TIME LINE

• The word “Latin” comes to us from a tribe in early Italy called the Latins
• The Latins lived in Latium whose capital city was Rome. Their language was called Latin.
• As Rome’s Empire grew their language, Latin, spread throughout the Roman Empire later evolving into several “Romance” languages; Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and French. People from these countries are referred to as Latin, their language is derived from “Latin”.
• Romans invaded the Iberian Peninsula they found a city already there called Hispalis (Seville)
• Later on the Romans annexed the Iberian Peninsula making it a province named Hispania
• Sometime later the name evolved from Hispania to España
• The word Hispania thus refers to the people and culture of the Iberian Peninsula, Spain in particular.
• The term Hispano (Hispanic) later was used in referring to Spain and its subsequent New World – New Spain, conquered territories which cover most of Latino America
• Hispanic thus refers to people whose culture and heritage have ties to Spain and, in the case of second and third generation Hispanic-Americans, who may or may not speak Spanish
• In the U.S. the term Hispanic (Hispano) gained acceptance after it was picked up by the government and used in forms and census to identify people with Spanish heritage.
• There is controversy among our community for the label Hispanic because it represents the roots of oppression from Spain. That is because Hispania was the name of one of the Roman provinces that now constitutes Spain.
• Also the label Latino is controversial because encompasses almost anyone from a culture with Latin roots. That could be Italians, Portuguese, French, and so on.
• Despite the controversy according to a survey 34% prefer Hispanic, 11% prefer Latino and the rest do not have a preference.

At the end we all are from America (North, Central or South America) and from our countries of origin (Colombia, Panama, Mexico, etc.). It does not matter how the label you, we should be proud of our heritage, culture and country of origins.

To download the powerpoint presentation Marketing to the New Cultural Mix, right click mouse on the link below and choose “save as”.

Marketing to the New cultural Mix

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Visa for a dream

Those Hispanics who come to the USA to have a decent life and better future will do it usually through a tourist visa, work visa, student visa and lately for security reasons asylum visa; there are more type of visa that you can apply for but for now I will focus on those types stated before.

They are here to work, study, contribute to the economy creating businesses, and also to integrate to the community.
For those who suddenly lost there visa status because they don’t have work anymore, the tourist visa suddenly expire or some other reason are caught in a Catch 22 situation because they have to leave the country to re apply and wait approval, but what do you do if you already bought property have a job in the USA and perhaps new family?.

I believe those above deserve some type of amnesty or be able to re apply inside the country, but those who came to commit crimes, get rich fast breaking the law and sneak through the border should be deported immediately or perhaps depending on the severity of the crime jail time in order not to increase the inmate population.

There is also a need to solve the problem of those local farmers who need low income labor to collect strawberries, oranges, and tomatoes among other things because inside the USA there is not a single person who wants to do it. The Mexican, Salvadorians, and Guatemalans among others come here first of all because the lack of work in their country of origin and attracted to a better life, also they don’t need the English to perform their work, but they should learned and since the local farmers want cheap labor sometimes abuse them with no health insurance, housing and poor labor conditions in general.

It is a reality the need for this type of labor, but we need better labor regulations and temporary visas to help the farmers, the economy and at the same time help legal immigrants get a better life.

Solving all the visa problems stated above will help the immigration issue in this country and solve in part a national security problem, because the only ones left to cross the border will be the terrorist.
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Proudly Invites You To Join Them At Their “2008 Hispanic Achievement Awards Banquet”
Tuesday, September 30th, 2008
6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Broadway Palm Dinner Theater
1380 Colonial Boulevard, Fort Myers, Florida
Tickets: $25 per person (includes buffet dinner)
Keynote Speaker: The Honorable Jeffrey D. Kottkamp Lieutenant Governor of the State of Florida
Masters of Ceremony: Trey Radel – WINK TV and Mayela Rosales – Azteca America D’Latinos

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The Gaceta Tropical is not just a section of the News-Press is a weekly snapshot of the Hispanic community and a tool to offer services to them.

I am sure there is a budget crisis, but we are not talking about businesses, gardens, lifestyles, etc. We are talking about a community that is part of Southwest Florida.

The News-Press did not approach the Hispanic community through the different existing organizations prior to shutdown the newspaper and find a solution, perhaps a Hispanic buyer looking to continue publishing the newspaper.

They did not have to, but …

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