Hispanic-an ancient adjective and noun-was mainstreamed as a political label in the
United States in the early 1970'
s. The purpose for the introduction of such an ancient adjective by the Nixon administration was ostensibly to create a political label solely for the purpose of applying the constitutional anti-discrimination standard of “strict scrutiny” to anyone who was labeled Hispanic. The label had the immediate effect of linking the entire population of the 19 nations that comprise Latin
America, as well as, distinguishing the "Hispanic" colonial heritage of Latin
American Countries from the "Anglo Saxon" colonial heritage of the
United States.
Before the colonization of the Americas, a person had to be solely from Hispania-Spain and Portugal together- in order to be called Hispanic. Today, Hispania has
21 progenies: two in Europe (Spain and Portugal), and nineteen in the Americas (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, The Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Uruguay, and Venezuela).
But there is more to think about:
America is a country where one would not consider mislabeling a Scotsman an Irishman, for such would be an insult to the Scotsman, and visa versa; where one would not describe Canadian culture as being the same as Australian culture because such would be an insult to Canadians and visa versa. Yet, sadly,
America is also a country where schools are educating the masses into believing that all people who immigrate or descend from the twenty-one distinctly different progenies of Hispania are: culturally alike, vote as a group, dance salsa, speak Spanish or Portuguese, can't cut it in the schools, work in menial jobs, join gangs, get
aids, look alike, think alike, prefer to be separated from “Anglo”
America, and have no heritage other than what is being accomplished in the
USA by anyone politically labeled Hispanic.
America is a country where Hispanic heritage month no longer honors Hispania's progenies as unique, various and sundry cultures.
America is a country where Hispanic heritage month is politically misused for the purpose of pressuring everyone labeled Hispanic into accepting that an attribute applied to anyone labeled Hispanic is an attribute applied to everyone labeled Hispanic, regardless of their different national heritage, and their different cultural backgrounds.
America is a country where the political label Hispanic is being used to camouflage one key fact, and that is that 66.9 percent (as of the 2002) of those labeled Hispanic in the
United States do not represent the twenty-one progenies of Hispania, but rather only one progeny-Mexico.
