I feel almost as if I'm on Pinterest, but I'm not. I'm on Interesante.com – a new Spanish-language community still in beta which features a similar design but a different mission; with Latin American exiles at the heart of their target audience, this could get interesting for sure.
We want to see Latinos across the world get recognition, flourish and make an impact. We want to connect small businesses that no one knows about, that have amazing products, to the people who want them.
Photos of Argentinean alfajores rolled in shredded coconut, a Gabriel García Márquez quote, and a laptop with a Che Guevara design on its cover, mix and mingle amongst high heel shoes, interior design ideas, and novelty coffee mugs. Users of the site hail from over 41 countries, but the top ten are from Argentina, the United States, Spain, Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador, Chile, Venezuela, Brazil, and Peru. So, what is the meaning of all this?
According to Antonio and Rebecca Altamirano, the founders of the site, Interesante has a deeper purpose than simply being a place to organize random, pretty pictures.
"We're building the product for the long haul," Rebecca Altamirano explained. "We want to see Latinos across the world get recognition, flourish and make an impact. We want to connect small businesses that no one knows about, that have amazing products, to the people who want them."
If embraced by small merchants in Latin America and Latinos living in the U.S. and beyond, I can see a good thing happening. Just last week a friend admired one of my son's shirts and asked where we bought it – I had to tell her that it was purchased in El Salvador and she would have little luck finding it here in the United States. Imagine if the small store in El Salvador had a platform like Interesante to share their products with an audience looking for unique things from back "home"? It's a mutually beneficial relationship.
This is just my layman's thoughts on the site. I decided to ask Giovanni Rodriguez, a social media consultant who wrote about the company on Forbes.com, for his view.
"What's really interesting," Rodriguez said of Interesante.com, "is its focus on the deeper cultural nuances of social engagement. And by exploring the potential of disapora-driven commerce, Interesante is joining a small cadre of companies who understand that the next big wave for social media will be transnational. In the future, 'nations' will not be defined simply be geography but also by interests."
Want to check it out? Interesante just opened up 1,000 new spots this week. Register for free with your Twitter or Facebook account on Interesante.com and go see what's so interesting for yourself.
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