Census records Hispanic boom - but many wonder what it means

03/19/2001

Associated Press

WASHINGTON – Ask John Mattias of Dallas how he identifies himself, and he'll say "Latino." If you want to use "Hispanic," that's fine with him, too.

Ask him where he's from, and he won't hesitate: "Ecuador," the land his parents left eight years before he was born.

America's fastest-growing population sector has a love-hate relationship with its definition on the census form. The "Hispanic" identity can provide a sense of strength, but it also obscures cultural differences of people with more than 20 national origins.

America's Hispanic population grew from 22.4 million in 1990 to 35.3 million last year – a 58 percent jump, according to the 2000 census.

Yet in Associated Press interviews across the nation, on farms and in big cities, in crumbling barrios and sparkling new suburbs, explaining "Hispanic" tied tongues.

Terry Trevino-Richard, a University of Arkansas sociologist, noted the things in common: the language, the Roman Catholic faith, the larger, close-knit families.

Still, he said, the term "ignores the unique histories that each one of these groups has – the different foods, the different types of accents, their different experiences in the United States."

Cuban-Americans tend to be middle-income, conservative Republicans; Puerto Ricans lean Democratic and many are working class. Mexican-Americans make up more than 65 percent of the group. Among the many communities, some came here seeking political refuge, while others sought economic betterment. Other communities are centuries old, and predate Anglo settlement.

Despite those profound differences, community leaders insist that presenting a united Hispanic front is indispensable.

Susana Gomez, a Cuban-American from Alexandria, Va., joined Mexican-American and Puerto Rican panelists at a Washington-area conference to urge the Census Board to continue printing surveys in Spanish.

Grouping the disparate nationalities as Hispanic "provides a more accurate picture of the population," she said, and helps ensure schooling and other services for immigrant communities.

Mattias, a 32-year-old Dallas tax consultant, agrees.

"If I'm asked where I'm from, I will say where," he said, meaning Ecuador. "But the bottom line is I am Latino," the other term encompassing immigrants from the Spanish-speaking world; both it and Hispanic appear on the census form.

Some worry that such generic terms will subsume cultures already fragile from the rough crossing into American homogeneity.

"Guatemalans, Salvadorans, Nicaraguans, all have their own different cultures," said Elizabeth Salinas-Newby, 53, a Mexican-American administrator at Iowa's Division of Latino Affairs in Des Moines. "To lump them all together takes away their identity."

Some immigrants from Mexico and Central America have actively protested "Hispanic," saying it obliterates their Indian heritage. In Minnesota, college students went on a hunger strike until it was dropped from forms.

One refuge for those seeking to cultivate the difference is America's Spanish-language media. For the first time, the 2000 census asked Hispanic respondents their national origins, and Spanish-language publishers and advertisers plan to use the breakdown to "microtarget" readers and viewers.

"Any time you have information that is segmented, it gives you a better understanding of the consumer mindset, it gives us better tools to work with," said Horacio Gomes, incoming president of the Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies.

A campaign using baseball would reach Cubans, for instance, but soccer is more likely to touch Colombians.

And there are the linguistic differences. Four or five different words for tires mean that tire ads aimed at the Hispanic market rely more on visuals to get the message across.

It's not just national origin, said Isabel Valdes, a Palo Alto, Calif., marketing specialist. When you arrived is also an issue.

"When we arrive, our mindset is what it was back home. Over 30 years, two generations, you become much more acculturated," she said.

In her native Chile, Valdes grew up with Colgate toothpaste, and she was glad to see it on grocery shelves when she came here. Kraft foods, on the other hand, were a mystery.