Living in the United States and being constantly bombarded by T.V. and radio with shows made for people with a taste in low quality programming is rather difficult. These shows have a purpose: Sell, sell, and sell. The people who create these shows many times forget about the social betterment of the Latin American community. It's rather humiliating to our people and our culture. Major networks like Univision, who is seen nationally, offers us every weekend a special weekend movie that is rather shameful. Besides them offering some old movies, these movies are of the lowest quality that the Mexican film industry offered to us in the 80s. Despite this fact, they are still shown over and over as years go by. Now let me talk about their daily programming. Their gossip show, El Gordo y La Flaca, is a program based on the "superstars" of Televisa's soap operas, many of which are recycled from the 80s, as well as focusing on the 1001 regional Mexican acts. It's repetitive, insulting, and just awful. Primer Impacto? Trash! This is one of the biggest offerings of yellow journalism and sensationalism that I have ever seen. It not only insults the intelligence of the U.S. Hispanic population, but that of all Latin American countries. They always seem to present some of the most negative stories coming out of these countries. Cristina, their #1 talk show, is just a ridiculous program. One only needs to have common sense to see that this show just has a bunch of "experts" that are looking for nothing more than their 15 minutes of fame. They sensationalize and misinform many especially those who are easily trapped by this show and think it's the #1 source of social guidance. All of this for what?

Could all this change somehow? It was a question that I always thought was never going to change until a few weeks ago I received from Andrea Alvear of Intercultural Niche Strategies, Inc., a copy of March's programming schedule for HBO's new channel: HBO Latino. I must say that I was truly surprised and interested in this. At the same time I thought that this maybe one of those few limited times when something would change. I once again received the programming schedule for April and saw the same wonderful programming from the previous month. This couldn't be a hoax. The magic continued. The programming not only entertains the viewers, it also educates, and it puts you in situations that have never been seen on the 2 national Hispanic networks. "The Latin viewers form a major and important part our audience," stated Bernadette Aulestia, director of HBO Latino. "With this service, we not only want to provide a bigger amount of television to Hispanic television viewers, but we want this to truly show a reflection of the actual community in the United States. "It's a little sad that this channel is not accessible to all Hispanic viewers in the U.S.; still it's an excellent alternative to those who can see it. This makes me happy to see a channel like this. At the same time it makes me think. How is it that a U.S.-based company can see that the U.S. Hispanic population is growing and changing, and at the same time find a way to educate without losing sight of having to make a profit? This a sample of the programming for April on HBO Latino: