For Texan Latinos, who are general-
ly Democrats, the redistricting was espe-
cially controversial. Arguing that the plan
was unconstitutional and would weaken
Latino influence, the League of Latin
America Citizens (LULAC) sued Texas
Governor Rick Perry. The case ultimate-
ly reached the U.S. Supreme Court,
where the Court threw out portions of the
redistricting, requiring Texas lawmakers
to readjust boundaries. Nonetheless,
Texas Republicans have been able to
maintain their majority in the House.
Achievement in Business
Just as Hispanic Americans have grown as
a political force, they have also grown as
an economic force. By 2004 they repre-
sented $700 billion in annual purchasing
power and is projected to reach $1 trillion
by 2010, nearly three times the overall
national rate of consumer purchasing
power over the past decade. There are
approximately 2 million Hispanic-owned
businesses in the country that generate
almost $300 billion in annual gross
receipts. By 2010, there will be 3.2 mil-
lion Hispanic firms generating $465 bil-
lion, more than triple the number of
Hispanic businesses in operation back in
- Though most of these were small
firms owned by a single proprietor, the
number of Hispanic-owned companies
grew 82 percent since 1997, making them
among the fastest-growing business
segments in the nation.
Of those Hispanic businesses,
Latinas owned 553,618. By 2004,
Hispanic women-owned businesses
employed 320,000 and generated $44.4
billion in sales nationwide. The 10 states
with the greatest number of Hispanic
women-owned firms in 2002 were
California (17 %), Texas (18%), Florida
(16%), New York (14%), Arizona (13%),
Illinois, New Jersey, Massachusetts, New
Mexico and Colorado.
Among the oldest Hispanic business
success stories has been Goya Foods,
founded by Spanish-American business-
man Prudencio Unanue in 1936. Based in
Secaucus, New Jersey, Goya specializes in
foods marketed to Hispanic Americans
(but increasingly to Americans in gener-
al as well). By the end of the 20th centu-
ry, it was one of the country’s 500 largest
private companies, enjoying $620 mil-
lion a year in annual revenue. Meanwhile,
San Antonio-based TerraHealth, Inc.,
which specializes in healthcare and mili-
tary support, was the fastest-growing
Hispanic-owned company in the United
States in 2006 with reported growth of
8,339 percent since 2001. Numerous
magazines, newspapers, radio and televi-
sion stations, and web sites were catering
to Hispanic Americans. Latinos were also
prominent in businesses that had nothing
particularly to do with Latinos. For exam-
ple, Cuban American Roberto C. Guizeta
(1931–1997), who fled Castro’s revolution
in 1960, became chairman and chief exec-
utive officer of Coca-Cola by the 1980s.
Latinos have had a long, successful
history in media and journalism. The
roots of the nation’s largest Spanish-lan-
guage television network, Univision, date
to 1955, when Raul Cortez founded
KCOR-TV, Channel 41 in San Antonio,
Texas. With the 1962 addition of KMEX-
TV in Los Angeles, Cortez began the
Spanish International Network (SIN),
the first foreign-language television net-
work in the United States. Over the next
quarter century SIN added stations
throughout the Western United States, as
well as in Chicago, Florida, and New
York City. In 1986, Cortez sold SIN to a
partnership between Hallmark Cards and
Mexico City-based Televisa, the largest
media company in the Spanish-speaking
world. Univision was an immediate suc-
cess, largely due to the import of the
Chilean variety show Sábado Gigante, and
the signing of Cristina Saralegui, who
became the top Spanish-language talk
show host. Then in 2006, Univision
announced that it accepted a $12.7 billion
dollar bid from a group of private equity
investors led by TPG Capital, L.P. and
Thomas H. Lee Partners. Although fed-
eral regulators approved the sale,
Univision stockholders have contested
the sale, and a trial began in April, 2008.
Telemundo,founded in Puerto Rico in
1954, is the second largest Spanish lan-
guage network in the United States. The
station is the only Spanish-language net-
work broadcasting telenovas, or Spanish
soap operas. In 2002, NBC Universal, a
division of General Electric, purchased
the network.
In 2004, the nation’s two largest
Spanish-language newspapers, the Los
Angeles-based La Opiniónand the New
York-based El Diario La Prensa merged toHISPANIC AMERICA TODAY 233