Sorry this is so late, I've been meaning to answer this and it slipped through the cracks!
Anyway, I know what you are saying about the Census categories, I recently visited an exhibit about Race at the National Museum of Natural History that talked about that, and I was kind of outraged then too about the fact that (at least the most recent census form) singles out Spanish people as a separate racial/ethnic category, but not any other European people (I didn't know at one time French and such had to mark "Latino" as well)...because it just doesn't make any sense to me. Like, racially speaking a good portion of Spanish people are as "white" as many in the British isles...though all that category stuff is so muddled and messed up.
Basically, I know why she might have said that, but just speaking as someone who has lived in Spain in the past, I know that Spanish=/=Latino culture (though obviously there are many parallels thanks to colonization), since there was plenty of indigenous influence and all the baggage of the colonization, etc. So I find it kind of confusing/weird to group them all together like that...
EDIT: Oh and as far as your Spanish part do you know where in Spain that heritage is from, by any chance? :) (Sorry I'm just always interested in all things Spain!)
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branchandroot
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Date: 2011-08-19 03:34 am (UTC)Anyway, I know what you are saying about the Census categories, I recently visited an exhibit about Race at the National Museum of Natural History that talked about that, and I was kind of outraged then too about the fact that (at least the most recent census form) singles out Spanish people as a separate racial/ethnic category, but not any other European people (I didn't know at one time French and such had to mark "Latino" as well)...because it just doesn't make any sense to me. Like, racially speaking a good portion of Spanish people are as "white" as many in the British isles...though all that category stuff is so muddled and messed up.
Basically, I know why she might have said that, but just speaking as someone who has lived in Spain in the past, I know that Spanish=/=Latino culture (though obviously there are many parallels thanks to colonization), since there was plenty of indigenous influence and all the baggage of the colonization, etc. So I find it kind of confusing/weird to group them all together like that...
EDIT: Oh and as far as your Spanish part do you know where in Spain that heritage is from, by any chance? :) (Sorry I'm just always interested in all things Spain!)