In the early 1970’s, I sat in a meeting at the San Diego County Administration building with county officials and approximately seven other community activists. The subject was the county’s planned mid-decennial census which was to take place in 1975. The salient concern for those of us present was the undercount of our respective constituent ethnic populations. This concern is still with us today. This study is part of a larger research effort sponsored by the U.S. Census Bureau to help understand the forces which play a role in the differential census undercount of ethnic and racial minorities (Brownrigg and Martin 1989). This paper is specifically is concerned with the undercount of Latinos in an inner city barrio of San Diego, California.

The initial impetus for my concerns about the possible undercount and my subsequent participation in U.S. Census Bureau sponsored research, has to do with the long political involvement that the sponsoring institution, Chicano Federation, has had with the problem. Secondly I believe that the sample area selected for this study illustrates the types of social and environmental factors that contribute to the census undercount of Latinos.