Your one-stop shop for all things Latin/Hispanic/Mexican
It might not be Hollywood, but Los Tigres del Norte are getting a 100-kilo star on Las Vegas Walk of Stars, also known as El Paseo de las Estrellas.
During a special ceremony on Nov. 7 the award-winning Sinaloa banda will officially join other luminaries on the Las Vegas Strip, including Luis Miguel, K-Paz de la Sierra and Vicente Fernández.
¡Sí se puede!
I love the Internet simply because you can get your news from unlikely sources… such as Hot News, the Source for Romanian News.
Anyhow, it was thanks to my fellow journalists at Hot News that I learned that more and more Romanians wishing to enter the U.S. illegally are now turning to Mexican coyotes, who charge them the regular $4,000 fee to get across the border, a service exclusive for Latin American nationals.
I wonder if this means Coyotes will now begin to master the romance language to perhaps extend services to France, Portugal and Italy. ¡Viva la globalización!
Earlier this year, residents of Farmers Branch, a Dallas suburb, voted on a proposal to ban landlords from renting apartments to illegal immigrants. And since the proposal never really got anywhere, now they want Hispanics to tone down their “tropical” mood.
In the most recent anti-immigrant brouhaha, a local resident (presumably a gringo) has asked the City Council to consider requiring permits and color approval before residents can repaint their homes.
“When you paint your house some fluorescent or garish color scheme, you negatively affect my [home] value,” Robin Bernier, told the Dallas Morning News.
Just like Bernier, those annoyed at the garish colors in some homes quickly say their concern has to do with the neighborhood value, not ethnicity. But as a local business owner smartly put it: “We know who has the bright colors […] Latin Americans.”
I love politicians.
Now it turns out that in order for your campaign to “resonate” with your U.S. Hispanic constituency, you gotta go the “extra mile” and change your name until it sounds Latino enough.
According to the Kansas City Star, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson is facing a real challenge trying to convince always-suspicious Latinos that he is, in fact, Mexican. The gist of the matter, says the newspaper, is simple: With a rise in mixed marriages, more Latino politicians could be facing the prospect of having to prove that they are Hispanic.
No wonder, the country has seen a sudden rise of name changes of late.
Some examples:
Loretta Sanchez-Brixey is now simply Loretta Sanchez
Rep. Rebecca Klein is now Rebecca Armendariz Klein
Texas Rep. Tracy Fischer now goes by the catchy name of Tracy Martínez Fischer
Richard Raymond, a Texas lawmaker, recently changed his name to Richard Peña Raymond
Etc. etc. etc… You get the picture.
So hereby -and even if I never made a point to have a gringo name- I reaffirm my own identity and from now on wish to be referred to as Laura Martínez Ruiz de Velasco de San Pedro de los Pinos y de Mixcoac (pésele a quién le pese and whether you can pronounce it or not).
So now you have been warned: if you have an ancestor with a Spanish-sounding name, or something remotely similar, this is the time to dust it off. You never know when you’re going to need it.
And speaking of awards for outstanding Hispanics, I am happy to report that Mr. Juan Contreras, owner of Juan & Maria’s Empanada Stop of Rochester, NY, has been named Hispanic Business Person of the Year by the local Rochester Hispanic Business Association.
In accepting the award, though, Mr. Contreras humbly turned the credit to his hard-working wife (aptly named Maria.)
“If it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t be standing here,” Mr. Contreras told the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle.
The couple started out selling about 10 or 20 empanadas a day at the Public Market, and have increased that to more than 800. On Memorial Day, they sold 1,025.
(photo: G.J. McCARTHY/DMN)
I know. I know how you feel sometimes about these Mexicans taking away that gardening job you always dreamed of… But don’t despair! If you cannot get rid of us and send us packing where we came from, you might as well hire us as pet guardians.
And if you don’t believe me, just ask Dennis Baker (in the photo), a Dallas home owner whose life was spared the other day by Salvador, his Mexican pet parrot (also in the photo.) A story this week in the Dallas Morning News informs us that Salvador, Mr. Baker’s red-headed parrot says “hello” whenever he sees someone… So on Tuesday, at 2 a.m. Salvador saw something and he said something (“hello”) greeting the burglar who unfortunately ended up dead in the hands of Mr. Baker.
When police officers arrived at his home after the shooting, Mr. Baker said, Salvador began greeting them with his signature “hello.” “Sometimes he says ‘hi,’ but you can’t get him to speak on cue,” Mr. Baker said. “He has a mind of his own.”
Think you don’t need a Salvador? The Dallas police estimates there are more than 14,400 residential burglaries each year in the city. Hello!!!??
(And just in case you missed the unintended pun: Salvador means “savior” in English. How cool is that?
Let me tell you, it’s so hard to concentrate on a regular job when so many wonderful things keep showing up on the Internet.
According to a job posting on Craigslist, a New York-based casting office, Paladino Casting, is searching for “America’s Numero Uno Telenovela Star” for VH1’s Viva Hollywood, a reality TV show coming this fall.
You can read the entire casting call here -and even apply!- but in a nutshell, you only need to be:
1. Beautiful
2. Stunningly talented
3. Misbehaving
4. Bilingual
5. Willing to do “whatever it takes” to become número uno
…and just as I was getting ready to apply, I realized I would have to agree to be put through “medical, background and psych testing.”
¡Ah, no … Así no! Maybe next time.
Steve Lonegan, the embattled anti-immigrant New Jersey mayor accused of hiring two undocumented Guatemalan workers to do some gardening work, seems to be running out of excuses and explanations. In his latest statements to the New York Times, Mr. Lonegan (in photo) came up with the following:
“The real hypocrites are the liberals who are saying that I should have assumed that because they’re Spanish that they’re illegal. That we’re now going to socially stereotype people and assume they’re illegal.”
Wait a second: “I should have assumed that because they’re Spanish they’re illegal.”??? I am not sure of what Mr. Lonegan is talking about; and while I strongly support his point of not stereotyping people… Did he really think these guys were actually from the Iberian Peninsula?
You never know. This is the same guy who last summer asked McDonald’s to bring down a Spanish-language billboard promoting a café helado. (Does he know where the real Bogota is?… Just curious.)
Reality is definitely weirder –and more fun– than fiction.
Take the dark-skinned, black-haired Jesus that was unveiled Sunday at the Chapel of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas. According to the local press, a “Hispanic” Jesus (yes! as Hispanic as Nash Finch’s cheese) was brought all the way from Italy (?) to replace the church’s old Caucasian-looking Jesus:
“I never thought about what Jesus looked like before this. It’s like I’m looking at myself,” said a man who helped supervised the $5 million renovation of the chapel. “My wife doesn’t even believe it has brown skin. She says, ‘Every time we’ve seen a figure of Jesus, it’s always been white.’ I told her, ‘Just wait until Sunday and you’ll see.'”
Sadly, we have not been able to witness the miracle (being holed up in New York City and all), but one question remains: How come the Hispanic Jesus had to be brought all the way from Italy? Wouldn’t it be easier to bring it directly from you-know-where? … I mean, I’m sure the fee –Coyote-included– would have been much more affordable, though I guess you don’t want to take any chances with the Minutemen.
Amén!
You gotta love marketers, always so concerned with giving us -Latinos- a taste of our home countries.
This time the good deed comes courtesy of Nash Finch Co., the Minnepolis $4.6 billion-annual-sales wholesaler that is taking its Avanza Supermarkets to the growing Hispanic population of Omaha. According to a story this week in Progressive Grocer magazine, “The remodeled store will include more than 400 produce items […] a bakery featuring selections of Latino pastries and rolls; and Hispanic cheeses.”
So, while someone comes forward to inform me what Hispanic cheeses are all about, I’m off to make myself a quesadilla with a good, old queso de Oaxaca.
Smile, say cheese and have a great Hispanic Weekend!
Now that the Mexican government has decided to “fully” investigate Paulina Rubio for potentially “desecrating” the Mexican flag… it might also want to spend the same energy and television air-time in investigating Mr. Vicente Fox for alledgedly robbing us blind and leaving us more naked that Rubio herself.
The details of the so-called investigation into Paulina’s posing are now becoming ridiculous: press reports have quoted Director of Democratic Culture and Civic Promotion (don’t you love this title?) Jose Castillo saying Paulina Rubio’s photos [published on Cosmopolitan magazine] must be examined to see whether the article in question is a genuine flag, apparently the only circumstance on which it would be considered an offense.
If you ask me, Paulina can pose naked wherever and however she wishes. My ‘patriotism’ would not be hurt. It would be painful, though, to find out you can still get away with embezzlement, and then make cheerful appearances on U.S. television.
Starting Oct. 21, EL PAIS, Spain’s most-widely circulated paper, is getting rid of its diphthong (bet you didn’t know this word!) and reclaiming its rightful accent over the “i” so that it will now read EL PAÍS (as opposed to EL PAIS.)
An upcoming redesign will incorporate spelling norms dictated by the Real Academia de la Lengua Española, which in 1999 declared capital letters should be spelled with an accent. Finally! said proponents of the accent.
La renovación que EL PAÍS emprenderá el próximo día 21 no sólo afectará al diseño de sus páginas y a la manera de contar las noticias. Los cambios afectarán incluso a la cabecera. La marca EL PAÍS se escribirá con tilde para que su grafía no entre en contradicción con las normas ortográficas que se aplican en el resto del periódico.
Aren’t Mexicans lucky? Not only they will now have access to Ugly Betty, but they will be able to enjoy the show while savoring a delicious… tacostada from Taco Bell!
The company, a unit of Yum Brands, this week said it will return to Mexico after a failed attempt 15 years ago, in hopes of establishing up to 300 franchises in the country. But don’t think it will get away with murder: Taco Bell has said that what they call “tacos” here in the U.S. (those hard-shell yellow things probably made in China) will be called “tacostadas” south of the border … see? it’s because we know what a taco looks like!
Steve Pepper, Taco Bell’s general manager in Mexico, insists the company doesn’t pretend to insult Mexicans by selling its products as “typical.” In fact, Mr. Pepper informs us the menu will use the word “spicy,” not “picante,” –which coming from a guy called Pepper should give the information some kind of credibility.
Ay, ay, ay, yo no quiero Taco Bell!
Mexican TV viewers are bracing for a traumatic event: Ugly Betty, the English-language, U.S.-produced remake of the Spanish-language Colombian telenovela Betty la Fea, is ready to make its debut in Mexico… in English, with Spanish-language subtitles. (Sounds like the “historic” Univision Spanish-language-English debate
According to Reforma newspaper Ugly Betty is ready for its debut soon via the Sony Entertainment channel, giving my fellow Mexicans yet more crap to watch (this time Made in U.S.A.)
That’s it! Now that Billboard magazine and the Hollywood Reporter have named America Ferrera “Hispanic Woman of the Year,” (with a gala and whole enchilada included) I decided there is no reason for me not to be nominated for something —whatever (I’m not that picky).
So while I wait for some organization to realize I’m here and contact me with the great news, I am hereby nominating myself as the “Disgruntled, non-Famous, Certainly-not-Mainstream, Harlem-Beaner-Blogger of the Week.”
And if you think I have no reasons to support my claim, check out just a few of the awards that are out there (so many awards so little time to win them all!).
-Hispanic Entrepreneur of the Year (Hispanic Business Magazine)
-Hispanic Businessman of the Year (U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce)
–Hispanic Businesswoman of the Year (U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce)
-Hispanic Engineer of the Year (NASA)
-Hispanic Science of the Year (The Museum of Science and Industry)
-Hispanic Journalist of the Year (Hispanic Media Awards)
-Inspiring Young Latinos (Selecciones magazine)
-Hispanic Heritage Award (Hispanic Heritage Foundation)
-Hispanic of the Year (Hispanic Magazine)
-Latino Lawyer of the Year (Hispanic National Bar Association)
-Hispanic Nurse of the Year (The Hispanic Nurses)
…The list goes on, and on, and on….
