Category — AmigoLatino Info

It is not everyday that we find movies that are so close to what we stand for at AmigoLatino, the importance of the family unit and the real issues that many broken Latino families go through as a result of their migration to the north.

In the movie Under the Same Moon by Fox Studios, Executive Director Ligiah Villalobos, “says she wanted to explore the theme of abandoned children, a subject that became painfully real to her when her parents split up when she was 3 years old”. This is exactly one of the main issues we attempt to address at AmigoLatino, by democratizing access to affordable face-to-face video conferencing services, to allow families to keep in touch.

According to the Chicago Tribune’s review, Tracking both sides of story when immigrant family is split, “several of the film’s most memorable characters are nameless illegal immigrants shown struggling to reach el norte or, once there, struggling to make ends meet financially and not be sent back to Mexico. Reading over the script during pre-production, Riggen “suddenly discovered that all these characters have one thing in common.” “All these people risked their lives crossing the border, leaving everything behind, for love,” says Riggen, who was born and raised in Guadalajara, studied film at Columbia University and has lived in Los Angeles for the last several years. “For love of their families who they’re going to go reach, for love of their families who they leave behind and send money to. But it always has to do with love and family.”

Enjoy it and let us know if you like it!

I wanted to share a cool video application that I discovered through one of our favorite blogs, Techcrunch.

“Animoto lets you grab photos from Flickr, Facebook, Picassa, Smugmug, Photobucket, or your desktop. You can then upload a DRM-free song or choose from about a hundred licensed tracks on the site. It then does its magic and matches the photos to the music, “mimicking the post-production done by professional video editors,” says CEO Brad Jefferson. I mashed together some old Fllckr photos from a trip to Korea and a visit to HP Labs, added an Electronica beat, and the video above is what came out.”

See one of our AmigoLatino sample videos:

For more info about the post see the Techcrunch article
Source, Erick Schonfeld at Techcrunch

Thanks to our good friend Juan Guillermo from Hispanic Trending for sharing this video. Guaranteed to make you laugh so enjoy!!!

Amigo Live’s family reunions, story of the week
By Francisco Rendon

Nervousness and excitement were the feelings Norma Judith Perez was experiencing the day she was going to meet her boyfriend of 5 years, Aurelio Ixcot. But this time it was not one of the regular dates they used to go on in her native town of Quetzaltenango in Guatemala: the usual walk in the park in the afternoon or going to a party. After two years of being physically apart, Aurelio in Trenton New Jersey and Norma in Guatemala, and only keeping in touch via the telephone; today they were having a virtual date, face-to-face, thanks to the video conferencing services of AmigoLatino. During their highly emotional virtual conversation, both cried and laughed, and then at the end of their hour-long meeting, Aurelio took Norma by surprise by popping the big question, if she would agree to marry him? Although shocked, Norma took a couple of seconds to breath and then, to Aurelio’s relief, immediately cried out YES!!!!!!

Here are some of their comments about their experience connecting through Amigo Live, AmigoLatino’s affordable video conferencing service:

Q: How long was it been since you last saw each other?
A: It has been a little over 2 years that we have been apart, ever since I left Guatemala to come to the USA to work

Q: What did you to keep in touch during this time?
A: We talked over the phone on a weekly basis only (sometimes more)

Q: What were the emotions you were going through before your Amigo Live video conference today?
A: A lot of emotion including nervousness, excitement and happiness that I was going to finally see my girlfriend again

Q: Would you recommend the Amigo Live service to others?
Definitely!!!! It is worth every penny and it’s the best way to keep in touch with the ones you love the most. This service beats phone calls because I get to see her and talk to her at the same time. I will be returning every month now.

This meeting via Amigo Live took place between the Trenton, New Jersey office of Comunicaciones y Envios and AmigoLatino’s office in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala. For more information visit us at www.amigolatino.com

By Kari Richardson, Kellogg World, Kellogg School of Management

Reaching the right audience
Though most 21st-century companies realize ethnic marketing is more complicated than casting an African-American in a commercial spot or posting a sign that says “se habla Espanol,” many still struggle to find the right way to reach their core audiences.

Focus groups can be an effective tool for getting inside the consumer’s head, but research methods must be sensitive to cultural variations. In-home visits can uncover insights that subjects are unwilling to share in larger groups, but Rodriguez says researchers must understand why, in some cultures, people are uncomfortable sharing personal information or buying habits with a researcher who is outside their ethnic group.

Building a racially inclusive workplace, he suggests, is a good way to start tapping into the multicultural marketplace: “You can’t reach multicultural consumers unless you have diversity in the workplace. It’s not about casting. It’s about cultural insights and cues.”

But even marketers with their feet firmly planted in one culture sometimes have to work to understand all of its nuances.

A first-hand witness to the dramatic family separations wrought by migration to the United States, Guatemalan-born Gabriel Biguria ‘96 founded AmigoLatino to connect Hispanics living in this country with their family back home. Customers, who pay $40 for a half-hour live videoconference, use their time to wish someone a happy birthday, gaze at an infant’s face for the first time, or say farewell to a relative who is seriously ill.

From the beginning, Biguria struggled to explain his service to a dubious, tech-wary clientele.

“My Kellogg friends didn’t even believe this type of videoconferencing was possible,” he says. “Imagine a family that comes from the countryside in Guatemala. I had to hit on the right wording to describe it to them.”

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AmigoLatino le da la bienvenida a nuestro nuevo afiliado en la ciudad de Filadelfia en el Instituto Católico para la Evangelización. Gracias a la iniciativa y generosidad de Jim Delaney y su esposa Jacki, las familias Hispanas y amigos de la Arquidiocesis de Filadelfia ahora ya pueden aprovechar el servicio de video conferencias familiares de AmigoLatino para reunirse con sus familiares y amigos entre los Estados Unidos y Latinoamerica. Muchas gracias por su apoyo y adjunto el articulo del periodico Catholic Standard & Times:
(Izq. a der, al fondo) James Coffey, Jim Delaney, Mons. Hugh Shields, diácono Abel Osorio. (izq. a der, al frente) Theresa Scanlan, Hna. Amelia Breton y Jhoselyn Martínez durante una demostración de videoconferencias en el Instituto Católico para Evangelización el miércoles 5 de marzo.

Por Sabrina Vourvoulias, Redacción del CS&T

Una mujer Guatemaltecaguatemalteca en los Estados Unidos conversa con su madre que está a medio continente de distancia. Las manos en movimiento, formando palabras de noticias, de amor, de la distancia temporalmente salvada. La conversación es posible sólo porque ambas se pueden ver en la pantalla, en una videoconferencia. El don de la tecnología puede hacer posible lo que antes era imposible, por lo menos para los que tienen acceso a la tecnología. Y ahora, gracias a la visión y el compromiso de una pareja católica de la parroquia San Juan Vianney en Gladwyne, Jim y Jacki Delaney, y de la Oficina del Vicario para Católicos Hispanos, el acceso a la tecnología en forma de videoconferencia pronto estará disponible a todos los que de otro modo no pudieran costearlo.

«Es la Iglesia tratando de alcanzar» dijo Jim Delaney el miércoles 5 de marzo, cuando se hizo una demostración de la tecnología en el Instituto Católico para Evangelización localizado en 4404 N. de la Calle 5.

Delaney, un ejecutivo de negocios jubilado es miembro de Papal Foundation, fideicomisario del Seminario San Carlos Borromeo y administrador en San Juan Neumann.

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Por: Gabriela Segovia - El Periodico, Guatemala

“Mijito”, “no lo puedo creer”, “mírese usted cómo está de grande”. Esas y otras expresiones de emoción son las que se viven diariamente en las oficinas de AmigoLatino, una empresa que conecta a personas que residen en Estados Unidos con sus familiares en Guatemala y en toda Latinoamérica, a través de la tecnología de videoconferencia.

El creador es Gabriel Biguria, quien desde hace seis años trabaja por un solo fin: unir familias. El servicio funciona como un canal privado de televisión por el cual las personas pueden hablarse y verse en vivo. Con oficinas en toda Latinoamérica, esta innovadora empresa hasta el momento ha beneficiado a más de 10 mil familias.

¿Qué lo motivó a emprender este proyecto?
– Yo trabajé en varias empresas de tecnología en San Francisco, California. Decidí que era el momento de empezar mi propio negocio y de enfocarme en resolver algunas de las necesidades que existían y que nadie estaba resolviendo dirigidas al mercado hispano. Estando allá pude ver la cantidad de familias emigrantes que siguen llegando a Estados Unidos. Estas pueden llamar por teléfono o enviar dinero, pero muchísimas no han podido regresar y, por ende, no se han podido ver con sus seres queridos. Para nosotros los latinos lo más preciado que tenemos es la familia.

¿Por qué la idea de las videoconferencias?
– Yo ya había usado y conocía muy bien esta tecnología que es bastante cara y compleja. Entonces mi meta fue crear un servicio que fuera accesible para las familias y que permitiera ayudar a todas estas personas que no se han podido ver en 5, 10, 15 o 20 años, de una manera sencilla, cómoda y económica, con toda la calidad de una videoconferencia corporativa.

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Welcome to AmigoLatino’s information central, where you will get first hand information about our innovative services and how they are impacting the lives of thousands of families around the world. Below you will enjoy a brief video mix to give you a flavor about what we do at AmigoLatino!

Amigo Live
http://www.flickr.com/photos/amigolatino/2333852798/
is AmigoLatino’s live video conferencing channel that helps bring families and communities together (like affordable telepresence for the family market). Amigo Live makes it possible for thousands of distant families to reconnect live and maintain those essential family ties, regardless of distance - “it is the closest thing to being there with them!”

The best thing about Amigo Live is that it is both affordable and easy to use and provides unique memorable experiences to those that use it. Moreover, it is available through a comprehensive network of offices in several of the main cities in the U.S. and Latin America (see our coverage).

The following video coverage of AmigoLatino by CNN helps to illustrate the relevance of our services to under-served markets

Amigo Compras
http://www.flickr.com/photos/amigolatino/2333871862/
is AmigoLatino’s new shopping channel, providing our customers with convenient access to the best deals from the leading retailers in the U.S. and Latin America. Through our dedicated shopping assistants, customers will find the latest deals on the best products and services for the home and the family.

Through Amigo Compras, AmigoLatino also strives to democratize the benefits and savings of e-commerce, to those that are new to the Internet or simply do not have convenient access to it. As a result, customers can conveniently interact in person with one of our shopping assistants at any of our AmigoLatino centers, to help them with their all of their shopping needs. Moreover, AmigoLatino can also assist with the payment and delivery of products whenever customers are not comfortable or do not have the proper payment vehicles to purchase online.