Newt Gingrich metió la pata.

On March 31, at a gathering of the National Federation of Republican Women, the former speaker of the house and possible presidential candidate equated Spanish to “the language of living in a ghetto.”

It sparked an immediate outcry among Hispanics, and within days Gingrich was backtracking, busily trying to “clarify” his meaning. In a three-minute apology on YouTube – in Spanish, no less – Gingrich said his “word choice was poor” and that he never meant to imply that Spanish was not a beautiful language or that its speakers were, by default, “people of low income.”

Too late, and too bad. It’s a little hard to unspill the milk. But that’s OK. What Gingrich said is what many think. And, if we’re being strictly Machiavellian about it, that’s good.

What did I just say?

Don’t misunderstand me, if Gingrich’s statement about Spanish and a ghetto reflected his true sentiments that’s sad, and wrong. That kind of thinking in the world promotes racism.

But, in the world of business, it’s exactly the kind of thinking you want your competitors to have.

Any businessperson who thinks Spanish-speakers dwell exclusively at the lowest income levels is missing the goose and a whole batch of golden eggs.

That’s because Hispanics in this country have tremendous buying power. And it’s growing nearly twice as fast as everybody else’s.

By next year, Hispanics will already have more buying power than any other minority group in the country. Heck, we already have more spending power than Mexico or Brazil. Or Australia.

The way things are going, by 2010 the buying power of Latinos in the U.S. is expected to hit $1 trillion. Put all that buying power together and it would rank fourth among the states, behind only California, Texas and New York. And that’s just a little over a couple years away.

And it’s not just how much we have to spend that’s growing. Our share of the pie is growing, too. Other groups are spending proportionately less, while we’re spending more. We are the growth market in the United States.

In part, that’s a function of population. Latinos are the fastest growing demographic in the country. But our economic clout is not just because there are more of us. We’re also getting wealthier. The number of Hispanic households making more than $100,000 a year is growing more than twice as fast as the general population, according to Enrique J. Moras, vice president of acquisition banking for Wachovia Corp.

And here’s another nugget for Mr. Gingrich and those who share his thinking: out of all those Hispanics with all that buying power, the overwhelming majority speak Spanish. According to the census bureau, and a variety of studies by everyone from Yankelovich, Inc. to the Pew Hispanic Center, nearly 33 million of the nation’s 38 million Latinos age 5 and older understand and or speak Spanish.

In fact, Latinos not only hang on to the language of their ancestors through more generations than other groups, Spanish is actually undergoing a resurgence among third- and later generation Hispanics who see it as a way of connecting with their roots and maintaining their heritage.

Proof is just a click of the remote control away. Just turn on MTV Tr3s, the international music network’s bilingual offshoot. Launched just last year, it’s attracting young, U.S.-born Hispanics who text message their preferences and comments in both languages, listen to music in both languages, and like rap, rock and reggaeton in fairly equal measure.
So if Gingrich, and your competition, thinks Spanish is unimportant or is “the language of living in a ghetto” instead of the language of success, good for you. Because they’ll continue to ignore the fastest growing market in the country. And that leaves the field wide open for you.

Of course, Newt Gingrich is less concerned with buying power than he is with political power. So I’ll offer one more tidbit of information about Hispanics that he might want to remember: 10 million Latinos will cast a vote in 08.

By Jose Cancela

Jose Cancela is Principal of Hispanic USA Inc, a full service Hispanic market communications firm. He has also authored his first book which was released March 13th “The Power of Business en Español, Seven Fundamental Keys to Unlocking the Potential of the Spanish Language Hispanic Market” Rayo / HarperCollins
http://www.hispanicusa.net>
jo**@hi*********.net