Essay On Mexican Immigration

According to the article Immigration, “Spanish-speaking people have lived in North America since the Spaniards colonized Mexico in the sixteenth century” (Immigration: Mexican). Around this time, the United States was also expanding. With this expansion, the U.S. essentially adopted a large amount of Mexican citizens along with the land. As far as immigration after this time period, the same article states many Mexican’s began immigrating into the United States primarily during the 20th century. More specifically, “Mexican immigration in the 20th century came in three great surges of growth” (Immigration: Mexican). In the 1900’s, America received their first surge of Mexican immigrates. “Between 1910 and 1930, the number of Mexican immigrants counted by the U.S. census tripled from 200,000 to 600,000” (Immigration: Mexican). Today, also identified as the third surge, there is record of “more than twenty million people of Mexican origin in the U.S” (Immigration: Mexican). There are various reasons why Mexican immigrants came to America.

When considering nutritional differences, after visiting an authentic Mexican grocery store, it can be determined many people in the Mexican-American culture consume whole foods and often prefer foods with more spice. Many Mexican-American are known for struggling with rates of diabetes. In fact, among Mexican-Americans “those of the 45-74 age group, 23.9 percent had diabetes” (Englekirk 8). Another issue that appears is alcoholism. According to the article Mexican Americans, “alcohol abuse is eight percent to 12 percent higher for all age groups among Mexican Americans as compared to “non-Hispanic whites” in these same categories” (Englekirk 8). Finally, many of their social barriers stem from not being bilingual, however studies show as generations develop within the United States, this issue is