By Raoul Lowery Contreras
The first thing a Hispanic writer or journalist discovers is that non-Hispanic White writers and journalists have no clue about Hispanics. Black journalists and writers aren’t any better.
Every presidential election, analysis of the Hispanic vote for President is looked at by people who have no clue about how to analyze the Hispanic vote to begin with because they know so little about the people they are writing about.
First, look at the Hispanic community, you can also call it the Latino community.
What you can’t call it is the Latinx community. Six out of ten prefer to be called Hispanic or Latino. Between 2% to 4% prefer the newly invented word — LatinX.
Cubans refuse to accept anything but Cuban or Hispanic. Same with Puerto Ricans as do most Mexican Americans.
The 2020 Census has these numbers:
There are 62.1 million Hispanics in the US. That’s 19% of the U.S. population, one in five Americans. The 2020 number is 11 million more than the 2010 census counted.
The top three Hispanic states are California with 15.6 million Hispanics, 39% of the state. Texas with 11.4 million, 39% and Florida with 5.7 million, 26%.
For the English-only crowd, there is this info from the Census. Considering a healthy percentage of foreign born Hispanics, 72% of all Hispanics say they speak English “well.” In 2000, 59% claimed to speak English well. Among native-born Hispanics, 91% say they speak English well. 57% say they speak Spanish at home, a drop from 2010’s 67%.
For the education crowd: 42% of Hispanics over 25 have college in 2019 compared to 36% in 2010. Like all other groups in the U.S. a gender gap exists between men and women. Women have increased from 38% in 2010 to 45% in 2019. Men were 33% in 2010 with an increase in 2019 to 39%. Degrees have increased from 2010’s 13% to 18%.
In 2010, there were 2.9 million in college, in 2020 3.6 million. Of the entire college population in 2010, Hispanics were 14%, in 2019, 19%.
For those who believe Hispanics don’t attend school or college — like retired historian Victor Davis Hanson — that’s one in five college students are Hispanics, a group larger than non-Hispanic whites and of Black Americans.Hispanics are second in college matriculation today, second only to Asians.
Now, who are they?
No surprise here except for the journalists and writers who know so little about Hispanics that they give Cubans, Puerto Ricans and other Central and South American Hispanics far more attention than their numbers warrant.
Understand this: Mexican-origin people not only are the largest Hispanic group, they are by a million miles. The 2020 Census reports that of the 62.1 million Hispanics, 61.5% are of Mexican origin, 37.5 million. They also live in all 50 states and territories; that is not the case with other national groups.
Puerto Ricans, including 3 million in Puerto Rico, are 9.7% of the 62.1 million; Cubans, 3.9%; Salvadorans, 3.9%; Dominican, 3.3% and Guatemalans, 2.7%. All other identifiable nationalities are less than 2% each.
The final 2020 Census number that is important is that four in five Hispanics are United States citizens, mostly U.S. born.
Hispanics are better educated than ever, more numerous than ever and are America’s youngest group. 30 is the median age of the 62.1 million Hispanics, with the median age of 26 for the 37 million plus Mexican-origin. Hispanics speak English well in larger numbers than ever.
For Pentagon watchers, one in five United States Marines — those in the combat arms — that is people who shoot at people with rifles, pistols and machine guns– one in five U.S. Marines are of Mexican-origin.
America, we are here.
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Raoul Lowery Contreras is a United States Marine veteran, political consultant and the author of “The Armenian Lobby & American Foreign Policy” and “The Mexican Border: Immigration, War and a Trillion Dollars in Trade.” He hosts the Contreras Report on Youtube and Facebook.