GHCC comes to Douglas. - "Most Latinos in America have not learned how the voting process works yet. But they will, & their children definitely will."

This past Tuesday the ajc had an article entitled "Home Depot courts Hispanics."

The article noted that Home Depot was aggressively seeking to hire Hispanics and boost its own appeal to a market segment whose buying power reached $750 billion last year.

The article noted that Hispanic purchasing power will reach an estimated $1 trillion by 2008, and that Hispanics are poised to be the next generation of home buyers, according to Jeffrey Humphreys, a University of Georgia economist.

The timing of the article was fortuitious. At the preceding Coffee County Democratic Committee meeting Coffee County Democratic Chair Danita Knowles had annouced that on Wednesday, February 16, Sara Gonzalez, President and CEO of the Georgia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce ("GHCC") was scheduled to at South Georgia College in Douglas to explain her organization's efforts to promote Hispanic business in Georgia.

One of the topics of conversation at the preceding County Committee meeting was our need to reach out to Hispanics in our community rather than waiting for them to come to us. We discussed our perceptions of Hispanics in our community, including:

• Hispanics in Coffee County are apolitical because of perceived and actual corruption that exists in their countries of origin.

• The Hispanic community is not really cohesive, with different groups tending to center around various church communities in the area.

• There is a sharp division between Catholic and Protestant Hispanics because the two groups perceive themselves as separate groups who follow two different religions, primarily because of different visions of the role of the Virgin Mary.

At our County Committee meeting we identified potential Hispanic leaders in Coffee County. Several worked in our local Departments of Labor and Health; some worked in various churches; and others had other occupations. We discussed who would contact whom with regard to inviting to come join us at a future meeting.

Hoping to get to discuss these and other ideas with GHCC's CEO while in Douglas, Chair Danita Knowles and I got to the noon luncheon meeting ahead of the crowd. It was a good idea. The college personnel had been with President Gonzalez and her entourage for awhile, and were happy to hand them off to Sid.

President Gonzalez, a native of Cuba, had GHCC's Chief Operating Officer Sandra Font with her, and also was accompanied by Luis Izaguirre, the Economic Development Manager for the Hispanic American Center for Economic Development, a division of GHCC.

Danita and I discussed our County Committee's plan of going to the Hispanic community rather than waiting for it to (and hoping it would) come to us. Ms. Gonzalez was truly excited to hear about our plan, and noted that this was exactly what Home Depot is doing.

We shared with Ms. Gonzalez that prior to undertaking this effort on our own in Coffee County, we had contacted Jerry Gonzalez, the Executive Director of the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials ("GALEO") about any possible ideas for whom we might be able to get to serve as an Executive Committee Member to represent Hispanics in Coffee County.

[On of my favorite state senators and a workhorse for the Democratic Party, Sen. Sam Zamarripa (D-Atlanta), was instrumental in the forming GALEO as as nonprofit, nonpartisan organization with the goal of getting the Latino community involved in the democratic process.]

President Gonzalez explained that we had done the proper thing in contact GALEO; that GALEO is "political" (read Democratic, and let's all knock on wood as we strive to keep it such), whereas GHCC is adamant about remaining nonpartisan.

During President Gonzalez's meeting she stated that her organization was most eager to come to Douglas since Douglas, along with Valdosta, have been cited as the most entrepreneurial friendly cities in the state.

During her presentation the CEO and other presenters shared with the assembled group that:

• there is no county in Georgia that does not show Latinos in its census;

• Hispanics are the largest minority group in the U.S.;

• with nearly 40 million Hispanics, the U.S. has the world's 5th largest Spanish-speaking community, behind Mexico, Columbia, Spain and Argentia

• the Hispanic population is expected to increase to 50 Million by 2007;

• by 2050, over 1 out of 4 American is expected to be of Hispanic origin;

• between 2000 and 2002, the Hispanic population grew faster in Georgia than in any other state in the nation at a 17% rate, with 102 individuals of Hispanic origin moving in each day, 75 % of these being legal immigrants;

• in 2002, the U.S. Hispanic population was 574,164; by 2007, it is expected to double to 1.2 million; and

• in Georgia, 48% of Hispanics are Mexican; 44% are Puerto Rican [this high a percentage surprised me]; and 2% are Cuban.

A most interesting and relevant point made during the presentations was that most Latinos in America have not learned how the voting process works yet. But they will, and their children definitely will.

I have read that with funds from a grant from UPS (one of GHCC's partners that include Bank of America, Bell South, Cingular, Delta Air Lines, Georgia Power, SunTrust, Coca-Cola and Home Depot), GHCC will be opening four new offices in Georgia to promote economic development of Hispanic businesses.

Does anyone out there see an opportunity for your community as well as your party? I do, and I thought you might also.