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Myth: The U.S. was the hemisphere's only melting pot |
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We all know the story of Ellis Island. The teeming masses from Europe arriving on American soil eager to make a new life and changing the face of a nation in the process. What fewer of us know is that that this vision of a "melting pot" is probably more accurate in parts of Latin America than in the United States. In fact, some scholars questions whether a melting pot ever took place in the U.S. at all. |
| ANSWER: They are all Hispanics under the current definition (MORE) |
Dr. Roger Daniels, author of Coming To America |
The other destination of Europe's teeming masses: Latin America |
The steamers that crossed the Atlantic between 1850 and 1921 brought more than 33 million Europeans to the shores of the United States. Little-known in the U.S., over nine million Europeans emigrated to Latin America during the same period, primarily to Argentina and Brazil. While smaller in number, the ratio of the European immigrants arriving in the less populated regions of Latin America created a greater impact on the racial diversity of the local cultures than the waves of European immigrants that came to the United States. In effect, this European migration to Latin America transformed several countries in South America 's temperate regions into nations of predominantly European ancestry. |
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| Immigrants from Asia too | ||
| During the nineteenth century alone, over 100,000 Chinese immigrants came to Latin America. Most came as laborers to Cuba, Peru and Mexico. Surprisingly, Chinese immigration to Latin America predates by nearly 50 years the large Chinese influx into California during the middle nineteenth century. Like their counterparts in the United States, the Chinese in Latin America often settled in concentrated urban enclaves. Until late in the 20th century, the two largest "Chinatowns" in the Americas were in San Francisco, California and Havana, Cuba. | ||
| Afro-Latinos outnumber U.S. Blacks | ||
| Among the most astonishing misconceptions of the American public is the myth that the U.S. was the primary destination for most African slaves. In fact, scholars believe nearly 95% of the Africans brought into bondage in the Western Hemisphere went to the Caribbean and South America. | ||
| A seldom seen picture of Hispanic diversity | ||
| These parallel migrations from Europe, Asia and Africa and their effects on Latin America's racial diversity are scarcely known in the United States, contributing greatly to the widespread stereotypes of Hispanics held by the U.S. mainstream. | ||
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