Are all Latinos and Latinas Hispanic?

It depends on who you ask That link is just one discussion of the issue. There is, as far as I know, no real, definitive, clear cut answer to your question.

The aborigines were what we call Indians (like the Incas and Aztecs). Their descendants are not of Spanish origin. I hope you’ll get answers from Hispanic people, because they’ll have a better Idea of what to tell you than I do.

The term Hispanic refers to Spanish speaking peoples and cultures (except actually from Spain), whereas Latino refers to peoples and cultures speaking any Latin based language (like Portuguese). Typically, both only refer to those people living in the colonized places in the Americas.

I don’t like the term Hispanic, I prefer Latin American. However, my husband, who is Mexican, does not mind Hispanic. He is a quarter Spanish, but his name and the majority lf his lineage is Sephardic Jewish, and his paternal grandparents came from Israel to Mexico. His father was born and raised in Mexico, so on the census we count him Hispanic, but he is 100% family from the middle east, parents emigrated directly from Israelto Mexico, generations before that they may have lived in parts of Lebonan or Syria it is unclear. I feel the appropriate “labels” for my husband are Latin American or Mexican, and now American, seeing he is a citizen here in America now.

They way I look at it is the lables come from marketing companies and government needing to group people for demographic and psychographic generalizations, plus we use these labels for short hand. A way of communication a generalization about someone or some group in one word, and whichever word catches on and is decided to be acceptible comes into use.

Take the term African American, we use it to describe black people in America. But, I know several white Africans, and I know many black people who strongly identify with their former country before coming to the states, Jamaican, Haitian, and other Islands, and even the majority of my black friends who have been here for generations, great grandchildren of slaves, prefer black.

I also agree with @incendiary_dan definition.

In my eyes Chicano is more of a culture, I was born in California and in no way do I identify myself as a Chicano. @incendiary_dan I agree with your definition. @JLeslie I too descend from sephardic iberians, and in the U.S. I always check I am hispanic because of my last name, but that is a very loose word to describe people. There are black hispanics, mestize, mulattos and white. What kind of media are you talking about @sweetsweetstephy ?

@mrmijunte I should have been clearer, my husband is Sephardic because the Sephardim have taken under their wing Jews from Northeast Africa and the Middle East. There is no indication that side of his family is from the Iberian Peninsula. If you are a Sephardic American, I would consider you Spanish descent not Hispanic, or Portuguese if from Portugal, unless your family stopped over in Latin America before coming to the US. If you are Jewish, it even gets a little more complex maybe, depending how long ago your family came here, or how closely they identify with being Spanish. Not that I would try to convince you what you should be called, just saying how I typically look at it. If you identify hispanic I respect that.

I don’t think last name should have anything to do with anything.

@JLeslie For all purposes I identify myself as white, because in Mexico there is no such thing as Hispanic for a census. Hispanic is somebody that comes from “Spain” or has origins in there, remember that Spanish should only be used for nationality, the language is not really Spanish but Castellano. Yes, my descendants did stop in Costa Rica first, and then branched out to many countries. I did not try to imply that your husband was from Iberia ( in my mind that is, I did not express myself correctly ), just to tell you that I share the same heritage as he does, and that we are awesome.

@mrmijunte :) So you are Mexican? Or, Costa Rican? I am confused. Maybe you are saying your family first went to Costa Rica then Mexico now the United States? My MIL is Mexican, her parents are Spanish (father from Spain) and French (mother from France); that is how we would refer to them, but also Latin American and/or Mexican, I don’t think I would call them Hispanic if I knew them (They have passed away) but most Americans would I think.

@JLeslie My nationality is U.S. but I was raised in Mexico, my father was born in Chicago ( he is jewish and his parents are from Costa Rica and Nicaragua ), my mother was born in Mexico but her parents are from Brescia, Italy they are deeply Catholic. But I tell people I’m Mexican, because I feel Mexican, if that makes sense.

@mrmijunte Yes, it makes perfect sense.

@mrmijunte Did you grow up in Mexico City? Did you go to the American High School?

Yes. No, I went to Colegio Internacional in Coyoacan.

There really can’t be a definition of this. The census allows people to define themselves for both Hispanicity and race. So whatever people want to say about themselves is what they are.

My guess is that most latinos and latinas and chicanos and chicanas would consider themselves Hispanic.

There is only one place in the US where a race and hispanicity is assigned to you. In all others, you decide your own race and Hispanicity. The only place where you don’t get to choose is in prison.

I don’t like how they refer to Latinos as just people from Latin America. This is where it gets convoluted. To me a person of Latin background is anyone that has ancestry from Latin peaking countries: Spain, Portugal, France and Italy. Many people only consider Spain and the Latin Americas as having latinos, and there are some that only see people in South America as Latinos.

When it comes to the term Hispanic, that is primarily only used in America. In Europe they don’t have Hispanic as a race selection; you are either white, black, asian, etc. Hispanic would be people that have origins is Hispania or just Spain. The problem with this, well my problem at least, is that Portugal is considered or was at one point, Hispania. Hispania used to be the term for both because they used to be one country.
If you look at a lot of applications in the race section they sometimes don’t count European Spanish as Latino or Hispanic.

@Ajulutsikael You just made me aware that I really don’t use the term Latino, I say Latin American. I use Spanish for people from Spain. Joe is Spanish. I use Latin American the same way I would use American. I am American, it does not indicate what race I am. In America actually on the census they ask if you are Hispanic, Latino or Spanish origin, and then separately your race. I find it confusing and odd that they do not ask if someone is simply Latin American and their race, because someone who is from Europe, from Spain, probably more in common with Europeans than Latin Americans, and Latin Americans are a big mix like all of the Americas pretty much.

@mrmijunte I am focusing on film and television. I agree when you say that Chicano is more of a culture. I find that I agree more with your definition, @incendiary_dan.