Latinos and the United States

I usually don’t watch TV but tonight my aunt was at home and she was watching a famous US  TV show where people compete to become the new American Idol. During the few minutes I sitted there with her, my aunt did a remark that made me reflect on US changing demographics, «esta participante es latina» (this contestant is latina). A very spontaneous and random comment, but reminded me of a topic I have always found interesting: US Changing demographics. From all the countries in the world, very few could be considered as diverse an so immigrants-driven as the USA.  According to the last census, only 1.7% of the population is American Indian and Alaska native, 0.8% has Latino origin, so it would leave only a 0.9% of the population direct descendant from the Natives that lived in the US before all the immigration process happened.

Having this in mind, about 98-99% of the US population is an immigrant or descendant of immigrants, whether they migrated from their home countries 300 years ago or yesterday. The first time I went to the US, I couldn’t help but noticing and having certain dose of excitement of seeing all the people from different races walking around the airport. Now coming to the main topic I just wanted to share some statistics and articles about the Latino group in the US.

In 2010 census, Latinos were around 16% of the US population, becoming the largest minority and also the fastest growing one. By 2050 almost one of every three persons living in the US will be from Hispanic origin. How these changes will affect the USA and its relation with the Latin American countries? Will Spanish become a more global language? Are Hispanics in the US becoming more influential and will this help in the future policies of the country towards Latin American regarding trade, immigration, education and security? I will get deeper into some of these questions in the future but for now I just wanted to reflect on how the US is changing because lots of Latin Americans are immigrating to the north.