Free Republic

LOS ANGELES - East L.A. — birthplace of the lowrider, Los Lobos and Oscar de la Hoya — is to Mexican-Americans what Harlem is to the black community. Now it wants to become its own city. Commonly mistaken for a part of Los Angeles, East L.A. is actually an unincorporated section of Los Angeles County, with more than 130,000 people — 96 percent of them Latino — packed into 7.4 square miles.

The Obama campaign has released new radio and TV ads in Spanish that seek to tie Sen. John McCain to anti-immigrant comments made by radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh. The ads also suggest the Republican has "dos caras" -- "two faces" -- when it comes to his relations with Latino voters. The new messages, airing in Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico, come in response to recent Spanish-language ads by the McCain campaign that suggest Obama is responsible for the collapse of last year's bipartisan immigration reform efforts. "They want us to forget the insults we've put up with, the...

[UPDATE: The Spanish Olympic basketball teams are sponsored by Li-Ning, the Chinese footwear company sometimes called “the Nike of China.” See bottom of post.] Thanks to a comment by a reader named Will, on an earlier post about Spain’s basketball team, we were alerted to an article in The Guardian by Sid Lowe — a Madrid-based correspondent for the site’s excellent Football Weekly podcast — about the photograph above. As Lowe explains: Spain’s Olympic basketball teams have risked upsetting their Chinese hosts by posing for a pre-Games advert making slit-eyed gestures. The advert for a courier company, which is an...

Obama to America--Learn Spanish From: floydb310 Views: 46,132 Comments: 107

Go to the FedEx.com homepage, and select the country drop down list. Notice the first two countries. 1. U.S.A. 2. U.S.A. - Espanol FedEx, when it absolutely has to sell your country down the river.

MADRID (AFP) - Spanish police said Saturday they had arrested a 57-year-old Spanish woman they claim is the leader of the Spanish cell of Colombian Marxist rebel group FARC. Maria Remedios Garcia Albert was arrested at her home in the town of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, northeast of Madrid, they said. The interior ministry said Garcia Albert had provided logistical support for FARC and had direct contacts with Raul Reyes, the FARC number two who was killed by Colombian troops inside Ecuador earlier this year. Analysis of Reyes' computer passed on to Spanish investigators by Colombian authorities had led...

TEA has until the end of January to change program for secondary schools.

A roulette worker at Foxwoods came up the big loser when he bet that nine women gathered around his table - including an NYPD sergeant, FBI special agent and Long Island cop - couldn't understand the gross comments he was making about them in Spanish. It turned out the party also included Michelle Marigliano, a businesswoman who used to teach bilingual education and was able comprende every disgusting word. After complaining, the women were invited into the high-rollers' lounge, given free drinks, a free breakfast and two free rooms for one night at the Connecticut facility. They were told at...

English First Executive Director Jim Boulet, Jr., today called upon Senator Barack Obama to reconsider his anti-English statements. Senator Obama has voted against official English four times in 2006 and 2007 and earned an "F" rating for English First in 2006. "Senator Obama, there are plenty of languages spoken in America. What makes Spanish so special, instead of, say, Chinese or Arabic," said Jim Boulet, Jr., Executive Director of English First. "What next, Senator? Will you be saying that too many Americans are bitterly clinging to our English language? Why does it seem you are always looking down your nose...

At a Georgia town hall meeting, Barack Obama found himself pontificating about American ignorance: I don’t understand when people are going around worrying about, we need to have English only. They want to pass a law, we just, we want English only . . . Now, I agree that immigrants should learn English, I agree with this. But understand this, instead of worrying about whether immigrants can learn English, they’ll learn English, you need to make sure your child can speak Spanish. So to be clear: Americans must learn Spanish! Here’s the thing, though: Barack Obama, who holds several impressive...

Your child should speak Spanish.

Video. He says he is "embarrassed" at Americans who can't speak foreign languages, but he's got no problem with foreigners who can't speak ours. All American boy, that guy.

Barack Obama addressed the issue of official languages yesterday by endorsing one: Spanish.  Instead of worrying about immigrants learning English, he told an audience, America should be teaching its children Spanish.  Every child should be bilingual, Obama said, but listen to the language he chooses later: "It’s embarrassing when Europeans come over here, they all speak English, they speak French, they speak German. And then we go over to Europe and all we can say is merci beaucoup." Well, which is it — should we teach them Spanish or French? Maybe we should teach them Chinese, or perhaps Arabic. Immigrants...

Title says it all. AP...so can't post. John McCain...Hispandering 101.

...now broadcasters worry about communicating with Spanish-speaking listeners during emergencies. 1030 AM is the only talk and information station of its kind in Charlotte. “And we were that venue. So a lot of the sorrow we feel today comes mostly from that and that link to the community was lost,” Lozano said. The community calls Aura Maria Gavilan-Posse "Charlotte's Spanish Oprah". She too worries listeners will suffer. “We were like a 911, like a 311 and went to the people in the cold helping a lot. More than journalism or reporter we were human beings tried to help the other...

Marketers increasingly use commingling of languages for ads A billboard on U.S. Highway 77/83 reads, "Our huevos are bigger." The bigger huevos are the subject of a Stripes' convenient store advertisement for its in-store restaurant, the Laredo Taco Company. The sign's clever use of bilingual double entendre has caused quite a stir on this stretch of the Texas-Mexico border, in addition to being a source of amusement for some. The success of the sign hinges on the Spanish word huevo, which literally translates as egg and figuratively refers to a part of the male anatomy. The commingling of Spanish and...

Bicultural people may unconsciously change their personality when they switch languages, according to a US study on bilingual Hispanic women. It found that women who were actively involved in both English and Spanish speaking cultures interpreted the same events differently, depending on which language they were using at the time. It is known that people in general can switch between different ways of interpreting events and feelings – a phenomenon known as frame shifting. But the researchers say their work shows that bilingual people that are active in two different cultures do it more readily, and that language is the...

Melissa Green's mother spoke Spanish, but she never learned - her father forbid it. Today, that's a frequent problem in this city where the English-speaking population is outnumbered. The 49-year-old flower shop owner and Miami native said her inability to speak "espanol" makes it difficult to conduct business, seek help at stores and even ask directions. She finds it "frustrating." "It makes it hard for some people to find a job because they don't speak Spanish, and I don't think that it is right," said Green, who sometimes calls a Spanish-speaking friend to translate for customers who don't speak English....

Saturday, May 24, 2008. Link above to WAPA-TV Noticias, San Juan, Puerto Rico.

The report, in Spanish, basically states that Her Excellency will be traveling to the Island soon, prior to their June 1st primary (63 delegates at stake).

KERRVILLE — The wheels of justice have turned so slowly for Mirella DeLaFuente that her children now openly question the commitment of elected officials tasked with obtaining it. DeLaFuente, 37, was killed March 2, 1991, after leaving a bar on Texas 16 where she'd argued with her estranged husband, Jose Garcia DeLaFuente, according to police reports. A witness told investigators that Jose DeLaFuente, then 50, forced his wife's car off the road and, when Mirella got out to confront him, pointed a rifle out of his pickup cab, shot several times and sped away. Jose DeLaFuente, a concrete worker, was...

SURVEY Do you agree with Edgerton High School's decision to allow the Pledge of Allegiance in Spanish? Yes, I agree with the decision. No, the policy should be changed. I'm not sure. I don't care. Other.

Silvio Berlusconi's jibe at Spanish women By Fiona Govan in Madrid Last Updated: 1:26am BST 17/04/2008 Spain and Italy were embroiled in a war of words on Wednesday after Silvio Berlusconi criticised his Spanish counterpart for appointing so many women to his cabinet. In one of the first interviews after being elected Italy's prime minister for the third time, Mr Berlusconi attacked Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's government, describing it as "too pink". Speaking about Mr Zapatero's decision to give nine out of 17 cabinet positions to women, he said: "Now he's asked for it. He'll have problems leading them." advertisement...

http://www.ktrh.com/main.html PLEASE FREEP THIS POLL! Question of the Day Should companies be allowed to require their workers to speak English-only? Yes so far 27.78 % No so far 72.22 %

Mexican truck drivers allowed to travel throughout the U.S. under a Bush administration demonstration project may not be proficient in English, despite Department of Transportation assurances to the contrary. A brochure on the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's website instructs Mexican truck drivers, "Did you know … You MUST be able to read and speak English to drive trucks in the United States." Still, at the Senate Commerce Committee oversight hearing Tuesday, Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters and DOT Inspector General Calvin L. Scovel III reluctantly admitted under intense questioning from Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., that Mexican drivers were being...

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — The evolution of human speech was far more complex than is implied by some recent attempts to link it to a specific gene, says Robert Berwick, professor of computational linguistics at MIT. Berwick will describe his ideas about language in a session at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science on Sunday, Feb. 17. The session is called “Mind of a Toolmaker,” and explores the use of evolutionary research in understanding human abilities. Some researchers in recent years have speculated that mutations in a gene called Foxp2 might have played a fundamental...

Jessica Alba will speak nothing but Spanish when her baby is born later this year because she regretted not picking up the language of her grandparents when she was a child. The sexy Latino star reveals her father only spoke English to her and her brother because he wanted them to become model Americans - and it took her years to master basic Spanish.

~EXCERPT~ In his postmortem of how Hillary Clinton could've done better in Colorado on Super Tuesday, the state's campaign director said today he wished they'd made a bigger push with Spanish-speaking voters earlier. Tyler Chafee said on a 30-minute online forum hosted by Colorado Confidential that the campaign got a late influx of Spanish-speaking voters who wanted to participate in the caucus and that the campaign tried to get translators but, by then, it was too late. He also said some couldn't make it to caucuses because of work schedules. "Something to note for the next round," Chafee said. Barack...

GRAPEVINE (CBS 11 News) ― A fight over language in a Grapevine school has gotten so heated that some parents are pulling their children out of class. The parents are claiming that students are being forced to learn Spanish, while children of immigrants aren't being forced to learn or speak English. The signs posted around Timberline Elementary are done in both English and Spanish, and so are the school letters and other information. Officials with the Grapevine-Colleyville Independent School District say it's their duty to educate all students. But some white students and their parents say they are now the...

Van de Putte picked to give Democrats' Spanish response to Bush speech AUSTIN – Sen. Leticia Van de Putte has never been one to shy away from a fight, whether leading fellow Democrats on a 45-day walkout to New Mexico in 2003 or standing alone last year in support of a controversial plan to vaccinate young girls against a sexually transmitted virus. Her skills as a lawmaker in a Texas Legislature dominated by the opposing party propelled her to the presidency of the nonpartisan National Conference of State Legislatures – the first Texan and first Hispanic in that post. And...

Tallahassee, FL (AHN) - Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney launched a Spanish-speaking television ad in Florida on Monday, as he continued his "Change Begins with Us" tour in the state. The ad titled "Mi Padre" shows the Republican presidential hopeful at home with his family while a narrator, Romney's son Craig, speaks in Spanish. "Mitt Romney's record speaks for itself: as a businessman, he saved the Olympics, and as Governor of Massachusetts, he lowered taxes and stimulated the economy," Craig Romney says in the ad. "But above all, Mitt Romney is a family man, a great father, husband and grandfather....

Henry Farkus API Wire While most Americans are engaged in the ongoing politcal battles in America there are a few who are already beyond the upcoming election and preparing for the new economy which will emerge from it. An economy based on the Spanish language and culture. Take for instance, Josh Higgens from Northfield, Alabama. The father of three now attends night classes at his local technical college where he is learning to speak Spanish. Josh stated "I believe now is the right time to convert our family over to speaking Spanish, our children will need this in order to...

Linguistic Imperialism by: Bethany Stotts, January 09, 2008 Chicago, Ill.—With the debate over English-only education and illegal immigration sweeping the nation, some Hispanics believe that vocally supporting strong borders and strict immigration laws amounts to anti-Latino bigotry. “We have seen rapid highs in rate in hate speech on talk radio programs attacking the Latino community as a result of the debate over undocumented workers. ... The megaphone offered to the odious brand of hate speech comes compliments of radio conglomerates that own hundreds of stations across the country,” National Hispanic Media Coalition President Alex Nogales told the U. S. Senate...

From small time to over the hill, the conservative punditocracy is worried, very worried, that Spanish is taking over. Pretty mad about it, too. "I don't know about you, but I do a slow burn when I get a recorded telephone message telling me to "Press 1 for English,' " writes Dot Ward of Madison, Miss., in her local newspaper's reader blog. It also bothers one Michael M. Bates, columnist for a weekly newspaper in suburban Chicago. "I find it annoying to call a telephone number and have to press 1 to proceed in English," he rants. And Reagan-era activist...

Here's a link to Univision's coverage. If you want to watch the video on the website, the first box, under "video" on the upper left hand corner of the page is where to click. If you want a translation of the page go to Google Language Tools, enter the link where it says "Translate a web page" and the entire site will be translated for you. It's not a great translation but, it'll give you a good idea. I don't know how many of the candidates will actually speak in Spanish. I imagine most of them speak very little if...

December 9, 2007 - Miami, Florida Univision, the nation’s largest Spanish-speaking television network, will be sponsoring a Republican debate hosted by the University of Miami on December 9, 2007. The candidates in attendance will be Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, Fred Thompson, Ron Paul, John McCain, Duncan Hunter, and Mike Huckabee. But for millions of people who might want to view the debate, there could be a slight problem, to check the Univison website for air times you need to speak Spanish. The explaination for a Spanish only site at first glance might be that there is a problem with inserting...

By TOM TANCREDO www.tancredo.house.gov I declined the invitation to participate in the Spanish-language Republican presidential debate on Sunday because I do not want to endorse the further Balkanization of American political life. The debate is being sponsored by Univisión, the country's largest Spanish-language network, and the candidates' answers will be translated into Spanish. Spanish-language news broadcasts and public-affairs programming is an expression of our First Amendment freedoms. I have given many interviews to Univisión as well as local Spanish-language stations. However, a Spanish-language presidential debate is a different animal altogether.

study released Thursday by the Pew Hispanic Center, a project of the Pew Research Center, reports that in families like the Peredas, for whom Spanish is the dominant language among immigrant parents, English fluency increases across generations. By the third generation, Spanish has essentially faded into the background. Latinos recognize that learning English is key to economic success, according to the study, which was based on survey data collected between 2002 and 2007. "The ability to speak English is a crucial skill for getting a good job and integrating into the wider society," said D'Vera Cohn, a senior writer at...

After a sheet metal plant in Connecticut ordered its employees to speak only English on the job because of safety concerns, five Spanish-speaking workers decided to take the company to court. The employees, who are legal immigrants, say the rule amounts to discrimination and actually makes the workplace more hazardous. "I can think of no good reason for them to institute this policy," said Steven Jacobs, the lawyer for the workers who are suing GC Industries in Deep River, Conn. "It's offensive to people who speak Spanish and is potentially dangerous. It inhibits them from communicating in their native tongue...

A Casa Furniture and Bedding store in Alexandria has been advertising easy credit with a twist: “no gringo papers” necessary. A sign outside the store at the intersection of North Beauregard and King streets reads, “Credito sin papeles de gringo.” In English, that could be translated to say “Credit without gringo papers.” Blanca Granados, the store's assistant manager, translated the message to mean “just 'without white papers,' like Social Security or like that.” Miss Granados said the store requires customers who purchase furniture on credit to fill out an application and provide personal documentation. The store will accept a passport...

An Arizona Spanish-language radio station is blasting a local police department for what it says is racial profiling: describing the suspect in a series of child rapes as "Hispanic." Police are offering $25,000 for any information leading to an arrest in the case of the "Chandler Rapist," who began assaulting victims in Chandler, Ariz., in June 2006. The suspect is described as Hispanic, 28 to 40 years old, short with a muscular build, dark hair and hazel or brown eyes.

Safety warnings are given in English and Spanish at the sprawling BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee construction site in downtown Chattanooga. Supervisors at the Cameron Hill site, where BlueCross is building a $300 million headquarters complex, say knowledge of both languages is necessary because Spanish-speaking workers outnumber English speakers three to one. Brian O'Shea, the project superintendent, has been in construction for 23 years. He has seen many work force changes and an increased emphasis on safety, he said. "It was hard to get people to wear their hard hats back then," Mr. O'Shea said of his early years in the...

SANTIAGO, Chile - President Hugo Chavez lashed back at Spain's king Sunday for telling him to "shut up" during a summit, suggesting the monarch knew in advance of a 2002 coup that briefly ousted the Venezuelan leader from power. Chavez claimed that Spain's ambassador had backed interim president Pedro Carmona and appeared at Venezuela's presidential palace during the two-day coup in 2002. He demanded to know how deeply King Juan Carlos had been involved. "Mr. King, did you know about the coup d'etat against Venezuela, against the democratic, legitimate government of Venezuela in 2002?" Chavez said before reporters in Santiago....

MADRID, Spain - A Spanish judge has indicted 22 people suspected of links to a recruitment network sending fighters to Iraq, a court said Tuesday. National Court judge Baltasar Garzon charged 18 of the suspects with belonging to a terrorist organization, and the other four were accused of collaborating with it, the statement said. The cell's mission was to send potential fighters to Iraq "so they might join in terrorist activity sponsored and directed by al-Qaida," Garzon said. One of those arrested, Moroccan Omar Nakhcha, 24, was also charged with helping some of those involved in the 2004 Madrid train...

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — A sharply divided Alabama Supreme Court turned back a group Friday that sought to end Alabama's practice of giving the driver's license exam in several foreign languages. Attorneys for the ProEnglish organization had argued that giving the exam in multiple languages violated a constitutional amendment that designates English as Alabama's official language. In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court said the ProEnglish group presented no evidence that administering the test in multiple languages diminishes English as Alabama's common language. The Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling in favor of Gov. Bob Riley and other state...

All told, 78 percent in this ABC News Good Morning America poll say they often or sometimes come into contact with people in this country who speak mainly Spanish rather than English – including 55 percent who encounter it “often.”

Spanish speaking in the United States is widespread and accepted by most Americans. But a third who experience this language difference are troubled by it -- and they have distinctly more negative attitudes about immigrants and Hispanics generally. Just 10 percent of Americans concede any personal prejudice against Hispanics -- far fewer than the number who, in previous polls, have self-reported prejudice on the basis of race, against overweight people, or against Arabs and Muslims. Nonetheless, among the nearly eight in 10 who hear others who speak mainly in Spanish, a third say it bothers them. All told, 78 percent...

DALTON, Ga. -- A worker at a Hispanic bakery said it was just a natural reaction when she bolted to the back of the building as soon as she saw a Dalton police cruiser pull into the parking lot. The woman's fear of law enforcement quickly subsided when Officer Abraham Chiesa entered the store and began talking with bakery workers in Spanish. As Officer Chiesa left, he gave police badge stickers to a group of children, and the bakery workers insisted he and his guests take slices of chocolate flan. Breaking the language barrier and gaining the trust of the...

I wish I were kidding, but I'm not. WaPo: "And I do want to say at this point that I was under the impression that in this debate Spanish was going to be permitted because I've always supported Univision all my career, but I'm disappointed today that 43 million Latinos in this country, for them not to hear one of their own speak Spanish -- (applause) -- is unfortunate," Richardson said. "In other words, Univision has promoted English only in this debate."

Anchors Jorge Ramos and Maria Elena Salinas posed questions in Spanish and the candidates had earpieces to hear simultaneous translations into English. The candidates' responses were simultaneously translated into Spanish for broadcast, and English-speaking viewers could watch using the closed caption service on their televisions.