• sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    3 days ago

    It gets massively more complicated the more granular you get.

    There are hundreds, if not thousands of distinct people groups in Latin and South America.

    Many of them can directly tie their lineage back to the Maya, Aztecs, etc, and those societies themselves were amalgamations of many different people groups.

    There are a ridiculous number of variations of Spanish that have different vocabulary, pronounciations rules, as a result of merging with local languages in different ways.

    I would imagine the same is the case with Brazil and Portuguese. I don’t know any Portuguese, but I do know that I’ve heard Brazillians say they often have trouble understanding Portugal-Portuguese and visa versa… and Brazil is fucking huge.


    … ‘Hispanic’ is roughly the American equivalent of ‘European’.

    Oh, he’s European, he’s from Europe.

    Oh, he’s Hispanic, he’s from south of the US.

    Are proper Spaniards, people actually from Spain … Hispanic?

    Uh well… according the the US government, basically, maybe. Are they brown? If yes, Hispanic.

    That is pretty much how it works.

    https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/09/12/who-is-hispanic/

    As with most race-based terms… it doesn’t actually make barely any sense.

    • Fushuan [he/him]@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      2 days ago

      Are proper Spaniards, people actually from Spain … Hispanic?

      None that I know would consider that that term describes them, neither do I. And I’m from Spain, so I know quite a bit of Spaniards.

      The word hispanic is used in “hispanohablante”, which is a word to describe countries or communities that speak Spanish outside of Spain, naturally.

      However, when talking about “hispanohablante” (spanish speaking) communities in Europe for example, the term doesn’t distinguish between South Americans or Spaniards, so idk. It’s just weird to think of us as Spanish speaking people, we are in Spain, of course we speak Spanish. Duh.

      Uh well… according the the US government, basically, maybe. Are they brown? If yes, Hispanic.

      In defense of those southern Spaniards, the US govt. can eat my white dick.

      • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        2 days ago

        That’s honestly good to know that you as a Spanaird (and your fellows) don’t identify as Hispanic.

        Because I have had to work with data sets, in the US, with ‘race’ data, that has to be in compliance with US govt standards, and… yeah ‘Hispanic’ just doesn’t make any sense, even when you go into the ‘logic’ of it.

        In defense of those southern Spaniards, the US govt. can eat my white dick.

        Oh I fully agree.

        I’ve got a bit of Italian heritage, and… oh dear lord, you’ll get a similar kind of nonsense happening with southern Italians / Sicillians… Italians in general weren’t even considered ‘white’ untill… the 70s?

        • Trainguyrom@reddthat.com
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          2 days ago

          Italians in general weren’t even considered ‘white’ untill… the 70s?

          Why does this just make me think of those tweets from when Luigi was arrested

          we’re finally on the verge of learning once and for all if Italians are White

          And once he received terrorism charges

          The final answer on “what are Italians” is apparently “middle eastern”

        • Fushuan [he/him]@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          2 days ago

          In fact, the “white” race makes no fucking sense. The term is caucasian, and it includes people from all around Europe, the middle east and north Africa.

          The “race” questionnaire has Egypt as “white”, so following that logic anyone from Morocco or anywhere in Spain would also be “white”. Just based on the questionnaire.

          Dunno, weird. I still don’t understand why anything besides country of origin needs to be registered, though.

    • Hasherm0n@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      I’ve met people from South America (Brazil specifically) that take great offense at being referred to as Hispanic and insist that they are in fact Latino.

      This was also a long time ago

        • Fushuan [he/him]@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          2 days ago

          Latino means from Latin America, meaning “the part of the Americas where people talk languages derived from Latin”. Brazilian is derived from Portuguese, which in turn comes from Latin, so yeah the term tracks.

          Hispanic is derived from the Spanish term “Hispano hablante” (spanish speaking), so it only describes Spanish speaking countries.

          Regardless, some people might take offence with the Hispanic term due to its derogatory use in the US and that’s why they prefer the “Latino” term. I’m not gonna challenge their preference, it’s better to use what each prefers.

          Hope this helps.