Latin America, like much of the developing world, will have to face serious challenges in the current century. Environmental changes, persistent inequality, and increasing violence force millions of people throughout the region to live in a constant state of uncertainty. Hispanics are split on whether they think of themselves as a “typical American” or “very different from a typical American.” According to the survey, 49% of Hispanics say the former, while 44% say the latter. Latinos in the U.S. describe their identity in many ways, reflecting the diversity of origins in the Latino community, the immigrant experience and geography. Broadly, some Latinos use pan-ethnic terms such as “Hispanic” or “Latino” to describe their identity; some prefer their family’s Hispanic origin group; others use “American”. For Puerto Ricans, among those born on the island (or in another country outside the U.S.), 74% most often use the term “Puerto Rican” to describe themselves. Among Puerto Ricans born in the 50 states or D.C., just 42% do the same. Half (48%) of second-generation Hispanics most often describe themselves by their family’s Hispanic origin name. We can divide the environmental challenges into those that are already apparent and those that will become more so through the 21st C. (World Bank, 2016) Among the former, the most obvious one is the pollution that mars many cities in Latin America. In many cases, this results not so much from industry as from the massive concentration in 1-2 urban areas in each country. This pollution can be both airborne, and arguably more important, also originates in the underdevelopment of sanitation infrastructure. Half (48%) of Mexicans say they think of themselves as a typical American, while 46% say they think of themselves as very different from a typical American. Among South Americans in the U.S., those shares are 46% and 48%, respectively.
