Hispanics in the United States: Not Only Mexicans

Since becoming the nation’s largest minority around 2000, Hispanics have continued to increase their numbers. The Census counted nearly 22 million Hispanics in 1990, over 35 million in 2000 and over 50 million in 2010. Hispanics are an especially important component of the population of persons under 18, and fertility will tend to raise their share of Americans even apart from continuing immigration. The 2010 Census showed that Hispanics were only 11.8% of all native born U.S. citizens, but they were 22.1% of those under the age of 18. Hispanics are themselves a diverse ethnic category. This report calls attention to the mixture of many different groups from the Western Hemisphere whose common link is language. There is a possibility that common language in itself is enough to draw these groups together – certainly it is the basis for marketing and political advertising. Reports after the 2000 Census pointed out that the fastest growth has not been in the traditionally largest Hispanic groups (Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, or Cubans), but among New Latinos – people from the Dominican Republic and a diverse set of countries in Central American (such as El Salvador) and South America (such as Colombia) whose presence had not been so visible a decade before (Logan 2001).