Denise Rivera, a bilingual HIV prevention specialist with the Catawba Care Coalition who provides free HIV testing, counseling and outreach to the Hispanic community, waves the census flag because an accurate count will allow her to do her job more effectively.
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“The more Hispanics the federal government sees, the more money will trickle down to agencies like mine,” said Rivera, 36.
Juan Petrovich, a Rock Hill real estate agent from Peru, can vouch that the Hispanic community is growing fast, and that more than half of its members are undocumented immigrants.
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“The situation is different now,” he said, comparing Census 2000 to what officials can expect in 2010 — many more to count this time, and a greater need for outreach.
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The Rev. Sunmer Cuesta, a pastor from the Dominican Republic who works with Hispanics at Southside Baptist Church in Rock Hill, said that while he and others push the forms to the Latino community, census officials will need to understand how those Latinos think.
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Hispanics “don’t trust people who come to their doors knocking,” Cuesta said, referring to census workers who visit people who don’t fill out their forms. “They think it’s the feds, and that scares them.”
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