Advocates Hope for Large Latino Turnout

After a big push to get Latinos involved with the census, what's the consensus?

It might be too soon to tell, but everywhere from Michigan to Texas, local activists are hoping that by getting Latinos involved early and often, they've been counted more than in the past.

TIME reported Monday that the census misses the point with Latino citizens, asking them their race but not realizing for many, their race is Puerto Rican or Mexican or Nicaraguan, an unavailable option.

Many, if not most, Hispanics in the U.S. think of their ethnicity (also known as Latino) not just in cultural terms but in a racial context as well. It's why more than 40% of Hispanics, when asked on the Census form in 2000 to register white or black as their race, wrote in "Other" — and they represented 95% of all the 15.3 million people in the U.S. who did so.

The way the census is written, it implies that "Hispanic origins are not races," according to TIME. A similar problem exists with Arabs, who are considered white by the census. Many are now organizing a write-in campaign.

Th Afro-Latino Forum has encouraged people to "check both," meaning including both their black and Latino heritage while filling out the census.

The government provides a "Toolkit for Reaching Latinos," available here.

Raul A. Reyes from My Latino Voice writes that Question 8, asking whether a person is Hispanic, Latino or Spanish, is confusing when coupled with Question 9, asking someone's race. For most Latinos, these questions should be together, in one question. Mr. Reyes proposes using the scientific classifications he learned about in his third-grade science class: Caucasian, Negroid, and Mongoloid, along with Multiracial.

Sources: Redding News Review, census.gov, TIME, publicbroadcasting.net, lubbockonline.net

Photo: New York Community Trust, group New Immigrant Community Empowerment, or NICE, one group that's helped undocumented immigrants fill out the census, work in the community.