Thursday, November 17, 2011

Abrazos y Besos to Latism ... On Being Born-Again y La Escuela

#Latism11 Chicago Conference
I can't believe that a week ago, today, I had the honor of volunteering and attending the Latinos in Social Media (Latism) Conference in Chicago. Thinking this is probably a good time to apologize for the five minutes warning I gave you before your Twitter timelines became flooded with my #Latism11 tweets. Every single tweet meant something to me, I only wish I'd attended more sessions, so I could've tweeted more! So to my friends, thank you for not blocking me, but more importantly, thank you all for the retweets.

PBS Kids: Virtual Pre-K! Ready for Math

I am filled with gratitude that what started as an offer made by me to help in future Latism Boston events turned into an invitation to volunteer at the annual conference. My head is still reeling from this last-minute whirlwind trip, where I met several blogueras/os (@Kiki_Liki@LatinaSweetie, @Cheryl_Aguilar, @BlogsbyLatinas, @Juan of Words, @LBCConnect@FollowtheLede to name a few) and attended events sponsored by brands that recognize the importance of engaging Latino consumers intelligently and thoughtfully.


What's stuck with me since coming home has been the thought-leaders from education, government, non-government groups and business, even key-note speakers, who discussed how they're using social media to make a difference in their communities ... and, of course, all the education sessions I missed because there simply wasn't enough time to do everything. Ay. For an infovore like me, it hurt.

It's taken me a week to recover. I returned home at 1:30 a.m. Saturday, only to turn-around and be at school that morning at 9 a.m. for a final group presentation in my Counseling in Schools class. Since Saturday, I played catch-up on the intro to my thesis that was due in another class, last night. I've been stressed out. But finally, I wake up this morning, sick, but still able to breathe a little easier. And if I had the chance to do it all over again, would I? Absolutely. Although, I'm left with the lingering thought that my roomie, Viviana Hurtado @WiseLatinaClub (who I didn't meet with the lights on for over 24-hours) thought I was a weirdo because of the strange schedule I kept. : )

Following are a few highlights
from one panel in particular
that moved me.


Spanglish -- From El Barrio to Madison Avenue (moderated by @JuanofWords : ) *hi Juan*
  • When communicating, whether in English, Spanish, or Spanglish, it's important that we remain flexible and adapt to our audience. We need to know who we're addressing and allow our comfort-level and language ability to dictate how we communicate. We'll know when it's appropriate to use Spanglish.
  • Language is the bridge between our culture and identity. "Who do we want to be?" or better, yet, "What identity do we want our children to have?"
  • "Forced" Spanglish in advertisement by big brands misses the mark -- those of us in the target market know when brands haven't done their homework.
  • KNOW that small omissions in Spanish accents can make a HUGE difference, e.g. "ano" v. "año" can be the difference between "Happy New Year" and "Happy New Anus." 
  • Manuel Delgado, @DelgadoMan, from Agua Marketing introduced the term "retro-acculturation" and had us all laughing when he referred to those of us who can relate to this term as, "born-again Latinos." I'm thinking somebody should jump on making t-shirts. : )
  • Also, I was surprised by how open and comfortable panel attendees were to share their bicultural, biliterate, identity challenges, however large or small. Simply, wow.
A little dancing from the Awards Night Gala (they could move!) ...


Thank you to Ana Roca-Castro (@AnaRC), Elianne Ramos (@ergeekgoddess), Reina Valenzuela (@Soylamar) and the rest of the team for organizing this wonderful event and to the sponsors who made it possible for me and the rest of the volunteers to attend. ¡Mil gracias! I'll be ready for next year. : )


11 comments:

  1. What a great post! Congratulations on going. How cool you got to meet so many people! Especially Juan! At this point everyone is like a "rock star" to me. I want to meet everyone in person!

    I loved the highlights from the one panel. You (and they) are so right that accents can change the whole meaning of a sentence. I think I'm going to make that my New Year's resolution.... I'm so bad! I never ever use accents. I need to learn and it will be good practice.

    I hope you are feeling better. A busy schedule will drain you quicker than anything and then getting sick on top of that! If we were closer, I'd bring you sopa de pollo!

    Hugs!!

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  2. Sounds like a blast! I love how you incorporate spanish into your posts too - it keeps me on my toes and reminds me I need to continue to use it or else I might lose it!

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  3. What a great post, Ezzy! And I truly enjoyed all of your tweets! It was like being there! I learned and reflected on so many of the topics you tweeted. I loved your tweets about education and the changes that need to happen. I found many stories of people's school experiences by following the #Latism hashtag and wish that many of my colleagues in education would take the time to read them. Change needs to happen in teaching and learning. So many #Latism participants made it painfully obvious that we need to do a better job of being sensitive to the needs of the Latino student population. Thanks for sharing, amiga. xoxo

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  4. Ezzy,

    It was fantastic to meet you at the Latism conference. I'm totally looking forward to reading some of your fiction when you're willing to share it. Until then, keep writing, girl!

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  5. so lucky to have such great opportunity and for you to later share with us. thanks for that.

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  6. Tara, I hope all of us from MF are able to meet, soon. Believe me, it was a treat to meet Juan. He inspires me with his writing and is a great guy.

    Jijiji -- yeah, I need to be more careful with the accents, too. Wishing I had the time to take a proper Spanish class. I'm learning bits here and there reading, but it's hard to do it on your own. You know what I mean?

    Taking a deep breath here for the holiday. Thanksgiving is also Junior's birthday. : D

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  7. You're welcome, Adriana. : ) Wish you could've been there.

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  8. Sabrina, thank you! I'm looking forward to checking out INK. It sounds wicked inventive. Love it!

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  9. Jen, thank you. I actually worried that I was going to tick off some peeps with the flood of tweets but thankfully, everyone survived. The conference was wonderfully inspiring and like I said, there were so many educational panels, workshops, town halls, that I didn't know which way to turn. I love to see education discussed as a PRIORITY and not something that's optional. It became apparent to me how important it is to be aware of and find a way to address different cultural mindsets. Stark differences between collective and individualistic cultural values.

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  10. Bianca, I didn't know you knew Spanish! Thank you, by the way. <3

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  11. Haha! Great post Ezzy! You made me laugh out loud more than once! Wow...I didn't know you were roomies with Viviana! Que cool chica!! ;) It sounds like you had a great time and I am sooo super jealous! :) Definitely count on my being there next year! I'm sure it will be amazing in Houston! Also, I'm dying wishing I could have been there for all the chatting on bicultural identity....my favorite topic! So glad that you shared this will all of us! It sounds amazing!!!

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