Comments on: What Does Being Latino Mean For You Beyond The Census’ Check Boxes?

By: x111e7thst

x111e7thst — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 20:53:40 +0000

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.

By: x111e7thst

x111e7thst — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 20:49:44 +0000

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.

By: mimiroro

mimiroro — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 17:07:36 +0000

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.

By: Guest

Guest — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 22:29:34 +0000

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).

By: laroncha

laroncha — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 20:35:10 +0000

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.