Date: January 28, 2008
LISTEN (opens mp3 file in new window.)
Description: The segment is a profile on an undocumented worker who immigrated from the Yucatan. She talks about the challenges she had surviving in Mexico (even though her family owned land) as well as the challenges to finding work in the U.S.
Jill Shenker at La Raza Centro Legal helped me fine tune the pitch and contacted "Catalina" all while Jill was on her holiday vacation. She also spent over an hour translating the recorded interview with "Catalina." ¡Muchas gracias Jill!
During my script edit, I learned that a study shows that listeners feel that a reporter is biased when they pronounce foreign words as a native speaker would. So while I've been working hard to get rid of a gringa accent, I was asked to re-gringa-fy myself for this read. Thankfully, I didn't have to say "Tijuana" drunken fratboy style ("Ti-ah-wanna," ) and I could pronounce La Raza Centro Legal with the emphasis on the 'gal and not the le'. Still, I found the study interesting. I wonder if that's why the mispronunciation of Cesar Chavez proliferates.
Broadcast History:
Justice Talking
