Spanish Photoshop Guy? Presente! @ Adobe Hispano!

This is one of those things that I thought was pretty cool to be asked to do. Marlon Ceballos is an Adobe User Groups, Community Expert, Certified Instructor, and all around awesome guy out of Bogota Colombia. He & I have chatted back and forth about teaching and training and being a Photoshop Guy. Mostly, one of the things that I was really pumped about was the his reach out as a Latino.

You see, I consider myself to be very very blessed to be half Mexican and half Puerto Rican. My mom and dad came here in the 70s (Mom is Mexican, Dad was Puerto Rican) and I was born in the South Bronx. Out of probably the worst economic scenario out there – where Crack and gangs seemed like an all too easy way of life, my mom’s Mexican culture instilled a great amount of discipline and respect for becoming better.. and making sure people take notice by showing them how hard you’re working.

It’s not really something that I wear on my sleeve.. and I never really give it too much thought.. but it’s always there.. spanish pride living deep down. Through it all, i’ve been able to re-engineer myself several times – most recently becoming the person who you see writing this blog- a dream I am thankful every day I wake up.

One problem. I have horrible technical spanish!!!! I grew up speaking spanish, and when my mom is in town, I can speak it fluently. I can travel to Mexico and Puerto Rico (something I really wish I did more.. I haven’t been to PR in over a dozen years), and get along fine. But technical spanish is very different from conversational spanish. I can Oye Como Va – you something in no time.. but start talking about servers, and power displacement? I start sounding like the old weather forecasters from Telemundo!

Imagine my surprise when Marlon asked if I would participate in Adobe Hispano – a web conference being held where over 20 instructors from Latin America will chat about all things Adobe. I will be having a chat from a Photoshop/Lightroom point of view – talking about how I leverage each of the software from a Photographic standpoint. Over 2800 people have registered for this conference, and I consider it an absolute honor to be asked to speak at it.

Looking at the Adobe Hispano speaking Roster – the best of the best in Latin America are there. – click to check it out!

The conference is free.. the vibe is going to be awesome, so make sure you get out there and represent.

Special Shouts
While writing this, I could not help but think about two people who I really wanted to shout out to. First off are the group over at Peachpit. A while ago, my buddies Gary Paul, Scott, and Sara Jane Todd came and asked me to do a little series called “Photoshop en Espanol” , where I got to share what I love to do in spanish. They’re great believers in it, and I think theyre awesome for letting me do it!

Secondly, i’d love to shout to Cynthia Davila over at http://www.cynphotography.net/. Cynthia’s a fan of our shows, is a NAPP member, and was incredibly excited to come and meet me during Photoshop World. She’s out of San Antonio, Texas. A great personality, heck of a shooter, and doubles as an amazing model. But what did she want to talk to me about? How she thought it cool to see another spanish person out there living it. That left a great impression on me, and watching her work made me just as proud to see another Mexican knocking it out of the park. Cheers to you Cynthia – you inspire more than you know!

RC