Hispanic American Diversity Hispanic Americans are a large ethnic group that can be divided into four big sub-groups: Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, Cuban Americans, and Dominican Americans. The representatives of these groups can be known as Latinos, and have Spanish roots. First people of Hispanic background have appeared in the United States since 17th century. It is the fastest-growing minority group in the United States. Though the representatives of four groups belong to the same Hispanic Americans group, but their cultures and social statuses differ greatly. Almost 60 per cent of Hispanic Americans are Mexican Americans. The group includes citizens of the United States with Mexican ancestry and Mexicans immigrated to the country.
Because of the near proximity of the border, a lot of immigrants are from Mexico. They settled mostly in the Southwestern part of the United States. For a long time Mexican workers have been used as cheap labor, and work as service workers, manufacturing workers and farm laborers. Nowadays, Mexican Americans as usual work as restaurant workers, janitors, truck drivers, gardeners, construction laborers and material moving workers. But sometimes Mexican Americans are discriminated and are displaced because of racial profiling. Often Mexican Americans are regarded to the lower social ladder and are considered to be poor and full of socioeconomic difficulties.
However the representatives of present generation are more successful and take higher positions in the society. The majority of Mexican Americans vote for Democrats though Texans prefer Republican candidates. The voters form Mexican Americans are 13% of all. Some representatives occupy higher political positions. In 1928, in New Mexico the first Hispanic, Octaviano Ambrosio Larrazolo, was elected to the United States Senate. Almost all Mexican Americans are Roman Catholics but there is a big Protestant group.
The Research paper on A Cultural Difference American Weddings Versus Hispanic Weddings
A Cultural Difference: American Weddings versus Hispanic Weddings It is very important to understand that each culture has the traditions of its own. While the Americans are individualists, the Hispanics belong to a collectivist culture. No wonder these differences find their reflection in cultural traditions of the nations, thus making the traditions between the two cultures so different. The ...
Family plays an important role for all Hispanics. Gender differentiation and male dominance are evident. The head of the family is the father. Women run the household, shop, and prepare the food. Mexican Americans are bicultural; thats why they have little interest to their Mexican heritage and have adopted American culture. Though they speak Spanish language but there is some difference.
Most of all Mexican Americans are bilingual. The other large group of Hispanic Americans is Puerto Ricans. The representatives of the group were born in Puerto Rico or have ancestors from the island. It should be pointed that Puerto Rico has all constitutional rights, privileges and immunities provided by the Constitution of the United States of America. The main stream of immigration was in the mid-1940s and 1950s. People went to the United States looking for good jobs.
Most of them were poor, uneducated and rural laborers. Many Puerto Ricans are in New York City, Philadelphia, urban New Jersey, Chicago, northern Ohio, and Florida. As usual they resided in the poorest, over-crowed areas of big cities. The main language is Spanish but there are some words and phrases come from Africa. Puerto Ricans experienced discrimination and racism and often were denied employment opportunities. Extreme poverty has led them to drugs and crime.
Puerto Ricans have been regarded to the lower social-economic ladder and often have no excess to higher education. However, there are a lot of doctors, lawyers, judges and bankers among the representatives of the group. Puerto Ricans like salsa music and Puerto Rican foods. Their families like to gather and talk. Puerto Ricans are proud of their origin and Puerto Rican flags can be seen everywhere in the districts they live in. Miami and Florida are considered to be settlements of Cuban-American community because they are close to Cuba. There were several periods of Cuban immigration to the U.S.
The Essay on Don Julio Americans Mills Puerto
Chapter IV focuses on the presence of the Americans in Puerto Rico during the early part of the twentieth century and their subsequent development of the sugarcane industry there. During this time, the United States military occupied Puerto Rico. Due to this occupation, the native islanders were affected in numerous ways and were looked down upon by the Americans. The Americans viewed the natives ...
The first families moved from Cuba to St. Augustine in 1565. Later, in the late 1800s, a Cuban named Vicente Martinez-Ybor set up a cigar making business in Tampa. But the largest waves of immigration occurred from 1960 to 1979, and in 1980. Usually immigrants from Cuba were political refugees who took part in the anti-Castro movement. In 1980, Fidel Castro freed prisoners and they immigrated to the United States with the Mariel boatlifts. Many Cuban-Americans did not like the Marielitos because of their bad reputation. Though there are common features of the culture of Cuban-Americans, it varies greatly from community, and from person to person.
A lot of Cubans are Roman Catholics; but there are many Protestants and spiritualists. There are nonreligious people as a result of former Soviet Union Cuban relations. Cuban Americans seem to be the most prosperous group from all others. First of all there are a lot of well-educated people among them. Thats why representatives of the group occupy high political and social positions, and are very successful in establishing businesses. Cuban Americans are engaged in all spheres of life. May be Dominican Americans are in the most unfavorable position. The group is the smallest and the youngest.
There are a lot of examples of discrimination towards the representatives of the group. In the 1960s, the Dominican Republic had great economic problems. It caused a vast migration of Dominicans. They settled mainly to east coast cities, particularly New York City; Paterson, New Jersey; Perth Amboy, Florida and New Jersey. But the largest community is in New York. Mostly Dominicans came without higher education, poor and without documents.
Thats why they had no chance to get good job. The representatives of the second generation are more educated and occupy higher positions. As usual Dominican Americans work in international phone calling centers, restaurants, remittance wiring, taxi companies and travel agents. The main language is Spanish. A lot of Dominicans marriage with other North Americans and Latin Americans. They are Roman Catholics and have the cult of the saints.
The Term Paper on Dominicans In America
Andre Washington Wilbert Nelson Sociology 140 December 13, 1999 Dominicans, America’s Growing People for the New Millennium The Dominican Republic or also known as La Republica Dominicana is a small island that is 18,816 square miles, located off the coast of Florida. The Dominicans of this land share their island with the Haitians. The island has a subtropical climate, mountains, rolling ...
Dominicans possessed European and African features in their art and music. The last is a heart of their culture. Many representatives of Dominicans have made good carrier in music. But they are well-known in the field of baseball. Dominicans are great sportsmen. In New York Dominican Americans joined different ethnic and racial groups but they are considered to be the most intensely criminalized and racialized among other Spanish-speaking ethnic groups. The group is often associated with poverty and violence.
Dominicans do not take an active part in politics. A lot of them want to return to the Dominican Republic.
Bibliography:
Dominican Americans. (2006).
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, retrieved June 20, 2006 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominican_Americans Ramirez, Roberto. (2004).
We the People: Hispanics in the United States, Census 2000, Special Reports, December, 2004. Ramirez.
