Hispanic/Latino Americans
Learning Outcomes
- Describe the historical context and current experience of Hispanic/Latino Americans in the United States
Latino/Hispanic Americans
The segment of the U.S. population that self-identifies as Hispanic in 2017 was estimated at 18.1 percent of the total population (U.S. Census Bureau 2017). Like Asian Americans, Latino/Hispanic Americans encompass many different ethnic groups (see Figure 1). But unlike other ethnic groups who share a Pan-Asian or Pan-African identity among various members from different countries of origin, a majority of Hispanics don’t view themselves as simply “Hispanic” or “Latino”, but feel a stronger connection with their family’s country of origin. [1].
A large majority of Latinos live in two metropolitan areas: Los Angeles/Long Beach/Anaheim in California, and New York City/ Newark/Jersey City in New York and New Jersey—with 6 million and 4.8 million respectively. However, four other metropolitan areas (Miami, Houston, Riverdale, and Chicago) are each home to over 2 million Latinos.[2]
Not only are there broad differences among the different national origins that make up the Hispanic American population, but there are also different names for the group itself. The 2010 U.S. Census states that “Hispanic” or “Latino” refers to a person of “Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin regardless of race.” There have been some disagreements over whether Hispanic or Latino is the correct term for a group this diverse, and whether it would be better for people to refer to themselves as being of their national origin specifically, for example, Mexican American or Dominican American. This section will compare the experiences of Mexican Americans and Cuban Americans.
How and Why They Came
As discussed in the introduction to this section, many Mexicans who became American citizens didn’t “come” to the United States. They lived in areas of Mexico that became part of the United States as a result of the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. They didn’t immigrate (or even move); some became U.S. citizens and some remained citizens of Mexico living in the U.S. Since then, Mexican migration was often in response to the need for cheap agricultural labor, and often coincided with seasonal crop cycles.
The 1898 Treaty of Paris resulted in the purchase of the Philippines and to Spain ceding Puerto Rico, Guam, and Cuba to the U.S. Puerto Rico is the largest U.S. territory and Puerto Ricans are legally U.S. citizens. Like the Philippines, Puerto Rico was under Spanish control prior to the treaty, so the island went from one colonizer to another; however, unlike the Philippines, which became independent in 1946, Puerto Rico continues to be a U.S. territory.
Salvadorians comprise the third largest of the Latino subgroups, and are the largest group from the “Northern Triangle,” which also includes Guatemala (#6) and Honduras (#8). The number of immigrants from th