What’s The Difference Between Hispanic and Latino?
It’s likely that you’ve heard the term Hispanic as well as Latino. You may have even seen Latinx before, too. Do you know what these classifications mean?
Hispanic and Latino are often used interchangeably but the fact is, they mean two different things. Understanding the proper words for your Hispanic and Latino brothers and sisters can not only show that you care but it can also help to not offend anyone.
To learn the difference between Hispanic and Latino, the similarities, and what these terms mean, continue reading on below!
What is the Difference Between Hispanic and Latino?
In the United States, both Hispanic and Latino are considered racial categories as they are often used to describe a race. However, they more describe an ethnicity rather than just a race. In fact, both Hispanic and Latino people are made up of several different groups of races. To understand the main difference between Hispanic and Latino, we must first know their definitions.
Hispanic refers to people who speak Spanish as well as people who come from or are descendants of Spanish-speaking populations. As you can see, this definition is based on language which is an element of culture. Ethnicity groups people together based on common cultures. This is why describing Hispanic as ethnicity is a better categorization. However, many different ethnicities are involved in Spanish-speaking populations such as those from Puerto Rico, Mexico, and Spain.
While Hispanic refers to the language spoken, Latino refers to geography or the specific place someone is from. The definition of Latino is a person who is from or a descendent of someone from Latin America. The Latin American Network Information Center (LANIC) states that this includes countries in South America, Central America, North America, and the Caribbean. There are many different races included within the scope of Latin America which is why the term Latino is better used to describe ethnicity rather than race.
With this information in mind, it’s easy to identify how these terms are different but also overlap. For example, a person from Haiti can be considered Latino but they are not Hispanic as Haitians speak Creole. On the contrary, a person from Mexico can be both Hispanic and Latino.
Latino vs Latina vs Latinx
If you’ve seen Latinx lately and have been confused, don’t worry. This is actually a new trend that has been met with some backlash. Essentially, the Spanish language uses gendered terms. So, a group of men would be Latino and a group of women would be Latina. If it is a mixed group, the word defaults to Latino.
Since people felt this wasn’t inclusive to non-binary people, Latinx was created to encompass everyone. However, Spanish-speaking people have argued that ‘e’ is already used in Spanish to define gender-neutral. Therefore, the proper term should be Latine. Political science student Gilbert Guerra spoke to Latina and predicted, “that we will soon have ‘Latino’ for males, ‘Latina’ for females, ‘Latinx’ for nonbinary people, and ‘Latine’ as the gender-inclusive umbrella term.”
