“Did You Know?” Blog Series (Part 1) – Facts About Hispanic Culture

  • July 8, 2013
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  • Blog

Image by Flickr user cliff1066™CC License

We’re excited to announce our new “Did You Know?” blog series as a way to honor and celebrate our diverse community of clients, Linguists and employees! Each blog entry in this series will  feature a host of unique and interesting facts about a particular culture. In part 1 of our new series, we take a closer look at the Hispanic culture.

Did You Know?

  • There are eight states in the U.S. that have a population of 1 million or more Hispanic residents: Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, New York and Texas.”
  • “Hispanic” refers to a person of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban or other Spanish / Hispanic / Latino culture or origin.
  • With 329 million native speakers, Spanish ranks as the world’s number 2 language in terms of how many people speak it as their first language.
  • The Hispanic family is a close-knit group and the most important social unit. Extended families are considered a part of the actual family unit.
  • Hispanic communities follow certain codes of conduct when socializing. The men greet each other with a firm handshake and the women greet each other with a hug and a peck on the cheeks.
  • Hispanics usually place great value on looks and appearance as a sense of honor, dignity and pride. Formal attire is commonly worn by Hispanics to church, parties, social gatherings and work.
  • Lunch is usually the main meal of the day for Spanish speakers, sometimes followed by a siesta (a short nap taken in the early afternoon).
  • Preserving their language is of utmost importance to the Hispanics.
  • September 15th was chosen as the starting point for the celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month because it is the anniversary of independence of five Latin American countries: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. Additionally, Mexico and Chile celebrate their independence days on September 16th and 18th.
  • The term “Hispanic” was first adopted by the United States government in the early 1970’s. It has been used in the U.S. Census since 1980.
  • The projected Hispanic population of the United States on Jul 1, 2050 will be 132.8 million. According to this projection, Hispanics will constitute 30 % of the nation’s population by that date.
  • There are 1.1 million Hispanic veterans of the U.S. armed forces.

What fun facts about the Hispanic culture would you add to this list? We encourage you to post your comments below!