There's apparently quite a furor going on in the U.S. about people who flew a Mexican (or other nation) flag during recent protests about proposed immigration laws.
I'll leave the discussion of that to others, but the numerous mention of the ethnicity of the protesters is something I need to talk about. Specifically I am referring to the term Hispanic, probably one of the most misused words in America.
To begin with, there's actually no such thing as an ethnic "Hispanic". That is to say, your neighbor Pedro Gonzales can walk across the border to Mexico or drive to Argentina or fly to France and he will instantaneously cease to be Hispanic, in the sense of an ethnicity. Pedro can sail a boat down the coast of Mozambique, amble along the great wall of China and ride in a hot air balloon over Indonesia but it is only when he steps foot inside the United States that he becomes "Hispanic".
The word "Hispanic" in Spanish is "hispano". In this article I will italicize it to emphasize when it is the Spanish word I'm referring to and not the English "hispanic". The word
hispano derives from the name the Romans gave for the entire Iberian peninsula, what we call Spain
and Portugal today. It is akin to calling someone an Iberian, if you want to be extremely accurate about it.
The word hispano refers solely to someone originally either from Spain or a descendent thereof. It was used in the "New World" to distinguish between people of European extraction and those of indigenous origin. If the Spaniards hadn't been so godalmighty proud of their own heritage, a more accurate description for the colonizers and their children would've been simply "European". To this day in Spain, on October 12 (America's "Columbus Day"), the calendars all say "Dia de la Hispanidad" which translates to "Day of the Spanish World" more or less, referring to the entire Spanish-speaking world.
That being said, during the colonial era there were Spaniards (hispanos) and los indios, the natives. People being people, there were inter-ethnic marriages. Some of them had more European physical characteristics while others looked more indigenous. People who were of mixed ethnicities are called mestizo (literally "mixed") or "mulatto" in Spanish (as well as a host of other words, but those are the most common). People of pure or nearly pure European extraction were referred to as criollo, which is related to the word "creole".
If you asked our friend Pedro what his ethnicity is in his native Mexico, he would probably tell you either "indio" (indigenous), "mestizo" (mixed), "criollo" (pure European) or maybe nothing at all. Or just that he's a Mexican, pure and simple. Sometimes those of purely European extraction in Latin America refer to themselves as "blancos" (whites) while those of darker complection are sometimes called "negros" (note: this word simply means "black" in Spanish and has no pejorative connotation). Each country has its own tradition and vocabulary, with both more neutral and more perjorative descriptions, but absolutely nowhere is the word hispano (commonly) used to describe any kind of ethnicity.
In fact, in most Latin American countries the population is often divided between the (pure or nearly pure) indigenous peoples and everyone else. And despite what many Americans think, there are still hundreds of indigenous communities in Latin America who have preserved both their culture as well as their languages.
Why does this matter? Because according to the American census bureau, someone born in Mexico is an ethnic Hispanic regardless of his ancestry or what he himself would consider his ethnicity. Our friend Pedro's parents might have moved to Mexico directly from Spain or they might both be indigenous peoples from the Sonoran desert, two vastly different ethnicities in Mexico, but in the good old USA he's just "Hispanic".
Not only that, but someone coming directly from Spain, with purely European (i.e. "white") physical features, would also be classified as as an ethnic Hispanic. Rationally speaking, the term "Hispanic" is much more accurate when describing the language someone speaks than any kind of ethnicity, although of course many "Hispanics" do not speak Spanish at all. Ethnicities are usually based on similarities in physical characteristics and/or cultural traits. On both of those counts, Hispanic fails utterly as a useful categorization.
As if that wasn't muddled enough, many people in Latin America, especially in Argentina and Uruguay, are descended from people from other European nations, especially Italy. Therefore your other neighbor, Paulo Polazzi, who speaks Italian, would be classified as an ethnic "Hispanic" because he is from Argentina while his cousin Vincenzo from Rome would be considered an ethnic "white/caucausian" upon his entry into the United States.
Inside the United States, many people labeled "Hispanic" prefer the term "Latino", indicating an origin from a country in Latin America. This label also helps denote that the person is not from Spain. And while "Hispanic" is not usually considered offensive, it is an extremely inaccurate term to describe peoples from a wide host of different cultures, speaking different languages and having widely different physical characteristics.
Although I am not sure exactly how the term became used in the United States, it would make sense that the English-speaking Americans who first moved into Mexican territory and then fought several wars against Mexico (and a couple against Spain, esp in Florida) would devise a term to designate people who speak Spanish, with the probable result being "Hispanic", referring more to the language they speak than any ethnicity.
Of course now the vast majority of people inhabiting Latin America are either of blended or indigenous ancestry and the percentage of people of (pure or mostly pure) European descent is very small. Note that I am using the term "pure" strictly in its rational sense and not in any prejudicial way.
Oddly enough, I think the misuse of the word "Hispanic" is concomitant with the misuse of the word "Spanish" to describe the language spoken by many people in Latin America. In that language, the more correct term is "castellano" because there are actually 4 national languages spoken in Spain, the one originating in the region of Castille being the one called "Spanish" in English. Although I do note that most people in Latin America refer to the language as "español" rather than "catellano".
To sum it up, calling someone Hispanic is just about the same thing as calling them a Spaniard. Now look at your two neighbors, Paolo and Pedro. Are they Spaniards? No. So let's at least call them Latinos until a more accurate description makes its way into the government's classification systems.
Peace