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March 2011 posts

Demographics alone won’t adequately lift Latinos

March 31, 2011

By Esther J. Cepeda

When the U.S. Census Bureau released its population estimates from the nation’s 2010 headcount, Hispanics across the country rejoiced in the power of their numbers.

The 50.5 million Latinos accounted for 56 percent of the nation’s growth — mostly from births, not immigration — between 2000 to 2010. Adult Hispanics are now one of every six Americans, and almost one in every four children is Hispanic. Now the largest minority group, Latinos are well on their way to comprising one-third of the U.S. population in 2050.

Latinos stand at a crucial juncture: They could continue to endure multigenerational poverty, a general lack of political power, dismal graduation rates and too-few professional opportunities while being erroneously thought of as a population of unassimilated carpetbaggers.

Or they could put their eye-popping statistics to the task of taking their rightful place in mainstream America as the most recent wave of culturally similar people, actively contributing their strengths, values and work ethic to continue making this country great.

In other words, instead of interpreting the population figures as an automatic guarantee of future political clout or demographic respect, the Latino community should consider them a call to action.
It won’t be easy — there is contempt and discrimination on many fronts.

The challenges are many, but the Latino community is young, energetic and fundamentally aware that changing the way others see it today will have a long-term, far-reaching impact on the entire nation. Already, some Latinos are working toward throwing off the common archetypes — immigrant victims, gang members, non-English-speaking blue-collar workers — in favor of more pedestrian roles as soccer moms, executives, voters, legislators and mentors.

However, reaching a critical mass will require leadership and personal responsibility from all of the burgeoning Latino middle class. Language skills, obtaining legal and medical services, and navigating the U.S. educational system from kindergarten through college will be needed.

It will be a hard burden to shoulder. According to a report by the Institute on Assets and Social Policy at Brandeis University, in 2008 fewer than one in five Latino families — 18 percent — had the combination of assets, education, income and health insurance to ensure middle-class financial security, and as many as 41 percent of them were in danger of slipping out of the middle class.

Yet who better to help those trying to climb social-class ladders than Latinos who have already attained a little piece of the American Dream?

Regardless of whether they speak Spanish or not, Hispanics are qualified to help others perfect their English-language skills, mentor studdents, join the boards of their local school, library or arts organization.

They can go further by getting engaged in the political process.

I’m not going to pretend that “giving back” is not time-consuming, heart-wrenching, sometimes expensive and always demanding. But once you start, it quickly becomes clear just how dearly every community with a Latino population needs student mentors, senior-citizen advocates, and just plain-old strong bodies and strong minds.

Quick, glamorous and easy? Absolutely not, but it’s a great opportunity. Latinos’ success in this country, and much of America’s prosperity, rests squarely in their own hands.

Source: My San Antonio

Posted by on March 31, 2011 in Hispanic Facts and Figures | | Comments (0)

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As local Hispanic population triples, counties and schools face increased need for language services

March 29, 2011

By Chad Daily

Like many of her neighbors, Joselyn Julio wishes for a shorter central Wisconsin winter and more entertainment for young adults.

But for now, the 20-year-old Julio, born in the coastal Mexican state of Veracruz, doesn’t want to live anywhere else. She and her family own and operate 3 Hermanos, a Wausau grocery store they opened in November 2009.

“I really like it, except that there’s not a lot to do,” she said with a laugh. “But it’s really calm here, and it’s a good place to live.”

Thousands of Latinos and other Hispanics would agree.

Ten years ago, nearly 1,000 Hispanic people lived and worked in Marathon County. The population tripled to about 3,000 residents in 2010, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Lincoln County also experienced an increase during the past decade, from 243 Hispanic residents to 340 in 2010, according to the census.

Both counties mirror a statewide increase of Hispanics and Latinos from almost 193,000 in 2000 to more than 336,000 in 2010, a 74 percent increase and 6 percent of the state’s residents.

The population growth has increased demand for services to the Hispanic and Latino community, ranging from translation of government documents to English Language Learner classes in local school districts.
Marathon County, for example, spent $31,886 on Spanish-to-English translation services in 2009 and $29,080 in 2008, according to a report from its former Diversity Affairs Office.

Local school districts have seen an increase in their Hispanic students and a greater demand for English Language Learner and English as a Second Language classes.

“We had very, very few students 10 years ago in our ELL and ESL classes, maybe one or two,” said Nell Anderson, director of education for the Wausau School District. “Now, we’ve got 175 Hispanic students just in ELL classes.”

That includes a dual-language program at A.C. Kiefer Elementary School in Wausau, where 4-year-old preschoolers who can speak little or no English spend the first half of their day speaking Spanish and the second half entirely in English.

Julio said her family received help from other Hispanics and Latinos when they moved to the area — connecting to phone and Internet services, for example — but the family now helps other newcomers to the area with translation and other needs.

“We give each other support and help each other out,” she said.

The Rev. Robert Thorn of St. Matthew Catholic Church in Wausau tries to help in his own way by hosting a Spanish-language Mass on Sundays. He started the service in 2002 with about 30 to 40 people in the pews and now sees about 120 people each week.

“They’re coming from all over; not only Wausau, but Antigo, Wittenberg and other places,” he said.
Despite efforts by county and school district officials and others, Art Lersch is concerned about a loss of funding for Comunidad Hispana, a Merrill-based nonprofit dedicated to helping Hispanic and Latino residents.

Lersch, community resource development agent for UW-Extension in Lincoln County, helped create Comunidad Hispana. Without more funding, Lersch said, “it has become more difficult for newer Hispanics and Latinos to assimilate into the community, and those who’ve been here for some time have lost some of the connections they’ve gained.”

Source: Wausa Daily Herald

Posted by on March 31, 2011 in Hispanic Education | | Comments (0)

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Hispanic Population Helping U.S. Christianity Thrive

March 30, 2011
By Andrea Marcela Madambashi

With the Hispanic population booming in the U.S., one prominent evangelical believes Hispanics will be the “lifeguards for Christianity in America in the 21st century.”

The Rev. Samuel Rodriguez made the comment to The Christian Post on Tuesday in response to the latest U.S. Census Bureau report, released last week, which revealed that the Hispanic population has grown to 50.5 million, or roughly 1 in 6 Americans.

That marks a 43 percent growth over the last 10 years. The Hispanic population growth accounted for over half of the 27.3 million increase in the total U.S. population.

Reflecting on the massive increase, Rodriguez, president of America's largest Hispanic Christian organization, The National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, talked about the impact from a church perspective.

It has “two powerful impacts” on the church, he said.

Firstly, “it forces the Anglo-Saxon American churches to expand their outreach in their communities.”

He explained, “Previously, the Anglo-Saxon church was able to survive by reaching out exclusively to its own people, but now it can no longer do so.”

Secondly, the Hispanic church is experiencing the fastest growth in history in such a way that the largest denominations such as the Southern Baptist Convention, Assemblies of God, Churches of God, and The United Methodist Church, among others, have confirmed that their growth comes largely through Hispanic churches.

“In other words, without the Hispanic population the evangelical church in the U.S. would decline,” he observed.

According to the U.S. Census report, the non-Hispanic population grew only about 5 percent over the decade. And within the non-Hispanic population, the number of people who reported their race as White alone grew by just 1 percent. When measured against the total population, the non-Hispanic White alone population declined from 69 percent to 64 percent.

Additionally, while the majority of Hispanics in the U.S. are Catholic, the percentage of those who affiliate with evangelical Christianity is growing, with many converting from the Catholic tradition, according to The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

With excitement, Rodriguez predicted that Hispanics will help revive the evangelical Christian movement in the United States.

“Hispanics will rise as the lifeguards for Christianity in America in the 21st century,” Rodriguez stressed. “They will be the spokesmen for the movement of sanctity and justice.”

In a separate statement, the Rev. Mauricio Elizondo, senior pastor of Walnut Park Assembly of God in Garland, Texas, boasted of the Hispanic community’s unity on values.

"The message of the Hispanic community is about becoming 'one' and crying out, bringing America back to its core values that this great country was founded on,” he said Tuesday. “We are going to be the reconciling voices for the people who have been impoverished, the voices for the unborn, and the voices for people who have been marginalized. It is our time to rise up and shine – 50 million voices shouting together for the sake of our Lord, for the sake of humanity and for the sake of America, bringing our country back to revival."

Still, the fast-growing population doesn’t come without challenges for churches, namely in regards to education, finance and immigration.

Currently, a big part of the Hispanic population doesn’t have adequate education to be able to lead both in the church and outside it, Rodriguez noted.

In response, the Alliance for Hispanic Christian Education was launched by universities, denominations and churches to help raise the education level of Hispanic youths. Churches are also beginning to educate congregants and local communities about how to manage money.

On the issue of immigration reform and the 12 million current undocumented residents in the country, Rodriguez has one proposal: integration. That would include a path for earned citizenship and immigrants in turn adhering to the values of the U.S. Constitution by embracing English and assimilating, among other things.

“A Just Integration Solution reconciles Romans 13, adherence to the rule of law, with Leviticus 19, treating the stranger amongst us as one of our own,” he said in an earlier commentary featured in undocumented.tv.

The proposal, which includes increasing border protection, has already been presented to members of Congress.

“We are currently negotiating with Congress to push an immigration reform of integration to incorporate the 12 million people in a very suitable way for our country.”

Source: The Christian Post

Posted by on March 31, 2011 in Hispanic Market Size, Religion | | Comments (0)

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Texas Republicans Take Harder Line On Immigration

March 29, 2011

By Wade Goodwyn

In Texas, the Republican Party is changing its tactics on illegal immigration.

The relatively welcoming, tolerant attitude embraced by George W. Bush when he was governor is waning. It has been overtaken by a flood of Arizona-style get-tough measures, with nearly 100 immigration bills written or filed.

And while legal challenges will surely follow if many of those measures pass, the debate in Texas is clearly shifting.

The Bush Strategy

The state is now more than ever in the nation’s conservative vanguard. Among its most conservative leaders is state Rep. Leo Berman from northeast Texas. Though Berman’s district is far from the Mexico border, he’s leading the charge on immigration. One of his bills would “stop giving automatic citizenship to children born in Texas.”

There’s also a voter ID bill; a bill that would require elementary school children to prove their citizenship upon enrolling — data that would then be turned over to state and federal authorities; and another Berman bill that would make English the official state language.

“That will shut off the state printing anything in any language but English,” he says, “and that’s going to save millions of dollars right there.”

This is a significant change in strategy for the Texas GOP. In the mid ’90s, Texas Republicans watched as their counterparts in California went on an anti-illegal immigration crusade and lost control of the state.

But in Texas, the economy was booming; the suburbs of Dallas, Houston, Austin and San Antonio were exploding; and thousands of illegal immigrants sat astride 2-by-4s, nail guns in hand, building those neighborhoods.

So, then-Gov. Bush and his man Karl Rove crafted a different strategy from their California colleagues: Hispanic-friendly.

The result? In 1998, George W. Bush crushed his Democratic opponent, getting nearly half the Hispanic vote — a triumph that placed him on the path to the presidency one year later.

The young governor learned his political style at his father’s knee. Not only was George H.W. Bush a former president of the United States; he was a Texas oilman. And for generations, those independent oil producers, along with farmers and Texas ranchers, have employed inexpensive, hard-working Mexican laborers.

‘Throwing Away Their Future’?

But in the halls of the Texas Capitol in 2011, Bush’s approach is considered insufficiently conservative by most Republicans. The one powerful interest group that still thinks Bush had it right is the Texas Association of Business.

“If suddenly all the undocumented workers [in the state] were simply to go back to their home of origin, it would be disastrous for the Texas economy,” says Bill Hammond, president of the group.

It is no exaggeration to say the membership of Hammond’s group supplies the Texas Republican Party with a large measure of its fiscal lifeblood. On behalf of his clients, the thousands of big- and small-business owners in Texas, Hammond roams the state Capitol, trying to impart a bit of reality about the Lone Star State’s economy.

“The impact on the Texas state economy of immigrant labor is about $17 billion a year,” he says. “That’s an enormous segment of our economy, and we simply would not be able to function without these people.”

Until this year, Hammond and his Republican allies in the Texas Legislature have been able to kill most immigration bills in committee. Hammond would like to expand the immigration pipeline to allow more workers to legally enter the state. That proposal currently has zero chance.

“Today, 56 percent of Texans under the age of 25 are minorities. The growth in the population has been largely Hispanic over the last 10 years,” he says. “I believe the Republican Party is throwing away their future.”

A Plea To Tone Down The Rhetoric

Republican state Rep. Aaron Pena represents the border city of Hidalgo. “The tone of the debate is basically saying, ‘We don’t want you. … This is a war over our culture. These people bring diseases into our country.’ “

He says the six Hispanic Republicans in the Texas House have been trying to persuade some of their colleagues to tone down the anti-Hispanic rhetoric.

“Many times, you won’t see our handiwork out in public,” he says. “It’s done behind the scenes.”
Pena says there are plenty of Texas Republicans who quietly share his concerns about the tone of the debate and its long-term effect on Hispanic voters.

But now, there are plenty who don’t, including Berman. “Most Hispanics right now do vote Democrat; there’s no question about it,” Berman says. “So what vote are we going after? We’re going after a vote that doesn’t vote Republican anyway.”

It’s too early to tell how many of the dozens of bills will become law. While the Texas House seems hot for immigration bills, the Senate seems less so. It’s distracted by a $27 billion budget deficit that’s threatening to gut the state.

Source: NPR

Posted by on March 31, 2011 in Current Affairs | | Comments (0)

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Latinos at the Movies

March 29, 201

By Gustavo Razzetti 

The 2011 Oscar craze is gone, and so too its attempt to bring in a younger audience. The 83rd Annual Academy Awards viewership was down 10 percent versus the previous year, including a 5 percent decrease in the 18-35-year-old audience.

Movie theater attendance was also down: a 5 percent decrease in 2010, while January 2011 was the worst January in 20 years in terms of ticket sales. DVD revenues continue to decline (11 percent drop); and taking into consideration that DVD sales and rentals account for about half the profit of a movie, the picture doesn’t look good at all.

What’s happening to the movie industry? Perhaps Hollywood is not fully taking advantage of America’s new demographics.

The Hispanic Opportunity

The Latino population experienced a 43 percent growth in the past decade versus 4.9 percent among non-Hispanics. This represents a huge opportunity for Hollywood, and though the industry has increasingly been targeting the Hispanic audience more recently, there’s still a lot of room to grow.

Latinos are heavy movie fans: they are over 80 percent more likely than the general population to see a movie in the opening weekend, according to Simmons, fueling weekend openings. Overall, Hispanic moviegoers bought more than 300 million tickets in 2009, watching more than eight movies per years on average.

Though this propensity to frequent movie theaters is across all genres, there’s a higher predisposition to horror and action films. Male Hispanics age 25-34 are the most frequent moviegoers as well as Spanish-dominant, especially families that consider movies as one of the most interesting family outing experiences.

The Language of Marketing

As I mentioned before, studios are becoming more and more interested in the important role that Latinos play in order to get their business back on track.

The norm seems to be spending 5 to 10 percent of their marketing budget on targeting Hispanics; still far from the 16 percent share that this demographic represents, and even less compared to the contribution of Hispanics to overall movie attendance.

“The Expendables” invested 11.04 percent in Spanish-language media versus “Despicable Me” that invested only 6.4 percent. A nice exception is “Machete,” which invested 47 percent of its media dollars in Spanish-language media trying to leverage its Latino cast (director Robert Rodriguez and actors Danny Trejo and Jessica Alba), and also had a fake trailer months before the movie was released, alluding to the new Arizona immigration law.

English language TV is the most popular way for Hispanics under 35 to learn about new movies. For Spanish-dominant Latinos, Spanish language TV of course ranks higher, but English TV is not that far behind. Is this a consequence of the level of investment in Spanish TV being too low? Probably. But it also raises the question of how studios are planning their English language media buys. It seems pretty obvious that besides increasing their presence in Spanish language TV, they should start selecting programs where

Latinos over-index for their English language campaign as well.

Another interesting look is at the role that language plays in movie selection. Most Latinos see movies at the theater in English, even among Spanish-dominants. One reason is the lack of alternatives, but it is also because genre and relevancy comes first. Latinos prefer to watch a movie they like first, then the language that the movie is in. Another reason for English preference is that the kids in the family tend to prefer movies in English. What happens is that parents go and watch movies that their kids like and have them translate key parts of the movies. Images speak louder than words, and that’s why action movies are at the top of their preference; moviegoers can follow the story even if they don’t understand all the dialogue.

In many Latin American countries, movies are in English but have subtitles in Spanish. Is that an option that studios should start to consider in DMAs where Hispanics over-index? Probably yes.

The Bad and the Furious

“From Prada to Nada” was one of the experiments to develop movies that are relevant to Latinos. While the movie is in English and many punch lines are in Spanish, the formula wasn’t successful. It was full of clichés and stereotypes and got a domestic gross of less than $3 million.

A similar fate was met with movies in Spanish like “Y Tu Mamá También” and “The Motorcycle Diaries”: very successful in the art-house market, but not so popular with the mainstream Latino population.

On the success side is “The Fast and Furious” series. “2 Fast 2 furious” had a 25.2 percent Hispanic audience, while for the fourth version, “Fast & Furious,” almost one out of three attendees were of Latino origin (29.2 percent).

The formula of success is a combination of content and marketing. Think Latino’s passion of cars, add some Hispanic characters and some phrases in Spanish, mix it with some scenes shot at Latin America combined with music by Tego Calderon and Don Omar, and you get the recipe for success.

Advertising-wise, the movie was promoted in Spanish language during the U.S.-Mexico qualifying match in winter, with Spanish trailers on both Telemundo and Univision, as well as leveraging social media networks.
Seems easy, right? Still, Hollywood seems to be struggling. The 2011 Oscar show wasn’t only unsuccessful in trying to reach the younger demographic, but also the Hispanic population overall: only 6.9 percent of viewership was from the Latino audience. A lack of Latino movies, actors, and presenters is certainly not helping matters.

Some Thought-Starters for Hollywood
    •    Movies should have mass-appeal to Latinos.
    •    Including aspects of Hispanic culture can draw interest…bringing Hispanic culture to the mainstream.
    •    It’s important to promote movies in Spanish outlets. While English TV is the most popular way to  learn about movies, for Spanish dominants, Spanish TV is the most popular.
    •    Mobile is a great opportunity. While Latinos over-index in mobile usage and downloading movies on their smartphones, still 69 percent buy the tickets at the theater.
    •    Search is also a powerful tool: 78 percent of Hispanics have used a search engine to find more information about something they saw on TV.
    •    Social media integration is key. Not only in terms of engaging audiences, but also theaters with technology that allow Latinos to tweet and upload comments on Facebook while they are watching the movies could be a great win.

Source: Clickz.com

Posted by on March 31, 2011 in Film | | Comments (0)

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How Many Hispanics? Pew Hispanic Center Releases Updated Comparison of 2010 Census Counts and Census Estimates

Press Release

March 30, 2011

Data for All States Now Available

The number of Hispanics counted in the 2010 Census was nearly 1 million more than expected, based on the most recent Census Bureau population estimates, according to an updated analysis by the Pew Hispanic Center, a project of the Pew Research Center. The report includes comparisons of census counts and estimates for all states as well as the District of Columbia, as well as rankings of states with the largest discrepancies between count and estimate.

The 2010 Census count of Hispanics was 50,478,000, compared with 49,522,000 Hispanics in the bureau's own estimates. The count was 1.9% higher (955,000 people) than the estimated population. In 32 states, the 2010 Census count of Hispanics was at least 2% higher than the estimates; in nine states, it was at least 2% lower than the estimates. In the nine remaining states and the District of Columbia, the difference was less than 2% in either direction.

By comparison, for the total U.S. population, the 2010 Census count of 308.7 million was barely lower (about 232,000 people) than the bureau's population estimate for April 1, 2010. Compared with results a decade ago, the national Hispanic count in the 2010 Census was closer to bureau estimates than it had been in 2000. The 2000 Census count included 10% more Hispanics than the population estimates, and state-level discrepancies also were larger than in 2010.

Unlike the decennial Census, designed to be a 100% count of the U.S. population, the Census Bureau's population estimates are annual updates of counts from the previous census based largely on birth certificates, death certificates, immigration data and other government records. The most recent published state population estimates for Hispanics were as of July 1, 2009. For this analysis, the Hispanic estimates were updated to Census Day, April 1, 2010, by extrapolating the 2009 estimates based on each state's Hispanic population growth rate from 2008 to 2009.

The Pew Hispanic Center analysis indicates that states with large percentage differences between their Hispanic census counts and census estimates also were likely to have large percentage differences between census counts and census estimates for their total populations. This reflects the large role that Hispanics play in overall population growth. Hispanics have accounted for most of the discrepancy between 2010 Census counts and census estimates of states' total populations.

In addition, according to the Pew Hispanic Center analysis, states that have Hispanic populations under a million people (including many where Hispanic counts grew sharply) collectively had a larger percentage gap between their census counts and census estimates than did the nine states with larger, long-duration Hispanic communities.

Source: Hispanic Pew Center

Posted by on March 31, 2011 in Hispanic Facts and Figures | | Comments (0)

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Gay, Hispanic Leaders Changing The Face Of The NAACP

March 29, 2011

The Associated Press reports that immigrants, gays, and people of young ages and various ethnicities are now filling positions once held by blacks. In the past few years, chapters in a number of states have elected Hispanics as president. And Last December, A Jackson, MS chapter elected a white president for the first time. Host Michel Martin discusses the changes with Ravi Perry, the 28-year-old openly gay and black president of the Worcester, MA chapter. Also joining the conversation is Victor Diaz, the Dominican president of a Connecticut chapter.

For more on this story please visit: NPR

Posted by on March 30, 2011 in Current Affairs | | Comments (0)

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The Coming Latino Weight Boom

March 27, 2011

By Ray Suarez

If we consulted the health statistics kept by the rich countries club, the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, the OECD, we might not be too surprised to find that the United States has the highest rate of obesity, at 30.6 percent. What country, would you guess, is number two? Mexico … with an adult obesity rate of 23 percent.

That’s a new development on a couple of levels. It’s a sign of Mexico’s economic progress that the country is a member of the OECD. It is perhaps a symptom of that new found wealth that Mexicans are digging their graves with their knives and forks almost as fast as their NAFTA neighbors next door. The old verities about American obesity and immigrant health — that newcomers arrived slim and became fat after taking on the American way of eating — are falling by the wayside as obesity rates creep higher in “sending” countries.

My program on HITN TV, Destination Casa Blanca, took a look at obesity and Latinos in the United States. A stunning number of Latinos in the United States, from the Caribbean, Central America, and South America are obese or overweight, and their U.S.-born children are growing up with weight problems. On the first anniversary of Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move program, we asked, are the numbers moving in the right direction?

The short answer is … sorta. The rate of increase in weight problems has slowed. Schools are taking gradual steps toward improving the meals they serve, and including more physical education in the required curriculum. But the trends that push on weight problems have not changed: increasingly sedentary youth, the easy availability of highly caloric food, less walking and biking to school.

Pick up the paper, and you’ll see all kinds of solutions. Student market gardens have sprung up around the country. Cooking classes for kids seek to teach new food habits and deliver basic information on nutrition and healthy eating. However those programs are still pilots and experiments in most places, small-scale and low-impact in too many places. Away from the bib lettuce and kale is the real world of school systems struggling to keep unit costs for feeding students low. This results in chicken tenders, french fries, pizzas and soda.

Destination Casa Blanca guest Maria Gomez, executive director of Mary’s Center in Washington D.C., pointed out the association of a little more weight with success and affluence was one barrier to slimming down. Grandparents are happy to see fat babies. People new to the country who may have been food insecure back home, suddenly find they have access to more meat, more cheese, more cooking oil … more of everything more of the time.

Sin taxing soft drinks is smothered in the cradle every time it’s suggested. Watch closely as a long list of industry-sponsored organizations channel consumer anger at any attempts to create disincentives to drinking highly sweetened drinks. Notice also, the outraged housewife loading groceries on the checkout counter is never obese in the anti-tax commercials. Neither are her kids.

In China, 20 million people died from famine from 1959 to 1961. The number of obese Chinese grows 30 to 50 percent every year. Granted, that growth rate is based on a very small base. The vast majority of the country’s people are still what an American would call “thin.” But the lifestyle changes rocking China promise that rate of increase will continue, until the base isn’t so small any more.

Americans are already where the rest of the world is heading. It will be interesting to see if this country can start to solve the problem as the rest of the world realizes a sizable majority has a weight problem. At a time when the U.S. is wrestling with how to cover tens of millions currently uninsured and underinsured, the coming Latino weight boom is a particular challenge. Latinos in the United States face rapidly growing obesity and come from the demographic group with the lowest rates of health insurance.

The growing waistlines, and the growing Latino presence, will offer special challenges to an overburdened health system, as they loom larger in high-cost age cohorts. Today the largest single age group among Latinos is 0-5 years of age. A few decades down the road waits the graying of the brown … and high rates of diabetes, hypertension, and other obesity-related conditions will drive the whole nation’s health care bill.

Saving a few pounds now will save a lot more dollars later.

In the countries with fast-growing economies in Latin America, Asia, and Eastern Europe, millions are following Americans into massive waistlines and big threats to national health. One peculiar wrinkle sees food companies providing more and more fattening food, in more places, during more hours of the day, while the governments of these same countries run public service announcements over radio and television urging people to eat less and exercise. The public’s in the middle and, for the moment, hearing the food company’s flashy advertising more clearly than it hears the bitter pill of exercise and healthy eating. Look out world … obesity is going to become one of the most frightening health crises of the 21st century.

Source: Huffington Post

Posted by on March 29, 2011 in Hispanic Health | | Comments (0)

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Many Hispanics remain cool to organ donation

March 27, 2011

By Jim Forsuth

When Norma Garcia’s 13-year-old daughter was killed in a car wreck, she had no idea that in the midst of her grief she was about to plunge into a controversy that would test her cultural identity and Christian faith.

After Jasmine Garcia was declared brain dead following the 2001 accident, doctors at San Antonio’s University Hospital asked her mother if she would be willing to donate her daughter’s organs.

“The majority of my family had a belief that, ‘How could you do that? How could you allow her to be mutilated? How could you let them take her heart out?'” recalled Garcia, a San Antonio real estate agent.

“My parents are from Mexico, and they had the feeling that, ‘She is your daughter. Why would you allow them to do this to her?”

Garcia ultimately made an organ donation of Jasmine’s heart and liver, a decision that left her estranged from several relatives for some time, she recalled.

Her experience highlights a cultural divide that organ donation advocates say is threatening the ability of surgeons to save lives through organ transplants, especially as new census figures show the nation’s Hispanic population surging.

Hispanics — especially first- and second-generation Mexican-Americans — are less likely to donate organs than Americans as a whole, according to organ donation experts.

“We find that the Hispanic community tells us, ‘My religion says not to donate,’ and ‘I can’t have an open casket because the body will be damaged,'” said Esmeralda Perez of the Texas Organ Sharing Alliance.

“They feel that their loved one will be disfigured, or the person will not be able to get into heaven because their body will not be whole.”

In South Texas along the Rio Grande from Brownsville to Laredo, where Latinos make up the vast majority of 1.4 million residents — many of them first-generation Mexican-Americans — organs from just 19 individuals were donated in 2010, according to the alliance. The overall U.S. average is about 26 organ donors per million, Perez said.

Thirty-one percent of organ donors across Texas in 2010 were Hispanic, while new census figures show that 42 percent of the state’s population is Latino.

Latinos’ reticence about organ donation centers on religion, said Nuvia Enriquez, Hispanic outreach coordinator for the Donor Network of Arizona.

“A lot of work that we do is to go out and try to dissolve some of these myths,” she said. “We talk to them about the Catholic Church’s position on donation, which is very positive. Pope John Paul II was actually the first pope to declare donation to be an act of love, and Pope Benedict, when he was Cardinal, was a card-carrying organ donor.”

The Rev. John Leies, a prominent Catholic theologian and former president of St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, said the church is working to convince the faithful that organ donation does not render the body unfit for the afterlife.

“The church is well aware that there are so may people waiting for organs, and there are not enough to be supplied and people die without receiving their organs,” he said. “It is difficult to fight against these cultural ideas, and maybe the church hasn’t made a good enough effort.”

Perez said that 45 percent of patients on the national waiting list to receive organs are Hispanic.
Garcia said her relatives, who once so strongly criticized her decision to donate Jasmine’s organs, have since become big supporters of organ donation.

“After we all got more educated, and the family started attending these events where donors’ families meet organ recipients, and seeing how much of a difference this has made in the lives of others and the good they could do for all these people, and how this was keeping Jasmine’s memory alive, I think they realized it was the right decision,” she said.

Source: Reuters

Posted by on March 29, 2011 in Hispanic Culture, Hispanic Health | | Comments (0)

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Growing Hispanic population helps rural economies thrive

March 27, 2011

By Chris Burritt

SPARTA, N.C. — Without a growing Hispanic population in the rolling hills of rural North Carolina, Bottomley Evergreens and Farms Inc., a provider of Christmas trees to Wal-Mart and Home Depot, would be out of business.

“If it weren’t for the Hispanic people, I couldn’t farm, couldn’t do nothing,’’ said Blan Bottomley, 64, who has 4.5 million firs planted this year and fields of pumpkins, cabbage, and sweet corn taking root nearby. His son and co-owner Mitchell, 37, said he has gleaned some know-how from the migrant workers.
“I know how to say, ‘Go cut cabbage’ or ‘Go cut pines,’ ’’ he said in Spanish.

The Hispanic population in Alleghany County, at the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, grew 89.4 percent from 2000 to 2010, compared with 4.5 percent overall growth in the county, according to 2010 Census figures.

The increase in Latino residents in North Carolina reflects a broader national trend in which Hispanics are moving beyond urban neighborhoods and making rural America home.

Hispanics in North Carolina rose 111.1 percent during the past decade and the ethnic group now accounts for 8.4 percent of the state’s population, compared with 4.7 percent in 2000, according to the census data. Details on state populations will be released through the end of March by the Census Bureau.

“There aren’t many Americans who want to work in agriculture,’’ said Xavier Iglesias, 27, owner of two restaurants and a laundromat in Sparta, the largest town in Alleghany County, in the northwestern part of the state. “It’s such a haven for the migrant worker to come here.’’

Alleghany County lost more than 1,000 textile and apparel manufacturing jobs in the past decade, according to Bob Bamberg, executive director of the county’s chamber of commerce. Economic recovery depends upon agriculture, tourism and entrepreneurs, such as Iglesias, he said.

“He’s an example of Latinos who come up here and start businesses,’’ said Bamberg, 64, who has been in charge of the business organization for five years. Iglesias joined the group’s board of directors last year, an acknowledgement of the growing Hispanic population in the rural area.

“He’s young and outgoing and he speaks perfect English,’’ Bamberg said of Iglesias. “Our best and brightest kids move away and come back when they retire.’’

William Frey, a senior fellow and demographer at the Brookings Institution in Washington, said Hispanics make up at least 11 percent of the population in four of the state’s five biggest cities. They account for 13.1 percent of residents in Charlotte, where Bank of America is headquartered.

Frey said the North Carolina is poised to have the 11th-largest Latino population in the United States.
The demographic changes, which helped Barack Obama win the state in the 2008 presidential election, underscore how communities evolve as the Hispanic population fans out.

Source: Boston.com

Posted by on March 29, 2011 in Hispanic Market Size | | Comments (0)

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