ImpreMedia and BBCMundo.com join forces.

ImpreMedia has joined forces with the BBC´s Spanish internet site, bbcmundo.com in order to develop a series of initiatives aimed at strengthening the growing use of the Spanish language within the various Hispanic communities spread across the United States, offering them information and a platform for debate.

The initiative kicked off with a round table discussion with experts on the impact of the Spanish language in the US. The event will be broadcasted to the public via internet, radio and video available at www.bbcmundo.com http://www.bbcmundo.com/> and www.laopinion.com/espanolUS http://www.laopinion.com/espanolUS> .

The debate covered the following items:

Use of Spanish in everyday life: problems and advantages, variations in language from one region to another, how Spanish speakers survive in an English-speaking country and how the English speakers react in areas with a strong Hispanic presence.

Quality of Spanish spoken in the U.S.: the use of “Spanglish”, Spanish used by second and third generations, and the role of education.

Spanish and the media: media as a means of social cohesion, their responsibility in its diffusion, how do Hispanic media survive? And future trends.

The round table, managed jointly by the BBC and La Opinión, was made up of Jorge Mettey, ex Vice President of Univisión, Los Angeles; Gustavo Arellano, a columnist on Orange County Weekly; Alberto Vourvoulias, Executive Editor of El Diario La Prensa in New York and Mariano Zaro, Professor of Spanish at the Whittier College and Pasadena City College. Representing La Opinión were Pilar Marrero, Political Columnist and Writer, Emilio Castellanos, Senior Web Coordinator, Hugo Quintana, Assistant Managing Editor, and Executive Editor Pedro Rojas. For the BBC: José Baig, Executive Producer of “¿Hablas español?”, Carlos Villalobos, Business Development Executive and Alberto Souviron, Editor, BBCMundo.com.

The above-mentioned topics had as a background the BBC project: ¿Hablas español?, which involved travelling over land from St Augustine in Florida to Los Angeles in California without speaking a word of English. The project has been documented online, on radio and on video in bbcmundo.com.

BBC Business Development Manager for Latin America and the US, Carlos Villalobos emphasizes: “The BBC is very pleased to be working alongside ImpreMedia on projects which will surely help benefit directly those millions of Hispanics seeking news and information from reliable sources. Taking part in this debate, in this case, about the use of the Spanish language, fits in perfectly with our public service profile”.

Pedro Rojas, Executive Editor of La Opinión, adds: “This meeting served as an excellent opportunity for us to understand the phenomenon that is the growth of the Spanish language in this country. It is the link between many nations and we should all work to preserve it”