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Self-identification among Latinos

Self-identification among Latinos is a complex and multifaceted topic shaped by various factors, including national origin, race, and cultural heritage. Latinos in the United States comprise a diverse array of groups, each with unique identities linked to their countries of origin, such as Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, and many Central and South American nations. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Latinos can identify with diverse racial categories, and their self-identification can evolve over time, especially across generations. For instance, while first-generation immigrants often retain a strong connection to their national identity, second and third-generation Latinos may increasingly identify as simply "American."

The growth of the Latino population in the U.S. is significant, with estimates suggesting this demographic will surpass 111 million by 2060. This growth is accompanied by shifting patterns of identification—such as the rise of terms like "Chicano" among Mexican Americans or "Nuyorican" among Puerto Ricans—which reflect a blend of cultural pride and social movements. Moreover, recent trends show changes in racial identification among Puerto Ricans, highlighting a growing awareness of complex ancestries. Overall, self-identification among Latinos reveals the rich tapestry of cultural backgrounds and experiences that contribute to their identities within the broader American society.

Full Article

Although many Americans tended to lump Latinos together as a homogeneous group, the members of this sector of US society distinguished among themselves in different ways. National origin, race, and culture served to create distinctive subgroups. More than twenty different countries and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico contribute to Latino immigration. The US Census Bureau defined Hispanic or Latino as "a person of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin regardless of race." While Latinos can be any race, they could self-identify from the following groups on the census: White, Black or African American, and American Indian or Alaska Native. Additionally, the US Census included a designation of "some other race." Both race and national origin have contributed to the evolution of distinctive cultural traits among Latinos as well.  

The major Latino groups found in the United States had their roots in Mexico, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean. In 2022, the US Census Bureau estimated 63.7 million (19.1 percent) of residents in the United States were Hispanic or Latino. About 60 percent of those were of Mexican origin. Included in those numbers were recent immigrants and US citizens whose families had been residents of the United States for many generations. The Hispanic or Latino population grew to an estimated 68 million in 2024, according to the US Census Bureau. By the year 2060, the Latino population is expected to exceed 111 million. In addition, because the birth rate of native White demographics fell below the rate needed for population replenishment, the overall Latino percentage of the population is expected to climb to 28 percent of the total US population. In 2023, in Texas, Latinos became the majority demographic. An examination of the major countries of origin illustrated the complexity of Latino identities. 

Mexican Americans

Mexico historically led all other nations in the number of foreign-born people living in the United States, though the number of new Mexican immigrants arriving to the US each year slowed during the 2010s and early 2020s. The centuries-old need for labor in the United States contributed greatly to Mexico’s historically high immigrant influx. There were an estimated 37.4 million people of Mexican origin in the US in 2022.  

Migration from what is now Mexico into what became the US Southwest began as early as the sixteenth century. Similar to historical patterns of other racial groups who assimilated to life in the United States, self-identification among Mexican immigrants and their descendants varied. For example, there are Latinos in New Mexico today who refer to themselves as Spanish Americans because their ancestors arrived from Mexico when that country did not exist as a nation but was a colony of the Spanish crown. Some politically active Mexican Americans regarded themselves as a separate cultural and even racial entity, referring to themselves as Chicanos or Chicanas, a term used to identify people of Mexican descent born in the US. This phrase became popular during the movement for social justice among Mexican Americans in the 1960s. Other terms that arose during that period, such as La Raza, have fallen out of favor in recent decades.  

Often, more recent immigrants still considered themselves Mexican, although that identification tended to fade with the passage of time. This was especially true for those more closely fitting the racial stereotype of White. Second and third generation Mexican Americans were more likely to refer to themselves simply as American. One 2017 poll by the Museum of the American Latino found over 56 percent of third or higher generation Latinos identified as "American," while just seven percent of foreign-born Latinos identified in that way. 

Caribbean Americans

The islands that provided the largest Caribbean segment of the Latino population in the US in 2022 were Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic. Puerto Ricans were distinct from other Caribbean islanders in that they were US citizens under legislation commonly known as the Jones Act, which was enacted in 1917. Nevertheless, Puerto Ricans began to immigrate to the US mainland in significant numbers following World War II.  In the 1990s, estimates placed the number of Puerto Ricans born on the island or their descendants born on the mainland at the two million mark. These Puerto Ricans resided mostly in the US Northeast.  

Puerto Ricans continued to move to the US mainland into the early twenty-first century, in part due to an economic recession. Hurricanes Maria and Irma, which caused catastrophic damage to the island in 2017, further prompted many Puerto Ricans to leave their island, resulting in a net population loss on the island between 2010 and 2022 of about 500,000 people. By 2022, approximately 5.9 million people of Puerto Rican origin lived in the mainland US. Latino cultural identification remained strong even among those born on the mainland. The term “Nuyoricans” had been used to describe Puerto Ricans making New York their home. The 2020 US Census revealed shifting attitudes in the way Puerto Ricans identified racially. The number of Puerto Ricans identifying as White fell by nearly 80 percent between 2010 and 2020, while those identifying as "two races or more" saw close to a 50 percent rise. Experts theorized that such changes were due to increased understanding of Puerto Rican ancestry as well as changes in census wording. 

The massive wave of Cuban immigration to the United States began in January 1959, when Fidel Castro and his followers seized control of the island. Because this initial group contained a large number from Cuba’s business and professional elite, they quickly established themselves as an economic and political force in the greater Miami area. Some of the very oldest of the initial wave still consider themselves Cubanos and expect to return to the island. By 2022, an estimated 2.4 million people of Cuban descent lived in the US, according to the US Census Bureau, a 30 percent increase over 2010 figures. 

The island of Hispaniola is divided between the Latino Dominican Republic and the French- and Creole-speaking country of Haiti. Both countries experienced severe economic problems, and therefore many in their population sought to emigrate to the United States. Dominicans seeking to enter the United States often proceeded through Puerto Rico. Like many Puerto Ricans, Dominicans have also settled in the greater New York area in large numbers; there they can blend in easily with the larger Latino population. By 2022, people from the Dominican Republic had one of the fastest-growing rates of population growth in the US, increasing by 59 percent between 2010 and 2022. More than 2.3 million Dominicans lived in the US in 2022. 

Central Americans

A recent example of mass immigration of Latinos to the United States occurred in the decades of the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, when in excess of one million political and economic refugees arrived from Central America, mainly from three countries often referred to as the “Northern Triangle.” These newcomers did not regard themselves as Central Americans but rather as Guatemalans, Salvadorans, and Nicaraguans, as Central America has a history of political divisions since its emergence from Spanish colonialism. 

In 2022, Salvadorans made up the third-largest Latino population in the United States, with nearly 2.5 million people of Salvadoran origin living in the US that year. Meanwhile, those from Honduras and Guatemala saw increases in population between 2010 and 2022; the growth rates of people from Honduras in the US increased by 67 percent, while Guatemalans rose by 62 percent. Among themselves, immigrants from Central America call one another a variety of monikers, including Guanacos (Salvadorans), Catrachos (Hondurans), Chapín (Guatemalans), and Ticos (Costa Ricans).  

South Americans

Venezuelans were among South American populations experiencing the fastest growth in the US during the early twenty-first century. The number of Venezuelans in the US increased by 236 percent between 2010 and 2022 as Venezuela became widely acknowledged as a failed state. Motives for departing included deteriorating economic and security conditions, a curtailment of personal freedoms, and perceptions that these conditions would continue into the future. 

Other South American countries contributed immigrants as well, although generally as smaller percentages of their total populations. Bolivians, Ecuadorians, Peruvians, and Colombians have sought entry into the United States, which continued to represent a beacon of hope to citizens of those countries where political disorder or economic deprivation threatened the lives of their citizens.


Bibliography

Barreto, Matt, and Gary M. Segura. Latino America: How America's Most Dynamic Population Is Poised to Transform the Politics of the Nation. PublicAffairs, 2014.

Fernández-Armesto, Felipe. Our America: A Hispanic History of the United States. Norton, 2014.

Frey, William. “New 2020 Census Data Shows an Aging America and Wide Racial Gaps Between Generations.” Brookings, 1 Aug. 2023, www.brookings.edu/articles/new-2020-census-data-shows-an-aging-america-and-wide-racial-gaps-between-generations. Accessed 13 Aug. 2025.

Garcia, Mario T. The Latino Generation: Voices of the New America. University of North Carolina Press, 2014.

"How Do Latinos Self-Identify?" National Museum of the American Latino, Smithsonian, latino.si.edu/exhibitions/presente/how-do-latinos-self-identify. Accessed 13 Aug. 2025.

Krogstad, Jens Manuel, et al. "Key Facts about U.S. Latinos for National Hispanic Heritage Month." Pew Research Center, 22 Sept. 2023, www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/09/22/key-facts-about-us-latinos-for-national-hispanic-heritage-month. Accessed 13 Aug. 2025.

Lopez, Mark Hugo, et al. "Who Is Hispanic?" Pew Research Center, 12 Sept. 2024, www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/09/05/who-is-hispanic. Accessed 13 Aug. 2025.

"National Population by Characteristics: 2020-2024." United States Census Bureau, June 2025, www.census.gov/data/datasets/time-series/demo/popest/2020s-national-detail.html. Accessed 13 Aug. 2025.

Robertson, Lori. “Breaking Down the Immigration Figures.” FactCheck.org, 27 Feb. 2024, www.factcheck.org/2024/02/breaking-down-the-immigration-figures. Accessed 13 Aug. 2025.

Suarez, Ray. Latino Americans: The 500-Year Legacy That Shaped a Nation. Celebra, 2013.

"Surprised by Census Results, Many in Puerto Rico Reconsider Views on Race." NBC News, 15 Oct. 2021, www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/surprised-census-results-many-puerto-rico-reconsider-views-race-rcna3101. Accessed 13 Aug. 2025.

Ura, Alexa. "Hispanics Officially Make Up the Biggest Share of Texas’ Population, New Census Numbers Show." The Texas Tribune, 21 June 2023, www.texastribune.org/2023/06/21/census-texas-hispanic-population-demographics. Accessed 13 Aug. 2025.

Full Article

Although many Americans tended to lump Latinos together as a homogeneous group, the members of this sector of US society distinguished among themselves in different ways. National origin, race, and culture served to create distinctive subgroups. More than twenty different countries and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico contribute to Latino immigration. The US Census Bureau defined Hispanic or Latino as "a person of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin regardless of race." While Latinos can be any race, they could self-identify from the following groups on the census: White, Black or African American, and American Indian or Alaska Native. Additionally, the US Census included a designation of "some other race." Both race and national origin have contributed to the evolution of distinctive cultural traits among Latinos as well.  

The major Latino groups found in the United States had their roots in Mexico, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean. In 2022, the US Census Bureau estimated 63.7 million (19.1 percent) of residents in the United States were Hispanic or Latino. About 60 percent of those were of Mexican origin. Included in those numbers were recent immigrants and US citizens whose families had been residents of the United States for many generations. The Hispanic or Latino population grew to an estimated 68 million in 2024, according to the US Census Bureau. By the year 2060, the Latino population is expected to exceed 111 million. In addition, because the birth rate of native White demographics fell below the rate needed for population replenishment, the overall Latino percentage of the population is expected to climb to 28 percent of the total US population. In 2023, in Texas, Latinos became the majority demographic. An examination of the major countries of origin illustrated the complexity of Latino identities. 

Mexican Americans

Mexico historically led all other nations in the number of foreign-born people living in the United States, though the number of new Mexican immigrants arriving to the US each year slowed during the 2010s and early 2020s. The centuries-old need for labor in the United States contributed greatly to Mexico’s historically high immigrant influx. There were an estimated 37.4 million people of Mexican origin in the US in 2022.  

Migration from what is now Mexico into what became the US Southwest began as early as the sixteenth century. Similar to historical patterns of other racial groups who assimilated to life in the United States, self-identification among Mexican immigrants and their descendants varied. For example, there are Latinos in New Mexico today who refer to themselves as Spanish Americans because their ancestors arrived from Mexico when that country did not exist as a nation but was a colony of the Spanish crown. Some politically active Mexican Americans regarded themselves as a separate cultural and even racial entity, referring to themselves as Chicanos or Chicanas, a term used to identify people of Mexican descent born in the US. This phrase became popular during the movement for social justice among Mexican Americans in the 1960s. Other terms that arose during that period, such as La Raza, have fallen out of favor in recent decades.  

Often, more recent immigrants still considered themselves Mexican, although that identification tended to fade with the passage of time. This was especially true for those more closely fitting the racial stereotype of White. Second and third generation Mexican Americans were more likely to refer to themselves simply as American. One 2017 poll by the Museum of the American Latino found over 56 percent of third or higher generation Latinos identified as "American," while just seven percent of foreign-born Latinos identified in that way. 

Caribbean Americans

The islands that provided the largest Caribbean segment of the Latino population in the US in 2022 were Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic. Puerto Ricans were distinct from other Caribbean islanders in that they were US citizens under legislation commonly known as the Jones Act, which was enacted in 1917. Nevertheless, Puerto Ricans began to immigrate to the US mainland in significant numbers following World War II.  In the 1990s, estimates placed the number of Puerto Ricans born on the island or their descendants born on the mainland at the two million mark. These Puerto Ricans resided mostly in the US Northeast.  

Puerto Ricans continued to move to the US mainland into the early twenty-first century, in part due to an economic recession. Hurricanes Maria and Irma, which caused catastrophic damage to the island in 2017, further prompted many Puerto Ricans to leave their island, resulting in a net population loss on the island between 2010 and 2022 of about 500,000 people. By 2022, approximately 5.9 million people of Puerto Rican origin lived in the mainland US. Latino cultural identification remained strong even among those born on the mainland. The term “Nuyoricans” had been used to describe Puerto Ricans making New York their home. The 2020 US Census revealed shifting attitudes in the way Puerto Ricans identified racially. The number of Puerto Ricans identifying as White fell by nearly 80 percent between 2010 and 2020, while those identifying as "two races or more" saw close to a 50 percent rise. Experts theorized that such changes were due to increased understanding of Puerto Rican ancestry as well as changes in census wording. 

The massive wave of Cuban immigration to the United States began in January 1959, when Fidel Castro and his followers seized control of the island. Because this initial group contained a large number from Cuba’s business and professional elite, they quickly established themselves as an economic and political force in the greater Miami area. Some of the very oldest of the initial wave still consider themselves Cubanos and expect to return to the island. By 2022, an estimated 2.4 million people of Cuban descent lived in the US, according to the US Census Bureau, a 30 percent increase over 2010 figures. 

The island of Hispaniola is divided between the Latino Dominican Republic and the French- and Creole-speaking country of Haiti. Both countries experienced severe economic problems, and therefore many in their population sought to emigrate to the United States. Dominicans seeking to enter the United States often proceeded through Puerto Rico. Like many Puerto Ricans, Dominicans have also settled in the greater New York area in large numbers; there they can blend in easily with the larger Latino population. By 2022, people from the Dominican Republic had one of the fastest-growing rates of population growth in the US, increasing by 59 percent between 2010 and 2022. More than 2.3 million Dominicans lived in the US in 2022. 

Central Americans

A recent example of mass immigration of Latinos to the United States occurred in the decades of the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, when in excess of one million political and economic refugees arrived from Central America, mainly from three countries often referred to as the “Northern Triangle.” These newcomers did not regard themselves as Central Americans but rather as Guatemalans, Salvadorans, and Nicaraguans, as Central America has a history of political divisions since its emergence from Spanish colonialism. 

In 2022, Salvadorans made up the third-largest Latino population in the United States, with nearly 2.5 million people of Salvadoran origin living in the US that year. Meanwhile, those from Honduras and Guatemala saw increases in population between 2010 and 2022; the growth rates of people from Honduras in the US increased by 67 percent, while Guatemalans rose by 62 percent. Among themselves, immigrants from Central America call one another a variety of monikers, including Guanacos (Salvadorans), Catrachos (Hondurans), Chapín (Guatemalans), and Ticos (Costa Ricans).  

South Americans

Venezuelans were among South American populations experiencing the fastest growth in the US during the early twenty-first century. The number of Venezuelans in the US increased by 236 percent between 2010 and 2022 as Venezuela became widely acknowledged as a failed state. Motives for departing included deteriorating economic and security conditions, a curtailment of personal freedoms, and perceptions that these conditions would continue into the future. 

Other South American countries contributed immigrants as well, although generally as smaller percentages of their total populations. Bolivians, Ecuadorians, Peruvians, and Colombians have sought entry into the United States, which continued to represent a beacon of hope to citizens of those countries where political disorder or economic deprivation threatened the lives of their citizens.


Bibliography

Barreto, Matt, and Gary M. Segura. Latino America: How America's Most Dynamic Population Is Poised to Transform the Politics of the Nation. PublicAffairs, 2014.

Fernández-Armesto, Felipe. Our America: A Hispanic History of the United States. Norton, 2014.

Frey, William. “New 2020 Census Data Shows an Aging America and Wide Racial Gaps Between Generations.” Brookings, 1 Aug. 2023, www.brookings.edu/articles/new-2020-census-data-shows-an-aging-america-and-wide-racial-gaps-between-generations. Accessed 13 Aug. 2025.

Garcia, Mario T. The Latino Generation: Voices of the New America. University of North Carolina Press, 2014.

"How Do Latinos Self-Identify?" National Museum of the American Latino, Smithsonian, latino.si.edu/exhibitions/presente/how-do-latinos-self-identify. Accessed 13 Aug. 2025.

Krogstad, Jens Manuel, et al. "Key Facts about U.S. Latinos for National Hispanic Heritage Month." Pew Research Center, 22 Sept. 2023, www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/09/22/key-facts-about-us-latinos-for-national-hispanic-heritage-month. Accessed 13 Aug. 2025.

Lopez, Mark Hugo, et al. "Who Is Hispanic?" Pew Research Center, 12 Sept. 2024, www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/09/05/who-is-hispanic. Accessed 13 Aug. 2025.

"National Population by Characteristics: 2020-2024." United States Census Bureau, June 2025, www.census.gov/data/datasets/time-series/demo/popest/2020s-national-detail.html. Accessed 13 Aug. 2025.

Robertson, Lori. “Breaking Down the Immigration Figures.” FactCheck.org, 27 Feb. 2024, www.factcheck.org/2024/02/breaking-down-the-immigration-figures. Accessed 13 Aug. 2025.

Suarez, Ray. Latino Americans: The 500-Year Legacy That Shaped a Nation. Celebra, 2013.

"Surprised by Census Results, Many in Puerto Rico Reconsider Views on Race." NBC News, 15 Oct. 2021, www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/surprised-census-results-many-puerto-rico-reconsider-views-race-rcna3101. Accessed 13 Aug. 2025.

Ura, Alexa. "Hispanics Officially Make Up the Biggest Share of Texas’ Population, New Census Numbers Show." The Texas Tribune, 21 June 2023, www.texastribune.org/2023/06/21/census-texas-hispanic-population-demographics. Accessed 13 Aug. 2025.

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