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Latino



 
 
The demonym
Demonym

A demonym, also referred to as a gentilic, is a name for a resident of a locality which is derived from the name of the particular locality....
s Latino and Latina (feminine), are defined in English language
English language

English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England and has lingua franca status in many parts of the world as a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and that of the United States from the mid 20th century onwa...
 dictionaries as:

The two words originate in American Spanish
American Spanish

American Spanish refers to the Spanish spoken in the Americas as opposed to Peninsular Spanish and African Spanish ....
 latino and latina (from Latin
Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
 Latinus, Latina), either meaning "Latin
Latins

Latins can refer to several groups of people. Its meaning has changed throughout time, and can still refer to different things even today....
", or possibly a clipped form of latinoamericano, "Latin America
Latin America

Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages ? particularly Spanish language and Portuguese language, and variably French language ? are primarily spoken....
n".

In the United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
, the term is in official use in the ethnonym
Ethnonym

An ethnonym is the name applied to a given ethnic group. Ethnonyms can be divided into two categories: exonyms and autonyms .As an example, the ethnonym for the ethnically dominant group in Germany is the Germans....
 Hispanic or Latino, defined as "a person of Cuba
Cuba

The Republic of Cuba is a country in the Caribbean. It consists of the island of Cuba , the island of Isla de la Juventud, and several adjacent small islands....
n, Mexican
Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federalism constitutionalism republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of Mexico....
, Puerto Rican
Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is a Autonomy Territories of the United States of the United States located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of the Virgin Islands....
, South
South America

South America is the southern continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere....
 or Central America
Central America

Central America is a central geography region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmus portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast....
n, or other Spanish culture or origin regardless of race."

Use in the United States
The term "Latino" was officially adopted in 1997 by the United States Government in the ethnonym "Hispanic or Latino", which replaced the single term "Hispanic": "Because regional usage of the terms differs -- Hispanic is commonly used in the eastern portion of the United States, whereas Latino is commonly used in the western portion."

U.S.






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Encyclopedia


The demonym
Demonym

A demonym, also referred to as a gentilic, is a name for a resident of a locality which is derived from the name of the particular locality....
s Latino and Latina (feminine), are defined in English language
English language

English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England and has lingua franca status in many parts of the world as a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and that of the United States from the mid 20th century onwa...
 dictionaries as:
  • "a person of Latin-American or Spanish-speaking descent."
  • "A Latin American."
  • "A person of Hispanic, especially Latin-American, descent, often one living in the United States."
  • "a native or inhabitant of Latin America"
  • "a person of Latin-American origin living in the United States"
  • "someone who lives in the US and who comes from or whose family comes from Latin America"


The two words originate in American Spanish
American Spanish

American Spanish refers to the Spanish spoken in the Americas as opposed to Peninsular Spanish and African Spanish ....
 latino and latina (from Latin
Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
 Latinus, Latina), either meaning "Latin
Latins

Latins can refer to several groups of people. Its meaning has changed throughout time, and can still refer to different things even today....
", or possibly a clipped form of latinoamericano, "Latin America
Latin America

Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages ? particularly Spanish language and Portuguese language, and variably French language ? are primarily spoken....
n".

In the United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
, the term is in official use in the ethnonym
Ethnonym

An ethnonym is the name applied to a given ethnic group. Ethnonyms can be divided into two categories: exonyms and autonyms .As an example, the ethnonym for the ethnically dominant group in Germany is the Germans....
 Hispanic or Latino, defined as "a person of Cuba
Cuba

The Republic of Cuba is a country in the Caribbean. It consists of the island of Cuba , the island of Isla de la Juventud, and several adjacent small islands....
n, Mexican
Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federalism constitutionalism republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of Mexico....
, Puerto Rican
Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is a Autonomy Territories of the United States of the United States located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of the Virgin Islands....
, South
South America

South America is the southern continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere....
 or Central America
Central America

Central America is a central geography region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmus portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast....
n, or other Spanish culture or origin regardless of race."

Use in the United States


The term "Latino" was officially adopted in 1997 by the United States Government in the ethnonym "Hispanic or Latino", which replaced the single term "Hispanic": "Because regional usage of the terms differs -- Hispanic is commonly used in the eastern portion of the United States, whereas Latino is commonly used in the western portion."

U.S. official use of the term "Hispanic" has its origins in the 1970 census
United States Census, 1970

The Nineteenth United States Census, conducted by the United States Census Bureau, determined the resident population of the United States to be 203,302,031, an increase of 13.4 percent over the 179,323,175 persons Enumeration during the U.S....
. The Census Bureau
United States Census Bureau

The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data....
 attempted to identify all Hispanics by use of the following criteria in sampled sets:
  • Spanish speakers and persons belonging to a household where Spanish
    Spanish language

    Spanish or Castilian is a Romance languages that originated in northern Spain, and gradually spread in the Kingdom of Castile and evolved into the principal language of government and trade....
     was spoken
  • Persons with Spanish
    Spanish people

    Spanish people or Spaniards are a nation or ethnic group native to Spain, in the Iberian Peninsula of southwestern Europe. They are often considered an amalgam of different ethnic groups, rather than an ethnic group by itself....
     heritage by birth location
  • Persons who self-identify with Spanish
    Spanish people

    Spanish people or Spaniards are a nation or ethnic group native to Spain, in the Iberian Peninsula of southwestern Europe. They are often considered an amalgam of different ethnic groups, rather than an ethnic group by itself....
     ancestry or descent


Neither "Hispanic" nor "Latino" refers to a race, as a person of Latino or Hispanic ethnicity can be of any race. Like non-Latinos, a Latino can be of any single race: White/Caucasian
White people

White people is a term which is usually used to refer to Human characterized, at least in part, by the light Human skin color. It often refers narrowly to people claiming ancestry exclusively from Europe....
, Black/African American
Black people

Black people is a term usually referring to a Race of humans with a dark skin color, but the term has also been used to categorise a number of diverse populations into one common group....
, Asian
Asian people

Asian or Asiatic people is a demonym for people from Asia. However, the use of the term varies by country and person, often referring to people from a particular region or subregion of Asia....
, Native American
Indigenous peoples of the Americas

The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Americas, their descendants, and many ethnic groups who identify with those peoples....
, or Pacific Islander
Pacific Islander

Pacific Islander , is a regional geography term to describe the Austronesian people inhabitants of any of the three major sub-regions of Oceania: Polynesia, Melanesia and Micronesia....
. Again like non-Latinos, some may identify with more than one race, such as Mestizo
Mestizo

Mestizo is a Spanish language term that was used in the Spanish Empire to refer to people of mixed Europe and Indigenous peoples of the Americas ancestry in Latin America....
 (a bi-racial person of White/Caucasian and Native American descent), Mulatto
Mulatto

Mulatto denotes a person with one White people parent and one Black people parent or a person who has black ancestry and white ancestry. It is perceived as pejorative and demeaning in some cultures....
 (a person of White/Caucasian and Black/African American descent), Zambo
Zambo

Zambo is a Spanish language term that was used in the Spanish Empire and continues to be used today to identify individuals in Hispanic America who are of mixed African people and Indigenous people of the Americas ancestry....
 (a person of Native American and Black/African American descent) or any other race or combination.

Although as officially defined in the United States, "Latino" does not include Brazilian American
Brazilian American

Brazilian Americans are United States of Brazilian people ancestry.There were an estimated 346,000 Brazilian Americans as of 2007. Another source gives an estimate of some 800,000 Brazilians living in the U.S....
s, and specifically refers to "Spanish culture or origin", some of the dictionary definitions may include them and/or Brazilian people
Brazilian people

Brazilians are all people born in Brazil. A Brazilian can be also a person born abroad from a Brazilian parent or a foreigner living in Brazil who applied for the Brazilian citizenship....
 in general. Furthermore, Hispanic or Latino origin is, like race, a matter of self-identification in the US, and government and non-government questionnaires, including the census form, usually contain a blank entry space wherein respondents can indicate a Spanish/Hispanic/Latino origin other than the few (Mexican, Puerto Rican, and Cuban) which are specified; presumably, Brazilian Americans (and others) can thus self–identify as being of Hispanic or Latino ethnicity. However, Brazilian Americans are not included with Hispanics and Latinos in the government's population reports.

Some authorities of American English
American English

PhonologyIn many ways, compared to English language in England, North American English is conservative in its phonology. Some distinctive accents can be found on the East Coast of the United States , partly because these areas were in contact with England, and imitated prestigious varieties of English English at a time when those varieties we...
 maintain a distinction between the terms "Hispanic" and "Latino":

"Though often used interchangeably in American English, Hispanic and Latino are not identical terms, and in certain contexts the choice between them can be significant. Hispanic, from the Latin word for "Spain," has the broader reference, potentially encompassing all Spanish-speaking peoples in both hemispheres and emphasizing the common denominator of language among communities that sometimes have little else in common. Latino—which in Spanish means "Latin" but which as an English word is probably a shortening of the Spanish word latinoamericano—refers more exclusively to persons or communities of Latin American origin. Of the two, only Hispanic can be used in referring to Spain and its history and culture; a native of Spain residing in the United States is a Hispanic, not a Latino, and one cannot substitute Latino in the phrase the Hispanic influence on native Mexican cultures without garbling the meaning. In practice, however, this distinction is of little significance when referring to residents of the United States, most of whom are of Latin American origin and can theoretically be called by either word."


Listed below are the 28 categories tabulated in the 2000 United States Census: Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Dominican Republic; Central American: Costa Rican, Guatemalan, Honduran, Nicaraguan, Panamanian, Salvadoran, Other Central American; South American: Argentinian, Bolivian, Chilean, Colombian, Ecuadorian, Paraguayan, Peruvian, Uruguayan, Venezuelan, Other South American; Other Hispanic or Latino: Spaniard, Spanish, Spanish American, All other Hispanic or Latino.

Similar and related terms

ans]]
Map Latin America2
The countries of
Latin Europe
Latin Europe

File:Roman Empire map.svgLatin Europe is a region of Europe, comprising ethnically diverse but culturally similar peoples who claim Ancient Rome....
 and Latin America
Latin America

Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages ? particularly Spanish language and Portuguese language, and variably French language ? are primarily spoken....
Sometimes "Latino" is used interchangeably with "Latin", as Latino is also defined as a "Latin inhabitant of the United States"; and sometimes it is used interchangeably with "Latin American". As a demonym, though, "Latin
Latins

Latins can refer to several groups of people. Its meaning has changed throughout time, and can still refer to different things even today....
" can have other meanings:

  • "a native or inhabitant of Latium; an ancient Roman."
  • "a member of any of the Latin peoples, or those speaking chiefly Romance languages, esp. a native of or émigré from Latin America."
  • "a member of the Latin Church; a Roman Catholic, as distinguished from a member of the Greek Church."
  • "A Latino or Latina."


"Latin America
Latin America

Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages ? particularly Spanish language and Portuguese language, and variably French language ? are primarily spoken....
n" may also not mean the same as "Latino," depending on which definition of the latter is used. A Spaniard, for example, though a "Latino" by some definitions, is not a Latin American. The term "Latin American", in turn, though normally applied to inhabitants of Latin America, is nevertheless preferred by some individuals and organizations in the United States. "Latin American" is defined as:

  • "A native or inhabitant of Latin America."
  • "A person of Latin-American descent."


Definitions in other languages


The term latino (feminine latina) in the Romance languages
Romance languages

The Romance languages are a branch of the Indo-European languages comprising all the languages that descend from Latin language, the language of ancient Rome....
, such as Italian
Italian language

Italian is a Romance languages spoken by about 63 million people as a first language, primarily in Italy. In Switzerland, Italian is one of four Linguistic geography of Switzerlands....
, Portuguese
Portuguese language

Portuguese is a Romance language that originated in what is now Galicia and Portugal. It is derived from the Latin language spoken by the Romanization Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula around 2000 years ago....
, and Spanish
Spanish language

Spanish or Castilian is a Romance languages that originated in northern Spain, and gradually spread in the Kingdom of Castile and evolved into the principal language of government and trade....
, literally translates as "Latin". Portuguese dictionaries define the demonym latino to refer to natives of Romance-speaking nations influenced by Roman
Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the Roman Republic phase of the Ancient Rome, characterised by an autocracy form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
 civilization, and to the natives or inhabitants of ancient Latium
Latium

Lazio, called Latium in English language, is a Regions of Italy of central Italy, bordered by Tuscany, Umbria, and Marche to the north, Abruzzo to the east, Campania to the south, and the Tyrrhenian Sea to the west....
 (modern Lazio). Italian dictionaries define the demonym latino as: the ancient Latins and Romans, and their language, Latin, as well as the neo-Latin nations. The dictionary of the Real Academia Española
Real Academia Española

[Image:Estatutos rae 1715big.jpg|thumb|200px|Frontispiece: Fundaci?n y estatutos de la Real Academia Espa?ola The Real Academia Espa?ola , the RAE, is the official royal institution responsible for regulating the Spanish language....
 defines ten meanings for latino, including the ancient peoples of Latium and the modern Romance-speaking European and American
Americas

The Americas are the region of the Western hemisphere that consists of the continents of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions....
 nations. In these languages, latino, just like any other demonym, is by convention not capitalized.

See also

  • Latin American Australian
    Latin American Australian

    Latin Australian refers to Australian persons who were born in Latin America irrespective of their ancestral backgrounds, and their descendants....
  • Latin American Canadian
  • Latino Studies
  • Latin Union
    Latin Union

    The Latin Union is an international organization of nations that use a Romance languages. Its aim is to protect, project, and promote the common heritage and unifying identities of the Latin, and Latin-influenced, world....
  • Race and ethnicity in the United States Census
  • Racial and ethnic demographics of the United States


Bibliography

  • The Oxford Encyclopedia of Latinos and Latinas in the United States, 4 vls, Oxford University Press 2006, ISBN 0195156005


External links

  • Hispanic or Latino?
  • Nonprofit Public Policy and Advocacy Institute
  • Latino Community Portal in US, Canada
  • Examines the creation of the Hispanic label by Richard Nixon.