The history of Spanish‐language television in the United States and the rise of Mexican international syndication strategies in the Americas

1995 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 231-249 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erik A. Stilling
Author(s):  
Rosina Lozano

An American Language is a political history of the Spanish language in the United States. The nation has always been multilingual and the Spanish language in particular has remained as an important political issue into the present. After the U.S.-Mexican War, the Spanish language became a language of politics as Spanish speakers in the U.S. Southwest used it to build territorial and state governments. In the twentieth century, Spanish became a political language where speakers and those opposed to its use clashed over what Spanish's presence in the United States meant. This book recovers this story by using evidence that includes Spanish language newspapers, letters, state and territorial session laws, and federal archives to profile the struggle and resilience of Spanish speakers who advocated for their language rights as U.S. citizens. Comparing Spanish as a language of politics and as a political language across the Southwest and noncontiguous territories provides an opportunity to measure shifts in allegiance to the nation and exposes differing forms of nationalism. Language concessions and continued use of Spanish is a measure of power. Official language recognition by federal or state officials validates Spanish speakers' claims to US citizenship. The long history of policies relating to language in the United States provides a way to measure how U.S. visions of itself have shifted due to continuous migration from Latin America. Spanish-speaking U.S. citizens are crucial arbiters of Spanish language politics and their successes have broader implications on national policy and our understanding of Americans.


Author(s):  
Craig Allen

The first completely researched history of U.S. Spanish-language television traces the rise of two foremost, if widely unrecognized, modern American enterprises—the Spanish-language networks Univision and Telemundo. It is a standard scholarly history constructed from archives, original interviews, reportage, and other public materials. Occasioned by the public’s wakening to a “Latinization” of the U.S., the book demonstrates that the emergence of Spanish-language television as a force in mass communication is essential to understanding the increasing role of Latinos and Latino affairs in modern American society. It argues that a combination of foreign and domestic entrepreneurs and innovators who overcame large odds resolves a significant and timely question: In an English-speaking country, how could a Spanish-speaking institution have emerged? Through exploration of significant and colorful pioneers, continuing conflicts and setbacks, landmark strides, and ongoing controversies—and with revelations that include regulatory indecision, behind-the-scenes tug-of-war, and the internationalization of U.S. mass media—the rise of a Spanish-language institution in the English-speaking U.S. is explained. Nine chapters that begin with Spanish-language television’s inception in 1961 and end 2012 chronologically narrate the endeavor’s first 50 years. Events, passages, and themes are thoroughly referenced.


Author(s):  
Manuel G. Avilés-Santiago

Developments in contemporary Latina/os media are the result not only of an exponentially growing Latina/o population in the United States but also of the synergy between transformations in the global political economy and the emergence of new media platforms for production, distribution, and consumption. To reflect upon the emergence of the industry is to consider the politics of the labeling of the Latina/o community and the eventual configuration of a market audience. It also requires a confrontation with the cultural history of representations and stereotypes of Latina/os, particularly in radio, TV, film, and the internet, and the transnational aesthetics and dynamics of media produced by and/or for Latina/os in the United States. If the notion of media revolves around a technological means of communication, it also encompasses the practices and institutions from within which the Latina/o communities are imagined, produced, and consumed. At the start of the 21st century, the idea of Latina/os in media revolved around a handful of Latina/o stars in Hollywood who often performed stereotypical representations, a racialized and marginal Spanish-language radio industry, and two Spanish television networks, Univision and Telemundo. A more complex constellation of representations has evolved in both mainstream and Spanish-language media, among them new platforms for production and resistance, including social media (e.g., Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat), radio podcasts and streaming services (e.g., Hulu and Netflix), and a more active and engaged audience that consumes media in Spanish, English, and even Spanglish.


Author(s):  
Jillian Báez ◽  
Manuel Avilés-Santiago

During the last decade, Spanish-language television has generated much interest among media scholars. The most recent census numbers demonstrated that Latina/os are the fastest growing minority in the United States, and the ongoing debates around immigration and the configuration of a Latino market heralded by advertisers for its “buying power” have prompted researchers to look at Spanish-language television as a site through which narratives about race, ethnicity, class, gender, and national and transnational identities intertwine. Although Spanish-language television has aired on the mainland United States since the 1960s, it was not until 2007 that the top broadcast television networks, Univision and Telemundo, joined the big leagues of television audience measurement research. The highly competitive rating numbers revealed by Nielsen indicate that Spanish-language networks are consistently in the top ten ratings during primetime. Currently a vastly growing industry, Spanish-language television is marked by its history of consolidation and conglomeration. For example, Univision was bought and sold to several companies, including Hallmark, and Telemundo is currently owned by the National Broadcasting Company (NBC). Additionally, due to partial foreign ownership from Mexican television companies, such as Televisa, much of the programming on Spanish-language networks in the United States is imported from Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, Venezuela, and other parts of Latin America. Although US Spanish-language television has historically focused their content and marketing to Spanish-dominant immigrants, Univision and Telemundo have recently ventured into targeting bilingual and English-dominant second- and third-generation Latinos. For example, consider Univision’s website La Flama and Telemundo’s mun2 cable network that focus on creating bilingual and bicultural/hybrid content. While Univision and Telemundo continue to be the top Spanish-language networks in the United States, other cable networks (i.e., Azteca, Galavisión, LATV, and Vme) continue to add new spaces and voices to the industry. This article reviews the most pertinent scholarship on Spanish-language television and highlights some of the prominent themes to consider in this area of research. Early work on Spanish-language television focused largely on providing historical overviews and profiles of Univision and Telemundo. Later work examines issues of representation, especially in terms of race, nation, gender, and class. More recent work also carefully documents the recent growth in Spanish-language television along with shifting strategies to accommodate the growing Latina/o viewership. This scholarship also includes analyses of regulation, particularly regarding ownership, as they relate to Spanish-language television industries. Most of the literature discussed in this article focuses on Spanish-language television in the United States, but some research is included that addresses this medium in other countries, such as Mexico and Spain. Overall, the burgeoning research in this area emanates from a variety of disciplines (e.g., communications, film studies, sociology, and political science) and methodologies (e.g., content analysis, interviews, participant observation, etc.), but more work is needed to understand fully the political, economic, and cultural impact of Spanish-language media.


Author(s):  
Rosina Lozano

The Spanish language in the United States has a long history. An American Language rediscovers the politics of the Spanish language in the period following the U.S.-Mexican War. The story begins with the United States takeover of Mexican lands that included American Indians and Mexican settlers. The settlers became U.S. citizens at the end of the war through the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. These Spanish-speaking Mexican settlers thereafter used the treaty as the arbiter of their citizenship, making them treaty citizens. The United States permitted Spanish to become a language of politics in the Southwest in the nineteenth century. Comparing Spanish as a political language across the Southwest and Puerto Rico provides an opportunity to understand larger shifts in national views of citizenship. Comparing federal, state, territorial, and local approaches to the Spanish language also demonstrates the resilience of Spanishlanguage preferences among residents of the Southwest. Spanish is an American language due to its long history and continuing importance in the nation. Tracing the multilingual history of the nation provides an opportunity to include the United States into larger discussions of how migration changes a nation and how its citizens view language.


1919 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 414-414
Author(s):  
No authorship indicated

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