Tuesday, August 26, 2003
No Pleasing Some People
Yesterday’s Washington Post devoted part of page one to ”Latinos or Hispanics? A Debate About Identity”. A sample:
A clerk innocently used a word to describe a section of books that made [Sandra] Cisneros's skin crawl. "She used the word Hispanic," Cisneros said, her voice dripping with indignation. "I wanted to ask her, 'Why are you using that word?'
"People who use that word don't know why they're using it," said Cisneros, a Mexican American poet and novelist. "To me, it's like a slave name. I'm a Latina." ...
Another Mexican American writer, Luis J. Rodriguez, only reluctantly accepted an award from a Hispanic organization "because I'm not Hispanic," he said.
The Post, correctly, states that “the term Hispanic was given prominence by the Nixon administration more than 30 years ago.” But there is more to that story.
The Nixon Administration’s originally referred to the “Spanish-speaking” (as in its “Cabinet Committee on Spanish-Speaking People"). Since a good many Hispanic Americans, then or now, speak little or no Spanish, the “Spanish Speaking” became “Hispanic” and a new interest group was born.
Given this new controversy, perhaps the federal government will opt for a new descriptive term. How about “Americans”?
|posted by Jim on 6:31 PM|
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