Early this morning when I read an interesting article by Christina Hoag from The Miami Herald and Helena Poleo from El Nuevo Herald, I got right in my car, thinking I could do some good, and drove an hour and a half out to Farmingville, Long Island. I pulled up at one of the top "community" leaders, whose group is opposed to having too many Hispanics living in his town. Actually, t hey would prefer it if all of them went back to where they came from. I wanted to show him proof that Spanish is here to stay in America.

As I pulled up to his house -- actually it's really a trailer -- I found the "gentleman" taking a dump in his front yard. For some reason, he wasn't too interested in hearing about the article. It's possible because he can't read a damn word. He sure does have a "colorful" vocabulary for someone who doesn't appreciate too many colors. I was only there with him a couple of minutes, but I'll bet you his favorite color is white.

Anyway, I snapped his photograph and high-tailed it out of there . . .

HERE'S HIS PHOTOGRAPH AND THE ENGLISH-LANGUAGE ARTICLE . . .

«Posted on Fri, July 22, 2005

DEMOGRAPHICS

Study: Spanish is here to stay

Spanish will continue to be the second language of the United States far into the future, a new study says.

BY CHRISTINA HOAG
choag@herald.com 

Spanish-speakers will continue to dominate the U.S. Hispanic population over the next two decades, declining only slightly despite the surging growth of second- and third-generation Hispanics, a study released Thursday said.

Today 74 percent of Hispanics, or 27.8 million people, speak Spanish; in 2025, 66 percent, 40.2 million people, will speak Spanish, according to the study, ''The Future Use of the Spanish Language in the USA -- Projected to 2015 and 2025,'' by the Roslow Research Group of Port Washington, N.Y.

The Hispanic population is expected to rise from an estimated 41.6 million today to 67.5 million in 2025.

''The numbers are pretty dramatic,'' said José Cancela, principal of Hispanic USA, a Coral Gables-based consultancy which funded the analysis. ``It's a sign for marketers that Spanish is here to stay.''

Which language to use to reach Hispanic consumers is a perennial conundrum for advertisers because a certain number of Hispanics are bilingual or speak predominantly English while others use principally Spanish.

The debate has taken on a new twist recently as marketers have spotted the huge mushrooming of second- and third-generation Hispanics, who tend to be bilingual or English-speakers. This has given rise to magazines, radio stations and cable channels geared toward the young English-speaking Hispanic.

The study, which was based on Census and other population research, affirmed the growth trend: 44 percent of today's Hispanics are foreign-born, 29 percent second-generation and 27 percent third-generation.

By 2025, foreign-born Hispanics will make up 35 percent of that group with the second-generation increasing to 35 percent and third-generation to 30 percent.

The use of Spanish will remain fairly constant in the second generation, around 75 to 79 percent, over the next 20 years, the study said, but in the third generation, use of Spanish will drop dramatically, from 35 percent currently to 16 percent in 2025.

Researcher Peter Roslow noted that although percentages drop, the raw numbers actually increase given the projected growth of the Hispanic population as a whole.

Roslow said his research has shown that Spanish-language advertising and marketing is particularly effective with the bilingual group.

''The Spanish-dominant speaker takes Spanish for granted, but bilinguals are more aware of Spanish in ads,'' he said.»


There are these two kids from Caguas, Puerto Rico. They are 100% Puerto Rican and also just happen to live in the only English-language section of Caguas, which is actually wherever I happen to live in Caguas at any given moment. These children are not mine, however. They may actually be the only 2 children in Caguas that are not mine -- but that's another story. Oh, look at that, it's the 22nd -- I better get those child support checks mailed out . . .

HERE'S THE PHOTOGRAPH OF THE TWO KIDS FROM CAGUAS AND THE SPANISH-LANGUAGE ARTICLE -- PUBLISHED AT THE SAME TIME AS THE ENGLISH-LANGUAGE ARTICLE . . . NOW THAT'S THE WAY IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE!

«Posted on Fri, July 22, 2005

El idioma español ha llegado para quedarse en EE.UU.

HELENA POLEO
El Nuevo Herald


La población de habla hispana de Estados Unidos aumentará dramáticamente en las próximas dos décadas, lo que añadirá 12.4 millones de hispanoparlantes a la población nacional, aseguró un estudio revelado ayer.

Según el reporte, el número de personas bilingües o que hablan español la mayor parte del tiempo aumentará un 45 por ciento durante las próximas dos décadas, de 27.5 millones de hispanos a 40.2 millones.

''En otras palabras, el castellano ha llegado para quedarse'', dijo José Cancela, el presidente de la empresa consultora Hispanic USA, la cual encargó el informe.

Cancela precisó que el estudio es único en su estilo.

''Todos tienen las cifras nuevas. Estas son las cifras del futuro'', aseveró. ``Existen muchos estudios sobre los hispanos que hablan inglés, pero nadie se ha ocupado de los hispanos que hablan español''.

El empresario afirmó que esta información es útil para las empresas que están tratando de llegar al mercado hispano.

''Si no nos están hablando en español, desconocen un mercado tremendo'', acotó Cancela.

El aumento en hispanoparlantes no se debe solamente a la nueva inmigración, señaló el estudio. Gran parte del incremento se debe a que los inmigrantes de segunda y tercera generaciones siguen usando el idioma de sus padres.

Esta conclusión cuestiona la suposición general de que el uso del español disminuirá cuando las generaciones de hispanos crezcan y asimilen la cultura de este país.

''A diferencia de otros grupos de inmigrantes, hasta los hispanos de tercera generación continuarán hablando español en números extraordinariamente grandes'', destacó el estudio, el cual fue elaborado por Roslow Research Group.

Peter Roslow, fundador de la compañía de investigación, informó que el 35 por ciento de los inmigrantes hispanos de tercera generación habla español.

''Esta es una cifra impresionante. Normalmente, en la tercera generación de inmigrantes hay muy poca retención del idioma de la familia'', señaló el experto.»


These 2 articles are shown exactly as they appeared this morning, including Christina Hoag's e-mail address.  Helena Poleo didn't have her e-mail address included in her article -- it's possible the El Nuevo Herald web team may think she is a Primera Hora journalist. Anyway, someday soon, everyone in The United States will speak English AND Spanish -- and that includes Puerto Rico, whether it becomes a state or remains as is. That's the day we will all ACTUALLY BECOME states UNITED -- and not just the clever name of a country.

Well, that's all folks! Until next Friday.

Keith


For motivational speeches, conferences, media requests and other things such as eating disorders, you'll have to contact someone else. My only qualifications for writing a weekly column are based solely upon having a lot of free time, unlimited Internet access and very little else.