- Latinos and or Hispanics are an ethno linguistic community in the United States with origins in the countries of Latin America.
- The community is very racially diverse resulting from cultural category rather than race (Garcia, 15).
- Sixty seven percent of the Hispanic population is made up of persons of Mexican descent.
- According to the United States census bureau, the total Hispanic community reached over 40 million in June, 2004 accounting for 16% of the total American population.
- In political and academic fields, discussions of the comparison of non-Hispanic and Hispanic wage differentials are many with further studies discussing the income issue within the subgroup (Cuban, Dominicans and Puerto Rican Americans).
- The American capitalism is characterized by economic crisis and stagnation making the future look dull with higher unemployment and inflation rates, fewer social services and falling standards of living for working people.
- In an effort to shift the developing disproportionate burden, the American ruling class will direct this crisis to the Chicano community.
- Research carried out in the year 2002 indicate that average individual income in the Chicano community was highest for Cubans who occupied professional managerial positions and lowest for Puerto Ricans.
- In the 1960s, the United States experienced capitalist expansion and prosperity that included the growing number of Latinos into the work force.
- Studies indicate that about thirty percent of Latinos are brought up in low income households whereby these families survive on living wage jobs that are susceptible to displacement.
- A middle class Chicano family income was seventy percent less than that for Anglos.
- A government report on low income and poverty in the United Sates in 1974 indicated that twelve percent of the population received income below the official poverty level with 23% being Hispanics.
- However, the figure on the ground is worse since the government camouflages the full figure by classifying Chicanos in the Hispanic-Americans category.
- This implies that bread winners don’t have access to medical and other benefits for their family members.
- The income problem leads to families residing in slum areas dominated with shanties due to limited affordable housing.
- It is evident that the need for a place to reside is much greater than what is available (Marciel, 38).
- The low income issue is also linked to education whereby the stress experienced at home affects members of the family and their capacity to learn.
- Chicano unemployment rates have also been on the rise leading to the issues of right to get a job and the effort against discriminatory layoffs and hiring that seem to double the burden borne by Chicano laborers.
- Racist immigration policies have also resulted to deportation of thousands of Chicano workers without visas since they came to America in search of better lives.
- In other instances Chicanos are forced to work seasonal jobs with poor pay and no benefits since they are illegal citizens.
Solutions
- More agencies and foundations such as the Chicana Latina Foundation should be established to assist in facilitation of educational and professional advancement of the Latino population. This will see more people get to better jobs and hence improved revenues.
- Adjustments should also be made in public agencies to enable them better serve the Latino community (Orleck and Lisa, 352).
- The Latino community members should also learn to give back whereby the stable families should assist those trying to make it better in life.
Works cited
García, Bedolla L. Latino Politics. Cambridge: Polity, 2009. Print.
Maciel, David. Chicanas Chicanos at the Crossroads: Social, Economic, and Political Change. Tucson: Univ. of Arizona Press, 1996. Print.
Orleck, Annelise, and Lisa G. Hazirjian. The War on Poverty: A New Grassroots History, 1964 1980. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2011. Print.
