You Say Hispanic, I Say Latina/o

The question of how to refer to different ethnicities can be a touchy subject. As my fellow blogger Adriel Luis points out, terms like oriental can cause quite a stir, while a black person may not appreciate being called African American (especially if they are not actually African American). Not to be outdone, people with my background have our own sets of terms for you to contend with. Some say we’re Hispanic, others say we’re Latino and then there are those who say we’re Latina/o.

How is a casual observer to make sense of it all?

To begin, Hispanic is a term with roots attributed to the Nixon Administration, which was later institutionalized through the Reagan-era U.S. Census form. Some say the term harkens back to Hispania or Hispaniola (current-day Haiti and Dominican Republic). Other explanations suggest that the term emerged as a substitute for the previously employed “Spanish Surname.”

And then there's the the term Latino. The word arose, of course, to describe people who are of Latin American descent — "Latin American" itself being a phrase that in turn grew out of the Romance origins of the continent's primary languages, Spanish and Portuguese. (Note: I'm not saying that Latin American is the best term out there, since such a description clearly ignores the presence of other languages on the continent, including those of indigenous peoples, among others.)

To make the picture still more complicated, there's "Latina/o."Because Latino and Latina are Spanish words and used to refer to different genders, there's a growing movement to use both terms to refer to people of Latin American origin — as a way of rejecting language that honors male supremacy. In Spanish, you see, if 100 Latinas (women) were in a room and 1 Latino (man) walked in, the group would suddenly be termed a gathering of Latinos.

So which term should you use? Unfortunately, there’s no easy answer — it really does depend on how different people self-identify. For instance, people like myself resist the term Hispanic, because it emphasizes our Spanish ancestry, elevating our white ethnic backgrounds while not recognizing the complexity of mestizaje — including our indigenous, black, Arab and Asian identities. Of course, not everyone feels that way, and some people simply prefer Hispanic.

Although Latino or Latina/o seems like a good compromise, to some, those terms are likewise fraught. For example, are Latin Americans only to be considered Latina/o when they're outside of Latin America? What about when they're in their home countries? And as I mentioned, there's also the complicating fact that Latina/o refers to Latin America, which in turn is derived from the languages of Spanish and Portuguese, which you can argue pays unnecessary tribute to the languages of white colonizers.

If this exercise seems confusing, trust me — as someone who uncomfortably self-identifies as Latina/o (as opposed to Hispanic), it is for me, as well. But I hope I've made you think more deeply about what these seemingly casual terms really mean. People everywhere self-identify differently. So when in doubt, my advice is simple: Just ask, and never assume.

Photo Credit: Ministério da Cultura