Carlos Terán

Man Bridges Communities
Melanie Mayhew
The Daily Progress
December 29, 2005

"He planted 'nuevas raíces' new roots - in Charlottesville hoping to unite the growing Hispanic community in Central Virginia.

Three years later, those roots have spread throughout the area, linking Hispanics to one another and to a predominantly Englishspeaking community.

Carlos C. Terán's job as Charlottesville regional manager of Nuevas Raíces, the first Spanish newspaper in the Shenandoah Valley and Central Virginia, is the basis for his tireless work in the Hispanic community, said Diane Taylor, who with Terán is working to produce a bilingual TV show, 'ZONA LATINA,' which is scheduled to air in 2006 on ABC-16.

Terán, 56, is a pillar of the Spanish-speaking community, said Taylor, who is also a marketing specialist for the Charlottesville Transit Service. Terán wears many hats: he is his newspaper's regional manager; a journalist who shoots photographs and writes articles for Nuevas Raíces; associate producer and co-host of 'ZONA LATINA'; a certified massage therapist; and a husband and father of five children in their 20s and 30s.

'He has definitely made a very important contribution to not just the Hispanic community, but to the community at large,' Taylor said. 'He's a business leader [who is] always connecting people to other people.... He's able to bring people together and that's one of his real strengths.'

Terán is the 'Hispanic ambassador for Charlottesville,' she said.

Pablo Davis, who directs the South Atlantic Humanities Center at the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, has known Terán personally and professionally since Terán moved to Charlottesville.

Terán 'somehow seems to be everywhere he needs to be,' Davis said. Terán routinely appears at Latino soccer games and at University of Virginia events, Davis said.

Rhonda Miska, a social justice and Hispanic ministry coordinator at the Church of the Incarnation, has seen Terán salsa dancing and, on separate occasions, sitting around a table with a legal pad planning to improve things for the Hispanic community.

'He gets the job done, but knows how to have a good time,' Miska said.

Terán makes a noticeable difference, Davis said.

'He is where the community is,' said Davis of Terán. 'He is a bridge-builder, and that bridge is not just from Latino to American culture, but to cultures of Latin America.'

His goal, Terán said, is to unite the Spanish-speaking culture, teaching its members to respect all cultures that fall within the 'Hispanic' category. He also aims to teach Hispanics to successfully blend into American culture. Terán collects and translates information from businesses and government agencies and circulates it through the Hispanic community.

'We need to teach our people from Latin America how to behave themselves here and how to integrate into the American culture,' Terán said.

One of his sons, Jesus, 30, frequently accompanies his father to community and business meetings to sometimes translate for the elder Terán. Although Terán speaks both Spanish and English, American colloquialisms and some English vocabulary evade him.

Terán believes that 'if you lead a [good] life, you have an opportunity to help others,' said Jesus Terán.

The elder Terán built a life for himself in his native Venezuela. But he moved to Miami from his native country 15 years ago to run a company he had worked for in Venezuela. Later he was a medical administrator in Miami until the editor of Nuevas Raíces asked Terán to come to Virginia to help in developing the newspaper.

Now that Terán has found a place in Charlottesville, his home has become 'Terán Central Station,' Jesus Terán said. His father's cell phone rings constantly.with requests for assistance from Spanish-speaking Charlottesville-area residents.

'If anyone calls him ... he's always willing to help,' said Dilcia Colindres, a Hispanic advocate and counselor for abused women at the Shelter for Help in Emergency.

Terán has been a stalwart supporter of a Latino roundtable that he and dozens of other Charlottesville leaders have been developing that will expand outreach to the Hispanic community, said Peter Loach, deputy director of operations for the Piedmont. Housing Alliance.

'At all levels of society,' Loach said, 'he's in touch with the Latino population in all of their activities. ... He's trying to build bridges, and he's doing a great job. We need more people like him.'"

Spanish lessons
Nuevas Raìces joins community newspaper market
Cville Weekly
http://www.c-ville.com/www/archives/2005/01-18-2005/asp/3.asp
January 18, 2005

As the state’s Hispanic population has grown, the press has changed with it. Nuevas Raìces, a Spanish-language weekly from the Shenandoah Valley, is distributed in Charlottesville now, too.

“Nuevas raìces” means “new roots,” which the paper’s staff thinks aptly describes a goal of Central Virginia’s Hispanic community: to cultivate a new beginning. As Carlos Terán, who represents the paper in Charlottesville for both the business and content sides, says, “We immigrants left our countries and came to Virginia, and we left our roots at home. We want to grow new roots here.”

The newspaper dates to July 2001 as the brainchild of Gerardo Pandolfi, the owner-editor. Originally from Uruguay, Pandolfi moved to Harrisonburg and found his new community without Spanish-language media. In short order, he collaborated with Terán. Nuevas Raices began with a circulation of 2,500 copies in the Valley.

Now circulation is up to 12,000 issues per week. The paper comes out every Thursday and is distributed through stores like Food Lion and Kroger. In Charlottesville, restaurants likePapusa Crazy, Mamma Mìa and Café Cubano also carry Nuevas Raìces.

The stories tend to focus in some fashion on integration issues for Latinos new to Virginia and the United States. Most leading news focuses on American politics as they relate to the Latino community. Roberto Gonzalez’s nomination as U.S. Attorney General was a front-pager on November 18, for instance.

Other articles have instructed readers on how to fill out income tax returns and how to help reduce the chance of breast cancer in women. There’s job news too, and listings for such resources as the Virginia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and the Refugee Resettlement and Employment Office in Norfolk.

Inside, there are regional columns dedicated to news in Charlottesville, Harrisonburg and Winchester, along with local Hispanic success stories, news about the Mexican Football Federation and an Aztec horoscope.

Nuevas Raìces is further indication that Virginia is becoming a top destination for many Spanish speakers. According to the U.S. Census, the number of Hispanics in Virginia grew by a whopping 112 percent between 1990 and 2000, increasing to 329,540 from 155,353 .

Five percent of Virginians are now Hispanic. Demographic trends strongly suggest that the upswing in the Latino population will continue—the U.S. Census Bureau expects Hispanics in the state to double in the decade to come. Carlos Terán figures the circulation of Nuevas Raìces will follow the trend. “There are two types of immigrants that come to Charlottesville,” he says, “people who are looking for a new way of life and migrant workers. Both groups need a newspaper to read.”—Kelly Quinley