Hispanic

For other uses, see Hispanic (disambiguation).

Hispanic (Spanish: Hispano; Portuguese: Hispânico; Latin Hispānus, adjective from Hispānia, the Roman name for the Iberian Peninsula) is a term that historically denoted relation to the ancient Hispania and its peoples.

Historical Background

Prior to the marriage of Queen Isabella of Castile and King Ferdinand of Aragon in 1469 the four Christian kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula, the kingdom of Portugal, the Crown of Aragon, the Crown of Castile and the kingdom of Navarre were collectively referred to as Hispania, the Roman name for the Iberian Peninsula. This usage, in medieval times, appears to have originated in provençal and appears to be first documented at the end of the 11th century. Indeed, in the Council of Constance the four kingdoms shared one vote. Hello

Portugal adopted the word "Lusitanic" in reference to the Lusitanians, one of the first Indo-European tribes to settle in Europe from which later on derived the name of the Roman province of Lusitania, which was a part of Roman province of Hispania. The expansion of the Spanish Empire between 1492 to 1898 brought thousands of Spanish migrants to new lands they had conquered, creating a large settlement that strech all over the world and producing several multiracial populations.

During the 1970's, the United States Government defined the term "Hispanic" to identify Latin American individuals living in the U.S.

The term Hispanic

Etymology

Etymologically, the term "Hispanic" is derived from Hispania, the name given by the Romans to the Iberian Peninsula (present-day Spain, Portugal, Andorra and Gibraltar) during the period of the Roman Republic. Hispanics has traditionaly been applied to Spain, Latin America and to the countries that were part of the Spanish Empire. Some people use the term "Hispanic" in relation to Portugal and its people (including Brazil and Portuguese-speaking Brazilians, however most Portuguese and Brazilians are referred to as Luso/Lusophone.

Synonyms and antonyms

The term "Hispanic" is used synonymously along with the word "Latino" or "Latin" to identify the people living with in the Spanish Empire. The word may also refer to it's language and cultural heritage.

The term "Latin" may refer to the conception of Latin America as a region, a word that was introduced by the French people in the 1860s during their brief occupation of Mexico. The issue was closely connected to the introduction of French positivism into the region's intellectual circles. The French may have invented the word "Latin" to identify themselves and other continental European Romance speaking nations, which was aimed to exclude their English and Dutch colonial rivals in the Americas.

The confusion that arises between both terms is due to a misuse of the English meanings in the United States. The term "Latino" is a shortened version of the noun "Latinoamericano", meaning Latin American. In the Spanish language version, the word "Latín" is the name of the language used by the ancient Romans, while "Latino" is the name given to the people who spoke the language. This means that "Latino" in Spanish is not confined solely to "Hispanics" and "Latin Americans", but also included such European peoples including Italians, French, Romanians and Portuguese.

Historical usage of the term

The languages of Spain. As can be seen in the map, Spain has more languages than just the Spanish. In addition, the old Hispania also included Portugal, so historically the Portuguese can be considered as a Hispanic language, although if we consider Hispanic as a synonym of Spain, the map shows the current Spanish languages (simplified).

Spanish   Catalan, co-official   Basque, co-official   Galician, co-official

Asturian, unofficial   Aragonese, unofficial   Aranese, co-official (dialect of Occitan)

Spain's various subcultures coexist in Spain's provinces, and each one has its own traditions, and idiosyncracies. Some even have their own language, all of them along the dialectal continuum of Romance languages, with the exception of the Basque language. As it is used today, the term Hispanic, however, often refers only to cultural or ancestral background related to Castilian-speaking Spain. This resulted from the former dictator, Fransisco Franco's attempts to remove any signs of the sub-nations that today comprise Spain. The existence of multiple distinct cultures in Spain allows an analogy to be drawn to the United Kingdom. Using the term Hispanic for someone of Spanish descent would then be expected to be equivalent to using Briton to describe someone descending from some part of the United Kingdom. Cultures within the United Kingdom, such as Anglo, Scottish and Welsh, would then correspond in this analogy to cultures within Spain such as Castilian, Catalan and Basque among others. It is a subtle, yet important, distinction. In other countries, this distinction between the sub-nations that compose the country (for instance, English, Scottish, Welsh, Northern Irish, Cornish, etc.) and the supra-nation that includes them (the United Kingdom) has been clear. In Spain, however, the politically dominant territory (Castile) has often been taken to be equivalent to the supra-nation (Spain). This has the effect of subordinating the role of other cultures within Spain in constituting the national identity of Spain.

In the modern times, the Spanish and Portuguese-speaking peoples of the New World have also adopted other cultural labels to identify themselves. The most important of these labels is the term Latino, which stems from a contraction of latinoamericano (Latin American). But the term Latino already has a meaning in Spanish, which is, literally, Latin, and it is used to refer to all the Latin peoples, both from Europe and the Americas. Therefore, using Latino as a contraction of latinoamericano results in a corruption of the Spanish word of the same name. Indeed, many of the people to whom the term Latino originally applied would no longer be identified as such under its present usage.

The corruption of the terms Hispanic and Latino has been especially apparent in the United States of America. In the latter parts of the 20th century, both terms went from being used as a cultural label of various cultures to being misused as a racial label that describe mixed-race people, further confusing the meanings of the terms. The corruption of these terms has the effect of racially grouping together the white population of Spain and Portugal with the large non white Castilian speaking populations of Latin America, which is predominantly Amerindian. In additon, cultural and linguistic issues related to Spaniards and Portuguese are often confused with those of Mexicans or other Latin American people. While some are conscious of this issue, many of the people to whom the labels Latino or Hispanic are applied are not aware of it. As such, they often help perpetuate further misuse of these terms as racial labels instead of cultural ones, to the point that today the term is excluding the Hispanics to whom the labels originally applied.

The Hispanics from Hispania

Hispanus, was the Latin name given to the people of Hispania, the Hispano-Romans. The Hispano-Romans were composed of people from many different origins *tribes of Hispania. Some famous Hispanicus were Seneca the Elder, Seneca the Younger, Lucan, Martial, Prudentius, the Roman Emperor Trajan, the Roman Emperor Theodosius I, the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius and also Magnus Maximus and Maximus of Hispania. The etymology of the words, Hispanic, Spanish and Hispano-Roman, has the same Latin root name, Hispania , but the connotation of the original meaning of the root word has slightly different meanings in the multiple derived modern English words:

• Hispano-Roman - is only used to refer to the culture and people of Hispania, ancestors of the Portuguese and Spanish people. (historical meaning).
• Hispanic - is used to refer to modern Spain, and to the Castilian language, and to the Spanish speaking nations of the Americas.[2] [3]
• Spanish - is used to refer to the Castilian language, the culture and the people of Spain. (narrowing of meaning)
• Spaniard - is only used to refer to the people of Spain(narrowing of meaning).
• Hispania - - in English, as in Latin, it only refers to a province of the Roman empire, the native land of the Hispano-Romans.
• Spain - is the name of a country, in the Iberian Peninsula.

Notice that, in History, when referring to Medieval Hispania, before the XV century, Hispanica has the same meaning as the Iberian Peninsula has today, it was the Roman name of the peninsula that housed several Christian kingdoms. The peninsula then had two names: one of Latin origin, Hispania, the other of Greek origin, Iberia, both referring to the same geographic region.

Portugal and Spain share one common Peninsula, Iberian.

As said above, Spain is not a culturally homogeneous country. It is a country of contrasts and the home to a wide range of subcultures, each one of which has its own traditions, idiosyncrasy, and some of them have their own language. Historically, as mentioned above, there has been a corruptions of the meaning of the term Hispanic, that has led to great confusion and thus marginalizing the cultures that developed from the old Hispania.

The meaning of Hispanic, refers only to the people with Spanish ancestry. This excludes the Portuguese which are always referred as Luso or Lusitanic.

This section aims to clarify the lack of information existing on this subject through doing a brief review on the history of Hispania and the peoples that inhabit Spain today.

History of Hispania

Early history

Main article: Prehistoric Iberia

The earliest record of hominids living in Europe has been found in the cave of Atapuerca, in the Spanish province of Burgos, and it has become a key site for world palaeontology. Fossils found there are dated to roughly 1,000,000 years ago. The most conspicuous sign of prehistoric human settlements are the famous paintings in the cave of Altamira, in Cantabria, Spain, which were done ca. 15,000 BC and are regarded, along with those in Lascaux, France, as paramount instances of cave art.

Modern humans in the form of Cro-Magnons began arriving in the Iberian Peninsula from north of the Pyrenees some 35,000 years ago. This genetically homogenous wave of population (characterized by the M173 mutation in the Y chromosome), developed the M343 mutation, giving rise to the R1b Haplogroup, which still dominant in modern Portuguese and Spanish populations (especially in the Basques). Meanwhile the Neanderthals became extinct; their last refuge was today's Portugal or Gibraltar around 28,000 BC. Far later, some 12,000 years ago, an interstadial deglaciation called the Allerød Oscillation occurred, weakening the rigorous conditions of the last ice age. This also ended the Upper Palaeolithic period, beginning the Mesolithic. The populations sheltered in Iberia, descendants of the Cro-Magnon, given the deglaciation, migrated and recolonized all of Western Europe, thus spreading the R1b Haplogroup populations (still dominat, in variant degrees, from Iberia to Scandinavia). Due to this fact, nowadays the genetical origins of most Europeans can be traced back to the Iberian Peninsula.

Pre-Roman times

Main articles: Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula and Prehistoric Iberia

File:ESPAÑAANTESDELAPRIMERAGUERRAPUNICAT.GIF

Pre-Roman population of the Iberian Peninsula.

The earliest urban culture documented in the Iberian Peninsula, is that of the semi-mythical southern city of Tartessos, which dates back to much before the 1,100 BC. However, the Tartessians were not the only ones: apart from them, the whole of the Iberian Peninsula was inhabited by other non-Indo-European peoples (Aquitanians and other Proto-Basques, Iberians, Turdetani, Cynetes or Conii and others), by Indo-European peoples (Proto-Celtics, Celtics and Lusitanians,and Iberians), There are some historians that try to dilute the Celtic population of Spain by refering that population as Celt-Iberians. However, today this theory is rejected by the Spanish-Celts, who proudly celebrate their Celtic heritage.

Far later, the seafaring Phoenicians, Greeks and Carthaginians began to settle along the Mediterranean coast. Around 1,100 BC, Phoenician merchants founded the trading colony of Gadir or Gades (modern day Cádiz) near Tartessos. In the 9th century BC the first Greek colonies, such as Emporion (modern Empúries, in Catalonia), were founded along the Mediterranean coast on the East of the Peninsula, leaving the southern coast to the Phoenicians. The Greeks are responsible for the name Iberia, apparently after the river Iber (Ebro in Spanish). In the 6th century BC the Carthaginians arrived in Iberia while struggling first with the Greeks and shortly after with the Romans for control of the Western Mediterranean. Their most important colony was Carthago Nova (Latin name of modern day Cartagena).

Roman Hispania

Main articles: Conquest of Hispania and Hispania

In 218 BC, the Romans disembarked in Emporion due to the break out of the Second Punic War, which confronted Rome and Carthage, and thus started the Conquest of Hispania, which would end in 17 BC. However, the Roman control of Hispania would last much longer, until the beginnings of the 5th century, when Germanic tribes from the Northern Europe began to invade the Peninsula.

Barbarian invasions and Visigothic Kingdom

Main articles: Migration period, Spain in the Middle Ages, and Visigoths

At the beginnings of the 5th century, the Visigoths, the Suevi (Quadi and Marcomanni) and the Buri, invaded the Peninsula and settled permanently. Others, like the Vandals (Silingi and Hasdingi) and Alans were also present, before moving on to North Africa. Many words of Germanic origin entered into the Latin that was spoken in Hispania by those times, and were then transmitted to the Romance Languages that originated in the Peninsula during the Dark Ages, such as the Spanish, the Portuguese or the Catalan, and many more entered through other avenues (often French) in the ensuing centuries. The Visigoths established a Christian Kingdom that existed alongside the moors.

Muslim Occupation

Main articles: Umayyad conquest of Hispania and Al-Andalus

The Umayyad occupation of parts of Hispania (711–718) commenced when an army of the Umayyad Caliphate consisting largely of Moors, occupied Visigothic Christian Hispania (Portugal and Spain) in the year 711. Under the authority of the Umayyad caliph at Damascus, and led by the Berber general Tariq ibn Ziyad, they landed at Gibraltar on April 30 and worked their way northward. Tariq's forces were joined the next year by those of his superior, the Emir Musa ibn Nusair. During the eight-year campaign, many parts of the Iberian Peninsula was brought under Moorish occupation save for areas in the northwest (Galicia and Asturias) and largely Basque regions in the Pyrenees. The occupied territory, under the name al-Andalus, became part of the expanding Umayyad empire. The occupiers subsequently moved northeast across the Pyrenees, but were defeated by the Frank Charles Martel at the Battle of Tours in 732. Moorish control of French territory ended in 975. Meanwhile, the Christian Kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula began theReconquista, or reconquest, of the Peninsula with Pelayo of Asturias' victory at the Battle of Covadonga in 722. The Reconquista itself was a war that took 800 years to conclude.

Reconquista and the New World

Main articles: Reconquista, Spanish colonization of the Americas, and Spanish Empire

The Reconquista (English: Reconquest) was the seven and a half century long war by which the Christian kingdoms of northern Hispania (modern Portugal and Spain) squeezed out, from the Iberian peninsula, the Muslim Moorishoccupation of Al-Andalus. The Umayyad occupation of parts of Hispania, which existed along side the ChristianVisigoths, occurred during the early 8th century. Almost immediately, in 718, Pelayo of Asturias, a noble Visigoth, lead the fight to push out the Moors in the Asturias and establishes the Kingdom of Asturias. In 722, King Pelayo defeated a large force sent by Emir Munuza to annihilate him at the Battle of Covadonga. He then lead an alliance of Asturian and Cantabrian mountaineers in the counter-offensive against the Muslims beginning what is know as La Reconquista.

In 1236, the last Muslim occupation, which was in Granada under Mohammed ibn Alhamar, was subjugated by the Catholic King Ferdinand III of Castile, and thus Granada became a vassal state of the Christian kingdom for the next 250 years. On January 2 1492, the last Moorish leader of the Moors, Abu 'abd Allah Muhammad XII (also known as Boabdil of Granada), was expelled from the Peninsula by Ferdinand and Isabella, the Catholic Monarchs. This resulted in a Roman Catholic Iberian Peninsula. Navarre remained separate until 1512 when the united kingdoms were ruled under one monarch. The Portuguese Reconquista had already culminated in 1249 with the subjugation of Algarve by Afonso III.It was not until the 1800 that the united kingdoms were called Spain.

In 1492, the same year that Boabdil of Granada surrendered to the Catholic Monarchs and the Expulsion of some of the Jews from Spain, Christopher Columbus discovered the Americas, inaugurating an age of Spanish colonization of the continent. Notice that the Portuguese colonial expansion, which would give rise to the Portuguese Empire (namely Brazil), had began in 1415.

Modern day peoples of Hispania

Main article: Nationalities in Spain

The modern day people that live in the region of ancient Hispania are the Portuguese, Spanish, Andorra and Gibraltar people only. Historically, the modern country of Spain was formed by the accretion of several independent Iberian kingdoms through dynastic inheritance, conquest and the will of the local elites. These kingdoms had their own personalities and borders.

Since the beginning of the transition to democracy in Spain, after the Francisco Franco dictatorship, there have been many movements towards more autonomy in certain regions of the country in order to achieve full independence in some cases and to get their own autonomous community in others.

Today, it is a fact that there does not exist something as straightforward as just one Castilian-Spanish identity for the whole country. Many Spanish citizens feel no conflict in recognizing their several Spanish identities at the same time.

This section aims to describe the different subcultures that exist today in Spain and that have systematically and historically been forgotten by the Castilian-speaking Spain, to the detriment of the cultural richness of the country.

Aragonese

Main articles: Aragon, Aragonese people, and Aragonese language

The Aragonese are a subculture or nation living in the historical region of Aragon, in northeastern Spain. The original language of the region is Aragonese, although now it is only natively spoken in the northern part of the province of Huesca, in the Pyrenees.

Aranese

Main article: Aranese language

The Valley of Aran (Aranese: Val d'Aran, Catalan: Vall d'Aran) is a small shire (620.47 km²) in the northwestern part of Catalonia. It is the source of the Garonne, and one of the highest valleys of the Pyrenees. Most of the valley constitutes the only Catalan territory on the north face of the Pyrenees, hence the only part of Catalonia whose waters drain into the Atlantic Ocean. The region is characterized by an Atlantic climate, due to its peculiar orientation, which is different from other valleys in the area.

The Valley of Aran has 7,130 inhabitants (as of 1996), which constitute a separate group from the Catalans. About 5,000 of them speak the Aranese language (aranés in Occitan/Gascon/Aranese), a variety of the Pyrenean Gascon (a dialect of the Occitan language). The Aranese is one of the three co-official languages of the Valley of Aran, along with Catalan and Castilian.

Asturians

Main articles: Asturias, Asturian people, Asturian language, and Eonavian

The Asturians are a subculture or nation living in the historical region of the Principality of Asturias, in the north of Spain. The original language of the region is Asturian, as well as Eonavian (transitional to Galician) in the border region with Galicia.

Basques

Main articles: Basque Country (historical territory), Basque people, and Basque language

The US census classifies Spanish Basques as Western European non Hispanic, code 007 (see 2000 US Census ethnicity).

The Territory of the Basque Country (Basque: Euskal Herria, Castilian: País Vasco or Vascongadas) is a cultural region in the western Pyrenees that spans the border between France and Spain, extending down to the coast of the Bay of Biscay. It corresponds more or less with the homeland of the Basque people and language. In Spain, the Basque Country is an autonomous community with the status of historical region, the capital of which is Vitoria-Gasteiz (Vitoria is the Castilian name, while Gasteiz is Basque). It is part of the larger Basque speaking lands mentioned above.

The Basques (Basque: Euskaldunak, Castilian: Vascos) are the people who inhabit the Basque Country. The name Basque derives from Medieval French and ultimately from the ancient tribe of the Vascones, described by Strabo as living south of the western Pyrenees and north of the Ebro River, in modern day Navarre and northern Aragon. This name, of unknown etymology, was extended in late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages to cover all Basque-speaking people on either side of the Pyrenees.

The Basque language is spoken by about 1,000,000 people along the Territory of the Basque Country. It is an isolate language, which means that it is different to any other known language, and it has been spoken by the inhabitants of the region, in any of its present or early variants, for thousands of years.

Canary Islanders

Main articles: Canary Islands, Canarian people, Isleños, and Canarian dialect

The Canarians are a subculture or nation living in the archipelago of the Canary Islands (an autonomous community of Spain), near the coast of Western Africa. The language of the region is the habla canaria (Castilian for Canary speech) or the dialecto canario (Castilian for Canarian dialect), a distinctive dialect of Castilian spoken in the islands.

The islands were conquered by Castilians at the beginnings of the 15th century, who subdued the original Guanche population. After subsequent settlement by Spaniards and other European peoples, mainly Portuguese, the remaining Guanches were gradually absorbed by the settlers and their culture almost totally disappeared.

Historically, large groups of Canary islanders have emigrated and settled all over the New World as early as the 15th century, mainly in Venezuela, Uruguay, Cuba and Puerto Rico, as well as parts of Texas when Texas was still a part of the Spanish Empire. For example, settlers from the Canary Islands founded San Antonio, Texas in 1731, when it was a Spanish colony (see Spanish Texas), one hundred years before the first Anglo-Saxon immigrants arrived to the region, fleeing the religious prosecution in Europe and looking for a better life. Louisiana was also settled by large groups of Canary Islanders, and today, their descendants still live in the region. They are called Isleños (Castilian for Islanders), and they have kept the traditional culture of the Canary Islands and still speak the Canarian dialect.

Castilians

Main articles: Castile (historical region), Castilian people, and Castilian language

Castile is a historical region of Spain that comprises the territories of the former Crown of Castile (the conjunction of the Kingdom of Castile and the Kingdom of León) in the north, and the southern area reconquered from the Moors during the Reconquista. Castile's name is thought to mean land or region of castles, in reference to the castles built in the area.

Because the kingdom of Castile (later Crown of Castile) kept on expanding through most of its history, it's difficult to fix the exact boundaries of the historical region of Castile. For example, the provinces of León, Salamanca and Zamora, which correspond to the former Kingdom of León, may or may not be included (see the Leonese below).

The Castilian people are the inhabitants of the historical region of Castile. Through the Reconquista, their kingdom spread outside the historical region of Castile all over the Iberian Peninsula, reaching the southern Spanish regions of Extremadura, Andalusia, Murcia and the Canary Islands. After this, since the 15th century, through the Spanish colonization of the Americas, the kingdom and its people also spread over the New World, bringing with them not only their language but also traits of their culture, traditions and idiosyncracy.

The Spanish language, often called castellano (Castilian) in Spanish, is the native language of the Castilians. It originated in the Cordillera Cantábrica and the upper Ebro valley, in northern Spain, during the 8th and 9th centuries AD. After the Reconquista, the Castilian was brought to the south and almost entirely replaced the languages that were spoken. However, in this process the Castilian also acquired strong influences from these languages that it gradually absorbed. During the Spanish colonization of the Americas, the Castilain was the dominant language in Spain, and therefore was the language that was transmitted to the New World. Due to this gradual process, the Castilian speaking world was created, and today the Castilian is spoken by about 44,000,000 people in Spain and 412,000,000 people in the rest of the World.

Catalans, Valencians and Balearic Islanders

Main articles: Principality of Catalonia, Land of Valencia, Balearic Islands, La Franja, El Carxe, L'Alguer, Catalan people, and Catalan language

The homeland of the Catalans is Catalonia, or the Principality of Catalonia (Catalan: Catalunya, or Principat de Catalunya), which is a historical region in southern Europe, embracing a territory situated in the north-east of Spain and an adjoining portion of southern France. It is divided between the autonomous communities of Catalonia and Aragon (in a borderland called La Franja) in Spain, and Northern Catalonia in France (due to the Treaty of the Pyrenees of 1659). In addition, there are other adjacent and nearby Mediterranean areas whose inhabitants are sometimes considered Catalans. These areas include: Andorra, a small historical country in the Pyrenees, the Land of Valencia and the Balearic Islands in Spain and the city of L'Alguer in the Italian island of Sardinia due to the Catalan rule of the Mediterranean during the ages of the Crown of Aragon. All these territories make up what is known as the Catalan Countries.

The Catalans are nation native from the former Principality of Catalonia, but sometimes they are considered as being the inhabitants of all the Catalan Countries. An important part of the Catalans from Catalonia refuse to be identified as Hispanic, mainly because they have Catalan as mother tongue instead of Castilian]. However, like the rest of the country, they have also played a crucial role in the development of the History of Spain although they had a very limited role in the Spanish colonization of the Americas until the XVIII century due to the exclusivity given to Castile and Leon to exploit the newly discovered territories as documented in the Testament of Queen Isabella of Castile. Despite this fact, a few Catalans had prominent roles is some expeditions from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego (see, for example, important figures such as Gaspar de Portolà, or pioneer expeditions of Catalan volunteers to the Pacific coast of North America, [4]).

The Catalan is a Romance language, the national language of Andorra, and a co-official language in the autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Land of Valencia (under the name of Valencian) and the Balearic Islands in Spain, and in the city of L'Alguer in the Italian island of Sardinia. It is also spoken, although with no official recognition, in the autonomous communities of Aragon (in La Franja) and Murcia (in El Carxe) in Spain, and in the Northern Catalonia, a historical region in the southern France, which is more or less equivalent to the French Région of the Pyrénées-Orientales. It is spoken by about 10 million people across the Catalan Countries.

Galicians

Main articles: Galiza, Galician people, Galician language, and Eonavian

The Galicians are a subculture or nation living in the historical region of Galicia. The language of the region is the Galician language, as well as the Eonavian (transitional to Asturian) in the border region with Asturias.

Leonese

Main article: Leonese language

In the western part of what today is the autonomous community of Castile and León (the provinces of León, Salamanca and Zamora), which corresponds to the historical land of the former Kingdom of Leon, there are still some people who refuse the annexation of the Leon province with the Castile and León autonomous community, and defend the separation of both regions. The people in this area used to speak Leonese (today a minority ) and some of them refuse to be identified with the Castilian people.

Spanish Empire

Main article: Spanish Empire

During the Spanish colonial period between 1492 to 1898, most people from Spain migrated to new lands they had conquered. The Spaniards brought with them their language, culture and integrated with the society they had settled, creating a large empire that strech all over the world and producing several multiracial populations. Their descendance are found in the following continents and countries that were originally colonized by the Spanish people.

Hispanics in Latin America

Main articles: Spanish colonization of the Americas, Hispanic America, and Latin American culture

White Hispanics and mestizos form the largest ethnic groups in Latin America.

Hispanics in Africa

Equatorial Guinea

Main articles: Spanish Guinea and Equatorial Guinea

The Portuguese explorer, Fernão do Pó, seeking a route to India, is credited with having discovered the island of Bioko in 1472. He named it Formosa (Portuguese for "Beautiful"), but it quickly took on the name of its European discoverer. The islands of Fernando Po and Annobón were colonized by Portugal in 1474. The Portuguese retained control until 1778, when the island, adjacent islets, and commercial rights to the mainland between the Niger and Ogooué Rivers were ceded to Spain in exchange for territory in the American continent (Treaty of El Pardo, between Queen Maria I of Portugal and King Charles III of Spain). From 1827 to 1843, Britain established a base on the island to combat the slave trade. The mainland portion, Río Muni, became a protectorate in 1885 and a colony in 1900. Conflicting claims to the mainland were settled in 1900 by the Treaty of Paris, and periodically, the mainland territories were united administratively under Spanish rule. Between 1926 and 1959 they were united as the colony of Spanish Guinea. In March 1968, under pressure from Equatoguinean nationalists and the United Nations, Spain announced that it would grant independence to Equatorial Guinea. A constitutional convention produced an electoral law and draft constitution. In the presence of a UN observer team, a referendum was held on August 11, 1968, and 63% of the electorate voted in favor of the constitution, which provided for a government with a General Assembly and a Supreme Court with judges appointed by the president. Although there has never been much immigration of Spaniards, a great number of missionaries, explorers, adventurers and entrepreneurs explored and settled the region, and brought the Spanish language, that now is official in the country.

Morocco

Main article: Spanish Morocco

In the former Spanish colony of Morocco, Spanish speakers are present in small numbers, located in the northern coastal region of the country. However the majority of Moroccan people are predominantly muslims of Arab and African ancestry.

Plazas de Soberanía

Main articles: Plazas de Soberanía, Ceuta, Melilla, Islas Chafarinas, Peñón de Alhucemas, and Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera

Since the Reconquista, the Spanish have held numerous emplacements in North Africa. Many of them, such as Oran, have been lost, and nowadays, with an approximate population of 143,000 people, only the Autonomous Cities of Ceuta and Melilla, which constitute the two Plazas de Soberanía Mayores (or Large Places of Sovereignty), and the Islas Chafarinas, the Peñón de Alhucemas and the Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera, which constitute the three Plazas de Soberanía Menores (or Lesser Sovereignty Places), still forming part of the Spain.

Western Sahara

Main article: Spanish Sahara

In the former Spanish colony of Western Sahara, Spanish speakers are present in small numbers, however most people in the country speaks Arabic as their first language and also practise Arab culture.

Hispanics in Asia-Pacific

The Philippines

Main articles: Philippines, History of the Philippines (1521-1898), and Hispanic influence on Filipino culture

Spaniards first arrived in the Philippine Islands with the Spanish expedition around the world led by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan in March 17, 1521. They landed on the island of Cebu, claiming the lands for Spain and naming them Islas de San Lázaro. Over the next several decades, other Spanish expeditions were dispatched to the islands. In 1543, Ruy López de Villalobos led an expedition to the islands and gave the name Las Islas Felipinas, after Philip II of Spain, to the islands of Samar and Leyte. The name would later be given to the entire archipelago. In 1565 an expedition led by Miguel López de Legazpi sailing from New Spain (Mexico) landed in Cebu where the first Spanish settlement was created. López de Legazpi later went on to found Manila in 1571, which later became the capital of the Spanish East Indies.

During the following four centuries the Philippines remained as a part of the Spanish Empire and territory of New Spain. Consequently, the indigenous culture and Languages of the Philippines received influence from Spain and from other parts of the Empire, mainly Mexico. Although the Spanish language was never adopted as the first language by the majority of the population, there is an important group of people composed mainly of Spaniards and Filipino mestizos (who include, among others, Filipinos of Spanish descent and Filipinos of Mexican descent), who speaks it. Spanish was introduced in all her territories including the Philippines. At its peak, the language was spoken by around 10% to 15% of the population by the end of the 19th century. After the Spanish-American War of 1898; colonists from the United States introduced English on the islands. Spanish remained as co-official langauges along with Tagalog and English until 1987, when it lost its status; prompting for the Filipino government to used Tagalog and English as the official languages.

Other Philippine languages including Cebuano were not entirely replaced, but received significant influences from the Spanish language. New languages also originated, such as the Chavacano, a Spanish-based creole language.

In 2007, an article was recently published on August, while president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo visiting Argentina, stated that the Spanish language will return as one of the co-official languages of the Philippines in 2008.

Multiracials in Guam, Mariana Islands and Palau

Main articles: Guam, Mariana Islands, and Palau

In the former Spanish colonies of Guam, Mariana Islands and Palau there are a small minority of people who possesed Spanish ancestry. However, these individuals only form a tiny percentage of the population and they have since integrated with the American way of life. The people living on these islands no longer speaks or practise the Spanish cultural production.

Hispanics in the United States

Main articles: Hispanics in the United States and History of Hispanic people in the United States

The Hispanics in the United States or Hispanic Americans are an ethnic group in the United States with Hispanic heritage. A Hispanic person may be of any race (Amerindian, Mixed-race, white, black, and Asian). Also, a Hispanic person's status is independent from whether one speaks the Spanish language, as not all Hispanic Americans do. As of July 1, 2004, Hispanics accounted for 14.1% of the population, around 41.3 million people. The Hispanic growth rate over the July 1, 2003 to July 1, 2004 period was 3.6% - higher than any other ethnic group in the United States, and in fact more than three times the rate of the nation's total population (at 1.0%). The projected Hispanic population of the United States for July 1, 2050, is of 105.6 million people. According to this projection, Hispanics will constitute 25% of the nation’s total population on that date.

Historically, a continuous Hispanic presence in the territory of the United States has existed since the 16th century, earlier than any other group after the Native Americans. Spaniards pioneered the present-day United States. The first confirmed European landing in the continental was by Juan Ponce de León, who landed in 1513 at a lush shore he christened La Florida. Within three decades of Ponce de León's landing, the Spanish became the first Europeans to reach the Appalachian Mountains, the Mississippi River, the Grand Canyon and the Great Plains. Spanish ships sailed along the East Coast, penetrating to present-day Bangor, Maine, and up the Pacific Coast as far as Oregon. From 1528 to 1536, four castaways from a Spanish expedition, including a "black Moor", journeyed all the way from Florida to the Gulf of California, 267 years before the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

In 1540 Hernando de Soto undertook an extensive exploration of the present US, and in the same year Francisco Vázquez de Coronado led 2,000 Spaniards and Mexican Indians across today's Arizona-Mexico border and traveled as far as central Kansas, close to the exact geographic center of what is now the continental United States. Other Spanish explorers of the US make up a long list that includes, among others: Lucas Vásquez de Ayllón, Pánfilo de Narváez, Sebastián Vizcaíno, Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, Gaspar de Portolà, Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, Tristán de Luna y Arellano and Juan de Oñate. In all, Spaniards probed half of today's lower 48 states before the first English colonization attempt at Roanoke Island in 1585.

The Spanish created the first permanent European settlement in the continental United States, at St. Augustine, Florida, in 1565. Santa Fe, New Mexico also predates Jamestown, Virginia (founded in 1607) and Plymouth Colony (of Mayflower and Pilgrims fame, founded in 1620). Later came Spanish settlements in San Antonio, Tucson, San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco, to name just a few. The Spanish even established a Jesuit mission in Virginia's Chesapeake Bay 37 years before the founding of Jamestown.

Two iconic American stories have Spanish antecedents, too. Almost 80 years before John Smith's alleged rescue by Pocahontas, a man by the name of Juan Ortiz told of his remarkably similar rescue from execution by an Indian girl. Spaniards also held a thanksgiving — 56 years before the famous Pilgrims festival — when they feasted near St. Augustine with Florida Indians, probably on stewed pork and garbanzo beans. As late as 1783, at the end of the American Revolutionary War, Spain held claim to roughly half of today's continental United States; in 1775, Spanish ships even reached Alaska. From 1819 to 1848, the United States and its army increased the nation's area by roughly a third at Spanish and Mexican expense, including three of today's four most populous states: California, Texas and Florida. Hispanics became the first American citizens in the newly acquired Southwest territory and remained a majority in several states until the 20th century. (See also New Spain.)

Hispanic soldiers have fought in all the wars of the United States, and have earned the highest distinction of any US ethnic group.([5], [6], [7], [8], List of Hispanic Medal of Honor recipients) Historic figures in the United States have been Hispanic from early times. Some recent famous people include Rita Hayworth, baseball legends Lefty Gomez and Ted Williams whose mother was Mexican.

About Hispanics

Racial diversity

The racial diversity to be found among Hispanics stems from the fact that Hispanic America has always been, since 1492, an area of immigration until late in the 20th century, when the region has increasingly become an area of emigration. Even outside the broad US definition of Hispanic, the term encompasses a very racially diverse population. While in the United States, Hispanics are often treated as a group apart from whites, blacks or other races, they actually include people who may identify with any or all of those racial groups.

In the mass media as well as popular culture, "Hispanic" is often incorrectly used to describe a subject's race or physical appearance. In general, Hispanics are assumed to have traits such as dark hair and eyes, and tan or brown skin, similar to that of Arabs or the Roma People. Many others are viewed as physically intermediate between whites, blacks and/or Amerindians.

Hispanics with mostly Caucasoid or Negroid features may not be recognized as such in spite of the ethnic and racial diversity of most Latin American populations. Hispanics who do not look like the stereotypical Hispanic may have their ethnic status questioned or even challenged by others. Actors Cameron Diaz and Alfonso Ribeiro, for example, are both Hispanic, even though they may be presumed not to be so because they do not fit the stereotype, the former being white and the latter predominantly black.

A great proportion of Hispanics identify as mestizo (mixed European and Amerindian), regardless of national origin. This is largely because most Hispanics have their origins in majority mestizo Latin American countries. El Salvador and Paraguay are examples of mostly mestizo populations, with 90% of Salvadorans identified as mestizos and over 80% of Paraguayans.

Many individuals identified as "Hispanics" (based on the U.S. definition) are of unmixed Native American ancestry. For example, many of those from Bolivia, Guatemala, Peru—where they constitute a majority or plurality of the population—and a considerable proportion from Mexico.

Many Hispanics born in or with descent from the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Colombia or Cuba may be of African descent, be it mulatto (mixed European and black African), zambo (mixed Amerindian and black African), triracial (specifically European, black African, and Amerindian), Mestizo (mixed Amerindian and European) or unmixed black African.

81% of the Puerto Rican and 65% of the Cuban populations are white, of mostly Spanish origin.

Besides Spaniards of pure European stock, many people from the countries of Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Cuba, Uruguay,Colombia, and many regions in Mexico, are un-mixed European descent. Many of them, though labeled "Hispanic" by the U.S. definition, actually trace their ancestries to European countries other than Spain. Alternate European ancestries in these countries include German, Irish, French, Polish, Welsh, and many others. Nevertheless, in most cases, many do possess some Spanish ancestry, as the waves of European immigrants to these two countries tended to quickly assimilate, intermarrying with the country's local population, which initially was composed primarily of Spanish-descended people: criollos, mestizos, and mulattoes.

The population before the beginning of the immigration waves was only 400,000 persons in Argentina and even less in Uruguay. By the 1910s, half of Buenos Aires population was foreign-born. With immigration , the total population of Argentina rose from 4 million in 1895 to 7.9 million in 1914, and to 15.8 million in 1947; during this time the country was settled by 1.5 million Italians and 1.4 million Spaniards, as well as Poles, Russians, French, Germans, Austrians and Swiss, Portuguese, Ukrainians, Yugoslavians, Czechs, Irish, Dutch, Scandinavians, etc. Argentines and Uruguayans of full or partial Italian ancestry alone account for at least one third of their countries' populations, with up to half of all Argentines today believed to be eligible for Italian passports. Minority groups consist of Native Americans and Asians in Argentina, blacks in Uruguay and people of mixed ancestries. Also, minority groups constitute about 5% of the Argentinian population and 10% of the Uruguayan population.

In the case of Argentina illegal immigration has been a relatively important population factor in recent demographics. Most illegal immigrants come from Bolivia and Paraguay, countries which border Argentina to the north. Smaller numbers arrive from Peru, Ecuador, Romania, and the People's Republic of China. The number of stowaways inside incoming ships from West Africa has increased in recent times. Estimates suggest that over one million people reside in Argentina illegally.

Likewise, a percentage of Hispanics as defined by the U.S. government trace their ancestries to the Middle East, for example Colombians, Ecuadorians, and Mexicans of Lebanese ancestry. Many Hispanics are of East Asian ancestry, as in the case of Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Argentinians, and Panamanians of Chinese ancestry or Peruvians of Japanese ancestry. If they were to migrate to the United States, the definition most frequently advocated would consider them Hispanic. See also: Asian Latin American.

On occasion the demographics of certain nations may not mirror the demographics of their communities in the United States. This is the case with Cuban Americans. Most Cuban Americans are of relatively unmixed Spanish ancestry, despite Cuba being a mulatto/black majority country, according to most estimates. The racial disparity between Cubans on the U.S. mainland and those on the island is caused largely by the fact that most of the emigrants who fled in the early days of communist Cuba belong to the upper and middle classes, classes which have traditionally been predominantly white in that country as in other parts of Latin America and United States.

The presence of these mentioned races and race-mixes are not country-specific, since they can be found in every Latin American country, whether as larger of smaller proportions of their respective populations. Even in Spain, the European motherland of Hispanicity, there is a slowly growing population of mestizos and mulattos due to the reversal of the historic Old World-to-New World migration pattern.

Of the over 35 million Hispanics counted in the Federal 2000 Census, 47.9% identified as white (termed "white Hispanic" by the Census Bureau); 42.2% "Some other race"; 6.3% Two or more races; 2% Black or African American; 1.2% American Indian and Alaska Native; 0.3% Asian; and 0.1% Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander . Note that even among those Hispanics who reported one race only, most would also possess at least some ancestral lineage from one or more other races, despite the fact that only 6.3% reported as such. (This is also applicable to the Non-Hispanics counted in the U.S. Census, although maybe in less proportion.)

A further contribution that contradicts the popular conception of Hispanic as a race, and especially as a race genetically different from white or at least Anglo-Saxons, lies in the recent discoveries by population genetics.

A research team at University of Oxford has found that the majority of Britons share a common genetic heritage with the Iberians who may have come to Britain largely during the Paleolithic and Mesolithic. The proportion of the native population that share Y-chromosome DNA haplogroups with Iberia is 73 percent in Scotland, 64 percent in England, 83 percent in Wales and 89-95 percent in Ireland.

According to one study (Stephens et al. 2001), "From the genetic perspective, Hispanics generally represent a differential mixture of European, Native American, and African ancestry, with the proportionate mix typically depending on country of origin." [9]

In fact, Dr. Bryan Sykes has stated that the genetic fingerprint of the populations tested in the British Isles and Spain is almost identical and Stephen Oppenheimer comes to similar conclusions. Like most of their genetic relatives in Iberia the British adopted Celtic culture and language from south France during the Bronze age. Under the Roman Empire a Romano-British culture developed, which was in turn superseded by the Germanic Anglo-Saxon culture and language in what became England during the Migration Period. Iberia, though, maintained its Roman culture and language. However, because of their common genetic heritage, native Britons and their American descendants still share many of the same genetic markers with Spaniards and many Hispanics.

Nevertheless, the recent development of methodologies for defining population structure using genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphism markers has led a 2006 study of 681 European individuals to conclude that there is a consistent and reproducible distinction between “northern” and “southern” European population groups, strongly suggesting the later Mediterranean (Neolithic) origin of Spaniards, Greeks, Portuguese and Italians. On the other hand, all European populations north of the Alps and the Pyrenees (except for Ashkenazi Jews) seem to fall squarely into the "Northern" population group. [10] Still, the findings of a similar 2007 study claims; "The Spanish and Basque groups are the furthest away from other continental groups, which is consistent with the suggestions that the Iberian peninsula holds the most ancient European genetic ancestry". The same study also found "several significant axes of stratification, most prominently in a North-Southeastern trend but also along an East-West axis." It also said: "there is low apparent diversity in Europe with the entire continent-wide samples only marginally more dispersed than single population samples elsewhere in the world."

The Spanish, like all European populations, have received multiple other influences. The possibility of Neolithic population movements into Iberia from North Africa is also suggested by geneticist Arnaiz-Villena, using HLA and MtDNA markers together with archaeological and linguistic evidence. [11] This could explain the puzzling fact that out of the 19 lineages of Mtdna Haplogroup U6 found in Iberia, only 9 are currently found in North Africa, pointing to a prehistoric (as well as modern) northward expansion into Iberia, probably during the Capsian diffusion. [12]

There exists a number of studies which focus on the genetic impact of the eight centuries of Muslim rule in the Iberian peninsula on the genetic make up of the Iberian population. Recent studies agree that there is a genetic relationship between (particularly southern) Iberia and North Africa as a result of this period of history. Iberia is the only region in Europe with a significant presence of the typically North West African Y-chromosome haplotypes E-M81 [13][14] and Haplotype V [15] as well as the Mtdna Haplotype U6. It is also the region in Europe with the highest frequency of Subsaharan Mtdna haplogroup L, probably as a result of Islamic colonisation as well as the slave trade which flourished in the 16th century. [16] [17] Evidently, the North African element in modern day Iberians' ancestry is minor when compared to the pre-Islamic elements.

The inhabitants of the Canary Islands, hold a gene pool that is halfway between the Iberians and the ancient native population, the Guanches (a proto-berber population), although with a major Iberian contribution. Guanche genetic markers have also been found, at low frequencies, in peninsular Spain, probably as a result of slavery and/or later immigration from the Canary Islands. [18]

The ancestry of Iberians has thus received influences from the many people which have settled on its territory throughout history including Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Punics, Celts, Vandals, Suevi, Visigoths, Alans, Byzantines, Berbers, Arabs, Slavs, Jews and, particularly in Andalusia, the Roma.

Religious diversity

With regard to religious affiliation among Hispanics, Christianity — specifically Roman Catholicism — is usually the first religious tradition that comes to mind. Indeed, the Spaniards took the Roman Catholic faith to Latin America, and Roman Catholicism continues to be the overwhelmingly predominant, but not the only, religious denomination amongst most Hispanics. A small number of Hispanics are also Protestant.

There are also Hispanic Jews, of which most are the descendants of Ashkenazi Jews who migrated from Europe (German Jews, Russian Jews, Polish Jews, etc.) to Latin America, particularly Argentina (Argentina is host to the largest Jewish population in the Western Hemisphere outside of the United States) in the 19th century and during and following World War II. Some Hispanic Jews may also originate from the small communities of reconverted descendants of anusim — those whose Spanish and Portuguese Sephardi Jewish ancestors long ago hid their Jewish ancestry and beliefs in fear of persecution by the Spanish Inquisition and Portuguese Inquisition in the Iberian peninsula and Latin America. There are also the now Catholic-professing descendants of marranos and the Hispano crypto-Jews believed to exist in the once Spanish-held Southwestern United States and scattered through Latin America. Additionally, there are Sephardic Jews who are descendants of those Jews who fled Spain to Turkey, Syria, and North Africa, some of who have now migrated to Latin America, holding on to some Spanish/Sephardic customs, such as the Ladino language. (See also History of the Jews in Latin America and List of Latin American Jews.)

Among the Hispanic Catholics, most communities celebrate their homeland's patron saint, dedicating a day for this purpose with festivals and religious services. Some Hispanics syncretize Roman Catholicism and African or Native American rituals and beliefs. Such is the case of Santería, popular with Cuban Americans and which combines old African beliefs in the form of Roman Catholic saints and rituals. Other syncretistic beliefs include Spiritism and Curanderismo.

While a tiny minority, there are some Hispanic Muslims in Latin America and the US.

In the United States some 70% of U.S. Hispanics report themselves Catholic, and 23% Protestant, with 6% having no affiliation. A minority among the Roman Catholics, about one in five, are charismatics. Among the Protestant, 85% are "Born-again Christians" and belong to Evangelical or Pentecostal churches. Among the smallest groups, less than 4%, are U.S. Hispanic Jews and U.S. Hispanic Muslims. Most U.S. Hispanic Muslims are recent converts.

Music

Main articles: Music of Spain and Latin American music

See also: Music of Portugal

Folk and popular dance and music also varies greatly among Hispanics. For instance, the music from Spain is a lot different from the Hispanic American, although there is a high grade of exchange between both continents. In addition, due to the high national development of the diverse identities of Spain, there is a lot of music in the different languages the Peninsula (Catalan and Basque, mainly). See, for instance, Music of Catalonia or Rock català.

On the other side, Latin America is home to a wide variety of music, instead it's usual to speak about "Latin" music as a single genre. Hispanic Caribbean music tends to favor complex polyrhythms of African origin. Mexican music shows combined influences of mostly Spanish and Native American origin, while traditional Northern Mexican music — norteño and banda — is more influenced by country-and-western music and the polka, brought by Central European settlers to Mexico. The music of Hispanic Americans — such as tejano music — has influences in rock, jazz, R&B, pop, and country music as well as traditional Mexican music such as Mariachi. Meanwhile, native Andean sounds and melodies are the backbone of Peruvian and Bolivian music, but also play a significant role in the popular music of most South American countries and are heavily incorporated into the folk music of Ecuador and Chile and the tunes of Colombia, and again in Chile where they play a fundamental role in the form of the greatly followed nueva canción. In US communities of immigrants from these countries it is common to hear these styles. Latin pop, Rock en Español, Latin hip-hop and Reggaeton styles tend to appeal to the broader Hispanic population, and varieties of Cuban music are popular with many Hispanics of all backgrounds.

Literature

There is a huge variety of literature from US Hispanics and the Hispanic countries. Of the most recognized writers are Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Gabriel García Márquez, Rubén Darío, and Mario Vargas Llosa, Julio Cortázar, Pablo Neruda amongst others.

Cuisine

"Hispanic cuisine" as the term is applied in the Western Hemisphere, is a misnomer. The vast majority of foods in "Latin America" are of Native American origins, and not of Spain. The cuisine of Spain often mirrors the cuisines of its Mediterranean neighbors, and in addition to the abundance of olives, olive oil, tomatoes, seafood and meats, foreign influences, such as the use of saffron, were introduced during the spice trade.

Traditional Mexican, Salvadoran, Cuban, Puerto Rican, Spanish, Argentine, and Peruvian cooking, for example, all vary greatly from each other, and take on new forms in the United States. While Mexican cuisine is the most familiar variety of "Hispanic food" in most of the United States, it is not representative of the cuisine of most other Hispanic peoples, in that it is heavily representative of indigenous ("Indian") foods.

The cuisines of Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and other Central American countries are still heavily dependent and greatly indebted to staples of the cuisine and diet of the Aztec and Maya, including maize, beans, chile peppers. After 1492 these tradition came to be melded with those from Spain to form the modern cuisines of that region. Among the more popular and well known dishes of this region are tacos, enchiladas, tamales, rice and beans, horchata, and pupusas.

Cuban and Puerto Rican cuisines, on the other hand, tend to use a lot of pork and can be heavily dependent on starchy root vegetables, plantain and rice, and the most prominent influences on their Spanish culinary traditions are those which were introduced by African slaves, and to a lesser degree, French influence from Haiti and later Chinese immigrants. Hot, spicy foods are practically unknown in traditional Spanish-Caribbean dishes. The cuisine of Haiti, a Latin American country (however not Hispanic majority), is very similar to its regional neighbors in terms of influences and ingredients used.

The Argentine diet is heavily influenced by Argentina's position as one of the world's largest beef and wine producers. Grilled meats are a staple of most meals as are pastas, potatoes, rice, and a variety of vegetables (Argentina is a huge exporter of agricultural products). As one of the world's largest producers, wine is as much a staple drink to Argentines as beer is to Germans.

In Ecuador and Peru, potato dishes are typical since the potato is originally from this region. Beef and chicken are common sources of meat as is the cuy, a South American relative of the guinea pig. Given the coastal location, both countries have extensive fishing fleets, which provide a wealth of seafood options, including the signature South American dish, ceviche. Rice also plays an important role in Peruvian cuisine.

This diversity in staples and cuisine is also evident in the differing regional cuisines within the national borders of the individual countries. Most groceries in heavily Hispanic areas carry a wide array of specialty Latin American products, in addition to the widely available brands of tortillas and Mexican style salsa.

Symbols

Flag

Flag of Hispanic Heritage. Motto: Justicia, Paz, Unión y Fraternidad ("Justice, Peace, Union and Fraternity").

While relatively unknown, there is a flag representing the countries of Hispanic America, its people, history and shared cultural legacy.

It was created in October of 1933 by Ángel Camblor, captain of the Uruguayan army. It was adopted by all the states of Latin America during La Conferencia Panamericana (The Pan-American Conference) held that same year in Montevideo, Uruguay.

The white background stands for peace, the Inti sun god in Inca mythology symbolizes the light shining on the American continent, and the three crosses represent Christopher Columbus' caravels, the Niña, Pinta, and Santa María used in his first voyage from Spain to the New World in 1492. The lilac color of the crosses evokes the Castilian banner.

National Hispanic Heritage Month

The National Hispanic Heritage Month is celebrated in the USA from September 15 to October 15.

References

• De la Garza, Rodolfo O., and Louis Desipio. Ethnic Ironies: Latino Politics in the 1992 Elections (1996)
• What is a Hispanic? Legal Definition vs. Racist Definition.Montalban-Anderssen. (1996)

See also

• Spanish Empire
• Spanish language
• Hispanophone
• Hispanic culture
• Nationalities of Spain
• Languages of Spain
• Latino
• Spic
• Spaniard
• Spain
• Iberian
• Ibero-America
• Hispania
• White Hispanic
• Criollo
• Spanish in the United States
• Cuban-American lobby
• Hispanic cultural legacy in the Philippines
• Famous Hispanic Americans
• List of United States cities with a majority Hispanic population
• Isleños
• Ethnic cleansing
• Aztec
• Maya civilization
• Maya peoples
• Inca
• Indigenous peoples
• Hispanic Paradox

External links

• Testament of Isabella of Castile
• Immigration, Hispanics and the curse of the Black Legend
• Hispanic Americans in the U.S. Army
• Famous Hispanics
• Hispanic Community in U.S. - Stats and Facts.
• Mexica Movement Indigenous rights and education organization that aggressively challenges the application of the Hispanic label toward people of Mexican and Central American descent. The groups states that the US government's usage of the term "Hispanic" is a top-down method of ethnically cleansing their indigenous identities.
• PBS 'A Cultural Identity' Examines the creation of the Hispanic label by Richard Nixon.
• Los Angeles Times 'A Look Beyond The Label' Newspaper editorial criticizing the usage of the terms "Hispanic" and "Latino" as being oversimplifications of what is essentially a Mexican-dominant group, not all being Spanish speakers.
• Separated by a Common Language: The Strange Case of the White Hispanic A White Argentine questions the application of the Hispanic label to non-white Spanish speakers.
• The History of Immigration
• U.S. Hispanic Market in 2010
• Hispanic Business magazine
• Hispanic Genealogy
• Hispanic Heritage Foundation
• Association of Hispanic Arts (AHA)
• HispanicTips.com Best Hispanc News Website - Blogante News For & About Hispanics & Latinos
• Hispanic Online Market
• Hispanic Market in the U.S.
• Marketing to US Hispanics and Latin America Conference
• Parchepinga - Non profit hispanic virtual community from Arizona
• HispanicSMB.com - Hispanic Business Portal
• Politicos Latinos Website listing the USA's major Latino/Hispanic Politicians
• Diario Las Americas Website for Miami's Original Hispanic Daily Newspaper
• Hispanic Digital Network The Nation's First Internet Advertising Network of U.S. Hispanic Newspapers, Magazines and Media Portals
• Hispanic PR Wire Leading News Distribution Service Reaching U.S. Hispanic Media and Opinion Leaders