Hispanics in the United States

Hispanics in the United States

Who are we and where did we come from?

Objectives

• Students should be able to explain :

• The historical migration of Latinos into United States.

• The U.S. reaction to the increasing numbers of Latinos in America

Hispanics, Spanish, Latinos

• What are we?

• We come from at least 20 countries

• Argentina to Venezuela

• We don't all act, think or speak a unified dialect of Spanish

• Despite some stereotypical views, we don't all speak that "Mexican"

The Numbers

• Despite the long history of Hispanic residents in the United States, there was no systematic effort to count this group separately in the Census until the late 20th century.

• An estimated 48 million Hispanics are now living in the U.S.

• Hispanics are the nation’s largest minority group

•  The growth of the Hispanic population this century is due mainly to births in the United States

• A reversal of the pattern over the previous four decades

Searching for our identities

• There was a one-time inclusion of a “Mexican” race category in the 1930 Census

• The first major attempt to estimate the size of the Hispanic population for the entire nation was in the 1970 Census

• A long form of the produced this question, “Is this person’s origin or descent—“ and the response categories were: “Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Central or South American, Other Spanish,” and “No, none of these.”

• In 1980 it went to, Is this person of Spanish/Hispanic origin or descent?” The possible responses were: “No (not Spanish/Hispanic); Yes, Mexican, Mexican-Amer., Chicano; Yes, Puerto Rican; Yes, Cuban; Yes, other Spanish/Hispanic.” 

• Confused yet?

Population increase

-Hispanic Population from 1930-2050

- Despite many Hispanics don't fill out the Census forms.

-Confusion of form

- Numbers may not be actual at all

Who are we and where do we come from?

-Mexicans 92%

-Other 66%

- Hispanic 61%

-Cuban 47%

-Puerto Rico 40%

Why???

Where do we come from then and who are we?

• Most Spanish speakers as one can see are from Mexico

• The reasons vary for a denial or lack of an identity

• Internal reasons

• Fear, acceptance, discrimination, appearance

• External reasons

• Fear, taught, educated, academics, persecution, racial discrimination both internal and external.

Multiple Choice

How many Spanish speaking countries are there?

• 15

• 20

• 30

• 40

Multiple Choice

Do all Spanish speaking people speak the same Spanish?

• Yes

• No

Multiple Choice

Hispanics are the nation’s

• poorest minority group

• smallest minority group

• largest minority group

• wealthiest minority group

Multiple Choice

The increase in Hispanic population is due to

• illegal immigration

• legal immigration

• increased relations with Mexico

• births in the United States

Open Ended

In today's lesson I learned that...

Multiple Select

Today's lesson was

• interesting

• educational

• boring

• understandable

A look at Hispanics in America