Examine The Puertorican Experience Of Settlement In

The USA Essay, Research Paper

Thernstrom and Orlov in The Harvard Encyclopaedia of American Ethnic Groups define the term Hispanic as “an easy way to collectively refer to a growing number of Spanish origin or Spanish -speaking people in the United States”. The main component groups of the Hispanic population of the United States are Cubans, Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, and to a lesser extent Dominicans, and other Central and South Americans. This umbrella term is therefore used to describe dissimilar peoples from different countries, with different ethnic backgrounds, physical characteristics, cultures and socioeconomic status. This diversity manifests itself in the diversity of their settlement. In this essay I hope to discuss the differences and similarities between the three main Hispanic groups, the Mexicans, Cubans and Puerto Ricans and in light of this, work towards an understanding of why the Puerto Rican experience of settlement in the USA has been so markedly unique. The history of Mexican immigration started with the invasion and annexation of Mexico during the 1845-55 war. But since then immigration has continued almost continuously. In 1990 there were 13 million or 5.47% of the population, Mexicans resident legally in the USA. Ninety percent of the Mexican American population lived in the south west, the remainder have moved in search of employment in the Midwest. A number of important factors can now be recognised. The Mexican population is now a national as opposed to a regional minority, urban rather than rural and industrial rather than agricultural. The average Mexican is bi-lingual in Spanish and English, and was born in the US of US born parents. That is to say a third generation immigrant. Furthermore the average Mexican is Catholic although he attends mass less frequently than other Catholics. Generally the average Mexican is less well educated than average in the US and racially is a mixture of white Spanish and Indian, although some black ancestry may be present. Cubans are a far more recent immigrant group. In 1990 there were just over a million Cubans in the USA. Ever since the 1959 revolution in Cuba there has been a steady flow of exiles. This flow has increased considerably with the Cuban Missile crisis and the classification of Cubans as political refugees. By the 1970¹s they were beginning to become established in southern cities, being 99% urban , and in Miami, which now has approximately 40% of Cubans in the USA. Those Cubans who first emigrated were those wealthier Cubans who stood to lose from the revolution. This has now steadily become less the case and now the average Cuban is on average likely to be less wealthy than the average American and more likely to be unemployed. A crucial difference is that Cuban migration to the USA was driven by a socialist state. As a result the Cuban migrants are effectively in exile. As a result of this involuntary migration the desire to maintain their native culture is very strong. This is most obviously reflected in the common use of Spanish. The size of the Cuban population in Miami is now so great that Cubans need little interaction with other cultural groups. There are Cuban television and radio stations, shop and newspapers, and Miami is now virtually a bi-lingual city. Traditional the Cuban family unit is extended and although this has declined in frequency, the family unit is usually larger than the average nuclear family. The Cuban culture also has resulted in little marriage across cultural barriers. This has resulted in the maintenance of a strong Cuban culture. Importantly, according to the 1970 US census 95% of Cuban Americans are white, with the remainder having some African ancestry. Puerto Ricans have had citizenship of the USA since 1917 and therefore immigration to the mainland has been occurring since then. Mass migration occurred in the late 1960¹s and 1970¹s as unemployment in Puerto Rica, population pressures, ease of transport to the US and an already established Puerto Rican community in the US provided a very tempting stimulus for migration. The Puerto Rican population in 1990 was a little under three million, approximately one percent of the total population. 69% of Puerto Ricans are located in the North East, mainly in New York but also now in Detroit sand Chicago. Puerto Ricans have generally not sought to maintain their culture in the ways that other European migrants did in the earlier half of this century. Significantly there is a sizable element of African ancestry in the Puerto Rican population. 7% of Puerto Ricans in New York classified themselves as black. It is evident that these three Hispanic groups differ culturally and in the history of their migration to the USA. Another crucial difference is in their socio-economic status. The Statistical Abstract of the USA (1993) gives a detailed breakdown of varying socio-economic indicators according to ethnic grouping. These indicators include educational attainment, levels of unemployment, family status and owner occupied housing. The Statistical Abstract gives data based upon the 1990 US census. A measure of Educational attainment is given in terms of the percentage of people, older than twenty five, who have completed high school education. 46.2% of Mexicans, 59.8% of Puerto Ricans, and 62.1% of Cubans had completed their high school education or higher. In terms of unemployment, 10.7% of Mexicans, 7.8% of Cubans and 12.