Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
What Does Hispanic Mean?
The word 'Hispanic' is actually a cultural or ethnic term. There is no single Hispanic nationality.
Who is Hispanic?The U.S. Census Bureau classifies Hispanics as
Americans who trace their ancestry to: Mexico Puerto Rico CubaSpainSpanish-speaking countries of Central and South
AmericaDominican Republic And other Spanish cultures, regardless of race.
Where do Hispanics Come From?
Hispanics come from many races. Hispanic ancestors include:
Arawaks (Puerto Rico) Aztecas (Mexico) Incas (South America) Maya (Central America) Tainos (Cuba, Puerto Rico and other places) Spanish explorers and Africans who were brought
as slaves to the New WorldHispanics come from over
20 different nations!
Educational Facts for 2010
63%: The percentage of Hispanics 25 and older that had at least a high school education
14%: The percentage of the Hispanic population 25 and older with a bachelor’s degree or higher
3.9 million: The number of Hispanics 18 and older who had at least a bachelor’s degree
1 million: Number of Hispanics 18 and older with advanced degrees (e.g., master’s, professional, doctorate).
Economic Business Facts 2.3 million: The number of Hispanic-owned businesses in
2007, up 43.7 percent from 2002. $345.2 billion : Receipts generated by Hispanic-owned
businesses in 2007, up 55.5 percent from 2002. 23.6% : The percentage of businesses in New Mexico in
2007 that were Hispanic-owned, which led all states. Florida (22.4 percent) and Texas (20.7 percent) were runners-up.
30.0%: Percentage of Hispanic-owned businesses in the construction and the other services sectors; 50.8 percent of the receipts of Hispanic-owned businesses were concentrated in wholesale trade, construction and retail trade.
ARGENTINAThe Spanish first arrived around 1516, and Argentina gained independence in 1816. The small native population died from European diseases, and today's population is over 95 percent European.
For Spanish, Italian, German, and other immigrants in the late 19th century, Argentina held great promise.
Today the literacy and urbanization rates are high, the birthrate and the infant mortality rate are low, and most Argentines consider themselves middle class.
The recent past has been tumultuous. Some 30,000 people disappeared—the Desaparecidos—in the "dirty war" during the military junta's 1976-1983 rule.
BOLIVIAOver 60 percent of Bolivia's people are Indian, mostly Quechua or Aymara; the rest are European and mixed. Many are subsistence farmers on the Altiplano
In 1987 Bolivia made the world's first debt-for-nature swap with an international conservation organization for the 135,000-hectare Beni Biosphere Reserve—a portion of Bolivia's foreign debt was purchased to support the reserve. Bolivia continues to conserve its environment with the 1995 creation of the 1,895,750-hectare Madidi National Park.
Madidi includes everything from Andean glaciers to rain forests; it helps Indians, like the local Quechua, develop ecotourism, which includes watching some 1,000 bird species, tracking tapirs, or white-water rafting.
CHILEThis elongated country, wedged between the deepest ocean and the longest mountain chain, straddles a tectonically unstable region. Mountains cover 80 percent of Chile.Most Chileans are of European or mixed European and indigenous ancestry—only about 5 percent are indigenous (mostly Mapuche).
Privatization of industries and increased agricultural exports have boosted the economy. The Chuquicamata and Escondida copper mines, in the arid Atacama, rank as the world's largest.
Tourism is a major business; a popular attraction is Easter Island, 3,700 kilometers west of Chile. Here one thousand moai (giant figures carved in stone) fascinate visitors to this small Polynesian island.
COLOMBIAThe Andes contribute to the concentration of Colombia's people into separate clusters. Some live in the Caribbean lowlands in cities like Barranquilla and Cartagena; some live in isolated mountain valleys in cities like Cali and Medellin.
Bogotá, the capital and largest city, is in a remote mountain basin at 2,500 meters (8,200 feet). Colombia has had a turbulent history. Civil war (1899-1902) claimed 100,000 lives, and La Violencia (1948-1957) cost 300,000 more.
Farmers raise world-renowned coffee on the Andean slopes. Colombia sells much of the world's emeralds and considerable amounts of gold, silver, and platinum and has the continent's highest coal production—most from the Guajira Peninsula.
COSTA RICAThe tropical coastal plains rise to mountains, active volcanoes, and a temperate central plateau where most people live (San José, the capital, is here).
The only country in Central America with no standing army, it enjoys continuing stability after a century of almost uninterrupted democratic government.
Tourism, which has overtaken bananas as Costa Rica's leading foreign exchange earner, bolsters the economy. A quarter of the land has protected status; the beauty of rain forest preserves draws more and more visitors.
CUBAThe natural beauty of Cuba brings millions of tourists, with many coming to see the thousands of species of plants and animals that live nowhere else on Earth. Protected natural areas take up nearly 22 percent of Cuban territory, providing habitats for crocodiles, flamingos, orchids, and more.
Politically the government still restricts human freedoms, although religious rights saw some progress in 1998 with Christmas, December 25, being reinstated as a national holiday.
In southeastern Cuba, the U.S. maintains a presence at Guantanamo Bay; the 1934 treaty between Cuba and the U.S. grants a perpetual lease for the naval base—voided only by mutual consent or by U.S. abandonment of the base. In February 2008, an aged and ailing Fidel Castro resigned as Cuba's president, ending 49 years of uninterrupted rule. He named his brother, Raul, as successor.
DOMINICAN REPUBLICOccupying the eastern two-thirds of Hispaniola,
the Dominican Republic is the second largest country, after Cuba, in the West Indies. This mountainous land includes Pico Duarte—the highest point in the Caribbean.
Colonized in 1493 by Spaniards, it offered the first chartered university, hospital, cathedral, and monastery in the Americas. Santo Domingo, founded in 1496, is the oldest European settlement in the Western Hemisphere.
The nation became independent in 1844, but endured political instability and repressive governments. Today it is a democracy, economically dependent on agriculture and tourism.
ECUADORThe country is divided ethnically as well as regionally. About 10 percent of the population is of European descent, about a quarter belong to indigenous cultures, and the rest are of mostly mixed ethnicity.
Those of Spanish descent often are engaged in administration and land ownership in Quito and the surrounding Andean uplands; this is also where most of the indigenous people live—many are subsistence farmers.
As a result, land-tenure reform is an explosive issue. The city of Guayaquil dominates the coastal plain, largely populated by mestizos. Guayaquil—the country's largest city, major port, and leading commercial center—is a rival to Quito. This is the wealthiest part of Ecuador, and complaints that tax revenues are squandered in the capital are common.
EL SALVADORThe smallest and most densely populated nation in Central America sits at the edge of the Pacific Ocean between Guatemala and Honduras.
Beautiful beaches and a sizzling nightlife top the list of attractions, but serious surfers have begun descending in ever larger numbers.
Unlike some of its neighbors, El Salvador does not rely on ecotourism but instead emphasizes its dollar-denominated economy, ease of getting around, and warm, welcoming people.
GUATEMALAOne of the most beautiful countries of Central America, south of Mexico and north and west of Honduras, Guatemala offers forested mountains, glimmering lakes, exotic birdlife.
The Maya make up more than half the country's population, and Mayan languages are spoken along with Spanish, the official tongue.
Maya ruins dot the landscape, drawing tourists, archaeologists, and anthropologists. A four-decade civil war that pitted Maya insurgents against the country's army left many thousands dead.
HONDURASHonduras, in Central America, is mountainous and forested—although widespread slash-and-burn subsistence farming is destroying many forests. The largely mestizo population speaks Spanish, with English common on the northern coast and Bay Islands.
Maya ruins at Copán, which represent the wealth of the past in what today is one of the region's poorest nations, help diversify the economy with tourist revenue.
Although agricultural products are plentiful, mostly bananas and coffee, they have failed to enliven the economy of this tenuous democracy. The 2003 U.S.-Central American Free Trade Agreement brings economic hope.
MEXICOMexico is one of the world's largest oil producers—oil and gas provide a third of the government's revenue. Mexico exports oil to the U.S., which returns manufactured goods and foodstuffs. Agriculture remains an important employer. Mexico's system of communal farms, or ejidos, was reformed in the 1990s to promote private investment and large-scale agriculture.
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) makes Mexico highly dependent on exports to the U.S., and the downturn in U.S. business in 2001 resulted in little or no growth in the Mexican economy.
The nation is blessed with abundant minerals—notably silver, copper, sulfur, lead, and zinc—advanced technology, and a huge workforce. It profits from its maquiladora border industry: products are assembled at mostly U.S.-owned plants, then sent to the U.S. and elsewhere.
NICARAGUAIndependence from Spain was declared in 1821 and the country became an independent republic in 1838. Britain occupied the Caribbean Coast in the first half of the 19th century, but gradually ceded control of the region in subsequent decades. Violent opposition to governmental manipulation and corruption spread to all classes by 1978 and resulted in a short-lived civil war that brought the Marxist Sandinista guerrillas to power in 1979.
Nicaragua has widespread underemployment, one of the highest degrees of income inequality in the world, and the third lowest per capita income in the Western Hemisphere.
The US-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) has been in effect since April 2006 and has expanded export opportunities for many agricultural and manufactured goods. Energy shortages fueled by high oil prices, however, are a serious bottleneck to growth.
PANAMAThe isthmus between North America and South America boasts the region's largest and fastest growing economy with no end in sight.
The history-changing canal and the bustling Colon Free Zone drive much of the growth, and joblessness is astonishingly low.
Visitors, many from Europe, arrive in ever larger numbers, attracted by the lively music and nightlife. Those interested in more pastoral pursuits will find the most diverse wildlife in all Central America, with species of birds and animals from both North and South America in abundance.
PARAGUAYIn the disastrous War of the Triple Alliance (1865-70) - between Paraguay and Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay - Paraguay lost two-thirds of all adult males and much of its territory. It stagnated economically for the next half century.
In the Chaco War of 1932-35, Paraguay won large, economically important areas from Bolivia. The 35-year military dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner ended in 1989, and, despite a marked increase in political infighting in recent years, Paraguay has held relatively free and regular presidential elections since then.
The capital, Asunción, offers many subtle charms, and the countryside is still largely empty, wild, and untamed, one of the most sparsely populated places on Earth. The indigenous Guaraní culture dominates, especially in the interior, where perhaps half the residents speak little or no Spanish.
PERUThe Inca capital was Cusco, but the Spanish founded Lima in 1535 along the coast and made it their capital. The Spanish preferred the lowland coast because of the climate and for trade links to Spain. The western seaboard is desert, where rain seldom falls.
Lima is an oasis containing more than a quarter of Peru's population—most of European descent or mestizo. The Andean highlands occupy about a third of the country and contain mostly Quechua-speaking Indians. Quechua was the language of the Inca Empire. East of the Andes lies a sparsely populated jungle; the major city of this region is Iquitos.
Iquitos can be reached by ocean-going vessels coming 3,700 kilometers (2,300 miles) up the Amazon River; recent oil discoveries have brought more people.
PUERTO RICOPuerto Rico is a self-governing commonwealth in association with the United States. The chief of state is the President of the United States of America.
Lets consider that the people of Puerto Rico represent a cultural and racial mix. During the early 18-century, the Spaniard in order to populate the country took Taino Indian women as brides. Later on as labor was needed to maintain crops and build roads, African slaves were imported, followed by the importation of Chinese immigrants, then continued with the arrival of Italians, French, German, and even Lebanese people. American expatriates came to the island after 1898.
The most significant new immigrant population arrived in the 1960s, when thousands of Cubans fled from Fidel Castro's Communist state. The latest arrivals to Puerto Rico have come from the economically depressed Dominican Republic.
SPAINSpain remained neutral in World Wars I and II but suffered through a devastating civil war (1936-39). A peaceful transition to democracy following the death of dictator Francisco Franco in 1975, and rapid economic modernization (Spain joined the EU in 1986) gave Spain a dynamic and rapidly growing economy and made it a global champion of freedom and human rights.
Spain has maintained its special identification with Latin America. Its policy emphasizes the concept of Hispanidad, a mixture of linguistic, religious, ethnic, cultural, and historical ties binding Spanish-speaking America to Spain. Spain has been an effective example of transition from authoritarianism to democracy, as shown in the many trips that Spain's King and Prime Ministers have made to the region.
Spain maintains economic and technical cooperation programs and cultural exchanges with Latin America, both bilaterally and within the EU.
URUGUAYAfter being taken and disputed between Portugal and Spain for almost two centuries, Uruguay could successfully revolt against its invaders and became an Independent Republic in August 25, 1825. After that, Uruguay established its first Constitution in July 18, 1830.
The most important resources are based on its live stock, agriculture and services. Uruguay exports live stock and many live stock related products of high quality, such as meat, leather and wool, as well as agriculture related products in general. It is internationally known as a very reliable and responsible country from which good quality products can be expected
Much of the economy of Uruguay is based on tourism and services. Due to the high educational level of this country’s population and its small geographical size, it bases an important amount of its income on the production and sale of high quality services.
VENEZUELAVenezuela may have been a quiet outpost on the edge of
the Spanish Empire, but it gave birth to the man who would one day turn that empire on its head: Simon Bolivar. With the help of British mercenaries, Bolivar and his followers campaigned against the Spanish tirelessly, marching across the Andes and liberating Colombia in 1819, Venezuela in 1821, and Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia in 1825.
Venezuela is one of the oldest democracies in South America (elections since 1958). A founding member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the nation has the largest proven oil reserves in the Western Hemisphere—and the second largest natural gas reserves (after the U.S.).
The petroleum industry accounts for more than half the government's revenue; however, few Venezuelans benefit from its wealth.
Hispanic PopulationThere are 50.5 million Hispanics in the U.S., making people of Hispanic origin the nation’s largest and fastest-growing ethnic or race minority group. In addition, there are 3.7 million residents of Puerto Rico, a U.S. Territory. Below are the percentage of Hispanic origin in the United States:
Mexican: 63%,Central/South American and Other Latinos: 18.2%Puerto Rican: 9.2% Cuban: 3.5%Salvadoran: 3.3%Dominican: 2.8%
Hispanics in the Federal Government
Hispanic employment represented 8.0 percent (153,725) of the permanent Federal workforce (FW) as of September 30, 2010, compared to 13.6 percent of the Civilian Labor Force (CLF).
Armed Forces Hispanics
1.1 million: The number of Hispanics or Latinos 18 and older who are veterans of the U.S. Armed forces.
ReferencesDepartment of Education
U.S. Census BureauUS Forest Service
National Library of Congress
This presentation was prepared by the USDA-Forest Service
Civil Rights Special Emphasis Programs
Equal Employer ManagerPedro (Pete) M. Nieto Jr.
September 12, 2011
