 Hello holidays, everybody. Welcome back to our show, Hola y Aloha. As you know, we're the voice for the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce here in Hawaii. I'm Barbara DeLuca, president and co-founder, and I'm so excited to today's guest is Ana Valdez. She's the president and CEO of the Latino Donor Collaborative. Today's episode we'll be discussing Latinos in America and the new mainstream autonomy. So welcome to our show, Ana. Thank you for joining us from New York. Thank you so much, Barbara. I'm really excited. Thanks for having me. Of course. Of course. Why don't you tell us a little bit about what is the Latino Donor Collaborative? I'd love that. So we are a think tank. We're a nonprofit think tank. And what we do is create data about the Latino contributions in the United States. And it's basically economic, but we also go through media and consumption and upward mobility. And all those variables that tell you the, not only the situation today of Latinos, but the trends, what to expect, where do we come from in terms of economic contributions, et cetera. So the reason why this organization was created in 2010 was that the founders saw a big gap between the perception of who Latinos are and its ability of who Latinos are. So that's why we exist. I love it. And it's helpful to address some of those misunderstandings because a lot of people assume that we are field workers or don't speak English. So why don't we go over some of the things that the reports can dispel those myths? Well, you're absolutely right. I'm going to be extreme, but on the terms of the perception, people, especially people in the middle, in the Midwest, et cetera, that I've never seen Latinos in person, they have a perception that Latinos are the sombrero, recent arrivals, very served, sometimes lazy unfortunately, which that one has nothing to do with our reality. Sometimes we're immigrants and sometimes we're recent arrivals, but we're not lazy. We've never been lazy. We're not lazy in our countries where we came from, not here. So some of those are or that if you are not completely underserved, you have something to do with crime, right? Narcos, algebras, et cetera. So that's the myth, which is completely unreal. And then there's a reality. So Latinos are actually driving the economic growth in the United States, not only the demographic growth, but also economic growth. And let me give you a number so that you understand how much we're driving the demographic growth. In 1970, Latinos were 9% of the population. By 2023, we're almost 20%. So today we're one out of every five Americans in this country. And the reason why people perceive us as recent arrivals all the time, not only because I am a recent arrival, I'm an immigrant, but 70% of Latinos have been here not only one, but sometimes two, three, four, 20 generations. Most of them actually, the border crossed them. They didn't cross the border. This is true. I'm a fifth generation, Latina, American girl, American, my great-great-grandmother is from Sonora, Mexico, and yeah, she was born and raised in Arizona, yes? And so because there was this humongous wave of immigration from 1980 to 2007, then people perceive us all like that, but we're not. Most of us have been here for the longest time, like your family, Barbara. Yeah, so right now you mentioned we're one in five Latino, one in five American is Latino. So I read somewhere that by 2060, it's going to be one in four, is that correct? Yes, but you know what? It's so funny because you're right, that's the projection, but I'm going to give you a number that will probably sound more of a real projection, actually not enough, a good tool to make a better projection than that because you're right. That's the projection that sometimes, you know, like the census or the Pew Institute manages, but today, according to the U.S. census, one out of every, so 30% of the newborns in the United States are Latino newborns. Yeah, so that tells me that much closer than 2060 will be 30% of the population, right? Yeah, that's what, I've read all over the place, but so the generation zoomers, the zoomers? Yeah. Okay, so we have the youngest generation of zoomers, which is our medium age is 15 or 25. I've read two different numbers. The most populated age of Latinos is 13 years old. Okay. And the most populated age of non-Latinos in America is 62. Wow, that's a huge gap, right? So we have so much, like, you know, longer to grow our wealth, you know, gaps. So, like, let's talk about the real estate industry. I'm a broker here in Hawaii, and I read that we have 70% of home ownership. Is Latino, what does that mean? Well, it's interesting because first of all, let me just finish that part of the youth. Imagine that if our average age is 13. Okay, then we haven't even, we're not even close to peaking. Right. We will peak when the majority of our workforce, of our population is in the workforce actively. But today, the majority of our population is not even in the working age. So imagine our power once we actually integrate, right? And especially with the numbers that I'm going to give you of educational attainment and upward mobility. And as you're saying, going perfect to segue to your industry, you know, it's not that we are 70% of the homes are ours, but 70% of the growth of new homes in the next 30 years will come from us. Imagine that if, you know, if today, I don't know, today is I think it's 62% of all the new homes in the last three years have been bought by Latinos. But in the next 30 years, more than 55% of the new homes will be bought by us. That's that's so exciting. I have zoomers as a mother and this that whole generation, you know, where they're graduating at higher levels from college, entering the workforce, making more, you know, money entering the C suites, you name it. Exactly. Exactly. So, you know, we, we kept saying, and actually this year with ASU, we were able to bring out. Why and from where are we really growing so much economically, right? So I want to tell you so many numbers about that. But, you know, we were able to, to dissect what it was. And for two years, every time we do the Latino GDP report, we were seeing that education was one of the most important aspects. So this year we partner with the society of Latino engineers, the economist ship. And we did a report about engineers in the United States. And this number kind of summarizes everything, although the report is incredible. Every time we got together to analyze this report, literally we cried because to see this kids in numbers and what they're going through their challenges, their, their successes, their perseverance is incredible. So in this report, I would say that one of the most important numbers was, you know, in 2010, engineers that were Latinos in schools, like, out of the 100% of the students of engineering, 4% were Latinos. That was in 2010. By 2021, almost 18% of the students of engineering are Latinos. Yeah. Why, why the engineering? I'm curious and tech. Well, that's a really good question. We actually, we tried to actually go into other professions, but the ones, and I think this sounds like an advertising for ship, but organization, the organization of, of, of the profession that was more prepared to do this kind of deep report were them. 18,000 members. They have a very close communication with each one of them. And of course, massive, but really close like this kids really rely on ship. And so we were able to get to them really easy. We did surveys, and we did all kinds of things. And, and we got this information. And of course they have a great relationship also with schools, which you know, were another source of our report. So that's why we concentrated in engineering and we are assuming that with some variations, the numbers in each one of the professions are the same. Correct. Correct. Yeah. Let's talk about the new mainstream economy. 3.2 trillion dollars is what we contribute to the national GDP. And that that surpasses India, United Kingdom, France. Exactly. And you know what's really interesting that not only so this is the sixth report as I said, so when we started measuring it six years ago, the GDP of Latinos was 1.7 trillion. And now it's 3.2. It's almost the double Barbara. And so imagine, so it was only six years, the population grew like 17%. But we grew almost the double in their contributions economically. In the second dimension, 3.2 trillion dollars of GDP would make us US Latinos, the fifth largest economy in the world. So, if the first one is the United States, the second one is China today. The third one, Japan. The fourth is Germany. The fifth would be Latinos in the United States. We're not counting Latin America. Right, right. In the United States. Above, you know, France and German, I'm sorry, France and Russia and Brazil and Canada and all kinds of countries. We would be the fifth largest economy. And you know what's great is as we mentioned, our medium age is lower. So we have a growth curve within the United States with which is the Latinos. Exactly. You know what? We have calculated that without Latinos, the United States GDP now wouldn't be the number one, because we are contributing so much. And remember, everything is in a lot of different ways. We could go back to birth rate, right? The annual birth rate is negative today. Yeah, I saw that. A latitude, sorry. Yeah. So we're really bringing the growth, not only because demographically we're bringing the growth, but also because of all this other, like we said, right, youth and purchasing power and, you know, upward mobility and what we said like home buy, which for us is wealth building, right? Well, it's in a lot of different ways. In our community, buying a home is building legacy wealth. And for us, that's incredibly important because we usually rely less on credit. Okay, so when you get a house, that means we have the money to buy a house, correct? Yeah. And we, you know, historically we relied less on credit because we've just borrowed from family and, you know, we're entrepreneurs by spirit. And that's the pros and the cons, right? Because we are opening and starting businesses at a higher rate, yet we only have 1% of capital that's, you know, put into our economy. Absolutely. So two years ago, we did a report with Bain Capital. And what we found was exactly what you just said. So when whites get 46% of the times, they get credit from a bank, Latinos get credit, only 25% of the times they get credit. And then all the way to the C's venture capital, they get 25% of the times capital and we only get less than 1% of the time. So imagine we're opening businesses in record numbers. Imagine what the GDP would be if we actually got credit to grow them. And Bain calculated it for us. So if we did, the GDP would grow 1.2 trillion. That's amazing. Wow. So, so how do we change the narrative? We believe that one of the most important aspects of, you know, we not getting credit of we not getting representation on boards, of we not getting our representation that is fair and honest in media, and all that and our lack of Latinos in the C's sector, its perception, right? The subconscious or conscious bias is there. And so how do we change it? What we found, Barbara, is that media is the one promoting that stereotype, promoting that horrible fact that if we, people perceive that if we have some kind of, you know, purchasing power, it's because we are associated with crime. Hmm. Okay. If not, we're underserved. Right. Let me give you a number from the census. Up to the census. 16% of Latinos live in poverty in the United States. And that's really important. And we need to take care of that. But nobody talks about the fact that 84% don't live in poverty. Right. Yeah. And so nobody's telling that story, right? In Hollywood, you're, you're talking about narcos and C's, Queen of the South, all those, you know, shows that are very entertaining, but horribly stereotyping, or the person that came without anything and crossed the border and was killed, or the poor lady that is abused, or so all it's these two extremes and they are preserving that stereotype. We do a report. Also, this is the sixth year that we do it. It is called Latinos in media. And according to our report, we actually do a census of all the new shows in English and all the new movies in English. And according to our report, only 3.1% of the lead roles are Latinos. And the worst part is that half of them are negative. That's where the precip, the stereotype keeps being reinforced over and over again. Right. Right. Well, it's, it's shifting. You know, with that, let's, let's talk about the voting bloc since we have, you know, my son is going to be 18 next year. And he's like, you know, talking about he can't wait to vote and you know, I missed that part at latitude. So why don't you educate me on that? Absolutely. Well, you know, Latinos are, as I said, right, that big wave of immigration made at certain point, like in 1995, a big, you know, block of our Latino population couldn't vote because they didn't have a citizenship yet. But now with 90% of our young people being born in the United States, there's tremendous expectation for us to come out, exercise our voice through our votes and show what we have in mind. And secondly, of which party you promote or what believes you have, it's important that we make our voice heard. Not, we keep being ignored. Right. Right. And that's, and that's another thing, Barbara, that we were finding and we're actually doing a really great report about Latino youth for next year. So you'll see it there. Okay. My generation, first of all, we came to this country and we're grateful. We also don't want to pay too much, you know, trouble because, you know, we're new recent arrivals, that's the immigrant wave, right? Not your immigration, not your wave, but like that part, right? We're more quiet, we are very loyal with brands. So it's, we're very specific, kind of more, I would say passive consumer in, you know, in purchasing, but also in voting and also in a lot of different ways, right? In our civil participation, civic participation. But what we're finding is that our youth, those Gen Zers, those Gen Alphas are so much more outspoken. They're extremely assertive. They first of all are American. Their first language is English. They've been translating for their parents over and over and over again. They're tired of their parents being, I don't want to say abused, but in a lot of different ways, ignored at best. They're more, you know, taking advantage of words. They know they've earned their space wherever they go. Their parents did it for them, but they are doing it too. Because for example, as our reports mentions, you know, they go through depression and mental health issues and, you know, and sometimes homelessness, but they graduate. And they show up in a suit to look for a job at Google and Meta and Proctor and Gamble and the banks, right? And so they know they earned that space. They're not like us. They're not like me. I think you're much younger than me, but they're not like me. They are actually very assertive and they are not going to go with, you know, neither brands nor candidates nor, you know, channels or media companies that don't represent them well. And we're documenting that so that before people start seeing fallouts in their branding, they are taking care of their marketing, their recruitment, their procurement, and all the other things that they have to be including us in. Oh yeah, they're definitely out there doing their own research, making up their minds for themselves, have what they want to believe. And 31% of them are on TikTok. I have to be on TikTok for business. So I'm learning from the generations these, you know, what they think so they don't just believe whatever they see on the news they want they think. Yeah, they're independent thinkers for sure. Absolutely, absolutely. And there are hope because they have a much better platform than we did. And they, they know that and you know what I love from the, I love this from immigrant parents that this kids, that's why the only immigration movement that has prospered is the dreamers. Because these kids know the sacrifices their parents did, right, they're going to make them worth. And whatever it takes, they're going to speak out, because they know their parents gave everything, and they deserve everything. Yes, yes, they're going to speak out because they're used to speaking up for their parents and filling out documents and forms for their parents so they had to grow up real fast. Absolutely. You know, I have a couple of quick facts for you for Hawaii. So I moved here in 1999, and the Latino population has grown 80% since 2000 to now. So right now we're 11% of the population. So, so if you, I know, so if you look at our census from 2020, we were 1.4 and a half million across all the islands. And so 11% of that is equal to 160,000 Latinos. Yeah, and I'm sorry. Though I was going to ask you, I'm a humongous fan of Magnum PI. Yes, I don't know. I mean, I haven't been in Hawaii for like 15 years, but I see Jay Hernandez there and I'm like, he looks very good in Hawaii. There should be more Latinos there. Yeah, I've seen restaurants and businesses just pop up all over the place. Actually, there's 722 Hispanic owned businesses in Hawaii, and they employ 5600 people and contribute 500 million to under one billion to our economy. So this is why we founded the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Hawaii. We want to, you know, reach out and form a community because on Oahu or across our islands, you know, we don't have neighborhoods. We were just kind of spread out everywhere, which I love too. It's, it's great. And it's just so interesting how how Latinos got here. It's a whole nother story. I want to hear about it, but first I need to congratulate you because it's needed that Chamber of Commerce is needed. And all these numbers should help you grow it more because people have to be prepared. Right. I mean, obviously Hawaii is independent and, and it's a state that is amazing. But you know, tourism right and products are a big manufacturer there and you know workforce right. So there's, there's so much interaction with California. And in California, you know, we're majority Latinos are majority now, both in California and in New York, sorry, both in California and in Texas. We are majority Latinos work big, the population of Latinos is bigger than the Anglo population. And just FYI, in New York and in California today, one every two babies being born are Latinos. So we California brothers and sisters. So, you know, it's super important that Hawaii knows these numbers. Oh, definitely. And it's communicating to corporate America, you know, the value of doing business with Latinos because in Hawaii, you know, 15% of the population is Asian, which is great. And then, you know, but that's where the banks and the corporate is focusing on that market. And we're the fastest growing demographic in Hawaii too. So, you know, just communicating the numbers to them and having, you know, them understand that it's good business to do business with this it's not it's great for the community but it's also good for their pocket book. Exactly. And you know what, in your in every industry in the world, and then the, actually not in the world, but specifically in Hawaii. If, if you don't do it, somebody else will. True, you better do it first. It's such a small island, and it's great to because if you see a niche and you feel it, you're going to succeed because nobody else is doing it here yet. So you if you don't even get on it, somebody else will you're right. Exactly, exactly. So, um, yeah, the Latinos, how did they get to Hawaii? How did we get here? In 1900, there was about 5000 Puerto Ricans were recruited from the sugar cane plantations in Puerto Rico because they had a hurricane. And so we recruited them and brought them over here the whole families and this is how the Puerto Ricans started growing in numbers and they're about 52,000 and the Mexican population here is 53,000. So a majority of the Hispanics is Mexican and Puerto Rican here in Hawaii. Yeah. And the Mexican population is so interesting. So I'm King Kamehameha, he was gifted some cattle. And he made a couple, which is like a law, you know, to that they were sacred and that to kill the cattle. So they started growing in population and they didn't know, you know, they didn't want to kill the cattle. So they brought in the vaqueros from California to Hawaii to teach us how to cowboy, you know, and catch the cattle and wrangle them in. So that's how the Hispanic, the Mexican population got here was the vaqueros and the Hawaiian word for cowboy is paniodo. So they're low on a low grad. It's like the hanky, the handkerchief. Exactly. Yes. Yes. Yes. It's so interesting. That's one of my, my, my bones you could say with Hollywood and I have many, but you know, all these new shows about vaqueros and not a single Latino when cowboys were invented by Latinos, right? You know, the Yellowstone show and all these like blood blue eyes, you know, vaqueros there. And I'm like, we made vaqueros. That's why all the names of vaqueros of cowboys are in Spanish, not because they wanted to give us the privilege of that. See, because we invented vaqueros. All right. And yes, so there you go. You perfect ambassadors in their life. I'm so glad you came on our show today. This is so exciting. We could talk forever. It's, it's only a half hour show. So, you know, we got it ended somewhere. So is there anything you want to discuss before we. Yes, I want to say two things. One, it's too close to action. One is, please go to our website, latinodonorcollaborate.org, download the information. It's free and share. You use it, own it, put it in your DNA and please use your voice to spread the word to your fellow Latinos, but also to the non Latino, you know, you know, community of yours. And just spread the word. We need to make sure that people know who we really are. Yes. Yes, I went there. Is that on the, what's the website? It's latinodonorcollaborate.org.org. Got it. And it should be on the screen. Thank you so much for joining us today for the bar. I think it's late there. I appreciate your time. This is so exciting. I can't wait to meet you in person next year at latitude. Thank you for having me and thanks for everything you do. You're amazing. Thank you. And we've been speaking today with Ana Valdez, also known as the Queen of Latino facts. This is Barbara DeLuca, your host of Hola y Aloha on Think Tech Hawaii. And thank you for joining us. Happy holidays, everybody. Aloha y adios.