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Companies catering to Spanish speakers to win customers
If the Legislature has its way, English will become the official language of Arizona. But away from the government offices and school classrooms where this would apply, the business of doing business in the state is quickly transforming Arizona into a bilingual state where English and Spanish coexist everywhere, from ATMs to car sales lots to billboards to pizza places, and even a Swedish furniture company. The transformation comes as state legislators consider plans to make English the official language of Arizona. As the debate proceeds, businesses are capitalizing on the surge in the Latino population and going all out to win over Spanish-speaking residents. "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. [more]

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