Public TV Airs a New Spanish Voice

The idea for V-me grew out of executives at WNET in New York City trying to offer more to Latino viewers. Now V-me is a private corporation, and one of its major national backers is Silver Spring-based investment firm Syncom Funds. V-me supplies programming free to public television affiliates that will carry it on cable.

It's not clear how many Spanish-speaking households in Maryland receive V-me -- Comcast does not make that information available. Nationwide, there about 11.3 million Latino households, said V-me President Carmen DiRienzo. Roughly two-thirds are bilingual or Spanish-language-dominant, and more than half of them subscribe to digital cable or satellite services.

As for V-me's eclectic programming, weekday mornings begin with the fitness show "Aire Yoga." Then come children's shows; yesterday, "Plaza Sésamo" featured "el Come Galletas," or the Cookie Monster. This Spanish-language version of "Sesame Street" is not a mere translation but an independent show that began in Mexico more than 30 years ago. Some of the channel's other children's shows were created in English-speaking countries and dubbed in Spanish, with new songs and dialogue.

A handful of the programs for adults also have been adapted from shows originally produced for English audiences. On Monday night's "Exploraciones" -- a show exploring new lands and experiences -- an American firefighter is wired to measure his stress levels and sent to run with the bulls at Pamplona.

Other shows throughout the week repackaged from a variety of international sources include "$100 de Taxi," on which a cabbie takes you on a journey in a different country each episode; "Quiero Ser" ("I Want to Be"), where young people get to hang out with idols such as Juanes and Paulina Rubio for a day; and "¿Qué Sucedió?" ("What Happened?"), which shows people amid a disastrous storm, wreck or other predicament.

V-me's original programming includes the yoga show; "Viva Voz" ("Live Voice"), the nightly showcase interview program with Jorge Gestoso; and the weekly "La Plaza," with journalist Maria Hinojosa, produced in collaboration with public television in Boston. Monday night on "Viva Voz," Gestoso interviewed Anthony Romero of the ACLU, and Hinojosa interviewed Gabriela Chavarria of the Natural Resources Defense Council. Last night, Renan "El Cucuy" Almendarez Coello, one of the most influential Latino radio DJs in the country, was on "Viva Voz." Next week, "Viva Voz" will be in New Orleans for the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

"We do encompass a variety of genres to have a full family multi-generational orientation," DiRienzo said.

She said the point -- captured in the wordplay of the network's name -- is to reflect Latinos' desire for mainstream culture to "see us for what we are -- we're multidimensional, we're interested in more than what people call quote-unquote Latino issues."

But at the moment, in most of this market, V-me is difficult to see at all.