Thomas Tseng from The Melting Blog, posted this interesting story On July 19, 2004. It is another important aspect of the Latino culture that you need to be aware of.
Here is a short quotation, but you really must read the whole thing:
For years, scholars believed that colonial Mexicans actually lived according to this intricate system of racial castes. They mistook these paintings as depictions of social reality. But the categories enshrined in casta paintings never came close to reflecting the variety and dynamism of colonial race relations. And while the minority white European elite was obsessed with racial purity, most Mexican commoners were not.
But while widespread mixture made enforcement of a true caste system impossible, the notion of a racial hierarchy did nonetheless influence the nation’s self-image. Today the relative absence of dark-skinned actors on Mexican television is a legacy of this tradition. Some Latin American-born advertising executives have imported this prejudice to the United States. Their advertisements routinely feature light-skinned models in campaigns designed to target a Latino population that is distinctly heterogeneous.
According to the report, Hispanic households generate the highest travel volume — over 77 million person-trips or 8 percent of all domestic person-trips taken by U.S. households. Travel by Hispanic Americans has grown significantly, some 20 percent between 2000 and 2002 alone, a time when total U.S. domestic travel grew 2 percent.
“These growth rates show the travel and tourism industry that the Hispanic market has substantial buying power. However, every sector of this industry — hotels, theme parks, city visitor bureaus, transportation companies and convention centers — continues to ignore the power of the Hispanic community taking the dollar value associated with it for granted,” said Angela Gonzalez Rowe, Editor in Chief of Hispanic Meetings & Travel magazine.
Either traveling within the U.S., visiting family and friends back home, getting closer to their Latin American Heritage, or traveling the world for business or pleasure, Hispanics are traveling in growing numbers and affecting the Travel and Tourism Industry just as they are having a strong impact on every industry in America.
You need to know how serve them as they want to be served.
According to a report by PRNewswire on July 28th, 2004, the August issue of HISPANIC Magazine features the Top 10 Cities for Hispanics to Live In. Every year HISPANIC Magazine looks at the factors that make a city attractive for Hispanic living. This year, Austin moves up two notches to the coveted No. 1
position. The complete list of cities includes:
1. Austin
2. Miami
3. San Diego
4. San Antonio
5. El Paso-Las Cruces
6. Albuquerque
7. Tucson
8. Los Angeles
9. Chicago
10. Las Vegas
¡Que viva Austin! Coincidentally it is the city I call Home…
Lydia Martin of the Miami Herald wrote on July 22nd about how several Latin American sodas have found their niche markets, thriving by catering to the nostalgic tastes home of many Hispanic Immigrants. They have claimed a mountain their own (a narrowly defined category for basically each drink), doing great business there, while letting the big boys battle it out on their own.
[In Miami] Coke and Pepsi may have the muscle, but they don’t have the emotional pull of the little guys who crowd together on a couple of measly shelves but do a fine job of holding their own.
Coke may be the real thing. Pepsi may claim its own generation. But Materva and Ironbeer from Cuba, Inca Kola from Peru, Ting from Jamaica, Milca from Nicaragua, Guaraná from Brazil, the maltas, the kola champagnes — they have plenty of juice in a town where the craving for a taste of home can overcome global marketing, fountain and vending-machine domination and even Britney-Beyoncé tactics.
The little guys don’t suffer from product-postioning envy. They know they have their audience by the nostalgia.
This most appropriate follow-up to yesterday’s post on Hispanics and financial institutions was published July 28th on Knowledge @ Wharton bi-weekly newsletter. Here are some excerpts:
With Hispanics now constituting the largest minority in the United States – some 40 million people – their appeal to financial institutions is growing. Spanish banks are taking advantage of their strong presence in Latin America to move into the United States, even as U.S. banks are trying to take advantage of the growing Hispanic presence in their country to expand into Latin America.
For the moment, the financial institutions that serve this market are focused on sending remittances, a business that will amount to $30 billion this year, according to BID, the Ibero-American Development Bank. That is more money than all the foreign direct investment in the region. The Hispanic market is extremely attractive for Spanish and American banks because most Hispanics do not even have a bank account yet; in countries like Mexico, credit accounts for only 10% of GDP.
Lately, financial institutions have been paying much closer attention to Hispanics. Almost every day you can find a news release on the subject. From local credit unions to big financial corporations… They go from hiring bilingual staff, to launching a new bank specifically targeting Latinos, and just about everything in between. Here is a random sample of the news I’ve found during the last couple of weeks:
In New Hampshire, as in the rest of the country, the Hispanic or Latino population is increasing faster than any other.
Dale Vincent, staff member of The Union Leader, reports the following:
While the number of Hispanics or Latinos, who may be of any race, is still small at 20,489 in a total state population of 1,235,786, it increased 80 percent since the 1990 census, according to the 2000 Census.
Sixty percent live in Hillsborough County, comprising 4,944 of Manchester’s 105,155 and 5,388 of Nashua’s 86,605 residents.
Along with population growth is Hispanic business growth, concentrated in Manchester and Nashua.
Former Manchester business owner Hector Velez said there are more than 35 Hispanic-owned businesses in Manchester alone, including grocery stores, restaurants, auto dealerships, garages, clothing stores and an insurance agency.
We must look at the other side of the coin. There is a percentage of the Hispanics living in the United States that are not necessarily pursuing the “American Dream”, as normally defined.
Here is an extract from Heather Mac Donald’s article from the Summer 2004 edition of The City Journal:
Before immigration optimists issue another rosy prognosis for America’s multicultural future, they might visit Belmont High School in Los Angeles’s overwhelmingly Hispanic, gang-ridden Rampart district. “Upward and onward” is not a phrase that comes to mind when speaking to the first- and second-generation immigrant teens milling around the school this January.
“Most of the people I used to hang out with when I first came to the school have dropped out,” observes Jackie, a vivacious illegal alien from Guatemala. “Others got kicked out or got into drugs. Five graduated, and four home girls got pregnant”…
… These Belmont teens are no aberration. Hispanic youths, whether recent arrivals or birthright American citizens, are developing an underclass culture.
It makes me less than proud to read stories like this one, and I would like to turn the other way and pretend these situations are just not happening, but I can’t cover the Sun with one finger. It is one more component of the Latino reality… unfortunately.
According to latest Arbitron book for the 6:00 AM to 12:00AM daypart
On July 21, Yahoo! Finance informed that Spanish Broadcasting System, Inc.’s KLAX-FM (“La Raza” 97.9 FM) Los Angeles and WSKQ-FM (“Mega” 97.9 FM) New York Achieve #1 Rankings among all radio stations, English and Spanish, in Arbitron’s Spring Ratings Book for Adults 25-54 in each city.
Raul Alarcon, Jr., President and CEO of SBS, commented, “Our ratings performance in the nation’s two largest radio markets is unprecedented…These remarkable ratings increases further illustrate the sheer scale of the Hispanic population, confirming Spanish Broadcasting’s leadership position in delivering this vital consumer audience within the nation’s largest media markets and positioning the Company for long-term revenue growth.”
This is great news for SBS, I do believe this is another effect of the growing Latino population in America, and I am positive we’ll continue observing similar occurrences across the nation. Still, we must be aware to take this type of news from the radio industry with a dose of skepticism.
Al Carlos Hernandez published the following insightful & funny article July 18, 2004 on LatinoLA.com. It is a clear snapshot of just another of the many realities Hispanics are living in the U.S.
Just because someone looks Latino, don’t immediately assume you need to bring out the sombrero, put mariachi music on your speakers, and begin addressing this person in Spanish. There are slim to none chances you will pull it off successfully. Read along and learn from someone who has experienced it first hand…
Have you ever made the mistake of saying a few phrases in Spanish only to have the other person speak for the next 45 minutes in the mother tongue, while you have little clue as to what they are saying and or how to stop them. Yea, right. I’m the only one.
I am of an urban generation that was not taught Spanish as a first language because our parents believed that the only way to get ahead in this society is to be fluent and literate in English, and they were right. That’s not to say the plan worked as well as planned, we spent the majority of our schoolyard days speaking a Cholo form of Spanglish Ebonics.
Thomas Tseng from The Melting Blog, posted this interesting story On July 19, 2004. It is another important aspect of the Latino culture that you need to be aware of.
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