A Nicaraguan American (, nicaragüense-estadounidense, or ) is an American of Nicaraguan descent. They are also referred to as "nica" or "nicoya".
The Nicaraguan American population at the 2010 Census was 348,202. Nicaraguans are the eleventh largest Hispanic group in the United States and the fourth largest Central American population.
More than two-thirds of the Nicaraguan population in the U.S. resides in California or Florida.
In California, Nicaraguans are more dominant in the Greater Los Angeles Area and San Francisco Bay Area. Large populations also reside in the Inland Empire and the cities of Sacramento, San Diego, and San Jose.
In Florida, 90% of Nicaraguans reside in the Miami metropolitan area. Miami-Dade County is home to 30% of Nicaraguans residing in the United States.
Immigrational history
Nicaraguans have immigrated to the United States in small groups since the early 1900s, but their presence was especially felt over the last three decades of the 20th century. The Nicaraguan community is mainly concentrated in three major urban areas: Metropolitan Miami, Greater Los Angeles, and San Francisco Bay Area. A more affluent group of Nicaraguan Americans reside in the New York metropolitan area.
According to Immigration and Naturalization Service figures, 23,261 Nicaraguans were admitted as permanent residents between 1976 and 1985; 75,264 were admitted between 1986 and 1993; and 94,582 between 1994 and 2002, with a total of 193,107 Nicaraguan immigrants being granted legal status since 1976.
The earliest documents of immigration from Nicaragua to the United States was combined in total with those of other Central American countries. However, according to the U.S. Census Bureau some 7,500 Nicaraguans legally immigrated from 1967 to 1976. An estimated 28,620 Nicaraguans were living in the U.S. in 1970, 90% of which self-reported as white on the 1970 census. Most Nicaraguan immigrants during the late 1960s were women: there were only 60 male Nicaraguan immigrants for every 100 female immigrants during this period. This was due to the number of Central American women who came to the US to work as domestic servants while sending remittances back home. Most Central Americans were denied refugee asylum status during the 1980s. While the U.S. Refugee Act of 1980 wanted to favor U.S. foreign policy to help political asylum seekers it mostly favored only Eastern Bloc or Communist nations or countries in the Middle East. "Asylum decisions with respect to Salvadorans and Guatemalans reflected U.S. foreign policy, which supported their governments" such as U.S. involvement in regime change in Latin America. Many Nicaraguans were rejected despite the Reagan Administration’s stance on helping political refugees. “During the early 1980s, approximately 10 percent of Nicaraguan applicants, compared to 2 to 3 percent of those from El Salvador and Guatemala, received asylum.”
Over 62 percent of the total documented immigration from 1979 to 1988 occurred after 1984. In 1998 more than two million Nicaraguans were left homeless due to hurricane Mitch, as a result many Nicaraguans received permanent residence or temporary protected status (TPS) in the late 1990s.
According to the 1990 U.S. census 168,659 of the total 202,658 documented Nicaraguans in the U.S. were born in Nicaragua. In 1992 approximately 10–12% of the Nicaraguan population had emigrated. These emigrants tended to be disproportionately of working age, better educated, and more often white-collar workers than non-migrants. In addition, emigrants were more likely to come from larger premigration households and higher income households.
Motives for Immigration The Sandinista revolution that started in the mid-1970s and the Contra war that followed brought the first large waves of Nicaraguan refugees into the U.S. As a result of the de-privatization reforms under the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN)'s rule (from 1979 to 1990), the first wave of approximately 120,000 Nicaraguans left Nicaragua and entered the United States.Konczal, Lisa. Nicaraguan Immigrants. In Multicultural America: An Encyclopedia of the Newest Americans edited by Ron Baylor. Greenwood Press, 2011, p. 1566.
They consisted mainly of large landholders, industrialists, and managers of North American enterprises. Many Nicaraguan upper-class exiles had economic roots in the United States and in Miami before the upheaval. This phase of upper-class arrivals included exiled dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle and his family, who owned homes in Miami and were among the richest people in Florida (ibid).
Another major wave of Nicaraguans to the United States, consisting primarily of blue collar workers, peaked in the dramatic exodus of early 1989.Portes, Alejandro and Alex Stepick. City on the Edge: The Transformation of Miami. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993, p. 152. Again, their motivation for migration was to escape from both political and economic torment in their homeland. By the late 1980s, the war, Hurricane Joan in 1988, and a severe drought in 1989 left the country in economic ruins. Many of these Nicaraguan immigrants settled in poor and deteriorated sections of Miami, where struggling Cubans who came during the Mariel boatlift exodus of 1980 had previously lived.Konczal, Lisa, p. 1567.
Many Nicaraguans who immigrated did so to escape poverty. In Santa Clara County, California, the Nicaraguan public benefits recipients reported that in their families, 43% have one self-employed person or business owner, and 14% of the families have two such persons.
Cultural Nicaraguan Americans are Spanish-speaking and predominately Catholic. They celebrate the patron saints of the Roman Catholic Church with festivals and processions, which also provide a context for artistic and cultural expressions of the local identity. The most important patronal festivals for communities in Florida include Santa Ana, San Sebastian, La Purisima, San Jeronimo and La Griteria.Encyclopedia Latina: History, Culture, And Society In The United States, Book 3 Nicaragua is one of the most traditionalist countries in the Americas and so the majority of Nicaraguans define themselves as socially conservatives regardless of party affiliations or place of residence within the United States.
Demographics
Outside of California and Florida, Nicaraguans can also be found in New York City, New Orleans Metro, and the Washington metropolitan area. Cities with noticeable Nicaraguan populations also include Charlotte, Houston, Jersey City, and Camden, Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Madison. The Amigos de las Americas program set in motion by John F. Kennedy in the early 1960s promoted the sisterhood between states of the U.S. and third world countries. Wisconsin is the original sister State to Nicaragua. Employment and Student exchange programs in the past were the main reason for the first Nicaraguan to arrive and settle in that Midwest State.
States The 10 states with the largest population of Nicaraguans (Source: 2010 Census): Florida - 135,143 California - 100,790 Texas - 19,817 New York - 13,006 New Jersey - 8,222 Maryland- 8,196 Virginia - 7,388 Louisiana - 6,390 North Carolina - 4,964 Georgia - 4,787
Areas The largest population of Nicaraguans are situated in the following areas (Source: Census 2010): Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL MSA - 118,768 Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, CA MSA - 40,607 San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA MSA - 30,807 New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-PA MSA - 17,987 Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV MSA - 14,187 Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA MSA - 9,793 Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, TX MSA - 9,496 New Orleans-Metairie-Kenner, LA MSA - 5,310 San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA MSA - 4,540 Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, FL MSA - 4,083 Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX MSA - 3,964 Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, GA MSA - 3,719 Las Vegas-Paradise, NV MSA - 3,587 Sacramento-Arden-Arcade-Roseville, CA MSA - 3,269 Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD MSA - 3,163 Chicago-Joliet-Naperville, IL-IN-WI MSA - 2,928 Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL MSA - 2,589 Phoenix-Mesa-Glendale, AZ MSA - 2,169 San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, CA MSA - 2,025 Charlotte-Gastonia-Rock Hill, NC-SC MSA - 1,912 Vallejo-Fairfield, CA MSA - 1,750 Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX MSA - 1,714 Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA MSA - 1,635 San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX MSA - 1,547 Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, MA-NH MSA - 1,438
U.S. communities with largest population of people of Nicaraguan ancestry
The top 25 U.S. communities with the highest populations of Nicaraguans (Source: Census 2010)
Miami - 28,618 Los Angeles - 15,572 Hialeah, Florida - 10,410 San Francisco - 7,604 Fontainebleau, Florida - 6,738 Houston, Texas - 4,226 Kendale Lakes, Florida - 3,560 Tamiami, Florida - 3,476 Sweetwater, Florida - 3,102 San Jose, California - 2,917 Kendall, Florida - 2,629 The Hammocks, Florida - 2,391 Kendall West, Florida - 2,265 Miami Gardens, Florida - 2,134 West Little River, Florida - 2,112 Richmond West, Florida - 2,039 Miami Lakes, Florida - 1,772 Hayward, California - 1,745 Miramar, Florida - 1,691 South San Francisco, California - 1,639 South Miami Heights, Florida - 1,585 Metairie, Louisiana - 1,462 Pembroke Pines, Florida - 1,423 Homestead, Florida - 1,354 Hialeah Gardens and Hollywood, Florida - 1,321
U.S. communities with high percentages of people of Nicaraguan ancestry The top 25 U.S. communities with the highest percentages of Nicaraguans as a percent of total population (Source: Census 2010) Sweetwater, Florida - 22.98% Fontainebleau, Florida - 11.27% Miami, Florida - 7.16% Richmond West, Florida - 6.38% Kendale Lakes, Florida - 6.34% Tamiami, Florida - 6.29% Kendall West, Florida - 6.26% West Little River, Florida - 6.09% Hialeah Gardens, Florida - 6.08% Brownsville, Florida - 5.66% Stock Island, Florida - 5.66% Medley, Florida - 4.89% Princeton, Florida - 4.89% Gladeview, Florida - 4.83% The Hammocks, Florida - 4.69% Hialeah, Florida - 4.63% South Miami Heights, Florida - 4.44% University Park, Florida - 4.32% Rollingwood, California - 4.14% Palmetto Estates, Florida - 4.13% Colma, California - 4.02% Miami Lakes, Florida and Country Walk, Florida - 3.90% The Crossings, Florida - 3.89% Country Club, Florida - 3.76% Westwood Lakes, Florida - 3.72%
Notable people
Alex Blandino, MLB player Marvin Benard, MLB player Mark Vientos, MLB player Maurice Benard, actor on American soap operas Bella Blue, burlesque dancer Nastassja Bolívar, beauty pageant winner Theo Von, comedian Randy Caballero, professional boxer Barbara Carrera, actress in film and TV Oswaldo Castillo, actor Michael Cordúa restaurateur DJ Craze, DJ Salomón de la Selva, poet Franck de Las Mercedes, painter Miguel D'Escoto, Roman Catholic priest and former foreign minister Omar D'León, painter and poet Edward'O, astrologer and TV host Luis Enrique, singer Bill Guerin, NHL hockey player Bianca Jagger, human rights advocate Diana López, taekwondo Mark López, taekwondo Steven López, taekwondo Dennis Martínez, MLB player (1976–1998) Camilo Mejía, former Staff Sergeant of the Florida National Guard turned anti-war activist Tony Meléndez, singer, composer, writer and musician Christianne Meneses Jacobs, children's magazine publisher Ana Navarro, Republican strategist and political commentator David Obregón, professional boxer Horacio Peña, professor, writer, and poet Eddy Piñeiro, NFL placekicker Claudia Poll, Nicaraguan-born swimmer Silvia Poll, Nicaraguan-born swimmer Hope Portocarrero, former First Lady of Nicaragua (1967–1978) James Quesada, anthropologist and professor Mari Ramos, weather anchor for CNN Tammy Rivera, singer and television personality J Smooth, bilingual hip hop and reggaeton singer Hilda Solis, U.S. congresswoman and the 25th United States Secretary of Labor