Posted on 02/05/2003 3:16:45 PM PST by hoosierskypilot
LOS ANGELES(AP) - A university study released Wednesday shows that for the first time Hispanic births account for more than half of all births in the state, yet another milestone signaling that Hispanics will dominate California's future. From July to September 2001, there were 138,892 births in California and 69,672, or 50.2 percent, were Hispanic, according to a recent review of birth certificate data by the UCLA Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture.
Non-Hispanic whites accounted for 31.4 percent of births for the quarter, followed by 11.3 percent for Asians and Pacific Islanders and 6.1 percent for blacks.
"The long-anticipated Latino majority has arrived," center director David Hayes-Bautista said at a news conference. "In 2003, it is learning how to walk and will shortly learn to talk."
The center's study, based on state health department statistics, confirms the ethnic shift that made 2001 the year that California officially lost its white majority. The U.S. Census showed Hispanics made up nearly a third while non-Hispanic whites slipped to less than half of the state's total population of 33.9 million.
(Excerpt) Read more at modbee.com ...
It doesn't matter. The newborns are all U.S. citizens under the 14th Amendment. In 18 years, they will be voting U.S. citizens. If the trend continues, they will be Spanish speaking, Democrat voters.
There are millions of American-born Hispanics here in California, so there's no way of assuming or determining legality or illegality. It's a moot point, because whether or not the parents are illegal, the child will be an American citizen by nature of birth in this country.
That part burns me too.
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Study: Hispanic babies majority of newborns in California
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From July to September 2001, there were 138,892 births in California and 69,672, or 50.2 percent, were Hispanic, according to a recent review of birth certificate data by the UCLA Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture.
Non-Hispanic whites accounted for 31.4 percent of births for the quarter, followed by 11.3 percent for Asians and Pacific Islanders and 6.1 percent for blacks.
"The long-anticipated Latino majority has arrived," center director David Hayes-Bautista said at a news conference. "In 2003, it is learning how to walk and will shortly learn to talk."
The center's study, based on state health department statistics, confirms the ethnic shift that made 2001 the year that California officially lost its white majority. The U.S. Census showed Hispanics made up nearly a third while non-Hispanic whites slipped to less than half of the state's total population of 33.9 million.
The Hispanic babies born as part of the new majority will in the next two decades become the state's key workers and voters, he said, making it crucial that they receive proper education and health care.
If Hispanics who turn 18 in 2019 are economically deprived and do not take part in the state's politics, he warned, "the state's future will be quite grim."
Concerns of a potentially disenfranchised community were voiced in December when a study by the Public Policy Institute of California warned that Hispanic and black voter rates are stunted by lower socio-economic status and citizenship rates.
Other states with large Hispanic populations in the next few years will follow California's lead with the majority of newborns also being Hispanic, Hayes-Bautista predicted.
"They're American citizens. They will be defining the American dream. It's in their hands, basically," Hayes-Bautista said.
The Hispanic birth rate has been dropping for years, but it has not declined as steeply as those of other ethnic groups, which has contributed to Hispanics babies becoming the majority of newborns in the state.
It was the first time since the late 1850s that Hispanics were a majority of babies born. The percentage has been increasing for at least two decades, however. In 1980, it was 29 percent.
At UCLA Medical Center, 35-year-old Maria Castellanos, of Inglewood, was recovering after giving birth Monday to her sixth child, Esmeralda Ruby Castellanos, who drowsed in a bassinet next to her bed. It is the Mexican immigrant's first child born in the United States.
Her grandmother had 25 children and her mother gave birth to 18, she explains through a translator. She had her first child at 14, but is happy to stop now.
"Many children, there's a lot of joy," said her 63-year-old husband, Juan, a retired construction worker. "Unfortunately, we don't have enough money."
"The Americans want to have one or two (children) to give them more things," Maria Castellanos said.
In another bed, Magaly Deras, 33, received a flower from one of her four children. Her newest daughter, born a day earlier and not yet named, also snoozed in a plastic bassinet.
"We're happy, we wanted four at least," said Deras, an immigrant from El Salvador.
Her husband, Rafael, who has an auto body shop in Inglewood, said he wants his children to succeed in the United States without losing their culture.
"They're Americans because they were born here but they're Latino in their roots," he said.
"I want the best for them. I want my son to be a lawyer. I'd like my daughter to be a doctor. ... There's opportunities here for everything."
The study also broke down Hispanic births by county and Imperial County near the border with Mexico in the third quarter of 2001 had the highest percentage of Hispanic births. Of the 706 babies born during that period in Imperial County, 89.2 percent were Hispanic.
In Los Angeles, the figure was 63.5 percent, and in the small counties of Alpine and Sierra in Northern California there were three births each, none of them to Hispanics. In Shasta County, there were 513 births and 10.5 percent were to Hispanics.
The broad differences in the percentage of Hispanic births between counties were based on immigration patterns involving traditional residency of Hispanics and patterns of job search, Hayes-Bautista said.
More than two-thirds of the Hispanic babies were born in Southern California, which has more job opportunities than other parts of the state.
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On the Web:
UCLA Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture: http://www.cesla.med.ucla.edu
Well, you can take some consolation in the fact that the Aztlan Warriors have Spanish surnames and speak Spanish and largely have Spanish features. I get a kick out of that myself.
O.K. Now it burns me.
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