Thread: ‘Hispanic’ Means What?

‘Hispanic’ Means What?
LIAM WESTON
Published: March 9, 2007

Recently, an adult asked my 14-year-old son, whose mother is Costa Rican, if he spoke the language of “La Raza.” Surprised by the question, he responded, “Which race?”

The person asking was a member of “La Raza” (Spanish for the race). La Raza members view Hispanics as “us” and the U.S. as “them.” They believe that all Hispanics have historical rights, a priori, to citizenship and land in the Western U. S. My children can claim ancestry from both Central America and Ireland. So the question was perplexing. They had never considered that they might have more rights than others to claim California as their “homeland.”

In fact, natives of both Central America and Ireland speak the languages and practice the cultures of the European power that colonized them over centuries of conflict. One can debate whether these natives descend from the conquered, the conquerors, or both.

The La Raza member told my son that he is “La Raza” because he is Hispanic and not European like the “whites.” Few words are more abused these days than the term “Hispanic,” which is certainly not the opposite of European. The true origin of the word “Hispanic” comes from the Latin name the Romans used to describe the Iberian Peninsula in Europe – “Hispania.”

Friends of ours from Spain were livid when their son, who was applying to become a foreign exchange student in a U.S. public school, discovered he was not considered “Hispanic” but instead Caucasian.” Outside the United States, “Hispano” is used as we use “Anglo,” “Franco,” or “Germanic.” Telling this boy that he is “Caucasian” is like telling a Brit that he is not Anglo or a German that he is not Germanic.

“Latino” was once the preferred term in California for people of Latin American or Spanish descent but that has now given way to “Hispanic” due to political correctness and the US Census Bureau.

In the 1980 US Census, the voluntary question was added for people to indicate if they were of a “Spanish/Hispanic origin or descent.” Soon after, state and federal agencies began using a wider definition of Hispanic to combine diverse racial groups together to qualify for government assistance, affirmative action and meet enrollment quotas.

Oddly enough, the U.S. Census Bureau doesn’t count the four million inhabitants of Puerto Rico, who are U.S. Citizens, as “Hispanic.”

According to the National Education Association (NEA), “Contrary to popular belief, the word Hispanic does not refer to race, but is an ethnic term for diverse peoples of many races and origins who hold in common the Spanish language.”

According to the NEA definition of Hispanic, the only bond “La Raza” and other Hispanic movements can claim is commonality of ancestors who were white and spoke a European language.

Like much of Latin America, Mexico is a racially diverse country settled by Spaniards, French and other Europeans who mixed with the native peoples. The vast majority of these people lived in what are now the nine southeastern states of Mexico.

According to Art Torres, California Democratic Party Chairman, Proposition 187 was the “the last gasp of white Californians” who don’t belong here. I doubt African-Americans or truly native Californians who supported 187 thought they were voting for a “white” initiative.

Torres and the radical anti-American groups he supports want to shift the political debate over illegal immigration, which is about national sovereignty, to a discussion of race. Unfortunately, history and the truth are the first victims since they don’t fit into Torres’s overlysimplistic, racist views.

Torres likely shares more common European ancestry with the “white” Californians he attacks than he does with the Maidu people who originally populated the Sacramento Valley. The largest indigenous groups in Mexico (Mayan and Aztec) lived primarily in the South (Meso-America) and have no known roots to modern day California.

In the vernacular of my teenage son, Torres and his La Raza cohort are “posers” who kid themselves into believing that Hispanic culture is not also European.


LIAM WESTON, Sacramento Union Columnist
Guchwale@aol.com.

Liam Weston speaks fluent Spanish and has managed numerous aid programs in Latin America and Africa. He was Press Secretary to a member of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee in the late 80’s, and was elected to the El Segundo, CA City Council in 1994. Weston served in the U.S. Army Reserve - five years at the 418th Military Intelligence Detachment in Sacramento. Currently, Weston works in international business and was recently re-appointed by U.S. Commerce Secretary Gutierrez to an international trade advisory committee. He can be reached at .

WESTON COLUMNS
03/09/07 ‘Hispanic’ Means What?
01/24/07 Border Wall No Fix

http://www.sacunion.com/pages/columns/articles/8858/

I tell ya.....this confuses me as well. There are subtle differences in the European countries. I mean they are still sterotypes but many still feel pale skin and red hair is Irish. Only a white person who was intent on a seperation would know fine tuned details. Especially since we have had so many centuries of "crossing the line". If I can't tell..even with lily white people.....how am I to know if it's a person from Mexico or Pureto Rico or Cuba or South America etc. How would a black person know if they were American or Hatian or Jamacian or French or German? Especially when "hispanics" are considered caucasion as well. Much to their dismay since it makes the "race" issue rather mute. I honestly don't know. I find it so funny now that a store I worked at was charged with "racism" for putting "bathroon out of order" in Spanish.....and now it's mandated.

This is a good article though. This guy hits it head on with the facts that LaRaza has hijacked the issue into a racial one.

If these morons would look around them they would see how many Americans are from so many mixed races and cultures, and some don't even know it.

Mothers who are black, married to a white man could wind up having a child who looks totally white. It's simply all about genetics and race is really not the factor.

A skin color or eye color is not synonymous with one particular race in America, at least, anymore. I am from an "all-American" family, and my mother is medium skin toned, with (pre-age) black hair, dark brown eyes. Me, and three other siblings turned out with pale skin, brown hair, blue eyes. I was born a red-head to make matters more complicated (my mother was teased endlessly by her relatives about the "milkman", I now have dark brown hair, go figure it is all genetics).

I have seen women here in town who were from local tribes, with their white husbands, and their "white looking" kids. Now tell me that their mothers people will not accept them as their own, they do, they do not question looks, only ancestry.

However, here goes groups like La Raza, making it all about race, instead of ancestry.

As I've said in this forum before, as a 10 year old I asked my father "what are we?", he responded with "you're Americans, nothing else is more important". For a while I desired to understand why my mother was not recognized, by looks, as my mother by my classmates. So I delved into genealogy, to understand. I found so many mixes from different nations, languages, cultures and religions. I then understood what my father has said. I could possibly never isolate and honor just one ancestry alone, I needed to focus on my fellow countrymen/women, they were who I needed to show my loyalty to, not some long dead ancestor, regardless of their troubles and toils.

I wish my father was here to tell the people of "La Raza" that.