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Candidate Barack Obama made this promise to Univision anchorman Jorge Ramos in May 2008:

"What I can guarantee is that we will have in the first year an immigration bill that I strongly support and that I'm promoting. And I want to move that forward as quickly as possible."

Didn't happen. When Ramos interviewed Obama on Thursday, he brought up "the Obama promise." "At the beginning of your (presidency)," Ramos said, "you had control of both chambers of Congress, and yet you did not introduce immigration reform. And before I continue, I want for you to acknowledge that you did not keep your promise."

Obama laid the blame on the economy. He then aw-shucked, "I'm happy to take responsibility for being naive here." As is his habit, the president then blamed Republicans, including Sen. John McCain, for playing politics on immigration.

It was a low-road swipe at a senator whose support of an ill-fated 2007 bill nearly cost him the 2008 GOP presidential nomination.

An outraged McCain went to the Senate floor Friday to lambaste Obama for not offering "one piece of legislation" on immigration.

The fact is that George W. Bush worked harder to pass a comprehensive immigration package than Obama ever has. Bush pushed for a bill even though the effort hurt his standing with the GOP base.

Obama faced no such obstacle. Yet during the two years when Democrats controlled Congress, he couldn't be bothered to introduce a path-to-citizenship measure or a DREAM Act to provide legal status to young illegal immigrants who came to the United States as children. READ MORE

From concert coverage to seats on the corporate board, Latinos are not getting the kind of representation they deserve, according to several chief executives of Fortune 500 companies.

When Mexican rock band Mana surpassed Britney Spears' record for the most sold-out shows at Staples Center, few media outlets in Los Angeles covered it.

Timothy J. Leiweke, president and chief executive of sports and entertainment firm AEG, believes that was a mistake considering that Latinos are making up a greater portion of ticket buyers.

Media outlets and other large corporations need to recognize the Latino consumer, Leiweke said, echoing four other CEOs who sat on a panel discussion at the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce convention Monday.

Leiweke said his company was "addressing our future majority marketplace" by marketing and promoting Latino events and sports teams such as the L.A. Galaxy soccer team that are heavily reliant on the "Hispanic consumer."

According to the U.S. Census, Latinos make up 16% of the population -- expected to grow to 30% by 2050.

Though Latinos generate more than $465 billion a year in revenue, fewer than 3% of corporations have Latinos on their board of directors, and more could be done to address the gap, said Javier Palomarez, president of the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, which is made up of 3.1 million Latino-owned businesses. READ MORE

ERICK GARCIA Hernandez moved his tire shop to 902 Hardy St. from Laurel because he thought it would be good for his business.

The move was at the advice of a friend.

Five months ago, he opened his doors, and things have been busy.

"My friend said Hardy Street was a pretty good spot. Right now, things are going good," said Hernandez, whose business sells new and used tires and rims, repairs brakes and flat tires, and offers other services.

"A lot of people know me. Things are all right."

Hernandez's Tire is one of several Hispanic-owned businesses that have popped up along Hardy Street over the years.

They join several Hispanic-owned stores and restaurants throughout the city that have been around for several years.

According to 2010 Census data, the number of Hispanics/Latinos living in Hattiesburg jumped from 630 in 2000 to 1,996 in 2010.

Similar growth was seen in Lamar and Forrest counties. Lamar County saw the Hispanic population jump from 426 to 1,205, while Forrest County saw it spike from 912 to 2,637. READ MORE

For the better part of a decade, Vamos Marketing was everything Frank Garza hoped it would be.

He'd started small, in 2003, launching his fledgling promotional products firm shortly after completing a dual undergraduate-graduate degree program at the University of Texas. As he cobbled together an increasingly diverse list of clients around Central Texas, his business started rolling. He brought on a full-time employee, freeing him up to focus on clients.

He started to think about building a sales force, too, but ultimately decided against it.

"I was content with where I was at," Garza said.

But that changed last year. With Vamos approaching its 10th year in business — and now generating about a half-million dollars in annual sales — Garza has started to think about what the company could become. He wants to add a new division or two, bring on more employees and put processes in place that would help build the value of his business in case he ever decides to sell it.

"I'm hitting 10 years (and) I have a good reputation in town," he said from his office in Southeast Austin. "So if there's a good opportunity to try to grow it, it's now."

As the Texas and Austin populations skew increasingly Hispanic during the next several decades, the growth of Vamos Marketing and the thousands of other Hispanic-owned businesses here and around the state could become an increasingly vital source of new jobs and income — both for the Hispanic community and for the economy at large. READ MORE

Mitt Romney's struggles in earning Latino support have been well-documented throughout the campaign. But what gets less attention is the drastic gap in support for Romney and President Barack Obama among Latina women.

According to a tracking poll from the firm Latino Decisions, Latina women prefer Obama to Romney by an astounding 53-point gap.

Romney has spent considerable campaign resources trying to improve his image with Latino voters, including a recent round of Spanish language ads that aired after the Republican National Convention. He will make another push today in Los Angeles, where he will address the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce with a speech that will slam Obama for the grim economy and high unemployment, which have hit the Latino community particularly hard. Romney will also talk immigration, but excerpts released by his campaign provide nothing new in terms of specifics. READ MORE

September 20, 2012 – HispanicPro and the Hispanic Professionals of Greater Milwaukee (HPGM), announce a new partnership to cross promote networking and business opportunities between Chicago and Milwaukee professional Latinos. “Both networks stand to benefit from expanding connections across state lines while sharing resources for the professional development of its members”, stated Alfonso Barrera, founder of HispanicPro.

This partnership aims to promote, develop, and inform our members of great opportunities for career and professional development. "We are very excited to partner with great organizations such as HispanicPro," said Griselda Aldrete, from HPGM. "This partnership is an added value to all the members of both organizations."

For more information and to find resources for Latino professionals in Chicago and Milwaukee, visit www.HispanicPro.com and http://www.hpgm.org.

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About HispanicPro
HispanicPro is The Hispanic Professional Network and is the largest email newsletter and website targeting the Hispanic professional community in Illinois.

Now in its eleventh year, HispanicPro serves as a networking resource for Hispanic professionals providing diversity job listings, a member driven events calendar and is the largest producer of networking events for Hispanic professionals in the state of Illinois.

About Hispanic Professionals of Greater Milwaukee (HPGM)
As Milwaukee and its business community strive to attract and preserve a talented, diverse workforce, HPGM's founding members recognized the important role they could play in this endeavor and the service it could provide to the Hispanic professional community as well as to corporations in the Greater Milwaukee area. HPGM was started with the help of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Wisconsin and the Metro Milwaukee Association of Commerce.

After several critical strategic planning sessions, key recruiting of members, and several fun, informal networking socials, HPGM has launched as a multi-generational non-profit 501c(3) organization. With membership over 550 and the positive buzz within the Greater Milwaukee community, HPGM is ready to ask the question: Hispanic Professionals... Have you seen us lately?

To say that Hispanic consumers play an important role in the US economy is an understatement. According to the Pew Hispanic Center, Hispanics represent the majority of the population growth in 33 states. The 2010 Census documents 38.7 million Hispanics in 33 states (http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1928/census-hispanic-count-compared-with-estimates) .

This consumer group provides a valuable source of richness to our culture, source of employment to businesses and income to retailers. In order to successfully offer products and services to Hispanics, it is essential to understand their opinions, needs and wants. They also possess a large voice in the November 2012 Presidential election.

I recently published a book entitled “The Changing American Consumer.” As the title suggests, opinions and actions of the consumer are very different from the past. Indeed consumers think and act very differently from just five years ago.

As the presidential election moves toward the November deadline, the role Hispanics will play in the election may shape the future of our government and indeed the landscape of our country. A March 2012 BIGinsight Month Consumer Survey reveals interesting, if not somewhat disturbing insight regarding Hispanics level of trust regarding the economy and, national policy and ethics of public corporations. READ MORE

The United States is increasingly a multiracial society, with white students accounting for just over half of all students in public schools, down from four-fifths in 1970.

Yet whites are still largely concentrated in schools with other whites, leaving the largest minority groups — black and Latino students — isolated in classrooms, according to a new analysis of Department of Education data.

The report showed that segregation is not limited to race: blacks and Latinos are twice as likely as white or Asian students to attend schools with a substantial majority of poor children.

Across the country, 43 percent of Latinos and 38 percent of blacks attend schools where fewer than 10 percent of their classmates are white, according to the report, released on Wednesday by the Civil Rights Project at the University of California, Los Angeles. READ MORE

Little in the nation’s annual tabulation of disadvantage released by the Census Bureau last week can be described as encouraging. But, there was one sliver of good news for a population very hard hit by the Great Recession.

Latinos were the only ethnic or racial group in the United States that saw the share of people living in poverty decline. Latino poverty slid to 25.3 percent in 2011 from 26.5 percent in 2010. The difference, while statistically slight, means that 278,000 fewer Latinos were living in poverty in 2011 than in the prior year.

But nearly all of that progress was concentrated in one group, childless Latino adults, according to a National Council of La Raza analysis. Of the 13 million Hispanics living in poverty, 6 million or 46 percent of these people were under the age of 18. READ MORE

Does not speaking Spanish make someone a “fake” Latino?

San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro was headlined across the country as the first Latino keynote speaker at the Democratic National Convention earlier this month, but the Mexican-American’s lack of Spanish fluency has sparked some debate within the Latino community.

While introducing “the Democrats’ rising star” The Guardian questioned whether Castro could be considered “Latino.”

But does not speaking the language make anyone less Latino? HuffPost Live’s Alicia Menendez hosted a segment asking guests and viewers “does it matter?”

“I find it hypocritical and frustrating that it’s the language [that is considered binding], when the culture, I think, is more binding,” said Angelica Martinez, a student at Smith College.

Sara Inés Calderón, journalist at News Taco, thinks there may be “some sort of cultural bind between different Latinos,” but she adds “that Spanish is definitely a component of that, even if it is just a little bit.” READ MORE

Cancer has surpassed heart disease to become the leading cause of death among Hispanics in the United States, according to an American Cancer Society report released Monday.

Every three years since 2000, scientists at the cancer society have published Cancer Facts and Figures for Hispanics/Latinos. Such studies provide data that help develop an efficient science-based cancer control plan.

Hispanics are the fastest growing demographic group in the United States. Approximately 16.3% of America's population (50.5 million out of 310 million people) is Hispanic. It is estimated that 112,800 people of Hispanic ethnicity will be diagnosed with cancer and 33,200 will die of the disease in 2012.

The finding is due in part to the younger age distribution of Hispanics. Approximately one in 10 Hispanics is age 55 or over, compared to one in three non-Hispanics.

Among non-Hispanic whites and African-Americans, heart disease remains the leading cause of death, according to Monday's American Cancer Society report, the fifth. READ MORE

On the day Mitt Romney is speaking to the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in Los Angeles, new numbers out from the polling firm Latino Decisions this morning show that his gender gap extends to Latina voters as well:

With seven weeks until the election Republican candidate Mitt Romney’s potential gender gap with women faces a new hurdle in the Latino community, as reported today by Pilar Marrero. According to the fourth week of the impreMedia/Latino Decisions tracking poll Latina voters plan to vote for President Obama by a margin of 74% to 21% for Romney – a 53 point gap. Among Latino men, 61% plan to vote for Obama and 32% for Romney. The September 17 polling data suggest the President continues to solidify his lead among Latinos, and there are no signs of cracks in the Obama coalition among Latino voters. Overall Obama holds 68% of the Latino vote to 26% for Romney, erasing the small bump Romney received in the September 3 (week 2) poll release following the RNC convention. [Full Week 4 results by gender here]

But it is among Latina voters that Romney and the Republican party fare the worst. The impreMedia/Latino Decisions tracking poll data show very clearly that Hispanic women are very opposed to Mitt Romney and the Republican party image right now. Romney’s favorability is 27% among Latino men and just 22% among Latinas, while Republicans in Congress are seen favorably by 29% of men, but just 20% of women in the Latino community. Looking towards the vote in the U.S. House, 68% of Latinas say they will vote Democrat compared to 59% of Latino men.

Alex and I wrote a few weeks back about whether Republicans are in danger of losing the Latino vote for good -- Romney has consistently been 30-plus points behind Obama among the demographic. These latest numbers suggest he hasn't made any significant inroads, and even that he's losing ground among Latino (and Latina) voters. READ MORE

It's been a year to remember for Latinos in the United States. Now it's time to celebrate and reflect.

Latinos are growing in power and influence. Census numbers show Latinos are the nation's largest minority population, moving front and center in U.S. political discourse, innovation, and pop culture.

Hispanics have become a potent force in virtually every dimension of U.S. life.

At 52 million, they now comprise more than 16 percent of the nation's total population, making them the largest ethnic or race minority in the United States. They account for a large percentage of new small business owners, generating roughly $351 billion in receipts annually. This year, Latinos had unprecedented prominence in both the Republican and Democratic national conventions.

A Latina topped the Forbes Celebrity 100 list, a ranking of the most powerful people in entertainment. Jennifer Lopez, who came in at No. 50 last year, soared to the top of the heap, with her estimated income of $52 million. The magazine said she was "the nation’s hottest and most sought after celebrity" -- the result of "smart positioning and whole lot of hustle." READ MORE

President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney will participate for the first time in history in election television programs specially directed at the Hispanic audience.

Spanish-language network Univision will broadcast the forums "to discuss education and the future of the Hispanic community."

Both of the "Meet the Candidates" events - Sept. 19 with Romney and Sept. 20 with Obama - will be held in front of a live audience at the University of Miami BankUnited Center, the network said.

Both of the sessions will be moderated by Jorge Ramos and Maria Elena Salinas, the anchors of Univision's main nightly newscast.

"Hispanics will play a key role in electing the next President of the United States and these events will help address key issues so that the more than 20 million Hispanics expected to vote this year can make an informed decision," Univision Networks President Cesar Conde said in a statement.

Conde said that direct contact with Latino voters also shows the candidates' desire to move closer to "a group that is younger and more active in social media than the average citizen, and whose influence in U.S. politics continues to grow." READ MORE

Enterprises launched by Hispanics represent the fastest-growing segment among U.S. small businesses, rising to about 3 million, the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce says, giving Hispanic policymakers, activists, and corporate executives converging this week in Washington much to discuss.

From 2002 to 2007, for instance, the number of Hispanic-owned companies grew by nearly 44 percent to 2.3 million, and that growth is continuing, as more companies and initiatives, such as the forthcoming ABC-Univision joint venture aimed at English-speaking Latinos, seek to reach the burgeoning Hispanic market.

The purchasing power of U.S. Hispanics, at over $1.2 trillion, is larger than that of all but 13 countries in the world, according to a May report released by the Selig Center for Economic Growth at the University of Georgia. Purchasing power is defined as disposable income, or the total personal income available for spending on goods and services after taxes. READ MORE

For the 10th consecutive year, Verizon has been named to the Latina Style 50, LATINA Style magazine’s annual list of the best companies for Latinas to work for in the U.S. Verizon’s strong commitment to diversity and inclusion earned the company the No. 3 rating on the list, up from No. 8 in 2011.

One of the most respected sources of employment and career information for Hispanic women in the country, the annual survey and report highlight companies that have a dedicated effort to diverse recruitment and promotion initiatives as well as programs that recruit military personnel.

Women and people of color make up nearly 60 percent of Verizon’s workforce, and 64 percent of Verizon’s Board of Directors.

“We take pride in our commitment to removing barriers to success and leveraging the outstanding talents and contributions of Latinas,” said Magda Yrizarry, Verizon’s chief talent and diversity officer, and one of the company’s Latina leaders. “Latinas hold prominent positions at Verizon, such as regional president, vice president – marketing, vice president – customer service, area vice president – enterprise sales, and assistant general counsels, to name a few. We’re honored to once again have our commitment to diversity and inclusion recognized by LATINA Style magazine.”

To compile the list of best companies, LATINA Style surveyed more than 800 companies and evaluated them based on: number of Latina executives, mentoring programs, Latina board members, educational opportunities, alternative work policies, dependent/child care support, employee benefits, women’s issues, job retraining, affinity groups and Hispanic relations.

Verizon’s recruiting programs actively promote awareness of career opportunities within the company for Hispanic women. The company has strong relationships with important organizations such as the Association of Latino Professionals in Finance and Accounting, the National Society of Hispanic MBAs, the National Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, the Society of Women Engineers and the National Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. READ MORE

Despite some gains, the digital divide more broadly affects Latinos than nearly any other demographic group in the U.S. While public policy efforts and outreach campaigns seem to have had only a modest effect on improving the matter, a number of nonprofit organizations are working diligently to create a new generation of tech-savvy Latinos.

A recent report from the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) shows Latinos lag significantly behind other groups when it comes to technology adoption rates. About six million Latinos in California aren’t online and large disparities among Latinos persist. Some Latino subgroups are similar to other racial/ethnic groups in their access to broadband. For example, relatively high rates of access are evident among those who are U.S.-born (76 percent), prefer to speak English (75 percent), and earn at least $40,000 per year (75 percent). But other Latino subgroups still lag far behind in their rates of Internet access, such as those who are foreign-born (48 percent), prefer to speak Spanish (46 percent), or earn under $40,000 annually (50 percent). Surveys of Latino populations across the U.S., such as this Pew study, have presented similar findings.

“Latinos with incomes under $40,000 are among the lowest adopters of broadband, ” says Dean Bonner, survey project manager at PPIC. “Among Latino adults who don’t have a computer at home, cost was the number one reason, but there is also this large portion of the population that says they are just not interested. This is not to say that Latinos don’t see the value in it. According to a survey we conducted last year, a majority of Latinos said that not having high-speed Internet is a major disadvantage when it comes to finding information about job opportunities, gaining new career skills or accessing health information.” READ MORE

Hispanic population growth and improved high school completion rates helped Latino young people become the largest minority group on U.S. college campuses, according to a Pew Hispanic report released Monday.

The center's analysis of census data shows more than 2 million Hispanics ages 18 to 24 were enrolled in college last year, making up a record 16.5 percent share of enrollments in that age group at two-year and four-year universities.

Simultaneously, for the first time, one-fourth of America's pre-K through 12th grade population was Latino, the center said.

Last year, 76 percent of Hispanics aged 18 to 24 years had a high school diploma, up 6 percentage points from 2009. That's still below the national average of 85 percent and below African Americans' 81 percent. READ MORE

LATINA Style Magazine has named Sodexo, Inc., as one of the Top 50 U.S. companies in its annual LATINA Style 50 Report. The winners were announced this week and Sodexo is featured in the magazine's August edition. The LATINA Style 50 Report is a comprehensive annual study of the fifty best companies for Latinas to work for in the United States, and is the most respected evaluation of corporate America's policies and practices as they relate to Latinas in this country.

"We are honored to once again be included in the LATINA Style 50 Report as it speaks to our continued commitment and support for workplace diversity and inclusion," said Dr. Rohini Anand, senior vice president and global chief diversity officer for Sodexo. "This is an important achievement as we celebrate the tenth year of our diversity journey."

"Every year, since 1998, we have produced the LATINA Style 50 Special Report. It is the most intensive effort that our company undertakes in ensuring that Latinas and the companies that they work for receive the recognition they deserve," said Robert Bard, president & CEO of LATINA Style Magazine. "LATINA Style Magazine carefully evaluates over 800 corporations to choose the 50 best companies for Latinas to work for in the U.S. Our survey is a highly regarded source of employment and career information for Hispanic women in our country, and the Selection Committee was impressed by Sodexo's well-documented commitment to creating an environment where all employees can thrive. I congratulate Sodexo, Inc. for making the 2012 Top 50."

Sodexo is considered the benchmark company for diversity and inclusion in its industry and is consistently recognized among all companies in North America as a best place to work for minorities, multicultural women, veterans, and people with disabilities. READ MORE

The 2012 U.S. Census revealed that Hispanic-owned small businesses are growing at nearly twice the rate of the national average with annual revenues at $350B (though many industry insiders believe this is a conservative estimate with the true figure being well-north of $600B). The U.S. Minority Business Development Agency reports that between 2002 and 2007, Hispanic owned businesses grew faster than the national average of 44 percent in 28 states. Clearly, the impact of the Hispanic population and the entrepreneurial spirit we bring with us is influencing the emergence of Hispanic-owned small businesses. - and with this rapid growth the need for Hispanic specific resources and support to help enable revenue generation and profitability is at an all-time high.

In a recent Fox Latino interview, Hector Barreto, the former Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration under George W. Bush, said that there are many intangible factors inhibiting Hispanic small business growth. According to Mr. Barreto, Latino business owners are filled with uncertainty and lack confidence in the U.S. government.

I respect Mr. Barreto's candor in identifying the challenges that both Hispanic (and non-Hispanic) small business owners are faced with in our current economic environment. However, for Hispanics in particular, the obstacles run much deeper and this is where the Presidential candidates and politicians across America are all missing the mark. Hispanics, perhaps more than any other community, are rich in diversity and self-identify with their culture. As such, they require tools, resources, government and educational programs that are culturally-relevant so that they can grow their business in ways they can identify with most naturally. This factor alone explains why Hispanic consumers (let alone Hispanic small business owners) represent the largest unbanked community in America. READ MORE