History

The Grammy-winning pop music star Mariah Carey was born in 1970 in New York City. Her father was a Venezuelan of African descent, her mother Irish. She is the latest in a long tradition of musicians of South American descent who made it big in the United States. Another is Bolivian violinist Jaime Laredo (born … Read more

Quechua is a family of Native American languages spoken in the Andes Mountains of South America. It includes the tongue spoken by the Incas in Peru before the Spanish conquistadors arrived. Quechuan languages are still spoken by Native Americans of Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, and other South American countries. Many Quechuan words have passed into Spanish … Read more

The title of the 1970 Simon and Garfunkel song “El Condor Pasa” means “the condor passes.” It refers to the majestic vulture of the Andes. With its ten-foot wingspan and bald red head, the condor is regarded as a good omen by the Aymara, a Native American people of Peru and Bolivia. Based on an … Read more

Both Latin dances cumbia and tango come from South America. The cumbia comes from Colombia, where bands called vallenato ensembles play the music that goes with it. Instruments include a diatonic button accordion, drums, shakers, and scrapers. The music combines Spanish, Native American, and African influences. The tango is a graceful, romantic ballroom dance that … Read more

The civil war in Guatemala went on intermittently for thirty-six years, from 1960 to 1996, the longest civil war in Latin American history. Leftist guerrillas fought Guatemala’s ruling elite through several presidencies and two coups, in 1963 and 1982. The government was aided heavily by the United States, which considered the guerrillas communists. As in … Read more

A strongman or caudillo (“chief”) is a dictator, usually the head of the army, who comes to power by military force, outlaws dissent, and jails or kills opponents. Central America has had many strongmen. Some of them have been supported by the United States with arms, military training, and financial aid. In Nicaragua, the strongman … Read more

Beginning in the 1840s, American companies invested millions of dollars to open mines and grow cash crops throughout Central America, especially bananas and coffee. More recently, American companies have been opening numerous factories there as well. Profits from these businesses have gone mostly into the pockets of American investors and a few wealthy Central American … Read more

The Guarani are a Native American people who once lived widely in central and southern South America. Small populations still live in Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina, and Brazil; some still practice their traditional communal agriculture. In Paraguay, their influence has been especially strong. Ninety percent of the country’s largely mestizo population speak Guarani. Guarani songs, dances, … Read more

The discipline of architecture is held in high esteem in South America. One example is Cesar Pelli, who was born in Argentina in 1922 and immigrated to the United States. In the 1960s and 1970s, he earned acclaim for such projects as the Vienna International Center and the World Financial Towers in Manhattan. In 1977, … Read more

Only about 71,000 Central Americans to the United States came before 1950. This was a very small number compared to the millions of European immigrants who came during that time. Then the numbers started increasing. In the 1950s, 45,000 came. In the 1960s, 101,000 came. The numbers have been going up ever since. In 1995 … Read more

In 1903, Panama revolted against Colombia and became an independent nation. Behind the revolt was American president Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt’s policy of intervening freely in Latin American affairs has already been evident in the history of Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic. Following his own advice to “speak softly and carry a big stick,” … Read more

The 1976 novel The Kiss of the Spider Woman is the story of two men sharing a prison cell in a politically repressive South American country. It was written by an Argentine named Manuel Puig who knew political repression firsthand: he fled his troubled country in 1973 to live in Mexico and New York City. … Read more

There are several reasons why immigration from Central America gone up since 1950, all related to Central America’s civil and economic disorder. People from Panama and Honduras were mostly responsible for the first wave of Central American immigration in the 1950s and 1960s. These were mostly skilled, middle-class people seeking a better living than they … Read more

Now the name of a fashionable chain of clothing stores, “banana republic” used to be a disparaging term for any small, poor Latin American nation with a history of civil turmoil and dictatorial rule. The first country to be saddled with the insulting name may have been Honduras early this century, when American fruit companies … Read more

Civil disturbances between left-wing rebels and right-wing pro-government forces grew in the late 1970s. The conflict erupted into full-scale civil war in 1980. The spark was the murder that year of Archbishop Oscar Romero, a critic of the Salvadoran government. The leading rebel group was the Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN). The United States accused … Read more

Many Central Americans do manual labor, as factory hands, farm workers, construction workers, gardeners, domestics, nannies, restaurant employees. But a number of middle-class, professional people of Central American descent also reside in the United States. They may be everything from a doctor or lawyer to a Disney animator, as in the case of Jose Zeliya, … Read more

Most Central Americans are Roman Catholic, but there are a fair number of Protestants, particularly Baptists and Evangelicals. Some Native Americans practice ancestral religions. In Guatemala, Mayan traditions have mingled with Catholic ones, producing original results, for example, the Christmas mask dance, with its colorful masks and costumes. Protestants represent 30 percent of the population … Read more

A marimba is a large wooden percussion instrument, like a xylophone. It is the national instrument of Guatemala and is played throughout Central America. Central American music combines Spanish, Native American, and African influences. It has affinities to both Mexican and Caribbean music, rightly so, since Central America borders both regions. Some musical forms cross … Read more

The singer, songwriter, and actor Ruben Blades was born in Panama in 1948. He is committed to singing on social and political issues. His commitment was formed when American soldiers fired into a crowd of demonstrators in the Canal Zone in 1963, killing several Panamanians. Living in New York since 1974, he became a best-selling … Read more

In 1984, Congress outlawed U.S. aid to the contras fighting the Sandinistas in Nicaragua. Officials in President Ronald Reagan’s administration, notably marine lieutenant colonel Oliver North, had an idea on how to get around the ban. They illegally sold arms to Iran, then illegally used the proceeds to support the contras. The Iran-Contra scandal became … Read more

The answer lies partly in how the region was carved up by imperial powers. Since colonial days, the region that is now Belize has been British rather than Spanish in culture. Panama was part of Spain’s colony of New Granada, and became part of Colombia when that country began to emerge from New Granada in … Read more

The state of Texas is bigger than the entire region of Central America. Texas has an area of about 262,000 square miles. The mountainous, heavily forested strip of land that links Mexico in North America and Colombia in South America has an area of only about 202,000 square miles. Yet it comprises seven nations: Guatemala, … Read more

The 1983 film El Norte tells the story of a Guatemalan brother and sister, Native American peasants, who escape political terror in their home village to come north (norte) to the United States. Praised for its compassion and beauty, the film opened many people’s eyes to the plight of Central American refugees.

There were two civil wars in Nicaragua. The first one, in 1978-1979, overthrew the government of Anastasio Somoza Debayle. This revolution was led by the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), a left-wing group named for Augusto Cesar Sandino (1895-1934), who had waged a guerrilla war against U.S. occupation in the 1920s and 1930s. The Sandinistas … Read more

The colonial district of Guatemala stretched from present-day Mexico’s southernmost state, Chiapas, through what is now Costa Rica. It included all of what are now Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicarigua, Honduras, and Costa Rica. Its capital was Antigua, which is now Guatemala City in the modern nation of Guatemala. Theodore Roosevelt, who was at the age … Read more

No one is sure why so many great baseball players come from the Dominican town of San Pedro de Macoris. Dozens of major league players have come from the Dominican Republic in the last twenty-five years, and many have come from this one town. Tony Fernandez of the Cleveland Indians is from there. So are … Read more

The country in Central America that sends the most immigrants to the United States is El Salvador. As of 1990, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated that 465,000 Salvadoran immigrants were living in the United States. Almost all had come in the 1980s, during the civil war that wracked their country. The next largest group of … Read more

Tennis player Rosemary Casals is related to famous cellist Pablo Casals, but don’t remind her of that. Born in San Francisco in 1948 to parents who had immigrated from El Salvador, she is the grandniece of Pablo Casals (1876-1973). Pablo was born in Spain, moved to Puerto Rico, and is considered the greatest twentieth-century master … Read more

Fashion designer Oscar de la Renta was born in Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic, in 1932. He studied in Madrid and opened his own salon in New York City in 1965. His luxurious, European styled evening gowns and daywear have made him one of the most famous Dominican Americans.

Guatemala remained part of Mexico when that country won independence from Spain in 1821. Shortly afterward, in 1823, it broke away from Mexico as the United Provinces of Central America, or Central American Federation. Political conflict doomed the union. Liberals who wanted a strong federation with progressive reforms were stymied by rich conservatives who wanted … Read more

Ethnic backgrounds of Central Americans vary. Most Central Americans are a mix of European and Native American, or of African and Native American. But some are pure descendants of Native American groups such as the Maya. Mayans represent 55 percent of Guatemala’s population.

The sanctuary movement is a network of churches that has guided hundreds of Central American refugees into the United States and sheltered them. In doing so, church members have risked fines and imprisonment for smuggling in undocumented aliens. They believe they have a moral obligation to protect the refugees from deportation back to their countries. … Read more

Central Americans seeking to come to the United States can drive there via the Inter-American Highway, which runs from Panama to the Mexico-Texas border. It is one part of the almost completed Pan-American Highway, a system of roads running 16,000 miles from Alaska to Chile. Those who make it as far as the U.S. border … Read more

Los Angeles is the home to most Central American immigrants. As of 1990, about 350,000 Salvadorans and 110,000 Guatemalans lived there. The biggest concentration of Central Americans is in the Pico-Union section west of downtown. Other favorite spots for Central Americans are San Francisco, New York, Houston, and Washington, D.C. Many Nicaraguans live in Miami.

Political asylum applications are even harder to push through now that the wars have officially ended. In the United States, there remain about 300,000 refugees who applied for political asylum during the wars, and whose cases are still unresolved. Under pre-1996 law, they can stay if they can prove that they have been in the … Read more

If newcomers to the United States can prove they are in danger of being killed or imprisoned at home for political reasons, the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) will allow them to stay as political refugees. But proving this case is hard, especially for people with little education and little knowledge of English. If … Read more

In Central America, the term Ladino means a mestizo, or person of mixed European and Native American origin. It can also mean a Native American who has chosen to adopt Spanish language and culture. The word Ladino also means something completely different: the language spoken by Sephardic Jews, the Jews who originated in Spain and … Read more

Honduras had its own political turmoil in the past twenty years. There were many pressures on civil order: military coups, followed by restoration of a shaky democratic government; the unpopular presence of the Nicaraguan contras; declaration of a state of emergency; a bad economy; labor strikes. Costa Rica’s situation was better. It has one of … Read more

Playing on the Caribbean food named yuca, a YUCA is a young, upwardly mobile, Cuban American, in other words, a Cuban yuppie. These are people in their thirties (or slightly older) who came from Cuba as small children or were born in the United States. They are well-educated, have successful careers, and tend to be … Read more

Cuban Chinese restaurants, readily found in cities with large Cuban American populations, blend the two cuisines. They exist because a minority of Cubans are people of Chinese descent. More than 100,000 Chinese contract workers came to Cuba between 1840 and 1870, at a time when African slave labor was being phased out.

To Spanish speaking Roman Catholics, a santo is a saint. To devotees of the religion called Santeria, it is something more: an orisha, a spirit or god who can procure material benefits for believers. Santeria originated with West African slaves, who brought their Yoruba religion to Cuba and blended it with Catholic beliefs. A santo … Read more

Many Cuban American girls celebrate their fifteenth birthday with a quince (Spanish for “fifteen”). Similar to a debutante ball or a sweet sixteen bash, this elaborate party traditionally marks a girl as eligible for dating. Wealthy Cuban Americans may spend more money on a quince than many people spend on weddings. The practice has spread … Read more

The goal of the invasion of Panama by the United States in December 1989 was to capture dictator Manuel Noriega and force him to stand trial in the United States for drug trafficking. Noriega had been a U.S. ally during the Central American civil wars of the 1980s, but was suspected of being a middleman … Read more

Ropa vieja is a Cuban stew of shredded beef; the name means “old clothes.” Cubans also enjoy many of the same comidas criollas as other West Indian Latinos: roast pig, plantains, rice and beans (preferably black beans). A boniato is something like a stuffed, deep-fried potato; arroz moro is a beans and rice dish. A … Read more

These northern Manhattan neighborhoods were home to Irish and Jewish families before the 1950s. Puerto Ricans and Cubans came next, and now Dominicans, particularly on the east side of Broadway. Under the shadow of the George Washington Bridge, these neighborhoods are lively with merengue music and the sounds of Spanish conversation. Dominican food, similar to … Read more

The western third of the mountainous island known as Hispaniola is occupied by Haiti. Back in the 1600s, France colonized the western part of Hispaniola while Spain was busy with the eastern part. The French part was called Saint-Domingue, the Spanish part Santo Domingo. Spain officially ceded the western part to France in 1697. In … Read more

In 1823, U.S. president James Monroe stated his Monroe Doctrine. It was issued at a time when most of Latin America had just become independent. Monroe’s foreign policy statement warned that the United States would not tolerate new colonization of the Americas by European powers. In years to come, it came to mean something more: … Read more

Many Dominican immigrants settle the same place most Puerto Ricans settle, in New York City. Since the mid-1960s, nearly three-quarters of all Dominican immigrants to the United States have settled in the Big Apple. No community besides Santo Domingo has more Dominicans. Between 1965 and 1980, Dominicans were the largest group of immigrants to New … Read more

The Dominican Republic occupies the eastern two-thirds of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola. The island is sandwiched between Cuba to the west and Puerto Rico to the east. At about 19,000 square miles in area, the Dominican Republic is a little smaller than West Virginia but much more densely populated, with about 8 million people. … Read more

The rumba originated in Cuba. The rumba is one of several dances and musical forms that originated in Latin America and became popular in the United States from the 1940s on. Afro-Cuban percussionist Chano Pozo played in the band of American jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie’s band, where Cuban rhythms blended with American bebop, a type … Read more

Desi Arnaz was not a refugee of Fidel Castro. The Cuban-born musician and actor (1917-1986) came to the United States in the 1930s, fleeing Batista, not Castro. Arnaz married comedienne Lucille Ball and starred with her in the hit TV comedy “I Love Lucy” (1951-1957). Playing a bandleader in the show, Arnaz introduced millions of … Read more

The official estimate for immigration from Central America to the United States from 1820 to 1995 is 1.1 million. Ninety percent have come just since 1960. However, this figure does not take into account the many Central Americans who have come to the United States without obtaining legal status. Fleeing civil wars, political terror, and … Read more

There have been quite a few Cuban baseball players. Cuban American Tony Oliva, for example, was a star hitter and later coach for the Minnesota Twins beginning in 1964. Other Cuban American ball players have included Preston Gomez, Mike Gonzalez, and Vic Powers.

Castro made emigration illegal, but Cubans found their way out: in boats by night; on rafts made of inner tubes; by way of Mexico or other countries. Baseball pitcher Livan Hernandez defected to Mexico in 1995. Before long, he was playing for the Florida Marlins and helped the team win the 1997 World Series. Hernandez … Read more

Most Marielitos were not criminals. The vast majority were law-abiding people. But a small number were convicted criminals whom Castro deported. Within a year, sixty-six Mariel refugees had been arrested for crimes in Miami. About 2,700 Marielitos were refused permission to enter the United States, whether for old criminal records, current crimes, or other reasons. … Read more

To many Americans of the early 1980s, Marielitos were considered a problem. They were not warmly embraced like the earlier Cuban exiles. They were usually not given the noble title exiles, but were called refugees. One reason is that the United States was in the midst of economic crisis at the time, and did not … Read more

Fidel Castro did not try to restrict emigration from Cuba at first. But beginning in 1961, Castro put up bathers to emigration. For example, exiles were not allowed to take anything more than $5 in U.S. money and a few clothes. Emigration to the United States was banned from 1962 to 1965, and again beginning … Read more

The most prized cigars in the world come from Cuba, perhaps because Cubans invented cigars. The Taino and Ciboney people of Cuba were growing tobacco and rolling the leaves into cigars before Columbus arrived. Cubans of Spanish descent made a lucrative industry out of the Native American practice. Today, cigars are rolled in many countries, … Read more

The Dominican Republic is no longer a dictatorship. Presidents voted out of office have stepped down peacefully since 1978. But most of the country’s people are desperately poor. Government officials are often corrupt. Everything from low sugar prices to hurricanes can create great hardship. Thirty percent of the people have no work. Under these conditions, … Read more

The Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo kept tight restrictions on emigration during his reign. With his death in 1961, emigration became a way of life. In the last two decades, about 20,000 Dominicans per year have been legally admitted to the United States. Not by coincidence, 20,000 is the legal limit for immigration from any one … Read more

Phone parlors, or discount calling enters, are stores where immigrants can buy time to call their native countries at discounted rates. Dominicans started them for people from their own country, but now they are used by other Latinos, such as Mexicans and Peruvians. They can be found in New Jersey and in New York City, … Read more

Merengue is a characteristically Dominican form of music and dance. Emerging in the 1800s, it combines African and Spanish influences in a fast-paced, joyous brew. Merengue bands usually include an accordion, a barrel drum called a tambora, and a giiiro, or scraper. Merengue has become a popular form of dance music among Latinos in many … Read more

There are many farm workers in the Dominican Republic, often poor and illiterate. But Dominicans who make the daring journey to the United States are usually urban people with some education and skills. When they get to the United States, they take the jobs available for people with little English: garment worker, factory hand, dishwasher. … Read more

A few more years of turmoil followed after Dominican President Rafael Trujillo was killed. Opposition leader Juan Bosch was elected president in 1962, but deposed by a military coup the following year. Bosch’s supporters rebelled in 1965, and the United States again sent in marines. Although Bosch denied it, the United States considered Bosch’s supporters … Read more

Rafael Trujillo was trained by U.S. Marines during the occupation and backed by the United States during the early part of his reign of the Dominican Republic. Later, the United States grew discontented with him. The CIA reportedly aided his assassination. Trujillo waved to onlookers from the Plaza Hotel during a visit to New York … Read more

The United States sent troops to the Dominican Republic more than once. Political turmoil, corruption, and civil war have plagued the country since its founding. In 1869, things were so bad that the Dominican Republic’s president negotiated a treaty in which the United States would annex the country. The U.S. Senate refused to ratify the … Read more

There are a number of ways undocumented immigrants from the Dominican Republic get to the United States. Some come on a tourist visa, which allows them to visit for a short time. They overstay the visa once they’re here. Some travel first to Mexico, then slip across the border into the United States. However, the … Read more

U.S. troops occupied Cuba until 1902. Before withdrawing the troops, the United States required the new nation of Cuba to agree to the Platt Amendment. This legislation was named for U.S. senator Orville Platt, who introduced it in Congress in 1901. The Platt Amendment said that the United States could intervene in Cuba at any … Read more

In what was called the Spanish American War, the United States defeated Spain in about four months of fighting, from April to August 1898. Among the Americans who fought in the war was future president Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919). He led his cavalry brigade of Rough Riders in a successful attack on Kettle Hill, not, as … Read more

American presidents do not declare war because a few journalists tell them to do so. The pressure for war did not come merely from newspapers and outraged common people. U.S. businessmen had invested about $50 million in sugar plantations, railroads, mines, and other enterprises in Cuba. They wanted a greater U.S. presence on the island … Read more

The problem with the slogan “Remember the Maine.” was that no one knew for sure how the U.S. battleship Maine blew up. Americans assumed that a Spanish mine had destroyed it, but the Spanish denied it. Indeed, Spain wanted very much to avoid war with the powerful United States, and tried to settle the dispute … Read more

The Maine was a U.S. battleship that exploded in the harbor of Havana, Cuba’s capital, on February 15, 1898. Two hundred and sixty crew members died. Spain was accused of setting off the explosion, and American newspapers and people in the street trumpeted the battle cry, “Remember the Maine.” President William McKinley had previously been … Read more

The two different colonial regimes, French and Spanish, produced a different racial picture in the two halves of Hispaniola. Both colonies employed black slave labor from Africa. But French colonists were more likely to keep the races segregated than Spanish colonists. Today, about 95 percent of Haitians are direct descendants of African slaves; most of … Read more

Known as El Jefe, or “the Chief,” Rafael Trujillo was the dictator of the Dominican Republic from 1930 to 1961. He wasn’t always president, but he controlled whoever was president. He ruled like a gangster, outlawing opposition parties, torturing and killing dissidents, growing rich on public money. He expanded the economy and modernized the country, … Read more

Ernesto “Che” Guevara (1928-1967) was a former medical student from Argentina who dedicated his life to fighting in revolutionary wars in Latin America and Africa. He was Fidel Castro’s chief lieutenant in the Cuban revolution (1956-1959) and minister of industry afterward (1961-1965). An expert in guerrilla warfare, he left Cuba so he could carry on … Read more

In the movie The Godfather, Part II (1974), mob leader Michael Corleone (played by Al Pacino) comes to Batista era Cuba to try to close a criminal deal. The scene is based on historical truth. Under Batista, Havana became a center for prostitution and drugs. Gambling casinos flourished, run by organized criminals from the United … Read more

Fulgencio Batista y Zaldivar (1901-1973) was a Cuban dictator whose regime was famous for its corruption, its support by rich Cubans, and its strong ties to the United States. Fidel Castro Ruz (1926, ) was the revolutionary who overthrew him on behalf of Cuba’s poor and downtrodden. But only one of the two was born … Read more

July 26 was the day in 1953 when Castro launched his first attack on the Batista regime, at the Moncada army base. Outnumbered ten to one, Castro’s forces failed and he was arrested. He was sent into exile in Mexico, but he was soon back to try again. From 1956 to 1959, in what is … Read more

One of the greatest Cuban American success stories is that of Roberto C. Guizeta (1931-1997). Born in Havana, he was educated at Yale and became a chemical engineer for Coca-Cola in Cuba. He fled Castro’s revolution in 1960. By 1981, he had risen to become the company’s chairman and chief executive officer. He was credited … Read more

Jose Marti (1853-1895) was a poet, journalist, and the greatest hero of the Cuban struggle for independence. He was arrested for his revolutionary activities at age sixteen. After his release, he spent much of his life in exile, some of it in the United States. He founded and led the Cuban Revolutionary Party and wrote … Read more

Early in the 1800s, several prominent Americans were eager to lay hands on the rich Spanish colony so close to U.S. shores. In 1809 Thomas Jefferson said, “We must have Cuba.” In 1823, Secretary of State John Quincy Adams argued that annexation of Cuba was “indispensable” to America’s “continuance and integrity.” In 1848, President James … Read more

As in Puerto Rico, many people in Cuba at first felt too dependent on Spain to risk fighting for independence. Who would buy the sugar or protect the security of such a small nation? Cuba and Puerto Rico remained loyal to Spain even in the 1820s, when Spain’s other American colonies finished winning their independence. … Read more

You will often read in history books that Americans were outraged by news reports of Spanish atrocities, or cruel actions, in the Cuban War of Independence. Some of the atrocities were real. Cuban civilians were herded into concentration camps, where about 100,000 died of disease, hunger, and mistreatment. But some of the atrocities were exaggerated … Read more

When exiles from Castro’s Cuba first arrived in Miami, it was a small, sleepy retirement town. Now it is a thriving metropolis, a center of international finance and trade with a population that is more than 60 percent Hispanic. It is a bilingual city with Spanish-language newspapers and radio and TV stations. Much of Miami’s … Read more

Christopher Columbus, who discovered Cuba on his first voyage in 1492, described it as “the fairest island human eyes have yet beheld.” Lush with trees and fresh water, Cuba is as big as Pennsylvania (about 43,000 square miles). The climate is balmy but not sweltering. There are some mountains, but most of the land is … Read more

There are about 11 million people living in Cuba as of the 2010 census. In addition, nearly one million people of Cuban descent live in the United States. More than 700,000 of these are immigrants. They came to the United States since communist dictator Fidel Castro took power in 1959. Most of them are vigorously … Read more

Cuba, the largest island in the West Indies, is only ninety miles from Key West, Florida. By contrast, the U.S. capital of Washington is more than seven hundred miles from the nearest large Florida city, Jacksonville. The closeness of Cuba to the United States has made it an object of American interest from the days … Read more

About 66 percent of the Cuban islanders are categorized as white, descended from Spanish colonists. Twenty-two percent are a mix of white and black, combining Spanish and African ancestry. Twelve percent are black. Because Native Americans were wiped out early in the conquest, they are not a major racial component. The distinctions between races has … Read more

On the whole, Cuban exiles did very well in the United States, better than any other Hispanic American group. They were helped by the U.S. government, which welcomed them as refugees from a communist regime, and therefore allies. Cuban exiles easily received permanent residency status. They got free temporary housing, medical care, financial aid, and … Read more