Monday, March 2, 2009

Two Americas by Joseph Contreras

In this article Joseph Contreras writes about the clash of civilizations in America between the whites and the Hispanics. A man named Samuel P. Huntington wrote in one of his books, ”The most serious challenge to America’s traditional identity comes from the immense and continuing immigration from Latin America, especially from Mexico.” Huntington also believes that Mexican Americans feel increasingly comfortable with their own culture and often contemptuous of American culture. Many people wonder if the United States will remain a country will a single national language and a core Anglo-Protestant culture. If Americans keep ignoring this question, “Americans acquiesce to their eventual transformation into two peoples with two cultures (Anglo and Hispanic) and two languages (English and Spanish)” says Contreras. There are no significant differences between Mexican-American lifestyles and other American lifestyles.
Joseph Contreras questions if Hispanics are rejecting the powerful forces of American cultural assimilation, which swallowed up the successive waves of European immigrants who preceded them? Contreras asks “Are their swelling ranks and enduring loyalty to Latin-American culture and the Spanish language carving out Hispanic-dominated enclaves like Miami where, native Anglos and African-Americans become the ”outside minorities that can often be ignored.”” A fact that Contreras shares in his essay is that Native and foreign-born U.S. residents of Latin American ancestry overtook the blacks as the largest American minority only three years ago and are reaching the 40 million mark very fast. Between 8 and 10 million of these Hispanics are thought of as illegal immigrants, and nearly 70 percent of them are Mexicans. Contreras says that if the birthrates and rising levels of immigration keep up the way they are, Hispanics could be the majority of California in 2018 and possibly one quarter of all Americans by e the middle of this century.
The rate of Latinos going to college is also on the rise. From 1980 to 2000, the percentage of Latinos attending college went from 16 percent to 22 percent. They are making more money as well now. A statistics that Contreras includes is that the median household income rose by 4.3 percent between 1988 and 1999. Teenage and young adult Latinos work and earn more than anyone else in their age group, this includes whites too. This could be because of high unemployment rates or the fact that many do not go to college. Contreras tells us that beyond the age of 25, second generation Latinos with college degrees earn more on average than white workers with comparable educational backgrounds.

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