The form Latina refers to a Latin American woman. The reason for the inclusion of Latino? Portuguese, the primary language of Brazil, may not be Spanish, but it is also a Romance language—that is, it evolved from Latin, hence the term Latin America. Latin America is the part of the American continents south of the United States in which Spanish, Portuguese, or French is officially spoken as a result of European colonialism.
Latinx emerged in the early s and has since spread as a gender-neutral or nonbinary way to refer to a person of Latin American descent. The character x has been used to replace the gendered inflections -o and -a. The spelling Latinx has been embraced by groups that wish to include members whose gender identities are nonbinary.
The term Latinx has been used since the early s, particularly online, with other early uses found in scholarly and academic works.
But the term has received criticism because the Spanish language, as some detractors point out , nouns in Spanish are gendered. For example, there is nothing particularly female about a library la biblioteca , or male about a museum el museo , but as you can see, the nouns end with the gendered -o or -a.
When nouns and the words that modify them refer to people, the gender inflection reflects the sex of the person described. The final vowels distinguish between the smart boy el chico listo and the smart girl la chica lista. So Latinx has been viewed by some as an imperialistic effort originating in the US that breaks the rules of the Spanish language.
An important—and perhaps surprising—note on Latinx : according to one poll , the vast majority of Hispanic and Latin Americans say they do not identify with the word.
Learn more about Latinx at our extensive and informative Historical Usage Note at our entry for Latinx. There is another argument against Hispanic : many who now exclusively use Latino , Latina, or Latinx argue that Hispanic reflects the imperialist history of Spain as a European colonizer in Latin America, at the expense of the rich cultures and languages of the indigenous and Black people of African origin who also live in these countries.
There also remains the matter of Latin in Latin America, which is Eurocentric. While Hispanic was at one time overwhelmingly favored in the late 20th century, Latino , when applicable, is growing more popular with younger generations seeking to stay rooted in their cultural identity.
A person who is Latino may also be Hispanic, or not. For instance, while people from Brazil are considered Latino because Brazil is a Latin American country , they are not considered Hispanic because Brazil is a former Portuguese colony, not a Spanish one.
There are also differences in usage of the terms Hispanic and Latino by geographical region. While urban areas and those on the coasts tend to prefer Latino, rural areas in places like Texas and New Mexico are more likely to use the term Hispanic. However, there are exceptions to this tendency. For example, the word Hispanic is generally preferred and more widely used in Florida.
While the terms Hispanic and Latino have existed for centuries, it wasn't until they were introduced into the United States Census that they became more popularized. The census is used by the government to study aspects of the population. During the s, there was a common theme of poverty and discrimination among Mexican Americans in the southwest and Puerto Ricans on the east coast of the United States.
While the government initially saw these as regional issues, the joining of the Latino communities across the nation to address these issues led to a new perspective and a new method of categorization. Respondents could also identify their race e. The term Latino first appeared on the census as an option for ethnicity. Later, these terms were also introduced to forms of identification such as driver's licenses, birth certificates, and school registration forms.
In this way, the use of these labels serves the purpose of allowing the government to accurately categorize the changing population and to identify trends by shared cultures. Popular culture and the media have helped to connect the Hispanic and Latino communities and further popularize these groupings based on their shared experiences. Spanish-language media such as commercials, television shows, magazines, websites, news stations, and social media accounts reflect this understanding.
In general, the media appears to prefer the term Latino, likely because Hispanic tends to refer only to language, while Latino is broader and refers to people, music, and culture, etc. Moreover, it's possible that in the media, the term Latino feels more inclusive. However, statistics suggest that many people still prefer to use Latino.
According to Pew Research Center, two-thirds of Hispanic people feel that their Hispanic background is part of their racial background.
This suggests that those who identify as Hispanic or Latino have a different conceptualization of race or ethnicity than others. Further, within the Hispanic or Latino community, there are also differences in how people self-identify.
This helps to distinguish themselves from those who share their race but have different cultural backgrounds. How do you know when to use which term?
While it's true that the terms Hispanic and Latino can engender a sense of community and common history for those who self-identify, imposing one of these labels on another person is unhelpful. Instead, it's best to respect whatever label a person gives themselves or to avoid labels altogether if that is their preference.
Hispanics have found many have an inclusive view of what it means to be Hispanic. Views of Hispanic identity may change in coming decades as broad societal changes, such as rising intermarriage rates, produce an increasingly diverse and multiracial U.
For many Hispanics, the current census categories may not fully capture how they view their racial identity. For example, The next largest single-race group was White At the same time, more than 20 million Latinos identified with more than one race on the census, up from just 3 million in The increase in multiracial Latinos could be due to a number of factors, including changes to the census form that make it easier for people to identify with multiple races and growing racial diversity among Latinos.
At the same time, the number of Latinos who identify as White and no other race declined from Similar to race, Hispanics can be of any country of origin or ancestry. This results in varying patterns that relate to where people come from and how they choose to identify themselves on census surveys.
For the most part, people who trace their ancestry to these countries are not counted as Hispanic by the Census Bureau, usually because most do not identify as Hispanic when they fill out their census forms. These patterns likely reflect a growing recognition and acceptance of the official definition of Hispanics. But by , the shares identifying as Hispanic dropped to levels closer to those seen today.
What people report on census forms is not subject to any independent checks, corroborations or corrections. The first year the Census Bureau asked everybody in the country about Hispanic ethnicity was in Some efforts were made before then to count people who today would be considered Hispanic. A portion of the U. By , the current approach — in which someone is asked if they are Hispanic — had taken hold, with some tweaks made to the question and response categories since then.
However, this change did not appear in the census. Note: This post was originally published on May 28, , by Jeffrey S. Hispanic noun. Kids Definition of Hispanic Entry 2 of 2. Get Word of the Day daily email! Test Your Vocabulary. Can you spell these 10 commonly misspelled words?
Love words? Need even more definitions? Homophones, Homographs, and Homonyms The same, but different.
0コメント