News from the 2015 American Community Service shows good increases in the numbers of Mexican Americans attending college, achieving educational attainment, and holding jobs in industries including science, management, and business.

• Mexican American college enrollment increased from 18.7% to 18.9% between 2014 and 2015
• Graduate or professional degree attainment among Mexican Americans rose from 2.9% to 3.0%
• The number of Mexican Americans achieving bachelor’s degrees rose from 7.6% to 7.8% in 2015

Despite these numbers, Mexican Americans are still near the bottom of college enrollment and educational attainment by race and ethnicity.

The University of California is proactive in pushing for a greater number of underrepresented minorities. The number Chicano/Latino students attending UOC increased by 2.7% since 2014; this group now makes up 32.3% of admitted university freshmen.

In terms of occupations, the number of Mexican Americans making up part of the management, business, science, and art occupations continues to rise, from 16.6% to 17.5% from 2012 to 2015. Mexican Americans have also seen consistent numbers in the professional, scientific, management, administrative, and waste management services occupations, keeping steady at 10.2% of all jobs in these fields held by Mexican Americans.

These numbers represent continuing gains in higher education and professional jobs for Mexican Americans.

By Humberto Gutierrez
Edited by Kristen House

The 2014 American Community Survey shows low enrollment numbers for Mexican American students in the 2014-2015 school year.

In 2013, graduate and/or professional degree achievement rate was 11.2% of the total population but only 2.8% of Mexican Americans. In 2014, the graduate and/or professional degree achievement rate grew to 11.4% of the overall population and 2.9% of Mexican Americans.

Graduate and professional degree achievement has increased slightly between 2013 and 2014. Degree achievement rates among Mexican Americans also increased slightly, from 2.8 to 2.9 percent. This is an improvement from the 2012-2013 rates, which showed a .1% drop in college enrollment among the total population and a .5% drop in Mexican American college enrollment.

In 2013, only 2.8% of Mexican Americans and 1.5% of foreign-born Mexican Americans completed a graduate or professional degree. This number is up .1% since last year’s statistics.

Research has shown that many Mexican Americans are getting their associate’s or bachelor’s degrees, at 21.8% and 7.3% respectively in 2013, but are not moving on to pursue a graduate or professional degree.

References

• Census Bureau, Selected Population Profile in the United States: 2012 and 2013
• Census Bureau, Selected Population Profile in the United States: 2013 and 2014
• United States S0201 and B 05006. Selected population Profile in the United States
• Population groups: Mexican and Mexico (foreign-born)
• Data set: American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates for years 2012 and 2013
• Census Bureau, American Fact Finder, Selected population Profile in the Untied States

Only 2.8 percent of Mexican American college graduates move on to get a graduate or professional degree, and worse for foreign-born Mexican Americans: only 1.5 percent of that group goes on to get a graduate degree or certificate.

Mexican-American-Proarchive.com releases the troublesome educational attainment figures for the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey for the year 2013.

Although the college or graduate school enrollment in 2013 did not change much since 2012, the educational attainment for these groups of Mexican Americans is unacceptable. ¿Que paso? It’s true that out of the already low 18.1 percent enrollment of all Mexican Americans in higher education, 7.3 percent complete their B.A. and 21.8 percent complete some college or associate’s degree, but only 2.8 percent of Mexican Americans obtain a graduate or professional degree. This is terrible in comparison to the total population, which has a graduate or professional degree completion rate of 11.2 percent.

A bright light in the horizon is a program formed by an alliance of Berkeley, Stanford, UCLA, and Caltech Universities “to unite and boost minority Ph.D. students and faculty” by “creating a unique, cross-institutional community of underrepresented minorities and developing faculty training to better recognize and help this group.”

Mexican American Pro Archives (https://www.mexican-american-proarchive.com) is proud to announce the best occupations for Mexican American professionals during this decade.

The U.S. Bureaus of Labor Statistics has listed occupations with the largest job growth. This data as compared with the latest American Community Survey for 2012 shows the following results.

Here is a selected list of professional workers with their percentage growth for the years 2010 to 2020.

The American Community survey has consistently showed during the past three years that Mexican Americans are making good progress in Business, Science and Art occupations. Their numbers have moved from 16.2% in 2010 to 16.6% for the year of 2012. These numbers still pale in comparison to the general population which grew from 35.9% in 2010 to 39.6% in 2012. Nonetheless, there is progress and that is always welcome.

Listed below are listed some of the occupations that the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects as having the largest job growth for the years of 2010 to 2020:

• Medical Assistants will grow by 30.9%
• Physicians and Surgeons will grow by 24.4%
• Licensed Practical and Licensed Vocational Nurses will grow by 22.4%
• Registered Nurses will grow by 14.3%
• In addition the latest American Community Survey showed that College and/or Graduate School Enrollment has continued to grow from 16.8% in 2010 to 18.2% in 2012. This percentage is growing at a faster rate than the general population which grew from 28.3% in 2010 to 28.8% in 2012

Some of the jobs that the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that could be filled my Mexican American Professionals include:

• Postsecondary Teachers will grow by 17.4%
• Elementary School Teachers, Except Special Education will grow by 16.8%
• Accountants and Auditors will grow by 15.7%
• First-Line Supervisors of Office and Administrative Support Workers will grow by 14.3%

Mexican American Pro Archives website, mexican-american-proarchive.com, is dedicated to sharing articles and pertinent information on “the silent minority.”

SAN FRANCISCO, May 3, 2009 – Lack of centralized information on “the silent minority” inspired, Humberto Gutierrez, to establish mexican-american-proarchive.com as a resource dedicated to tracking the progress of Mexican American Professionals in the U.S.

The website includes original content from Mr. Gutierrez, a Mexican American writer and educator, but also encourages readers to post information relevant to the topic. Gutierrez “hopes the site will become an archive and resource of information to facilitate the distribution of information which impacts Mexican American Professionals.”

Gutierrez stresses that there is a significant lack of serious research on the Mexican American Professional demographic. He came to this realization about fives years ago after an unsuccessful attempt to find reliable information on the topic.

Gutierrez’s quest for information prompted “The Silent Minority: Mexican American Professionals. An Odyssey in Search of Elusive data.” The article, published in Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education Magazine on July 28 2003, discusses the lack of reliable data on Mexican American Professionals.

Since publishing the article, Gutierrez has acquired updated information. Latest numbers from the Census Bureau’s 2007 American Community Survey show that Mexican American college graduates are greatly underrepresented when compared to other Hispanics.

Mexican Americans have and are still relegated to tired stereotypes of drug traffickers, lovers and service workers. The Mexican American community numbers close to 30 million, roughly 10% of our total population. The Mexican American Community is represented by a wide variety of persons including professionals. As a group, Mexican American professionals have been largely ignored by the news media. Recent numbers show that Mexican American College graduates represent only 6.2 % of their total population. This compares with 29.4% for Non-Hispanic graduates.

Mexican Americans are the lowest in educational attainment among Hispanics. Compared with other Foreign Born groups, Mexican Americans do even worse. For example, college graduates from Mexico represent 5.2% of their total population. In comparison, Indian college graduates have a 74.1% representation.

About mexican-american-proarchive.com:
Mexican American Pro Archives (https://www.mexican-american-proarchive.com) is dedicated to archiving information about Mexican American Professionals. Creator and administrator, Humberto Gutierrez, was born in Chihuahua Mexico and relocated to the United States as a teenager. Gutierrez has been an educator and writer for over 35 years. Please contact to request more information.

Contact:
Humberto Gutierrez, Administrator
Mexican American Pro Archives
Phone: 650-738-8584
betooliv@comcast.net