Spanish Labels

There are many terms that are used in the U.S. to categorize people from Spanish speaking countries, with the difference in many of them being the scope of the people that they describe. This difference in scope can often cause people to mislabel others. Some labels, such as latino and hispanic, have minors difference in their definition and can pretty much be used as if they were synonymous. Other terms, such as hispanic and Mexican, are often used interchangeably even though they don’t have the same meaning; all Mexicans are hispanic, however not all hispanics are Mexican. Out of these 2 terms, Mexican describes a more specific population. The U.S. is so close to Mexico, and historically, most of the hispanics in the U.S. were from Mexico; this is probably one of the reasons why people in this country commonly use the term Mexican to describe a hispanic person. Although Mexicans still make up the majority today, the hispanic population originating from other countries is growing significantly in the United States, and as a result, the odds of mislabeling someone as Mexican is increasing. Although I do commonly hear people use the term Mexican, in my experience, the term I hear the most to describe people with Spanish heritage is hispanic. I think this is due to the fact that the term “Hispanic” is the most encompassing of the terms, and includes all people from Spanish speaking countries. At a glance, it may be hard to tell specifically where someone is from. That is why most people use this term, so they do not accidentally mislabel someone, and I find that this may be the best term to use unless the specific background of a person is known. Although many people may have trouble properly labeling people of Spanish decent, I have seen that society tries to be encompassing.