Hispanic Enterprise - December 2007/January 2008 - (Page 9) ELECTRONICS: PERSONALIZED LAPTOPS Why would you want a red laptop, one splashed with graphics, or one emblazoned with your company’s logo? Lots of reasons, but a biggie, according to Oscar Zapata, is to prevent it from getting stolen. A purple computer or one decorated with a popart image is too easy to spot. Thieves prefer the anonymity of a plain silver laptop. Zapata, 25, started his first computer distributorship at 18, and quickly learned that being an entrepreneur means going the competition one better. Many vendors will customize a laptop’s inner components—as Zapata’s company, NVousPC, also does—but Zapata’s outfit customizes the outside at the same time. Check it out at www.nvouspc.com and see how you can upload any design or solid color you want for each part of your new laptop. You’ll be shown online exactly how it’s going to look. SNIPPET TRENDWATCH Latino small businesses in the United States increased from 500,000 to 860,000 over the past five years, and represent the fastest growing sector in the country. —Yaisha Vargas, latino.msn.com for AP Mexicans living in the United Status can purchase medical insurance much more economically in Mexico compared to what they would pay for a private American policy. The average annual price for medical insurance for a U.S. family in 2007 was $12,105, according to a study by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Education and Research Fund. Mexicans, on the other hand, could acquire the so-called Family Health Insurance of the Mexican Institute for Social Security (IMSS) for a maximum $266 annually per person. TRENDWATCH HEALTH CARE COSTS The cost of providing health-care benefits to employees increased by an average 5.3 percent in 2007, less than the 7.9 percent increase in 2006 and the lowest increase in nine years. —Victoria Knight, AP COME BACK TO MEXICO For all of Mexico’s perennial charms to American tourists, problems have surged that are keeping many away. Enchanting Spanish colonial cities and amazing Mesoamerican ruins, the stunning beaches and mountains, churches and museums, the food, music, dancing and fun are being overshadowed by a crime wave, political unrest and pollution that drive tourists elsewhere. While the government is making an all-out effort to correct the problems— even deploying the army to fight drug gangs—the Mexico Tourism Board is working on the area’s image. The board is preparing a $40 million campaign with intent “to promote the benefits of travel to Mexico among the general market and Hispanic market in the United States and Canada.” Mexican tourism officials have selected the Miami-based Hispanic ad agency Machado/Garcia-Serra, known for its work for such clients as Toyota, CocaCola and Florida Power & Light, as the agency of record for media planning and buying in the United States and Canada. The new campaign launches in the U.S. February in TV, print, radio and Internet. —Conrad Dahlson 9 ENTERTAINMENT CROSSOVER GAME There must be an entrepreneurial formula in a new game being sold in Texas that can be applied in many other fields—because it’s making a killing for its inventor, Cristina Sosa Noriega. She took the time-honored game of lotería from Mexico, the land of her forefathers, and imported it. She calls her version My Lotería. “I wanted to make a new version but for people like me—people who are equally proud of being American and proud of their Mexican roots,” Noriega told Celina Alvarado of the Laredo Morning Times. For those unfamiliar with lotería, it has 54 different cards with images which Noriega either updated or reinvented. She says she included things that were familiar around her Texas neighborhood, like the lowrider, an accordion and more. And an icon that is traditionally “la bandera” she modified to make it “las banderas,” featuring the Mexican and American flags together. To complete the crossover, there is an English translation on the back of every card. Noriega’s creativity has produced more than 200 different My Lotería products, according to the Laredo Morning Times, including ceramic platters, stoneware plates, mugs, grilling accessories, aprons, oven mitts, pot holders and tableware line of melamine plates, bowls, serving trays and acrylic glasses. My Lotería is available at H-E-B stores around Texas. HISPANIC ENTERPRISE December/January 2008 http://www.nvouspc.com http://latino.msn.com
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