50 percent in 1990, and 57 percent by 1999. Despite
this increase, Latinos still fell below the national
graduation rate. This lower rate of graduation can
be attributed to language barriers and cultural dif-
ferences. Students arriving in the United States with
minimal English language skills are often held back,
thus lengthening the years required to graduate.
Cultural norms for education in the United States
are different from those of Mexico, where an eighth-
grade education may be considered sufficient for
joining the labor force. Many Latino students leave
high school to join the workforce to contribute to
the household income.
Schools throughout the United States struggled in
the 1990’s with how to best serve the growing Latino
student population, particularly recent immigrant,
Spanish-speaking students. Bilingual education ver-
sus English-only instruction was often at the center of
this debate. In the bilingual classroom, students re-
ceived instruction in either Spanish or English, de-
pending on the language in which they were most
proficient. If they were Spanish speakers, additional
tutoring was provided for improving English lan-
guage skills. This allowed students to maintain the
learning pace of their peers. Many schools did not
have a sufficient number of bilingual teachers to offer
bilingual instruction. In spite of the fact that re-
searchers consistently found that bilingual education
was effective in teaching students with limited English
proficiency, it was opposed by its critics, who deem
that bilingual education hinders students’ English-
speaking skills and assimilation into American cul-
ture. More radical opponents believe that bilingual
education weakens national identity and divides citi-
zens along ethnic lines. English-only classrooms of-
fered instruction solely in English, supplemented by
English-language tutoring. This method typically re-
sulted in Latino children being held back a grade
level or performing at a lower level than their peers.
For those Latino students who did graduate
from high school, additional obstacles existed for
continuation into higher education. Many states re-
quired undocumented residents to pay out-of-state
tuition, even if they had lived in the state for most of
their lives and graduated from a state high school.
Even for students born in the United States with full
citizenship, it proved difficult to apply for and re-
ceive financial aid if their parents were undocu-
mented residents. By 1999, only one in eleven Lati-
nos had completed four years or more of college.
English-Only Movement According to the U.S.
Census Bureau, the number of Latinos who spoke
Spanish in their homes rose from 17.3 million
in 1990 to 28.1 million in 2000, an increase of
nearly 62 percent. About half of these Spanish
speakers said that in addition to Spanish, they
speak English “very well.” Seven counties in Texas
were cited as having more than 80 percent of the
population speaking a language other than En-
glish, essentially making Spanish the common lan-
guage for commerce, education, and municipal
government.
Such statistics were regarded as a potential threat
to some members of the English-speaking popula-
tion. They perceived this trend as threatening to the
American culture and lobbied to have laws passed
that would declare English as a state’s official lan-
guage. In the early 1990’s, eighteen states had such
laws. On August 1, 1996, the House of Representa-
tives passed a bill that made English the official lan-
guage of government, creating much debate about
what it means to be an American citizen and the im-
portance of the English language in defining Ameri-
can culture.
Politics As the Latino population grew in the
1990’s, so did their political power. In 1990, Presi-
dent George H. W. Bush appointed Antonia Coello
Novello to serve as the surgeon general of the
United States, the first women and the first Latino to
serve in this office. In the same year, President Bush
also appointed Jimmy Gurlu as an assistant attorney
general of the United States. In 1992, President Bill
Clinton appointed more Latinos to senior-level posi-
tions than any other president in history. Clinton ap-
pointees included Henry G. Cisneros as secretary of
housing and urban development and Federico Peña
as secretary of transportation. Clinton later ap-
pointed Peña to serve as the secretary of energy in
his second term, beginning in 1997. After Peña’s res-
ignation in 1998, another Latino, Bill Richardson
(later elected governor of New Mexico), was named
secretary of energy.
Impact The growth of the Latino population was in
direct proportion to the United States’ dependence
on cheap, undocumented labor. Halting the flow of
immigrants from Mexico would result in higher
prices for produce, meat, and goods sold in the
United States. The cultural impact of Latinos was ev-
ident in the popularity of Latino entertainers, mu-508 Latinos The Nineties in America