Durcal and Luz Rios are the first performers announced for the 10th Annual Latin Grammy(R) Awards telecast, it was announced last week by The Latin Recording Academy(R). The milestone celebration is set for November 5 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, NV and will be broadcast live on the Univision Network from 8 - 11 p.m. ET/PT (7 p.m. Central).

Five-time Latin Grammy-winning duo and this year's leading nominee, Calle 13's five nods include: Album Of The Year and Best Urban Music Album for Los De Atras Vienen Conmigo, Record Of The Year and Best Alternative Song for "No Hay Nadie Como Tu" (with Cafe Tacvba), and Best Short Form Music Video for "La Perla" (with Ruben Blades). Singer/songwriter Luz Rios has two nods for Best New Artist and Best Female Pop Vocal Album (Aire). David Bisbal, Ruben Blades, and Shaila Durcal each have one nomination: Bisbal for Record Of The Year ("Aqui Estoy Yo" with Luis Fonsi, Aleks Syntek, and Noel Schajris); Blades for Best Short Form Music Video ("La Perla" with Calle 13); and Durcal for Best Ranchero Album (Corazón Ranchero).

As part of the milestone 10th Latin Grammys, 14-time Latin Grammy winner Alejandro Sanz will perform. The Latin Recording Academy and Univision are offering music fans the opportunity to get involved in this year's celebration and decide which song he will sing on the telecast. To participate, fans should visit the "Tu decides qué canta Alejandro Sanz" promotion at www.univision.com and vote for one of his Latin Grammy-winning songs: "El Alma Al Aire", "Y Solo Se Me Ocurre Amarte", "No Es Lo Mismo" and "Tu No Tienes Alma".

Once again, Univision.com is the official Spanish-language Web site for the 10th Annual Latin Grammy Awards. Find exclusive coverage of this year's performers at www.latingrammy.univision.com, including video interviews and photos, an extensive archive of past shows, and dedicated forums for fans to share their excitement leading up to the live broadcast. For access to the latest Latin GRAMMY scoop and photos on-the-go, visit Univision.com on any web-enabled mobile device.

Preceding the Awards show telecast, Univision will present exclusive "Noche de Estrellas" (Night of the Stars) coverage of the celebrity arrivals direct from the Latin Grammy Awards Green Carpet starting at 7 p.m. ET/PT (6 p.m. Central). Presented by "Primer Impacto" co-anchor Barbara Bermudo and host of "Nuestra Belleza Latina" Giselle Blondet, "Noche de Estrellas" will feature live interviews and commentary on the stars and their fashions, and provide viewers an intimate and up close look at Latin music's most glamorous gala event.

A limited number of tickets to the 10th Annual Latin Grammy Awards are available to the public and may be purchased at the Mandalay Bay Events Center box office phone number (877) 632.7400, website www.mandalaybay.com) or through Ticketmaster, website www.ticketmaster.com.

The Latin Recording Academy is an international, membership-based organization comprised of Spanish and Portuguese-speaking recording artists, musicians, songwriters, producers and other creative and technical recording professionals. The organization is dedicated to improving the quality of life and cultural condition for Latin music and its makers. In addition to producing the Latin Grammy Awards to honor excellence in the recorded arts and sciences, the Latin Recording Academy provides educational and outreach programs for the Latin music community.

"Latino in America" to show on CNN

CNN's O'Brien is extraordinary in Latino documentary
"Latino in America"
By David Zurawik | Baltimore Sun, October 18, 2009

One of the great joys of TV journalism is seeing first-rate correspondents matched up with subject matter that they are passionate about. Think of the late Ed Bradley sitting down to interview a pop culture pioneer whom he admired like Lena Horne, or NBC's Richard Engel in the line of fire covering a war.

CNN's Soledad O'Brien achieves that kind of stature with "Latino in America," a four-hour, two-night documentary series on the experiences of the nation's largest and fastest-growing minority, beginning Wednesday night at 9.

Some might argue that the 43-year-old journalist had already arrived in that elite company with "Black in America" in 2008 and "Black in America 2" this year. But while I think her work was first-rate in those shows, there is something extraordinary about O'Brien's performance and presence in the new Latino documentary.

She is in total command of the subject matter and seems so finely tuned to the nuances of assimilation, multiculturalism and changing notions of identity that you can't help but trust her after just a few minutes of watching. And she forges that same kind of bond with the people she is interviewing and reporting on in the film, getting sullen-looking teenage boys to confess their ethnic insecurities and clinically depressed adolescent girls to talk openly about the pain they feel in being caught between two cultures.

Conversations about race and identity do not come easily in this country, and members of the media do not achieve the kind of rapport O'Brien does by hot-dogging in for on-camera interviews after all the documentary grunt work has been done by producers and other reporters.

"I traveled for a lot of this year six days a week to do this documentary, which is really hard," O'Brien says. "I mean, I love to travel. It's one of the things I love about being a journalist. But six days a week is an insane travel schedule. A lot of the travel was to the West Coast, and I was doing three red-eyes a week."

But there was no other way to get beneath the safe and superficial way the media and minority members often talk about race when the cameras are on except to put in the time to build credibility and trust.

"I don't know how else to do these kind of stories unless you're personally there and totally engaged," says O'Brien who describes her own identity as "black and Cuban, Australian and Irish."

"How do you do a conversation about race?" she asks rhetorically. "It's not a court case. You don't jump in, read the transcript of the trial, and we're all caught up. It's about getting people to sit down and talk very honestly about perceptions and things that are so intangible."

The first two hours of the documentary find O'Brien chronicling the journeys of people named Garcia, now the eighth most popular surname in the United States - ahead of Wilson and Taylor, and gaining on the most popular, Smith.

The stories O'Brien tracks range from that of Lorena Garcia, a star TV chef on Univision looking for a crossover audience, to Bill and Betty Garcia, a professional baby boomer couple who moved from a Dominican neighborhood in New York City to Charlotte, N.C., decades ago, and are now wondering about the price they paid in loss of roots identity for mainstream success and assimilation. She's from the Dominican Republic, and he's Puerto Rican, and one of their teenage sons just flunked high school Spanish.

Perhaps, the most compelling saga is that of Cindy Garcia, a high school senior of Guatemalan descent who is struggling to graduate from high school in the underfunded Los Angeles public school district while working long hours in her single mother's clothing store.

No spoilers here, but just when you think you know where Cindy's life is headed, it suddenly swings in another direction - as only true life can. And O'Brien is there every step of the way, listening to and deftly questioning the girl as she tries to make sense of the place where her dreams and reality collide.

"I think that especially because of my background in a way I have a lot of personal interest, but also a lot of credibility in these questions about race and ethnicity and identity. You know, I relate to a lot of the stories in this documentary personally," says O'Brien, whose black, Cuban-born mother was brought to Baltimore as a girl in 1947 by the Oblate Sisters who ran a mission in Cuba.

Her father, who did his undergraduate studies in his native Australia, came to Baltimore in the late 1950s to earn a doctorate in engineering at the Johns Hopkins University.

"I sat down with the boys in the Bill and Betty Garcia story and I said to one of them, 'You know, your mom thinks you're embarrassed by her [ethnicity],' " O'Brien recalled. "And he said, 'No, you don't get it. I'm embarrassed that I don't speak Spanish well enough. I'm embarrassed of me.' "

O'Brien, herself a mother of four, says she had the same kind of issues related to her mother that the teenage Garcia boy did with his.

"You know what, I'm embarrassed of me that I don't speak Spanish well enough," says the veteran CNN correspondent and anchor. "And here I am talking to a 16-year-old boy, and he and I are saying exactly the same thing. We are both this sort of first-generation, born-in-this-country, don't-speak-the-language, trying-to-figure-out-what-it-means-to-be-Latino among parents who see themselves as very Latino in a community that's not really sure what you are because you kind of look different and they don't know what that means."

If that sounds complicated, that's because American identity has become so in these multicultural times. And in the end, thanks in large part to O'Brien's own fearlessness, the triumph of "Latino in America" is that it honestly faces, engages and ultimately embraces that complexity in its contradictions, energy and glory.

On TV
"Latino in America" airs at 9 p.m. on Wednesday and Thursday on CNN.

NBA launches Hispanic push

The NBA Launches Its First Major Push for Hispanic Audiences
League Lags NFL, MLB, but New Effort Comes With Multiplatform Approach to Tap Growing Market, Fanbase
By Rich Thomaselli, Ad Age, October 19, 2009

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- The pro sports league that was the first to realize the importance of establishing a global presence is finally addressing a key component of its fan base at home.

The National Basketball Association today launches a season-long, $7 million to $10 million ad campaign aimed at the growing Hispanic market, which the league said accounts for 15% of its total U.S. fan base of 120 million fans.

The NBA has reached out to the Hispanic community before through a number of initiatives, but this is the league's first multiplatform Hispanic marketing campaign, putting it years behind its counterparts at the National Football League, Major League Baseball and Major League Soccer in terms of a dedicated effort toward Hispanics.

That's somewhat ironic, given that the NBA was the first major U.S. professional sports league to embrace the possibilities of new fanbases and to market the game overseas, particularly to fans in Europe and Asia. Players such as Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and Charles Barkley were treated like rock stars at the 1992 Barcelona Summer Olympics, the first year NBA players were allowed to participate in the Olympics.

'Rebranding the NBA'
"I wouldn't say this is a new effort. We've been conducting events in the Hispanic market since 2000, and we've done it in the past through our internal assets like Spanish-language websites and radio broadcasts," said NBA Senior Director of U.S. Hispanic Marketing Saskia Sorrosa. "What's new is we want to make sure we keep those existing fans engaged. We're rebranding the NBA to this audience."

The league partnered with Hispanic agency Bromley Communications, San Antonio, to create the campaign. Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco, is the NBA's main ad agency.

In addition to the 18 million Hispanic fans, the NBA has six U.S.-born Latino players and 19 players from Spain and Latin America currently on 2009-10 preseason rosters. The NBA has played 25 preseason games and one regular-season game in Latin America.

"Initially, the NBA did an RFP [request for proposals] a couple of years ago, so this is a few years in the works," Bromley's chief operating officer, Jessica Pantanini, said. "They came to us and said, 'We're not sure what to do.' Being based here in San Antonio with the [NBA's] Spurs and with a large Hispanic population, we have some unbelievably avid NBA fans. We had a few ideas."

How to say NBA
What they came up with was éne-bé-a, which is how Hispanic fans already refer to the NBA. The elements of the campaign include:

- TV spots featuring the Suns' Leandro Barbosa, among other players, on Hispanic networks such as Telemundo, Univision, Telefutura, Discovery en Espanol, CNN en Espanol, MTV3 and other channels.

- A new Spanish-language site, which will include exclusive webisodes featuring NBA Latino players, news breaks and features, photo galleries, etc.

- Content on Spanish-language social-networking sites including Facebook, Twitter and MiPagina.

- Grassroots events such as Es Tu Cancha, Spanish for "It's Your Court", which is an initiative to improve and renovate basketball courts in Hispanic neighborhoods throughout the country.

The éne-bé-a TV creative debuts today on both English- and Spanish-language outlets across the country. The league already has a deal in place with ESPN Deportes to telecast weekly NBA games in Spanish, which will include the Eastern Conference finals this season, and 11 NBA teams already feature live Spanish-language radio broadcasts of games.

"Originally, we used to talk about the U.S. Hispanic market as just the top 10 markets, like New York, Los Angeles, Miami," said Ms. Sorrosa, who said she watched Mr. Jordan play when she was a child in her native Ecuador. "Now, migration patterns are such that there are places that have a significant Hispanic population that you normally wouldn't think, like Portland and Denver."

Both Portland and Denver have NBA franchises.

The éne-bé-a campaign will run through the entire season. There are four TV spots, which will change in December, again in February or March, and again for the playoffs in April.

Ms. Pantanini said it was important to create a campaign that addressed the Hispanic market but didn't pander to it.

"Latinos don't want to be called out for being Latino," she said. "We want to be respected for who we are. We felt like the idea of éne-bé-a speaks to them, but doesn't call them out."

Tech Museum to host Latino Film Festival

Bay Area's Premier Latino Film Festival Launch hosted by The Tech Museum
Mercury News

This Veteran's Day heralds the official launch of the Bay Area's Premier Latino Film Festival. El Acuarelista, an art lovers dream, hits IMAX for its West Coast premier at The Tech Museum of San Jose. Daniel Ro, an emerging revolutionary filmmaker from Peruvian cinema will be in attendance. Reception to follow with open bar courtesy of Isa Tequila which also makes its public debut on 11/11. Read more….

Huskers open doors for Latino atheletes

Husker recruit Rodriguez opens doors
By Gabrielle Paese, ESPN.com, October 15, 2009

At P.S. 198, where Nebraska commit Andrew Rodriguez went to elementary school, being Puerto Rican was not unusual. In fact, the school, just south of New York City's Spanish Harlem, is 51 percent Hispanic.

And while Rodriguez's 98th Street neighborhood no longer has the Puerto Rican flavor it once did -- the corner bodegas are now mostly run by Dominicans, and you are as likely to hear bachata from an open car window as you are reggaeton -- Spanish is still spoken on the streets and a Latin presence persists.

This was Rodriguez's world for the first 12 years of his life. The fifth of six children born in New York to Myrna Castellar, the boy lived with his mom and his younger brother, Adrian. His grandmother, aunt and half-brother, Eric Collazo, lived just blocks away and he was surrounded by his family.

But when Collazo, who is 15 years older than Rodriguez, married and moved to Nebraska in the winter of 2003, he convinced their mother to let the youngster join his new family out west.

"Andrew's dad was in and out of jail and writing threatening letters," Collazo said. "I looked at him like my little brother and I wanted to help my mom out. I told my mom, 'Don't worry about it.' He [Andrew's dad] was just out of the picture, so I filed for temporary custody."

And that's how Rodriguez found himself in Aurora, Neb., population 4,225. He admits he was worried at first about how he would fit in. Aurora's population is overwhelmingly white, with less than a 2 percent Hispanic presence, according to U.S. Census numbers.

"In New York there were a lot of different people, different personalities, a lot of crazy people, just a lot of people in my neighborhood," he said. "I was shocked at first [in Aurora]. But all the kids welcomed you with respect."

And if the school, the kids and all the wide-open space weren't change enough for Rodriguez, Nebraska opened up a world he had never seen in New York: team sports.

"I played on a traveling basketball team for like a week in New York, but that was the only time I played sports," he recalled.

So Aurora was a whole new ballgame.

"My brother made me go out for sports," said Rodriguez of his first year in his new hometown. "He made me go out for everything: wrestling, basketball, track. That's how I got close to the other kids."

Aurora High School coach Randy Huebert first saw Rodriguez at a kids' camp during the summer of 2004. The youngster was suited up for the first time in his life, and admits he was kind of fuzzy on the rules.

"We saw a big kid; he was big already at that age," Huebert said. "He was a guy who didn't have a lot of experience, but as we were going through drills we could see that he had good feet. He did well going over the bags and on the agility drills."

Rodriguez joined the varsity football team while still in junior high, starting at offensive tackle. Huebert and Kyle Peterson, the team's assistant coach as well as the track coach, saw Rodriguez's explosive power and developed it in the weight room. As of last week, Rodriguez was bench-pressing 415 pounds and squatting with 490 on the bar. In a span of six months his time for the 40 came down from 5.60 to 5.29.

And he's starting to taste success. The Aurora High football team, which plays in Nebraska's Class B, is aiming at defending the state title it won last year. The 6-foot-3, 313-pound guard is also vying for the state's shot-put and discus titles this spring. He finished among the top 10 in both events last year. This winter, he'll play on the school's basketball team.

Recruiters have said it's hard to gauge Rodriguez's skills because he plays in a league of smaller schools and has yet to be tested against other Division I level prospects. But Coach Huebert said those critics haven't met Rodriguez.

"I don't know for sure where his positive attitude comes from," he said. "Part of it could be the environment, but I think it was just in him. Any time you like what you're doing, you work harder."

Rodriguez believes hard work beats the odds. "I choose my own destiny," he said.

On the college football field, he will join a select minority. By the NCAA's own count, Hispanics make up just 2.4 percent of Division I football players, a number that has remained unchanged over the past decade.

And as a Puerto Rican, he'll be a trailblazer of sorts. While Puerto Rican players have made their presence felt in organized baseball and basketball, only a handful have reached such levels in college and pro football. The NFL's two most notable players of Puerto Rican descent have been Chicago's Ron Rivera and Marco Rivera (no relation).

In fact, fewer than one percent of NFL players have a Latino background, according to Richard Lapchick, director of the University of Central Florida's Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports.

And most of the Hispanics who made it to the NFL got their start playing in college. Marco Rivera played at Penn State, while Mark Sanchez was at USC, Roberto Garza at Texas A&M, and Anthony Gonzalez at Ohio State.

"I tell Andrew: 'You have a lot to live up to,'" said Nichole Collazo, Eric's wife. "'Not only are you not from here but you are going to set precedents for how they feel here about Hispanics. You've got a lot to represent.' That's no pressure for an 18-year-old, right?"

His coach believes he can handle it.

Gabrielle Paese is a recruiting editor for ESPN.com and the former sports editor at The San Juan Star in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

"Latino in America" will not air anti-Dobbs ad

CNN Will Not Air Anti-Dobbs Ad During 'Latino in America'
By Kevin Allocca, MEDIA BISTRO, Oct 15, 2009

Though there were reports today that CNN would air the "Drop Dobbs" anti-Lou Dobbs ad (below) during the "Latino in America" series next week, CNN says it will not be running it.

The Chicago Tribune's Swamp reports, "Media Matters says it has partnered with America's Voice, with the help of 'thousands of grassroots activists'' who responded to fundraising for the anti-Dobbs ad campaign, to air its ad Oct. 21 and 22 during the cable network's heavily promoted Latino in America series." And America's Voice has a post up titled "Dobbs Ad to Air on CNN: Thank You for Your Generous Donations!"

But a CNN spokesperson tells us, "Contrary to reports, CNN has not accepted these spots and they will not air on the network."

CNN refused another ad this past August.

Major League Soccer says Hispanics part of their DNA

Hispanic market part of DNA of MLS
By Maria Burns Ortiz, ESPN, October 14, 2009

Every major professional sports league understands the importance of the Hispanic market. After all, Latinos are the fastest-growing minority group and make up almost 17 percent of the U.S. population, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

MLS Futbolito youth tournaments are examples of league-wide initiatives. But while virtually every league has embraced the Hispanic community as a key demographic, Major League Soccer has the concept ingrained in its core.

MLS commissioner Don Garber likes to say the Hispanic market is part of the league's DNA. It's a phrase repeated throughout the league's office and is apparent in the stands of its stadiums. Forty percent of fans attending an MLS game in the past year were Hispanic.

It's true that the league has an in. The census estimates nearly 47 million Hispanics reside in the United States. Eighty-five percent of that population has roots in countries where soccer dominates the sporting landscape.

But it would be remiss to write off the success of MLS in attracting the Hispanic community as due simply to the fact that Latinos like soccer.

"If you look at the fans coming through turnstiles or just sitting in the seats at an average NFL or NBA game, at Fenway Park, you're not going to see remotely as much diversity as you'll see at an MLS game," said Scott Minto, director of the Sports MBA program at San Diego State University. "Partially, that's a testament to sports' different demographics, but it also has a lot to do with the marketing departments of the teams in the league."

At every level of MLS business operations, the impact of the Latino community is evident. Forty percent of the league office is bilingual. It has more national Spanish-TV broadcast partners (three) than any other league, and half of the clubs have a point person specifically for Spanish-language media. There are leaguewide initiatives like the MLS Futbolito youth tournaments and its Sueño MLS talent search. All of these endeavors, coupled with the day-to-day efforts on the club level (such as bilingual P.A. announcements or partnering with local youth and adult soccer leagues) illustrate the league's commitment to serving the Hispanic market.

In 2007, the league formed the Latin American advisory board, a group made up of prominent Hispanic members from the soccer community that serves as both a sounding board for the MLS and a source of new ideas.

Major League Soccer prides itself on the fact that its fan base is reflected in the organization itself -- from owners (including Oscar De La Hoya and Gabriel Brener of the Houston Dynamo and Jorge Vergara and Antonio Cue of Chivas USA) to the league and front offices to the coaches and players to team receptionists and IT personnel.

MLS's Soccer United Marketing arm is responsible for organizing SuperLiga, InterLiga and Mexican national team appearances in the United States.

"All of that is to continue to deepen our connection with the Hispanic audience," said Dan Courtemanche, senior vice president of marketing and communications for Major League Soccer. "If they're not already fans of Major League Soccer, it's our goal to convert them into Major League Soccer fans."

A key to promoting anything in the Hispanic community is visibility, says D.C. United director of Hispanic relations Boris Flores.

Only part of that recognition comes from advertising campaigns. In D.C., the club runs several free soccer clinics for kids throughout the year as part of the D.C. United Community Soccer Series. In Los Angeles, the Galaxy hosts the Copa L.A., a youth tournament for teams not affiliated with major national club soccer organizations. In Dallas, team representatives and players attend tournaments, festivals, parades, any event possible to make the Latino community aware of F.C. Dallas' accessibility. Even in Philadelphia, where the Union won't begin play until next season, the team is reaching out to Hispanic leaders and is committed to including that growing segment of the local population in its outreach efforts.

"They want to see you actively involved in their community," Flores said. "These events are a way for us to go out there, be involved and say, 'Hey, we're part of you.' With outreach programs, obviously, you're trying to get your brand out, but you're contributing to the goodwill of the community as well. It's not about trying to get them to come to a particular game."

Proving clubs are genuine in their desire to be a part of the Latino community and that it's not just about selling tickets is essential, says Eduardo Carvacho, senior director of Hispanic sales and marketing for F.C. Dallas.

"You can't just go into the community, go to an event and get out," Carvacho said. "It takes time. You have to show we're there because we care about you. That's a very important part of understanding culturally how we [Latinos] think. It's about building that relationship first. Once they see I'm honest and trying to build this relationship for the right reasons, the rest will come."

Those efforts are clearly paying off. Latinos make up 33 percent of the MLS fan base. The NBA comes in second with 16 percent, followed by the NFL (13 percent). Baseball, with nearly 30 percent of the players Latino, comes in fourth with 12.9 percent.

Although 16 percent of its players are Hispanic, MLS isn't dependent on Latino players to market to the Hispanic demographic.

"At the moment, we don't have a big Latino-identified player," Galaxy communications coordinator Jaime Cardenas said. "However, some people would argue that Landon Donovan, even though he isn't Latino, is that Latino-identified player."

Donovan's recent chat for ESPN Deportes drew nearly 650 questions for the half-hour conversation, by far a record for an MLS chat. (Of course, it's worth noting the Galaxy captain evokes emotion from Mexican national team fans, which may have contributed to the surge.)

Courtemanche cites Houston as another prime example.

"For the bulk of their tenure [the team relocated from San Jose, Calif., for the 2006 season], they've had one, maybe two, sometimes zero players with Hispanic origins, and this is in a market with more than a million Hispanics," he said. "Yet they had a very strong Hispanic audience because the audience appreciated the fact that the team was very successful on the field. They came out for the product."

For MLS, it's about appealing to Hispanics as fans and consumers, not as simply a minority group.

The league recognizes and celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month. Events like D.C. United's annual Latin American Festival and the Cotton Bowl doubleheader featuring F.C. Dallas vs. New England and a Mexico-Colombia friendly are proof. But within MLS, Hispanic Heritage Month simply serves as an extension of what MLS is doing year-round.

"Everything we do as a soccer league and on a team level is already directly focused on Hispanics," said Marisabel Muñoz, director of international communications for MLS and Soccer United Marketing. "This is their sport."

The realization of that passion and the league's eagerness to embrace it should continue to pay off for MLS in terms of community visibility and revenue.

"There's much competition for every discretionary dollar across every league," Minto said. "With the Hispanic community growing ... MLS clubs are doing some unique things to try to reach them. They have a very progressive attitude. On a leaguewide level, they really recognize the spending power of the Hispanic community and their affinity for soccer."

This is only the beginning for Major League Soccer. With the Census Bureau projecting the Latino population to continue to rise (estimates are that Hispanics will make up over 25 percent of the U.S. population by 2050, or over 100 million Americans), those dollars and that enthusiasm for soccer will climb as well.

Look for MLS's efforts to reach a minority demographic to have a major impact.

Maria Burns Ortiz covers college soccer for ESPNsoccernet. She can be reached at mariamburns@gmail.com.

Latino TV program planned by Adventist Church

North America: Church Anticipates Launching Latino TV Programming
Adventist.org

Plans have been announced for the scheduled summer launch of new Spanish-language television programming for North and Central America on the Adventist Television Network (ATN). Members of the Hispanic advisory for the Adventist Church in North America learned of the development at a meeting in Denver, Colorado, on May 11. According to Manuel Vasquez, vice president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in North America, "this new programming will be a blessing not only to Hispanic church members but also to the Hispanic population" in the United States.

Participants in the Hispanic advisory received the news of this new venture with enthusiastic applause. They were especially pleased to learn the church will target not only immigrant but second and third generation Latinos.

"The anticipated programming will aim at reflecting the core values of the Adventist church," says Liliana Henao, an ATN producer. "The twist is that it will be done in a culturally contextualized manner meeting the social, educational and spiritual needs of the diverse Latino population."

With more than 39 million bilingual, bicultural predominately young Latinos residing in the United States alone, and 400,000 new Latino immigrants arriving every year, church officials believe it is an ethnic group that must be reached.
Denver, Colorado United States,
Julio C. Muñoz/ANN

Latino art exhibit features Dominican artist

Dominician artist's vibrant, bold works in Latino exhibition
BY KELLE BARR, mlive.com, October 11, 2009

PORTAGE -- While Erick Pichardo grew up in the Dominican Republic, his father never could get a grasp on his son's passion for the arts, especially for oil painting.

Art, the Dominican government employee told his boy, was a hobby -- but certainly not a wise career aspiration.

“He told me that as an artist I was going to suffer a lot and he would ask, `Why not a doctor or an attorney? Why not an engineer?,''' recalled Pichardo, grinning. “He didn't like it.''

Pichardo, who is also a dancer, musician and writer, had different ideas. He discovered early that he could express himself artistically with much more satisfaction than other forms of communication.

And although his father didn't embrace the notion, he supplied a constant stream of loving, unconditional support by financing music, dance and art lessons, as well as the education that would help Pichardo further his dream of being an artist. Pichardo said not everyone attends high school in the Caribbean country of his birth, which is on the island of Hispaniola, with Haiti on the western side of it. However, he was fortunate to have a family who could finance it. And, Pichardo is pleased to report, by the time he reached adulthood, the elder Pichardo finally came to terms with the passion that drives his son.

“He knows what this means to me now,'' said Pichardo, now of Grand Rapids, who is one of six Latino-Americans whose artwork is on exhibit at the Portage District Library. “He comes to my shows and sees my paintings. I am an artist, and now he really gets it.''

Pichardo's work is displayed all over the Grand Rapids and Holland area, where he works and is frequently exhibited and lives with his wife and young son.

His oils and mixed-media works are a dramatic splash of vivid color, defined by bold, contrasting hues and abstract, flowing images. Many of his pieces in the Portage District Library show, for which there is an artists' reception today and presentation, are large and distinctly characterized with interesting texture that Pichardo created using soil, sand or eggshells on the canvas. Pichardo has dabbled in watercolor, but said it doesn't provide the flexibility or vibrancy that he needs.

“I love oil,'' said Pichardo. “It allows me to play with the pigments and the textures flowing through the canvas.''

Using his brush to express his emotions, childhood memories, his faith and his strong feelings on social issues such as hunger and child abuse, some of his pieces are whimsical or uplifting, some dream-like, reflective and others haunting.

His native language is Spanish, but Pichardo calls himself a “Caribbean artist'' partially to honor the black portion of his island's heritage. It's something Pichardo is proud of and often illustrates to potential clients as they discuss his background, but he said it has cost him some sales.

“Six or seven times it has happened to me,'' Pichardo said. “But it never happens here. Kalamazoo is so cultural and diverse -- I love it.''

Pichardo plays several instruments, including congas and bongos and timbales, and performs interpretive dance. He sometimes blends those artistic elements with readings of his poetry during special exhibitions.

And although its his oils that Pichardo is known so well for, it's the words that flow from his heart onto paper that wife, Alma Suarez, said made her fall for her husband of eight years.

“He wrote me beautiful love letters every single day,'' she said. “And poems, too. He really has a gift. It made me feel so special -- how many people can write words that way?''

Pichardo said he didn't choose his profession -- rather, it was genetically assigned to him.

“I didn't decide to be an artist, I was born an artist,'' Pichardo said. “And I'm proud of that."

Book Fair features Latino voices

Dallas' International Book Fair to feature variety of Latino voices
Dallas Morning News, October 10, 2009

The need for Latino voices in the American literary landscape keeps growing.

There's just one problem: Publishers still don't understand the multiple Latino groups in the country and are looking for one-size-fits-all authors.

"They're still searching for that one Latino voice to represent all Latino cultures, and it doesn't exist," says Max Rodríguez , founder and publisher of QBR The Black Book Review.

His HBF Publishing, a print-on-demand collaboration with Author Solutions Inc., targets African-American and Latino readers and writers.

Rodríguez will conduct a workshop for aspiring authors during the fourth International Book Fair in Dallas from Oct. 29 through Nov. 1.

About 40 national and international authors will participate in the book fair, sponsored by the Dallas Public Library. The event will feature artistic and cultural performances, multilingual story times, dance and musical performances, plays, writing workshops, music and children's activities. Check the schedule at www.dallas internationalbookfair.com.

Rodríguez, who works with black and Latino writers to help them develop their craft, will talk about the Latino reader market and how to identify it.

Rather than becoming more cohesive, he said, this market has become more segmented and poses a conundrum for publishers: "It's both similar and very distinct. It's become a Rubik's cube – how do we bring it all together?"

Perhaps we can't, when we consider the second- and third-generation Latinos whose language has become urbanized, he said.

Daniel García Ordaz, who calls himself the "Poet Mariachi," is a good example of just how eclectic and multifaceted the U.S. Latino culture has become.

García Ordaz, who teaches English in McAllen, will share excerpts from his new book, You Know What I'm Sayin'?, on Oct. 31 at the downtown library.

He said his collection of poetry juxtaposes the politics of urban hip-hop America with the sociology of rural, deep South Texas, where he grew up.

On a typical day as a youth, he could go from watching MTV or listening to rap music to helping his mother make tamales, he said.

"Many Chicano poets tend to focus on the negative," he said "This book is a celebration of my life and culture. I'm having fun with the language."

Miriam Rodríguez, assistant director of public services for the library, said she expects the public will find the book fair was designed to be both educational and enjoyable.

"It also reflects the diverse community that Dallas has become," she said.

The broad range of writers, performers and activities at the book fair is designed to attract every age group of book lovers – and music aficionados.

Fans of Mexican singer José José will have a chance to see the famed performer, who sang to sold-out audiences in 100,000-seat venues during the 1980s, at the central library Oct. 30.

He will be interviewed by a local Spanish-language radio host, and then autograph his book, José José, Esta Es Mi Vida (This is My Life). The book contains a CD of his most popular songs.

Latin Music USA launched on PBS

Documentary follows the evolution of Latin music
''Latin Music USA'' will air in two parts, the first two segments at 9 p.m. Monday, and the second two at 9 p.m. Oct. 19 on WPBT-PBS 2.
BY JORDAN LEVIN, Miami Herald

When the Fania All-Stars played a legendary concert at Yankee Stadium in 1973, the stands were filled with 63,000 people who were so crazy for the radical new music called salsa that they stormed the stage. It was a bigger audience than the 55,000 who turned out for the Beatles' famed show at Shea Stadium eight years before. And yet there was almost no mention of the event in mainstream media, as if, for most of the country, one of the biggest concert events to take place in America hadn't happened.

A four-part PBS documentary aims to tell the story of that concert and the largely unknown history of Latin music in the United States, a rich tale of a vibrant music mostly ignored and misunderstood by its home country. Latin Music USA, which begins at 9 p.m. Monday on WPBT-PBS 2 and PBS nationally, fills in the role Latin music plays in American music, from the Cuban and Mexican influence on early rock and roll to the way reggaeton allowed young U.S. Latinos to find their own place in hip-hop culture.

Produced by Boston PBS station WGBH, the series tells the quintessentially American story of immigrants combining their musical heritage with the music of their new home, to create something that could only have happened in the United States.

``What we set out to do is place this story in the great stream of the American story,'' says Elizabeth Deane, Latin Music USA's executive producer. ``This is American music, these are American artists.''

Deane and fellow WGBH producer Adriana Bosch came up with the idea for the series in 1997, as a Latino version of Deane's award-winning history of rock and roll. Concentrating on the role Latinos played in American music was a way to focus an enormous subject, and make it compelling to both Latinos and a broader audience.

``We started out saying, what is Latin music? Bossa nova? Andean flute? Corridos?'' says Bosch, the series' Cuban-born senior producer and director of its fourth segment, Divas and Superstars. ``For Latinos, it's a question of history and memory and validation. We have had a very large impact on American music, and we are part of the history of this country.''

FOUR SEGMENTS

The first segment, Bridges, reaches back to the 1940s to show the creation of Latin jazz, or Afro-Cuban jazz, as Mario Bauza, the Cuban bandleader who first linked Cuban rhythms and American jazz, called it, and the mambo explosion. The Salsa Revolution tells the story of Fania and the creation of salsa in New York in the '70s, while the third section, Chicano Wave, shows Mexican-American figures like Richie Valens, Selena, Linda Ronstadt and Los Tigres del Norte, ``the most famous band that North Americans never heard of.''

The last hour, Divas and Superstars, looks at Gloria Estefan, the ``Latin Explosion'' ignited by Ricky Martin in 1999, crossover, reggaeton and the vital role that Latin pop plays in staking out a place for Latinos in American pop culture and identity.

Narrated by Jimmy Smits, the project does a fine job of weaving together explanations of the music itself, the way it rose from and affected the mainstream, and of capturing Latin music's energy and appeal. Bridges not only depicts the considerable musical achievements of artists such as Bauza, Machito, Chano Pozo, Dizzy Gillespie and Tito Puente, but the excitement and social ferment of the era, where Latinos, blacks, whites and Jews mixed it up on the dance floor of the famed Palladium nightclub, whose most famous dancers, a black Puerto Rican, Pedro ``Cuban Pete'' Aguilar, and a white Italian American, Millie Donay, electrified a crowd, and eventually a nation, even in segregated 1950s America.
Bridges also illuminates hidden links between mambo and mainstream American music. Mambo and cha-cha-cha rhythms found their way into rock classics like the Rascals' Good Lovin and the Rolling Stones' Satisfaction. It turns out that pioneering rock promoter Bill Graham was a Palladium ``mambonik'' whose love of Cuban rhythms led him to promote seminal San Francisco rocker Carlos Santana. We see Tito Rodriguez, one of the big three mambo era bandleaders, spinning on the dance floor in a way that looks almost identical to the Puerto Rican homeboys who would help invent breakdancing decades later.

``It's remarkable how resistant the American mainstream is to the Latino voice,'' says Bosch. ``Yet the music reverberates through so many genres.''

SANTANA ON LSD

Along the way there are terrific stories and personalities. Santana, high on LSD for his career-making Woodstock performance, wrestling the guitar he thought was a snake and praying ``just keep me in tune and in time and I'll never do this again.'' The famous ``Wanted by the FBI'' album cover and poster for gangsta-styled salsa pioneer Willie Colon that had people calling the feds for a reward. Mexican-American country music star Freddie Fender (real name Baldemar Huerta), who wrote the hit Wasted Days and Wasted Nights on toilet paper, and was living in a converted chicken coop when he was discovered by an American producer.

Divas deals with the often maligned but crucial effect of crossover and the Latin explosion that saw Martin, Marc Anthony, Shakira and Jennifer Lopez become mainstream stars. Bosch credits Gloria and Emilio Estefan for pioneering that crossover, and the shrewdness of pop architects like producer Desmond Child, who talks about designing the video for Livin' La Vida Loca so that Martin seems like a modern-day Elvis Presley, a reincarnation of a familiar pop icon.

Bosch found justification for Latin pop's importance, even if the music was watered down for the mainstream, in an interview with Lin-Manuel Miranda, creator of the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical In The Heights, which he was inspired to write by the success of the ``Latin explosion.'' Miranda said that ``young Latinos were so hungry to see themselves represented in the mainstream that it didn't matter how `authentic' the sound was,'' Bosch says. ``Just the presence of the Latino voice in the mainstream, and the acknowledgement that we were here and a presence in society was enough.''

Dudamel gets Latino style welcome

Gustavo Dudamel gets a special Latino welcome
Perhaps no one was more excited about the L.A. Philharmonic's new music director than the 60 members of the Latino Welcome Committee, which formed shortly after the Venezuelan's appointment.
By Reed Johnson, LA Times, October 2, 2009

José Luis Sedano says that his love of classical music began as a child, when his father, a bracero worker in the United States, would bring records home to Mexico City.

"The first music I knew was Chopin’s ‘Polonaise,' " says the 67-year-old photographer and filmmaker. Later, after he moved with his family to Los Angeles, Sedano worked as an usher at the Hollywood Bowl, where he saw the Beatles perform, then at L.A.'s newly built classical music temple, the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.

This week, Sedano was back at the Bowl with a videocamera making a documentary about the newest and potentially most significant link yet forged between classical music and Southern California Latinos: the appointment of Gustavo Dudamel as music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Of the many people and institutions hailing the young Venezuelan maestro's arrival this week, none is rolling out a bigger symbolic red carpet than the Latino Welcome Committee, of which Sedano is a member. A volunteer group of about 60 people, including educators, artists, attorneys, civic and business leaders, policy consultants and architects, it formed shortly after Dudamel's five-year appointment was announced in April 2007.

Organizers say that the committee came together more or less organically, out of preexisting connections and outreach programs involving the L.A. Phil and area Latinos. When the orchestra appointed Dudamel, multiple conversations and ideas started flowing between Disney Hall and its Latino patrons and supporters, and the committee jelled from that interchange.

"A lot of us have worked very closely with the L.A. Philharmonic throughout the years," says Angie Castro, a committee member and community press deputy for L.A. County Supervisor Gloria Molina. "If you talk to professionals, that's part of our life. We go to LACMA. We go to the Hollywood Bowl."

Tonight, the committee will officially host Dudamel with a reception at the Bowl that will bring together Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Molina and about 400 local civic and cultural leaders, including a smattering of Hollywood celebrities such as Jimmy Smits. A cross-section of musical talent will perform, including two youth orchestras, Jose Rizo's Jazz on the Latin Side All Stars, José Hernandez and Mariachi Sol de México and Johnny Polanco y Su Conjunto Amistad.

Additionally, Dudamel's inaugural concert as music director, "¡Bienvenido Gustavo!" at the Bowl on Saturday night, will have a distinctly Latin flavor, with performances by the young Cuban pianist Alfredo Rodriguez and David Hidalgo of Los Lobos with Taj Mahal and the musical troupe Los Cenzontles. Dudamel will conduct the YOLA Expo Centre Youth Orchestra in Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" and close the evening by leading the Los Angeles Philharmonic in Beethoven's Symphony No. 9.

Dudamel won't be the first Latino to fill a top position in Southern California's classical music world. Jorge Mester, the longtime music director of the Pasadena Symphony Orchestra, was born in Mexico City and has served as music director of the Mexico City Philharmonic Orchestra. Plácido Domingo, the Spanish-born superstar tenor who runs Los Angeles Opera, was raised partly in Mexico and has strong ties to Latin America.

But the 28-year-old conductor's youth and charismatic presence present the philharmonic and its Latino community partners with an unusual opportunity. Historically, the area's largest cultural entities have had only sporadic success in attracting substantial Latino audiences, in a region where roughly half the population is now of Hispanic descent. Often in the past, attendance would surge for a Latino-themed play opening or art exhibition, then gradually slip back.

"All of the major cultural organizations in L.A. have struggled with this issue through the years," says John Echeveste, a committee member and a partner at VPE Public Relations. "The difference here, I think, is that Gustavo is here for five years, so we have a real, live person here who can go out and tell the story."

Erick Serrato, an L.A.-based consultant, says that one of the formative influences on the Latino Welcome Committee occurred some time ago at a Walt Disney Concert Hall performance that included mariachi musicians.

"A lot of us showed up to the L.A. Phil and a lot of people said, 'Oh, wow, look at all these brown people here!' " Serrato recalls. "I think for a lot of us that was an epiphany. It was an instant where we felt suddenly the music felt very accessible to us, the venue felt very accessible to us. And how do we keep this together?"

The committee aims to continue collaborating with the L.A. Phil in reaching out to local Latinos during Dudamel's inaugural season and beyond, and in promoting greater access to the arts. Those efforts will include a number of youth-centric initiatives, such as the recently formed YOLA, which was inspired by El Sistema, the Venezuelan national music education program that nurtured Dudamel.

In addition to such projects, and to continue to include Latin composers and artists in its concert programming, the philharmonic has signaled its commitment to building Latino audiences by investing heavily in a bilingual promotional blitz around Dudamel. Working with alPunto, an Orange County-based marketing firm, the Phil developed an advertising campaign pairing images of the conductor with Spanish words such as "pasión" and "vibrante."

The Phil also for the first time printed its program book for Saturday's concert in both English and Spanish., accents included, the first time it ever has done so.

"What we are learning and developing with, as a result of Gustavo, [is] this whole concept of how we truly integrate ourselves into the fabric of the community," says Deborah Borda, the Los Angeles Philharmonic's president.

Committee member , a UCLA theater professor and artistic director of the Latino Theater Company, says the evolving profile of L.A.'s cultural institutions reflects a different city than existed 10 years ago.

"The face of America is changing," he says, "and we're participating in that change."

reed.johnson@latimes.com

Latino TV personalities juggle a bilingual stage

Latino TV personalities juggle a bilingual stage
By Yvonne Villarreal, LA Times, October 4, 2009

They say things like "Antes de la break" and "Mira que cute." One is a clownish, Puerto Rican-born 28-year-old who ditched studying engineering to pursue a career in entertainment, another is an outspoken SoCal native who once had a penchant for crashing cars. The Spanglish? It just comes naturally.

They're a new generation of Latino television personalities: attractive, plugged in and conversant not only in Spanglish argot but in a complex, shifting culture. Their employers believe they are offering young viewers a cool, and marketable, connection to this culture. Don Francisco, cuidado.

With U.S.-born Latinos accounting for more than 60% of all Latinos in the country, according to recent census data, a group of bilingual networks has arisen in the last few years to tap into an audience interested in bicultural programming.

In a fragmented media environment in which young viewers can watch mainstream and Spanish-language media, channels MTV Tr3s, mun2, SiTV and LATV aim to bridge the gap between American culture and the roots of their youthful -- and sometimes out-of-touch -- viewers. In August, mun2 achieved its best numbers since it was launched eight years ago with the broadcast of the U.S.A. versus Mexico qualifying soccer match for the World Cup; the game averaged 322,000 viewers, according to Nielsen. With the help of teen telenovela "Isa TKM," MTV Tr3s ranked No. 2 among Hispanic females ages 12-17 for a week in August, second only to Disney Channel at the 5-6 p.m. time slot.

From telenovelas and in- vestigative documentaries to sports programming and shows highlighting the latest in American and Latin music, the networks offer a variety of programming to compete with all networks, not just with one another and not just Spanish-language programming, says Jose Tillan, general manager of New York-based MTV Tr3s.

"Our audience is a hybrid of all markets," agrees Alex Pels, general manager of mun2in Universal City. "They're people who live in both worlds and are comfortable in both worlds. They can tune in to a telenovela one hour and 'Family Guy' the next. Networks like ours are a one-stop destination for the bicultural viewer."

The multicultural approach is appealing to advertisers hoping to tap into the expanding Hispanic market. LATV counts Honda, McDonald's, T-Mobile, Wrigley and the U.S. Army among its advertisers, while MTV Tr3s features Toyota, Target and Verizon Wireless. "It is unrealistic to expect a single-language strategy to work successfully for the entire Hispanic consumer market," says Laura Sonderup, director of Heinrich Hispanidad, an ad agency in Denver.

The style of these young, upwardly mobile entertainers -- from their wardrobe to the shows they watch -- reflects the juggling that millions face every day in an effort to maintain their Latin roots while living in the U.S. Born in America or elsewhere, they each add a different flavor to the audience.

Don't typecast her

She may have flowing blond locks, but don't call Pili Montilla a gringa -- it gets her slightly upset. Just ask Akwid. The L.A.-based Chicano urban rap duo made the mistake -- on camera -- of insinuating her golden mane was an attempt to be more American.

But Montilla didn't stay mum on-air. "I was so glad it happened that way," she says. "I called them out. They're actually digging a hole for Latinos by sticking to the stereotypes." Before she was interviewing Latin music artists for LATV, Montilla was a Jane-of-all-trades in her homeland of Puerto Rico: soap opera ingénue, theater actress, radio show host and MTV Puerto Rico personality. "I had basically done everything I could within that market," Montilla says.

There wasn't actually an opening for a new host at LATV, but a determined Montilla found executive producer Lalo Marron's contact information online and sent him her résumé. And it worked. She began as a correspondent in Puerto Rico and eventually landed the gig here.

She now hosts the music program "En la Zona" and "En Concierto," where she interviews artists such as Calle 13 and Luis Fonsi for a half-hour in front of a live audience.

"We're an alternative for the alternative Latino," Montilla says. "We're for those people who don't want to see girls in tangas shaking their booty. The networks like Channel 62 . . . they are criticizing the Latino. They're stereotyping us and they're saying we can't be challenged intellectually."

So she's offering her hosting skills to provide that stimulation. "There are people on TV, like me, who want to help the youth get reconnected," she says. "We're telling them, 'You know what? You're welcome in both cultures. Embrace both cultures and be happy in both. It's 2009. You can't just be attached to one thing. . . . The more you know, the better."

A Latin Seacrest?

Carlos Santos salsa dances with Beyoncé. He does skits with Paulina Rubio. Daddy Yankee? Yup. He knows him too.

The daffy MTV Tr3s personality has interviewed them and dozens of other celebrities as host of the now-defunct "MiTRL," a Latino spinoff of MTV's music video countdown program. The first on-air talent for MTV Tr3s, the 28-year-old now hosts "Entertainment as a Second Language with Carlos Santos," which just wrapped its first season.

The hourlong variety show features performances from top music acts, interviews with TV and film celebrities and comedy sketches. Think "Saturday Night Live" with a splash of "Sábado Gigante."

And you don't have to be Latino to tune in. "I think what we're working toward is a situation where we don't think in terms of color or ethnicity," Santos says. "There's a flavor that MTV Tr3s and other bilingual networks can provide to the rest of the world. We are in millions of homes; not all of them are Latino."

Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Santos left home, where he was studying engineering, to attend Fresno State and received a degree in theater arts. To pursue his comedic ambitions, he headed to L.A. and graduated from Second City's training center.

By 2004, he was a host on rival network LATV. Two years later -- after many auditions -- Santos, who says he learned English by watching American television shows, landed a hosting gig at MTV Tr3s.

With "E.S.L" on hiatus, Santos continues hosting other artist-related specials. He recently attended the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute in Washington, D.C., where he helped introduce MTV Tr3s' new show "Yearbook Chronicles," a documentary that examines the disproportionate rate of Latinos dropping out of high school.

"The need is definitely there to represent that flavor of the bilingual community who have one foot in America and the other foot in their homeland," he says. "The main goal for everyone working in bilingual entertainment is to continue making bridges between the old and new generation. When you do that, you're creating a bond that's stronger than anything . . . and here is where you cue the sad music and cry."

Always the comedian.

Chica talk

Melissa "Crash" Barrera adjusts her leggings so the striped sides will be captured on camera. Beside her is Yasmin Deliz, who croons bits of Keri Hilson's hit single "Knock You Down" as she takes a last glimpse at the show's rundown before shoving the pages behind a pillow in the chic living room-styled set of "Crash & Yasmin Uncensored." Today's topic? Cosmetic surgery. And as the name of the show suggests, these chicas have no filters. They talk about "fake boobies." Ashlee Simpson's nose job, Crash (who got her nickname after wrecking six cars by age 15) says, was an aesthetic achievement -- "It did you good, girl."

When the duo isn't mouthing off on bone shaving and calf implants, they're offering their thoughts on breakups and homosexuality on "CYU" or taking an etiquette class and belting out rancheras on their other show, "The Chicas Project," which just wrapped its fourth season.

And their outspokenness is available in English and Spanish on mun2, NBC Universal's bilingual network. But they don't ration their ranting to meet any language quotas, so don't try to quantify their "Latina-ness" based on the frequency with which they roll their R's.

"I've worked in Latin television before and they've said, 'You don't speak enough Spanish,' 'You sound funny when you speak Spanish,' " says 24-year-old Crash (don't worry, SoCal drivers, she now takes the Metro to work). "I am Latina, and there are tons of kids that are like me. Being fluent in Spanish doesn't make you more Latina than me. I feel like if I portray myself any other way, then I am neglecting those kids that are just like me, that feel so lost in all this -- who wonder, 'Where do I fall in this Latin spectrum?' "

Venezuela-born Deliz, 22, was raised in New York by her Dominican father and Colombian mother. Don Francisco was the dominant Latino television personality; his variety show "Sábado Gigante" continues to air in the U.S. on Univision. Watching him was a "family affair" and once the clock struck 8:00, "nobody even had to say a word, we just went right to the televi- sion and watched." Deliz, who moved to L.A. when she was 16 to pursue a music career, never imagined she would be an alternative to such a dominant figure.

Her partner in crime, the Southern California-born Crash, is a mix of Mexican, Navajo and German. Expelled from two schools and legally emancipated from her parents by age 15, the rockera grew up with an eclectic blend of Spanish and American shows. Her grandma might be watching a telenovela in one room while her uncle was watching MTV in another.

The back-and-forth shuffle between rooms -- and channels -- to get a hearty diet of her cultures didn't seem unusual to the rocker chick. "I never thought it was odd because it's all I knew," she says. "It wasn't like there was an LATV or a mun2. There was nothing like that to compare. So it wasn't like I felt I was missing out on anything."

Now the two young women find themselves onscreen, their antics broadcast in homes across America -- but with a serious purpose. "We're keeping our culture alive," Deliz said, drifting in and out of Spanish. "We have an obligation to continue to do so. It's not an easy task. . . . It's great to be a part of that."

Feeling the music

Yarel Ramos is a 23-year-old grad student. She has late-night cram sessions. Takes copious notes during class. And is featured on billboards across Los Angeles promoting her show "Reventón."

The oldest of three, Ramos is a second-generation Mexican American who grew up in Los Angeles. She watched Nickelodeon's pre-teen favorites "Clarissa Explains It All" and "All That." But wait, she also tuned in to "Xou da Xuxa," a famous children's show in Brazil and Latin America hosted by Brazilian model Xuxa, and "Baila Conmigo" (Dance With Me), a telenovela from the early '90s. The duality of her identity was something she struggled to maintain at an early age.

"English was kind of set aside in our home," Ramos says. "My dad used to always tell me, "En la casa, se habla español. When you go to school, you speak English; pero en tu casa, you speak Spanish. It was a juggling act at times."

It's a balance, she says, that many of mun2 viewers understand. And "Reventón," a one-hour music program keeping Latino youth up to date with the regional Mexican music scene serves as a link for newer generations to their heritage. "As a kid, you think, 'I don't want to be Mexican,' " Ramos says. "Then you grow up and find that you appreciate it even more and want more of it."

While a student at the University of Miami, where she received a degree in broadcast journalism and international relations, Ramos found herself longing for that connection -- for the comforts she often tried to ignore as a child.

"When I was miserable in Miami, I would listen to regional Mexican music and go buy myself pan dulce. What do you do when the world is detaching you from yourself? You go back to the things that bring you back to who you are, where you come from."

She went on to start the first Spanish-language television program at her school, interned at Telemundo and found time to teach aerobics. She is pursuing a master's degree in media management at USC when she isn't in the studio interviewing musicians or introducing videos.

On this day, Ramos, her brunet curls cascading down her left shoulder, has just changed outfits to begin filming the latest installment of "Reventón," featuring cumbia music group Los Súper Reyes with a special appearance by Frankie J. She asks questions in English. Sometimes she'll punch things up with some Spanish.

It's a juggling act. But she's used to that.

yvonne.villarreal@latimes.com

Latinos went from sugar beet fields to baseball fields

Sugar beets to baseball: Northern Colorado's Hispanic baseball league
Adam Chodak, 9News.com

GREELEY - According to the movies, baseball can grow out of cornfields. But in Northern Colorado, baseball emerged alongside fields of sugar beets.
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This story starts right around the turn of the 20th century.

Great Western Sugar Company had begun aggressively recruiting Mexican-Americans and Mexican natives to work its sugar beet fields in the West.

By 1920, thousands of the company's workers were of Hispanic heritage.

Great Western eventually built adobe homes for the workers. With the homes grouped together, the Spanish-speaking workers called these small communities "las colonias."

To pass the time in between backbreaking shifts, the male workers started playing baseball.

Teams were then formed; one per colony. A league then formed. They called it the Rocky Mountain League of National Semi-Pro Baseball Congress, but most folks called it the Sugar Beet League.

"We always had uniforms," said Ricardo Lopez who played for the formidable Greeley Grays in 1950s.

Lopez's father was one of the first to play in the league. All 13 of his boys would follow suit, all playing for the Grays.

For the Lopez family, like so many others attached to the Sugar Beet League, baseball was everything.

"You had baseball for breakfast, lunch and dinner," Lopez said.

While the Grays could always brag about their record, never could they boast about their field.

"We called it the Home of the Brave because you'd have to brave the rocks," Lopez said with a laugh.

Lopez and his brothers have told anecdotes like that at family functions for years. Gabriel Lopez, Lopez's nephew, always had trouble believing them.

A Hispanic baseball league in Colorado just seemed too odd. But then he and his wife, Jody, started a small investigation.

"Within an hour, we had proof," he said.

From the Greeley Tribune, they found blurbs that gave the results from games and pictures of various players.

They soon had a enough pictures and articles to fill an exhibit at Centennial Village Museum in Greeley and a book titled, "From Sugar to Diamonds: Spanish/Mexican baseball 1925-1969."

In both, the Lopez's talk about the dedication of the players, who were willing to travel across the state to take on any team.

There's also evidence of how good these ballplayers really were.

"They played against the Metropolitan League in Denver ... and they held their own," said Gabriel Lopez.

Some of the players even went on to play professional ball.

But to Gabriel Lopez, one of the most respectable aspects of the league was its acceptance of anyone who wanted to play.

"To them, there was no race," he said.

There was only that field; the field that arose out of the sugar beets; the field of rocks and dreams.

"It was just love of the game," said Ricado Lopez, who is now in his 70s. "We lived for that."

This story is one of several produced by 9NEWS in recognition of Hispanic Awareness Month.

Latino film festival comes to Hollywood

Latino International Film Festival Announces Lineup
Century City News, 10/02/2009

The 13th Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival (LALIFF) will present the best of Latino filmmaking from October 11-16 at the Mann Chinese 6 Cinemas in Hollywood. Opening with Pedro Almodóvar’s Broken Embraces, LALIFF’s cinematic journey will continue with award-winning and sure to please films from emerging and established filmmakers from around the world including Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, Spain, United States, México, Panamá, Peru, Puerto Rico, Japan and Uruguay.

Depicting the diversity, creativity, innovation and sometimes, provocative, Latino experience, LALIFF’s lineup includes Gigante (Uruguay), winner of the Alfred Bauer and Best Debut Film Awards at the 2009 Berlin International Film Festival; Down for Life (USA) named “the biggest surprise” at the recent Toronto International Film Festival; La Nana(Chile) winner of the World Cinema Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, Don’t Let Me Drown (USA) and the documentary Sin Mapa (USA).

Established in 1997, LALIFF was co-founded by director, actor and activist Edward James Olmos; producer Marlene Dermer, and film and music producer George Hernández with the mission to support the development and exhibition of diverse visions by Latino filmmakers. Dermer, who also serves as the festival’s director and programmer says, “the Latino artistic spirit seems to remain unscathed, even though we continue to live in uncertain times. This year’s rich and diverse films will undoubtedly demonstrate the splendor of Latino cinema with stories that enable us to come together and embrace one another.”

LALIFF is pleased to present the World Premieres of Anita (Argentina),a story about a Jewish girl with Down syndrome in a conflicted Buenos Aires directed by Marcos Carnevale, LALIFF’s 2006 Audience Award Winner for his critically acclaimed film Elsa and Fred, and Grado 3(Chile), a riveting comedy about relationships by promising director Roberto Antiagoitia.

USA Premieres include Down for Life(USA) directed by Alan Jacobs, which was named “the biggest surprise of the festival” at the recent Toronto International Film Festival, starring Laz Alonso, Calvin Broadus, Kate del Castillo, Elizabeth Peña, Emily Rios with Danny Glover and introducing Jessica Romero. The film is based on a New York Times article that depicts a single, fateful day in the life of a 15-year-old Latina gang leader in South Central Los Angeles, played by newcomer Romero. In addition, El Premio (Peru)by well known Peruvian director Alberto "Chicho" Durant; Amar (To Love, Mexico) directed by Jorge Ramirez Suarez starring Maria Aura, Bruno Bichir, Tony Dalton, Pedro Damian, Luis Ernesto Franco, Diana Garcia, Javier “Chabelo” Lopez, and Adal Ramones; and the award-winning film Retorno a Hansala (Spain) directed by Chus Gutierrez, inspired by the real-life tragedy about a shipwreck of Moroccan migrants in which 37 drowned, 13 of whom were from Hansala.

West Coast Premieres include sci-fi romantic comedy Santos (Spain/Chile) directed by Nicolas Lopez starring Javier Gutierrez, Elsa Pataky and Leonardo Sbaraglia; Paraíso (USA) directed by Leon Ichaso (El Cantante, Piñero) which explores the generational and class divides within the exiled Cuban community; and Spoken Word (USA),directed by Victor Nunez (Ulee’s Gold, Ruby in Paradise) with Kuno Becker and Rubén Blades starring as son and father struggling to reconnect, and Miguel Sandoval. In a special screening, LALIFF will also present Gigante (Uruguay), the directorial debut of Adrian Biniez, who won the Alfred Bauer and Best Debut Film Awards at the 2009 Berlin International Film Festival.

Los Angeles Premieres include the recipient of the World Cinema Jury Prize at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, La Nana (Chile) from director Sebastian Silva, an intelligent microcosm of Latin social hierarchy through a maid’s journey to free herself from a mental servitude of her own making; Sólo Quiero Caminar (Spain) directed by the acclaimed Spanish filmmaker Agustín Díaz Yanes starring Diego Luna, Victoria Abril, Ariadna Gil, Pilar Lopez de Ayala and Elena Ayala; El Lince Perdido (The Missing Lynx, Spain), winner of the 2009 Goya Award for Best Animated Film, directed by Manuel Sicilia and Raúl García; and El Cuerno de la Abundancia, (Horn of Plenty, Cuba) directed by Juan Carlos Tabio, a wonderfully crafted comedy that reflects on the socio-economic difficulties of contemporary Cuba starring Jorge Perugorria, Paula Ali, Mirtha Ibarra, Laura De La Uz, Enrique Molina and Yoima Valdes.

LALIFF will also present a special screening of the heartfelt family drama La Mission(USA), directed by Sundance Film Festival veteran Peter Bratt (Follow me Home) starring Benjamin Bratt, Jesse Borrego, Jeremy Ray Valdez, Max Rosenak, Patrik Shining Elk, Erika Alexander, Christopher Borgzinner.

Films competing in the Opera Prima Category include the USA Premiere of Morenita (Mexico) the award-winning film by Alan Jonson Gavica, recipient of the Best Director Award at the Huelva Latin American Film Festival. The film tells the story about a man who, in a desperate attempt to save his family from a notorious drug dealer, causes absolute pandemonium when he kidnaps Mexico and Latin America’s most adored religious icon, the Virgin of Guadalupe. Additional films in the category, include the West Coast Premieres of El Regalo de la Pachamama (Bolivia), a beautiful spiritual tale by Japanese director Toshifumi Matsushita; Cinco Días Sin Nora (Five Days Without Nora, Mexico)the internationally acclaimed dark comedy written and directed by Mariana Chenillo, and Don’t Let Me Drown (USA) directed by Cruz Angeles, which follow two Latino teens in a post-September 11 world, starring E.J. Bonilla, Geendilys Inoa, Gina Torres, Ricardo Antonio Chavira, Yareli Arizmendi and Damian Alcazar. The winner of the Best Film Award by the Jalisco Academy of Motion Pictures and Visual Arts at the 2009Guadalajara International Film Festival, Amar a Morir (Mexico/Colombia) directed by Fernando Lebrija will have its Los Angeles Premiere after a successful box office run in Mexico. This film was conceived and written by two filmmakers who met when they participated at the 7thedition of LALIFF.

Ranging from social and political films to personal journeys, this year’s Documentary Category include Sin Mapa (USA) directed by Marc De Beaufort, an insight into the internationally renowned Latin urban alternative duo, Calle 13, as they choose to disappear from the map after winning six Grammys to embark on an exploration through Ecuador, Peru and the Amazon to connect with thepeople and cultures distant from their fans. In addition, making their directorial debut, Luis Rincón brings El Arbol Olvidado (The Forgotten Tree, Mexico), and John Urbano with the documentary Beauty of The Fight, (Panama/USA), winner of the Best Documentary Award at the 2009 Athens International Film and Video Festival. Also in the category, Pachamama (Brazil) directed by Eryk Rocha, gives a voice to the otherwise silenced inhabitants of the Brazilian rain forest and Stages (USA) directed by Meerkat Media Collective, an unlikely, though moving and surprisingly funny collaboration between young and old.

The vitality of Cuba is present in two documentaries: Titón, de La Habana a Guantanamera (Titón, from Havana to Guantanamera, Spain) about the life of acclaimed filmmaker Titón, Tomás Gutierrez Alea, directed by actress and Titon’s wife, Mirtha Ibarra; and the highly anticipated Sons of Cuba (Cuba) directed by Andrew Lang, which gives a glance into the reclusive and prestigious Havana Boxing Academy, the boarding school that hand picks 9-year-old boys to turn them into the best boxers in the world and has made Cuba a dominating force in Olympic boxing for the past quarter of a century.

LALIFF is also presenting a documentary selection from Latino Public Broadcast (LPB), including the winner of the Freedom Award at the 2009 Al Jazeera International Documentary Film Festival in Doha, Qatar, New Muslim Cool (USA) directed by Jennifer Maytorena Taylor. The film chronicles the life of Hamza Pérez, an American of Puerto Rican heritage who was a gang member and a drug dealer before converting to Islam. Other documentaries include Children of the Amazon (Brazil) directed by Denise Zmekhol; Latin Music USA: Bridges–Chicano Wave (USA) directed by John Jay Valadez and Latin Music USA: Bridges–Divas and Superstars (USA) directed by Adriana Bosch.

The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Science recognizes LALIFF as a qualifying festival, making the winner of its Short Film Category eligible for Oscar® consideration. LALIFF is proud to present exceptional films that hail from all over the world making this year one of the most competitive and exciting programs ever. From immigration, family drama, to comedies and love stories, LALIFF’s Shorts Program titles will be presented as follows:

BORDER STORIES:
Amanecer (Colombia/Australia), dir. Álvaro D. Ruiz; Braceros (USA/Brazil), dir. Belinda J. Carreño; The Book of the Border(USA/Mexico), dir. Andrés Torres-Vives; Niña Quebrada (USA) dir. Jen Kleiner, and Tijuanerso (USA/Mexico) dir. Paul Bodadilla.

COMEDY:
El Tío Facundo (Mexico/Cuba), dir. Alejandro Cachoua; No se Preocupe (Spain) dir. Eva Ungria Lupiani; Porque hay Cosas que Nunca se Olvidan (Spain) dir. Lucas Figueroa; El Trip, (USA); Ventura Montoya; El Tux, (USA) dir. Paco Farias; Twilight Tango (USA) dir. Jason C. Sting, and The Last White Dishwasher (USA), dir. Claudia Duran.

LOVE STORIES:
Amor Crudo (Argentina) dir. Martín Deus and Juan Chappa; Prayer in the Night (Denmark) dir. Inma Carpe; La Nostalgia del Sr. Alambre (Mexico) dir. Jonathan Ostos Yaber; Cómo Conocí a tu Padre (Spain), dir. Alex Montoya, and Red Mesa (USA) dir. Ilana Lapid.

CITY STORIES:
El Muerto (Puerto Rico) dir. Williamson Quintero; Pim, Pam, Pum (Spain) dir. Andoni De Carlos, Asier Urbeita; Hermanos (USA) dir. Maria Biber-Ferro; Quase Todo el Día (USA) dir. Gandja Monteiro; Rising Up (USA) dir. Eduardo Letamendi; Tag (USA) dir. Henry “Heno” Fernandez, and Little Village (USA) dir. David Priego.

DRAMA/FAMILY:
Inocente- (Brazil) dir. Beto Schultz, Thiago Luciano; Marina la Esposa del Pescador (Spain) dir. Carlos Hernández; Socarrat (Spain) dir. David Moreno; Cleats (USA) dir. María Agui Carter; La Guerrera (USA) dir. Erika Cohn, and Death Rattle (USA) dir. A.J. Garces.

DRAMA/LOSS:
El Descubrimiento (Mexico) dir. Alonso Álvarez Barreda; El Viejo (Mexico) dir. Gabriela Paciel; Abuelo (USA); dir.Mary Ann Kellogg; Hacia la Vida (USA/Mexico) dir. Fidel Arizmendi; The Memory of When (USA) dir. Gary Pérez; Tango (USA) dir. Allan Girón, and Welcome to Paradox (USA) dir. Archie Hernández.
[Arancele (Brazil) dir. Melo Viana will be screened with Titón, de la Habana a Guantanamera]

Pedro Almodóvar’s Broken Embraces (Spain) will have its West Coast Premiere during the festival’s Opening Night and GABI Lifetime Achievement Award Galaon Sunday, October 11 at the Grauman’s Chinese Theatre(6925 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood, CA). Written and directed by Almodóvar, the film stars Penélope Cruz, Lluís Homar, Blanca Portillo, José Luis Gómez, Rubén Ochandiano and Tamar Novas. Almodóvar will also be honored with the GABI Lifetime Achievement Award.

LALIFF’s screenings will take place at the Mann Chinese 6 Cinemas at 6925 Hollywood Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90028-6103. The Closing Night and the Award Ceremony & Gala will take place on Friday, October 16 at Paramount Theatre at the Paramount Studio Lot, 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, CA 90038.

For more information LALIFF, festival screenings and to buy tickets, please visit: www.latinofilm.org.

Latino brings film to Gainsville

'Sleep Dealer' being shown today, a highlight of Latino Film Festival
By Dante Lima, Gainsville.com, October 2, 2009

What: 5th Annual Gainesville Latino Film Festival presents "Sleep Dealer" with presentation by director Alex Rivera
When: 2 p.m. today
Where: Harn Museum of Art's Chandler Auditorium
Cost: Free. For more information, go to www.harn.ufl.edu

His father crossed several to get from Peru to the United States, his protagonist in the feature film "Sleep Dealer" uses an Internet portal to get from Mexico to the U.S. and his idol Pete Seeger blew them away when he used music to protest social and political injustices.

To Rivera, boundaries mean something has to be a certain way, and he says blending is what he does best. That's why the Latina Women's League invited him to speak Saturday for the screening of his socio-political, science-fiction feature as a part of Gainesville's ongoing Latino Film Festival.

"To tell a story about a culture, films don't just need to be dramas," Rivera said. "They can be musicals, or comedies or science fictions. We can and should have a film culture that can use the art form in its full potential."

That was the goal of "Sleep Dealer," to tell a story that bridged comedy, drama, politics and technology in a way that could touch on the complexities of modern life.

The movie's main character, Memo, is an uprooted Mexican villager who attempts to migrate north to the U.S. He finds the border has been built and sealed, denying a passageway to better opportunities. Through the use of the Internet, he connects his body to a computer that allows him to cross the border electronically and control machines on the other side.

Rivera said the movie is a culmination of what he's been thinking about.

"It looks at technology and the sense that our world is getting more connected, yet in some instances we feel more alienated from each other," he said.

Rivera uses the film to comment on current issues of immigration and border policy, as well. Immigrants offer a look at different worlds and cultures, and they are fascinating, essential educational tools, he said.

"You can see the whole world in an immigrant's life. If you listen to them, you can hear stories of the Third World, and then they come to the U.S. and end up in a metropolis like New York or Miami and they give you the First World perspective, too," he said. "It just seemed like a rich, exciting and controversial way to tell stories."

Even as the U.S. Hispanic population hovers around 47 million, Latino cinema is lacking in Rivera's eyes. The stories are there, often ripe with the political, social and economic complexities that filmmakers like Rivera seek, but they aren't being told, he said.

"(Latinos) are a huge part of the country. We are a huge part of Florida. But unfortunately we aren't a huge part of cinema," he said. "There are few feature films that address the issues of the global Latino community, and I am interested in contributing to that."

"Sleep Dealer" premieres today at the Harn Museum of Art's Chandler Auditorium at 2 p.m. The film has also played at the Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco Latino Film Festivals and the Sundance Film Festival.

Hispanic interest in college basketball grows

Hispanic interest in college hoops grows
By Dana O'Neil, ESPN.com, October 1, 2009

Growing up in Miami, Frank Martin knew of only two sports: baseball and football.

This was the 1970s, and for a melting pot of Latin American immigrants like South Florida, there was little to broaden that perspective. The Orlando Magic and Miami Heat were nearly two decades away from existence, the University of Miami was in the midst of its 15-year period without basketball; Florida International didn't sport a team. Only Division II Biscayne College offered any sort of high-level basketball outlet.

Martin, whose family had immigrated to the United States from Cuba, was going to be a baseball player. That was his father's plan; that was the plan of most fathers.

"You go to the parks, and there might be 30 people playing basketball," Martin remembers. "You go watch pee-wee football, there were 3,000. Little league baseball? Even more. People knew baseball, so that's what was pushed on me."

Today Martin is the head basketball coach at Kansas State. Bucking his father's wishes and the trend of most Latin American kids, he discovered hoops in high school and hung on for the ride.

Frank Martin, who grew up in the Cuban-American community of Miami, has seen first-hand the growth of basketball among Hispanics.

But as his Wildcats ready for the season, the trend clearly has shifted. Right there in America's heartland, Martin's best player is Denis Clemente, a Puerto Rican whose second cousin is the late baseball legend Roberto Clemente. Starting center Luis Colon is also a native of Puerto Rico.

Buoyed by the globalization of the game, basketball is gaining a strong foothold in countries where football and soccer traditionally have ruled. From South America to the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and even Cuba, the roundball is gaining ground, and college rosters are reaping the benefits.

Greivis Vasquez will lead the charge at Maryland while Gregory Echenique is ready to lead at Rutgers. Both are Venezuelan by birth. On the West Coast, Jorge Gutierrez is expected to play a significant role for Mike Montgomery at Cal. Gutierrez was born in Chihuahua, Mexico.

Dominican Edgar Sosa (Louisville) and Argentine Juan Fernandez (Temple) are key contributors in their respective backcourts.

That's just to name a few.

"The sport has picked up tremendously across South America, Latin America, all over," said Marcos "Shakey" Rodriguez, Martin's mentor and the legendary Miami-area high school coach. "I'd say it's probably the second-biggest sport worldwide after soccer."

In Argentina, where Diego Maradona remains revered, the 2004 Olympic basketball team is a not-so-distant second mind of the country.

The surprise gold-medal winners not only stunned the world, but they also rallied the youth of their country into a frenzy for basketball.

"I wish I could do a research study, because in 15, 20 years you're going to see a new generation of basketball players from this country," said Pepe Sanchez, a former All-American at Temple and a point guard on that Olympic squad. "This is going to be a nation rich with basketball talent from the kids who watched that team."

“The sport has picked up tremendously across South America, Latin America, all over. I'd say it's probably the second-biggest sport worldwide after soccer."
” -- Coach Marcos Rodriguez

Argentina isn't alone. Other countries are seeing a boon in the game, emboldened by improving professional leagues and rising national teams.

The international power base for basketball remains in Europe, but leagues and teams are growing all over. Professional teams have now found homes everywhere from the Dominican to Turks and Caicos to Chile and the Cayman Islands.

But the change is most evident at the national level, where players are returning to play for their native countries. Tavernari played for Brazil this summer, Fernandez for Argentina, Echenique for Venezuela, and Rutgers teammate Mike Rosario for Puerto Rico.

Strengthened by more talent, Brazil, Puerto Rico and Argentina are among the 14 teams to have already qualified for the 2010 World Championships.

"With the growth of the game, you see more and more kids geared up to play basketball," Martin said. "That wasn't the case before. They want to play on a professional team, so the professional teams are getting better and better in places where they weren't so good anymore.

"And they all are very prideful. They're proud of their family's heritage just like I am, and they not only want to play for their national team, it's very important that they do well."

Talented players have thrived in Latin American and South American countries for decades. But for years, those players were hidden gems, discovered often by chance.

Rodriguez remembers a sweltering July a dozen years ago. While the rest of his coaching brethren watched the big tournaments in Las Vegas, he sat in the bleachers in Puerto Rico. Then the head coach at Florida International, he discovered and signed Carlos Arroyo for one simple reason: He was the only one who saw him.

"I kept waiting for everybody else to come along," Rodriguez said. "I knew he was a stud, and I knew as soon as someone like North Carolina saw him, I was out. Eventually they did see him, but they were too late. I was there first because nobody else would even think to recruit in Puerto Rico."

That's changed. Success breeds interest, and with so many players finding opportunity at American colleges, there is now mutual interest from coaches and players. Rodriguez said that in the 1980s, rare was the college coach who found his way to Miami to recruit a basketball player.

Now the city is crawling with coaches.

Greivis Vasquez grew up in Venezuela, but took a pit stop at an American high school before attending Maryland.

Even more, U.S. high schools are now stuffed with Latin American players. Puerto Ricans certainly have an advantage. The reciprocal relationship between the United States and Puerto Rico negates the need for passports and visas to come to the States to play.

But athletes from all over are finding their way to U.S. high schools and ultimately on to American college rosters.

"People identify top kids in high school and then find places for them," Rodriguez said. "A coach will call and say, 'I've got an eighth-grader who is going to be pretty good. Can you take him? They're filtering these kids in."

With districting and residence issues, the public schools are at a clear disadvantage. Consequently, it's not surprising that many foreign-born players are ending up on private-school rosters.

Vasquez came from Venezuela to Maryland by way of Montrose Christian in suburban Baltimore. Tavernari and Gutierrez both played high school ball in Nevada, at Bishop Gorman and Findlay Prep, respectively. Echenique's transition to Rutgers was made easy thanks to his stopover at St. Benedict's in New Jersey.

"Would we have gone to Venezuela and found him? Probably not," Rutgers head coach Fred Hill said. "That doesn't mean we'd never go there. If there's a good player in Idaho or Venezuela, we'll go. But we predominantly recruit the Eastern seaboard.

"If anyone has a connection there, that's how we hear about them. Gregory was at St. Benedict's, so that was easy. Now if someone that we trusted called us and told us about him and he was still in Venezuela, would we have gone? Probably."

Temple did things a little differently. They heard about Fernandez through Sanchez and waited until he finished high school in Argentina.

But those two now have started a mini-pipeline to North Philly.

"It's a little easier now because we have a lot of contacts and because people know that players have come to Temple and had success," assistant coach Matt Langel said. "Now that we have it sort of going, we're going to keep looking there for players.

Rodriguez, for one, thinks this is just the beginning of a wave of new players to greet U.S. college rosters.

The developmental leagues and youth-level programs are nowhere near on par with those in the United States, but as the sport and interest grows, those are coming along as well. With better coaching and an earlier introduction to the sport, it's fair to say the well has just been tapped.

"Whatever you see now, multiply it many times over in the future," Rodriguez said. "The coaching is getting better; the players are getting better. Basketball is becoming an obsession. You'll see."

Dana O'Neil covers college basketball for ESPN.com and can be reached at espnoneil@live.com.