On May 5, Mexican Dominance Irks Other Latinos

Focusing on differences within the Latino community is not productive, undermines wider efforts and paints a broad brush over a complex issue, said Beatriz Cortez, coordinator for the Central American Studies program at California State University-Northridge.

The immigration debate of the past couple of years, Cortez added, has also galvanized Hispanics to group together even more than before.

"It is important for each group to have its own space, as we do here in the Central American program, to construct the way we're portrayed. But at the same time, we're forming alliances," Cortez said.

Mexicans have opened up opportunities for other Latin Americans, Guarnizo said.

The history of Mexican migration to the U.S. is longer than any other Latin American country, dating back centuries — not to mention the states that once belonged to Mexico: California, Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and parts of Colorado and Wyoming.

Most Central American immigrants came after the 1980s.

In Arizona and New Mexico now, more than 90 percent of foreign-born Latin Americans are Mexican. In contrast, the figure is closer to 10 percent in Florida and New York, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates. Those two states have a dizzying diversity in Latin American immigrants, from Cubans to Chileans.

For Jonathan P. Ramos-Pichardo, a Mexican immigrant living in Seattle, general relations among Hispanics need work.

"I think Latino America in general has to change its mentality of competitiveness and we have to work toward of the well-being of all of us," Ramos-Pichardo said.