Reply to Why is the term Hispanic used as an ethnic category instead of Mestizo?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The discussion on the Entertainment board regarding whether Giselle Bundchen is Hispanic got me thinking, why is the term Hispanic used instead of Mestizo?  The category of Hispanic is so broad that it is practically meaningless.  Technically a person of any race who hails from a Spanish/Portuguese speaking country of Central/South America is Hispanic.  But in reality, I think most people tend to think of Hispanic as a brown person from one of these countries. and not all Hispanics are brown.  The brown ones are a mix of American Indian and European ancestry.  They are Mestizo. These are the people who others can identify as being Hispanic and are more likely to experience racism.  When people speak of Hispanic as a racial category they are generally referring to those who have the American Indian ancestry, not someone from Mexico who has practically 100% Spanish ancestry.  It just seems that the official definition of Hispanic does not match the reality of what people actually consider Hispanic.  What people consider to be Hispanic is actually Mestizo, so why don't we start using that term instead?[/quote]

[b]OP, good question, but your answers make no sense.

The main point to keep in mind is that being Hispanic/ Latino is an ethnicity -- your culture, your values, your historic references, your social links, your language and music and food.

It has nothing to do with race.[/b]

And, yes, this is difficult for race-obsessed Anglos to understand, but it's pretty much the norm not only in Latin America but in many other regions.

Perhaps many in our country could learn a thing or two from them.[/quote]

I get this.  But most whites don't consider indigenous looking Hispanics to be White and I doubt that they consider themselves white either.  And most people don't feel comfortable referring to someone like Giselle as Hispanic because she's white.  So why isn't the term Mestizo used more often sense it seems to be a more accurate descriptor?[/quote]

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