The visibility of newly settled Mexican residents in the Gulf states, in addition to the long-resident Honduran, Ecuadorian, Vietnamese, Thai and Cambodian communities, prompted someone at the EPA to realize that non-English speakers also need information on the BP oil spill.  I received this press release this week from the White House.

“WASHINGTON – As part of the ongoing federal response to the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, EPA today launched a Spanish language Web site to inform the Spanish-speaking public about the spill’s impact on the environment and the health of nearby residents. The Web site – http://www.epa.gov/espanol/derramebp – will contain data from EPA’s ongoing air monitoring along with other information about the agency’s activities in the region, frequently asked questions and fact sheets.

EPA is also translating information into the Vietnamese language to reach the population along the gulf coast.

All of the data EPA collects from its air and water monitoring will be posted to http://www.epa.gov/bpspill in English along with links to more information on the spill and the government’s response. Spanish updates will be provided regularly.”

(Photo of Thynara Ohm, Cambodian fisherman in Venice, LA)

Viral marketing in action -- the rise of the Dominican hair salon

Being half black and half Puerto Rican, I've got what we call kinky, nappy, or as Spike Lee and Chris Rock have documented, "bad" hair.  I've spent many Saturdays in my 51 years in black hair salons.  Dad was the 5th black man to work at all of IBM (another story), so my mami had to keep her hair straightened as part of playing good corporate wife.  As soon as we girls hit 8-9 years old, we stopped getting braided -- and on special occasions, hot combed -- and progressed to our first chemical straighteners.

The salons doing our hair in the 50's and early 60's were only found in black neighborhoods.  I remember that after each of the IBM relocations of my childhood, the first car trip with Mami was to find the black part of town and a salon for us.  Then in the late 60's when we moved to PR, where we went to my aunt Hilda's salon.  In the 70's, home straightener kits arrived, and we girl cousins all did each others' heads.  The eighties' saw the black salon moving out to the burbs.  The nineties and early 2000's ... just watch "Barber Shop" and "Beauty Salon" and you'll get some flava.

The 2000's have seen an interesting change; the advent of the Dominican hair salon. Dominican women began immigrating in serious numbers in recent years.  Dominicanas, boricuas, bajans and other down-island women culturally prefer long hair, a near impossibility with hair-weakening home straighteners.  With life-long experience straightening Caribbean hair with African and indigenous thickness, they went looking for work in black hair salons.  They were generally turned down for not speaking English.  So they began to open their own salons.  

"Las domincanas" charge at least 25% less than the typical $70 - $80 we pay for straightening anywhere else, and churn out about 50 heads of bouncing tresses a day with only 4-5 hardy stylists.  Oh, and of course they do lots of "wraps" or "doobies." 

Like the Korean and Vietnamese nail salons preceding them, the owner is the only one needing English.  It's all cash, which suits the largely under-banked clientele just fine.  I don't yet know if they use something akin to the Koreans' "kye" (rotating credit associations), funding each other.  At the moment they are mostly found on the east coast, but as African-American women start to hear about them via the "Sistahs' Salon-seeking Network", las dominicanas are expanding further west.  And of course, these salons are now the harbinger of the arrival of an industrious dominican community into a city near you.


Here's how the salons work Long healthy hair advisor


Here's the Sistah's salon-searching network in action Dominican salons locator


And here's the process (note the rock en español in the background.)  

What's wrong with this picture?

What isn't wrong?

(1)     " Éxito Aquí " translates to "Success Here".  So, if I speak Spanish, will I succeed in my life endeavors if I leave the coffee line in an orderly fashion? 

(2)     The sign is a mess.  I wonder what it looks like behind the counter?

(3)     This came to me from 3 different sources the same day ... a viral sensation that may not do wonders for Starbuck's social media branding campaigns.

Oh, there is one thing that's right with this picture.  The sign is orthographically correct, with the accents in the right places ...