What does the term 'Hispanic' mean?
September 13, 2002 Posted: 3:40 PM EDT (1940 GMT)
By Helyn Trickey
CNN
(CNN) Trying to categorize Americans of Spanish origin can be confusing.
This growing, diverse minority group includes people of Mexican descent, Spanish heritage, Cuban parentage, Puerto Rican and Costa Rican ancestry, among many others.
"There isn't a perfect definition of our people," said Cecilia Muņoz, vice president for policy at the National Council of La Raza, a nonprofit civil rights organization for Hispanic people.
In fact, Hispanic people can't even agree on a term that best encompasses the entire minority group, she said in a phone interview from her office in Washington.
"In California, people prefer 'Latino,' but in the Southwest they prefer 'Hispanic.' Some people in the Mexican-American community like the term 'Chicano' to describe themselves," she explained.
 |
VIDEO |
CNN's Joel Hochmuth talks to Hispanic students about their heritage and living in the U.S.
Play video
(QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)
|
|
| |
Even the latest census, which reports the Latino population has increased by nearly 60 percent in the last 10 years, struggles to find an adequate term.
When filling out the 2000 census, Hispanics could choose either "Mexican," "Puerto Rican," "Cuban" or "other Spanish/Hispanic/Latino."
If a census-taker marked the latter category, additional space was provided to specify an origin, such as Costa Rican, Colombian or Panamanian.
Vivid American dream
"The first census that tried to count us was only in 1980," said Muņoz. Before that year the census only asked the general question, "Do you have a Spanish surname?", she said.
"Suddenly everyone is noticing we are the largest minority, but it didn't happen overnight," she added.
She attributes half of the population swell to immigration and half to a growing birth rate.
While Latinos used to be concentrated in the five biggest states, the latest census shows growth in places like the South, where unprecedented economic growth lured workers.
"Hopefully our growth will improve minority relations. We are very eager to share our history, but we do suffer from the misconception that we just got here," Muņoz said.
"We have an extraordinary amount of diversity in this community, but on key concerns we tend to feel the same," said Muņoz.
Policies about immigration and English-only legislation tend to polarize the Hispanic minority," she said.
"It feels personal ... like it is a knee-jerk reaction to our presence in our own country. The American dream is very vivid to us, and for those of us who are immigrants, or their descendants, we are engaged in making that dream a reality," said Muņoz.
Quick facts from the 2000 census
In the 2000 census, 35.3 million Hispanics were counted in the United States. That excludes the 3.8 million Hispanics in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
Mexicans accounted for 58.5 percent of all Hispanics.
Salvadorians made up the largest group of Hispanics from Central America (besides Mexicans).
More than three-quarters of Hispanics live in the West or the South.
More than 60 percent of Puerto-Ricans live in the Northeast.
RELATED STORY:
|
|
RELATED SITE:
|
|
