Hispanic vs. Latino/a

[AlphaFrog]

Originally posted by epchick
Yes, I know this is an old topic, but I just thought i'd add my two cents.

It's ok, we like bringing up old topics here, and in fact MUCH better then starting a duplicate thread.

Originally posted by epchick

AlphaFrog, are you White or are you Native American? Because the term Mestizo means someone who is a cross between a Mexican/Hispanic and a Native American. Mestizos are not crosses between an anglo person and a mexican person.

Mestizo-a Spanish word, also used in English, literally means "half-breed" (not meant in an offensive way, but that is the literal translation). It can refer to some one who is half caucasian/half African-American (and this is frequntly used with this combo, in fact I've had someone argue that THIS is the true defintion of mestizo), some one who is half Chinese/half Mexican, someone who is half/half anything...

From Dictionary.com
mes·ti·zo ( P ) Pronunciation Key (ms-tz)
n. pl. mes·ti·zos or mes·ti·zoes
A person of mixed racial ancestry, especially of mixed European and Native American ancestry.

[Spanish, mixed, mestizo, from Old Spanish, mixed, from Late Latin mixtcius, from Latin mixtus]

And note..."especially", not "only"

Originally posted by epchick

I prefer being called Hispanic. I don't like "Latina" because I am not Latin.

Sorry, but if you are Hispanic, you are decended from a culture that speaks a Latin-based language (see above, the word Mestizo comes from Old Spanish, which comes from Latin word, mixcitus) which is all Latino/a means. If you really want to argue this point, I speak pretty fluent Spanish (Castillano, heavy Jarocho influence, if you want to get technical) and have a very good working knowledge of Latin. I realize there are several languages that have a Latin base, but none quite as strong as Spanish and Italian. (And I have heard Italians called Latinos also)

I'm not trying to be bitchy or anything, but I have done quite a bit of research because I want to teach my daughter to be proud of ALL her heritage.