ABSTRACT
More than six million persons of Mexican origin or descent inhabit America, making Mexican Americans the second largest minority group in the country. † The vast majority (more than 85 per cent) live in five southwestern states close to Mexico—California, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado. Because of continuous immigration and an unusually high birth rate, the size of the Mexican American population relative to the total population in America has been increasing over the last 30 years. This growth has been accompanied by more active and visible efforts on the part of Mexican Americans to improve their civil rights and economic opportunities. In turn, this has brought about the realization throughout the nation as well as in the Southwest that Mexican Americans are a large and important ethnic group in this country.
