Latinos make up a trillion dollar market and American companies are eager to cash in
Some are learning how to target that economic powerhouse by understanding the complexity of Latinos — we aren’t just one monolithic group of Hispanics!
Example: Just think about how many different types of Goya beans you see in the supermarket!
We don’t all eat the same thing, and we don’t all think the same way.
This week we hosted a #LatinoViews Twitter chat with NPR’s Code Switch blog about their landmark poll measuring Latino attitudes.
The poll is unique because it solicited responses from nearly 1,500 Latino Americans. The sample size was big enough to divide answers by subgroups – it took ethnic ancestry into account and it separated immigrants from non-immigrants.
The problem with the poll it can only give you multiple choice answers. Do you identify as Hispanic or Latino? Do you feel optimistic? Have you been discriminated against?
But it doesn’t give respondents the opportunity to answer WHY they feel the way that they do.
That’s why we took to social media for a 1-hour long conversation about the poll’s findings.
Here are some of the best moments from the Twitter Chat we hosted with NPR’s Code Switch blog.
My mother was born in Chichicastenango, Guatemala.
Thus, my answer to “Are you latino, hispanic, or what?” is:
“Mis antepasados y yo somos Quiches, no Mames.”
[Quiches are the Maya inhabiting Chichichastenango, Guatemala. Mames are the Maya inhabiting San Marcos, Guatemala.]
This is the type of answer confirming -indisputably- that translation -let alone, simultaneous interpretation-
is impotent when faced with bilingual/bicultural reality. A si. A no.