Hispanic Americans are Americans of Spanish-speaking descent. Many Hispanic Americans are the descendants of Mexican people who lived in the Southwest when it became part of the United States. Almost all other Hispanic Americans or their ancestors migrated to the United States from Latin America. The three largest Hispanic groups in the United States are Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, and Cuban Americans. As a group, Hispanic Americans represent a mixture of several ethnic backgrounds, including European, Native American, and African. People of Native American descent also are called Indigenous (native) people of the Americas, or of a particular place in the region.
Although the people of Puerto Rico are U.S. citizens, Puerto Rico is not a U.S. state. The U.S. Census Bureau therefore does not count the island’s residents as part of the U.S. population. In this article, the term Hispanic American applies only to Puerto Ricans who live in a U.S. state or in Washington, D.C.
Today, more than 60 million people of Hispanic descent live in the United States. The 2010 Census was the first census in which Hispanics were the largest minority group. African Americans are the second largest U.S. minority group. Hispanics are also one of the fastest-growing U.S. minorities, as a result of a high birth rate and continuing immigration.
Most Hispanic Americans speak English but continue to use Spanish as well. As Spanish-speakers, they form the largest language minority in the United States. In addition to their language, Hispanic Americans have preserved many other traditions of their homelands. The foods, music, clothing styles, and architecture of these countries have greatly influenced U.S. culture.
Hispanic Americans are also called Latinos, because most are of Latin American origin. Many Hispanic people in the United States describe themselves simply as Americans. Others, however, identify themselves with their cultural or national background and refer to themselves as Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, Cuban Americans, and so on. Members of some groups use special names to describe themselves. For example, some Mexican Americans call themselves Chicanos, and some Puerto Ricans who live in New York City refer to themselves as Nuyoricans or Boriquas.
Like other minorities, Hispanic Americans have suffered from discrimination in jobs, housing, and education. Some Hispanics are also hampered by not having skills that are important for competing in U.S. society. For example, many new Hispanic immigrants cannot speak or understand English. Discrimination and the lack of such skills have contributed to a high rate of unemployment—and, consequently, a high rate of poverty—among Hispanics. Although millions of Hispanic Americans have overcome these obstacles, many others remain in poverty.
Who Hispanic Americans are
Today, the number of Hispanics living in the United States totals over 60 million. Hispanic Americans represent nearly 20 percent of the total population. About 60 percent of all Hispanics in the United States are Mexican Americans. Puerto Ricans make up nearly 10 percent of the Hispanic population, and Cuban Americans and Dominican Americans both account for about 4 percent. People from Central America and South America together make up over 15 percent of the Hispanic population. A small percentage of Hispanic Americans are from Spain.
The Spanish language and the Roman Catholic religion are among the oldest and most important cultural bonds that unite Hispanics. During Spain’s colonial period, which lasted from the 1500’s to the 1800’s, Spanish conquistadors (conquerors), explorers, settlers, and missionaries spread their language and religion throughout the areas they controlled. As a result, nearly all Hispanic Americans can speak Spanish, and a large majority are Roman Catholics.
Hispanics in the United States today speak a variety of Spanish dialects, depending on their country or region of origin. But the speakers of one dialect can usually understand the speakers of another with no difficulty. Although some Hispanic Americans do not use Spanish at all, most continue to speak Spanish in their homes and teach the language to their children. Many adult immigrants have difficulty learning English, but their children usually grow up speaking both Spanish and English.
Another unifying element is the recognition of common problems. Those Hispanics who are not fluent in English face obstacles in schooling and employment. Moreover, some white, English-speaking Americans regard all Hispanics as one group—a group whose ancestry and linguistic and cultural background are different from their own. Such perceptions have led to discrimination that affects all Hispanic American groups and fosters unity among them.
Within Hispanic America there are people of different national and ethnic origins. Physical appearances vary widely and often show the blending of European, Native American, and African features. Most Mexican Americans are mestizos. Mestizos have both European and Native American ancestors and, in some cases, African ancestors as well. Their European ancestors were mostly Spaniards who colonized what are now Mexico and the southwestern United States. Their Native American ancestors were living in these regions when the Spaniards arrived. Most of the African ancestors were brought to the region and enslaved while it was a Spanish colony. Many Puerto Ricans are of mixed Spanish and African descent. Their African ancestors were brought over by the Spaniards and enslaved, too. Other Puerto Ricans have some Native American ancestry as well. Most Cuban Americans are of Spanish descent, though some people of African or mixed European and African ancestry also emigrated from Cuba.
Where Hispanic Americans live
About 95 percent of Hispanic Americans live in urban areas, particularly in Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, San Diego, and many cities in the Southwest. About a tenth of all Puerto Ricans living on the mainland live in New York City. The New York City area is also home to large groups of Hispanics from Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, and Mexico. Chicago has large Mexican American and Puerto Rican populations. Colombians, Cubans, Ecuadoreans, Guatemalans, and other groups have also settled in Chicago. Mexican Americans form the largest Hispanic group in most cities in the southwestern part of the United States, including Los Angeles and San Antonio. Los Angeles also has small Guatemalan, Honduran, and Puerto Rican communities. Many Cuban Americans have settled in the Miami area. Large numbers of Nicaraguan immigrants have also settled in Miami and other cities in southern Florida. 
Cultural backgrounds
In Puerto Rico and Cuba,
early Spanish explorers and conquistadors encountered the Indigenous Arawak people, who were also called the Taíno in this area. These people were generally known to be peaceful. But as more Spaniards settled Puerto Rico and Cuba in the early 1500’s with the intent to conquer, they took land from the Arawak and forced the Indigenous people to work for them. The Arawak rebelled against this treatment, but their stone weapons were no match for the Spaniards’ guns. Warfare, physical abuse, and disease began to take a heavy toll among the Arawak. By the mid-1500’s, almost all of the Arawak in Puerto Rico and Cuba had died. See also Arawak Indians .
Soon after the first Spanish settlers arrived in the Caribbean, they began to bring Black Africans to replace the rapidly dwindling Indigenous labor force. Although the hundreds of thousands of enslaved Black people brought to the Spanish colonies far outnumbered the Spaniards, the conditions of slavery limited contact between Spaniards and Africans for many years. The Africans were able to maintain much of their own culture, including religions, folklore, and music. The Spanish colonists, meanwhile, carried on a fairly traditional European way of life. Cities in Puerto Rico and Cuba resembled European cities in appearance. Spanish musicians performed the music of Spanish composers in concert halls and churches. The few artists working in the colonies also tended to imitate European styles of the day.
Eventually, the Spanish and African influences began to blend in Puerto Rico and Cuba. The Spanish influences dominated in language, religion, and architecture. Although many Black people had been baptized as Christians, they combined Christian religious observances with their traditional ceremonies. They also identified some Christian saints with certain African deities.
Other aspects of African culture had a wider influence in Puerto Rico and Cuba. African music and dance were important contributions to Latin American culture. Black storytellers also told traditional African tales that became part of the folklore of the islands.
Probably the most obvious aspect of cultural blending in the Caribbean was the intermingling of population groups. Many of the Spanish men had African mistresses or wives. Today, most Puerto Ricans and many Cubans have both Spanish and African ancestry.
In Mexico.
The empire of the Aztec people covered large areas of central and southern Mexico by the early 1500’s. The Aztec capital was Tenochtitlan, one of the most important centers of trade and religion in the Americas. With an estimated population of about 200,000, Tenochtitlan was also one of the largest cities in the world at that time. See also Aztec .
Religion and war were the center of Aztec society. Much of the Aztec’s art, music, and poetry was intended to glorify their many gods. To remain in favor with their gods, the Aztec practiced human sacrifice. They waged war partly to obtain prisoners to be used as sacrifices.
A complex, highly organized society grew up around the Aztec’s religion and military activities. A large government administered the empire. Laws were strictly enforced by a system of courts, and criminals were often punished harshly for even small crimes. The Aztec encouraged their children to develop a sense of social responsibility from an early age. All children were required to attend school, where they prepared to become priests, warriors, craftworkers, or householders.
Following the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire in 1521, the Spanish government moved quickly to establish political control of the new territory. It was the Roman Catholic clergy, however, that most effectively introduced Spanish culture among the Indigenous people. Spanish priests and friars started missions where they instructed local people in Spanish, Roman Catholicism, and European crafts. The missions did not succeed in molding the Indigenous people to live and work in a European-style society. But they did help start the process of mestizaje, the blending of Spanish and Indigenous cultures.
As in the Caribbean, the language and religion of the Spaniards came to dominate. But like the Africans in Cuba and Puerto Rico, the Indigenous Mexican peoples transformed many Spanish religious ceremonies. For example, Spanish priests used Christmas carols called villancicos and solemn pageants called posadas to teach the Indigenous people about the events surrounding the birth of Jesus Christ. Over the years, Indigenous composers wrote many villancicos about nonreligious subjects. Indigenous people also turned the posadas into festive processions that took place in people’s homes rather than in church.
In the arts, the talents of Indigenous sculptors, craftworkers, and musicians were recognized by the Spaniards. Indigenous wood and stone carvings decorated many buildings that otherwise were of traditional Spanish design. Musicians combined the sounds of European and Indigenous instruments, creating new kinds of music.
The Spaniards brought many technological improvements to Mexico. European farming methods and equipment generally resulted in better harvests than did traditional methods. But in some cases—the cultivation of corn, for example—the Spaniards adopted Indigenous Mexican techniques.
The intermixing of population groups took place in Mexico, as it did in the Caribbean. But in Mexico, the intermingling occurred mainly among Spanish men and Indigenous women. The children of Spanish and Indigenous parentage became the mestizos, who today are the largest population group among Mexicans and Mexican Americans.
Hispanic influences on American culture
Although many people consider them a single group, Hispanic Americans represent a rich variety of cultures. A single, common Hispanic culture does not exist. There are, however, important similarities among Hispanic groups, who together strongly influence U.S. culture.
Food
is one area in which Hispanic influences are apparent in the United States. Mexican foods are especially popular. The taco, a folded tortilla filled with meat, cheese, and other ingredients, is as common in some areas as hamburgers and hot dogs. A tortilla is a type of flat bread. Other Mexican dishes, such as enchiladas (rolled-up tortillas filled with chopped meat or cheese and covered in red chili sauce), tamales (corn meal steamed in corn husks or banana leaves and usually filled with pork or chicken), and tostadas (fried corn tortillas served flat with meat, cheese, beans, lettuce, and onions), are also served in restaurants throughout the United States. Today, the Mexican food industry is a multibillion-dollar business.
Entertainment and arts.
Dances and dance music from the Caribbean islands, especially Cuba, were first performed in American ballrooms in the late 1800’s. Some popular Cuban dances have included the bomba, the cha-cha-cha, the conga, the mambo, and the rumba. Much of the music and dancing was derived from the culture of Africans who had been enslaved to work on Caribbean sugar plantations from the early 1500’s to the 1800’s. The music has strong, syncopated (irregularly accented) rhythms. It features instruments of African and Native American origin, including conga drums, rounded sticks called claves, notched scrapers known as guiros, rattles called maracas, and xylophonelike marimbas. 
Since the 1940’s, the music and dances of Latin America have also “crossed over” into American culture. Mexican mariachi bands—small ensembles usually consisting of violins, guitars, and trumpets—have long enjoyed popularity in the United States
Latin American music has long been an important influence on the popular music of the United States. Since the 1950’s, a number of Hispanic American pop and rock music performers have gained widespread popularity, including Ritchie Valens, Carlos Santana, Gloria Estefan, Linda Ronstadt, Selena, Christina Aguilera, Jennifer Lopez, Marc Anthony, the group Los Lobos, Pitbull, and Cypress Hill. Traditional Latin music has also attracted a large audience in the United States. One of the most popular performers of traditional Latin music was Celia Cruz. Known as la Reina de la Salsa (the Queen of Salsa), Cruz performed for more than 50 years in both Cuba and the United States. Tito Puente was also a popular salsa and Latin jazz musician.
A number of painters and writers have sought to capture the Hispanic American experience. Important Hispanic artists have included John Valadez, Martin Ramirez, Frank Romero, Arnaldo Roche, Chelo González Amezcua, Manuel Acosta, José Cisneros, Ana Mendieta, and Luis Jiménez. Hispanic writers who have won distinction include Tomás Rivera, Luis Valdez, Heberto Padilla, Oscar Hijuelos, Nilo Cruz, Julia Alvarez, Gloria Anzaldúa, Pura Belpré, Rudolfo Anaya, Sandra Cisneros, Juan Felipe Herrera, and Yuyi Morales. Other major Hispanic American figures in the arts include the architect Bernardo Fort-Brescia and the fashion designers Adolfo and Oscar de la Renta. 
Like other minority groups, Hispanic Americans have often been portrayed as stereotypes on radio and television and in movies and advertisements. Stereotypes have characteristics based on oversimplified or false beliefs that some people have about members of a particular group. Since the 1960’s, however, TV shows, movies, and plays that deal more realistically with Hispanic characters have appealed to both Hispanic and non-Hispanic audiences. Hispanic American actors are now able to play roles that previously would have been reserved for Anglo-American actors. Successful Hispanic American actors have included Dolores del Río, Lupe Vélez, Rita Hayworth, José Ferrer, Anthony Quinn, Rita Moreno, Edward James Olmos, Raul Julia, Andy Garcia, Jimmy Smits, Salma Hayek, Jennifer Lopez, Benicio Del Toro, George Lopez, Sofia Vergara, and Selena Gomez.
Sports.
Many Hispanics share in the American enthusiasm for sports, and a number of Hispanic athletes have become professional sports stars. Notable Hispanic American athletes include baseball players Roberto Clemente, Rod Carew, Keith Hernandez, Juan Marichal, Tony Perez, Alex Rodriguez, and Sammy Sosa; baseball manager Ozzie Guillen; football players Anthony Muñoz and Jim Plunkett; boxing champions Oscar De La Hoya and John Ruiz; golfers Nancy Lopez and Lee Trevino; and jockeys Angel Cordero and Jorge Velasquez.
Holidays.
Many Hispanic Americans observe the major holidays of their homelands in addition to U.S. holidays. Mexican Americans celebrate the anniversary of Mexico’s struggle for independence from Spain on September 16, called Diez y Seis de Septiembre. Cinco de Mayo, which commemorates Mexico’s victory over an invading French army on May 5, 1862, is also a day of celebration among Mexican Americans. Puerto Ricans observe Constitution Day on July 25, the date on which Puerto Rico’s constitution became effective in 1952. Cuban Americans celebrate Cuban Independence Day on May 20, the date Cuba gained its independence from Spain in 1898.
People in the United States observe National Hispanic Heritage Month each year from September 15 to October 15. During this period, Latin American countries celebrate their independence. Besides Mexico, these countries include Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. 
Some cities with large Hispanic communities hold annual festivals featuring the arts and crafts, food, and music and dancing of Latin America. These festivals include Miami’s nine-day Calle Ocho, held in March of each year, and the Fiesta de la Primavera, held in San Diego in May. Other Hispanic festivals are held at Christmas and Easter and on other religious holidays. One of the largest of these festivals is the nine-day Mexican Christmas festival of las posadas, which features songs and processions commemorating Mary and Joseph’s search for an inn in Bethlehem.
History
Exploration and settlement.
The Hispanic presence in what is now the United States actually began before the United States existed as a country. Spanish explorers established colonies in what would become the Southeast and Southwest regions of the United States.
In the Southeast.
In 1513, the Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León sailed from Puerto Rico to the east coast of Florida. He claimed the peninsula, which he thought was an island, for Spain. He thus became one of the first explorers to stake a Spanish claim in North America.
In 1526, a colonizing force under the leadership of Lucas Vásquez de Ayllón, a Spanish nobleman, founded the first European settlement in the present-day United States. Historians believe that this settlement, named San Miguel de Gualdape, stood somewhere along the coast of what is now Georgia and South Carolina. Before the end of the year, malaria and other diseases killed about two-thirds of the original population of 600, including Ayllón. The remaining settlers returned to the Caribbean in early 1527.
The Spaniards did not establish a permanent settlement in the Southeast until 1565. In that year, the Spanish explorer Pedro Menéndez de Avilés founded St. Augustine in Florida. This was the first permanent European settlement in what would become the United States. It predated Jamestown—the first permanent British settlement in North America—by more than 40 years. St. Augustine served as Spain’s military headquarters in North America during the 1500’s.
Florida remained under Spanish control until 1763, when Spain was forced to give the territory to the United Kingdom. Spain regained Florida in 1783, but problems soon broke out between the Spanish colony and the new United States. American settlers moved into Florida, and the U.S. government sought to purchase the territory from Spain. In 1821, Florida came under United States control, and thousands of Americans poured into the territory. Soon the Spanish presence in Florida was overwhelmed by the tide of English-speaking settlers.
In the Southwest.
The desire for wealth and fame led the Spaniards to expand their claims in Mexico. In the late 1520’s and 1530’s, the Spanish explorer Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca explored Texas and New Mexico. He and other Spanish explorers reported that great wealth lay north of Mexico in the legendary Seven Cities of Cíbola. In 1540, the explorer Francisco Vásquez de Coronado set out to conquer Cíbola. Coronado and his men explored areas of present-day New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas in the hope of finding the great riches they had heard described. The expedition returned to Mexico in 1542. No riches had been found, but Coronado had claimed a vast area of the North American continent for Spain. The area was given the name New Mexico. See also Cabeza de Vaca, Álvar Núñez ; Cíbola, Seven Cities of ; Coronado, Francisco Vásquez de .
The first Spanish colony in New Mexico was established in 1598. The settlers began missionary work among the Indigenous Pueblo people. The settlers established Santa Fe, the capital of New Mexico, in 1609 or 1610. Some settlers in New Mexico received encomiendas, grants of land and Pueblo labor. Under this system, the Spanish king granted some conquistadors the right to collect tribute from Indigenous villages and force the inhabitants to work. In return, these conquistadors, known as encomenderos, were supposed to protect the Indigenous villages and ensure their conversion to Christianity. Eventually, the colonists claimed ownership of the land.
The Spaniards treated the Indigenous people harshly. In 1680, the Pueblo revolted. The Pueblo killed about 400 Spaniards and captured Santa Fe. The Spaniards did not retake Santa Fe until 1692.
The Spanish settlement of Texas began in 1682, when Franciscan friars built two missions there. By 1731, the Spaniards had established missions throughout central, east, and southwest Texas. But Spanish colonization of Texas proceeded slowly. By 1793, the territory had only about 7,000 white settlers.
California also was part of the Spanish Empire in the New World. First settled by the Spaniards in 1769, California remained sparsely populated for many years. By the 1820’s, Franciscan friars had established 21 missions in California. The Spanish governors had also built a number of presidios (forts) in California. Spain, and later Mexico, gave some California settlers land grants. 
During the early 1800’s, the westward expansion of the United States alarmed the Spanish colonial governors. These officials restricted trade between the United States and the northern colonial provinces of New Mexico, Texas, and California. By doing so, they hoped to avoid a heavy flow of American settlers into the sparsely populated colonies.
In 1821, Mexico gained its independence from Spain. The new nation included the northern provinces, as well as present-day Mexico. Soon, free trade with the United States was established in New Mexico. The government of the Republic of Mexico tried to regulate U.S. trade in New Mexico. Such regulation led to increasing resistance among the New Mexicans, many of whom did not feel especially loyal to Mexico.
Mexicans living in California, called Californios, also opened free trade with the United States and other countries. The Mexican government broke up the missions and gave or sold huge tracts of ranch lands to private individuals. As a result, a small group of several hundred Mexican landowners became wealthy. But most Californios, like the majority of settlers throughout Mexico’s northern provinces, remained poor.
The abundant resources of California attracted many American settlers in the 1830’s and 1840’s. The United States was already considering ways of acquiring California as a territory. The Californios enjoyed the benefits of their trade with the United States and saw advantages to becoming a U.S. territory. The Mexican government neglected its northern provinces, and many Californios resented the interference of government officials from Mexico City.
Texas had by far the smallest population of any of the northern Mexican provinces, and the Mexican government’s hold on Texas was weak. In January 1821, American merchant Moses Austin received permission from Spanish authorities in Mexico to settle 300 Americans in Texas. The project eventually passed into the hands of Austin’s son, Stephen Fuller Austin. Instead of being limited to 300 settlers, however, the American settlement of Texas swelled to thousands of people. In 1836, Texas won its independence from Mexico and became a republic. See Texas (History) .
Conflict.
In 1845, the United States annexed Texas. In response, the Mexican government broke off relations with the United States. Texas claimed territory as far south as the Rio Grande, but Mexico disputed the claim, saying that Texas’s southwest border was the Nueces River. These and other events led to the Mexican War (1846-1848) between the United States and Mexico. The United States won the war. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the war, awarded the United States the territory that now makes up the states of California, Nevada, Utah, most of New Mexico and Arizona, and part of Colorado and Wyoming. This vast area was home to approximately 80,000 Mexicans, most of whom were granted U.S. citizenship. See Mexican War .
The original draft of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo stated that the United States would honor any land grants that had been made by the government of Mexico. However, this provision was deleted in the U.S. government’s revision of the treaty. Mexican officials protested this change. At the signing of the treaty, the U.S. representatives also signed the Protocol of Querétaro, which stated that the U.S. government’s changes in the original treaty did not invalidate the civil, political, and religious guarantees that the treaty had extended to Mexican residents of the new U.S. territories. The U.S. government, however, did not ratify the Protocol of Querétaro, claiming that its representatives at the treaty signing did not have the authority to sign the protocol. Mexico’s government also failed to ratify the protocol.
Many of the new Hispanic Americans were living on land that had been granted to them by the Mexican government. For many years after the war, Mexican American landowners in the Southwest were able to maintain their claims. But as more and more Anglo-American settlers came in search of land on which to raise crops and livestock, the demand for land soared. Mexican American landowners had to legally confirm their claims. The process was so lengthy and expensive that many had to take out large loans to pay court costs. They often sold large tracts of their land to pay off their loans. Many Mexican Americans were unable to communicate with the English-speaking judges and did not understand the U.S. court system. As a result, they were often cheated out of their legitimate claims to the land.
By the late 1800’s, most Mexican Americans had become tenants or workers on land that belonged to Anglo-Americans. The two groups lived apart in towns and cities. Each had its own schools, stores, and places of entertainment. The Mexican Americans called their sections barrios, the Spanish word for neighborhoods.
During this period, the immigration of Mexicans to the United States was relatively small. Jobs on large cattle, sheep, cotton, and vegetable farms attracted some Mexicans to Texas. But the great period of Mexican American immigration was yet to come.
The early 1900’s.
In 1900, the total Mexican American population was estimated to be between 380,000 and 560,000. The early 1900’s saw a sharp increase in the number of Mexican immigrants as economic conditions in Mexico worsened. In 1910, the Mexican Revolution broke out. This conflict plummeted Mexico into years of political and economic chaos. The revolution also sparked a tremendous wave of immigration to the United States that continued until the 1930’s.
From 1910 to 1930, more than 680,000 Mexicans came to live in the United States. During the 1920’s, Mexicans accounted for more than 10 percent of all immigration to the United States. Most Mexicans fleeing the Mexican Revolution settled in the Southwest. They took jobs in factories and mines or on railroads, farms, and ranches.
In 1917, the United States entered World War I (1914-1918), and thousands of Mexican Americans volunteered for service in the U.S. armed forces. The wartime economy also provided new opportunities for Mexican Americans. Some were able to move into better-paying, skilled occupations in construction and in the war industries.
Despite these gains, Mexican Americans continued to suffer discrimination in jobs, wages, and housing. To fight these conditions, they organized labor unions and took part in strikes to obtain higher wages and better working conditions. Mexican Americans also formed civic groups to deal with their problems. In 1929, the major groups merged to form the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC).
Immigration restrictions and growing discrimination.
In 1917, the United States passed a law requiring all adult immigrants to be able to read and write at least one language. In 1924, the U.S. Bureau of Immigration established the Border Patrol to control illegal immigration across the Mexican-U.S. border. People who live in the United States illegally are called unauthorized immigrants. People who work in the United States illegally are called undocumented workers.
Strict enforcement of the 1917 adult literacy law led to a decline in Mexican immigration in the late 1920’s. This decline continued through the Great Depression—the economic hard times of the 1930’s—when only about 33,000 Mexicans entered the United States.
The 1930’s brought heightened discrimination against Mexican Americans. Many people viewed them as a drain on the American economy because they held many low-paying jobs while other Americans went unemployed. In response to such views, the U.S. and Mexican governments cosponsored a repatriation program that returned thousands of Mexican immigrants to Mexico.
The program was intended to encourage people to return voluntarily to Mexico, but thousands were deported against their wishes. Many of these immigrants had lived in the United States for more than 10 years. Their American-born children were U.S. citizens. In some cases, adults who were deported were U.S. citizens who were mistakenly or intentionally forced to leave the United States. In California especially, many Mexican Americans were placed in detention camps, where they were mistreated by government officials.
Of the approximately 3 million people of Mexican descent living in the United States in 1930, about 500,000 had been repatriated by 1939. The program created much anger and resentment among Mexican Americans. Family relationships were often strained because young people who had been born in the United States did not want to go to Mexico.
In addition to the humiliation of repatriation, Mexican Americans suffered other forms of discrimination. Many restaurants refused to serve Mexican Americans. Public swimming pools, rest rooms, drinking fountains, and theaters were often segregated. Mexican American schoolchildren were often forbidden to speak Spanish in schools. They were sometimes punished severely for doing so.
Effects of World War II.
During World War II (1939-1945), more than 300,000 Mexican Americans served in the U.S. armed forces. Their courage and determination helped them earn proportionally more military honors than any other ethnic group. Many Mexican American veterans returned from the war with new-found skills. Unwilling to go back to living with the pressures and barriers of discrimination, they formed a number of social, political, and service organizations, including the American GI Forum of the United States and the Mexican American Political Association (MAPA). Such organizations have helped Mexican Americans fight poverty, lack of education, and discrimination.
World War II had renewed the demand for immigrant labor. In 1942, the U.S. and Mexican governments developed the bracero program. Under the program, Mexican braceros (day laborers) could enter the United States legally for seasonal agricultural work and for work on U.S. railroads. Bracero programs were in effect from 1942 to 1947 and from 1951 to 1964. The programs provided almost 5 million Mexicans with temporary work in the United States. The braceros often worked under harsh conditions for unsympathetic employers, but they took the work because they were unable to find jobs in Mexico.
Growing numbers of newcomers.
The mid-1900’s saw a great influx of Hispanic people into the United States. These new arrivals included not only Mexicans, but large numbers of Puerto Ricans and Cubans, too.
Mexican immigration
to the United States—both legal and illegal—climbed steeply during the 1950’s. The U.S. government developed a program to curb illegal immigration. The program was highly publicized in order to encourage undocumented immigrants to leave voluntarily. It resulted in the deportation of a total of 3,800,000 undocumented immigrants. However, it did little to control illegal immigration, which continued to increase from the 1960’s through the 1980’s.
Puerto Rican migration.
The mid-1900’s also brought the first great wave of people from Puerto Rico. This island had been a U.S. possession since 1898, and its people had been U.S. citizens since 1917. As citizens, Puerto Ricans may enter the United States without restriction. Between 1940 and 1960, more than 545,000 Puerto Ricans came to the U.S. mainland to look for jobs. By 1960, almost 70 percent of Puerto Ricans living on the mainland had settled in East Harlem in New York City. New York City has continued to have the largest Puerto Rican population of any mainland U.S. city, with about a fifth of all Puerto Ricans on the mainland living there.
For many years, Puerto Ricans have remained one of the poorest groups in the United States. Unemployment among Puerto Ricans is about 50 percent higher than it is among the general population, and the poverty rate is almost four times higher.
Cuban immigration
to the United States picked up sharply during the late 1950’s as a result of increasing political turmoil in Cuba. Until the mid-1950’s, only a few thousand Cubans came to the United States each year. But during the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, the number of Cuban immigrants increased dramatically. In 1959, revolutionary Fidel Castro came to power in Cuba. He announced the restructuring of Cuban society. Many middle- and upper-class Cubans found Castro’s plans threatening to their way of life. Between 1959 and late 1962, about 200,000 anti-Castro Cubans immigrated to the United States.
In October 1962, commercial air flights between Cuba and the United States were suspended. Nonetheless, about 50,000 Cubans entered the United States between late 1962 and 1965. Many of these people sailed secretly from Cuba in small boats. The Cuban navy seized some of these boats before they reached the United States. In 1965, the U.S. and Cuban governments agreed to set up an airlift between Cuba and Miami. The airlift brought about 250,000 Cubans into the United States between 1966 and 1973.
Until 1986, the United States admitted most Cuban immigrants who claimed to be seeking political asylum. Many of the first Cubans to flee in the early 1960’s were from wealthy families and were well educated. The U.S. government granted asylum to these people and offered federal help to qualified applicants in finding homes and in making job contacts. Most later Cuban immigrants were relatives of the first group or were poor people looking for work.
A major influx of Cuban immigrants occurred with the arrival in 1980 of the Marielitos. Numbering about 125,000, the Marielitos were a group that the Cuban government wanted out of Cuba. They included many unskilled workers, criminals, and mentally ill people. These people were put aboard boats at the Cuban port of Mariel and sent to Miami. The U.S. government allowed the Marielitos to enter the United States. However, U.S. officials had not expected such large numbers of people and were at first unaware of the presence of criminals on board the boats. Some of the criminals were placed in U.S. prisons. Many of them were rehabilitated and released. A few were returned to Cuba.
In 1986, U.S. President Ronald Reagan announced that only long-term political prisoners in Cuba and close relatives of Cuban Americans would be allowed to enter the United States. He also stated that the United States would no longer grant visas—that is, permission to enter the United States—to Cubans seeking to enter from other countries. However, the government later softened its policy.
In 1994, thousands of Cubans set out for Florida on small boats and rafts to escape poverty in Cuba. United States immigration officials sent the refugees to U.S. military bases in Panama and at Guantánamo Bay on Cuba’s coast. Most of the refugees were eventually admitted to the United States. But to avoid the costs of settling large numbers of additional people, the United States returned many later refugees to Cuba. Despite efforts to return Cuban refugees to their homeland, the United States admits thousands of them each year.
About two-thirds of all Cuban Americans live in Florida. Many Cuban Americans live on the east coast of Florida, especially in the Miami area. Although the Little Havana section of Miami remains the center of the Cuban American population, many Cubans have now moved into the city’s wealthier neighborhoods. Some of Miami’s most successful businesses are owned and operated by Cuban Americans. New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago also have significant Cuban populations.
Cuban Americans face many of the same problems as other minority groups, though to a lesser degree. Cuban Americans generally attain a higher level of education than other Hispanic Americans. The unemployment and poverty rates of Cuban Americans are also lower than those of other Hispanic groups.
Central American migration.
Beginning in the 1970’s, large numbers of Hispanic immigrants came from war-torn countries in Central America, including El Salvador and Nicaragua. Many of these immigrants were children and teenagers whose parents had been killed or had disappeared. Some U.S. citizens felt that Central Americans fleeing military conflict should be granted political asylum in the United States. The United States government, however, maintained that most of these immigrants had been motivated by economic, not political, concerns. Therefore, they were not entitled to the special treatment given political refugees under U.S. immigration law. Many of the immigrants from Central America were placed in large detention camps until they could be relocated or returned to their homelands.
Stricter immigration laws.
During the 1980’s, Congress struggled to find a way to stop the flow of thousands of people who were entering the country illegally each year. After years of study and debate, Congress finally passed the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, which took effect in 1987.
The new law offered legal status to undocumented immigrants who had lived continuously in the United States since before Jan. 1, 1982. An undocumented immigrant is a noncitizen living in a country without the proper immigration documents. The law enabled 3.1 million undocumented immigrants—most of them Hispanic—to obtain legal status. It also allowed temporary agricultural workers to enter the United States during harvest season. The law imposed penalties on employers who knowingly hired undocumented immigrants. However, many employers found the law difficult to understand and even harder to apply. Some critics also charged that the law encouraged relatives of legal immigrants to enter the country illegally.
Immigration rates among Hispanic groups in the United States varied widely during the late 1900’s. Emigration from Mexico increased steadily from the 1950’s to the 1990’s. It began to decrease by the 2000’s. From 2006 to 2010, the number of new immigrants arriving from Mexico fell considerably because of declining job opportunities in the United States, increased border enforcement, and economic growth in Mexico. Still, Mexicans continued to form the largest group of legal immigrants to the United States. Thousands of people from Mexico also entered the United States illegally each year.
The migration from Puerto Rico reached its height in the 1940’s and 1950’s. But after the 1950’s, many Puerto Ricans still came each year to look for jobs or to settle near relatives.
Cuban immigration was highest from the 1960’s to the mid-1980’s, when it began to drop dramatically. The decline resulted in part from the stricter immigration policies adopted under presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton.
Hispanic American immigration today
People from Latin America continue to immigrate in large numbers to the United States. Hispanic Americans historically have accounted for more than a third of all legal immigration to the United States.
By the end of the first decade of the 2000’s, experts estimated that as many as 11 million illegal immigrants lived in the United States, most from Mexico and other Latin American countries. More than half of all people of Mexican origin in the United States were in the country illegally. It is estimated that nearly 60 percent of illegal immigrants are Mexican nationals.
In 2006, in an effort to control illegal immigration from Mexico, President George W. Bush signed into law a bill that authorized the building of new fences along the United States-Mexico border. That year, millions of immigrants and their supporters held rallies in several U.S. cities to protest a proposed federal law that would increase penalties for undocumented immigration. Many of the protesters were immigrants from Latin American countries.
In 2007, tens of thousands of people, including many Latin American immigrants, participated in rallies for immigrant rights in several U.S. cities. The demonstrations largely focused on the federal government’s failure to pass significant immigration reform legislation.
Political developments
Although Hispanic Americans are among the fastest-growing U.S. minority groups, their political influence has increased at a much slower pace.
Until the 1960’s, discrimination at the polls discouraged many Hispanics from registering to vote. Some states required the payment of a poll tax before a person was allowed to vote. The tax was intended to keep Hispanics, African Americans, and other minorities—many of whom were too poor to afford the tax—from voting. In areas with large Hispanic populations, voting district boundaries were often drawn to scatter the Hispanic voters over several districts. This practice, called gerrymandering, held down the percentage of Hispanic voters within any one district.
Expanding influence.
During the 1960’s, four Mexican Americans won election to Congress and became champions of civil rights. They were Senator Joseph Montoya of New Mexico and Representatives Eligio de la Garza and Henry B. Gonzalez of Texas and Edward R. Roybal of California. In 1965, Congress enacted the Voting Rights Act, which brought an end to the poll tax.
President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed several Hispanic Americans to high government posts in the 1960’s. For example, Johnson made Héctor P. García a member of the U.S. delegation to the United Nations and appointed Raul H. Castro U.S. ambassador to El Salvador.
The Chicano movement.
In spite of the success of a growing number of Hispanic Americans, many others became more resentful about their problems. Among Mexican Americans in particular, such feelings found expression in the Chicano movement, also called the “brown power” movement, founded in the 1960’s. Although the origin of the word Chicano is uncertain, some Mexican Americans have considered the term a negative label for their ethnic group. But by founding the Chicano movement, young Mexican Americans gave the term a meaning that suggested ethnic pride.
One of the foremost Hispanic Americans to reflect that new ethnic pride was Cesar Chavez, a labor leader who began to organize California grape pickers in 1962. In 1963, Reies López Tijerina founded the Alianza Federal de Mercedes (Federal Alliance of Land Grants) in New Mexico. That group fought to win compensation for descendants of families whose lands had been seized illegally. Another leader was Rodolfo Gonzales, who founded the Crusade for Justice in Denver in 1965. That group worked to provide social services and to develop job opportunities for Mexican Americans. In 1970, José Angel Gutiérrez helped establish La Raza Unida, a political party based in Texas.
Political gains.
During the 1980’s and 1990’s, many more Hispanic Americans became involved in the political process. Voter registration drives added hundreds of thousands of Hispanics to the rolls. Political activists challenged gerrymandering in a number of lawsuits. Federal courts agreed that voting district boundaries were purposely drawn to split up Hispanic communities. The courts ordered that the district lines be redrawn to better represent established communities. With the new boundaries in place, more candidates supported by Hispanics were elected to office.
In 1980, there were six Hispanic Americans serving in the U.S. Congress. By the end of the first decade of the 2000’s, there were more than five times that many. In addition, hundreds of Hispanic Americans were elected as state officials, mayors, county and municipal officials, and school board members.
In 1988, Lauro Cavazos became the first Hispanic U.S. Cabinet member when President Reagan appointed him secretary of education. In 1997, President Bill Clinton named Bill Richardson as the first Hispanic American ambassador to the United Nations. In 2005, Alberto R. Gonzales became the first Hispanic attorney general, under President George W. Bush. In 2009, Sonia Sotomayor joined the Supreme Court of the United States as its first Hispanic justice.
Education and employment
For many Hispanic Americans, the United States represents opportunities unavailable in their homelands. Most want to work hard and to improve the lives of their families. But for many Hispanic families, slow educational progress hinders efforts to achieve a better life. For many years, the educational achievements of most Hispanic American students lagged behind those of non-Hispanic students.
Education.
One of the earliest programs designed to improve public education for Hispanic students was bilingual education. Bilingual education is teaching and learning in two languages—one that the student already speaks and one that the student is learning. In 1968, with the passage of the Bilingual Education Act, the U.S. government began to fund bilingual programs for students who do not speak English as their first language. In early bilingual programs serving Hispanics, students were taught in Spanish in such basic subjects as mathematics and science. Meanwhile, they studied English as a second language. When they were ready, they transferred to classes taught only in English.
By the 1990’s, many schools had replaced that transitional approach to bilingual education with two-way bilingual education (also called dual language or developmental bilingual education). This approach combined native Spanish speakers with English-speaking students in all classes. The students progressed together through the grade levels, with some subjects taught in Spanish and others in English. The participants helped one another learn both the new language and the subjects being taught.
In 1998, California voters approved a measure requiring that all public school classes be taught only in English. But bilingual classes remained available in California to students whose parents or school boards requested them and to students with special needs.
In 2001, a new federal education policy replaced the Bilingual Education Act. That year, Congress passed the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law. The English Language Acquisition Act, or Title III, was passed as part of NCLB. The law provides funding to school districts based on the number of limited English proficient (LEP) students they serve. The law also requires that all LEP students be tested yearly for proficiency in English.
For many years, the educational achievements of most Hispanic American students have lagged behind those of non-Hispanic students. In 1970, only 32 percent of Hispanic Americans age 25 and older were high school graduates. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, by the end of the first decade of the 2000’s, the number of Hispanic American high school graduates had nearly doubled. However, the Hispanic dropout rate was almost twice that of African American students and more than three times that of non-Hispanic white students.
In 1970, only about 5 percent of Hispanic Americans age 25 and older were college graduates. By the end of the first decade of the 2000’s, the number of Hispanic American college graduates had nearly tripled. With more and more jobs requiring a college degree, Hispanic business and education leaders are concerned about high dropout rates and low college attendance among Hispanic young people.
Discrimination continues to plague many Hispanic American students. Studies have shown that Hispanic students have often been assigned to classes for low achievers, forced to repeat grades, or classified as mentally handicapped because they do not speak English well or because of other cultural differences.
Hispanic leaders support the hiring of more Hispanic teachers for Spanish-speaking students. Such teachers tend to be more sensitive to the linguistic and cultural background of Hispanic students. Leaders also call for improvements in English-language courses and counseling services for Hispanic students. Some schools have developed dropout prevention programs, career guidance programs, and multicultural education programs aimed at providing better educational opportunities for Hispanic students.
Many educators believe that more funding for school loans and more flexible college admissions requirements are needed to increase the number of Hispanics in college. College scholarships are offered by several Hispanic American organizations, including the American GI Forum of the United States, the League of United Latin American Citizens, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, and the National Council of La Raza.
Employment.
Low education levels, poor English skills, discrimination, and the continued immigration of unskilled workers have contributed to high unemployment among Hispanic Americans. During the late 1900’s, the unemployment rate among Hispanics was nearly twice as high as among non-Hispanic white people. By the end of the second decade of the 2000’s, that gap had closed slightly. However, Hispanic Americans earned less per week than either white Americans or African Americans. Many Hispanic Americans worked in high-risk industries such as construction. As a result, Hispanic Americans had a higher rate of on-the-job fatalities than white Americans or African Americans.
In 2020, about two times as many Hispanic families lived in poverty compared with non-Hispanic white families. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, one in every four Hispanic Americans lived in poverty by 2020.
Though Hispanics experienced many economic problems, the number of Hispanic-owned businesses rose substantially. By the early 1990’s, Hispanic-owned companies represented about 5 percent of all U.S. firms. By the first decade of the 2000’s, the percentage of Hispanic-owned firms nearly doubled, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Employment at Hispanic-owned firms also grew at a significantly higher rate than employment at non-minority-owned firms.
A rapidly growing minority
A high rate of immigration and a high birth rate have combined to make Hispanic Americans one of the fastest-growing minority groups in the United States. From 2010 to 2020, the Hispanic population increased by 23 percent—more than three times as fast as the nation’s total population. The 2010 Census was the first census in which Hispanics were the largest minority group.
Some non-Hispanics in the United States fear that the country’s rapidly growing Hispanic population will not adopt the language, customs, and viewpoint of the dominant, English-speaking culture. Some of these people fear that their way of life will be replaced by the “foreign ways” of Hispanic Americans. Others worry that a large Spanish-speaking minority will become a permanent underclass, locked out of economic advancement by a lack of fluency in English. Many historians and sociologists discount such fears. They point to the many immigrant groups that have become part of American culture. They also note that except for recent immigrants, most Hispanic Americans can speak English.
Nevertheless, language has become an increasingly controversial issue in some states. About half of the country’s states have passed laws making English their official language. Some people support the passage of an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would make English the official language of the United States.
An increased demand among Hispanic Americans for Spanish-language media has led to the development of two national Spanish-language television networks, Telemundo and Univision. In addition, hundreds of U.S. radio stations broadcast in Spanish. Also, many Hispanic newspapers, magazines, and journals are published in the United States.
