1	BOOKS News anchor Teresa Rodriguez takes on the deaths of the women of Juárez, Mexico; young writer Daniel Alarcón rises to the occasion of his first novel; and José Cancela keeps Hispanic marketing simple. read more...
2	FILM & TV It’s hip, it’s cool, it’s very Mexican; it’s Nickelodeon’s El Tigre: the Adventures of Manny Rivera. read more...
3	MUSIC The work of independent artist Fulano, Los Tucanes de Tijuana, Belize’s Andy Palacio and the return of Alejandro Sanz. read more...
4	CALENDAR Our monthly list of premier events throughout the U.S. read more...

THE LATIN FORUM

BOOKS

Keeping it Simple

After 25 years in Spanish-language media, Hispanic marketing expert José Cancela is ready to tell you what he’s learned in
The Power of Business en Español.

José Cancela talked to Hispanic Magazine about The Power of Business en Español (HarperCollins), his no-nonsense take on what works and what doesn’t when it comes to marketing to Hispanics.
Cancela has held top executive positions at the leading Spanish-language television and radio stations, ranging across the nation in key broadcasting roles, and even once ran for mayor of Miami-Dade County, before establishing Hispanic marketing firm Hispanic USA in 2005.

HISPANIC MAGAZINE: What motivated you to write this book?
JOSE CANCELA: I found that after crossing so many milestones in Spanish-language media, the 1980s were going to be the age of Hispanics, for example; then the 2000 census figures proved Hispanics were a force to reckon with; then Telemundo and Univision began to be covered by the Nielson ratings, but you’d still find yourself hearing the same questions being asked. And the books out there on the subject of Hispanic marketing were very text heavy and typically written by individuals who hadn’t lived the experience as I had had the opportunity to during all of those years in media all over the country. So I wanted to put out the definitive book on the U.S. Hispanic market, while having some fun with it, but giving a clear understanding of where the Hispanic market is at in America.

HM: There are many firms and books out there purporting to have the key to unlocking the Hispanic market. Why should we read this book?
JC: When I started as a sales trainee at Univision in 1979 the sign-on for Spanish-language television was at 2:30 in the afternoon and there were about a handful of radio stations across the country. Now, Spanish-language television runs around the clock and there are about 700 radio stations out there, and hundreds of Spanish-language publications, four television networks, cable channels and the proliferation of relevant Spanish-language content continues to grow. I’ve lived the experience, and I know that sometimes we can make things too complicated. Here’s how not to.
HM: What’s the most common mistake businesses make when marketing to Hispanics?
JC: I always say, “If you are a company, whatever checklist you use for the general market, use the same checklist for the Hispanic market.” Sometimes companies want to cut corners and it doesn’t work. If you are using print and television ads to get your message across to the general market, then you’ve got to do the same for the Hispanic market.

HM: Where is the future of programming for companies like Univision and Telemundo?
JC: Well I don’t have a crystal ball, but I think telenovelas will always be a staple of Spanish-language television. What you are going to see is that the evolution of the Hispanic community in America will be mirrored in the broadcasting. That’s why you are seeing reality shows emerging in a Spanish-language format.

HM: What’s changing in Spanish-language radio?
JC: The FM dial is where it’s at now. Even in Miami, talk radio is slowly but surely not as strong as it was five years ago. It’s still out there but not in the way that has those strong political intonations. Now you are seeing national figures emerging on the radio: Jorge Ramos the sportscaster, María Celeste Arrarás, Dr. Isabel, to name a few.

HM: What’s the most important thing you learned from your unsuccessful run for the mayoralty of Miami-Dade County?
JC: While you don’t go in there with an inkling that you are going to lose, you still have to be mentally prepared to. At the end of the day it’s about what you take away from the experience as a human being. That’s what’s important. It’s about how you are able to grow after an experience like that. All the rest is just politics and rhetoric. H

Proceeds from The Power of Business en Español will go to Pro Mujer (www.promujer.org) a microlending organization that helps women in Mexico, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Peru and Argentina create businesses.

on the air

Peruvian-born, American-bred writer Daniel Alarcón has fulfilled his early promise with his debut novel Lost City Radio.

Set in an unnamed Latin American country, the book opens when an 11-year-old boy, Victor, turns up at a radio station in search of popular talk show host Norma, who broadcasts a nightly program that helps callers locate missing loved ones.
In this imaginary nation, which is itself a brilliantly rendered character, war is never far, and lives, bodies, identities, and even names are crushed under the arbitrary weight of warring factions. With its inhabitants radically displaced by civil war and the forces of modernity, listeners have turned to Norma, and her soothing voice, for solace. But we learn that Norma, whose husband Rey is an ethno-botanist who has also disappeared, is as much a victim of her place and time as her adoring fans.
Alarcón first caught the national spotlight when his short story City of Clowns made the cut in the 2003 New Yorker magazine’s all-fiction issue. That was followed by the critically well-received publication of short works titled War by Candlelight (HarperCollins). But it is with the publication of Lost City Radio that Alarcón is confirming his place as one of the strongest voices of his generation, as capable writing a novel as working the short form, perhaps more so.
Alarcón is known to have researched the disappearance of his own radicalized uncle who disappeared in Peru in 1989. And the acknowledgements section of Lost City Radio mentions further research. This careful study is wedded to Alarcón’s already formidable gift for storytelling, his ear for the lyrical turn of phrase, his eye for the right detail.
And here, in the long form of the novel, we are treated to the latest features of Alarcon’s tools of his trade: a firm grasp of the discipline of pacing, and a masterful display of sustained tone and mood. Which is to say, the book has the same gritty, earthy texture of the real and is therefore as disturbing as it is lovely.
As one follows the narrative of Norma’s search for her husband, and the secret life he kept from her, we are introduced intimately to several other characters in a story that cannot escape politics and that meanders from city to jungle and back, where hope is always on the verge of being extinguished. But the gifted Alarcón, of uncommon maturity and with the necessarily cold eye of an emerging master, weaves this tale of the personal and political without being
polemical.
There will be more favorable reviews of Lost City Radio. Of this you can be sure, but more than likely, Alarcon’s greatest triumph will come later. He writes in English and lives in Oakland, California, but when Lost City Radio is finally published in Spanish, many of the folks who lived similar experiences will read it. And more than likely, they’ll agree that he got so much of what went painfully wrong in the country they’ve loved, and in many cases fled, exactly right.

When Truth is More Horrific than Fiction

Univision anchor Teresa Rodriguez takes on a tale of unspeakable brutality in the hope of finding justice.

Television news anchor Teresa Rodriguez has covered a wide range of issues in her many years in broadcasting, but there’s one story that has held a grip on her career, and her heart, more than any other. In March, The Daughters of Juárez, her collaborative investigative account of the macabre and brutal murders of young Mexican women, some of them only girls, will be published by Atria Books, a division of Simon & Schuster.
For the past 14 years, more than 400 young women in Juárez, Mexico have been murdered, one after another in horrific fashion—many of them raped and mutilated in a manner revealing a pattern—their bodies buried or discarded in the vast desert that rims this city only minutes from El Paso, Texas.
Astonishingly, the source of these killings has yet to be resolved and the murders continue though some arrests have been made.
Serial murderers, drug dealers on routine killing sprees, wealthy Americans from El Paso, copycat criminals, and even members of the Juárez police themselves have all been suspected, but the perpetrators, and a final answer, remain at large.
The Daughters of Juárez is Rodriguez’s account of this bizarre and shocking criminal phenomenon that has left the young women of Juárez in the Chihuahua state of Mexico, in a state of perpetual terror.
While human rights groups with other advocacy organizations, both local and international, have taken up the cause of these women, and incremental changes have been made in investigative procedures, justice has yet to be served, says Rodriguez.
“It’s just incredible that absolute impunity can reign. The names and faces [of the victims] have changed but it’s really the same,” she says via phone of the crimes and cycle of violence, which for the most part, she says, have not changed.
With the adoption of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) many new factories, or maquiladoras, emerged in Juárez attracting young female workers whose small hands resulted in faster and more efficient production. In 1993, following the population explosion in Juárez brought by the newfound work, the raped and mutilated bodies of young women, many of them maquiladora workers, began turning up in the desert. They haven’t stopped turning up since.
In 1998, Rodriguez covered the story for Univision for the first time. The reporter went on to further investigate the killings for nine years, visiting Juárez four times to carry out her investigations and keeping up with the case to this day. Rodriguez enlised the help of journalist Diana Montane to help write the original manuscript, and ultimately worked with Lisa Pulitzer, a former New York Times correspondent to write the final narrative account.
The result is this book written in “true crime” style taking you directly into the lives of some of these women, their families and supporters, and even the leading suspects.
The Daughters of Juárez not only takes you further into the mystery of these killings than any previous nonfiction text, but it also forms a testimony of government and law enforcement incompetence of such astonishing proportions as to raise the suspicion of complicity.
“It seems that anyone who tries to clarify this story, or investigate it clearly, either gets silenced, killed, fired, leaves, or is somehow threatened,” says Rodriguez, who admits to receiving suspicious phone calls while in Juárez conducting her own investigation.
Aside from the systemic government corruption and incompetence, Rodriguez cites another prevailing force that has helped stall justice. “The prevailing attitude is that of a machista society. ... Remember, for the first time many women were going to work, and they were prized for their fast, cheap labor, and there was some resentment there,” she explains.
Indeed, many of the victims, young and lovely, were initially perceived by law enforcement officers as having provoked their own tragedy simply for being independent and daring enough to wait alone at night for their bus home.
Rodriguez’s outrage is palpable on the phone, and so is her ability to take a wider view. “After September 11 we became aware of how vulnerable we were and we looked around the world at how women were being treated, and we were appalled,” she says. “Well, look, this is happening just a few minutes from our border. Isn’t it time we did something about it?”

HOW YOU CAN HELP
The following groups provide support and advocacy for the victims of the Juárez murders. For donations contact:
Amigos De Mujeres
www.amigosdemujeres.org

Amnesty International
www.amnesty.org

Casa Amiga Crisis Center
www.casa-amiga.org

Justicia Para Nuestras Hijas
http://espanol.geocities.com/justhijas/

Mujeres de Juárez
www.mujeresdejuarez.org

Nuestras Hijas de Regreso a Casa
www.mujeresdejuarez.org