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Program Spotlight: Personal Finance for Hispanic Communities
Peruvian Journalist Launches Spanish Personal Finance Web Site
 Melendrez participated in ICFJ's Personal Finance Program in New York in June. As a Peruvian journalist living in the United States, Jose Melendrez knows what it feels like to make hard financial decisions without a lot of resources. A former business editor for the newspaper Hoy, Melendrez launched an innovative Web site August 1 focused on personal finance, specifically for Latinos.
Melendrez is passionate about helping others in need. “We are the big minority population in the U.S.,” he said, but “the traditional media don’t give you the deep information that Latinos need.” He established a Spanish-language Web site, La Alcancía, to provide Latinos with clear and frank financial resources, from money-saving tips and entrepreneurial advice to technological know-how. The site’s name translates to “the piggy bank” in English, and it is found at www.laalcancia.com.
Melendrez started the site after participating in ICFJ’s Hispanic Personal Finance Reporting Program in June in New York , where he says he learned a great deal from the program trainer, Chris Roush. “He was very specific, topic by topic. … He provided a lot of information, resources, examples, etc., so it was…helpful for us when we’re writing stories – there was more substance to our articles.”
Melendrez plans to feature big stories on La Alcancía about the market and real estate, but also to hone in on more personal issues such as retirement and life insurance. He wants to make these often intimidating issues accessible to Latinos by explaining the basics. For example, a year of money saved from not going to the movies could be parlayed instead into a life insurance policy.
Still, much of the content will focus on issues unique to the Latino community in the United States . For example, Melendrez asks hypothetically: “If you’re living here, if you don’t have Social Security , how can you get a prepaid credit card? How can you be in the banking system?”
These kinds of questions are exactly the kind that La Alcancía intends to answer. By transcending the language barrier, Melendrez anticipates that the Web site will help Latinos in the United States and abroad.
The Hispanic Personal Finance Reporting Program was a two-part program sponsored by The McGraw-Hill Companies in Washington, DC and New York. For more information, visit the Web page.
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