What exactly means 'Hispanic'?

Question

I have difficulties to understand exactly what this word means. Examples: a white person born in Spain is hispanic, or only latin americans? A black person born in Cuba and living in USA is black or hispanic, or both? The children of a white american man and a woman born in Central America are Hispanic or white? A white, blond and blue eyed person born in South America is white or hispanic? The people of Jamaica speak english and were colonized by brites and africans. Are they hispanic? In sum, this word refers to race, heritage, skin color, language, or what? Have the words Hispanic and Latino the same meaning? Can anyone help me? Thanks.

Answer 1

Often the term "Hispanic" is used synonymously with the word "Latino", and frequently with "Latin" as well. Even though the terms may sometimes overlap in meaning, they are not completely synonymous.

"Hispanic" specifically refers to Spain, and to the Spanish-speaking nations of the Americas, as cultural and demographic extensions of Spain. It should be further noted that in a U.S. context, a Hispanic population consists of the people of Spain and everyone with origins in any of Spanish-speaking nations of the Americas, regardless of ancestry of the latter. In the context of Spain and Latin America, a Hispanic population consists of the people of Spain, and when regarding the inhabitants of the Spanish-speaking nations of the Americas, includes only criollos, mestizos, mulattos, and others with Spanish ancestry, to the exclusion of indigenous Amerindians, unmixed descendants of black Africans and whites or other peoples from later migrations without any Spanish lineage.

In regards to the term Latin, in this context it refers to the conception of "Latin America" as a region, a concept which was introduced by the French in the 1860s when they dreamed of building an empire based in Mexico. See French intervention in Mexico. This concept of a "Latin" America was closely connected to the introduction of French positivism into the region's intellectual circles. [2] The French understood "Latin" to include themselves and other continental European Romance speaking nations, to the exclusion of their "Anglo-Saxon" colonial rivals the United States (in the Americas) and the United Kingdom (in Europe).

Latinos, meanwhile, is a contraction of "Latinoamericanos", and refers only to those from Spanish or Portuguese-speaking countries of Latin America, this time, regardless of ancestry in all contexts. Those from French Canada are very rarely included, while those from Haiti are never. In the rare cases where they are, it is with some ambiguities.

The confusion that arises is from the similarity between the words Latino and Latin, and between the concept of Hispanic and Latino. Latino is a shortened version of the noun Latinoamericano (Latin American). In the Spanish language "Latín" (Latin) is the name of the language of the Romans. This means that "Latin" is not confined solely to Hispanics, Latin Americans, or Latinos, but has always included such peoples as the Italians, French, Romanians, Portuguese, etc.

Thus, of a group consisting of a Brazilian, a Colombian, a Mexican, a Spaniard, a Romanian, and a U.S.-born Cuban American, the Brazilian, Colombian, and Mexican would all be Latin American, but not the Spaniard, the Romanian, or the Cuban American, since neither Spain nor Romania nor the U.S. is geographically situated in Latin America. Conversely, the Colombian, Mexican, Cuban American and Spaniard would all be Hispanics, but not the Brazilian or the Romanian, since Brazil is primarily of Portuguese heritage, and neither Portugal nor Romania is a cultural descendant of Spain. The Cuban American would be the sole Latino, in the U.S., English language sense of the term (an American of Latin American origin). Finally, the above would all be Latin, especially if they're of unmixed Latin European ancestry.

It should be noted that the categories of "Latino" and "Hispanic" are used primarily in the United States to socially differentiate people. As social categories they are not mutually exclusive and without ambiguities and cannot be seen as independent of social discrimination (socioeconomic, ethnic or racial).

Besides "Hispanic", "Latino", and "Latin", other terms are used for more specific subsets of the Hispanic population. These terms often relate to specific countries of origin, such as "Mexican", "Mexican-American", "Cuban", "Puerto Rican" or "Dominican", etc. Other terms signify distinct cultural patterns among Hispanics which have emerged in what is now the United States, including "Chicano", "Tejano", "Nuyorican", etc.

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.

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).

Answer 2

Hispanics can be of any race but most in the U.S. are considered white. The term itself was adopted by the Nixon administration in the 1970's when, for whatever reason, they saw a need for a new classification term to separate these people from other whites, or "Anglos." It is an ethnic term, not a racial one. Same goes for "Latino." (Only a person from Latin America can be a Latino, not someone from Spain yet both are Hispanic. Similarly, the typical Brazilian is a Latino but not Hispanic and a person from Portugal is neither.)
Some countries are virtually all white (Argentina, Uruguay and, of course, Spain.) Cuban exiles in the U.S. are almost entirely white but back in Cuba, most are mulatto with about 30% being white. Some countries are Amerindian-dominate mestizo, like Mexico and Guatemala. Others, such as Chile & Costa Rica, are white-dominate mestizo. Many people in the southern half of South America are actually of Italian or German ancestry. There are large Japanese and Chinese minorities in Peru. The majority of Puerto Ricans, while often thought of by Anglos as being mixed with black, choose "white" on the U.S. census forms. Again "Hispanic" is an ethnic designation based on culture and language and has nothing whatsoever to do with race.

Answer 3

In the beginning hispanic meant descendents from Spain, but now it's more loosley used as anyone who speaks spanish or from a spanish speaking country.

Answer 4

Its a stupid word invented by United Statesians to define Latin Americans, although Latin Americans belong to different nations and races.

EDIÇÃO
Ah agora vi que você é brasileiro! Eles (estadunidenses), são umas bestas, só isso.

Answer 5

Here's a dictionary definition:

http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/entry/Hispanic;_ylt=AtBf_N1z8Jwn3d5_Z1FmXKCsgMMF

Answer 6

mexican.