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<> LA VOZ DE AZTLAN NEWS BULLETIN <>
<>.<>.<> Los Angeles, Alta California <>.<>.<>

August 29, 2003

Del Taco Corporation makes major mistake on their
"Tacos del Carbon" marketing campaign

The large "Gringo" owned taco vending chain of fast food restaurants has made a major "goof" on their expensive new campaign to market their "Tacos del Carbon". Apparently, their marketing department has no Spanish speaking Mexican-Americans.

We Mexicans love our "tacos al carbon" and have never heard of "tacos del carbon". We hope that Del Taco Corporation does not intend to sell us tacos with pieces of coal in them. "Tacos al carbon" refers to the fact the beef is grilled over hot coals. The "al" in "tacos al carbon" means the same as the often used French term "a la" which means 'in the manner of' or 'in the style of'. Del Taco in using "Tacos del Carbon" is actually saying "tacos made of carbon".

This expensive marketing campaign reminds us of the disastrous marketing campaign that Chevrolet Corporation made in Mexico and South America to advertise their "Nova" line of automobiles. They could not explain why their "Nova" autos weren't selling until it was pointed out to them that "No va" means " it doesn't go" in Spanish. This is just one example why we need to strengthen bi-lingual education in our public schools.