[Sca-cooks] odd
Terry Decker
t.d.decker at att.net
Sun Feb 20 15:09:30 PST 2011
The ethnic identifiers are an artifact of the United States heterogeneous
culture, group superiority complexes and our national efforts to balance and
secure liberty and equality for citizens (we're not too good at fraternity,
so maybe we'll turn some attention to that in future). They're for ease of
statistical analysis and to provide data required by some of our rather
cumbersome laws that are meant to enforce the spirit and letter of our
Constitution.
Latino refers specifically to a person (citizen or not) whose family is from
Latin America. Europeans need not apply. Hispanic is the broader term and
refers to anyone of Spanish ethnicity.
If you want to have some real fun, consider that in New Mexico, whites
(WASPs, San Patricios, etc., etc.) and blacks are "Anglos" except when the
black is from a family that emigrated into the state with the Spanish
migration in the 17th and 18th Centuries. In that case, they and any of the
long settled citizens of Spanish extraction are "Natives" except when a
Native American is present, then they are "Hispanic." Recent immigrants of
Spanish ethnicity are "Latinos" to distinguish them from the Colonial Period
immigrants. Fortunately, this is local cultural thing that isn't reflected
in government papers. Richard Bradford presented this far better in Red Sky
at Morning.
WASP is sociological jargon. The term was defined for the public by Andrew
Hacker, a political scientist, in 1957 to identify members of an affluent
and political powerful subset of (White) people in U.S. whose families were
of English descent (Anglo-Saxon) and Protestant denomination. The reference
is primarily to the aristocratic families with the wealth and privilege that
allowed them to socially and politically control the Northeastern states and
influence national politics.
Bear
----- Original Message -----
I have always being puzzled for that question in the inmigration form to
enter the US. Am I Caucasian? Definitely, very white skin :) But Spanish
grandfathers from dad's site and Italian grandfathers from mom's side make
me definitely "Latino". But in Europe the definition "Latino" doesn't exist,
yes, Italy, Spain and France are "latin countries", it means countries were
Latin was spoken.
The "Latino" word as an opposite to a vague and confusing Northerner's, WASP
identity it's an US invention.
Ana
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