Well thats the question; How it is used. The difinition of the term Hispanic can easly be argued on both sides without any agreement.
African Americans champion that term "African American", because it was the first indentification of black americans given by black americans to black americans and not by white americans given to black americans thats why it is used today
The approach should be the same for Hispanics. For one, no one can identify someone from Panama, Cuba or Argentina by just looking at them. So you have to squash that. Most of the people in my family who are Cuban don't have that typical "Cuban' look as portraid in the states so thats the last thing anyone would identify them as.
I suggest that the hispanic, latino or whatever you want to be called need to indentify with something while living in the United States, because if you don't, like many other cultures here, the government and statisticians will give you an indentity. We already know that makes groups angry.
Remember we are not in a latin country, we are in the states or countries like the states.
This was my old post awhile back so you can understand where I'm coming from--------------
Latino/a I see as a Cultural characteristic as is a Dominican being a cultural characteristic of a group of people living in the country of The Dominican Republic. YET there are variable Races within the country of the Dominican Republic mainly mixed with the three dominate races. Negroid, Caucasoid, and Taino( help me someone) I don't know how the scientist distinguish Natives/Indians when it came to these race labels. Anybody have a scientific term?
Latinos are not a race. The terminology "latino" denotes one's cultural and geographic ties to Latin America. A "mexican" would be a resident of the geographic land mass known as Mexico. A "Puerto Rican" would be a resident of the geographic land mass known as Puerto Rico. There is no such thing as the "hispanic race". The term "hispanic" denotes one's linguistic ties to the spanish language. Many chicanos take issue with being called "hispanics".
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