A Latino Census Recount

The number of people of Central American ancestry residing in the Greater Los Angeles area is almost 50% greater than reported in Census 2000, according to an analysis of census data to be released today.

The study by the Pew Hispanic Center, a Latino think tank, found that residents in the region with Central America origins approached 645,000, with Salvadorans as the largest group. That compares to a Census 2000 count of fewer than 437,000 Central Americans in Los Angeles and three neighboring counties.

The study tends to back complaints from representatives of fast-growing Central American, Dominican and South American communities nationwide that the census severely underreported their numbers by grouping them into a category with other Latinos.

“We knew all along there were a lot more of us than the census counted,” said Carlos H. Vaquerano, executive director of the Salvadoran American Leadership and Educational Fund in Los Angeles.

Since details about Census 2000 began emerging last year, some activists and scholars have argued that the count failed to capture the growing diversity of national backgrounds among the nation’s more than 35 million Latinos. Some fear far-reaching consequences in such areas as public funding, political representation and immigration policy.

The study dampens speculation generated by Census 2000 that growing ranks of U.S. Latinos were eschewing national labels and instead gravitating toward a “pan-Latino” identity. Rather, the report cites a change in the questionnaire as the likely reason so many Latinos failed to specify national roots.

In asking about Latinos’ origins, the 2000 census form included check boxes for respondents of Mexican, Puerto Rican and Cuban backgrounds--the three largest groups. Anyone not fitting into those categories was asked to check the “other Spanish/Hispanic, Latino” box and write in their groups.

However, unlike the 1990 form, which provided write-in examples--such as “Salvadoran” and “Colombian”--the Census 2000 questionnaire included no such guides. A census bureau review has already concluded that this and other changes in the question may have altered results.

“Any time you change a word or a phrase in a question it can lead to different responses,” said Roberto Ramirez, a census survey statistician.

Whatever the reason, almost 18% of Latino respondents did not specify a national origin in Census 2000 and instead ended up in the generic “other” Latino category. That number is well above the 10% or so of Latinos who traditionally place themselves in the “other” group on government surveys.

Since the new study does not attempt to count people missed by Census 2000, it does not change the tally of the overall Latino population.

Instead, the report redistributes almost 3 million “other” Latinos nationwide among national origin groups. That brings the “other” Latino category closer to the historical 10% level.

“These people were counted, but they were put in the wrong box,” said Roberto Suro, executive director of the Pew Hispanic Center, which is based in Washington but is a project of USC.

As a result of the statistical reshuffling, the study found that more than 340,000 people of Salvadoran backgrounds were living in the Los Angeles area--60% more than the 213,000 officially reported in Census 2000.

Likewise, the study counted 186,500 residents of Guatemalan ancestry here, 58% more than the census number of 118,000.

The numbers here correspond to residents of the federally designated Los Angeles metropolitan area, a vast swath that includes Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties. The region is home to the nation’s largest Latino population.

Central Americans began to arrive in great numbers during the 1970s, as civil strife overtook the isthmus.

While growing briskly, their numbers are still dwarfed by a population of 5.3 million people of Mexican origin in and around Los Angeles, the new study shows.

“We recognize that Mexicans are the majority here, but they are not the only Latinos anymore,” said Vaquerano, of the Central American assistance organization. “Politicians have to recognize that we are here too and we have our own needs and deserve to be paid attention to.”

The new numbers, like census counts, include immigrants and U.S.-born Latinos--who, in some cases, have lived here for generations. Neither the study nor the census distinguishes between legal and illegal immigrants.

Nationwide, the study found that the more than 22 million people of Mexican ancestry account for more than 62% of all Latinos, a slight increase compared to Census 2000 calculations.

An additional 10% of the nation’s Latinos have Puerto Rican origins, 6.6% cite Central America as their ancestral home, almost 5% South America and 3.6% Cuba.

In the New York City area, with the nation’s second-largest metropolitan Latino population, the Pew study found that people who trace their ancestry to the Dominican Republic were underreported by almost 25%, and now number more than half a million. The Pew study is the latest to quell enthusiasm for a popular post-Census 2000 theory: that that the big jump in “other Hispanic” respondents may signal a turn away from national identifications among Latinos.

Experts say there is no question that some Latinos do embrace a pan-Latino identity--a trend that many expect to accelerate, especially as intermarriage across national origins increases and Latinos are more removed from their roots.