John Leguizamo @ iCaramba Communications.

iCaramba Communications, an interactive, marketing and entertainment company specializing in integrated online and offline Latino youth marketing programs, joined forces with actor/comedian John Leguizamo. “We’re looking to reinvent the way that marketers look at the US Hispanic audience,” iCaramba Communications CEO/Co-Founder David Chitel, “by creating unprecedented opportunities to finally communicate with the untapped Latino youth audience that cannot be effectively reached via traditional Spanish-language media.” iCaramba Communications offers a “total solution” approach that enables marketers to tap into the Latino youth audience utilizing multi-platform components ranging from guerrilla to viral marketing, and everything in between. Coupled with its interactive web site, iCaramba.com, original entertainment properties, and recent partnership with John Leguizamo, the company is clearly positioned to differentiate itself in the growing Hispanic marketplace.

“We could not have found a more ideal partner and spokesperson than John Leguizamo. His embodiment of what it means to be a young, progressive US-born Latino characterizes the very essence of iCaramba’s mission to help fill the media, marketing and entertainment void that currently exists for the Latino youth audience,” said Chitel.

Leguizamo will appear in the company’s advertisements, at grassroots events, in live chat sessions, and in special promotions exclusive to iCaramba.com. The web site will also contain candid behind-the-scenes looks into Leguizamo’s career, such as those that will be chronicled by Leguizamo himself during his upcoming 22-city “Live” comedy tour (6/26 – 9/1). Already on the site is an interactive game entitled “6 Degrees from John Leguizamo,” that tests players’ knowledge of John Leguizamo’s film career in order to win prizes. On the original entertainment front, John will also be involved in creating short interactive animated features only available at iCaramba.com.

According to Leguizamo, his role in this venture goes unscripted, it’s his life experience and a lifelong dream. “Growing up as a Colombirican (of Puerto Rican/Colombian descent) in Queens, my official language wasn’t Spanish or English, but more like ‘Spangibberish.’ I’d be watching ‘The Brady Bunch’ one minute, and clicking the remote to watch Cantinflas (famous Mexican comedian) the next – I watched both, but neither really spoke to me. I felt left out, like a Latino stepchild. That’s one of the reasons why what iCaramba is doing is so important and long overdue. They are a company whose sole mission is to represent young Latinos, and to promote our bi-cultural (and whole new) lifestyles in the mainstream where people will take notice. We owe it to ourselves, to my people, and not to mention all of the young Latinos out there who deserve better representation in the media and entertainment worlds.”

In addition to its cross-platform offline/online marketing capabilities, iCaramba Communications has also developed an original animated program in “Spanglish” entitled, “La Familia,” tailored around the iCaramba.com experience. The animated comedic “webisodes” are three to five minutes in length and focus on the lives of five young Latino characters, their families and friends who all live in the same town, yet come from very different Latino backgrounds.