Difference Between Hispanic And Latino

At my understanding, the term Hispanic is wrongly used when referring to a race. Being Hispanic is, of course, to belong to an ethnic group, but it is much more than that. It is not about the color of your skin or your hair, but about culture, tradition, and manners. All started with the Spanish and Portuguese colonization of South and Central America. From Europe came the adventurous men, full of ambitions and courage. These attributes blended with the strength and energy of African slaves and the Native Americans, and this mixture led to the born of this new culture that we called Hispanic.

When it comes to identifying the Latino’s population by a type of skin color most would consider themselves as Caucasian while a few identify themselves as Black. Many others associate themselves with indigenous race while others are increasingly identifying themselves as “other”. Their origins range from Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba and Guatemala. Notable differences among the Latino groups center on the aspects of language refinement, educational status, cultural values and attitudes toward mental health treatment (Brice, 2001).

The term Hispanic means people who come from a country where Spanish is spoken. And the term Latino means someone who comes from Latin America.

Hispanics or Latinos are defined as a people of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, South or Central American, or other Spanish speaking culture. This term “Hispanics” was created by the U.S. federal government in the early 1970’s to refer to Americans born in a Spanish speaking nation or with ancestry to Spanish territories. Hispanics people are vibrant, socializing, and fun loving people. Among various facts associated to this culture is that they have a deep sense of involvement in their family traditions and cultures.

In this day and age we as a community are learning the appropriate terms to use to describe a person. For example, the difference of a person who identifies as pansexual versus someone who is asexual. Sadly, we continue to be uneducated between two terms, unaware that they are in fact different from one another. Even though the terms Latino and Hispanic have similar culture, they are opposite from one another by their mother tongue to geographical location.Firstly, it is understandable why the titles of Latino and Hispanic is spoken interchangeably due to their similar cultures. An example of the Latino and Hispanic community shared culture is religion. Reports done by Nabil Yafai from Inter Exchange states, “...majority of Hispanic and

Latin Americans; those coming from countries south of the United States, especially those speaking Spanish, Portuguese, or French (Dictionary.com, 2016) make up a large portion of the United States. In 2013 Cobo, L., & Cantor-Navas, J., note that Latin Americans were 52 million strong and making up 16.7% of the population further stating Hispanics were the nation 's largest ethnic or race minority with over 60%

Today, the Hispanic population has grown tremendously over the years. We have watched the Hispanics community growth rate grow faster than any other racial and ethnic group in the nation. The Hispanic culture and community has populated all around the United States, introducing new traditions and customs. I was traveling to different to city in the States, I notice the wide spread growth of Hispanic communities, For Instance in Miami the Cuban and El Salvadoran culture is heavy populate in the area. In New York the Puerto Rican culture is dominating through out the several boroughs. I have come around town and Hispanics are known for their good food, which tends to have more diverse people try new cultural customs. Hispanic or Latino

Historians are still unclear on when the first Latinos appeared in North America. The most prevalent theory is that they were nomadic hunters who came from the Asia mainland and across the then frozen Bering Straight into Alaska. Regardless of their origins their main region is now the Americas, both North and South and it is expected that the Latino population in the United States will increase by 40% in the next ten years (US Census 2010). Their culture and society is steeped in tradition and understanding and appreciating their culture is imperative for any person working in the social services field.

First of all, let’s exchange the term Latino for a much more geographical one; to include as many people as possible. The word Ibero-America is widely used when referring to Latin America in a geographical manner: It encompasses any country that once was a territory of Portugal of Spain regardless of their language. There are more than 800 different native languages in Ibero-America. Saying Latino or Hispanic excludes these ethnic groups. According to the anthropologist Jose Matos Mar, They include the Totonaco (with around 200.000 that live exclusively in México and speak 11 languages) and the Mayans (which inhabit Mexico and Guatemala constituting the larges indigenous group of the region with 6,500.000 members that speak more than 68 languages) (1993 pp. 155-234). Now, we focus on the way Ibero-Americans see each other. Francisco Lizcano Fernandez talks about sixth main ethnical categories, including indigenous

Currently within the United States one of the fastest growing minority population (Schwartz & Scott, 2012) is the Latinos. In 2010 Census Bureau Brief ( Ennis, Rois-Vargas, & Albert, 2011) it stated how an estimated 15 million Latino individuals were living within the United States, which is approximately about 16% of the entire U.S. population. There is one big problem with addressing the Latino population, and that is the family patterns are either misrepresented or not properly understood, due to the label of Hispanic and Latinos being placed together. These two groups may share the same spoken language of Spanish and have similar cultural ancestry but the diversity among Hispanic and Latinos (Schwartz & Scott, 2012) make generalizations about their lifestyles difficult. The term Hispanic came to be used in the 1970’s by government officials (cdc.gov, 2011) in trying to provide a diverse label on this population that had connections to speaking Spanish and the Spanish culture. Latino became more of a termed to be used when distinguishing between Mexican (Hispanics) and Latinos who descendants from Latin America such as Cuba and Puerto Rico.

2. Latino – Is a broad term that closely resembles the term Hispanic with the incorporation of Latin American populations of South America. Other Countries and populations of Central America might also describe themselves as Latin American.

Hispanics tend to have very close family ties. In times of trouble they turn to family members for support. They more often than not make decisions as a family and not as an individual. Family

According to the website of the United States Census Bureau, “Hispanic origin can be viewed as the heritage, nationality, lineage, or country of birth of the person or the person’s parents or ancestors before arriving in the United States. People who identify as Hispanic, Latino or Spanish may be any race.” The government defines as Hispanics and Latinos, people from Cuba,

Latinos come in various pigmentations. Americans have a hard time classifying Latino minorities because the American society is based on race and not ethnicity. For the most part, it is easy to organize white people, because they tend to lump themselves together to form their one culture and identify as white. In the case of African Americans or black people, they tend to experience the same kind of lumping together of culture to form one racial group because they are 300 years removed from their native African culture because of slavery. With these two prominent groups of people in the United States, it is hard to classify a Latino person because a lot have grown up with their own culture and possibly not even in America. A person from Mexico has a different culture than that of someone from Spain. It may even come down to the dialects that they may speak that can cause them to separate themselves into a different ethnic group. Even with prominence politically and culturally having an impact in the United States, Latinos still get unfairly categorized, which is why ethnicity is the best choice of categorization.

Latino/Hispanic Americans cover a much wider demographic then believed. Latino/Hispanic Americans consist of; Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Guatemalan American to name a few. Latino/Hispanic Americans are the largest ethnic group in the United States. The Latino/Hispanic culture is very different than ours. Their culture differs in economics, politics, family traditions, family structure, religion, education, language, fashion, art, music, dancing, and food. As natural born Americans in the United States it is important for us to learn about the different cultures migrating into the United States. Many United States citizens have a hard time understanding other cultures; being culturally insensitive is a common theme in the United