By Lori Fradkin,Ruairí Arrieta-Kenna

Copyright time

“People tend to put you in a box—you know, you’re Mexican, and you’re this way,” says Ignacio “Nacho” Jimenez, who this year won a James Beard Award for his New York City cocktail bar Superbueno, about his early experience trying to make a life and career in the U.S.

It’s a familiar feeling for many Latinos in the U.S., despite their diversity of identities and national backgrounds.

And, research shows, there are an equally diverse range of ways in which Latino immigrants and their descendants are crucial parts of the country. An October 2024 fact sheet by the nonpartisan American Immigration Council cited a study that found that communities with higher shares of Latinos were “associated with decreases in the number of homicides, assaults, and burglaries.” Latinos start more businesses per capita than any other racial or ethnic group in the U.S., notes a December report by McKinsey. And while Latinos represent just under 20% of the U.S. population, they account for over 30% of the country’s economic growth, according to UCLA research published in April.