Record Turnout Expected at Latino Trade Show : Ethnic market: The fourth annual Se Habla Espanol show aims to attract companies trying to tap the estimated $170-billion Latino market in the U.S.

In a sign of the growing strength of the Latino market, a record number of companies and individuals is expected to participate in the fourth annual Se Habla Espanol trade show that begins here today.

Seventy-three companies and about 1,500 people are expected to attend the show, which continues through Friday and is the largest such event for the Latino communications industry.

“This is quite extraordinary given the general economic climate,” said Jesus Chavarria, publisher of Hispanic Business magazine, the show’s sponsor. “California is really setting the pace for the Hispanic market in terms of media development and ad agency billings.”

The Se Habla Espanol trade show attracts companies, advertisers and public relations specialists that are trying to tap the estimated $170-billion Latino market in the United States.

Chavarria attributed the strong interest in the show to the proposed U.S.-Mexico free-trade agreement, which has increased interest among major U.S. corporations in trade with Mexico. This year’s event, to be held at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim, is the second time in the show’s four-year history that it is being held in California. It was in Los Angeles in 1989, when about 1,200 people participated.

Frank J. Quevedo, chairman-designate of the Orange County Chamber of Commerce, said the large number of participants points to an increasing recognition within the U.S. business community of the growing purchasing power of the Latino community.

“As companies look to solidify and expand their market share, they look at critical market segments that are specific to the ethnic population in the country,” he said.

Chavarria estimated that the purchasing power of the nation’s 22.4 million Latinos was about $144 billion last year. By the year 2000, he is projecting a near doubling to $274 billion as the Latino population grows.

Speakers at the event will include Orange County Board of Supervisors Chairman Gaddi H. Vasquez and Barbara Bryant, director of the U.S. Census Bureau.

Chavarria, 56, who founded Hispanic Business magazine in 1979, said he plans to keep the trade show in Orange County for the next few years because the county has one of the fastest-growing Latino business communities in the country.

He noted that the county is home to three of the nation’s largest Latino ad agencies--Mendoza, Dillon & Asociados Inc. in Newport Beach and Casanova-Pendrill Publicidad and Noble y Asociados, both of Irvine.

“We considered Houston, Dallas and San Antonio but we found the economic picture for Latinos is stronger (in California) than it is in Texas,” Chavarria said.

He also found that Orange County’s Latino businesses, in particular, have a more dynamic relationship with large U.S. companies than other Latino companies in other cities.

The trade show has been held in New York and Chicago in previous years.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Orange County is the sixth-largest center for Latino-owned businesses, with 9,683 companies. Los Angeles is the largest, with 56,679 Latino-owned businesses.