New Spanish-Language Parenting Magazine Has Local Accent

The first Spanish-language parenting magazine in California begins publication this month in Orange County and surrounding areas, and by doing so taps into one of the fastest-growing markets in the state.

Su Familia, or Your Family, arrives on the heels of its sister publication, Su Bebe, or Your Baby, which launched three years ago in Los Angeles and now circulates in the Inland Empire and Orange County.

Su Bebe is aimed at pregnant women and mothers in the first year of their child’s life. And Su Familia takes on broader topics, with upcoming issues covering home buying, affordable health insurance and job opportunities.

“Hispanic women’s No. 1 concern is their family,” said Laura Lentz, publisher of both magazines and president of Multicultural Communications Inc. based in Los Angeles.

“They are very much like the Anglo family of the 1950s, and when I decided to do this project I did lots of research into how we would have to appeal to that population,” she said.

The two magazines help parents navigate the bureaucracy of hospitals and health care, education and available community resources. Su Familia, to debut on Jan. 27, will be distributed free at health clinics, doctors’ offices and public schools throughout Orange County as well as in the Inland Empire and the counties of Los Angeles and San Diego. The magazine will be slightly different in each area to provide local listings of health-care related events and resources.

But the same articles will run in all editions. And all story ideas are generated by surveying and talking with the members of the Latino communities.

The Same Issues

“Many of the issues they face are the same any mother faces,” Lentz said. “Their children go through the same developmental stages and have tantrums like everyone else’s.

“But how they handle problems is culturally different.”

An upcoming feature on caring for aging parents, for example, will emphasize sharing the burden between family members and include a list of community agencies offering assistance with elder care. It will not, however, have a list of nursing homes attached to it. “Hispanics have to work and to care for their children and to care for their parents the way we all do, but they handle it differently,” she said.

Although the magazines are free, the publisher anticipates that it will be a profitable venture. So far, major advertisers range from local hospitals to large corporations such as Huggies Diapers. Lentz added that she anticipates a lasting following in both readers and advertisers because of the burgeoning Latino market.

The number of Latinos in Orange County, for example, has increased so dramatically over the past decade that it stands as the fifth-largest in the country, according to 1997 data, the latest available from the U.S. Census Bureau. And an extensive UCLA study released last December showed that Latinos make up a third of Los Angeles urban areas, and where there are high rates of uninsured people.

“We think [Su Familia] is absolutely vital,” said Martha Jimenez, executive director of the San Francisco-based Latino Coalition for a Heathy California, a statewide public policy and advocacy group. “There’s clearly a market for it. . . . It’s very critical that we focus on what people can do to better their health and how to ensure they live healthy lives.”

Once Su Familia hits the stands, it joins a cadre of other Spanish-language publications that have cropped up over the past decade. One of the most noted national magazine is Ser Padres, which means Being Parents, a Spanish-language counterpart to the mainstream Parents Magazine launched in 1990.

But what makes her publications different, Lentz said, is that they strictly target the Southland readers, offering local information and issues directly relevant to their communities.

“I really believe you have to reach the Hispanic community in a local way,” she added.

To do so, the magazine discusses global issues on a practical and relevant manner.

A recent edition of Su Bebe informed new mothers that babies should sleep on their backs to minimize chances of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, gave definitions of gynecological terms used during pregnancy and outlined the benefits of breast milk for infants.

“I love that magazine and our patients really enjoy it because it has so many resources and referrals,” said Lupe Viramontes a health worker at the Clinic for Women in Santa Ana, an outpatient department of Western Medical Center.

The clinic provides counseling and parental support for about 80 new patients monthly, about 85% of whom are Latina.

“When we’re running low, we give Su Bebe only to patients who I know are going to read it,” Viramontes said.

Distributed Quarterly

The first edition of Su Familia includes information about the state’s Healthy Families insurance program and a feature on teen pregnancy. Another story will address the pain many Latinas working as nannies feel when they bond with children here while often, their own remain in another country.

Pina Hernandez, a public health outreach coordinator, distributes about 12,000 magazines quarterly to government-subsidized clinics in Los Angeles and Orange County.

“I think that overall there hasn’t been a magazine to address the needs of the population the way this one does,” Hernandez said.

“Not enough credit was given to the Hispanic population before, but now it is seen that there are more than just immigrants with low skill types of jobs--people are more educated and reading Spanish at a higher level.”

Su Bebe is published biannually and Su Familia will be a quarterly publication.

Lentz began targeting Latinas after publishing a baby magazine in English three years ago that was distributed to hospitals and clinics. The magazine was good, health care workers told her, but it needed to be in Spanish.

Research showed that 115,000 Latino babies were born in Los Angeles County, compared to about 30,000 Anglo babies.

“Here was the largest Hispanic parenting market in the country and they didn’t have anything in their language to help them acclimate,” Lentz said.”

She was warned not to try.

Marketing mythology said that Latinos don’t read and that the endeavor was doomed.

“When I was deciding to do this project, I would go to the clinics in the heart of East L.A. or sit in the Glendale Memorial Hospital and all the moms would be looking through the English[-language] magazines and really trying to read them.”

The first publications did stumble.

“Before we wrote in English and translated--that doesn’t work,” Lentz said.

Also the articles were too long and the magazine lacked compelling photographs.

“Now we do all our own photography, and we also use Hispanic cartoonists,” Lentz said.

The staff of 11 even accommodates advertisers by writing slogans in Spanish and then translating them to English so clients understand them.

The changes were noticeable.

“Those kinds of details matter,” Hernandez said. “If the Spanish isn’t good, it tells you that people don’t really care for your language.

“But I give them high marks for what they’ve accomplished.”