The Chileans

States. Unlike most European and several Asian and Latin American immigrant groups, Chileans have no formal nationally elected organization in the United States, hence no national source of data, no national publication, and no nationwide lobby. This lack of a visible national presence is due in part to the small number of Chileans in the United States. A second factor is that in the United States, Chileans are commonly subsumed with other Latin Americans (and Spanish speakers) under the rubric "Hispanic," not only in most census data but in common practice. Whatever their ancestry (Spanish, Basque, Italian, German, Arab, Croat, native aboriginal, or mixed), when they reach this country Chileans are Hispanics or Latin Americans.6 However, as is the case in Las Vegas, Chileans do not readily identify themselves as Hispanics or Latin Americans. Historically isolated since the time when their land was Spain's most remote American colony and sealed off by a parched northern desert, the Pacific Ocean, and the formidable barrier of the Andes, Chileans consider themselves a people apart. Only in the age of jet travel and the Internet, and because of political exile, has this sense of separateness begun to break down. It is their strong sense of nationalism and feeling of being different from other Latin Americans that explains why the community of Chileans in Las Vegas is so organized and active.