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Latinos in the United States have been betting on the numbers – their numbers.

In the last three decades, I've heard politicos, academics, activists and others boast that a swelling population would eventually bring the Latino community power and respect.

They include President Barack Obama, who just last month told a group of Latino online journalists gathered at the White House that he was confident that he'd see a competitive Hispanic candidate running for president during his lifetime.

"Just look at the demographics," Obama said. "With numbers comes political power."

Not necessarily, Mr. President.

The assumption has been that, at some point, the Latino population would become so large and its influence on everything from business to sports to food to pop culture would be so profound that it would be impossible to ignore.

However, Latinos have learned that – given a continued scarcity in law, business, media, academia, publishing, entertainment and other professions – nothing is impossible. If someone wants to ignore you, they will. And in a country that still defines racial and ethnic relations in terms of black and white, those who fit into neither category are often ignored.

In the case of Latinos, this is no easy trick. The 2010 census revealed that there are 50 million Latinos living in the United States, spread throughout all 50 states. They constitute 16 percent of the U.S. population and account for more than half of the growth of the country's total population over the last 10 years. READ MORE

The U.S. Army today reaffirmed its commitment to helping more young Hispanics pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by announcing its sponsorship and attendance at the 2011 Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers' (SHPE) annual convention. The convention will be held from Oct. 26-30 in Anaheim, Calif.

The Army's partnership with SHPE is rooted in the organization's mutual commitment to increasing STEM literacy among students and to developing a highly skilled workforce. Ensuring a pipeline of STEM professionals from diverse backgrounds is seen as critical to the nation's economic growth, its continued leadership in high-tech industries and its national security.

A recent government report finds that while occupations in STEM are projected to grow by 17 percent through 2018, Hispanics remain underrepresented in these professions. The report, released by the U.S. Department of Commerce, Economics and Statistics Administration, indicates that only six percent of Hispanics in the U.S. hold STEM jobs. READ MORE

As part of the Mujeres Latinas Brown Bag series, an ongoing effort to bring more exposure of Hispanic women to IU, graduate student Tanya Flores delivered a presentation Friday in Ballantine Hall about accommodation theory in Chilean Spanish.

The program was started by Leonice Santamaría, a visiting lecturer who teaches S280: Spanish Grammar in Context.

She said she wanted to allow for more presentations by Hispanic women graduate students, who she feels are underrepresented on campus and in academic life in general.

“I really wanted to focus on women,” Santamaría said. “I have seen Latinas being behind the Latinos in terms of hiring practices by universities and departments. There are more Latino men on campus than Latina women as professors, directors of programs and so on.”

Santamaría went to the Latino Faculty and Staff Council, which approved the program.
The program is also connected to La Casa Latino Cultural Center, the Latino Studies Program and the Department of Spanish and Portuguese.

Aside from furthering the exposure of Hispanic women academics in general, the program has also functioned as a support system for Latinas on campus, according to La Casa Director Lillian Casillas-Origel. READ MORE

Smartphone users now outnumber users of more basic mobile phones within the national adult population, according to a Pew Internet & American Life Project.

Nearly every major demographic group—men and women, younger and middle-aged adults, urban and rural residents, the wealthy and the less well-off—experienced a notable uptick in smartphone penetration over the last year, and blacks and Latinos are leading the way.

African-Americans and Latinos overall adoption of smartphone rates in 2011 was higher than the national average: smartphone penetration is 49% in each case, just higher than the national average of 46%.

Usage of smartphones as a primary internet access device is highest among several groups with relatively low rates of traditional internet and broadband adoption—for example, those with no college experience as well as those with relatively low income levels, according to a Pew report published last year.

“The reason for that, many say, is simple: It’s the most affordable way to get onto the information superhighway,” Jamilah King wrote in a story published on Colorlines.com last year. A couple hundred dollars for an Android and a data plan is much less than $1,000 for a laptop computer and broadband connection. READ MORE

It's not obvious what language Will Ferrell's new film, Casa de Mi Padre, is speaking. Everyone's favourite cross-eyed man-child had last-minute cramming sessions in order to be able to drawl the Spanish-language dialogue for the comedy – a sendup of cheesy rural-Mexico telenovelas. But just as Ferrell admits he still can't really hold a conversation in Spanish, Casa looks like it could have communication issues, too. Is it a deft in-joke for the US's movie-mad Hispanic audience? Or does Ferrell's presence just crank up the irony factor for the urban-hipster crowd to indulge yet another cultural fetish?

Movie executives would, if they had to choose, plump for the former. As well as the largest ethnic minority, Hispanic-Americans are perhaps the US's keenest, most youthful and fast-growing film demographic. Forty-three million Hispanics bought 351m tickets in 2010 (out of a total 1.34bn) – up from 37m buying 300m the year before. People of that ethnicity in the key 18-34 group are 44% more likely to see a film on its opening weekend than non-Hispanics. No wonder that's beginning to get some serious attention: Casa de Mi Padre is being distributed by Pantelion Films, a partnership between Lionsgate and Mexican media giant Televisa that is hoping to make around 10 films a year, in both English and Spanish, for Latino audiences. READ MORE

Time magazine’s March 5 edition is barrier-breaking, according to Richard Stengel, the managing editor. “For the first time in our history, we have a Spanish sentence as our cover line: Yo decido. I decide.”

Ugh.

Applause and gratitude to Stengel and his staff of distinguished journalists for choosing to feature the increasing clout of Latino voters, but I wish they had made history differently.

Yes, speaking to someone in their native tongue can be a sign of affection and respect. But here’s the problem: Speaking to Latinos in a language other than English promotes the myth that Hispanics don’t, can’t or won’t speak it.

Worse, it ignores the reality that though there are varying degrees of bilingualism in the community, Latinos will ultimately be no different than any other wave of immigrants who came to this country and eventually made English their family’s primary language.

And even worse than that, it fires up the people who look at such a cover and see concrete evidence that their beloved country is on its way to being drenched by a so-called demographic tsunami that will leave anyone who doesn’t speak Spanish behind.

Nothing could be further from the truth — for most Hispanics in the U.S., English is “our” language.

Last month, the Pew Hispanic Center released its most recent statistical portrait of Hispanics in the U.S., using updated 2010 Census figures. The data show that 25 percent of the Hispanic population ages 5 and up, including both the native and foreign born, speaks only English at home — up from 22 percent in 2005. Another 40 percent say they speak English “very well” and the trends point upward. Plus, even the 35 percent who speak English “less than very well” aren’t all Spanish-only speakers. READ MORE

Plus Three recently conducted a survey of social networking sites to determine the growth of this valuable media tool for Latinos. Among the more interesting findings, actress and singer Selena Gomez has passed a significant milestone on Facebook by surpassing Barack Obama with 22.5 million fans. A total of 32 Latino celebrities are among the top 1,000 Facebook fan pages, the survey finds.

"Latino Facebook users grew 167% compared to 21% among non-Hispanics from April 2010 to April 2011 according to comScore," said Juan Proano, President, Plus Three. " Latinos are using Facebook to stay connected with family and friends and to stay connected with their identity. Any organization that wants to stay in touch with a Latino audience will need to focus its outreach on using Facebook and social media in order to stay relevant today".

The triple digit growth provides the strongest indicator yet that Latinos are rapidly adopting Facebook and social media to connect with family and friends but also to advance common interests, issues, grassroots movements and social causes.

Plus Three surveyed the top 1,000 Facebook fan pages and found 32 Latino celebrities among the top 1,000. Only three Latinos broke into the top 100. Shakira was the top Latina celebrity with 35 million fans and ranked number eight on the overall list followed by Selena Gomez at number thirty-five and Enrique Iglesias at number forty-eight.

The Latinos with at least 2 million Facebook fans are mostly singers, athletes, and comedians. Athletes from the World Cup and Reggaeton artists dominated the list. Latino celebrities on the list include Daddy Yankee, Don Omar, Lionel Messi, Ricardo Kaka, George Lopez, Jennifer Lopez, Christina Aguilera, Ricky Martin, and Carlos Santana. READ MORE

In a rundown shopping center along Rancho Drive in the heart of the Las Vegas Valley there’s a tiny shop that sells herbal products for recent immigrants. It offers traditional village remedies for stomach ailments, head colds and achy backs.

The familiar Mexican and Central American brands lack the stylish packaging of popular American products. One of the more memorable products is found in a row of boxes that feature an image of an attractive couple who apparently need help to consummate their special moment. A pair of older men at the front counter look warily upon a gringo who wanders into the shop and clearly knows little Spanish, the preferred language of business in this shop.

Less than a quarter mile south sits a bright, antiseptic Walgreens. Many of the customers visiting this place will never pass through the doors of the nearby chain store. Hispanic marketing specialist Miguel Barrientos says thousands of immigrants will drive past that beacon to aging Americans in pursuit of the familiar cures.

Indeed, as with any group of people, Hispanic customers gravitate to businesses where they feel respected, understood, appreciated, valued. We rarely recognize such personal dynamics in our daily business transactions, but they are a centerpiece of our commercial decisions. READ MORE

Hispanic women in the United States, who have generally had the highest fertility rates in the country, are choosing to have fewer children. Both immigrant and native-born Latinas had steeper birthrate declines from 2007 to 2010 than other groups, including non-Hispanic whites, blacks and Asians, a drop some demographers and sociologists attribute to changes in the views of many Hispanic women about motherhood.

As a result, in 2011, the American birthrate hit a record low, with 63 births per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44, led by the decline in births to immigrant women. The national birthrate is now about half what it was during the baby boom years, when it peaked in 1957 at 122.7 births per 1,000 women of childbearing age. READ MORE

Not all of the key players in the 2012 election were politicians. Here’s a list, that by no means is comprehensive, that gives us a look into the Latinos and Latinas that were instrumental in the 2012 election.

Latino volunteers – Those who basically made campaigning across the country possible, from registering voters to fundraising, phone banking, getting out the vote, and organizing for local and national candidates.
Latino voters – Accounting for 1 in 10 votes this cycle, Latino voters took to the polls to potently remind politicos across the spectrum that they cannot ignore this constituency when it comes to policy and campaigning.
Katherine Archuleta – The first Latina to ever hold the title National Political Director of any presidential campaign. Archuleta served as the National Political Director for Obama for America 2012. READ MORE

Tired of being viewed as an "expendable voting population," some Latinos in Colorado are pressuring President Barack Obama to push for meaningful action on immigration reform and the DREAM Act.

Chicano activist and decades-long north Denver resident Ricardo Martinez walked precincts for Obama in 2008, but at the dawn of another presidential election cycle, he said he is tired of "empty promises."

"When the elections come around, they always come courting us, and this is proving to be no different," said Martinez, who co-founded the nonprofit advocacy group Padres Unidos. "Did Obama put as much effort in the time to pass the DREAM Act? I didn't see him. Was he out there, twisting arms? I didn't see that. Was he out there stomping around? I didn't see that. All we see is that we're an expendable voting population."

A recent campaign e-mail shows a smiling Obama saying, "I want to sign the DREAM Act into law, but I need your help to do the hard work of changing minds and changing votes, one at a time."

The ad then asks for a campaign contribution.

The e-mail so infuriated the small but growing voting bloc that Latinos are holding rallies in a couple of weeks in front of Democratic headquarters across the country — including Denver.

Latino youth groups will also send a letter to Obama for America, asking the campaign to take the ad down.

"He shouldn't be using the suffering and pain of people who are at risk for deportation for fundraising for his campaign," said Leidy Robledo, 20, a youth organizer for Jovenes Unidos. "He says he supports the DREAM Act, but he didn't do enough. There were key votes within his party that if they would have voted yes, the DREAM Act could have passed."

Obama for America spokeswoman Ofelia Casillas said the president "has been a longtime supporter of the DREAM Act and comprehensive immigration reform. Many Obama for America supporters are organizing in their communities to promote these initiatives." READ MORE

State's Latino population surges – political power, too

California's Latino population grew nearly three times as much as the state as a whole in the past decade, making it home to more than a quarter of the nation's Latinos, according to a new Census Bureau report.

While the Golden State's population grew by 10 percent in the past decade, the Latino growth was 27.6 percent, accounting for more than 90 percent of the state's population gain overall.

Latinos now are 37.6 percent of all Californians, up more than five percentage points since 2000, according to the census. READ MORE

Antonio Cortez spent his working life picking lemons and onions for minimum wage, joined by his children in the summers to make ends meet.

A farm laborer from Mexico and later California, he had no formal education but made sure his children did.

On Sunday, the youngest of his 10 children will walk across the University of Illinois Assembly Hall stage and receive her doctoral degree, the first in their large extended family to do so.

Antonio Cortez, 84, will stand by her side. Rufina Cortez asked him to take part in her Ph.D. "hooding" ceremony, along with her adviser and a niece.

"For me, it's my gift to him," Rufina Cortez said last week. "This is a big sacrifice, not having me around all these years when I've been away at school. This ceremony is for my family. They deserve it."

At one time, it appeared this day might never happen.

When Rufina Cortez was applying to the UI, her father suffered a stroke while traveling to visit his sister in Mexico. He was deathly ill, and Rufina Cortez considered postponing her plans.

"I didn't know whether he was going to survive," she said.

But he improved, and she moved to Champaign-Urbana in 2004 to pursue her dream of a doctorate in education policy studies. READ MORE

A community radio station in Chicago that provides a unique opportunity for young bilingual Latinos to get free training in radio runs the risk of disappearing for lack of funds.

Radio Arte de Chicago, which began broadcasting 14 years ago in the Latino neighborhood of Little Village, "is a sinking ship," one of the young volunteers that work on its programming said.

Under notice that the funds that keep it going have dried up, and that the financial crisis could seriously affect even the National Museum of Art that has been its owner since 1997, WRTE-FM (90.5) urgently needs to be rescued.

"We need a plan to avoid losing the license and to keep the station on the air," said Jatziry García, one of the volunteers who asked for an urgent meeting with the museum's founder and president, Carlos Tortolero, "in order to know exactly where we are and what we can do."

A solution appears remote since Tortolero announced this week that the cost of maintaining Radio Arte's operations and the building housing its studios was "unsustainable." READ MORE

Reading High School marked a milestone this month: a graduation ceremony with its first Hispanic valedictorian. Noe Cabello is unlikely to be the last.

The Hispanic population of this historically white city shaped by English and German ancestry — along with the surrounding Lehigh Valley— has skyrocketed in the past decade, echoing a national trend highlighted by the 2010 Census.

Reading, now 58% Hispanic, is the latest harbinger for a more diverse America in regions where Hispanic migration has been a relatively recent development.

"If you look at the Census data from 2000 and now 2010, you can see that there's this phenomenon of Latinos moving to parts of the United States where there hasn't been Latinos before," says Stanton Wortham, a University of Pennsylvania researcher who specializes in linguistics and immigrant studies. "The biggest research question from a national point of view is the question of, what are these new Latino populations' trajectories going to be over the next decade?" READ MORE

Maria Alejandra Salazar will graduate in August with a bachelor’s degree in education and social policy from Northwestern University. Though she needs to take one more class, she was thrilled to participate in the school’s graduation ceremony in Evanston last week.

Salazar, who turns 22 in a few weeks, is a graduate of Niles North High School in Skokie, where she got used to being the only Latina student in a classroom. At least at Northwestern, where Latinos are about 7.5 percent of the undergraduate student body, she typically had a couple of fellow Latinos as classmates.

But those numbers still are low, and that tells a story. Salazar was one of the relatively few and proud Latinos graduating from a four-year American university this year, a big problem full of implications for Illinois and the rest of the country.

As you might know, Latinos are the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. population, and 37 percent of the nation’s 44 million Latinos are under age 20. By 2020, Latinos will make up 22 percent of the nation’s college-age population.

Latinos and other minorities will replace the retiring baby boomers and drive the future economy. And the job for today’s school officials, politicians, business and community leaders is to make sure those Latinos are up to the challenge.

On Monday, the College Board Advocacy and Policy Center, based in New York City, released a study showing — and this should surprise nobody — that a great majority of young Latino and African-American men fail to go to college or earn a degree, and a large number end up unemployed or incarcerated.

Nationally, the study found, only 16 percent of Latino men and 28 percent of African-American men ages 25 to 35 have at least an associate’s degree, compared with 70 percent of Asian American and 44 percent of white men. Perhaps more distressing, 47 percent of Latinos ages 15 to 24 who have high school diplomas are unemployed. And the percentage of Latinos men who are incarcerated is 5 percent.

College Board President Gaston Caperton called the report’s bleak findings “a tragedy for America,” which is absolutely true.

Education has been the key to prosperity and competitiveness in our country, and it will continue to be as the population becomes more diverse. READ MORE

Cancer has surpassed heart disease to become the leading cause of death among Hispanics in the United States, according to an American Cancer Society report released Monday.

Every three years since 2000, scientists at the cancer society have published Cancer Facts and Figures for Hispanics/Latinos. Such studies provide data that help develop an efficient science-based cancer control plan.

Hispanics are the fastest growing demographic group in the United States. Approximately 16.3% of America's population (50.5 million out of 310 million people) is Hispanic. It is estimated that 112,800 people of Hispanic ethnicity will be diagnosed with cancer and 33,200 will die of the disease in 2012.

The finding is due in part to the younger age distribution of Hispanics. Approximately one in 10 Hispanics is age 55 or over, compared to one in three non-Hispanics.

Among non-Hispanic whites and African-Americans, heart disease remains the leading cause of death, according to Monday's American Cancer Society report, the fifth. READ MORE

Hispanics embrace social media such as Facebook, YouTube and Google+ more than the general population. But when it comes to sharing personal information about themselves, Hispanics are more cautious, according to survey results announced today.

uSamp, a leader in providing targeted audiences for global consumer insights, engaged 650 members from its newly inaugurated Hispanic panel, SuperOpinion.com, to survey participants on their attitudes toward social media compared to the general population.

The survey, captured in an INFOGRAPHIC, found that 90 percent of Hispanics are likely to be on Facebook compared to 81 percent of the general population; 57 percent of Hispanics access YouTube compared to 46 percent of the general population. Hispanics are also overwhelmingly more likely to be on Google+, 47 percent compared with 18 percent of the general population. The only social media platform that Hispanics largely ignore is LinkedIn. Only 4 percent of Hispanics surveyed said they use LinkedIn vs. 21 percent of the general population.

“Social media is a natural fit for Latinos. Latinos, by nature, are innovators. Social media allows us to create, recreate and take a shot at building communities around content that we want,” said Lance Ríos, president and founder, Being Latino, Inc. “Secondarily, Latinos are very loyal consumers. But in order to gain their trust, you have to assure them that you are legitimate. Culturally we tend to be sensitive to giving personal information so easily. Once trust is gained, Latinos will usually open up.” READ MORE