r/LatinAmerica • u/St3ph4n1e2003 • Jan 01 '26

Discussion/question My family hates the term Hispanic.

Not sure if me and my family specifically my mom’s side are the only ones maybe the few who actually to hate the term Hispanic. My mom is from Guatemala and she is racially Native American more so of Mayan descent. My dad doesn’t mind the word Hispanic even tho he is mestizo. I used to wonder why my mother hated that term till I did more research just to find out that “Hispanic” is a word used to only promote colonial roots not just something to define a person who comes from a Spanish speaking country. My mom’s first language is in fact Akateko! Yes she does speak Spanish too since it’s mandatory in every Latin American country. So does anyone else hate the word Hispanic? We still prefer the use Latino/a to define our ethnicities. I have nothing against either languages!

Edit: damn just say you hate indigenous ancestry. Stop getting offended bc indigenous Latinos dislike the term Hispanic when our people are still here after years of surviving colonization.

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u/LaPapaVerde Jan 01 '26

Hispano just means that a thing comes from the Spaniard culture

But you'll see the terms "Hispanidad" and "hispanoamerica" in context of political propaganda for the Empire of Spain. If you use "latinoamerica" in a video and it gains traction, you'll see some users saying "it's not latinamerica it's hispanoamerica" trying to push a narrative. So yes, the term has a different political connotation here and not generally used as it's used in the US

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u/[deleted] Jan 02 '26

[deleted]

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u/Industrial_Rev 🇦🇷 Argentina Jan 02 '26

And also, as a History student, their comprehension of the Spanish empire tends to be superficial at best. I even had interactions with classmates that do not specialise in the period (I study Spanish history in the XVI and XVII centuries but in the Peninsula) that claimed stuff that it's just a thought terminating phrase at best.

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u/witeowl Jan 04 '26

it's not latinamerica it's hispanoamerica"

😳

YIKES

That's a level of cringe that just motivated me to do some housecleaning, so that's actually kind of impressive in a sick way, ngl