Contents Los Angeles Festival Has Found A Great New Home Folklórico Challenge USA National Finals Scheduled for June 26 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles About the Producer You Can Help

We are pleased to present Issue 11 of Noticias del Festival. We hope you are enjoying these monthly (almost) newsletters. Latino Literacy Now appreciates your continued support of our efforts to reduce illiteracy and promote literary excellence while advancing the cause of reading in the Latino Community. Your comments and suggestions are welcome.

Los Angeles Festival Has Found A Great New Home

The Los Angeles Latino Book & Family Festival is our oldest event. For our 9th annual Festival in the nation's largest Latino market we are moving to the Fairplex in Pomona, California. The Fairplex is home to the Los Angeles County Fair, which annually draws close to 1,500,000 visitors. Of that total some 32% are Latino. This excellent venue is centrally located and freeway close to Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside Counties making it the perfect location for a "Southern California" Latino Book & Family Festival.

The Fairplex is one of the most consumer friendly exposition centers we have come across in our 10 years of putting on events. We are nicely positioned some three weeks after the Los Angeles County Fair closes so we will be taking advantage of a fantastic opportunity to conduct cross-promotions during that event.

Our event will take place in buildings 6 & 7, featuring some 66,000 square feet of exhibit space. In addition some food vendors will be positioned between those buildings and the similarly configured buildings 4 & 5, where the Home Improvement & Remodeling Show is scheduled. As this is also a free event, we plan to work with the promoters to create dual event traffic flow that will offer all attendees a varied and valuable family experience.

Our Festival will also utilize the Plaza de las Americas area of the Fairplex where our Los Angeles Folklórico Challenge USA competitions will take place. This Plaza, and its built in covered stage area, is set directly between our event buildings and the main parking area making it readily accessible and providing an excellent flow of traffic for all exhibitors and sponsors.

We hope everyone will make their plans to be at this event. If you are interested in sponsoring, exhibiting, or in any way being a part of the activities, we encourage you to call the main Festival office at 760 -434-4484.

More About Los Angeles Latino Book & Family Festival

	Folklórico Challenge USA National Finals Scheduled for June 26 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles
Folklórico Challenge USA (FCUSA) competitions were conducted in three age groups at Latino Book & Family Festival regional sites in San Diego, Phoenix, Houston, Chicago and San Bernardino in 2004. More than 100 groups participated in these regional competitions witnessed by more than 85,000 people. The following regional winners will now be competing for the National Championships: Juniors (up to age 10): Viva México Infantil, Denver Viva Compañia Alegria Mexicana, Houston Y Arriba Mexico, Walnut, CA Folklórico De El Mirage, El Mirage, AZ Seniors (ages 11-17): Viva México Juvenil, Denver Mexico en Danzas Grupo Folklórico, Houston Santa Maria High School, CA Ballet Folklórico de Huntington Park, CA Adult (ages 18 and up): Back of the Yard, Chicago Mexico 2000 Folklórico Dance School, Wylie, TX Grupo de Danza Ixtlazihuatl, Rosarito, Baja CA Ballet Folklórico de Riverside, CA Ballet Folklórico Quetzales, El Paso, TX The finals will take place at the world famous Shrine Auditorium. This excellent facility has been the home of the Academy Awards, the American Music Awards, and the Grammy Awards. Most recently the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards were held at the Shrine on February 5, 2005. More information on this world class venue can be found at: http:// www.shrineauditorium.com. In addition to the dance competitions, entertainment will be provided by special guests and celebrity presenters who will help us celebrate National Latino Literacy Day as we pay tribute to several organizations and their literacy initiatives. Among the honored organizations will be the National Education Association and their Lea con NEA program (see additional story below); the National Basketball Association: Read to Achieve; the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Foundation: BookPals; RIF: Reading Is Fundamental; and the Los Angeles Times' Reading by Nine. This is Latino Literacy Now's one major fundraiser for the year so we ask for your support. The Shrine Auditorium has a seating capacity of 6,300 and we hope to sell it out. Ticket information will soon be available at www.FCUSA.org (active March 2, 2005) and at all Ticketmaster outlets. We will have a major update on who will be performing and presenting in next month's edition of Noticias.

	About the Producer
The National Education Association (NEA) chooses Edward James Olmos to head up Lea con NEA: NEA's Read Across America Hispanic Literacy Program. The National Education Association (NEA) knows that reading is very important in every culture and language. But while Hispanic families across the country place a high value on education and want their children to succeed in school, their access to resources, materials and support is often limited- preventing them from supporting their children's language and reading development. According to recent reports, Hispanic children, the nation's largest and fastest growing minority youth population, continue to perform well below the national average in reading with 56 percent of Hispanic fourth graders reading below grade level. That's why the NEA's Read Across America has introduced Lea con NEA, a new literacy program designed to reach out to the Hispanic community and why they have chosen Festival Producer Edward James Olmos to be the first honorary chair. "Lea con NEA"(Read with NEA) is the theme of NEA's literacy outreach to the Hispanic community with Spanish-language reading materials, educator and parent resources from NEA's Read Across America partners, and bilingual book lists. The program will also provide valuable materials for educators working to close the achievement gap for Hispanic children.

	You Can Help
We hope you will use the "Forward email" feature below to spread the word about the Latino Book & Family Festival to your friends and business associates. Bring the cover page of this newsletter with you to the next LBFF in your area & receive 25% off all Festival merchandise available at the Information Booth.

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