Not long ago Hispanics were dropping vowels to Anglicize their names. But over the last decade emphasizing one’s Hispanic roots has become so popular that a debate has erupted over just who can claim the heritage. In the TV-news industry, stations are under pressure to diversify on-air news teams, and the competition is so intense that a name can determine whether an audition tape gets noticed. With executives claiming there is a shortage of Hispanics to fill on-air jobs, applicants are trying to appear more Hispanic by using a mother’s or grandmother’s maiden name, a spouse’s or an ex-spouse’s name–or, in rare cases, any Latino name at all. Says Sylvia Perez, a Chicago anchor with parents from Puerto Rico: “We’ve come such a long way that we are now finding people who want to act as if they are Latinos.”

One of every eight people in the United States is Hispanic, the 2000 Census found. But the on-air presence of Hispanics remains proportionally much lower. On the evening-news broadcasts of the national networks, there were only two Hispanic correspondents in 2000. Just 6 percent of news anchors nationwide were Hispanics in 1998, according to a survey by the Radio- Television News Directors Association. Since then, networks have made a concerted push to hire Latinos–prompting surname changes like Graham to Gonzalez, Minini to Moreno, Applewhite to Sandoval and Weyand to Vega. “A lot of stations don’t ask too many questions,” says Don Fitzpatrick, a headhunter for broadcast-news talent. His Web site, tvspy.com, an insider’s guide to the industry, features a chat-room debate on name changing. “I have people ask me if they should do it,” he says. “I tell them to talk about it with their mothers and fathers.”

Latinos born with their names are often critical of the practice. It’s not that they mind the opportunism of newscasters; it’s just that they don’t want television stations to assume that a name links a reporter to the community. “It shows how unprepared the stations are,” says Cecilia Alvear, an NBC reporter and president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. “They say they are looking for diversity, but they don’t know how to go about it.” Antonio Mora, a reporter on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” goes further: “All the stations want is to fill their little quotas. But if you get a guy who is not really Latino, that ability to cover Latino stories doesn’t exist.”

Even so, a Latino surname can be a valuable commodity. Colleen Dominguez, a correspondent for NBC, got hers by marrying a Mexican-American 13 years ago, long before she was on the air. Since her name was well known to viewers, she kept it after her recent divorce–and after her husband argued unsuccessfully in court that she was using the name for career advancement and should be forced to give it up. “When I was starting out, my name helped me,” she acknowledges. “It got my foot in the door.” Chuck DeBroder, a weatherman in El Paso, Texas, remembers applying for a job in a bigger market two years ago. “My agent said they really wanted a Hispanic but would be willing to overlook that if I changed my name,” he says. He declined.

Few of Staci Lehman’s co-workers in Texas knew she had any Hispanic ancestry. She considers herself “part German, part Latina and part Southern belle.” Her grandfather, whose name she borrowed, was the son of immigrants from Mexico and Spain. Her mother never learned Spanish and kept her husband’s name, Lehman, after their divorce 11 years ago. Staci, 29, said that she had been considering a name change long before she entered the TV business: “It was a personal decision that had nothing to do with my career.” She arrived for the interview in San Diego as Ortiz and says she was never even asked if she spoke Spanish. The answer is, not much.

The news team at her station, KSWB, bears little resemblance to San Diego, where 25 percent of the population is Hispanic. Of 11 people on the air, two, including Ortiz, identify themselves as Hispanic. Often other employees who speak Spanish have to serve as interpreters. The news director, Suzanne Black, said that she was not bothered by the name change: “I could call myself Jim-Bob. I don’t think that will affect how we cover the news.” But it might keep her audition tape from getting noticed.