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Our NEW Voiceover Website for Producers of Hispanic Content!

July 31, 2017 by Rosi Amador

Meaningful Content For the Hispanic Market

¡Bienvenidos a Locuciones Bilingües Amador! Our brand new Spanish voiceover website, www.locucionesbilinguesamador.com, created for producers of Hispanic content, is now online! ¡Estamos encantados de anunciar que finalmente hemos lanzado nuestra nueva página web completamente en español, www.locucionesbilinguesamador.com!

Honoring our Mission

Amador Bilingual Voiceovers‘ mission is to be the foremost provider of Spanish and English voiceover services for clients who create content related to Hispanics and the Spanish language, and who serve Spanish-speaking markets. Being a one-stop voiceover shop for commercials and narrations in perfect neutral Latin American Spanish or North American English, our goal has always been to make our clients’ lives easier through every aspect of our business.

Getting the Word Out – Twice!

One of the most important pieces in building a voiceover business is making yourself known to the people who are looking for your particular skill set. Our new Spanish site enables us to connect with Spanish-speaking content producers in the language in which they’re most comfortable.

Paired with our new whimsical animated, 90-second explainer video, “Somos los Amador – La Familia Latina de Locutores Bilingües” (gracias to the talented team at the Boston University AdLab!), the new site lets us introduce our family of voices to anyone in the U.S. or Latin America looking for voiceover services in North American English, Hispanic-accented English, or neutral Latin American Spanish.

We’re also excited to announce that we’ll be posting the same informative articles you find here on our bilingual voiceover blog in Spanish on the new site moving forward.

It’s All About the Client

Having a wide range of services, languages, and voices to meet our clients’ needs is our raison d’être. Our fully bilingual staff (our studio manager, engineer and social media director are all bilingual, too) are always happy to help make your customer experience a pleasant one.

Let us know what you think of the new Locuciones Bilingües Amador website! Whether in English or Spanish, we invite you to read the latest blog post by Brian, Making Lemons into Limonada.

Haz clic aquí para leer este artículo en español.

What is Neutral Latin American Spanish?

May 4, 2017 by Brian Amador

One of the most frequent questions that producers ask us is: What is neutral Latin American Spanish and why is it important? In “The Importance of Marketing to Hispanics Online in Spanish,” author Walter Godinez explains that “Historically, the U.S. Hispanic population has been predominantly Mexican (2/3 of the population), and while these numbers are not changing dramatically, the diversity of 1/3 of the Hispanic population has increased.”

Many Countries, Many Types of Spanish

With the exception of Brazil, each country in Latin America has its own way of speaking Spanish, with differing accents, terms and slang. The variations in Latin American Spanish are analogous to the differences between American, British, and Australian English. While sharing a common language, residents of these countries express themselves in very distinct ways. George Bernard Shaw famously said that the English and Americans are “two peoples divided by a common language”. The same could be said of people from different regions of Latin America. A commercial produced in Puerto Rico, for example, using colloquialisms from that island, is not likely to be fully understood by people in Argentina. As a result, they would not be engaged by the content. By creating media that accurately reflects the language of the target audience, producers maximize the impact of their ads.

Universality Across Diversity

The changing Hispanic ethnic demographic is increasing the diversity of Spanish idioms spoken in the United States. To create content that effectively targets the wider Hispanic population, it is necessary to use language that crosses borders. That’s where neutral Latin American Spanish comes in. What distinguishes this way of speaking is that the accent is not recognizable as being from one particular country or region, and the vocabulary favors words whose meaning is common in all of Latin America. The universality of the language makes it accessible to the diverse U.S. Hispanic audience, regardless of their countries of origin.

Here at Amador Bilingual Voiceovers, the vast majority of our family’s voiceovers are in neutral Latin American Spanish, though we’re also called on occasionally for regional accents that reflect our origins. Here’s an example of my neutral Latin American Spanish narration for the visitors’ orientation video at the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the U.S. Senate in Boston. Gracias to our creative longtime clients, the Richard Lewis Group, www.rlmg.com, who specialize in planning, design and production of media exhibits and applications for museums and institutions in North America and around the world.

To read more about neutral Latin American Spanish, check out our post “Neutral, Standard, North American“!

Bilingual Voiceover and Marketing to Hispanics

March 19, 2017 by Rosi Amador

Our good friend and super-talented voice actor Doug Turkel recently shared this insightful article with us, “The Importance of Marketing to Hispanics Online in Spanish” by Walter Godinez, which ties in beautifully with our experience in our bilingual voiceover profession.
bilingual voiceover marketing hispanics
As Godinez explains “By the year 2017, the U.S. Hispanic buying power in the United States will equal $1.7 trillion dollars and by the year 2020 the population will represent almost 20 percent of the entire U.S. population.” These statistics show the increasing power of the Hispanic consumer and the increasing need for advertisements and e-learning materials to be in Spanish.

A Bilingual, Bi-Cultural Generation

As the Hispanic population in the U.S. continues to grow, the Spanish language remains important, both culturally and linguistically, to every Hispanic generation. While most Hispanics are bi-cultural, constantly shifting between English and Spanish, marketing that is authentic to Hispanic culture is the most effective way to reach the Hispanic population. However, authentic Hispanic marketing is more than just adding tacos and llamas!

As fluent or semi-fluent Spanish speakers, the Hispanic population in the U.S. appreciates accurately translated and voiced advertising that reflects their culture and identity. Making truly bilingual content targeting Hispanics requires an emphasis on quality in both language and content.

Growing Need for Content in Spanish

Producers of commercial content for and about Hispanics in the United States often hire us to voice ads that promote services and products to the Latino population. In addition, we’re frequently asked to overdub web videos, as well as voicing e-learning content for a Spanish-speaking audience. As the Hispanic population in the United States increases, the importance of educational materials in Spanish becomes necessary for the advancement of future generations. This growing group of people express themselves in both in English and Spanish. Nurturing their bi-cultural identities through bilingual content is a win-win for the producers and consumers.

Bilingual Voiceover Works Both Ways

Here is a bilingual TV commercial I voiced for Nevada Health. (Spanish spot immediately follows English spot.) In this instance our Spanish translation expertise also came into play to help the producer move away from a literally translated script to a more colloquial read that reflected the original English – one that matches how the Latino viewer actually speaks. Sometimes we’re asked to overdub from Spanish to English to make the message accessible to a U.S. audience. Either way, we’re honored that our work helps increase the reach of important messages.

To read more about the importance of bilingual content, check out Brian’s blog post “Two Sides to Bilingual“!

Honoring Cheech Marin

October 5, 2016 by Rosi Amador

CHCI Gala Awards Video Voiceover: Cheech Marin, Latino Role Model

Every now and again a project comes in that dovetails so perfectly with our mission of building cross-cultural bridges using our voices that I jump up and down for joy. This is definitely one of them. I had the honor and privilege of recording the voiceover for this video honoring actor, comedian, visual artist and activist Cheech Marin (of Cheech and Chong) for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute’s recent Awards Gala ceremony!

Click on the video to learn some secrets about Cheech’s interesting family roots, plus all he has done to break down cultural stereotypes, promote arts as a tool for social change and mentor Latino youth. He is truly an extraordinary role model, as CHCI asserts so eloquently in this video. I hope you enjoy watching it as much as I enjoyed voicing it.

CHCI’S Mission

For nearly 40 years, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute (CHCI) has forged a critical pathway to Educate, Empower, and Connect our nation’s future Latino leaders, creating a transformative and lasting Impact on Latino youth and our nation. Learn more at CHCI.org. It was my pleasure to collaborate with seasoned producers O’Keefe Communications, who really captured the essence of the honorees’ contributions and histories. I also voiced videos honoring Ana María Chávez and Arnaldo Avalos. The timing was perfect, as this awards gala took place during Hispanic Heritage Month.

Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month

As you may know, each year, Americans observe National Hispanic Heritage Month from September 15 to October 15, celebrating the histories, cultures and contributions of American citizens whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean and Central and South America. The observation started in 1968 under President Lyndon Johnson and was extended to a month by President Ronald Reagan in 1988. It was enshrined in law on August 17, 1988.

Two Sides to “Bilingual”

May 18, 2016 by Brian Amador

The growth of the Hispanic population in the U.S. (17.4% of the population in 2014) has brought with it an increased demand for Spanish and bilingual content in all genres of voiceover, from commercials and explainer videos to Elearning, corporate narration, promos and more. And the increase in demand has brought an expansion of VO talent offering services in Spanish, from eloquent native speakers to people who took a little Spanish in high school.

I think anyone serious about doing Spanish or English-Spanish bilingual voiceover work would agree that a person shouldn’t sell themselves as Spanish-speaking talent if they’re not able to speak the language fluently, expressively and with an impeccable accent. In this regard, there are obvious advantages to hiring talent who were born and educated in a Spanish-speaking country.

But it’s not an absolute necessity. There are U.S. born Spanish speakers who are completely bilingual – native speakers of both English and Spanish, and able to switch effortlessly between the two.

Fully Bilingual = Value Added

In my career as a bilingual voice actor, my standard when voicing in Spanish is exactly the same as in English: perfect, native pronunciation and expression. I find that sometimes being a native English speaker is as important as being a native Spanish speaker. Being fully bilingual has its advantages.

It’s important to recognize a bad translation and to be able to make suggestions for correcting it. Sometimes English expressions are translated directly into Spanish; being familiar with the colloquialisms in English can make it easier to find the best way to express them in Spanish.
Some translation problems are due to grammatical errors or ambiguities in the source text. Having a complete command of written English makes these errors easy to recognize and correct.
In overdubs, translation errors can be due to the translator having misunderstood spoken English words due to the speaker’s accent or dialect. Being a native speaker of English enables me to understand many different accents (although I still watch “Masterpiece Theatre” with the subtitles on!)
For projects that need to fit into a specified duration, having a full command of both languages makes it easier to adjust translations to fit in time and still retain the meaning of the source copy.
It’s an extra perk for the client to be able to use the same voice in English and Spanish, and for both to sound natural and conversational.

Quality is What Matters

Given the number of Spanish-speakers in the United States, and as a matter of principle, the standards for Spanish and bilingual voiceover should be every bit as high as they are for English. For producers of content in Spanish, as in English, it’s important to find voice talent that speaks the language perfectly, whether that talent is “domestic” or ”imported”. There are two sides to “bilingual”. In some projects, mastery of English may be just as important as mastery of Spanish.

Voiceover for Educational Justice

March 30, 2016 by Rosi Amador

**Rosi & Brian Selected for Spanish version of eye-opening documentary, Raising of America, on PBS**

Spanish Version of Raising of America

Brian and I recently had the immense honor of once again being chosen as part of a select cast of narrators to overdub a documentary in Spanish and raise our voices for educational justice. “Raising of America,” is an extraordinary and revealing 5-part documentary featured on PBS stations nationwide and online.

“We needed to fit the Spanish into the English perfectly. Rosi and Brian always paced their delivery so it matched as closely as possible and nailed it. They were also adept at matching the emotions of the original characters. Plus, these two are always on happy drugs!” –Sabrina Avilés, Spanish Version & Associate Producer, Raising of America’s “Wounded Places” segment.

Educational Inequity
Both Brian and I feel passionately that this is an issue that needs to be an urgent priority in the United States. This series addresses the questions of why so many children in America are faring so poorly and how might we, as a nation, do better.

One of Our Passions
While we frequently overdub web videos in Spanish, working on documentaries is a passion for us. We voiced many different characters throughout the five segments in neutral Latin American Spanish, from social workers and researchers to parents and doctors, which is always a welcome challenge as actors. Brian even got to be the voice of Vice President Walter Mondale!

Let Us Know What You Think and Share This
By blogging about this, we hope to inspire people to use The Raising of America as a tool to improve children’s well-being. Information is available at www.raisingofamerica.org. Please spread the word by sharing this with your friends. We’re thrilled to tell you that the full Spanish version is still available online at this link.

This series was produced by California Newsreel and Vital Pictures. Special thanks to longtime friend and awesome producer Sabrina Avilés.