Next to SXSW, Blogworld is the next biggest media expo on the planet.

The BlogWorld & New Media Expo just happens to be coming to my town this year and submission deadlines were due April 10th.

Here’s what I came up with along with the help of Jennifer Hutchinson of Mami2Mommy:

Curating Culture: Exploring the unique Influence of Latino Bloggers

This session focuses on how Latinos have approached social media from a cultural standpoint and have surpassed their own definition and expectations of what being social Latinos really mean.  Although their common denominator is their Latino-ness, they now find their influence reaching beyond the world of culture, race & identity, and are engaged in the greater world of social media, technology and business.

No need to go into it right now as it has as good a chance as any to be accepted…I will light a vela.

Traditional media is being impacted by the world of Latino social media. We at Hispanicize will continue to encourage and report on this practice.

Listed below are some of the individuals who have recently made appearances offline due to their efforts on the social web.

- Migdalia Rivera of Latina on a Mission, and partner of Hispanicze:

- Lance Rios of Being Latino in Latino Leaders Magazine:

(click pic for full story)

- Yoly Mason’s recent entry into USA Weekend’s LiveSmart:

- Jennifer Hutcheson appears on CBS’s The Talk (later part of Video – Follow Friday).
- Louis Pagan talking about the Hispanicize Latino Social Media Conference.

- Manny Ruiz of Hispanicize in an article on Univision – “Los blogueros latinos empiezan a dejar su marca en Estados Unidos” and on CNN en español:

If I missed anyone, please let me know.

UPDATE: Here’s the video that went along with the piece.  I had the pleasure of sharing this experience with BeingLatino founder, Lance Rios.

I had an excellent time over at Fox studios and met some very focused individuals on their staff.  Congratulations for the vision of Fox News Latino, the streaming video, the article and the all the upcoming projects in store.

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 actually is for Dec. 4 2010, but I don’t want to go back and forth and left the title the same. Click on logo above for deets.

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.

My original blog – LatinoPundit – served a purpose to fill a void of the lack of Latino bloggers.  I wanted to bring Latinos into mainstream discussions about politics and society, and also raise awareness of Latino subject matter.  That was done for over a period of 5 years.  Nowadays, you can find Latino blogs on a plethora of topics.  With that purpose now filled, there was no reason to continue with the Latino Pundit blog.

With the knowledge that the Latino population is growing, I knew that Latinos would be more closely examined.  And who else, but big businesses would have an interest?  So with social media growing as well as the Latino population, it only made perfect sense that marketers would begin to enter this area.

I’ve had 5 years of experience online interacting and community building before social media became trendy…and from this advantage , I knew that I’d be ahead of any marketer without this type of experience.  Thus I entered the Hispanic marketing world and rebranded my self as such.

One significant contribution to the Latino community was the national community feature for Latinos In Social Media (now called LATISM), building off the idea AnaRC had from her tweet “Where are all the Latinos on Twitter,” and the directory of Latino professionals.  Call it being at the right place at the right time, because if I didn’t see Ana’s tweet, LATISM probably would of not happened.  Thanks to all those involved with LATISM, the very first Latino based social media seminars took place in NY, then FL and DC followed…a fourth and what looks to be the largest yet is taking place this September. (If you can, catch LATISM in action via tonight’s Twitter party.)

My continued purpose in social media is to contribute to Latinos and social media as a whole from this blog to continuing projects that serve the greater community.

In an error of Change, where people are once again thinking globally, here’s your chance to give back, now and always – once you start to care, you will never stop caring.

I truly believe that the world will change with the power of non-profit organizations, and humanitarianism.

So, If you’re a blogger, Latino/a (Hispanic/Xicano/Cuban/Boriqua/Taino…human and care about children), then post this widget (hit copy), on your blog or social media site (customizable here).

If you don’t do social media, then just give.

Why social media?  Why Latinos?

Latinos especially should be taking advantage of new media capabilities.  The leverage created by new media tools are profound, they are the “great equalizers” of the internet age.

This realization is important, because as Latinos we are doing more than just adding individual commentary and opinions on daily events, but representing and adding our voices and culture to the national dialogue.  This means we are telling our stories, and are not leaving it up to someone else to speak for us.