Transcript
Peter Padilla
Vice President/General Manager, Azteca America Television and KREN-TV, Reno
Seņor Torres brings up some very good questions and comments about the young children in Hispanic society today, but I think that it is important that a lot of us realize that a lot of Hispanics are born in the United States like I was, and many of us are treated the same way as if we were immigrants when in fact, we have generations upon generations of family that have lived in the United States. I lived in Arizona and I am originally from Colorado but when I got to Nevada, a lot of folks told me that when I am in Nevada, if I wanted people to think that I've been there for a long time, I pronounced the state "Nevada" as opposed to "Nevah-da". And what is interesting is that "Nevah-da" means "snowed upon" in Spanish and it is pronounced "Nevah-da" so I believe that "Nevah-da" is really the proper way to pronounce the state because that's the way it was pronounced 150 years ago. Like Judge Gutierrez and his wife, I think it is important for Hispanic youth and we as Hispanic adults to set good examples, not only for our own culture but for all of the Americans that are not Hispanic so that we can talk about the positive contributions that we make to society. Many people do make positive contributions and we need to focus on those things. Certainly, we have problems within our own culture but we contribute in many ways: in the Armed Forces, we have outstanding Olympic athletes, we have professional football players and basketball players, and we've contributed to many ways to make society better. And when people talk about bilingual education and what my viewpoints are on that, I do believe that anybody who does not speak Spanish should learn how to speak Spanish.
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