Community dialogue is necessary to address the needs of eastern North Carolina’s growing Latino population, minority leaders said at a discussion at the Heart Institute at East Carolina University on Monday morning.

Members of the Association of Mexicans in North Carolina (AMEXCAN) and other civic and educational leaders got the conversation going at a roundtable discussion featuring U.S. Rep. G.K. Butterfield, D-N.C. The roundtable was co-hosted by the ECU Center for Health Disparities Research.

The state’s Latino population increased 111 percent from 2000 to 2010, according to AMEXCAN President Juvencio Rocha Peralta. As the population continues to grow, a need for greater community integration through health and education has increased as well, Peralta said.

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