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Sí TV Co-Founder Among Advertising Age “Marketing 50”

Posted by Elena del Valle on January 31, 2006

Jeff Valdez

Jeff Valdez, chairman and co-Founder of Sí TV

Los Angeles, California – Jeff Valdez, chairman and co-Founder of Sí TV, the first English-language Latino cable network, was named one of Advertising Age’s 2005 "Marketing 50."  Sí TV was the only TV Network to make Ad Age’s "Marketing 50" list thanks bold and creative marketing initiatives such as branding Time Square’s Naked Cowboy (a troubadour who roams the area in his briefs, cowboy hat and boots), parking a taco truck directly outside an MTV event, and recruiting Segway scooter teams to roam the National Cable Television Association convention area while wearing video screens which promoted Sí TV.

"I am very pleased to be honored by Advertising Age,” said Valdez.  “We have worked very hard to make Sí TV the destination of choice for 18-34 multicultural viewers."  In less than two years, Sí TV has launched in several major markets including New York City, New York and surrounding areas; Los Angeles, California; Denver, Colorado; Las Vegas, Nevada; Detroit, Michigan; Fresno, California; Colorado Springs, Colorado; West Palm Beach, Florida; Wilmington, North Carolina; and Bakersfield, California.
 
Each year, Advertising Age editors select the most innovative and inspiring marketers who have successfully established or repositioned a brand. The honorees are marketers for a wide spectrum of products, services and ideas and are responsible for today’s hottest marketing success stories.

Sí TV is an English-language, Latino network featuring hip and culturally-relevant programming targeting the growing young Latino and multi-cultural TV audience. Voted by Multichannel News as one of the “2005 Top 10 Next Networks,” Sí TV is available nationwide.  The network has forged affiliation agreements with Comcast Cable, Adelphia, Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications and Echostar. Investors in the network include Time Warner Inc. (NYSE:  TWX), SYNCOM Funds, Columbia Capital, Rho Ventures, DND Capital Partners, EchoStar Communications Corporation (NASDAQ: DISH), Llano Partners and company co-founders Jeff Valdez and Barshop Ventures.  More information is available at Si TV

University of Miami Launches Cuban Affairs Journal

Posted by Elena del Valle on January 31, 2006

Jaime Suchlicki

Jaime Suchlicki, Ph.D., editor of Cuban Affairs

Photo: University of Miami

Coral Gables, Florida – The Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies (ICCAS) of the University of Miami recently launched Cuban Affairs, a quarterly, peer reviewed electronic journal which publishes articles on economic, political and social issues in contemporary Cuba. The journal will also publish book reviews and an updated chronology of events on the island. Editions will be published in January, April, July and October of every year for a subscription or membership price of $25 for individuals and $95 for institutions.

Jaime Suchlicki is editor of Cuban Affairs. Susel Pérez is assistant to the editor while Eric Diggs and Hans de Salas del Valle are assistant editors.  Juan del Aguila is book review editor, Kathy Hamman is copy editor and Eugene Pons is business manager.

One of the topics addressed in the first issue of Cuban Affairs is whether Americans should be allowed to travel to communist Cuba. The discussion is between the former chief of mission of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, James Cason and William M. LeoGrande, dean of the School of Public Affairs at American University. In the point-counterpoint article on travel to Cuba, Cason writes that lifting the ban on Cuban travel at this time would send the wrong message.

“Unilaterally lifting the travel ban at this historical juncture, at the end of a failed experiment, in exchange for nothing would be a major waste of U.S. leverage,” Cason wrote. LeoGrande, on the other hand, believes that the U.S. imposed ban on travel is “punishment for punishment sake” and does nothing to help promote democracy in Cuba.

Besides the pro-con debate on travel to Cuba, the English-language electronic journal’s first edition carries articles on the Cuba/Venezuela connection, Cuba/China connection, Cuba’s economic policy, and an analysis of Cuba after Castro by Brian Latell, former CIA director for Latin America and now a senior research associate at ICCAS.

Jaime Suchlicki is the Emilio Bacardi Moreau Distinguished Professor of History and International Studies and director of the Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies (ICCAS) at the University of Miami.  He directs the Cuba Transition Project sponsored by the United States Agency for International Development. 

He was the founding executive director of the North-South Center at the University of Miami.  For the past decade he was also the editor of the Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs.  He is the author of a dozen books on Cuba and Latin America.  His best-known books are Cuba: From Columbus to Castro, now in its fifth edition, and editor with Irving L. Horowitz of Cuban Communism, now in its eleventh edition.  He is also the author of Mexico: From Montezuma to the Fall of the PRI. Dr. Suchlicki is a consultant to the private and public sector on Cuba and Latin American affairs. Details about the new journal can be found at Cuban Affairs.