Hispanic American Immigration: Challenges and Opportunities

Brief History of Immigration to the U.S. Hispanic1 immigration to the United States started with Columbus’ rediscovery of the continent on October 12, 1492. The first post Columbus settlements in current U.S. territory were highly religious communities. A bull by Pope Alexander VI (1493) ordered the partitioning of America and summoned early Spanish immigrants “to instruct the inhabitants in the Catholic faith and good manners” (Waterman 2002). This explains why many of the Spanish settlements’ names had religious motifs. In California the famous Franciscan missionary Fray Junípero Serra founded 21 missions along the California coast, by El Camino Real (also known as the California Mission Trail, the Royal Road, and the King’s Highway). He founded the mission of San Diego in 1769 and Monterrey in 1770. Sánchez affirms that descendants of the colonial Spanish Americans still live in California, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas (2006:66). The first European settlements in America were Spanish speaking communities. According to Judith Bense, Tristan de Luna and Arellano, two Spanish conquistadors, led an expedition with fifteen hundred people to Pensacola Bay in 1559, establishing a permanent Spanish settlement. Other well-known Spanish settlements were Saint Augustine in Florida, founded in 1565, and Santa Fe, 1607-1608 (1999:45). Conrad Kottak estimates that by 1825 most of Spain’s colonies in U.S. territory “were politically independent” (2005:250). Immigration to America from other European countries was slow at first. The Bureau of the Census (1949) estimates that the U.S. European population grew from only 210 in 1610 to 2,499 in 1620, an annual average growth of about 229 people. However, by 1880 the population surpassed the 50 million mark. Kottak estates that “European nations competed for colonies between 1875 and 1914” (2005:242). By 1900, the U.S. had become a core nation within the world system, with nearly 90 million people, and had overtaken Great Britain in iron, coal, and cotton production. America