Spanish-language Media: SB 1070 Education

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Spanish-language media across Arizona are uniting as “Hoy Somos Arizona” (Today We Are Arizona) to present a 30-minute program designed to educate and prepare Latino viewers for the forthcoming Supreme Court ruling on SB 1070. Abigail Duarte of “Mi Familia Vota” talks about the program that will be shown statewideJune 20th at 5pm .

Ted Simons: Close to 2,000 Spanish media outlets will participate in what's being described as "roadblock programming" tomorrow afternoon. This to address concerns in the immigrant community regarding the possibility that the United States Supreme Court might uphold Senate Bill 1070. Joining us now is Abigail Duarte, Deputy State Director for Mi Familia Vota, which took the lead in organizing this media campaign. Thanks for joining us.

Abigail Duarte: Thanks for having me.

Ted Simons: Public awareness initiative. What are we talking about?

Abigail Duarte: Let me tell you how this started. We're talking about 23 media outlets that came together less a month ago. You can see it was a very quick initiative that started, and they started thinking, "Okay, we as individuals and also as media outlets we have a responsibility with our community to have them informed. What is the best way we can use our resources to actually make this happen?" So it was a consensus to make these programs, a 30-minute program, to be aired tomorrow.

Ted Simons: Was it difficult getting all these folks together? You're talking about a lot of competition.

Abigail Duarte: Actually it wasn't. We were very surprised that all the media outlets were very happy to participate. They were very open. When we asked them to come to the table, we were very surprised. We started talking to a couple of them, then we thought the meeting was going to be around 10 to 12 people and we had more than 25 people on the table.

Ted Simons: What kind of information will this program present?

Abigail Duarte: Well, like you were mentioning, it's a roadblock. It's going to be a 30-minute program. The 30-minute program will be aired on all the media outlets. The 23 media outlets that are participating including TV, radio, and also it's going to be live on the Internet. It includes information, a little bit of history about proposition 187, also how SB 1070 is now on the Supreme Court. What to expect with the decision. It also includes information about the four key sets of the initiative, of the law and what does that mean. Also includes a little bit of know your rights segment that a civil lawyer is going to be talking to them, letting people know what are their rights and what they can do. Regardless of what the decision comes out to. It also because of the Spanish media has been covering these things two years ago very closely, they have seen the effect it has on the Hispanic community, so they are doing an interview with a Latino family that has been affected by SB 1070. Finally we're having a live phone bank. We're very excited about it. We have trained volunteers that will be covering live the phone bank so we can answer questions for the community.

Ted Simons: I understand the goal here is to avoid panic in the community once the Supreme Court makes a decision if the Supreme Court goes ahead and agrees with the state. Is there a potential for panic? Among folks?

Abigail Duarte: Well, there is. People don't know what to expect with the decision. Obviously the decision hasn't come up yet, so people are a little bit afraid and there's uncertainty of what's going to happen. They wanted to address that as well. To give the community as much information as possible of what's going to happen, what could happen and what are their rights so there's no panic out there. 11

Ted Simons: And as far as the information is concerned, how did you figure out what to present? What are the most common questions broadcasters, you, anyone, what are you hearing out there? What's the major concern?

Abigail Duarte: People exactly don't know, don't understand the law, how it's going to work or how it's going to work. They don't know exactly what it says or how it's going to affect them. How it's going to affect their families. For example there's a person here undocumented but their family is a citizen or legal permanent resident they don't know how this law is going to affect the whole family.

Ted Simons: Is it presented in a way, you can talk about the fact there will be a phone bank and an interview and profile of a family, but is there dramatic acting here? Is it more like a news program? Is it a sit-down, different shots? How do you do that, A, and B, how do you do that to where it's good television and also good radio, different mediums?

Abigail Duarte: It was definitely a challenge, but everybody was very open to participate, so it covers different parts of the story. So with interviews it goes with segments giving out information, so it covers a lot. It's always repeating with the number that we're giving out for the phone bank is going to be repeating constantly so people listening to the radio can actually feel that they are watching live.

Ted Simons: And also get answers to their questions.

Abigail Duarte: Definitely.

Ted Simons: Yeah. Broadcast is tomorrow at 5:00 p.m.?

Abigail Duarte: Yes, from 5:00 to 5:30. It's going to be a roadblock. They can tune in either the TV, the radio, or it's going to be live as well on the internet at www.hoysomosarizona.com

Ted Simons: That's hoysomosarizona.com right? Everything lives forever on the Internet as you all know so we can watch it. Last question. How will you know that this particular effort worked?

Abigail Duarte: Well, we have different organizations that are a part of the effort as well. Some of the organizations are going out into the community about the different issues. Encouraging people to get registered to vote, of course getting people out to vote. That's one of the things that we're going to be filling out the community by talking out to them. Obviously ratings. Obviously the phone bank. You can see phone bank how many people are watching or listening to the radio.

Ted Simons: But that's a good point. This is also a registration effort and a get out the vote effort.

Abigail Duarte: Definitely. The media has been very open. Since several years now they have been encouraging the community to be more active, to get if they are eligible to register to vote, to go out and vote. This message is obviously to give people all the information that they need to make the right decisions for their family and to have a united message.

Ted Simons: Very good. Good to have you here. Thanks for joining us. We appreciate it.

Abigail Duarte: Thank you.

Abigail Duarte:"Mi Familia Vota";

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