Things have changed as schools recognize it in their classrooms now, and companies often advertise their names and products in association with the month long hat tip.

In many way a whole generation was lost. Some pockets of younger generations rebelled against their parent’s ignorance and reclaimed their heritage through music, and the arts among other outlets. Yet still, others have marched off toward assimilation and acknowledge Hispanic Heritage month either by raising a glass or watching last night’s Alma Awards show.

Here’s what I’m referring to:

A memo on usage from Assistant Managing Editor Henry Fuhrmann to Times copy editors:

We have updated our rule on the use of Latino to reflect more accurately what the editors of the 1995 Times stylebook intended: that the term in virtually all cases is the appropriate choice over Hispanic, in keeping with the practices and sensibilities of residents of our region.

We offer this combined new listing in place of two separate and occasionally confusing former entries:

Latino, Hispanic: Latino is the umbrella term for people in the United States of Latin American descent. It refers to Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans and others from the Spanish-speaking lands or cultures of Latin America. A Latino woman is a Latina. It is preferable to say that an individual is Mexican American, of Salvadoran descent and so forth, instead of using the umbrella term.

Keep in mind that Latino is an ethnic group, not a race category. Latinos may be of any race: white, black, Native American, Asian, mestizo, etc. Some speak Spanish; some don’t. Some are U.S. born; others are immigrants.

Note: Hispanic is acceptable in quotes or in proper names. The U.S. Census Bureau uses terms such as “Hispanic or Latino” and “non-Hispanic or Latino” in its survey questions on ethnicity and race. Stories and graphics based on census information are allowed to use that language when it is essential to explain methodology, but we should otherwise use Latino to describe the people in question.

Is the US Census next?  It may take some more time.

Quote Source: LATimes.

The year 2011 approaches in just under 3 hours  (my time) and I’m slapping this post together after dinner and a glass of wine - it just didn’t feel right not to post the last post of the year…of the decade for that matter.

Latinos took ownership of the social web this year, and are positioned to bring the house down in 2011. Organizations like Hispanicize, LATISM, Being Latino, and many more have emerged and placed a foothold on the internet encapsulating the efforts, desires and hopes of their faithful enthusiasts. Likewise, many organizations that exist for Hispanic progression and many Hispanic B2B’s took notice of social media and embraced it.  2010 also can be identified as the year businesses in general took a serious look at the Hispanic market, especially at Latina bloggers.

In 2011, we will see more of the same.  Competition, collaboration and community will define us as well as drive us, but in the end somos todo una familia (we are all family) - we should not forget that.

I am thankful for all the readers that have made this site grow, and all of the amazing talent I’ve met and worked with throughought the year.  I for one look forward to a super 2011.

Happy New Year!

This video is really about Latin (Mexican) food from street trucks, and the two styles it comes in: traditional or TexMex.. The video plays like a documentary, and is very revealing.

The Mexican Taco Truck owner speaks in Spanish and is subtitled in English, while the TexMex Truck owner speaks in English and is subtitled in Spanish, both truck’s customers mirror this – truly two worlds!

The video got me thinking of parallels in the Latino Blogosphere – are Latino blogs read in Spanish or English, or do readers translate their preferred site into their language, what kind of experience are people getting when they go to an English dominant Latino site and does that matter, etc…

Watch the video and tell me if you see what I’m saying.

(NOTE: you may have to hit play twice)

The largest Latino Facebook group – Being Latino – is down.   Run by Lance Rios, Being Latino (Facebook.com/beinglatino) with over 50,000 members seems to have been thwarted by questionable motives.

Lance Ríos: “All that I could gather is that if a “significant” amount of people mark page’s post as inappropriate, FB freezes it. You can either appeal it or it is shut down for good. I’ve made the appeal, let’s see what happens. Doesn’t seem to me that we’ve violated any of their terms. This happened to our wordpress site two weeks ago. This is not a coincidence, it’s an organized coordinated attack.”

What can you do if you are having Being Latino withdrawal?  Go to the Being Latino blog. Or check out the ‘Bring Back Being Latino’ page.

UPDATE: BeingLatino is back up
UPDATE 12/17/10: Facebook apologizes: “Our reviewers look at thousands of pieces of content a day that are reported to them. Of course, they make an occasional mistake. This is just an example. When this happens, we work quickly to resolve the issue. We’ve restored the Page and apologize for any inconvenience its removal may have caused.”

I’ve seen more conversation about this online, than on the news.  And this is what I find interesting: the rounds the report is making online vs traditional media.

It will be interesting to watch if the story gets ‘picked up.’

My buddy Manny Ruiz, has publicly released his advisory board for the Hispanicize Conference next year (April, 2011).

It’s exciting to watch the development of all the players focusing on building bridges toward the Latino community.  I remember when I first started blogging, back in 2003 there were hardly no Latino bloggers – I counted less than 5.

Fast forward to 2006, Latino bloggers were trying to get national recognition and respect from other blogs, the press and businesses.  I don’t think nobody would have imagined that it would of took as long as 2009 (the emergence of several Latino conferences/seminars and organizations were launched that year)  and into 2010 to get a sure foothold.

What it really comes down to is numbers.  With the Latino population boom, and impressive online presence of Latinos the numbers factor kicked in and Latinos can no longer be ignored.  I don’t know if anyone thinks anything different, but that’s the key factor…nothing more.

UPDATE 11/03/2010: Here’s a link to a webinar today at 1pm.

UPDATE 11/03/2010; 16:50pm: Webinar not available at the moment.  Please stand by for re-publication.

It’s been almost 9 months since I did the first comparison on Twitter Venn for Latino + Hispanic + Mexican to prove that the term Latino is preferred over Hispanic with users on the web (Hispanic is preferred in the ‘real’ world).  The study was to see what term was being used more on Twitter – Latino or Hispanic?  (I threw in ‘Mexican’ in from my experience as a blogger and the knowledge I gained of Mexican bloggers.)

The current results shows an increase on all terms from the initial comparison, and still reflects the same relationships:  ‘Mexican’ is used more than ‘Latino’, and ‘Latino’ used more than ‘Hispanic’ on Twitter.

Although I strongly suspect that these terms are being used more because Twitter’s usage has grown, I can not state it as fact because these charts were done on different days, and at different times.  From my experience, what I do know is those who are Mexican better identify with that term, rather than Latino or Mexican and I’m sure it’s the same with other groups.

I am interested in what you’re conclusions are, or if you’ve seen other data in relation to this.

UPDATE 11/03/2010:  What I failed to mention here is that Mexican may be used more than others because of the immigration situation going on here in the United States.

]]> http://louispagan.com/twitter-venn-mexicans-beat-latinos-and-hispanics/feed/ 11 http://louispagan.com/2011-hispanic-media-conferences/ http://louispagan.com/2011-hispanic-media-conferences/#comments Fri, 22 Oct 2010 12:33:05 +0000 Louis Pagan http://louispagan.com/?p=2142 Read more...]]>

There are a lot more players now than last year providing content in the Latino social media area.  What makes that statement special is that only last year, we’ve seen the very first summits and conferences addressing Latinos in social media.

That said, I have to revamp my Hispanic Media Conferences tab (and you know how I feel about Latino vs Hispanic, but since it’s offline and most of these events revolve around the business world, I’m fine w/ Hispanic).

Over at the Hispanic PR Blog is an announcement of their Second Annual Hispanic PR & Social Media Conference, set for April, 2011 in LA.  And it looks like they have something new going on:  Hispanicize.

This Friday, I’m having an interview with Jose Marquez, CEO of LISTA on net neutrality.

Net Neutrality is a discussion about your stake in internet bandwidth.  In a nutshell, it addresses the issue of measuring the use of internet bandwidth one utilizes and applying a tiered rate based on that usage.

There are proponents and opponents of this approach.  One argument states that Latinos will be affected unfairly, others say that they won’t and this will cover the cost of upgrading of the internet backbone.

Obviously, there are many thoughts on this subject:

“In the climactic scene of the Oscar-nominated film “There Will Be Blood,” Daniel Day-Lewis’s ruthless oil tycoon explains that he has drained all the valuable oil off a neighbor’s land. “If you have a milkshake and I have a milkshake and I have a straw … and my straw reaches across the room … I drink your milkshake! I drink it up!”

Will your milkshake get drank by someone else?  What are your questions/concerns?  Ask them here and I’ll ask Jose.