By SIERRA JIMINEZ
The UNITY News

Six weeks before the UNITY convention, Hugo Balta discovered a problem.

Balta, regional director of National Association of Hispanic Journalists’ Region II, got a complaint that three of the six UNITY-chosen hotels did not provide Spanish-language channels for their guests.

Since about 1,000 of UNITY’s 6,000 participants are NAHJ members, it was no small concern.

Balta, also the vice president of news for Telemundo 47 in New York, chose a different hotel and sent an e-mail to fellow NAHJ members encouraging them to not use the hotels. Balta switched hotels twice himself before finally settling in at the Comfort Inn & Suites, three miles farther from the convention center than the UNITY hotels. But, it has at least one Spanish-language channel.

By the time the convention opened Wednesday, so did the Sheraton. The hotel added a channel, but it was too late for some guests who had already chosen other hotels.

The Chicago region is not the only one that has been ineffective in reaching the Hispanic market, said Marta Garcia, founder and co-chair of the National Hispanic Media Coalition’s New York City chapter. She attended a convention hosted by the National Council of La Raza in San Diego several years ago and discovered that her Sheraton did not have any Spanish-language channels. She was among the members who received Balta’s e-mail. She said hotels with no Spanish-language channels are “a national issue.”

The Swissotel Chicago, Doubletree Hotel and Hyatt Regency McCormick also do not provide Spanish-language channels. Officials for each said their hotels had not received a high demand for Spanish-language channels before Balta’s inquiry.

“As part of the Hispanic community, we need to push for the same type of services as offered in English,” Balta said. “There would be uproar if hotels only offered CBS and NBC, but not ABC.”

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