Monday
Mar172008
Don't Mess With A Latina
Monday, March 17, 2008 at 01:26PM
Michael Arrington was nice enough to cover my Univision news on TechCrunch this morning. As soon as I read his coverage, I knew that the people who post in the TechCrunch forums might be nasty because that is often the very nature of the TechCrunch forums. Having worked for Michael, I know this first hand. I promised myself not to read the forum comments but that proved to be as impossible as trying to drive passed a car accident without looking.
I feel like the people who commented on this post are trying to assert that I am not Latina enough to make videos for Univision. I usually don't respond to that kind of negativity but the Latina in me cannot keep quiet so I am about to prove myself to be a true Puerto Rican woman and have a little fit. I am usually reserved and polite but this is my mother's sangre running through me so please bare with me. Here it goes:
Most of the people posting nasty comments on TechCrunch probably don't even speak Spanish. True, Spanish is my second language, not my first and it skipped a generation. My grandparents opted not to teach my mother Spanish so my sister and I had to teach ourselves. My grammar is solid and the professionals at Univision think my accent is acceptable. This is also my first time in front of a camera speaking Spanish so inevitably it will improve. The point is that I am trying something new and challenging. If I could improve my accent, I would but why is it an issue? You don't see people criticizing Om for his Indian accent in English on The GigaOm Show. It is unfair, rude, unwelcomed, and frankly sexist. When I wrote for TechCrunch in 2006 I was criticized for being a woman. Now I'm not Hispanic enough? Would this audience be more comfortable if I wore an apron and made a video of myself cooking Puerto Rican pasteles and arroz con gandules? Would that be authentic enough? If we were all as lambasted for trying something new, the Web culture that we know and love would cease to exist! I don't think I am perfect and I do think that I have room to improve. But I am proud of my first efforts and so are the Hispanohablantes that I care about, namely my editor at Univision and my brother-in-law Juan. The rest of you should steer clear of me today.
Okay, nice Natali is back. That did feel good though. Chale!
I feel like the people who commented on this post are trying to assert that I am not Latina enough to make videos for Univision. I usually don't respond to that kind of negativity but the Latina in me cannot keep quiet so I am about to prove myself to be a true Puerto Rican woman and have a little fit. I am usually reserved and polite but this is my mother's sangre running through me so please bare with me. Here it goes:
Most of the people posting nasty comments on TechCrunch probably don't even speak Spanish. True, Spanish is my second language, not my first and it skipped a generation. My grandparents opted not to teach my mother Spanish so my sister and I had to teach ourselves. My grammar is solid and the professionals at Univision think my accent is acceptable. This is also my first time in front of a camera speaking Spanish so inevitably it will improve. The point is that I am trying something new and challenging. If I could improve my accent, I would but why is it an issue? You don't see people criticizing Om for his Indian accent in English on The GigaOm Show. It is unfair, rude, unwelcomed, and frankly sexist. When I wrote for TechCrunch in 2006 I was criticized for being a woman. Now I'm not Hispanic enough? Would this audience be more comfortable if I wore an apron and made a video of myself cooking Puerto Rican pasteles and arroz con gandules? Would that be authentic enough? If we were all as lambasted for trying something new, the Web culture that we know and love would cease to exist! I don't think I am perfect and I do think that I have room to improve. But I am proud of my first efforts and so are the Hispanohablantes that I care about, namely my editor at Univision and my brother-in-law Juan. The rest of you should steer clear of me today.
Okay, nice Natali is back. That did feel good though. Chale!
Reader Comments (60)
Hey man don't think anything of it. I'm sure if any of these people met you in person they wouldn't have a spine to confront you on anything or a leg to stand on about any of the schlop they would shovel your way.
BTW if you are making pasteles...I'm there...you can talk whatever way you wanna, just as long as there's pasteles. Actually...if you were speaking Spanish and serving pasteles...I'd pass out from how awesome that would be. Come on you have to admit...even when a Spanish woman is angry it just sounds rediculously sexy. But toss in yummy food and its like heaven hahaha
And by the way...I was actually proud of you for saying NAWK-E-AH instead of NO-KEY-AH...my bro's ex works at Nokia and is Finnish(I was corrected over and over believe me) and I was impressed that you had it right...what a shame you are giving that up ;)
I'm glad you posted this. I try to stay out of most forums as a general rule as in general they are a pretty negative place.
That's rediculous that they would say you're not latina enough. I'm curious if they would have had that problem if it was an 'all-american' girl that had no latin blood in her doing it? I doubt it.
I think you're great at what you do and would never want to be on the receiving end of the Nasty-Natali! :-)
Have to say I agree with you. Not Latina enough is alot of bullsh!t. Sounds like you just have alot of haters that would kill to be in your shoes, but don't have the education or courage to do it so they hate on those that can. I'm PR myself and I can't speak spanish the best, but others can understand me just fine. Keep doing you and brush off the haters.
That rant was hawt. lol =P
I personally thought your Spanish sounded good,i did notice voice sounding higher speaking Spanish,then English. If I were you I would just forget the jealous people of tech crunch,and just move forward in your new
career and enjoy it. Robert
Smart. Beautiful. Loves Tech. Speaks Spanish.
I am in love. Te amo!
Will you marry me?
I forgot to add USC grad :)
Good for you, Natali! I haven't seen you on Univision yet. I will have to check it out.
Keep up with the good work - I love Loaded and your insightful commentary that you have after each story.
Your fans are right; most of your detractors do that sort of thing as an extention of their negative lives. One even went so far as to say they should give him a show so he can learn Swahili! For him I say, "get a couple degrees" (I read your about), "get several years experience in reporting in various venues," (I've seen you here and there) "and then wait for someone to ASK you to do a show in Swahili. Oh, you don't speak any Swahili? Why am I not surprised?"
Keep up the good work. No need to tell you, I know you will.
I used to work in a room with seven Hispanics from various origins and learned to 'understand' spoken spanish; still can't speak it very well and I had no real trouble with your report. You'll get to a point where it will flow easier and the 'accent' will fade and your detractors will still be jerks.
Forgive an old man, but I do have to agree that, in addition to being an able reporter and video presence, you are very attractive.
Enjoy your day!
I'm liking Nasty Natali (with or without apron) ;-) It's about time reasonable human beings communicated to the sexists and misogynists in the tech community that their behaviour - both on-line and in public places - is unacceptable.
I add myself to those who think that you did a great job, dont let this get on to you, you can improve, so what? big deal, that leaves room for self improvement, nobody begins running without falling first.
Take Care and good luck, i was TexTra viewe BTW, now i watch Loaded
Wow!!! Nice changes to your website! Well, while reading my rss feeds, I noticed you got real nueva-yorican giving trolls a peace of your mind. Good! First you take over NYC,get east-coast chic and then start broadcasting in espanol? Way to grow!!!
All I can say is whatever. >=\ There will always be people out there that are looking to say something bad. To quote The All-American Rejects song, "when all you got to keep is strong Move along, move along like I know ya do" ^-^
Best of Lucky!
Natali,
you did a great job challenging yourself, don't listen the ones that are always criticizing: you'll never be ok for them.
Just think about yourself, your editor and, most of all, your audience that supports and loves you.
Best,
Francesco
Seriously...I strongly advice not messing with a Latina like you!! My teacher used to tell me that when elephant walks, 20 dogs might bark behind him/her but it doesn't look behind. So you keep up the good work...let the dogs bark...I suggest doing billion better things in life than thinking about those 20 dogs...
cheers
best luck..
I think ur badazz no matter what language you speak! Remember that for every one little critic there is out there, you'll always have us, the gazillion fans that think ur way cool.
Natali, don't worry about those stupid comments.
Think of it on the positive side: there's no such thing as bad comments. Having no comments would be worse...it means nobody reads you.
But anyways, don't let those people change your mood.
Love from Mexico.
Hey, Natali. While you don't have the accent of a native speaker, that in no way inhibits the confidence you give off in reporting technology, so ignore them and keep up the good work and hope you feel welcome in NYC with the rest of us New Yorkers.
your loaded show is great. your rant is hardcore and real. don't apologize to cowards.
[...] Uncategorized Muchisimas gracias to everyone who wrote me encouraging sentiments about my Univision post last week. That post was somewhat of a catharsis and after I published it, I resolved to keep [...]
Natali, te deso lo mejor en Univison; yo se que el publico hispano te va apreciar por tu talento y dedicacion en tu medio.
cuidate mucho y te deso nada mas y menos que excito.
As a full-fledged ABC living in the Bay Area - Okay, so I'm also an Ethnic Studies major - I definitely understand your frustrations at the whole notion of "passing." In a word, it's ridiculous. It's never fair and it doesn't often add value to any one thing even if something does "pass." Jessica Alba's been a hot topic of "What's Latina?" before, and reading her responses made me actually interested in her personality for the first time.
Do whatchoo gotta do. I don't speak Mandarin, but the rest of the world will always see me as some sort of Asian anyway, so who cares?
...Good blog. I just found you today. :)
Well, I don't speak Spanish, but the words out of the language that I do understand, I was able to pick up perfectly when you spoke. You're doing an awesome job, and as you said, you will improve over time. Cheers to that!
Allen
Puertorriqueño aquí!
Sincerely, I'm very proud to see a "boricua" progressing on the US.
Good Luck!
It's easy to criticize when nobody can see you. Those of you who can present a show better post links to your shows.........(total silence).
Speak Spanish, Japanese, Italian, Irish we don't care but don't stop because of some halfwit in his moms basement who is scared to talk to more than one person.