The complicated measure of being Hispanic in America

[almaty 19]

(CNN) -- Hispanics and Latinos are described as the largest minority group in the United States, as a burgeoning force in the electorate and as an untapped frontier of the business market. Yet these descriptions belie the complexity of the 44 million people to whom they refer.

Susana Clar, with daughters Vanessa (left) and Virna (center), says the labels "Hispanic" and "Latino" are limiting.

1 of 3 more photos » Even the terms used to name them -- Hispanics, Hispanic-Americans, Latinos, Latino-Americans, the Spanish-surnamed -- too tightly package the people categorized by those definitions, some observers say.

"We are mixed and we are many things," said Phillip Rodriguez, a documentary filmmaker. Many of his films, such as "Los Angeles Now" and "Brown is the New Green: George Lopez and the American Dream," explore the experience and identity of Latinos in the United States.

Latinos "very often don't share language, don't share class circumstances, don't share education; it's very difficult to speak about them as one thing," he said.

From a census standpoint, being of Hispanic or Latino origin means a person identifies himself in one of four listed categories: Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban or "other Spanish, Hispanic or Latino" origin. In the latter more open-ended category, respondents can write in specific origins, such as Salvadoran, Argentinean or Dominican.

According to a Pew Hispanic Center/Kaiser Family Foundation survey in 2002, that is how most Latinos choose to identify themselves. When asked which terms they would use first to describe themselves, 54 percent said they primarily identify themselves in terms of their or their parents' country of origin. About one quarter choose "Latino" or "Hispanic," and 21 percent chose "American." But the broader terms -- Latino, Hispanic -- are the ones tossed about when the media want to discuss a "trend among Latinos," or when a politician appeals to the "Hispanic vote."

The U.S. government came up with the term "Hispanic" in the 1970s to generally refer to people who could trace their origin to Spanish-speaking countries. The term "Latino" refers to origins from Latin America, which includes non-Spanish speaking countries like Brazil. The terms are often used interchangeably, which is a point of some contention in the wider community.

But do the terms carry meaning among the people to whom they refer, or are they merely governmental designations?

"That's the way you call our people," Susana Clar, 52, said of the terms. She and her family emigrated from Uruguay nearly two decades ago, and she works as a vice president in her daughter, Vanessa Di Palma's, Salt Lake City, Utah-based communications firm.

"Either you are Latino [or] Hispanic. I'm fine with that, but I think that we are so much more than that," Clar said.

Manuel Baez, 49, a native of the Dominican Republic who owns an insurance agency in Tampa, Florida, laughingly answered the question of how he identifies himself.

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"Manuel or Manny," he said, adding, "We're being put together in this package and that's too hard," he said, stressing that he didn't like labels. He continued, "Dominican-American really represents who I am, instead of Dominican or Latino."

He never uses Hispanic to identify himself because "I am mixed," Baez said. "Hispanic doesn't go with me because I don't believe that Spain was the best thing for Latin America."

"For me...there is no such thing as a Latino identity," said Suzanne Oboler, professor of Puerto Rican and Latino studies at John Jay College at the City University of New York.

"There's certainly a cultural understanding... [And] a political identity," she said, noting that the many different groups will join on particular issues such as immigration and wages.

But she stressed that it was not a homogenous group. "Not all Latinos speak Spanish, for example. Not all Latinos are going to vote Democratic... All Latinos are not immigrants."

Others, such as Carl J. Kravetz, a longtime veteran of Hispanic marketing, said similarities among the different subsets of Latinos do show a Latino identity, one partly fused through the group's experience in the United States.

Kravetz heads a Los Angeles-based Hispanic advertising agency called cruz/kravetz: IDEAS. He and his colleagues embarked last year on a Latino cultural identity project to better understand a group of consumers they felt could not be adequately reached through the traditional Spanish-language market.

There is "very definitely a Latino identity," Kravetz said. It is drawn along parallels in values and ways of thinking and regardless of country of origin, the group tends to "cluster" in a few areas, he said.

Those areas include interpersonal relationships (Latinos tend to emphasize family; individuality is not as important), perception of the future (the group is less driven toward goals), and spirituality (the group tends to be more fatalistic, more likely to say they have no control over their lives).

David Chitel, the founder of New Generation Latino Consortium, a group of advertising and media companies, also said there are definite cultural ties among Latinos, particularly between those born in the United States. So much so, he said, that he and others coined the term "new generation Latinos" to refer to them.

"We're talking about people that have grown up here in the U.S. in Latino households, most likely with their parents speaking Spanish at home, eating certain foods at home, certain values and traditions that are instilled in them, from music to religious beliefs to the importance of family, these sorts of things," Chitel said. "And it creates very much an identity that is Latino."

Chitel said this group of U.S.-born Latinos should be reached with culturally nuanced media, in the same way the African-American market functions.

Still, some chafe at the labels. "Every time it comes up it just kind of annoys me and makes me mad," Anna Rivas, of Boulder, Colorado, said of her background. Her parents emigrated from Mexico before she was born, but she said she's never identified with the Mexican culture. "On a regular basis I get asked where I'm from," she said.

"And I'll usually reply, 'My parents are from Mexico.' And I don't say, 'I'm Hispanic or Latino, or I'm from Mexico,' because I'm not." E-mail to a friend

[Jaseball 0]

People are People, so why should it be? You and I should get along so awfully....

It's always strange to note how cultures like to differentiate among themselves. Asian folks in China don't call themselves Chines and leave it at that. They are from certain providences and differentiate from each other and certain areas look down on others. Same thing with Latin, African, and other groups of people.

Heck, even the true Native Americans had their tribes and alliances with different traditions, ways of life, etc.

[pedroh 21]

even the broad term is wrong.. we should be called romantics.. we don't speak latin, we speak a romance language..

[one...two...tree 2,762]

even the broad term is wrong.. we should be called romantics.. we don't speak latin, we speak a romance language..

That name's already been taken...back in the 80's...The Romantics

[pedroh 21]

even the broad term is wrong.. we should be called romantics.. we don't speak latin, we speak a romance language..

That name's already been taken...back in the 80's...The Romantics

LOL

[almaty 19]

i agree,..that was funny.............

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

even the broad term is wrong.. we should be called romantics.. we don't speak latin, we speak a romance language..

So do the French. Maybe we should just call you guys undertheborders? That's all you've got in common anyway, you're all from under the border. Not even Spanish is common since the goddamn Brazilians had to be all special and speak freakin' Portugese.

[Ban Hammer 13,345]

even the broad term is wrong.. we should be called romantics.. we don't speak latin, we speak a romance language..

So do the French. Maybe we should just call you guys undertheborders? That's all you've got in common anyway, you're all from under the border. Not even Spanish is common since the goddamn Brazilians had to be all special and speak freakin' Portugese.

gotta have some way of separating the best from the rest

[Ladylethal 12]

We don't speak Portuguese 'cus we're special, we speak Portuguese 'cus we were Portugal's colony, not Spain's like the rest of South America was. Just 'cus we didn't split into several smaller countries but instead remained one big country we happen to be the only Portuguese speaking country in South America

[Nessa 23]

what is really weird for me is that I'm not hispanic (if you look at the definition of the word hispanic, it's about people with Spanish descendant), it is not my case, I'm german decendant, I was born in Brazil and i speak portuguese, there is nothing spanish about me at all. So in Brazil when I have to fill out some application or whatever and they ask for race, I put caucasian (white) cuz that's what I am, it's either that or black, or mulato, and here they have a special race called hispanic and people think that every american country below USA is hispanic. Wake up America, go back to school and learn the difference.

[almaty 19]

what is really weird for me is that I'm not hispanic (if you look at the definition of the word hispanic, it's about people with Spanish descendant), it is not my case, I'm german decendant, I was born in Brazil and i speak portuguese, there is nothing spanish about me at all. So in Brazil when I have to fill out some application or whatever and they ask for race, I put caucasian (white) cuz that's what I am, it's either that or black, or mulato, and here they have a special race called hispanic and people think that every american country below USA is hispanic. Wake up America, go back to school and learn the difference.

The U.S. government came up with the term "Hispanic" in the 1970s to generally refer to people who could trace their origin to Spanish-speaking countries. The term "Latino" refers to origins from Latin America, which includes non-Spanish speaking countries like Brazil. The terms are often used interchangeably, which is a point of some contention in the wider community

[Ladylethal 12]

I would have to put down hispanic, not 'cus I am brazilian, since brazilians are from many origins (asian, german, native brazilian, african, etc), but I would put hispanic 'cus indeed, my ancestors were from Spain. On my father's side though, the race got really mixed, and my dad is now 1/4 german, 1/4 portuguese, 1/4 native brazilian and 1/4 african, or some other similar mix, and although the german side was on his dad's side and my last name is actually german, my father looks very brazilian, a perfect mix of the races of his ancestors, and he doesn't look german at all.

[almaty 19]

i like Latino better..but allot of folks are not Catholic and the term orgin is there

[Ladylethal 12]

Well, I am a hispanic latin american, although in Brazil latin americans are the ones from central america, everyone from Panama and under, we refer to as south americans.

[pedroh 21]

what is really weird for me is that I'm not hispanic (if you look at the definition of the word hispanic, it's about people with Spanish descendant), it is not my case, I'm german decendant, I was born in Brazil and i speak portuguese, there is nothing spanish about me at all. So in Brazil when I have to fill out some application or whatever and they ask for race, I put caucasian (white) cuz that's what I am, it's either that or black, or mulato, and here they have a special race called hispanic and people think that every american country below USA is hispanic. Wake up America, go back to school and learn the difference.

that's too hard for them... they can't conceive black hispanics.. they think 'wait, he's black, not hispanic'.. dahh.. but oh well..

lol.. I remember when I was on the shack, this cell phone rep was talkin about a new ad targeted to hispanics.. and she got all PC and was talking about this ad, then she said something and 'to the hispanic speaking customers'.. I was like #######? I didn't know there was a hispanic language.. that's new to me... I don't speak hispanic

Edited September 28, 2007 by pedroh