Seriously, the objections to the term “hispanic” found in your post are pretty common complaints against that term that go back many, many years and are very well known to anyone with that slightest knowledge of US history and Latin American immigrant movements. I myself don’t really feel 100% comfortable with either Latino or Hispanic, so I always go by national origin (I’m Dominican). That has its own pitfalls too but works out to be much more neutral.

Oh and your link to the “culture kitchen” blog post doesn’t work. I think she pulled it down.

@luisa: In answer to your two comments, A) Who said anything about these arguments being new? Our point was merely to point out how un-thought out they are. And B) The link works for me. Thanks!

Wow, instant response, yay!! When I clicked on the link on “a list” I got a “404 page not found” message. But following the link to Liza’s old posts I finally found it! What a pleasure to read. My favorite part was “Last, but not least, Hispanic somehow romanticizes Spanish Imperialim in the Americas.” Lifelong wordsmith indeed.

I don’t think yall need any help to be “right,” apparently you’re already way over there with all the other reactionary hispanics.

as for what you should call yourselves…hmm, I don’t know, ever since you switched editors, how about Not Funny? Lacking In Wit, Insight, and Originality? Boring and Dull?

Mom, is that you?

one of my grad college professors (i say grad pa’ presumir…jaja) said Hispanics should use a name that reflects their Native American origins…then she told me I had all Native American feaures…she is right, I do. But then I asked her, “my sister is all european…so what would she be called?”

el cuento de nunca acabar.

@ M. Gonzalez - What exactly is “grad college?” Grad school, you mean? Go ahead and presumir, you’re not the only Hispanic/Latino to attend.

si, its grad school. i edit for a living…so when i type comments in blogs i go crazy with crapy writing…

i know i’m not the only one thank God…it was only a sarcastic comment…

As the responder to her post commented, all the terms are imperfect, but I think its because people misuse them so often. To my undestanding:

Hispanic = from a Spanish-speaking country
Latino = a person from a Romance-Language speaking country living in the US
Latin = Latin American

The MOST annoying is when people call all Latinos “Spanish.”

I vote for beaners. I think its the only thing we all have in common anyway.

I have never really understood this controversy. Hispanic or Latino. Neither is a pejorative term nor is it meant to offend. So it is up to an individual to misconstrue it to become something negative.

I always feel like the Hispanic versus Latino debate is just an issue that people raise to get people riled up. I don’t buy into this “controversy”. In my opinion, we as the Hispanic/Latino community, have bigger fish to fry.

As I understand it, the term “Hispanic” became popularized after the U.S. government began putting us all in this category for census purposes. “Latino” was the self-identification alternative, often implying a political stance of Latino unity. While its true that both terms are Eurocentric, it’s no less Eurocentric to identify according to national origins, because “Bolivian” or “Dominican” are just as much European (or creole European) political constructs. As long as we think it’s important to build Latino unity, I’m sticking with “Latino” as opposed to Cubano-americano.

peace.

I go with Hispanic. I don’t see anything “offensive” about it, and my great-grandparents were born in Spain, so no one is foisting anything upon me.

Besides, “Latino” didn’t pop up in common usage until I was in high school so it sounds all made-up and fake to me, especially with the faux-Spanish pronunciation.

So what are we supposed to call ourselves? Maya, yoruba…tainos? I say Hispanic is the most appropriate cause we all speak spanish and most of us are roman catholics.

The term Latino is stupid and was created by some drunken french intellectuals in the 18th Century.

@Bosrican: Actually, I think it’s Carlos’ mom.

I prefer Cheech’s rendition of “Mexican American” to describe what I feel right now.

The term Hispanic only applies to the Spanish speaking Latinos. (Hispanic, helps narrow down the the term Latino).