A
Hispanic is a person who de-
scends from one of the world’s
Spanish-speaking peoples. Be-
hind that simple definition lies the com-
plex history that created the world’s
Spanish-speaking peoples: a history of
migration, empire-building, cultural and
ethnic blending, conflict, and change.
The complexity of that history may be
glimpsed in the difficulty of defining
exactly where Hispanic America is and
who is a Hispanic American.
The term “Hispanic America” is
most often used to refer to the 18
Western Hemisphere countries that were
once colonies of Spain and in which
Spanish is still the predominant language:
Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador,
Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica,
Panama, Cuba, the Dominican Republic,
Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru,
Bolivia, Paraguay, Argentina, Uruguay,
and Chile. These countries, also called
Spanish America or Spanish-speaking
America, are part of the broader region of
Latin America, which comprises all those
American nations and territories where
the predominant language is derived from
Latin. Spanish is one of those languages,
as is Portuguese, which is spoken in
Brazil, and French, which is spoken in
Haiti, Martinique, and French Guiana.
Sometimes “Hispanic America” is
used more broadly to mean any part of
the Americas where Hispanics live in
large numbers, including parts of the
United States. Sometimes it refers exclu-
sively to the community of Hispanics in
the United States. Similarly, depending
on the context, a Hispanic American may
be a resident of one of the Western
Hemisphere’s Spanish-speaking countries
or a Hispanic who lives in the United
States.
This book generally uses the term
“Hispanic Americans” in the restricted
sense of Hispanics living in the United
States. There is good reason for all
Americans to learn more about this eth-
nic group, since it currently includes 35.
million people, or 12.5 percent of the
U.S. population. During the 1990s,Hispanics surpassed non-Hispanic
African Americans to become the coun-
try’s largest minority group, and they are
expected to account for one-quarter of
the population by 2055. Yet it is not pos-
sible to tell the story of these Hispanic
Americans without telling about Hispanic
America in the largest possible sense: the
community spanning the Western
Hemisphere that owes at least part of its
heritage to Spain.
Besides the Spanish legacy, there are
two other major parts of the Hispanic
American heritage: the Native American
and African components. Most, though
not all, Hispanic Americans have a mix of
Spanish and Native American genes;
some also have African genes. Therefore,
Hispanic-American culture blends
Spanish, Native American, and African
traditions. Puerto Rican historian Arturo
Morales Carrión has gone so far as to say,
“A simple definition of the Hispanic
could be: a person with a willingness to
mix and therefore a person with a dispo-
sition to create new types of human rela-
tionships and new types of cultural
forms....”
The result of all this biological and
cultural blending is not a homogeneous
mass, but a diverse collection of societies
and nations. Indeed, devotion to local
traditions is as much a feature of Hispanic
culture as is a willingness to mix. This is
not surprising, since both features are
characteristic of Spain itself, which from
antiquity has been marked by the blend-
ing of peoples and by separation into dis-
tinct regions. Hispanics coming to the
United States for the first time are unlike-
ly to identify themselves first as
“Hispanic”; more likely, they will consid-
er themselves Cuban, Mexican, or
Colombian.
Just as there is no single Hispanic
culture, there is no single Hispanic race.
Hispanics may be white, black, Native
American, or any mix thereof. That is
why the U.S. Census Bureau notes in its
documents that “persons of Hispanic
origin may be of any race.” Although
many non-Hispanic Americans persistINTRODUCTION
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