I just had this explained to me recently. The woman doing the explaining was born in America, but her parents weren't, though they became American citizens, she is around my age. Can't remember which country her parents came to the US from, but she was specific in not being referred to as a Latina, which apparently is an insult...at least to her.
Hispanics are those who are descended from Spain(ish) ancestry.
Latinos are from Latin America, and Mexicans are lumped into this group.
Cubans are in a class all of their own...they are Cuban or Cubano/Cubana. (I had Spanish profs in college that escaped Castro and Cuba, those that did, apparently will always be "Cuban".)
Near as I can figure out, if the family went to the Caribbean from Spain...that makes one a Hispanic. If they went on over to Mexico, they are then Mexican or Latino.
I'm still confused.
This is how it was explained to me by my Cuban friend, who fled the island in 1980.......
Spaniards are Caucasians, and most of them (unless they have some Moor in their ancestry) are as white as white Americans, brown hair, and predominantly green eyes. Cubans are also Spaniards, as most of them are direct descendants of immigrant families from Spain when Cuba was a Spanish colony. Cubans also speak castillian Spanish, which is essentially the same language spoken in Spain with minor colloquial variations.
Mexicans and Central Americans are a mixture of Spanish and local Indians that were present when the conquistadors conquered the area, and are ALL of mixed race. Spaniards and Cubans consider them Latino, and they are generally looked down upon (by those of direct Spanish descent) as "mongrels". The Spanish spoken in Mexico and Central America is a blend of castillian Spanish and local indigenous languages, and some of it is not even comprehensible to a castillian Spanish speaker.
There is a third category, which are peoples that are of Spanish descent, mixed with Caribbean blacks and indigenous Island people, that were brought to the islands during slave times.....some of these also migrated to Central America, Puerto Rico, and what is now the Dominican Republic, and are sometimes referred to as "mephista", or other designations, but are also lumped in with Latinos.
According to him, the phrase "hispanic" is essentially a made-up, "politically correct" term that was invented here in the US, and has no meaning to people of Spanish descent, where ever they might come from.
His explanation, not mine, but at least historically, it tends to make sense........
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