Spain and the United States - Real Instituto Elcano

92
SPAIN AND THE UNITED STATES
second-largest US city (population 3.7 million), elected in May 2005 its first
Hispanic mayor in more than 130 years, 2 the first commander of US troops in
Iraq, Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, was Hispanic, and the US
ambassador to Spain, Eduardo Aguirre, is of Cuban origin. In order to court the
Hispanic vote during election campaigns, non-Spanish speaking politicians of
all colours, including George W. Bush, have to be able to muster a few words
in Spanish. Robert Souro, director of the Pew Hispanic Centre, summed up
well the increasing importance of the Hispanic community when he said
Hispanics have gone from being a footnote to a paragraph in contemporary US
history and are on their way to becoming a major chapter.
Exhibit 5.1 Fastest-Growing Population Groups in the United States
The rise in Hispanics in the United States has been inexorable. In 1968,
long before Hispanics became the largest ethnic minority, Congress authorized
President Lyndon B. Johnson to proclaim a week in September as National
Hispanic Heritage Week. The observance was expanded as of 1988 to a monthlong
celebration (Sept. 15-Oct. 15). September 15 was chosen as the starting
point for the celebration because it is the anniversary of independence of five
Latin American countries: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and
Nicaragua. In addition, Mexico and Chile celebrate their independence days on
September 16 and September 18, respectively.
The Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes has called the surge in the number of
Hispanics “the silent reconquest”. Mexico lost almost all of Texas, New
Mexico, Arizona, California, Nevada and Utah as a result of the Texan War of
2. The last Hispanic mayor was Cristóbal Aguilar in 1872, when the population of Los Angeles was
around 5,000.