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Hispanic Americans

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Submitted By mylife62
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Hispanic Americans
Pamela M. Nelams
ETH/125 - CULTURAL DIVERSITY
May 7, 2011
DENISE LANGDON

In the United States there it is reported that, Mexican Americans make up 10.3% of the United States' population with over 31,689,000 Americans listed as of Mexican ancestry. Mexican Americans comprise 66% of all Hispanics and Latinos. The common language spoken among the Mexican Americans is Spanish as the first language and English as their secondary language. For most Mexican Americans especial those that or illegal find themselves living below the economic standards because they have to take low paying jobs and even those that are here legal also deal with low paying jobs and discrimination on the job. Most Mexican Americans have taken on blue-collar jobs such as gardeners, truck drives, and construction works and are making minimal pay.

Most Mexican Americans have maintained their religious back ground of Catholic faith. Their family’s ties are based on a system of mutual dependence and respect for elders which created a close-knit family unit. Family honor and unity were of paramount significance. If problems arose for individual members, the immediate or extended family could be relied upon to resolve the issue. Important decisions were always made with first consideration given to the needs of the group rather than the individual. (Robert R. Alvarez, Jr., The Hispanic American Almanac, p. 171).

According to the 2010 U.S. census 75 % of Puerto Ricans identify themselves as being mostly of Spanish decedent. For Puerto Ricans Spanish remains their primary language. The great majority of Puerto Ricans are Christians, though there are certain Islamic and Jewish sectors in the island. Roman Catholicism has been the main religion among Puerto Ricans since the arrival of the Spanish in the 15th century, but the increasing presence of Protestant, Latter-day

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