Hispanic
Hispanic is a term used for people who come from Hispanica the second largest ethnic group in the United States.[1] Unlike most other ethnic groups, it is based mainly on language, i.e. Castillian (Spanish), and to a lesser extent, Portuguese.
Hispanics are also referred to sometimes as "Latins", although French speaking people of Americas are excluded from this list.
While most Hispanics are fairly recent immigrants to the USA, some, especially people in Texas, are people who were there before the USA came and incorporated them.
[edit] Types of Hispanics
Because the definition of Hispanic is so ridiculously broad, it can potentially include:
- Stereotypically Hispanic people like Jennifer Lopez.
- Blonde people like Cameron Diaz and Emilio Estevez.
- Native peoples of the Americas, e.g. A modern Mayan from the Yucatan, with little knowledge of Spanish, and little European ancestry. (Note, the proportion of people in Latin America with native ancestry is far higher than the USA.
- Black Latin Americans of mostly African ancestry.
- People like Che Guevara and Fidel Castro of recent European ancestry.
- Brazilians of all varieties.
- Spanish and Portuguese speaking Europeans.
But the truth is Latin Americans are much more racially mixed than Anglo-Americans are... so most of them will come from various combinations of the above.
[edit] Hispanic influence on the USA
There's quite a lot of it. Florida was one of the earliest Spanish speaking acquisitions of the USA, which has had quite a tumultuous relationship with them ever since. Then there's Puerto Rico, probably the USA's biggest unofficial colony.
States with Spanish language names, or names that come via Spanish:
- Arizona
- California
- Colorado ("red")
- Montana ("mountainous")
- Nevada ("snowy")
- New Mexico
- Oregon
- Texas (native via Spanish.)
- Utah (native via Spanish)
Towns with Spanish language names etc:
- San Francisco
- Los Angeles
- El Paso
- Las Vegas
- San Diego
A few place names:
- Sierra Nevada ("snowy mountain range")
- Rio Grande ("big river")
A few Spanish words popular in American English:
- Admiral (Arabic via Spanish)
- Cojones
- Hoosegow (Juzgao?)
- Jerky (Inca via Spanish)
- Mesa
- Mesquite
- Rodeo
- Taco
- Tequila
[edit] References
- ↑ And many other parts of the world, but that's another story!!!