Time for Counting : Ethnic Groups Told Not to Fear the Census

Edith Hernandez remembers the fear and anxiety she felt when the U.S. census form arrived in her mail in 1980.

The 30-year-old native of El Salvador had been living illegally in Los Angeles for a year when she received the inquisitive census form. Immediately, she became suspicious. She thought it might be a new way for the Immigration and Naturalization Service to search out illegal aliens.

“All my family members warned me not to return the form,” Hernandez recalled recently. At the time, she had been living with four brothers. “They said if I did return it, I would be sent back to El Salvador in a hurry.”

Hernandez, who became a legal resident in 1988, said if someone had told her in 1980 that answers to the census are confidential, she would have completed the form.

“All the information you give them is confidential. You don’t have to worry,” she said in Spanish. “It is important that Latinos are counted. The census . . . can force everyone to recognize us and give us the power we deserve, especially in politics.”

With 1990 census forms being mailed to 88 million U.S. households March 23, the city of Los Angeles, minority groups and the U.S. Census Bureau are heading campaigns to educate Latinos, blacks, Asians, American Indians and other traditionally under-represented groups about the importance of the decennial census count.

Though the 1980 census was the best count ever of Latinos, the Census Bureau estimates that 7% of the Latino population in the United States was not counted. Latino groups say this undercount cost cities, counties and states millions of dollars in federal funds, which are distributed using census population figures.

The groups also say a full count in 1980 would have increased the chances of raising Latino representation in government, since census population figures are used to apportion the 435 seats in the House of Representatives and for local and state redistricting.

Officials heading LA Counts!, a $600,000 census outreach project in the city of Los Angeles, say they are trying to prevent a similar scenario to the 1980 count, when 4.6% of the general population and 7% of Latinos in Los Angeles were not counted.

With various census outreach campaigns under way, the public is being bombarded with bilingual billboards, flyers, posters, buttons, balloons, bumper stickers and public service announcements on radio and television.

Arturo Vargas, of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said he hopes these campaigns will help combat the fear and ignorance that keep many Latinos from getting counted. Vargas, who is the national census director of the group, said his organization’s aim is to motivate and inform.

“People need to be told that they won’t get into trouble if they answer the census,” Vargas said. “They also need to understand that, though they won’t see the benefits of a full count right away, there are benefits that will be seen in time.

“The most obvious result of a full count of Hispanics is better political representation,” Vargas added. “California may pick up four to six seats in (Congress). We also hope census figures can be used to determine where Hispanics are located and try to create districts where Hispanics can get elected.

“An undercount of Hispanics will not affect just a Hispanic population, it will hurt everyone. We’ll feel the undercount most severely in our public schools, where more than half the kids are Hispanics. We need to make sure all the children in the schools are counted because they mean money and resources for the school system.

“Federal funding for transportation needs such as Metro Rail, highway and street repairs would also be affected by an undercount. Everyone uses the highways and the streets, so it’s in everybody’s best interest that we are all counted.”

Vargas’ organization and other groups fought attempts to have illegal immigrants excluded from the census count.

“The Constitution says that all must be counted,” Vargas said.

Daniel Perez of the National Assn. of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, said undocumented Latinos are not the only ones who needlessly fear answering the census.

“Many Latino immigrants come from countries where you can’t trust the government,” said Perez, the association’s media coordinator in Los Angeles. “Other Latinos don’t speak English. Some don’t want their answers shared with welfare offices or the migra (the Immigration and Naturalization Service) or their landlords. These people’s fears can be conquered by assuring them their answers to the census are completely confidential.”

John Reeder, director of the census regional office in Los Angeles, said the bureau hired seven bilingual workers in California to speak at churches, clinics and other community organizations about the importance and confidentiality of the census. So far, he said, the workers have succeeded in putting many fears to rest.

“People trust a human being more than they trust a piece of paper,” Reeder said. “And when they get both telling them it’s confidential, people listen.”

People will have a choice of English or Spanish-language census questionnaires. But Vargas criticized the Census Bureau for requiring that people call a special telephone number to get the Spanish forms.

“They should have sent out both English and Spanish language forms to all addresses,” he said.

But Reeder said sending both forms to every home would have been expensive and unnecessary.

Census operators, in many cases, will refer callers to the 150 Questionnaire Assistance Centers scheduled to open in Los Angeles. The centers will be run by the regional census office and local voluntary community agencies.

Reeder said one in six households will receive the census long form, which will take about 45 minutes to complete and ask more detailed questions. The form mailed to most homes will take approximately 15 minutes to complete.

But, regardless of which document a house receives, all forms should be returned in their pre-addressed and pre-stamped envelopes by April 1, which is Census Day, or soon thereafter.

Starting April 25, about 7,000 enumerators will begin the laborious task of visiting the homes of people in Los Angeles who did not respond to the census.

“We will send people out over and over again if necessary, until we get everyone to answer,” Reeder said.

The enumerators, who will wear name tags with the official census logo, will be assigned to the neighborhoods they know best.

The Census Bureau is expected to deliver the results of the count to President Bush on Dec. 31. The results will answer many questions about who lives in the United States--from the median household income of Americans to the average number of bathrooms in an American home.

George Malone, a supervising regional planner for Los Angeles County, said the 1990 census is expected to show a 9% jump in Los Angeles County’s Latino population--from 27% in 1980 to 36%. The county also predicts the Asian and Pacific Islander population will increase from 7% in 1980 to 12.6%. Blacks are expected to make up 11% of the county’s population in 1990, compared to 12.7% in 1980, and Anglos are expected to drop from 53.2% of the county’s population in 1980 to 39.8% in 1990.

FORMS IN SPANISH To receive the Spanish-language version of the census questionnaire, call toll-free (800) 283-6826. Spanish-speaking operators will be available from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. seven days a week from March 23 to April 15.