The second American revolution

: Demonstrators protest along Broadway, New York, against a law to classify undocumented migrants as criminals. Photo / Reuters

Eddie "El Piolin" Sotelo does not look like a revolutionary threat to America. He is short, stocky, with neat dark hair and a broad smile. His nickname means simply "Tweety Bird" in Spanish. Until 18 months ago, Sotelo was virtually unknown. Though more than a million listeners tuned into his radio show, most Americans were blissfully unaware of his championing of the rights of illegal immigrants - simply because he did it in Spanish.

Then, one day, he publicised protests against a draft law to classify undocumented migrants as felons. Sotelo urged his Hispanic listeners to take to the streets. They answered his call in their millions.

In Los Angeles, 400,000 marchers streamed through downtown. A similar number jammed Chicago. In dozens of cities millions of people were suddenly protesting against a law few other Americans even knew about. And El Piolin was at the front of the marchers. "More than two million marched. And I am proud that we were peaceful," he says.

The demonstrators left a stunned America asking one question: who are these people? The answer, it seems, is simple: they are America's future.

The United States is in the grip of a demographic change the like of which has not been seen since the 19th century.

A mass immigration is taking place that dwarfs the flow of Irish, Germans, Jews and Italians that, 100 years ago, saw America rise to a superpower. It is a movement of Hispanic immigrants - legal and illegal - and the explosive growth of their descendants.

In 1950 there were just four million Spanish-speaking Americans, and the word Hispanic had not even been coined. Now there are 44 million and they have surpassed blacks as the country's largest minority. By 2050 there will be 103 million Hispanics - a quarter of all Americans.

That change has had a huge impact on what it means to be American. From politics to the economy, sport and the arts, the US is changing. Spanish is becoming the nation's second language. Their spending power is nearly US$1 trillion ($1.275 trillion), which, if Hispanic America were a separate country, would give it the ninth largest economy on earth.

"What is happening now is one of the most important moments in American history," says Professor Ruben Rumbaut, a sociologist at the University of California. This is a second American revolution.

Every immigrant has a story. Rodolfo Acevedo left Argentina in 1990 for the same reason most other migrants come to America: opportunity. "Argentina had just gone through hyperinflation. It was a chance to get a better life," he says.

Acevedo wanted to be an architect. On arrival in Florida the only job he could get was at a restaurant. But as the diner was popular with architects, he brought in his drawings.