Hispanic American Diversity Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

Hispanic American Diversity - Essay Example People of Mexican origin are Mexicans either for the reason they are born in Mexico or of Mexican heritage. "The majority of Mexican Americans live in urban areas which comprise the three agricultural migrant streams that flow from the south to the north across the country, often twice annually. Historically, Mexican Americans have been both an urban and rural population. Since the 1600s, Mexicans were the first Americans to establish homesteads in the territories that became Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas. Since before the turn of the century, Mexican Americans literally built the great southwestern cities of Los Angeles, San Diego, Tucson, Albuquerque, Dallas, and San Antonio" (2006b) Mexican culture is influenced by folk art, which exhibits in major American museums, and "the great Mexican muralists like Rivera, Siquieros, and Orozco were invited to paint frescoes on the walls of American institutional sites such as universities and even within such edifices of capitalism as Rockefeller Center in New York" (Limon, 1998, p. 26) Local Mexican cultural life involves the participation of ranches, they used to gather for parties and seasonal balls and dutifully attend Sunday gatherings. With respect to linguistics, "Mexican America... Others, speaking perfect English, have completely forsaken the tongue of their ancestors". (Gonzalez, 1969, p. 16) A few, usually among the more educated intellectual class, have made a point of learning to speak both English and Spanish well, but they are, very rare. It has been found that the majority of the members of this population still learn English as a second language, however Spanish-American leaders recognize that in order for individuals to raise their socioeconomic level they must speak English well. Puerto Ricans The cultural heritage of Puerto Rico is among the richest in the world. Traditionally, the Puerto Rican people speak Spanish; it is their language of loyalty, romance, passion, patriotism, business, negotiation, and defiance-it is their cultural language. Their ancestors inherited this language from the Spaniards through conquest, and yet it is not the language that the Spaniards spoke when Puerto Rico was under Spanish colonial rule, and it is not the Spanish that Spaniards speak today. In addition, for those who are fully bilingual in Spanish and English, a linguistic phenomenon called "Spanglish" has arisen. The Spanish conquest of Puerto Rico, and the rest of Latin America, for the most part guaranteed that the people would become Roman Catholic. Under colonial rule, it was forbidden to practice any religion but Catholicism. "In Puerto Rico there seems to be a combination of the practices of Santeria and Spiritism, and there are times when the people themselves are not certain o f the origin of a particular custom; they practice it because their ancestors did, not because they are active followers of Santeria or Spiritism". (Perez, 2000, p. 17) Politically, "Puerto Ricans have always received lower levels of Federal