(upbeat music) ♪ Hey, hey, hey ♪ Hey, hey, hey ♪ Hey, hey - Good evening and welcome to Horizonte, a show that takes a look at current issues through a Hispanic lens.

I'm your host Catherine Anaya.

We start 2024 with a look at how leaders can get the information they need to help them create stronger Latino communities.

It's called the Latino Data Hub, and it was set up late last year.

I will talk to the director of the data hub in just a moment, but first here is more about what it looks like.

(funky music) - [Narrator] Introducing the Latino Data Hub, a game changing data discovery engine that will revolutionize how we harness the power of reliable and comprehensive data, to empower and lift the Latino community in the United States.

With its vibrant culture, unwavering resilience, and unparalleled contributions, the Latino community, representing one of the largest and most dynamic communities in the nation, is poised to achieve greater heights than ever before.

This powerful data discovery tool goes beyond eye-catching statistics.

Providing a deeper understanding of the very diverse realities, aspirations, and contributions of Latinos.

The Latino Data Hub empowers policymakers, community-based organizations, philanthropists, media outlets, the private sector, and anyone who needs access to solid and thorough data, to address the opportunities, challenges, and disparities faced by Latinos in the United States.

- Joining me now via Zoom to talk more about the Latino Data Hub is Rodrigo Dominguez Villegas, the director of the LDH.

So nice to have you with us, Rodrigo.

- Thank you so much for having me.

- [Catherine] Good to see you.

So this is a very powerful tool.

Congratulations on the success so far.

How would you describe how this hub actually works?

- Well, the Latina Data Hub is a data platform with data on more than 130 different indicators of wellbeing, that will empower the general population, advocates, decision makers, the media with insights to make informed decisions about Latino communities to improve the wellbeing of our communities.

How does it work?

It is incredibly user friendly and our users just by point and clicking and selecting a few things, as you could see in the promo video, and I can show you later, can select one of over 130 different indicators of wellbeing.

For instance, do you have access to health insurance or not?

Or access to transportation, to technology.

And they're able to see the data point of that specific indicator at different geographic levels.

You can see how Latinos fair in that indicator at the national level, at the state level, or at the county level.

And again, everything is just by point and clicking.

The other important thing is that users are gonna be able to select whether they wanna see how Latinos are doing relative to other population groups, including, you know, comparing how Latinos are doing relative to the white population and black population, et cetera.

But more importantly, you can see differences across Latino subgroups.

So, are people of Mexican descent doing better or worse than people of of Puerto Rican descent?

And then there's a lot of other data breakdowns that you can do.

So, the tool goes very much in depth into the Latino communities.

- [Catherine] Well, so now you have the community having this valuable access to some very critical information.

Is there anything else out there like this?

- There isn't, and that's why we built this.

So we noticed that there's a big gap, in the ways in which Latinos are represented in aggregate data platforms.

There wasn't a place for accurate disaggregated data focused on Latinos that would allow us to make all of our groups visible.

For instance, a lot of groups of Latinos...

So we were frequently lumped together into one category, right, the category of Hispanic or Latino.

But we know that our communities are incredibly diverse.

And for instance, there was no way to understand whether Afro Latinos were doing better or worse than other Latinos of other racial backgrounds, or indigenous Latinos.

So that's what we built this data platform, to bring up that visibility, and to understand are there any disparities across Latino populations?

- Well, this is especially important for us here in Arizona.

As you know, we have the fifth highest Latino population in the United States.

So this is information that can offer valuable insight into important issues that we face in our state.

Can you tell me, first of all, before we get into, you know, the details about what specifically you look at, how is Latino defined in the scope of your data?

- So we define Latino as anybody who has any descendancy or ascendancy from Latin America, Spanish speaking Latin America.

This definition is what the federal government is using in all its data collection efforts.

And we are drawing the data from the US (indistinct) Bureau.

- With so much diversity in our community, what are, let's say, the 10 critical areas that you study?

- Yeah, so we include data on 130 different indicators, but that we group in 10 different issue areas.

Those are child wellbeing, democracy and voting, demographics, just how many are we and the age, et cetera.

Access to digital technology, education, employment, health insurance, housing, income and poverty, and transportation.

As you can see, there's a very wide range.

- Yes.

So the community member goes on the data hub and they're probably at first very overwhelmed with the amount of information.

How do you go about mining it, so it's digestible and understandable for the average person?

- Yes.

So first of all, if you go to 'latinodatahub.org' in our homepage, the first thing that you're gonna see are two things.

One, on the left you're gonna see the 10 different issue areas.

So you can click on one that is of, you know, of your interest, but more importantly in the right, you're gonna see four videos.

Those four videos are, one, explaining the whole Latino Data Hub, and then three that are very clear tutorial videos, that shows you all the power of the tool.

- Mm hm.

- And so by watching those three videos, they're short, that can give you an introduction.

And of course if you have questions, you can always email 'info@latinodatahub.org'.

And our team is very happy to help anybody who's trying to use the data platform to use it.

- [Catherine] Well, it's important to note that the hub is free and the information is bilingual, Spanish and English.

This is, as we all know, a very big election year.

Can you give me an example of how voters, for example, can access the information to empower themselves before heading to the polls?

There's so much information out there.

- Definitely, you know, there's many ways in which voters can utilize this.

First is to promote kind of like informed advocacy for specific issues, right?

You can go, you can select a county, the county that you live in.

And understand what are the issues in your Latino community that are most important?

Based on the actual indicators of how people are living and the wellbeing of Latinos.

So one of them is for advocacy and pushing the candidates that are running in your local state national elections, and asking them questions, right?

For example, 18% of Latinos in Arizona do not have access to health insurance.

It's a huge issue that a lot of people are living day to day.

You know, it'll be important to understand, what are the platforms of the different candidates that will increase access to health insurance, for those who don't have it for currently?

- Yes, knowledge is power, but also it's an opportunity for the voter to also go and fact check some of the information that they're receiving, right?

- Absolutely.

Unfortunately, we're living in an era of a lot of misinformation and disinformation.

And people in their, you know, in campaigns, many times utilize this environment and try to manipulate the information out there.

What we provide is reliable, accurate data about Latinos.

And so for instance, if you're watching a debate and you see that a certain candidate says something that just doesn't resonate, you can come to 'latinodatahub.org', and see, oh, you know, "Is it really true, that X percent of Latinos don't have high school education?"

For instance, or something that a candidate might have said in a debate or in an ad.

Anything that is going on.

Also, if you get messages through WhatsApp, or other things that are particularly targeting Latino populations, you could always come and fact check it on 'latinodatahub.org'.

- [Catherine] Okay, very good.

Well, this is a valuable tool and definitely long overdue.

So thank you for bringing it to the attention of our viewers.

We certainly appreciate it, Rodrigo, - Thank you so much for featuring it, and I, again, invite all the audience to go to 'latinodatahub.org'.

And if you have any questions to email us at 'info@latinodatahub.org.'

- [Catherine] Great.

Wonderful to see you.

Thank you.

- Thank you.

- You take care.

And that's our show for tonight.

For Horizonte and Arizona PBS, I'm Catherine Anaya.

Thanks for joining us.

Have a great night.

(upbeat music) ♪ Hey, hey, hey ♪ Hey, hey, hey ♪ Hey, hey