Latinos were already living in what would become the U.S. before the nation existed . U.S. Latino population is growing fast , and traditional demographic patterns are shifting . Once , Latino presence was mainly in a few regions , but that has changed dramatically . The largest Hispanic populations live in California ( > 1 million ), Texas ( < 500,000 ), New York City ( ~500k ), Florida ( ~ 300K ), Arizona ( ~200K )
Latinos were already living in what would become the U.S. before the nation existed . U.S. Latino population is growing fast , and traditional demographic patterns are shifting . Once , Latino presence was mainly in a few regions , but that has changed dramatically . The Southeast , once uniformly native-born , now has large Latino communities .