1. Module 15: Lesson 4 The Hispanic American Presence Grows
Andrew J. Hill

2. Hispanic Population Growth
During the Civil Rights era, Hispanic population increased by 3 million to 9 million.Today, Hispanic American population includes of Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Central America, and South America. The Hispanic American jobless rate was nearly 50 percent higher than that of whites. So too, was the percentage of Hispanic American families living in poverty.

3. Mexican Americans
At the time, Mexican Americans were the largest Hispanic American group, living mostly in the Southwest and in California, having close to half a million Mexicans immigrating to find a better paying job. However, in 1948 about 100,000 Mexican Americans descended to the U.S. Then, another million Mexicans came to America in the 1910s following Mexico’s revolution. Others came as temporary laborers in the 1940s & ‘50s.

4. Puerto Ricans
Immigrating to the United States after the U.S. occupation of Puerto Rico in In the 1960s, 900,000 Puerto Ricans went to New York City’s West Side.

5. Cubans
Hundreds of thousands of Cubans (academics and professionals) fled to the United States in 1959 to escape Fidel Castro’s Communist rule. In addition, tens of thousands of Salvadorans, Guatemalans, Nicaraguans, and Colombians immigrated to the United States after the 1960s to escape civil war and chronic poverty. Therefore, large Cuban communities formed in New York City, Miami, and New Jersey

7. Central America’s Modern History and Immigration
El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras have all had internal conflicts, which increased immigration north to the United States. In each of the three nations, working-class people clashed with governments and military forces that violated human rights. Because these conflicts occurred during the Cold War, the U.S. government sided with the governments, since some of the rebel leaders espoused Communist sympathies. The United States also wanted to protect American commercial interests in Central America.

8. Video on Latino Americans