ImpreMedia and BBCMundo.com discuss the use of Spanish in the U.S.

“ImpreMedia, the #1 Hispanic news and information company in the United States in online and print, with its leading dailies in Los Angeles (La Opinión) and New York (El Diario La Prensa) has joined forces with the BBC´s Spanish internet site, bbcmundo.com in order to develop a series of initiatives aimed at strengthening the growing use of the Spanish language within the various Hispanic communities spread across the United States, offering them information and a platform for debate.

The initiative kicked off with a round table discussion with experts on the impact of the Spanish language in the US. The event will be broadcasted to the public via internet, radio and video available from August 21st at http://www.bbcmundo.com and http://www.laopinion.com/espanolUS.

The debate covered the following items:

– Use of Spanish in everyday life: problems and advantages, variations in language from one region to another, how Spanish speakers survive in an English-speaking country and how the English speakers react in areas with a strong Hispanic presence.
– Quality of Spanish spoken in the U.S.: the use of “Spanglish”, Spanish used by second and third generations, and the role of education.
– Spanish and the media: media as a means of social cohesion, their responsibility in its diffusion, how do Hispanic media survive? And future trends.

The round table, managed jointly by the BBC and La Opinión, was made up of Jorge Mettey, ex Vice President of Univisión, Los Angeles; Gustavo Arellano, a columnist on Orange County Weekly; Alberto Vourvoulias, Executive Editor of El Diario La Prensa in New York and Mariano Zaro, Professor of Spanish at the Whittier College and Pasadena City College. Representing La Opinión were Pilar Marrero, Political Columnist and Writer, Emilio Castellanos, Senior Web Coordinator, Hugo Quintana, Assistant Managing Editor, and Executive Editor Pedro Rojas. For the BBC: José Baig, Executive Producer of “¿Hablas español?”, Carlos Villalobos, Business Development Executive and Alberto Souviron, Editor, BBCMundo.com.

The above-mentioned topics had as a background the BBC project: ¿Hablas español?, which involved travelling over land from St Augustine in Florida to Los Angeles in California without speaking a word of English. The project has been documented online, on radio and on video in bbcmundo.com.

BBC Business Development Manager for Latin America and the US, Carlos Villalobos emphasises: “The BBC is very pleased to be working alongside ImpreMedia on projects which will surely help benefit directly those millions of Hispanics seeking news and information from reliable sources. Taking part in this debate, in this case, about the use of the Spanish language, fits in perfectly with our public service profile”.

Pedro Rojas, Executive Editor of La Opinión, adds: “This meeting served as an excellent opportunity for us to understand the phenomenon that is the growth of the Spanish language in this country. It is the link between many nations and we should all work to preserve it”.

About BBC Mundo
BBC Mundo is one of 33 language services of the international radio and online broadcaster BBC World Service. Celebrating its 75th anniversary in December 2007, BBC World Service uses multiple platforms to reach 183 million listeners globally, including SW, AM, FM, digital satellite and cable channels. It has around 2,000 partner radio stations which take BBC content, and numerous partnerships supplying content to mobile phones. Its international online sites, which include audio and video content and offer opportunities to interact directly with world events, recorded 763 million page impressions in March 2007, equating to 38.5 million unique users. The BBC has about 250 correspondents around the world and access to a network of around 2000 freelance correspondents in major conurbations around the globe.

In the US, BBC World Service is distributed to public radio stations by Public Radio International (PRI) and is available on digital radio via XM Satellite Radio, which carries a mixed programme schedule 24 hours a day on channel 131, and Sirius Radio, which offers two BBC channels: 24-hours news in English on Channel 112, and BBC Mundo service’s programmes in Spanish on channel 140.

About ImpreMedia
ImpreMedia is the #1 Hispanic news and information company in the United States in online and print. ImpreMedia is also the nation’s largest Hispanic newspaper publisher with publications reaching 23 cities representing 72% of the U.S. Hispanic population. Those publications include El Diario La Prensa (www.eldiariony.com), Hoy Nueva York (www.hoynuevayork.com) and Fin de Semana in New York, El Mensajero (www.elmensajero.com) in the San Francisco Bay area, La Opinión (www.laopinion.com) and La Opinión Contigo in Los Angeles, La Prensa (www.laprensafl.com) in Orlando and Tampa and La Raza (www.laraza.com) in Chicago, each the leading Spanish language newspapers in their respective markets. ImpreMedia’s titles also include La Vibra (www.lavibra.com), the premier weekly entertainment publication for young urban Hispanics, with a circulation of 630,000 in seven key Hispanic markets, and Vista magazine (www.vistamagazine.com) distributed in 31 newspapers with one million copies across 23 U.S. markets. ImpreMedia provides marketers with effective multi-platform solutions in print and online to reach the rapidly growing and influential Hispanic market. For more information, visit our website at:

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