How Spanish-Origin People Came to Inhabit America

The Hispanic population of the U.S. as of 2022 was 63.6 million people, making this community the nation’s largest racial or ethnic minority — 19 percent of the total population. Only Mexico has a larger Hispanic population than the U.S. In fact, the U.S. has a larger Spanish-origin population than many Hispanic countries, including Peru and Venezuela. These demographic facts beg the question: How did so many Spanish-people come to live in the U.S., a largely English-speaking country? The answer to this question resides in the history of our land even before it became the U.S., and in the past 130 years during which time substantial numbers of Spanish-origin peoples migrated to our shores seeking economic opportunity and political freedom.