Your one-stop shop for all things Latin/Hispanic/Mexican
Not content with having befuddled generations of Latin Americans worldwide, Grupo Televisa now wants gringos to get hooked on its nightly dramas.
As it turns out, the Mexico City-based media giant is the producer behind Hollywood Heights, an English-language telenovela inspired in the early 1990’s hit Alcanzar una Estrella.
Hollywood Heights, premiered June 8 on Nickelodeon and this blogger cannot wait to not watch.
Here’s the first on-air promo of the much-anticipated Mundo Fox broadcast network, expected to launch some time next Fall. I have no time for sarcastic remarks at the moment, so watch yourselves and leave a comment if you feel like!
Univision’s Jorge Ramos this week spoke to ABC News about the Supreme Court’s recent decision on Arizona and all. But despite it being “a very sad day for the Hispanic community” and -apparently for Mr. Ramos as well- Diane Sawyer seemed to be brimming with enthusiasm as she introduced Univision as ABC’s new partner and friend. Twice.
Who could blame her? With over 50 million Hispanics now living in the U.S., I’m sure Ms. Sawyer is looking forward to keeping her job once Univision helps her network out of a ratings slump.
Click on the photo [above] to watch the video
After months of speculation, and hopes that all the brouhaha was nothing but a bad taste joke, Lifetime Television has reportedly picked up Devious Maids, the 13-episode series featuring Latino women working as -what else?- maids.
Devious Maids is based on the Televisa sitcom La alegría del hogar, but the gringo version is sure to feature a group of well-proportioned Latina housekeepers who speak with a heavy accented, though grammatically correct, English.
This blogger cannot wait to see what these ladies’ “adventures” will be all about, but I can only hope the show will touch on some of the hot-button issues: Earning the minimum wage; working 80 hours a week; getting by without health insurance and living in constant fear of deportation.
“Mexicans do the work Americans don’t want to do. Asians do the work American’s are not able to do.”
Watch Colbert deconstruct this new Inv-ASIAN here:
Marketing fads come and go; videogames and apps introduce funky characters that, at best, shine for a few weeks before vanishing in thin air. Not el Chapulín Colorado, which not only lives on, but continues to serve as pitch of all imaginable products & services.
Conceived in 1970 by Mexican comedian Roberto Gomez Bolaños, El Chapulín Colorado (The Red Grasshopper) this month was tapped to help Dollar Phone Enterprises sell calling cards to nostalgia-laden U.S. Latinos.
Per a company press release, the Chapulín Colorado-branded Dollar Card is a partnership with Univision Consumer Products, a Univision division that “creates products that connect with Hispanic America.”
I don’t know you, but if I’m going to call home, I want to connect through a Chespirito-branded calling card.
¡No contaban con mi astucia!
When MundoFox executives took up the stage Wednesday afternoon to unveil programming initiatives, they knew the audience had had enough:
“My department did a little research, and it concluded that -by now- you have been exposed to about 320,000 hours of upfront presentations,” joked Tom Maney, the svp of advertising sales at Fox Hispanic Media. Damn, right, Tom, I’m not sure it was exactly 320,000 hours, but it certainly felt like it.
In any case, I’m happy to report the folks over at MundoFox spared us a Hollywood sign stunt. Instead, they introduced the audience to the new reality in programming embraced by Latinos; one that mixes the two worlds -and languages- in which we move around. Thus, Lucy/Betty/Betty/Lucy… ES-LUTTY!*
*NOTE: Not to be pronounced as ‘slutty.’ Thank you for your cooperation.
Hispanic TV upfront week is a wonderful thing, especially when you get the chance to hear all kinds of wonderful pitches by competing networks.
Tuesday morning, for example, I learned from Univision’s President César Conde that Televisa is actually the Hollywood of Hispanics, which was, like, ‘oh, how cool,’ or whatever … Yet, barely five hours later, in another theatre not far from there, Telemundo’s COO Jacqueline Hernández came onstage to give us this…
WTH? I mean, it’s OK to treat journalists with bellinis for breakfast and non-stop bashes for four days straight, but please don’t confuse us even more with these stunts. I yet have to figure out which the real “Hispanic Hollywood” really is, but I have a very stubborn resaca to take care of first.
So please bear with me, and I promise to find an answer for you real soon… or not.
I don’t always watch TV on Sunday, but when I do, I watch Al Punto…
Yeah, yeah, this phrase just sounded like a Dos Equis commercial, but it isn’t. I did watch this morning and, among other very relevant information (i.e. that Quadri thinks he can become Mexico’s next president and he likes pot,) I learned that Texas has put forward a proposal to change the name to describe Hispanics in the U.S.
So basically, from what I could gather, some fellows in Texas think we should not be called Hispanics or Latinos anymore, but we should be known as Hispano-Latinos.
I think these guys have a lot of time in their hands, but just in case, I am going to watch Capusotto over and over again to make sure I get my Latino-ness in check.
Hat tip: José Simián
Robinson Cano stars in ESPN’s latest “This is Sports Center” ad, premiering this Wednesday, just in time for MLB’s opening day. According to the New York Times, it is the first time a Spanish-language spot runs on the “regular” ESPN as opposed to ESPN Deportes.
But Hispanic creative people shouldn’t start jumping up and down in joy: The spot was not conceived by a so-called Hispanic agency, using Hispanic insights and the like. It was created by the New York office of Wieden & Kennedy, because as everybody knows now, it is no longer necessary to be an “ethnic agency” to do “ethnic work.”
Didn’t you know that?
The ad is cool, by the way. Just watch!
Not long ago, this was only a dream. But now the dream has come true!
Famed TV producer Marc Cherry is finally working on the pilot for Devious Maids, which will follow the “adventures” of four Latina housekeepers in Beverly Hills.
Devious Maids is based on the Televisa sitcom La alegría del hogar, but the gringo version is sure to feature a group of well-proportioned Latina housekeepers who speak with a heavy accented, though grammatically correct, English.
And guess who will producing the thing? Why, my favorite Latina ever! The multi-talented Eva Longoria (aka La Prieta Faya)
This blogger cannot wait to see what these ladies’ “adventures” will be all about, but I can only hope the show will touch on some of the hot-button issues: Earning the minimum wage; working 80 hours a week; getting by without health insurance and living in constant fear of deportation.
This is plain hilarious.
Watch Sheriff Arpaio tell Jorge Ramos he is actually a pretty nice guy, because he has lived in Mexico City, Texas and South America.
P.S. I also love the way Ramos says the word findings… it makes me want to squeeze his cheeks (but that’s another story.)
Meet Frank Martínez (alas, not a relative,) a potato grower from Saddle View Farms, WA, who thinks his potatoes are much better after they get peeled, chopped, fried and chemically manipulated by McDonald’s. (Presumably because he has a tendency to bite into raw potatoes, which have got to taste pretty bad.)
Mr. Martínez is one of several real-life suppliers featured in one of McDonald’s latest U.S. ad campaigns.
Go on. Watch him bite into a raw potato. Right. Now!
And to stay in the subject of sh*t this blogger couldn’t make up even if she tried… a local NBC affiliate in San Antonio, WOAI-TV, has found an awesome way to attract more Latino viewers to its 6:30 PM newscast.
How??!! Just pitch the nightly newscast as if it were a steamy telenovela, featuring guys in sombreros riding horses and muy caliente señoritas!
Hat tip: Latinocommunicators via Hispanic Tips
The man who wants to be president of the United States, and thinks Spanish is the language spoken in the ghetto, thinks it is really funny to compare “illegal” immigrants with sitting packages.
I’m not laughing… are you?
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