Not so long ago, the mention of Hispanics in the United States often conjured up images of quaint Mariachi bands, drug smugglers and illegal migrant workers harvesting vegetables in California. But reality is rapidly transforming the image and the role of Hispanics in American society.
Today, Hispanics -- or Latinos as they often call themselves -- make up America's largest and fastest growing ethnic minority group. And according to demographer Roberto Ramirez at the Ethnic and Hispanic Statistics Branch of the U.S. Census Bureau, Latinos are putting down roots all across the country.
"In Census 2000, we documented that the number of Hispanics is growing in non-traditional Hispanic states such as Vermont, Idaho and Wisconsin that have not traditionally had a sizable Hispanic population," Mr. ramirez said. "So as an aggregate, you will see that Hispanics are kind of dispersing throughout the U-S. They are still primarily concentrating in the cities of major metropolitan areas. But they are going to places that they have not traditionally gone before."
Although cities such as New York, Chicago, Miami and Los Angeles continue to be major gateways for new arrivals, Hispanics from throughout Latin America are settling across the nation faster and farther than any previous wave of immigrants. Nearly 40% of Hispanics in the United States today entered the country in just the past decade.
One of every six people under the age of 35 in the U-S is Latino. And they're having a profound effect on American culture.
Carlos Santana, Shakira, Ricky Martin and Paulina Rubio are mainstream American music stars. American food is changing as well.
Nestor Rodriguez, a sociologist and co-director of the Center for Immigration Research at the University of Houston in Texas, said America's taste for food is changing.
"The foods of the Hispanic cultures have become very popular. And a measure of how much this has impacted our institutions is when non-Hispanics begin to open-up Hispanic restaurants so that you have what we call in the southwest 'Anglos' [i.e. Americans of Anglo-Saxon ancestry] opening-up Mexican restaurants for Mexican customers," he said. "That says that the Hispanic culture has been assimilated into the American core culture, and what we used to think of as a foreign or ethnic food is now part of the mainstream of culinary America."
Mexicans make up more than 60% of the U-S Hispanic population -- about 21 million people -- followed by 3.5 million Puerto Ricans and almost 1.5 million Cubans. Then there are hundreds-of-thousands of people from throughout the western hemisphere, making Hispanics perhaps the most diverse, as well as the largest, ethnic minority group in the country -- 13% of the U-S population.
Sylvia Martinez is editor-in-chief of Latina, a national magazine for Hispanic women. She says one of the best measures of Latino influence on U-S culture is the change in mainstream television programming.
"Thanks to the growing Hispanic population, you can now turn on your television and actually find a Latino family on prime time network television," Ms. Martinez said. "We cannot forget that the most popular children's television show [in the U-S] for the past couple of years has been about a little Latina (i.e., female Hispanic) adventurer named Dora. 'Dora the Explorer' has both Hispanic kids and non-Hispanic kids learning Spanish from a cartoon!"
Spanish is rapidly becoming America's second language. Opponents of high levels of immigration point out that there are some 9-million illegal immigrants in the United States -- about half of whom are Hispanic. And, most Latinos arrive relatively uneducated, which could lead to the development of a permanent economic underclass.
Critics argue that the government shouldn't spend tax dollars on bilingual accommodations. But the major growth of new English speakers in the United States is in the Latino community. As was the case with the wave of European immigrants at the turn of the 20th century, the children of Hispanic immigrants are assimilating into American society.
Even though most Latinos see education as the key to their children's future, high school and college dropout rates among Hispanics is four times higher than for non-Hispanic whites -- with most experts pointing to problems of poverty, teen pregnancy and learning English.
Roberto Ramirez of the U-S Census Bureau says Hispanics are twice as likely to be unemployed.