According to the 2010 census, a total of 120,841 people identified themselves as Hispanic, a significant increase from the 87,693 who were surveyed in 2000. This equates to approximately 9 percent of the state's population as Hispanic, and to the delight of the Hispanic community, politicians are beginning to take note. Publisher of Hawaii Hispanic News, Jose Villa, stated, "In my opinion, 2012 will be the year of the Latino in Hawaii. The political campaigns have already started, and several races are going to be very, very close. Now that the Latino community is 9 percent of the population, elected officials and candidates can no longer ignore it. There's this huge community that's building."
Census data shows that approximately 89 percent of the Hispanics living in Hawaii were born in the United States. Villa believes that many of the Hispanics have settled in Hawaii due to the fact that the local culture relates to their own personal heritage. Villa stated, "In a lot of mainland cities, you have these different neighborhoods -- the Puerto Ricans over here, the Dominicans over here, the Mexicans over there. Here in Hawaii we don't have any of those barrios. Everyone lives where they can afford to live. So what happens here is that we can approach everything on a pan-Hispanic basis. We need to get some Latinos and Latinas in the state Legislature."
