What is Hispanic?
1.
Hispanic-an ancient adjective and noun-was mainstreamed as a political label in the United States in the early 1970's. The purpose for the introduction of such an ancient adjective by the Nixon administration was ostensibly to create a political label solely for the purpose of applying the constitutional anti-discrimination standard of “strict scrutiny” to anyone who was labeled Hispanic. The label had the immediate effect of linking the entire population of the 19 nations that comprise Latin America, as well as, distinguishing the "Hispanic" colonial heritage of Latin American Countries from the "Anglo Saxon" colonial heritage of the United States.
Before the colonization of the Americas, a person had to be solely from Hispania-Spain and Portugal together- in order to be called Hispanic. Today, Hispania has 21 progenies: two in Europe (Spain and Portugal), and nineteen in the Americas (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, The Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Uruguay, and Venezuela).
But there is more to think about: America is a country where one would not consider mislabeling a Scotsman an Irishman, for such would be an insult to the Scotsman, and visa versa; where one would not describe Canadian culture as being the same as Australian culture because such would be an insult to Canadians and visa versa. Yet, sadly, America is also a country where schools are educating the masses into believing that all people who immigrate or descend from the twenty-one distinctly different progenies of Hispania are: culturally alike, vote as a group, dance salsa, speak Spanish or Portuguese, can't cut it in the schools, work in menial jobs, join gangs, get aids, look alike, think alike, prefer to be separated from “Anglo” America, and have no heritage other than what is being accomplished in the USA by anyone politically labeled Hispanic.
America is a country where Hispanic heritage month no longer honors Hispania's progenies as unique, various and sundry cultures. America is a country where Hispanic heritage month is politically misused for the purpose of pressuring everyone labeled Hispanic into accepting that an attribute applied to anyone labeled Hispanic is an attribute applied to everyone labeled Hispanic, regardless of their different national heritage, and their different cultural backgrounds.
America is a country where the political label Hispanic is being used to camouflage one key fact, and that is that 66.9 percent (as of the 2002) of those labeled Hispanic in the United States do not represent the twenty-one progenies of Hispania, but rather only one progeny-Mexico.
The political label Hispanic is not a physical description of any kind.
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2.
A racial group created by the U.S. government to put all people who descend from Spanish speaking countries into one meaningless group. Hispanic is NOT a racial group. They can be white, black, native american, asian, or any combination of these peoples. Hispanic countries are just as racially diverse as the United States, thus this term has no real meaning.
Moron says: Why does he look white? I thought he was hispanic?
3.
a word created by the united States Census Bureau that is now commonly used to lump spanish speaking people into one broad category, for better or WORSE. Also this word was incorrectly used today by the officer who decided to identify my "race" on the speeding ticket he gave me.
Officer, without asking me, you wrote down that I was hispanic, but actually I am South Asian.
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4.
According to the U.S. Census, people who come from or decended from a Spanish-speaking people or country. The term "Hispanic" is completely incorrect as it lumps together two different races to be one: (for example) Spanish Europeans with Mexicans. Mexicans are in fact biracial, since they are mixed of Spanish and Native American ancestry. Caucasians are considered people who have European ancestry. Since Spain is in Europe, Spaniards are white/caucasian, which is obvious by their physical appearence.
Hispanic = Spaniard = European = White (does not make any sense)
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5.
Anyone who descends from a Spanish or formerly Spanish colony (with the exception of the Southwest US) or Spain. "Hispanic" is simply an ethnicity, NOT a race. Hispanics are mostly mestizo (of white and Amerindian descent) in most Spanish-speaking countries, with the exception of Spain and Argentina (whose populations are mostly white.) Spain's people are mixed Mediterranean and Nordic/Aryan.
Hispanics in the SW US are mostly bilingual, but futher north, they just speak English.
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6.
A made up word to describe the people of the non-existent land of
Are you Hispanic?
Do I look like I come from Hispania?
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7.
Hispanics are originally people from Spanish-speaking countries in Europe (Spain) and Latin America (Argentina, Mexico, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, etc).
In Spain, the term Hispanic refers to people of that country or those who can claim Spanish ancestry. It also refers to countries that have Spanish-based cultures such as those found in Latin America.
In the United States, the term Hispanic was chiefly made up to group together disparate groups from Latin America that shared common cultural attributes, religion, and language but were not racially the same. In the 1970s and 1980s, on Census-based forms and questionnaires, Hispanic began appearing as a racial category; this oversight caused confusion. Today, Census-based forms have been modified to allow Hispanics to identify if they are black, white, or multi-racial.
Hispanics are chiefly white/mestizo. In countries like Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Costa Rica, and Colombia, whites make up the overwhelming majority. Whereas in places like Cuba amd Dominican Republic, blacks comprise the majority. Countries such as Mexico, Guatemala, and El Salvador are dominated by mestizos.
The term Hispanic recently has been rejected in favor of the newer term Latino; sometimes Hispanic and Latino are used interchangeably (although, depending on who one asks and location within the US, term preferences vary).
Hispanics DO NOT include Brazilians or Portuguese as they do not speak Spanish. But Filippinos and African from Equatorial Guinea can be grouped in that category.
1) Hispanics can be of any race, religion, and ethnic origin. For example, people in Chile or Paraguay of German ancestry can be considered Hispanic
2) Peru has a large Japanese population (e.g., Alberto Fujimori). These are considered Hispanics in the United States
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