Latinas

SIGNIFICANCE: Within American society, Latinas face assimilation challenges because of their membership in a marginalized group and because their traditional secondary role in their own households has made access to rights and privileges beyond their home at times unimaginable.

The Latina population of the United States is a geographically, socially, culturally, and economically diverse one that is bound more than in any other way by commonality of language. The US Census Bureau lists “Hispanic or Latino” as a single ethnic category. The category “Hispanic” comprises anyone whose ancestry includes Spanish-speaking people residing in Mexico, the Caribbean, Central or South America, or Spain. The terms “Latino” and “Latina” also describe linguistic heritage and may also include speakers of Portuguese, such as from Brazil and Portugal, or francophone peoples from Caribbean islands, although these are not the foremost associations made with the terms.

The 2020 census indicated a sharp upward trend in the percentages that Hispanic or Latino communities formed in American society. In 2020, approximately 62 million Americans identified themselves in this racial category, which made up almost 19 percent of all Americans. Nationwide, White demographics had declined to about 58 percent of the US population. Thus, in the twenty-first century, traditional American demographics underwent significant change. The changed and more prominent role of Latinas in American society was part of this evolution.

Since the mid-1980s, which saw the emergence of an important and particularly strong literary movement by women of Hispanic heritage, the word “Latina” seems to have been deemed the most appropriate designation for women with such a background for two main reasons: because of its potential inclusion of several groups, and because it does not carry the burdensome, racially charged connotation of ethnic undesirability. 

Mexican Americans

In the United States, three groups of Latinos are dominant in the population. In the Southwest, Mexican Americans (Chicanos) make up a substantial portion of the demographic group; in California, 40 percent of the state’s residents are Latino, the majority of these Chicano. Additionally, throughout the Southwest, in states such as Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and even Colorado, the Chicano population constitutes the largest nonwhite demographic group. In Texas, Hispanics became the majority population in 2023. This figure serves as one legacy of the US annexation of these states from Mexico at the conclusion of the Mexican-American War (1846–48). During this period, Chicano residents of those regions did not actually immigrate to the United States, but rather were assumed into the country and suddenly became “foreigners” in the place of their birth. These numbers were later augmented through decades of immigration. Resonance from these historic events echoed into the feminine experience recounted up to 140 years later. Chicana writers, through the medium of short stories, highlighted linguistic and social assimilation that was particularly difficult for women whose role was mainly domestic. 

Cuban Americans

Cuban émigrés living in Florida, and particularly Miami, make up a substantial percentage of the overall population of Cuban Americans. Miami is only 90 miles from the Cuban capital of Havana, and the city continues to receive waves of exiles from this Communist regime, which was formed after the takeover by Fidel Castro in 1959. The presence of Cubans in the United States is attributable principally to political circumstances in their homeland. Even under the circumstances of political exile, Cuban women in the United States for more than a generation begin to face the same issues that confront other ethnic groups on arrival to a new country. They must decide to what level of assimilation they are willing to aspire, a difficulty compounded by the traditional domestic role for women in this culture, which keeps them out of the economic, educational, and political spheres of life in their adopted country. 

Puerto Ricans

For Puerto Ricans, the decision to adopt a new homeland was, in a sense, made for them. When Spain lost the Spanish-American War of 1898, it ceded Cuba and Puerto Rico to the United States. Cuba became an independent state, but Puerto Rico was made into a “free associated state,” that is, a colony of the United States. Beginning in the 1930s, Puerto Rican migration to the mainland has been a steady and ongoing process, with the result that in New York, the Puerto Rican community dominates the Spanish-speaking landscape, taking a substantial lead over immigrants from the Dominican Republic, who have also established a community within the city. In the Midwest, a number of immigrant groups of Hispanic origin have established thriving communities in cities such as Chicago and Milwaukee. 

Marginalization of Latinas

Within this continually growing and dynamic establishment of Latin culture in North America, women had, until the 1960s, been relegated to a domestic role, as dictated by traditional practice. Such traditions developed under the influence of the Catholic church in Mexico and by Afro-Caribbean religion in Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic, and they persisted in the new homeland. The Latina’s role was that of wife and mother. Docile, self-abnegating, submissive, and subservient, she was expected to accept silently the confines of a patriarchal upbringing in preparation for a patriarchal marriage. When economic circumstance dictated, a woman was to work outside the home, but her primary responsibility was the wishes and demands of her husband and the service of her children. The women’s movement in the United States in the 1970s gave Anglo women freedom and access to many institutions previously reserved only for men, but it fell short of opening those same doors for Latinas, whose culture was parallel to yet considerably different from that of their Anglo counterparts. 

It is difficult to generalize about Hispanic culture in terms of social mores because of the rapidly evolving role of Latinas in society, both in Anglo-dominated North America and in Latin homelands, but some common features have been present among Latino groups. In 1976, a presentation to the Conference on Educational and Occupational Needs of Women discussed in detail the “cult of virginity” as a cornerstone of Latina upbringing. A young girl was reared to preserve and protect her chastity at all times. A woman who enjoyed sexuality was seen as “loose” or “modern,” while one who adhered to the patriarchal prototype could be proud of her decorum and respect for traditional values and was considered a credit to her family and an honor to her household. The veneration of the Virgin Mary in the Catholic Church played no small part in promoting this restrictive, often-silent role for women both in and outside of the home. A Latina who did not choose early marriage to a dominant man, who was not a virgin on the day of her marriage, or who had a knowledge and enjoyment of her sexuality could not live up to the ideal that would elevate her to an almost holy status within the family.  

Education of a woman was often a release from her dependence on a man—her father, husband, brother, or son—and deemed a potentially dangerous pursuit, primarily from within the Latin culture but also from the Anglo perspective, which deemed manual labor the appropriate occupation for the Hispanic community. Education is the primary step in the emancipation of any group of people, especially a group at the margin of a dominant culture. Because of linguistic gaps, however, the education of Latinos requires another commitment to their assimilation into Anglo culture. In the 1960s, the Civil Rights movement and the War on Poverty waged by the administration of Lyndon B. Johnson yielded bilingual education opportunities that allowed many Latinas to enter the educational mainstream during that decade and to emerge some twenty years later with a dynamic new literary voice that described the Latina experience in the United States. 

In the twenty-first century, American demographics fundamentally evolved. As indicated by empirical data, the United States witnessed large changes in its racial makeup, perceptions on marriage, religion, sexuality, and gender roles. The changed roles of Latina women were included in this evolution. Between 2010 and 2022, the adult Latina population in the United States grew by 5.6 million and at a faster rate than any other female racial or ethnic group. In 2024, it stood at 22.2 million. Hispanic females began to assume larger societal roles more consistent with their numerical proportion of the American population. These included institutions historically over-represented by male counterparts, such as in the military, legislatures, judiciary, law enforcement, and clergy. Cultural aspects continued to shape this evolution of Latinas but with less powerful impediments.

Bibliography

Abalos, David T. The Latino Family and the Politics of Transformation. Praeger, 1993.

Bejarano, Christina E. The Latina Advantage: Gender, Race, and Political Success. University of Texas Press, 2013.

"California’s Population." Public Policy Institute of California, Jan. 2024, www.ppic.org/publication/californias-population. Accessed 25 Oct. 2024.

Chavez, Stella. "Latinas Are Succeeding, but Feel Pressured to Playing Traditional Roles for Women." NPR, 15 May 2024, www.npr.org/2024/05/15/1251432972/latinas-women-career-homemakers-pew-hispanic. Accessed 25 Oct. 2024.

Garcia, Lorena. Respect Yourself, Protect Yourself: Latina Girls and Sexual Identity. New York University Press, 2012.

Gutiérrez, Gabriel. Latinos and Latinas at Risk: Issues in Education, Health, Community and Justice. Greenwood, 2015.

Horno Delgado, Asunció. Breaking Boundaries: Latina Writing and Critical Readings. University of Massachusetts Press, 1989.

"How US Religious Composition Has Changed in Recent Decades." Pew Research Center, 13 Sept. 2022, www.pewresearch.org/religion/2022/09/13/how-u-s-religious-composition-has-changed-in-recent-decades. Accessed 25 Oct. 2024.

Jensen, Eric, et. al. "2020 U.S. Population More Racially and Ethnically Diverse Than Measured in 2010." US Census Bureau, 12 Aug. 2021, www.census.gov/library/stories/2021/08/2020-united-states-population-more-racially-ethnically-diverse-than-2010.html. Accessed 25 Oct. 2024.

Moslimani, Mohamad, et al. "Facts on Hispanics of Puerto Rican Origin in the United States, 2021." Pew Research Center, 16 Aug. 2023, www.pewresearch.org/fact-sheet/us-hispanics-facts-on-puerto-rican-origin-latinos. Accessed 25 Oct. 2024. 

Rodríguez-Seda de Laguna, Asela. Images and Identities: The Puerto Rican in Two World Contexts. Transaction, 1987.

Valdivia, Angharad N., and Isabel Molina. "Disciplining the Ethnic Body: Latinidad, Hybridized Bodies, and Transnational Identity." Governing the Female Body: Gender, Health, and Networks of Power. Ed. Lori Reed and Paula Saukko. State University of New York Press, 2010, pp. 206–32.

Weyr, Thomas. Hispanic USA: Breaking the Melting Pot. Harper, 1988.