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The world's brewing giants, struggling to eke out growth in the sluggish U.S. market, are stepping up their courtship of the country's Hispanics.

This summer, MillerCoors is rolling out bilingual packaging in the U.S., adding Spanish to the cartons that hold bottles or cans of its Coors Light and Miller Lite brands. It is also sponsoring a Mexican soccer league.

Anheuser-Busch InBev NV, which says its Bud Light and Budweiser are the top-selling brews among Hispanics in the U.S., is increasing its spending on ads in Spanish-language media. And it has struck a deal for Bud Light to sponsor Cuban-American rapper Pitbull's fall concert tour.

Meanwhile, companies like Heineken NV and Crown Imports LLC, which import popular Mexican lagers, are churning out new ads they hope will extend their brands' appeal to a broader Hispanic market.

The scramble comes as the U.S. beer industry appears to be headed for a third-straight year of declining sales volume, in part because high unemployment has damped the spending power of its core customers—men ages 21 to 34.

But the rivalry also reflects the long-term importance of Hispanic consumers. By 2030, Hispanics will account for 23% of the nation's legal-drinking-age population, up from 16% in 2010, according to U.S. Census Bureau forecasts. According to surveys by Crown Imports—whose brands include Corona Extra, the top-selling imported beer in the U.S.—Hispanics also tend to consume more beer on occasions when they drink than do non-Hispanics.

The main challenge brewers will face in wooing Hispanics is creating ads that feel authentic to them, says Juan Tornoe, a partner with Cultural Strategies Inc., an Austin, Texas, firm that specializes in multicultural marketing. The quality of beer ads aimed at Hispanics has varied widely over the years, he says. READ MORE

Just as the Tea Party drew heavily on a public backlash against government spending, another new political movement — the Tequila Party — aims to use the latest crackdown on illegal immigration to motivate Latinos to vote in 2012.

Arizona Republican DeeDee Garcia Blase formed the National Tequila Party Movement as an answer to a Tea Party influence she blames for increased political opposition to immigration.

The group has no aspirations to become a third political party. Its focus will be registering as many of the nation's 21 million voting-age Latinos as it can, targeting young voters in presidential battleground states.

Unlike the Tea Party groups, which have generally aligned with Republicans, the Tequila Party pledges no allegiance to either major party. Blase has dropped her affiliation as a lifelong Republican — and plans to resign as president of Somos Republicans — to protest the Republican-led immigration enforcement law passed in her home state of Arizona. The Tequila Party held its launch party in Tucson last month.

"It's been very, very frustrating. I'm embarrassed for the state of Arizona and the Republican Party there," Blase says. "I'm a Republican, but I'm a reasonable Republican." READ MORE

America's pastime, Latino at heartMLB has seen a remarkable rise in players from Latin America over the past two decades Eddie Perez arrived in the United States at age 17, bright-eyed and excited, thoughts of baseball greatness on his mind.

An incredible opportunity lay ahead of the youngster from Venezuela. He was a teenager with a professional contract with the Atlanta Braves — a storied franchise in the greatest baseball league on the planet. The Braves thought enough of his skills as a catcher to invite him to spring camp, and he had every intention of making a good first impression.

But as he walked through the airport and listened to all the unfamiliar words being spoken by the strange faces around him, he started to wonder: Now what?

Where do I go? Are they coming to pick me up? If not, how do I get out of this airport? How do I find my team?

Possessing no answers to the questions swirling in his head, Perez waited.

And as the noon sun moved through the sky and finally disappeared below the horizon, he sat in the airport, waiting for the ride that wasn’t coming.

It was 12 hours before Perez found help — a Spanish-speaking Samaritan who called him a cab — and the young catcher was finally able to embark on what would become an 11-year playing career.

“That was scary, it was bad,” recalls Perez, now the 43-year-old bullpen coach for the Braves. “I never told that story to my parents until later in the year because I didn’t want them to feel bad.” READ MORE

Bizantinismo...B-i-z-a-n-t-i-n-i-s-m-o...Bizantinismo!

That was the word that won it all for Evelyn Juárez, a seventh grade girl from Santa Cruz N.M. who won the first national Spanish spelling bee Saturday.

Juárez, of Carlos F. Vigil Middle School, won by correctly spelling the Spanish word "bizantinismo," which means excess luxury.

The runner-up German Rojero, of Los Lunas Middle School, misspelled "kanindeyuense," someone from a Paraguayan territory.

The Albuquerque Journal reports that the two each spelled about 20 words correctly to defeat nine other students, who hailed from as far away as Oregon and Texas though most were from New Mexico.


“We’re celebrating the multilingualism of America,” said Daniel Ward, editor of Language Magazine, one of the event’s sponsors, in a statement. “We’re recognizing that, like most of the world’s other children, [our kids will] need more than one language to succeed in our global village.”

By the numbers, Latinos would seem to have a leg up in this challenge: According to the Pew Hispanic Center, 33 percent of Latino households speak English and Spanish equally, and 17 percent are majority Spanish-language.

The inaugural bee was organized by the Alliance for Multilingual Multicultural Education (AMME) and the New Mexico Association for Bilingual Education (NMABE), and is modeled on the latter’s 15-year-old annual state Spanish Spelling Bee: Participants will be asked to spell out loud words randomly chosen from a list that had been provided to them beforehand.

From a linguistics standpoint, there’s been some snarking that the Spanish bee might be easier than the English one, since Spanish orthography is in general considered simpler. “In Spanish, every letter has a unique associated phoneme, so with very few exceptions, words are written exactly as they sound,” wrote the BBC. READ MORE

If you’ve come from Mexico to Palo Alto, Calif. and you work the night shift cleaning buildings at Stanford University, you might be surprised to learn that Stanford students are building a business to help you save money and plan for the future.
That’s the idea behind Juntos Finanzas, a start-up that began at the Stanford d.school. Juntos’ founder Ben Knelman was accepted to Stanford’s Launchpad and used the 10 week class to develop Juntos.

The year before, in another class, Knelman and some teammates had interviewed janitors who worked the night shift at Stanford and began hearing the same stories about money again and again: “I try to save all the time, but no matter how hard I try, nothing ever seems to change.”

The students proposed a simple experiment — try writing down your weekly cash outlays on a piece of paper. That simple experience of tracking expenditures ended up helping the janitors much more than they ever expected.

One of them learned that he was spending $200 a month on his children’s cell phone bills. Changing his plan saved him $70 a month, and inspired him to look for similar ways to save money on cable bills and car insurance.

Janitors using the tools told the Juntos team, “I have never felt this kind of control.. This is the first time, at the end of a week, I don’t feel anxiety about my money.” Knelman decided to launch a startup that would give more people that feeling. READ MORE

Sonny Melendrez with Eduardo Villareal Elementary "Teachers of Strength"

One of my greatest joys in life comes when I am standing in front of an audience delivering my message of the power of enthusiasm. This is especially true when the audience is made up of all ages.

While many of my engagements are keynotes at universities, conferences, corporate awards programs, and charity galas, I also enjoy speaking to smaller groups and schools. I’ve found that one presentation always leads to another.

Recently, I received a request to give the commencement address at an inner-city elementary school in San Antonio. The words in the email, written by a passionate teacher named Joanna Vargas, jumped out from my computer screen.

Ms. Vargas wrote, “I strongly believe my reason for being present at your speech at Barnes and Noble during Braille Awareness Week was because your life story could be a true inspiration for the students from our community.

The Villarreal community is composed of many different cultures to include 120 5^th graders who are 93% Hispanic, 5% White, 2% Black, and 1% Asian/Pacific Islander. However, the greatest impact in their life is their family dynamics. We have children that come from broken homes: CPS interventions, parents in jail, grandparents as guardians, and homeless, and this life experience is brought daily into the classrooms which greatly molds their perspective of their future. Our approach to educating them about the benefits of continuing their education is through goal setting and exposing them to the possibilities of getting out of the cycle through a college education.

When you spoke about your book, Living with Enthusiasm, it reminded me of our goal. At Villarreal we have a motto that we live by every day, ‘We Start Strong, Stay Strong, and Finish Strong,’ and this is the message that was expressed in your speech. We teach our students strategies to start, stay, and finish strong, but we need to talk to them about the attitude during those times that test our confidence. We can achieve our goals if we stay positive regardless of the obstacles.”

I accepted her invitation and at the event, as I walked among the students to entertain and deliver my words of encouragement, the faces looking back were filled with hope, wonder, and pride. My reason for coming to Eduardo Villarreal Elementary was evident.

Without realizing it, Joanna Vargas had done more than book a speaker for the graduation. She had lifted the spirits even higher of someone who saw the rewarding results of teachers dedicated to the students they love. You see, no one was more inspired, that morning in June, than the man invited to stand behind the microphone.

Thank you, Ms. Vargas.

Sonny Melendrez is an inspirational speaker and author of “The Art of Living With Enthusiasm!” For booking information email: sonny@sonnyradio.com or visit SonnyMelendrez.com.

From July 1 through August 31, teens across the United States will have the chance to enter to win the Quince of their dreams as part of Verizon’s My Fabulous Quince contest. Eligible teens from 13 participating cities and surrounding areas (Los Angeles, San Diego, Fresno, El Paso, San Antonio, Houston, Dallas, Tampa, Miami, Albuquerque, Secaucus, Chicago and Washington, D.C.) can participate by submitting an essay online or at Verizon Wireless My Fabulous Quince expos. For details, visit: http://www.myfabulousquince.com. Thirteen winners will receive an all-expenses-paid Quince, as well as a college scholarship and Verizon products.

“At Verizon, we recognize that our customers celebrate different types of traditions. The Quince tradition marks a coming of age milestone for a young lady and has long been celebrated by Latino families across the United States. Although generally celebrated for girls, there are more 15-year-old boys celebrating this cultural event,” said Elva Lima, executive director of community relations and multicultural communications at Verizon Wireless. “This contest will give a young lady or man the Quince of their dreams. We encourage teens of all backgrounds to join us by participating in My Fabulous Quince.” READ MORE

Bankers Healthcare Group (BHG) is pleased to announce it has made the HispanicBusiness list of the 500 Largest US Hispanic-Owned Companies, landing a top ranking in the Finance Sector.

Eric Castro, Chief Operations Officer of BHG, stated, "BHG's growth is due to our innovative approach to customer service. Listening to their needs and providing a winning financial solution to meet those needs is our primary goal. And we listen well. When you call, you're going to speak to a person committed 100% to surpassing your expectations."

Competing in today's economy is tougher than ever. However, maintaining a position of strength and as a forerunner is even more challenging. Bankers Healthcare Group, Inc. continues to retain a dominant position in the Finance arena. Servicing over 50,000 healthcare providers since 1992, it is no wonder BHG has once again made this coveted list.

Bob Castro, President of Bankers Healthcare Group, Inc., affirmed, "It appears every business large and small is feeling the capital pinch. At BHG, we provide opportunities to healthcare professionals other organizations do not. We provide access to the working capital they need to grow. The finance market is tight, but BHG is lending and helping medical professionals expand their practice."

The companies reporting from the HispanicBusiness 500 Directory confirmed the lack of capital as the third highest barrier to growth. Unfortunately, the financial chokehold is not limited to the automotive, manufacturing, healthcare or wholesale sectors -- it has spread to all of them. READ MORE

Some days, when I read lists like Crain’s New York Business “50 Most Powerful Women in New York” I feel that I must clearly live in a parallel universe. One that doesn’t overlap even a tiny bit with the world these editors inhabit. Given the latest U.S. Census numbers revealing that there are now 50.4 million Hispanics in the country, and that a third of the population is diverse, there seems to be no other explanation for the lack of diversity in lists such as this one.

We all know these lists are idiosyncratic and that oftentimes people disagree on who was featured and who was left out. But the absolute absence of Latinas from a list highlighting the most influential women in New York City can’t be a difference of opinion. I’m not saying there’s bad intention behind this compilation. No. I’m willing to give the editors of Crain’s and their counterparts at Time magazine (known for creating similar lists at a national level) the benefit of the doubt.

I choose to believe it’s not malice on their part but an undiversified newsroom with a homogeneous network. Given that people tend to draw recommendations from their own circles, if you don’t have a diverse network, you will miss out on top influential Latinos, African American, Asians, Native Americans, people with disabilities and GLBTs. And the most worrisome part in the blatant absence of minorities on these lists is the implication that there are no leaders from these groups on par with those listed. Otherwise, they would have made the list, right?

Contrary to what you may conclude from reading the latest Crain’s compilation, there are plenty of influential Latinas in New York City and they are not influencing only Hispanics. These influential Latinas are exemplified by Carolina Herrera, fashion designer and entrepreneur; Daisy Expósito-Ulloa, Chairman and CEO of d expósito and Partners; Jaqueline J. Gonzalez, Executive Director, National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences; and Liliana Gil, former top Marketing executive at Johnson & Johnson and co-founder of XL Alliance and Acento Group, recently selected by the World Economic Forum as one of 190 Young Global Leaders across 65 countries. READ MORE

Flowers Communications Group (FCG) appointed Ignacio H. Carrillo as Vice President.

Carrillo has previously held senior-level posts at the Experiencia Agency, Weber Shandwick/Axis, and The Jeffrey Group. He has delivered counsel and expertise in top US Hispanic and Latin American markets across a comprehensive range of consumer categories, including QSR, beverages, sports apparel, and telecommunications, and has led programs for major corporations and brands, including McDonald’s, US Army, AT&T, Adidas, Diageo, and many others.

“Ignacio is smart, energetic, and results driven. More importantly, he is passionate about the Hispanic consumer market and understands how to create programs that make the connection,” said FCG president, Rashada Whitehead. “His considerable experience and consumer-centric approach through social media, live engagement and non-traditional public relations are timely and relevant. We are thrilled that he joined our leadership team.”

As a part of his duties at FCG, Carrillo also oversees the MillerCoors account. “We are very excited about the opportunity of working with Ignacio (Carrillo),” said Larry Waters, VP of multicultural relations at MillerCoors. “He brings such a wealth of experience and expertise. We are looking forward to his thought leadership on our signature programs, specifically as we grow our reach in the Hispanic market and tap into new social media channels.”

Prior to joining FCG, Carrillo was consulting for agencies like Fleishman-Hillard and Schwartz Communications among others. During this time he developed and managed new business development plans, social media campaigns, and experiential consulting strategies. “I am very excited to contribute to the continued success of FCG,” said Carrillo. “It’s a crucial moment in the evolution of multicultural communications. With recent U.S. Census numbers confirming the exponential growth of the multicultural population, the buying power is at an all-time high. It’s key we leverage consumer insights, social media tools, and innovative creative to continue to drive our clients’ business forward.” READ MORE

Business is looking good at El Fat Cat Grill in Kennewick.

Felix Sanchez, who opened the restaurant three months ago, said it has attracted a diverse group of customers to the Mexican-infused American restaurant, where everything is made from scratch.

He is one of what the U.S. Census Bureau said is a growing number of Hispanic business owners in the Tri-Cities.

The number of Hispanic-owned businesses in Benton and Franklin counties grew by 33 percent between 2002 and 2007, according to census bureau data released this month.

Franklin County grew from 613 Hispanic-owned businesses to 846, while Benton County jumped from 479 to 603.

Together, the counties had about 8 percent of all the Hispanic-owned businesses in the state by 2007, when the census did its survey of business owners. The state saw a 73 percent increase in the number of Hispanic-owned businesses to 17,795.

Sanchez said he is hoping his hard work will pay off. Whether El Fat Cat Grill is open for years, well, that will be up to its customers and the community.

The restaurant is family-run, although he thinks they likely will need to add an employee within the next month.

"It was hard," he said. "I'm not going to say it was easy."

But, as a small-business owner, he said it's important to stay true to what he wants to offer the community. READ MORE

Reading High School marked a milestone this month: a graduation ceremony with its first Hispanic valedictorian. Noe Cabello is unlikely to be the last.

The Hispanic population of this historically white city shaped by English and German ancestry — along with the surrounding Lehigh Valley— has skyrocketed in the past decade, echoing a national trend highlighted by the 2010 Census.

Reading, now 58% Hispanic, is the latest harbinger for a more diverse America in regions where Hispanic migration has been a relatively recent development.

"If you look at the Census data from 2000 and now 2010, you can see that there's this phenomenon of Latinos moving to parts of the United States where there hasn't been Latinos before," says Stanton Wortham, a University of Pennsylvania researcher who specializes in linguistics and immigrant studies. "The biggest research question from a national point of view is the question of, what are these new Latino populations' trajectories going to be over the next decade?" READ MORE

A documentary to be unveiled this week will revisit the tumultuous busing riots in Boston in the 1970s, with a rarely seen look at its effects on Latinos and Asian-American families.

The toll the riots had on those communities had gone largely unnoticed by media and historians.

"We have so much ground to cover," said Donna Bivens, a coordinator with a wide-ranging project that will accompany the documentary. "We're just getting started ... finally."

The documentary, of course, primarily focuses on the turmoil between whites and blacks.

It shows, for instance, a white teen as he prepares to attack a black man with an American flag during a school busing protest at Boston City Hall Plaza. TV news stations broadcast riot police patrolling white neighborhoods as angry protesters attack school buses with rocks. Black leaders call on all minorities to avoid visiting Boston at all costs.

The images of Boston busing riots in the 1970s have become iconic and a lasting stain on the city's history. But a Boston advocacy group says they're only part of the story. READ MORE

Maria Alejandra Salazar will graduate in August with a bachelor’s degree in education and social policy from Northwestern University. Though she needs to take one more class, she was thrilled to participate in the school’s graduation ceremony in Evanston last week.

Salazar, who turns 22 in a few weeks, is a graduate of Niles North High School in Skokie, where she got used to being the only Latina student in a classroom. At least at Northwestern, where Latinos are about 7.5 percent of the undergraduate student body, she typically had a couple of fellow Latinos as classmates.

But those numbers still are low, and that tells a story. Salazar was one of the relatively few and proud Latinos graduating from a four-year American university this year, a big problem full of implications for Illinois and the rest of the country.

As you might know, Latinos are the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. population, and 37 percent of the nation’s 44 million Latinos are under age 20. By 2020, Latinos will make up 22 percent of the nation’s college-age population.

Latinos and other minorities will replace the retiring baby boomers and drive the future economy. And the job for today’s school officials, politicians, business and community leaders is to make sure those Latinos are up to the challenge.

On Monday, the College Board Advocacy and Policy Center, based in New York City, released a study showing — and this should surprise nobody — that a great majority of young Latino and African-American men fail to go to college or earn a degree, and a large number end up unemployed or incarcerated.

Nationally, the study found, only 16 percent of Latino men and 28 percent of African-American men ages 25 to 35 have at least an associate’s degree, compared with 70 percent of Asian American and 44 percent of white men. Perhaps more distressing, 47 percent of Latinos ages 15 to 24 who have high school diplomas are unemployed. And the percentage of Latinos men who are incarcerated is 5 percent.

College Board President Gaston Caperton called the report’s bleak findings “a tragedy for America,” which is absolutely true.

Education has been the key to prosperity and competitiveness in our country, and it will continue to be as the population becomes more diverse. READ MORE

Young Latinos—ages 14 to 34—are eager for bilingual, bicultural content, says a new study co-sponsored by Tr3s: MTV, Música y Más—a bilingual, bicultural channel.

The Máximo report, conducted by Latino media and marketing firms Motivo Insights, LLC and the New Generation Latino Consortium (NGLC), focused on U.S.-born Latinos and those who had been in the U.S. for at least 15 years. Like most consumers, it found, these “New Generation Latinos” want to see content in which “they are the star”—i.e., to have their lives and interests represented.

But they’re not so concerned about the language of this content. The study also found that these consumers are language-omnivorous: 50 percent said they sought out more bilingual/bicultural programming, and over 30 percent said they looked for 'mainstream' English-only content.

This, the marketers wrote, was in contrast to older Latinos, higher percentages of whom tend to prefer Spanish-language content.

Some other insights:

• Respondents felt they were better equipped to deal with the recession compared to Caucasians. The report says this is “mostly due to culturally based realities that give NGLs a slightly different perspective on finances.”

"Latinos for generations have been having to make dollars stretch," explains Gonzalo Perez, Principal and Founder of Motivo Insights. "And they have a history of not being too proud to take a job—or two or three jobs—to keep the family going."

• Seven out of 10 “think that seeing an English language commercial on Spanish language TV is a good thing.” (Translation: Bring on the advertising money, honey!)

• Peer-to-peer recommendations are important to this group. In fact, the study says, these young Latinos “are more likely to forward opinions and info about a brand compared to their Caucasian counterparts.” (translation: Bring on the social media advertising money!) READ MORE

The largest gathering of Latino elected officials in the United States projects a record number of Hispanic voters in next year's election.

The National Association of Elected and Appointed Officials -- NALEO -- kicked off Thursday with the release of the groups' projections of Latino participation in the 2012 elections.

They expect 12.2 million Hispanic Americans will go to the polls, which would be an increase of 25% from 2008.

But Arturo Vargas, NALEO's executive director says his group expects another 12 million Latinos to stay home.

"We need to develop a culture of participation in which we vote every year," Vargas said.

The projections are based in the results of the 2010 census, which showed there are more of 50 million Latinos in the United States.

Vargas said the influence of the Latino vote was evident in 2008, crediting this block with helping Democrats retain control of the U.S. Senate, including saving the seat of the Majority Leader Harry Reed of Nevada.

He also noted that the greatest gains by Latino elected officials was within the GOP, sending Florida's Marco Rubio to the Senate, electing Republican governors in Nevada and New Mexico and adding four more U.S. representatives, two of whom came from states not traditionally considered Hispanic strongholds such as Washington and Idaho. READ MORE

Virginia's banks and credit unions could be gathering millions of dollars in additional deposits by reaching out to Hispanic households that lack checking and savings accounts, University of Virginia researchers said.

Almost 39,000 Hispanic households in the state have no accounts with banks or credit unions but generate an average annual income of $23,500 that could flow into the banking system, according to the report by the Darden School of Business' Tayloe Murphy Center.

Some banks and credit unions recognize the prospects for growth from Hispanic households but have been trying to determine "how they can tap this market in a cost-effective way," said Gregory B. Fairchild, the center's executive director and co-author of the report, on Friday.

Some institutions can do it by hiring employees who are bilingual and familiar with the culture of specific Hispanic communities, he said. Some can do it by opening branches closer to Hispanic neighborhoods. In addition, they can capitalize on the availability of banking by smartphone, said Fairchild, who also is an associate professor of business administration at Darden.

Virginia has slightly more than 500,000 Hispanic residents, who account for almost 7 percent of the state's population. Slightly more than 70 percent of Virginia's 139,000 Hispanic households already have a checking or savings account, said Kulwant Rai, the center's research director and co-author of the report.

However, many Hispanics interviewed for the report said they felt uncomfortable dealing with conventional financial institutions, Rai and Fairchild wrote. Hispanics without a checking or savings account typically rely on community-oriented grocery stores for cashing checks, buying money orders and wiring funds to family members outside the country.

By using less costly services at a bank or credit union, these individuals could save money, according to the report, "Lost in Translation: The Opportunity in Financial Services for Latinos." They also could reduce their vulnerability to being robbed because they would no longer be carrying or keeping large amounts of cash on hand. READ MORE

Martha de la Torre is the CEO and co-founder of El Clasificado, a directory of classified ads that is targeted to Latino immigrants and functions as a 'Spanish-language PennySaver.'

The gig: Martha de la Torre is the chief executive and co-founder of El Clasificado, a Spanish-language publication distributed weekly throughout Southern California. The 60-page directory of classified ads is targeted to Latino immigrants and functions as a "Spanish-language PennySaver," said De la Torre, 53. The privately held company posted $16 million in sales last year, up 8% from 2009, she said. It has 130 employees.

Reluctant entrepreneur: Born to Ecuadorean immigrants who settled in the South Bay, De la Torre enrolled in Loyola Marymount University's accounting program. There a classmate told her he wanted to be an entrepreneur. "I thought that was crazy. Why would I risk my college education when my parents struggled to get over here and establish a new life for us?" she said.

Spotting the market: De la Torre joined a large accounting firm whose clients included La Opinion, the Spanish-language Los Angeles daily. While working there she noticed that many readers bought copies of the newspaper to peruse the job listings. "I saw the Hispanic market was growing and thought there was a market in classifieds," she said.

Bad timing: De la Torre founded El Clasificado in 1988 with her husband, Joe Badame, who is now chief operations officer. The young company was still struggling when the early 1990s recession hit. "We really should have gone bankrupt," De la Torre said. She did consulting jobs on the side to keep the business afloat. Still, she was discouraged. "I just wanted to pay off the debt and the stockholders and walk away from the company," she said. READ MORE

Latinos are the fastest growing demographic in the United States. The 2010 U.S. Census revealed that there are 50.5 million Latinos in this country, comprising 16% of the total population and 14.3% of the workforce. These numbers are expected to increase rapidly in the next few decades. By 2030, it is estimated that Latinos will make up more th

an 20% of the population and over 22% of the labor workforce, increasing their standing as a major driving force in the U.S. economy and labor market.

But what types of careers will the expanding Latino population be able to access? The fastest growing jobs in the U.S. are in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) careers. Many of these jobs are in the top earning quartile. Yet today, Latinos are largely underrepresented in higher-level STEM positions due to attrition through the STEM training pipeline. According to the National Science Foundation (NSF), Latinos earned 7.7% of bachelors, 4.7% of masters and 2.9% of doctoral degrees in science and engineering in the United States in 2006. In 2008, Latinos represented only 4% of the science and engineering workforce, proportions way below that of Latinos in the general population.

It is interesting to note, however, that Latino students start out college interested in majoring in STEM fields at rates similar to students from other ethnic groups. For example, this year the National Academies of Science reported that a third of the population of university students in STEM majors were Latino, indicating that there is a progressive loss of representation as students move up the scientific training pipeline. READ MORE