Fewer people these days are buying the colorful heart-shaped ornaments Luciano Martinez sells to celebrate baptisms and the quinceañeras that are a staple for Latina girls turning 15.
“There aren’t as many parties as before. People are holding back,” the 47-year-old Aurora business owner said in Spanish, referring to his shop where he and his wife sell supplies and decorations for celebrations.
The nation’s economic slump has increased unemployment — especially in construction — for Latinos across the nation. And Colorado business owners like Martinez say they’re feeling the hit.
“The stores are empty. Two years ago, there was money,” said Jose Gallegos, 43, who owns a CD store near Martinez’s business in the La Plaza Mexicana flea market on East Colfax Avenue in Aurora.
The area is heavily populated with clothing stores, bakeries and insurance agencies targeted to Mexican immigrants, the group with the highest unemployment rate among Latinos, according to a report released Wednesday by the Pew Hispanic Center.
Nationally, 8.4 percent of Mexican immigrants were unemployed at the end of the first quarter, up from 5.5 percent last year. The report analyzed data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Census Bureau.
At La Plaza Mexicana, fewer people are cashing their checks at Ray Kim’s check-cashing store. Down the street, the aroma of freshly baked Mexican pastries fills Esmeralda Gonzales’ store. Gonzales, 21, says business has declined recently. A block away, the store owned by Patty Nam advertises in Spanish the sale of shoes, Mexican candies and clothes.
“If they spent $20 last year, they spend $5 now,” Nam said.
Alexandra Hall, chief economist for the Department of Labor and Employment, said the state’s unemployment rate for Latinos has been relatively flat. But she said it’s possible those numbers don’t tell the whole story.
“There’s probably a decline in employment that we cannot measure because (some of the) workers were not documented,” she said.
