ABSTRACT
The Hispanic/Latin American population of the U.S. has been growing steadily over the last four decades (Casas, Vasquez, & Ruiz de Esparza, 2002) and recent census statistics indicate that 42.7 million Americans identify themselves as Hispanic (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2006). This group represents a diverse mixture of individuals from various ethnicities, languages, and cultures (Casas et al.; Comas-Diaz, 2001) who trace their origins to several nations. While current literature uses a number of descriptors to identify this diverse group (Comas-Diaz), this paper will use the terms Latino and Latina.
