The Latino/Hispanic Ethnic Group Analysis

The Latino/Hispanic Ethnic Group In 1973, the census for the Latino/Hispanic ethnic group was made official (U.S. Census Bureau, 2014). However, the United States Census Bureau (2014) goes over in their ‘Hispanic Heritage Month’ article, that the census led to controversy since "the term Hispanic [...] can be of any race” (United States Census Bureau, 2014).

The Culture of the Latino/Hispanic Ethnic Group “Hispanic Americans and Latino Americans make up more than 17% of the US population with over 53 million Hispanics and Latinos living in the US” (Yafai, 2015). This group contains anyone that comes from a common ancestry; although this ethnic group is widely diverse, they come together with their combination of similarities.

Language

Immigrant

However, as time moves forward, the majority of Hispanics are now either former Christians, Protestant, or unaffiliated, according to Pew Research Center (2014) in the article ‘The Shifting Religious Identity of Latinos in the United States’.

Subgroups

As mentioned before, the Latino/Hispanic ethnic group involves many different kinds of groups all combined into one census as long as they originate from the same background. Motel and Patten go over the ten largest Hispanic origin groups accompanied by the figure below from 2010, which labels the populations in the thousands. Figure 1. Pew Research Center. (2010). US Hispanic Population, by Origin, 2010. [Graph]. Retrieved from:

As slaves were brought into the New World, they became integrated into society, especially when wars of liberation from Spanish colonial rule in Latin America broke out. “In the post-slavery period black people in the US were separated from whites; in Latin America, Afro-descendants were absorbed into society. This, in theory at least, did not take racial ancestry into account: Mestizaje, or the mixing of races, was seen as a part of nation-building” (Brodzinsky, 2013). Even so, the discrimination of black in the Latino community still showed. Blacks tend to be poorer, less educated, have fewer job opportunities, live shorter lives, and have high infant mortality rates (Brodzinsky, 2013).

Conclusion

The Latino/Hispanic ethnic group census is an extensive collection of many different subgroups. The culture defines who they are, even when in America they outshine every other ethnic group with them quickly becoming the majority.

With the past still present in the standards of today, there are still issues within the community in the form of Colorism. One should remember: “Latinos come in many shades, and the diversity simply adds to the vibrancy of our culture” (Rivera,