HISPANIC AMERICANS

Hispanic Americans

Hispanic Americans

Introduction

Hispanic Americans (also known as Latinos/Latinas) are individuals whose ancestors came from Latin American countries, such as Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and other South and Central American countries, such as Colombia, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. Comas-Diaz (2001) mentions Hispanic Americans are one of the fastest growing ethnic minority groups in the United States. According to the 2000 U.S. Census, Hispanic Americans are now the largest ethnic minority group in the United States, representing a total of 35,305,818 Americans or 12.5% of the total population. Hispanic Americans represent a very heterogeneous group of people in terms of race, ethnicity, region, and socioeconomic status. As a group, however, Hispanic Americans tend to be younger than other Americans (median age is 26 years), and the majority are located in metropolitan areas. Although Hispanic Americans live throughout the United States, the majority are concentrated in a number of regions and states, including the Southwest (e.g., California, Arizona), Texas, Florida, Illinois, and the Northeast (e.g., New York, New Jersey). For a variety of reasons, Hispanic Americans tend to be over represented in the areas of poverty and unemployment and underrepresented in the areas of education and high income (Comas-Diaz, 2001).

A Historical Background of the Minority Group

Hispanic Americans have lived in the region that is now the United States for more than 500 years. The ancestors of today's Hispanic Americans were present when Christopher Columbus arrived in the New World on the island of Hispaniola, which today comprises Haiti and the Dominican Republic. From the start, European settlers and indigenous people intermarried, giving birth to the mestizo culture that is found among most Hispanic American ethnic groups (Comas-Diaz, 2001). The European conquest involved oppressive forces of enslavement, persecution, religious conversion, and the overall disempowerment of the indigenous people of the Americas by the conquistadores. Part of the process involved the extensive destruction and extinction of several indigenous groups, such as the Taino Indians of Puerto Rico and the Dominican Island and many native tribes and nations in what is today the southwest United States. The enslavement of people of African descent was also a part of this process and led to the intermingling of African cultures with European and indigenous groups; these groups became known as criollos and mulattos.

During the early 1800s, many Latin American countries fought for and won independence from their European colonizers, and the newly established countries created constitutional democracies. However, during this same period, the United States began to practice a policy of expansion known as Manifest Destiny, annexing portions of Florida, Texas, and the Southwest. At times, U.S. expansionist policies led to overt hostilities and warfare with the new Latin American democracies. As a result of these events, many Hispanic Americans were forcibly reclassified as “aliens” (Santiago, et al, 2002) in their own land (such as Mexican Americans in 1848) or recolonized as noncitizens in U.S. territories (Puerto Ricans in 1898, although they were later made citizens in ...