Are Portuguese people condidered Hispanic?

Question

I am of the first generation in my family to be born in the UNited States, the rest of my family was born in portugal, and cam ehere when they were about 18, including my parents. So does that make me Hispanic or European? Aren't people from Spain Hispanic? Portugal and Spain are connected!!! PLEASE HELP!!!!!!!!

Answer 1

There are a lot of confused peope around here...

First, there are several meanings to the term hispanic, but the one you're using is the american one, that is, Hispanic is someone whose family is from one of the spanish speaking countries of Central and South America. That's it.

No one in Europe uses the term "hispanic", not even in Spain.

As for the portuguese, for some mysterious reason many americans seem to think they have some relation to the spanish or to Spain. It's simply not true.

Portugal is the oldest country in Europe and one of the oldest in the world.
It was created in 1143, in a time when what was to become "Spain" was 6 different kingdoms all rivals to one another not even dreaming they would become one nation. Spain gained it's current shape and size in 1492, so do the math, Portugal is OLDER than Spain almost 450 years.

One other thing, Portugal did not "come from Brazil", that's like saying England came from the USA, Brazil is a former portuguese colony, like many other around the world, the african nations of Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, St. Tome and Principe, Angola and Mozambique. The indian cities of Damao, Diu and Goa. The chinese city of Macau. And the island of Timor near Indonesia, once part of the first global empire of the world, the portuguese empire, far wider and more important than the spanish one, it reached from Lisbon to Brazil to Africa to India to China and to Japan, where the portuguese were the first europeans ever to arrive in 1543, founding the city of Nagasaki and introducing the firearm to the japanese. To this day there are 250 words in the japanese language that comes from the portuguese, including "arigato" deriving from the portuguese word for "thank you", "Obrigado"...

So please, do not use the term hispanic, your family is PORTUGUESE, therefore european. For another mysterious reason many americans seem to think the spanish or portuguese can be named "latinos" like they were some kind of separate race from the other europeans. They are not, Europe is a multicultural entity, there are europeans blond with blue eyes and dark skinned with brown eyes, they're all european, only ones are northern european and others southern european.

So be very proud of your portuguese origins.

Answer 2

Is Portuguese Hispanic

Answer 3

Portuguese People

Answer 4

Technically, yes, although neither Spaniards nor Portuguese in Europe refer to themselves as Hispanic. Hispanic was a term more used by others to refer to those from the Iberian Peninsula, which the Roman Republic called Hispania.

The confusion on this matter comes from America's misuse/misinterpretation of the word when they started using it for census purposes in the 1970's (if I remember the decade correctly)! The US government is not the say all end all on things outside of America! They have recognized their mistakes on defining the term and many American organizations have recognized Portugal in being Hispanic in order to rectify those mistakes.

For a more in depth explanation, refer to my multiple comments (had to due to lack of character amount allowed) to the first replier up top, Heterónimo.

Answer 5

There are some severely misinformed responses here, including the one with the highest votes. PORTUGUESE MAY BE CONSIDERED HISPANIC. The word hispanic refers to the people of the former nation of Hispania. Hispania included Spain and Portugal. For some reason, many Portuguese do not self-designate as hispanics. However, they have every legal right to do so. Portugallia was one of three regions of Hispania. Many descendants of Spanish and Portuguese speaking peoples share the same family names: Silva, Avila, Gomes or Gomez, Sousa or Souza, and many others.
They heavy pushback against this truth comes from Spanish-speaking Hispanics. It is the same old reason: they want to hoard benefits for themselves. In this case, the benefits are EO slots in academics and labor.

Answer 6

Hi I'm a Portuguese fourth generation that lives in the US and according to our history Spain invaded us for 80 years and it greatly influenced our language and culture till this very day such as ancient Portuguese is not like modern-day Portuguese because the Spanish greatly influenced during their 80-year invasion of us

Answer 7

Portuguese people are White/Southern European like the Spaniards, Italians, French and Romanians.

Portugal could NEVER be considered Hispanic in modern age since the Iberian Peninsula was divided into 2 parts: Lusitania for Portugal and Hispania for Spain.

Answer 8

Only the American government finds this issue worth this much focus. Even to pee you will soon want to know our race. It's all to have us branded like the horses and cattle. Next, they will be so confused due to the amount of mixed races, that at birth the doctor will have a color code chart to give us a number. B1; for boy very light skin and up to B9; meaning boy black. G1 means girl very white and so on. But now we have to look at gender, there's "male", "female ", and "OTHER?" That's where someone like Bruce Jenner comes in... Exp: at birth he will be branded B1, then later he has to get an updated birth certificate, it has to be changed to B1=O=B1&G1. America, why spend so much money and time to change something that has no importance? Spend that time and money on something like; better background check to keep the trash from entering our country & get rid of the ones already here! I'm Portuguese, American by choice, white as snow, blond and blue eyes, I'm native European! Period!

Answer 9

Correction: Canada and Mexico are NOT connected. You might want to study a world map.

Answer 10

Interesting question - I hope my answer is useful.

Prior to 1469, the four kingdoms that made up the Iberian Peninsula, the Kingdoms of Portugal and Navarre and the Crowns of Aragon and Castille, were known, collectively, throughout the Roman lands as Hispania (the Roman name for Iberia).

HOWEVER - Modern usage of the term "Hispanic" is not meant to include individuals of Portuguese descent, rather the term refers only to those who are descended from Spain, Latin America, and other countries that were once part of the Spanish Empire.

The correct term to describe those of Portuguese descent is Lusophone, derived from the Lusitanians, one of the first Indo-European tribes to settle in Europe.

The US Census Bureau would not classify anyone of Portuguese descent as Hispanic.

Answer 11

I too have been searching for answers to this question. I am of Portuguese decent from Azores. Yet town in Spain right next to Basque carries my surname. My blood type indicates we originated from Basque. Using a label like Hispanic as a category has been confusing since Portugal has it's own language and culture.