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September 2003, Vol. 13, No. 5 | Return to Table of Contents
Message from the Equal Employment Opportunity Coordinator
MBL Supports Diversity
In 2004 the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission will be asking businesses nationwide with 100 or more employees or federal contractors with more than 50 employees to change the way in which they collect, maintain, and report their employees’ race and, for the first time, ethnicity.
Specifically, the EEOC will increase the number of racial and ethnic classifications from five to seven. The current white, black, and Native American classifications will remain the same. Hispanic will be retained to identify ethnicity, rather than race, and will include people of all races who consider themselves to be Hispanic or Latino. The current Asian/Pacific Islander category will be split in two: Asians (those having origins in the Far East, Southeast Asia, or Indian subcontinent) and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islanders (those having origins in Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands). In addition, a new category will be added for people to classify themselves as being of two or more races.
A questionnaire for self-identification will be distributed to all MBL employees some time this fall. The two questions on the form will be: (1) Are you Hispanic or Latino? (2) What is your race? You will be asked to answer both questions.
The reason the EEOC will request ethnicity is to better understand the demographics of the Hispanic/Latino population, which has become our nation’s fastest-growing minority group. In 1998, Hispanics/Latinos constituted 9% of the total U.S. population; today it is estimated they make up 12.5% of the population. This percentage represents over 35 million people, not including the 3.8 million Hispanic residents of Puerto Rico.
While you certainly know if you’re Hispanic or Latino, I thought it would be a good idea to identify these terms for those who are not. I consulted several websites (see resources below), but a single answer was not easy to find. According to a Washington Post article in August 2003, there is an ongoing debate among Hispanics and Latinos about the proper name used to identify their heritage. Although the terms Latino and Hispanic have been used interchangeably for decades, some Latinos and Hispanics are questioning that today. Does Latino refer only to indigenous people and Hispanic only to a “conquistador?”
While I cannot solve the debate, I can report the definitions I was able to find. Hispanics are derived from the mostly white Iberian Peninsula that includes Spain and Portugal, while Latinos are descended from the brown indigenous Indians of the Americas south of the United States and in the Caribbean, who were conquered by Spain centuries ago. Their heritage combines elements of Spanish, Portuguese, indigenous Indian, and African cultures. For instance, Cuban and Dominican cultures share elements of African and Spanish heritage. In Guatemala and Peru, the populations have been strongly influenced by Spanish and indigenous Indian cultures. In Brazil, a combination of Portuguese, indigenous Indian, and African cultures define their ancestry so that Brazilian Americans consider themselves to be Latinos rather than Hispanics, and like their compatriots in Brazil, their native language is Portuguese.
Hispanic became fixed as the official government term during the Nixon administration when it was added to the 1970 census questionnaire, but that may be changing. While the term suggests one large ethnic group, the people are divided into many smaller subcultures, and there is no united consensus among Latin Americans on how they wish to be identified. They have different names for different segments of their population, most ending in “o” for the masculine form and “a” for the feminine form. Some of these names include: Boricua referring to a Puerto Rican; Chicano/a (also spelled Xicano/a) referring to a Mexican American; Hispanic referring to a person of Spanish American heritage; Hispano/a referring to a person of the U.S. Southwest descended from Spanish colonists with no Indian ancestry; Mestizo/a referring to a person of mixed ancestry such as someone of both European and Native American ancestry; Nuyorican referring to a Puerto Rican living in New York City; and Tejano/a referring to a Texan of Spanish descent.
Latino/a is a more general term for someone of Latin American origin. In contrast to the term Hispanic, which implies a geographical connection to Spain and Portugal, the term Latino refers to a person with ancestry originating from colonies that were overrun by Spaniards including all of the countries of South America, much of the Caribbean, Central America, Mexico, and even parts of southwestern United States that have been appropriated from Mexico.
Another descriptive term used is La Raza, which refers to “the People” or “the Hispanic People of the New World.” It represents everyone of Latin American descent and was coined in 1948 by Mexican author José Vasconcelos in his book La Raza Cósmica. He used it to denote the fact that Latin American people represent a worldly mixture of races, religions, and cultures, and as such, share a common heritage and destiny. It has sometimes been mistranslated to mean “the Race,” implying superiority, but that was not Vasconcelos’ intention. He meant it in a broad concept of race such as in human race or mankind.
Whatever label is used, let’s remember to celebrate the uniqueness of this vast ethnic group during “Hispanic Heritage Month” (September 15 to October 15), the term first used in a proclamation by President Gerald Ford in 1974. Is it time to update the name of this month as well?
—Jane MacNeil,
References:
Fears, D. (2003). Latinos or Hispanics? A Debate About Identity. Washington Post, August 25, 2003, p. A01.
www.infoplease.com/spot/hhm1.html
www.splcenter.org/cgi-bin/goframe.pl?refname=/teachingtolerance/tt-14.html
www.census.gov/Press-Release/fs97-10.html
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