"The business world has discovered the Hispanic market is a viable market and is aggressively going after it," said Sergio Carlos, president of Grupo Ñ Advertising in Tempe, and former president and CEO of the Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. "Business is going in the opposite direction of what some legislators are trying to do."

While businesses are doing ever more business in Spanish, some legislators want the government to do away with Spanish completely.

The state House of Representatives is poised to give final approval to a 2006 ballot measure that could ban Spanish and any language other than English from state and local government business. If the English-only proposal also passes the Senate as expected, voters would have the final say in the Nov. 7, 2006, election.

But such a law would not affect private businesses, which could continue to reach out to customers in their language.

Consider, for example, Courtesy Chevrolet in Phoenix.

Ten years ago, the auto dealership, one of the oldest in the Valley, did practically no advertising in Spanish, said Scott Gruwell, who along with brother Mark, runs the family business started by their grandfather in 1955.

Today, 30 percent of Courtesy Chevrolet's advertising budget is spent on trying to woo Spanish-speaking Latinos, who account for 60 percent of the dealership's used-car sales and 40 percent of its new-car customers. Half of the dealership's 50-person sales staff is bilingual in English and Spanish. (Others also speak Arabic, Mandarin Chinese and Hindi, the language of India.)

To draw in Latino customers, the dealership runs weekly television commercials featuring a Superman-like character dubbed "Super Feo" on Univision, a national Spanish-language network that is broadcast locally on Channel 33.

Courtesy advertises regularly on four or five Spanish-language radio stations, and once a month hosts a "Hispanic Appreciation Days" event at its dealership on Camelback Road, decorating the showroom in the colors of the Mexican flag and giving away tacos while a mariachi band serenades customers.

The dealership also offers Spanish-speaking customers the option of reading over contracts in Spanish, though the official paperwork is signed and processed is in English. Soon, the dealership plans to advertise in Spanish on the Internet.

"Regardless of what the state does, we are going to continue to do business in Spanish," Gruwell said. "These are our customers, and we are going to take care of them."

They aren't alone: A growing number of Arizona businesses are reaching out to Spanish-speaking customers.


• At Chipotle Mexican Grill, with 16 Arizona restaurants, the restaurant staff is offered Spanish or English classes on company time at the restaurant to better help customers.


• Chandler-based Food City pioneered the idea of bilingual signs throughout its stores. In any of its 58 Arizona supermarkets you see signs designating the bakery as panadería, and the meat department is also know as the carnicería.


• And the new Ikea store in Tempe, the trendy cheap-chic Swedish furniture maker announced plans to aggressively target Latinos in a series of television, radio and print ads.

English-only supporters
 

It's exactly that sentiment that rankles state Rep. Russell Pearce and supporters of a growing movement to declare English the official language of Arizona. To Pearce, the proliferation of Spanish at the hands of business is tantamount to "corporate corruption."

"They are after money," Pearce said.

Pearce, a Mesa Republican, is leading the charge in the state Legislature to pass House Concurrent Resolution 2030 forcing state and local government to carry out their functions in English.

Declaring English the official language would save hundreds of thousands of dollars the government spends printing documents in Spanish, Pearce argues. But he admits his main objective is to protect the English language.

"We're an English-speaking nation, and we ought to preserve it that way," Pearce said during a debate on the English-only proposal on the House floor.

In 1988, Arizona voters approved a similar English-only law. The law was never implemented, however. The state Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional, arguing it violated free-speech and equal-protection rights.

Pearce believes his measure will survive legal challenges because it is less restrictive. Government documents necessary for international trade, for tourism and to protect the public's health and safety would be exempt. Private businesses also would be exempt from Pearce's English-only proposal.

 

Latino population grows