Question

1) What are the origins of Hispanic identity as an official minority designation in The United States of America ? How Hispanic community been been measured censuses ( 1970, 1980 , 1990 and 2000?

2) What are the differences in self-Identification between foreig born Hispanics/ Latinos and their U.S descendents?

3) What are the challenges that the hispanics/Latino category faces in becoming a pan- ethnic identity changed in the second and third generation of Hispanics?

Answer 1

Origins of Hispanic identify as an official minority in US:

The word ' Hispanic ' refers of or relating to spain. In a historical way , the term is pertaining to the Iberian peninsula, its people, its culture, its language. Hispanic America is the region comprising the countries in the Americas inhaboted by Spanish - speaking people.

Latin American or Spanish origin inhabitants in the United States were collectively known as Hispanic or Latino interchangeably. Beginning of the Current decade, United States Census Beureau differentiated the terms specifically as Hispanic are " native speakers of Spanish Spanish speaking ancestry" and Latino is " any one of Latin American origin or ancestry".

History of Origin of the terms and Census:

The term Hispanic used first time by Government of America was on 1970s. There was an Ad Hoc committee to define the minorities especially people groups from Central and South America. Census on 1970 didn't add any term like Hispanic to denote the people of Hispanic or Latino origin. Instead collectively added a question on people group , asking them whether they belong to Mexico, Central America or they are Rican , Cuban or Spanish or from any other South American country. But the term 'Hispanic' started to use by medias, business market, federal employment , academia etc. The Committee also preferred a common term for these subgroups.  

The federal government added the term ' Hispanic ' in 1980 Census and the condition was same in 1990 Census also. . But the people from Western portions are preferred the term ' Latino' and this term also got popularity. In 1997 Federal Government also adopted the term. As a result of this Census on 2000 used the term Latino also in the records.

2. Difference in Self identication between Foreign borne Hispanics or Latino and their descendants :

Foriegn borne Hispanics / latino had the stronger feelings as they are Hispanic/latno and they self identified themselves as Hispanic / Latinos. They were proud for that identification. But their Descendants started to show gradual reduction in the interest for self identification as Hispano/ latino. Majority of the third generation are self identifying as ' they are not Hispanics/ Latinos, but they have a Hispanic/Latino ancestry.  It might be due to increased rate of intermarriages and the influence of other culture. Statistical reports show that in a 2015 survey , out of 42 million Hispanic / Latino people, 37 million self identified as they are Hispanic/ Latino but remaining 5 million people didn't agree that they are Hispanic/ Latino but agreed that they had the ancestry of Hispanic or Latino origin.

Each year the new generation of Hispanic/ latinos are getting drifted away from their self identication as Hispanic/ Latinos.

3. Challenges:

* Identity decline across generations

Hispanic/ Latinos are facing a major problem that many young generation is declining their identity as Hispanic/ Latinos. They are claiming that they are non Hispanic , but they agree for their ancestry as same as Hispanic/ Latino.

* Intermarriages between different races

Children from intermarriages doesn't have a proper sense of racial identity. So they may not be interested in identifying as Hispanic/ Latinos.

* Confusions in determining the differentiation between different ethnic groups among Latino/ Hispanics.