Dispelling these myths are people like Reynaldo León and computer instructor Roberto Briseño. Even so, many Hispanics are not going online or, if they are, they are not taking full advantage of the powerful information tool.

About a year ago León discovered the Internet. “I use it for email and to find information,” the 72-year-old Miami real estate agent says. “It’s very useful.” Yet León visits only one place on the World Wide Web (Web), a site for real estate professionals that provides listings of properties for sale. He uses email rarely and only for contacting clients; his online experience is limited to business purposes.

Like many others not entirely comfortable with the Internet, he has not immersed himself in the millions of websites he might find informative or entertaining. “It’s confusing,” he says. “Me enredo.” Part of his confusion comes from being unfamiliar with new software he uses in his business. But, he says, “every day I get a little better. Once you get to know how to use it, you can get a lot of the information you need. It’s complicated, but it gets easier.”

‘Every person has his or her own universe. It can be as small as a marble or as big as the world. The Internet opens that up. It lets you grow your universe’

What about the myth that the Web is only in English? In a poll commissioned in 2004 by America Online, 56 percent of Hispanics who do not use the Internet cited a lack of Spanish websites as a reason for not going online. In reality, Spanish is an important part of the online world. More than half of web pages are in English, but researchers at the University of Berkeley in 2003 found nearly 89.5 million pages in Spanish, the seventh highest total.

And what about the idea that the Internet is only for young people? A recent study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project found the number of people 65 and older who go online increased 47 percent between 2000 and 2004, and that those who take the leap become “as enthusiastic as younger users.”

Even with his limited use of the Internet, León is ahead of most Hispanics his age. Only 21 percent of English-speaking Hispanics 65 and older surveyed in the Pew study reported using the Internet in 2003. Experts agree the percentage is even lower among those who do not know English. In comparison, 70 percent of English-speaking Hispanics ages 18 to 24 told Pew they went online last year.

Why is the older generation less likely to log on? “A major difficulty is physical,” says Briseño, who teaches computer classes in Spanish for the public libraries in San Antonio, Texas. “The control of the mouse may prove to be the most difficult for our patrons, but with practice, things get easier.”

Obstacles exist beyond physical ones, says Tobey Dichter, founder of Generations on Line, a Philadelphia-based organization that promotes Internet literacy and access for older adults. She cites three factors that discourage them from using the Internet:

“Intimidation, because people who did not grow up with computers are confused, embarrassed, and don’t perceive the value,” Dichter says. “Skill, because they haven’t availed themselves of a course to learn and may be too intimidated to try it. And access—many seniors are on a fixed income or have no extra income, and most are overwhelmed by the choices and requirements for an Internet connection.”

Add not knowing English to the mix, and the barriers get higher.

The obstacles are high, but not insurmountable. The rewards of surfing the Web or keeping in touch through email make climbing those barriers worthwhile.

What Is the Big Attraction?
Think of a subject you are interested in. It’s almost certain you’ll find a website about it, and there’s a good chance you’ll find something in Spanish.

Maybe you want to start an exercise program but want to make sure it is age-appropriate. Go to Google, for instance, and enter the word ejercicios next to the phrase “personas mayores,” with the quote marks. You get back thousands of web pages in Spanish that contain those two search terms, many of which offer practical advice for seniors who want to get in better shape. Or you can try it in English. On Yahoo, a search for exercise and “senior citizens” finds some 200,000 web pages. Click on one, in English or Spanish, and off you go “surfing the Web.”

Immigrants can also use the Web to keep up with news from their mother countries. Just about every major newspaper and magazine in the Spanish-speaking world is now online. A Web-surfing Chilean American in Chicago can, with a couple of mouse clicks, read the latest edition of the Santiago daily El Mercurio. Yet the Internet is every bit as local as it is global—that same Chicago resident can find services for older people in his or her neighborhood.

There is much more. “My older students are interested in buying airline tickets, doing medical research,” Briseño says. “Maybe they just discovered they have diabetes. They say, ‘What do I do?’ ” They can find plenty of information among 465,000 Spanish-language web pages that a Google search for “diabetes” turned up.

Then there is email, which may be more popular than the Web among older adults. Miami resident Freya Lacayo, 72, doesn’t surf the Web very much, even though she is fluent in English. She does get and respond to about 15 emails most days. “Like the majority of people from my generation, I’m afraid of computers,” she says. “On the other hand, I don’t like to be without it.”

Briseño says email is the “biggest thing” in his classes. “It’s a lot cheaper than sending a letter or calling,” he adds.

Ignacio Hernández Jr., of La Jolla, California-based iHispanic Marketing Group, says email is especially useful to people in the United States who have relatives in Latin America. “The post office can be very slow and sometimes loses things in Mexico, in Argentina, and other Latin American countries,” he says. “An email arrives in five seconds.”

A Language Barrier?
All the emails people are exchanging in Spanish and even the millions of Spanish-language web pages do not lower one remaining linguistic barrier: the computer’s English “interface.” That means that nearly all computers sold in the United States have menus and tool bars displayed only in English. So while a webpage might be in Spanish, the buttons, explanations, and options needed to get to that website—even the Help section—are in English.

Spanish-language interfaces do exist. The largest computer makers—Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Gateway, IBM—buy the Spanish-language edition of Microsoft Windows and preinstall it on the computers they sell in Latin America and Spain, but not in the United States. One exception is Apple computers. The Macintosh operating system, which is Windows’ main competitor, allows users to "simply select their language preference the first time they start up their machines," says company spokesman Anuj Nayar. But Macs, as they are called, make up a small percentage of overall computer sales. The dominant system is Windows, and it's not easy to make a Windows computer "speak" Spanish.

Consumers who want a Windows computer “in Spanish” here must buy a computer with the standard English-language interface, purchase a CD with Spanish-language Windows, uninstall the English version, and install the Spanish. That’s a daunting task. It is also difficult to find Spanish Windows on CD. Microsoft sells it to businesses that buy multiple copies but not to individual consumers, and national chains like CompUSA do not stock it. It can be found, however.

Some experts recommend not bothering with it. In his computer classes, Briseño gives instructions in Spanish, but the computers use English-language software. “Once you leave this classroom, you’re going to see [computers] in English,” he says. Besides, he adds, fluency in English is not needed to understand the options on a computer menu. “There are very few words to learn. ‘File’ means archivo; ‘save’ means guardar,” he says.

Hebertina Cañón, 62, of Boonton, New Jersey, learned those key English words when she began using computers a decade ago. She does not want a Spanish-language interface even though she is far from being fluent in English. “There are words I know in English because I see them on the menu. I’m not used to them in Spanish,” she says.

There are also special interfaces, in English, designed for older persons who have trouble seeing the screen or understanding computer-talk. SeniorNet, a nonprofit organization, created one in partnership with IBM. At the project’s website, you can see what the interface looks like, then download it, and install it to work with the standard browser that comes with Windows.

Another nonprofit group, Generations on Line, features “an onscreen tutorial in large type and plain English—a very simple interface geared and tested for the elderly,” says Chief Executive Officer Tobey Dichter. But the program is not for individual computer owners. Instead, the organization has provided the Web-based software in more than 1,000 locations such as retirement homes, libraries, assisted-living facilities, and senior apartment buildings. Those locations pay Generations on Line a fee, but there is no charge to individuals using the computers. Dichter says she would love to offer the service in Spanish, “but we’re still waiting for a grant to support the effort.” You can find out more at their website.