Diversity News
The growing importance of the Hispanic population of the U. S. is reflected in increased coverage in newspapers, magazines, books, the business press, scholarly journals, and a host of Internet web sites. One might think that such attention is a new phenomenon resulting from the changing demographics revealed by the recent census. It is not. The census merely substantiates projections made in countless articles written over the last ten years. Unfortunately, very few of these appeared in HR publications.
Beginning today, employment and staffing issues pertaining to U.S Hispanics, as well as to the Latin American operations of U.S. companies, will be addressed on a weekly basis. Presented in the form of a bibliographical essay, each will summarize those writings that address, either directly or indirectly, employment issues of interest to both domestic and international HR professionals. They will be taken from English, Spanish and Portuguese language sources, which, in the author''s opinion, would not normally come to the attention of HR practitioners. Although intended to survey current literature, older but still relevant articles and books will be summarized as well.
It is only appropriate, then, that the first article summarized for our HR colleagues documents this information explosion. It is covered thoroughly in Armando Acuna''s "Think Tanks, Researchers No Longer Ignore Latinos" (appearing first in the Los Angeles Times and reprinted in the March 2000 issue of the National Society of Hispanic MBAs'' The Bottom Line). He notes, well before the census, that this research is driven by private industry''s need to understand this increasingly important consumer market and workforce segment, as well as the state and federal governments'' efforts to determine the cultural, political, educational and economic impact of Hispanics. Independent research organizations are spending more time studying the country''s growing Latino community, existing university Hispanic research centers are being revitalized, and new ones are being created. The Internet also now makes it possible to "publish" reports that would never appear in the traditional media.
Such being the case, this column will not want for material.
