Hispanic Americans

It is very common to walk down the streets of a US city today and hear Spanish spoken. In 1950 fewer than four million US residents were from Spanish-speaking соuntries. Today that number is about 35 million (or some 12,5 per cent of the US population).

About 50 per cent of Hispanics in the United States have origins in Mexico. The other 50 per cent come from a variety of countries, including El Salvador, the Dominican Republic and Colombia. Thirty-six per cent of the Hispanics in the United

States live in California. Several other states have large Hispanic populations, including Texas, New York, Illinois, and Florida, where hundreds of thousands of Cubans fleeing

the Castro regime have settled. There are so many Cuban Americans in Miami that the Miami Herald, the city's largest newspaper, publishes separate editions in English

and Spanish. The widespread use of Spanish in US cities has generated a public debate over language.

Some English speakers point to Canada, where the existence of two languages (English and French) has been accompanied by a secessionist movement. To head off such a development in the United States, some citizens are calling for a law declaring

English the official language of the United States. Others consider such a law unnecessary and likely to cause harm. Recognition of English as the official language, they argue, would stigmatize speakers of other languages and would lead to discrimination.

To date, 26 states have adopted various forms of Official English Legislation. Hawaii is officially bilingual. In Alaska and Arizona, English-only initiatives have been declared unconstitutional. But there is no federal legislation in effest making English the country's official language.

Asian Americans

Today Asian Americans are one of the fastest-growing ethnic groups in the country. About 10 million people of Asian descent live in the United States. Although most of them nave arrived recently, they are among the most successful of all immigrant groups. They nave a higher income than many other ethnic groups (many of them working in high-tech industry), and large numbers of their children study at the best US universities as undergraduate

and graduate students. Today there are approximately 40,000 Chinese restaurants operating in the USA, which is twice as many as all McDonald's, Burger King and Wendy's combined!