SUPERPOWER
AmericanHispanics
In 1950 the population ofthe: U nited States
includedfewer than four millionresident" His-
panics" -thatis. peopleo riginatingfromSpanish-
speakingcountries.Bythem id 1980s thisnumber
hadincreased to 17.6millionand wasstillrising
fast. InsomepansoftheUnitedStates, especially
in theSouthand West, itbecamemorecom mon
tohear Spanish beingspokenonthestreetsthan
English.Refor mers accused th e Un i tedStatesofhelpingto
keepth ese gro upsofwealth ytyrant sin power.There
was so metruth in thi s. T heAmerican gove rn men t
oftenseeme dmore concernedwithsup pressing
communismin LarinAmericathanw ithimproving
co n ditio nso f lifeth ere. In 1954 , forexam p le,the
American secretser vice(th e CentralIntelligen ce
Agen cy,o r C IA) encourage d the ove rt hro wofa
reformin ggovern m en t inGuatemala.When
Guatemala's d epo sedPresid entaskedth e United
Nations tolook intothis,theAmerican susedth eir
SccunryCouncilveraroprevcntan invest igation.130About 60 percent ofth e UnitedStatesresident
I Iispan ics came originally from Mexi co. The
remainder came from other Latin American
cou nt ries, such as Cuba and Colo mb ia. The
newcomers ' usual reasons for co m ing were the
sameas thoseofearlierim m ig rant s from EUTOpe-
ro cscapefrompovenyorpoliticalpersecutionin
theirho m elan ds.
T h e inc rease in the number ofllispani cs was
partl yth e resultofan importa nt changeinthe
Amer ican immigratio n system. T he old immi-
grationlaw s, wh ich dated b ac k roth e1Y20s, had
favo red Euro pean s.Bu tIII 1965 a new law said
th at what would coun t in the fut ur e was w ho
app liedfirs t.
T h e res ult was a bigincreasein im mig ratio nfro m
non-Eu ro pean countries.By theIY80sthe Un ite d
Stateswasofficiallyaccepting270.()(XJnewcomers
a year.Fortypercentofrhcscw ere co min gfrom
Asia and another forty percent from Latin
Am erica.
ManyotherimmigrantsenteredtheUnitedScares
w it ho ut permission. In 1985 the go ve rn m ent
estima ted th atthecountryhadbetweentwoand
ten million ofthese illegal immigrants, halfa
m illio nofwho mhadarrivedInthepreviousyear.
Man y wereHispanics.whohadwadedacrossth e
shallowRio GrandeRiver that formedtheborde r
bet w een th e Un ited States and Mexico. Fo r
obviou sreason s, peo ple wh o enteredthe U n ited
Statesin thisway\ve recalled"wctbacks."In lateryea rsAmericangovernments wento n
inter feringin Lat in A mericanaffairs.Sometim esthey
int er f ered openl y,sometimesinmore secretways.
In 19( 51)residentJ o hnso n sent22,000American
marmcs to th e DominicanRep u blic to Sto pa leader
he d istrusted fro m regaini n gpower. In 1 Y73C IA
agent shelped generals inC h ile to overthrow
PresidentAllend e.AllendeW3Ssympathe tic toward s
com m unistideasand hadnationalized some
Amer ican-owned miningcom panies.
Acti on slike thesehelptoex plainw hymany Latin
A mer ican sconti nuedtodi sliketheir N or th