Latinos In The United States

Abstract

This research paper aims to study Hispanics as a special population, their reasons to emigrate, and their growth and importance as a group. In recent years, it has been observed one of the most important demographic changes in the Spanish-speaking world: the increasing number of Spanish speakers in the USA; among the many factors that have influenced this development, it is included the emigration from Latin America to the United States, especially Mexico. In fact, the new Latin American immigration has changed so multifaceted in the U.S. cities and Hispanic communities themselves.

Chapter 1: Introduction

Since the 1970s, civil wars and economic crisis in Latin America have led to an increase in the number of emigrants. In El Salvador, the conflict between the guerrillas and the government led to the departure of many Salvadorans during the 1980s. About 500,000 people immigrated to America, taking up residence in Washington, parts of Florida, Massachusetts and California. Also in that decade, the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua led 800,000 Nicaraguans to the United States. In the Dominican Republic, the labor market recession and political turmoil prompted many Dominicans to immigrate to America, especially the city of New York. These waves of immigration have led to different Hispanic communities to establish a unique identity in America.

Immigrants from South America, particularly Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, have concentrated in the Northeast. The Colombians, in 1990 amounted to 352,000, becoming the largest group of Hispanics with roots in South America. That same year, Ecuadorians and Peruvians amounted to 197,000 people. This research paper aims to study Hispanics as a special population, their reasons to immigrate, and their growth and importance as a group.

Chapter 2: Literature Review

Who are the Hispanics in the U.S.?

The central question in this part is whose are the Hispanics in the U.S.? Are they all people who speak Spanish? Are they all those with origins in Hispanic speaking countries? Other important questions are: Can we see Hispanics as a collective group? or, is an ethnic group or a social group? It is not easy to answer these questions; it will be described through the literature review the phenomenon of Hispanics. Before proceeding, it is important to answer this question: Where does the term Hispanic come from?

Hispania was the name the Romans gave to the country that is known today as Spain. (Lemm, 2007 p. 17) Therefore, it is easy to conclude that Hispanics, first, are the people who have their origins in Spain. In the fourteenth and fifteenth century, Spain was the great power of Europe, and was characterized by its expansive growth. This expansion that started in those centuries resulted in the conquest of the regions now known as Central, South America, and southern states of the USA.

In the nineteenth century, these regions began the independence wars that have resulted in the formation of different countries, named as: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Uruguay, and Venezuela. The factors that characterized the people from these countries are the Spanish language, and Catholicism. (Agar, 2002)

The fact that these countries share the Spanish language becomes relevant to distinguish them as a group and conclude that Hispanics are Spanish-speaking countries of origin. This makes the term "Latino / a", used when speaking about people of Hispanic origin. Regardless these countries does have the common characteristic of speaking the same language, it does not mean that all people of Spanish speaking countries have the same culture, reason why it is consider necessary to divide the Hispanic groups in the U.S. in different subgroups. There are several ways to divide the Hispanics and (Korzenny & Korzenny, 2005 p.17) offer a division across the country or region of origin, namely those of Mexico, Puerto Rico, Central America, South America and the Dominican Republic. Hispanics are distributed among all states, but especially among the states of South; New Mexico, California, Texas, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, Florida and New York, where is a large concentration of Puerto Ricans and Dominicans. In the following paragraphs the researcher will describe the characteristics of each subgroup.

The Mexicans

In 1848, there was a war between Mexico and the U.S. that resulted in the loss of most of the Mexican land. Thereafter, the States of Texas, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, and Colorado are in the U.S., under the effect of "Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.” (Katz, 2007 pp. 157 - 189) The people that by this time lived in this region are the first group of Mexican in the U.S. and part of the indigenous population of this region after the Spanish colonization. These people started coming from Mexico to U.S. and immigration began. Mexico has always been the largest exporter of U.S. Hispanics and Mexicans are the largest group of Hispanics in U.S. In 2006, Mexicans made up 64% of all Hispanics.

Many of the Mexicans living in the U.S. immigrated to find work and so improved their future. Large parts of the money earned (in general) comes from young men, sending it to their families as "remittances" making Mexico today very dependent on the U.S. Work. Conversely, the U.S. is dependent on Mexican workers because they work in many sectors of the economy such as agriculture, construction and gardening. (Korzenny & Korzenny, 2005 p. 30)

The Puerto Ricans

Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens and thus, they are in a different situation than other Hispanics. They can travel between the U.S. and Puerto Rico without requiring a visa or other documents. After the war between Spain and the U.S. in 1898, it began a time when Puerto Rico belongs to the U.S. In 1917 the U.S. guaranteed U.S. citizenship to the Puerto Ricans, and in 1952 Puerto Rico received the status of the commonwealth. According to the U.S. Census, about 3.9 million of Puerto Ricans live in Puerto Rico, and 3.8 million in the U.S. With this numbers, Puerto Ricans are 9% of all Hispanics in the U.S.

Most of the Puerto Ricans living in the U.S. resides in New York, reason why it is normal to refer to the Puerto Ricans as "newyoricans". Within the Hispanic community, Puerto Ricans have a unique situation. As mentioned, Puerto Ricans can travel freely between Puerto Rico and the U.S. They are also in the unique situation of having access to American

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