Are people from Mexico and other parts of Latin-America black or white?

Question

Democrats usually say latinos are black, and Republicans usually say latinos are white. I know there are a lot black people in Latin-America that speak Spanish, but I don't really think of them as hispanic, because their ancestors were originally from Africa. They were not from Spain.

Answer 1

mostly those "black" people you're talking about are from the dominican republic. many parts of every country have a collection of light-skinned and dark-skinned people, it just depends on what part you live. so technically they're not called black or white. black mostly refers to people who have ancestors originating form africa and white mostly refers to caucasians from europe or whatever. we (im guatemalan-american) are refered to as hispanics. nothing more or less.

Answer 2

Many people, even government agencies do not consider "Hispanic" a race. "Hispanic" is classified as an ethnicity. On many police reports the only acceptable races are W- White, B- Black, A- Asian, or I- Native American.

BUT, when a W or B is listed it is required to list it as such:
W/N, W/H, B/N, or B/H.

This would be White-Hispanic, White-Non-Hispanic, Black-Hispanic, and Black-Non-Hispanic.

So the answer to your question is that Latinos can be Black or White.

An example? Sammy Sosa is Black-Hispanic. Ricky Martin is White-Hispanic. This is only for "official" documentation. People can obviously call themselves whatever they want (e.g. Brown, latino, Hispanic, whatever).

Answer 3

Mexico and other Latin American countries have citizens of every race -- white, black, brown, and so-called yellow (actually those we call Orientals have a light brown pigmentation; check it out). Some countries like Uruguay and Argentina are virtually exclusively Caucasian -- the Argentines handled their "Indian problem" the same way we did, through extermination. Others -- e.g., the Dominican Republic, Cuba -- are mainly mulatto, while Andean countries have a high percentage of mestizos, people of mixed Amerindian and Caucasian descent. But every country, even Haiti, has whites and Asians. The U.S. Census Bureau doesn't recognize the term Hispanic as racial; Hispanics can be of any race. And by the way, despite what one respondent thinks, Brazilians are not Hispanics; they are known in academic circles as "Luso-Americans."

Answer 4

When people from Mexico or other spanish-speaking nations of the western hemisphere come to America, they magically become 'Hispanic' regardless of thier actual ancestry - black, asian, eupropean or whatever, they're all 'Hispanic' according to the US Census.

The Census does actually collect to that level of detail, so there are classifications like White/Non-Hispanic and Black/Hispanic.

Answer 5

there is a difference between your race and your nationality. Many of them do have African ancestry, but they would be considered Latin American i think because they were naturalized in Latin America. Just like a person in the United States, they could have ancestry from mexico, brazil, china, germany, kenya, india, or whatever, but if they are born and raised here, they would be American. As far as your question, they could be black, white, and native indian from that particular area. it all mixed together because of the movement to "the new world"

Answer 6

Originally Hispanic was the European and native Indian blend.. (they started using this word in the 70s).
Those that were slaves from Africa who live in the Carribean aren't considered hispanic.. they are Haitians or Puerto Ricans or Dominican Republic natives. Most Cubans consider themselves white. Most speak Spanish of one dialect or another.
btw Portuguese are not hispanic.. this was allready struck down in a court of law. They are considered white.. go figure.. if they are from the same Iberian peninsula as the Spanish and they also colonized South America.. and they are considered white, not Hispanic.

Answer 7

Some have Indian ancestry. Some are from Spain or other European countries. Some are from Portugal. Some are a mixture.

They are Latin Americans. Why do you have to classify them as either white or black?

Answer 8

The reason isnt because more africans were imported or because less natives were killed. It is because these countries never had the mass immigrations form Europe that N America. ie. over 5 million Irish in the 1800s.

Answer 9

I have never heard of refering to all Latinos as either black or white. I have Latino ancestry and my cousins proudly consider themselves people of color, but not black or white.

Answer 10

Neither. They are Hispanic.
As far as their ancestors originating from Africa, everyone's ancestors originated from Africa. It is a proven fact.