I feel as though I must admit that with the exception of Hispanic foods, mainly Mexican and Puerto Rican, I have not given too much thought to the Hispanic segment of my country. With this being the case, I will confess my ignorance, which is probably even more unforgivable because I have three wonderful sons who are half Puerto Rican. I have always enjoyed Hispanic culture, but was surprised by much of the information I read in the three articles, even though as I think through the information, it all seems very logical.
I had been aware of the different Hispanic groups, but I had no idea how dominant by size, the Mexican group was. I should have known, Mexico is a heavily populated country and borders us to the south. We here all the time about border issues for example. I did not, however, realize that there were more people of Mexican heritage than from all the other Hispanic groups combined.
Another issue I learned of was that on average, the Hispanic segment of our country is much younger than the other major groups. Logically, the larger immigration rates of Hispanics have a lot to do with his, but culture and religion plays into it as well, although that was information from beyond these three articles. It was also of interest and in the end logical, that income and unemployment figures both improved for the people that were more integrated into American society. While as a group, Hispanics were in the middle of the three largest groups, with slightly higher unemployment and lower wages than whites, they had lower unemployment and higher wages than blacks. Further, the sub-groups that identified more closely as white, had the best numbers within the Hispanic group. I actually expected the numbers to be better, as a large immigrant population, I would expect the people to have a high rate of motivation, and I think they do, it just doesn't all show up in terms of income and employment.
