Latinos Invisible Culture in the United States
             Many Latinos have similar lifestyles, but once the culture enters the United States of America, it becomes drowned with individualism, low income, gangs and struggling to survive in the Anglo ways. Latino cultures like Mexicans, Cubans, Dominicans and Puerto Ricans have brought forth original beliefs, values and norms, but the Latino American youth ties in the old values of the islands and the newer values of the American society.
             Latinos are a quick growing population. According to the University of California, "the number of US Latinos increased 58% in the last decade, from 22.4 million in 1990 to 35.3 million in 2000." Moreover, 80% of Latinos were born in the United States, and over half of the people are under the age of 26. (http://reprohealth.ucsf.edu/).
             In 1917, Puerto Ricans were entitled to citizenship from the United States after the Spanish American war. "A community called a 'colonia' has existed in New York City since World War I, and there were about 135,000 Puerto Ricans living there by World War II" (Weyr, Thomas (1988)). Furthermore, 40,000 Puerto Ricans migrated to New York in 1946 alone, concentrating in areas such as Manhattan's Lower East Side and East Harlem, which was dubbed "El Barrio." Other sizable communities formed in Chicago, Philadelphia and Ohio. By 1960, more than 1 million Puerto Ricans had moved to the mainland (Bean, D. Frank & Tienda, Marta (1987)).
             Like many other Latino groups our ancestors came to the US in search of new life; at the cost of personal suffering, left behind family, land and culture (Abalos, T. David (1986)). Currently, the estimated number of Puerto Ricans is 3.4 million on the mainland and Hawaii, and 3.8 million on the island. Half of all Puerto Ricans living outside the island live in New York and New Jersey, about a tenth each live in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Illinois (Bean...