Elenamary

Terms—these are my definitions and definitions will vary from person to person, group to group.

Spanish: Someone who speaks Spanish. Incorrect when used to define people from Latin America or of Latin American descent. Calling people Spanish is as useful as calling all Brits, Australians, Indians & Canadians, English. Furthermore, not all people of Latin America or of Latin American descent speak Spanish.

Hispanic: Someone of Spanish descent living in the United States. A term used by the government and often by people of Latin American descent who vote republican. This term is problematic in that it focuses on a colonizer (Spain) and ignores African, Asian, American Indian, and other European ethnicities. Additionally, not all people who are from Latin America speak Spanish, nor may they have any Spanish background.

Latin: Is a dead language, not a group of people.

Latin American: Someone from Latin America. Problematic as a term for people in the USA because many people of Latin American descent have never been to Latin America and may have very little cultural ties to it.

American: Anyone from the Americas, this includes both North & South America. Ask a Mexican if they are American they will say yes. Ask a Canadian if they are American they will say yes. (FYI Mexico’s complete name is The United States of Mexico—and they consider themselves Americans).

Latino, Latina, Latin@, Latinos, Latinas: Includes anyone in the United Status who is from or has an ethnic background from Central America, South America, and the Caribbean. Sometimes also includes Filipinos—who were at one time occupied people of Spain. Latinos/as can speak Spanish, Portuguese, English, French or Indigenous languages. These are people who usually share a historical background of being occupied by countries where a romance language is spoken. This term is problematic in that no one can decide what falls under it, some would include Haiti or the Philippines, some would not.

Pocho, Pocha, Pocha@, Pochos, Pochas, Poch@s: An insult term. A Latino who does not speak Spanish. Does not know the language of their ancestry, or participate in the cultural aspects of their ethnic background. Someone who has attempted to completely assimilate to U.S. mainstream dominant culture.

Chicano, Chicana, Chican@, Chicanos, Chicanas, Chican@s: Someone of Mexican-American background, usually born and/or raised in the United States. It is used politically by Mexican-Americans to identify themselves and was/is very much a term of brown pride This term has an ugly connotation to it in Mexico. My mother never wanted me to be called Chican@ and would remind me that I wasn’t and would say things like “You cant be a Chican@ because only one of your parents is Mexican”

Xicano, Xicana, Xican@, Xicanos, Xicanas, Xican@s: Very similar to Chican@ (pronounced the same) but with much more emphasis on the political nature of the term. It is a radical term by using the ‘X’ seen in Nahutal (Indigenous language of Mexico) or others say by inspiration of the black power movement.

Mexican, Mexicana, Mexicano: Someone from Mexico, usually born and/or raised in Mexico.

Hispano, Hispana: Someone of Spanish descent. You will see this term often used by people in New Mexico. They believe themselves to be descendents of the first Spanish (people from Spain) immigrants, in what is today the Southwestern United States.

Term suffixes:
__o,__a,__os,__as,___@,__@s
An ‘o’ is used to refer to the male sex and the ‘a’ to the female sex.
Ending of a pronoun with ‘os’ refers to the male sex however it can also include female, but not necessarily. For example if there is room full of 25 Latinos the room could have 25 Latino males, or 24 Latina females and 1 Latino Male. However, in a room full of 25 Latinas there are no men in the room, as soon as there is 1 male in the room then you would refer to the room has having 25 Latinos.
Sometimes you will now see the symbol ‘@’ used in place of saying Latino/a or Pocho/a you might write Latin@ or Poch@ this is used to include both the ‘o’ and the ‘a’ at the same time.