HispanicTrending

U professor biked 12,000 miles to study 'Latinoization'

Louis Mendoza traveled 12,000 miles -- mostly by bike -- to study Latino and immigrant life in America.

January 18, 2008
By MARIA ELENA BACA

Night was falling, and Louis Mendoza pedaled his bicycle toward a cluster of lights on the outskirts of Rochelle, Ill., population 9,500.
Ending a 100-mile day Aug. 30, he hoped the glow meant a place to eat and spend the night. As he approached, he saw a trailer lit up and emblazoned with the name, “Taqueria Monterrey.”

It was one of many defining moments of the six months that Mendoza spent on a nearly 12,000-mile journey around the perimeter of the United States, on a quest to study firsthand the “Latinoization” of America and the impact of immigration.

Mendoza, a second-generation Mexican-American and chairman of the University of Minnesota’s Chicano studies program, also felt a profound need to descend from the ivory tower to figure out, along the way, what it all means.

Like the nation, he is still trying to figure that out.

Mendoza returned from the trip Dec. 20 and now is engaged in another solitary challenge: Taming two journals, hundreds of hours of digital audio and video recordings and a 200-page blog into a book that captures the essence of everything he experienced.

‘Profound, life-changing’
The project was sparked in the fall of 2006. Mendoza had an opportunity to take a sabbatical. He wanted to write a book. He wanted to live in a new place. A former distance runner, he wanted to get back into shape.

“I wanted to make sure this was a very meaningful experience, a very profound, life-changing experience,” he said recently from his north Minneapolis home.

In his position, it’s important to him to be in touch with the Latino community; the most compelling issue he’d seen recently has been immigration, both historical and recent.

“My politics are very clear to me, but I wanted to think philosophically about what does this mean to me personally, and to us as a nation,” he said. “My goal was to go, and be not an advocate or educator, but to listen.”

That meant going to the people where they live, seeking out their stories, collecting and sharing them.

He rode his bike most of the way, but also took trains, ferries and drove. Lots of friends and family members asked why he didn’t drive the whole way; he answers that the bike was part of the metaphysical challenge.

It made him vulnerable to the elements, to flat tires, broken chains and a bent derailleur, and to the physical exhaustion that dogged him mostly on the first quarter of his trip.

But it also brought unexpected boons, exposing him to the kindness of strangers of all ethnicities who stopped to ask about his quest, give him water, and share their own stories and opinions.

‘Mutual destiny’
He started in San Jose, Calif., on July 1 and began a trip around the perimeter of the country. It led him through many major cities but also the small towns that have been transformed by an infusion of Latino families.

Along the way, he spoke with community organizers, Latinos at every stage of immigration and citizenship, migrant workers, entrepreneurs, kids, elders, professors, tourists and others. From police officers in Worthington, Minn., to Puerto Ricans against gentrification in their Brooklyn neighborhood, all had a stake in the issue of immigration and the future of Latinos in the United States.

Still, despite the anti-immigrant ordinances, miserable migrant working conditions and “Americans welcome” signs he saw along the way, he also took note of the ways that so many Latino immigrants and citizens have carved out a place for themselves in the United States.

He’s left feeling optimistic that people will eventually see beyond their differences to a “mutual destiny.”
“There are lots of positive signs that we can work it out,” he said.

He draws a metaphor between his quest and the process the United States must complete.

“My trip, the physical and emotional, the awareness, and our journey as a people, in terms of where we fit as Latinos, and evolving into a multicultural society we like to believe we are,” he said. “It’s an evolving process. I don’t think the destination is clear; it’s an open-ended road.”

Source: The Star Tribune

Hispanic saleswomen changing the face of Mary Kay

January 19, 2008
By MOLLY HENNESSY-FISKE

Altagracia Valdez is dreaming of a perfect pink Cadillac. All she has to do to win it, according to her boss at Mary Kay Inc., is expand her list of conocidos.

Those familiar connections, she says, can adorn Valdez's 60-year-old hands with diamond rings, pump up her bank account with enough money to pay the bills and buy a house and help her finally enjoy some middle-class financial security.

If Valdez can recruit a sales force of 30 and sell at least $18,000 worth of cosmetics in four months, she can win a free lease and insurance for her first Mary Kay car -- not the signature pink Cadillac, but maybe a Saturn Vue or a Pontiac Vibe that she can trade in for a Cadillac if she keeps meeting sales quotas. If she falls short of winning the car, she can still earn a promotion if her sales total $16,000. And she can always try again.

The women Valdez is counting on to broaden her direct-sales force are mostly Spanish-speakers she meets knocking on doors -- immigrants with little spending money but a burning desire to improve their looks and finances. In a land of opportunity, cosmetic direct sales looks like a shortcut to the middle class, a corporate ladder whose first rung doesn't require a high school diploma or even English skills. As Hispanic saleswomen rise through the ranks, they are changing the face of Mary Kay, long associated with blond Dallas founder Mary Kay Ash.

Mary Kay Inc. sees potential in the immigrants' battered California apartments and modest tract homes. Both Mary Kay and rivals such as Avon have recently seen sales swell among Hispanic immigrants in California.

Lipstick

"Sometimes a woman can have an empty stomach, but she has to have lipstick," said Valdez's boss, Sandra Chamorro, a Nicaraguan immigrant with a house in San Gabriel and a new pale-pink Cadillac.

"Maybe," Chamorro added, "you buy a little less milk."

In a dim tract-house living room, Valdez was making that case recently as she gave a facial to Mary Lee Mejia, 19, a striking Salvadoran woman with blond highlights, blue-gray eyes and porcelain skin.

"There are no limits -- a woman can work for what she wants," Valdez promised in Spanish as Mejia, who works in a recycling center, lifted a pink hand mirror to admire the results.

Family

"And what about us?" asked Mejia's fiance, a Mexican mechanic who was smoothing on hand lotion as his brother dabbed on face cream. "Can we sell, too?"

Sure, Valdez said. This is a family business, Valdez told them. "Mary Kay said first comes God, then comes family, then business."

Then Valdez made her pitch: Which items did Mejia and the others like best?

Silence. They couldn't afford to buy anything.

Valdez changed tactics -- maybe they could sell for her. To start, she said, they would each need $108 for a sample kit of cosmetics. Once they began selling, they could keep half the selling price -- $11 for $22 lotion, for instance, while the other $11 is divided among Valdez, her boss and Mary Kay Inc. She passed out Mary Kay catalogs. Show them to co-workers during lunch breaks, she said. Show them the new colors. Ask them what they like. Friends become clients you can count on to pay.

Pink forms

Valdez pulled out pink sign-up forms. They all signed. They would find the money.

Valdez's skin is caramel-colored, lined with age and hard times that Mary Kay creams and lotions can't smooth. But she has learned to use her grandmotherly looks to entice customers and sales recruits. Immigrant women welcome her into their homes like a relative. They call her Alta, "tall" in Spanish, an ironic nickname for a diminutive woman who stands 5 feet 2 inches, always looking up to somebody, always listening.

A vocation

"It is a vocation, talking to people," Valdez said as she drove to visit customers on a Sunday night. "Sometimes they just need you there to listen, especially women."

She highlights the reasons she joined Mary Kay two years ago: to support her children, get out of the house, become independent. She doesn't dwell on the darker details -- how desperate she was after she left her husband of 33 years, an illiterate construction worker who threatened to kill their children and once broke her jaw.

Valdez doesn't tell them that many of the 1,000 other mostly Hispanic sales consultants in her local network earn significantly less than their boss, who is one of 500 national sales directors. Talented new consultoras earn about $2,000 a month, without benefits. By comparison, Chamorro, their boss, earns a six-figure annual income and is eligible for company-sponsored health insurance.

Valdez doesn't tell her new recruits how torn she feels trying to move up the corporate ladder, to manage business and family, help her consultoras and please her boss.

Sales goal

On Valdez's last day to meet her $18,000 sales goal, she and one of Chamorro's deputies calculated her final sales tally. They did the math to see if she had won the car. In the end, she was $2,200 short.

There was some good news, however. Valdez was only $200 shy of her promotion. The deputy promised to make up the difference. Valdez will join the weekly managers' meeting in a new black uniform and become eligible for health insurance. Most important, she said, she will double her commission on her consultoras' sales, from 13 percent to 26 percent.

As for the Cadillac, she said, she will just have to go back to her conocidos and try again.

Source: The Star-Telegram

Hispanic Homeownership on the Rise

January 18, 2008
Source: La Prensa San Diego

The dream of homeownership is becoming a reality for an increasing number of Hispanic homebuyers, who have traditionally faced obstacles such as language barriers and rigid lending rules. Today, almost 28 percent of new homebuyers in California are Hispanic, thanks in part to a rapid advance into the middle class and innovative efforts like Pardee Homes’ personal mortgage consulting program.

“Though Hispanics are among the fastest-growing population in our state, the barriers for Hispanic homeowners have been steeper than for other groups,” explains Jose L. Cer-vantes, a San Diego-based mortgage consultant for Pardee Homes. “For example, the process of qualifying for a home loan can be difficult to navigate. Some prospective Hispanic homeowners did not have long-term credit histories. Our program is designed to help families learn the process step-by-step and overcome many personal homeownership barriers to help build strong communities. Many Pardee Homes consultants also are bilingual.”

Since 2000, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of Hispanic homebuyers, according to DataQuick Information Systems, a San Diego real estate information company that reviews and analyzes public real estate records. Nationwide, the rate of home ownership among the nation’s 42.7 million Hispanics hit a record 50 percent in the last quarter of 2005, reported the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

In California, that dramatic trend continues as Hispanics purchase home at record rates, even in a slow home sales market. A DataQuick analysis showed that Hispanic surnames topped the list of most common names of buyers in 2005. In fact, four out of the top five names were Hispanic with Garcia, Hernandez, Rodriguez and Lopez coming in at the top four spots. Only one was in the top five in 2000.

“Homeownership is the first step for many families to achieve the American dream,” says Cervantes. “Lower interest rates and more flexibility in lending rules have helped Hispanics achieve this goal. Not so long ago, some lenders would not consider a spouse’s income when evaluating a home loan. Now, we look at various relatives – wife, brother, uncle, etc., who can help a family qualify by pooling their earnings.”

Cervantes continues, “It all goes back to the basics. To qualify for a home loan, there are three necessary requirements: good credit history, reserves and assets and employment that makes sense for what you’re buying. That’s where we come in – educating the buyers and walking them through every step in the process.”

Cervantes adds that he works with many Mexican nationals buying second homes in the United States, and says that they often struggle to establish the first requirement, good credit history. That is due in part because they have not worked with American banks. However, more education is changing that picture, he says. “More and more, Mexican citizens realize how important it is to build a good credit history and are willing to build that so they can get the best loans available.”

Reflecting the trend in Hispanic home ownership, Cervantes says he sees many families who are U.S. citizens, but want to live close to the border, so they can be closer to family and cultural ties to Mexico. One of Pardee Homes’ newest communities, Esmeralda, seeks to serve that need. The architecturally-inspiring community is a highly desirable location overlooking the Pacific Ocean and just a short drive from downtown San Diego or Baja.

Additionally, California’s Hispanic population is expected to grow by at least 7.2 million between 2000 and 2020, accounting for more than two-thirds of the expected growth in the state, according to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute. By 2040, Hispanics will become the majority population group in California, a trend that will be reflected in market demand for homes in the state.

Cervantes plans to be ready. “Real estate is a cyclical industry, but Hispanic home ownership will have an enormous economic effect in the next few decades,” he says. “I want to put people in place for the next cycle. By getting them in a solid financial situation now, they will be ready when the next cycle starts,” he concludes.

Will 2018 produce the first Hispanic governor of Texas?

January 19, 2008
By Mercedes Olivera

If Rafael Anchía had any higher political goals in Texas other than being a state representative, he just got a major boost from the February edition of Texas Monthly magazine.

Titled "El Gobernador," Paul Burka's lengthy piece starts with a hypothetical story from the magazine's 2018 edition, written right after a November election in which Republicans have been relegated to "semi-permanent minority status" in Texas and the state's first Hispanic governor has been elected.

Yup – or should I say, sí – you guessed it!

Mr. Anchía, D-Dallas, is the first gobernador of Texas elected, according to the story.

The writer also comes back to the present with a dose of sobering statistics – the changing demographics of the state that ultimately will transform the political landscape of Texas.

The demographic projections made by Texas' former state demographer Steve Murdock over the past several years are right on target – Latinos are swiftly becoming the state's largest ethnic group, even without immigration. By 2020, Hispanics could represent 46 percent of Texas' population.

So Mr. Anchía, a transplanted Latino from Florida – a state where Latinos are integrated and excel at all levels of society – seems like an obvious choice.

And, although the voting numbers for Hispanics leave much to be desired, time will also change these as greater numbers of U.S.-born Latinos assimilate and follow the same cultural trajectory as all immigrant groups before them.

Mr. Anchía's story is no different.

He is the son of Basque immigrants, and his family history is profiled in Mr. Burka's piece, revealing a few surprises.

Mr. Anchía had planned to follow his father's footsteps onto the jai-alai court. The sport originated in Spain's Basque region, where his father was born. His mother is the daughter of Basque exiles who immigrated to Mexico, where she was born.

And Mr. Anchía seems to have inherited much from his Basque roots, including a streak of independence and a drive for equality.

He seldom talks about his Spanish ancestry – preferring to focus on his constituents, many of whom come from Mexico or are of Mexican heritage.

Mr. Anchía admits he is flattered by the piece but sees himself only as a metaphor for the larger picture.

"I think Paul Burka is right that we will have a Latino governor by 2018 – whether it's me or someone else," he said Friday.

Mr. Anchía's interest in education, neighborhood and voting rights issues, coupled with his ability to extemporize on the house floor, has propelled him onto a platform of his own.

For his work in the Legislature, Texas Monthly named him Democratic Rookie of the Year in 2005 and one of the Ten Best legislators in 2007.

In 2006, he was elected chairman of the board of directors for the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Educational Fund.

This high-profile position at the nonpartisan organization offered Mr. Anchía an opportunity to spread his wings on the national stage, after having refrained from seeking the Dallas mayor's seat when Laura Miller decided in 2006 not to run for re-election.

Although he had numerous calls from Latino, black and Anglo community leaders urging him to run, in the end, he said his family came first.

His wife, Marissa, gave birth to their second child that summer. After talking with former Denver Mayor Federico Peña, who advised him to seriously weigh all the alternatives, Mr. Anchía opted not to run.

Last year, he worked with business leaders in Texas to defeat measures targeting illegal immigrants and small businesses.

Now, he's looking to 2012, when the data from the next U.S. census will be quantified and released, and the dust on redistricting battles will have settled.

The article lets the broader community know the coming impact that Latinos will have on the state's politics, he said.

"It also lets Latinos know that they have a significant electoral potential that remains underutilized," he said.

Source: The Dallas Morning News

LATINOS DON'T EAT LAWNS THEY MOW THEM

January 19, 2008
By Al Carlos Hernandez

We had occasion to get dressed up all smooth urban chic and go to a well known Mediterranean restaurant with some artist type friends of my wife and her sister in celebration their birthdays.

Maybe I’m too old school, retro cool, or just a fool, but my opinion is if you pay 50 bucks for a steak, they should be able to parade a picture of the cow and let you point out the percentage and pound-age of the cow you want them to grill, as well as taking your measurements for the leather coat they should be making for you.

Based on prior similar experiences in the past, involving questionable greens, and subsequent gastronomic duress. We have learned not to order the salad. I told my sister in law her plate looked like they just mowed the lawn. Some of the leafs based on my experience working as a EOP work study gardener in community college were without a doubt Dandelions.

The waiters were all Italian cats with pony-tails who could barely speak English or least pretended to put on the heavy accents. Patrons tried to get into the vibe by saying things like “Prego”, “Gratsi”, “Benni”, and the waiters would humor them with quick witty sayings in Italian like “Your Mother rides a broken horse”…My Italian is limited to “Non Chi Mali”, which means, not that bad, and “Como Estai” which means how are you. In their demeanor they seemed to despise us, while mitigating us as a necessary evil. They seem to be trolling for insult fodder while serving so they could clown us to the other servers in to back room. You can’t really blame then for that.

It seems axiomatic to me, a seasoned supermarket shopper, that the more money you pay for food the more food you should get. For the money we paid to feed the seven of us, I could hook up a mean 25 member family BBQ, meat, beans, rice, salad, (Real Salad) not Giraffe food. It occurred to me that it might be a good idea that since th ere are so many Latino gardening services, that someone industrious could save and package some of these lawn clippings and sell them as Euro-designer salads and make some serious cabbage.

They brought me a roundish piece of meat the size of a Hostess Ho-ho wrapped in a strip of bacon, with a parsley toupee, a spoonful of mashed potato, read potato, not potatoes, and a thimble of gravy. The waiter seemed please that he hosed me. The joke was on him we planned to go to in and out burgers on the way home if the cute food thing didn’t work out.

I don’t know why people get so excited about dressing up and going to a chic restaurant? I suppose it is something to talk about at the water cooler at work, that’s if you don’t have to spend valuable coffee break time calling out Ralph in the restroom the day after.

We indeed had pleasant company, and one good friend who knew what everything on the menu was, and what his favorites were. It is obvious that he had been th ere many times and knew what to expect. No doubt he ate a fat sub sandwich before he got there. My wife had the insight to buy us nachos at the house before we hit the town.

Our table was by far the best looking. The entourage including four hairdressers was working the latest hair-styles flushed and stripped with color and panache. Bling-bling bobbles rings and trinkets. My outfit which actually matched was approved before we left the house.

I experienced an interesting thing while sitting there. This restaurant was on the same block that we lived on as a child from the ages of 2 until about 4. I have vivid memories of the milk man leaving glass bottles at the door in the morning, the steep marble dotted stairs and the smell of fresh bread and pastries at the corner store. The time my brother and I strolled down to the corner bakery and he mistakenly ordered one thousand donuts instead of a dozen and the laugh staggered walk home.

The gentrification of the old neighborhood was not radical. The restaurant looked like a converted walk up flat; it felt good walking down the dark and viscerally familiar streets to retrieve the car when it was over.

The evening would have been perfect if it was Mom doing the cooking.

Source: www.LatinoLA.com

Clinton makes appeal to Latino voters

January 19, 2008
By Mark Murray

In an interview with Spanish-language television network Univision, Hillary Clinton talked about her plans for the economy and made a direct appeal to Latino voters, noting that her campaign manager -- Patti Solis Doyle -- is a first-generation Hispanic-American. "I feel very proud to have worked on the issues that are important to Hispanics and Hispanic families for many years," she said, when the moderator asked her to make her case to Hispanic Nevadans. Clinton went on to talk about her work with Hispanic leaders across the country like activist Dolores Huerta.

"I want to be a president who will work closely with the Hispanic community," she said.

Clinton emphasized her goal of helping families. "Family is the most important institution," she said. "How can I help everybody get more support for the important work of taking care of their families?"

The Hispanic vote is key in Nevada, where Hispanics account for about a quarter of the population, according to US Census data. Univision is the nation's largest Spanish-language network. The senator's responses were translated simultaneously, but as is often the case in live interviews, not every single word was translated.

The senator again slammed the anti-Clinton Spanish-language ads being run by a group of Obama supporters -- which accuse her of trying to disenfranchise voters -- as a "shameless" personal attack and talked about how one of her first jobs in Texas was going door-to-door registering voters. She reiterated her concerns about everyone being able to participate in today's caucuses.

Clinton criticized Bush's economic stimulus plan as "too little too late" and talked about what she would do to help the economy, like freezing home foreclosures, helping people pay for their energy bills and providing unemployment compensation.

For at least the fifth time since yesterday, the senator bashed Obama for a comment he made about the Republican Party having been the party of ideas in challenging conventional wisdom for the last decade or more.

When asked who she thought the Republican nominee would be, the senator talked about the fluidity of that race. "I think they have a very interesting campaign going. They have three candidates who have each won three contests, so they're going to keep going for a while to try to figure out who their nominee will be," she said.

At one moment, Clinton laughed heartily when she was asked whether her spirits fell after the Iowa caucuses. She answered by talking about why she went into public service and her work on behalf of children.

Source: MSNBC

Need for immigrants is touted

W&M economist cites aging baby boomers, low birthrates and cost of Social Security

January 18, 2008
By JOHN REID BLACKWELL

The U.S. needs immigrants a lot more than today's political discourse might lead people to believe, an economist said yesterday.

"An aging native-born population needs migrants for economic reasons," said Eric R. Jensen, director of the Thomas Jefferson Program in Public Policy at the College of William and Mary. With baby boomers reaching retirement age, along with low U.S. birthrates, the nation needs immigrants to support the costs of Social Security and other services, he said.

"The U.S does not grow anymore because of native-born fertility," he said at a meeting of the Richmond Association for Business Economics.

Immigration rates "are not yet at the level that they were at the turn of the last century," said Jensen, referring to U.S. Census data showing that foreign-born residents were about 15 percent of the population in 1910, compared with about 13 percent today.

Jensen also questioned the perception that conditions in the poorest areas of Mexico and Central America drive only the most poorly educated immigrants to the United States.

"There is emerging evidence that they are of high ability" but have had less access to education and training, he said. "What we want to think about is not potentially exclusionary policies for immigration but policies that somehow make the most of what we have once we have people here."

Michel Zajur, president of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, said that while many immigrants from Mexico and Central America are less educated, they have other positive qualities. "A lot of the people that come here are risk-takers, and a lot of them are starting businesses."

Source: TIMES-DISPATCH

Hispanic-heavy primaries may halt bad-mouthing

January 18, 2008
By Roger E. Hernandez

Has the air gone out of the anti-immigrant windbags? There is evidence the past couple of weeks that yes, maybe.

The loudest immigrant-basher, Tom Tancredo, dropped out of the race. The noisiest huffer and puffer among candidates with a realistic shot, Mitt Romney, learned that peddling fear of immigrants didn't help him break out of the middle of the pack in Iowa and New Hampshire, and was not much of a factor in his win in Michigan.

And the only Republican who has not used immigration as a wedge issue, John McCain, won in New Hampshire. He won after being all but officially pronounced dead last summer, when he refused to scurry toward Tancredoness with most of the rest of his party.

Meanwhile, Democratic candidates have been so busy debating whether it is harder to run as a black man than as a woman that they have yet to discover what a "Hispanic" is, beyond the ritual taco munch on the campaign trail.

Up next for Democrats: South Carolina Jan. 26, Florida Jan. 29, and "Super Duper" Tuesday Feb. 5.

Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards are unlikely to become excited about Hispanic voters in South Carolina, where there are few; all three are boycotting Florida because the Democratic National Committee did not like the early primary date.

For the GOP, Saturday's primary in South Carolina provides an opportunity for the return of pandering to xenophobes. The state is not in want of GOP hard-liners alarmed at the foreign hordes intent on forcing Americans to speak Spanish (or at least intent on forcing us to press 1 to hear English).

There is no price to pay, at least not in South Carolina, for kissing up to that crowd — the Hispanic vote in the Palmetto State's Republican primary will be minuscule, and so is the number of non-Hispanic South Carolinian Republicans offended by the tactic.

Still, nobody is running for president of South Carolina. So candidates will be smart to keep in mind that what they say there will echo in the Florida primary. In Florida, too, the Neanderthal wing of the Republican Party has not gone extinct. But Florida's is the first primary in which the Hispanic vote matters.

Florida's non-Cuban Hispanics, as well as those who are Cuban but were born or brought up in the United States, are as aware as anybody else in the country that some of the Republican candidates have been unable to restrain themselves from bad-mouthing immigrants, even as they insist that the problem is with illegal immigrants only.

Older Cuban voters have different priorities. Their No. 1 issue remains American policy toward Cuba. But once that litmus test is passed, other issues count also. And nobody, not even the most hypersensitive, politically correct left-wing Chicano activist, is touchier about linguistic and ethnic attacks than these very conservative retired Cubans.

Put it like this: In a general election between a Republican anti-Castro hard-liner who is not friendly to Spanish-speakers, and a soft-on-Castro Democrat who loves Hispanics, older Cuban voters will either stay home or grudgingly vote for the Republican. But in a Republican primary in which every candidate competes to have the hardest anti-Castro line, the attitude toward Spanish and immigration may well be the tiebreaker.

Will Republicans stop pandering to the xenophobic right in Florida? How will they handle immigration in California, Colorado, New Jersey and New York, all of which have significant Hispanic populations, and all of which have primaries on Super Tuesday?

Source: Ventura County Star

Bodas USA La Revista, First Spanish-language bridal magazine in the United States is now in stores in California

January 18, 2008
VIA HISPANIC PR WIRE - PR NEWSWIRE

Bodas USA La Revista, the first Spanish-bridal magazine in the United States celebrated its launch with a well-attended reception and runway show in Orange County, California where top fashion designer Mitzy was present.

Featured in the runway show were gowns from Mitzy International collection and Maggie Sottero as well as other top designers worn by the beautiful models that added a touch of glamour to the launch event, that was led by renowned runway coordinator Luisa Ruiz of PromoEvents and Margarita Ceron of Minguita’s Bridal.

“I have worked many years in the wedding industry and I am so excited to see for the first-time in the United States a Spanish-language bridal magazine that is top quality and that features our Latino weddings in a very unique way”, said Ceron who is the exclusive dealer of Mitzy International in California and whose bridal gowns were featured in the premiere issue.

Earlier in the day, the magazine held a press conference in Los Angeles, California that was attended by radio personalities and cover couple Argelia Atilano and Omar Velasco of Univision Radio K-LOVE 107.5 FM.

The magazine is now available in convenient stores, bookstores and in major Hispanic areas throughout California. During the second phase of its distribution strategy, the 160 page glossy magazine with a cover price of $4.99 will be available in parts of the East Coast, Southwest, as well as border cities in Mexico.

“The response we have received from readers indicate that we have surpassed their expectations, we have delivered on our promise to provide brides and grooms to be with a top-notch editorial publication that takes into account their Culture and their Language and that is our motto: Your Wedding, Your Culture, Your Language,” said publisher Lilian de la Torre-Jimenez, a former newspaper reporter, editor and magazine writer.

“Our editorial team is made up of Latino professionals from across the country who are experts in wedding planning, cuisine, travel, relationships, nutrition, entertainment, photography and in many more areas, but most Importantly our stories are not translations but rather written in Spanish with a cultural touch that only Latinos can relate to,” said Bodas USA La Revista editor Katia Ramirez-Blankley, former features editor of La Opinión, the largest Spanish-language in the nation.

The premiere Winter/Spring 2008 issue showcases 70 bridal gowns from the Alfred Angelo, Watter Brides, Romona Keveza and Renée Strauss of Beverly Hills collections.

Some of the features include the wedding of two-time World Boxing Champion Jorge “Travieso” Arce, as well as a column on relationships from renowned psychologist and book author Dr. Ana Nogales, horoscopes for brides to be by astrologer guru Victor Yepez and a “Roccomania” section by top Miami stylist Leo Rocco.

In its home décor section the magazine features IKEA, Liz Claiborne Home Collection, Colchas Cristina from Kohls and Target appliances. In its travel section the magazine offers tips for destination weddings in Mexico and the Caribbean.

Each edition will also be available as a digital magazine via Nxtbook Media. To view the premiere issues in its entirety please go to http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/jimenez/bodasusa_2008spring/.

To view the slideshow of the runway launch reception please go to http://www.myspace.com/bodasusa

Jimenez Communications Inc. is the parent company of Bodas USA La Revista. Jimenez Communications Inc. is a public relations, consulting and publishing company based in Southern California.

'We do all their work and they don't like us' - how migrants became an election issue

Opposition to 'illegals' could prove crucial in Republican primary in South Carolina

January 18, 2008
Ewen MacAskill and Dan Glaister

Ignacio, a Mexican teenager standing outside a rundown trailer home not far from the South Carolina state capital of Columbia, is lonely and a little scared. He misses his family in Jalisco, and twice in recent months people have come through his trailer park waving guns and shooting.

The 19-year-old, who preferred not to provide his surname, walked over the border in 2005 in search of a livelihood. He was caught and deported but a day later he tried again and was successful.

He now works in the construction industry, earning $400 (about £200) for a six-day week, and shares the small trailer with four other single Mexicans - one of hundreds of such homes lining the bleak Old Peculiar Road, about 15 miles from Columbia.

"It is sad because we have no family. We work from 7am until the sun goes down. We only see each other when we are getting ready for bed," he said.

Ignacio and his illegal immigrants, numbering between 12 million and 20 million, have become the hot issue of the 2008 presidential campaign. The influx of the Latino population into the US in the past decade, the biggest wave of immigration since the 19th century, has aroused emotions that range from outright racism to the righteous anger of liberal activists who see in their plight a cause similar to the 1960s civil rights movement.

The controversy could determine the outcome of the Republican primary in South Carolina tomorrow. It will also have an impact on the contests that follow and eventually in November's presidential election.

Ignacio is aware of the calls by Republican candidates that illegal immigrants should be arrested and sent home, but sees a contradiction in attitudes. "Yes, I am here illegally," he said. "But we work the hardest. We are doing the jobs Americans will not do. We are building their homes, washing their dishes. We do all their work and they do not like us."

While much of the resentment comes from a white community in a state with a reputation for racism, it comes too from the black community, amid accusations that the Latino workers are taking their jobs. Ignacio said the trailer park has twice been shot up in recent months by African-Americans.

While states near the Mexican border have long been accustomed to "illegals" - or undocumented workers, as sympathisers prefer to call them - what is new is their arrival in large numbers in states that had previously seen little immigration. South Carolina has one of the fastest-growing Latino populations in the country. The number of illegal immigrants is estimated at between 150,000 and 400,000 in a state with a population of 4.3 million.

The impact is felt strongest in small rural communities whose families have often lived in the same place since the 18th century. They now suddenly find shops and restaurants with names such as Guadalajara and where the staff speak only Spanish, and see large numbers of illegal immigrants in local schools or queues for the clinic.

The state legislature has about 40 bills pending proposing punitive actions to force such immigrants to move to another state or out of the US. A committee this week discussed a bill that would make it a criminal act to help illegal immigrants, with a penalty of five or more years in jail. Among those speaking in favour were Roan Garcia-Quintana, a US citizen originally from Cuba who is director of the Americans Have Had Enough Coalition. "We are being overrun," he said. "You see them everywhere."

He criticised the Republican candidate John McCain for backing bipartisan reform that would have offered immigrants such as Ignacio a route to legality.

McCain is the most liberal of the Republicans on immigration - and that will cost him votes. Other candidates have adopted increasingly anti-illegal immigrant rhetoric, particularly Mike Huckabee, in spite of being relatively benign on the issue while governor of Arkansas.

The issue is also important in Nevada, which holds its caucuses tomorrow, but for a different reason.

Unlike the migrant Latino populations in the east and middle of the country who have no votes, Latinos in the western states are more established, with citizenship and votes. Whereas Republican candidates have alienated some of their Latino supporters with their tough talk on immigration, the Democrats have been working hard to woo what could be a crucial voting bloc. Latinos represent around a quarter of the eligible voters in Nevada, and some 13% of registered voters.

"The Latino vote is a trump card," said Los Angeles-based commentator Earl Ofari Hutchinson. "So much emphasis is being placed on the black vote but the Latino vote is the crucial vote for the party, the nomination and the election."

The Democratic candidates, unlike the Republicans, oppose deporting illegal immigrants, arguing that this is neither economically feasible nor humane.

Source: Guardian Unlimited