Introduction

Latin America consists of 20 countries in which seven different ethnic groups are located and

this group comprises Europeans, Africa, and Amerindians. Also, Latin America includes

Spanish people as well as Portuguese-speaking ethnic groups. Latin Americans are now

living in the United States since the beginning of the 16th century. The attachment of the US

to other states like the Northern half of Mexico, Florida, and Louisiana has led to an increase

in 100,000 Spanish people migrating to America and becoming residents of the US (Gregory,

n.d.). This paper has primarily focused on the origin of Latin America and how they migrated

to the US. The areas where they lived and settled and integrated their identity. Latin America

is a vast hub of different languages and cultures which makes Latin America different from

other ethnic groups of America. Latin America is full of tradition, diversity, and culture. They

are famous for their dance, food, and the landscape of tropical areas. As mentioned before

Latin America was the colony of Spain and Portugal, which contributed deeply to the rich

culture. This ethnic group has unique characteristics as compared to other groups. Literature

has suggested conflict related to the acceptance of Latin American immigrants. Overall, the

paper proved a detailed analysis of the Latin American immigrant and highlights the

economic, cultural, and social issues.

Substantial migration trend of Latin Americans to America

The increase in the Hispanic population is also responsible for the large flow of

immigrants to the USA. The timeline of Latin American history starts from 1565 when Saint

Augustine first brought the Europe settlement in the United States of America as it is said that

many European states believed that they will be able to develop the coercive institution. In

1691, after the conquest of Mexico in 1850, the population of the US increased by the

number of ethnic groups which consist of approximately 80,000 Mexican people which is

called Latin Americans, around 2000 people from Puerto and Cuba, and 20,000 from the

south and central America. Latin people were given the land of Taxes as a separate province

of Spanish. This means that the Latin people originally derived from Mexico, south and

Central America, and the Caribbean Island. In 1847, the United States conquered Mexico and

invaded. Along with that, the treaty was signed which include the treaty of Guadalupe-

Hidalgo on the 2nd of February in 1847 where at this point Mexico lost the major

geographical regions which are now known as Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and the

California states. So, history has an extension of the diversity of European, African, and

Native Americans in Latin America. Immigration from Latin America and the Caribbean has

shown a huge increase in the US population from 1960 to 2020. Different ethnic groups

which include Central America, the Caribbean, South America, and Mexico migrated to

America in which Mexico's percentage is high. Furthermore, according to the American

Economic Association, people from major regions which includes Latin America, Africa, and

Middle East, Europe, and South Asia also migrate to America and the data depicts that the

percentage of Latin American immigration increased from 1980 to 2020 rapidly (Hanson et

al., 2023).

There are several factors and reasons on the basis of why Latin Americans got migrated and

settled in America. So, as mentioned earlier immigration from Latin America and also the
Caribbean increased from 1960-2006, but it then started to decrease in 2006 which reflects

the time period has contributed to this event. Hanson et al. (2023) depict that the labor force

was reduced and the internal forces have restricted migration to the US which has impacted

the US immigration policy. As far as immigration is concerned, there were several benefits to

immigration which include earning more wages to support the education and family or

achieving a better future. Latin American immigrants not only settled in a specific area of

America but also in different regions of America including New York, Florida, and the

Southwest. Approximately 3.4 million South Americans are living in America after the Cold

world war era from the 1960s to the 1980s. Furthermore, Venezuelans from Africa and

Europe region also make up a large population of six million in Latin America and also

migrated to America. Batalova (2023) has explained in his article about the reason for

immigration is the job opportunity, political issues, inflation, and lack of jobs. Brisola et al.

(2023) have specified the Brazilian immigrants who are part of Latin America have depicted

the integrated review of immigration to mental health in their research paper. Brazilian

immigrants are also becoming visible in the US. Since the opening of the Mexico border,

many Mexican people started to rapidly migrate toward the US and one of the major factors

is the pandemic and climate change impact and government policy interventions. Landis

(2023) explained in his article more precisely what violence from the government takes place

in Mexico which led people of Mexico to migrate towards the US. Issue related to the bus

companies who prohibit selling the ticket who are not residents of the country even the

migration routes become difficult for the migrants which led to frequent immigration.

As the United States has become a destination for immigrants with a maximum of 6

million people of Venezuelans and on the whole the immigrants from South America

represent approximately 8 percent of the 45 million people of foreign nationality who are

born in the United States. The Data from the Census Bureau from 1890 to 2019 number of
immigrants has increased over the past years. Starting from 561,000 of the immigrant

population in the United States and then 3,380,000 population of immigrants in 2019. Now in

2020, 17 million population of Latin Americans are residents of the United States. In the

United States, there is the largest number of Latin Americans who are settled in New York,

Miami, Washington, Log Angeles, Houston, Atlanta, Tampa, and Chicago (Batalova, 2023).

This depicts that half of South America lives in three metropolitan cities. So Latin Americans

have a wide range of settlements in the Southwest of America which contains Arizona, New

Mexico Texas, and California. For example, in Miami, 70% of the population is Latin

American. Miami has become a kind of great Latin American city and is known as the

capital of Latin America (Taylor & Schroeder, 2010). The migration of Puerto Ricans to New

York in the 19th century becoming the largest immigrants to migrate in this state and making a

Mexican New York depicts a concept of globalization. In the 1970s, when there was a peak of

migration of Latin in New York, the media of New York made prepared the public for the

“Latin boom” and then appeared in the article at that time about Latino New York. Another

logo was given to the immigrants “big three” which means that these three regions

Dominican, Mexican, and Puerto Rican sum up the 70% of the New York population.

Reason for Settlement in America

The reason for selecting New York for migration is because New York was considered

the hub of opportunities. In 1902, when the Newlands National Reclamation was passed, the

incentive of irrigation in the southwest occurred. This irrigated land led to opportunities and

offered many jobs to many unskilled laborers in Texas, California, and Arizona. This situation

offered seven hundred thousand Mexican people to come on this land for jobs between 1901

and 1930 (Dinnerstein et al., 2010). Because it has many welcoming educational institutes for

many migrated students. Furthermore, other cities where Latin Americans got settled include

Chicago and Sans Francisco which are known as the Gateway of many opportunities.
Furthermore, a century ago, to answer a question about why in these particular areas because

the 1960s was the era of industrialization cities needed labor with low skills even if they do

not English and were new to the city affected the economy by taking low wages, working for

hours as many Mexicans are working in the construction companies. So, migration has been

part of a multiphase dimension of the “demographic” response in which there is an unequal

distribution of economic and health opportunities on the basis of micro and macro-level

forces. And these opportunities are affected by the civil war and other natural disasters. But

the United States balances the opportunity and strives to control the social and economic

balance. On the other hand, the Latin immigrants have also provided the United States social

and economic benefits in lower prices when increase demand of workers was required with

this these Latin immigrants are responsible for half of the growth in the labor force

historically in the 1990s. the reason why Latin choose America for immigration is because of

the struggle for power between the people of Spain and England. When the treaty was signed

between Mexico and the United States in 1848, Mexica coded more than 50% of its territory

to the United States which has a great impact on the immigration of Mexican or Latin people

to the United States. (Massey, 2013).

Latin America came widely used in the 20 th century. As the indigenous people have

long ago inhibited the Americans when the Europeans came and changed the whole shape of

Latin America. If we look into the past, Latin American history has been changed by the rule

of European and other movements of people. With this, Europe has much influence in Latin

America. Latin America is known as rich in culture also with a high diversity of native

culture which includes the African slavery movement, the colonization of Europe, and

immigration (Turner-Trujillo et al., 2017) so people are native to Latin America living in the

United States are referred to as Latino on the basis of language diversity as Spanish and

Portuguese are the common languages which came from the Latin originally came from
European people. Turner-Trujillo et al. (2017) have explained how Latin America is a vast

hub of different languages and cultures which makes Latin America differ from other ethnic

groups of America. in Mexico, there are already 68 languages spoken which can a key role in

the modern English language and introduce many new words which are spoken in the modern

language for example the shark is a word that came from Mayan. Mayan people live in

Mexico but they are not considered as Mexicans. There are also African “Diasporas” in Latin

America majorly considered in Brazil and in Latin America. one of the five great African

dispersions from the 15th to 19th century. So, Latin has also African diversity. According to the

Per Research Center, there are 130 million African people who are living in Latin America.

The heritage of Latin America is the blending of different colonization, culture, and rich

language of Africa and Europe.

Cultural Diversity in Latin America

Latin America is full of tradition, diversity, and culture. They are famous for their

dance, food, and the landscape of tropical areas. As mentioned before Latin America was the

colonies of Spain and Portugal, which contributed deeply to the rich culture. Portugal people

used to speak in Portuguese and on the other hand, Spanish is spoken mostly in different

countries of Latin America. The mixture of the population of different ethnicities is the main

difference that makes it more distinguishable from the other ethnic group. In some countries

of Latin America, the majority of the identity called themselves a “Mestizos” which is known

as the mixture of European, African, and indigenous ancestors. Not only Tradition and food

culture from the local variation but also religious diversity is also a factor on the basis of

Latin Americans distinguishing from the other ethnic group. On the basis of religion,

Catholicism is followed by many Latin American this originated from the Spanish

conquerors. They combine the religious traditions of native people and African traditions to

develop a rich diversity of many religious festivals. In Latin America, religion plays a
significant role, people pray and light candles. So cultural influence from Africans and

Europe makes these people hospitable. because of the different festivals they enjoy and

celebrate “Dia de los Muertos” which is called the Day of the Dead in Mexico, Holy Week,

and the Festival of the Sun these celebrations play a wide role in the cultural diversity.

Integration pattern

Latin Americans have extended their relations and their integration into American life

based on different perspectives. Cultural values used to be so deeply connected to their roots

that these people still follow these rituals in America to maintain their heritage and identity.

From the Pew Research Center, an article published that most Latinos believe in the

American Dream. American Dream which includes the struggle to achieve goals and to make

life more suitable for living. The statistic shows that people of Hispanic are more likely to

believe in the American Dream with more hard work and determination. 70 percent of people

get what they want in their life and integrate themselves into American life. But 20-30

percent of people do not get what they struggle for. Some Latinos have different perspectives

which depict that the American dream is not that easy on contrast 51% of people of Latin has

achieved the American dream but 74 percent people conclude that achieving the American

dream in today's world is hard (Pew Research Center, 2020). Latin American has completely

conceived and integrated themselves to be as American and feel proud of immigration which

reflects in the long history of absorbing more people into America. But earlier, Latin

American immigrants suffered through many challenges to adapt to the new life in a new

country. The major obstacle for the people of Latin America was learning the language along

with new traditions and customs. Furthermore, the other challenges include the legal status of

being a US citizen. Because many of the immigrants are still struggling for their green cards

Latin America find themselves uncertain about their goals and life. Hanson et al. (2023) have

mentioned different patterns of integration of immigrants and highlighted the marker of

immigrant integration which include Citizenship, language, and permanence. Learning of

English languages started to induce more rapidly after the 1990s. language was the major

barrier which is overcome by Latin American in order to integrate into the life of Americans.

Furthermore, focusing on the immigrant employment factor also played an important

role to integrate into the life of America. As Latin American shares a large portion of the

labor work sector and played an important role in the economic development in the field of

services, manufacturing, agriculture, and mainly in the construction companies. On the other

hand, Latin people have also influenced the US from cultural and economic perspectives.

With the struggle to overcome poverty and to support the family financially Latin immigrants

have struggled to adapt themselves by getting used to the local tradition and customs which

include meetings and other general interactions which might be professional and personal

through learning the languages which are common to the US. To overcome the financial

instability in the 90s where the major problem was leaving the family and the struggle for

finding a job. Migration to the US was the only hope for them (Pw, 1988). As far as the

identity is concerned some Latin Americans living for decades used to call themselves typical

Americans. The cultural identity, music, and food have now become the specific identity of

Latin America and this had helped them to integrate into the life of America. The influence of

cultural diversity also provides more benefits to the US in terms of getting an education.

Today many ethnic groups from different regions came far from their homeland to get higher

education. In this case, the United States is also influenced by the population of Latin

America population. So, with opportunities for education, job, and life settlement, the

outcomes have increased the living standard and well-being of the Latin Americans in such a

way that they have become like Native Americans. Also, they have improved their situation

over time. The areas in which they integrated themselves well consist of social class and legal

status which improved their lives (Dinnerstein et al., 2010).

 Consequently, from a historical perspective, the major effect of immigration on the

different societies of the US has changed. Immigrants are changing the country in context

with the cultural change which is difficult to measure the reason is that the US is considered

to be a more heterogeneous society. It has also transformed the communities of America. the

sifting pattern of ethnic and racial has contributed to a more diverse population through

marital marriages between the immigrants and the indigenous people. Today the data shows

that almost every seven marriages are interracial marriages. This is the one perspective of

how the indigenous people have accepted Latin America (Waters, 2015). Additionally, the

Indigenous Americans were also comprised of different cultures and traditions and have an

ancient civilization in history. Indigenous people also understand the cultural diversity that

the US plays an important role in immigration. The relationship between the United States of

people and Latin America can be complex depending on the historical perspectives. The rise

in the trends of immigration showed that many of the immigrants in the 90s were accepted on

the basis of labor work. They were given wages so that they can earn their livelihood. It

might be possible that some of the Latin Americans have ancestry in Native America. This

cultural interaction has proved that they are being accepted by the Americans. But there is

another dark side that depicts that Pew Research Center has shown the data half of the United

States has experienced racial discrimination in the first year of the pandemic. According to

the national survey, the questions were asked the Hispanic group about racial discrimination

they said that they were abused by calling the wrong names. Furthermore, injustice from the

police members, bullying in the educational institute all these experiences of discrimination

has made a difference between Latin Americans and Indigenous Americans. Discrimination

focuses on skin color. The dark skin Latin people experience more color discrimination as

compared to white skin Latin Americans. Darker skin Latin American are considered to be

less smart, criticized by the Spanish speaking, are told to go back to their country, the affair
of personal security and safety, and called offensive names (Greenwood, 2022). This has

affected the daily life of Latin America and showed that some of the indigenous people are

still not accepting these immigrants. It is still unclear whether the indigenous population of

America has accepted the Ethnic group or not but literature depicts that racial discrimination

has caused mental health problems for Mexican Americas in the United States

Conclusion

To conclude this and wrapping up, Latin America has a diverse culture historically.

The origin of Latin America, the invasion of Europeans has shaped the diversity in Latin

America. depicting the seven different countries that makeup Latin America, immigration to

the US is also influenced by immigration. Statistics have shown a large number of

immigrants from 1960 to now. The reason for immigration was political instability and

poverty but at that time industrialization was at its peak in America which enforced many

Latin Americans to come to different states of America and find jobs for themselves and

them. With the neoclassical economic perception of the United States, migration is always

considered a cost-benefit for the US which followed from 1965. With the legal entry of

workers for economic development, these ethnic groups have played a diverse as well as

significant role in shaping the US economy. On the contrary. This ethnic group is more

historically and culturally diverse as compared to another ethnic groups. language was the

major barrier which is overcome by Latin American in order to integrate into the life of

Americans. Some Lati Americans still want to achieve American Dream because from their

perspective immigration is the only hope for them. Some societies are embracing the cultural

diversity of Latin America. the evidence from the literature described the role of Latin

America in the US briefly and its significance in the future of the United States.
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