Hispanic community types and assimilation in mex-america

Abstract

I argue that discrepancies among Hispanic assimilation models can be interpreted through three distinct types of Hispanic communities—continuous, discontinuous, and new. Continuous communities were founded by Hispanics and Hispanics have always been the majority population. As a result, Hispanics have not assimilated as predicted by traditional models. Discontinuous communities were originally settled by Hispanics, but eventually were filled by a minority population. Since WWII, many of these communities have experienced a Hispanic demographic resurgence making assimilation more problematic. Hispanics in new communities are recent immigrants to Anglo dominant communities and are more apt to follow the traditional assimilation model. © 1998 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.