Monthly Archive for April, 2008

Chef Carlos seeks good lemon-lime recipe

Published
by
Grecia Montelongo
on April 28, 2008
in Generally Speaking and In The News
. 1 Comment

Top Chef’s Chef Carlos Fernandez invites all Latinos to submit their best recipe containing 7UP. This recipe can be anything from appetizers to entrées and it can be baked, fried, cooked, you name it . The main rule is that it has to have that lemon-lime taste provided by 7UP. So bring out your cooking tools and creativity and show him what you can do! The recipes can be submitted online, by mail, or even personally handed to chef Carlos himself. He will hold a tour across the U.S. where he will demonstrate how to cook his favorite 7UP recipes.

Here are the tour dates:

Los Angeles, Ca: May 8 - 25th
Phoenix, AZ: June 2 - 8th
Houston, TX: June 16 - 29th
Dallas, TX: June 30- July 13th
Chicago, IL: July 13 - 27th

For more information and contest rules, visit the http://www.receta7UP.com.

Viva Hollywood!

Published
by
Grecia Montelongo
on April 10, 2008
in Latino Culture and Latino Television
. 0 Comments

As we Latinos know, Telenovela stars are among the most sexy, hot, emotional and extreme that tv offers. Seems like the rest of America will soon be made aware of that when the premiere of VH1’s “Viva Hollywood” airs on Sunday, April 13th at 10:30pm. VH1 is in search for America’s “numero uno telenovela star” and the series will document the journey to stardom of the 12 lucky contestants.

telenovela

The Viva Hollywood cast compiled of bilingual Latino and Latina aspiring telenovela stars: Alexcy, Berto, Enrique, Geovannie, Gisel, Jainmy, Kalain, Janet, Jenn, Roseny, Silvia and Vinci will move into the “Casa De Locos” where they must master the “7 Deadly Sins of Telenovelas:” passion, lust, charisma, drama, fire, seduction and scandal. These “sins” are disciplines each

cast member must learn in order to capture the over-the-top style of a true telenovela star and impress the celebrity judges. These celebrity judges include actress and singer Maria Conchita Alonso and actor singer/song-writer Carlos Ponce. Celebrity astrologer and Latino legend, Walter Mercado, will appear in each episode to give the contestants guidance on their journey

and alert the cast of their upcoming challenges. Sofia Vergara, Daisy Fuentes, Angelica Vale, Charo, Christian De La Fuentes, Lorena Rojas, Maria Celeste Arraras and Perez Hilton have signed on as celebrity guests as well.

Vh1’s Jeff Olde commented on the reasoning behind the show:

“Each day, an astounding two billion people around the world watch telenovelas which are a vibrant and historic part of the Latino community. We wanted to tap into and expand on the

passion that surrounds this phenomenon,” said Jeff Olde, Executive Vice President

, Original Programming and Production, VH1. “If you love telenovelas, you will love this show, if you never heard of a telenovela you will love this show because the stakes are huge with a real chance at international superstardom and that is an appeal and a hook that is universal.”

In the end, only one contestant will win the honor of being named “Nume

ro Uno Telenovela Star,” and a prize package that includes a contract with Telemundo and a role in one of their upcoming telenovelas, representation from artist management company Latin World Entertainment , a year’s lease at one of Miami’s hottest condominiums, the Flamingo South Beach and a cash grand prize of $100,000.

Montenegro makes El Paso a role model

Published
by
Claudia Ullrich
on April 7, 2008
in In The News
. 0 Comments

The school system in this country is facing a major challenge–more and more students entering Kindergarten don’t know English. And more than that, children coming from impoverished homes are fundamentally years behind an average student.

What do you do?tssa_2007-3g-montenegro_large.jpg

Hector Montenegro rose to the challenge and was featured in the February 2008 issue of Texas Monthly as one of “35 people who will shape our future”. He was recognized as the League of United Latin American Citizens 2005 Educator of the Year. In 2003 he became superintendent of the least affluent of El Paso’s three ISDs, Yselta Independent School District (YISD) where 91% of students are Hispanic and schools face chronic problems with test scores and dropouts.

However, between 2005 and 2006 YISD saw a rise in TAKS test scores from 9 to 23.

How did he do it? He strengthened bilingual, dual language and ESL programs. The traditional school of thought is to transition children into English as soon as possible, but that’s not the approach he took.

The program builds on the strengths of all children. It’s not a deficit model; it’s an enrichment model that not only teaches survival English, but also academic language and socialization skills. It eliminates the stigma of social segregation that other programs create…We all need to have a sense of urgency in preparing this generation of children to become responsible leaders in a very diverse and inclusive future.

Montenegro is now the superintendent of the Arlington ISD. Get involved now by mentoring youth in your area, volunteering in schools or supporting local non-profit organizations such as College Forward in Austin, TX, one of Mercury Mambo’s community partners.

MySpace Latino sets an official launch party date

Published
by
Grecia Montelongo
on April 4, 2008
in Generally Speaking
. 0 Comments

Last Thursday, MySpace announced its plans to launch a bilingual version of its leading social-networking website tailored to US Latinos.

The website will be in Spanish and English and its offerings will include entertainment, sports, music, and fashion content from Impremedia, Gibson Guitar, Remezcla, Billboard and Spanish Broadcasting System.

They have now set the date for their official launch party in Miami on April 11th! Tego Calderon, Circo, Locos Por Juana and DJ Pauer are scheduled to perform with a TBD announced special guest. Check it out if you are in the area, visit www.myspace.com/showssecretos for more information.

myspacelatino.gif