Latvian-American
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| (93,498 (2008 American Community Survey)) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| California, New York, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota | |
| Languages | |
| American English, Latvian | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Lithuanian Americans, Latvians |
Latvian Americans are Americans who are of Latvian ancestry. According to the 2008 American Community Survey, there are 93,498 Americans of full or partial Latvian descent.
Around 1640, Latvians settled in Delaware and Pennsylvania, together with Scandinavian settlers. Later, in 1849, a number of Latvians were part of the thousands of people who immigrated to California looking for fortune during the Gold Rush.
However, the first significant wave of Latvian settlers that immigrated to the United States came in 1888 to Boston. By the end of century, those Latvians immigrants settled primarily in other East Coast and Midwest cities, such as New York City, Philadelphia, Cleveland, and Chicago, as well as in some cities on the West Coast, such as Seattle, Portland, and San Francisco. Some immigrants also established themselves in rural areas, although they were few and usually did not form long-lasting communities. Although most Latvians settle in cities, in most of these (with the exception of the Roxbury district of Boston) the Latvians were also few and they not could form ethnic neighborhoods. The first Lutheran church built by Latvians in the United States was erected in Lincoln County, where there was a Lithuanian agricultural colony that disappeared due to climatic and political problems of its members, in Wisconsin in 1906.
A new wave of Latvian immigration began around 1906, after the failure of their 1905 Revolution in Latvia. Many of the immigrants were political leaders and rank-and-file revolutionaries who could be killed by Russian soldiers if they were discovered, so they decided emigrate and to continue the revolutionary movement in other countries. Due to that most of the Latvians revolutionaries who immigrated in the United States were more politically radical than the earlier Latvian immigrants, reattached divisions even among the leftists themselves.
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