List of Mexican-American communities

This is a list of communities known for possessing a community or a large number of Mexican Americans. About 61 percent of Mexican Americans live in just two states, namely California (36%) and Texas (25%).[1] According to the 2010 census, the distribution of Mexican Americans in the United States by region is: 51.8% live in the West, 34.4% in the South, 10.9% in the Midwest, and 2.9% in the Northeast.[2]

Mexican Americans are found in all 50 states. The number of Mexican Americans has been increasing dramatically due to Mexican immigration in the late 20th century.

The largest communities by population are located in Los Angeles (esp. East Los Angeles (region) which became a Chicano community since the end of WWII, East L.A. was 65% Mexican-American in the 1970 US census reports, but has dropped to 40 percent today ), Santa Ana, California in Orange County, San Diego and San Bernardino in Southern California; and San Francisco (the San Francisco Bay Area) including San Jose, California. The largest communities by percentage are found in the California cities of Calexico, Coachella, Maywood, Mecca and Parlier. There are Mexican American majority regions in Central California and Southern California as well in southern Texas and southern Arizona.

The majority of Mexican American persons in northern New Mexico are Hispanos. In Texas, some are Tejanos. Tejano or Texano (Spanish for "Texan") is a term used to identify a Texan of criollo Spanish or Mexican heritage. Also some use Texican. Texian is an archaic demonym which defined a resident of Mexican Texas and the Republic of Texas and the same region after annexation by the United States of America in 1845.[1] In addition to Texian, several other names were used during the period, including Texasian, Texilingan, Texican, and Texonian.

States

Cities and regions with large Mexican-American populations are:

Arizona

Arkansas

California

Colorado

Idaho

Illinois

Indiana

Kansas

Nevada

New Mexico

There are more Hispanics self-identify themselves as Hispano or Spanish than Mexican-American in Santa Fe, where there is a cultural Mexican community nonetheless in the over 400 year old city and state capital.

Ohio

Oklahoma

Oregon

Texas

Utah

Washington

Florida

Elsewhere

Many Mexican-Americans and immigrants alike have settled in other regions of the Central, Midwest, Northeast and Southeast US states. Urban areas of Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Detroit, Minneapolis, New York City, Newark, Omaha, St. Louis and Sioux City, Iowa are notable.

Other areas of equally high Mexican immigration are Atlanta, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Boise-Snake River Valley, Charlotte Carolina Metro area, Columbus-Phenix City, Western Montana, North Alabama, Mississippi Gulf Coast, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, Providence R.I., and Spokane, Washington. This is from a wave of Mexican immigration in the 1990s and 2000s.

Growth of Mexican-Americans

According to the 2010 United States Census, there had been a phenomenal growth of Mexican Americans, mostly are immigrants who are Mexican nationals. In the Midwestern United States, places and states such as Michigan (the Detroit metropolitan area); Chicago and its near-in suburbs; Northern Indiana; Southern Wisconsin; Detroit; Kansas City; St. Louis and Minneapolis-St. Paul have developed large Mexican (immigrant and American-born) populations. The states of Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri and Nebraska attracted Mexican and Latino immigration in the late 20th century (but the trend began to reverse in the 2000s with most of these communities decreased in size when Mexicans returned home) to work in meatpacking plants and agricultural harvests, now many of the states' counties and towns have high growth of Mexicans or Latinos.

Another destination was the Northeastern United States, in places such as the Monongahela Valley, Pennsylvania; Mahoning Valley, Ohio; Hudson Valley and Long Island of New York state; the Jersey Shore region and Southern New Jersey, especially in Freehold Borough; the New Haven, Connecticut area along with other Latin American nationalities; throughout Massachusetts; Washington, D.C. with Maryland and Northern Virginia included; some parts of the states of Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Delaware; and the area's largest Mexican immigrant population is the Philadelphia metropolitan area with the Delaware Valley when the local economy boomed in the 1990s and 2000s, but in all US regions, the Mexican national population has begun to decline from the Late 2000's recession.

Communities that consist mostly of recent-arrived immigrants from Mexico, are also present in other parts of the rural Southeastern United States, in states such as Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Louisiana, Arkansas and (part of the Southwest) Oklahoma. A growing Mexican-American population is also present in urban areas such as Orlando, Florida with the Central Florida region included; the Lake Okeechobee area of Florida; the Atlanta metropolitan area; the Memphis, Tennessee area; Charlotte, North Carolina-with a majority Hispanic enclave of Eastland, and Mexican immigration throughout the Piedmont of North Carolina: i.e. Siler City, North Carolina; New Orleans which increased after Hurricane Katrina in Sep. 2005; the Hampton Roads, Virginia area; housing construction and remodeling brought large numbers of Mexicans into Oconee County, South Carolina; the Charleston, South Carolina and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina areas; and Ridgeland, South Carolina.

References

  1. ↑ "Table 4. Top Five States for Detailed Hispanic or Latino Origin Groups With a Population Size of One Million or More in the United States: 2010" (PDF). The Hispanic Population 2010. U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved 22 May 2012.
  2. ↑ "Table 3. Detailed Hispanic or Latino Origin Groups With a Population Size of One Million or More for the United States and Regions: 2010" (PDF). The Hispanic Population 2010. U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved 22 May 2012.