Do you think people from Latin American should stop...

[JLG1995]

referring their own ethnicity as "Latino/Hispanic" and just rename their ethnic group, "Latin American/Mesoamericans"?

As a very light-skinned Mestizo American(US) of Mexican descent, I honestly never liked the term "Latino/Hispanic" since Latino originally meant only Latin Europeans(Spaniards, Italians, French, Portuguese and Romanians) before the existence of Latin America today or Hispanic term originating from an old Roman name for the Iberian Peninsula, Hispania that refers to Spain only. Now, the US Government just changes up the meaning of these two terms, while still including Latin Europeans, thus causing mass confusion for many people in the US, regarding race and ethnicity.

Another reason why I dislike being called "Latino/Hispanic" and prefer to call myself Latin American or Mesoamerican is because most Latin Americans have very very little in common with Spain and Portugal. We Latin Americans speak the Spanish (and Portuguese for Brazilians) as our official languages and the slight majority of us are religiously Catholic. That's where the similarity between Latin Americans and Latin Europeans end. It's not to say that I deny my Spanish ancestry or have anything against White Europeans(I still embrace my Spaniard ancestry, it's just that I was accustomed to the Mexican and American culture my whole life, not Spaniard European culture) or that I speak for every Latin American, I'm just saying there are still obvious cultural differences between Latin America and Spain and people(including Latin Americans) need to acknowledge that.

Even Spaniards straight out of Spain would tell you that we don't have much in common nor want anything to do with Latin Americans and their own cultures(which also has American Indian influences and some African influences, not just Iberian European cultural influences). That would be like referring to English-Speaking Christian Africans like Nigerians and South Africans as "Anglos"(despite that there are a lot of White Africans with Anglo roots), or how Black-Americans are referred to as "African-Americans" when most Blacks in the US just call themselves Black-Americans and reject the politically-correct umbrella term "African-American" because they don't have much culturally in common with Black Africans and they don't even know where specifically from Africa, has their ancestors came from before being bought as slaves by White Europeans.

See where I'm going?

[Odin]

Yup, Hispanic and Latino are not identical terms, the term 'Latino' was coined by the French, to unite the European inhabitants of Latin America with those of Latin Europe. But there are many people in Latin America with zero European roots.

[CertifiedCracker]

Using the defintion of Latino, I'd be a Latino, but I think everyone recognizes that it means Mexicans, Guatamalans, Cubans, Brazilians, etc.

[Mingle]

Yup, Hispanic and Latino are not identical terms, the term 'Latino' was coined by the French, to unite the European inhabitants of Latin America with those of Latin Europe. But there are many people in Latin America with zero European roots.

And 'Hispanic' is just the Anglo-Latin word for Spanish.

[Annie999]

You have a very USA-centered view. In most Latin America we call ourselves “latin americans” and even “americans” (as we are consciously America is a continent and not a country). Maybe you should aim your question to mexicans or latin americans living in USA.

However, Id also like to add that millions of latin americans are white so calling themselves “mesoamericans” wouldnt make much sense. The term “latin american” or “latino” (as a short version of the same word) applied in Latin America does NOT represents any race in particular but includes all. Latinos might be mestizos, white, black, etc , it only means someone was born and raised in a latin american country or family.

Note: do not confuse the term “latin” applied for Latin America with the word applied to european countries (Spain, Italy, France, Romania, etc).

[Odin]

And 'Hispanic' is just the Anglo-Latin word for Spanish.

Hispanic is a broad term which refers to Spanish speaking population in general.

[Mingle]

You have a very USA-centered view. In most Latin America we call ourselves “latin americans” and even “americans” (as we are consciously America is a continent and not a country). Maybe you should aim your quedtion to mexicans or latinos/latin americans living in USA.

This wasn't always the case. Latin Americans reclaimed the word American in the 20th century.

Here is a Mexican political cartoon from the late 19th century:



You can see they used the word americano instead of estadounidense above.

Btw, the term 'Usonian' was invented in the late 19th century to refer to US Americans but it never became popular, it's an acronym of 'United States of North America'.

[Carlito's Way]

Yup, Hispanic and Latino are not identical terms, the term 'Latino' was coined by the French, to unite the European inhabitants of Latin America with those of Latin Europe. But there are many people in Latin America with zero European roots.

It was coined in Mexico by the French and Mexican emperor Maximilian. It wasnt to unit Euros in the Americas at all lol they wanted to create a Latin Empire in the Americas with Maximilian being the ruler of this new empire. They also wanted Latinos to look up to France rather to Spain.

I dont know where you got the idea of the French creating the term to unit all Euros of Latin America from lol smh

[Annie999]

Yup, Hispanic and Latino are not identical terms, the term 'Latino' was coined by the French, to unite the European inhabitants of Latin America with those of Latin Europe. But there are many people in Latin America with zero European roots.

The term latin/latino to refer to LA countries comes from a linguistic reason, we all speak latin derivative languages (spanish and portuguese) in opposite to north americans that speak a germanic language.

[Odin]

I dont know where you got the idea of the French creating the term to unit all Euros of Latin America from lol smh

To make sure that people of Latin Empire remain loyal to their masters in Latin Europe I mean.