The 2020 Census reveals Latinxs account for almost a third of the total American Indian identifying population, a significant increase from past years. Martinez's research seeks to broaden understandings of this understudied population. Indigenous Latinxs (ILs) are recent Indigenous migrants from Latin America, descendants of these migrants who continue to identify as Indigenous, and Latinxs who recently started to identify as Indigenous. This research accounts for the characteristics of ILs and the socioeconomic challenges they experience at a national level. Martinez examines those who identify as “Hispanic or Latino” and “American Indian or Alaska Native” in Decennial census from 2000 to 2020. She uses data from the American Community Survey from this same period as well. This study shows that ILs are more likely to be younger, receive food stamps and have completed fewer years of education than their non-Indigenous Latinxs counterparts in the United States. These findings contribute to ethnographic research on the experiences of marginalization of Indigenous migrant communities in the United States. This research shows that economic and educational disadvantages are not problems only a few Indigenous communities face: they are a national trend. Furthermore, this research highlights changing patterns in self-identification as IL in the past decades.  

A light lunch will be available.