Georgia on My Mind

There are more than 1,400 miles between the CultureSpan Marketing headquarters in El Paso, Texas and rural Georgia. But in my mind, we might as well be vecinos. Heck, maybe even kindred spirits.

No doubt, 1,400 miles is a stretch in terms of road miles, but I’m really starting to feel a cultural connection with the state… or at least a few of the once-rural counties surrounding Atlanta. 

According to Mark Hugo Lopez, Director of Hispanic Research at Pew, the Hispanic population in these counties is booming. An analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data showed that Stewart, Gwinnett and Henry counties (all suburbs of Atlanta) have seen enormous increases in Hispanic population growth, with the largest increases coming from people of Mexican descent. Stewart County in southwest Georgia experienced the most, growing 1,754% over 11 years. Yeah, that’s huge.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported in March 2011 that Henry County’s Hispanic population had increased by 338% between 2000 and 2010 and Gwinnett County’s Hispanic population grew from 64,136 in 2000 to 162,035 in 2010. That’s an increase of nearly 153 percent.

This statistic may seem pretty incredible at first glance, but not so much if we dig a little deeper. In actuality, this story really resembles a much older trend. In the not-so-distant past, braceros traveled across the country to do mostly agricultural work with many bringing their families in tow. Similarly, we are now seeing Hispanic laborers moving to areas of the country that are not traditionally Hispanic in culture or population to help build housing and infrastructure. 

So, yeah, I am indeed feeling some love for the Peach State. It really comes down to business, though, and the opportunity that it presents for companies like CultureSpan. As specialists in Hispanic marketing, we bring more than a “Hispanic voice” to ad campaigns. We seal the deal by making a cultural and emotional connection between brands and people. Georgia, my new BFF, contact us at CultureSpan and let’s see what we can do to bring our people closer together… while doing a little business in between.