Latino Group Launches Census Outreach Campaign

Latino community leaders, elected officials and heads of major media outlets launched an ambitious campaign Tuesday to ensure an accurate count in the 2000 census.

Led by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, officials in Los Angeles, as well as in 12 other cities across the country, unveiled “Hagase Contar” (“Make Yourself Count”), a bilingual multimedia outreach campaign to encourage Latinos to participate in the census.

“This issue could not be more important to the Latino community, for the future of Latinos,” said Antonia Hernandez, president and general counsel of the Los Angeles-based MALDEF. “In 1990, we were one of the most undercounted communities.”

More than 5% of the Latino community nationwide was not counted in the 1990 census, compared with 2% of the general population, according to Census Bureau estimates. In California, 835,000 people, 47% of whom were Latinos, were not counted, according to a General Accounting Office report.

In addition to reapportioning congressional seats and political redistricting within states, census data determines how much federal and state funding is given to localities for their various services and programs.

In partnership with elected officials, the media, corporate sponsors, community organizations and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese, the group will spend the next year creating and airing pro-census TV spots featuring celebrities such as boxing champion Oscar De La Hoya, and developing community-based outreach campaigns in cities from San Antonio to Washington, Chicago and Atlanta.

One of the major goals of the outreach program will be to dispel the fear that census information will get into the hands of agencies such as the Immigration and Naturalization Service, officials said.

“It’s against the law for the Census Bureau to share any information with any agency, including the INS,” said Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Los Angeles), head of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. “We want to make sure the immigrant population understands it does not matter if you’re not a citizen, if you don’t speak English, if you’re not documented.”

TV outlets Univision, Telemundo and KABC-TV Channel 7 have committed to airing Spanish-language and English-language public service announcements. The Spanish-language newspaper La Opinion, based in Los Angeles, will produce 500,000 copies of a special supplement dedicated to the importance of the census.