HispanicVista Columnists
The Emerging Latino Economy
- By Robert Miranda
- October 7, 2005
- The Latino population has become an integral part of the United States economy. Latinos provide labor for agriculture, construction, and manufacturing industries all across the country. Not only do we provide labor, we also own businesses.
- According to the United States Census, Latinos have collectively been able to harness $653 billion in purchasing power as of 2003. It is estimated that Latinos will have a combined $1 trillion dollars by the year 2008. Without question Latino purchasing power is growing and does so at three times the rate of the overall U.S. population.
- These figures indicate that Latinos have a tremendous opportunity to improve and root themselves in neighborhoods/communities all across the nation. Our combined wealth invested in our businesses—as long as we buy from Latino owned community stores—give our people an opportunity to be self-sustaining and gives our nation a powerful economic group contributing to our national economic goals.
- But are we truly headed in that direction? Are Latino businesses
supporting each other and are Latinos spending our dollars in Latino
owned stores?
- All across the United States Corporate America speaks about the buying power of the emerging Latino population. The Anglo market network is taking notice of this rising economic power house. They are so enamored with the Latino market Anglos have taken to joining Latino chamber of commerce organizations in droves.
- Whether that is a good or bad thing will have to be revisited later. However, considering the trends in cities across that country—new economic developments, gentrification and rising fees and taxes—the Latino small business entrepreneur is being squeezed out and replaced by giant Anglo owned corporate interest and Anglo small businesses looking to tap into this growing Latino economic power house.
- Urban gentrification is destroying our Latino businesses and is pandemic to the encroachment and growing influence of Corporate America within our Latino small business community. The backbone of our community rests with a solid foundation of small Latino businesses firmly rooted in our neighborhood.
- The reality of the Latino small business entrepreneur is far removed from some local Latino chamber of commerce. It appears that Latino organizations emerging to represent the interest of the Latino entrepreneur has taken to catering to the broader big business community dominated by Anglo owners.
- Some Latino organizations, such as the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Wisconsin (HCCW) appear to have abandoned the notion of building a Latino dominated commerce neighborhood (that benefits the broader Latino small business community) in search of establishing networks and economic partnerships with businesses that are larger and dominated by the Anglo community. Is this taking place in other cities across the country?
- Indeed, outside market forces have accessed our hundreds of billions of dollars buying power while at the same time, the Latino market is failing to first root Latino dollars firmly into our community's Latino small business networks.
- To be sure, before inviting the big corporations to come in and taste the sweetness of our growing economy, should not our Latino small businesses have been serviced first and closely networked so that they can be the first to take advantage of the growing Latino buying power?
- In Milwaukee this has not happened. Frankly, we are losing money to market forces outside of our community. HCCW has become a vehicle for non-Latino markets to access our economy, and in so doing, has allowed them to siphon our resources out of our community before those precious resources get a chance to circulate in our Latino small business community. The big boys move in, take our dollars and then ship that money away into another part of the country or world. Where does that leave our collective economic resources? Coming back to our economy? I don't think so.
- There remains a long way to go in constructing the economic base that is fair and just, and the temptation is very great to follow the beaten track of material interest. The model HCCW pursues has taken that track and it will leave a destructive legacy that will impact our most vulnerable Latino small businesses for years to come.
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- Robert Miranda, a frequent contributing columnist to HispanicVista.com (www.hispanicvista.com), is a national award winning columnist, Latino community activist and Editor-in-Chief of the Milwaukee Spanish Journal. Email at: rmiranda@wi.rr.com