The United States is always in the act of becoming, remaking itself.  Like all nations, America’s population replaces itself through the generation of a new people, except that unlike other nations it has done so in the context of an inventive society endlessly progressing somewhere.  No one has ever laid out a plan for America.  It happened as the result of hard work, freedom, perseverance and luck.  Were the American continent 2,500 instead of 3,500 miles from Europe, history would almost certainly have been different.  Indeed, geography is crucial for any nation.  Left alone for a decisive period, American society was able to adopt the values of a progressive culture that made it special for a long period of time.  Now, its geography and a great demographic moment are remaking a country hard to recognize from even two decades ago, and the role of Hispanic or Latinos is watershed.

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