ABSTRACT
In the United States Hispanic and Latino are umbrella terms used to identify more than 50 million individuals living within its contemporary borders, connected through language, culture and geography to the Spanish colonial experience of North, Central and South America, and the Caribbean. Hispanics – or Latinos – are the largest ethnic minority in the United States and, for more than 400 years, have had an uninterrupted presence in the lands today forming the USA (Henderson, 2011). While there are cultural and linguistic similarities among the Latino/ Hispanic subgroups, national origin, history, socioeconomic status, immigration and acculturation, among other factors, produce a rich diversity within this ethnic minority (Delgado, 2007). This chapter focuses on Mexican Americans, the largest Latino subgroup in the USA, accounting for two-thirds of all Latinos in the country (Yznaga, 2008).
