Hispanic/Latino Minority Group Essay

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Pages: 4

Hispanics and Latinos are not given a racial category in the United States Census or any other government documents despite the fact that they make up the biggest minority group in the United States (17.3 % of the total U.S population not including Hispanics who identify as white). To supplement their exclusion from a racial group, they are identified under the broad ethnicity group of “Hispanic or Latino” on official documents, despite the numerous nationalities that Hispanics and Latinos make up. With such a large unrecognized minority group it is essential to have a reform put in place that requires the United States government to provide a racial category for Hispanics and Latinos. With the existence of this option in documents, it will allow Hispanics/Latinos to have the freedom to express what race they truly identify with and not just their broad ethnicity that was ultimately determined for them. …show more content…
Such an increase in the Hispanic/Latino population began after the Mexican American War, which was declared under the presidential administration of James Polk. President Polk was a firm believer of the Manifest Destiny and claimed it was the United States destiny to expand across the continent to the Pacific Ocean coast (Griswold del Castillo, 1998). Due to Polk’s heavy beliefs that the United States must expand, he offered to purchase what is now the southwest of the United States, but Mexico denied his offer. As a result, Polk had troops advance in the Mexican territory of the Rio Grande and Nueces River, which the United States and Mexico had past disputes over. As a result of the presence of the American troops in Mexican land, the Mexican cavalry attacked. Polk used the opportunity to declare it an attack on the United States and urge Congress to declare a war. Such an urgency was met and soon enough the United States and Mexico were at war by May of