2000 Census shows that most Hispanics in the US are of Mexican heritage

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Thursday, May 10 Austin American-Staesman

Census pops media image of Hispanics

By Gaiutra Bahadur American-Statesman Staff Thursday, May 10, 2001

Salsa might be the rhythm and Puerto Rico's Ricky Martin the poster boy of the "Hip to be Hispanic" movement, but America's Hispanics are mainly Mexican, according to a report the U.S. Census Bureau will release today.

The snapshot of the the country's 35.3 million Hispanics -- a rapidly growing group that makes up 12.5 percent of the U.S. population -- provides a nuanced look at their backgrounds based on 2000 census results.

The portrait does not fit many of the pop culture cutouts. About 7.3 percent of U.S. residents are of Mexican heritage. The 7.1 million boom in this group's numbers since 1990 accounted for most of the gains in the Hispanic population.

"The perception is somehow that Latinos are equivalent to Jennifer Lopez and Ricky Martin doing their dances, if you use the media as the primary indicator," said Jose E. Limon, director of the Center for Mexican American Studies at the University of Texas. "But historically, Mexicans have been the largest group. That's never changed."

By comparison, Puerto Ricans living outside the island make up 1.2 percent of Americans, and people of Cuban heritage account for 0.4 percent.

The second largest and second fastest growing group of Hispanics comes from neither Puerto Rico nor Cuba. Increasingly, Hispanics have ties to El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, the Dominican Republic and other countries in Central and South America. About one million more people identify with this cluster of countries today than in 1990. They account for 11 percent of Hispanics, or about 3.8 million people.

The swell of this population, which grew by 32 percent in the past decade, springs from internal strife in the middle to lower swath of the hemisphere. Many fled natural disasters, civil wars and poverty to come to America. In Honduras, there was Hurricane Mitch. In Colombia, right-wing paramilitary groups have been fighting leftist guerrillas for more than three decades. In El Salvador, the end of a bloody civil war in 1992 left former soldiers jobless.

But some say the structure of the world economy explains much of the migration, as well.

"Globalization displaces workers. Traditionally in Latin American countries, when there are economic changes, people head to the capital," said Armando Villareal, an analyst with the Texas Immigrant and Refugee Coalition, an Austin-based umbrella of advocacy and service groups. "Well, the capital country of this globalization effort is the U.S.

"You can imagine a huge 'Want Ad' sign stuck in the United States, and it's facing Latin America."

Other noteworthy details from the census report are:

* Three of every four Hispanics in the United States live in the Southwest. About one in five live in Texas, where people of Mexican heritage make up the largest group of Hispanics. Of the state's nearly 6.7 million Hispanics, about 5 million, or 76 percent are of Mexican heritage. Only 69,504 Texans said they are Puerto Rican and only 25,705 said they are Cuban.

* Most people of Mexican heritage live in the West or the South. Most Puerto Ricans live in the Northeast, and most people of Cuban heritage live in Florida.

* About one in five Hispanics live in four counties in the United States, including Harris County in Texas. The others are Miami-Dade, Cook County in Illinois and Los Angeles County.

* Nineteen cities or towns have populations that are more than 50 percent Hispanic. Six are in Texas: Laredo, Brownsville, McAllen, El Paso, San Antonio and Corpus Christi.

* Of the 10 cities with the largest numbers of Hispanics, four are in Texas: Houston, San Antonio, El Paso and Dallas.

* Houston and San Antonio are among the top five cities where Hispanics of Mexican background live. Houston also makes the top five list for Central Americans.

* Hispanics of Mexican heritage, with a median age of 24.2 years, are younger than Hispanics with backgrounds in other countries.



-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), May 10, 2001

Answers

Norwegians were reported as being the nation's 347th fastest growing minority group and are crowding out the Finlanders in Duluth. Aaaay?

-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), May 10, 2001.

From my experience, I'd say Mexicans make good neighbors and pretty hard workers. Leastwise, I got no complaints. Now I know why I never met a Cuban. According to these numbers they're not so numerous - except maybe in S. Florida.

-- Miserable SOB (misery@misery.com), May 10, 2001.

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