Hispanic Heritage Month started as Hispanic Heritage Week by President Gerald Ford in 1974 to indoctrinate Americans in general about the positive influence Latino-Americans have had on the United States of America.
The celebration's popularity grew, and the week was prolonged to a full month of celebrations in 1989. Now, Hispanic Heritage Month starts on September 15 and ends on October 15.
The Spanish seduction is impossible to ignore. As of today, Latino-Americans are the second spending force in our nation. According to International Monetary Found, Hispanics are scheduled to spend $840 billion dollars this year, putting them just behind white Americans and slightly above black Americans.
From 1990 to 2011, the Latino-American spending power will increase 450 percent. During the same period of time, white Americans will witness only a 176 percent increase.
Digital media is not an exception. At this moment Hispanic ad expenditures are still rising. According to Advertising Age's "Hispanic Fact Pack," Spanish publicity continues to outperform the general market. TNS Media Intelligence projects a 3.7 percent growth in Spanish media spending for 2007. The overall growth of U.S. media spending is 1.7 percent.
After the data, questions can't be helped...
It is time for Ball State University to join the multi-lingual U.S. culture and media? Or will the self-inflicted cultural segregation win the battle? Are diversity pills a must for Ball State?
Is it the new flamboyant "state of the mono-art" David Letterman Communication and Media Building an "English-only or Spanish-less" production facility? What about Hispanic faculty? Any bilingual media courses? Will the new media building prepare mono-media workers for mono-America? Are we suddenly mono-sapiens?
Saturday marks the start of Hispanic Heritage Month and celebrations at national level. Mariachi music will be a must in "La Casa Blanca" (the White House), President Bush will speak espa+â-¦ol 24/7 to Hispanic media, jalape+â-¦o peppers all over the place and so on.
The White House provides a Spanish Web site. Can Ball State do the same? Spanish attracts hispanics; really, I'm not kidding!
Perhaps, a banner in the front page of our university's Web site recognizing the Hispanic Heritage Month, and a front page logo displaying the sentence "Bienvenido a la Universidad Estatal Ball" would be a nice start.
Hispanic Heritage Month is also a great justification to rebuild the minority and diversity goals stated in the Ball State University Strategic Plan for the years 2007-2012. Those "goals" are cheap in nature; the 50s were gone long ago, if I recall. This "neo-plan" calls for the student body at Ball State to be composed of only 15 percent minority students by the year 2012. What a trick! By 2012, minorities in the US will compose around 50 percent of the entire country's population. Is this a "goal" or a clear anti-diversity statement?
I do personally believe it's time for Ball State to step up and make a stand about diversity on campus. An action is followed by a reaction, and we are reacting to the numbers that we find insulting. Today, it is a must for administrators, faculty, students and staff to join the campus marketplace of ideas. Communication only succeeds if cognition exists. Take note.
Write to Rafael at briones@bsu.edu
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