And then there's Spanish, a Roman language. It's much much easier for Hispanics to assimilate than it is for . . . And when you can eliminate a racial difference, that's even truer. Others think Hispanic cultures are so embedded in American society that their influence will endure in descendants of immigrants. Americans are increasingly signing up to study Spanish.
Salsa now is the best-selling condiment in the United States, surpassing ketchup.
Pop culture heart throbs include Ricky Martin, Jennifer Lopez, and Christina Aguilera. Moreover, continuous waves of Latin American immigrants, experts say, keep assimilated Hispanics exposed to Spanish and their ancestral culture. Advances in transportation, the Internet, and the proximity of Latin America enable Hispanics to keep in contact with their ancestral homelands less expensively and more often than Europeans could. Indeed, California is farther from New Jersey than many Spanish-speaking countries. They didn't have access to telephones, and if they wrote a letter, it took however long it took a steamship to carry it back home.