domingo, 26 de julio de 2009

DEFINING THE TERMS “LATINO” AND “HISPANIC”

This is going to be a bumpy ride, so hold on. Let’s begin by going to the root of the words in english and in spanish:

Latino:
“1945–50, Americanism; < style="font-weight: bold;">Hispanic:
• Of or relating to Spain or Spanish-speaking Latin America.
• Of or relating to a Spanish-speaking people or culture. (Dictionary.com)

• Perteneciente o relativo a Hispania. (Belonging or relative to Hispania)
• Perteneciente o relativo a las naciones de Hispanoamérica. (Belonging or relative to Hispanic America).

LATINO
Now we begin with the word “latino”. As described in the english dictioanry “latino” is not an english word, it’s an “americanism” or a word commonly used in the United States of America. The word is an “ellipsis” of the term “latinoamericano” in spanish. We need to understand this “ellipsis” word too.

Ellipsis:
“The omission of a word or phrase necessary for a complete syntactical construction but not necessary for understanding.”

But in this case what’s missing or not missing certainly is necessary for understanding. Is the americanism “latino” taken from the complete spanish word “latino” or an ellipsis of the spanish word “latinoamericano”? In order to follow strict the english dictionary, we’ll asume the word is an ellipsis and it derives from “latinoamericano”.

While we’re defining things let’s define the word “America” but this time without the use of the dictionaries.

The sole definition of the word “America” presents its own problems, but we’ll get around it too.

In The United States of America’s culture there is a North American continent and a separate South American continent. The thing is no one in The United States of America seems to know where one ends and the other one begings or what country belongs where. This is obviously a misconception since there is only one continent, one America. The next thing we need to understand is that there is a country in the new continent (America) called by the same name as the continent itself. This shouldn’t be so hard to understand since there is a city called Washington and a State called by the same name and no one seems to get them mixed up. The country we’re talking about is The United States of America. So America is the name of this country, same as Mexico, Colombia or Venezuela; although the complete names of these countries are: United States of America, United States of Mexico, Republic of Colombia and Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. As you can see, the first part of the complete country name gives us an idea of the type of country it is wether a federation or a republic.

Getting back to the term “latinoamericano” or latin american then we can safely say it refers to: “Belonging or relative to a country or region in the new world (American continent) where a latin-derived language is spoken”.

Right off the bat we can exclude from being “latinos” all people from the country of Spain like Penelope Cruz, Javier Bardem, Charo and Antonio Banderas they certainly are not “belonging to or related to a country nor region in the new world”, quite the contrary they come from the “old world”.

By now you must be thinking “problem solved”. Right?... Well, no sireebob, this homerun is not just out of the field but out of the park. This thing is pretty complicated that’s why I’m writing this paper and why you’re reading it. We now need to define “country or region in the new world where a latin-derived language is spoken”.

What are the latin-derived languages?
Let’s talk about official languages, or languages recognized by law (generally a constitution) as the official language of a country or region. Why do we keep talking about regions? Why not just say countries? The reason is pretty simple: What do we do with Puerto Rico then? Puerto Rico is not a country, it is a state or region and that’s not the only case in the new world. So we keep the regions thing in. And why official languages? Because there are literally dozens of latin-derived languages, so let’s stick to the official ones only mainly because an official language has certain characteristics over just a simple language like a structured grammar, recognized literature, schools of learning at all academic levels, and other things that make it a “live tongue”.

The official languajes derived from latin are:
1. Spanish
2. Portuguese
3. Italian
4. French
5. Rumanian (Yes, that’s right. Count Dracula spoke a latin-derived language).

So now what we need to do is identify all the countries or regions in the new world that speak one of these lenguages.

Of the five official languages mentioned before, only 3 are spoken in the new world (ordered by population):
• Spanish
• Portuguese
• French

I guess we need to list all the countries in the new world according to which of these three languages they speak. In other words, we need to know what countries and regions comprise “Latin America”.

American countries that speak spanish:
Argentina
Bolivia
Brasil
Chile
Colombia
Costa Rica
Cuba
Ecuador
El Salvador
Guatemala
Honduras
Mexico
Nicaragua
Panamá
Paraguay
Perú
República Dominicana
Uruguay
Venezuela

American regions that speak spanish:
Puerto Rico

American countries that speak portuguese:
Brazil

Note: there are no American regions that speak portuguese.

American countries that speak french:
Haiti
Canada (Official language)

American regions that speak french:
Montserrat
Guadeloupe
Martinique
French Guiana (a full fledged state of the French Republic)

This my friends is Latin America. So let´s see if this is what you want. Let’s run a few examples:

These are Latin Americans or “Latinos”:

Jennifer Lopez: Actress, singer born in New York of Puerto Rican descent. English is spoken at home.
Marc Anthony: Actor Singer born in New York of Puerto Rican descent, english is spoken at home.

Salma Hayek: Actress born in México of mixed mexican-arab descent, spanish is spoken at home.

Shakira: Singer born in Colombia of mixed colombian-arab descent, spanish is spoken at home.

Celine Dion: Singer born in Montreal, Canada, french is spoken at home.

Sergio Mendes: Singer, composer born in Brazil, portuguese is spoken at home.

William Shatner: Actor, starship captain born in Montreal, Canada; english is spoken at home, but learned french in the streets as a kid. Both parents spoke french.

Mario Van Peebles: Actor born in Mexico city, of american father and german mother. English is spoken at home.

Woa, hold your horses partner. You mean to tell me Celine Dion is “latino”? Yes, she most certainly is; she fits all descriptions perfectly. She was born in a city where a latin-derived language is spoken, she spoke french at home (mother tongue), she is today well known for producing her art in french (she sings in french) and travels regularly and makes presentations in french in countries of “la francophonie” (French speaking countries). Can’t get any more “latino” than this. Shakira fits this same description perfectly in spanish.

Ok, let’s say I buy the Celin Dion “latino” thing, but Captain William Tiberious Kirk himself (William Shatner) a latino? No way!!! You’re right, he’s not latino. But if we were to strike him out because english is his mother tongue eventhough he was born in a french-speaking city and learned french in the streets as a kid, then we would have to stike out Jennifer Lopez too because she was born in an english speaking city and english is her mother tongue. Agree? If we go by the book then William Shatner would be a much closer match for a latino than Jennifer Lopez. The thing is that when you think latino you think of Jennifer Lopez. Right? Right, Jennifer Lopez is latina, no doubt about that. But why Jennifer is and Shatner isn’t? The race thing again? Not in the least bit. Being latino has nothing to do with race. The latinos have arians, arabs (Shakira and Salma Hayek), africans, asians; all races present in the world today.

Here’s the answer you’ve been expecting: being “latino” is a cultural thing, that simple. If a person has ties to a latin american country or region and “keeps its culture” then that person is a “latino”.

Let’s run a few examples again through this latest definition and see if we can come up with who’s latino and who’s not.

Mario Van Peebles: Definately not a latino. He may have been born in mexico, speak spanish (I don´t know if he does), but even if he did, he didn´t learn it in Mexico, with the mexican pronunciation and using the very distinct mexican spanish. He doesn´t consider the taco and enchiladas as a “home” dish but as a foreign culture dish.

William Shatner: Definately not a latino, even though he does speak french, was born in a french city, both parents spoke french. Not a latino. This example is very important because he could have been a latino had he chosen to be so and adapt the french option, but he didn´t; he chose to remain an english speaking person with an english-canadian culture. He remained on the “other side”.

Shakira: I hear her once say that she doesn´t like to be introduced as a “colombian”, she would like to be introduced as “colombianísima” (Most colombian). That says it all, definately a “latino”. The way she speaks spanish is not only colombian but barranquillero (from the city of Barranquilla where she was born).

Jennifer Lopez: Yes, she probably had family gathers were some spanish was spoken, she probably ate puerto rican dishes at home. Yes, latino but not the extent you would imagine. Her spanish is not so good, not fluent but definately puerto rican.

Salma Hayek: Please, the woman used to be a mexican soap opera star, you can’t get any more “latino” than that.

Celine Dion: Textbook definition of “latino”, no way around it. Latino to the core.

Lastly in the definition of latino, we need to further explain one more thing. Not because you were born in a Latin American country or region, speak the language fluently and have been raised there does it make you a “latino” there are several millions citizens in Latin America than can’t be considered “latinos”. We’re talking about the indigenous tribes. They are not latinos culturally and just about every single country in Latin America has them. In some countries their language is even an offical language like in Bolivia, Peru, Paraguay and others. The case of Paraguay is so particular because the indigenous language there (called Guaraní) is not only spoken by the indians but by a large part of the non indigenous population as well.

Allright, you convinced me, Celine Dion is latino then, but if we’re going to call Celine Dion a latino, this is not the term I was looking for. I want a term I could use to describe people like Jennifer Lopez, all cubans in Miami, people in the south west, and I want to throw Antonio Banderas in there too, but not Celine Dion because she’s not... well you know what I mean.. Let’s take a look into the term “hispanic” then to see if it is what you want.

HISPANIC
Hispania was the name the fenicians gave the iberian peninsula. The romans used that same name to call its province located in the iberian peninsula where todays Spain and Portugal are located. The romans divided this iberian province of Hispania into three provinces later on and called them:
• Hispania Ulterior Baetica
• Hispania Citerior Tarraconenses
• Hispania Ulterior Lusitania.

The first two later bacame Spain and the later one Portugal. The word for Spain in spanish “España” comes from this fenician word of Hispania. So here we run into our first wall, we have here a country that took the name of the whole region for itself: Spain, and then we get Portugal that keeps part of its old name to identify itself: Lusitania (Remember the name of the first ship to help rescue the Titanic’s few survivors?). So people of portuguese ascent we call them “lusitans” and of spanish ascent we call them “hispanics”.

Gee, that was easy. Not so fast! Remember the dictionary said: “Of or relating to a Spanish-speaking people or culture” then we need to identify which countries or regions today have “Spanish-speaking people or culture”. Get your scissors ready, we’ll use the list of countries shown before.

Spanish speaking countries or regions:
Andorra
Argentina
Bolivia
Brasil
Chile
Colombia
Costa Rica
Cuba
Ecuador
El Salvador
Guatemala
Honduras
Mexico
Nicaragua
Panamá
Paraguay
Perú
República Dominicana
Spain
Uruguay
Venezuela
Puerto Rico

Yes, that’s what I wanted, a term I could use for peoples from those countries!

Hold on, we need to add one more country:

The Philipines.

That is absolutely right. The Philipines is a spanish speaking country. The very first university created in Asia was a spanish speaking university in The Philipines. The very first constitution of The Philipines and its National Anthem are in spanish (altough people mostly use the english version). All presidents of The Philipines speak fluent spanish. Moreover The Philipnes is a full fledged member of the Real Academy of the Spanish Language, a place strictly reserved for spanish speaking countries. The Philipines has an extense literary work in spanish. Isabel Preysler, Julio Iglesia’s ex wife and mother of Enrique Iglesias is a spanish philipino.

Let’s see who gets to qualify as “hispanic” then, let’s use some people from the old list and add a few more:

These people are hispanics:

Jennifer Lopez, New Yorker of Puerto Rican ancestry
Marc Anthony, New Yorker of Puerto Rican ancestry
Salma Hayek, mexican
Shakira, colombianísima.
Antonio Banderas, spaniard
Penélope Cruz, spaniard
Isabel Preysler, philipino

These people are not hispanic:

Celine Dion
William Shatner
Sergio Mendes, brazilian and thus a “lusitan”, not hispanic.
Mario Van Peebles

Since the word used by the government is “hispanic” then you would have to include philipinos as well under this term. The government could have used the term “hipanic americans” as opposed to “latin americans”.

Conclusion:
Spanish is an inclusive language, english is an exclusive language. In spanish when a term is used, the spirit of the word will always intend to include and unify whereas english terms will always imply the opposite: exclude and divide. In spanish everytime one latinamerican country refers to another in newspapers for example, it always refers to the other country as “sister country or sister republic” specially if they have commun borders. Colombians always refer to Venezuela as “la hermana República de Venezuela” (the sister Republic of Venezuela). While in America they always refer to Mexico as a “south american country” so to put it as far away as posible from their own and so people will get the right idea that there’s nothing in common with Mexico. Even Hillary Clinton the secretary of state of The United States of America referred to Honduras the other day as a “country in another hemisphere”. The terms you are looking for are to “exclude people” to define a group as not your own. I lived in America in the 70’s, then they refered to a group of people as “blacks”. In the previous decades they called them “colored”, before that they were “negroes”, today they call them “afro-americans” and I will give this term another ten years before it is changed again. The strange thing is the people of this group get irritated if you were to call them by one of the terms used in previous decades. Another thing is the one eighth law I came to know while living in the south east. This law says that if you are at least one eighth afro-american, you would then be considered an “afro-american” no matter what your skin color is or how you look, but if an afro american were to be one eighth white, then that person would be up the creek and still be black.

I've heard many times the term "melting pot" used to describe society in the United States, in my opinion it is just a pot but not melting. I leave out the melting portion because "to melt" would imply a fusion of some kind, and integration, giving some and taking some to make it your own. Tacos for example have been a part of the american diet for decades, but it is still considered a "mexican" food, but a hotdog or a hamburger? There. we go! That's a real american dish. Or is it? Of course it is!!! An american dish of german origin but the taco is mexican. The other day in American Idol, I saw a very talented family perform "La Bamba" to what David Hasseloff said: "Well, real good performance but a mexican song..." La Bamba has roots on a mexican song but La Bamba is an american song, composed and sung by an american, made popular in America, member of the american Hall of Rock and Roll (not the mexican, mind you). I guess in the case of La Bamba and tacos, they applied to them the one eighth law. If one eighth of the song is mexican, then no matter the rest seven eighths that are american, the song is mexican. But Abba's Dancing Queen, american 100% Right? I wonder what the Hoff would have said if this family would have performed Dancing Queen instead of La Bamba.

In closing: Why look for terms to segregate? Why not look for terms to integrate?

Marcos Sánchez Urquiola
July, 2.009

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