Hispanic Diversity in the United States

Hispanic Diversity in the United States

One of the most diverse cultures that can be found within the United States of America today is the growing Hispanic culture. Hispanic Americans combine several cultural groups, each with their own social, economic, religious and political values. While each of these groups primarily speaks the same native language, Spanish, the differences and similarities do not begin or end with just a common language.

Mexican Americans

Many Mexican Americans originally immigrated to the United States by lure of labor jobs within the mining industry. Initially, the state of Colorado attracted the majority of Mexican Americans. Many migrated to the northern part of the state and began working in the sugar beet fields of the South-Platte River Valley. As noted in the article by Hawthorne (2007) “It was in the beet fields, however, that they made their most important contributions to the economy of Colorado” (Mexican American Cultural History, ¶ 2). Today, many Mexican Americans are still labeled as farm laborers.

Family, culture, history and religion are extremely important to the Mexican American. The “household” of a Mexican American family was not limited to the immediate or nuclear family. A typical household usually included grandparents, aunts, uncles and quite frequently family friends (Hawthorne, 2007). Very often, the values of the family were extended to the living community. This community shared the same beliefs and abided by the same rules for all; most comm. Cultural belief was the respect for elders.

Mexican Americans, for centuries, have possessed a deep rooted faith within the Catholic Church although there ideas tend to vary from the traditional values of the Roman Catholic Church. While this caused controversy with American Catholics in early years, differences in ideology has been resolved and Mexican Americans today follow the traditional teachings of the Roman Catholic Church.

Political...