Your one-stop shop for all things Latin/Hispanic/Mexican
America is not a country. And according to my latest “research,” it may not even be a continent.
America, it turns out, is a very far away galaxy place located somewhere in the Salta region of Argentina; it has really crappy weather but promises some sun and a high of 72 on Wednesday.
You can even check out the local time here:
Happy learning.
Hat tip: @aqwack
I think I’ve said this a million times, but I love my neighborhood.
And not only because I can easily find authentic foods like Hispanic lettuce and ethnically diverse beauty salons, but because business owners really go out of their way to cater to an increasingly Latino demographic.
I might not live near Columbia, but I’m a proud neighbor of the Dominican Institute of Journalism, founded by Dr. Pittaluga in 2005. ¡Sí, señor!
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The Spain-born singer (God) will forever be this blogger’s favorite artist. Dancer. Singer. Casanova. Gay. Or Not. So. Get Over it. Just enjoy this video and watch it over, and over, and over again (Paying special attention to minute 2:30)
Will Ya?
Print is not dead. It will only be dead when somebody actually goes and shoot it to death.
Got it?
Hat tip: @tropicarlitos
Hulu and Hulu Plus today are premiering East Los High, a Latino-themed drama set in a Los Angeles high-school.
According to press reports, the show’s creator -and director- has promised “no gardeners, no gangs, no maids,” but apparently tons of cute kids confronting each other for the love of their very young lives while wearing prom king and queen costumes.
Watch here and judge for yourselves. Will you be watching?
For those of you who still think tacos look like this, there’s literary aid coming your way.
Mexican editor Déborah Holtz last night was in Manhattan, presenting La Tacopedia, the result of a five-year taco research documenting everything you’ll ever need to know about tacos: From their origin and their different species, to the brave men and women who make them. “We wanted to make a book that smelled of tacos,” said Holtz, whose book includes -what else?- the recipe for 36 delicious super salsas.
Unfortunately, La Tacopedia is currently available only in Spanish, but this blogger is one crafty freelancer and has decided to stalk Ms. Holtz until she gives me the green light to translate this jewel into English.
[Now, if she doesn’t give me the green light, at least she should provide me with some green salsa.]
It was just a matter of time.
These days, where everything is Latino this and Hispanic that, you cannot just sleep in your laurels and do nada. That is why 7-Eleven, a company which is as American as apple-pie and bad coffee, is all excited beefing up its “Latin-themed” snacks.
Sí señor. As early as this week, 7-Eleven Inc. introduced the Breakfast Empanada Bites, a “Latin-inspired hot foods snack,” which I’m sure are almost as delicious as the 7-Eleven Mini Tacos introduced last year. Per a company press release:
As the fastest-growing U.S. demographic, Hispanics are an important core customer group for 7-Eleven; however, it was the popularity of Latin American foods among all demographic groups spurring the addition of a snack-size breakfast empanada.
But don’t be fooled by their size. These tiny, crescent-shaped pastries are filled with eggs, cheese, bacon, smoked ham and sausage, which I’m sure will go down nicely with a 24 oz. Diet Pepsi.
Oh, and for the underemployed, underpaid Latino in you, they are only $1 for three at at participating 7-Eleven® stores.
The mostly Latino staff at this Dominican salon on Amsterdam and 107th St. will not only wash, style, blow dry and fix your hair. They will also wash your hands, because, you know, they have to.
Photo: Pierre Lacour
And just when I thought the whole Negrito Bimbo marketing couldn’t get any worse, @elderriver this week spotted this Bimbo moving ad in Mexico City.
If you have ever been to Mexico, chances are you’ve eaten or at least seen a Negrito, an ubiquitous chocolate sweet produced by Mexican food giant Grupo Bimbo and sold pretty much in every tiendita around the country.
I ate one as recently as last month, and while the taste has not changed a great deal, its advertising has.
Poor Tom Corbett; he was asked to talk about the Latino vote and complicated stuff like that… But how on Earth can this poor soul possibly answer all those questions when he needs help from a reporter to even find a Latino? (1:50 in the video.)
Let’s give him a hand shall we? Perhaps he can start here, at the annual Carnaval de Puebla en Filadelfia.
I can spot several, can you?
Video: Al Día
As I reported a few days ago on Portada Online, Univision soon will debut Flama, a “digital destination that promises culturally relevant content targeting Hispanic millennials.”
So far so good. As most Spanish-speakers know, “flama” is Spanish for “flame,” which I think is a great name for a Hispanic media outlet. However, a simple Wikipedia search, informs us that FLAMA is also the acronym of:
The Frente de Libertação do Arquipélago da Madeira (English: Madeira Archipelago Liberation Front), a right-wing terrorist paramilitary organisation from Madeira, whose main goal was to achieve Madeira’s independence from mainland Portugal.
Wait. What?!
I’m sure Univision’s Flama has absolutely nothing to do with a paramilitary organization in Madeira, but just in case, it might be safer to be really “millennial” about it and just call it “Flame?”
Just sayin’
Organic food marketers will have you believe that us (i.e. The Mexicans) have a way of going about carrying a bunch of essential herbs, including non-essential nor-necessarily Mexican herbs [peppermint leaf, cumin seed, basil and coriander.]
I do carry around some Mexican chili powder, except in Mexico I just call it “chili powder.”
What happens when an old Chinese ninja master meets a group of cumbia musicians living in a Latin American slum controlled by drug dealers?
Well, I’m not really sure but we will soon find out, as MundoFox last week announced the upcoming premiere of Cumbia Ninja, an original series set in a Latin American slum (we’re not sure which one, but I guess they’re all the same,) where a young idealist and his buddies come up with an unusual way to clean up the streets where they live.
I don’t know you, but anything that doesn’t include a septuagenarian dancing around with a group of scantily-clad Latinas on a Saturday afternoon or some evil twin trying to poison the hacendado in a primetime telenovela sounds very refreshing.
This is exhausting! In addition to covering this week’s Hispanic TV Upfronts for these guys and these guys, I had to save some juicy details for the not-so-serious side of the 3-day-marathon of parties, parties and parties, programming presentations, interviews and business meetings.
* Hispanic TV Upfront week started May 13 with two networks, Azteca America and Estrella TV, holding “intimate dinners” at the exact same time in two very distant places, presumably to keep me from attending either. But, as you all know by now, I’m a sneaky Mexican and managed to attend both.
* Estrella TV brought to dinner at Tao Restaurant its most recent acquisition, Myrka Dellanos, who looked amazing and who is now going to be news anchoring instead of selling toothpaste.
* As it has been the case before, I crashed the People en Español party at Marquee, which was OK, but not nearly as as glamorous and/or fun as previous years. However, beggars can’t be chosers, so I shut up now. Besides, I must continue to be nice to them, especially to Elvis Lizardo, who famously calls me “The Mexican glue that keep us all together.”
* After surveilling the venue for some famous bellos, I realized celebrities are not the only beautiful bunch, so I proceded to propose People en Español Editor ArmandoCorrea a co-production of “Los 50 ejecutivos más bellos del mercado latino,” a list that would be curated by @miblogestublog -of course, and published and promoted by Time Inc. or someone with that kind of money. I’m thinking MundoFox’ Hernán López should go on the cover, while Telemundo’s Peter Blacker will take the back cover, though I’m still not sure. Other execs being considered: Mundo Fox’ Oswald Mendez, Telemundo’s Emilio Romano and Fusion’s Miguel Ferrer. [This blog is accepting submissions now.]
* Tuesday events kicked off at 11:00 am at The New Amsterdam Theatre, where Univision held a lavish presentation for over 1,600 guests.
* Pretty much all those 1,600 guests then walked or took buses to Univision’s after party, which took place at ESPACE, where there was not a lot of “espace” nor food to feed all those hungry mouths. At some point, many attendees grew restless and angry as waiter after waiter kept passing in front of us with trays full of food, but destined to “VIP’s only.” That didn’t stop me, however, so I quickly managed to get a hold of a VERY VIP name tag (above) in order to secure some mini-burgers.
* The stunt didn’t work and I had to settle for a peanut butter cookie that surely contained about 5,325 calories.
* Since it secured me no food whatsoever, my Randy Falco name tag made a second appearance later that night at the Telemundo upfront in Lincoln Center, where it was not as well received as I had imagined. I still wore it to go say ‘hi’ to NBCU’s Chairman of Hispanic Ventures Joe Uva, who requested my immediate removal from the premises. [I stayed.]
* The marathon continued Wednesday with a noon presentation by Fox Hispanic Media at Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center. The presentation included FHM’s four networks: Fox Deportes, Fox Life, Nat Geo Mundo and Mundo Fox. It attracted some big talent, including Bárbara Mori, Marlon Moreno, Mario Lopez and Oscar de la Hoya, who came onstage not wearing fishnet stockings but a pair of cowboy boots.
* After a presentation that seemed to last hours, most of us headed East towards Vme’s upfront at the Instituto Cervantes. Under new management, Vme hosted a small, intimate, sit-down presentation in a dark basement with no cellular signal whatsoever, making it the perfect setting for a much needed afternoon nap. (I caught several executives and members of the media happily snoring away, but I decided not to publish their names, mostly because it wouldn’t be fair and because I was also fast asleep.)
* The marathon ended Wednesday night with a much-needed, circus-themed party hosted by Viacom’s Tr3s and headlined by Daddy Yankee, who made even the most stiff media executive shake his/her hips. EXTRA BONUS POINT for Tr3s, which spared us the power points and the data on Hispanic TV audience growth, etc. etc. etc.
Yet, my favorite moment this week came at the Tr3s party when I was able to capture the following shot, featuring the great Eduardo Caballero, the father, grandfather, godfather of Hispanic media, and Ari Madrid, probably the craziest -and smartest- millennial I’ve ever met and one of the youngest entrants to this business.
Caballero changed the media world once. Ari will change it forever.
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