Se habla español – Part 3
As we mentioned in Post Number 15, Hispanics prefer to be addressed in Spanish by advertisers.
But what kind of Spanish are we talking about?
Don’t cubanos and costarricenses and colombianos and chilenos speak different versions of the language?
To say nothing of panameños and paraguayos and puertorriqueños and peruanos?
It's Tuesday the 13th? Yikes!
Churchy LaFemme, the mud turtle who was one of the principal characters in cartoonist Walt Kelly‘s satirical comic strip Pogo (1948-1975), was as superstitious as a summer day is long — so much so that he would panic whenever he discovered that: “Friday the 13th come on a Tuesday this month!” (Or on any other day of the week, for that matter).
As it turns out, though, for Latinos Friday the 13th does come on a Tuesday, because in Spanish-speaking countries, Tuesday — not Friday — the 13th is traditionally considered to be the day of bad luck.
Do you see the problem?
People in Latin America are forced to face the purported hazards of Tuesday — though not Friday — the 13th, while non-Hispanic folks in the U.S. and Canada need to navigate the perils of Friday — though not Tuesday — the 13th.
We bicultural U.S. Hispanics, however, must contend with both.
So, you know, yikes!
