The Hispanic “Thing”
An Introduction

“Hispanic or Latino/a is a person of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or Central American or other Spanish culture or origin regardless of race” (Office of Management and Budget, White House, October 1997).

What do people mean by the Hispanic “thing”? Depending on the environment the Hispanic “thing” involves different topics but, in general, it refers to the changes, issues and opportunities that have come about and will come about with the dramatic increase of Hispanics in the US.

North Carolina is the fastest growing Hispanic population state with almost 400 percent growth between 1990 and 2000, as shown by the census. We still do not compete in numbers with Texas, Florida or New York but we do sense that our demographics have changed and we see it impacting our daily life.

That impact is the “thing” which some people only can describe generally but that we will be describing more in detail in a series of articles. As with any change, this one has pros and cons for everyone. It is also a fact of life and it makes no sense to fight it. The smartest plan is to find out what is going on and to position ourselves to be in the winning end.

In North Carolina almost 70 percent of Hispanic people come from certain areas of Mexico and thus we have a very limited image of what Hispanics “look like.”

Let us begin our journey by understanding where Hispanics come from. Talking about Latin America as one thing is like talking about Europe as one thing. Can we generalize about Europeans?

“Latin America is a large region that covers all the territory in the Western Hemisphere south of the United States. It consists of Mexico, Central America, South America and the islands of the West Indies. The region is divided into 33 countries and 13 other political units. Brazil is by far the largest country in Latin America both in area and in population. It occupies more than 40 percent of the region’s land area and has about a third of its people.” (Ropp, Steve C. The World Book Encyclopedia , 2003 ed., s.v. “Latin America.”)

Portuguese is the primary language in Brazil, so only two thirds of Latin America uses Spanish as its official language. There are other European languages still spoken in many colonies or ex-colonies, including English, French and Dutch. Finally, many of the countries still use native languages and dialects to communicate.

The area is 21 million square kilometers and it hosts about 542 million people. About a third of all Latin Americans are under 15 years old. The racial composition of the population is very varied and most races are found in the region.

The four biggest Latin American cities rank amongst the largest of the world. In their own languages, those are: Ciudad de Méjico, Méjico; São Paulo, Brasil; Rio de Janeiro, Brasil; Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Once we get more acquainted with Latin America it is easier to see how it is not a homogeneous culture but a geographic setting for a partly shared history. Most of Latin America was conquered by the Spanish and converted to Catholicism. However, the original native civilizations were quite different from one another, and thus the result of the colonization varies, depending on who was being colonized and converted. Even Catholic practices differ to date, in spite of major efforts from the Vatican to make the religious practice more uniform throughout the Continent.

Having shown all the reasons for differences to exist, there are many similarities as well. Most people from Latin America can communicate fairly well with one another using Spanish. The majority are Catholics. Given the racial mix, and having all races represented in all classes, the real discrimination is based on class and not on race.

Level of education is a factor by which people are valued. The discussion about racism in Latin America is far from over, but it is my opinion that discrimination by class is more relevant than discrimination by race. Other authors believe otherwise; for example, Isabel Allende in her book My Invented Country writes in a very Latin style: “Whoever maintains that racism is a thing of the past is dead wrong” and goes on to give a recent example referring to Chile.

Some native groups have been left behind in their original state, especially in hard-to-access remote locations.

Why is it important to know this? Because the more we all know, the less uncertainty the situation brings us. All rapid demographic changes cause some uncertainty and fear. If we are more familiar with what we are facing, we are more able to cope with it and find the opportunities that lie in front of us.

References
Allende, I. Mi País Inventado (My Invented Country). New York: HarperCollins, 2003.
Crosby, M. “International Projects with Latin America.” Paper presented at PMI Global Congress 2004, Prague, Czech Republic, April 2004.
Ropp, Steve C. s.v. “Latin America.” The World Book Encyclopaedia, 2003 ed. Chicago: World Book, 2003.