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Linda Alvarado personifies the American Dream. Born in Albuquerque, New Mexico to a poor immigrant family, she was able to go to college and found a successful construction company that went from pouring concrete sidewalks to building multi-million dollar airports, convention centers and stadiums.

“The American dream is also the Hispanic American dream,” says Alvarado. “America is a country that has a lot of diversity and it enables people in ways that perhaps in other countries may not be as easy.”

Alvarado, who is Mexican American, calls her veer into construction “one of those great unplanned careers.” She was attending Pomona College in Claremont, California on an academic scholarship, majoring in economics, and needed a job, she says. “I didn’t want to work in the library or food service, so I got a referral to work grounds-keeping.”

Her soon-to-be-boss tried to dissuade her, telling her she’d have to do heavy lifting and wouldn’t be able to wear nice shoes. But something about the experience really spoke to Alvarado. “I said to myself, ‘Let me get this right. I don’t have to go the gym, I will get a tan and will work with all this single men—and you’ll pay me to do this,’” she jokes. That job was followed by one at a development company where, Alvarado says, “I dreamed of getting into construction and building high rises.”

“Sometimes, while people plan on what they are doing, opportunities may come our way,” she says. “We need to be careful that we don’t eliminate ourselves and run when in fact there are opportunities even in very non-traditional careers.” READ MORE

To provide additional information and entertainment services to the Hispanic community, Verizon today launched two bilingual social media properties, each of them in English and Spanish, on Facebook and Twitter.

The Facebook fan page Somos Verizon FiOS (We Are Verizon FiOS) and the Twitter site @SomosFiOS (We Are FiOS) will engage Verizon's Hispanic audience by providing a forum for emerging technology that also offers the best in culturally relevant entertainment content and online community connections. The bilingual properties are only part of the story. The remaining story will be crafted by the fans and followers of Verizon FiOS service.

FiOS is Verizon's all-fiber-optic-based combination of home phone, the nation's fastest Internet and crystal-clear TV services. Somos Verizon FiOS and @SomosFiOS complement the FiOS bicultural website, www.EnciendeteFiOS.com , an informational site with versions in English and Spanish that users can easily toggle between.

"Our Facebook and Twitter pages are venues where Hispanics can learn, inform and share their opinions about technology and discuss how it is shaping the future of the things they feel most passionate about," said Orlando Zambrano, Verizon multicultural marketing manager. "We aim to fulfill our community's need to know about the latest and greatest trends of the future by preparing, empowering and inspiring them to learn, create and share their own vision."

Somos Verizon FiOS will kick off with a promotion in partnership with HBO Latino. People who become fans of the Facebook page can register in a sweepstakes for a VIP trip to Los Angeles and dinner with Ana de la Reguera, star of the HBO Latino series "Capadocia." Fans of Somos Verizon FiOS will be treated to regular content updates, promotions, customer support links, special offers and an interactive tab called MontajeFiOS, where fans can upload their photos into a mosaic and share with friends. A partnership with the Hispanic Scholarship Fund will provide educational and informational subject matter to inform users about college funding, educational opportunities and success stories.

On Oct. 11, @SomosFiOS will host its first of many Twitter parties to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month. Attendees will discuss a variety of topics regarding culture, icons and lifestyle. There will be a chance for participants to win tech gadgets and gift cards, and five winners will be chosen.

"When reaching out to Hispanics, it's not only about language, it's about the overall experience," said Zambrano. "Verizon maintains a large presence in the Hispanic sphere, as many Hispanics crave technology, entertainment and community involvement - three big pillars for Somos Verizon FiOS and @SomosFiOS. We will continue to foster two-way dialogue between the brand and our Hispanic consumers through social media tools that allow customers to engage with FiOS on their own terms."

To experience these new Hispanic social media platforms firsthand, and to become a fan of the new Facebook page, visit www.facebook.com/SomosVerizonFiOS , and follow Verizon FiOS at www.twitter.com/SomosFiOS. READ MORE

Unemployment among Latinos remained the same between October and November, while for the general U.S. population it fell to a two-year low, according to the Labor Department.

The Latino jobless rate held at 11.4 percent in November, the same it was in October. The national unemployment rate, however, dropped 0.4 percentage points to 8.6 -- from 9 percent the previous month -- the lowest it's been since March, 2009, during the depths of the recession.

The decline occurred as employers stepped up hiring in response to the slowly improving economy.

For Latinos, the latest unemployment rate was higher than it was during the summer, when it was 11.3 percent, but lower than what is was a year ago, when it was 12.7 percent.

The picture was more bleak for the general population of teenagers, who have an unemployment rate of 23.7 percent. For Latino teenagers, it was significantly higher -- 31.8 percent.

Despite the unemployment decline for the overall U.S. population, the fact remains that 13.3 million Americans remain unemployed. And a key reason the unemployment rate fell so much was because roughly 315,000 people had given up looking for work and were no longer counted as unemployed.

The presidential election is less than a year away, which means President Barack Obama will almost certainly face voters with the highest unemployment rate of any president since World War II. Rival Republicans have made the nation's joblessness a key campaign issue.

In July, Republicans launched an anti-Obama media campaign aimed at Latinos in the Southwest. READ MORE

The number of babies born to Hispanics dropped below 1 million in 2010, a nearly 11% drop since 2007 that reflects the tough times.

Fewer people of all backgrounds are having babies because of economic concerns but the sharpest drop is among Hispanics, a booming population that contributes almost a quarter of all U.S. births and half of its population growth.

"Hispanic fertility is dropping like a stone," says Kenneth Johnson, demographer for the University of New Hampshire's Carsey Institute.

STORY: Hispanic growth outpaced estimates
Hispanic birthrates tumbled 17.6% in three years — from 97.4 births per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44 to 80.3 last year, according to preliminary 2010 data released this month by the National Center for Health Statistics.

Non-Hispanic whites still deliver most U.S. births. Their birthrates fell too, but at a much slower pace — down 3.7% to 58.7 per 1,000 women in 2010.

The dramatic decline in births to Hispanics, who still have the highest fertility rates, raises the specter of a long-term drop in the nation's overall fertility — now higher than that of most other developed nations. It also crystallizes the impact of the economic downturn on Hispanics.

"It's hard to ignore that Hispanics have been one of the hardest-hit groups," says Gretchen Livingston, senior researcher at the Pew Research Center and author of a recent report on declining birthrates in a down economy. READ MORE

Hispanic households accounted for more than half of the nation's homeowners in the third quarter, evidence of the potential purchasing power of Latinos during the housing recovery.

According to Census Bureau data provided by Alejandro Becerra, former senior housing fellow at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, the number of Hispanic owner-occupiers grew by 288,000 from 6.21 million in the second quarter to 6.49 million in the third quarter.

Of 545,000 new household units in the third quarter, 53% were Hispanic households. The remaining 47%, or 257,000 units, consisted of other minority groups and non-Hispanic whites.

"We have to give due cause to Hispanic real estate professionals, to the many nonprofit groups out the that are trying to put into place the foreclosure prevention programs to keep people in their homes, to help new homebuyers," Becerra said. "All this is beginning to bear fruit in reaching out to these households."

Minority households are taking advantage of the lower end of the housing market where, Becerra believes, prices have hit the bottom. "It's the only place where the possibility of buying is right now," he said. READ MORE

Long recognizing the opportunities that exist with the burgeoning Hispanic market, State Farm continues to over-index when it comes to ad expenditures against Latinos.
State Farm advertising director Ed Gold, pointing out that 4,500 of the insurance company's 18,000 agent offices nationwide are bilingual, said "we didn't need the 2000 or the 2010 Census to tell us that the Hispanic market is growing. Our agents have been telling us they need Hispanic marketing materials to sell their products."

To that end, Gold, speaking during a keynote interview during B&C/ Multichannel News's ninth annual Hispanic Television Summit here Tuesday morning, said that State Farm budgets about 20% of its ad expenditures toward the U.S. Latino market. Multichannel News editor in chief Mark Robichaux, who conducted the interview, pointed out that while Hispanics represent 16% of the U.S. population, only 4.5% of marketers' ad dollars target this growing group.

Gold, who noted that State Farm ran its first commercial aimed at Hispanics in 1996, said the insurer still sees great growth opportunities within this ethnic segment overall, and particularly those among the 18-to-29 set, who upon moving out of their parents' abodes, are making their first decisions about auto and rental insurance.

"There is a lot of generation to generation" business in the insurance world, "but if we don't get them now, we may never get them," he said, adding that much of State Farm's ad activity against young Hispanic adults is cross-cultural.

With people willing to shop insurance by price and Geico and Progressive engaging in aggressive campaigns thereunto, State Farm and All State have also lifted their spending. All told, insurance category spending jumped 16.2% to some $3.4 billion in 2010, with TV accounting for over three-fourths of that outlay.
Relative to auto insurance spending aimed at Hispanics, Gold said State Farm is the overall sector leader. Last year, overall Hispanic TV ad spending by the auto insurance category reached $198 million, a 21.3% drive from $163 million the prior year, which was down 8.8% from $179 million in 2008. During a post-presentation interview, Gold said State Farm accounts for close to 50% of sector spending here.
During his keynote, Gold said that Hispanic market has a passion for sports, notably soccer. "The World Cup may be a big deal for the general market, but it's a huge deal for Hispanics. For them, it's not just the U.S. team," he said. READ MORE

A new Northwestern University study says minority youth ages eight to 18 spend more than half their day consuming media content – a rate that's 4.5 hours greater than their white counterparts.

The Children, Media and Race: Media Use Among White, Black, Hispanic and Asian American Children report released Wednesday says that minority youths are more likely to spend up to 2 hours more per day watching TV, one hour more per day listening to music, 90 minutes more per day using a computer, and up to 40 minutes more per day playing video games than do their white counterparts.

Reading for pleasure in pre-teens and teens was equal across races, averaging at 30 to 40 minutes a day. But for children six and under, it was more likely that children of white parents were reading or read to every day.

Multitasking among youth has been adopted as equal rates; around four in ten white, black and Hispanic 7th to 12th graders said that they use another medium “most of the time” they’re watching television.

Surprisingly, parental structures did not predict total media exposure. The study found that most parents do not set limits on the amount of time children can spend interacting with media for pleasure.

Within the use of these media, however, white parents were more likely to set rules for what their children could consume, including television programs watched, internet sites used, and their visibility on social networking sites like Facebook.

Co-author Ellen Wartella, head of Northwestern University’s Center on Media and Human Development, says the study is not meant to blame parents but should serve as a wake-up call. She says increased parental involvement could mitigate potential problems, including child obesity. READ MORE

Find study here.

For 75 years, Goya Foods has grown an empire of canned beans and other Latin food staples that have been woven into the city's Latino DNA.

For Puerto Rican and Latino newcomers to the city, and second- and third-generation kids, the sight of a supermarket aisle lined with stacks of familiar navy-blue cans with the blocky Art Deco logo has long translated to "home."

Goya-sponsored floats have been a staple of Puerto Rican and other Latino parades since the 1980s. So it is fitting that Robert Unanue, president of Goya Foods, and Carlos Unanue, president of Goya de Puerto Rico - cousins and the third generation to run the company - will be parade marshals for the National Puerto Rican Day Parade on Sunday.

The company's origins date to when all immigrants from Latin America were called "Spanish." Goya's founder, Prudencio Unanue, was a Spanish migrant by way of Puerto Rico who arrived in New York in 1916, when there were an estimated 16,000 Spanish speakers in the city.

According to the new coffee-table book "If It's Goya It Has to Be Good," by Guillermo Baralt, Unanue studied business and became a customs broker. He set up a food-import business in the Financial District in 1936, just as the city's Puerto Rican population began to grow and settle on the West Side of Manhattan, in East Harlem and in downtown Brooklyn. READ MORE

Two-thirds of Hispanic business owners said they started their firms to better their lives, provide for their families, according to new survey.

Hispanic Americans believe business ownership is the key to harnessing the much- sought-after "American Dream."

More than any other segment of the population, Hispanic Americans view entrepreneurship as a way to pursue the American Dream, take control of their lives and support their families.

That's the finding of new research that reveals about two-thirds of Hispanic business owners (versus only 36 percent of the general business-owning population) said they started their businesses to pursue the dream of bettering their lives and providing for their families.

And these business owners are planning on keeping it in the family. While 54 percent of the general population of business owners plans to pass their businesses on to their children, 70 percent of Hispanic business owners plan to do so. READ MORE