leo_DR said:
I've been told that the term "Hispanic" and even "Latino" were the US governments way to keep an accurate (or somewhat accurate) account of how many Spanish-speaking citizens it has. (Can anyone back me up on this?)
When I was an international student studying in the US up until today, I always find US race categories interesting and puzzling.
I have deep roots in the D.R. and consider myself puro Dominicano. I dislike the term Hispanic and have never used it to describe myself.
Leo
Correct. The terms "hispanic", and "latino", were totally fabricated by the United States. No person from a Latin American country would ever say they were "latino", or "hispanic". They have regular racial categories in Latin American Countries.
It is only in the United States, that people conform to these vague and rediculous categories. The first, second, and third generation of immigrants for some reason cling to these rediculous categories, and state with pride that they are "Latino", like that actually means something. Often times these individuals cant even speak spanish, and they are more american than anything else.
Its use is mostly political, because other wise "Latino" makes no sense.
1) Its cannot be based on language because then Italian, French, and Portugese speaking immigrants would also be Latino; since the languages are equally as latin.
2) Its not a culture because, "Latin" Americans are people from various countries, with completely different cultures.
3) It most certianly is not a racial or ethnic category, because people from latin american countries are from various different racial and ethnic categories.
This rediculous category was created for several reasons. The most significant one is the race issue. Standards of racial classification are completely different in Latin American countries. In particular the rules regarding what a "black" and "white" person is. When the first waves of Cubans and Puertoricans came to the united States, it was before there was a Hispanic/Latino category, and the majority of Cubans and Puertoricans were putting "white" as their race. But by american standards most Cubans and Puertoricans are far from being white.
In Cuba and Puerto rico they have a much more elastic definition of what a "white" person is; to be white you only have to be of mostly european ancestry, since nearly all people in those countries were very racially mixed. In the United States that is not the case. Here a white person is defined as someone with NO black precursors, the whitest looking american is black so long as they have black ancestry. In Cuba and Puerto rico, "white" people will often have black a parent, grandparents, cousins, etc; as long as your skin is light enough your considered "white".
Since there was no way that the united states could make all these new immigrants conform to U.S rules of racial classification, they decided to make this hispanic/latino category to keep them from innacurately claiming "whiteness".
Imagine if there was no hispanic/latino category, and people like Sammy Sosa would come to united states and put their race as "Indian" (like it says on his passport and birth cirtificate). The US government is simply avoiding bullshit like that.
