Multiple Origins, Uncertain Destinies Hispanics and the American Future (2006) / Chapter Skim
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3 Defining Hispanicity: E Pluribus Unum or E Pluribus Plures?
3 Defining Hispanicity: E Pluribus Unum or E Pluribus Plures?
Pages 35-54
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From page 35... ...
Nitza Tufiño Taino Symphony (1978) Copyright by the artist; used with permission.
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From page 37... ...
There are signs that similar processes are occurring among Hispanic communities. However, it is uncertain whether "Hispanic" will evolve to become a symbolic identity for people of Latin American descent who become part of the American mainstream.
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From page 38... ...
These include national origin, social history, legal status, shades of skin color, socioeconomic status, religion, and political views -- just about every element that has bound other immigrant groups in the United States.4 Because nearly half of all Hispanics living in the United States today were born abroad, the Spanish language has proliferated in places where large numbers have settled. Acting as a kind of cultural mortar, the universality of the language has created an illusion of ethnic unity among Hispanics that is belied by their diversity: there is no monolithic Hispanic population with a common history or common problems.
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From page 39... ...
High rates of intermarriage and geographic mobility gradually undermined the usefulness of Spanish surname and language for enumerating Mexicans and Puerto Ricans. So, too, did the large numbers of Filipino immigrants, whose Spanish surnames hampered application of the Census Bureau's algorithm for identifying persons of Mexican ancestry living in the southwest.
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From page 40... ...
residents to indicate whether they were "of Spanish/Hispanic origin or descent."8 In the 1980 and 1990 census questionnaires, the race question preceded the Hispanic origin item, which offered four main options: · Mexican, Mexican American, Chicano · Puerto Rican · Cuban · Other Spanish/Hispanic
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From page 41... ...
were least likely.13 By contrast, only 3 percent of non-Hispanics classified themselves as "some other race." The ethnic labels "Hispanic" and "Latino" are used so frequently alongside racial labels such as "Asian" and "black" that many Hispanics are beginning to view themselves as a separate race. Their choice of "some other race" on census forms reflects more than four centuries of mestizaje, or racial miscegenation, in Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as the differing conceptions of race noted above.14 Hispanics may also mark "some
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From page 42... ...
o Yes, Mexican, Mexican-Amer., Chicano Fill one circle. o Yes, Puerto Rican o Yes, Cuban o Yes, other Spanish/Hispanic FIGURE 3-1 1970, 1980, 1990, and 2000 census questionnaires: Race and Hispanic origin questions.
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From page 43... ...
No, not Spanish/Hispanic/Latino Yes, Mexican, Mexican-Am., Chicano White Yes, Puerto Rican Black, African Am., or Negro Yes, Cuban American Indian or Alaska Native Print name of Yes, other Spanish/Hispanic/Latino Print group. enrolled or principal tribe.
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From page 44... ...
There are signs that the children of Latin American immigrants are even more likely than their parents to consider themselves "another race"-not black, white, Asian, or American Indian -- which attests to a fluidity of racial identity that contrasts sharply with the historical black-white divide.15 In the mid-1990s, more than 5,000 second-generation youths from south Florida and southern California representing 77 different nationalities, including all of the main Spanish-speaking countries of Latin America, were given the option to identify themselves racially as white, black, Asian, multiracial, or other.16 More than three in four selected multiracial or other (the majority choosing other)
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From page 45... ...
Among earlier immigrants, particularly those from southern and Eastern Europe, social acceptance and cultural assimilation often involved shifting racially from nonwhite to white. The generational shift among Hispanics reveals how, with time, the classification scheme proposed by Directive 15 has expanded the meaning of the labels "Hispanic" and "Latino," transforming them into ethnic identities that also have a racial component.
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From page 46... ...
Men and women are about equally proficient in English, but notable differences occur across Hispanic subgroups. Roughly a quarter of Mexican immigrants claim fluency in English, compared with half of Cubans born abroad and even larger shares of islandborn Puerto Ricans.
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From page 47... ...
A recent national survey of Hispanic immigrants revealed that 72 percent were Spanish dominant, 25 percent were bilingual, and a mere 4 percent were English dominant. By the second generation, only 7 percent of adult Hispanics were Spanish dominant, and about 47 percent each were bilingual or English dominant.
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From page 48... ...
The Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study (CILS) , which collected data over a 10-year period for first- and second-generation Hispanic youths as they made their transition to adulthood, showed rapid linguistic assimilation, even among the groups most likely to retain Spanish: Mexicans living along the U.S.-Mexican border and Cubans residing in Miami, the most bilingual major city in the country.24 In focus group sessions commissioned by the panel and conducted over several months, participants emphasized repeatedly how they wanted their children to be able to speak Spanish, even if they themselves lacked facility with the language.
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From page 49... ...
I don't feel bien. I'm just a strange animal brought in a cage to be displayed pa'que los gringos no sientan culpa.27 In sum, rapid linguistic assimilation among youths from all Hispanic subgroups and social classes points to a clear and inevitable decline in their use of, preference for, and therefore fluency in Spanish.
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Whether it evolves into an enduring panethnic identity will partly depend on whether social and political cohesion evolves among Hispanic subgroups. A better understanding of Hispanics' intergenerational change awaits the inclusion of questions on parental birthplace in the U.S.
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on an experimental basis and then included in the 5 percent schedule of the 1970 census, allowed for the enumeration of the Hispanic population on a na tional basis. Although the 1980 census improved the Hispanic enu meration by including the Spanish origin item on the 100 percent schedule, the replacement of the parents' birthplace item, which was used to represent generational status from 1870 to 1970, with a question about ancestry compromised the ability to portray intergenerational changes.
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From page 52... ...
7 The Census Bureau's analysis of traditional identifiers, such as surname, using the results of Hispanic self-identification in the 1973 Current Population Survey, confirmed the undercount charges levied by the Inter-Agency Committee on Mexican American Affairs. Choldin, 1986:410, reports that in the Southwest, where the Spanish surname item was used, only 81 percent of those with Spanish surnames identified themselves as Hispanic, and only 74 percent of those who self-identified as Hispanic had Spanish surnames.
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From page 53... ...
31 The American Community Survey asks the same questions about migration and foreign birth that were asked in census 2000, including place of birth of the respondent, citizenship status, year of entry, ancestry, and language spoken at home -- but not parental birthplace. 32 Rumbaut, 2004.
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