The United States\u2019 Latino population, 35 million strong according to the 2000 U.S. Census, is a diverse mixture of people bonded by a common language, but with roots in different parts of the Western Hemisphere.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cLatinos in the U.S.: \u00a1Presente!,\u201d<\/strong> a new exhibit at The City College of New York (CCNY), highlights the diverse Latino immigrant groups that have contributed to this rapidly growing Spanish-speaking demographic.\u00a0 It opens February 8 and runs through June 10, 2010, in the CCNY Cohen Library Atrium. Daisy V. Dominguez, Reference Librarian at CCNY\u2019s Cohen Library and the\u00a0 other co-curator, pointed out that \u201cLatinos in the U.S.: \u00a1Presente!\u201d traces the historical and contemporary presence of an estimated 20 different Latino immigrant groups in the United States.<\/p>\n \u201cIt does this by highlighting the experiences of some native and Afro-Latino groups and also by showing not necessarily the most numerous populations but some who are potentially unknown,\u201d Ms. Dominguez said.\u00a0 \u201cThis includes Chilean miners during the Gold Rush and immigrant Peruvian shepherds in the Western United States today.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe hope that the exhibit makes the linguistic, cultural and socioeconomic diversity of the Latino community very clear,\u201d Professor Aponte added.<\/p>\n The exhibit uses primary texts and historical and recent photographs from Washington Heights and other predominantly Hispanic neighborhoods in New York.\u00a0 In addition, it includes cultural objects from the home countries of the immigrant groups that are highlighted. Among these are beautiful handiwork examples of clothing, culinary items, textiles, dolls, jewelry, instruments and masks.<\/p>\n For more information on the \u201cLatinos in the U.S.: \u00a1Presente!\u201d exhibit, please call\u00a0 (212) 650-7271.\u00a0 City College is located at 138th Street and Convent Avenue in Manhattan.<\/p>\n
\n\u00a0\u00a0
\n\u201cThis exhibit documents the continually rewritten migratory landscape of this country from the Latino perspective,\u201d said co-curator Sarah Aponte, Professor and Head Librarian at the CUNY Dominican Studies Institute Archives and Library.\u00a0 \u201cFor instance, places like \u2018El Barrio\u2019 (Spanish Harlem), which was home to Italian and Jewish immigrants, among others, in the 19th century and to Puerto Rican immigrants in the 20th century, has now earned the nickname \u2018Little Puebla\u2019 due to the recent wave of Mexican immigration.\u00a0 There are similar stories throughout the historical and geographic breadth of this nation.\u201d<\/p>\n