HispanicTrending

Social Media Solves Latino Assimilation Problem

June 27, 2009
By Louis Pagan

This is something I've addressed again and again over the years:  keeping one's traditions vs. assimilation.  With most 'hot buttons' this topic follows suit and lines up the ranks either for or against.  While I never understood why the lines had to be so trenched in the ground, it seems to me that both sides are skewed and serve to only slide it's proponents into a hole instead of maintaining a plateau.  Thankfully, there is now proof to support why Latinos should embrace US culture.

In a recent study, we see what does work is a revolving acceptance of the former and new, namely keeping one's Latino culture while embracing US culture.  This not-so-common, common sense method maximizes the benefits of both cultures and let's one successfully apply themselves in the real world - a world of diversity.

These same thoughts can be found at the heart of social media.  To limit oneself in social media to their own natural tendencies, one would have to put up many safe guards, namely locking their account from general public view and filtering content to select friends.  This is not what social media is and works against the social media movement.

How can one possibly restrict themselves to their limited sphere of influence and not expect to understand and grow with the world around them?  Social media breaks down real and perceived barriers.  It gives people the chance to softly engage other cultures and pursue new connections.  It is through social media that one gets exposed to the fast track of what being social is all about, and have the ability to connect to one's peers, both upwardly and laterally.  For Latinos, who are culturally social, I have hopes that social media can help bridge the gap between the traditional and the new without losing the essence of either.

Source: LatinoPundit

Immigrants fighting hard to stay in U.S.

June. 29, 2009
By Helen A.S. Popkin and Tim Vandenack

Angel Rodriguez stood on the front lawn, cradling his infant son, surrounded by porcelain figures, a playpen, a couch, shoes — the familiar ephemera accumulated in better times.

Losing his job with a supplier in the boat manufacturing industry forced Rodriguez and his family to trade their trailer in Milford, Ind., for a single bedroom in the one-bathroom, one-story dwelling they share with eight others some 20 miles north, in Elkhart. It also meant shedding belongings to compensate for the lost space, as well as lost income. So Rodriguez was having a yard sale.

"When I lived in Milford, I lived alone with my kids. I didn’t need anybody’s help," said the husband and father of two. "Now I have to sell my things."

A dozen people living in a single house is not ideal, but it's the price Rodriguez must pay to stay in the United States. Like other Mexican immigrants hit by the recession, it gives his family a way of dealing with the loss of income without having to return to his native country.

"Us illegals, we don’t have unemployment," said Rodriguez, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico City. "If I had unemployment, I wouldn’t have had to give up the trailer."

Hispanic immigrants, chiefly those here illegally, are particularly vulnerable as the recession lingers. Without proper documentation, those out of work can’t access unemployment and other government benefits, increasing the pressure to pull up stakes and look for opportunity elsewhere. Still, many who came to the United States looking to improve their life — make money, open up opportunities for their children, help support family still in Mexico —  are hardly eager to return.

Mexico "is a Third World country," said Rodriguez, who knows several who have already gone back. It’s a last resort he’s not willing to consider.

"How’s that going to be? It’s going to be worse."

Thus, Rodriguez and his family make do, exchanging privacy for a shared home and a cheaper lifestyle.

Many immigrants, like Rodriguez, are fighting hard to stay. Some, however, have already trickled back. Whether to stay or leave seems to be a question on everybody's mind.

"Many people are making these decisions," said Ignacio Chagoya, who works with the needy, including some immigrants, at Elkhart's St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church. "Do I go to another state? Do I go to Mexico?"

Still, the pressure is strong.

Chagoya, a legal U.S. resident originally from Mexico, lost his factory job here last December and is considering a move to find work, notwithstanding the 23 years he has lived in Elkhart. It's tough, especially since he'd leave behind his two daughters, who live here with their mother, his ex-wife.

At least he has his U.S. residency card, and, thus, a better shot at securing work, precluding a forced or premature return to Mexico. Some he knows who have gone back to Mexico — almost exclusively undocumented immigrants — have done so because they have no other option, their resources whittled to zero.

"The idea was to return with assets," said Chagoya, alluding to the dream some immigrants harbor of making it big here and returning to Mexico with a pocketful of money. "But they're leaving defeated, sad."

To stay or go
At WKAM, the phone calls are frequent: those on the other end will ask about job leads, fret about the economy and sound off about the notion of moving back to Mexico.
"The No. 1 worry is unemployment," said Nacho Zepeda, general manager and disc jockey at the Spanish-language AM radio station, better known as La Mejor.

Spanish-language radio serves as a cultural lifeline in many Hispanic immigrant communities. Such stations are virtual town squares for the immigrant community, and it’s no different at La Mejor.

Recently, in response to Zepeda’s query to listeners about how they’re weathering the tough times, the calls to the Elkhart County station, based in Goshen, started coming in.

One man, an out-of-work caller originally from Mexico, expressed skepticism about the American Dream — the idea that you can come to the United States, get a job and live happily ever after. Still, he and his wife are hanging on, helped by his brother. No way are they going to leave Elkhart County and return to Mexico.

"What am I going to do in Mexico?" he wondered, repeating a common refrain. "It’s worse."

Hope for a better life brought many from Mexico to the United States. When the Mexican immigration boom began in the 1970s, many settled in border towns in places like California and Texas. But in the early 1990s, ample job opportunities for both documented and undocumented immigrants drew growing numbers to the Midwest. Here in Elkhart County, the once-booming recreational vehicle manufacturing industry was the draw, quadrupling the immigrant population in a decade.

The Hispanic community in Elkhart and across the country is growing. In Elkhart, Hispanics make up 14 percent of Elkhart's roughly 200,000 residents and are the largest minority group in the county. In 1990, they were just 2 percent of the population. Nationally, Hispanics make up 15 percent of the overall population and have accounted for half the U.S. population growth since 2000.

Now comes the economic downturn, a slowdown in immigration for the first time in decades and increasing uncertainty among the immigrants already here. A recent Pew report notes that the slowdown in U.S. economic growth "has had a disproportionate impact on foreign-born Latino workers" who experienced layoffs in a larger percentage than U.S.-born workers.

Another caller to La Mejor explained that she has been jobless for six months and scrapes by selling tamales she makes at home. At least if she were back in her native Mexico she could venture into the countryside and snag something free to eat, like nopales, the edible pads of the prickly pear cactus.

"I’m thinking if it doesn’t get better, I’ll go back," she said, sobbing. "If you don’t have money you don’t have food."

But there’s a catch to consider. With tightening border security and the increasing difficulty of making a clandestine crossing from Mexico into the United States, a return south of the border may not be easy to reverse should things improve. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement reported a 20 percent increase in deportations over the last fiscal year.

Then there are the kids to contend with. More than half of the 16 million Hispanic children in the United States have at least one foreign-born parent, according to Pew. Yet children of immigrants with little to no first-hand experience with their parents’ home country may resist a move.

"They have American friends. They speak English. They consider themselves American," said Vera LeCount, coordinator of the English as a Second Language program at the Elkhart Area Career Center, operated by the Elkhart school district. "I don’t think they could consider what it would be like to live there."

Parents, too, may be reluctant to pull their kids out of school here, mindful of the limited educational offerings back in the home country and broader opportunities here. That seemed to be the case with another caller to Zepeda’s radio show, a woman originally from Mexico. She said she and her husband are determined to stay in Elkhart County, in part to see their U.S.-born son graduate from college here.

"I’m proud of my American son and I’m not going to leave," she said. "I’m not leaving because I’ve built a family here."

Source: MSNBC

Latino Teens Happier, Healthier If Families Embrace Biculturalism

June 24, 2009
Source: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Over the years, research has shown that Latino youth face numerous risk factors when integrating into American culture, including increased rates of alcohol and substance use and higher rates of dropping out of school.

But a new study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill shows adolescents who actively embrace their native culture – and whose parents become more involved in U.S. culture – stand a greater chance of avoiding these risks and developing healthier behaviors overall.

The findings are from a longitudinal study by the UNC-based Latino Acculturation and Health Project, which is supported by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and directed by Paul Smokowski, Ph.D., an associate professor at the UNC School of Social Work. Researchers interviewed 281 Latino youths and parents in North Carolina and Arizona, asking questions about a wide range of measures of lifestyle and mental health. Participants answered according to how much they agreed with each question (for example, from “not at all” to “very much”), resulting in scores on a scale for each measure.

“We found teens who maintain strong ties to their Latino cultures perform better academically and adjust more easily socially,” Smokowski said. “When we repeated the survey a year later, for every 1-point increase in involvement in their Latino cultures, we saw a 13 percent rise in self-esteem and a 12 to 13 percent decrease in hopelessness, social problems and aggressive behavior.

“Also, the study showed parents who develop a strong bicultural perspective have teen children who are less likely to feel anxiety and face fewer social problems,” he said. “For every increase in a parent’s involvement in United States culture, we saw a 15 to 18 percent decrease in adolescent social problems, aggression and anxiety one year later. Parents who were more involved in U.S. culture were in a better position to proactively help their adolescents with peer relations, forming friendships and staying engaged in school. This decreases the chances of social problems arising.”

“Such results suggest that Latino youth and their parents benefit from biculturalism,” Smokowski said.

The findings are presented as part of a series of articles featured next month in a special issue of The Journal of Primary Prevention, a collaborative initiative between UNC and the CDC. The special issue presents the latest research on how cultural adaptation influences Latino youth behaviors – including involvement in violence, smoking and substance use, as well as overall emotional well-being – and offers suggestions for primary prevention programs that support minority families.

“Bicultural adolescents tend to do better in school, report higher self esteem, and experience less anxiety, depression and aggression,” said study co-author Martica Bacallao, Ph.D., an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, whose work is also featured in the special issue. “It is interesting that, in order to obtain these benefits of biculturalism, adolescents and parents often need to do the opposite of what their natural tendencies tell them. Parents who are strongly tied to their native cultures must reach out to learn skills in the new culture. Adolescents who quickly soak up new cultural behaviors should slow down and cultivate the richness in their native cultures.”

Smokowski added: “The burgeoning size of the Latino population and the increasingly important roles that Latino youth will play in American culture are worthy of community attention. Communities can either invest in prevention to nurture Latino youth as a national resource or pay a heavy price later in trying to help these youth address social problems such as substance use, aggression or dropping out of school; all of which often results from the stress of acculturation.”

Along with Smokowski and Bacallao, Rachel L. Buchanan, Ph.D., assistant professor of social work at Salisbury University in Maryland, was a co-author of the study, titled “Acculturation and Adjustment in Latino Adolescents: How Cultural Risk Factors and Assets Influence Multiple Domains of Adolescent Mental Health.”

To learn more about the Latino Acculturation and Health Project, go to: http://www.unc.edu/~smokowsk/Main_Page.html

Source: Newswise

Latinos and Twitter

June 23, 2009
By Maribel Ferrer

Latinos were doing social networking online long before the term was coined.  For our culture, online technologies just broadened opportunities to stay connected to family and friends, and as connectivity became more affordable, more Latinos where doing more online. But this is old news, as it is too well known that we easily navigate English and Spanish content, on our mobiles or computers, very frequently.

In the marketing space, a lot of our colleagues have been on board with Twitter for a while. (Hello Dieste, Latinworks, Juan Tornoe, LatinaLista and many others.) But for those who argue whether Latino consumers are catching on, like they say in Spanish, para muestra un boton.

While catching up on Despierta America yesterday morning, it was great to hear that Twitter came up during a gossip segment with Piolin related to Paulina Rubio.  Turns out the singer has been tweeting during the promo tour for her new CD, including a tweet on a burglary at her Miami home and about her appearance on the Piolin show—the leading radio show in L.A. and the U.S. Also interesting is the mix of Twittters she follows and who follow her as it provides a glimpse into her interests and circle of influence.

Ana Maria Canseco, one of Despierta America’s anchors, also is on Twitter and has more than 200 people following her… in Spanish. She talks about events she attends, musings and comments about daily events, and even brands she’s working with.  Many more Latino celebs are also on, some more active than others: Ricardo Arjona, Juanes, etc.  Among them, acts like Wisin y Yandel with a younger following, have a larger number of followers (4,000 plus), and Shakira, whose audience reaches far beyond Latinos, has more than 25,000. Univision and Telemundo also are on Twitter… and I am sure this list grows every day.

Ivette and others on our team are avid users…As for me, I do have an account but I use it to follow and learn about others, instead of tweeting about me ;) Are you on?  Drop me a line and you may just get a new follower.

Source: FH Hispania Plaza

Literanista: On Being Latina

June 23, 2009
By Literanista

I am not your fetish.

My name is not Maria, “Oye, Mira,” Mamacita, or Bonita Applebum.

I am not your Malinche.

I will not do the Macarena for you.

Nor do I know how to make Pasteles from scratch.

When you meet me please refrain from telling me about your love for tacos.

I cannot be your Vida Guerra, Jennifer Lopez or Watermelon woman (Google it).

Nor will I press your shirts, wash your dishes or take your kids to the park.

I am not your Magdalena, Madonna, martyr.

I can’t be bothered to teach you Spanish.

Don’t assume I have a tattoo somewhere or a knife or some mace.

Resist the temptation to heap on the cultural clichés: caliente, spicy, hot Latin mama/lover, hot-blooded, chili pepper hot, spitfire…

No, I’m not from the projects.

I don't practice brujeria nor do I know how to cast spells.

Don't think if you play some reggaeton in your ad, it will make me want your product.

I’m not from the Block or on the 6 Train.

Don't assume I have 8 kids (and, no, not having any doesn't make me gay).

I don't appreciate the bastardized language used to implicate any association with being Hispanic: "She spics well for a Latina." "Ay, What a mes."

My culture is not something I am looking to lose.

I am not your Hottentot Venus.

You cannot send me back to my country.

I am simultaneously and collectively black, white, and Taino.

I am all three and I am neither.

I am American.

I am Latina.

Source: Literanista

Latinos also divided over immigrant rights

Jun. 22, 2009
By Franco Ordoñez

As the immigration debate heats up across the country, a new study shows Latinos in Charlotte-Mecklenburg are as divided over immigration reform as any other group — and possibly more so.

The Crossroads Social Capital study, which measured social ties in the community, found almost six out of 10 Latinos (58 percent) in Charlotte-Mecklenburg feel immigrants are “too demanding in their push for equal rights.”

“I'm upset at some of the demands I hear some parts of the illegal community making,” said Ricardo Mata, a Venezuelan native who has lived in the country for two decades. “Sometimes, I get fed up at the double standards I see.”

Mata, a Charlotte businessman who was not interviewed in the study, said he's frustrated by what he sees as increasing demands by some immigrants and fewer examples of how the undocumented will contribute to society if legalized. He supports legalizing some undocumented immigrants but feels less than half have demonstrated they really want to be part of America.

Critics of the study's findings say they reflect only a small segment of the community and not the majority of Latinos who do support immigration reform.

“I think the people who were surveyed were mostly established Latinos who are not having to face this issue,” said Angeles Ortega-Moore, executive director of the Latin-American Coalition.

One hundred seven people who identified themselves as Hispanic or Latino participated in the Crossroads study. The full study's margin of error was plus or minus 3.24 percentage points.

While the findings don't appear to track national trends, they do seem to follow economic and generational lines. The longer and more successful Latinos have been in Charlotte-Mecklenburg, the more likely they are to think newly arrived immigrants are too pushy.

The study also shows that Latinos are not monolithic thinkers and that some disagree with parts of the immigrant rights movement.

Latinos are diverse

For most of the 20th century, there were few Latinos in Charlotte. By 1990, about 7,000 lived here.

Today, it's the fastest-growing minority community in the state. Latinos make up 10 percent of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg population, 7 percent of the state's.

Nearly half of the county's 80,000 Latinos have Mexican roots, but thousands come from all over Central and South America.

Victor Guzman, a business owner and television producer from Puerto Rico, said it's sometimes a fight to clarify that not all Latinos are from Mexico and poor.

Many are businesspeople, doctors and lawyers from Argentina, Colombia and Venezuela. Some have multiple degrees — and money.

They are Democrats, Republicans and Independents with wide-ranging views and backgrounds.

“It's not all the same mindset,” Guzman said. “It's like going to the end of Charlotte to Ballantyne and asking questions and then going to West Boulevard and asking the same questions. You're going to get different answers.”

Even in one household, opinions can vary dramatically.

Maria Petrea, whose family is from Panama, doesn't think immigrants are asking too much, but her mother does.

“My mother is now 88,” said Petrea, who is principal of the Collinswood Language Academy, which is 60 percent Latino. “She came to the country when she was 22. She feels immigrants are too demanding. She would tell you they need to become Americanized and at the same time value their own culture. But don't expect people everywhere to speak for them or interpret for them.”

Eric Caratao, a research specialist at the UNC Charlotte Urban Institute who authored the Crossroads study, said about half of the Latinos surveyed were longtime residents.

In his 2009 study on Latino views on immigration reform, Latino studies professor Louis DeSipio of University of California, Irvine found opinions depended on several socioeconomic factors.

Support was strongest among immigrants, poor Latinos and Mexican descendants while conservatives, long-term residents, and U.S.-born Latinos were more likely to back restrictions.

Class structure

The middle class is small in Latin America compared with U.S. standards. Wide gaps exist between the upper and lower economic classes. Many Latinos in America live with the same social structures.

Violeta Moser, a research consultant from Peru, said immigrants are more demanding because they're suffering greater levels of discrimination and human-rights violations. But she said some more-established Latinos may not understand the plight poorer immigrants face and others resent being “pulled into the illegal immigrant issue.”

Former Mecklenburg County commissioner Dan Ramirez, who is from Colombia, says that most Latinos support immigration reform but that some don't want illegal immigrants to “force the issue” so much.

Ortega-Moore of the Latin American Coalition, called it “immigration fatigue.”

“It's such a divisive issue and it's really full of emotion,” she said. “One of the fears is the individual, who is here established and legally in the country, is saying ‘I don't want to be compared with those people who are undocumented.'”

When Victor Guzman was more involved with local advocacy in the 1990s, he said the immigrant-rights movement focused more on human rights. But he now feels some groups, particularly on the West Coast, have gone “overboard.”

He questions demands for health benefits for the undocumented or that schools teach in Spanish.

“You sit there and think, ‘Wait a minute, hold on,'” Guzman said. “You want them treated humanely, but then when they go beyond that and want more and more. And the more radical they get, the more they cast a negative light on the whole situation.”

Source: The Charlotte Observer

United Way reaches out to Central Texas Latinos

June 19, 2009
By Juan Castillo

When the United Way Capital Area officials noticed that the Hispanic population in Central Texas was ballooning but volunteerism among Latinos seemed to lag behind, they wondered why.

Among the answers they got: Hispanics said they simply hadn't been asked.

On Thursday evening, the agency made a splashy point of asking, reaching out to Latino residents with a first-ever volunteer fair called Vivir Unidos at the Mexican American Cultural Center.

"This is kind of like our public appearance, our public invitation," said Armando Rayo, the director of Hands On Central Texas, a project of United Way's volunteer center.

The United Way envisioned Vivir Unidos — Spanish for "Live United" — as something of a mixer, a chance for Hispanic residents and local nonprofit organizations to get to know each other. More than 30 nonprofits were invited to the free event, which also marked the public rollout of a soon-to-be-released report by the agency on Hispanics, volunteerism and issues important to the Latino community.

The report and the fair grew out of United Way's Culture Connections and Community Engagement Initiative, an attempt launched in 2007 to draw more African Americans and Latinos into volunteerism. With Central Texas' population rapidly becoming more diverse, the agency thought it was important for nonprofit groups and their boards to reflect that mix.

"We need to have all voices represented in our nonprofit world," said Debbie Bresette, United Way interim president.

The initiative was quickly illuminating. The agency learned that African Americans were already heavily involved in their churches and in the schools and that the agency is "just not necessarily linked with it," Bresette said.

"We're not embedded or deeply rooted in the Hispanic community," Rayo said.

Vivir Unidos was a bilingual event. To connect with Latinos who are interested in volunteering, Rayo said, Vivir Unidos aimed to celebrate the diversity of Latino culture with Latin American foods, music, ballet folklórico and Vivir Unidos Lotería, a variation on the game sometimes called "Mexican Bingo."

Rayo said he hoped to bring native Tejanos, immigrants, young people and longtime residents under one tent.

"It's about being authentic in your approaches," Rayo said about the cultural touches. "It's about creating a sense of community, even if you may not have those existing relationships."

Idalia Garza of Round Rock is one of many volunteers who helped put on Vivir Unidos; she enlisted three local restaurants to donate food for the event.

"The main goal is for every single person to say, 'I didn't know I could be involved this way in our community,' " Garza said, adding that she didn't know either until she lost her job in October.

Through Hands On Central Texas, she connected with local hospices and another group that helps people with diabetes and dove into volunteering. Now she is the volunteer coordinator with Heart to Heart Hospice.

The work is close to her own heart; she said her brother David Castro died in 2003 of AIDS and lived in a hospice before his death.

Garza said she told Rayo she wants to continue helping.

"He has a powerful engine there" in Hands On Central Texas, Garza said. "I think we have the perfect market because we have a great diversity of people here and so many people willing to help. We have yet to reach the Hispanic community."

Source: Austin American Statesman

New exhibit focuses on Latino WWII veterans

June 16, 2009
By Bobby Longoria

Even though some Mexican-American soldiers felt they were a part of a brotherhood while serving in World War II, they faced civil unrest when they came back to the U.S., according to a museum exhibit directed by UT faculty.

“They faced some of the same obstacles as before the war,” said Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez, an associate professor in the School of Journalism and director of the project. “We know they had to fight to tear down some segregated institutions. They had to protest, write letters.”

The U.S. Latino and Latina World War II Oral History Project brings light to the oral and written accounts of Mexican-American veterans who fought in World War II. The exhibit will be on display at In Their Own Words Veterans Museum in Perham, Minn. until July 31.

Rivas-Rodriguez said the exhibit aims to educate citizens about the role that Mexican-Americans played in World War II.

“[The exhibit] is about the Latino World War II experience, so it deals with Latinos, and it spans their childhood and some of the educational benefits they got out of the war,” Rivas-Rodriguez said.

The oral history project encourages volunteers to conduct interviews with veterans within their community, and is devoted to preserving the stories of those who participated in WWII. Lina Belar, executive director of the museum, said that the loss of many servicemen greatly impacted their communities.

“[The war] didn’t just affect those that went into battle, but the community that was left behind,” Belar said. “It has made a difference in a lot of peoples’ lives to go into the service, to go away from their community, to have different states of cultural imperative.”

Belar said she hopes the project breaks down barriers between citizens and veterans and sparks discussion about veterans’ war experiences. She said that the problems many veterans faced are due in part to their inability to freely communicate in an open forum.

“Very often, they have been so changed by their experiences — sometimes for the better, sometime for the worse — that they have a hard time communicating with those they spoke to originally,” Belar said.

Rivas-Rodriguez said that firsthand accounts of the war written by veterans are valuable to the project — but the oral accounts are especially important.

David B. Gracy, professor in the School of Information, helped the project archive all of the interviews.

“Oral history is something that happens after the event,” Gracy said. “[Documentation] is unchanging, whereas memories can change over time.”

Belar said that she hopes the project will help veterans come to terms with their experiences.

“A way to help that is to educate communities of the lives of veterans, so they are more sensitive to it,” she said. “[Veterans don’t] have to keep it to themselves — they are going to be able to have a forum. That’s the kind of cultural change that you hope will happen.”

Source: The Daily Texan

Study Identifies Aging Hispanic Workers as “Invisible Boomers”

Jun 16, 2009
By Eduardo A. de Oliveira

When Jacob Lozada was 13, a neighbor came knocking on his door in San Jose, Puerto Rico, to tell his family that his grandfather had fainted at work.

“My father said, ‘Son, this is a blessing.’ I didn’t understand why,” Lozada recalled.

When the elder Lozada came home, Jacob’s father told him it was time to retire.

“And what I did not understand, until later in my life, was why a 60-year-old man would want to get up at 5:00 in the morning to go to work cutting sugar cane, which was one of the worst jobs anybody could have in the tropics, especially in Puerto Rico,” Jacob Lozada added.

Lozada, a board member of AARP (formerly called the American Association of Retired Persons), was a panelist at a seminar called “Older Hispanic American Workers: Current Status and Future Prospects.” The panel was one of many at the AARP Diversity Conference in Chicago last week with the theme, “The Power of Inclusion.”

According to the latest U.S. Census data, Hispanics grew from 6.5 percent of the total U.S. population in 1980, to 15 percent today. Of the estimated 45 million Hispanics, 6 million are 50 to 69 years old.

A survey presented by Richard W. Johnson, PhD, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute research organization in Washington, D.C., showed that by 2030, an estimated one in every five people ages 50 to 69 in the United States will be of Hispanic origin.

Johnson called the Hispanic aging population “the invisible boomers.” To get a count of the Hispanic population in the U.S., he combined the numbers of three sources: the 2007 American Community Survey of the U.S. Census, the Health and Retirement Survey of the University of Michigan, and a self-assessment by migrant workers living in Illinois, which was conducted by the Urban Institute.

Johnson’s AARP study, “50+ Hispanic Workers: A Growing Segment of the U.S. Workforce,” which he coauthored with the Urban Institute’s Mauricio Soto, looked at why Hispanic American workers ages 50 and older, such as Lozada’s 60-year-old grandfather, tend to continue working. One possible explanation is that fewer Latino immigrant workers had health benefits in their homeland (43 percent) compared to U.S.-born Latinos (49 percent).

Of the older Hispanic workers surveyed by Johnson and Soto, more of them (95 percent) responded that they “enjoy their jobs” than did African Americans (86.3 percent) and whites (87 percent).

“We found the Latino health paradox. Healthier people migrate here, because workers overseas have better dieting and exercising habits, but as time progresses in America, they acquire the local practices and their health is affected,” said Johnson, who added that the paradox also is true among Asians and other ethnic groups.

In Johnson’s research, nearly the same percentages of Hispanics and whites responded that health problems have limited them at work: 15 percent of Hispanics, and 14 percent of whites.

However, when asked about their absences at work in the past year, white workers reported more missed days than Latinos did.

About 45 percent of the white workers – compared to 32% of the Hispanic workers – said they missed at least one work day in the past 12 months.

“Yes, yes, yes. This is exactly what’s going on. Many [Latino] workers have come from the construction industry and are losing their jobs, while they were dedicated to their employers,” said panelist Elba Aranda-Suh, executive director of the National Latino Education Institute, a nonprofit in Chicago.

Aranda-Suh also said her organization has seen an increase in the number of foreign-born Latino workers who come to the U.S. with college degrees.

“It’s been a challenge helping older workers with degrees from their homelands, assimilate [in] the U.S. market,” she said.

Aranda-Suh pointed out that resources available to train older workers in the past, such as the U.S. Department of Labor’s Senior Community Service Employment Program, established in 1965, have been cut because of the current economic downturn. Although resources are scarce today, she said she could still recall when there was a lack of information about the Latino workforce.

Half jokingly, Jacob Lozada urged Latinos to leave differences aside and participate more in the political decisions of their communities.

“How difficult it is sometimes to get anything done in your Latino community. We say we are going to have dinner, then Mexicans want tortillas, Puerto Ricans want rice and beans, Venezuelans want something else. Look, you have to get involved. That’s why I joined AARP,” he said.

As more studies and surveys about Hispanics come about, Lozada said it is easier to say that the federal government is not doing enough to help Latinos. But, he said, Latinos should ask themselves, “What am I doing?”

The aging of all ethnic populations is a real problem that foreign workers need to deal with. But hopes are still high for a long and prosperous life in this country, Aranda-Suh said. She added that migrant leaders need to work closely with legislators and the private sector to address issues like retirement, long-term care and health insurance.

In their survey, Johnson and Soto asked workers aged 50 and older to rate their health status. Of the Hispanic respondents, 27 percent admitted their health is fair or poor, compared to 18 percent for whites, and 27 percent for African Americans.

Despite those findings, Latinos have reason to be optimistic about their expectations for long life. At age 50, says the AARP report, Hispanics can expect to live three years longer than non-Hispanic white men and women, five or six years longer than non-Hispanic African Americans.

The “50+ Hispanic Workers” report is posted online at http://www.aarp.org/research/work/employment/hispanic_workers_09.html.

Source: New America Media

Hispanic identity has no easy definition

June 12th, 2009
By PEGGY ORCHOWSKI

After living in Latin America and covering Latinos for years as a journalist, one thing is clear. No one really knows who exactly is a Latino, an Hispanic, a member of "La Raza" or even a Chicano. But ever since President Obama nominated Sonia Sotomayor as a Supreme Court justice, the media has gone wild with the mantra "the first Hispanic justice." Oh, really?

 Benjamin Cordoza was a Supreme Court justice in 1932. His name, Cordoza, is a familiar Spanish, Hispanic, Latino, Chicano name. By the U.S. Census definition today, he was Hispanic.

But it's complicated -- as complicated as the multicultural, diverse people who are citizens of the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean today. You see, Benjamin Cordoza was Jewish. Does that make him not Latino? Born in New York City (as was Sotomayor), his family came from the Iberian Peninsula. His ancestors fled the Inquisition there and may have been Portuguese. Does that disqualify him as a Hispanic? Some say Portuguese are not Latinos.

Spaniards are not considered by Latino advocates to be Latinos; Italians are not either. Activists usually define Latinos as those who come from Central and South America. Sotomayor's family is from Puerto Rico and some say that Caribbeans are not Latino. In addition, neither Cardoza or Sotomayor were immigrants -- Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens and don't need immigration visas. Are they still considered to be Hispanic or Latino in the political sense?

This is the problem with U.S. identity politics. Ethnic identity is used to fit a political agenda, not a reality.

Central and South Americans don't bother with the nomenclature "Latino" or "Hispanic." In the democracies of Latin America there have been presidents not only with Spanish, Portuguese and indigenous heritage, but also with English last names (Fox), Arab (Menem) and Asian (Fujimori).

During World War II, South America was extremely open to Jewish immigrants -- far more than the U.S.A. Millions of Jewish refugees from Europe and the Middle East settled and thrived there; generations of their children are now fully integrated South American citizens.

"It's time for Latinos to make their top priority integration into the American mainstream," writes Frank Cisneros in his book "Latinos and the Future of the Nation." The key to such integration is dominating English and completing a high school and college education. Dozens of organizations such as Excelencia for Education are dedicated to helping youths of Latino heritage achieve this success. Sotomayor is a role model.

The U.S. is enriched by the multiple national heritages of our citizens. Like most New World countries, the U.S. is a nation of immigrants. But our success is largely due to integrating these mixed heritages.

Some Mexican advocacy groups who recognize the importance of integration call themselves "American Mexicans." That's a good idea. But it's too complicated for most. I for one am a proud quadra-lingual American/Californian with a Colonial/Tory/New England/Texas/English/Austrian/Dutch/Protestant/Catholic/Jewish/Mormon heritage. Many so-called Latinos have similarly mixed heritages that frame our world views. The only identity that makes sense is "American."

Source: Anchorage Daily News