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I can count the number of my Latino friends on one hand.

Actually, two fingers.

Oh, I see them every day, just as you do. I just don't know very many of them.

Not that there aren't plenty of Latinos to get to know.

In 1990, the county's Hispanic population numbered fewer than 2,000. Today, it totals more than 16,500, an increase of 800 percent. Statewide, the Latino population has grown to nearly 600,000 people.

Hispanics now account for 8.4 percent of the enrollment in Guilford County Schools.

But it still seems as if our Latino residents are typically seen but not heard -- and understood even less. Especially among African Americans.

When they arise as conversation topics, too often I hear them referred to as "those Mexicans." Who's to say where they are from? We don't ask. We just assume.

They all look alike. They all act alike.

Sound familiar?

But there is hope. "Problems do happen," says Dr. Nolo Martinez, an assistant director at UNCG's Center for New North Carolinians. He cites occasional friction among black and Latino students in public schools.

But he also cited progress, rattling off the names of several African Americans who have made earnest outreaches to Latinos.

They include the Rev. Odell Cleveland of Greensboro's Welfare Liaison Project and County Commissioner Carolyn Coleman, who helped Martinez secure an appointment as Latino affairs director in Gov. Jim Hunt's administration.

There's hope even in the curious saga of Jorge Cornell, 32, state leader of the Latin Kings gang. Most recently, he and three others were arrested and charged in connection with the alleged abduction of a 15-year-old girl.

Cornell and several local clergy say the charges are bogus - that police have consistently targeted him since he called last summer for peace among gangs in the city.

Frankly, I'm not sure whom to believe at this point.

But put aside, for the moment, whether you think Cornell really means what he says about peace.

And just consider that his most fervent supporters happen to be black people.

That's hardly the norm, in North Carolina or anywhere else. Traditionally, the rift between African Americans and Latinos is as deep as it is wide, fed by a legacy of fear, distrust and even jealousy.

We fear new customs and an unfamiliar language.

We fear that Latinos will take jobs that once went to black people.

We assume they are all illegal.

And, to be honest, we fear they will supplant us as the country's "major minority."

Some among the Latinos -- especially newcomers -- fear that black people are all violent criminals who will rob and hurt them.

The tension is heightened by the greater likelihood that Latino immigrants tend to share neighborhoods with black people.

The rift surfaced when members of the anti-immigrant organization, the Minuteman Project, tried to wedge it even wider and deeper two years ago in an appeal to enlist African Americans in their anti-immigrant cause.

It also surfaced in 2000 in the town of Siler City, where ex-Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, of all people, came calling to foment anti-immigrant feelings.

It even surfaced in the presidential campaign, amid speculation that Latino voters would not back a black man for president.

Then again, the Minutemen's campaign to divide black people and Latinos ultimately fizzled. And David Duke was a bust in Siler City, which today is 50 percent Latino, 25 percent African American and 25 percent white, and which has made significant strides in relations among all three groups.

Among the individuals helping to build those relations is the town's African American police chief.

As for the presidential election, Barack Obama won more than two-thirds of the ballots cast nationwide by Latinos, whose votes proved critical in several swing states.

For instance, in North Carolina, which Obama won by only 14,000 votes, the Democrat beat Republican John McCain among Latinos by 26,000 votes, according to the Immigration Policy Center.

So, there's reason for optimism. But there's also a long way to go. That's why, even if Jorge Cornell is sincere, he shouldn't be a lone voice in the call for stronger bonds between black people and Latinos.

"We can't have a strong Latino community in North Carolina without a strong relationship with the African American community," Martinez says. "It is a necessity."

No offense to Cornell, but this discussion is a lot bigger than he.