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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. "…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
workers…"(2000). The movement as defined by Mendoza, V. "The

Mexican American Civil Rights Movement…" "…encompassed a broad

cross section of issues—from restoration of land grants, to farm

workers rights, to enhanced education, to voting and political rights…"

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."...