In 1754 the pope officially became a sponsor of Our Lady of Guadalupe. An unknown artist painted this “Allegory of the Patronage of the Virgin of Guadalupe over New Spain, 1781.” The painting cites Psalm 147:20: “”He [God] has not done the like for any other nation.”
The Mixteca make up the majority of the Mexican Americans in the city. Mixteca is a dry, empty place a few hundred miles south of Mexico City encompassing parts of the Mexican states of Puebla, Oaxaca and Guerrerro. Mixteca usually speak Spanish, though there is a concentration in Staten Island that speak only the dialect Mixteca.
The Mixteca area includes the southernmost part of the state of Puebla, the northern most part of the state of Oaxaca and the easternmost part of the state of Guererro.
The current wave of Mixtecos started pouring into the city in the 1980s when Mexico was experiencing an economic depression. In the mid-1990s, this region provided 64% of the Mexican immigrants to New York, of which 47% came from the state of Puebla alone. Around 2010, Mixteca migrants from Ciudad Nezahualioyotl on the outskirts of Mexico City started coming to New York City.
Many Mixtecos plan on returning to Mexico as soon as they have earned enough money. However, as more gain legal residence, they stay and bring more Mixtecos legally to NYC.
Most often, Mixtecos and other Mexicans come as villagers and maintain their village relations in the city. Indeed, almost half of some communities are living as villages in New York, complete with phone conference calls for village councils. This situation encourages them to return to Mexico and their continued adherence to conservative Catholicism.
An example of this process is the Mexican immigrants from the villages of Ticuani in Puebla. By 2010, their population was about equally split between Puebla and Brooklyn. With inexpensive telecommunications and airfares, they live simultaneously in both communities. They live in a virtual village in which all important communal business is debated during weekly conference calls between elders in Brooklyn and Mexico. Their vacations are planned to coincide with their village festivals to help them to maintain their Ticuani identity, as do intense team volleyball rivalries with other immigrant associations.
The Ticuani Solidarity Committee in New York City has financed extensive modernization of their pueblo, which has included building two new schools and renovating the Catholic Church and municipal buildings.
The Number of Mexicans and Mexican Americans in New York City
There about 359,979 Mexicans and Mexican Americans in New York City, and moving upward to 5% of our 8 million population. This is a several hundred thousands increase from the 1990s. As I look over the luncheon invoices from our census takers, I notice that they are eating at more Mexican places than ever before. The reports are that the food is pleasant to the eye, fresh, based on fine original recipes and served with real friendliness. We have even interviewed a few new Mexican restaurant owners who also are leaders in their churches.
Journey Data Center
The 2012-2016 American Community Survey (ACS) of the U.S. Census counted 339,603 New Yorkers whose ancestry is Mexico. The U.S. Census has been paying much more attention to accurately counting the immigrants and the undocumented. Still, the PEW Research Center estimates that in 2012 the ACS and the U.S. Current Population Survey under-counted immigrants by 2-3% and under-counted unauthorized immigrants by 5-7%. So, we adjusted the ACS total number of New Yorkers with a Mexican ancestry upward to 359,979. We have not adjusted the numbers for each borough or community, however.
Destination of Mexican immigrants
New York does not yet have a Mexican barrio. Mexicans have tended to settle into Hispanic neighborhoods, but keep a profile low because some are unregistered immigrants or have unregistered roommates. Also, they are young and unsettled, unless their families are with them.
Still, significant concentrations of Mexican immigrants are present in various parts of the city (see our chart). Furthermore, Mexicans have displaced Puerto Ricans as the most numerous group in East Harlem.
Journey report: Mexican immigrants in the Bronx celebrate Our Lady of Guadalupe
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