Anyone can build a little ranchito of cardboard, zink, or any other material withou having the goverment trow you on the street for multiple violations. Heck the goverment will help you with materials to build your ranchito, or make your house of mud. You did not have to pay heavy city and property taxes at all, and no bank could come and take your house away, because the land, and your house id yours.

Sometimes I feel very strongly we came here to this country to find freedom, but there is none. To find a "better way of living" but it is all fake. You have to pay a hefty fine for averything, and the laws are up your throath, that in less you have a steady income, health, or youth, you are in much much much worse shape that in our own countries.

I have huge backyard. I want to raise my own chickens. I learn to kill them, and cook them back in Venezuela when I grew up with grandmother in a place with no water and not electricity, and yet the happiest days of my life. But guess what the city will not allow me to have a rooster. Not rooster to fertile eggs. I can not reproduce my own food. I have an apple and plum tree, one neigbor complained to the city that we (basically my 12 yearold saving money to buy a new bicycle) were selling fruits without a license. We got a note to fine us 2,000 dollars if we did not stop selling fruits.

It is going to be very tought to be poor in the country, if we still have rich people laws.

I work with many small businesses owned by Latinos that are "closing shop" due to the fact that they cannot keep up with vendors, rent and other expenses, they are not making enough to keep going. Arizona small businesses have been hit hard and I'm seeing many close in the Bay Area.

Also, American businesses are hard pressed to make their 4th quarter numbers. Budgets for Hispanic marketing in these companies are extremely tight as it is and it is always the first budget to get cut. The reason: we need the numbers to 'look good' for the end of the year.

This is a snowball effect, it will be interesting to see what happens.

People who come from hard times are not surprised when they return. They do not look for government bailouts, even if they were available to to the working poor. They are turinng, as they always have, to each other. In my nighborhood, pay it forward is more than a movie title, it is 10 pounds of rice and a bag of frijoles "until the next time you get paid."

Debt is frowned upon in Latin America.

Theresa Rice

This downturn/recession allows a greater opportunity for smart marketers (smart being the key word here) to reach and tap into this audience right now.

Not only have we seen it before, or, in my case and many other 2nd Generation Latinos, we have heard it all before from our parents. Our parents have always taught us that nothing is guaranteed in life and that we should be thankful for all the opportunity and material wealth this land gives us.

Interesting times, but we have seen and can relate to much worse.

You note that "According to recent data from Experian Consumer Research 58% of the Hispanic population have not used a credit card in the past 30 days, 42% of Latinos don’t like the idea of being in debt, and 31% often pay cash for the things they buy" and that "National Council of La Raza says that up to half do not have a checking or savings account." That said, without credit cards or even bank accounts, Hispanics are more-likely to lack the credit for education loans for their children.

An unskilled worker is fast becoming unemployable in the American job market. Hispanics must retain the ability to procure education loans the or economic crisis will surely be a catastrophe for the next generation of Hispanic-Americans.