For each new wave of arrivals, the hardships have been the same: a mysterious language to be mastered, an education to be pursued, a career to be won. So it has been with one of the nation's newest, yet at the same time oldest immigrant groups: the 19 million Hispanic Americans, who are now so much a part of the fabric of American life that the correspondents reporting this week's cover story found their most difficult job was simply knowing where to begin.

Working in the old Spanish Southwest, TIME'S Edward Boyer needed five weeks to complete his interviews. Says Boyer: "Like the immigrant Europeans, the Hispanics have had to endure every humiliation. But many have also experienced the joy of being able to get a job, put food on the table and get an education."

Chicago Correspondent Roberto Suro took advantage of his own Hispanic background. Entering a ramshackle tavern in the city's largest Mexican neighborhood, he was at first rebuffed by a bartender. Says Suro: "When I told him my name and began to speak Spanish, he warmed up and even encouraged his customers to tell me about their experiences."

Miami Bureau Chief Dick Woodbury got an entirely different reception from the Cubans of Little Havana. They not only plied him with home-cooked meals, cafe con leche and cigars, but insisted on telling their stories.

To learn about her city's 1.3 million Puerto Ricans, New York Correspondent Mary Cronin roamed from the South Bronx to that hallowed immigrant turf, the Lower East Side. Says she: "All the people were warm and brave, full of a joy of life, full of poetry, determined to hold on to their own rich culture in spite of incredible obstacles."

Our cover story was written from these detailed reports by Associate Editor George Russell, who was assisted by Betty Satterwhite, the chief researcher in the NATION section. We're particularly proud of this kind of article: a subtle, complex and human account of a special American experience.

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