Sociology Now, Census Update

■From Puerto Rico: about 3.5 million (not counting the 3.8 million in Puerto Rico

itself). About a third live in New York. They are among most impoverished of

the Hispanic subgroups: more than 30 percent are below poverty line (Passel and

Suro, 2005; U.S. Census Bureau, 2004).

Hispanic Americans are not only the fastest-growing minority group in the United

States: They also have the fastest-growing affluence. Their disposable income is

expected to top $1 trillion by 2010 (Humphreys, 2006), and marketing executives

have noticed. Hispanic people appear regularly on television commercials as purvey-

ors of “traditional American values.” Ten years ago, when Mexican American actor

Mario Lopez starred in the teen sitcom Saved by the Bell, his character had to be made

Anglo: Executives feared that no one would watch a show “with a Mexican in it.”

Today, Hispanic actors are still mostly assigned to play gangsters, thugs, and ser-

vants, or else asked to play Anglo, but some, such as Antonio Banderas and Jennifer

Lopez, are “going mainstream”: They not only refuse to hide their ethnicity, they cel-

ebrate it. In South Florida, cable TV offers three all-Spanish channels, but they are

not marketing only to the Hispanic community. The most popular telenovelas(prime-

time soap operas) come with English-language subtitles so Anglos can watch too.

266 CHAPTER 8RACE AND ETHNICITY

Montana

6

Wash.

3

Oregon

3

Calif.

1

Nevada

2

Arizona

2

Utah

3

Idaho

6

Wyoming

6

Colorado

3

New Mexico

3

Texas

2

Oklahoma

4

Missouri

6

Va. 4

N.C. 4

S.C.

6

Georgia

Miss. Ala. 6 4

6

Arkansas

6

La.

6

Fla.

3

Nebraska

3

Kansas

6

S. Dakota

6

N. Dakota

(^6) Minn.
6
Iowa
6
Illinois
3
Ind.
5
Ohio
5
Kent. 6
Tenn. 5
W.
Va.
6
Pa.
4
Wis. N.Y. 3
(^4) Mich.
5
Vt. 6
N.H. 6
Maine
6
Mass. 4
R.I. 6
Conn. 3
N.J. 3
Delaware 6
Maryland 4
D.C. 6
Alaska
6
Hawaii
6

4 million
2 million
800,000
500,000
1 >10%
2 >5.1–9.9%
3 2.1–5%
4 1–2%
5 <1%
6 statistically insignificant
Grouped by Percentage
of U.S. Population
Number of Second-Generation Latinos
200,000
100,000
50,000
<50,000

FIGURE 8.4 Second-Generation Latinos

Source:From “2nd Generation Latinos—Focus on an Untapped Market,” DiversityInc., September 2005, p. 34.