Hispanic social-networking sites link youth across Latin America, U.S. and Spain

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For example, Facebook has relied mostly on e-mail addresses provided by schools, something academic institutions in Latin America don't necessarily offer. Then there's the language issue. Some larger sites let users perform basic tasks in Spanish, but drill down and the more advanced tools are still in English.

Vostu takes extra security measures, a nod to concerns in countries where kidnappings are common. It limits the initial number of members on each school network to 100 people and requires additional checks for those seeking to join.

Because texting is especially popular among Latin American teens, the site also offers its own integrated version of instant messaging, Kafie said.

But are technology, culture and language enough to draw people away from MySpace, Facebook or Google Inc.'s YouTube?

These days, Hispanic youth in the U.S. are already creating their own communities in mainstream sites. Students in California recently used a section of MySpace to organize walkouts to push for the creation of a federal holiday honoring farmworker advocate Cesar Chavez.

Tamara Barber, a Forrester Research analyst who focuses on Hispanic consumer technology, believes the smaller Hispanic social-networking sites can compete, even with MySpace stepping into the ring.

''I don't think MySpace in Spanish is going to put all these sites out of business,'' she said. ''The Hispanic market online is largely untapped. The fact that MySpace is coming out right now shows that Hispanics are a significant opportunity.''

ElHood co-founder, Argentinean-born wunderkind Demien Bellumio is already tapping. The 30-year-old, bicultural, tech-savvy hipster represents exactly the demographic his site targets.

Bellumio talks in rapid-fire _ English or Spanish, you choose _ about his company, Hoodiny Inc., which owns the site. Thanks to a deal with the Warner Latin America label, Hoodiny also offers complete artist catalogues online and develops Web sites for top artists such as Mexico rockers Mana, Miami-based rapper Pitbull and Ricky Martin.

To Bellumio, it makes sense that the social-networking sites would be among the first Internet sites to successfully market to Hispanics.

''Music is a huge part of our culture. And people are looking for a way to come together,'' Bellumio said. By tracking the demographics of his users for record labels and artists, he also provides important marketing data that other, larger sites do not.

Monterrosa, who performs under the name Monte Rosa, believes there's growing need for services targeting the Latino population in the United States.

''More young people come to this country and don't have a family,'' Monterrosa said. ''They are here to strive or to study and they need contacts. They don't have money to go to shows or clubs, but they can reach out to people who also like the same things,'' he said. As for those in Latin America, they can connect with music and youth scenes that are difficult to find outside the big cities.

To succeed in the long term, the sites will need to meet the expectations of a new breed of Hispanic Internet users, said Richard Chabran, head of the nonprofit California Community Technology Policy Group, which has studied Hispanic use of the Internet.

''The youth, they want it to be fast. They want it to be hip, and they want to see themselves in it _ but not just themselves,'' he said. ''People who are serious about the Hispanic market realize that if you put up a site in Spanish and it's not done well, they're going to get you.''