Introduction

Spanish is the most commonly spoken non-English language in the US, with the 2007 Census update citing 34.5 million speakers on the mainland (that is, excluding Puerto Rico, where it is spoken by nearly everyone). As noted in Table 1.1, there was a 62 percent growth in the Spanish-speaking population between 1990 and 2000 and a further 23 percent growth between 2000 and 2007. In fact, it is predicted that Latinos – a term we will be using interchangeably with “Hispanics” – may contribute more net growth to the US population than all other groups combined after 2020 (US Census Bureau 2000). What surprises many people is that the USA has currently the fifth largest Spanish-speaking population in the world, with more Spanish-speakers than any other nation except Mexico, Colombia, Spain and Argentina (CIA 2008).

Spanish is also the non-English language that hails from the greatest number of different countries. In total, Spanish-speakers from nineteen different Latin American countries were present in the “Hispanic” category of the 2000 Census. The Spanish spoken in these countries is mutually intelligible for the most part, yet different linguistic and cultural backgrounds create an interesting Spanish-speaking mosaic in the USA. As we will see in this chapter, there are many factors that appear to favor the maintenance of the Spanish language in the USA, yet despite its strong presence in the media and many educational efforts, shift to English is clearly happening by the third generation.