""""A meaningless distinction and a distinction without a difference.""""" A HUUUUUUUUUUUGE DIFFERENCE. The term "Hispanic" comes from Spain original name (HISPANIA) while this land was part of the Roman Empire. IAW, Hispanic refers to a nationality. Latino, ITOH, is a sub-division of the white race and doesn't refer only to Spanish but, also, to Italian, French, Portuguese...languages. Another one not everybody who speaks a/m languages is Latino but could belong to any other race. See, there are millions of Argentineans, Spaniards, Ecuadorians.....of Asian / Polish / Irish / Norwegian origin.... IAW, the language a person speaks (native) doesn't determine his / her race. Bye.
Dwight is correct. Hispanic is also used to describe someone who is Spanish-speaking, not necessarily from Spain. From the University of California: “Hispanic” refers to any of the peoples in the Americas and Spain who speak Spanish or are descended from Spanish-speaking communities. It was coined in the 1970s by the U.S. Census Bureau to offer a pan-ethnic name for peoples such as Puerto Ricans, Mexican Americans, Cuban Americans and others.
My bad. I stand corrected. As long as we're doing definitions, which I think is good, where does Chicano fit in with Hispanic and Latino? I have to ask because I'm a dumb Cracker.
I think it's a matter of personal preference because those who would fit into these labels disagree. As someone mentioned, the largest percentage of people offended are probably white women under the age of thirty. I lived in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas for twenty years. When they felt the need to take up a label, most people there called themselves Mexicans, including those who were born on this side of the border. Most of the people there, who referred to themselves as Mexicans, referred to those who were coming across the border illegally as "Illegals." Mostly though, they didn't feel the need to differentiate by nationality or skin tone, but they did differentiate between those who were here legally and those who weren't.
That's interesting. Labels can such an expression of hostility to people we don't like. It's good to hear that some people are so matter-of-fact about them. It helps take away the sting that others intend. I used to love to annoy my nephews, who lived in the Dallas area, by referring to their state as Tex-Ass. They didn't like that.
Lots of ways to look at it. We are proud to be Americans but are being almost polluted by politics, not influx of other nationalities which basically made us who we are. We might be offended in other countries who look down on us now. Egocentrics can make us almost haughty. Remember Polish jokes? They didn't bother anyone but 'Pollocks'. Derogatory nicknames mostly popped up during wars or for any other reason to put people down. Negros, Blacks, African American....we/they had problems deciding what to call a particular group and not offending. Lately, I just think, instead of dividing people up in this country, we should refer to all as American citizens--Americans. Or by country of origin. Latino/Latina, What about gringo/gringa? Do I care about what I am called? Only if I don't know who I am. But we should come up with a special name for corrupt politicians!
The special names for corrupt politicians are Republicans and Democrats. I'd go even further. The powers-that-be do not want the general populace united in their quest for prosperity and freedom so they use every imaginable way to divide us. Artificial divisions are created or exacerbated between political ideologies, racial origin, religious belief, economic status, etc. If all those superficial differences didn't exist we might recognize our common enemy and get rid of them.
Ken Anderson, To live in a "Latino area" in USA not always provides people with a source of correct info. but with the one people has been told by generations. Remember, street info.is usually wrong. BTW, the adjective "Latin American" was coined centuries ago by the French...and with the only purpose of differentiate themselves from the "" criollos" (people from Mexico to Argentina who were descendant of the European Latinos). Yes Latino and Latina are both correct.
Speaking again of labels, I was just reviewing my own experience of all the tags that African-Americans have either adopted or endured over the years. The disparaging 'n----r' of course tops the list. When some preferred and used the more respectful term 'negro', the southern racists, lead by George Wallace, came up with a new one -'nigra'. To them it was almost as good as the insulting 'n' word but brought up no loud protest from the less racist element, since it sounded almost like 'negro'. I won't attempt a complete list of all the other disparaging labels that racists have used for blacks just over my lifetime. Btw, George Wallace did not start out as a raging racist. After losing an important election to an opponent who ranted against integration and civil rights while Wallace talked about other issues, Wallace vowed (exact quote) "They'll never out-seg me again."
He didn't end as one either. He made quite a few steps toward more reasonable thinking in his later years. It's possible that he was just going where the votes were, which doesn't excuse it.
Dwight Ward, "" Nigra"""is used in some South America countries; it's pretty offensive....and refers to (group of) some people' s behavior.