There is no question that Hispanics will expand in numbers and influence in upcoming years. In the past decade, Hispanics powerful in government, the media and business have been rapidly emerging into the public spotlight. In fact, the Aug. 22 issue of Time featured an article highlighting this phenomenon. The article, titled "The 25 Most Influential Hispanics in America," biographizes well-known figures including Antonio Villaraigosa, Bill Richardson, Jennifer López, Mari Carmen Ramírez and George P. Bush. Such media attention has brought into public consciousness what has been at the back of everyone's mind-the growing Hispanic population, and consequently, its societal impact on the U.S. The issue in question is, just how will the dynamic role of Hispanics in the U.S. shape the changing face of mainstream U.S. culture?

In the same issue, Time also featured an article entitled "Influencing America." The writer points out that Mexico's projected population and economic situation will favor a retention of Mexican workers inside their native country–resulting in a smaller influx of first-generation immigrants into the U.S. Population projections done by the Pew Hispanic Center predict that between 2000 and 2020, second-generation Hispanics in the U.S. will have the largest share of population growth, followed by third-generation Hispanics. The majority of Hispanics in the U.S. will, for the first time in a century, be comprised of native-born citizens.

With this in mind, we could expect that both the mainstream U.S. identity and the Hispanic identity will be greatly changed, and that these new identities will exist somewhere on the spectrum between two polar outcomes. The first possibility is that U.S.-born Hispanics would trade their cultural identities and ties to their parent's origins for the "whiteness" necessary to get ahead in society. That is, that they would pursue assimilation and take roles in an Anglo-centric mainstream. A more plausible situation would be one in which U.S.-born Hispanics would forge the way through conventional definitions of "American." A large majority of these second-generation Hispanics are the children of immigrants from Central and South America. Second- and third-generation Hispanics generally witness on one hand the difficult immigrant experience of their parents, but on the other hand have also been raised with the public education and English language skills that their parents did not necessarily have; coupled with this formal education, second-generation youth also experience the popular culture bombardment of the U.S. media. Conscious of both the older Latino-American experience and their own futures as a growing portion of all social classes, this active retention of identity would create not only a strong sense of pride in their own evolving identities but would also contribute to the synthesis of a novel collective U.S. identity. That is, a new identity that not only appropriates the superficial features (i.e. Taco Bell, livin' la vida loca and "social conservatism") of the Latino culture, but furthermore blends from both the current white "norm" and the developing Nuevo Latino identity.

The creation of this new identity is expected based on the virtue of the sheer number of Hispanics of all generations. The U.S. Census 2000 projected that by 2050, 24.4 percent of the U.S. population would be Hispanic. Such a large group, regardless of whether or not they desire recognition as a majority power in the nation, would unquestionably be a visible and mobile force on mainstream society. This fact, coupled with the traditionally strong sense of identity and community present in many Hispanic cultures, would make it nearly impossible for every Hispanic to simply become another face in the white majority. Indeed, Hispanics prominent in the white-dominated world have tightly held onto their families' ethnic and/or racial experiences, setting the example and sending the message that they neither desire nor feel the need to shed and assimilate.

Another reason why we should not simply expect the "incorporation" of Hispanics into white society is not only an issue of numbers. The term "Hispanic" in itself precludes the notion of such "incorporation." "Hispanic" is a blanket term used to characterize a wide range of nationalities and ethnicities. Thus to say that this entire group can be packaged and shipped into the anglorific abyss of mainstream "American" identity is a reductive conclusion made by outsiders based on old conceptions of the minority experience in the U.S. Although the Hispanic identity encompasses many separate parts, a larger sense of identity has been forged in the face of white dominance that will continue to manifest itself as a counter-culture, and eventually evolving into a new facet of the U.S. experience.

Time's article should be considered an indicator of just how preoccupied U.S. society is with the influence of Hispanic culture-very. And with good reason: As the Hispanic role in U.S. society becomes increasingly visible, mainstream U.S. culture must address current Hispanic issues in public policy, the economy and the media with the future in mind. There should be neither expectations of the preservation of the status quo, nor should there be any illusions of a complacent and absorbable super-minority in the Hispanic population.

Paz can be reached at apaz08@amherst.edu

Chau can be reached at vchau08@amherst.edu