Archive for December, 2009
Tuesday, December 29th, 2009
Although most of us celebrate New Year’s, for the most part, mainstream American New Year’s celebrations aren’t all that imaginative. There are traditions, like getting together with friends or family and partying, drinking champagne, and watching the ball drop over a city skyline. However, these traditions are somewhat bland compared to Hispanics’ New Year’s rituals, like wearing yellow underwear, gobbling grapes, and caroling throughout town. New Year’s is a holiday rich in symbolism, as an opportunity to shed the past and start anew, and Hispanics richly celebrate that opportunity.
Let’s start with the yellow underwear. It’s a tradition for many South American women to put on a pair of brand new yellow underwear right before midnight for good luck in the new year. The yellow symbolizes gold and good fortune. The underwear tradition is said to go back to Spain in the Middle Ages when wearing bright colors was forbidden. So yellow underwear became a secret way of wishing for good fortune. Wearing yellow underwear is only a tradition for women, which is probably a relief to most Hispanic men.
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Tags: 2010, culture, Hispanic, HispanicPR, Latino, New Year, Tradition
Posted in 2010, Hispanic, HispanicPR, Holiday, Latino, New Year, Tradition, culture | 4 Comments »
Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009
There are certain Christmas traditions that almost all Americans share, like putting up a Christmas tree, waiting for Santa Claus, and opening up gifts on December 25. However, there’s more to the story than that for many of the nation’s Hispanics. Although they share in these celebrations, other traditions also play a part in Hispanic Christmas holidays.
Given that 68 percent of America’s Hispanics claim a Roman Catholic background , many Hispanic Christmas celebrations have some root in Catholicism. These include las posadas, a re-enactment of Mary and Joseph’s pilgrimage to Bethlehem before the birth of Jesus. Also, there are the family get-togethers on Christmas Eve and midnight church services, and the celebration of the Three Kings Day on January 6, which for many Hispanics is the official end of the Christmas season.
Las Posadas, or “the inns,” are a big part of Hispanic Catholic culture, especially among those of Mexican heritage. The tradition is that a group of children and adults re-enact the pilgrimage of Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem. Children dress up as Joseph and Mary, shepherds and other biblical characters. Like trick-or-treaters walking the town, the group walks by candlelight to a local home, where they sing to the owner or the “innkeeper” asking for a place to stay for the night. Then, the owners open their door to the group and host a big dinner for everyone, along with a piñata party for the children. (The old game of hitting a piñata while blindfolded actually has religious connotations. )
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Tags: Christmas, culture, Hispanic, HispanicPR, Holiday, Latino, Nochebuena, Posada, Tradition
Posted in Christmas, Hispanic, HispanicPR, Holiday, Latino, Mexican, Nochebuena, Posada, Tradition, culture | 8 Comments »
Thursday, December 17th, 2009
Hispanic business owners are an important part of the Hispanic market. Census research has shown Hispanic-owned businesses are growing at three times the national average. The latest figures show that one of every ten businesses in America is run by a Latino. By 2010, it’s predicted that there will be 3.2 million Hispanic-owned firms in the U.S., altogether generating $465 billion annually.
The majority of these are small businesses with annual revenues under $250,000. They range from local restaurants, to hair salons, construction companies, and mechanics. Such businesses are key to the growth of the Hispanic middle class.
Then there are some 1,500 larger firms estimated to have 100 employees or more, manufacturers and large-scale construction contractors, chains of Hispanic-related grocery stores, and firms with real estate holdings in the U.S. and possibly Latin America. Altogether, these businesses generate about $42 billion annually in gross revenue. Many are started from scratch, with borrowed money or foreign capital.
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Tags: Business, Census, census bureau, entrepreneur, Hewlett-Packard, Hispanic, HispanicPR, immigrant, Latino, Palladium Equity Partners, private equity
Posted in Affluent, Brand, Business, Census, Hewlett-Packard, Hispanic, Hispanic 101, HispanicPR, Latino, Palladium Equity Partners, bicultural, census bureau, culture, entrepreneur, immigrant, private equity | 5 Comments »
Thursday, December 10th, 2009
Hispanics are more active than the general population in almost every category of mobile phone activity, whether it’s talking, texting, downloading, or browsing the Web. Compared to the general market, Hispanics use more minutes and own more phones despite having generally lower incomes. It’s been found that 87% of Hispanic households have multiple mobile phones, and use them more than any other form of personal or handheld technologies on the market today.
Age is one important factor in explaining the high use of mobile among Hispanics. Hispanics are the youngest segment of the American population, with an average age nine years younger than the average for Americans overall (27.2 versus 36.2.). Currently, 58% of America’s K-12 grade students are non-white minorities, and of that group, the largest minority is Hispanics.
Besides age, another important factor is the strong presence of mobile technology in Latin America. 40% of the Hispanic population in the U.S. is foreign-born, and in most Latin American nations, as in much of the world, mobile phones are becoming more common than landline phones.
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Tags: AT&T, culture, Hispanic, HispanicPR, Latino, mobile, mobile communications, Population
Posted in AT&T, Census, Hispanic, HispanicPR, Latino, communications, culture, immigrant, language, mobile | 7 Comments »
Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009
In trying to understand the Hispanic population in the U.S., knowledge of the Mexican and Mexican-American population is essential. Despite our country’s many Latino ethnicities, the influence of Mexico remains stronger than any other country.
More than six in ten U.S. Hispanics are of Mexican origin. The Pew Hispanic Center estimates that there are nearly 30 million Hispanics of Mexican origin living here. After Mexicans, the other nine largest Hispanic groups make up only a third of U.S. Hispanics.
Mexican-Americans are often assumed to be immigrants, and for good reason: no other country in the world currently has as many immigrants in total as the U.S. has from Mexico alone. The current amount of Mexican immigrants living in the U.S. (32%) is the highest concentration of immigrants in the U.S. from one country since the late 19th century, when the Irish made up a third of the country’s immigrant population.
Yet, contrary to popular belief, the majority of Mexicans in the U.S. are native-born. In fact, Mexican-Americans have one of the lowest rates of foreign birth of all Latinos; less than 40% are born outside the U.S.
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Tags: culture, Hispanic, HispanicPR, immigrant, Latino, Mexican, Population
Posted in Hispanic, Hispanic 101, HispanicPR, Mexican, culture, immigrant | 4 Comments »