Spanish Language

Sometimes unwritten words are more potent than any printed on a page. That appears to be the case with the controversy that erupted after employees at all-Spanish KMEX-TV Channel 34 in Los Angeles recently submitted a petition to their incoming general manager requesting that he fill a news director's vacancy with a person "who reflects the interests . . . experience and culture of the Los Angeles TV audience." The petition's language seemed harmless enough. Few station managers would ever admit to hiring a news director without weighing local audience needs.

When Carmen Cervantes was growing up in the 1960s in East Los Angeles, it would've been nearly as surprising to find a Spanish-language bookstore in her neighborhood as it would be to unearth an Aztec pyramid in the middle of Beverly Hills. The problem persists today for local readers who are either Spanish-dominant or bilingual, said Cervantes, citing her mother, who lives in Montebello. "She goes to these stores and finds very limited things," said Cervantes, director of cultural and special events for the University of Guadalajara Foundation USA. "We read, and we want to read in our language as well, but we just don't have the books.

Juan Garcia makes the same resolution every New Year's: Learn English. Despite being in the U.S. for 15 years, the Mexican immigrant knows only a few words and phrases. Too busy with work and family, he has put off enrolling in a class. "The days pass and the years pass, and I don't do it," said Garcia, 63, who lives in Los Angeles.

With the Spanish-language television space heating up, industry leader Univision Communications Inc. is making an aggressive move to solidify its dominance. On Monday, the media company plans to rename its secondary broadcast network UniMas, which translates loosely as Univision Plus, underlining its ties to its hugely popular sister network Univision. The company also is locking up rights to programs from key Latin American producers to buffet gains from the flood of competitors charging the field.

Riverside County must translate ballots and other election materials into Spanish and provide trained bilingual poll workers under a settlement agreement announced Friday by the U.S. Department of Justice. The county also agreed to allow federal observers to monitor polling places on election days, to designate a person to coordinate the county's Spanish-language election program and to start a community outreach group. The Justice Department filed a lawsuit against the Riverside County Registrar of Voters alleging that the officials failed to offer election-related information and assistance to Spanish-speaking voters as required under the law. The Voting Rights Act requires that counties with a significant population of Spanish-speaking residents must provide voting materials and help in both languages, according to the Justice Department.

Can plays in Spanish attract big audiences in well-known Southland theaters? Producer Mark Edelman says si. He's presenting "Cartas de Amor," an adaptation of A.R. Gurney's popular "Love Letters" in Spanish, with telenovela stars Saul Lisazo and Kate del Castillo (both were in Televisa's "Derecho de Nacer") as the aristocrats who conduct a lifetime of correspondence.

For the first time, Burbank will provide Spanish language sample ballots for the Feb. 23 municipal election, city officials said Monday. The city is printing the ballots to comply with amendments to the federal Voting Rights Act passed last year, City Clerk Marge Laurman said. The Spanish language sample ballots will be available in City Hall.

With the Spanish-language television space heating up, industry leader Univision Communications Inc. is making an aggressive move to solidify its dominance. On Monday, the media company plans to rename its secondary broadcast network UniMas, which translates loosely as Univision Plus, underlining its ties to its hugely popular sister network Univision. The company also is locking up rights to programs from key Latin American producers to buffet gains from the flood of competitors charging the field.

AOL's new mantra is: Tienes e-mail. The Dulles, Va.-based company today officially launches a Spanish-language service to tap into one of the fastest-growing segments of Internet users -- Latinos. Until now, AOL offered only limited content in Spanish. AOL Latino includes an array of services in Spanish, including welcome screens, toolbars, parental controls and online homework help. News and entertainment sections also play to Latino interests.

MTV has premiered its first Spanish-language ad, joining efforts with the Assn. of Hispanic Advertising Agencies to increase Latino voter registration, the industry group said. MTV's decision to run the Spanish-language public service announcement makes it the first English-language broadcaster to join AHAA's pro bono nonpartisan voter campaign.

When Milagros Lizarraga wants comfort food, she heads to her mainstay restaurant in Hollywood - Los Balcones del Peru on the corner of Vine Street and De Longpre Avenue. She usually orders lomo saltado , a signature Peruvian dish that is a mixture of sauteed sirloin, onion and tomatoes served over white rice with french fries. A first-generation Peruvian immigrant, Lizarraga envisions a hub of Peruvian business and culture in the area. "There is Chinatown, Koreatown, Thai Town, but what about Peru?"

Telemundo has long been like a remote Caribbean island, cut off from its sprawling media homeland. NBCUniversal acquired the Spanish-language television network a decade ago for $2 billion but became discouraged by its seemingly limited prospects. But Comcast Corp.'s takeover of NBCUniversal last year may be building Telemundo a bridge to the mainland. "Telemundo now has the full support of Comcast and NBCUniversal," said Emilio Romano, a former Mexican airline chief executive who was hired a year ago to run Telemundo.

Looking to tap the wealth of U.S. Latinos, CNN is planning to introduce a Spanish-language programming service tailored for broadcast TV stations next year. The service, CNN Latino, is being designed as an eight-hour programming block featuring news, documentaries, talk shows and lifestyle programming. It is expected to launch in late January in Los Angeles on independent station KBEH-DT Channel 63 and eventually be carried by TV stations in other cities. CNN Latino comes 15 years after the Atlanta-based news organization launched CNN en Español, a 24-hour Spanish-language news network available in about 30 million homes in Latin America and 7 million homes in the United States.

The Lakers may not have Phil Jackson, but at least they have DirecTV. Ending a long standoff, satellite broadcaster DirecTV has reached an agreement to carry Time Warner Cable's SportsNet, which is the new television home for the Lakers. As part of the pact, DirecTV also is carrying Deportes, the Spanish-language sister channel of SportsNet. DirecTV subscribers began receiving the channels Thursday afternoon. Lakers fans who have DirecTV won't be the only ones cheering the decision.

ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, Fla. - It may sound like the type of acerbic election-year conversation happening in coffee shops and dining rooms across the country, but this being radio, everyone sounds a little taller, stronger and more handsome than the rest of us. "How are you going to pay for it?" program host Fernando Miguel Negron asks in Spanish, his voice taking a sonorous bounce. "How can you pay for these government programs and still cut taxes?" "Easily," his guest says. " Fácilmente . " But this is no regular talk radio conversation.

Paramount Pictures' wildly successful horror movie franchise "Paranormal Activity" gets a fourth supernatural spin this weekend, and if it follows the pattern of the earlier films the box office will be bolstered by Latino moviegoers. The Latino audience has seen the three previous "Paranormal Activity" films in disproportionate numbers compared with the national population. In international territories, the franchise has performed especially well in Spanish-speaking countries. The three preceding "Paranormal Activity" films, each of which offer twists on the found-footage style of horror storytelling, have delivered some of the best returns on investment in modern Hollywood history.

Las Noticias de los Tres Condados, a Spanish-language newspaper that covers Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties, will expand to weekly publication by July, according to its publisher, Daniel Castanon. The paper, established in 1990, now circulates every other Friday. Castanon said he hopes to increase the Santa Barbara-based paper's circulation when it becomes a weekly. He said 12,000 copies are now distributed free.

Wooing Hispanic voters was supposed to be a big component in this year's election, but according to a new study politicians are putting their money elsewhere. The United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (USHCC) said Spanish-language advertising is a small fraction of overall spending even in states with large Hispanic populations such as California and Florida. "Political commentators from both sides of the aisle have said repeatedly that 2012 is 'The year of the Hispanic voter,'" said Javier Palomarez, USHCC president.

A quarter century ago, Fox figured there was room for more than just three big TV networks. It created Fox Broadcasting, which would redefine television with shows such as "Married ... with Children,""The Simpsons,""24" and"American Idol. " Now, Fox is hoping to stage an encore. Rupert Murdoch's company on Monday unveiled MundoFox, a new Spanish-language broadcast network. A joint venture with Colombian powerhouse RCN Television Group, the network will challenge the Spanish-language media dominance of entrenched rivals Univision Communications and Telemundo.