Something Funny Happened On My Way Back to Miami…

24 07 2012

Returning from a business trip to the Midwest on Monday, I had one thing on my mind: Getting back home to my uber-Spanglish bicultural existence in Miami.  While at the Detroit airport, I stop into a shop to grab a bottle of water and a pack of gum when out of the corner of my eye I see the current edition of Forbes Magazine, with Sofia Vergara on the cover.  I’m not ready to confess if it was Forbes powerful brand appeal that caught my attention or Sofia.  In either case, I picked up the magazine and thought, “Ha.  That’s cool.  I didn’t realize Forbes had launched a Latino offering.”  A closer look revealed that this was no Latino offering.  This was Forbes general market magazine.  They decided to not just focus on Sofia, because that would be too easy and a cheap way to sell magazines, right?  So they widened the focus to address the Hispanic economic opportunity largely unrealized by U.S. Advertisers and general market media companies.  The headline reads: “The Next Media Jackpot: Murdoch, Comcast and Disney Battle for Control of the $1 Trillion Hispanic Market”

The Next Media Jackpot: Murdoch, Comcast and Disney Battle for Control of the $1 Trillion Hispanic Market

On the one hand, it felt validating.  It made me feel visible in a larger context.  I had a positive reaction to the evidence in my hand that the powerhouses of general market media: Fox, Comcast and Disney, are trying to figure out how to capture my attention, figuratively speaking.  No sooner did I have that ego-stroking reaction, another wave of more cynical reactions emerged.  Thoughts like:

“Oh, now that Murdoch and Mickey are trying to get in, now I’m supposed to feel important?!”

“My momma told me I was special from the first time that baby doctor slapped my brown backside as a newborn.  Are you tryin’ to say that Murdoch and Mickey have greater validating power than my momma?!”

“Forget you, Forbes, and Fox, and the rest of you phonies that are trying to get at us now.  Hispanics have been a force for a while.  What took you soo long?”

Then I took a deep breath, and realized that my conflicting reactions could be classified as clinically insane.  “Easy, Alberto,” I whispered to myself.  I was mixing smart business strategies by media companies with some pent up personal demons I thought I’d exercised.  So I settled down, looked at Sofia on the cover of Forbes and everything felt just fine again.


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Categories : July 2012

The American Dream Always Had an Accent

24 03 2012

When I was asked to speak to an audience of small business owners at Miami Dade College this past week, my boss knew I would jump at the shot.  Ya see, I fancy myself a student of public speaking and I’m a bleeding-heart that relishes the opportunity to help anyone, anytime. This was a no-brainer, except for one thing.  I had to deliver my presentation in Spanish.  Sure, I speak conversational Spanish, with an ill-defined accent.  I can yap about music, movies and cuisine all day long, but a professional speech about growing a business?  That elevated the challenge.  I sorta dug that aspect of it.  I was drawn to the fact that I had to stretch outside of my comfort zone if I wanted to provide useful info to this appreciative audience of business owners. So off I went, and discovered that I would learn more about the American Dream than I could ever teach about growing a business.

The audience was compromised of mostly middle-aged Hispanic immigrants with deep accents, humble but hungry to achieve in this foreign land, with its foreign language and laws.  Businesses spanned the spectrum from Child Care Services, to Import/Export, to Landscaping — there were over 30 business owners present.  In their eyes, I saw fear and hope, struggle but determination.  I was inspired by their bravery, not just to leave their land to start anew on our land, but the extra risk they were all willing to endure to fight for their piece of the American Dream.

Later in the week, I was at work.  The founder of Zubi Advertising is being inducted, posthumously, into the Advertising Hall of Fame on Tuesday in New York.  The children of the founder, and current leaders of the agency, shared with us a tribute video they will unveil at the induction ceremony.  It captures the essence of their mother, a Cuban immigrant, with an accent, who founded what has become one of the leading Hispanic advertising agencies in the country.  Over 30 years ago, that could have been her sitting at Miami Dade College, listening to a local professional like myself.  Wow.

This reminds me that we are all connected to humble and hungry immigrants, who may have been scared, but remained hopeful, may have struggled but were determined to get their piece of the American Dream, and they all had an accent, beautiful accents, from all around the world.


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Categories : March 2012, Topics - Current

Hispanic’s Role in U.S. Competitiveness

25 04 2011
 
“We didn’t start the fire; it was always burning since the world’s been turning.”

Billy Joel. “We Didn’t Start the Fire.” 1989.

 

In this song, Billy Joel sets out to remind us that every generation faults the last for its current day’s troubles.  This vicious cycle of blaming the prior generation is alive and well as much today as when that song climbed the charts over 20 years ago…but there’s something different now, I think.

In the past, this “blame game” sought to make sense of the present day woes by assigning responsibility for those troubles on the generation of yesteryear.  Now, it seems the rhetoric of blame has a new target: Hispanics. 

Instead of looking backwards to find the culprits for a failing economy, a weakening public education system, an overstressed healthcare system and the ongoing list of present day issues, some Americans are looking around and are uncomfortable with the amount of unfamiliar “foreigners” they see, particularly Latinos.  So while many in the broader general market appreciate the influence of Hispanic culture on North America by way of cuisine, music, movies, sports and the like, I’ve observed a concern, even an instinct to blame Hispanics for our country’s challenges. 

During the April 17thinstallment of NBC ’s “Meet the Press,” the former Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan, expressed concern about America’s future competitiveness due to disturbing declines in U.S. academic performance indicators.  I was struck by this concern because I know that U.S. Hispanics will make up a growing proportion of the U.S. population in the future. 

The U.S. Census Bureau reports the Hispanic population has surpassed 50 million and accounted for more than half of the 27.3-million population increase in the last decade.

According to the Population Reference Bureau, by 2035, one-third of all American children and youth will be Latino, and it is projected that by 2050, one-third of the overall population will be Hispanic.

At the same time, a study by World Economic Forum reveals that U.S. competitiveness, as measured by 16 indicators, has 13 indicators on the decline when comparing 2009 to 2010.

U.S. Competitiveness Ranking - World Economic Forum

So is there a correlation between the decline in American future competitiveness and the increase in the Hispanic population? As Hispanics continue to make up an increasing percentage of the U.S. population, how much of the burden should Latinos bear in influencing this country’s future direction?  How much of this “fire” belongs to us?

Sources:

http://www.prb.org/Articles/2010/larazadatabook.aspx

http://articles.latimes.com/2011/mar/24/nation/la-na-census-hispanic-20110325

http://www.futureofuschinatrade.com/fact/us-competitiveness-ranking

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032608/


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Categories : April 2011


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