John Zimmerman of NYU explains that the term “Hispanic” is:
..a recent invention, dating to the 1970s and ’80s. Before then, when Sotomayor was growing up with her Puerto Rican family in New York City, she was not Hispanic….
How did Mexicans, Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Salvadorans, Panamanians, Nicaraguans and Guatemalans all become Hispanic?
Amid the African American civil rights struggle of the 1960s, many of these groups joined hands to demand voting rights, bilingual education and social services. Here they received a big assist from an unlikely source: Richard Nixon. Eager to bring Mexicans and other Latino immigrants into the Republican fold, Nixon also saw them as a potential bulwark against black political aspirations.
“All Spanish-speaking Americans share certain characteristics — a strong family structure, deep ties to the church, which makes them open to an appeal from us,” wrote one GOP campaign strategist on the eve of Nixon’s 1972 presidential reelection bid. “The Democratic Party is under suspicion for favoring politically potent blacks at the expense of the needs of Spanish-speaking people.”
So Nixon threw his weight behind bilingual education, which has since become a bête noire for the GOP. He also ordered the Census Bureau to add a query on its 1970 form asking whether respondents were “Hispanic,” hoping to further solidify this new voting bloc.
posted June 12, 2009 at 7:35 pm
When I applied for a job in Chicago with the Department of Public Aid in the late 1960s, I applied for a Spanish-speaking position, because there was less competition. And the word my interviewer used when describing my potential clientele was “Hispanic.”
posted June 13, 2009 at 9:10 am
Same here as Marian. I recall being called “Hispanic” in the 1960s and the Spanish equivalent, “Hispano,” all my life.
posted June 13, 2009 at 12:00 pm
Me, too. I have school documents that labeled me as Hispanic in 1963.
posted June 13, 2009 at 2:39 pm
Can somebody please explain this to a non-American? Are Spaniards (you know, from the actual country of Spain, Hispania, España) ever called “Hispanic”? Are Iglesias pere et fils “Hispanic singers”? Was George Santayana a “Hispanic philosopher”? What exactly does this category mean and why is it regarded by you guys as a race?
This really puzzles the rest of the world. When you see the list
white
black
hispanic
the first two refer to a supposed genetic/geographical heritage – itself widely open to debate but let it slide – but the third has to do with a language. OK, Steven’s post apparently explains how it got into the system. But what is it still doing there?
posted June 14, 2009 at 5:07 pm
There are really only three biological “races;” in the vernacular: white, black and Asian. Everything else is cultural/geographical. Intermarriage and geography created the rest. I am an American citizen by birth. I am caucasian. My adopted children are American citizens by birth, they are Meztizo. Their birth parents were from Mexico (which would make them partially caucasion) and also Native American. This leads to their being partially Asian, as Native Americans had Asian biological ties due to migration from Asia centuries ago.
There’s to race than biology and culture.
posted August 23, 2009 at 2:07 am
LOL White, black and asian aren’t three biological races.
First of all Sub-saharan africa has the most genetic diversity of the entire human race.
Second of all the Caucasoid skull type existed in Middle Easterners and South Asians before Europe could even be inhabitated (due to the ice age). So in reality Caucasian refers to a wide variety of peoples with different complexions, but a similar skull type.
Third Asians (Mongoloids) are not one unified group either. Native Americans are mongoloids too.
There are also Australoids in the mix.
So as you can see, racial classification is far more complicated than simply White, Yellow, Black.
By the way, as there exist different Grey Wolf breeds (arabian wolf, arctic wolf, etc) there are also different human “breeds” or adaptations to certain geographies.
posted August 23, 2009 at 2:12 am
By the way Hispanics/southern europeans weren’t historically considered to be white by northern europeans especially in the US and Canada.
About 1/4 of latin americans are of european descent (mainly southern european), the majority of the population is mixed native and mainaly southern european. There are also many full blooded natives, East asians, Arabs, etc.
There are huge racial/cultural divisions. Most mestizos and blancos look down on Natives, native culture, native religion and native looking citizens. European spanish latino culture is of course dominant.