Latinos are the second largest minority group in the United States.' As a group, they are young, with a median age of 24 (compared with 32 for the majority population), and their numbers are rapidly growing. It is projected that by the turn of the century, they will surpass African Americans and become the largest minority group in the country. According to 1985 statistics (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1988) there are approximately 1 7 million Latinos in the United States excluding Puerto Rico, which means that Latinos make up over 7% of the population of the continental United States. In 30 years, this will double from 17 million to 34 million.Of the Latino groups, Mexican Americans number over 10 million, and most live in the southwestern part of the country. Next come Puerto Ricans, who in the northeast section of the country number about 2.5 million, and in Puerto Rico have a population of 3.5 million. Cubans are the third 'As de la Vega (1990, has indicated,Latino is currently viewed as the "politically appropriate" term to refer to people of Central and South America a s well as to those from the Caribbean regions or to their descendents in the United States. It is used in preference to the term Hispanic, meaning Spanish-speaking, which does not connote the ethniciracial origin of these populations L.4TINO MENTAL HEALTH NEEDS 59

With the changes that are occurring in societal demographics, graduate psychology training programs need to address the issue of preparing future psychologists to conduct research and treatment with a rapidly growing minority population. This chapter serves as an introduction to Parts I1 and I11 by presenting a brief overview of the status of minorities in the training of psychologists and by highlighting a number of factors evident in the training programs presented in Parts I1 and I11 that have successfully incorporated cultural diversity into their curricula and training process. Minorities in PsychologyIn Part I, the authors have provided the rationale for the training of more ethnic minority psychologists. The shortage of minorities in the educational pipeline leading to the PhD in psychology has been evident for a number of years. Data collected by the Office of Demographic, Employment, and Educational Research (ODEER) of the American Psychological Association ( APA) strongly indicates that the profession needs to increase its efforts in the area of minority recruitment and retention. According to a report from ODEER (Pion, Kohout, & Wicherski, 19891, ethnic minorities make up only 5% of the graduate faculty in psychology. Of the 5%, 3% are African American, 1% Hispanic Ame'rican, and 1% Asian American. American Indians make up less than 1% of graduate faculty positions. These figures have not DIVERSITY IN TRAINING PROGRAMS 67

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