OPEN MIC - A Latina Concerned About Negative Advertising

OPEN MIC a new secction of Latina Woman Blog

Isabel Framer a Latina from Akron, Ohio share her concerns about
negative advertising against the Hispanic community. Isabel is a
Judiciary interpreter that works in policies dealing with access to the
Non-English or limited English communities.

To hear the interview in Mujer Latina Blog please click here

PRESS RELEASE: OHIO POLITICAL FLYER INSULTS HISPANICS

For Immediate Release
Contact: Lizette Jenness Olmos
October 10, 2008
(202) 365-4553 mobile
Jason Riveiro
(513) 482-1814 mobile

LULAC DEMANDS RECALL & DENUNCIATION OF OFFENSIVE POLITICAL FLYER
Well Funded Republican Group Stoops to Race Baiting and Ridiculing
Latinos Washington, DC – The League of United Latin American Citizens
demands an immediate recall and denunciation of one of the most
offensive political advertisements in this already divisive election
season.

The advertisement, paid for by the Republican State Leadership
Committee of Virginia, uses a Spanish-speaking Chihuahua to dehumanize
Ohio’s Latino community and warns English-speaking voters that they may
have to learn Spanish if Democrat Connie Pillich beats Republican
Virgil Lovitt in the race for Ohio’s 28th district.
“We find the flyer of a Chihuahua in a sombrero with the words ‘Can you
speak Spanish? Ay Caramba!’ extremely offensive and out of bounds for
any election,” said LULAC National President Rosa Rosales. “What’s
worse the advertisement blatantly distorts the truth by implying that
Ohio voters will have to learn Spanish if they don’t pass an
English-only bill in their state. LULAC demands the flyers recall and
we are urging Republican officials from the Republican National
Committee to candidate Virgil Lovitt himself to denounce the
advertisement as offensive to Latinos and factually incorrect.”
“In a time when Latinos are celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month, it is
shameful that a candidate would use these images to insult specific
nationalities in order to create a wedge issue for the November
elections,” said LULAC Ohio State Director Jason Riveiro.
LULAC National has contacted the McCain Campaign and the Republican
National Committee and urged them to speak out against this offensive
advertisement distributed by a well-funded Republican ‘527′ political
group. According to the web site CampaignMoney.com, the Republican
State Leadership Committee has raised $38,910,779 and spent
$38,455,778. Their contributor list features hundreds of Fortune 500
companies.
“At a time when the American tax payer has been called upon to bail
Wall Street out of its financial crisis, the last thing they want to
see is these same companies funding political advertisements laden with
false and racially offensive language and imagery,” stated Brent
Wilkes, LULAC National Executive Director. “We will be asking each and
every one of the Republican State Leadership Committee’s corporate
donors to cease supporting the group and to demand that the group
recall and apologize for the flyer.”
The League of the United Latin American Citizens advances the economic
condition, educational attainment, political influence, health and
civil rights of Hispanic Americans through community-based programs
operating at more than 700 LULAC councils nationwide.

Jason Riveiro
Ohio State Director
League of United Latin American Citizens
www.lulac.org
www.lulacohio.org

NEWS CINCINNATI

The Cincinnati Enquirer
Hispanics angered by ad; local GOP points to sender

National and local Hispanic groups are demanding Republican leaders
apologize for and denounce a “racist” ad mailed to voters in a suburban
Cincinnati state House race - an ad using a Chihuahua wearing a
sombrero with the tagline, “Can you speak Spanish?”

The flier, paid for by the Virginia-based group Republican State Leadership Committee,
is aimed at Democrat Connie Pillich in the 28th District, and wrongly
suggests Pillich wants to abandon English as the language used on
official documents.

The national League of United Latin American Citizens and the Cincinnati Hispanic Chamber are upset about how the mailer depicts Hispanics - which came during Hispanic heritage month.

“They are distorting the facts and ridiculing the Hispanic community,” said Brent Wilkes, executive director of the League of United Latin American Citizens. “It’s a shameful piece. It really is gutter politics.”

Carrie Cantrell, a spokeswoman for The Republican State Leadership Committee,
an Alexandria, Va.-based political organization that works to elect
down-ticket Republicans in state races, said she appreciates the
groups’ opinion, but that the ad was simply a parody of a well-known popular culture reference, a Chihuahua once used in Taco Bell advertising.

She did not apologize.

“We do feel this is an important issue in the state right now,” Cantrell said.

Cincinnati Hispanic Chamber President Alfonso Cornejo,
who got the flier at his Montgomery home Monday, wrote to Hamilton
County Republican Chairman Alex Triantafilou, demanding an apology and
a denunciation.

“Insulting a foreign nation and its people is not something to laugh about,” Cornejo wrote. “It has become very difficult for Hispanics to embrace your party because of your constant attacks.”

To read the whole article please click here