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the hispanic challenge 1994–present 10 Unlike other social scientists, historians approach the study of contemporary events with some trepidation.1 While the factual record may be relatively clear, it is difficult to interpret significant trends. nevertheless, in this chapter an attempt will be made to discover these major currents after 1994 as they relate to Mexicanos in the United states. since the mid-1990s, a general awareness of Mexican-origin people, who presently represent about 11 percent of the total U.s. population, emerged as a central feature of American life. this recognition reflected an acceleration of two far-reaching demographical tendencies in the United states that were in evidence well before the advent of the north American free trade Association: first, the massive immigration of Mexicans, both legal and illegal; and, second, their dispersal to all corners of the republic. inevitably, given a whole host of problems that beset U.s. citizens during these turbulent years, not the least of which were the events of 11 september 2001, the appearance of immigrants of color throughout the country, many of them here illegally, fanned those nativist sentiments that were already pronounced before. Beyond xenophobia, Mexicanos, immigrants and residents alike, experienced a multitude of other barriers to advancement. representing about 65 percent of a Latino population that exceeded 47 million in 2008, Mexicanos, hoping to take advantage of favorable demographic trends, looked to the political arena for relief. While some political gains were registered, however, socioeconomic progress remained uneven. Most Mexicanos, particularly immigrants, continued to live under precarious conditions. on the other hand, the small middle class did expand and continued to make distinguished contributions to American society, especially in the area of popular culture. uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu mexicanos 266 MexicAnos GALore it is impossible to know how many immigrants there are in the United states at any given time because the U.s. census Bureau, while supplying periodic updates, provides comprehensive statistics only every ten years. Moreover, it is widely assumed, by both governmental and non-governmental agencies that have an interest in such matters, that the official census undercounts illegal immigrants by roughly 10 percent. What all these experts can agree upon is that at the turn of the twenty-first century the country was in the midst of a period of massive immigration that rivaled the Great Migration that occurred one hundred years before. it was clear, too, that, unlike the immigrants of the pre–World War i era, the most recent newcomers were primarily non-europeans, particularly Latin Americans. By all estimates, Mexico accounted for the single greatest stream of immigration, by a sizable margin. in 1990 the decennial census calculated the Mexican immigrant population at 4,198,000. ten years later, in 2000, it had risen to a whopping 8,088,000. the census Bureau’s March 2007 current Population survey (cPs) indicated the presence of 11,671,000 Mexican immigrants in the country, 31.1 percent of a total immigrant population of 37,280,000. there were six times more immigrants from Mexico than the next largest sending country, china. Beyond its massive numbers, another distinguishing characteristic of Mexican immigration was its large undocumented population. the 2007 cPs placed 11.3 million of the 37,280,000 immigrants in the country in the illegal category. Adjusting for a census undercount, though, demographer steven A. camarota of the center for immigration studies (cis), estimated that the true number could be as much as 12.4 million—perhaps an exaggeration given the center’s advocacy of immigrant restriction. About 57 percent of these illegal residents, camarota concluded, were from Mexico, a figure that would suggest that about 55 percent of all Mexican immigrants in the United states were undocumented.2 Mexicans, of course, were part of a broader category of people, Latinos, who were entering the United states at a record-setting pace in the aftermath of the 1986 immigration reform and control Act. to understand the reaction Mexicanos elicited from the mainstream population it is important to know something about this larger group with which they were identified. during the decade of the 1990s, according to the census Bureau, the Hispanic population increased by well over 50 percent, from 22.4 million to 35.3 million.3 the rate of growth continued to spiral thereafter. A report issued in december 2007 by the national Hispanic center, a nonpartisan research institute headquartered in Washington, d.c., indicated that these Latinos, who had now become the nation’s largest...

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