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Latino, feminine Latina derives from Latin (the adjectives latinus, latina), originally referring to Latium, the area of Rome, by aitiology derived from a king of the name Latinus.
The term should not be confused with Ladino (the Spanish-based language traditionally spoken by Sephardic Jews) or Ladin (a Rhaeto-Romance language spoken in the Italian Alps), even though the origin for all three names is the same.
The U.S.A. Ethnic usage
In the United States of America, despite of the term Latino having the broad conotaction refered above, it is commonly (and erroneously) used toLatinos refer to the people other than African-American, Anglo-American, Arab-American, Asian-American, Irish-American, Jewish American, Native American, Scottish American and Slovenian American, who reside in the United States and are of European background, typically Spain, Portugal, Italy and France, who are speaker of the Latin languages. The feminine form of the word is Latina.
Often, the term Latino is applied to immigrants from Spanish speaking countries and their descendants only. American inhabitants of Brazilian origin are not considered Latinos, even though their language is Portuguese. Some define Latino as also including Spanish and Indio people in Americas distinguishing from European Spanish. Inhabitants of the French-speaking areas of Haiti, French Guiana, and the French West Indies are generally not considered to be Latinos; they are typically thought to have more in common culturally with English-speaking West Indians than they do with residents of Mexico and Central and South America.
The U.S. Census Bureau defines "Hispanic or Latino" as having a background in a Spanish-speaking Latin American country or being of actual Spanish ancestry. Thus immigrants from Spain are considered "Hispanic or Latino", but those from Brazil are not. The label also thus includes ethnically Spanish people with roots in the United States, such as the New Mexico Spanish and Louisiana Cajuns of Spanish origin.
Critique of Latino Usage in The U.S.A.
The word Latino is debated as to whether it is an appropriate label for the people living in the Americas outside of the U.S. and Canada. Controversy surrounds on the usage since it implies a mirroring of Europe Latin area (see Latin Europe) in the Americas. But in doing so, it has excluded millions of indigenous descendants (many of whom speak only a native language) that are very much grounded in what is called the Americas. Thus the critique of the word falls on the exclusion of others and/or perpetuating a homogenuity of one race in the Americas. The exclusion falls on the indigenous societies and the seized populations of Africa.
Recently, Mexican-descent organizations such as the Mexica Movement have challenged the legitimacy of the newly-introduced term of "Latino" on the grounds of its non-applicability to people who are non-European. Since the term Latino refers to Latin Europe and its descendents, people of American indigenous descent are necessarily excluded from such a term. The heavy promotion of the term Latino by European-descent Cubans in Miami onto the much larger Mexican population that is non-European, has fueled sharp critiques of the term as it is currently applied. Given that approximately 10% of Mexico's population continues to speak an indigenous language as its mother tongue, the Latino moniker is especially problematic. The media application of the term "Latino" in conjunction with non-Latino patrimony images (such as Aztec and Mayan pyramids) promises to stir debate about an "umbrella" term encompassing people of separate races and separate civilizations.
Critics further point out that Native Americans primarily speak English but are never referred to as Anglos or as "Britannic." Latino, they assert, is likewise non-applicable as an identity to people of indigenous stock (full-blood and mixed-blood) in other regions of the same continent.
See also
- Afro-latino
- Asian Latino
- Boricua
- Chicano
- Converso
- Filipino
- Hispanic
- Hispanic America
- Ibero-American
- Isleños
- La raza
- Latin Europe
- Latin rap
- Latin Union
- List of U.S. cities with Hispanic majority populations
- Mexican American
- Mestizo
- Moors
- Mulatto
- Spanish American