Way to insult your hosts, Arnold!

So the National Association of Hispanic Journalists invited Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to speak at its 25th annual convention. What does he do when he gets a question on improving Latino academic performance? He tells the Hispanic journalist audience that Hispanics should avoid the Spanish-language media.

Other than ensuring his invitation gets "lost" for next year's convention, the Terminator is also missing the point on today's Hispanic migration and the role of the media.

As most know and understand, Hispanics today are not assimilating like the Europeans did at the turn of the last century. We are rather acculturation. As I've explained, two of the main reasons for this are technology (since we can connect to home much easier) and proximity of our immigration (i.e. a 2-4 hour flight v. a 2-4 month boat ride to Ellis Island).

In addition, the role of the Spanish-language media is critical for Hispanics. Even for bi-lingual to English-dominant Hispanics who are reliant on the media to cover our issues and our communities from our perspectives . Who else is doing this? Certainly not the main stream media. Not to mention we do like to keep in touch with what's happening in our home countries.

So, is immersion an effective technique, I suppose it is. But, the answer to learning English isn't in avoiding the Spanish language. We can "immerse" ourselves in other situations and ways (for instance, my parents got my brothers and me a tutor when we were little) without avoiding the Spanish media. They are too important to ignore. Not to mention as a Hispanic marketer I'd be out of work without the Spanish media LOL :-)