Overview

The geographical distribution and internal variation of each of the major Latino population groups—Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Central American, Dominican, and South American—have been shaped by historical events. When the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the Mexican War (1846–1848), it ceded half of Mexico’s territory—stretching from Texas in the east, California in the west, and southern Colorado in the north—to the United States, and the area’s inhabitants became the...