Latino
There is a lot of confusion around this word so let's break it down.
1) A lot of sources well tell you a Latino is someone who is a native speaker of a Romance language. But no ones uses this word this way. You'll just look foolish doing it. You would be better off saying "Romance peoples" or "Romance speakers".
2) More narrowly it can mean anyone from Latin America, hence White and Black "Latinos". But you would better off just called them "Latin Americans".
3) The most common sense however is a racial group, or set of related ethno-racial groups found throughout Latin America which (and I was surprised to find this out) are all mixed race between white and Amerindians. The less ambiguous name for them is "Mestizo". Really, they're the same.
1) A lot of sources well tell you a Latino is someone who is a native speaker of a Romance language. But no ones uses this word this way. You'll just look foolish doing it. You would be better off saying "Romance peoples" or "Romance speakers".
2) More narrowly it can mean anyone from Latin America, hence White and Black "Latinos". But you would better off just called them "Latin Americans".
3) The most common sense however is a racial group, or set of related ethno-racial groups found throughout Latin America which (and I was surprised to find this out) are all mixed race between white and Amerindians. The less ambiguous name for them is "Mestizo". Really, they're the same.
Latino by ApricotFields May 21, 2019
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