Houston, Texas (KTRK) – In Hispanic and Latin American Heritage Month, we bring you stories of culture, history, and special people in our community making strides.
“Look around. Latinos are everywhere in Houston, we’re not going anywhere, and I think we’re working hard. We’re passionate people, and as you can see with the next generation, here, the possibilities are endless,” said Juan Alanis, the Mexican American from Houston.
The terms “Latino” and “Spanish” are widely used throughout the United States to define millions of people from many countries.
Mexican-American professor Dr. Cristina Cesc teaches Spanish-American culture, helping future generations to better understand terminology and history.
“One of the things is the assumption that everyone is Mexican, and everyone has a family name that sounds Hispanic of Mexican descent. And that has its problems,” Dr. Sisque said.
See related: Hispanic, Hispanic, and Latino: ‘Complicated, but evolving’
In the United States, the terms “Latino” and “Spanish” are used interchangeably to describe a group that makes up 18.9% of the country’s population.
The US Census shows that there are over 62,000,000 Hispanics in the country, making them the largest racial or ethnic minority.
In Harris County, Rice University’s Kinder Institute reports that Hispanics make up 43% of the population.
“It’s what I would call blanket terms to designate people from diverse backgrounds,” Dr. Sisk said.
See also: Hispanic artists explain how the Houston Arts Alliance gave them the strength to continue creating pieces
The thing is that even though the inclusive terms are used interchangeably by some, Latin and Latin do not actually mean the same thing.
Sisk says that the term “Latino” describes people of Latin American descent.
However, Spanish refers to people who speak Spanish as a first language or hail from Spain. For example, Brazilians are Hispanic but not Hispanic.
Apart from these two terms, there are now also two new terms used to describe that percentage of the population in a gender-neutral form: Latinx and Latine.
“One of the arguments against Latinx is that it doesn’t sound like Spanish at all. You can’t say Latin… X… you know?” Dr. Cesc said.
“I think we embrace a Latino class or a Latin name because it unites,” Alanis said.
While it can build a community, there are some concerns about the use of these blanket terms.
“My fear has always been with such big terminology for people from different cultures that we will fall into people’s stereotypes,” said Dr. Sisk.
“We are more than just our stereotypes,” said Houston-Colombian Alexandra Bayona. “Colombia is really known for its drug cartels and other misinformation but there’s more to our culture and every other country besides what you see as our stereotypes.”
One thing is for sure, Alanis says, no matter what people consider themselves to be under blanket terms, they still relate to their music, food, and all those things that represent their different countries of origin.
For updates on this story, follow Daniela Hurtado at FacebookAnd the Twitter And the Instagram.
See more: City Council Action 13 highlights barriers Hispanics face in mental health care
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