The Story of How CNN and Twitter Helped The Latino Community Grow Stronger
A tremendous missed opportunity. A magnificent failure and a huge disappointment for the Latino community. A lack of balance. That is how Latino In America by @CNN has been described on Twitter and the blogosphere.
A tremendous missed opportunity to show how the Latino community despite its problems and obstacles is getting ahead. Many people were looking forward to this because it just seemed right to get mainstream coverage for the successes of the Latino community  in spite of the deep socio-economic disparities that tends to separate us from the mainstream.
Latino in America was supposed to highlight us with our shortcomings and successes. What we saw were mostly failures and a show focused on strengthening stereotypes rather than breaking them.
51 million Latinos in America. We will soon be the mainstream. A mainstream that represents the America we all love. A diverse America where opportunity is available to everyone and where the color of your skin is not an issue in your quest for success. To be truthful, for a lot of us it has not been. That is why we’ve spoken up in the most positive way possible and with the tools we’ve been given: freedom of speech, community, knowledge and the internet.
How did the response come together from Twitter?
From the chaos of Twitter, I sent one tweet with a suggested a response. One blog post by Julio Varela implemented the suggestion. One community stood behind it to fill this blog post with wonderfully real stories of hard work and successes. Hundreds of responses in less than 24 hours. Then Mike Robles chimed in with a video (web)challenging the assumptions made by the show. It wasn’t only people on the internet that were disenchanted by the content of the series. Geraldo Rivera with commentary directed towards Lou Dobbs actions were highlighted by HuffPo as a backdrop of the Latino in America TV special.
What next?
Help us become one. One tweet sparked creativity and strengthen community. Imagine if we all make it our goal to give a tweet and try help and support each other. Here are a few things that you can do to help:
- Post your story at this link and share it with the rest of Latinos In America that are making positive change happen
- Retweet the link and make it known to your network
- Tag fellow latino bloggers on del.icio.us. One of the tags that you can use is #latism
- Follow @latism @julito77 @John_Rivera @antoniocapo @mikeroblescomic @Mcmex @ergeekgoddess @carogonza @AnaRC @LouisPagan @maxgmacias @MichaelaKocon
It’s the beginning of something big.
Related posts:
- Latino2: All things Latino in the Digital Age. Pre-Event Tweetup in L.A.
- The Community Startup: Lance Rios and 25K+ People Love Being Latino
- Top 10 Reasons Why People Don’t Care About Your Brand on Twitter
- Latinos in Social Media: Why is this growing trend important to your business?
- Twitter Business Users: 10 Things You Should Do To Get More Out of Twitter
Hola, Antonio,
First of all, you rock. It is so refreshing to connect with people like you who truly believe in the power of social media and how we can push out our thoughts and ideas and be united. ¡Gracias mil!
[youtube jAvbgbGbsnU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAvbgbGbsnU youtube]
Antonio — you're on point regarding the motivational impact of what can be seen as missed opportunity. I blogged about it myself (http://bit.ly/1w9Ux9) and was astonished by the response. Thanks for forwarding the message of action and continued dialogue. Miguel
As someone who shares the same name as my son, I just wanted to say, you rock!
Nice post Miguel. http://bit.ly/1w9Ux9 All the blog and twitter conversation says one thing. We are at the leading edge of technology and trends ad are early adopters. We know how to use the tools in a very civilized and efficient manner. Let’s show “them” we can organize and bring about a balance view of our reality.
Thanks for the great post Antonio. I am of the mindset that we should use this opportunity to create change and highlight our accomplishments. Was the special what I wanted it to be? No. On the other hand, we should not be sitting around waiting around for anyone to legitimize us by telling our stories from their point of view. That's our job through our everyday interactions in society.
Yes, yes, yes. Social media will allow us to create a groundswell of stories that cannot be ignored. I am with you 100%.
You are welcome I am so glad we are connecting efficiently on the internet as a community. We need to get the representation we deserve on the internet and social media (as Julio) mentions is a key mechanism to help further this cause.
It is time to change the perception of Latinos in America – not just among other peoples, but among Latinos themselves. We have created a unique Web site, EncontrandoDulcinea, that provides Spanish language guidance and context to the best English language and Spanish language Web sites about hundreds of subjects, from health to careers to education to sports to family relationships. We have developed a strong and loyal audience of Latino Internet users. And yet as we discuss the site with potential Hispanic media partners, we often hear that we need to go "downscale" with the site – that it is too intelligently written and about weighty subjects, and if we want a big Latino audience, we need to write more about soccer and celebrities than about health and careers. We refuse to believe this, and this blog post and the accompanying commentary affirms my view that there is a significant Latino audience on the Web for the kind of content we create.
http://www.EncontrandoDulcinea.com
Go for it. There is a market out there.
I am glad that the true influential voices of the Latino web are stepping up and taking control of this dialogue. I addressed this in my tweets, on tweets, facebook chatter, my blog posts and finally it has evolved into me creating a new venue for this type of conversation, a new blog specifically geared towards what we started with LATISM.
Felicidades muchachos for listening and issuing the call to action….
As I am,
George Torres
The Urban Jibaro
NY Partner LATism
Sofrito Media Group
Social Media I Branding I Event Management
Thanks so much for the comment! We are really creating something GREAT! #latism