Hispanic American Diversity

In identifying the linguistic, political, social, economic, religious,

and familial conventions and/or statuses of four Hispanic groups living

in the United States; the following four groups have been chosen,

Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans, and El Salvadorians. Each

group has a rich cultural identity but has been placed in the same

category, Hispanic Americans, on the basis of language. All these

groups share the Spanish language, though each has a different

dialect and some words spelled and pronounced the same have

different meanings. For example, sopa means soup in some countries,

but in others it means soap.

Mexican Americans

Mexican Americans language is made up of a mix of their national

language Spanish and English, sometimes referred to as Spanglish.

Politically Mexican Americans were very active in the Mexican American

Civil Rights movement spearheaded by Mendoza, V. "Ð'...Reies Lopez

Tijerina and the land grant movement, is picked up by Rodolfo "Corky"

Gonzales in Denver who defines the meaning of Chicano through his

epic poem I am Joaquin, embraces Cesar Chavez and the farm

workersÐ'..."(2000). The movement as defined by Mendoza, V. "The

Mexican American Civil Rights MovementÐ'..." "Ð'...encompassed a broad

cross section of issuesÐ'--from restoration of land grants, to farm

workers rights, to enhanced education, to voting and political rightsÐ'..."

Socially Mexican Americans seem to want what all immigrants who

come to this country seeking; the American Dream. (Alba, R. 2006).

Educationally, Mexican Americans, no matter the generation rarely go

past high school; according to the reading, Alba, R. "Huntington

presents data that appear to show very low levels of Mexican-

American educational advancement beyond high school, regardless of

generation."

"Thus, he cites numbers reported from the National

Latino Political Survey, conducted at the end of the

1980s, to show that no more than 10 percent of

Mexican Americans of any generation earn a

credential beyond high school and only 4 percent of

the fourth generation attains the baccalaureate; 40

percent of this generation fails to obtain the high

school diploma." (2006)

Throughout the immigration of Mexicans to America it seems that

little progress is made for Mexican Americans to move up from

immigrant status to mainstream social status. Due in part to the

amount of discrimination and poor educational systems that were

provided to them, Mexican Americans have not truly assimilated

themselves into the American mainstream culture. (Alba, R. 2006)

Economically, Mexican Americans are pushing for fair pay. This

plays out most predominately in the Mexican American Civil Rights

movement as discussed earlier with Cesar Chavez. (Mendoza, V.

2000). Fair pay, benefits and adequate wages are still an issue for

Mexican Americans.

Family for Mexican American seems to focus on the Grandparents,

especially the Grandmothers, they appear to be the staple of the

family according to Gonzalez-Clements, A. in Mexican American

traditions in Nebraska, "Grandmothers, those special women who held

them and fed them and healed them, grandmothers who knew the

remedies, the stories, the crafts, the foods, and the language that

some of us have forgotten." American Christmas traditions have been

adopted, in place of their traditions such as Gonzalez-Clements, A.

"The traditional Mexican posada, a house-to-house celebration of song

and food that replicates Joseph and Mary's search for shelter on

Christmas EveÐ'..."

Puerto Ricans