Hispanic American: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

Hispanic American, as used in the United States, is one of several terms used to describe residents whose background is from Spain or the Spanish-speaking countries of Latin America. The term is used as a form of classification for the immigrants and descendants of a wide range of ethnicities, races and nationalities who use Spanish as their primary language.

Hispanics are the largest minority group in the United States, comprising 13.4% of the population, about 40 million people in 2003. Throughout the early 2000's the Hispanic population growth was around 2.4% per annum, faster than any other ethnic group in the United States. If this growth rate continues, Hispanics in the United States will number anywhere from 80 million to over 100 million by 2050.

Often the term Hispanic is used synonymously with the word Latino. However, a Hispanic specifically refers to people from Spain or the various Spanish-speaking nations of the Americas. Latinos, on the other hand, are only those people of Latin American origin. Thus, a Brazilian would be Latino, but not Hispanic (unless his or her European ancestry was also Spanish, rather than Portuguese). Likewise, a Spaniard would be Hispanic, but not a Latino, since Spain is not situated in Latin America (Spanish, Latinoamérica).

Some people would argue that since Spaniards are Europeans, they shouldn't be included in the Hispanic category, being that in the United States, Hispanic is designated as a "minority group". However, others would counter that Spain and the Hispanic American nations, despite their many differences, are part of the same greater cultural sphere.

The usage of term Hispanic in the United States is believed to have come into mainstream prominence following its inclusion in a question in the 1980 U.S. Census, which asked people to voluntarily identify if they were of "Spanish/Hispanic origin or descent". However, the Spanish language equivalent of the term Hispanic (Hispano) has been in use since much earlier than in the US.

In Latin America, a Hispano (Hispanic) is any person whose ancestry and culture both stem - whether in whole or in part - from the people and culture of Spain, in contrast to the non-Hispanic populations of Latin America. Thus in the Latin American context, Hispanic includes Spaniards, creoles, mestizos and mulattos, but excludes the indigenous Native Americans, the unmixed descendants of black African slaves, as well as excluding all other recent immigrants of various other races and nationalities now residing in Latin America.

In the US some people consider Hispanic to be too general as a label, while others consider it offensive, often preferring to use the term Latino, which is viewed as a self-chosen label. The preference of Latino over Hispanic is partly because it more clearly indicates that those it is referring to are the people from Latin America, and not Spain.

The current use of the term Hispanic to describe the Spanish-speaking peoples gained acceptance relatively recently, as a result of its promotion by the United States government. Previously, this group was commonly referred to as "Spanish-Americans", "Spanish-surnamed Americans", or "Spanish-speaking Americans", however these terms proved misleading or inaccurate in many cases.

Aside from "Latino", other terms are used for more specific subsets of the Hispanic population. These terms often relate to specific countries of origin, such as "Mexican", "Mexican-American", "Cuban", "Puerto Rican" or "Dominican", etc. Other terms signify distinct cultural patterns among Hispanics which have emerged in what is now the United States, including "Chicano" or "Tejano".

Hispanic, as the term is defined and used in the United States, encompasses a very diverse population which often makes efforts toward creating a Pan-Hispanic sense of identity difficult. While in the United States Hispanics are often treated as a group apart from "whites", "blacks" and other racial groups, they actually include people who identify with any of the aforementioned racial and ethnic groups, as well as identifying as various others. A great proportion of Hispanics in the US identify as mestizo, partly because much of Latin America's people are of this mixed ancestry regardless of country of origin; many others are of unmixed Spanish ancestry; some are also of unmixed Native American ancestry, in particular those from Peru, Bolivia, Guatemala and a noticible proportion of those from Mexico; while those of Dominican, Puerto Rican, Cuban and Colombian backgrounds can also be mulatto or of unmixed black African ancestry.

Furthermore, as a result of the very nature of its US definition, a small minority of US Hispanics may also be of non-Spanish European ancestry, Middle Eastern or even Asian ancestry. Examples of these would include Argentinian and Uruguayan-born Italians (around one third of their countries' populations); Colombian, Ecuadorian and Mexican-born Lebanese; or Peruvian-born Japanese and Chinese. Many of these communities date back three or more generations in Latin America, and despite them being considered nationals of their respective countries of birth (Argentinian, Uruguayan, Colombian, Ecuadorian, Mexican and Peruvian), they would NEVER be regarded as Hispanics there. Yet, when these very same people migrate to the United States, they ARE regarded as Hispanic, which only further confounds many common notions of what it means to be Hispanic in the US.

Despite this, several features tend to unite Hispanics from diverse backgrounds. Many Hispanics, including American born second and third generation Hispanics, use the Spanish language to varying degrees. The most usual pattern is monolingual Spanish usage among new immigrants or older foreign born Hispanics, complete bilingualism among long settled immigrants and their children, and the use of Spanglish and colloquial Spanish within long established Hispanic communities by the third generation and beyond. In some families the children and grandchildren of immigrants speak mostly English with some Spanish words and phrases thrown in.

The Spaniards brought the Roman Catholic faith to Latin America and Roman Catholicism continues to be the largest religious denomination amongst most Hispanics. Many Hispanic communities celebrate the saint's day of their homeland's patron saint with festivals and religious services. Some Hispanics syncretize Roman Catholicism and African or Native American rituals and beliefs. Such is the case of Santería in Cuba and Puerto Rico, which combines old African beliefs in the form of Roman Catholic saints and rituals; or Guadalupism (the devotion towards the Lady of Guadalupe) among Mexican Roman Catholics, which hybridizes Catholic rites for the virgin Mary with those venerating the Aztec godess Tonatzín, earth godess, mother of the gods and protectress of humanity, all attributes also endowed to the Lady of Guadalupe and whose Catholic shrine stands on the same sacred Aztec site dedicated to Tonatzín, on the hill of Tepeyac.

A significant number of Hispanics are Protestant, and several Protestant or Evangelical denominations have vigorously proslytized in Hispanic communities. Jewish Hispanics include descendants of Jewish families who have immigrated to Latin America and later to the United States, as well as Anusim, or reconverted Jewish people whose ancestors long ago hid their Jewish beliefs due to fear of Spanish persecution (see Spanish Inquisition, Sephardim).

Popular culture varies widely from one Hispanic community to another. While many people speak of "Latin" music as a single genre, Latin America is home to a wide variety of music. Hispanic Caribbean music tends to favor complex polyrhythms of African origin. Traditional Mexican-American Tejano music is more influenced by American country music and the polka, brought by central European settlers in Texas. Latin pop, rock and ballad styles tend to appeal to the broader Hispanic population, and varieties of Cuban music are popular with many Hispanics of all backgrounds.

There is also no single Hispanic cuisine. Traditional Mexican, Cuban, Spanish, and Peruvian cooking vary greatly from each other - and take on new forms in the United States. While Mexican cooking is the most familiar variety of "Hispanic food" in most of the United States, it is not representative of the cuisine of most other Hispanics. Most groceries in heavily Hispanic areas carry a wide variety of specialty Latin-American products, in addition to the widely available brands of tortillas and Mexican style salsa.

See also: "Chicano", List of United States cities with a majority Hispanic population, and Languages in the United States