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The Pew Hispanic Center released an interesting report last year, finding based on 2009 and 2010 Census data that there are 31. 7 million Latinos of Mexican origin in the U.S., 4.4 million Puerto Ricans (significantly more than the 3.7 million Puerto Ricans on the island), 1.7 million Salvadorans, 1.6 million Cubans, 1.3 million Dominicans and just over a million Guatemaltecos.

Data was also available for other groups, a release from Pew about the “U.S. Hispanic Country of Origin Counts for Nation, Top 30 Metropolitan Areas” report notes:

Hispanics of Mexican, Puerto Rican, and Cuban origin or descent remain the nation’s three largest Hispanic country-of-origin groups, according to the 2010 U.S. Census. However, while the relative position of these three groups has remained unchanged since 2000, the next four Hispanic sub-groups grew faster during the decade.

Hispanics of Salvadoran origin, the fourth largest Hispanic country-of-origin group grew by 152% since 2000. The Dominican population grew by 85%, the Guatemalan population by 180% and the Colombian population by 93%. Meanwhile, the Cuban and Puerto Rican populations grow more slowly—44% and 36% respectively.

Despite their No. 1 status, Mexicans are not the dominant Hispanic origin group in many of the nation’s metropolitan areas. Among the Miami metropolitan area’s 1.5 million Hispanics, half are Cuban. In the New York-Northeastern New Jersey metropolitan area, 29.4% of Hispanics are of Puerto Rican origin and 19.7% are of Dominican origin. In the Washington, DC metropolitan area, Salvadorans are the largest group, comprising one-third of the area’s Hispanics.

However, in many metropolitan areas, Mexican origin Hispanics are by far the dominant group among Hispanics. In Chicago, nearly eight-in-ten (79.2%) of the area’s Hispanics are of Mexican origin. In the San Antonio, TX metropolitan area, Mexicans make up 91.3% of all Hispanics. And in Atlanta, GA, nearly six-in-ten (58.1%) Hispanics are of Mexican origin.

Country of origin is based on self-described family ancestry or place of birth in response to questions in the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey and on the 2010 Census form. It is not necessarily the same as place of birth, nor is it indicative of immigrant or citizenship status. For example, a U.S. citizen born in Los Angeles of Mexican immigrant parents or grandparents may (or may not) identify his or her country of origin as Mexico. Likewise, some immigrants born in Mexico may identify another country as their origin depending on the place of birth of their ancestors.

There are also specific country of origin reports available:

• Mexicans
• Puerto Ricans
• Cubans
• Salvadorans
• Dominicans
• Guatemalans
• Colombians
• Hondurans
• Ecuadorians
• Peruvians

Follow Sara Inés Calderón on Twitter @SaraChicaD

[Image By Pew]

Drug violence that has plagued Mexico and Colombia for decades is moving into Central America as the U.S., as well as Mexican and Colombian governments, step up enforcement on drug cartels. The New York Times reports:

Traffickers have used Central America as a stopover point since at least the 1970s. But the aggressive crackdowns on criminal organizations in Mexico and Colombia, coupled with strides in limiting smuggling across the Caribbean, have increasingly brought the powerful syndicates here, pushing the drug scourge deeper into small Central American countries incapable of combating it.

Most of the known cocaine shipments moving north, 84 percent of them, crossed through Central America last year, according to radar tracking data from American authorities — a sharp increase from 44 percent in 2008 and only 23 percent in 2006, the year President Felipe Calderón of Mexico took office and began his assault against the drug gangs in his country.

Responding to the pressure — and opportunity — the cartels have spread out quickly. Five of Central America’s seven countries are now on the United States’ list of 20 “major illicit drug transit or major illicit drug producing countries.” Three of those, Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Honduras, were added just last year.

Perhaps the worst thing is that now governments are pouring drug fighting monies into Central American countries, which we can all see worked in Mexico and Colombia. Those that will suffer the most are people so poor already that they have no choice, and the innocent bystanders caught between the drug dealers and the police.

Follow Sara Inés Calderón on Twitter @SaraChicaD

[Image By Alex Covarrubias]

Honduras just passed a law that bans smoking pretty much everywhere — even in your own home if someone reports they were bothered by your smoking. The law does not explicitly ban smoking in homes, but yet, there’s a possibility that smokers could be reported by neighbors or family for doing just that.

The law also prohibits smoking closer than 6 feet near nonsmokers in open spaces, and bans smoking in schools, gas stations, nightclubs, restaurants, bars, buses, taxis, stadiums and other places. Advertising for tobacco products is also banned, and photos of cancer-ridden lungs must be placed on cigarette packs. All this in a country where 30% of people smoke.

Penalties for breaking the law range from verbal warnings to $311 for an individual’s transgression to up to $6,000 for repeat offenders. This is a hard core way of dealing with smoking, obviously, costs associated with caring for people who fall ill from the effects of the habit were cited in passing the law. Ultimately, I would suspect that Honduras has lots of other health problems that warrant more attention, perhaps passing this law made the country eligible for some particular form of international aid or something like that.

Follow Sara Inés Calderón on Twitter @SaraChicaD

[Photo By Mykl Roventine]