Latino-Hispanic Identity and Traditions

Legally Hispanic

Written by Rich Vázquez

Articles - Culture & Identity

Many people believe that tracking Hispanics originated in the 1970s after an arbitrary decision by Nixon. In reality, it was a decision that Latino civil rights groups lobbied for over several years.

The origin and need for the term "Hispanic"

Many people believe that tracking Hispanics originated in the 1970s after an arbitrary decision by Nixon. In reality, it was a decision that Latino civil rights groups lobbied for over several years.

Hispanics have been in and interacting with the United States since the beginning. Spanish cities were already established when the English started arriving in the Americas. But several changes would increase the interaction of the Spanish-speaking people with mainstream English-speaking America. Between the Mexicans who found themselves in the United States because of the Mexican-American War, the Puerto Ricans who found themselves in the US because of the Spanish-American War and Cubans who migrated here during several phases in their history, Hispanics found themselves in a world that was centered on Black and White. English-speaking Black and White.

Up until the 1930s, the census tracked "Mexicans" as their own category. After that time, they were given orders to simply include them under the "white" category. At the same time, Mexican-Americans found themselves under the oppression of laws specifically aimed at Blacks. Many groups who found themselves in this situation sued to be declared legally white - these lawsuits included a Japanese-American man, an Indian-American (from India) and a Mexican-American.

This was the most realistic legal route to be legally free of the harassment each group was victim to and ignored the actual identity structure typical in Latin America.

Mexican-Americans, unlike the Japanese and Indians, had won the legal title of white, sometimes through government declaration and sometimes through lawsuits. Regardless of that fact, as the largest Spanish-speaking group they continued to experience forced legal segregation and even a high rate of lynchings. When laws started to appear protecting "racial minorities", Hispanics found themselves with protective laws that could be interpreted to ignore them. Signs of "No Dogs Negroes Mexicans" were not uncommon in restaurants, parks and other places. Other Spanish-speaking groups experienced similar segregation, voter intimidation and general legal and social discrimination.

They were legally white but also legally and socially discriminated against. They were marked white without ever receiving the benefits of the label. When the Civil Rights Act came along in 1964, it addressed discriminated based on race and color. Hispanic groups were still outside of the discussion. In 1976, Latino civil rights groups (NCLR, LULAC, MALDEF) lobbied together with various Spanish-speaking groups and got Public Law 94-311 passed by Congress. This created an umbrella for "Americans of Spanish origin or descent" and mandated that the progress and welfare for this group be monitored. In 1977, the Office Of Management And Budget issued Directive 15 - "Race and Ethnic Standards for Federal Statistics and Administrative Reporting". This issued in the governmental use of the word Hispanic and defined it as "A person of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Central or South American or other Spanish culture or origin, regardless of race."

This creates a European identity over the population and echoes the mentality that allowed the Census Bureau to repeatedly change responses on a form to be "white". In the latest census, they take a more open approach. A reports report says that 48% of Hispanics marked only white (and Hispanic), while 42% marked "some other race". These write-ins can range anywhere from Boricua to Mexika to Mestizo. Hispanics were 97% of those who marked "some other race" in the most recent census. This is much different than the 1997 estimates, just three years ago, which altered Hispanic responses to say 91.2% of Hispanics marked white only.

The term Hispanic, in the legal sense, includes a wide variety of nations like Mexico in North America, Cuba in the Caribbean, Argentina in South America and Spain in Europe. The pure definition might also include Hispanic people from nations like Guam in the Pacific or Spanish-speaking Equatorial Guinea in Africa. It includes former President Fujimori of Peru, who is of Japanese descent. It also includes the Spanish families who lived in California, Texas, Florida and other Spanish territories before the United States was conceived of.

According to the US Census code list, Portuguese speakers (the Iberian cousins with Spanish), are excluded from the Hispanic grouping. Nonetheless, socially you will often find Spanish and Portuguese groups together on many occasions. There is a cultural relationship as cultures and languages that developed on the Iberian Peninsula. They might fit in more comfortably under the social label of Latino than the Spanish-heavy legal label of Hispanic. The Basque, who are in Spain and other countries, have their own category outside of the "Hispanic Origin" group. This may be due to their unique history - their language (Euskara)has been found to have no relationship with any other language.

Each Spanish-speaking nation, or nation influenced by Spanish rule or presence, has different national cultures as well as many subcultures and is a strong mixture of various people with their own subcultures and "races". It's no surprise that the Hispanic group would be so diverse and challenge the concept of black and white in the United States. We've been doing so since our presence started to grow over a century ago, and this allowed people to treat us as foreigners in our own land. Even today, Hispanics are the largest minority that makes up the number of American citizens, but nobody says it. This is because Puerto Ricans, who fight in our wars and are American citizens, are not included in the census results for the United States. They "don't count" in the US Census and this reduces our actual population by several million.

The Hispanic label didn't change attitudes of Hispanics or Anglos, but provided a legal strategy to finally start addressing discrimination in the courts without worrying about loopholes and how we would be defined next.