1. Hispanic population's rise 1
1.1. Origins - where they come from 1

2. The Mexicans and Puerto Ricans 2
2.1. The special historic situation in the Southwest 2
2.2. Puerto Rico - another "state" of the USA 3
2.3. Centers of Mexican and Puerto Rican population 4

3. Working and living conditions 6
3.1. Employment 6
3.2. Housing 7
3.3. Education and language 8

4. Some additional facts about Hispanic culture in the USA 9

5. Bibliography 11

1. Hispanic population's rise
The U.S. American Census Bureau recorded that in 1985 there were almost 17 million people of Hispanic origin in the United States. They are people who reported that their first language was Spanish. It is noteworthy that the recorded number had increased by 2½ million in five years, and the increase is continuing, both through legal and illegal immigration. Another reason might be the age structure of the Hispanic population and a relatively high birth rate. In 1980 the median age of Hispanic residents was 23 (that is, half were older, half younger than 23) compared to 30 for the U.S. population. So it seems that during the 1990s the Hispanic element will rise to amount to almost a tenth of the whole U.S. American society.

1.1. Origins - where they come from
Almost all the Hispanics are people who have come from Latin America, or their children or later generations descended from them. The Mexicans are the predominant group with almost two-thirds of the whole Hispanic population. About one-sixth, or 2½ million, originate from the American Caribbean island of Puerto Rico, but people from there are not counted as immigrants because Puerto Rico is a territory of the United States. The Cubans are the third largest group with about one-fifteenth.
The rest comes mostly from the Caribbean and South America.



2. The Mexicans and Puerto Ricans
2.1. The special historic situation in the Southwest
Mexican-Americans and Chicanos present a special case in immigration history. The American conquest of the Southwest created the first group of Mexican-Americans in the lands near the Mexican border. Between 1845 and 1854 the United States acquired the territory which today comprises California, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming . Due to a very high birthrate and continuing immigration, the Mexican population in these states grew rapidly.
In Los Angeles, the largest city in California and the second largest city in the nation, Mexican-Americans today constitute almost a quarter of the whole population there.

2.2. Puerto Rico - another "state" of the USA
Puerto Rico was annexed by the United States during the Cuban conflict at the end of the nineteenth century. The conflict began with the Cuban insurrection against the Spanish authority which lasted from 1868 to 1878. As the Spanish government was unable to suppress the Cuban rebellion, the U.S. president charged that American military intervention was necessary to establish peace on the island. Therefore the United States landed troops and gained control of Cuba. Puerto Rico, as another Spanish colony nearby, was occupied too. In a treaty with Spain in December 1898, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines were ceded to the United States.
After the war with Spain, the U.S. wanted to lead the people of Puerto Rico toward self-government and stable economic conditions. In 1900 the country was made an unincorporated territory - a status between that of a colony and a territory, with no provision for eventual statehood. The president of the United States was empowered to appoint in Puerto Rico a governor-general, the head of the executive branch of the island, and to name the members of the upper house of the two-house legislature. The Puerto Rican voters elected representatives to the lower house.
In 1917 the American government conferred American citizenship upon all Puerto Ricans and made the upper house of the legislature elective. Since 1947 the Puerto Ricans have elected their own governor. The Congress approved a new constitution drafted by the islanders themselves in 1952. Under it, Puerto Rico became voluntarily associated with the United States as a commonwealth . In a number of referendums beginning in the 1960's, the people of Puerto Rico expressed their preference regarding the political status of the island: about two-thirds of those polled favored retaining the commonwealth instead of statehood or independence. Therefore Puerto Rico is a territory of the USA, though not itself a state.

2.3. Centers of Mexican and Puerto Rican population
However they came to the United States, the Hispanics have tended to remain in certain parts of the country so that in these areas there has been an obvious change in the balance of the population. The regional concentration is complex. Much the largest concentration is to be found in the southwestern states, from California to Texas, and Mexican- Americans comprise the majority of the Hispanic population there.
In California, the metropolitan area of Los Angeles has one of the highest percentages of Chicanos among the inhabitants. In Texas, the major city of San Antonio, which was the capital under Spanish and Mexican rule, now has a majority of Hispanics, mainly of Mexican origin, though the proportions are much lower in the now bigger cities of Houston and Dallas, further from the border.
Outside the Southwest, the only places with substantial Hispanic populations are New York and Chicago, with about two million in the metropolitan area of New York, or twelve percent of the total in 1985. Most of New York's Hispanics are originally from Puerto Rico so that more than three-fifths of the whole Puerto Rican population on the mainland live in the sectors of New York City and the satellite cities of New Jersey.
The position with Chicago is similar, though in that city Hispanics are
outnumbered more than twice by the black population.
Generally, the number of Puerto Ricans outside the territory of Puerto Rico contains nearly as many people as are now living on the island. This number will probably rise due to the declining economic situation on the island, although Puerto Rico, with aid from the United States, is making an effort to develop production and industry.

3. Working and living conditions
All those who came into the United States as legal or illegal immigrants had the intention to improve their life. They wanted to work hard and strive to acquire all those elements, like well-paying jobs, decent housing and good education, that constitute having "arrived" in the American society. But nevertheless, their standard of living was below
that of the native Americans.

3.1. Employment
Characteristically, those who turned to the United States for their economic and political safety and the vague hope of a better life in the North were largely absorbed into the low-wage, labor-intensive manufacturing or low-skill service sector. Many women have taken up any domestic employment while the men usually work in the big industrial plants or in agriculture. There they increasingly replaced the U.S. American workers.
The Puerto Ricans are the reserve of the working class; most of them employed in unskilled jobs. They are less favorably placed than the general population or than other Hispanics and a great number of them are below the poverty line.
For many decades from the 1960's, Mexicans had entered the United States to satisfy the need for cheap agricultural labor. Few of the legal and illegal Mexican immigrants came entirely unbidden and helped to meet the agricultural interests of the Southern farmers. But they were only season-workers. Mexican-Americans were the last to be employed in good times and the first to be dismissed in bad times. And when they worked, their pay was generally lower than that of others who performed the same jobs. In comparison to the blacks, today the average income levels are slightly higher.

3.2. Housing
An important feature to describe is the Hispanic idea conception of the so-called "barrio" . They want a living space where they can keep an eye on what is happening. Almost everyone knows what happens to one another and can help in case of difficulty, emergency, or problems. The Hispanics tend to concentrate in particular areas and even certain sectors of a city. These housing areas are not as large as those controlled by other communities, like those of the black population. In recent years, however, black and Hispanic populations have tended to live in great proximity to one another. Indeed, Hispanic settlements increasingly have to function as "buffer zones" between black and white neighborhoods.
The Puerto Ricans came from a culture where color played an insignificant role. In the United States they were faced by racial discrimination, which led to an enforced association with blacks. Like them they were also subjected to discrimination in housing.

3.3. Education and language
The distinctive interest of the Hispanic community was in promoting bilingualism in education. The numerous local school boards were faced with vast numbers of pupils who first came to school not knowing any English. Because of their concentration in particular housing areas they tended to be slow to learn English. Educational levels were, with that linguistic handicap, somewhat lower than of the black people.
In order to improve the situation, the Puerto Ricans particularly were concerned with the establishment of bilingual and bicultural educational programs for Puerto Rican and other Hispanic-American pupils and students. This effort led to a higher quality of linguistic education and a better acceptance of the Spanish language in the society. One
by-product of the education campaign was the replacement of French by Spanish as the language most commonly taught in American high schools. In the long run, the promotion of bilingual education threatened to make the Hispanics the first among all immigrant groups in the United States to resist linguistic assimilation.
Today some Hispanics are pressing for the maintenance of a culture within American society more distinct than any of the other ethnic cultures. In particular there is a demand for the Spanish language to continue to be used as an alternative to English, and this demand has produced controversy. It is supported by some civil right activists but not by all Hispanics. In 1978 the people of California voted in a state-wide referendum, by a large majority, to approve a proposal that English be the official language of the state. This seems to be significant for the wish of most Hispanics to promote one equal language in the United States.

4. Some additional facts about Hispanic culture in the USA
Mariachi bands and their music are perhaps the best known kind of Mexican folk music. Brightly-costumed, strolling musicians sing and play violins, guitars, and trumpets. In the United States, the mariachi bands tend to play songs from the "old country", songs that they remember from their youth. Mariachi music seems to be an vital, evolving part of the music scene in Mexico, while in the United States it is part of the nostalgic look at a person's roots. The film "Desperado" with Antonio Banderas and Melanie Griffith recently showed a little bit of the life and music of those mariachi singers.
Another kind of Hispanic music is the Texas-Mexican music. It has been in existence in the United States for half a century. This music was brought over to Texas by the Mexican people during the time when Revolutionary War took place in Mexico. Ensembles congregated for the enjoyment of upper-class folks who liked the variety of the "orquesta típica" (string orchestra) which consisted of violin, psaltery, guitars, mandolins, and contrabass. After World War II, the music of the Tex-Mex orchestra was dominated by the big bands of the United States, such as Tommy Dorsey and Glenn Miller, which were very popular during that time.
Concerning the Puerto Ricans, it is well known that Leonard Bernstein was influenced by them when he created his brilliant musical "West Side Story" in 1957. It is an adaptation of the Romeo and Juliet theme to the conflicts between Puerto Rican and white street gangs.
Reviewing the facts and ideas expressed in this paper it is obvious that the Hispanic population in the USA has a great influence on the economic, sociocultural, and political life of the American society. The Hispanic element will be an important factor in the future United States.

5. Bibliography

* Encyclopedia of American Political History (New York, 1984)

* Historical Dictionary of the Spanish Empire,1402-1975 (Westport/Connecticut, 1991)

* Lester H. Brune, Chronological History of United States Foreign Relations, 1766-January 20,1981 (New York, 1985)

* Kitty Calavita, Inside the State: The Bracero Program, Illegal Immigrants, and the INS (New York, in: After the Law Ser., July 1992)

* Wayne A. Cornelius, Mexican Migration to the United States: Origins, Consequences, and Policy Options (University of California, San Diego, 1989)

* Nancy Forner, New Immigrants in New York City (New York, 1987)

* Wolf Harnisch, Karibien/Mittelamerika: Reiseführer mit Landeskunde. Mit Cuba, Puerto Rico [u.a.] (Bielefeld, 1978)

* Barry B. Levine (ed.), The Caribbean Exodus (New York, 1987)

* Stanley Lieberson/Mary C. Waters, From Many Strands: Ethnic and Racial Groups in Contemporary America (New York, 1988)

* Harriet Martineau, Society in America (New York, 1988)

* Matt S. Meier/Feliciano Rivera, Dictionary of Mexican American history (Westport/Connecticut, 1981)

* Michael Omi/Howard Winant, Racial formation in the United States: from the 1960s to the 1990s (New York, 1994)

* David M. Reimers, Ethnic Americans: A History of Immigration and Assimilation (New York, 1982)

* Constance R. Sutton/Elsa M. Chaney, Caribbean Life in New York City: Sociocultural Dimensions (New York, 1987)

* Karl Weigand, Chicano - Wanderarbeiter in Südtexas: die gegenwärtige Situation der spanischsprechenden Bevölkerung dieses Raumes
(Kiel: Geographisches Institut der Universität, 1977)