Hey everyone, I was just looking at the different boards here and it says there's an hispanic culture and a spanish culture. Aren't those two the same??? I'm a little confused. <img src="/images/graemlins/wall.gif" alt="" />

Most Americans incorrectly use the word "Spanish" for "Hispanic," but technically Spanish only refers to the language and people from Spain. Hispanic refers to the Spanish-based cultures in this hemisphere. Sort of us not really being "English," unless we were born there, but that's the language we speak.

Hope this helps.

A great book is the Hispanic Condition. I posted this in another section but it was very informative. charkiyay is correct in that Spanish is indicative of a language or people born in Spain where as Hispanic is more of a blanket term for people living in America or Canada who are Spanish decent with no regard to their origins eg. Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Cuba etc. I think a good comparison is African American. I have friends who are African American as in they were born in the USA, many generations decending from the slavery days and those who are born and immigrated to the US. The cultures couldn't be any different yet they are grouped in the same category.

Helpful? <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />