Civil War recruitment flyer in German at the Gettysburg Museum.

Written for The Americano.

The boycotts of CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) have shown us the vast diversity among conservatives; the social, fiscal, and those for a strong national defense. This held true even among the topics of immigration and Hispanics or Nativists versus the Melting Pot. Last week’s three-day conference provided 4 sessions which were clearly on opposite ends of the spectrum, a couple of which some would perceive as divisive.

On Day One, before the breakout session, “Policy Recommendations for Real Immigration Reform,” Rep. Steve King (IA) addressed the topic during his speech and scared the audience by stating that the majority of all illegal immigrants are criminals (not criminal as in living in the U.S. illegally). His comment came after discussing the drug war in which 90% of the drugs imported into the United States come from the south border. The immigration reform panel took the same grandiose stage after King to further provide solutions, however, it was a wasted space since only a handful of people attended. Arizona, the Dream Act, Green Cards, English as the official language, and Birthright Citizenship were all discussed.

The most controversial session came on Day Two where the Youth for Western Civilization (YWC) sponsored the breakout session, “Will Immigration Kill the GOP?” It was a standing room filled with YWC students in black shirts with white gothic Germanesque lettering reminiscent of the Nazi’s use of fonts for propaganda materials. At first glance, one attendee whispered that they were the United States version of the Nazi movement. Continue reading

Last week marked an important moment in the Republican party…the election of new leadership who will take over the reins.  Hopefully these new leaders at the RNC and state levels along with their selected staff will come to a realization quickly on the importance of creating and executing a real Hispanic communications campaign.  No more of this “let’s hire someone Hispanic & call it outreach” anymore.  How does that help get the GOP’s message out and understood by the Latino community?

2010 was a great example of how several outside conservative organizations influenced the elections far more than from within the money-strapped party.  In the past year and recent months, new groups and forums have been created specifically to reach out to Hispanics with a conservative message with the goal influencing upcoming elections.  Newt Gingrich, Jeb Bush, and Jeb Bush Jr. established The Americano, The Hispanic Leadership Network, and SunPAC.  In February 2009, the American Principles Project launched Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles and last month the Heritage Foundation introduced Libertad.org.  All of these organizations are geared to engage, influence, and motivate Hispanics to vote conservative (for the most part, Republican).

There is still hope for the party in doing what it is suppose to do which is getting Republicans elected.  So here are some ideas for the party to better engage and embrace Hispanics…

1. Consider adopting a marketing and strategy approach versus Continue reading

Social media is here to stay and is making a significant impact within the Hispanic market.  Numerous studies indicate that Hispanics-fluentials on average spend 29.5 hours online per week versus non-Hispanics E-fluentials who spend 24.6 hours.  What are they doing online?  Besides reading up on news and celebrity gossip they are connecting with others through social networks like Facebook and Twitter.  They are sharing their stories by blogging and searching for stories from their country of origin.

A recent study from the Pew Research Center indicated that Hispanics index higher than any other group on Twitter: 18% of online-Latinos have a Twitter account versus 13% of Blacks and 5% of Caucasians.  People say Hispanics are naturally very sociable and have a strong commitment to keeping families and friends close and it is quite evident on the Internet.  Now that it has become affordable to own a computer Hispanics are using it as a tool to stay connected with friends and family in the states and in Latin America.  Many of them realize it is more cost-effective to skype, facebook, tweet, and blog in order to check-in with folks or to arrange an event like a quinceñera.  No longer do Latinos have to head to the bodega and buy a pre-paid phone card.

They are reading and writing both in English and Spanish, however since there isn’t much content available in Spanish they are limited on the kind of information they receive or want to receive should they be googling in Spanish.  For example if you were to search for “partido republicano” Continue reading

This is Part II of the previous post.

The other situation we came across during the Hispanic voter outreach and awareness campaign occurred with print materials.  Again, the lead firm provided us translated materials.  We ripped it apart and had to rewrite it.  The problem was that certain words were incorrectly used and some was written in language more representative of particular country of origin.

Just because Hispanics speak Spanish, doesn’t mean we use the same phrases or have a common dialect.  Translation needs to be done on a cultural level in what the Hispanic Marketing and Public Relations industry calls, Transcreation.  For example, in our office we have a Puerto Rican, Peruvian, and Colombian working together to Transcreate.  One of us will begin in putting the words together then we all look at it to determine the proper terminology in which all Hispanics can understand.  We go through many revisions.

One example during the voter outreach campaign (examples below) was a headline stating, “The Secure, Easy Way to Fill the Oval Office,” in which each O was filled in with a black pen.  In Spanish they wanted to use the words, “Oficina Oval” or Despacho Oval” which are the literal translations for Oval Office.

We explained that oval office was a coined American phrase and would not be familiar with foreign-born Hispanics in particular.  We recommended using La Oficina del Presidente (the President’s office), however it was too long to fit in the pre-sized dimensions, or La Casa Blanca (the White House).  The firm and the SOE office disagreed that it did not have enough O’s like Oficina Oval.  We asked what was more important, to have enough O’s or to get people’s attention?  Again we used a focus group to make a point.  In the end Casa Blanca won.

SOE Examples: Transcreation at work

Sometimes errors in translation are not due to cultural difference but lack of common sense.  Here are a few other Continue reading