By the latter part of the 20th century, Hispanic Americans had become the numerically largest minority group in the United States. Demographers have projected that approximately one in every three Americans will self-identify as Hispanic [Page 793]by the beginning of the 22nd century, if not slightly sooner. Such demographic shifts in the United States trace their roots to a combination of factors, ranging from the relatively close geographical location of home countries, chain migration, the impacts of multiple wars, escaping civil unrest, and a steady decline in fertility rates among non-Hispanic Americans. Hispanic Americans comprise a multitude of ethnicities with distinct variations in terms of their cultural characteristics, generational challenges, the initial circumstances in which individuals and groups became identified as Hispanic, and their ongoing ...