This essay examines the significant impact of Hispanic Americans on U.S. business practices over the past two decades. As the largest minority group in the United States, Hispanics have influenced business through three major channels: the demand for culture-specific products, the expansion of Spanish-language media and services, and the rise of Latino entrepreneurs in diverse industries. While these contributions represent unprecedented demographic influence, Hispanic business owners and consumers still encounter discrimination and barriers to full assimilation. The paper argues that despite substantial progress in economic integration and cultural influence, Hispanic Americans continue the historic immigrant journey toward acceptance, though their purchasing power and community size may accelerate this process compared to previous immigrant groups.
In the past two years, Hispanics have become the largest minority group in the United States (Grow 2004). Like every immigrant group before them, they have faced obstacles assimilating and adapting to life in the United States. From overt discrimination to subtle discrepancies in lifestyle, life in a different nation than one's origin is never easy. However, business practices have been significantly influenced by the Hispanic demographic in larger and more noticeable ways than any immigrant group before them.
This essay explores the ways that Hispanics have influenced the business world as well as how their different background has been a factor in their treatment. There are three major ways that Hispanics have influenced business practices: products demanded, languages available, and their emergence as business owners and entrepreneurs. These changes are especially significant because the type of demographic shift that increasing numbers of Hispanics represents is unprecedented (Grow 2004). Companies have never had to adapt so quickly and in so many ways to accommodate such a large bloc of consumers.
The first category—products demanded—is rooted in the substantial purchasing power wielded by the Hispanic demographic. One study put this purchasing power at over $492.5 billion a few years ago, doubling the projections of the prior year (Dougherty 2001). An even more recent study put the disposable income number at $652 billion, a 29% jump since the former figures were issued (Grow 2004). While much of this cash is directed at necessities and products traditionally marketed to U.S. consumers, many products are specific to Spanish culture, notably foods, music, and décor. Growth in Spanish-language media such as Univision has soared, increasing at a rate higher than that of traditional media.
This influence of a certain culture on its second nation is part of any group's emigration; the "melting pot" of America requires that American culture adapt and adopt practices and products of other cultures. Since the beginning of the United States, groups of immigrants have brought with them their heritage, language, likes, and dislikes. These values and desires are quantified in the products they buy and the services they demand. In the case of Hispanics, this purchasing power has been referred to as influencing American culture "in the way rap exploded out of black neighborhoods in the late 1980s" (Grow 2004).
The influence of the Spanish language on the market is significant and more substantial than the native language of other groups has been. More Latinos are bilingual than any immigrant group in history, and their demand for Spanish-language media and marketing has greatly altered the market. Procter and Gamble spent $90 million on advertising directed toward Latinos, adding a 65-person bilingual team in 2000 (Grow 2004).
In addition to these marketing changes, the demand for Spanish-language services has increased exponentially. PacifiCare Health Systems, upon beginning to target Hispanics, found that they already constituted 20% of the company's clients and accordingly began incorporating services such as directing clients to Spanish-speaking doctors and translating documents into Spanish. Kroger has spent millions on converting grocery locations to more Spanish-friendly atmospheres with Spanish-language signs (Grow 2004).
Latino entrepreneurs have emerged as a significant market force and as successful business owners, "not just tortilla makers, restaurant owners, and contractors" (Armendariz 2005). These owners see themselves as businesspeople first, immigrants second. According to Harry Garewal, president and chief executive officer of the Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, "'Hispanic businesses don't want to be considered anything other than a business'" (ibid.).
Garewal noted that new markets, such as financial planning and accounting, insurance and real estate, and computers and information technology are becoming populated with Hispanics. One owner shared a story of having to work harder than other computer engineers because he "didn't fit [the] image of a technician" (ibid.). This anecdote introduces the challenges that persist despite entrepreneurial success.
The computer technician's story reveals the negative aspect of Hispanic entrepreneurship: the potential for racial or ethnic discrimination. Although studies have suggested that Hispanics "probably face less racism than African Americans," for example, a bias against immigrant-owned businesses still exists in the marketplace (Grow 2004).
A more egregious example of discrimination against Hispanic businesspeople occurred in Virginia, where claims of discrimination against minority-owned government contractors alleged that "requirements that were not required of the non-minority bidder" were imposed on Hispanic-owned bidders, resulting in a lawsuit by the minority bidders ("Virginia" 2005). The lawsuit also alleged other forms of discrimination by the state against the Hispanic-owned contractors. These cases demonstrate that despite economic progress, structural barriers remain.
These stories exemplify why Hispanic immigrants cannot be considered fully assimilated; this newest group of immigrants still has territory to cover with regard to discrimination. Despite the significant advances being made by Spanish business owners and investors and the stunning acceleration of Spanish influence in media, products, and services, some forms of discrimination still exist.
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