Have you ever wondered... what is difference between the terms ‘Latino’ and ‘Hispanic’?
Most people use the words interchangeably, but there is actually a difference.
There is a huge overlap, i.e. most people who are Latino are also Hispanic, and vice versa,
most people who are Hispanic are also Latino. But not everyone..
but what exactly do these words mean? Unfortunately, like so many things, neither of these words
have an official, universally accepted meaning..
..but let’s start with the word Hispanic.
The word’s origin comes from the Latin word “Hispanicus”, meaning “from Hispania”,
which was a former province of the Roman Empire. If you translate the word “Hispania” from
Latin into English, you get the word “Spain”, this is because, this is where the name of
the country came from: the Spanish word for the country Spain is “España”.
So the term ‘Hispanic’ generally means things relating to Spain, people who are from,
or whose ancestry comes from, Spain or any other Spanish speaking country.
So this means people from Spain are Hispanic, while people from Portugal or Brazil are not.
Most Hispanic people speak Spanish as their native tongue, but it’s not a requirement
to speak it as your native language, or even at all. As long as your family originates
from a Spanish speaking country.
So Hispanic people would be people from any of these countries… Spain, plus the majority
of Latin America with the notable exception of Brazil, which speaks Portuguese.
However, there is another Spanish speaking country in the world… not in Europe or the
Americas, but in Africa. Although the majority of Africa was colonized by the British and
the French, there were small parts that were colonized by Spain and there is one country
in Africa in which Spanish is the primary official language: Equatorial Guinea.
So... are people from Equatorial Guinea Hispanic? Well… it may be a Spanish-speaking country,
but their people would almost universally not be considered Hispanic. This is due to
huge cultural differences and the fact the Africa was colonized much later than the Americas,
and in a very different way. Most Spanish people left after independence.
And although Spanish is spoken by about 88% of the population, only about 10–15% have
a high competence in the language.
And remember how I said people of Portuguese descent weren’t Hispanic… well, this is
true in that most definitions exclude Portugal and that Hispanic only applies to Spanish
speaking countries… but an argument could be made that people of Portuguese descent
are, in fact, Hispanic. Hear me out…
The Roman province of Hispania consisted of the entire Iberian Peninsula, and so technically
people from Portugal (and by extension Brazil) are originally from Hispania. In fact, in
1985, Tony Coelho, of Portuguese descent, applied to join the Congressional Hispanic
Caucus, but he was denied entry. He then showed them a map of the Roman Empire, in which “Hispania”
covered the whole Iberian Peninsula. So they let him in.
Some dictionary definitions do include Portugal, but generally speaking the term ‘Hispanic’
does NOT refer to people of Portuguese descent.
So moving onto ‘Latino’... while the term ‘Hispanic’ includes people from Spain,
and excludes people from Brazil… ‘Latino’ is basically the opposite. People from Brazil
are Latino, while people from Spain are not.
The definition of the word itself is actually incredibly simple. It just means... someone
from Latin America. Easy. The problem comes from identifying where exactly Latin America...
is.
Latin America is everywhere on the American continents that speaks a language derived
from Latin - a Romance language.
The word Latino in English, comes from a shortened version of the Spanish word “latinoamericano”,
meaning Latin American.
However, this could cause some confusion, because although the word Latino is an English
word… it’s also a Spanish word, meaning “Latin”.
So for example: ‘el alfabeto latino’ would be ‘the Latin alphabet’, or… ‘países
latinos’ would mean ‘Latin countries’ which could potentially refer to any country
that speaks a Romance language. But people from, for example, Italy, are not Latino,
because the word Latino in English means Latin American and Italy is in Europe, not the on Americas
So where exactly is Latin America? Obviously… here in the this general area, but where exactly?
Some definitions are as broad as everything south of the United States in the Western
Hemisphere. But this definition is far too inclusive.
In Central America there’s Belize, which speaks English. There’s plenty of English
and Dutch speaking countries and territories in the Caribbean, all of which should be excluded
from Latin America.
In South America there’s another English speaking country: Guyana, and Guyana is bordered
by Suriname, which was colonized by the Dutch, and bordering Suriname is French Guiana...
So… should French Guiana be included within Latin America?
Latin America is generally thought of as the Spanish speaking countries in the Americas
plus Portuguese speaking Brazil, but the other Romance language that exists on the continents,
French, is often forgotten about.
As well as French Guiana, there’s also Haiti and the French West Indies in the Caribbean.
In fact, the term “Latin America” actually originated from France.
So Latin America would be… Mexico, part of North America, all of Central America excluding
Belize, the majority South America, excluding Guyana and Suriname. And in the Caribbean:
Cuba, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Haiti, and the French West Indies.
So like I said, there is a huge overlap between the terms, which is why they are so often
used interchangeably.
But there are so many differing definitions of “Latin America”, most of which are…
well, wrong.
For example, Oxford Dictionary says that Latin America is “the parts of the American continents
where Spanish or Portuguese is the main national language”, but this definition neglects
the French speaking parts.
Merriam-Webster has 2 definitions. 1) “Spanish America & Brazil”, but once again this excludes
the French speaking parts, and 2) “all of the Americas South of the United States”,
but like I said earlier, this definition is far too inclusive.
Possibly the best definition is from Dictionary.com which defines Latin America as “the part
of the American continents south of the United States in which Spanish, Portuguese, or French
is officially spoken.”
But… there are other factors that further complicate matters…
Just because a country speaks a certain language, doesn’t mean the whole country does..
The biggest example of this would be Quebec, in Canada. The official languages in Canada
are English and French with English being the more widely spoken. However, in Quebec,
the sole official language is French, and is the dominant language in the province.
So… should Quebec be considered part of Latin America? Possibly… although almost
universally Quebec is NOT included within the definition.
Possibly due the massive cultural and geographical differences.
But on top of that… not all people within a Latin American country... are Latin American.
This is because many Latin American countries have a large indigenous population. There
are more than 50 million people in Latin America of Amerindian descent, nearly 9% of the total population
The largest ethnic group of the indigenous peoples is the Quechua people, some of which
can trace their roots back to the Incan Empire, the largest pre-Columbian civilization in
the Americas, most well known constructing the UNESCO World Heritage Site, Machu Picchu.
However, the majority of people in Latin America are a mix of both European and Amerindian ancestry
known as Mestizo.
Generally speaking, most people who are Mestizo speak Spanish or Portuguese as their native
language and would identify more with their European ancestry, rather than their indigenous ancestry.
Although one country that is an interesting exception to this is Paraguay. About 95% of
Paraguay’s population is Mestizo, but the indigenous language of Guaraní, is actually
more widely spoken than Spanish. Therefore far more of the Mestizo population would identify
more with their indigenous roots, rather than their European ancestry, compared with that
of the rest of Latin America.
So like many things… the definition of where exactly Latin America is often comes down
to convention, rather than any strict criteria. And not everyone agrees on exactly where that
definition is.
The terms Latino and Hispanic are generally only used in the United States. So much so,
that some definitions limit its use to people who are actually living in the USA.
The US Census Bureau asks a specific question relating to Latino/Hispanic ethnicity, but
the words are actually used interchangeably by the Census Bureau. The only reason it includes
both words is due to regional use: ‘Latino’ is more widely used in the Western United
States, while ‘Hispanic’ is more common in the East.
The term Hispanic was introduced by the Census Bureau in 1970, and its definition specifically
stated that it referred only to Spanish speakers and background. Although despite this, one
sixth of Brazilian immigrants identified as Hispanic.
And that’s just it... census data relies solely on self-reporting, and ultimately that
what ethnicity is all about: self-identification, and whether a person identifies with a specific
culture that they want to be part of, or choose not to identify with any if they so chose.
I think it was best summed up in an article by the Pew Research Center: “Who’s Hispanic?
Anyone who says they are. And nobody who says they aren’t.”
Thanks for watching