Growing up in Elmont, New York you see a range of ethnicities living in one town. However to my knowledge there were not that many Latino people in my area let alone Salvadorans. When going to my high school there were some Latino’s there but I was one of the only Salvadorans. However while in this class I found that Long Island has a fast growing Salvadoran population, which recently became the biggest Latino group in Long Island. Also, Salvadorans became the fifth largest Latino group in the United States. So my question is, how much has this population grown and why?
My mother explained that people had to leave El Salvador because there was a lack of jobs and from generation to generation they were sold on the dream that there are tons of job opportunities in the United States. Another reason is because of the Civil War that started in 1980. She said that everyone was feared because you had one of two options: to join the guerillas or to join the army. People would walk around their towns and the government, who had murdered people, would put their heads on sticks standing on the street. No one seemed to be safe, which is why the majority of her friends from her town immigrated to the United States. Over twenty people that she went to high school with lived either next to her or the town over.
Due to these reasons, there has been a large increase in the Salvadoran population all over the United States. Now in Long Island there are over 54,000 Salvadoran residents. In the 2000 census it showed that there was 817,336 foreign born Salvadorians in the United States. Even though I did not see a large population of Salvadorans in Elmont, there is a large percentage in West Hempstead, Hempstead, and Freeport, etc. Andy Hardy, in Magical Urbanism, describes where he relocated to after moving from his hometown as similar to where he grew up in. This is understandable because people moved to areas where they tend to know others or have similar culture with. That is the reason why my family came to Long Island and presumably many others. The Latino population will continue to grow with wanting to have more job opportunities and to live the “American Dream” and that has shown in the 2000 census with the population being at 35,305,818 to then in the 2010 census with the population at 50,477,594. However, all these numbers could have an increase because many undocumented immigrants would not want to answer the survey in order for their protection. This information gives us a closer idea to the population numbers in Long Island and throughout the United States.
"The Hispanic Population: 2010 - Census." Accessed November 3, 2016. http://www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/briefs/c2010br-04.pdf.
"The Hispanic Population 2000 - Census." Accessed November 3, 2016. https://www.census.gov/prod/2001pubs/c2kbr01-3.pdf.
@longislandwins. "Which Immigrant Group on Long Island Is the Largest? - Long Island Wins." Long Island Wins. 2016. Accessed November 03, 2016. https://longislandwins.com/news/national/which-immigrant-group-on-long-island-is-the-largest/.
Davis, Mike. Magical Urbanism: Latinos Reinvent the US City. London: Verso, 2000.
I found it very interesting how this person decided to focus on their culture and reasons as to why he/she believes they have migrated. Also found it cool how they interview their mother which is someone who lived through this time period and gives accurate information as to why she and her friends left their home town El Salvador. Is this generations “American Dream” different from the generation that is now migrating into the United States? The blog also states in the beginning by saying that they do not believe there are many Salvadorans in the area but then after conducting their research he/she is proven otherwise. They realize that this population has only continued to grow throughout Long Island. I agree with a statements in the last paragraph stating “The Latino population will continue to grow with wanting to have more job opportunities and to live the “American Dream”. I believe that this is true and this is one of the major reasons as to why people will continue to migrate over to the United States. All these families are looking for is a “better life” or they want to accomplish the “American Dream”. My question would be what exactly is this “American Dream” they are looking for? What is their definition of the “American Dream” to these Latino families? Does each ethic group have the same or a different definition of the “American Dream”?
ReplyDelete-Emylie S.
I do not believe that this generation of the American dream is different from previous generations. I believe it is seemed that coming to America there is many job opportunities and they could have a "better life". I cannot say for certain what each ethnic group believes but from what has been talked about between peers, articles, and books it appears that the American Dream is the same idea throughout.
DeleteWhen I lived in Mexico, an old rich man who was a good friend of my family said "It is better to have friends than money". He was not talking about the idea that friends are more personally and sentimentally valuable than money, but that money could come and go but a friend would always be there to lend you a hand. When I moved to the US, I saw these words in action; many of the immigrants coming to Danbury, CT arrived there because a friend or family member was already living there and not because we had the best jobs in the area. But at the same time, that was not the case for my family, my family like most of the "middle" class Latino families were hired by companies like GE, when we arrived, we did not know anyone. So do you think that most of the lower class Latino immigrants come because of connections while the profesional or middle class latinos come because of job offerings? I wonder what is the reason behind so many Salvadorians moving into Elmont, NY besides connections.
ReplyDeleteI agree with much of your post. Not only are el Salvadorians increasing, but many minority groups are increasing in the United States. I too have seen such an increase in minorities, living on Long Island myself. Long Island, as you said, has such a vast amount of races that many are growing up with in their own high schools. I grew up in Farmingdale, I typically never seen an increase in el Salvadorians but maybe as the years go on, in the future there may be an increase in not only your town but much of Long Island.
ReplyDeleteI am from Long Island as well, when I moved to Brentwood 7 years ago there was already a very large Salvadorian population but throughout the years the numbers have definitely increased. I also became very curious of why Salvadorian have concentrated particularly in Long Island, although I did not find one definite reason I encountered many reasons that are believed to might have influenced this migration, many of which you mentioned on your post, and others such as deindustrialization, when factories from NYC moved to Long Island and other suburbs, which provided many jobs to these immigrants.
ReplyDeleteAlso, one of my favorite movies - Innocent Voices, touches on this issue and gives a visual image of what the civil war in Central America was like, if this is a topic you are interested in, I would highly recommend.