Paloma Cruz

I forgot how discontent I am with my current employer (not with my team, they’re fabulous, but with the the people who exist outside our offices but within our building).

I forgot how excruciating it can be to get blindsided by the people who are supposed to be working with you. (This is from the “with colleagues like these, who needs enemies?” workplace.)

I forgot how draining a stressed day can be, how working against the current can take all the joy out of the work itself, how trying to be logical in an illogical situation only leads to headaches.

I forgot that the easiest way to jinx yourself is to think, even for a moment, that you have a project wrapped up.

I forgot that getting pissed off and not being able to show it, even with a flicker of emotion, takes attention and practice and talent and energy.

You have to understand, after the pain was under control, I was basically on a week-long vacation where the only thing I was allowed to do was rest. I read, I thought, I made lists and and I rested. I have never taken that much idle time to myself, ever.

I came back to work very relaxed. I came back to work on very powerful drugs. I came back to work without my guard up.

But in that first week back, before I was forced to remember those negative things I forgot, I remembered other things. I remembered how much fun it is to do the work. I remembered the absolute joy of being proved right when everyone had expressed doubts. I remembered the high of seeing a great return on a communications plan I had created and implemented myself.

I remembered why my work is important to the people who count on my being effective and efficient.

I remembered why I enjoy my field of expertise. And the fact that it is growing and changing and adapting to new technologies and demographics and trends only makes it that much more fun.

I remembered that the exchange of ideas on how to get my job done, on how to communicate and how to promote and how to reach the customer, that there is beauty in the process itself.

In the time when I wasn’t being distracted by office politics and personnel roadblocks and the tyrant queen of my building, I remembered why I’m actually still doing that for which I trained, which I thought I would do, which I knew I would do… and I’m glad.

So, if it’s not the work, and it obviously isn’t, then it’s the workplace. I am happy to work within my current team, but they are a very small part of what makes my work environment. They are a very small part of what makes my workday. At some point I am going to have to decide if the team, the work, makes up for the rest.

In the meantime, I am going to start updating my resume and look at getting accredited. I hadn’t considered it previously, but one of the many many things that dinged through my brain while I was “resting” is that next year I celebrate 10 years of doing PR profesionally — isn’t it time I sought accreditation?

Some of the things I’ve had to remember I wish I didn’t. And some of them I’m glad I did.

So speaks the PR professional.

General

Chica Chic has a really funny photo on her site about gas prices. Today’s must see.

General

Spanish Language Here to Stay
Study Shows Spanish Speakers to Increase 45% in Coming Years

A landmark study titled: “The Future Use of The Spanish Language In The USA — Projected to 2015 & 2025″ just released by Hispanic U.S.A. Inc. reveals startling results about the dramatic continued growth of Spanish-speakers in America.

The study challenges the assumption that the use of Spanish will decrease in coming years as succeeding generations of Hispanics are born and grow up in this country. In fact, the study shows that the number of Spanish-dominant and bilingual Latinos will increase by 45 percent over the next two decades – adding 12.4 million Spanish-speakers to today’s population.

And it’s not just because of continuing immigration. Unlike other immigrant groups, even third-generation Hispanics – those born to Latino parents who themselves were born in the United States – will continue to speak Spanish in extraordinarily large numbers.

[snip]

Among its findings:

• By 2025, the number of Spanish-speaking Latinos in the United States will reach 40.2 million, up from 27.8 million today.
• Fully two-thirds of Hispanics, five and older, will speak Spanish 20 years from now.
• On average, 35 percent of third-generation Latinos in the United States speak Spanish.
• The 18-and-older Spanish-speaking population will increase by 53 percent, to 15.2 million by 2025.
• The key 18-to-49 year old demographic will grow by 7.5 million, and will include 59 percent of all the Spanish speakers.

[snip]

Unfortunately, this isn’t a trend that will be found in my family. My brother-in-law seems to take great delight in the fact that his children barely speak Spanish. And nothing I say or do, to him or my sister, seems to make a difference.

We live in Texas, which is now a minority majority state, and where the number of Spanish-speakers is increasing exponentially (it seems). At this point, not speaking Spanish is already a handicap in this state.

News

Growing Latino market drives targeted coffeehouse
Entrepreneurs are looking past mom-and-pop ethnic stores, building slicker franchises to meet demand
– by The Associated Press

The stainless steel counters and tidy shelves filled with bagged coffee beans at Panaderia Taza are standard coffeehouse decor, but the pastry case isn’t filled with muffins and scones.

It’s lined with conchas, Mexican sweet breads, and empanadas, triangle-shaped crust filled with fruit or custard. And the coffee is Mexican brand Cafe Combate.

Panaderia Taza is a coffeehouse targeted specifically at Hispanics, a market growing so rapidly here and elsewhere in the United States that the bakery’s owners plan to franchise it soon.

[snip]

I don’t know about a new trend, but I do know that one of my favorite things to do is to go to the local panadería to pick up a bag of sweet bread on Sunday morning. (Not that I can do that now.) Then I might go to the carnicería, because they have the best tamales, and get two dozen for my Dad.

Sundays are good.

News

English Enters Into Media for Latinos
– reported by Chicago Tribune

Eager to reach younger and more affluent U.S. Hispanics, advertisers, publishers and cable television networks are discovering it is best to speak to them in their own language – English.

Spanish may be the dominant language of Latinos, the fastest-growing ethnic group in the country. However, for bilingual, better-educated young Hispanics, English increasingly is the media language of choice.

In response, a new crop of English-language television networks, radio stations and magazines have emerged to offer fresh choices to “acculturated” Latinos, those who maintain their Latin roots but identify closely with the American mainstream.

[snip]

As I’ve written previously, advertisers have finally woken up to the fact that Hispanics actually have buying power. Now they’re realizing that we’re all different and they need to segment us differently. You can tell, by Spanish commercial on mainstream English channels, and English commercials on Spanish radio stations.

News

This is the Top 10 Best Value Colleges list based on America’s Best Value Colleges, 2006 Edition, published by The Princeton Review (and found on MSN).

1. Bates College
2. New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology
3. Brigham Young University
4. Hendrix College
5. University of California–Los Angeles
6. New College of Florida
7. CUNY–Brooklyn College
8. CUNY–Queens College
9. William Jewell College
10. Hanover College

Read their article for info on the review and links to the schools themselves.

General

I picked up this list of interesting facts (and links to facts) from InfoPlease:

• Most Popular Car Colors, 2003–2004. Silver wins out among almost all types of cars.
• Most Popular International Car Colors. Favored colors by continent.
• Most and Least “Smart Drivers” by State. The most knowledgeable drivers in the U.S. are from Oregon and the least knowledgeable are from Rhode Island
• Most Expensive Cars Sold in the U.S. The Saleen S7 tops the list at $562,700

General

Pasadena High’s Best Buddies chapter named one of the nation’s top programs
– found at the PISD Web site

The Best Buddies chapter at Pasadena High School was presented with the Outstanding Chapter Award at Best Buddies International’s 16th Annual Student Leadership Conference recently.

Pasadena High School was chosen as one of 27 outstanding high school and college chapters from more than 800 programs throughout the world for its dedication to enhancing the lives of people with intellectual disabilities by providing opportunities for one-to-one friendships.

[snip]

Congrats!

News

Six Apart has an intro to XML feeds that, while not for beginners, does do a good job of explaining them?

General

Latinos Say Rock Is More Than Just Reggaetón
– published by the New York Times

[snip] But last year, mainstream Latin media were suddenly smitten with a different alternative: reggaetón, the Puerto Rican twist on hip-hop and Jamaican dancehall.

[snip]

Latin alternative music has been gaining exposure on noncommercial radio, on programs like the Los Angeles television show LATV (online at www.latv.com) and on tour. “The Red Zone,” a popular Los Angles radio program featuring Latin rock, is going into nationwide syndication. Yet while commercial Latin media have occasionally embraced a rocker – like Juanes from Colombia, who has won Latin Grammy awards – as a pop star, until reggaetón arrived they had largely clung to longstanding genres like pop, salsa and Mexican regional music.

With its simple, danceable beat, and with songs and videos full of men bragging about sexy girls, reggaetón had been building an audience in the Caribbean for at least a decade, then suddenly exploded on Latin radio stations here. Last year, the Clear Channel chain and other radio-station owners introduced a new format called Hispanic Urban (often compressed to Hurban). The format has been taking over older Spanish-language stations, bringing in bilingual disc jockeys and playlists that prominently feature reggaetón, often alongside Latin pop and English-language hip-hop.

[snip]

For those of you paying attention, Clear Channel changed one of their long-standing hard rock stations (in Houston ) to Reggaetón last year. From what I can tell, the new station has a long following.

Time flies and things change…

News