While there is a predominance of Hispanics of Mexican origin, the geographic dispersion is not uniform throughout the United States. Mexican-Americans are more likely to reside in the southwest and west, Puerto Ricans are more likely to be in New York City and throughout the northeast and Cubans are concentrated in Florida, especially the Miami area. However, Hispanic communities are not limited to these areas, there are growing Hispanics communities in many urban areas of the United States and often there are strong ties to a particular country of origin. Even within Hispanic populations from the same country of origin, there can be differences in beliefs, customs, and values that are shaped by such factors as family background, recency of immigration, degree of acculturation, regional concentration, level of educational attainment, income, and English language proficiency. Research, policy and practice must take these factors into account.
Researchers point out that training in cultural sensitive is important for social service providers.
For example, the needs and experiences of a third generation bilingual Mexican-American father may be quite different from those of a newly arrived immigrant from a Mexican farming community, even though they both live in Los Angeles and are most comfortable speaking Spanish. Providers need to be aware that Hispanic fatherhood programs cannot be replicated across the country, or even across town, without thinking very carefully about who the program was designed to serve and how well it would address the needs of the fathers at the replication site. Concerns about how Hispanic fathers are portrayed in research . There is an accumulating body of work that examines the way Hispanic fathers are sometimes researched and portrayed. Researchers have noted that the Euro-American family is often used as a template for measuring the behavior of other cultural groups.