A Note from our President (Winter 2001)
By Elena Del Valle - LNA Worldwide Communications

Dear HMCA members and friends:
As many of you may know a number of exciting updates on Hispanic markets have been revealed in the last few months. As U.S. Census information becomes available, more and more insights on Hispanics are beginning to appear.

The original U.S. Census count for Hispanics was 35.3 million. Since then, researchers have estimated that the Hispanic population was undercounted by approximately 2 million. In addition, there are an estimated 5 million undocumented Hispanics that were not included in the 35.3 Census estimate. Added together Hispanics total 42.3 million, which represents 15 percent of the U.S. population. That confirms that Hispanics are currently the largest minority in the country.

Along with the size comes the growing buying power. The buying power estimates vary depending on the source. What everyone seems to agree with is that Hispanics are here to stay. And that as a young (every week 7,000 Hispanics turn 18) immigrant population their buying power will continue to go up. South Florida practitioners are ideally positioned and equipped to target and do business with the diverse, growing Hispanic markets locally, nationally and internationally. We at HMCA hope to facilitate that process by providing networking and informational meetings on Hispanic marketing topics. In deference to the events of the past few months the HMCA Board decided to cancel the Fall event. Our newsletter, InterAcción, remains on schedule. In the Spring, we look forward to brining you another interesting meeting or workshop.

As always, we welcome your comments, ideas, and experiences regarding Hispanic marketing. Please email us at hmca@huellas.com