"Hispanic" in the U.S.

[victor steinbok]

You might want to check the Census definition, but I have never heard
(1) used anywhere. And (2) is too restrictive, as LH points out. Also
Hispanic is one of the few categories that may be superimposed on
another category, e.g., one may fit into both Hispanic and African
American categories. Also, many government forms have some interesting
combinations, such as "Hispanic and NOT Hatian Creole", implying that
Hatians--who are, of course, not Spanish speakers, are also considered
Hispanic. Not sure about other Caribbeans, such as Barbados or
Trinidad (although NOT Jamaicans). On the Census, Caribbean is a
separate category, I believe. Also, it's not clear whether Filipinos
are considered Hispanic or not. It may differ from one categorization
to the next. Eventually, the Census is what determines these things
for others, but if the census categories change from one year to the
next, others may take some time to catch up.

VS-)

On Sat, Jun 19, 2010 at 11:26 AM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
> 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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