Hispanic Americans

Hispanic or Latino Americans are a diverse group who have in common their ancestral origins in Spain or Portugal and especially their self-identification with the Hispanic or Latino label. “Latino” specifically indicates someone whose Spanish or Portuguese ancestry comes via Latin America, though in practice the terms Hispanic and Latino tend to be interchangeable. Latin America, a term coined in the 19th century by the Pan-Latinism movement, refers to the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries of the Americas (that is, Ibero-America). In American usage it includes the Dutch-speaking Netherlands Antilles, Aruba, and Suriname; French-speaking Haiti, Guadeloupe, Martinique, and French Guiana; and English-speaking Belize, Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Antigua [Page 440]and Barbuda, St. Lucia, Dominica, Grenada, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and the Bahamas. The American usage emphasizes the cultural and historical similarities in the region.

Hispanic Americans and other supporters demonstrate at Lafayette Park in Washington, D.C., for immigration reform, May 2, 2010. Leaders were arrested for a sit-in at the railings in front of the White House in an act of civil disobedience. Implicit or explicit systems of reciprocity in the immigrant community—usually intended as a form of mutual assistance—is also a frequent barrier in criminal investigations and prosecutions, as individuals in the Hispanic community may be unwilling to “snitch” on community members.

Hispanic American culture is influenced not only by a common cultural heritage but also by similar experiences in the United States, including the language and cultural fluency challenges faced by immigrants; the anti-Catholic, anti-Hispanic, and anti-immigrant sentiments encountered by Hispanic groups; and other factors. These common elements of the Hispanic experience have led to similar phenomena related to deception and lying throughout Hispanic American culture.

Hispanic Americans constitute about 16 percent of the American population, forming the second-largest ethnic group after non-Hispanic whites, and are growing at the fastest rate. Hispanicness is an ethnic identity which is usually held in addition to, not instead of, a more specific identity, such as Mexican American (more than half of Hispanic Americans), Cuban American, Puerto Rican, Dominican American, Colombian American, or Salvadoran American, and so the category is ethnically as well as racially diverse. Only a small minority of Hispanic Americans are descended from Spanish immigrants to the United States; in fact, some actually have no Spanish ancestry at all.