L.A. as Capital of LatAm?

Los Angeles is putting in a bid to host the 2024 Olympics, and its recently released promo video “This Is LA” aims to highlight the city’s greatest assets. One claim it makes is being “the northern capital of Latin America,” which can be backed by some census data. While Miami often earns this moniker in jest, Los Angeles has the larger Latino population, and California as a state is home to 15 million of the 55 million latinos in the United States. Many people actually living in Latin America will roll their eyes at a U.S. city boasting about being their capital, but L.A.’s push to identify itself as such only further shows just how large the number, influence, and buying power of Latinos has become in this country.