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The article examines the use of British historical references by Spanish American intellectuals from 1808 to 1828. Topics discussed include some reasons why Spanish American intellectuals were interested in the history of Great Britain, their search for historical explanations for the differences between countries and cultures during the Romantic historicism and British historical references in the rhetorical content of the political debates of the Spanish American independence era.

The article presents an examination of religious toleration, the freedom of expression and the arrival of the Enlightenment to the Hispanic world in the 18th century. Examining the practices of Spanish Americans and Spaniards, the article explores how the Catholic Church's dramatic influence over the Hispanic world delayed their acceptance of ideas, behaviors and technologies that had taken hold in other regions of Europe as well as in North America. It explores how the 18th century saw the arrival of ideas such as religious toleration in Spain and among Spanish Americans, while also showing how elites in the Hispanic world found it difficult to accept such changes.

Presents an essay on racial, religious and civic Creole identity in colonial Spanish America, depicted in the painting titled "Fountain of Life and Mercy," by Gerard and Lucas Horenbout. Association of fountains with salvation and purity in Christian discourse; Influence of theological and compositional principles in Mexican paintings; Summary of beliefs about Creole discourse in colonial Spanish America.

Highlights certain conceptual categories useful for a comparative analysis of 20th century Latinos. Improvements on the textbooks used in providing information on the history of Latinos in the United States (US); Categories of Latin Americans in the US; Focus of secondary literature in Latino studies.

This article examines the relationship between language background and literacy among Hispanic young adults. Despite the extent of Spanish use in the Hispanic community Hispanics do learn English. Although many adult immigrants may nol learn English Hispanics who come to the United States as children or who are born in the United States almost certainly do. Hispanic youth are an important group among which to examine the factors affecting literacy because of their disadvantaged socio-economic background and educational experience. Both socio-economic background and education are strongly related to literacy as well as to being bilingual. By examining the influence of these factors on literacy simultaneously, one can separate the effects of bilingualism from social classes. Socio-economic background was combined into one composite scale by averaging father's education, mother's education, father's occupational status, mother's occupational status and number of reading materials in the home.

This article is a preliminary evolution on the Spanish surname criterion for identifying Hispanos in the Southwestern United States. The importance of separately identifying Hispanos in population statistics for the Southwest has long been recognized by the United States Bureau of the Census. In 1930, enumerators were instructed to classify as "Mexican" those persons born in Mexico or having parents born in Mexico who were not definitely white, Indian, African-Americans or members of some other race. The results were politically embarrassing and technically misleading. Strong objections were made both in this country and abroad against classifying Hispanic people as nonwhite, and, as would be expected, most of the large native Spanish-American population of native stock was omitted from the special category. Because of the difficulties with the procedure used in 1930, no effort has been made since then to directly identify Hispanos in the United States Census of Population. The most important conclusion of this study is that no single criterion can be selected as "best" for identifying Hispanos in population statistics in general or in censuses in particular.

The article focuses on the social status of the Spanish Americans, the oldest minority group in the U.S. Mostly male, these colonists and soldiers married women of the indigenous Indian population. The resulting generations spoke Spanish and ever after used a culture which was Spanish with an Indian flavor. Numerous agricultural and stock raising communities were established, mostly on land grants from the Spanish crown. These descendants of the Spanish colonists do not care to be called Mexicans. They prefer the term Spanish-American, and reserve the term "Mexican" for residents of or immigrants from Mexico. It is impossible to overemphasize the importance to the rural Spanish-American of his home village. Most Spanish-Americans would be better off financially elsewhere, and they know it. Yet they either remain in or return to the village as filings cling to and return to a magnet. Desire and expectation of young adults to return to the village is one of the reasons the older people retain so tenaciously their village holdings.