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Salvadoran Americans

Salvadoran Americans

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First Salvadorians in United States

Salvadorian immigration to the United States is a fairly recent phenomenon. The movement is small in comparison with some of the great immigration waves of the past, but it has a profound significance for both countries. The flight of Salvadorians from their own country was the most dramatic result of El Salvador’s civil war, draining that country of between 20 and 30 percent of its population. Half or more of the refugees—between 500,000 and one million—immigrated to the United States, which was home to less than 10,000 Salvadorians before 1960 (Faren Bachelis, The Central Americans [New York: Chelsea House, 1990], p. 10; cited hereafter as Bachelis). El Salvador’s exiled population is already changing life at home through its influence and its dollars and will undoubtedly play an important role in its future history.

Salvadorian American immigration has changed the face of foreign affairs in the United States. The flood of refugees from a U.S.-supported government forced a national rethinking of foreign policy priorities. This in turn transformed the nature of American support for the Salvadorian government and may have helped to end the war in El Salvador. Salvadorian Americans are at the center of an ongoing national debate about U.S. responsibility toward the world’s refugees and the future of immigration in general.

Salvadorian Americans are citizens or residents of the United States of Salvadorian descent. As of 2010 there are 1.6 million Salvadorian Americans in the United States, the fourth-largest Hispanic community by nation of ancestry.They are also known as the nicknamed Salvi people in the USA, “Wanako” or “Guanako” in Central America, and Cuzcatleco in El Salvador.

Many Salvadorian Americans reside in the Greater Los Angeles area, including Orange County, California, the Inland Empire and San DiegoMiami-Dade or South Florida as well in Central Florida; The Washington Metropolitan AreaWashington, D.C.Maryland and Northern Virginia, is currently the only metropolitan area in the entire country where Salvadorans are the majority among hispanics, most concentrated in the suburbs in Northern Virginia and Maryland. A city dubbed Chirilagua has existed for decades in between Alexandria and Arlington in Virginia due to the many Salvadorans living there from that particular Town. There is also a large number in Texas esp. in HoustonAustinDallasand Fort Worth, Texas; increasingly New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005; and in other California regions outside of Los Angeles such as the San Francisco Bay Area. In addition, there is a significant number of Salvadorian Americans in the New York City area such as Northern New JerseyFlushing, Queens and Long Island. Recent census data shows that for the first time and are now the largest Latino group in Long Island, there are more Salvadorians living on Long Island than Puerto Ricans, with Salvadorians, now numbering nearly 100,000, representing nearly a quarter of all Hispanics in the region. Salvadorans are also highly concentrated in Atlanta and northern Georgia as well in the Chicago metro area.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvadoran_American

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