The word "HISPANIC" !!!

I am chatting with the Berkley PhD Linguist and I am still fuming. Today I got into a heated "discussion"with a friend about the word "hispanic" because I invited him to event where "hispanic" constituted part of the organisation's name. In his opinion, he hates "fake and ignorant people" who call themselves "hispanic" but don't speak Spanish!! I guess I am more pissed he could not just shut his mouth long enough to mingle with business owners and community leaders and enjoy a nice glass of wine without having to invoke his bullshit, replayed speech about how he knows more than everyone else soley because he has traveled all over the world and speaks Spanish. I don't know who is more dumb, Richard Nixon for creating the label, or my stubborn friend for not understanding Richard Nixon's stupidity and the limitations of the definition! If the word offends the sensibilities of educated, Spanish-speaking people not born in the United States then maybe the word should be deleted from job applications, census bureau forms, and all government documents in the United States. Yes, checking a box on any government form is preposterous when you are provided a box denoting a racial (color) "label", a box denoting an ethnic (culture) "label", and a box denoting a language (language, part of culture but different) "label". It makes absolutely NO SENSE -- I already knew that!! In short, my friend renamed the organisation to his liking and decided NOT to attend the function: National Association of Spanish Surnamed Brown People who have MBAs!

So I called the Berkley linguist and he claims that:

Hispanic was a term created by the Nixon administration and means any person of a Spanish speaking origin. It does not refer to a country and does not mean from the Spanish Empire, either. It means of a background where Spanish is spoken. What you call yourself is your choice. What others call you isn't!

Personally, I don't label myself Hispanic (language/culture), nor do I label myself Latino ( large region). I am simply American (nation). What I choose to read behind closed doors, how I choose to express myself among my family, the music I choose to listen to and the language I speak among friends is not the business of the federal government, nor the Nixon administration, or any other administration. However, if there were enough boxes on the forms to accurately describe my origin, there would have to be a box for my nationality (American), a box for the languages I speak (Spanish and English), a box for my culture (a culture where Spanish is spoken, located in the North American continent, not in Central America, not in South America, not in the Caribbean, and not in Spain), a box describing the color of my skin (brown in the summer and yellow in the winter with perpetual black circles over my eyelids and under my eyes!!!), and finally, a box describing my feminist inclinations!!

Alas, I also called in Wikipedia.....

Hispanic (Spanish Hispano, from Latin Hispānus, adjective from Hispānia, "Iberian Peninsula") is a term denoting a derivation from Spain, its people and culture. It follows the same style of use as Anglo, which indicates a derivation of England and the English. Thus, the Spanish-American War in Spanish is known as Guerra Hispano-Estadounidense, the "Spanish-German Treaty" is Tratado Hispano-Alemán, and "Spanish America" is Hispanoamérica.

As used in the United States, Hispanic is one of several terms of ethnicity employed to categorize any person, of any racial background, of any country and of any religion who has at least one ancestor from the people of Spain or Spanish-speaking Latin America, whether or not the person has Spanish ancestry. It is therefore not a racial term, although as used in the United States it often carries racial connotations. The term was first adopted in the United States by the administration of Richard Nixon^[1] and has since been used as a broad form of classification in the U.S. census, in local and federal employment, and numerous business market researches.

In Spain, Spanish-speaking Latin America and most countries outside the United States, Hispanic/Hispano is not commonly employed as a term for ethnicity; however, this can be implied depending on the context. When used in this manner, in Spanish-speaking Latin America an Hispano is commonly regarded to be any person whose ancestry stems, in whole or in part, from the people of Spain — to the contrast of the non-Hispanic (ie. non-Spanish descended) population. In this sense, when speaking of a nation's Hispanic population, those who are implied are Spaniards, criollos, mestizos, and mulattos, to the exclusion of indigenous Amerindians, unmixed descendants of black African slaves or other peoples from later migrations without any Spanish lineage who today reside in any of the Hispanic nations, regardless of whether they now use Spanish as their first and only language. In contrast, a non-Spanish-speaking Mayan Amerindian from Mexico, for example, who lives in the U.S. would be considered Hispanic as the term is officially defined and commonly understood there. North Americans often confuse the words "Hispanic" and "mestizo", therefore assuming that all Latin Americans are dark-skinned with black hair and brown or black eyes. There are, however, many fair-skinned, blue-eyed, blonde Hispanics who are not mestizo.

"Hispanic" as a U.S. ethnic label

In the United States, some people consider "Hispanic" to be too general as a label, while others consider it offensive, often preferring to use the term "Latino", which is viewed as a self-chosen label. The preference of "Latino" over "Hispanic" is partly because it more clearly indicates that those it is referring to are the people from Latin America (including Brazil) and not Spain. Different labels prevail in different regions, as well. In places like Arizona and California, the Chicanos are proud of their personal association and their participation in the agricultural movement of the 1960s with César Chávez, that brought attention to the needs of the farm workers. Usually younger Hispanics will not refer to themselves as such, however.

It is important to remember that the majority of "Hispanics" do not identify as "Hispanic" or "Latino," but with their national origin, i.e. Mexican-American. And, it is debatable that Latino is any less self-imposed than Hispanic. The label, Hispanic, was the result of efforts by a Hispanic New Mexican senator, Montoya, who wanted a label that could be used to quantify the Spanish-speaking population for the US Census. The label Hispanic was chosen in part because in New Mexico, well-to-do people of Spanish descent such as Montoya referred to themselves as Hispanos, and the transliteration of Hispano is Hispanic. Thus, while Latino is more popular in some urban areas, Hispanic is more popular in some parts of the southwest.

Previously Hispanics were commonly referred to as "Spanish-Americans", "Spanish-speaking Americans", and "Spanish-surnamed Americans". These terms, however, proved even more misleading or inaccurate since:

• Most U.S. Hispanics were not born in Spain, nor were most born to recent Spanish nationals;
• Although most U.S. Hispanics speak Spanish, not all do, and though most Spanish-speaking people are Hispanic, not all are (e.g., many U.S. Hispanics by the fourth generation no longer speak Spanish, while there are some non-Hispanics of the Southwestern United States that may be fluent in the language), and;
• Although most Hispanics have a Spanish surname, not all do, and while most Spanish-surnamed people are Hispanic, not all are (e.g., there are tens of millions of Spanish-surnamed Filipinos, but very few, only about 3.5%, would qualify as Hispanic by ancestry).
• Many Catalans and Basques refuse to identify themselves as Hispanic in the US census, especially those who have Catalan and Basque as mother tongues.
• The term "Spanish" to denote a person from or of descent from a Latin American country is incorrect, as "Spanish" means a person who is from Spain.

The term "Spanish American", however, is still currently in use by many of those who, while not of recent descent from a Spanish national, have continued to practice and view Spanish culture and identity as dominant in their lives. In this usage it emphasized ancestral history and identity, and is not meant to indicate citizenship of the 'old country'.