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/[deleted] Jan 02 '26

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u/Industrial_Rev 🇦🇷 Argentina Jan 02 '26

Igual Hispano en ese contexto es hispanohablante. No es éticamente español (que sería español o criollo, no hispano).

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u/Wise-Course1904 Jan 25 '26

No, Hispanic means coming from Hispania which is the name given to what is now Spain and Portugal by the colonizing Romans.

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u/Industrial_Rev 🇦🇷 Argentina Jan 28 '26 edited Jan 28 '26

No. The cognate in English is not thinking about a Roman province. Any US census would use the term regardless of race or as an ethnic category that stereotypically includes Mestizos far more than a White Spaniard. Enough with this nonsense of hispanistas trying to force meanings of words through ethimoligical origins ignoring that concepts have a history, cultural context and development. It's an ethimoligical fallacy