The Hispanic population in the United States is growing at an incredible rate of five times the rate of non-Hispanic population growth, according to a 1988 government study. In this decade alone, the Hispanic population of the United States has increased by more than 1/3. About half of this extraordinary growth is due to immigration, and the other half is due to higher birth rates among Hispanics. By 1984 the fertility rate of Hispanic women was already significantly higher than that of non-Hispanic women: 107.3 total births per 1,000 Hispanic women 18 to 44 years old, as compared to 65.5 total births per 1,000 non-Hispanic women respectively. By 1988, 8.1% of the total population of the United States was Hispanic, not including the many thousands of illegal aliens.
The United States presently has the highest number of Hispanics after Mexico, Spain, Argentina, Colombia and Peru, respectively. Worldwide, the United States ranks 6th largest in Hispanic population. 71% of these Hispanics reside in four states: California has 34%, made up of mainly Mexican Hispanics; Texas has 21%, also of mainly Mexican origin; New York comprises 11.4%; and Florida has 8% Hispanic population of mostly Cuban descent. New Mexico has 10% of mainly Puerto Rican and Central or South American origins, New Mexico, Colorado and Arizona combined have 8%, Illinois 4% and New Jersey 3%. The remainder of the United States has 12% of the Hispanic population.
According to the National Hispanic Leadership Conference, Hispanics now constitute the decisive vote in four of the most important states in the nation: California, Texas, New York, and Florida. By March 1988, California had 6.6 million Hispanics, Texas had 4.1 million, New York had 2.1 million and Florida had 1.5 million. Other states with the largest concentration of Hispanics are Illinois, Arizona, New Jersey, New Mexico and Colorado. Hispanics comprise nearly 10% of the total vote in California, Texas and Florida, with 2.5 million Hispanics. Hispanics constitute 25% of the voting population in Texas and an almost equal amount in California. Both states provide more than 25% of the electoral vote, with 29 and 47 delegates respectively. These nine states already control 193 out of the 270 electoral votes required to elect a United States President.
The population of Hispanics in the United States today is approximately 20 million. By the end of 1990, it is expected to reach 22 million as projected by the Census Bureau. By the year 2000, Hispanics will be the largest minority in the country.
According to U.S. Census projections, Hispanics are expected to displace blacks as the nation's largest minority block for the first time in history. Michael J. Zamba, Director for the Washington office of the National Association of Latino Elected Officials - NALEO, states: "Population growth is going to translate into greater economic and political empowerment".
William Velazquez, Executive Director of a project for the education of Voters in the southeast portion of the United States, declared that "Hispanics have voted in a higher percentage than Americans in the democratic primaries in Texas since 1980, and they represent 28% of the votes in that state as well as in California". In 1988, over 13 million Hispanics were expected to vote in the November elections. In San Antonio, Texas the number of U.S. Hispanics registered to vote jumped from 2.5 million in 1976 to 4.3 million in early 1988.
The number of Hispanic elected officials nationwide has gone from 600 in 1974 to 3,360 in 1988 and still climbing fast. NALEO Director, Michael Zamba has stated that "Hispanics are strategically placed to have enormous political influence." He went on to say that "the Secretaries of Education, of the Interior and the head of the New York city school system are all Hispanic". Alicia C. Sandoval, the new Director of Communications for the National Educational Association is also Hispanic.
Besides elected officials, a number of Hispanics hold key positions throughout the United States. In 1985, forty metropolitan areas were at least 10% Hispanic. The ten metropolitan areas with the largest number of Hispanics in that year were Los Angeles, New York, Miami, San Francisco, Chicago, Houston, San Antonio, El Paso, San Diego and Dallas. By 1988, 592 of the 3,360 Hispanic elected officials were women and the majority of them were in Texas, California, and New Mexico.
Since the Democratic party has traditionally identified itself as the People's party, promoting health, education and housing, most Hispanics are registered as Democrats because these are the things that Hispanics are most concerned with.
Over 85% of the 20 million Hispanics in the United States identify themselves as Catholics. In Texas, Catholic Hispanics constitute a majority. It is estimated that Hispanic Catholics already outnumber non-Hispanic Catholics in a number of other Dioceses nationwide, especially in the west and southwest. According to Ruth Doyle, Director for the Archdiocesan office of Pastoral Research in New York, about 35 to 40% of Catholics there are Hispanic. Although accurate numbers are difficult to gauge, she believes this is a conservative estimate.
In the Brooklyn, New York Archdiocese, there are more than 500,000 Hispanic Catholics, while the Newark Archdiocese has approximately 300,000. Boston's Archdiocese estimates 175,000; Philadelphia's Archdiocese has 85,000 and Hartford Connecticut's Archdiocese reports 70 to 80,000. The Los Angeles Archdiocese is one of the largest in the nation and it is home to an estimated 2 million Catholics of Hispanic descent, Spanish masses are celebrated at 172 parishes. Hispanic Catholics currently comprise 30% of the nation's Catholic Churches; according to experts, Hispanics will comprise 50% of the Catholic Church by the year 2000!
There are hundreds of Spanish publications in the United States; approximately 285 radio stations which transmit only in Spanish or that have alternate programming in Spanish; seven Hispanic television Networks and forty-one television stations that transmit in Spanish throughout the United States and Puerto Rico. Major networks like Univision also transmit throughout Latin America. Satellite T.V. signals are sent from the United States and seen in a number of Latin American countries, where they are rapidly emerging as a very powerful cultural force, labeled by some as "cultural imperialism". CNN, Ted Turner's network is now also transmitting in Spanish, thirty-four countries in Latin America and the Caribbean receive it's signals.