Hispanic and Latino (ethnic categories)

Hispanic and Latino are ethnonyms used to refer collectively to the inhabitants of the United States who are of Spanish (Ibero American of European ancestry, or an aboriginal ancestry pre Columbian origin whose language is Spanish) or Latin American ancestry[1] (see Hispanic and Latino Americans). While many use the terms interchangeably, for example, the United States Census Bureau,[2] others maintain a distinction: Hispanic refers to people from Spanish-speaking countries (including Spain but excluding Brazil), while Latino refers people from Latin American countries (including Brazil but excluding Spain and Portugal).[3][4][5] Spain is included in the Hispanic category, and Brazil is included in the Latino category; Portugal is excluded from both categories. Every Latin American country is included in both categories, excluding Brazil.

Hispanic was first used and defined by the U.S. Federal Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) Directive No. 15 in 1977, which defined Hispanic as "a person of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Central America or South America or other Spanish culture or origin, regardless of race." The term was formed out of a collaboration with Mexican-American political elites to encourage cultural assimilation into American society among all Hispanic/Latino peoples and move away from the anti-assimilationist politics of Chicano identity, which had gained prominence in the preceding decades through the Chicano Movement. The rise of Hispanic identity paralleled an emerging era of conservatism in the United States during the 1980s.[5][6]

Latino first emerged at the local level through media outlets in the early 1990s. The Los Angeles Times was one of the first major newspapers to use the term Latino instead of Hispanic. Some local panethnic institutions and Spanish-language media adopted the term for community unity and political organizing. The emergence of Latino resulted in increasing criticism over Hispanic. Many supporters of Latino argued that Hispanic was reasserting a colonial dynamic or relationship with Spain. Others argued that Hispanic failed to acknowledge mestizo culture and political struggle as well as erased the existence of Indigenous, Afro-Latin American, and Asian Latinos peoples throughout the Americas.[5] Latino was also described as more inclusive.[4] Latino was included along with Hispanic on the 2000 U.S. census.[5]

There remains no definitive consensus over which term should be used, which has led to the rise of Hispanic/Latino and Hispanic and Latino as categorical terms often used by government institutions and prominent organizations.[5] The choice between the terms is frequently associated with location: persons in the Eastern United States tend to prefer Hispanic, whereas those in the West tend to prefer Latino.[7] According to a 2011 study by the Pew Research Center, the majority (51%) of Hispanic and Latino Americans prefer to identify with their families' country of origin or nationality, while only 24% prefer the terms Hispanic or Latino.[8] Both Hispanic and Latino are generally used to denote people living in the United States. Outside of the United States, people living in Latin American countries usually refer to themselves by the names of their respective countries of origin.[9][10][11]

  1. ^ Krogstad, Jens M.; Passel, Jeffrey S.; Lopez, Mark H. (September 23, 2021). "Who is Hispanic?". www.pewresearch.org. Washington, D.C.: Pew Research Center. Archived from the original on September 29, 2021. Retrieved October 1, 2021.
  2. ^ U.S. Census Bureau (February 2007). "The American Community—Hispanics: 2004". Census.gov. Retrieved August 4, 2019.
  3. ^ Thurman, Christie. The Effects of Multicultural Dance on Self-Determination of Adults with Intellectual Disabilities (MA). Retrieved December 9, 2012. Latino: People with roots in the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking Americas. This broader term, mostly used in the United States, is sometimes used as a replacement for Hispanic
  4. ^ a b Ramirez, Deborah A. (1993). "Excluded Voices: The Disenfranchisement of Ethnic Groups from Jury Service". Wisconsin Law Review: 761, 806. [T]he term 'Latino' ... is more inclusive and descriptive than the term 'Hispanic.'
  5. ^ a b c d e Martinez, Daniel E.; Gonzalez, Kelsey E. (2020). "'Latino' or 'Hispanic'? The Sociodemographic Correlates of Panethnic Label Preferences among U.S. Latinos/Hispanics". Sociological Perspectives. 64 (3): 365–386. doi:10.1177/0731121420950371. S2CID 225258968.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference :2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ "Revisions to the Standards for the Classification of Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity. Federal Register Notice". Office of Management and Budget. The White House. October 30, 1997. Archived from the original on February 8, 2004. Retrieved June 1, 2012.
  8. ^ Taylor, Paul; Lopez, Mark Hugo; Martínez, Jessica; Velasco, Gabriel (April 4, 2012). "When Labels Don't Fit: Hispanics and Their Views of Identity". Pew Research Center's Hispanic Trends Project.
  9. ^ "The concept of 'Latino' is an American concept". Archived from the original (ms powerpoint) on July 7, 2012. Retrieved December 9, 2012.
  10. ^ Thomas, Jeffrey (December 8, 2006). "New Survey Paints Vivid Portrait of U.S. Latinos". USINFO. Archived from the original on October 21, 2012. Retrieved December 9, 2012. Being Latino is an American identity
  11. ^ Marcelo M. Suárez-Orozco; Mariela Páez (2008). Latinos: Remaking America. University of California Press. p. xxvii. ISBN 978-0-520-25827-3. The very term Latino has meaning only in reference to the U.S. experience. Outside the United States, we don't speak of Latinos; we speak of Mexicans, Cubans, Puerto Ricans, and so forth. Latinos are made in the USA.