A Note from our President (Fall 2002)
By Elena Del Valle - LNA Worldwide Communications

Dear HMCA members and friends:
Here we are, one more year into the 21st century. As we move forward, I realize that, if we do our jobs well, perhaps one day we will become superfluous. HMCA might no longer be necessary or viable. When will this happen? When, as demographers predict, one of every U.S. resident is Hispanic? When the majority of mainstream marketers realize the importance of Hispanics? You may say it will never happen. Then

I will settle for the time when Hispanics and non-Hispanic marketers alike have a clear understanding of the Hispanic markets they are targeting.

HMCA is still around because there is a great need for accurate information on market status, characteristics, trends, how-to ideas and plain old networking.

In an effort to help you stay in the loop we have sought out partners and supported events with a broader scope. For example, we developed a continuing mutually beneficial alliance with national Hispanic wire distributor HPR Wire. In November, we co-sponsored the U.S. Hispanic Marketing 2002, a national Hispanic market conference presented by International Quality and Productivity Center and held in downtown Miami. This month we are co-sponsoring another national Hispanic market conference, the 9th Annual Marketing To U.S. Hispanics & Latin America (see announcement on this page).

We sought our sister organizations such as the international Public Relations Society of America (PRSA). Last month their President, JoAnn Killeen, wrote an article for InterAcción. On the west coast, we found the Hispanic Public Relations Association (HPRA) and introduced ourselves. We also invited them to tell us about themselves (see article in this newsletter) and have begun exploring other avenues of cooperation. For next month, we have teamed up with HPR Wire, HPRA and PRSA to co-sponsor a national teleconference entitled U.S. Hispanics: A Market Update, for practitioners with a basic knowledge of U.S. Hispanics (see article in this newsletter).

We hope our efforts are bringing you closer to your goals and providing the means for you to stay informed about Hispanic markets. As always, we invite your article ideas, and submissions; as well as suggestions for other ways we can improve and maybe one day become superfluous.