[legion]

Part II:

From 1995 to 2005, median income soared among Hispanics and income inequality among Hispanics declined, the Census Bureau reports. But this robust trend of upward mobility made the nation more unequal. Why? The growing numbers of Hispanics, who tend to be younger and poorer, may be prospering compared with where their parents started. But they're poorer than white baby boomers entering their most affluent years.

Juan Guillermo Tornoe, 38, an advertising executive in Austin, had an MBA and top newspaper marketing position in Guatemala before moving to the USA in 2002.

"I am 100% sure that the upward mobility of Hispanics will continue," he says. "I've seen it in my work. I've seen it in the data. I've seen it in my own family."

A cousin who arrived 20 years ago has a good job, nice clothes and a nearly paid-off home. "She would be lower-middle class in Guatemala," he says. "Here, she lives a tranquil, prosperous life."

Jeff Barham, 33, who works in human resources in Sterling Heights, Mich., feels confident about his future.

His college debt is paid off, his employer paid for him to get a master's degree, and his wife is a schoolteacher. But he worries whether his generation has enough discipline and opportunity to equal his parents' economic success.

"I have friends with every new gadget out there," he says. "They have a big house, two cars, college loans. I have no idea how they're making it on their incomes."