In 1998, I lived in El Paso, TX (one of my sisters lived there with her military husband & kids, and a visit turned into an almost 4-year adventure), and I worked at a boutique PR agency concentrating on Hispanic media. (My maternal grandparents, by whom I was raised, were 2nd generation Puerto Ricans in Hawaii, and the Spanish Language was a constant in our home on Oahu.) While on an edit for a client, one of my friends - a videographer/editor with whom I worked on occasion named Mario - was editing a short project unrelated to me, and I saw this beautiful, sharp, captivating young woman on a raw clip of video he shot. I asked "Who's that girl? She's incredible..."
Turns out the girl, named Karla Martinez, was a Junior at the Univ. of Texas at El Paso studying broadcast journalism. She was from Chihuahua, Mexico, and everything about her loved the camera. Her English wasn't great, but the way I saw it, she sounded just like the average guy on the street in El Paso - the U.S. city with the highest concentration of Spanish language speaking folks around. Around the same time, Mario & I were developing a magazine-style entertainment/lifestyle show for TV. "Do you think she'd work with us as a co-host?" I asked Mario. We were young, idealistic, and with access to a Betacam SP camera and Toaster editing suite (this is way before FCP or Media 100), we thought nothing could stop us.
Karla, along with Daniel Lujan, Julio Ortiz and Naomi Alvarez made up the ensemble cast of on-camera hosts, along with my friend & co-executive producer, Wendy, and the show got picked up by the regional FOX affiliate as a primetime lead into its nightly news. It was an amazing experience. (Ask me about Karla and Enrique Iglesias one day...)
We've all moved on, and I'll never forget that anything is possible when you've got real talent - both in front of and behind the camea. And I'll always recall the talented Karla Martinez. (She frustrated our talent manager, who handled wardrobe. "She's a size 1 - do you know how hard that is to outfit?!").
Nowadays, Karla Martinez is an international mega-star in Hispanic media, as one of the co-hosts of the world's #1 most-watched morning news show "Despierta America." According to Spanish Language network Univision, the show's enormous popularity has translated into impressive ratings. "Despierta America" has a higher Hispanic viewership than ABC's "Good Morning America," NBC's "Today Show," CBS's "The Early Show," and Telemundo's "Cada Dia" combined. On average, it delivers 95% more Adult 18-34 viewers and 33% more Adults 18-49 viewers than the combined viewership of ABC, NBC, CBS and Telemundo. "Despierta America" is also the #1 morning show in Los Angeles, Miami, Houston, Phoenix, and Fresno among all Adults 18-34 viewers, that's all Adults, not just Hispanics. It is also the #1 morning show among all Adults 18-49 viewers, regardless of language, in Los Angeles (tied with GMA and KABC), Phoenix, and Fresno.
Watch a sample of Karla's work nowadays at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liux6tluAIE
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CHAGALL'S PASSIONS 2006 A Melnikov СТРАСТИ ПО ШАГАЛУby eus347234 views
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