There is a fatalism to being poor, that too much emphasis on corporate or nonprofit safety ( i.e. Expensive mandatory gear after getting a bike, buying or recommending buying a helmet after barely affording the bike, niteriders used by others when little disposable blinkies with replacing batteries costing more than the light to start, and some urban survival/ flying below the radar, similar to alleycat awareness might be in order).
Low riders and customizing bikes was fun...
Being lance, latino or not isn't everyone's goal. Touring, commuting, family rides, mtns or cruisers when all I see hear about is racers, Tour de France, etc...
Dora, on the other hand, if she biked, could go a long way to promoting biking in the next generation, combating obesity, lung cancer, etc, IMO. And safe areas to ride...
Watch the Barney effect though ( odd reference to a Robin Williams character, in death to smoochie )
Focus on family, helps. Bike to church day, as a family activity, bike rodeo at schools, churches, community centers, bike to school day and whom is excluded like EOTR, etc may help too. Reading in English for kids ( and teachers and other community members) and Spanish for parents may help bridge a gap.
Spanish and English classes, instead of separate but Not equal, in my experience...
One (Bike+)Laptop Per Child bike activity ( physics based bicycle simulation ) might be Kewl across the North and South America, but I digress into geekiness...
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Haven't a clue what this gadget thought I typed, so TIA for understanding anyways...
I'd just like to comment that before you go to the printer with any materials you put together, that you have it checked for grammar/spelling by two or three native Spanish speakers. Even as a non-native Spanish speaker, I always see monster errors in grammar and spelling that affects (I think) the credibility of the material.
I think one culturally-specific point I might suggest is an emphasis on bike safety. I just seems from being around my Latino friends and co-workers, ideas about physical safety and accident avoidance aren't in the mental landscape as much. A specific example we have here in Chicago is that between 11:00 pm and 1:00 am we have all the Latinos riding home in the dark on bikes from their restaurant jobs, dressed in dark jeans and black jackets and no lights or reflectors, and they just get mowed down by late-night drivers coming home from bars. So incubating the safety perspective would be a strong positive.
One point I see in the black community I work in is that groups who are interested in promoting biking in their church groups or youth groups are promoting biking as part of a general fitness/wellness push in their groups, as a counterpoint to diabetes, obesity and high blood pressure. I think the wellness component of biking is a useful emphasis in the Latino community, which is suffering from the same stress factors.
Bill Depenbrock
Bronzeville Bikes
773 419-9449
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