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Hispanos
A recent article in The Sarasota Herald Tribune caught my attention and provided new insight on the 2010 U.S. Census. Geoffrey Decker writes in “Hispanics Identifying Themselves as Indians” that a growing number of Hispanics in the U.S. have chosen to identify themselves as Native Americans on the Census.
Jose Moya, a professor of history at Barnard College, notes that the change may be due to a change in immigration patterns. Whereas Mexican immigrants used to come from the northern part of their country, which is more of a mixed race, recent immigrants hail from southern Mexico and Central America, and are more indigenous. Decker notes that, in the wake of 1994′s NAFTA agreement, “To encourage foreign investment in Mexico, its government started to strip Indian landowners of a long-held legal protection from privatization. The resulting conflict awakened ethnic tensions that dated back centuries, and spurred a populist support of indigenous heritage.”
Also noted are increasing numbers of U.S. Hispanics who choose to identify as American Indian because they believe it is the most accurate representation of their background.
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