Hispanic

• This term is used to denote the culture and people of countries formerly ruled by the Spanish Empire, usually with a majority of the population speaking the Spanish language.
• Collectively known as Hispanic America, this definition includes Mexico, the majority of the Central and South American countries, and most of the Greater Antilles.
• The nations formerly pertaining to the Spanish East Indies are sometimes loosely included in this definition, as their cultures have some Spanish or Latin American elements.
• It was first adopted by the United States government during the administration of Richard Nixon
• It has been used in the U.S. Census since 1980.Hispanic is used more often in states such as Florida and Texas

Latino

• Latino (derived from Latino Americano) refers specifically to people living in the US of Latin American nationality and their US-born descendants. Latin America refers to countries in South America and North America (including Central America and the islands of the Caribbean) whose inhabitants mostly speak Romance languages, although Native American languages are also spoken there.
• The term Latino is restricted to immigrants and their descendants from either Spanish, French, Italian, Romanian or Portuguese speaking countries in North, Central and South America, and it includes the French-speaking areas of Haiti, French Guiana, French speaking Canada and the French West Indies.
• The term was brought into use because the Nixon administration could not fit the racially mixed North, Central and South Americans into an established race group since they are mostly mestizo and mulato (white european mixed with black slaves and local Indian/Native tribes). Mestizo and Mulato was considered inferior to White and they knew most people would not identify with the labels, so Hispanic and Latino labels were selected for use. Since the late 90's Hispanic/Latino labels were questioned and forced the Census to put a disclaimer that Hispanic or Latino were ethnic and not racial terms which unfortunately is not the case. Both government, law enforcement and the media utilize the terms when describing people (i.e. one of the suspects was a white male while the other was a hispanic male....) in their broadcasts.
• The government adopted this term in 1997, and it was used in the 2000 census.
• Latino is used more often on the West Coast and especially California.
• Over 70% of Mexicans are mestizo, while Argentina has the least percentage of mixed race people.
• Since ethnicity cannot be correctly identified by the Hispanic/Latino labels due to the wide difference in variety of cultural groups within North, Central and South America, and the Caribean (including customs, foods, traditions and music styles) most people deriving from those areas are realizing that those labels are racial and that the only label that accurately represents their ethnicity is their nationality which immediately identifies their cultural, traditions, foods, music etc. (i.e. Colombian, Peruvian, Guatemalan, etc.). For example, the term Hispanic Food basically really means Mexican food and does not provide an accurate glimpse of the different types of food available and ethnic to the vast region of the Americas and the Caribean.