Hispanic Americans

Hispanic Americans, in the United States, those who have come from Spanish countries or their descendants. There are approximately 20 million Hispanic Americans, making up some 8% of the U.S. population, the second-largest minority in the country after African Americans. Thanks to both a high birth rate and continued immigration, Hispanic Americans are expected to become the largest minority in the United States in the 21st century.

Hispanic Americans are unified in certain important respects, principally the Spanish language and the Roman Catholic religion. Their diversity stems from differences of history and culture among their various countries of origin as well as the causes and circumstances leading to immigration to the United States.

The majority of Hispanic Americans, some 63%, are of Mexican descent. Puerto Ricans comprise 12% and Cubans 5% of the total. The remaining 20% come from Spain and countries of South and Central America, including Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua. Consequently, Hispanic Americans are referred to broadly as Latinos. More specifically, Mexican Americans are known as Chicanos and, more recently, Puerto Ricans living in New York City are sometimes known as Nuyoricans. Broadly speaking, Mexicans are ethnically a mixture of Spanish and Indians; Puerto Ricans are a mixture of Spanish and black Africans; and Cubans are chiefly of Spanish descent. These distinct ethnic characteristics correspond to the history of the Spanish conquest, colonization, and settlement of the Caribbean and the Americas. In addition to these ethnic differences, Hispanic Americans come from different periods of immigration at different points in the history of the United States as well as in the histories of their respective countries of origin.

Though the Spanish were a significant presence in Florida as early as the 16th century, Spanish influence in North America proved to be strongest in California and the Southwest. In the aftermath of the Mexican American War (1846–48), there were some 80,000 Mexican Americans living in Colorado, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, Wyoming, and California. From the early 20th century, immigration from Mexico grew. By 1930 about 680,000 Mexicans had come to the United States, and, since World War II, from the 1950s to the 1980s, immigration has continued. Puerto Rico has been a U.S. possession since 1898 and its people U.S. citizens since 1917, but the major wave of immigration took place between 1940 and 1960, when some 545,000 Puerto Ricans came to the United States, principally to New York City. Cubans emigrated to the United States in large numbers as the result of Fidel Castro's successful revolution. From 1959 to 1980, about 625,000 Cubans emigrated to the United States. In addition, the 1970s saw large numbers of Central Americans, especially from El Salvador and Nicaragua, fleeing civil war, political persecution, or economic hardship.

Throughout the 20th century, the U.S. government has adopted various policies aimed at limiting or reversing Hispanic immigration, including, at one time, a program of repatriation. More recently, the U.S. government has adjusted its immigration policy to correspond to its foreign policy. As a result, Central Americans fleeing war and political unrest in their countries throughout the 1980s were refused political asylum in most cases. More recently, the U.S. government, in an attempt to deal with large numbers of illegal aliens, extended a limited amnesty to those who registered with the immigration authorities by a certain date.

The history of official U.S. resistance to Hispanic immigration has gone hand in hand with discrimination. Ironically, it has been in response to discrimination and to problems of education and economic opportunity that Hispanic Americans, in all of their diversity, have forged a common ground and have come to participate more directly and effectively in U.S. life. Through their own efforts, Hispanic Americans have improved working conditions for many immigrants, won widespread acceptance of bilingual education, and have broken down many of the barriers of discrimination. As a result, many Hispanic Americans have become prominent in U.S. life. Celia Cruz, Cesar Chavez, and Roberto Clemente are readily recognized. Joseph Montoya served as senator from New Mexico, Bob Martinez was governor of Florida, and, under President George Bush, Lauro Cavazos was secretary of education and Manuel Lujan is secretary of the interior.