A Comprehensive Overview: Navigating Hispanic + Latino Labels
You might think of Hispanic and Latino as terms used to describe racial categories, similar to the terms Black, Asian, or White. However, the groups that comprise Hispanics and Latinos are actually diverse in terms of race.
The terms Hispanic and Latino refer to ethnicity, culture, and identity. They are groups based on shared culture rather than skin color, race, or other physical features. However, the groups are also broader than ethnicity, which can make the terms confusing.
HISPANIC
Hispanic refers to people who speak Spanish or who have a background in a Spanish-speaking country. In other words, Hispanic refers to the language that a person speaks or that their ancestors spoke. Some Hispanic people speak Spanish, but others don't.
For this reason, people who are Hispanic may vary in their race and also where they live or originate. For example, a person from the Dominican Republic and a person from Mexico might both call themselves Hispanic because they share in common a spoken language and a legacy of Spanish colonies.
LATINO
In contrast, Latino refers to geography: specifically, people from Latin America including Central America, South America, and the Caribbean. Like being Hispanic, being Latino says nothing about your race; Latinos may be Black, Indigenous, Asian, White, etc.
A person who is Hispanic may also be Latino, but this is not always necessarily the case. For example, a person from Spain would be Hispanic but not Latino because Spain is a Spanish-speaking country but not a Latin American country.
A person who is Latino may also be Hispanic, or not. For instance, while people from Brazil are considered Latino (because Brazil is a Latin American country), they are not considered Hispanic because Brazil is a former Portuguese colony, not a Spanish one.
People who are Black and Latino often identify as Afro-Latino, while other Black people of Latin American descent forego the Latino/Hispanic labels altogether.
HISTORY OF TERMS
While the terms Hispanic and Latino have existed for centuries, it wasn't until they were introduced into the United States Census that they became more popularized.
The 1980 census was the first to include a question asking respondents if they identified as Spanish/Hispanic as part of their ethnicity. The term Latino first appeared on the 2000 census as an option for ethnicity. Later, these terms were also introduced to forms of identification such as driver's licenses, birth certificates, and school registration forms.
THRS RECOMMENDATIONS
Although Hispanic and Latino are sometimes used interchangeably, it is important to note that they have different meanings. Hispanic and Latino are distinct terms that refer to language and geography respectively (more terms below).
They encompass a diverse range of races and ethnicities and should be used based on an individual's self-identification. While these terms can engender a sense of community and common history for those who self-identify, imposing one of these labels on another person is unhelpful. The best approach is to respect the label a person gives themselves by asking for their preference.
Hispanic
Latino/Latina
Latinx (a label that has emerged as an LGBTQ+ and gender-inclusive alternative to Latino and Hispanic. However, statistics suggest that many people still prefer to use Latino)
By their country of origin (e.g. a person may identify as "Salvadoran," from El Salvador or "Colombian," from Colombia)
A hyphenated label (e.g., first-generation folks whose families are from a country outside of the U.S. might say that they are Salvadoran-American, or "my family is from El Salvador")
RESOURCES
verywell mind: https://bit.ly/46q8xlG
Arapahoe Libraries: https://arapahoelibraries.org/explore/?tag=hispanic-heritage-month