Qualifying as Hispanic/Latino

Alltimegreat

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Nov 16, 2012
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Would having Dominican citizenship be sufficient in itself to qualify as Hispanic/Latino in the US for the purpose of college admissions, diversity scholarships, etc.? Any thoughts?
 

the gorgon

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Sep 16, 2010
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Would having Dominican citizenship be sufficient in itself to qualify as Hispanic/Latino in the US for the purpose of college admissions, diversity scholarships, etc.? Any thoughts?

i do not believe that if you are a naturalized Dominican citizen that you are considered to be Hispanic, unless you have some link to Spain..
 

Matilda

RIP Lindsay
Sep 13, 2006
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And with dual nationality you are considered to be the nationality of the country to which you are closest. In the DR you are Dominican, in Haiti you are Dominican, assuming you are American in the US you are American. If you are British, in the US you are Dominican.

Matilda
 

Matilda

RIP Lindsay
Sep 13, 2006
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Further away. Under diplomatic protocol if you have dual nationality the country you are closest to is the one you are a national of and last time I looked the USA was closer to the DR than the UK.

Mat
 

AlterEgo

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Jan 9, 2009
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I believe "citizenship" and "ethnicity" are not necessarily interchangeable.



Exactly, those programs are normally based on ethnicity, plus income/need. *Our children got zero towards their education despite being Dominican, because we both were working.*
 

Mu?ecote

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Aug 1, 2006
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hopefully before i leave this world i will see people being admitted to college because of their grades and the content of their character instead of their ethnicity

in the middle 90's when all this nonsense started i was filling out the employment form at a big company i decided to make a small stand so i checked pacific islander. after i few days i was called into the human resource office and asked where i was born. as i have northern europe ancestry and looks, the manger wasnt too impressed when i answered Fiji
 

kapitan75

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Jun 3, 2005
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Legaly change your last name, and have documents in that name. Again most scholarships/financial help is based on income, race, and grades. But, there is no DNA testing as a requirement. What happens to actual dominicsn born peoples with anglo last names? Are rhey not dominicans by birth right ? And all those chinese dominicans that go as dominican first, depending on need.
 

sanpedrogringo

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Sep 2, 2011
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Would having Dominican citizenship be sufficient in itself to qualify as Hispanic/Latino in the US for the purpose of college admissions, diversity scholarships, etc.? Any thoughts?
Regardless of the correct answer (if there is one), you have opened up a great debate between myself, 2 friends, and several bottles of wine.
 

Alltimegreat

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Nov 16, 2012
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Wikipedia: "Today, organizations in the United States use the term as a broad catchall to refer to persons with a historical and cultural relationship with Spain, regardless of race and ethnicity. The U.S. Census Bureau defines the ethnonym Hispanic or Latino to refer to "a person of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin regardless of race."

Hispanic Scholarship Fund: "To qualify for this program, students must be at least one-quarter Hispanic/Latino. Hispanic/Latino is an ethnic category, not a racial category; students may be of any race."

Given that Hispanic/Latino is not viewed as a race, physical appearance shouldn't have any bearing on eligibility. Someone with blue eyes and blond hair with typical Nordic features or someone who looks Chinese could be just as Hispanic/Latino as anyone with a typical Mexican appearance. "Students must be at least one-quarter Hispanic/Latino to qualify." There's no reason that someone with Dominican citizenship shouldn't qualify as being 100% Hispanic.

If organizations wishing to eliminate "ethnic fraud" (as some call it) begin investigating or challenging applicants' claims to being Hispanic/Latino, it seems to me that holding citizenship of a Spanish-speaking country would be one of the best pieces of evidence one could have.
 

Riva_31

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Apr 1, 2013
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San Pedro de Macoris
Legaly change your last name, and have documents in that name. Again most scholarships/financial help is based on income, race, and grades. But, there is no DNA testing as a requirement. What happens to actual dominicsn born peoples with anglo last names? Are rhey not dominicans by birth right ? And all those chinese dominicans that go as dominican first, depending on need.

Doesnt matter how you looks like, or what's your name sounds, those programas are based on citizenships, Dominicans borns in USA are taking advantage of the dual citizenship for those progrmas and it's because their Dominican passport and not because their names or if they looks like Dominicans.
 

LTSteve

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Jul 9, 2010
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Would having Dominican citizenship be sufficient in itself to qualify as Hispanic/Latino in the US for the purpose of college admissions, diversity scholarships, etc.? Any thoughts?

Are you Dominican? If not this is a process that takes years to achieve. You first need to apply for residency and have to live in the DR. Whatever your motivation is I don't think this is achieveable if you are living in the US.
 

Alltimegreat

Member
Nov 16, 2012
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Are you Dominican? If not this is a process that takes years to achieve. You first need to apply for residency and have to live in the DR. Whatever your motivation is I don't think this is achieveable if you are living in the US.

I acquired Dominican citizenship last year.
 

PJT

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Jan 8, 2002
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Incentives

The reason for declaring ethnicity for admissions in the US is part of a bigger picture of learning institutions having to conform with government affirmative action programs establishing guidelines to correct the effects of discrimination.

Some, if not all institutions offer incentives to recruit students of racial minorities and to include those of foreign residence. The motivation for the institutions of course is conform with the law. The bait is government subsidies to assist them to reach targeted goals or gov't fines if they don't try.

Being Dominican may be enough to qualify as latino. Yet, wonder if eyebrows would be lifted at school admissions if one's Dominican surname is Smith ?


Regards,

PJT
 

bienamor

Kansas redneck an proud of it
Apr 23, 2004
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If Elizabeth Warren can claim Native American he can probably claim hispanic with no problem