MPR’s Jeff Horwich presents a Mainstreet Radio series looking at the growing role of Spanish in the Minnesota work place. The series continues with report on one large Minnesota company finding biligual workers are good for the bottom line.
For more and more Minnesota companies, learning to work in Spanish is a matter of necessity. Many meat processing plants, for example, have seen the Hispanic portion of their workforce grow to one-quarter, one-half, or more. For other companies, embracing Spanish is a business decision.
This is the second in a three-part series.
Click links below for other reports in series:
part 1: https://archive.mpr.org/stories/2001/11/26/spanish-minnesota-the-growing-role-of-spanish-in-the-workplace
part 3: https://archive.mpr.org/stories/2001/11/28/spanish-minnesota-a-bilingual-melrose-police-officer-is-building-understanding
Awarded:
2001 Minnesota AP Award, honorable mention in In-Depth - Radio Division, Class Three category
Transcripts
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NOEL SALAZAR: [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]
JEFF HOROWITZ: Noel Salazar is a musician and photographer from Bolivia. He speaks Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and French. For years, he traveled the world playing South American music. But for the moment, he's found a home in Brooklyn Center. He works in a call center for Fingerhut. From here, he talks with Fingerhut's strongest base of customers in places like Florida, Texas and California.
NOEL SALAZAR: For them, it's good to have some people working in their language because it's kind of hard to learn English. Yeah, they can understand better the information. They can buy more products.
MARTHA KRUSE: They are what we call the sweet spot of our customers.
JEFF HOROWITZ: Martha Kruse targets that sweet spot through Fingerhut's two-year-old Hispanic marketing department.
MARTHA KRUSE: I think in 1991, they started to call us in Spanish, and nobody knew what to do with these customers. So it was like a growing natural process, and now with the boom, I think it's growing really, really, really fast for Fingerhut.
JEFF HOROWITZ: Overall, Fingerhut sales were down nearly 40% in the first half of this year. But Spanish language orders keep on growing. Now, 17% of Fingerhut sales go to Hispanic customers. For 50 years, Fingerhut has established a successful niche by marketing to middle and lower-income people. Kruse says this experience gives them an advantage in the Hispanic market. They've entered into a special agreement with Univision, the largest Spanish language cable network in the us, and they'd like to expand their business south of the border.
MARTHA KRUSE: Hispanics are very, very loyal, and they tell their friends, and it's like word of mouth.
JEFF HOROWITZ: Bilingual customer service reps, like Noel Salazar, say telemarketing can be more pleasant work when a Latino is on the other end of the line.
NOEL SALAZAR: Latino American culture is very different. It's maybe more friendly. It's my view. It's more friendly, and you can talk easier with them because the American people are a lot more busy.
JEFF HOROWITZ: Fingerhut has 22 bilingual customer service representatives in Brooklyn Center and another 44 in Saint Cloud. Call centers in Tennessee and Arizona also have Spanish-speaking representatives, and a new facility in Puerto Rico has 130 bilingual employees. Even here in Brooklyn center, they've had no trouble assembling a crew from Mexico, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Chile, Peru, and Colombia, where Maria Lopez grew up.
MARIA LOPEZ: [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]
JEFF HOROWITZ: Lopez says the diverse group has had some work to do to learn a standard Spanish vocabulary.
MARIA LOPEZ: I call a customer, and I make a sale, she say in Spanish. I can buy it right now because I-- endrogada.
JEFF HOROWITZ: Endrogada, where Lopez grew up, that means drugs.
MARIA LOPEZ: And I was surprised. I said, oh, my god, what this lady is saying?
JEFF HOROWITZ: For the woman at the other end of the phone, this was just everyday slang that meant she didn't have the money. Lopez calls herself 85% bilingual. The other Hispanic call center workers are also well-educated and fluent in both languages. Martha Kruse brought an MBA to her job leading the Hispanic marketing division. She says if Spanish speakers hone their language skills, they may find jobs like these that pay a better wage.
MARTHA KRUSE: Well, it's hard. Language is really difficult. You have to learn the language. And also when you communicate on the business level, you have to be very good. I think it depends on the job you do. There's a certain expectation.
JEFF HOROWITZ: Noel Salazar hopes to return to a music career before long. In the meantime, though, he says he's glad to have a job here where his other skills are in demand. Jeff Horowitz, Minnesota Public Radio, Brooklyn Center.