Herba Life

It's OK to be different

2006-10-24T21:32:00.000-07:00

What if everyone in the world was exactly alike? What if everyone talked the same, acted the same, listened to the same music and watched the same TV programs? The world would be extremely dull!
I believe it's important to accept people for who they are.
Differences are important and they should be respected. For example, many important people throughout history were considered different, such as Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, Harriet Tubman, Peter Tchaikovsky and Abraham Lincoln. They did great things, but some people thought they were weird because they had strong feelings about something. I can relate to these people because I've been in that situation before, many times. Sometimes I wish I were like everyone else, but not really. Because I believe people should be respected for being different because we're all different in our own ways. I also believe in accepting and loving your family and friends just as they are and for who they are and be grateful that they are also different. This is something I am working on everyday. This I believe.

May Day: Speaking the wrong language

2006-05-01T22:46:00.000-07:00

In this "Day without Immigrants" I came across this very insightful article that captures in part the true essence of how bicultural we Hispanics really are and should be paid closer attention...

By Stephanie Mehta, FORTUNE senior writer
April 27, 2006: 9:23 AM EDT
NEW YORK (FORTUNE) - Flip on Univision or Telemundo on any given night, and in between the melodramatic telenovelas and campy talk shows, you'll see the biggest consumer brands in the world pitching their products in Spanish. It would seem every major company, from car makers to fast food franchises, is trying to reach the nation's fast-growing Hispanic population, now more than 40 million strong.
But marketers looking to reach a lucrative swath of the U.S. Hispanic population may be speaking the wrong language. It turns out that much of the $4 billion spent annually on Hispanic advertising targets individuals born outside the United States, yet the majority of Hispanics in the United States – some 22.3 million – were born in the states.
And even among foreign-born Hispanics, many millions are highly acculturated, which means they are fluent in English and Spanish, and identify strongly with both American and Latino cultures.
And the current crop of ads on Spanish-language television, radio and newspapers don't really resonate with bicultural Hispanics, says Jaime Fortuno, managing partner of Azafran Advertising, a New York-based unit of Puerto Rican agency Lopito, Ileana & Howie Inc. For starters, bicultural Hispanics may not read the local Spanish-language paper or watch Univision, with its heavy rotation of programming from Mexico. "This group is not about nostalgia for the home country," Fortuno says.
On the other hand, acculturated Hispanics aren't feeling the love from mainstream advertising, either, which still features few Latino faces and rarely features the kinds of scenes and story lines that try to capture Hispanic daily life.
So what kinds of ads work for a group Azafran has dubbed "the Fusion Market"? Multicultural marketing experts give high marks to a bilingual ad Toyota ran during the Super Bowl earlier this year to promote its 2007 Camry Hybrid vehicle. In the 30-second spot, developed by Conill (Toyota's Hispanic ad agency), a father speaks to his son in Spanish and English, drawing comparisons to the car's ability to switch from gas to electric power.
Azafran next month will unveil an ad campaign for one of GlaxoSmithKline's skincare products that features Hispanic women bussing each other on both cheeks – a familiar greeting in Latin cultures. Fortuno says the program, which can run in English or Spanish, was designed with the bicultural Hispanic woman in mind.
"We could have used a commercial from Mexico and it would have been just like home," he says. "But when you talk to women who live here and who have full knowledge of English, they want to hear messages that reflect the reality of their lives in the U.S."
Azafran and other advertising agencies pushing companies to market to bicultural Hispanics face some big challenges. TV and radio ad budgets are shrinking as marketers increasingly look at new media such as the web as ways to reach consumers. Amid such belt tightening, it would be pretty easy for a chief marketing officer to rationalize that she's reaching English-speaking Hispanics with her mainstream ads – or capturing those who prefer to communicate in Spanish through a traditional Spanish-language campaign.
Fortuno and his peers are asking that marketing executive to devote scarce resources to a third kind of niche marketing – without a lot of data to show how well it will fare.
Fortuno points out that other industries - the food and music businesses, for example - already have captured the fusion market with products that combine American and Latin culture. One of the hottest new music genres, reggeaton, fuses hip-hop with Latin beats and lyrics in English and Spanish.Indeed, many entertainment executives predict Latino culture will increasingly work its way into mainstream American popular culture, much the way hip-hop has influenced everything from music to television to film. And so by reaching out to bicultural Hispanics now, marketers could end up with an even more valuable resource: An insight into what will eventually become the new mainstream.

Are you my Friend?

2006-04-27T23:02:00.000-07:00

Will you be there when I'm down, And catch me when I fall? Will you hold me when I needTo feel the warmth of your touch? Will you laugh when I laugh, And cry when I cry? Will you let me rant and rave, When I need to let off steam? Will you discuss those painful things, That you'd rather not think about? Like the times we've hurt each other, And promised would never do so again? Will you say the right thing, When all I've heard is the wrong? And tell me soothing words, That make the pain I feel subside? Will you understand me when I say, "I can't see you now, go away"? Will you come back when I call, As if nothing happened at all? If you'll do these things for me, And keep smiling all the way. If you'll be with me through the bad times, As well as the good. Then truly you are my friend, My pal, my mate and my confidante. And that means so much to me. I thank you dearly, for being there,You, My Friend. (James Brinkworth)

(dedicated to my wonderful friends P&P...)

Para mi amigo...

2006-04-15T15:33:00.000-07:00

Dios nos envía personas especiales quien ilumina nuestras vidas-Comparten nuestras alegrías y tristezas y alivien nuestras cargas.

Dios nos envía personas especiales cada vez el camino es agotadorEllos me traigan luz, apoyo y fuerza cuando estamos cansados.

Dios nos envía personas especiales para ayudarnos en nuestro camino,Y a través de ellos, nos recuerda de su amor cada día.

Cada vez que recuerdo las bendiciones que Dios me ha dado, mis pensamientos se voltean hacia Ti… y todos las maneras que tu amistad me ha tocado mi vida.

“Que natural es lo que debo sentir como yo sento por ti, porque tu ocupas un lugar muy especial en mi corazon. Philippians 1:7 (TLB)

“Somos compañeros del alma, dos amigos diferente en muchas cosas, pero caminando el mismo camino, buscando las mismas cosas, preguntando las mismas preguntas, y encontrando gran parte de la respuesta en todo lo que estamos aprendiendo juntos. Estoy muy contento de poder compartir el viaje con un verdadero amigo de corazón como tu.”