BellaOnline Forums Travel and Culture Hispanic Culture Hispanic or Latina/Latino -- which do you prefer?

Okee dokees, just read the article. Very well written and researched.

My question, then: are you more or less saying that Hispanic includes Castilians and Latino is more for Mestizos?

I wonder what the equation is for people of African Descent? Would people from Belize be just Black, rather than African American? (IDK, because Belize is certainly a member of the Americas, just not part of the US). Would a black person in Spain be called a African-European or a Black Hispanic?

How about Mexican National living in Spain?

It seems like I am being irreverent, but I actually find this kind of thing very interesting.

Thanks for the tip! As a newbie I am still learning the ropes. I updated the forum question to include a link to the article.

Hi Jilly,

Your questions are really great since these issues remain very murky in Latin America, too.

So, I would respond that "Hispanic" includes Spaniards from Spain (again, not all Spaniards would call themselves Castilian).

Someone that is Latino or Latin American has his/her more recent origins in the Americas. There is no racial or ethnic designation in this term. The example I use is Sammy Sosa -- he is Latino because he is from the Dominican Republic. He or others might further identify him as Afro-Carib to denote his African heritage.

Not all Latinos are mestizo, but all mestizos are Latino (that is the offspring of a Spaniard and Indian).

Some countries are even more difficult to work with! Belize was an English colony prior to independence. The population consists mostly of Blacks and Creoles, Mayan Indians, Mestizos, and Spaniards. Some Belizians might consider themselves Hispanic or Latino or they might be English speakers of African descent with no relation whatsoever to a Latin American identity.

I have an upcoming article that will cover the details of race and ethnicity among Latinos/Hispanics since it does get confusing!

Feliz D�a!
carleen

Fascinating, and yes, hugely murky.

I descend from (among other things) an Italian background. Italy is a Latin country, but not a Latino one.

Not even sure what this makes me. European stock, but maybe also a form of Latin? Mediterrana? Are Italians considered White?

Are Spaniards White?

Hola Jilly,

Putting on my anthropologist hat for a moment . . . racial categories are social not biological constructs. What constitutes "white" has varied through time. When Italian, Jewish, and Eastern European immigrants first arrived in the US they were not considered "white" enough. Over time, however, these populations have been assimilated into the category of white.

Italians are not considered Latinos except for those who were born in South America. There are a lot of Argentines that are of Italian descent (but they speak Spanish).

Spaniards are considered "Blancos" (white) in the context of Latin America.

Whiteness is really a problematic concept for people in the US since it brings with it a lot of historical baggage. Most contemporary theorists consider identity as made up of social, cultural, political, and historical factors. So in the case of President Obama, although he is half white he identifies as being Black. He could assert a white identity, although socially people would identify him as African American.

Thanks for extending the discussion!

Abrazos (hugs)
carleen

To my way of thinking, Latino means Latin America (including Mexico)/South America. I do not even think of Spain as being Hispanic. It is European. I took a "fun" class in Spanish at church and the leader was from S.A. I mentioned something about the pronunciation of a certain sound that I had learned about in my high school Castilian Spanish class and he said that the Spanish of Spain didn't know how to speak Spanish. There is a world of difference between the two or three continents.

Hi Angie,
My upcoming article is about the Spanish language and how it has changed over the centuries.

It does annoy me a bit when Spaniards insist that their pronunciation is the only "correct" way to speak Spanish. The same thing occurred with English -- our accents and vocab are entirely different from the English.

Here's a great quote that applies to Spanish as well:

�England and America are two countries separated by the same language� - George Bernard Shaw

Saludos!
carleen

LOL, I was asking a question about pronunciation and was told Spain was wrong.

It's funny in the sense that hispanic means literally, Of Spain.

Jilly, I thought it was funny too that he said that.