I.

Introduction

Mexican Americans, residents of the United States who trace their ancestry to Mexico. Mexican Americans are also known as Chicanos, Xicanos, Mexicanos, La Raza, and Mex-Americans. While the term Chicano has gone in and out of fashion since the late 1940s, it is still the preferred identification for many Mexican Americans. The term Mexican American, on the other hand, is commonly used in government documents, by the mainstream media, and by Mexican Americans in interactions with other ethnic groups.

In the 2000 U.S. census 21.5 million people identified themselves as Mexican Americans. An additional 2 to 3 million illegal immigrants from Mexico are estimated to live in the United States. Mexican Americans constitute the largest group of Hispanic Americans. About 90 percent of the Mexican American population today can be traced to emigration from impoverished rural regions of northern Mexico during the 20th century. The rest trace their roots to 17th- and 18th-century colonists who settled in Mexican territories that are now part of the southwestern United States, including California, Texas, and parts of New Mexico, Colorado, and Arizona. Mexican Americans still live primarily in these southwestern states. Large Mexican American communities have also been established outside the Southwest in a number of big cities, including Chicago and New York City.

Mexican Americans are a multiracial people, joined together by a shared history and culture. Due to Mexico’s long history of interracial marriages, Mexican Americans have a variety of skin colors. The Mexican American population includes whites; Native Americans; mestizos, people of mixed Native American and European descent; and mulattoes, people of mixed African and European ancestry.