"Hispanic" in the U.S.

Laurence Horn laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Sat Jun 19 15:26:34 UTC 2010


At 9:43 AM -0400 6/19/10, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>In the U.S. today, is "Hispanic" used predominantly in sense 1,
>"Pertaining to Spain or its people; esp. pertaining to ancient
>Spain", or sense 2, "Spanish-speaking, esp. applied to someone of
>Latin-American descent living in the United States"?  And how much
>predominantly?

I seem to recall at least anecdotal evidence suggesting that
individuals from Spain are not counted as Hispanic.  It's often used,
like Latino/a, for 'pertaining to someone from Latin America or of
Latin American descent', often including Brazilians, who of course
are not Spanish-speaking.

>
>Can someone reproduce the 2010 U.S. census choices related to
>"Hispanic" and race or not-race?  (I'm a bit lazy at the moment.)
>
It would also be relevant to see how the category is defined for
purposes of affirmative action in, say, college admission materials.

LH

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