As of 2000, the number of Latinos in Vista had jumped to 34,990, constituting 38 percent of the city's population. This represents a 96.5 percent increase in the city's Latino population in the last 10 years. Frank Lopez, president of Hispanos for Progress, a local civic organization, and a former Vista city council candidate said he believes there are even more Latinos in Vista than the Census reported and suspects the real percentage may be closer to 45. Lopez figures many of Vista's Latino residents are employed in the city's industrial park, while another portion are undocumented persons working illegally. But it isn't an abundance of jobs attracting so many Latinos to Vista, Lopez says.
People working minimum wage jobs go to where the rents are less.
For a community with such a strong Latino influence, Lopez says Vista is failing to properly represent the growing Latino community. We need someone up there at City Hall to represent the Latino community. Currently, there are no Latinos serving on the City Council. While the highest concentration of Vistans are white, the number of white residents decreased in the last 10 years, from 57,972 in 1990 to 44,844 in 2000. That's a 30 percent decrease in Vista's white population, from 80.6 percent in 1990 to 49.9 percent in 2000.