• The U.S. Hispanic population grew 29% between 2000-2007 and is now over 45 million.  That's 15% of the total U.S. population, and larger than Canada.

• 60% of Latinos were born in the U.S.
• 65% of Hispanics are of Mexican origin and 9% are Puerto Rican.

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Westerners see empty space in a design as a void, while the Japanese think empty space offers possibilities.   Consider the Japanese view when designing printed marketing materials that will be produced in several languages.

White spaces allow you to avoid formatting problems when you produce the translated versions.  If your text has expanded (see earlier post on Translation Tips:  Will the translation fit in your layout? Part 1), you won't have to resort to reducing the font size, which can make your copy difficult to read. 

For translations, remember that less really is more.

Some rights reserved. Photo by Masaaki Miyara. 

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Hispanic newspapers are showing that the discussions on the demise of newspapers as we know them may be premature.  NY Al Día, a Spanish-language daily, will be launched in New York on April 20th.  The newspaper will have an initial circulation of 20,000, and will be on sale at 1,800 places in New York and New Jersey.

New York already has a daily Spanish-language paper, El Diario La Prensa, the oldest Hispanic daily in the U.S.  Can Hispanic newspapers continue to thrive when most mainstream publications are losing circulation?

You're just about finished with the edits and tweaks on your brochure.  The next step is to have it translated.   Before you do, remember that when English copy is translated, the text expands.  More words will be needed to communicate your message in many other languages.  Does your layout have room for this expanded text?

As a rule of thumb, when English is translated into Romance languages (French, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish) the number of words will increase by 20-25%.  One of the easiest things you can do to make sure the translation fits is to edit the English text before it is translated.  Adjectives are great, but get rid of them if they're not essential.

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Photo by peppergrass. Licensed under Creative Commons.

Baseball may be known as America's pastime, but its players have come from more than 45 countries.  On Opening Day last year, 28% of the players on major league team rosters were born outside the United States.  The Dominican Republic was represented by the most players - 88 - followed by Venezuela with 52 players. 

The Dominican Republic has sent close to 500 players to the show, beginning with Ozzie Virgil who played for the Washington Senators in 1932.  The San Francisco Giants added the first player from Japan, Masanori Murakami, to their roster in 1964.

Cuba had a professional baseball league beginning in 1878, and the teams had 10 players on the field.  Cuban teams fielded two shortstops, with one playing between first and second bases.  Between 1947 and 1961, the Cuban League partnered with Major League Baseball, and the league was used for player development until professionalism was outlawed by Castro.

 I'm rooting for the Calcetines Rojos.  What's your favorite equipo de béisbol?

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