Hispanics (the New Majority) Hispanics:

Hispanics (the new Majority)

Hispanics: The new Majority

As a melting pot of various cultures, the U.S. demographics continues to change at a remarkable rate. Among the minority communities, the Hispanics continue to be a dominant group making up for more than 15% of the national population. The Hispanic population which stood at 35.7 million in 2000 shoot up to 45.5 million by 2007 indicating an astounding increase. This increase among the Hispanic population is largely due to new births (62% of increase in Hispanic population between 2000 and 2007) than due to immigration. Statistics further show that Hispanics are fast outstripping other communities in terms of their purchasing power, which is projected to grow from the current $860 billion a year to $1.3 trillion by 2012. [Arcanna] These numbers clearly show how important the Hispanic population is for the businesses as well as the politicians.

Hispanics Underrepresented

Unfortunately, there seems to be a gross neglection of the Hispanics by the public corporations, which is evinced by the lack of Hispanic representation at the top cadre. In Houston for example, where the Hispanic community represents more than 40% of the population, there are only 43 Hispanic board members in a total of 2403 corporate board positions, which translates to less than 2% of corporate leaders. [Edgardo E. Colon] Other surveys in the nation also tell of a similar dismal picture. A recent nationwide study by the Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility (HACR) showed that Hispanics held only 3.1% of the board seats in fortune 500 companies. As the HACR president, Carlos orta said, 'At current growth rates, it would take more than 100 years for Hispanics to achieve real parity'. [Latino Professional Network]

It is a very hard fact to reconcile with as it makes perfect business sense to induct more Hispanics in decision making capacity as board members. Hispanic Board members can better leverage the Hispanic-American market by making products that cater to the community and in designing a more effective marketing strategy. Having Hispanic board members would also facilitate better relationships with the Hispanic customers. As Carlos puts it, "If a company is interested in reaching the Latino market, it makes corporate sense to hire people who understand that specific demographic and have the cultural sensitivity necessary to target that segment," [Latino Professional Network]

The growing Hispanic population is already shaping up the new political dynamics across the nation. Results from previous polls show the Hispanics as being nonpartisan and are less racial unlike the African-American community, which is highly monolithic in their voting behavior. For instance, in the 2001 Houston mayoral elections, 26% of Hispanics voted for the African-American candidate while only 2% of African-Americans voted for the Hispanic candidate. [Hector de Leon] Also, in the more recent presidential primary elections, Hispanics voted Miss Clinton to victory in Ohio by a two-thirds margin while Obama was victorious in the Hispanic dominated Chicago wards. [Russ Stewart] So political parties could no longer take Hispanic votes for granted or ignore the Latino population especially when they are going to constitute a quarter of the American population by 2030. [Jennifer Hunter] the growing purchasing power of Hispanics is already finding big corporate support for their increasing political participation with a long list of blue chip companies already sponsoring the 'National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials' (NALEO) [Business wire]

Conclusion