What we have known all along.

As 500,000 Latino demonstrators swept through the streets of downtown Los Angeles last week to protest immigration legislation winding its way through Congress, most of the nation was stunned, shocked and surprised. The demonstration seemed to come from nowhere, without warning. Suddenly, there it was, a massive sea of flag-waving marchers 26 blocks long; so many that it took six hours for the procession to make its way through the city.

What happened, though, was no surprise. It was a testament to the power of Spanish in this country – not just Spanish-language media, but Spanish itself. For weeks before the hordes of Hispanics poured into the streets, the rally had been publicized, and in some cases promoted, on Spanish-language radio and television stations, and in Spanish-language newspapers, across the country. Wear white, they were told. Take your children. Bring plenty of water. Let’s be civil. They came, of course, to show their opposition to an immigration bill, to show their solidarity. But in the process, they succeeded in showing what we’ve known all along: you reach Hispanics in this country in Spanish.

It’s not just a matter of reach, although that’s important, too. A recent survey by Sergio Bendixen for New California Media and the Center for American Progress and Leadership Council on Civil Rights showed Spanish-language media reaches 90 percent of the adult Latinos in the United States. In fact, according to Bendixen more than half of the 30 million Hispanic adults in this country prefer Spanish-language media over English-language media as their source of entertainment and information.

Study after study shows that 79 percent of second-generation Latinos speak Spanish and, in a stunning reversal of patterns among earlier immigrant groups, more than a third of the third-generation Hispanics do. The result: an exclusive Hispanic U.S.A. Inc study shows that the number of Spanish-dominant and bilingual Latinos in the United States will actually increase by 45 percent over the next two decades, adding 12.5 million more Spanish-speakers by 2025.But even those numbers miss an even more important reality of Hispanics in the U.S.A.: You motivate us by speaking to us in the language of our music. We like to be courted in the language we make love in, for some that is in English, for most of us, it’s in Espanol.

The reasons are simple. Spanish reaches us on a visceral level. It’s about heart, home, passion and a thousand other feelings that can not be described.English connects to our brains, but Spanish connects to our hearts. Spanish isn’t just the language we speak; it’s the language that speaks to us.So when the organizers of the rallies wanted to get Latinos to fill the streets, they did it in Spanish. Not just for the reach, but for the impact. The stunning success of the call to action might, at first blush, seem to be a victory for the power of Spanish-language media. And, at one level, it is. But on another, much more universal and significant level, it proves that Espanol is here to stay.

By : Jose Cancela, Principal of Hispanic USA Inc / A Full Service Hispanic Market Consulting Firm

For a free copy of the Bendixen Study or the Language Study email jo**@*********sa.net