Best of Both Worlds
Alumna Launches Spanish-Language Magazine
By Meghan Noé
Photo by Jason Todd
Johanna Buchholtz-Torres remembers when the United States had virtually no Spanish-language television or radio shows, no phone prompts to hear selections in Spanish, and certainly no mainstream magazines in Spanish. In recent years the number of Hispanics in the country has skyrocketed, making up more than 13 percent of the U.S. population and representing $600 billion in spending. It's no surprise, then, that publishing and advertising targeting this segment of the population are on the rise, too, says Buchholtz-Torres, editor-in-chief of Siempre Mujer, the first Spanish-language lifestyle and service publication for Hispanic women living in the United States.
While at BU, Buchholtz-Torres (COM'89), a native of Puerto Rico, realized that her language and cultural heritage helped her stand out among her classmates. After graduating she chose to write about Hispanic personalities and sought jobs in Hispanic television and radio community programming. When approached with the opportunity to launch Siempre Mujer, she jumped at it.
"I got the chills, and I still do, when I talked about it," she says. "As a Hispanic woman, a reader of magazines, and a consumer of media, I knew that this was some-thing that was missing in the market."
And it appears that she was right. The New York-based bimonthly, launched in September 2005, has received such a positive response that publisher Meredith Corporation, which also puts out Better Homes and Gardens and Ladies' Home Journal, has upped its pages and plans to increase the print run from 350,000 to 375,000. The only magazine in the Hispanic market with a bigger circulation is People en Español.
"These women were lacking information along the lines of family, home, and self-development," says Buchholtz-Torres. "Meredith Corporation saw a void and understood that Hispanic women who have been here for ten years or less are in an in-between world, because they are in between their country of origin and assimilating to the American culture. They weren't getting the information they needed to navigate both of these worlds."
Siempre Mujer - the name means "always woman" in Spanish - hopes to help Hispanic women breach the divide by focusing on topics that are important to them, such as home décor, fashion, food and entertaining, parenting, culture, fitness, and finance. All articles attempt to support Hispanic women in preserving their roots and culture, Buchholtz-Torres says, while encouraging them to adjust to America.
"To me it's a great thing if you can take the best of both worlds and put them together, because it puts you at a great advantage, and I have been a living example of that fact," she says. "One thing we felt very strongly about was making sure that the tone in which we address these women was very positive and empowering. We give these women credit for what they have accomplished, and we see the potential for what they can still do here."