Talk:Latino

I wrote this article and posted an older version to Citizendium.org. 07:31, 21 September 2008 (EDT)

I made the map larger and dropped the image of a coach in Spain. The article is only about latinos in the US.RJJensen 21:31, 21 September 2008 (EDT)

please stop messing with the article. The opening sentence is full of little errors and the picture is all wrong and should be erased. I clarified the definition to make it clear this "Latino" is an English language word and in English it refers to Hispanics living in the U.S. RJJensen 21:42, 21 September 2008 (EDT)

A good source will be needed to change the meaning of that word. By the way. I think this is not an article to be readed only in the US. --User:Joaquín Martínez, talk 22:02, 21 September 2008 (EDT)

I provided a very good source: Gutiérrez, ed. The Columbia History of Latinos in the U.S." (2005) pp 1-2 those pages are online at Amazon.com. How is "Latino" actually used in Spain these days? RJJensen 22:11, 21 September 2008 (EDT)

here is the complete entry from the Oxford English Dictionary on "Latino":

A Latin-American inhabitant of the United States. Also attrib. or as adj. 1946 G. PEYTON San Antonio xxi. 232 The first program on the University's list is an exchange of students with Latin America. That in itself would be a fresh intellectual experience for Texas, where Latinos are usually looked on as sinister specimens of an inferior race. 1966 MRS L. B. JOHNSON White House Diary 2 Apr. (1970) 377 Six young girls, all Latinos, had encased themselves in cardboard boxes. 1972 Listener 9 Mar. 310/1 America..is meant to be a great melting-pot... Its racial componentsBlacks, Latinos, Chinese, Japanese, [etc.]. 1973 Black Panther 17 Mar. 5/3 A program was drawn up..by an..action group composed of Blacks, Latinos, and Whites. 1974 Ibid. 19 Jan. 5/1 Mr. Rhodes' home was broken into..by a man who appeared to be of Latino origin. RJJensen 22:14, 21 September 2008 (EDT)

from a British dictionary: "noun [C] plural Latinos MAINLY US; someone who lives in the US and who comes from or whose family comes from Latin America." from Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary. Here's a very good usage note from American Heritage Dictionary:see dictionary

Though often used interchangeably in American English, Hispanic and Latino are not identical terms, and in certain contexts the choice between them can be significant. Hispanic, from the Latin word for “Spain,” has the broader reference, potentially encompassing all Spanish-speaking peoples in both hemispheres and emphasizing the common denominator of language among communities that sometimes have little else in common. Latino—which in Spanish means "Latin" but which as an English word is probably a shortening of the Spanish word latinoamericano—refers more exclusively to persons or communities of Latin American origin. Of the two, only Hispanic can be used in referring to Spain and its history and culture; a native of Spain residing in the United States is a Hispanic, not a Latino, and one cannot substitute Latino in the phrase the Hispanic influence on native Mexican cultures without garbling the meaning. In practice, however, this distinction is of little significance when referring to residents of the United States, most of whom are of Latin American origin and can theoretically be called by either word. •A more important distinction concerns the sociopolitical rift that has opened between Latino and Hispanic in American usage. For a certain segment of the Spanish-speaking population, Latino is a term of ethnic pride and Hispanic a label that borders on the offensive. According to this view, Hispanic lacks the authenticity and cultural resonance of Latino, with its Spanish sound and its ability to show the feminine form Latina when used of women. Furthermore, Hispanic—the term used by the U.S. Census Bureau and other government agencies—is said to bear the stamp of an Anglo establishment far removed from the concerns of the Spanish-speaking community. While these views are strongly held by some, they are by no means universal, and the division in usage seems as related to geography as it is to politics, with Latino widely preferred in California and Hispanic the more usual term in Florida and Texas. Even in these regions, however, usage is often mixed, and it is not uncommon to find both terms used by the same writer or speaker. See Usage Note at Chicano.