US Census: 22% of Latinos Live in Poverty

While they’re just preliminary estimates, advances of the official numbers to come, the US Census pre-release releases are giving us an indication of what we should expect. The official population count will be known in a few weeks and it’s expected to cause surprise. We’ll be getting into all that in detail once the numbers become public, but in the mean time all we have are the preliminary counts.

The most recent Census tabulation concerned the number of Latinos who live in poverty, and while the total may not come as a surprise to Latinos in general, many non-Latinos may be taken aback: 22 percent of Latinos live in poverty. In real numbers that amounts to 9.8  million households.

That’s the reality, and what’s important are the questions it poses. What are we going to do about it?  How are we going to address an untenable situation? There is no good news here, just an official depiction of what we already know: there is much work to be done.

In the coming weeks and months News Taco will be reporting on the Census numbers, offering analysis, posing questions and with your help starting a conversation about what those numbers mean and how we can use them as a base for needed policy.

Think in terms of education, health services, job growth, entrepreneurship, redistricting, safety and immigration. We’ll be talking about all of these, so sign-up and join the conversation. We seriously want your input.

There are a set of givens, a set of usual and expected reactions,

at first, but much like the seven stages of grief the initial shock and pain will be followed by anger, depression and hopefully acceptance.