Elenamary

(For simplicity’s sake, I’m defaulting to -o endings (e.g., Chicano) here. I’m just too lazy to deal with two genders and the possibilities of plurals tonight).

My use of the term “Latin American” (as an adjective, not as a noun) tends to correlate with your use of Latino. I’m not entirely sure why, but I think it has to do with the idea that no matter what a person’s ethnicity, place of birth, or linguistic ability, by residing in and contributing to US society, they have developed some degree of American (i.e., US-related) identity.

Or maybe the best way of putting it is this: the lack of the suffix “American” implies, to me, that the group aren’t as assimilated, or accepting of their identity as US citizens/residents, or are more ambivalent about being equally powerful/productive/responsible/willing (take your pick or supply your own) members of society. I think “Latin American” does the best job of balancing a person’s ethnic heritage with their development (whatever that is, and how it came about) as a member of US society.

That said, I’m not entirely comfortable with the use of Latin American, either, and have occasionally used the term “Hispanic”. I don’t use it a lot, because I share your sense that it’s problematic to focus on the colonizer. But, like you, I derive the etymology of Latin/Latino to include Romance languages, and am uneasy about including people of Italian, French and (especially) Romanian linguistic history under that umbrella. (And, for that matter, that’s only the Latinic branch of Romance languages.) For all its many problems, at least “Hispanic” can definitively point to someone whose cultural/national history is somehow tied to Spain. (Of course, this neglects Portugal, and thus Portuguese history in Brazil. But, like I said, the term has many problems.)

I don’t know how valid these observations are in a post about identity, since my family’s ethnic history is derived in its entirety in Southeast Asia, and my only tangential relationships to this are coursework in Development Studies and near-fluency in Spanish. But, possibly, they’re worth something, and they’ll get the ball rolling. Also, apologies if this is all drivel; it’s late in my neck of the woods.

If you use Latin American for Latinos, what do you use for people from Latin America in Latin America?

chicano y que. tambien mexicano (technically i am), tejano, mexican-american, and raza.

I’m in Texas. I embraced chicano in college. I let others call me mostly anything, but I will not refer to myself as Hispanic. I find it an oppressive term.

I typically refer to the specific nationalities (e.g. Peruvian) or ethnicities (e.g., Quechua) of the parties involved, if I know them. If I don’t… well, I don’t have a set strategy I follow in that circumstance; I mostly wing it.

That’s in English, at least. I find myself using the phrase “personas de America Latina” (o Latinamerica, si siento vaga) a lot in Spanish.

Soy pecoso.

But in all seriousness, if I know absolutely nothing about my father, then I have no idea how I ’should’ identify myself.