BY LAURA WIDES-MUNOZ

AP HISPANIC AFFAIRS WRITER

MIAMI — Indie rocker Eric Monterrosa checks his ElHood.com Web site at least three times a day, answering fans, surfing for other new Latin artists and keeping in touch with friends from his native Colombia.

Elhood is sort of a bilingual MySpace page mixed with a the latest in Latin music, and for Monterrosa it has become a personal and professional lifeline. It is also the latest in a wave of Hispanic social networking sites building connections across the U.S., Latin America and Spain, all hoping that they can capture a slice of the millions of dollars in advertising being purchased.

“A lot of Latin artists are plugged in. So if you want to find them it’s easy. If you go to sites like MySpace, you have to go through all sorts of genres, types of music and languages,” Monterrosa said. “It’s cool that we can break the boundaries and reach out to other countries and have so many people sharing music and talking across international borders.”

About 56 percent of Hispanics in the U.S. use the Internet, compared to 71 percent of non-Hispanic whites and 60 percent of non-Hispanic blacks, according to study released last month by the D.C.-based Pew Internet and American Life Project. But the number of Hispanics online jumps to 67 percent for 18 to 27 year olds, who also happen to be the group most likely to visit social networking sites and a plum advertising demographic.
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