MEMPHIS, Tennessee — This Hispanic Heritage Month.
The Latino X community makes up 7.2 perent of the Memphis population and there are many contributions to celebrate.
COVID-19 has changed the look of this year's observance with a shift to virtual events and Mauricio Calvo of Latino Memphis says he doesn't want 40 percent of Census forms to be left incomplete the way they did during the last count 10 years ago.
"At Latino Memphis we are not doing a lot of celebrations. We are focusing our efforts on COVID-19 response and also on the Census. We feel those are important ways to create awareness among the community," said Calvo.
Calvo believes placing attention on these 2 issues that will have far reaching impacts on Memphis and the Midsouth for years to come is a contribution that benefits everybody.
The results of the Census is how congress allocates money to communities based on the budget of the population.
"Because if we think about our income tax money and if we put our tax money into this big bank account in Washington DC and the way this money comes back to Memphis and to other communities is the Census.
Calvo emphasizes how easy and quick it easy to complete your census.
If you don't find the time to fill out the brief form there's not much room to complain about poor roads, lack of health care, and other things money from the census count is used for and leaves money on the table.
"We have to understand that decision we make of not filling out the census will live with us for the next 10 years." said Calvo.
Hispanic Heritage month began as a week long national celebration in 1968.
It became a month long celebration from September 15 through October 15 in 1988.