HISPANIC AMERICAN DIVERSITY

Hispanic American Diversity

Hispanic American Diversity

Introduction

Hispanic Americans are individuals whose ancestors came from Latin American countries, such as Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and other South and Central American countries, such as Colombia, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. Hispanic Americans are one of the fastest growing ethnic minority groups in the United States. According to the 2000 U.S. Census, Hispanic Americans are now the largest ethnic minority group in the United States, representing a total of 35,305,818 Americans or 12.5% of the total population. Hispanic Americans represent a very heterogeneous group of people in terms of race, ethnicity, region, and socioeconomic status. As a group, however, Hispanic Americans tend to be younger than other Americans (median age is 26 years), and the majority are located in metropolitan areas.

Hispanic American Diversity: A Discussion

The terms Hispanic and Latino/a reflect the diversity of cultures. Hispanic, often used interchangeably with Latino/a, is a designation adopted by the U.S. Census Bureau to classify any individual of Spanish ancestry. Contrastively, Latino/a is a term adopted recently by younger non-European individuals to express their cultural distinction and pride. (Miller 2005)

Miller (2005) mentions inextricably associated with cultural diversity is linguistic diversity. Currently, two main languages, English and Spanish, predominate in the United States, although there are more than 100 languages represented among its bilingual citizenry. During the European wave of immigration, assimilation was favored over preservation of the original culture and language. English was valued as the lingua franca and unofficial national tongue. High importance was attributed to learning English, especially Standard English, as the required medium for identification and socioeconomic advancement (Miller, 2005). However, for particular groups, such as African Americans, Hispanics, and American Indians, language preservation is a source of cultural identity, pride, and solidarity. Currently, Spanish has gained recognition in government, social, and business interactions, and bilingualism has gained a measure of acceptance with the latest wave of immigrants since the 1990s. (Miller 2005)

Despite the heterogeneous nature of both their history and culture, Hispanic Americans share a number of cultural values. The most important value is familismo, the belief in maintaining close connections with family. Hispanic Americans display a willingness to sacrifice at the individual level in service to the family, and there is a shared sense of responsibility within Hispanic American families that is marked by specific role responsibilities for the mother, father, son, daughter, and abuelo/abuela (grandparents) (Miller, 2005). Even Hispanic American families who have lived in the United States for several generations and become acculturated into U.S. society exhibit fairly strong values of familismo. Though the customs surrounding familismo may have changed (e.g., young people may date without the presence of an older relative), new customs have arisen that continue to express this core value (e.g., siblings may live together or close to each other while attending college away from home and family).

As a result of the increased availability of jobs and education to all members of the family, along with recurring migratory cycles, changes can be seen in the structure ...