Your one-stop shop for all things Latin/Hispanic/Mexican
Say what you will about Tecate, but the beer maker knows a thing or two about Mexican men and their tricky ways to get women do what they want (namely to get them cold beers from the fridge.)
I don’t know you, but I found the following spot truly amusing.*
*NOTE: For those enraged Latinas ready to start screaming and/or propose a boycott against Tecate or something, please contact the company directly or its ad agency in Mexico, not this blogger. Thank you for your cooperation.
When it comes to Hispanic eating habits, there is not such a thing as “enough research.” Take the latest from Technomic, a Chicago-based firm that this week revealed that Hispanics are more inclined to dine out than the general market. Really? Yes, really. According to Technomic:
“63 percent of Hispanics surveyed said that restaurants are an “ideal” place to spend time with family, compared to just 52 percent of the general market.”
But that is not all: According to said research, “Hispanics value authenticity in a restaurant too,” which basically means they would pay more food described as “authentic,” which –according to photo editors at the Chicago Business Journal— means American-style, hard-shell tacos.
I don’t know about the rest of you, “other Hispanics,” but my ideal dining out experience looks a little different; it looks really like this:
Hat tip: @Buttronica
Say what you will about Hugo Chávez. He gave this blogger many great moments. And here’s one of my favorite ones.
Photo: Laura Martínez (109 & Broadway)
#ItsColombiaNotColumbia
Did you miss this year’s NATPE? Worry no more; this blogger was there and had some very special access to famous gathering of TV producers. The NATPE, Content First (“Primero contentos”) 2013 conference took place this week in Miami, welcoming more than 1,000 attendees, of which “a huge percentage” was either Hispanic or Latin American.
So, without further ado, here are the Ultimate Hispanic Highlights (UHH) of the 3-day gathering, brought to you exclusively by Mi blog es tu blog:
1. The percentage of Spanish-language attendees to this year’s conference was “huge,” said NATPE President and CEO Rod Perth, who doesn’t seem to be very much into hard data.
2. Many non-Hispanic attendees seemed puzzled about why everybody was walking around wearing a name tag with the name “Rosario” printed on it, making introductions and business dealings awkward at times.
3. A San Juan-based company pitching a cooking show from Puerto Rico stuffed its contact information -and informative USB- inside a coffee bag. My laptop smells delicious.
4. A Spain-based company named ERREQUERRE announced the opening of a Miami office… and a very wise decision to undergo a name change very soon.
5. Sierralta Entertainment has produced, and sold, a new TV show called Latin Angels, featuring bikini-clad reporters that look like this. (No chance for me to get a job there.)
6. For some reason I have yet to comprehend, Ecuadoreans are crazy about Korean telenovelas dubbed into Spanish.
7. The folks over at Venevision International handled business from an amazing suite on the 30th floor of the Fountainbleau Hotel (from which they threatened to throw this blogger at some point.)
8. Mojitos -what else?- were the beverage of choice during NATPE’s inaugural bash Sunday night.
9. Univision’s Programming Chief Alberto Ciurana swears there’s great menudo at a Mexican fonda on Calle Ocho and promised to take me there one day. We’ll see.
10. Telemundo’s VP of corporate communications Michelle Albán is the evil twin of La Doctora Polo (in addition to being the Hispanic evil twin of Sandra Bullock)
(NOTE: Alban continued to ethnic profile this blogger by ordering nachos during a luncheon/interview at Eden Roc Hotel)
11. Harris Whitbeck, CEO of Zodiak Latino, hosted a Spanish-language panel, leaving many gringos in the room scratching their heads upon learning Whitbeck is white AND Guatemalan. [Yes, we have güeritos there too. Now you know.]
12. Catherine Fulop and Fernando Carrillo are back together! They “star” in a yet-to-be-produced telenovela (La Magia del Amor) which will in fact star two young kids who are neither Fulop nor Carrillo. The reason? They do NOT look like this anymore.
13. Telenovelas continue to dominate the market; though reality series featuring boys and girls who text all the time (i.e. Gossip Girls Acapulco) seem to be taking off.
14. Christy Haubegger, funny as hell as she usually is, was actually serious when she stated at a panel that: “It’s exciting to see that we’re moving from Spanish-language programming to programming to Hispanics.”
15. I sat next to Juan Soler at a Telemundo luncheon and failed miserably in my attempt to pinch his butt.
16. I saw Soler once again Tuesday night and while I was not yet able to accomplish my pinching goal, he graciously agreed to pose for a photograph. (Thanks, Veronica!)
17. A short visit to the Univision headquarters gave this blogger a first-row seat to a live airing of El Gordo y la Flaca. Alas, Raúl de Molina declined to go into the jacuzzi with me pretending he had a broken foot or something.
18. Rodner Figueroa showed up and gave me a peace sign.
19. Overall, media companies and media outlets have gotten pretty good at writing “Colombia” and not “Columbia” when talking about the South American country.
20. “Content First” is English for “Primero contentos.”
BONUS CONTENT: Watch 9:33 minutes of La Magia del Amor below:
Based on my most recent trip to the island -where I spent a couple of weeks doing absolutely nothing language research- I realized Cubans are increasingly translating their restaurant menus, street signs and monument guides to cater to an ever-growing tourist industry.
One thing I couldn’t be 100% sure, though, is what the ‘Cuban’ word for appetizer was. While a paladar in Havana offered me a very limited variety of “incomings,” including 20 pieces of olives…
… Melaíto, a snack bar in Pinar del Río promised a more extended list of “entrances,” including “boilet greens” and “French Fried.”
Either way, I’m not happy to report that everything pretty much sucked. Cuba is gorgeous and its people are simply the best. Its food… well, that’s another story.
Photos: Laura Martínez, Cuba 2013
Remember Toyota’s ‘Avanza Confiado’ tagline for the U.S. Hispanic market? Well, it seems the automaker hasn’t used it for a while, hopefully apparently because 1) It sounds awful and/or 2) They found a better copywriter.
Either way, that doesn’t seem to bother this Chevrolet owner in Viñales, Cuba, who was proudly driving around in a 1950’s Chevrolet which -by the way- seemed to avanzar lento, pero con mucha confianza.
Photos: Laura Martínez. Valle de Viñales, Cuba 2013
Cubans might not have access to Coca-Cola, but who cares when you can enjoy a refreshing beverage called TuKola?
I am sure my advertising and marketing peeps will help me come up with a great tagline for this awesome product. Here´s what my brother came up with:
“Si quieres refrescar algo… que sea TuKola”
Photo: Laura Martínez (Havana, 2013)
Who said Latin American poetry and health warnings don’t go hand in hand?
Photo: Laura Martínez. 2013
The owners of this private condo in Ixtapa, Mexico surely don’t want people like me hanging around their property.
Oh, well.
Hat tip: Bego Lozano
Well, it was just a matter of time. As America becomes more and more Latino, Latinos are becoming more and more… overweight.
An article in The Daily News the subject -bearing the seemingly playful headline of ‘Saying adiós to chips and sodas,” shows that our kids (well, yours actually, I don’t have any) are becoming obese.
[…] The numbers for Hispanics are troubling. Hispanic Americans are 1.2 times more likely to be obese than non-Hispanic whites. And in 2009 to 2010, Mexican American children were nearly twice as likely to be overweight as non-Hispanic white youth.
I hate to say I told you so, but I told you so. Oh, and you can thank these guys for their tireless efforts to lure Hispanics with their proud heritage pitches.
One of the best things about being silly, is that you tend to attract similar characters to your life (or, in this case, to your Facebook timeline, which is basically the same.)
Here’s a taste of what my stupid creative Facebook friends shared with me on the historic night that Nov. 6th, 2012 turned out to be.
APOLOGIES TO THE MONOLINGUAL CROWD: You have to be bilingual to appreciate this.
MI BLOG ES TU BLOG 