![]() Apparently, hundreds of thousands of confused people living in the South or central regions of the U.S. to self-identify as either "Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Central or South American, Other Spanish" or "No, none of these." This, however, led to a bizarre and unexpected underrepresentation of white Americans who misunderstood the classifications. It wasn't until 1970 that the agency began asking Latinos living in the U.S. The Pew Research Center reports that in the 1930s Latinos living in the U.S., regardless of their place of birth or family origin, were all noted as "Mexican" by door-to-door U.S. Census and its attempts to identify and quantify different groups of people. Mora, who wrote about the adoption of the term Hispanic in Making Hispanics: How Activists, Bureaucrats, and Media Created a New American, found that use of the umbrella categorization is inextricably linked to the U.S. Similarly, Mexico celebrates on the 16th, Chile on the 18th and Belize on the 21st.īut even before Johnson landed on the term Hispanic, there was a lot of debate within government entities on how to refer to Latinos in the United States, Cristina Mora, a sociologist at the University of California, Berkeley, tells NPR. 15 start date because it coincides with national independence day of Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Costa Rica. It wasn't until 1988 that President Ronald Reagan extended the week to a full 31 days - through Oct. ![]() Hispanic Heritage Month initially began as a weeklong celebration in 1968 under President Lyndon Johnson who, at the time said, "The people of Hispanic descent are the heirs of missionaries, captains, soldiers, and farmers who were motivated by a young spirit of adventure, and a desire to settle freely in a free land." ![]() How Latinos/Latinas/Latinx people became Hispanic Or, in full transparency, it could have something to do with the fact that as of 2020 only 6% of the NPR's newsroom and on-air journalists identify as Hispanic or Latino.īut it's not too late to pose the following thorny questions: What's the harm in lumping together roughly 62 million people with complex identities under a single umbrella? Is a blanket pan-ethnic term necessary to unite and reflect a shared culture that is still largely (infuriatingly) excluded from mainstream popular culture? Or the more basic question: ¿Por que Hispanic? ![]() ![]() Perhaps that has something to do with the rapid pace of the news recently regarding the end of a 20-year-long war in Afghanistan, another terrifying spike in the COVID-19 pandemic or this week's recall election in California. To be honest, NPR began to participate in the national event that is called Hispanic Heritage Month with no discussion about existing tensions within Latino communities regarding the use of the word Hispanic, its origins and whether it may be time to swap out the catchall label for something different. Not even a compromise or a combination of the three: Hispanic/Latino/Latinx Heritage Month. As the nation begins its annual celebration of Latino history, culture and other achievements, it's not too late to ask why we lump together roughly 62 million people with complex identities under a single umbrella.Īs the headline unambiguously states, here at NPR we've kicked off Hispanic Heritage Month. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |