Father Returns To Mexico; Should Son Follow 

For decades, bad economies abroad forced the separation of families as people left loved ones to seek better opportunities in the United States. Now that the U.S. economy is faltering, some immigrant families are being separated again as some family members decide to return to their home countries, and others continue to hold onto the American dream. Often, these difficult family decisions come down to generational differences, as Youth Radio’s Luis Sierra Campos reports.

Aired on NPR news Morning Edition, December 26th, 2008.

Father Returns To Mexico; Should Son Follow

Spanglish is the Ad Lingo
By Luis Sierra Campos

What’s the new what? Spanglish is the new ad-lingo.

Spanglish is what marketers are using to sell everything from the War in Iraq.

To Burger King’s fusion food “Chicken Fries”

But don’t get it twisted, Spanglish, code-switching between English and Spanish, has been around for a long time.  And you can hear it everywhere Spanish speakers live and communicate with one another.  I mean, the last time I was driving through my school parking lot with a friend, I found myself saying:

“Hey! –There’s un Parquiadero, just step on the brekas”

When meaning to say “Hey Look! A parking space, step on the brakes.”   But, according to Catarino Lopez, Creative Director for Bromley Communications, and maker of the BK Chicken Fries Commercial, no one will be stepping on the brakes of the Spanglish Ad craze any time soon.

Catarino Lopez: In a high school you always have an incoming class of freshmen and you always have an outgoing class of seniors, and the Latino market is exactly that—there is always an incoming class of immigrants and who are coming fresh from other countries, to find jobs and better opportunities.

And as immigrants become what Lopez refers to as sophomores and juniors, the products advertisers try to sell them get more and more expensive.  Like this Toyota commercial.

Kid: “Papá, why do we have a hybrid?”

Dad: “For your fuuuutuuure.”

But this ad isn’t just selling a 30 thousand dollar hybrid car. It’s selling something more, assimilation!

It runs on gas and electrical power.

Dad: Mira aquí. It uses both.”

Kid: “Like you, with English and Spanish.”

The Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies estimates that Latino purchasing power will grow to over a TRILLION dollars by 2010.  But Ilan Stavans, the editor of the Spanglish Dictionary, and Professor at Amherst College, believes the financial impact of Spanglish will be minor when compared to the way it will rewrite culture.

Ilan Stavens: Spanglish is not likely to disappear in the next 10 to 20 year’s. Just the opposite.  It will become the much more frequent in media that not only targets Latinos but targets the country as a whole ultimately shaping the way we used the English language and used the Spanish language.

Yeah that’s right? ¿eso era lo que yo pensava? Spanglish is about my hybrid identity, not my hybrid car- because, well, I just can’t afford one!  So it’s nothing new to me, but for those marketers who think it’s el ultimo grito, “Spanglish is the new Ad-lingo.”

Aired on NPR news Day to Day, June 19th, 2008

Spanglish is the Ad Lingo

Latino USA: Antonio Villaraigosa New Mayor of LA

Latest news about investigations into police misconduct at the MacArthur Park immigration rights rally. Luis Sierra sent us this reporter’s notebook.

By Luis Sierra Campos

Aired on KCRW’s Which Way LA,  November 1st, 2007

lsierracampos