Latinos in the united states

The Hispanic population can be described as an explosion of newcomers for all parts of the nation. According to the 2008 U.S. Census, Hispanics are the largest ethnic minority group in the United States at 42.7 million, 15.5% of the total U.S. population. The U.S. Census Bureau (2006) projected that the Hispanic population would increase to 102.6 million or make up 24.4% of the U.S. population by 2050.

Texas, Hawaii, New Mexico, and California have been designated as majority-minority states. This means that there are more Hispanics in these states than there are whites. The U.S. Census Bureau reports that the District of Columbia, Maryland, Mississippi, Georgia, New York, and Arizona are at the 40% mark and are expected to reach the same status as majority-minority states. California has the largest Hispanic population with 12.4 million persons as of 2008. New Mexico has the largest proportion of Hispanics for the total state population with 43% (Pew Hispanic Center, 2008a; U.S. Census, 2008).

Table 6-1 provides a description for each of the 10 largest Latino groups in the United States. The variables that are summarized include the following percentages: total Hispanic population; citizens, who report speaking English proficiently; and citizens who report speaking English less than proficiently. Median age and where the largest number of this ethnic group is reported to live are included. Let’s examine the age variable. Mexicans are the youngest of the 10 ethnic groups, with a median age of 25 years. Guatemalans and Hondurans have a median age of 28 years. Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, and El Salvadorans have a median age of 29 years. Ecuadorians, Peruvians, and Colombians have median ages of 32, 35, and 36 years of age, respectively. Cubans have the oldest group, with a median age of 41 years. Age is an important factor when viewing the family’s history, fertility rate, health history, and work experiences in the home country and in the United States. Younger individuals typically have children, have fewer health problems, and may have less work experiences. Thus, the Latino population is diverse in median age as well as other variables.

TABLE 6-1 Description of Major Hispanic Ethnic Groups in the United States

Adapted from Pew Hispanic Center, April 22, 2010. Available at: http://pewhispanic.org/data/origins/.

Table 6-2 summarizes the population and percentages of foreign born for the 10 largest Hispanic groups in the United States. Thirty-eight percent of all Hispanics in the United States are foreign born. Mexicans and Puerto Ricans are the two largest groups, with 66% and 9%, respectively. Cubans, Salvadorans, and Dominicans each share 3% of the total Hispanic population in the United States. Seven of the groups have populations with more than 60% foreign born. Mexicans and Puerto Ricans have the lowest percentages of foreign born, 37% and 1.1%, respectively.

TABLE 6-2 Population and Percentages of Foreign Born for Major Hispanic Groups in the United States

* Rounded to the nearest thousand.

Data from Pew Hispanic Center, 2010. http://pewhispanic.org/.

Language use

Tables 6-4 and 6-5 describe the English-speaking abilities of two age groups, 5 to 18 years and 18 years and older. Of Latino children between 5 and 18 years living in the United States, those who are of Caribbean descent are most likely (29.2%) to live in homes where only English is spoken. Mexican, Caribbean, and Central and South American populations have large percentages of children who speak English very well. The South American population in the United States has the highest percentage of children who speak English very well, 66.8%. Only Mexican (43.1%) and Central American (41.0%) children aged 5 to 18 years living in the United States are reported to speak English less than very well.

TABLE 6-4 English-Speaking Ability, Ages 5 to 18 Years, and Region, 2008

TABLE 6-5 English-Speaking Ability, Ages 18 Years and Older, and Region, 2008

Among adults aged 18 years and older living in the United States, those of Caribbean descent have the highest percentage of speakers who use only English in the home (32.8 %), whereas South Americans report 34.5% speaking English very well. Mexican and Central American adults are reported to have the highest percentages of adults who speak English less than very well, 76.5% and 69.9%, respectively.

In summary, the Hispanic population in the United States is growing in all regions of the country, and it is a young population (see Table 6-1), is less educated than the general U.S. population, with many living in poverty. The growth and needs of Latino populations has become a national debate and that is proving emotionally charged and difficult to resolve.

Latin america

Rangel, 1977)

Latin America has a rich history. It began with the many indigenous peoples who lived in the deserts, coasts, mountains, jungles, and plains of Mexico, Caribbean, and Central and South America centuries before the Spaniards occupied the lands. The conquest of the indigenous groups by Spanish conquistadores brought a change in the regions through the dominance of the languages of Spanish and Portuguese and a new group developed as a result of intermarriage between Europeans and indigenous groups. The mestizo, European and indigenous mix, makes up the majority of the populations in Latin American. Other immigrant groups, such as the Germans, Japanese, Chinese and U.S. citizens, have settled in these lands but they are relatively new arrivals compared with the Spaniards.

We typically describe Latin America as the Spanish-speaking southern hemisphere. We usually do not perceive the United States as one of these Spanish-speaking countries. The populations of Latin America are as diverse as the Latino populations in the United States. Individuals in Mexico, Caribbean, Central and South America do not refer to themselves as Latinos. They identify themselves by their nationality (e.g., Chileans, Ecuadorians). When they arrive into the United States, their identities become blended into Latino or Hispanics. Hopefully, speech-language pathologists will encourage immigrant families to be proud of their heritage as children and parents become acculturated into American society.

Economics, political pressures, and culture in one Latin American country affect surrounding countries. For example, what happens in Colombia (e.g., violence from drug cartels) has an impact on the neighboring countries such as Ecuador and Peru with new immigrants. Children may be separated from their parents, or the children become orphans and are traumatized because of a violent death of a family member. I spent time with a child from Colombia while I visited Ecuador in the summer of 2010. This child was thought to be mute by staff at a children’s center in an urban park in Quito. The girl eventually did speak to me and what she talked about was related to her mother’s disappearance, her death, her father’s murder, and how she now lived with a grandmother. This is a child who will need more than language development and socialization with other children. She may not be interested in learning in school, playing with other children, or talking to adults. A team of professionals will be needed to intervene for a child who has seen and experienced great loss.

Political corruption and unrest, boundary disputes, language contact, lack of funding for education, and less than stable economies all contribute to the perception that Latin America has a number of still developing countries where democracies struggle to maintain stable governments. Each country has its governmental system and attempts to provide the people with basic needs, but frequently, individuals choose to immigrate to the United States (Kayser, 2008).

Mestizo populations dominate in countries such as Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Paraguay, and Peru. Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Uruguay, and Venezuela view themselves as primarily European in background. These countries also have African and indigenous languages that continue to be spoken in the rural regions, sea coasts, jungles, and mountains. Many of these countries have experienced large numbers of immigrants from Haiti since the earthquake of 2010. The Dominican Republic and Cuba report more mixed African and Spanish, called mullato.

Spanish is the dominant language in 15 countries in Latin America and 5 countries have multiple languages within their borders because of the variety of indigenous languages spoken within the countries. For example, Mexico has 65 different indigenous groups that continue to use their native languages. Spanish is learned when children enter schools at 5 or 6 years of age and are offered bilingual education. Spanish may be spoken by teachers and priests in Catholic schools, but the villagers may use only their native language for community events. Much like in the United States among Latinos, many parents and children maintain their native language at home and in their community but learn to speak Spanish through the educational systems. Children and adults become bilingual if there is a need to use the two languages.

Mexico, Panama, Ecuador, and Puerto Rico are countries that require English as part of the education of children and for completion of the university degree. Many public schools may offer a range from 1 to 5 hours per week of English classes. Private schools typically offer up to 2 hours per day of English lessons. Students who complete public school secondary education may have up to 6 years of English. The important variable is the instructor for English classes. Many of these teachers are second language learners of English and may not present English as it is spoken in the United States. As the countries develop their political strength, English is becoming the second language of these countries and is fast becoming an important part of the education of children in public and private schools (Kayser, 2008).

Literacy

Table 6-6 lists the 10 highest U.S. Latin American immigrant countries and their literacy rates. The International Data Base of the Census Bureau defines literacy for these countries as the ability to read and write in anyone older than 15 years (U.S. Census Bureau, 2008; Kayser, 2008). The least literate nation in the Caribbean is Haiti, with an estimated 62.1% literacy rate. Cuba is the most literate Latin American country, with a 100% literacy rate.

TABLE 6-6 Literacy and Survival Rate to Last Primary Grade (%), 2003 to 2008, for 10 Latin American Countries

Table 6-6 also provides the number of children who begin and complete the primary grades, or survival rate to the last primary grade. Cuba has the highest survival rate for male and female students, with Mexico following at 97% and 92%, respectively. El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, and Honduras have survival rates from 61% to 69%.

In summary, the people of Latin America are from diverse groups and backgrounds. The countries in Latin America have evolved over the past 500 years to develop their own identities. The use of English is growing in many of these nations, but Spanish will continue as a world language and will be one that U.S. citizens will develop in the coming decades. An important factor in the development of Latin America will be the education of children and these Latin American countries’ efforts in alleviating the needs of children and adults that culminate in immigration to the United States.

Immigration

A 2008 Pew Hispanic Center Report stated that 12.7 million Mexican immigrants lived in the United States in 2008, a 17-fold increase since 1970 (Pew Hispanic Center, 2008a). Mexicans now account for 32% of all immigrants living in the United States. Filipinos are the second largest immigrant group and make up 5% of all immigrants in the United States. Persons from Mexico represent 59% of the estimated 11.9 million unauthorized immigrants in the United States and also make up the largest number of legal immigrants in the United States, 21%. No other country in the world has as many total immigrants from all countries as the United States has immigrants from Mexico alone. Eleven percent of everyone born in Mexico is currently living in the United States (U.S. Census Bureau, 2008).

The Pew Hispanic Center (2008c) reports a recent reversal in the growth of the Hispanic population in the United States. They report an overall reduction of 8% in the number of unauthorized immigrants currently living in the United States to 11.1 million in March 2009 from a peak of 12 million in March 2007. The most marked decline in the population of unauthorized immigrants comes from Latin American countries other than Mexico.