Celebrating 20 Years of USAGov en Español

In this special episode of GSA Does That!?, we celebrate 20 years of “USAGov en Español.” Join guest host Leilani Martinez for a one-of-a-kind episode as she discusses the federal government’s resources available for Spanish speakers and the team's considerations when developing content for such a diverse user base.

Want to know more?

Are you looking for more information about USAGov en Español? Check out the resources below!

• USAGov en Español
• USAGov Blog
• USAGov History
• Multilingual Community

"GSA Does That!?" is the U.S. General Services Administration's first agency-wide podcast, offering listeners an inside look into how GSA and its partners benefit the American people. Hosted by Rob Trubia, the podcast features interviews with GSA leaders, experts, partners, and customers, covering topics such as federal real estate, acquisitions, and technology. The title reflects many's surprise at the scope of GSA's impact. At the same time, the artwork pays homage to President Harry S. Truman, who established GSA in 1949 to improve government efficiency and save taxpayer money. Whether you're a policy wonk or just curious about government operations, you can join the listener community.

For more information about the show visit, gsa.gov/podcast.

Transcript

Rob Trubia

Hey, welcome back to another episode of GSA Does That!? the podcast that uncovers the stories behind the federal agency delivering effective and efficient government. I'm your host, Rob Trubia, and we're doing something a little different for episode 11. I'm handing over the podcast to celebrate a special anniversary. It's the 20th anniversary of USAGov en Español, the official website of the U.S. government in Spanish.

We're celebrating 20 years of connecting the public with official and reliable Spanish language government information and services. Joining us today are three individuals who will take you on a journey into USAGov en Español. This episode of GSA Does That!? is sure to be unique and I think a lot of fun.

But before I hand over the mic to our first guest host Leilani Martinez. Remember, this podcast is available on all major platforms, so please be sure to subscribe. For more information about this episode and others, visit us online at GSA.gov/podcast podcast. All right, With that bit of housekeeping out of the way, I invite you to enjoy this special episode of GSA Does That!?

Leilani. Take it away.

Leilani Martinez

Thank you. As Rob said, I’m Leilani Martinez, the director of the Public Experience portfolio here in the Technology Transformation Services in GSA. And because this is a very special podcast in honor of the 20th anniversary of USAGov en Español, which is the official website of the U.S. government in Spanish managed by GSA. I needed to deliver a very special intro.

So here it is. 

Hola. Como les dije, soy la directora del Public Experience portfolio. La misión de esta división es mejorar la experiencia del público con su gobierno creando experiencias digitales que le permitan al público encontrar la información sobre programas y servicios que necesitan. Nuestro equipo trabaja arduamente todos los días y es responsable por varios productos, incluyendo usa.gov, USAGov en Español, vote.gov y Search.gov (el buscador oficial del Gobierno de los Estados Unidos).

Estoy feliz de tener la oportunidad de estar aquí representando al programa USAGov en Español porque precisamente esta semana cumple 20 años de existencia. 

(English Translation)

Hello, as I told you, I am the director of Public Experience. The mission of this division is to truly improve the public's experience with their government by creating digital experiences that allow the public to find information about programs and services they need. Our team works hard every day. It is responsible for several products, these include usa.gov, USAGov en Español, which is the Spanish version, vote.gov and Search.gov, which is the official search engine of the United States government. I am happy to have the opportunity to be here. I am here representing the program in Spanish because precisely this week it turns 20 years old.

(End English Translation)

And now back to English. So over the years we had found ways to clarify how the government works and connect Spanish speakers around the country.

To the information and services that they need. In fact, our program started as the Consumer Product Information Coordinating Center back in 1970s within GSA, when agencies had a lot of consumer information, but they really didn't have a system for sharing it. So they had a big mission, really. They needed to collaborate with agencies to gather all that consumer information and get it to the people.

So for almost 50 years plus, we continue to share that mission. But we have evolved to find different ways to connect people to their government. And what better way to share how our program has impacted other federal agencies, GSA, and the public, since 2003. That but really having a conversation with some of the key people who have helped shaped USAGov en Español.

And for that, I have to go back to Spanish.

Hoy me acompañan Laura Godfrey, mi compañera de aventura en los primero años de trabajo de USAGov en Español. Laura se unió al equipo dos años después que se lanzara el sitio, que en ese entonces, se lo conocía como FirstGov en Español. Maria Marrero ha liderado varios equipos - incluyendo el equipo de user experience y recientemente el equipo de contenido y outreach. Maria ha sido parte clave en los rediseños del sitio a través de los años, incluyendo el más reciente en abril de 2023. 

(English Translation)

Today I am joined by my partner in this adventure for the first years of working on USAGov en Español, Laura Godfrey. Laura joined the team two years after the site was launched in 2003; at that time it was known as FirstGov en Español. Maria Marrero is also joining us today. Maria has led several teams within the portfolio including the user experience team and recently the content and outreach teams. Maria has been a key part in the site redesigns over the years. Including the most recent one which was in April of this year.

(End English Translation)

So what I just said is that Laura Godfrey and Maria Marrero are joining me today. Laura and Maria are both part of the public experience team.

They both have work on the USAGov en Español site and they're here to share their story. And so this gives you a sense of the nature of this podcast and the reality of my life and of many others, where both English and Spanish coexist beautifully on a daily basis. I am here to represent the voice of the Spanish speaking community that I and many others in the team serve every single day.

I'm very proud of the work we've done over the last 20 years, and this is a celebration of that work. So today you will hear lots of English with a few hints of Spanish, because at the end of the day, that's not only who I am, but it also reflects the diversity of the community that we serve, a community of people that come from different countries, the different backgrounds and different levels of fluency in English or Spanish language, but all very much rich in culture and experience.

I hope you enjoy this very special episode of this podcast -  celebrating USAGov en Español. Que lo disfruten. 

Well, thank you so much. Is wonderful to have you both here, Laura and Maria. So let's get started. So first things first. I know I talked a little bit about you and your background, but can we take a little bit of time as we're celebrating 20 years of USAGov en Español for you both to introduce yourself and briefly talk about how you're connected to this program.

I don't know who wants to start.

Laura Godfrey

Hi, everybody. My name is Laura Godfrey and I am connected to this program through being part of this program at the very, very beginning. And so I joined GSA in 2005. And since then I was working on USAGov en Español until probably, I don't know, a few years ago. I can't remember exactly what date. So, Maria I’ll toss it to you.

Maria Marrero

My name is Maria Marrero. I am a bilingual designer. I am connected to USAGov en Español since 2007, I joined the government and I joined this wonderful mission of helping the public in both languages. I have a strong background in design and user experience and I am presently working with the content and outreach teams for USAGov also.

Leilani Martinez

Awesome. Wonderful to have you both here. And of course, these this podcast really means a lot.

To all of us because we've been working a lot on USAGov en Español since the beginning, 20 years in the making. And just before I, you know, start asking some of the questions, I want to just keep some context to those of you who are listening in today that USAGov en Español was actually launched in 2003 as FirstGov in Español.

And it was really a response to to the public need for government information in Spanish. One thing that I think all of us are going to be mentioning throughout this podcast is that USAGov in Español is not a direct translation of the USA.gov and you're going to be hearing more about that. That's why I want to bring it up from the get go.

And also, like I mentioned before, it was a response to to public demand. The public was looking for government information in Spanish. Already other agencies were producing content in Spanish. And also there was an executive order, the executive order 13166 that requires agencies to provide meaningful access to information in other languages to meet the needs of limited English proficient individuals.

And I'm mentioning all of this to provide some background and context into the conversation, because you're going to be hearing a lot of these elements throughout the time that we're going to be together. So that said, I want to start from kind of the beginning. Laura, we're talking that you were here in the early years. I mean, you've been here all along, but you were really directly involved with the USAGov en Español in the early years.

Can you tell me can you tell us about some of those early days? What were the priorities? How did the program decide what direction to go after the first few years after it was launched?

Laura Godfrey

Yeah, that's my pleasure. Actually, I was so proud of this program and the way that GSA sort of like gave it its full weight behind, you know, by hiring two feds. Hired you first and then me and you know in so that shows commitment to to the Hispanic community and and it's a real boost for us, you know, the people who work there because they then were feel that obviously we can, you know, express ourselves through it and grow it and such.

So to to just go directly to the website. I mean I came in and they like you said, I was your partner in crime from very very early stages of it. And it was like a super, super interesting proposition because as you mentioned before it wasn't a straight translation we needed. And both of us, you and me, on our previous jobs, had worked with the Hispanic community in the United States and kind of knew already what, you know, that Hispanic community needed.

And so we started working together on that. And in crafting sort of like a strategy to it, we learned it very, very quickly and very early on that just putting information online wasn't enough that we had to reach out to the community somehow and put this in front of the community. So we did several things. One of the things one of the strategies was to go to the what what it used to be the National Council of La Raza, which today's UnidosUS, and they have an annual convention.

And also in so they house a lot of they put this style to this convention out and they talked to a lot of different organizations that serve the Hispanic community. So through them, go into this convention once a year, we covered more than 200, 300 organizations that were serving the public. And then we also reached out to the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and also went to their convention once a year because obviously the radio, TV and radio sends a very important channel for the Hispanic community.

And we wanted to be able to be in front of them for them to know what USAGov en Español was in. And, you know, to help us put it out there in front of the folks that needed this information the most.

Leilani Martinez

One thing that I want to because that triggers kind of I thought there was a lot of time spent in addition to producing the content online in really doing lots of outreach outreach to to the multipliers. That's how we we used to call it call them the multipliers that already the community trusted. It was hard to let you know, telling them come to the government for everything that you need.

We we wanted of course that to be the message, but also rely and partner with the organizations that already were working with our with our the population that we're trying to serve so that was lots of time spent there, right, Laura?

Laura Godfrey

Yeah, that's a great point and I'll take a step from that. It's like a thought of me and another thing that we did, you know about the Multipliers is we started producing sometimes a radio spot that was like 30 seconds or, you know, like it's very small blurb in writing so that they could do, you know, they could cut it, they could, you know, take the points that they needed that week.

So we started syndicating and that was in their very early, years, I would say probably in 2007, we were already syndicated to radio stations all over the country because I had said before, you know, radio is a very important medium in the Hispanic community. And we knew that we would get their attention.

Maria Marrero

I know I was thinking that, you know, as as Laura as you talk about the early beginning and the GSA commitment to the USAGov en Español in the program, I also think about how that has, you know, carried from there to now and how we work. You know, from the beginning, we've always been focused and committed in having, you know, bilingual folks in our teams and not only in, you know, in in in just specific teams.

But we've tried to implement that everywhere so that there is always someone, you know, bringing that perspective, that cultural perspective into every corner of a program. I think that that has been such a strong, you know, commitment for for this program. And I think what makes us very unique.

Laura Godfrey

Yeah, Can can I add something to that? Because a spark a thought one of the things that I think had made us different that a lot of other programs that were, you know, sort of emerging from other agencies and so on is the fact that GSA hired people who were bilingual in Spanish and English and everything was written in Spanish.

It wasn’t translated from English, it was original content that was written with the Hispanic community in Spanish right from the get go. And I will say that sometimes we translate at some of that to English.

Leilani Martinez

So actually now I love where the conversation is going. I want to kind of go deeper into some of what you were saying, because I think it's really, really interesting to share with people. And maybe, Maria, you can you can help us kind of with starting the conversation here about the the decisions that we make for the site.

And when we talk about public impact and we talk a lot about designing with the public and for the public, can you tell us a little bit more about how it is that we do that or what does that mean? Maria mentioned that she has a UX and graphic design background, so she's been instrumental in really the development of the site and working and collaborating with the public, with the Spanish speaking community to to really kind of evolve our side so that you talk a little bit more about that and provide some specific examples of how does that look like.

Maria Marrero

Sure, Sure. But when we say that we designed with the public in mind, we really mean we do it with them. So I have a few, you know, examples in mind. One of them is user testing. You know, we know that people come to USAGov en Español for information, and they may be in a difficult, stressful time.

So we also know that, you know, the government information may not be available in Spanish for this audience. And so it is very important for us to make sure that what we're offering, you know, people can find it quickly and easy for that. We need to test with them. We need to make sure that we get the feedback from from from people.

And so we often conduct usability testings in English and Spanish and to try to find those gaps and and be able to improve the way we offer information. We also know that Spanish language is longer, for example, and so when we design what we've been trying to do for many years now is, you know, do our designed our visual design in in in Spanish first with, you know, taking into consideration the length of the content and if it works in in in in Spanish, then we know English is going to be easier.

And so that's something that we've established from a long time ago is starting with with Spanish.

Leilani Martinez

And I'll interrupt there for a minute because I think that's always been an interesting approach for the program, something that the program has shared with other agencies as well, that the signing Spanish benefits everyone at the end. Right? So it's we've always I think the program has always been proud of embracing Spanish first and mobile first in the design, and then that trickles really into everything else that we do and really allow us to have an accessible and inclusive design.

Just wanted to kind of reiterate that, Maria.

Maria Marrero

Another ways that we, you know, we design for the public and it, you know, it has that, that that impact is our contact center. Our contact center, you know, we serve the public when we when, when better information is presented. And that also means, you know, offering that information consistently across all of our channels. Website, you know, contact center, social media emails, you know, contact center agents rely on the on on the content and we call it a knowledge base.

And so when it's when it is updated through our, you know, content writers, contact center agents are able to access that that content as well. And so this is also especially helpful in times when you know things need to shift or content needs to shift such as like COVID 19 pandemic. All of us working off of one source updated and an official reliable government information is important.

Leilani Martinez

I mean, something that's that's really wonderful to hear and wonderful to hear how the program has really taken into account all these different avenues and channels to really gather feedback from the public. I think important to stress that, that this is why we have bilingual, bicultural personnel, some federal employees, some contractor support in different areas and all of the of the of the organization.

Right. Because you're talking right now, Maria, Right. About qualitative data. And that needs to be analyzed. All that information comes in in Spanish. So we need to be able to process, analyze that information, come up with themes, and then be able to act upon the data, the trends that we're seeing that informs the strategy, our content strategy, UX strategy, and even contact center strategy.

And Laura, I'm going to for a moment derails a little bit. I think it's something that it would be interesting to kind of quickly touch upon is that we're saying is Spanish, Spanish speaking. But there's a lot of diversity within our community. Here we are, the three of us, for example, coming from different regions of Latin America. I wonder if we can, the three of us, maybe engage a little bit in a conversation about the benefits of that, even as we create things in language, right?

Some things that people might not know is that I might call beans habichuelas and you might call it something different and Maria might call it something different and as we many times have, explore the use of Spanish. And Laura, you talk a lot about neutral Spanish and you know how to name certain things. I wonder if we can talk a little bit about that.

Also how we bring some of our own this experience into the work, but also kind of understanding the public needs and understanding that, you know, I come from Puerto Rico, the Caribbean, and you coming from from Argentina and Maria from Ecuador, and how that kind of plays a factor into all of this in language, but also approaches into into the work that we do.

And getting here a little creative, but just there's a lot of diversity and levels of acculturation that we need to take into account. That's the way our cultura works, right?

Laura Godfrey

Right. Yeah. And and it is important to set out at the beginning, you know, how do you communicate with this community that is so diverse, like more than 20 countries and they all converge in one language, but it's not one language that is spoken exactly the same. And I want to dispel the myth that we have dialects because we do not.

What we have is we call things differently, but we have one grammar one. You know, we can understand each other. We may, you know, somebody says elote  and I believe, Maria, maybe you say that, maybe, maybe not.

Maria Marrero

Choclo

Laura Godfrey

Choclo, me too. Or maize or something like that. But, you know, we have.

Leilani Martinez

Let me just make sure, corn we're talking about corn here for those.

Laura Godfrey

That's right. So it is funny because there was a time where we had a contractor that was writing for us and they were located in San Diego, and that they mentioned this because obviously San Diego has a lot of Mexican, you know, in large Mexican community. And so they're used to that kind of Spanish. So we would we would get their writings and start changing words because we wanted it to be a much more neutral Spanish.

And I'll give a couple of examples.

Leilani Martinez

I was gonna say can you provide some examples because I think that will be interesting in Spanish and that we can we can translate if needed.

Laura Godfrey

Yeah, right. So like Puerto Rico, what is a guagua in Puerto Rico, LeiLani?

Leilani Martinez

Guagua is a bus.

Laura Godfrey

Okay. So in Chile which is not my country, but I have a lot of Chilean friends in Chile, a guagua is a baby..

Maria Marrero

It’s the same thing in Ecuador. Yeah. Anybody that.

Laura Godfrey

Is a baby.

Maria Marrero

Or a bus. Like a bus. It could be okay too.

Laura Godfrey

So that's. Yeah. Okay. So you and Puerto Rico may be a little bit more connected, right? But but Chile's it's not connected to that. It may be a bus. So what do we do? We come up with a word bus is is spelled the same way, but it's pronounced differently. But everybody in Spanish, we understand that. So we unless we're communicating with Puerto Ricans and then we would use guagua.

But but we are the federal government. So we usually write for everybody who speaks this language. So that's important to sort of clarify in in that's who are being from different countries and being Spanish speakers ourselves, you know, come seem to play because it's important that we know nuances in in I want to say you know I was saying before Spanish does not have dialects.

It's like, you know if you compare those to English from England, Australia, New Zealand or the United States, you know, here you don't call an elevator a lift. But when you go to England, that's what they do, right? Or they say, mind the gap. And we say, we don't say mind the gap in on the subway. I mean, it's like, watch your step here right in.

So there are differences in language used, but not in grammar  really. So I don't know if I answer your question.

Leilani Martinez

Yes, absolutely. That's what it what it is, because I really wanted to bring that's something that that we hear quite a bit as a program. It's something that's discussed across the government. And when you mention about diversity within a group of people work in a language language access, language guidance, I think it is important to to note that even within the Spanish speaking community, there's diversity that we need to take into account.

But then realize we're talking about US Spanish as well, right? The Hispanics are Spanish speaking and the U.S. and take that into account. So I think providing concrete examples, it's really helpful.

Laura Godfrey

And that's correct because we do, I’m sorry Maria, And I just want to make a very small point. I think that we are at a point where we can say, this is US Spanish. We have we have a large community, very large community, more than 40 million people here speak Spanish. And so there is a US Spanish, and we write with that in mind.

Maria Marrero

And it's it's very important also to point out the you know, how that helps us write in more plain language and more inclusive for everyone. It's great. It's great to have colleagues that are from different countries and we sometimes get together and ask ourselves, like, how would you how would you, you know, write this? Or you know, what word would you use in this case?

Because we want to get to everyone and make sure that everyone understands.

Leilani Martinez

But that's that's great, because I think there's something here that I want to explore a little bit more. Laura, you also mentioned diversity within the community, all the countries that are represented right among our community and where we're writing and reaching out to to Hispanics, Latinos in the in the U.S. But there's also something really interested about language fluency, right?

We have a Latinos like us bilingual, bicultural. We also talk about Spanish dominant and Hispanics or Latinos. We talked about second generation that might be more fluent in English. Right. So I can we talk a little bit about how we take all those things into account? One thing that I'll just have to mention is that USAGov, the way we frame it, it's a bilingual platform.

I know it's something that the three of us have have said in the past and how we frame the the product as a whole. But I wonder, we can talk a little bit about language fluency and how do we use that or take that into account into our designs content strategy, etc.. What have we seen? I'm thinking, Maria, usability testing.

When we have the Spanish dominant Hispanics with bilingual, bicultural and we talk a little bit more about about that piece.

Laura Godfrey

Yeah, I think that one of the things that I am very proud of in our office and in our agency is the fact that we have hired Spanish speakers, native Spanish speakers, you know, and it that obviously we were educate it in that language which a we you know, not not only understand the grammar perfectly, but also bring with it a culture like, you know, obviously I'm from the extreme South America, very, very South America.

And then Maria comes from a different part of South America. And then you come from the islands, which is a completely the Caribbean islands. It's a completely different geography demographic, if you will. You know, that is all of us are obviously in very different areas in bringing in very different backgrounds. And I think that that is what makes us so rich because we can come up with ways of saying things and ways to communicate with the folks that perhaps are not as lucky as we were growing up and getting all the education that we got.

And they're here as immigrants. So I am one of those immigrants, I should say, but they are here as immigrants, you know, just trying to make ends meet in trying to, you know, fight each day to survive in they don't have time or they could not get enough education in their own language. So we have to account for that in a way, learn that lesson early on.

Yes. You know, I think in our immigration, we all, you know, understood what a different Spanish. You know, we had to speak in this country because if I go to my country and apply some of the Spanish that I speak here, they kind of look at me funny, to be honest with you. But but here, this is what we have to do.

And I think that we all understand that.

Leilani Martinez

Yes. Yes. And I you know something that you were mentioning, Laura, too, is, you know, it's always this amazing, a wonderful balance, of course, understanding the needs of the people that we're serving. That's our North Star. And also this lift experiences that we all bring into the work. You just said you're an immigrant. Some some people in our team have gone have know how it is how to apply for citizenship right or a relative, etc. So they had this type of interaction with the government and have brought that in to really for the benefit and for the good of the work that we do.

And I think that's also an important thing for for us to to stress. And like you, I'm also very, very proud. So I mean that all your yourself because it is a wonderful opportunity being able to bring this diversity into the work that we do. And I think it shows in the work. Maria, I know you wanted to say something.

Maria Marrero

That's right I so, you know, 100% Leilani the same thing from from my perspective, I'm an immigrant as well. I have my parents that also came to the United States. And so I am sort of like that proxy, that person who helps, you know, my parents, who may not dominate English as a first language. And and so I am I am helping this community that I am very, very close to because I I'm actually the audience that that that we're trying to reach.

And so for me, you know, it's always that passion. Also, I think that we have that we we we you know, all these Latinas and Latinos that we're working together in this program is is the passion to help, you know, people that are just like us. And so and it's what I think has driven us to just be so passionate about what we do and and and we and we can relate.

And so I think that's part of it as well is the the, you know, the work being relatable to our lives and how we can touch and impact people that are looking for information are here and just, you know, are looking for opportunities and benefits.

Leilani Martinez

Laura I'm going to put you on the spot for a minute to see if you're okay with me asking you to share a story so many moons ago, mucho mucho mucho mucho tiempo, we went to, you were mentioning that we used to go to a National Council of La Raza, which, by the way, is the largest advocacy organization for Latinos in the U.S. We used to go to the La Raza convention and we used to talk to real people.

Real people, meaning real people that that potential were potential users or already a potential consumers of of the information that we produce through the Spanish language side. And Laura and I were both there and we witnessed one of those moments that I think changed both of our lives and gave another meaning to the work that we do within government.

Laura Godfrey

 I would like to share it sort of like a lighter story, which kind of changed the way that I was thinking and this is why was saying we designed with mobile first for the Hispanic community here comes this lady and we have this is another year in another convention and this lady comes in and, you know, she's trying to figure out who we are, what we're doing there and all that.

So I have been talking to her and they say, well, do you have a connection to the Internet? And that was my question, too, her. She goes, Oh, no, no, no, I do not know. The Internet I cannot do, those things, I don't have a computer. But she had a phone, so a smartphone goddess. And so I showed her that they you know, the site was on the smartphone, too.

So she had a computer. I was asking the wrong question. I said, do you have a computer instead of do you have access to the Internet? Because the smartphones are the things that connect us with people in our countries without cost. And so so that was something that we learned, you know, by going to the community. We were in front of the community every year, you know, in these conventions.

And that was very valuable to us, to us, because we came back and said, we need to think about A, B and C that we never thought about because we're so here, you know, so involved in our work and we are so such a functioning member of this society that we'll connect. Sometimes, even though we are from there, we don't connect with that community.

Leilani Martinez

I want to kind of transition us into that of talking more about about our Spanish speaker audience. So I'm going to put you on the spot. If you had to describe in Spanish, in our language, language that we love so much to Spanish speakers, especially those who do not know USAGov en Español are not familiar with the program. One of the words how we you described how we you kind of pitch the USAGov en Español product and story to them.

I also one but you hear us speak Spanish and kind of get a sense of of what we do when we talk to to those right. And usability testing user research when we go to a convention, how do we talk to them about our product?

Maria Marrero

This all in Spanish Leilani?

Leilani Martinez

Si, and then you do like an abbreviated version in like 30 seconds in English.

Maria Marrero

Okay.

¡Vamos! Bueno, en 30 segundos, yo diría que USAGov en Español es un programa que tiene como misión principal ayudar a personas de habla hispana a encontrar información oficial sobre programas y servicios que el Gobierno de los Estados Unidos ofrece ya sean estatales o federales. Además, este programa es una guía que ayuda con preguntas que personas tienen al navegar diferentes etapas de la vida, como por ejemplo, declarar impuestos, renovar un pasaporte, solocitar asistencia financiera, o sacar una licensia de manejo. Y todo esto a través de nuestro sitio web, centro de llamadas, redes sociales y subscripción por email.

(English Translation)

Let’s do it! In 30 seconds I would say that USAGov en Español’s main mission is to help Spanish speakers find oficial information about federal or state programs and services that the U.S. Government offers. Additionally, this program is the guide for questions that people have while navigation various life experiences, such as filing taxes, renewing a passport, applying for financial assistance or getting a drive’s license. All this through our channels: website, call center, social media and emails.

(End English Translation)

Laura Godfrey

You.

Leilani Martinez

Thank you so much. Gracias.

Laura Godfrey

Y yo voy a se eslogan, su eslogan, Deberia ser su mejor Aliado.

(English Translation)

I’m going to say the slogan should be, your best ally.

(End English Translation)

Leilani Martinez

Me encanta so me encanto eso.

(English Translation)

I love that, I love that.

(End English Translation)

Leilani Martinez

I love that, I don’t know that’s a good translation for that doesn't sound as powerful as it sounds in Spanish so I'll I'll you know quickly mention Maria you know a lot about guide I kept hearing the guide official information and really you also kind of touch upon life experiences like events and this being a guide, a resource that will help and support people at different stages of life.

Laura I think with with kind of that great slogan, I don't think there's much more to say. Do you want to say in English what you said.

Laura Godfrey

Oh, okay, So, su mejor Aliado is your best ally.

Leilani Martinez

Beautiful. With that, I just want to make sure that we leave people with maybe in a minute or 30 seconds, actually, with where they can go to find more information, because we talked about different kind of resources, different things, information. Where can people learn more about our program and the support that we're providing different agencies? Maria, do you want to start what people can learn more about USAGov en Español?

Maria Marrero

Sure. Sure. Well, USAGov en Español -  first, the website. USA.gov/es. We also have a blog, blog.usa.gov where we tell the story on how we we would make an impact for users on and social media. We are in social media Facebook, Twitter or I should say X and YouTube, Instagram or email.

Our emails, or subscribe to our emails.

Leilani Martinez

Go find more, but blog.usa.gov is a great resource to learn more about the program. So thank you both for this wonderful conversation. It was it was wonderful to kind of go down memory lane. I remember some of those early years of USAGov en Español, makes me very, very proud of everything that we have accomplished, but also kind of looking forward to the next 20 years.

One thing that I want to mention is that we're rooted in this kind of huge long history. Our office has been operating for 50 years, and yes, we have evolved the way we deliver information, but we're still here and delivering information, really trying to to ensure that everyone, every community, access to the information that they need. And I'm going to kind of close those out with the wonderful slogan that Laura came up with in 30 seconds.

USAGov en Español, su mejor aliado. Thank you so much.

Gracias por eschuchar y hasta pronto.

(English Translation)

Thanks for listening and see you soon.

(End English Translation)

Rob Trubia

Hey, well, that wraps up another episode of GSA Does That!? A huge thank you to LeiLani Martinez, Laura Godfrey and Maria Marrero for exploring the world of USAGov en Español. Maybe like me, you didn't know that GSA plays such a significant role in connecting citizens of all backgrounds with the information they need. Hey, but now you know GSA does that.

Stay tuned for our next episode where we will talk about an innovative program Crowdsourcing a Better Government. The 10X program takes ideas from employees across government and turns them into solutions that improve the public's experience with their government. Like you, I'm really looking forward to learning more. If today's discussion sparked your curiosity or you have questions or topics you'd like us to explore in the future, don't hesitate to reach out our email address is gsadoesthat@gsa.gov. 

We love hearing from you and your feedback helps us make this show even better. Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss out on the stories behind how GSA is changing the game in delivering effective and efficient government. And if you've learned something new today, consider sharing this episode with a friend or colleague.

Every share helps grow our community and keeps the conversation going. I'm your host, Rob Trubia. Our executive producer is the one and only Max Stempora. GSA Does That!? is a production of the U.S. General Services Administration Office Strategic Communication.