Being Latino's Blog

(via Latinos Doing Their Thing)

Glenys is a world-class triple threat and has performed in hundreds of cities, in over 15 countries, spanning three continents. She comes from an island just off the coast of America, where you’ll find the most diverse and open-minded people from all over the world, New York City.

Glenys has performed with some of NYC’s greatest Jazz musicians including: Victor Jones, Alex Blake, Saul RubinDarìo Boente. In fact, the name of her band “Café Musica” was given to her by Jazz great, Victor Jones who has played drums with such names as Sarah Vaughn, Bebel Gilberto & Dizzy Gillespie.

Glenys began her career at the young age of 13. As a NYC performer, it was necessary to master a variety of talents. She continually performed as an actor, singer, dancer and model. Glenys first focused her career in Musical Theatre where her many talents were most useful. Although she wasn’t around during the 60’s, she found herself living them on stage in almost every 60’s rock musical ever written, such as Hair, Jesus Christ Superstar, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Ain’t Misbehavin’, Beehive etc. While in NYC, she recorder with the girl group Mamba and released a CD through Radikal Records – BMG. While she toured the globe with musicals, however, she also hit the worldwide Jazz scene and performed everywhere she could. Her variety of performances include: Off-Broadway, International Tours, TV, Film, Commercials, Voice-Overs (Sesame Street & Crayons Animation Cartoons), Live Concerts, Modeling (Gaultier & Versace), Radio and several recording projects worldwide.

Glenys’ love for Jazz began when she began to sit in with the Hudson Jazz Ensemble at Shadi & Co, one of NYC’s underground Jazz lofts. This led her to performing at Gary Key’s Place, a jazz connoisseur who held events featuring NYC’s top jazz performers. Glenys then formed her own band to play the numerous gigs she was being offered. Glenys and Café Musica performed in such places as Zinc Bar , Bloom Ballroom & Lounge 31. She could also be seen every Sunday at the very popular Park Avenue Jazz Brunch, Sunday’s at Nong.

Johnnie called her “The Fever Girl”!

Johnnie Walker began pairing their most exceptional Scotch, both Blue and Gold labels, with exceptional Jazz. Johnnie Walker held private Jazz dinners in such exclusive locations as Sotheby’s & City Hall. Glenys would open with “Fever” and end with a private concert.

From The Big Apple to The Eternal City!

Glenys enjoyed NYC but the search for a higher quality of life led her to Rome…as all roads do. She immediately began performing throughout the city at Jazz Café, Doney, Galleria Sordi, Garden of Eden- Terrazzo Bar, Cavalieri Hilton etc.

She also performed at many exclusive events:

Michelangelo Antonioni’s 92nd Birthday Celebration – Rome

Darina Pavlova’s Birthday Event “Amore Tango” with special guest, Silvio Berlusconi, the Prime Minister of Italy – Rome

LOVE NightLuminal – Milan

BMW – Mini Cooper Launch Event – Sala Cappa / Termini – Rome

BMW Events – Ondanomala – Fregene

Fashion TV – Suite – Ripa Hotel – Rome

Krug Champagne Christmas – La Maison – Rome

Krug Champagne Event – Bar Bar – Rome

La mia dolce vita…

Ms. Vargas was featured in the film on Michelangelo Antonioni’s art, “Con Michelangelo”, which played at Roma Art Doc Fest 2005 and at La Casa del Cinema during Rome’s Film Festival 2006.

Since arriving in Rome, she has recorded for several projects:

Love Project – The theme song for Love Night which reached #1 in Milan, will appear on over 6 compilations in 2007.

Più Blu Alpha 2004 – a collection of Jazz standards and Bossa Novas with a chill-out twist!

Los Angeles Sound Experience – This CD, distributed worldwide, is a promotional gift for the launch of Pall Mall’s LA marche.

Glenys is currently working on recording her first album of her own original jazz songs inspired by her “dolce vita” made in Italy. Her first songs, already performed throughout Rome, have received great acclaim from the audiences: Impromptu, Individuality, I Used to Hope for Blue Skies, A Picture of My World & Confused Again.

Glenys is also one of the founding members of Us Divas and GroovEssence, both of which are vocal groups comprising American singers and a modern repertoire of R&B, Contemporary Gospel and Soul. US Divas is a female trio and GroovEssence is band with six members. They perform throughout Italy at high-end events such as The 2008 U.S. Presidential Election Celebration of Rome and the Salaria Sport Village Gospel & Soul 2009 Christmas Concert.

Ms. Vargas also collaborates with DJs & various musicians to create new music which has brought her into different genres: House, R&B, Soul & Pop. A creative person finds numerous outlets. Glenys has recently started a blog, Glenys’ Rome & Beyond, which boasts a readership of over 5,000 in under three months since its launch. Her goal is to publish a book based on her true accounts of her unique experiences in Rome.

Glenys attracts a young and diverse crowd along with the classic Jazz fans. Her jazz repertoire ranges from Swing to Bossa Novas in Portuguese and from Spanish Boleros to her unique original works all sung with her soulful voice and modern arrangements to bring the future of jazz to the present. Glenys currently lives in Rome, the eternal city, yet she considers herself a citizen of the world.

“Boundaries only lie in our minds and music overcomes them all.”

www.glenysromeandbeyond.wordpress.com

www.myspace.com/glenysvargas

www.reverbnation.com/glenysvargas

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About Being Latino:
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Being Latino is a communication platform designed to educate, entertain and connect all peoples across the global Latino spectrum.  Our aim is to break down barriers and foster unity and empowerment through informative, thought-provoking dialogue and exchanging of ideas.  Being Latino seeks to give a unified voice to the multitude of communities that identify with the multidimensional culture that is Latino.
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Sewing A Page

Posted by: Efrain Nieves on: February 9, 2010

By Viktoria Valenzuela

In my familia, I would not be surprised if one of the females were thrown out for not knowing how to sew.  You laugh, and it is a funny idea, but we all sew in some way or another.  My grandmothers made clothes for the children and my paternal grandmother started her own dress making and alteration shop.  Both of my Chicana grandmothers had ten children and sewed clothing for every one of them.  I don’t even recall the first summer I spent in Texas wearing store bought clothes.  My grandmothers or my Mom made summer dresses and shorts sets for my siblings and I.   My mother learned how to sew from her mother, I learned from my mother, and I am teaching my daughter.

Momma had four children, and her time as a young mother was harder than most.  She worked in downtown Houston in a law firm as a copyist, and did not make enough to support us all– just ten dollars too much money to receive welfare.  In the face of her struggle, my tough Momma started her own clothing line.  I remember buckets of beads and sequins (it was the 80s) all around the house waiting for her delicate hands to sew them into gilt-edged fashion and hair pins.  A woman’s need to be productive and her children fed and dressed had been the thing that kept my mother working harder.  In the face of hardship sewing is the tangible way she and my grandmothers did what they could.  I follow in their footsteps. I make the most of what I have by sewing, knitting, crocheting, or embroidering it.  I also write.  Writing is one way of sewing lives together.  My mother’s life is my life on this page.  My grandmothers lives are on this page and in every stitch we thread.  The hand me down skill of entrepreneurship threads us together in real life as well.

Here I sit; a Latina in America, during a “recession”, and my main skills are in writing a page and sewing a garment.  How do we make our lives, sown from nothing but string and some bits of cloth.  I follow the lead of my mothers and want to begin my own business of sewing.   How do I begin?  I looked for a way and found out that Latina business owners are the fastest growing population in the country right now.  The National Latina Business Woman Association was founded in May of 2003 in Los Angeles, California with fifteen women that realized there was a need.  They also had the vision to start an organization that catered to the business woman and professional woman by offering programs of substance to help guide them (NLBWA).  I will encourage myself and others, as gente of la raza, to look into beginning a business, also to support local gente owned business and remember that every small beginning is threaded to the next.

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Send YOUR story to: Beinglatino@gmail.com

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About Being Latino:
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Being Latino is a communication platform designed to educate, entertain and connect all peoples across the global Latino spectrum.  Our aim is to break down barriers and foster unity and empowerment through informative, thought-provoking dialogue and exchanging of ideas.  Being Latino seeks to give a unified voice to the multitude of communities that identify with the multidimensional culture that is Latino.
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Life as the Underdog (by @lancerios)

Posted by: beinglatino on: February 8, 2010

by Lance Rios

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A true story inspired by a series of frustrating situations.    ;)

Life as the underdog — you’re the mutt from the pound trying to convince everyone that you’re just as good as the full breed thousand dollar dog.

Life as the underdog — you’ll be the first one to be critiqued… the first to be held back… the first to be targeted…

Life as the underdog — you see the big dog and think “damn it must be nice”…

Life as the underdog — you have to work twice as hard to go half the distance walking on fire & carrying weighted chains…

BUT


Life as the underdog — you can’t fall any further down than the bottom where you already are…

Life as the underdog — it’s a million to one, but it doesn’t matter because the fight inside of you believes you can turn it around…

Life as the underdog — you see the things that the big dog doesn’t… your perception of life for what it is has yet to be skewed…

Life as the underdog — after all is said and done, ain’t so bad after all. Woof!

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* What’s YOUR story? *


Send YOUR story to: Beinglatino@gmail.com

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About Being Latino:
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Being Latino is a communication platform designed to educate, entertain and connect all peoples across the global Latino spectrum.  Our aim is to break down barriers and foster unity and empowerment through informative, thought-provoking dialogue and exchanging of ideas.  Being Latino seeks to give a unified voice to the multitude of communities that identify with the multidimensional culture that is Latino.
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Latinos Doing Their Thing: Diana Manzanares (#latinosdoingtheirthing)

Posted by: Efrain Nieves on: February 8, 2010

(via @beinglatino)

Diana Manzanares was born July 7, 1985 in New York City, and raised by her Salvadorian mother in Queens. As a child, she always enjoyed creating things. Her favorite section at the toys store was the arts and crafts, where she found things like supplies for making jewelry, painting, or anything along those lines.  Growing up she thought she wanted to be a fashion designer. This was not surprising, since her mother would sew her own dresses as a teenager, and was always into fashion.

After High School Diana went to college to study Fashion Design, but in the midst of it decided to switch directions to makeup. She took several courses at Dawn Til Dusk Professional Makeup. There she studied different mediums of makeup including fashion, airbrush, bridal, print, and basic special effects. Upon graduation, she started her career at Sephora, where she remained for a year. During this time, she simultaneously built her confidence and gained a wealth of experience, before venturing out on her own.

For the next few years, Diana had a fire lit under her, determined to do it all. She went back to college while working at Make Up For Ever, and building her book. She began working with different photographers and working on fashions shows. In 2005, she began working for L’Oreal, and became a part of there pro team. As a member of this team she was able to travel and interact with, and educate all different types of women about makeup and proper skin care. While still in college, she remembered how much she enjoyed skin care while at Sephora, and decided to obtain her license as an esthetician in 2007. She felt that being a qualified skin care expert would enhance her skills, as well as marketability as a makeup artist.

Diana has worked on many photo shoots and shows. Some of her work is published both online and in print in publications such as Paper, Yerevan, C-Heads online, and Cosmopolitan. Some of her makeup tips can be seen in different publications, including SELF Magazine.  She has currently developed great relationships with several photographers. Many of which she works with on advertising gigs, runway, and most recently on Broadway’s Mary Poppins, in which she assisted as a makeup artist.  Working with L’Oreal has allowed her to participate in seminars given by Hablando de la Salud de la Mujer/ Speaking of Women’s Health. At these seminars, women received information, guidance, and tips about physical and mental health, Skin care, and beauty. It is through events such as this, that Diana is able to touch the lives of numerous women, from several different cultures. This professional experience combined with her personal knowledge of which issues are most relevant to Latinas that allow her to reach them so effectively.

Diana Manzanares
Professional Makeup Artist
www.dianamanzanares.com

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* What’s YOUR story? *


Send YOUR story to: Beinglatino@gmail.com

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About Being Latino:
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Being Latino is a communication platform designed to educate, entertain and connect all peoples across the global Latino spectrum.  Our aim is to break down barriers and foster unity and empowerment through informative, thought-provoking dialogue and exchanging of ideas.  Being Latino seeks to give a unified voice to the multitude of communities that identify with the multidimensional culture that is Latino.
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Are Latino Men More Homophobic Than Other Men?

Posted by: Efrain Nieves on: February 8, 2010

By Charlie Vázquez

I was interviewed by CNN last year for their “Latino in America” coverage and was moved by a comment made by Lourdes Torres, a fellow “Latino in America” interviewee, professor, and president of Amigas Latinas, a lesbian and bisexual support group in Chicago. She was quoted as saying that “the notion that Latino people are more homophobic and its men more macho is not only false, but tinged with racism.” She added that “…men from all sorts of ethnic groups have long acted in a patriarchal manner, but only Latino men have the term “machismo” attached to their behavior…people tend to think that somehow, we’re more repressed and living in the Dark Ages.” Let’s take a look at this more closely.

As a gay Latino New Yorker who was disowned by his father and who has endured cowardly neutrality from other male family members, I happen to agree with this statement. I know men from various ethnic backgrounds who’ve been assaulted, raped and psychologically damaged by male family members—white families and black families alike. Following the brutal murder of Jose Steven López Mercado last year, this may seem like an untimely claim. Am I saying that homophobia (and all of its crimes) doesn’t exist in Latino communities? Of course I’m not, that would be ridiculous. But do others project their abuses onto the Latino (and other) working classes? Yes, they do. And this needs to be discussed, as many Latinos young and old don’t understand that everybody gains by passing equality legislation for LGBT people. Let’s wipe the lens clean and focus in.

Writer/activist Sherry Wolf reminds us (in her new book Sexuality and Socialism) that even the Puerto Rican Young Lords showed up at the famous 1969 Greenwich Village Stonewall Riots to protest the police brutality unleashed upon LGBT people in our own bars. The denial of gay marriage and all of its political advancements prevents many LGBT folks from attaining material equality. This should be of importance, to say, Latinos in the Bronx (such as my family), where more same-sex couples are raising children than in any other county in the nation. Are these children not being unfairly affected by the hate campaigns that keep their families from achieving equality? We have more to gain as allies and Latino men aren’t always the enemy. Homophobia exists everywhere and branding Latino men as the worst is unfair—excluding perhaps New York Senator Ruben Diaz Sr., who hurts more people than he’ll ever know.

One of my neighborhood bars in Brooklyn employs an openly gay male bartender and a transgender female bouncer. The lounge attracts young people of color, older folks who have lived in the area for years, gays, lesbians, white hipsters—every group at hand. It is not a gay bar. The customers treat one another with mutual respect and warmth and the young guys who dominate the pool table are—you guessed it—straight, working-class Latino muchachos. I have never once, in the year or so that I have gone there, witnessed even one instance of homophobia-related slurs or violence. These are the exact Latino male stereotypes that are reported to be more homophobic than their white and black counterparts. The “homophobic math” just doesn’t add up in this equation. And although the struggle is hardly over, much has been accomplished.

Charlie Vázquez is a criollo word-warrior of Cuban and Puerto Rican descent. His work has appeared in numerous print and online publications and his second novel Contraband will be published by Rebel Satori Press in spring 2010. Info: http://www.firekingpress.com

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* What’s YOUR story? *


Send YOUR story to: Beinglatino@gmail.com

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About Being Latino:
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Being Latino is a communication platform designed to educate, entertain and connect all peoples across the global Latino spectrum.  Our aim is to break down barriers and foster unity and empowerment through informative, thought-provoking dialogue and exchanging of ideas.  Being Latino seeks to give a unified voice to the multitude of communities that identify with the multidimensional culture that is Latino.
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In Memory of Big Pun: A Legend to Latino-Americans

Posted by: Efrain Nieves on: February 7, 2010

By, Efrain Nieves

I remember back in the 90’s listening to Hip Hop we always looked for that one Latino rapper who would blow up mainstream and become a legend in the Hip Hop community.  We didn’t care where he would come from as long as we were able to identify with his music we were good. Although many Latino Hip Hop artists were talented no one touched our hearts like Big Pun.

When Capital Punishment hit the stores I was there to buy me a copy quick. I looked at him and saw myself.  Your average hood Puerto Rican from the Northeast trying to escape the jungle by using his talent. His look also made me feel closer because he wasn’t your average 6 pack having, glamour shot looking artist. He was himself and that’s how I want to be identified.  Capital Punishment went platinum and everyone in my hood went crazy, “WE MADE IT” as if we were all Big Pun. Inside, we were all Big Pun. We all wanted to be the man he was and we were proud to have a  Latino Hip Hop artist we can call our own.

I still remember when Big Pun passed away. It was like a family member had gone. We heard the news and got together and mourned for days at a time. Pouring out our beers and crying. Everyone drove through the Barrio pumping his music and acknowledging each other as if we all knew each others pain. Sadly, it took a Legend to leave this Earth to unit Latinos for a purpose. I still listen to 100%, It’s So Hard and I’m Not A Player and the rest of his music, some where he just appears in.

Sometimes I wish Pun would have seen the mark he left behind inside us. I wish he could have seen how much we loved his music and the man we looked up to. The inspiration he is to me and many others older and younger than he.

What are your memories of Big Pun? Tell us your story.

I leave todo ustedes with a video of the legend Big Pun (November 10, 1971 – February 7, 2000).

WE LOVE AND MISS YOU BIG BRO!!! REST IN PEACE!

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* What’s YOUR story? *


Send YOUR story to: Beinglatino@gmail.com

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About Being Latino:
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Being Latino is a communication platform designed to educate, entertain and connect all peoples across the global Latino spectrum.  Our aim is to break down barriers and foster unity and empowerment through informative, thought-provoking dialogue and exchanging of ideas.  Being Latino seeks to give a unified voice to the multitude of communities that identify with the multidimensional culture that is Latino.
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My Time Is Now!

Posted by: Efrain Nieves on: February 6, 2010

By Efrain Nieves

My life is an exposition
through my transition I find ambition
to position my life in a better path.

I do it for my 3 seeds
who need me to exceed
my highest potential and succeed
all boundaries of knowledge.
So I went to college.

I refuse to leave this place
without witnessing the grace
my seeds will embrace in their future.
can’t wait to see their face.
Priceless.

I hope they don’t see my struggle
how I smuggled that slab in the bubble
to flip that 5 double.
now it’s steak with the beans and rice.

I’m in a changed frame of mind.
No more am I confined
it’s all left behind
my strong words combined
I have a different grind.

Sword, pen, paper, shield
my enemies will yield
once my weapon is revealed
the world is my battlefield.
I’m all over it.

Understand straight or abstract
these words will impact
and many will react
to the butterflies I leave in their digestive tract.

MY TIME IS NOW!

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* What’s YOUR story? *


Send YOUR story to: Beinglatino@gmail.com

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About Being Latino:
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Being Latino is a communication platform designed to educate, entertain and connect all peoples across the global Latino spectrum.  Our aim is to break down barriers and foster unity and empowerment through informative, thought-provoking dialogue and exchanging of ideas.  Being Latino seeks to give a unified voice to the multitude of communities that identify with the multidimensional culture that is Latino.
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Racism & Discrimination even Amongst Latinos

Posted by: Efrain Nieves on: February 6, 2010

By, Rosie Galvez

It’s amazing to me to see that other than dealing with racism and discrimination from the Anglo’s, we have to deal with it from our own people. I grew up with a Spaniard father, who had european features and a Puerto Rican mother who was light skinned with latina features…my sister and I are products of that combination… I have light skin and european features and she is darker skinned and coarse curly hair. In the confines of our home I never knew anything different or even amongst my family until I got older. The first time I felt discriminated and prejudiced against was when I was 9 years old. My sister and were invited to a neighbor’s pool but after 15 mins of being there, their mother threw us out calling us low lives and dirty. I grabbed my sister and ran out of there crying to my mom and Aunt telling them what had happened. Needless to say my aunt and my father let them have it. They were Spaniard and their mother was against the fact that my mom was Puerto Rican. How ridiculous can that be especially now when I look back and think just how ignorant that woman was, especially to have made 2 young girls feel dirty and ashamed. I won’t ever forget how that made me feel!

As the years went by and I got older I had to come to my sister’s defense many times cause the white kids in our school would taunt her and at times physically hit her.I had to do alot of fighting when I was young in particular to protect my sister. I was never bothered much cause of my appearance and being able to blend in. In a conversation with my mom one day, she told me how there was discrimination within our own family. She recounted the story of how my great-grandmother refused to set foot in my grandmother’s house when she married a dark skinned Puerto Rican man. I have heard these stories from many latino’s throughout my life and I think it’s ridiculous and absurd. I had a neighbor who years ago told me that her dad would not speak to her for 15 years because she married a dark-skinned Puerto Rican man and she was light-skinned. This I know also happens amongst blacks cause I’ve heard the same stories. This boils my blood everytime I hear it!

In the workforce I noticed how discrimination happens amongst our own people. I would see certain latino colleagues getting ahead but if another latino in the office or in their own department was trying to get ahead they would undermine them in order for them to either not be promoted or have them fired. This is completely unacceptable to me, I have to say I admire the Asians and the Hasidic jews cause they help each other and don’t have to know the person just the fact that they are Asian or Hasidic is enough for their own to help them get ahead. If we as Latino’s instead of hating on each other would come together and help each other we would be soooooooooo far ahead right now instead of behind. We may be making hugh strides but the discirmination amongst our own sets us back…..we are the majority in this country and should behave with honor and respect instead of acting ignorant and street. They(Anglo) don’t need anymore fuel to their fire and we should not be giving it to them.

We are 22 Spanish speaking countries strong and we all have the same language in common, same culture and upbringing so instead of fighting with each other and discriminating against each other. Let’s show them that we are united and strong and proud to be Latino!!! Help your fellow latin brother or sister succeed and get ahead and stop all the Hating!!!

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* What’s YOUR story? *


Send YOUR story to: Beinglatino@gmail.com

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About Being Latino:
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Being Latino is a communication platform designed to educate, entertain and connect all peoples across the global Latino spectrum.  Our aim is to break down barriers and foster unity and empowerment through informative, thought-provoking dialogue and exchanging of ideas.  Being Latino seeks to give a unified voice to the multitude of communities that identify with the multidimensional culture that is Latino.
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Hispanic Does Not Always Equal Mexican

Posted by: Efrain Nieves on: February 6, 2010

By Rafael Marquez

I think I may be beating a dead horse, or going overboard with this one.

I was looking at a local Hispanic Chamber of Commerce website, trying to decide if I wanted to join it and really liking what I saw. The chamber had a lot of demographic data on Hispanic owned businesses, and on the growth of the Hispanic population and their purchasing power etc.

New York Hispanic Book Fair 2009

Spanish poet Juan Navidad, Colombian poet Diego Vargas, Nicaraguan poet Gema Santamaría and Mexican poet Roberto Rosendiz.

I was really happy with what I was seeing until I got to the membership page.

Listed as a benefit for joining the local chamber is a complimentary membership into the regional Association of Mexican American Chambers of Commerce. There’s nothing wrong with offering me a complimentary membership in another board, the problem is that I’m not Mexican and I have no desire to join a Mexican American Chamber.

I feel that the local chamber is assuming that since I’m joining an Hispanic chamber, that I must be Mexican and thereby interested in joining a larger Mexican board. That is just a flat out wrong assumption. I’m neither Mexican, nor interested in joining a larger “Mexican American” chamber.

Upon further research, it turns out, that the local Hispanic chamber in question, is a daughter organization of the regional Mexican American Chamber. My guess is that the parent chamber noticed that some Hispanic owned businesses weren’t joining because they felt the name wasn’t representative of their own heritage and so they started the local chambers with the more “generic” “Hispanic” name.

Maybe I am making too much of this particular situation, but I think the larger sentiment of Hispanic does not always equal Mexican still stands. Am I making much ado about nothing here?

Depending on what region of the USA you’re in, does the word “Hispanic” immediately carry a “default” nationality associated with it?

Rafael Marquez is a public speaker and marketer. He writes at http://marketinglatinos.com/.

Photo Credit:

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Send YOUR story to: Beinglatino@gmail.com

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About Being Latino:
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Being Latino is a communication platform designed to educate, entertain and connect all peoples across the global Latino spectrum.  Our aim is to break down barriers and foster unity and empowerment through informative, thought-provoking dialogue and exchanging of ideas.  Being Latino seeks to give a unified voice to the multitude of communities that identify with the multidimensional culture that is Latino.
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Our Voice for Future Generations

Posted by: Efrain Nieves on: February 5, 2010

By, Alina De Varona

In January of 2009, Tony Hernandez, CEO and Co-Founder of the Latino Broadcasting Company – a minority owned nationally syndicated radio network – created The Immigrant Archive Project (IAP).  The IAP is the first comprehensive oral history project on Latino immigrants in the United States and an initiative that gives voiceless Latinos a face and soul.  For his part, Tony leads the team responsible for the production, editing, archiving, and TV, radio and online broadcasts of the IAP testimonies.

The Immigrant Archive Project contains stories of the Latino immigrant experience and recounts stories of personal sacrifice, drama, family separation, and of the achievement of American dreams.  These are the stories of the marginalized that, until now, have gone untold.  They are the stories of new arrivals, U.S. born Latinos, and of those like me that were born in a Latin-American country.  Even undocumented Latinos have moved past their fears for the sake of having their stories told to future generations.  They all want to use their own words to give testimony to their struggles and the gratitude felt for those that struggled on their behalf.

In a Latincast (a Dieste podcast out of Dallas, TX) interview, Tony noted there are universal themes in the interviews with one being the sense of no longer belonging in their native countries but also feeling like they didn’t belong here in the U.S.  For example, a Mexican or Cuban may speak Spanish here and live in a very Latino way but, back in their respective countries, they are made to feel “American” and no longer local.  Even here on Being Latino we have had discussions about this and we are reminded every time someone with no common sense tells us to speak English, we’re in America.

Tony explains how, at the beginning of every interview, most subjects claim they don’t have anything important to contribute but that is disproven the moment their stories begin to unfold.  I have a couple of people right here on Being Latino that I want to nominate for being outstanding examples of nuestra gente; one for overcoming great adversity and going on to be an inspirational role model and the other for pulling us all together.  Nominate your own candidates (or yourself) through The Immigrant Archive Project website and don’t forget to show your gratitude and support as a fan here on facebook.

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Send YOUR story to: Beinglatino@gmail.com

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About Being Latino:
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Being Latino is a communication platform designed to educate, entertain and connect all peoples across the global Latino spectrum.  Our aim is to break down barriers and foster unity and empowerment through informative, thought-provoking dialogue and exchanging of ideas.  Being Latino seeks to give a unified voice to the multitude of communities that identify with the multidimensional culture that is Latino.
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