Submitted 2 years ago by 01adrianrdgz@lemmy.world to [deleted]
Unfortunately, you don’t always get to pick your labels. You can among friends and family, but it doesn’t change what people that don’t know you think. And people that don’t know you are often the people whose minds need the most changing.
Hopefully posts like this reach people that need their mind changed on how identity works and what matters about it and why.
You were born in a Latin America country, presumably son of Latin Americans, you grew up in said country, you are a Latin American, or Latino for short.
People born in USA with USA born parents that grew up in the USA are Americans, the ones that claim to be Italian or Irish are made fun of by a actual Italian and Irish people, source I’ve lived in Italy and now live in Ireland.
Latin America is arguably one of the largest demographics in the world, since it covers essentially all of the countries in the American continent with the notable exceptions of USA and Canada. An Argentinian like me will have almost nothing in common with a Mexican like you (except perhaps we both watched el chavo del 8), or at least no more than I would have with a Canadian, yer we’re both “Latinos”. Plus I don’t see what’s the problem with being a Latino, that doesn’t mean anything, whatever prejudice someone will have for you being Latino, they will have it regardless of whether you consider yourself Latino.
You can identify as whatever you want, you will still be a Latina though. Nope, I’m not Irish, nor do I wish to identify as such. Don’t mean to offend you, but you read like an angry teenager that’s angry at their parents or has watched one too many racist movies depicting Latinos as a bad thing, in time and with age you learn to appreciate your origins, and the more people and cultures you know the more you realise you do have a culture and that your culture is different from others. Getting to know other cultures and appreciate their differences is one of the cool things in life, understanding that what you consider normal is for others strange and vice-versa can be an eye opener.
The original meanings of words change over time with usage. Though they have some overlap and some differences (Brazilians are considered Latino but not Hispanic and Spaniards are considered Hispanic but not Latino), the term Latino is generally replacing previous usage of Hispanic, though Latino is likely used more in urban and coastal regions of the US and Hispanic is likely used more in rural and landlocked regions. The usage of either term won’t always be accurate and it will be an exonym used for people who don’t call themselves by that term.
You’re free to say, “I don’t identify as Latino. I’m Mexican.” Or “I’m Mexican American.” if you’re in the US. There will be surveys and polls and forms that won’t have Mexican as a choice though since they use pan-ethnic or continental terms for wide groups of people for categorization purposes. Similar to the fact that white isn’t an ethnicity or a scientific taxonomy. It’s an arbitrary designation with historical, social and political baggage.
“is likely used more in urban and coastal regions of the US and Hispanic is likely used more in rural and landlocked regions”, that is, “latino” is US based word, but it means almost nothing outside that country.
I think you’re a bit mixed up about culture, geography, and biology. It seems like you’re arguing against claims that you don’t quite understand, yet haven’t laid out for commenters to help with.
I’d recommend taking some sociology, anthropology, and political science courses in college if you’d like to delve deeper into these topics. There’s a lot of scholarship out there on these issues to explore.
is latin america because colonization
As a Mexican, you are. And there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s not a racist term. It’s just like calling someone from France an European. Or someone from South Korea an asian.
The French guy will probably have nothing in common with a swedish, yet they happen to be both European, just like a Japanese will have a totally different culture than a Mongol, yet they are asians.
You can of course tell people to stop calling you a latino if you want to. However society automatically puts tags on people and they will call you whatever they want. If I were you, I’d just stop giving it any importance.
Being American is kinda meaningless. America is a country made up of so many varying cultures, and part of American identity is also being a different culture.
So while yes, you are American, you are also Latino. From a technical perspective, the large majority of Mexicans are the result of Spanish colonization of Central America, so they could also say they are Spaniard. As could you. But you are still American, and you are still Latino.
Well, I actually know a few people irl that have an opinion that rather intrigued me. Now, disclaimer, I’m a white boy, and can’t claim to understand the full complexity of the labels and identities involved here. I’m just repeating what I heard during a long conversation about this subject. And, not everyone there at the time agreed.
That being said, the opinion that was discussed was that latino/a is a cultural descriptor rather than an ethnicity. In other words, you’re Latino if you are from that culture, and embrace it. Otherwise, you’d be “Hispanic”, or of a specific nationality/ethnicity as applies.
The counter argument to that was that it only mattered if you live outside of Latin America. Which, the group said included everything from Mexico down through south America, plus some islands, and excluding Brazil. Which was party a joke, but not fully a joke. That group leaned towards the Latino culture being partially defined by language as much as anything else, which meant that indigenous peoples wouldn’t be Latino by default, no matter where they lived.
Again, this is just something I ended up listening to and asking a few questions about, it isn’t my own opinions.
But, if that group can be taken as a basis for a useful idea, then you would be able to reject the label of Latino because it only applies if you embrace the culture associated with Spanish speaking peoples in the Americas as a whole (as opposed to regional or national cultural identities).
As far as ancestry goes, it’s pretty common to refer to it as a form of self labeling, if it’s important to the person. While I have next to zero experience with Ireland or Scotland, a big chunk of my ancestors were Scots-Irish immigrants to the area hate in the US I’m from. And there are cultural facets that still exist from that. I also have some Polish ancestry that I have no connection to in my life, so there’s no cultural influence there. So, when I’m talking about such things, I don’t identify as Polish-American at all, because it’s such a minor part of my upbringing and self. But the Scots-Irish side of things runs very strong in both sides of my family (along with german influences, which makes for some interesting potluck dinners lol), so that’s what I would likely mention first if asked about what ethnic or cultural groups are part of my identity.
Which is similar enough to what the group of friends I was talking about said. If you aren’t part of a culture, you don’t have to self label as part of that culture just because you share some similarities. The caveat being that it assumes Latino is a culture rather than an ethnicity/race.
Again, other than the part about my own ancestry, this is all what other people said, it isn’t me trying to foist my opinion on someone else.
I would say Mexican of Spanish heritage counts as “Latino” or “Hispanic” in the US, yes. It’s a broad category here. You are also North American of European heritage. And yes of course, identify however the heck you want.
No, it’s not illegal, in fact it’s legal to leave it blank. The reason to choose Hispanic/Latino on forms is just to get information about discrimination and population trends. It’s supposed to benefit those groups not harm them, like there are school scholarships available for people from specific places, things like that.
Don’t overthink it. You identify how you identify, most people are more than one category here.
Something to consider, even though they now speak Spanish a lot of people in Mexico aren’t descended from Spaniards, they are descended from tribes like the Aztec, Mayans and Olmec. Might be interesting to study your ancestry.
Part of my core philosophy is to never let other people define you. Define yourself and let other people define themselves too.
I think culture and heritage / where you’re born are two different things. You could also have been raised by parents who emigrated from some country and you’ve been taught their culture, despite your family lives in another country for decades.
Identifying with a culture / heritage / … can be arbitrarily complex for some people.
Others here have answered the basic questions. However, an even better answer would come from talking about it with your family. If for some reason you are not interested or able to discuss it with your parents, what about with cousins or grandparents?
What do you think the term Latino means, and why don’t you want to identify as one?
if I did, I would have to be obliged and follow their cultures
This doesn’t seem true to be. There is no culture police who will come and enforce the way you live your life to follow the norms of your ethnic label(s).
I don’t have a culture
This is impossible. Everyone has a culture. You may not follow all the cultural norms or traditions of where you are from, but it is guaranteed that who you are was impacted by the culture you were raised in. There is no such thing as neutral, otherwise you are saying your personal culture would fit in everywhere in the world (Mexico, USA, Italy, Russia, Japan, Philippines, etc).
There’s no such thing as not having a culture, nor such a thing as being “culturally neutral”.
Jackthelad@lemmy.world 2 years ago
Isn’t Mexico part of Latin America?
I’ve always assumed it was.
01adrianrdgz@lemmy.world 2 years ago
teft@startrek.website 2 years ago
Latin America designates the set of countries in the Americas where a Romance predominates: Spanish, Portuguese, or French. Thus, it includes Mexico; most of Central and South America; and in the Caribbean, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti.