Crónicas- Features

WHAT HISPANIC AWARENESS MEANS TO ME by Rogelio Gomez Jr. 9/00

I was born into several inclusive familias without having to go out of my way to join them.

I was born in Texas and took my first breath as a baby humano. I was now a member of the human family. A few days later, my birth certificate said I was an Americano. I was happy being an Americano until I was old enough to understand that in South Texas, with a name like Gomez, the law recognized me as a Mexicano. I was cool with that since everyone picking cotton alongside my family was also Mexicano and it was good to be with a group that was warm and referred to each other as comadre or compadre.

When I started school, I found out that because I was born in the great state of Texas, I also have the distinction of being a Tejano. At that stage in my life, it was great to be a Tejano because all my heroes were cowboys and what better place to be from if you wanted to be a cowboy. I went through school being a Humano/Americano/Mexicano/Tejano and it was great to belong to my growing family.

After graduation, I joined the military as many Humanos/Americanos/Mexicanos/Tejanos did and as a result of that, I became a Veterano. One of the benefits of being a Veterano was that I was able to attend the University in the early 70’s. If you were an Humano/Americano/Mexicano/Tejano/Veterano student in Califas in the early 70’s, you naturally became a Chicano. I liked being a Chicano and finding out about my roots in the first of many Mexican-American Studies classes taught by real Chicano professors.

After college, I settled into a government job. I was happy but still felt I lacked a connection so, being the Humano/Americano/Mexicano/Tejano/Veterano/Chicano that I had become; I joined LULAC and became a United League Latino. I was happy being a Latino and working to improve our community. Belonging to these great familias filled me with a sense of responsibility and pride.

A few years back, I found out that I am an Hispano as defined by the good ole U.S. of A. and that time had been set aside every fall to make others aware of my new and expanding family.

I did not choose to be an Humano/Americano/Mexicano/Tejano/Veterano/Chicano/Latino/ Hispano nor any other label. The choice I had was in how these labels would affect and impact my life. I could reject them and say I’m a member of the human family only, as some have said, or I can embrace them as a gift of life and let my actions define who I am, as some have done.

Having lived, loved and celebrated every occasion is what I will remember when I finally become an Humano/Americano/Mexicano/Tejano/Veterano/Chicano/Latino/Hispano/Anciano.

'HISPANIC' VS 'LATINO'

I'm from Texas of Mexican decent and I don't have a problem with the word Hispanic. I realized this is a term originated by Census Bureau in order to track the growth of the Spanish speaking population. I also realized that this is a term used exclusively in the United States. However, I'm more than just Latina. I'm also an American, a Texan, and from Mexican, Native-American, French, and Spanish decent. I'm a "Mutt" and very proud to be such a glorious mixture.

It reminds me of school math problems where you have sets and subsets. Being Latin or Latino includes people whose origins are Latin base; it refers to the root of their language. This includes individuals coming from France, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Albania, and Romania. To me being Hispanic includes only those whose language of origins is Spanish. This means all "Hispanics" are Latinos, but not all Latinos are Hispanic.

It is our responsibility to assure that our culture and people are portrayed as accurately as possible. If we must be categorized, then let us be categorized with a term that unites us, rather than divides us. The term Hispanic, includes all of us accurately without regard to race, creed, color or national origin. --- Wendy

Ten years ago, the definition of Hispanic was "an American of Spanish or Latin American Descent". Now, Webster says "a person of Latin American descent living in the U.S.; especially one of Cuban, Mexican or Puerto Rican origin". So now, the Spanish "thread" is gone. In essence, Webster says that a Hispanic is a Latino/Latina. How much does this matter?

Gabriela DeWitt

¿Latinos or Hispanics?
A Debate About Identity
By Darryl Fears
© The Washington Post

On a recent summer's day, Sandra Cisneros walked into Valenzuela's Latino Bookstore and thought she had discovered a treasure. It was one of the few independent book sellers in her home town of San Antonio, and on top of that, she said, its name appealed directly to her.

But within minutes, her mood changed. A clerk innocently used a word to describe a section of books that made Cisneros's skin crawl. "She used the word Hispanic," Cisneros said, her voice dripping with indignation. "I wanted to ask her, 'Why are you using that word?'

"People who use that word don't know why they're using it," said Cisneros, a Mexican American poet and novelist. "To me, it's like a slave name. I'm a Latina."

That declaration -- "I'm a Latina" -- is resounding more and more through the vast and diverse Spanish-speaking population that dethroned African Americans as the nation's largest ethnic group a few months ago. It is also deepening a somewhat hidden but contentious debate over how the group should identify itself -- as Hispanics or Latinos.

The debate is increasingly popping up wherever Spanish speakers gather. It was raised last month at the National Council of La Raza's convention in Austin. The Internet is littered with articles and position papers on the issue. Civic organizations with Hispanic in their titles have withstood revolts by activist members seeking to replace it with the word Latino.

Cisneros refused to appear on the cover of Hispanic magazine earlier this year because of its name. She relented only after editors allowed her to wear a huge faux tattoo on her biceps that read "Pura Latina," or Pure Latina.

Another Mexican American writer, Luis J. Rodriguez, only reluctantly accepted an award from a Hispanic organization "because I'm not Hispanic," he said. Some have called the argument an insignificant disagreement over words that is being blown out of proportion.

But others believe such labels can change the course of a people, as advocates of "black power" showed when they cast aside the term Negro during their crusade for self-determination amid the 1960s civil rights movement. "I think the debate reflects the flux this community is in right now," said Angelo Falcon, a senior policy executive for the Puerto Rican Legal and Education Fund. "It's almost like a story where you ask, 'Where might this community be going?' "

Although the terms Latino and Hispanic have been used interchangeably for decades, experts who have studied their meanings say the words trace the original bloodlines of Spanish speakers to different populations in opposite parts of the world. Hispanics derive from the mostly white Iberian peninsula that includes Spain and Portugal, while Latinos are descended from the brown indigenous Indians of the Americas south of the United States and in the Caribbean, conquered by Spain centuries ago.

Latino-Hispanic is an ethnic category in which people can be of any race. They are white, like the Mexican American boxer Oscar de la Hoya, and black, like the Dominican baseball slugger Sammy Sosa. They can also be Ameri-Indian and Asian. A great many are mixtures of several races. More than 90 percent of those who said they are of "some other race" on the 2000 Census identified themselves as Hispanic or Latino. "As a poet, I'm especially sensitive to the power a word has," said Cisneros, who wrote the books "Caramelo" and "The House on Mango Street." "It's not a word. It's a way of looking at the world. It's a way of looking at meaning."

Duard Bradshaw has a different opinion. "I'll tell you why I like the word Hispanic," said the Panamanian president of the Hispanic National Bar Association. "If we use the word Latino, it excludes the Iberian peninsula and the Spaniards. The Iberian peninsula is where we came from. We all have that little thread that's from Spain."

A survey of the community conducted last year by the Pew Hispanic Center of Washington found that nearly all people from Spanish-speaking backgrounds identify themselves primarily by their place of national origin. When asked to describe the wider community, more than half, 53 percent, said both Hispanic and Latino define them. A substantial but smaller group, 34 percent, favored the term Hispanic.

The smallest group, 13 percent, said they preferred Latino. A survey by Hispanic Trends magazine produced a similar finding. But advocates for the term Latino were unfazed. "The very fact that it's called the Pew Hispanic Center tells you something," said Fernando Guerra, the Mexican American director of the Center for the Study of Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount University. "The fact that Hispanic is in the name of the organization . . . biased the question."

The term Hispanic was given prominence by the Nixon administration more than 30 years ago when it was added to the census questionnaire in 1970. Although that year's count of the large Mexican American, Puerto Rican and Cuban American populations was a disappointment, a seed had been planted. By the 1980 Census, Hispanic had become fixed as the official government term. It appeared not only on census forms, but also on all other federal, state and municipal applications for employment, general assistance and school enrollment.

"It's a great gift that the government of the United States gave us," said Vincent Pinzon, the Colombian president and founder of the Americas Foundation. "If you want to acquire political muscle in this country, and you say you're just Argentinian or Colombian, then you have none." But Mexican American activists in California and Puerto Rican activists in New York were not pleased. They favored a term that included the brown indigenous Indians who they believe are the source of their bloodline. "Hispanic doesn't work for me because it's about people from Spain," said Rodriguez, author of the book "The Republic of East L.A." "I'm Mexican, and we were conquered by people from Spain, so it's kind of an insult."

Rodriguez's views are typical of Mexican Americans in Los Angeles, the epicenter of immigrants from that country, and the Chicano rights movement. The term Chicano is thought to have originated as slang that described immigrants and refugees from the Mexican revolution. The term later evolved to define the uprising of Mexican American reformers and rights activists as well as farm laborers and other workers who lived in squalor while toiling for low pay. As activists from other Latin countries joined the movement, Latino was adopted as an umbrella term for all groups. "In L.A., if someone says he's Hispanic, and he's not from the East Coast, you begin to question this guy," said Guerra, the Loyola Marymount professor. "It means he didn't grow up in a Latino neighborhood."

In Washington, where the Pew Center is located, Salvadorans who dominate the area's large Central American population say "somos Latinos" -- we are Latinos -- according to José Ramos, director of the United Salvadoran American Civic Committee. "Hispanic is a category for the U.S. Census," he said. "It's a formality. For me, the correct term is Latino. It identifies people who speak the same language, people who share a vision of the historical meaning of our community. I am Salvadoran, and I am Latino."

But Cuban immigrants in Miami, conservative Mexican Americans in Texas and a group of Spanish descendants in New Mexico are among the groups that strongly identify themselves as Hispanic.

The word Latin dates to an 18th century spat between England and France, according to a historical resource guide written by journalist Frank del Olmo for the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. Latin was used to distinguish Italy, France, Spain and their conquered territories in the Americas from the British empire and its colonies.

Latino was popularized during the social movements of the 1960s, Guerra and other historians said. The disagreement over the pair of ancient terms is an annoyance to some. When the subject came up at the National Council of La Raza's annual meeting, Lisa Navarette, the group's Cuban American spokeswoman, dismissed it. "We've got so many real important issues to work on, we can't be bothered with this nit-picking." The community indeed faces daunting challenges: high unemployment, a skyrocketing high school dropout rate, widespread opposition to immigration reform and crowded communities. But the issue isn't apt to disappear. A few years ago, Bradshaw's group, the Hispanic National Bar Association in Washington, had to fight off a resolution by a group of members to remove the word Hispanic from its name and replace it with Latino. Last semester, students at Southern Methodist University in Dallas talked about changing the name Hispanic Student Services. And earlier this year, Cisneros, the author who abhors the word Hispanic, refused to accept an award from a Hispanic organization.

At the Latino bookstore Cisneros visited, owner Richard Martinez didn't know what to think. "I don't know which is correct," he said. "I'm a Mexican, a Latino, a Hispanic, whatever. Be who you are. Be proud, like everyone else."

Latin? Hispanic? What's the difference? Actually Latino and Hispanic are not synonymous.

The word "Latin" comes to us from a tribe in early Italy called the Latins. The Latins lived in Latium whose capital city was Rome. Their language was called Latin. According to the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, as Rome's Empire grew their language, Latin, spread throughout the Roman Empire later evolving into several "Romance" languages; Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and French. People from these countries are referred to as Latin, their language is derived from "Latin". These languages are very similar as explained by Dr. Lorenzo LaFarelle, a Chicano Studies professor at the University of Texas at El Paso, the word for cave in Spanish is "cueva", in Portuguese is "cova", in Italian is "cava".

When the Romans invaded the Iberian peninsula they found a city already there called Hispalis (Seville). The name Hispalis appears to be derived from Greek since Hispalus is a mythical Greek hero. Later on the Romans annexed the Iberian peninsula making it a province named Hispania. The Romans spent seven centuries in Hispania leaving a legacy not only of language but of social and cultural characteristics such as family, language, and religion which tied Hispania to the rest of the "Latin" world forever. Sometime later the name evolved from Hispania to España. The word Hispania thus refers to the people and culture of the Iberian peninsula, Spain in particular. The term Hispano (Hispanic) later was used in referring to Spain and its subsequent New World - New Spain, conquered territories which covers most of Latino America. Hispanic thus refers to people whose culture and heritage have ties to Spain and, in the case of second and third generation Hispanic-Americans, who may or may not speak Spanish.

In the U.S. the term Hispanic (Hispano) gained acceptance after it was picked up by the government and used in forms and census to identify people with Spanish heritage. Hispanic is not a race but an ethnic distinction, Hispanics come from all races and physical traits. The term Hispanic is merely a translation of the Old World word Hispania (Latin) or Hispano (Spanish).

Latin America is a geographic location. People from Latin America are all Latin but not all are Hispanics. Brazilians speak Portuguese, which makes them Latin but not Hispanic. In the 20's and 50's the term "Latin American" became very popular. Back then people of Mexican descent born in the United States preferred to be called Latin Americans since they were not actually born in Mexico, they felt the term Mexican did not exactly fit them. Besides that often the term Mexican was used with a derogatory note. In 1928 in the Corpus Christi - Laredo area a group of Hispanics spearheaded LULAC (League of Latin American Citizens) to help combat discrimination and prejudice and to help Hispanics acculturate.

Prior to Texas joining the Union, old Hispanic native families in Texas called themselves "Tejanos". After 1820 the Anglo population called themselves Texans and the term Mexicans was used for all Hispanics whether newly arrived or not.

The term "Chicano", is a more exclusive term used solely in reference to people of Mexican descent. Chicano was probably first used by the Conquistadores. The original Mexican Indians were called Mexicas. That term was changed to Mexicanos by the Spaniards and probably the "me" was dropped and thus the term Xicanos or Chicanos was born. Sometime ago a popular and elite group of Mexican nationalist fighters called themselves "Los Chicanos" and the name was picked up in the 1970's by young militant Americans of Mexican descent to make a political statement. Although the term "Chicano" is an "old" word, many elderly Hispanics of Mexican descent don't like it because the term had been used, long ago, as derogatory reference to Mexican peasants or peons.

Boricua is a term used exclusively for Puerto Ricans. The Taíno Indians called their paradise Borikén, the term Boricua derives from that.

So what are we? We, Spanish speakers or people of Spanish heritage are Hispanics or Hispanos.