Race: Hispanic or Latino/a?

Race has been an issue since the European conquest on other countries. Back in the 13th and 14th century, Europeans have used race and ethnicity as a way to bring down people and justify their superiority towards people that they did not look the same as them. Since then, humans have been either label people or people label them to a certain race/ethnicity. As time passes, in the modern era people still use race and ethnicity to identify them or people around them. However, since the conquest of the Europeans around the world, a lot of mixing of race and ethnicity has happened and nowadays a lot of people are more than one race or ethnicity. This has caused a lot of problems for people when it comes to identifying themselves into a certain race or to a certain ethnicity. However, how people identify themselves depends where do they live and for example, one of the place that most people are confused on who they are is in the United States. The reason why is because most people have ancestors that have migrated from other countries into the United States. A perfect example is how people from Latin America identify themselves in the United States.

People who come to the United States, especially those who come from Latin America, often find themselves in a position where most of them do not know how to identify themselves when it comes to race and/or ethnicity. A survey was conducted where 2,800 people were surveyed and they either had to be Mexican, Puerto Rican, or Cuban or at least had a parent or two grandparents either of those three ancestry. Out of those 2,800 people that were surveyed only 1,546 were Mexicans, 589 were Puerto Ricans and 682 were Cubans. Out of those 1,546 people 462 identified themselves as American, 1,702 identified themselves as Hispanic, Latino, Hispano or Spanish, 237 identified themselves as Chicano, Nuyorican, Mexican-American, Spanish-American, Cuban-American, Raza and 1,019 identified themselves as Mexican(o), Cuban or Puerto Rican. With this statistics, this is saying that a lot of these people either identified themselves as one race/ethnicity but they also identified themselves as a mix of race and ethnicity. This not only confuses them but it also brings issues to their family because they may identify themselves as a certain race or ethnicity while their family may be from a different place or perspective.

Even though most of those people who were surveyed identify themselves as not Americans, when it came to either identifying themselves as Hispanics or Latino/a, that is where it got tricky for them. In a survey that was conducted, when they were asked if they preferred to be identify as Hispanic or Latina/o, most of them said Hispanic than Latino/a. The reason why they choose to be labeled as Hispanic over Latino/a is unknown but one can make educated guests. One of the reasons why they choose Hispanic over Latino/s is because the term Latino/a have more negative stereotypes and views from society. If a person wants to be successful in life and has to be either identify themselves as Hispanics or Latino/a for the rest of their life, then a person will critically think which term is more beneficial to them. That is one of the reasons why they would choose Hispanic over Latino/a. Another reason could be that because if they identify themselves as Hispanics, the chances of having opportunities increases than if they were to say that they are Latina/o. This shows how people really think on how to identify themselves not because that it is what they really feel they are but what will help them not to face discrimination and judgement to towards them.

In a class discussion that we had, we discussed how people identify themselves when it came to their race/ethnicity. What impressed me was what one of the student, who was white and Mexican, said that if he had to choose between white and Mexican he would choose white because they get treated way better than Mexicans. I mean I do not blame him or judge his decision but why would you prefer to be a certain race if you know that you have another race. I mean I understand that chances do increase if you are white but why deny your race/ethnicity to be part of society. I mean I am very mixed when it comes to race and ethnicity and yet I say that I am all of the races and ethnicity that I know I am. I do not choose a specific race over the one, I say all of them cause I am proud of my race/ethnicity. Another thing that shocked me was that most of Hispanics and Latinos/as, don’t feel that they are accepted into the American culture, not only that but also native born Hispanics and Latinas/os do not feel accepted into the American culture. That really shocked me because here I am thinking that more than half or at least half of Hispanics and Latinos/as felt accepted into the American but according to the recent readings that we have read, I was wrong. After the discussion, I felt so confused about my identity. All these years I had a clear idea of identifying myself when it came to race and ethnicity but now I am so confused about my identity. Now I do not know if I am Mexican-American, American, white, white-black-African-American, Native Mexican-American, and the list goes on. For me, now it is really hard to identify myself because not only I am so mixed but there are so many labels that I cannot identify myself.

References
http://www.pewhispanic.org/2012/04/04/when-labels-dont-fit-hispanics-and-their-views-of-identity/
http://www.cdc.gov/minorityhealth/populations/REMP/hispanic.html
https://webcourses.niu.edu/bbcswebdav/library/eReserves/20138-ILAS-100-----1/golashdhb.pdf