Latino vs Hispanic vs other

[Longhorn_Fan68]

I find it very interesting that the 'pc' term to refer to anyone with ancestry from Mexico, South America, etc in the current media is Latino. I always thought the proper term was Hispanic. Did I miss a meeting? Is this a regional thing that has leaked into the gloabl lexicon? By my observations, it seems that people who are from more northern states use Latino and those from more southern states use Hispanic. It seems like someone needs to tell campaigners in Texas to switch their terminology to Hispanic. But I could be wrong. Thoughts?

 

[zzzz]

In reply to:

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[AtlLonghorn]

Hispanic implies that they are of Spanish descent. Not all people from Mexico and Latin America are of Spanish descent...or something. I don't really know, I had a professor at UT who was militant Latina and she scolded anyone who used any term but Latino.

 

[AverageHorn]

I'm Hispanic. I still use the term. Don't know what the big deal is with it being bad.

The way I understand it, "Latinos" wanted to distance themselves from the term "Hispanic" because it was somewhat misguiding in regard to their place or countries of origin. Looks to be a product of La Raza type thought.

 

[Longhorn_Fan68]

So Latino is now the preferred nomenclature? Damn, I can't keep up with this.

 

[DeadHeadHorn]

I've always used Latino/Latina. Most people just ignorantly say "Mexican", or better yet "Spanish", to describe brown people. That's a lot worse than Hispanic, though I don't really know why Hispanic is offensive and/or wrong - my dictionary says that Hispanic means "a Spanish-speaking person living in the United States, especially of Latin American descent".

 

[BigOHorn]

So, I’m like not the most PC guy around but this is how I had it explained to me.


Mexican – People born in the country of Mexico. This one is pretty easy.

Latino – Peeps from Latin America or those countries whose language is derived from Latin (this includes Spain). Peeps from Brazil would still be Latino, Guyana, although in South America speaks French so they are not considered Hispanic and they are not part of “Latin America” so they are not Latino.

Hispanic - People who speak Spanish. Like peeps from Brazil would not be Hispanic because they speak Portuguese.

Anyway, I have no idea if this 100% correct but it works for me….

 

[shotgun427]

People from South America have always called themselves 'Latino.' Rarely would you hear someone from South America call themselves 'hispano.' That's what latin people in the US use. Neither term is objectionable though.

 

[achooloco]

its been said on the thread but thought i'd throw in my two cents. nothing is so wrong about hispanic so much as it was a term conceived and implemented by the u.s. government in order to classify all these people who were neither traditional descendant from slaves nor from europe (excluding spain of course). seeing as how the u.s. government pretty much ****** latin america in order to kill communism, the land taken from mexicans in california for the gold rushes, zoot suit riots and gold old fashion american racism many latinos like myself (i'm mexican american by the way) choose not to use the term forced upon us by a government that so often has mistreated us. obviously, this country has given a lot (not saying they haven't) but given the choice, i'll choose my own label thank you very much. of course thats just one reason and there are many more just as valid ones already described in the thread.

 

[rhg84]

My parents are from mexico and I usually refer to myself as hispanic. I'm not offended by latino though. I always thought hispanic was better because i always assumed latino referred to Latin America but there are brown people from other areas like the Caribbean.

 

[Longhorn_Fan68]

I nailed it. Obama just used Hispanic in his rally in Houston. Someone listened to me!

 

[Rip76]

most of the haha, "brown people," I know including 1/2 of my wife, are from Mexico..

I call them Mexicans...

 

[Napoleon]

In Argentina, I refer to everyone as "Mexican". The Euros can't believe I say this. The Americans laugh. The Argentines glare.