View Story | 48 comments
Comments: Expand Shrink Hide (Always) | Indented Flat (Always)
No, I'm not crazy. I just mean that on State impact forms as a child, on official documents now, I always fill in Hispanic, or if they want to get real Specific, Mexican/Latino, or on some forms Hispanic/Caucasian...
My Dad was Mexican American, my Grandfather was Mexican American, Great Grandparents from Mexico. My Mom and all of her relatives were WASPs. So... you know, what are my kids? I grew up feeling like a latina. I had a quince, my Abuela spoke Spanish, I had God's Eye over my bed and went to Catholic church. I willingly ate menudo!
I plan on raising my two daughters with a lot of awareness of their culture, and of course by that I mean Chicano culture. My husband is also a Euro-mutt, so there isn't an unbroken cultural identity there. Unless you count "white-boy" in which case my hubby is a cultural ambassador.
So are my kids counted as "Hispanics", and if so, in what sense? Culturally, for scholarships, for the census bureau, just in my heart?
by Suzanne77 on Wed May 07, 2008 at 09:49:16 AM PDT
I used to work for a federal agency that dealt with this stuff and went to a lot of meetings around the OMB race/ethnic directives.
Personally, given what you say, I would check yes for you and your children. However, it's all a personal choice. Some people who are multi-racial or -ethnic check multiple boxes, some check just one ... it's your decision.
According to Wikipedia:
The U.S. Office of Management and Budget currently defines "Hispanic or Latino" as "a person of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin, regardless of race".
I would say you fit that definition. It doesn't have to be 100%.
Katherine
by pat of butter in a sea of grits on Wed May 07, 2008 at 09:57:19 AM PDT
[ Parent ]
That is very helpful! I always wondered how these determinations were made.
Thinking about the "anti-miscegenation" laws in the Southern US yesterday, (because of Mrs. Loving), I wondered how such a racially mixed populace had ever pretended there was such a thing as "racial purity".
by Suzanne77 on Wed May 07, 2008 at 10:18:36 AM PDT
I think the idea of purity was only for whites, sadly enough.
Sally Hemings, for example, had I believe only one of her four grandparents who was African American but she was still considered "black," enough to be a slave.
by pat of butter in a sea of grits on Wed May 07, 2008 at 10:24:02 AM PDT
I had no idea...
by Suzanne77 on Wed May 07, 2008 at 10:26:55 AM PDT
My little girl is a "halfsie." I consider her Latina; I am guessing my white MIL would beg to differ.
In the end, I am guessing it will be up to my daughter how she chooses to identify herself...
by Erika on Wed May 07, 2008 at 10:26:48 AM PDT
told us to put Hispanic on all of our forms because later we might want scholarships. That's my Mommy, pragmatic as anything. But to be honest, she was the one that spearheaded our immersion in Mexican culture. My Dad and his siblings were pretty assimilated, depsite their first language at home being Spanish.
by Suzanne77 on Wed May 07, 2008 at 10:29:03 AM PDT
Nobody knows. It's a huge headache for demographers and epidemiologists trying to deal with data, because everybody checks the box using their own definition. Sometimes multiple boxes, sometimes not. The original definition is hardly relevant if people filling out forms don't use it. And I'm a geneticist - don't even get me started on that problem. Hispanic/latino and/or amerindian ends up being understudied and misrepresented as a result.
I know two cute little girls who are the bilingual, jewish, blond daughters of two well-off doctors. I don't think this exactly fits the stereotypes some white people hold, but they are in fact hispanic.
by lyn on Wed May 07, 2008 at 10:37:27 AM PDT
I don't even know about being Hispanic at all. My Mom was Mrs. Santos, and she was a petite redhead with freckles. Cuban people always thought she was Cuban. And I think my maiden name in this form is actually Portuguese? It was a shortened version of our original last name.
But yeah, my Dad's culture was a blend of European Spanish, Native Indians and a smattering of other cultures/races. In our family we actually had a grandmother who was Arabic of some sort? We realized this through geneaology and some intact Arabic words that had been passed down through our family. Crazy...
by Suzanne77 on Wed May 07, 2008 at 11:11:35 AM PDT
They're Mexicans (on the mom's side) of Ashkenazi descent, classmates of my boys. Our two families nicely illustrate how the combination of race, language, religion, and heritage all work together to obscure the definition of hispanic.
My dark skinned son wears his central american heritage on his face, but though everyone sees him as latino he's being raised in an anglo household. His white classmate is being raised in a spanish speaking family that values and preserves its Mexican heritage. They're both hispanic, but about the only thing they share in common is the Jewish part. Oh, wait . . .
by lyn on Wed May 07, 2008 at 01:05:14 PM PDT
who is Ashekenazi Jewish, but his Dad "Carlos" relocated to South America in the 40's. He was originally Karl I believe, so anyhow the whole family speaks Spanish, is totally assimilated into the culture etc. Its awesome!
But he told me that Jews from Spain (?) are Sephardic... yeah I have no idea, but Jewish cultural/racial/religious identity seems as complicated to me as defining the term "hispanic"! And he gets a two for one deal!!
by Suzanne77 on Wed May 07, 2008 at 01:11:12 PM PDT
Is my grand-child-to-be hispanic? His/her other grandmother was born in the Dominican Republic and Spanish is her first language. My son's girlfriend and her sisters was born here, but speak a mix of Spanish and English at home. Racially, however, they are viewed as African American.
And ofcourse, our families heritage is almost 100 percent British.
by tjb22 on Wed May 07, 2008 at 01:11:42 PM PDT
View Story | 48 comments