Ultimate Reason why pan-Latino sites failed - Ignorance and Deceit

My wife was a television reporter and anchor in Laredo, Texas - one of if not the most Hispanic city in the United States with 98 percent of the population classified as Latino.

Her station - located on the Rio Grande so close to Mexico you could throw a stone or even shout a conversation across the border - was and is in English.

It wasn't the only English-language channel in town. Yes Virginia, Latinos are Americans and can speak English.

However, whenever non-Hispanic media execs get exited about Latinos they start speaking in tongues and remembering foreign vacations to overdeveloped resort towns.

Why? Ignorance, ignorance perpetuated by two very different forces - anti-immigrant, anti-Latino bigots and .... the owners of traditional Spanish-language media.

• Anti-immigrant groups say Latinos are foreigners who can't speak English and remain loyal to their "home" country.
  
• Sales people at Spanish-language media say Latinos prefer Spanish, remain rooted in the culture of their "home" country, and enjoy content from their "home" country.

It's a myth that refuses to die.

As a web analyst, I believe the failure of pan-Latino sites is rooted in that myth, one of ignorance and deceit. Traditional Spanish-language media has sold on that myth for decades. Corporate America has bought based on that myth for decades. In the relatively untrackable world of off-line media, it's worked wonders. In the hyper trackable world of on-line, it failed.

As a web analyst, I believe the trackability of on-line will prove the downfall of the myth, ending the ignorance and deceit.