Hispanic Markets Deserve Attention in New Mexico

Hispanic Markets Deserve Attention in New Mexico

M. Gene Aldridge

NMIRI Board Member

Las Cruces, NM – Hispanic purchasing power in the U.S. is soaring. According to Arizona State University and Georgia’s Selig Center, Hispanic purchasing power will hit $ 1 trillion by 2007. Hispanics are seeking excellent educational options and are being courted by corporations as employees and customers.

Even President Bush has reached out to name a Hispanic to the Federal Appeals court. Unfortunately, the “left wing” in Congress does not understand that we need good judges on the Federal Appeals court regardless of race. In fact, the left wing has made race the issue, not qualifications, as evidenced by their resistance. More and more Hispanics are growing in their understanding of independence not dependence on government.

Recent studies in Chicago by the United Neighborhood (UNO), a Hispanic group, demonstrate that the media are ignorant about the Hispanic that now exists in the U.S. The view of the media, according to the UNO study is that Hispanics are disadvantaged, a group that is victimized by discrimination and dependent upon civil rights or affirmative action laws, plus entitlements and that this view the media holds is wrong.

What is intriguing about all this activity and research is that UNO’s President, Juan Rangel, wants to even drop the label “minority” so that the Hispanics can join the main stream of America without such stigmas attached to their media image. Bravo, Juan! Hispanics even like to be identified with their country of origin (54 percent, according to 2002 National Survey of Latinos by Pew and Kaiser Foundations). Over 21 percent prefer to call themselves “American” while 24 percent prefer “Latino” or “Hispanic”.

The U.S. now has more Hispanics than Blacks. The 38.8 million Hispanics in the U.S. now comprise the largest minority and ethnic group in the U.S. according to Louis Kincannon of the U.S. Census Bureau. Like all groups who migrated to our shores and across our borders, these groups are beginning to find their own will with respect to the American democratic system. It is very heart warming to see Hispanics defend, with great vigor, the U.S. Constitution and work their way into the fabric of American society. Many of the Hispanics in the U.S. are self-selected persons who had a desire to have economic freedom from the tyranny of other societies which did not enable them to climb the social ladder to success. In this respect, Hispanics are making their contributions known economically and politically.

Socially, Hispanics have provided high buying power now in states like California, Texas, Florida, New York, Illinois, New Jersey, Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, and New Mexico.

The following table illustrates the billions of dollars which Hispanics bring to the U.S. in buying power by states. Corporations like Wells Fargo have created special money card systems for access by families in Mexico, for example, with their family worker relatives in the U.S. The money is digitally deposited in a bank in the U.S. by the employer and the money is sent back to accounts in corresponding banks in Mexico where the family can have access to the funds. This kind of economic power, not only affects consumer buying power in the U.S., but affects the economics of small villages and states in Mexico too. Zacatecas is one of those states in Mexico where more money is imported via the U.S. Hispanic workers each year than the money that is imported by the federal government of Mexico to Zacatecas. This is economic synergy at its best.

Hispanic Purchasing Power in U.S.

State	$ billions
California	$170.7
Texas	$ 93.7
Florida	$ 52.4
New York	$ 48.1
Illinois	$ 25.6
New Jersey	$ 22.3
Arizona	$ 17.5
Colorado	$ 13.0
Georgia	$ 11.3
New Mexico	$ 11.0

Source: New Coalition News and Views, Summer 2003

There are those who say, “Well, that money is leaving the U.S. for Mexico.” This is true, but the buying power of the Hispanic in the U.S. is likewise keeping the consumer base of our economy alive with the imported Hispanic worker groups. Please note the buying power of the Hispanics in key states right now in the U.S. This affects positively and directly the American economy.

New Mexico’s silly economy with high taxation, relative to neighboring states and our anti-small business attitude, prevent these savvy Hispanic groups from coming here. Better yet, what we do is offer sweetheart deals on taxation to outsiders and do not reward the Hispanics that have been in business here for years. Hispanics prefer places like Chicago and Georgia where they are welcomed to participate in the economy. NM is located along the border and is once again behind the curve as it relates to one of the key cultural groups in our state. Developing links with our South and Central American populations can only assist the economy of NM, but we must have an economy that entices these hard working groups to our state. We need the entrepreneurs of Latin America here. In other words, we have to create jobs and better tourism infrastructure in NM (especially in Southern NM) to ensure that they will come here. If they are educated here, they leave quite quickly like the native populations of young people in NM. The cultural link in NM to these groups is quite natural for our state. NM needs to get aggressive about inviting these groups here for investment in the future of our state. How many times have we heard from Hispanic mothers who say, “My child can’t stay in NM, they had to go to Dallas or Chicago to get a real job after university.”

The foreign born population in the U.S. is 11.5 percent of the total U.S. population. Of the foreign born population, 52 percent are from Latin America. Most of these Latin American groups are concentrated in the Western U.S. 55 percent, while the other large geographic groupings seem to be in the South (30 percent). Why is this so? Because economics is what moves people with their feet. They go to markets that encourage them to keep the dollars they earn through less taxation compared to other regions of the nation. Once again New Mexico is last in drawing even Hispanic markets to our state and/or keeping the creative ones that we produce.

Nothing will happened in New Mexico until we get an enlightened Governor who understands these issues and a state legislature that wants to make the changes necessary to rebuild our disastrous and silly economy here. We can only hope that the current Hispanic Governor Richardson will come off his elitist tower and begin to make the changes necessary in taxation for NM. Good public economic policy

demands this of him.

Permission to quote: Persons may quote from this article and use the material, but all quotations and references to the article must include that fact that this information came from the New Mexico Independence Research Institute, Inc. and the author's name should be clearly available in the reference or citation.