History

• America experienced many waves of immigration from Europe in the 19th and early 20th centuries, which slowed after the Great Depression. According to the University of California Immigration and Integration Center, many African-Americans moved North and West after World War II and brought their own unique culture to the northern and western cities. Another wave of immigration, mainly from Latin America and Asia, began in the 1970s and changed the cultural landscape of the South and West.
  
  

Demographics

• Different groups of people moved to and now live in different areas. According to the 2000 U.S. Census, many Latino-Americans live in the South and West, and many African Americans live in the South and urban centers in the Northeast. There are many Asian-Americans on the West Coast, especially California. Urban centers, however, have a great variety of diverse cultures, no matter in what part of the country they are located. Although there are traditional neighborhoods (Chinatowns are a good example), people from every continent live, work and go to school together in American cities.
  
  

Diverse Food

• Chinese food is very popular all over the United Statesgong pao chicken ting image by Hao Wang from Fotolia.com
  
  One of the first aspects of a new culture to find its way into a mainstream is the food. Not everyone is a tailor or a musician, but everyone has to eat every day. A 2007 Harris poll indicated that besides "American," Italian is the most popular food when it comes to dining out, but there are many others. Mexican, Chinese and Italian foods can be found in every major city in America, whether at a restaurant or being cooked at home.
  
  

Music Diversity

• Music is another major component of culture. There are many different forms of popular music in America. Salsa, for instance, is a popular sound and dance brought from Latin America. It is now listened to all over the United States. Jazz, the blues and rock 'n' roll have their origins in rural African-African communities in the Mississippi Delta region, mixing European ballads with African music styles.
  
  

Language Barrier

• One difficulty in preserving diversity is the fact that many children of immigrants do not learn their parents' language. Often parents want their children to be able to assimilate quickly. According to the Center for Applied Linguistics, it is common in children for "fluency in the first language to decline as English improves." As such, they cannot listen to music or watch movies in the "heritage" language, and they find it difficult to communicate in the original language. Often they cannot communicate with their relatives outside of the United States who don't speak English.