La Plaza Central

There’s a nice posting from Stop Big Media here, via the National Institute for Latino Policy, about the NBC/Comcast merger and how it would negatively affect Latino media and its constituents. I’ve been passively following the net neutrality issue and until now haven’t seen an argument involving the implications for our Latino population. Even more reason to get behind the issue and break up the telecoms monopoly!

For readers who aren’t up to speed on this, here’s and example of part of this monopoly: graphical history of the AT&T break-up (and “get back together”).

Do you love that Red Map vs. Blue Map ad campaign or what?

Logo from Updowntowners Association

FYI, El Centro de las Américas will be represented tomorrow and Saturday at the Celebrate Lincoln International Festival with a booth filled with information and children’s activities.  We plan on offering face painting and coloring books for the kids, as well as having various Latino musical instruments on display.  It should be a good time, and we’re looking forward to it.  Our booth will be staffed by, well, staff members and board members all day Friday and Saturday, so stop by and say hola.

I’ve been sitting on this post for awhile, because I didn’t want to do it until May was upon us.  And now that it is, I want to say that May is Latino Images in Film Month on Turner Classic Movies.   All this month, every Tuesday and Thursday evening, TCM will be showing films that focus on Hollywood’s treatment of Latinos.  They run the gamut from a silent movie made in 1910 to the western drama Lonestar from 1996.  Be sure to check out the website for a movie schedule and trailers for several of the films.

As someone who’s experience with Latino films is primarily old black and white Mario Moreno Cantínflas movies, I’ll be interested to see movies with other stars like Edward James Olmos, Jennifer Lopez and Ricardo Montalban.

Wednesdays are Everett days for me. Nick and I help coordinate a family literacy program and my assistant and I give a basic computing class to parents of Everett Elementary children. This week showed marked improvement in the course on my part; being the second go-around, I’m familiar with better starting points for adults that have rarely if ever used a keyboard. They are all eager and it can be frustrating trying to build a base from which they can climb up all the way to say, internet searches and email. But progress is made each class and we will introduce them to more interesting things than ‘home row’.

An article I sent my way proved informative and very positive. It profiles a non-profit in Pennsylvania that has an outreach to seniors to get online. It is appropriately named Generations Online and has a Spanish translation of the software. I’ll ask my class if they would be interested while you read up and pass along the information to anyone who might benefit from the service:

http://www.generationsonline.org/espanol/

The Journal Star today has a little article (articlecito?) about the Mexican folklore dance group, Sangre Azteca.  They danced at our Festival, and there are some photos of them in our photo gallery.  And they’re great.

Yeah, that’s all I got.

On a side note, one week and counting until the Christmas party.  We just got word that presents for Toys for Tots must be picked up by tomorrow at noon, so we can start wrapping a day early if anyone is interested.  And who isn’t interested?

As mentioned by Nick, we have a few spots on Lincoln’s community radio station announcing two of our outreach programs.  You can hear them below:

Victims of Domestic Abuse Program

Lincoln Police Department

And for good measure:

http://kzum.org/