The Latin American Reconquest of the U.S.
(Published in Vogue, International Edition)
There are many who consider the success of phenomena such as Chayane, Penélope Cruz or Banderas in the United States as not a coincidence. Being a Spaniard is again being turned into a cultural and sexual myth for a large part of the American population, similar to what happens in Spain with Cubans. Our stars are "cubanitos" and for Americans, "españolitos". The shout, "bullfighter," is on the rise.
Just a few years ago, no one would have believed that a Puerto Rican would have the luxury of rejecting an invitation to sing alongside Michael Jackson. Ricky Martin did just that for the tribute to "the king of the pop". He states that, due to technical problems, he is not going to participate in the homage to Michael Jackson.
No one would imagine that a Mexican and Puerto Rican descendant would melt the hearts of half of the United States with his art. At this time, one of most-watched videos is the one in which Jennifer López and Eduardo Verástegui do their first steps dancing flamenco.
Joaquín Cortez will be one of the main celebrities featured in the next Jennifer López concert. This event has caused great anticipation and will be broadcast through one of the American networks such as NBC.
Latin Americans are the primary minority in the U.S. They have surpassed African-Americans according to the most recent census data. This information clearly shows that the United States is one of the countries in the world in which Spanish is spoken as a primary language.
To these data one could add those of the illegal Latin American population, which are surprising. A large part comes with the dream of being rich in a short time and to then to return some years later to their country of origin, but the reality is quite different; the majority remains in the U.S. This is allowed by the American government. For American authorities, it is very easy to control undocumented citizens. In this country, throwing a cigarette out of the car window has a fine of $50. The streets are cleaner than the cars. This is an example of the effectiveness of police controls. In a few weeks, they could easily expel a good part of the undocumented individuals from the country.
There are numerous Hispanics who have lived for years in Chicago or Los Angeles without the need to utter a single word in English.
The American government recommends that businesses translate their information into Spanish for their customers and, according to negative comments, the president of the U.S. was decided in the last election by the Latin American vote in the state of Florida. Likewise, our government recommends that large businesses translate into Castilian all of their information to make things easier for their customers.
Latin Americans do not only decide presidents. The Estefan empire does not stop growing. Our own Alejandro Sanz insinuated that it was a huge coincidence that, in the most recent Latin Grammys, all the prizes went directly or indirectly to the Cuban Estefan family.
The Latin American population is the youngest and newest one in the country as 7 out of every 10 Hispanics are younger than 35 years old. All of them are new Americans. The Hispanic population grows in the U.S. more than the 55% every ten years.
This situation will continue and the U.S. wil continue to be more Latin American. In a few years, we can expect a greater part of the Hispanic population growth to be this younger set.
Madonna continues reinventing her performance of "La Isla Bonita". In her last world tour, she returned to include this musical theme with the one that succeeded years ago, and on this occasion accentuating more of the gypsy art.
The present society changes every second, the global village is more real every day. We are confirming that Hispanic society is one of the motors that is speeding up this cultural and ideological transformation in U.S. At this time, 35 million are Spanish-speaking, 12% of the U.S. population. If we include Puerto Rico, the figure surpasses 39 million.
In parallel, communication businesses are responding to this demand, initiating and increasing their changes. The responsibility of the media in this new society is fundamental and its role is essential at this time. Telemundo and Univisión are the network leaders for the Latin American audience in U.S. They offer a product of debatable quality and the majority of their programming is centered on soap operas but the transformation and economic turnover of these media outlets in recent years are surprising. Hundreds of small Spanish-language channels exist alongside the titans such as HBO, WB or CBS.
The Peruvian, Laura Bozzo, on Telemundo, whose program in which all the miseries and human misfortunes are brought to horrifying light, has surpassed the unquestionable ratings goddess, Oprah Winfrey, in audience size in cities including New York, Los Angeles and Miami.
The Estefan empire in Miami is the epicenter of this change, the best example of the transformacion that is changing society in the US. The Hispanic population in Miami's Dade County is the 55% of the area's growth.
Latin Americans continue and will keep growing. The massive emigrations from countries that are depressed or threatened by the terrorism in Center and South America change the culture, tongue and characteristics of the new American citizen.
This new face of the U.S. is becoming more dark-skinned, less individualistic, a little more sexist, less punctual and better-planned in life. This inter-relationship between new Latin Americans and Americans changes the customs of this young population. Soccer has more fans and Latin Americans are more patriotic. In the states of Illinois, California and Florida, during the few hours before the terrorist attacks, American flags were already flying high. Mexican, Honduran, Spanish, Peruvian, Argentinean, etc. had already been in line to buy those U.S. flags that still ripple on the antennae of their houses and cars.
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