The U.S. Census Bureau defines people of Hispanic origin as “those people who classified themselves in one of the specific Spanish, Hispanic, or Latino categories listed on the Census 2000 questionnaire -"Mexican, Mexican Am., Chicano," "Puerto Rican", or "Cuban" -as well as those who indicate that they are "other Spanish/Hispanic/Latino.” Origin can be understood as the heritage, nationality group, lineage, or country of birth of a person or a person’s parents or ancestors before they arrived in the United States.
In America according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2000 Census there are 35 million American Hispanics. That is approximately 12.5% of the entire population. Additionally they project that Hispanics will become the largest ethnic minority in the U.S. by the year 2010. In 1998 Hispanics spent an estimated $380 billion on consumer goods with this figure expected to reach $938 billion by 2010. This increase has led pr practitioners to examine strategies that would effectively reach the Hispanic population.
According to Frank Pérez, the concept of Hispanic public relations “HPR” is a relatively new one. Traditionally, in the past, public relations campaigns failed to distinguish the differences that existed between minority populations. Within the last seven years however, ethnic marketing and public relations have gained popularity due to the fast growth and increased purchasing power of the Hispanic population. Organisations have now begun to realise the economic importance of the Hispanic population and see this segment of the population as the “majority minority”.
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2 comments:
Hey Emily,
It is interesting to see the Government woke up to addressing the needs of a growing, influential Hispanic Community. You will find that this is catching up in other countries that have a mixed diaspora of people - go to Dubai, Qatar and Bahrain, where Asians make up a large contingency of the expat population, a lot of pages in the local dailies are dedicated to covering news about Asia. I think it is important for the growth of PR to look into addressing and adapting to what people in different communities want to hear.
Hi Emily
I very much agree with the comment above, it is great that PR has started recognizing different ethnic communities. As a Norwegian I don’t know that much about the Hispanic community in the States, however, on a general basis I think that it is positive that PR speaks to all kinds of groups like the different “minority media” do. However, I think it is important, as you have emphasised, that PRPs recognize that there are differences among and within minority publics.
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