According to the Community Foundation’s TRENDS report, Latinos are the largest and fastest growing ethnic group in Boulder County – but our programs, networks and institutions are slow to catch up. We spoke to two community leaders about the challenges and opportunities of a rapidly growing Latino population.
According to the Community Foundation’s TRENDS report, Latinos are the largest and fastest growing ethnic group in Boulder County – but our programs, networks and institutions are slow to catch up. We spoke to two community leaders about the challenges and opportunities of a rapidly growing Latino population.
“In Boulder County, we need to look at the Latino community as an asset, not a deficit,” says Carmen Ramirez, Community and Neighborhood Resources Manager for the City of Longmont. “And that requires understanding the diversity within the Latino community.
“As we create programs, jobs, board positions and other opportunities, we can’t look through the lens that identifies most Latinos as speaking only Spanish and having low levels of education. We’re missing the contributions and opportunities presented by the many individuals and their families who are educated professionals.
“Not all newcomers are the same – there’s tremendous diversity, some with higher education and more resources than others. What’s more, not all Latinos are newcomers. Historically, Latinos as a group aren’t newcomers in Boulder County at all.”
Carmen points to the Boulder County Latino History Project – a grassroots effort first funded by the Community Foundation – as an example of a successful and balanced Latino-focused initiative. “Over the past 2-1/2 years, the project has brought together data and stories to provide an historically accurate account of Latinos in the area,” she says. “The project informs teachers in both school districts, and provides an access point for greater awareness and understanding – also building bridges through commonalities with immigrants from other countries, like Nepal and India and the Asian community here.”
Further to overcoming stereotypes, and better understanding the diversity among and within Latinos and other races and ethnicities, Carmen describes a lack of cultural competency as “one of our greatest issues.”
“In Longmont, changing the lens from deficit to asset is something we’ve put energy and resources toward…so we’ve built some capacity around that,” she says. “But we need to build even greater capacity to implement cultural competency in our hospitals, and all our institutions and organizations. We can do better.”
Further corroborating and illustrating findings from the TRENDS report, Manuela Stewart Sifuentes – a recent alumna of our Leadership Fellows program, who’s also Executive Director of the Latino Task Force of Boulder County and Project Director of One Action 2016: Arts + Immigration Project – says: “Another of the biggest struggles for the Latino community is poverty. The likelihood of a Latino child growing up in poverty is far greater than the chances of a white child growing up poor in Boulder County…and there are so many disadvantages that come from that, like the achievement gap we see in our schools.
“That’s why, what the Community Foundation is doing around education and the EL PASO program is key.” Engaged Latino Parents Advancing School Outcomes (EL PASO) is a grassroots movement creating a critical mass of well-informed and skilled Latino parents who help ensure that more Latino children enter Kindergarten ready to learn. The Community Foundation developed EL PASO with hundreds of Latino parents and leaders in Boulder County.
“The Latino community is also a young community,” continues Manuela. “We have a lot of recent immigrants whose focus is on making ends meet. Once they’re able to make a little more money, they move to Longmont or Lafayette or out of the county – like Greeley – for a chance of homeownership.”
In addition to economic and educational barriers, Manuela also cites language barriers, lack of transportation and a general lack of opportunity as major hurdles that Latinos and other foreign-born residents negotiate every day. And while Boulder has been broadly plugged as a one of the best places in the country to start a business, Manuela has a different perspective based in part on her own unsuccessful attempt to start a business there: “We hear a lot about entrepreneurship in Boulder. But it’s who you are in Boulder that makes the difference. It’s a great place to start a business if you’ve got money. But for most Latinos, that’s not their story.”
Indeed, the TRENDS report shows that almost every major issue in Boulder County – whether it’s access to education, affordable housing, or well-paying jobs – has a greater impact on Latinos than non-Latinos. For Latinos in Boulder County, learn more about how you can ignite social justice through The Community Foundation’s BRAVO Fund.
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