Chapter Seven
Hispanic Americans:
Colonization, Immigration, and Ethnic Enclaves
© Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2010
Introduction

Before Jamestown was founded, the ancestors of some Hispanic
groups were already in North America.

Hispanic Americans are 12.5% of the total population, and they
became the largest U.S. minority group in the spring of 2001.

By 2050, 1 out of every 4 Americans will be Hispanic.

Hispanics are partly an ethnic group and partly a racial group.

Although the term Hispanic American may be the preferred label for
many Latinos/as, the term can have negative meanings and
controversial connotations.
© Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2010
© Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2010
© Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2010
© Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2010
Mexican Americans

Mexicans were conquered and colonized in the 19th century and used
as a cheap labor in many areas of the dominant group economy in the
Southwest.

By the dawn of the 20th century, Mexican Americans resembled
Native Americans in some ways, southern African Americans in other
ways.

The most crucial difference was the proximity of the sovereign nation
of Mexico, which facilitated constant population movement across the
border continually rejuvenating Mexican culture and the Spanish
language even as they were attacked and disparaged by AngloAmerican society.
© Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2010
Mexican Americans

The overwhelming majority of Mexican Americans are Catholic.

Machismo is a matter of degree and not difference (Moore & Pachon, 1985).

Mexican Americans place more value on family relations and obligations.

These cultural differences have served as the basis for excluding Mexican
Americans from the larger society, however, they also have provided a basis
for group cohesion and unity that has sustained common action and protest
activity.
© Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2010
Mexican Americans

Since the early 1900s (and especially since the 1960s) the Mexican
American experience has been largely shaped by fluctuating
immigration that can be explained by conditions in Mexico, the
varying demand for labor in the low-paying, unskilled sector of the
U.S. economy, and by changing federal immigration policy.
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Uneven foreign economic development and the 1910 Mexican Revolution
WWI and European and Asian immigration restrictions
Depression and repatriation
WWII, the Bracero Program, and “Operation Wetback”
1965 Immigration Act and family preferences
Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1984
© Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2010
© Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2010
Mexican Americans

The flow of population from Mexico was and is stimulated and
sustained by powerful political and economic interests in the
United States.

Mexican immigrants enter a social system in which a colonized
status for the group had already been established.

The twisting history of U.S. policy on Mexican immigration
should serve as a reminder that levels of prejudice, racism, and
discrimination increase as competition and the sense of threat
between groups increases.
© Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2010
Mexican Americans

Throughout much of the 20th century, Mexican Americans have been
limited to the less desirable, low-wage jobs, and split labor markets have
been common.

The workforce has often been further split by gender, with Mexican
American women assigned to the worst jobs and receiving the lowest
wages in both urban and rural areas.

Mexican Americans were excluded from political, educational, and legal
institutions of the larger society by law and by custom.

Discrimination in the criminal justice system and civil rights violations
have been continual grievances of Mexican Americans throughout the
century.
© Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2010
Mexican Americans

Organized local resistance and protest stretch back to the
original contact period in the 19th century.

Regional and national organizations made their appearance early
in the 20th century and were integrationist and assimilationist in
nature—LULAC.

Mid-20th century labor organizing and WWII brought about new
organizations that changed the focus from assimilation per se,
and worked to address a broad array of community problems
and to increase poltical power—Community Service
Organization and the American GI Forum.
© Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2010
Mexican Americans

The 1960s Chicano movement was guided by Chicanismo.

The movement questioned the value of assimilation and increased
awareness of the continuing exploitation of Mexican Americans,
illustrated through adoption of Chicano as the group name.

The movement produced important organizations and leaders:
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Reies Lopez Tijerina and Alianza de Mercedes (1963)
Rodolfo Gonzalez and Crusade for Justice (1965)
Jose Angel Gutierrez and La Raza Unida (1973)
Cesar Chavez and United Farm Workers
© Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2010
Mexican Americans

Jessie Lopez and Dolores Huerta were central figures in the movement
to organize farm workers and worked closely with Cesar Chávez.

However, Chicanas encountered sexism and gender discrimination
within the movement.

Chicanas helped to organize poor communities and worked for welfare
reform.

Continuing issues include domestic violence, child care, the criminal
victimization of women, and the racial and gender oppression that
limits women of all minority groups (Amott & Matthaei, 1991, pp. 82–
86; see also Mirandé & Enriquez, 1979, pp. 202–243).
© Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2010
Mexican Americans

Unlike immigrants from Europe, Mexican Americans tended to work and
live in rural areas distant from and marginal to the urban centers of
industrialization and opportunities for education, skill development, and
upward mobility.

As Chicanos urbanized, they continued to serve as a colonized, exploited
labor force concentrated at the lower end of the stratification system.

The flow of immigration kept Mexican culture and the Spanish language
alive.

Although some Mexican Americans have acculturated and integrated, a
large segment of the group continues to fill the same economic role as
their ancestors.
© Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2010
Puerto Ricans

Puerto Rico became a territory of the United States after the defeat of
Spain in the Spanish-American War of 1898.

As the century wore on, U.S. firms began to invest in and develop the
sugarcane industry that decreased opportunities for economic survival
in the rural areas and forcing many peasants to move into the cities
(Portes, 1990, p. 163).

Movement to the mainland began gradually and increased slowly until
the 1940s, when the number of Puerto Ricans on the mainland
increased more than fourfold, to 300,000, and during the 1950s, it
nearly tripled, to 887,000 (U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, 1976, p.
19).
© Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2010
Puerto Ricans

Puerto Ricans became citizens of the United States in 1917, which
facilitated their movement.

Unemployment was a major problem on the island.

Puerto Ricans were “pulled” to the mainland by the same labor
shortages that attracted Mexican immigrants during and after World
War II.
– Puerto Ricans moved to the Northeast
– Took jobs in the low-wage, unskilled sector of the job market
– Concentrated in urban labor markets (Portes, 1990, p. 164)
© Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2010
Puerto Ricans

Movement was facilitated by affordable air travel between San Juan and New
York City, the major center of settlement for Puerto Ricans even before
annexation.

Puerto Ricans on the mainland remain centered in New York City, and more
than two thirds currently reside in the cities of the Northeast (U.S. Bureau of
the Census, 2000m).

The rate of Puerto Rican migration has followed the cycle of boom and bust,
just as it has for Mexican immigrants.

Although economically diversified, the bulk of the group remains concentrated
in lower-status jobs as unskilled factory and service sector laborers (males), or
employed as domestics or seamstresses for the garment industry (females) in
New York City (Portes, 1990, p. 164).
© Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2010
Puerto Ricans

Puerto Ricans are overwhelmingly Catholic, but the
religious practices and rituals on the mainland are
quite different from those on the island.

Even though skin color prejudice still exists in Puerto
Rico, it was never as categorical as on the mainland.

In the racially dichotomized U.S. culture, many Puerto
Ricans feel they have no clear place.
© Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2010
Puerto Ricans

Puerto Ricans arrived in the cities of the Northeast long after the great
wave of European immigrants and several decades after African
Americans began migrating from the South.

Puerto Ricans share many problems with other urban minority groups
of color: poverty, failing educational systems, and crime.

Puerto Ricans on the mainland combine elements of both an immigrant
and a colonized minority experience.

Puerto Rican culture retains a strong vitality and is continually
reinvigorated by the considerable movement back and forth between
the island and the mainland.
© Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2010
Cuban Americans

The contact period for Cuban Americans dates back to the
Spanish-American War.

Despite its nominal independence, the United States
remained heavily involved in Cuban politics and
economics for decades, and U.S. troops actually occupied
the island on two different occasions.

The development of a Cuban American minority group
bears little resemblance to the experience of either
Chicanos or Puerto Ricans.
© Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2010
Cuban Americans

The conditions for a mass immigration were created in the late 1950s
when a Marxist revolution brought Fidel Castro to power in Cuba.

The first Cuban immigrants to the United States tended to come from
the more elite classes and included affluent and powerful people.

The U.S. government welcomed the new arrivals as political refugees
fleeing from communist tyranny.

Many profoundly Americanized Cuban exiles viewed southern Florida
as an ideal spot from which to launch a counterrevolution to oust
Castro. (Portes, 1990, p. 165).
© Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2010
Cuban Americans

Immigration was considerable for several years.

In 1980, a wave of immigrants generated a great deal of
controversy in the United States because the Cuban
government used the opportunity to rid itself of a variety of
convicted criminals and outcasts.

However, the Marielitos also included people from every
segment of Cuban society, a fact that was lost in the clamor
of concern about the “undesirables” (Portes & Manning,
1986, p. 58).
© Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2010
Cuban Americans

Today, Cuban Americans remain one of the most spatially concentrated
minority groups in the United States (67% in Florida; 52% in Miami;
U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2000s), which has created a great deal of
civil disorder over the years.

Cuban Americans rank higher than other Latino groups on a number of
dimensions, a reflection of the educational and economic resources
they brought with them from Cuba and the favorable reception they
enjoyed from the United States (Portes, 1990, p. 169).

The differences run deeper and are more complex than a simple
accounting of initial resources would suggest as Cubans adapted to
U.S. society in a fundamentally different way than the other two Latino
groups.
© Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2010
Cuban Americans

Cuban Americans are an enclave minority.

An ethnic enclave is a social, economic, and cultural subsociety
controlled by the group itself, located in a specific geographical
area or neighborhood inhabited solely or largely by members of
the group.

The enclave encompasses sufficient economic enterprises and
social institutions to permit the group to function as a selfcontained entity, largely independent of the surrounding
community.
© Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2010
Cuban Americans

The fact that the enclave economy is controlled by the group itself is
crucial.

The ethnic enclave provides a platform from which Cuban Americans
can pursue economic success independent of their degree of
acculturation or English language ability.

The fact that success came faster to Cubans that were less acculturated
reverses the prediction of many theories of assimilation.

A final qualification, success has been selective and inequality
continues to be a problem for Cuban Americans.
© Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2010
Cuban Americans

Cuban Americans are neither the first nor the only group to
develop an ethnic enclave, and their success has generated
prejudice and resentment from the dominant group and from
other minority groups.

Higher-status Cuban Americans have been stereotyped as “too
successful,” “too clannish,” and “too ambitious.”

This stereotype of Cubans is an exaggeration and a
misperception that obscures the fact that poverty and
unemployment are major problems for many members of this
group.
© Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2010
New Hispanic Groups: Immigrants from the
Dominican Republic, El Salvador,
and Colombia

Dominicans – are motivated largely by economics,
and they compete for jobs with Puerto Ricans, other
immigrants groups, and native born workers with
lower levels of education and jobs skills.
 In
terms of acculturation and integration, Dominicans are
roughly similar to Mexican Americans and Puerto Ricans,
although some studies suggest they are possibly the most
impoverished immigrant group.
© Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2010
New Hispanic Groups: Immigrants from the
Dominican Republic, El Salvador,
and Colombia

Salvadorans – Many of the Salvadorans n the U.S.
today are actually political refugees.

Colombians – Colombian Americans are closer to
U.S. norms of education and income than other
Latino groups, and recent immigrants are a
mixture of less skilled laborers and well-educated
professionals seeking to further their career.
© Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2010
Contemporary
Hispanic-White Relations

The American tradition of prejudice against Latinos was born in the 19th
century conflicts that created minority group status for Mexican Americans.

The level of Latino prejudice has declined, but prejudice and racism against
Latinos tend to increase during times of high immigration and competition for
jobs and other resources.

Research shows that Hispanic groups’ rates of acculturation increase with
length of residence and are higher for the native born (Espinosa & Massey,
1997; Godstein & Suro, 2000; Valentine & Mosley, 2000).

Racial factors have complicated and slowed the process of assimilation for
many Latinos.

Cultural differences reflect the recency of immigration.
© Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2010
Contemporary
Hispanic-White Relations

Regional concentrations of Latinos in 2000 reflect the
legacies of their varied patterns of entry and settlement.

Within each of these regions, Latino groups are highly
urbanized.

Hispanics are generally less residentially segregated than
African Americans, still their level of segregation actually
increased between 1980 and 2000.
© Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2010
© Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2010
© Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2010
© Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2010
© Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2010
© Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2010
Contemporary
Hispanic-White Relations

Levels of education for Hispanic Americans have risen in recent
years but still lag behind national standards.

Lower levels of education are the cumulative results of decades of
systematic discrimination and exclusion further reduced, in the
case of Mexican Americans, by the high percentage of recent
immigrants who bring very modest educational backgrounds.

Given the role that educational credentials have come to play in the
job market, these figures support the idea that assimilation will be
segmented and suggest that opportunities for upward mobility will
continue to be limited.
© Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2010
© Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2010
© Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2010
Contemporary
Hispanic-White Relations

The political resources available to Hispanic Americans have
increased over the years, but the group is still proportionally
underrepresented.

The number of Hispanics of voting age has more than doubled
in recent decades, yet the Hispanic community has not had an
impact on the political structure proportionate to its size.

With their rapid growth rate, it is clear that the Hispanic voters
will have a much greater impact on politics in the future,
especially as second- and third-generation children reach voting
age (Del Pinal & Singer, 1997, p. 42).
© Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2010
Contemporary
Hispanic-White Relations

The economic situation of Hispanic Americans is mixed.

The unemployment rates for Hispanic Americans run about twice the rate for nonHispanic whites, and the poverty rates for the group as a whole are comparable to
those of African Americans (Camarillo & Bonilla, 2001, pp. 110-111).

As was the case with African Americans and Native Americans, Latinos are
overrepresented in the lowest income categories.

Cuban Americans have the lowest poverty rates and are comparable to national
norms.

Mexican American and Puerto Rican families have the higher rates of poverty,
especially for female-headed households, and these rates are comparable to the
figures for African Americans and American Indians.
© Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2010
© Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2010
© Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2010
© Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2010
Contemporary
Hispanic-White Relations

The socioeconomic profiles of Mexican Americans and Puerto Ricans reflect
their concentration in the low-wage sector of the economy, the long tradition
of discrimination and exclusion, and the lower amounts of human capital
(education, job training) controlled by these groups.

Cuban Americans, buoyed by a more privileged social class background and
their enclave economy, rank higher on virtually all measures of wealth and
prosperity.

These figures point to a split labor market differentiated by gender, within the
dual market differentiated by race and ethnicity.

Female-headed Latino families are affected by a triple economic handicap:
They have only one wage earner, whose potential income is limited by
discrimination against both women and Latinos.
© Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2010
Contemporary
Hispanic-White Relations

As was the case with African Americans and Native Americans, these
economic differences are even wider when we consider wealth
(savings, property, stocks and bonds, etc.) as opposed to income.

The majority of Hispanic households (57%) are in the “low wealth”
category and only about 26% are in “upper-middle” and “high” wealth
categories.

While some immigrant groups arrive with abundant resources and high
levels of human and financial capital, Hispanic immigrants typically
arrive with little education, few skills, and, often, no more wealth than
the clothes they wear.
© Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2010
Contemporary
Hispanic-White Relations

The extent of intimate contact between Hispanic Americans and the
dominant group is probably higher than for either African
Americans or Native Americans.

Some studies report that contact is greater for the more affluent
social classes, in the cities, and for the younger generations (who
are presumably more Americanized) (Fitzpatrick, 1976; Grebler et
al., 1970, p. 397; Rodriguez, 1989, pp. 70–72).

Rates of intermarriage are higher for Latinos (3.5%) than for
African Americans (< 1%) (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2002, p.
47).
© Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2010
Assimilation and Hispanic Americans

As test cases for what we have called the traditional view of
American assimilation, Latinos fare poorly as there is no single
experience or pattern of adjustment to the larger society.

Their experiences also illustrate some of the fundamental forces
that shape the experiences of minority groups: the split labor
market and the U.S. appetite for cheap labor, the impact of
industrialization, the dangers of a permanent urban underclass,
the relationships between competition and levels of prejudice
and rejection, and the persistence of race as a primary dividing
line between people and groups.
© Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2010