Transcript
Peter Padilla
Vice President/General Manager, Azteca America Television and KREN-TV,
Reno
Señor 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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