Our purpose was to evaluate the effects of the Program Latino para Dejar de Fumar (PLDF), a community-wide smoking cessation intervention developed for Spanish-speaking Hispanics. PLDF community intervention was based on research to identify culture-specific aspects of smoking cessation for Hispanics and included targeted distribution of a self-help cessation guide, an electronic and printed media campaign, raffles for smokers who quit, and participation in community activities. The main outcome measures were smoking cessation and associated behaviors. Exposure to the intervention, the primary predictor variable, was defined as affirmative responses to questions about recognizing the PLDF name, having the PLDF smoking cessation guide, having heard or seen messages about PLDF on various media, and knowing about a PLDF-sponsored $500 raffle. Four cross-sectional telephone surveys of Hispanic adults 18 to 65 years of age, living in neighborhoods in San Francisco, California, defined as having at least 10% Hispanics in the 1980 U.S. Census, were conducted preceding (1986-1987) and following (1988-1989) start of PLDF (total n = 7,667). Although smoking prevalence decreased over the four years, smoking cessation in the 12 months prior to the survey was unrelated to exposure to PLDF. For the two surveys conducted after PLDF was started (n = 3,551), nonsmokers, women, older adults, and less acculturated persons were more likely to report exposure to PLDF.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)