http://m3report.wordpress.com/2010/01/0 ... f-america/

La Prensa Grafica (San Salvador, El Salvador) 1/2/10

Latin States of America [Portions of an op/col. by Humberto Moreno, titled as shown]

In the last decade, Hispanics have not only become the first minority of the colossus of the north, surpassing the African-Americans, but they have also not failed to gain prestige in the most competitive society of the world without losing their roots: their mother language and their traditions, among them the majority Catholic fervor. The Hispanic increment has been such that today we can claim that the first black President of the United States sits in the White House thanks to the Latino vote, of which he carried nothing less than 67% versus the 31% for McCain. And we can say it because more than 10 million Hispanics went to vote that day, some 32% more than in the 2004 presidential elections, thus demonstrating their political compromise with their new country.

Candidates know that Latino power is unstoppable and for that reason their campaigns speak Spanish, not so much because Hispanics may not speak Shakespeare’s language, but because they know that language is one of the identity signs which the immigrants keep on the other side of the Rio Grande even when they are totally assimilated. Today, contrary to the decades from the fifties to the eighties, Latinos don’t have to renounce their mother language in order to become integrated. The pride for Spanish is perceived in New York, Miami, Chicago or Los Angeles, to the point that one can believe he hasn’t left his house even though he may be strolling through Manhattan. It’s an irreparable contagion, from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, Spanish is the predominant language.

The United States Bureau of the Census estimates that the Hispanic population will double in 2050: of the 400 million residents, 49% will be white-Caucasian, 28% will be Hispanic, 12% black and 6% Asian. That is to say, for the first time since it was founded, the “waspsâ€