White Hispanic and Latino Americans
In the United States, a White Hispanic is an individual who self-identifies as white and of Hispanic descent and/or speaks the Spanish language natively. White Latino Americans are a broader category, including people of Brazillian descent, who predominantly speak Portuguese, in addition to Spanish-speaking populations.
Based on the definitions created by the Office of Management and Budget and the U.S. Census Bureau, the concepts of race and ethnicity are mutually independent. For the Census Bureau, ethnicity distinguishes between those who report ancestral origins in Spain or Latin America, and those who do not. "Mexican" was officially added as a racial category on the United States Census beginning in 1930 in connection with the growing Mexican population, but was removed in the following decades due to much of the Mexican population being repatriated back to Mexico, in addition to political pressure. Prior to this, Latinos in the United States were often classified as "Mulattoes", "Indians" or, "Other" if they were not purely of European ancestry. Classification was up to each census official's discretion before the establishment of a centralized Census Bureau in 1902. A designation for Hispanic and Latino citizens returned in 1970, again coinciding with an increase of immigration from Latin America. As had been the case historically, classification of Latinos presented difficulties in the United States, for the country did not have large mixed-race domestic populations. "Hispanic/Latino" will remain as an ethnicity, Many employers had already given "Hispanic or Latino" the same demographic weight as a racial group for some time. The U.S. Census Bureau asks each resident to report the "race or races with which they most closely identify."
White Americans are therefore referenced as white Hispanics and non-Hispanic whites, the former consisting of white Americans who report Hispanophone identity, and the latter consisting of white Americans who do not report Hispanophone ancestry.
As of 2010, 50.5 million or 16.3% of Americans identified as Hispanic or Latino. Of those, 26.7 million, or 53%, also self-identified as white.
History
A small minority of White Hispanics in the United States of America today is descended from original Spanish colonists who settled the so-called "internal provinces" and Louisiana of New Spain. As the United States expanded westward, it annexed lands with a long-established population of Spanish-speaking settlers, who were overwhelmingly or exclusively of white Spanish ancestry. This group became known as Hispanos. Prior to incorporation into the United States of America, Hispanos had enjoyed a privileged status in the society of New Spain and later in post-colonial Mexico.Racial identity
Concepts of multiracial identity have existed in Latin America since the colonial era, originating in a Spanish caste system that apportioned different rights to people based on their degree of European, African, and Indigenous American ancestry. During the 20th century, the concept of mestizaje, or 'blending', was adopted as a national identity by a number of Latin American countries in order to reduce racial conflict.A 2014 Pew Research Center survey found that one-third of U.S. Hispanics identify as "mestizo", "mulatto", or another multiracial identity. Such identities often conflict with standard racial classifications in the U.S.: among Hispanic American adults surveyed by Pew Research who identified as multiracial, about 40% reported their race as "white" on standard race question as used on the U.S. Census; 13% reported belonging to more than one race or "mixed race"; while about 20% chose "Hispanic" as their race.
Demographics
In the 2010 United States Census, 50.5 million Americans listed themselves as ethnically Hispanic or Latino. Of those, 53.0% self-identified as racially white. The remaining respondents listed their races as: some other race 36.7%, two or more races 6.0%, Black or African American 2.5%, American Indian and Alaska Native 1.4%, Asian 0.4%, and Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander 0.1%.The respondents in the "some other race" category are reclassified as white by the Census Bureau in its official estimates of race. This means that more than 90% of all Hispanic or Latino Americans are counted as "white" in some statistics of the US government.
Hispanics and Latinos who are native-born and those who are immigrant identify as White in nearly identical percentages: 53.9 and 53.7, respectively, per figures from 2007. The overall Hispanic or Latino ratio was 53.8%.
In 2017, the Pew Research Center reported that high intermarriage rates and declining Latin American immigration has led to 11% of U.S. adults with Hispanic ancestry to no longer identify as Hispanic. First generation immigrants from Spain and Latin America identify as Hispanic at very high rates which reduces in each succeeding generation, second generation, third generation, and fourth generation.
White Hispanics are widespread, with Florida and Texas being 2 states with some of the highest percentages of Hispanics self identifying as white.
Population by national origin
Some Hispanic or Latino American groups that have white majorities or pluralities originate in countries that do not. For example, Mexico's white population is 9% to 17% only, while Mexico is majoritarily mestizo, meaning that they have mixed European and Native American descent at an extent while 52.8% of Mexican Americans are White, or identify themselves as white in the Census. However, genetic studies performed in the general Mexican American and Mexican populations have shown that Mexicans residing in Mexico consistently have a higher European admixture in average than Mexican-Americans. The discrepancy between the percentage of white Mexicans reported in United States and white Mexicans from Mexico can be explained if the differences in racial perceptions that exist in both countries are considered: The concept of race in Mexico is subtle not only including physical clues such as skin color but also cultural dispositions, morality, economic, and intellectual status. It is not static or well defined but rather is defined and redefined by situation. This makes racial distinctions different than those in other countries such as the United States.Other important differences lay in the criteria and formats used for the censuses in each country: In Mexico, the only ethnic census including categories other than Amerindian performed by the government offered the following options in the questionnaire:
- Full European heritage
- Mixed indigenous and European heritage
- Full indigenous
- Foreigners without racial distinction
- Other race
Representation in the media
In popular use, Hispanic and Latino are often mistakenly given racial values, usually non-white and mixed race, such as half-caste or mulatto, in spite of the racial diversity of Hispanic and Latino Americans. Hispanics commonly draw ancestry from European, Native American, and or African populations in different proportions; some Hispanics are largely of European ancestry, and some are predominantly of Native Central or South American Indian origin, or African origins, but a large number of Hispanics are descended from an admixture of two, three or more origins. Paradoxically, it is common for them to be stereotyped as being exclusively non-white due merely to their Spanish-speaking country of origin, regardless of whether their ancestry is European or not. Judith Ortiz Cofer noted that appellation varies according to geographical location, observing that in Puerto Rico she was considered white, but in the United States she was considered a "brown person."On the other hand, since the early days of the movie industry in the United States of America, when White Hispanic actors are given roles, they are frequently cast in non-Hispanic white roles. Hispanic and Latino Americans began to appear in the American movie industry in the 1910s, and the leading players among them "were generally light skinned and Caucasian".
Myrtle Gonzalez was one such American actress in the silent film era; she starred in at least 78 motion pictures from 1913 to 1917. Anita Page was an American actress of Spanish descent who reached stardom in 1928, during the last years of the silent film. Page was referred to as "a blond, blue-eyed Latin" and "the girl with the most beautiful face in Hollywood". Hilary Swank an American actress and film producer recipient of numerous awards, including two Academy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards. Her maternal grandmother, Frances Martha Clough, was born in El Centro, California, and was of Mexican descent.
Telenovelas have been criticized for not fully reflecting the racial diversity of Hispanic and Latino Americans, and for underrepresenting non-white Hispanic, Latino Americans, and non-white Latin Americans. For example, in the 2005 U.S. Hispanic telenovela Olvidarte Jamas, white, blond, and blue-eyed Venezuelan American actress Sonya Smith portrayed Luisa Dominguez who is a poor mestiza woman; the actress had to wear a black wig to hide her obvious Caucasian appearance. Sonya Smith, however, was the first Hispanic actor to portray a Hispanic without stereotypical perception in a Hollywood film Hunted by Night, an English-language movie with an all-Hispanic cast.