The Hispanics around here come from the Central American countries, South America, Spain itself, and the Caribbean!
We have several Mexican restaurants in Springfield and Annandale. I'm thinking real hard and I think maybe I've seen 1 or 2 Mexicans actually working in one of them in the last 20 years.
Most of our illegals in Fairfax County are non-Hispanic as well.
I wasn't sure, but had based my statements on conversations with local Mexicans. I checked on Google, though, and found that Mexicans only represent 7% of the DC hispanics... I stand (almost) corrected.
• There is a larger number of bilingual Latinos in the Washington area as compared to the national average. This is a reflection of the higher educational and economic levels of the Washington community.
• In terms of ethnicity, Salvadoreans represent the dominant Latino subgroup in the Washington D.C. area (29%), followed by Bolivians, Puerto Ricans and Nicaraguans (around 8% each), Mexicans (7%), Guatemalans and Colombians (6%) and Cubans (5%). It is one the most diverse Latino markets in the United States.