1. Chapter 9
Latinos:
The Largest Minority

2. Hispanic Population
• Nearly 32 million, or two-thirds of
Hispanics in the United States:
– Are Mexican Americans, or Chicanos
• The majority of Hispanic adults in the
United States worry that:
– They, a family member, or a close friend
could be deported
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3. Latino Identity
• Panethnicity
– The development of solidarity between ethnic
subgroups
• Hispanic or Latino
– Collective term is subject to debate
– Latino more common in the West
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4. Latino Identity
– Hispanic more common to the East and the
term used by federal government
• Actions of the dominant group have an impact in
defining cultural identity to some degree
• Among Hispanic youth age 16–25:
– Only a minority, about 20 percent, prefers to
use panethnic names
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5. Latino Identity
• About 72 percent of immigrant youth are
likely to prefer country of origin
– Compared to 32 percent of grandchildren
• The sharp White–Black divide is absent in
their home countries
– Where race, if socially constructed, tends to
be along a color gradient
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6. Latino Identity
• Name issues/“language battles” distract
group’s attention from working together
• Income and education does not appear to
influence Hispanics’ perceptions
• Younger generation think more in
panethnic terms
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7. Latino Identity
• Color gradient
– The placement of people on a continuum from
• Light to dark skin color rather than in distinct racial
groupings by skin color
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8. The Borderlands
• Borderlands
– Refers to the area of a common culture along
the border between Mexico and US
• Notion of separate Mexican and US
cultures obsolete because of
– Legal and illegal immigration
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9. The Borderlands
– Day laborers crossing the border to go to jobs
in the US
– Implementation of (NAFTA) North American
Free Trade Agreement
– Exchange of media across the border
• Maquiladoras
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10. The Borderlands
• Multinational companies found even lower
wages in China
– 40%+ of the 700,000 new maquiladoras jobs
created in 1990s were eliminated by 2003
• Immigrant workers have significant
economic impact on home countries
– Remittances estimated at $24 billion annually
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11. The Borderlands
• Hometown Clubs
– Typically are non-profit organizations that
maintain close ties to immigrants’ hometowns:
• In Mexico and other Latin nations
– Collect money for improvements in hospitals
and schools
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12. The Borderlands
– Some states in Mexico began matching-funds
programs
– Inland from the borders, hometown clubs
have sprung up in northern cities:
• With large settlements of Mexicans
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13. The Economic Picture
• Median income increased over past 25
years
• Gap remains between Latinos and Whites
• Latino household earns 70 cents for every
dollar earned by Whites
• Low wealth is characteristic of Hispanic
households
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14. The Economic Picture
– Likely to earn less annually and have fewer
financial resources to fall back on
• Poverty rate reflects pattern in income
• Beginning of 2010
– 25.3% of Latinos were below poverty level
compared to 9.4% of Whites
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15. The Economic Picture
• Situation difficult to predict
– As a group, poor Latinos are more mobile
geographically
– Half send money abroad to help relatives
• Puts a strain on supporting themselves in the US
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16. The Growing Political Presence
• Federal law requires bilingual or
multilingual ballots in voting districts
– Where 5% of voting-age population does not
speak English
• Voting turnout was poor
– Many were ineligible – non-citizens
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17. The Growing Political Presence
• 2010
– 19% of Latinos voters have more confidence
in the Republican agenda on immigration
– 51% leaned toward the Democratic position
• Factors that elicit support from politicians
– Growing population; higher proportions of
voter registration; higher election participation
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18. The Growing Political Presence
– Less commitment to a single political party
• Resent the fact that existence is
rediscovered during election years
– Little interest in between except by Latino
officials
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19. Cuban Americans
• Cuban settlements in Florida date back to
the early nineteenth century
– Where small communities organized around
single family enterprises
• 1960 census – 79,000 Cuban born in US
• 2010 – more than 1.7 million of Cuban
descent in the United States
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20. Cuban Americans
• Increase followed Fidel Castro assumption
of power after 1959 Cuban revolution
• Three significant influxes of immigrants
through the 1980s
– 1st - About 200,000 came during the first
three years after Castro came into power
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21. Cuban Americans
– 2nd – Freedom Flights; 340,000 refugees
between 1965 and 1973
– 3rd – 1980 Mariel boatlift is most controversial
– “Freedom Flotilla”
• Castro used Carter’s invitation to send prison
inmates, patients from mental hospitals, & addicts
• Marielitos
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22. Cuban Americans
• Wet Foot, Dry Foot Policy
– Refers to government policy which generally
allows Cuban nationals who manage to reach:
• The US (“dry foot”) to remain while those picked up
at sea (“wet foot”) are sent back to Cuba
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23. Cuban Americans
• Cuban refugees have advantage over
other refugees in terms of public opinion
• Issue of communism still overshadows
attitudes about US relationship with Cuba
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24. The Current Picture: Cuban
Americans
• The influence of Cuban Americans
– Miami area
– In Urban centers
• Generational relations among Cubans
– Generational clash between cultures (parent
and child)
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25. The Current Picture: Cuban
Americans
• Long-range perspective of Cubans in the
US depends on several factors
– Most important – events in Cuba
• Refugees proclaim desire to return if communist
regime is overturned
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26. The Current Picture: Cuban
Americans
– Cuban Americans have selectively accepted
Anglo culture
• Split between original exiles and their
children
– Children more concerned with Miami Dolphins
than they are with Havana
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27. Central and South Americans
• Central and South Americans came from
– historically different experiences and times
– culturally diverse backgrounds
• Unlike racial groupings in the United
States they use a color gradient
– Describing skin color along a continuum from
light to dark
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28. Central and South Americans
– Another indicator of the social construction of
race
• Little in common other than hemisphere of
origin and Spanish language
– Other languages are Portuguese, French, and
Dutch
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29. Central and South Americans
• Other distinctions
– Social class distinctions
– Religious differences
– Urban versus rural backgrounds
– Differences in dialects among those speaking
same language
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30. Central and South Americans
• Central and South Americans do not form
a cohesive group
• Do not naturally form coalitions with
– Cuban Americans
– Mexican Americans
– Puerto Ricans
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31. Central and South Americans
• Immigration has been sporadic and
influenced by
– US immigration laws
– Social forces in the home country
• War and persecution
• Economic deprivation
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32. Central and South Americans:
The Current Picture
• Two issues clouding recent settlement
– Many are illegal immigrants
• Citizens from El Salvador, Guatemala, & Colombia
are outnumbered only by Mexican nationals
– Brain Drain
• Immigration to US of skilled workers,
professionals, and technicians
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33. Central and South Americans:
The Current Picture
• Experience high unemployment compared to
Whites
• Better educated than most Hispanics
• By 2010 El Salvador, Guatemala, and
Columbia were the top countries of origin
– Each with at least a million present
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34. Central and South Americans:
The Current Picture
– Success found in catering to other
Colombians
– Many obliged to take menial jobs & combine
income of several families
• To meet high cost of urban life
– Colombians of mixed African descent face
racial as well as ethnic and language barriers
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35. Central and South Americans:
The Current Picture
• Future of Central and South Americans in
the US?
– Could assimilate over generations
– Alternative: being trapped with Mexican
Americans as a segment of dual labor market
– Possibility is that they retain an independent
identity while establishing an economic base
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