Latinos edge whites out of majority
Texas is officially a majority-minority state with a distinctly cafe-con-leche hue, thanks largely to Latino population growth.
Non-Hispanic whites dipped under the majority mark in Texas, around July 2004, the U.S. Census Bureau said Thursday. And minorities now make up about 50.2 percent of the state’s population, heralding further wide-ranging changes in commerce and culture, education and politics.
The transformation was predicted three years ago by demographer Steve Murdock, who sees the shift as a “mixed blessing” and one that indicates where the rest of the nation is heading.
The diversity brings a new energy and ideas, Dr. Murdock said, but it also brings challenges. It’s now more pressing that Texas improve services to its 22.5 million residents, as its future lies with the minority population, he said.
Texas joins California, Hawaii and New Mexico as a majority-minority state. Five others – Maryland, Mississippi, Georgia, New York and Arizona – are next in line, with minority populations at about 40 percent, said the Census Bureau in a release Thursday.
The Lone Star State’s new status is actually a re-transformation, said Roberto Calderon, a historian at the University of North Texas. He referred to Texas’ tumultuous entry into the United States following the U.S.-Mexico War and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.
“It’s a long time coming, despite the early history,” Dr. Calderon said.
“Sometime before 2030, every single major city in Texas va a tener una mayoria Latina” or is going to have a Latino majority, Dr. Calderon said, switching into Spanish.
Thus, the Texas of postwar national memory, of light-skinned oil barons and blonde beauty queens, is likely to blur in a state where minorities dominate.
Some fifty years ago, the movie Giant etched its tale of money and prejudice through two generations of a Texas ranching family. Many remember Rock Hudson’s character getting beaten up in a diner for defending his Mexican-American grandson and his Mexican-American daughter-in-law.
Today, some see a contemporary echo in that story line in the family of President Bush, whose Mexican-American nephew is a Dallas lawyer.
And there are other signs of sweeping change in the state. At Parkland Memorial Hospital, eight out of ten newborns are Latino, and the No. 1 radio station in Dallas now has Spanish lyrics. The bustling wholesale zone along Dallas’ Harry Hines Boulevard was recently rechristened the Asian Trade District, thanks to the influx of Asian immigrant entrepreneurs.
Two of the state’s largest cities, Dallas and Houston, have both recently had black mayors. In San Antonio, a Hispanic mayor recently completed his term…