"Americanizing?" Attitudes and Perceptions of U.S. Latinos

Recent media and academic attention has focused on the growing influence of the U.S. Latino population. (1) Often, these accounts report U.S. Latinos as a "novelty" or "emerging" and even as a "sleeping giant. " In other cases, this same "growth" is viewed as an "invasion" or as "threatening. " In an article entitled "The Hispanic Challenge," Samuel P. Huntington (2004) raised the specter of a great "Hispanic" battle for the creed and culture of the United States, arguing that the continued Latino population growth and immigration from Latin American countries, principally Mexico, was threatening and changing the country like never before. Huntington's views represent the latest concerns expressed over the last three decades relative to cultural pluralism, immigration, the character of the country and the fear that U.S. Latinos are not "Americanizing" (see Fuchs 1984, for example). Given this continual concern, who are these "Hispanics" that are "threatening" and changing the ethos of the nation? Who is this ethnic minority group that has surpassed African Americans as the largest ethnic minority group in the country? Moreover, what does this group believe? Are there differences between Latinos and Latinas? In addition, is acculturation taking place? If assimilation is taking place, one might expect that Latino attitudes and behaviors would be similar to or approximating those of the larger population. The complement is also true; if assimilation is not occurring or is uneven, the political attitudes and behaviors of Latinos may also vary considerably. (2) This article employs the "Pew Hispanic Center/Kaiser Family Foundation 2002 National Survey of Latinos" to examine the attitudes and perceptions of U.S. Latinos. The principal research questions of this work are whether U.S. Latinos are that different from the "average" American and, if so, how can we account for these differences? Here, identity, party identification, political trust, views on the role of government, social attitudes toward abortion, homosexual sex, divorce, having a child out of wedlock and family values as well as attitudes on immigration are the principal characteristics examined. Measures for nativity, educational attainment, acculturation, financial difficulties, income, generational cohort and sex are assessed for differences within the Latino population. The Literature--Who Are "Latinos? " Census data and several literatures provide context for examining the attitudes and perceptions of U.S. Latinos. Given the fears expressed by some analysts regarding the rate of assimilation and its impact on the ethos of the country, assimilation literature, for example, provides one framework for measuring differences between and among U.S. Latinos. Literatures on identity, partisan affiliation, political trust and voter participation are also examined here as indicators of U.S. Latino political integration. First a demographic profile: U.S. Latinos are characteristically diverse, young, undereducated, underemployed, poor and more likely to live in family households. U.S. Latinos represent 13.3 percent of the country's population. Among the Latino population, two-thirds (66.9 percent) are of Mexican origin, 14.3 percent are Central and South American, 8.6 percent are Puerto Rican, 3.7 percent are Cuban and the remaining 6.5 percent are of other Hispanic origins (Ramirez and de la Cruz 2002, 2). The median age for U.S. Latinos is nine years younger (twenty-five compared to thirty-four) than for the entire nation's population. As of 2002, 34.4 percent of all of U.S. Latinos were under the age of eighteen, compared to 22.8 percent for non-Latinos. Moreover, while one in seven non-Latino Anglos are over the age of sixty-five, only one in twenty U.S. Latinos are in the same age category (Ramirez and de la Cruz 2002, 3; Ramirez 2004). Variations in age among Latino subpopulations are also notable. …