Featured Post: Not All Latinos Eat Tacos
by Andrés Tapia -
The Latin American is an amalgam of bloodlines: Spanish, Arabic, Native American, African, and northern European. Out of this combination of cultures emerged one culture – the Latino, also referred to as the Hispanic in the U.S. However among the 27 different Latin American nationalities, all of which have established a presence in El Norte, there are significant differences in food, slang, values, and immigration history.
Though tacos and guacamole are part of the Mexican culinary experience, a Puerto Rican would rather have arroz con gandules (black-eyed beans with yellow rice) and a Cuban ropa vieja, a meat preparation whose literal translation is “old clothes.” That sounds as strange to Colombians as it does to Anglo Americans. And a Peruvian in need of money seeks plata, while a Mexican chases lana.
The following is a brief description of some ways Latino/Hispanic groups in the U.S. are different from one another.
Los Mexicanos
It is historically inaccurate to speak of Mexicans as immigrants. This largest Hispanic group mostly lives in California and Texas, territory that belonged to Mexico until the Mexican–American War in 1848 when it lost half of its territory to the U.S. Many other Mexicans immigrated in this century because of labor needs in both the agricultural and industrial sectors. The majority of the one to two million legal and undocumented immigrants into the U.S. each year come across the Rio Grande.
Los Puertorriqueños
The second largest group of Hispanics resides mostly in New York, New Jersey, and Chicago. Because of Puerto Ricans’ commonwealth status as a result of the Spanish-American War, its people are U.S. citizens by birth. There is a perpetual debate on what the status of Puerto Rico should be: independent, a state of the Union, or remain a Commonwealth with some modifications.
Most Puerto Ricans came to the mainline as the results of the harsh economic conditions on the island between 1950 and 1970 at a rate comparable to 50 million people leaving the U.S.
Los Cubanos
Concentrated mostly in Florida, middle class professionals began landing in great numbers on the shores of Miami when Fidel Castro’s Marxist revolution overthrew dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1950. In contrast to most other Hispanic immigrants, Cubans were considered political refugees. Because of their age, education levels, and business experience, Cubans quickly set up shop to bide their time for what they thought would be a temporary situation. Today they are the wealthiest Hispanic group in the U.S. A second immigration wave of the marielitos occurred in 1980 when Fidel Castro emptied his prisons and allowed inmates unhindered passage to the U.S.
Los Centroamericanos
Many Central Americans began arriving in the Seventies as they fled war-torn areas such as El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua. Scores of the over one million who fled from El Salvador were helped by the Overground Railroad, a network of churches helping refugees find sanctuary in the U.S. and Canada. Many feared being killed either by the guerrillas or government forces if they returned. Though the wars are over, many of these refugees have already planted their roots in the U.S.
Los Sudamericanos
Because of the resources required to travel the long distance between South and North America most South Americans – such as Ecuadorians, Bolivians, Chileans – making the journey tend to be middle class. Political and economic instability has also forced these immigrants to seek better opportunities. In Peru, for example, inflation hit 15,000% in the 80s.
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Without the understanding of these major and subtle differences, professionals in corporations will be prone to making mistakes like the following: In a corporate video produced in the U.S. and intended for a Puerto Rican audience to sway them from voting in favor of having a union, one company featured a moving interview with an employee who had gone through great sacrifice crossing the Rio Grande to seek new life in the U.S. In the video, the subject talked emotionally about his dream of one day becoming a U.S. citizen. For Puerto Ricans, who are already U.S. citizens and do not see themselves as having to aspire to immigrate illegally, this was a serious insult. As a result, several people walked out of the screening. And the vote went in favor of unionizing.
While it is a start to be knowlegeable about Latinos being one of the largest racial/ethnic groups in the U.S. , it pays to be aware of the diversity within the Latino community itself.
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