What comes to mind when you see the words “Latinomarket?”

Typical credit union responses include underbanked, underserved,immigrant, undocumented, disadvantaged, exploited, Spanish-speakingand poor.

It seems as if credit unions desperately need Latinos to bedisadvantaged, underserved and so very appreciative of our outreachefforts. It makes us feel good and lets us maintain our illusionthat credit unions still exist primarily for people of modestmeans.

Many credit unions will lose their profitable Latino markets ifthat kind of misguided thinking persists.One need only attend acredit union conference where Latinos markets are discussed torealize just how little we understand, much less value, thisfinancially powerful market.

An unfortunate example of this was a July 2008 Credit UnionTimes opinion piece that started out well: “Credit unions havethe opportunity to serve the fastest growing minority demographicin the United States–Latinos.” But then, the continuing 800 wordsin the article warned readers about problems inherent in servingLatinos, including identification and documentation problems fornoncitizens, fraudulent tax IDs, concerns about Mexican consularcards and the need for Spanish-language brochures. The writer mayhave described a rapidly emerging, immigrant market that happens tospeak Spanish. But it's not the real Latino market.

The real Latino market controls more than $800 billion ofdisposable income. They are just like you and me. They are U.S.citizens, born here, just as were most of their parents andgrandparents, whose families have lived in Texas, Arizona, NewMexico and California for generations before my own ancestors camefrom Ireland and Lithuania. Their preferred and frequently onlylanguage is English. These truths are never addressed in ourliterature or at our conferences.

The root of the problem is that the leadership of credit unionscan't seem to grasp the difference between assimilation andacculturation.

Assimilation means abandoning one culture in order to fullyadopt a new one. That's the American Way, right? The message toimmigrants remains, you people need to hurry up and start actingand speaking like us Anglos.

However, numerous business and academic studies clearly showthat Latinos in the U.S., especially in Texas and the Southwest, donot assimilate. Most Latinos acculturate.

Acculturation means respecting and retaining one deep culturalheritage and combining it with another deep culture, enhancing andenriching both in the process. It does not reject or extinguisheither culture; it mixes, blends and celebrates both.

Latinos in the Southwest represent five centuries of reciprocalacculturation of Mesoamerican and European-Iberian peoples. Thisphenomenon is again underway as Mexican-American culture expandsacross our country. Both Mexican-American and European-AmericanAnglo cultures are rapidly acculturating. The credit union movementseems to not only reject the positive realities of acculturation,we seem to almost fear them. We keep sending an awful message tothe profitable, acculturated Latino market that credit unions areconcerned only about an underserved underclass. It's almost as ifwe think that Latinos are somehow Anglos-in-waiting.

At TDECU we segment members into all kinds of target markets:young, old, married, women, men, hunters, boaters, vacationers,homeowners, retirees and more. We research who they are and whatemotionally appeals to them. Only then can we effectively constructour marketing messages and images.

Our approach to the real Latino market is no different. ForTDECU, Latinos are a profitable market segment, not adisadvantaged, marginalized underclass that needs anotherpaternalistic outreach program. The real Latino market iswell-banked and financially savvy.

Latinos are entrepreneurial, hard-working, morally and fiscallyconservative (but frequently socially liberal), family oriented,fiercely patriotic, financially aspirational, religious and devotedto extended families where matriarchal influence is very powerful.The real Latino market has good jobs or owns businesses.Demographically, Latino families are younger and larger than othersegments. At TDECU, we use that knowledge to develop and deliversuccessful marketing messages and images to Latinos. InEnglish.

Unfortunately, the credit union movement seems determined tokeep telling Latinos that they are underbanked, underserved,disadvantaged, Spanish-speaking, Mexican immigrants withcitizenship and documentation problems.

I describe the credit union movement's perception of Latinos byrelating a true story about a Latino friend who is a cardiothoracicsurgeon in San Antonio. Vic and his kids were working in the frontyard of their incredibly impressive home one Saturday morning whena very sweet, Anglo woman pulled up to the curb, rolled down thewindow of her Lexus and asked him. “How much do y'all charge foryard work?” 

Edward C. Speed ispresident/CEO at Texas Dow Employees Credit Union in Lake Jackson,Texas.