The Office of the Census mounted a huge campaign aimed at Hispanics living in New York, but it made no effort to include the Mexican indigenous populations who live here, according to activists and members of these communities. 

"Many people don't understand the Census, since most of them speak only a little Spanish," we are informed by Rogelio González, one of the approximately 300 Mixtec Indians who live on northern Staten Island. 

González and his family are among the few people in their community who filled out and returned the Census questionnaire.  Among the Mixtecs, natives of San Marcos de Natividad, in Oaxaca, only 38 percent of the people had sent in their Census forms. 

González continued, "Besides, we don't understand the Census questions very well.  They should have sent a translator." 

Neither the Mixtec language nor other Mexican indigenous languages are among the 60 languages into which the Census questionnaire has been translated. 

A spokesman for the Census Bureau in New York, Igor Alvez, said, "We are counting on groups working closely with the Census office to do the work in these very specific communities." He continued, "These homes will be visited by Census workers if they have not returned their forms. They will be counted." 

The Mexican Consulate stated that it supported the Census Bureau with a general campaign directed to all Mexicans.  It did not want to be exclusionary or subdivide Mexicans into groups; therefore, there was no specific campaign to get the attention of Mixtecs or other indigenous groups. 

The Consulate noted that the indigenous people in question identified themselves as Mexican. 

In 2008 there were 295,000 Mexicans living in New York, according to the City's Department of Planning American Community Survey. 

Louis Nevaer, a writer and expert on the Hispanic community, stated that a large percentage of them are indigenous. 

Nevaer found that of the indigenous Mexicans who don't speak Spanish living in the region, only 17 percent is inclined to participate in the Census. 

Nevaer headed a team of some 17 people who interviewed indigenous Mexicans between February 1 and March 15, in New York City, in northern New Jersey, and in Long Island.  The team found that this group was not inclined to participate in the Census if there were no materials printed in their own languages, Mixtec, Zapotec, and Mayan. 

"They are very stubborn and mistrustful.  They are undocumented, and they are here where there are no elders of their community to tell them, 'Yes, it's good to cooperate'," explained Nevaer.