Democratizing Technology To Enhance People’s Lives Around The World!

By ADRIAN BARRERA
Cronkite News Service

GUATEMALA CITY _ Gabriel Biguria started Amigo Latino video conferencingcompany five years ago with one office in Guatemala and another in San Francisco.

“It’s basically a business quality service, but what we’re doing is democratizing access for families, so we’re using technology for something good,” he said in Spanish.

Families can go to nearly 40 offices in Latin America, including Guatemala, Mexico, Honduras and Ecuador, and connect with their relatives in more than 10 major U.S. cities, including Chicago, New York and Los Angeles, Biguria said.

He hopes to open an office in Arizona next, he said, because tougher restrictions are making it harder for family members to cross the border to see one another.

“We have more people that are calling us who are really looking for our services over there,” Biguria said. “We are right now working on identifying the right spots and the right partnerships to set up shop in Arizona.”

Amigo Latino offers a half-hour session for $40 and an hour session for $80. Printouts of digital pictures and a DVD of the teleconference cost extra.

Business in Guatemala is booming, said Eduardo Calderon Lopez, 19, who administers Amigo Latino’s central office in Guatemala City.

“Guatemalans have become very grateful for our services because they have had family members leave to the states not knowing how they’re doing over there and worrying about them,” he said.

People are usually nervous when they come to Amigo Latino, Calderon Lopez said; they just don’t know what to expect. But by the time they leave, they “cry of happiness,” he said.

The reunions are sometimes comical and always joyous, he said. “They’ll make comments saying, ‘Look how fat you are, look how skinny you are.’ And, they’re overcome with joy.”

He said he has witnessed teleconferences during which people have met relatives for the first time — grandparents who are introduced to their U.S.-born grandchildren and men who left their pregnant spouses behind when they went to the United States and are seeing their child for the first time.

Occasionally, people who have met online will use the service in order to get to know _ and see _ each other better, Calderon Lopez said.

But “mainly people who haven’t seen their family members in many years, like 10 years, are the ones who constantly use our service,” he said.

By ADRIAN BARRERA
Cronkite News Service

GUATEMALA CITY _ Pricila kept trying to explain to her two young children where their father had gone.

He went to the United States to work, she would tell them. No, he wouldn’t be home today, and not tomorrow, either. But he would come home some day.

“I had to be strong in front of them … I had to swallow my own tears so the kids wouldn’t cry,” said Pricila, who didn’t want to give her last name because her husband is in the United States illegally.

The first 15 days were the worst _ 15 days during which she didn’t hear a word from Feliciano. And then the news wasn’t good. Feliciano had been caught trying to swim across the Rio Grande and was sent back across the border into Mexico.

It was a month before he finally made it into the United States, first finding his way to Houston, then to Los Angeles and a job.

For the next three years, Pricila and Feliciano would communicate only by telephone. Feliciano promised he would visit, but the trip was too dangerous, and both grew tired of waiting.

A few weeks before Pricila’s 33rd birthday last year, Feliciano told her that he had found a way for them to see each other again. She should go to a place called Amigo Latino and bring the children and the rest of the family, he told her. They would be able to talk and see each other over a large-screen TV.

Pricila said she didn’t really understand how this high-tech meeting would work, but she was willing to give it a try.

It turned out to be more than she could have hoped for. Seeing her husband again was a relief for her, but a revelation for Jeffrey, 9, and Merilin, 5, who was too young when he left to remember her father.

For them, the teleconference brought their father to life.

A few months later, when Feliciano arranged for a second video conference at Amigo Latino, this time on his 33rd birthday, Pricila eagerly agreed.

So on the morning of Oct. 20, Pricila, her children, and nine other relatives _ Feliciano’s mother and father-in-law, two sisters-in-law, four nieces and a nephew _ piled into a van and drove 20 minutes from their home in Guatemala City to the agency.

At Amigo Latino, they were ushered into a sparse meeting room and sat quietly before a 55-inch television screen, staring at their own reflections in the dark screen. [Read more →]

By LEAH DURAN
Cronkite News Service

LOS ANGELES _ Feliciano left his home in Guatemala late one night while his son and daughter were sleeping.

He kissed them both, held his wife one last time and wiped the tears from her face. She watched him disappear around the corner, bound for a bus that would take him north across Mexico toward the United States.

It was a dangerous journey - and an illegal one.

Three times, he tried to swim across the Rio Grande, and three times, he was caught and sent back to a Mexican border town.

On his fourth attempt to cross the border, Feliciano joined a group of 15 other men, some of them from his hometown. A coyote took their money and squeezed them into the back of a pickup truck that was so cramped Feliciano could barely move.

His leg was caught under another man’s body, and when the men were finally allowed out of the truck, Feliciano stumbled and fell. The pain extended from his ribs to his left leg, and he could barely walk. But he did it anyway. Hopping on one leg and supported by others in the group, he traveled for nine hours through the desert.

At one point, he fainted. “I woke up and started crying because I thought I was going to die,” Feliciano said in Spanish. “I was thinking about how to say goodbye to my kids, my wife, my parents and the rest of my family if I didn’t make it, and I prayed to God not to let me die.”

Feliciano didn’t die. He eventually made it to Houston and then to Los Angeles, where his brother lives. He took the first job he could find _ as a seamstress in a large clothing factory.

Finally, he thought, America would give him everything he had always wanted: money for the basics, education for his children, a future.

What it did not give him was his family.

For three long years, Feliciano would not see them. And when he finally did, it was on a widescreen 55-inch TV in the offices of Amigo Latino, a teleconferencing service that connects families in Latin America and the United States through broadband television.

The first time Feliciano used the service was Feb. 24, 2007, on his wife’s 33rd birthday. That hour cost him $80, but it was well worth it, he said. He determined to save for another teleconference on his own 33rd birthday in October. [Read more →]

In our ongoing quest to address some of the major issues surrounding cross-border immigration and the needs of millions of families, AmigoLatino had the opportunity to collaborate with the students of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University and the “Divided Families” project.

DIVIDED FAMILIES: AN IN-DEPTH REPORTING PROJECT

A young mother whose son is already beginning to forget his father. U.S. children abandoned in a Mexican orphanage. Two men who have searched for their missing brother for years. Border patrol agents who toil miles from their families.
These are the some of the people whose lives and whose families are divided by the U.S.-Mexico border.
The line drawn between Mexico and the United States has always meant divisions that go far beyond geography or nationality. For many years, families have lost loved ones to distance and the desert, to the pull of new lives and the rejection of old ones.

This is more true now than ever. As it has become more difficult to cross the border _ legally or illegally _ it has become increasingly difficult for families to stay together.

It was with this in mind that that a group of advanced students in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University set out to do a semester-long reporting project in fall 2007. Seventeen students _ reporters, videographers and photographers _ made more than 30 trips to the border, deep into Mexico and to various parts of Arizona to find and tell the stories of divided families. To read more click here:

At AmigoLatino we are constantly been asked by the majority of our mainly Hispanic customer base, who we think will be the best presidential candidate for the Hispanic population in the US. And although we think we have a good idea, it is still not clear if they will really be willing to “walk the talk” if given the opportunity. Therefore we are still evaluating what the candidates have to say about such an important topic.

Just right now, we heard from our good friend Juan Guillermo Tornoe, from Hispanic Trending, who just had the opportunity to interview Senator Barack Obama about his perspective on Hispanics in general:

Interview by Juan Guillermo Tornoe

A few days ago I had the privilege to receive Senator Obama’s answer to questions specifically regarding Latinos, their values, their culture, their importance to his candidacy. A very special thank you to all of you who made it possible.
Hispanic Trending: What similarities do you see between “Traditional” American Values and Hispanic Values?

Sen. Barack Obama: The challenges that Hispanics and all Americans face have been constant over the last twenty years – health, education, and economic insecurity. We need new leadership in Washington that understands the challenges working people and minorities face in this country.

I think most Americans share the same values, hopes, and aspirations, and the same struggles. Dr. King repeated often that our separate struggles – that of Latinos and African Americans – are really one. He would say that an injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. It means that the Civil Rights Movement wasn’t just a movement of African-Americans, but Latino Americans, and white Americans, and every American who believes that equality and opportunity are not just words to be said but promises to be kept. (to read more follow the link to Hispanic Trending)

Reportaje de AmigoLatino en Telemundo:

Una tecnologia que esta uniendo a miles de familias por el mundo, vea como fue esa experiencia para una familia guatemalteca.

Ya sentados en las oficinas de AmigoLatino hasta un segundo era mucho esperar, y es que esta pareja guatemalteca estaba ansiosa de ver a sus cuatro hijas. Ellos dejaron Guatemala hace 7 meses y hoy por primera vez estan viendo a travez de esta pantalla no solo a sus hijas, sino a otros familiares que dejaron atras….

Reportaje de AmigoLatino en Univision

Y es una conección de amor de larga distancia esta vez desde Los Angeles hacia Guatemala, por un abrazo de mamá. Ustede no puede perderse estos emotivos reencuentros…

Mientras hay tantas personas, tantos niños, tantas madres, que no harian por darle un abrazo a su mamá? Pues sabe que ahora la distancia no es un problema porque aunque no podamos palpar ni siquiera la temperatura de nuestros seres queridos, por lo menos si podemos ver sus rostros y oirlos directamente, por lo menos para las familias Guatemaltecas de Los Angeles que gracias a la tecnología, pudieron despertar emociones intensas en una sala de video conferencias…(vea el video con la historia completa)

Ana Maria immigrated to the United States to seek better opportunities for the two young children she left behind in Guatemala. Coming from a tight loving family, Ana says that maintaining the special bond of family is one of her most important priorities. Moreover, one of the major traditions in her family has been to celebrate their birthdays together.

Therefore, as her first birthday away from those she cared the most about was approaching, she wondered if there was a way to keep their yearly tradition alive. As Ana searched for an option, a close friend told her about Amigo Live
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, AmigoLatino’s live family video conferencing service in Los Angeles, where she could see her kids again. So Ana immediately called to learn about the service and scheduled an appointment. When the day of her birthday finally came, she was able to enjoy the unique experience of a virtual reunion, filled with happiness and excitement, where the whole family from Guatemala, including her two kids, celebrated and serenaded her with a song of
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“Las Mañanitas“.

How do you feel after seeing your kids live?
It was an incredible and fulfilling experience to be able to see them and to share together my birthday with them. It gave me warmth to my heart being able to know that they are growing healthy and are receiving everything they need from my efforts of working here in the U.S.

Do you think this conference will make your family bonds stronger?
Definitely!! I was able to see that my kids were behaving properly just like I taught them now that they live with my mother. I can also check on them and see how they are doing in school, if they are getting everything I send them once in a while. I can also show them that they have a mother that cares for them more than anything else and that soon we will be together again.

In a scale of 1-10 how would you rate the experience?
A perfect 10!! Seeing my kids in real time, smiling, laughing! That is the best birthday present I can ask for. This is priceless and I will definitely be back to share more birthdays together through this wonderful service

Esther J. Cepeda -

Magnolio Palacios hadn’t visited his family in Guatemala in more than two years.

And Palacios, his wife, daughter and nephew were happy, and a little nervous, to finally come face to face with their loved ones - - including a baby boy they’d never met.

But their jitters fell away when they stepped into a cozy video- conferencing room where, on the screen, their family waited to see them. The first words out of Palacios’ mouth?

“Mira-vengo puro Osos!”

He said, “Look, I came dressed in all Bears clothes,” just as he would had he been bursting into his mother-in-law’s house in their native city of Quetzaltenango .

Palacios, 52, watched as wife Gladys Figueroa, 44, daughter Helsy Palacios Figueroa, 26, and nephew Wilfredo Figueroa, 19, all Jefferson Park residents, tearfully chatted with Gladys’ mother, Virginia, two sisters, Erika and Magdali, 3-year-old Angeles and 1- year-old Luis Emilio about how good they looked, what the families were up to — and whether the Bears would win the Super Bowl.

The Palacios-Figueroas are among the estimated 10 to 15 families who go to Amigo Latino, 3655 W. Lawrence, every week to visit with family members at the firm’s offices in Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, El Salvador and Colombia. These are visits often limited by money, immigration law and time constraints.

$40 GETS 30 MINUTES

[Read more →]

AmigoLatino, la empresa que conecta a los Latinos en los Estados Unidos con sus familiares en Latinoamérica en vivo y en directo por medio de la inovadora tecnología de video conferencias, está muy entusiasmada en anunciar su nueva alianza con el grupo Ultra Telecom de México, por medio de la cual ahora las familias Mexicanas podran beneficiarse con el muy anticipado servicio de video conferencias familiares Amigo Live.

Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) 11 de abril de 2008 – AmigoLatino, la empresa que conecta a los Latinos en los Estados Unidos con sus familiares en Latinoamérica en vivo y en directo por medio de la inovadora tecnología de video conferencias, está muy entusiasmada en anunciar su nueva alianza con el grupo Ultra Telecom de México, por medio de la cual ahora las familias Mexicanas podran beneficiarse con el muy anticipado servicio de video conferencias familiares Amigo Live.

Amigo Live, el servicio de video conferencias de AmigoLatino que reune a las familias cara a cara, en tiempo real y a bajo costo, ahora está disponible en , Mexico en las ciudades de Puebla y Aguascalientes. Gracias a una alianza con la empresa Ultra Telecom, uno de los principales grupos de medios de comunicación de México, y su equipo de ejecutivos visionarios, las familias de Puebla y Aguascalientes ahora ya pueden reunirse en vivo y en directo con sus seres queridos en los Estados Unidos por medio de la alta tecnología de las video conferencias.

“Tenemos un fuerte compromiso con nuestra comunidad, así que estamos muy entusiasmados de nuesta alianza con AmigoLatino para ofrecerle este valioso servicio a las miles de familias y grupos comunitarios en Puebla y Aguascalientes, que tienen parientes y contactos en los Estados Unidos”, comento Arturo Zorrilla, vicepresidente de Ultra Telecom, que se encarga de supervisar el proyecto Amigo Live.

“A través de nuestra iniciativa para democratizar la tecnología de video conferencias de alta calidad a bajo costo para los mercados más necesitados, miles de familias han podido disfrutar de la presencia visual en vivo y en directo de sus seres queridos en el exterior. Es realmente la experiencia más cercana a poder estar allí con ellos “, Dice Gabriel Biguria, fundador y CEO de AmigoLatino. “Estamos muy entusiasmados de nuestra alianza con Ultra Telecom, una empresa líder mexicana, con aspiraciones globales y que comparte nuestra visión y la pasión de servir a nuestras comunidades y países, por medio de la democratización al acceso de la tecnología.”

[Read more →]