History

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

The United States was a haven for Cuban exiles even during Spanish colonial times. About five thousand Cubans, including many who fought for Cuban independence in the Ten Years’ War, found refuge in the United States in the late 1800s. Once Cuba achieved independence in 1902, Cubans continued to come to the United States, fleeing … Read more

The United States tried to overthrow Fidel Castro’s regime. On April 17, 1961, an invasion force of about 1,500 Cuban exiles landed in the Bay of Pigs, Cuba. They were supported by the United States, but not very well. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had promised the exiles full-scale U.S. military support, but President John … Read more

President Kennedy flinched from a full-scale invasion of Cuba because he feared a nuclear showdown with the Soviet Union. Perceiving Kennedy as weak, the Soviet Union forced that showdown only eighteen months later, in the Cuban Missile Crisis. In October 1962, U.S. spy planes reported that the Soviet Union was assembling nuclear missile sites in … Read more

The fall of the Soviet Union hurt Castro’s government drastically. For decades, the Soviet Union had been Cuba’s principal source of arms, trade, and economic assistance. Since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, Cuba’s economic situation has been dire. Cuban exiles are waiting eagerly for Castro’s government to collapse or for Castro to die of … Read more

From 1959 to 1962, about 155,000 people fled Cuba for the United States. Some were Batistianos, rich allies of Batista. Known as “golden exiles,” they brought along the fortunes they had made from his corrupt regime. Some were wealthy people whose ranches, plantations, or industries had been nationalized. Many were professionals who were considered a … Read more

In 1903, the United States established a naval base at Guantanamo Bay in southeastern Cuba. Protected by treaty, the base has stayed in operation ever since, despite pressure from Fidel Castro to give it up. It is located in the province of Guantanamo, homeland of the farm girl in the Cuban folk ballad “Guantanamera”, which, … Read more

As developed by German philosopher Karl Marx and Russian revolutionary Vladimir Ilich Lenin, communism is a political system that seeks to combat poverty and injustice. Unlike capitalists, who believe in private enterprise, communists believe that the state should control economic life by owning and managing all or most industries. Unlike liberal democrats, communists believe the … Read more

The U.S. government feared from the beginning that Fidel Castro was a communist, even though he said at first that he wasn’t. He nationalized private businesses, including U.S. owned industries and plantations. This meant he took them as property of the state, without paying the previous owners for what he had taken. He executed or … Read more

People who left Castro’s Cuba for the United States prefer to call themselves Cuban exiles. This term implies that they came to this country not for economic improvement, like most immigrants, but to flee political tyranny. It also expresses their early hope that they would return to Cuba once Castro fell from power. In Cuba, … Read more

Little Havana is a Cuban American neighborhood in Miami, Florida. Here Spanish is widely spoken. Shops and restaurants reminiscent of Cuba line the main drag, Calle Ocho (Spanish for “eighth street”). Older men play dominoes, a favorite pastime of Cubans, not to mention their West Indian neighbors, Puerto Ricans and Dominicans. The existence of Little … Read more

The first performer ever to win an Oscar, a Tony, an Emmy, and a Grammy was Rita Moreno, a Puerto Rican. The actress and singer was born Rosa Dolores Alverio in Humacao, Puerto Rico, in 1931. She moved to Manhattan as a child. She first appeared on Broadway at age thirteen and in movies at … Read more

Only one of the Puerto Rican characters in the movie West Side Story were actually Puerto Ricans, Rita Moreno, who played the fiery Anita in the 1961 movie. Natalie Wood, who played the ill-fated lover Maria, was an American of Russian-French descent. George Chakiris, who played Maria’s gang-leading brother Bernardo, was a Greek American. The … Read more

In 1999, about 24 percent of New York City’s 7.3 million people were of Hispanic descent, and Puerto Ricans are the single largest segment of those Hispanics. With those kinds of numbers, New York Puerto Ricans have an important say in how the city is run. They have been represented locally by numerous political figures … Read more

Fittingly, Fidel Castro gained his leadership in Cuba on New Year’s Day. In the early hours of January 1, 1959, Batista realized his days were numbered and fled Cuba by plane. A few days later, Castro’s troops marched victoriously into Havana.

Puerto Rican cuisine shares much in common with the island’s Caribbean neighbors, Cuba and the Dominican Republic. The comidas criollas, or Creole foods, of all these island nations include beans and rice (Moros y Christians, or “Moors and Christians”), roast suckling pig (or lechon), the plantain (a cooking banana), and the yuca (a starchy root … Read more

The gripping 1967 autobiography “Down These Mean Streets” by Piri Thomas found a wide audience and is still read. Written in English but laced with street Spanish, it tells the story of the author’s rough childhood in Spanish Harlem and the prison term he served for armed robbery. Other Puerto Rican writers include Jesus Colon, … Read more

The first Latino to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame was Roberto Clemente, perhaps the best known of all Puerto Rican athletes. Born in Puerto Rico in 1934, he played for the Pittsburgh Pirates for eighteen seasons, from 1955 to 1972. With a lifetime batting average of .317, he was the first Latino … Read more

The annual Puerto Rican Day parade in June is one of New York City’s biggest public events. Similar parades are held in other northeastern cities. It is a day of festivity and ethnic celebration, as bands, floats, and dancers in traditional costumes proceed past cheering crowds. The red, white, and blue Puerto Rican flag, with … Read more

The vast majority of Puerto Ricans are Catholic, though a minority are Protestant. The biggest Protestant denomination is the Pentecostal Church of God. Many Puerto Ricans practice Santeria, a Cuban-based blend of Catholic and West African elements. Stores called botanicas sell charms, incense, candles, herbs, and other paraphernalia related to Santeria. Botanicas are as much … Read more

The first major Puerto Rican TV star was Freddie Prinze, who became famous for playing Chicano garage assistant Chico Rodriguez on Chico and the Man (1974-1978). The son of a Puerto Rican mother and a Hungarian father, Prinze joked that he was “Hungarican.” While barely out of high school, he rocketed to fame as a … Read more

Salsa is dance music, a variety of what is called Latin jazz, which is a blend of Afro-Caribbean and Spanish influences and American jazz. It is popular among Anglos and Latinos alike. The name comes from salsa picante, or “hot sauce.” Salsa’s greatest pioneer was Tito Puente (1930–2000), a New York–born bandleader and composer of … Read more

The 1957 Broadway musical by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim was ultimately based on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. The creators of the show wanted to update that tragic love story by placing it in modern urban surroundings. They needed two warring camps, and originally thought of pitting Catholics against Jews. But by the mid-1950s, the … Read more

Democrat Fernando Ferrer has been elected the Bronx borough president for four consecutive terms and has used his position to bring housing and economic opportunity to this once rundown section of New York City. He is also prominent in national Hispanic politics: he hosted national presidential debates for Democratic Party candidates in 1988 and 1992 … Read more

This was the affliction of millions of teenage female fans of the Puerto Rican musical group Menudo. In the early 1980s, this band of five young male rock singers became all the rage among Hispanics in the United States and throughout the Western Hemisphere. Latina girls in love with the cute singers wore “I Love … Read more

The Young Lords were a Puerto Rican student activist group in New York City in the 1960s. Through protests and demonstrations, they forced the city to pay attention to the educational needs of young Puerto Ricans. They forced a shutdown of the City University of New York in 1969. They helped bring about the creation … Read more

Mexican, Cuban, and Spanish food can all be found on the menus of swanky restaurants, but Puerto Rican food rarely. This is true even in New York, where many Puerto Ricans have lived for decades. One can find Puerto Rican food in places serving cuchifritos, or fried pork entrails, to working-class people, but not in … Read more

From April to August 1898, the United States waged a war with Spain called the Spanish American War. The United States went to war in part to help Cuba win its struggle for independence from Spain. But the war was also prompted by American imperialists who wanted the United States to become a world power, … Read more

Chili con carne did not originate in Mexico. It first appeared in the United States, among Mexican Americans in San Antonio, Texas, about 1880. The name means “chili peppers with meat,” though the hearty mix of beans, chili peppers, and spices is also available nowadays in vegetarian form. Chili was first sold in canned form … Read more

Spanish forces on the island of Puerto Rico were defeated in about three weeks. Puerto Ricans offered little resistance. They were glad to see Spanish rule end, and were hopeful that the United States would support their wish for self-government. To their disappointment, they were not even consulted when Spain ceded Puerto Rico to the … Read more

Puerto Rico was a small island colony heavily dependent on its mother country. Perhaps for that reason, it stayed loyal to Spain when other larger, more self-sufficient colonies were fighting wars of independence. In fact, in the early 1800s, the island was a haven for loyalists fleeing revolutions in other Spanish American colonies. By the … Read more

The holiday known as El Grito de Lares commemorates the night of September 23, 1868, when Puerto Ricans took over the town of Lares and demanded independence from Spain. The revolt was crushed, but the “cry of Lares” had been heard. Slavery was abolished in 1873, and in 1897 the Spanish crown agreed to give … Read more

San Juan, Puerto Rico’s capital city, is named for San Juan Bautista, or Saint John the Baptist. This was the name Christopher Columbus gave the island when he first landed there in 1493. Conquistador Juan Ponce de Leon gave it its present-day name of Puerto Rico, or “Rich Port.” There is yet another name for … Read more

On March 2, 1917, when President Woodrow Wilson signed the Jones Act, all Puerto Ricans became U.S. citizens, except the few who refused to accept citizenship. Wilson was motivated in part by the need for more soldiers to fight World War I. As citizens, Puerto Ricans were now eligible for the draft. Thousands were soon … Read more

In 1946, the United States appointed a native Puerto Rican, Jesus T. Pifiero, as governor. But the first Puerto Rican to be elected to the post was Luis Munoz Marin (1898-1980). A journalist educated in Washington, D.C., he was the son of Luis Munoz Rivera (1859-1916), a patriot who had agitated against Spanish rule. In … Read more

In colonial times, from the early sixteenth to early nineteenth centuries, Puerto Rico was important for military reasons. Puerto Rico is the easternmost of all the large West Indian islands known as the Greater Antilles. Ships traveling to and from Spain’s colonial ports in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico had to pass Puerto Rico. … Read more

The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, a self-governing possession of the United States, actually consists of four islands. These are the main island of Puerto Rico and three islets: Mona, Vieques, and Culebra. For nearly four centuries before becoming a U.S. possession, Puerto Rico belonged to Spain. Spain held on to Puerto Rico and Cuba long … Read more

The mountainous, tropical island of Puerto Rico in the Caribbean Sea is about one thousand miles southeast of Miami, Florida. At one hundred miles long and thirty-five miles wide, it is not quite as big as Connecticut. It is a little more populous than Connecticut, with about 3.8 million people. The only tropical rain forest … Read more

At first Puerto Rico became poorer when it became a territory of the United States. In the first few decades after the Spanish American War, American businesses flocked to Puerto Rico to convert much of the agricultural land to sugar production. Farmers who had been growing their own food now worked at growing sugar. Their … Read more

Tacos and enchiladas and other Mexican dishes are found today in restaurants and supermarket freezers across the United States, but Americans still have trouble telling them apart. Most of them originated with the Native Americans who lived in what are now northern Mexico and the American Southwest. People in Mexico regard them as appetizers, side … Read more

Tacos and enchiladas are better known Mexican dishes, but the dish that stands in highest regard among Mexicans and Mexican Americans is turkey in a mole poblano sauce. This thick sauce combines many flavors, including chili peppers, garlic, bananas, onions, and unsweetened chocolate. The dish should be served with tortillas or enchiladas.

Not all Puerto Ricans stay in the United States once they are here. Because they are U.S. citizens, they can easily migrate back and forth between island and mainland. Many do: in some years, the number of Puerto Ricans returning to the island has been greater than the number migrating to the mainland. Sometimes they … Read more

Puerto Ricans have been coming to the mainland throughout the twentieth century. But the “Great Migration” of Puerto Ricans to the mainland began in the mid-1940s, at the end of World War II, and lasted until the middle of the 1960s. Crowded conditions and unemployment on the island stirred many Puerto Ricans to move to … Read more

Nearly a million Puerto Ricans live in New York City alone. That means the Big Apple has a bigger Puerto Rican population than San Juan, Puerto Rico’s capital. Other places with growing populations of Puerto Ricans include Texas, Illinois, and Florida. Most Puerto Ricans on the mainland live in cities, but some are migrant farm … Read more

Nuyorican (or Neorican) is Spanglish for a Puerto Rican New Yorker. Spanglish is an informal mix of English and Spanish, spoken by many Latinos. Some Puerto Ricans, however, object to the term. Puerto Ricans have their own names for certain sections of the city. East Harlem, or Spanish Harlem, has been a Puerto Rican enclave … Read more

The main reason Puerto Rico a state isn’t a state is that Puerto Ricans have voted against becoming one. Statehood has certain disadvantages for Puerto Ricans. Because tax exemption for U.S. businesses would end, companies would probably leave the island, throwing people out of work. On the other hand, statehood would give Puerto Rico full … Read more

President Harry S Truman was nearly shot on November 1, 1950, by two Puerto Rican nationalists desperate to win independence for their homeland. He escaped unharmed. Just four years later, on March 1, 1954, three Puerto Rican independentistas, or independence activists, attacked the U.S. Capitol. Two were men, Rafael Candel Miranda and Andres Cordero; one … Read more

Born in Yuma, Arizona, Cesar Estrada Chavez (1927-1993) was a migrant farm worker and the son of migrant farm workers. Moving often with his family, he attended sixty-five elementary schools and never graduated from high school. He knew firsthand the dismal poverty and injustice suffered by Chicano farm workers. He decided to do something about … Read more

Not all Puerto Ricans are blue collar workers, but a majority are. They work in the garment industry and in factories, hotels, and restaurants. Unemployment is high, thanks in large part to the flight of low-skilled manufacturing jobs from New York City over the last few decades. Lack of education, broken families, scarce housing, drugs, … Read more

Many Puerto Ricans on the island are poor by comparison to other Americans. Puerto Rico’s 1995 per capita gross product of $7,662 was about a third of the average U.S. citizen’s income on the mainland. However, Puerto Rico is well-off by Latin American standards. For example, Puerto Rico’s per capita gross product is nearly twice … Read more

The first major organization was the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), founded in Texas in 1929. This Mexican American organization sought to protect the civil rights of Mexican Americans and ensure equal opportunity for education and employment. The Community Service Organization (CSO), founded in the late 1940s, emphasized citizenship and voter registration drives … Read more

This is a variation on the old question, “Are Hispanics a race?”. In the case of Puerto Ricans, the answer might be “neither,” “both,” or “the question is meaningless.” Puerto Rico lacks the hard-and-fast separation between the races that is so much a part of life in the United States. Almost everyone in the commonwealth … Read more

There are still some people in Puerto Rico who want independence, but they are few in number. When Puerto Rican voters were asked in 1993 to choose among independence, statehood, or continued commonwealth status, only 4 percent chose independence. However, the independentistas have often been highly visible. In 1983, a terrorist nationalist group called Los … Read more

Take a very long coat with heavily padded shoulders, add baggy pants with a high waist and tight cuffs, and top it off with a broad-brimmed hat: that’s a zoot suit. It helps if your hair is cut in a ducktail and you like to dance the jitterbug. The zoot suit was all the rage … Read more

In June 1943, several young zoot-suiters believed to be Mexican American got involved in a brawl with U.S. Navy sailors on leave in Los Angeles. The rest of the ship’s crew decided to take revenge. In the days that followed, sailors drove around the city in taxis, grabbing and beating every zoot-suiter they found. Young … Read more

Led by Governor Munoz in the 1950s, Operation Bootstrap was an economic program aimed at relieving Puerto Rico’s poverty. Recalling the old expression “lifting oneself up by the bootstraps,” the program sought to build a modern industrial base for a country that had long been agricultural. The program encouraged U.S. manufacturing firms to set up … Read more

In 1959, the traditional Mexican song “La Bamba” was transformed into a foot-stomping rock’n’roll hit by Chicano singer Ritchie Valens, born Richard Valenzuela in Los Angeles in 1941. The song’s Latin chord sequence became a standard piece of rock vocabulary in such later songs as “Twist and Shout” (1960). Valens’s career was cut tragically short … Read more

The Bracero Program in the United States didn’t stop after the war, it became bigger. American farm owners wanted to continue the arrangement, because the demand for farm produce was booming and braceros could be paid less than American workers. As a result, the program was kept alive from the end of the war until … Read more

Mexican American immigration did not stop with the bracero program. Heavy immigration from Mexico continued under the Immigration Act of 1965. By favoring applications from immigrants who already had family members living in the United States, the law encouraged Mexican Americans to bring family members from Mexico.

One person who did become famous is stage and film writer and director Luis Valdez. He was born into a Chicano family of migrant farm workers in 1940. In 1965, to support the United Farm Workers strike led by Cesar Chavez, Valdez founded a theater company known as Teatro Campesino, which dramatized the plight of … Read more

Born in Los Angeles in 1947, the film star Edward James Olmos is the son of a Mexican-born welder. He grew up in a tough barrio and never forgot the problems of urban Chicanos. He was a Tony nominee for his performance in the play Zoot Suit and became well-known in the 1980s for the … Read more

Mexican Americans suffered along with millions of other Americans during the economic catastrophe of the 1930s. Beginning in 1929 with the crash of the U.S. stock market, businesses closed, fortunes were wiped out, and many people, including Mexican Americans, were thrown out of work. Mexican Americans also suffered something worse: the anger of Anglos who … Read more

The long border with Mexico was only lightly policed in the early 1900s. With the help of coyotes, or professional smugglers of immigrants, many undocumented Mexicans made it across the border. Some hid in the backs of cars and trucks. Some waded across the Rio Grande, giving rise to the derogatory term “wetback.” American employers … Read more

Some restrictions to Mexican immigration to the United States began to appear early in the 1900s. Mexican immigrants had to register and pay a tax at border stations; illiteracy, disease, or extreme poverty could disqualify them. Restrictions were tightened further in 1924. In that year, the United States launched a quota system for immigration from … Read more

No sooner had repatriation removed Mexican Americans than the country wanted them back. When the United States plunged into World War II (1941-1945), the economic distress of the Great Depression ended. Citizens, unemployed and otherwise, were drafted into military service. Farms and factories came back to life to provide supplies for the troops. Suddenly there … Read more

One effect of World War I, in which the United States took part from 1917 to 1918, was to encourage Mexican Americans to move north. With many men at war, northern factories experienced a shortage of labor. Moving north in search of industrial work, Mexican Americans were soon living in Chicago, New York, and elsewhere … Read more

It is not unusual to see Mexican American children working alongside their parents in the California fields. Nearly one of every five crop pickers in the United States is under eighteen. The following passage comes from S. Beth Atkin’s Voices from the Fields: Children of Migrant Farm-workers Tell Their Stories. It was written by nine-year-old … Read more

The first important Chicano novel was Pocho by Jose Antonio Villarreal, published in 1959. Based partly on the author’s life, the novel tells the story of a Chicano youth growing up in California’s Santa Clara valley. Other respected books by Mexican American authors include Bless Me, Ultima (1972) by Rudolfo Anaya; Woman Hollering Creek and … Read more

Some Mexican Americans welcomed the immigrants as brothers and sisters, but many were displeased. Descendants of the original settlers of California, New Mexico, or Texas were proud of their heritage, just like a northerner who can trace his lineage to the Mayflower. Some prosperous old-timers had only disdain for poor and uneducated newcomers. Others feared … Read more

The Mexican rebel leader Pancho Villa came to the United States in 1916, but only for a short and bloody visit. In March 1916, angered at U.S. interference in the Mexican Revolution, Villa and his guerrillas crossed the border into New Mexico and killed sixteen people in the town of Columbus. President Woodrow Wilson responded … Read more

The Mexican American singer was born Selena Quintanilla Perez. She became a huge star of Tejano music, a subculture that was then little known outside of Texas and the Hispanic American community. On March 31, 1995, a disgruntled employee shot her to death. The public mourning of her many fans and the subsequent movie biography … Read more

Don’t be surprised to see skeletons on the homes of Mexican Americans on the days after Halloween. Mexican Americans celebrate November 2 as El Dia de los Muertos (“the day of the dead”). This is the same day as the Roman Catholic feast of All Souls’ Day, when the church prays for departed souls in … Read more

Linda Ronstadt recorded a Spanish language album because she is part Hispanic. Born in Tucson, Arizona, in 1946, she is a blend of German and Mexican. From the time of her first number-one hit, “You’re No Good,” in 1974, her Anglo-sounding name concealed her ancestry from many of her fans. Her 1987 album Canciones de … Read more

Two of the most famous Mexican American singers use Anglo-sounding stage names. Freddy Fender was born Baldemar Huerta; Vikki Carr was born Florencia Cardona. Both openly embrace their Mexican American heritage. In songs such as”Before the Next Teardrop Falls” (1975), Fender displayed the unique brew of country, blues, and Mexican folk known as Tex-Mex music. … Read more

Some examples of Mexican American Foods include: A tortilla (“little cake”) is a flat, round bread, like a pancake, made from cornmeal or wheat flour and baked on a hot surface. A burrito (meaning “little donkey” in Spanish) is a soft flour tortilla wrapped around meat, beans, or cheese. An enchilada (“in chili”) is a … Read more

Many Mexican Americans believe Curanderas can cure the sick. Curanderas are folk healers, usually women, who combine Catholic faith-healing with herbology and ancient Aztec and Mayan beliefs. Many people swear by their powers to cure illness, and some southwestern clinics keep them on staff. Some are also parteras, or midwives, who assist at births. Mexican … Read more

If you break a pinata you get candy and toys. A pinata is a decorated container of clay or Papier-mâché full of such objects. As it hangs from the ceiling, blindfolded children try to break it with long sticks. If they break it, the candies and toys spill out, and everybody grabs what they can. … Read more

There are Chicano communities all over the United States, but the majority of the nation’s 13.5 million Mexican Americans still live in California, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona, the states that border, and once belonged to, Mexico. Their culture forms an important part of that area’s character. A posada is a Mexican American Christmas pageant … Read more

In the Aztec religion, Aztlan is the mythical homeland of the Aztecs. To Chicano activists in the 1960s, it was a name for the American Southwest. In 1969, Chicano boxer, poet, and movement leader Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzalez made it the focus of El Plan Espiritual de Aztlan, the “Spiritual Plan of Aztlan.” This plan, supported … Read more

A mariachi band is a Mexican or Mexican American band that walks around playing traditional Mexican songs on guitars, violins, and sometimes trumpets. The musicians wear brightly sequined Spanish costumes and large-brimmed sombreros, or hats. Evolving from rural Mexican origins, mariachi bands became internationally popular in the mid-twentieth century as a musical emblem of Mexico.

Some Chicanos activists did use armed force. Reies Lopez Tijerina, who founded the Alianza Federal de Mercedes (Federal Alliance of Grants) in 1963, believed that Chicanos should take back the “lost land” that had belonged to them before the Mexican War. When legal appeals failed, his group of 20,000 Alianza members, aliancistas–turned to direct action. … Read more

Founded in East Los Angeles in 1967, the Brown Berets were one of many Chicano groups in the 1960s who went even further than Chavez in demanding change. Such groups embraced the name “Chicano”, originally a derogatory term for Mexican Americans, as a badge of honor. They spoke of themselves as brown rather than black … Read more

The word in the title of Jose Villarreal’s novel Pocho is a derogatory term used by people in Mexico to describe Mexican Americans. It suggests a Mexican who has foolishly given up his ethnic heritage to seek his fortune among the Anglos, who look down on him. The term implies “stupid” or “small.” Chicanos often … Read more

The big, sweet fruits found on pizzas and salads and the long, skinny, mouth-burning peppers found in Mexican restaurants both belong to the genus Capsicum. Both are native to Latin America. Chili peppers are especially popular in Mexico, which is home to about two hundred varieties. Ground into powder or stirred into chili sauce, the … Read more

Painting on walls has a rich history in Mexico, whose world-famous mural painters include Diego Rivera (1886-1957) and Jose Clemente Orozco (1883-1949). Mural painting is seen as a form of public education and inspiration. Mexican American artists have carried on the tradition, often depicting images such as Our Lady of Guadalupe, Aztec symbols, and historical … Read more

In some places along the border there is a barrier that separates Mexico from the United States. At Tijuana, Mexico, a ten-foot-high steel wall separates the two countries, a wall that people climb over every day. There has been talk of building a barrier across the entire two-thousand-mile border, something like the Great Wall of … Read more