Debates, Corridos, BLM and Brangelina

As I grab my second cup of cafecito, I look out on an expansive field of green here is Williamsburg, Virginia and think about the past week.

The Presidential Debate

As you can imagine, this political junkie is super excited about the debates tomorrow night. Then again, I’m also not expecting the moderators to get me the information I want and need to really get to know where one of these candidates stands on the actual issues policy-wise. But it will still be highly entertaining if nothing else. Oh hell, I still have hope that it will be politically relevant. Let’s call me my least favorite cliche, cautiously optimistic.

I’m not alone in my distrust of where the mods will take us. Check out where the media stands in new NBC/WSJ poll.

Here are the favorable/unfavorable ratings in the new national NBC/WSJ poll pic.twitter.com/DuYoxV5rbi

— Mark Murray (@mmurraypolitics) September 21, 2016

The candidates are neck and neck as of this writing according to a Washington Post/ABC News poll released today, September 25, 2106. http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/297636-poll-trump-and-clinton-neck-and-neck-before-first-debate

The candidates & their supporters

Ted Cruz came out in support of Trump. While it is expected it is also shocking to me that a man would support someone who publicly offended his wife and father. But this is politics, so anything goes.

The New York Times endorsed Hillary Clinton, which was also expected. Also, an icon of the Mexican ranchera music, Vicente Fernández , came out of retirement to endorse Clinton. He did so by composing a “corrido”, which is a narrative song usually about history, daily life or socially relevant topics. Culturally, it’s a pretty darned cool thing. Before he begins singing, he tells Latinos “Our voice is our vote. Together we can.”

Black Lives Matter

Police released footage of Keith Lamont Scott’s shooting this week. This was another publicized police shooting of a black man. Also, the police officer, Betty Shelby, who shot an unarmed black man, Terence Crutcher, has been charged with first-degree manslaughter. The latest shootings led to protests and riots in CharlotteThis is such a polarizing issue and it is so sad that our country is so divided by it. Growing up in the hood as a Cuban immigrant, you just knew that you are a minority and everyone pretty much just lived with each other and integrated. We were all more focused on surviving and trying to move up. I mean, there was racism, yes, but it felt at the time that it was dying away with the older generations.

I have definite views on this issue. Let me preface what I am about to write with, I do believe there is a problem. Now let’s talk about how this problem is being seen by the general public and why it is so polarizing. I think that as long as the BLM movement and the media continue to mostly brandish people with a criminal past as the victims, they will lose out on getting their message out. What isn’t being realized is that the majority of people who don’t agree with the movement are looking at it as, keep your nose clean and you won’t have to worry about the police.

BLM is asking people to feel sorry for or sympathize with people they view as criminals who do not respect the law. I think when we start to see more situations where this is not the case and law abiding citizens are being abused, there may be a huge shift in the narrative. When you show someone EVERYONE can really empathize with, the outrage from all Americans will be loud and clear and the conversation will move from us versus them, to let’s do something about it.

Yahoo gets hacked to the tune of 500 million accounts.

The fact that this happened in 2014 and we are hearing about it two years later is disturbing. Although,more disturbing is the fact that it is believed to be state sponsored, as in, another country is behind this hack. Most folks think that their Yahoo accounts have no important information, but the hackers don’t just look for other account information. Once they are armed with your email username and password, they will use those to try and access online accounts everywhere from banks to travel bookings, to even games to find points to resell. The takeaway from this is to have different usernames and passwords everywhere, or at least use a different one for emails versus other accounts.

The end of Brangelina

I really didn’t even want to write about this. The fact that it was front page news on CNN was pretty gross. The only reason it’s newsworthy to me is that there is now an allegation of a possible abuse that is being investigated by the FBI. There is chatter that Brad Pitt has been having an extramarital affair. My only response is, why is anyone even remotely shocked that a relationship which started in infidelity is now ending in, you guessed it, infidelity?

As usual, it’s the kids that get me, and now these kids will come from a broken home and they will know every sordid detail, since it will be all over the news.

Weiner strikes again

Ugh, seriously? Can’t we just lock this perve away already? It appears that Anthony Weiner was sexting with a 15-year-old girl. I feel so sorry for his wife. She will some day have to explain what a total sh*t of a father her child has to him. Seriously though, even though he is being investigated by federal prosecutors, I sincerely hope that this turns out to be a lie for the sake of that child.

Personal Stuff

On the personal front, I spent a lovely day with my boys, daughter-in-law and husband yesterday. Our youngest had a baseball game, which the hubby and eldest both coached. The team lost 7-10, but it was a fun game and we had a blast. There is nothing that makes me happier than when I get everyone together and we just do family stuff. My cousin likes to call it “making memories”, and I totally agree. I love making memories.

So that’s it for my review of this week. I hope you have a wonderful week ahead, and thanks for reading. Now go make some memories with your clan!

via WordPress http://www.danay.net/debates-corridos-blm-and-brangelina/

This Latina loves politics

Alright, I’ll say it. I love politics.

I know that it’s more politically correct to say that one hates politics, but I seriously like it. I like learning the process, the candidates’ positions, and just everything about it. That’s not to say that I love our current system and the way it has evolved into a pay-for-play model. What I mean is that even though there is a ton of corruption, because, let’s face it. It’s human nature. There will always be corruption. But there is also opportunity to have your voice be heard. You always have a vote. You have the ability to form groups and effect change. That is something truly American that we take for granted.

As a Cuban American, politics are very important to me. This Latina grew up in a house where we always knew what was going on with both American politics and Cuban politics. Since Cuba is communist and controlled by a dictator, there isn’t that ability to even voice your concerns. We were raised to love this country and be grateful for the opportunities it has given us.

I grew up with the stories of people disappearing because they were anti-communism. There were stories of how badly our family was treated when it became known that we were leaving to the US. My dad was a political prisoner when he was an young man, so that added to the narrative.

I see all of this anti-Hispanic speech from a candidate and all of the backlash, and I think, people, we need to be better informed. We need to be more involved in the political process if we are ever going to be taken seriously as a voter group. There is a way to stay true to your culture and be a devoted American. These things are not mutually exclusive, and it’s time we realize that and act upon it.

I stay informed by following politicians and their stances and voting records on Latino centric issues. I also follow how they vote on women’s issues as well as other issues I feel are important. In my research, I noticed that there is no place where Latinos can look into candidates, see how they voted on general issues, like the environment, taxes, guns, etc and Latino issues like immigration, diversity and so on.

This led me to the decision to add this functionality to the HispanicYa directory. While it is primarily a business, & events directory, it will now evolve into an everything Hispanic directory. I’ll have to change the branding a bit, but I believe it’s worth it.

I’m now working on which issues to include, so that politicians on both the federal level and local levels who are Hispanic can be searched for, and visitors will be able to see what they stand for.

It won’t be ready for this election, but it will certainly be ready for the next one!

via WordPress http://www.danay.net/this-latina-loves-politics/

Quick & Dirty Local Directories List

I advise all of my clients to at the very least, be on as many directories as they can. The directories have already done the seo work for you, so when you are starting out as a brand, this is a great place to get more visibility.

Here is my quick & dirty list. Feel free to suggest something I may have missed.

Bing
Superpages
Yahoo!
2FindLocal
AmericanTowns.com
ChamberOfCommerce.com
CityMaps
CoPilot
Cylex
DexKnows
eLocal
EzLocal
Get Fave
GoLocal247
Local.com
LocalDatabase
LocalPages
MojoPages
Navmii
Opendi
PennySaver
ShowMeLocal
Topix
Tupalo
UsCity.net
YaSabe
Yellowise
YellowMoxie
YellowPageCity.com
Google+*
Yelp
Facebook
Foursquare
411
8Coupons
ABLocal
AirYell
Avantar
CityBot
CitySearch
CitySquares
iGlobal
MapQuest
MerchantCircle
MyLocalServices
N49.ca
Nokia
PhoneNumber
Point.com
Switchboard
Telenav
TomTom
VoteForTheBest
WhereTo
White & Yellow Pages
WhitePages
YellowBot
YellowPagesGoGreen

via WordPress http://www.danay.net/quick-dirty-local-directories-list/

#TacoTrucksOnEveryCorner, Politics and Homeschooling

I am a consumer of information like you wouldn’t believe. I devour news and leaning at the same frantic pace that I like to be outdoors and enjoy nature. Apparently, it’s all or nothing with me and the way I like to experience things.

That’s why I am starting my Week in Review with Cafecito series. This is where I grab yet another cup of my favorite beverage, coffee any style, and I tun through a quick review of all the news and new info I have consumed.

#TacoTrucksOnEveryCorner

Marco Gutierrez (https://twitter.com/MarcoGutierrez), a Donald Trump supporter and founder of Latinos for Trump, made the mistake on a September 1st MSNBC appearance of foretelling the gloom and doom of illegal Mexican immigrants taking over. He decided to use the threat of having “taco trucks on every corner” as the big negative of this situation, because according to him, Mexicans are a very “dominant culture”. Of course, this was an opportunity like no and the #tacotrucksoneverycorner memes were everywhere. I must confess that I have shared quite a few, because it’s downright ridiculous and hilarious at the same time.

I listened to the latest podcast from Latino Rebels on my jog yesterday, and they had Mr Gutierrez on the show. There were some interesting points made and he was given the opportunity to react to the memes and all of the press he has gotten, which includes personal and finance details. It was quite an interesting and informative show.

Check out the podcast here.

HispanicYa!

We’ve been working on a soft launch of the website and I am happy to see a good amount of new sign-ups without any paid advertising at this point. I’m also very excited about the site being at the top of Google search results for our target keywords. We will continue running the soft launch for the next couple of months as we develop the podcast and feature articles sections.

Another Interesting Week in Politics

Today show co-host, Matt Lauer has been slammed for lobbing soft questions at presidential candidate Donald Trump and harping on the email scandal with Hillary Clinton. Many in the media complained about Lauer’s complete failure
to ask questions about Trump’s controversial remarks about Gold Star parents Khizr and Ghazala Khan, his dissing of Sen. John McCain as a POW, or his Vietnam War deferments.

I don't blame Lauer for asking the email question. But it's ABSURD that he started off with Trump, "Why should you be Commander-in-Chief?"

— Jon Favreau (@jonfavs) September 8, 2016

Back to School

Today was open house at my youngest son’s new Classical Academy where they take a Socratic approach to teaching. He is in eight grade and we are both very excited about this year’s schooling. While we do homes-school him, his days are very structured. He also has baseball, which the husband is now coaching. We spent the last 3 years traveling around the country and not really staying in one place longer than a handful of months, but the kiddo wanted to pause for a while and go to an actual school and play baseball, so we’ve done just that. After doing the whole PTA, coaching, being-involved-in-everything for so many years, it was nice to unplug from that for a few years. Now it’s time to plug back in. We will still travel quite a bit, but it will be planned around the school & sports schedules. For example, we will spend three weeks in Kentucky for a Halloween Rally and one month in Orlando in January with several of our snowbird friends, so that’s exciting.

Snapchat Silliness

I finally decided to actually USE my snapchat. I was really putting it off because I like to see the business case for social platforms before I start to test things out. Snapchat’s target market is a lot younger than what I generally work with for my clients, so I just thought I would deal with it later. This week I decided to just have fun with it and start to brainstorm on ways to use it for business for current clients. I had a lot of fun and silliness ensued. I did come up with some neat ideas, but I’m going to have to flesh it all out a bit before I start to test. I will say that since Instagram unveiled their stories, I started to cross post my snaps there, and frankly, I prefer Instagram, since there are actual stats for me to work with as a marketer. Snapchat, you need to give me some numbers to work with here!

If you’re not on, sign up at www.snapchat.com and if you’d like to follow my silliness, you can scan my snapcode below and add me there. See you on the snap side!

via WordPress http://www.danay.net/tacotrucksoneverycorner-politics-and-homeschool/

Running with angels

Every morning, I wake up at 5:30 AM and prepare myself for my daily run. I spend about an hour having my coffee, checking and responding to emails and getting dressed. By seven, I am usually taking in a few deep breaths and preparing for the first stiff strides of my five-mile run.

As my feet start to pound the ground, I start to feel alive, like anything is possible, as if I could conquer the world. Then it hits me, and it knocks the absolute wind out of me.

I allow myself to feel the emotions of the loss of my brother, Gene, who passed away 6 months ago. I’m still struggling with the reality of it all. I still struggle with the knowledge that I will not get to give him a nice big bear hug any more. I will not get to grow old with him, and I won’t ever hear him tell me to, “Get your ass up, sis, the world isn’t going to wait for you to go conquer it.” Every time I think about what this loss means I need a moment to collect myself. The good thing about running is that the tears tend to dry up faster.

Once I collect myself, I start to talk to him and allow myself to feel his presence. I realize that the picture I must paint as I jog along looking as if I’m speaking to myself, exaggerated Cuban arm gestures and all, must be quite interesting. But I really don’t care. All I want is to spend these precious moments with him reviewing the previous day, reminding him how much I truly love and miss him and asking him for guidance.

I can’t say that I do not wish every moment of every day that my time spent with him were a phone call instead. I imagine myself barely being able to run, since I know he’d be cracking jokes the entire time. In fact, I have one last voicemail that I had saved with him on it that currently kills me to listen to it. But one day, I’ll be able to listen to it and crack up again for its sheer ridiculousness.

He taught me to be quick-witted and to have thick skin. He taught me how to be a geek and to expect success. He taught me to be authentic and proud of where we came from so I could see how far I’d come. Most of the things he taught me were from watching him. When we were kids I was his shadow. It was total and unabashed hero worship, and it never really went away.

He left me a few gifts in this life, a lovely sister-in-law and two amazingly wonderful little nieces. I hope to spend the rest of my years regaling them with stories of their dad as a boy and young adult. At the very least they will be able to see him through his little sister’s adoring eyes.

My only regret is that we didn’t spend more time together these past few years. We were both terrible at phone calls and catching up. When we did, it was always wonderful. I was always so full of pride when I listened to him talk about his work, the wife and kids and life in general. We’d make fun of each others politics and basically anything else we could rib each other about.

Sometimes I spend the entire five miler talking to him and sometimes it’s a 30-minute conversation. Sometimes, I can’t even form real words through the sobs. But every morning, if I have breath in my lungs, I get up and I run with my angel.

via WordPress http://www.danay.net/running-with-angels/