What Does Being Latino Mean For You Beyond The Census’ Check Boxes?
5 June 2009, 3:30 PM. By Alex Alvarez
The question “What does it mean to be Latino?” is not a new one, and the allegation that the United States Census Bureau or other organizations concerned with demographics and categories need Latinos to exist for the sake of bureaucracy is, also, not new.
Yet, despite this, many people continue to self-identify as Latino. Why? This section in an article on demographics and identity caught our eye:
Blanco says he thinks of himself first as Latino, and secondly as Mexican.
But for Jacob Delgado-Peña, 68, it’s the exact opposite. Being Latino is secondary.
“I am Puerto Rican,” he said in Spanish. “Completely, 100 percent Puerto Rican.”
Why the choice to be Latino, or not to be? We think of ourselves, for example, primarily as Alex: a series of memories and neuroses and yadda yadda. Our gender and ethnicity and race, while factors that define our actions and the way we are perceived and treated by society, don’t automatically factor into our self-image. But, when we do begin to tackle our nationality, we think of ourselves as an American with our pink toe always dipped in Cuban waters. And, ethnically, we’re a Latina. And being Latina, or calling ourselves Latina at any rate, is a choice. We choose to say, hey, this is a label that could be just a word, or just a trap, or just an organizational tool, but it can mean something more and we like what that something is. We like belonging, to whatever degree, to this large group of diverse people. We like that we are able to claim some commonality without losing our identity as a Cuban-American in the process.
If we’re being honest with ourselves, our choice to identify as Latina reflects as much about what we are as it does what we are not. When we can’t relate to non-Latinos’ values or opinions or world view is when we feel safest knowing that we are a part of a group of people who (are more likely to) approach these things with a similar mindset as we do. And it feels a little less lonely out there.
Yet, despite or because of this, we can never seem to come up with a completely water-tight definition of what it means to be a Latino. (And, truthfully, we kind of like it that way.)
But is that how it works for all of you? Tell us: Do you identify as Latino? Why or why not? And, if so, does it come before or after, in your mind, whatever your nationality happens to be?
I think, therefore I am: Being Latino is as simple as saying so [Medill Reports]
Related:
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Is She Or Isn’t She?: Benjamin Cardozo, Sonia Sotomayor And Who, Exactly, Is The First Latino Supreme Court Justice
Worry Not- The New York Times Will Teach You How To Refer To Latinoids
Biracial Panel To Hispanics: Choose A Race
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I’m a Chicana and I’m brown and proud (… Kid Frost is that you?)
Technically speaking, my nationality is American, and my ethnicity is Mexican. I’ve been using Mexican American to identify myself lately. I used to just say Mexican but of course people assumed I was born in Mexico. I use Latina when it’s appropriate, like when my exact ethnicity doesn’t need to be known.
But really, we should all just call each other Bad Ass Mother Fuckers, because that is what we are, no matter where in Latin America we identify ourselves with.
For purposes of identification, I just use Hispanic. Why you ask? Because while Latinos can be found all around the world, Hispanics can only be found in America, thanks to Pres Nixon. So in a way I think of “Hispanics” as kind of culturally American Latinos (who are still proud of their respective Latin American heritages, of course).
I’m in your boat - if pressed for either Latina or Hispanic, I prefer Hispanic, just because that’s what we were raised with. But otherwise, I tend to go with Texan(or American, whatever)-of-Mexican-Descent. My cousin really has a thing against the term “Mexican-American” for some reason though - he says “Where is Mexico-America then? Because I don’t believe that was where I was born.” But yeah, he tends to go with the “Of-Mexican-Descent” thing too.
And my caucasian friends often to do the same - you ask them what they are and they’ll regale you with tales of family members from all points of Europe, not a blanket “I’m white” kind of statement. But I think the social circle I hang with tends to think of this kind of thing more as an identifier of where your family is from, what cultural heritage you have, not what color your skin is.
Neither word is very useful. What does a person of mostly Japanese ancestry whose family has lived in Peru for 4 generations and speaks Spanish have in common with an Itzta Mayan speaker living in the Guatemalan never. And what do either of these have in common with a person of (say) Hispano-Cuban descent living in Queens and speaking mostly english? If you answered “nothing” you were right my little droogies. Yet all these people are termed Latin or Hispanic.
Itza Mayan - Latino
If I can have an edit function I will be you BFFOREVER or at least until I need something from someone else. Cause I’m a whore like that.