Historical Background (II)
As we have seen, since the 1800s, many Hispanics have emigrated to the United States. The highest point of immigration in the United States was in 1907 when 1,285,349 migrants arrived on the coast of the United States looking for new opportunities.
A large number of migrants entered the country through Ellis Island[i], which has become a symbolic gate of the United States for those seeking refuge or wanting to reach the American Dream[ii]. Migrants from countries around the globe, who passed through the mentioned island, helped to form the American melting pot.
America acquired fame as a safe haven for those seeking protection from dangerous conditions abroad. We have to highlight here the emigrations of Irish people (due to the Great Famine that devastated Ireland) and many other Europeans who searched for refuge in America due to the two World Wars[iii]. Many American citizens and religious organizations began to help those people, influencing for the future Displaced Persons Act of 1948[iv], which represented the first legislation on refugees in the country.
Focusing on Hispanics, from the Second World War (1939-1945) a stream of increasing emigration of workers from various Latin American countries to the United States began. Due to the size of its population, the majority come from Mexico, but the percentages of immigrants from Central American countries and the Caribbean are very high, compared to the population of the countries of origin. Hispanic Americans represent the vast majority of the Latino population of the United States.
Beginning in 1940, people from the Latin American indigenous communities began emigrating as braceros[v] to the United States, initially from Mexico and then coming from all over Central America. This migration, which involves a growing group, cannot be quantified rigorously, since it is the most affected by the secrecy and the lack of specialized studies. Indigenous communities suffered greater social pressure in their countries of origin due to social exclusion and the consequences of armed conflicts between different power groups. Especially in Guatemala and El Salvador, emigration statistics coincided in their highest peaks of population outflow with the subsequent repression of civil wars, but current indigenous migration is linked mainly to the process of industrialization of agriculture, from the 40s and especially since 1980 with the rapid transformation of the traditional agricultural economy towards an agriculture focused on the needs of urban industrial communities, for example monocultures for biodiesel or cotton. Indigenous communities were deprived of food to satisfy their population and were forced to find money to buy them, migrating to get jobs that were not accessible to them instead.
Another important group whose migrations were remarkable during the XX century was the Puerto Ricans. Puerto Rico is an island located in the Caribbean Sea. In 1898, when the United States took control of the territory, the island became a commonwealth for the United States. Their inhabitants are currently United States citizens and they can travel freely from the island to the country. Natural disasters were also a motivation for them to move to the United States.
Cubans are the other main protagonists of emigrations to the United States. Cuba is a tropical island nation located in the Caribbean Sea. As well as Puerto Rico, Cuba became under the control of the United States in 1898. However, in 1959, due to the Cuban Revolution[vi], Fidel Castro took the power in the island, inserting communism as the form of government. Due to that, many Cubans moved to the United States in the 1960s and 1970s.
Finally, especially during the last decades of the XX century, many other Hispanics from Dominican Republic and Central and South America came to the United States in order to make better their lives. The economic situation in those countries was a real threat for them and their families and they saw in the United States a chance to begin a new life.
Hispanics will be soon the largest minority in the country; current studies say that by 2060, their community will reach the 111 million.
[i] Ellis Island is an island in the harbor of New York City. The chief immigration station of the United States was there from 1892 to 1943, a time when millions of people, especially from Europe, came to the country.
[ii] The American Dream is a national ethos of the United States, the set of ideals (democracy, rights, liberty, opportunity and equality) in which freedom includes the opportunity for prosperity and success, as well as an upward social mobility for the family and children, achieved through hard work in a society with few barriers. The ideal arrived to the immigrants, who saw on it a great chance.
[iii] The World War I (1914-1918) and World War II (1939-1945) were conflicts that involved many large nations in all different parts of the world. The name ‘World War’ is commonly given to both conflicts but only the second was truly global.
[iv] The Displaced Persons Act, signed by President Harry Truman in 1948, authorized for a limited period of time the admission into the United States of 200000 certain European displaced persons for permanent residence. This immigration program emerged from the enormous need to handle millions of displaced persons in Europe at the end of World War II.
[v] A bracero (whose meaning is ‘manual laborer’ or ‘one who works using his arms’) was a laborer allowed into the United States for a limited time as a seasonal agricultural worker.
[vi] The Cuban Revolution was an armed revolt conducted by Fidel Castro’s revolutionary 26th of July Movement and its allies against the military dictatorship of Cuban President Fulgencio Batista. The revolution had powerful domestic and international repercussions.