Boy Scouts go after Hispanic market with Spanish-language Handbook

Juliana Barbassa of the Associated Press offers this (bolding added):

The Boy Scouts are making their debut "en espanol," with an advertising campaign launched Thursday and a soon-to-come Spanish-language Scout Handbook intended to draw Latinos to the ranks of the nearly century-old organization.

The Spanish-language campaign, called "Valores para toda la vida," translated as "Values for life," includes television, radio and online spots that speak to the nation's largest minority in their language.

The outreach is intended to keep the Scouting movement relevant and growing as the country's cultural landscape shifts... ...The country also looks different than it did 30 years ago...

Of course, what Barbassa says contradicts the frequently made claims about Hispanic assimilation; if that weren't an issue no one (outside people like Nativo Lopez) would call Spanish "their language". See the immigration tradition fallacy summary for more on that. And, while there are assuredly millions of Hispanics in the U.S. who aren't fluent in English, the great majority of those are illegal aliens, the citizen children of illegal aliens, elderly family members of legal immigrants, and so on. On the other hand, the great majority of citizen children of legal immigrants will be English speakers. Which calls into question who exactly the Boy Scouts see as their target market. And, rather than encouraging cultural separatism, the Boy Scouts should be encouraging assimilation by having just one Guide.

Fri, 10/09/2009 - 20:03 · · Importance: 4