Hispanic Politics the New Wave

Hispanic Politics

The New Wave of Immigrants Brings a New Face to Huston

Huston has a reputation of friendliness and down-to-earth good country living. It is the bridge between the gap of Southern ideals and modern technological society which reeks of industry and consumer capitalism. As we enter further into the new millennium, it is obvious that the largest growing demographic within Huston is not surprisingly the Hispanic population. As seen elsewhere in the nation, this rise in the Hispanic community has given more political clout and community involvement to Hispanics within the area. In order to best present a better future for a modern Huston, the Hispanic community must harness its growing power in order to best fight for the interests of its Hispanic citizens and for the future of Huston itself.

Within the past few decades, the face of Huston itself has changed dramatically. Previous to the 1990s most immigrants entering into the Huston area were of non-Hispanic, or white origins. This went a long with the larger trends seen all over the country in terms of immigrant figures and representations. In fact, the Anglo population of Huston's counties and suburbs was the population which increased most within the 1950s and 1960s. However, modern waves of immigration have placed a much different face to the new immigrant landing on American soil. Since 1990, the Hispanic population has been the demographic to have seen the most growth within Harris county in Texas. This is part because of the close proximity to major Latino nations such as Mexico, along with changing immigrant trends which were also experienced in cities nationwide. By 2000, Hispanics made up 33% of the entire population, making them a powerful demographic within urban and suburban Huston city politics. This is not a surprising number, for local media outlets have created a fervor in the wave of new immigrants which would make the number increase to seem higher than it actually is. However, this is a powerful increase, giving the Hispanic community more clout within urban Huston politics.

In fact Huston does compare well when placed in comparison to other urban areas. Even with such a large influx of Hispanic immigrants in such a small duration of time, most Huston residents still view their city favorably. The citizens of Huston itself believe that the city does fair better than other urban areas of comparable size and urban populations. In fact, over 78% of residents thought that Huston proves a better place to live than other large urban areas scattered all over the country. In spite of the humid weather and low lying land status which opens up the potential for future natural disasters, residents of Huston are on average proud to live in their city. This is mainly because of several key elements which portray Huston as a friendly and safe city over other locations which prove less appealing to homeowners and other residents.

In terms of the increase of the Latino population, this is a trend which has been occurring elsewhere in the nation for the past few generations. In 1990, the largest immigrant wave was recorded entering into U.S. soil. It was with this new and modern wave of immigrants that we see the new conception of the Latino immigrant within modern American culture. In fact, in the last decade of the twentieth century, the Latino population within the United States as a whole grew by almost 58%. That is a huge increase within the short span of only ten years. And so, it can be assumed that the large increase of Hispanic and Latino immigrants into the Huston are has also been experienced elsewhere in the nation. Other major metropolitan areas such as Los Angeles and New York have also experienced increasingly high levels of Hispanic and Latino immigrants migrating to the jobs and residences such large cities have to offer.