... why there is even such a category as "Hispanic."
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/06/23/census.race.questions/index.htmlErrors in census interviews misinterpret racial, ethnic identity
By Liane Membis, CNN
June 25, 2010 3:14 p.m. EDT
Race and ethnicity questions, which are required to be filled out on the census, were improperly completed by some Census workers.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
* Seventy-one census workers did not follow procedures for follow-up
* Assumptions were made about respondents' race and ethnicity
* Recommendations will improve door-to-door techniques
(CNN) -- For the past eight weeks, census workers have been knocking on doors and ringing bells all across America -- but in some cases, they've been nixing questions about race and ethnicity, says a new government report.
According to a recent report by the U.S. Commerce Department Office of the Inspector General, 71 out of 480 observed census workers failed to follow procedures when conducting face-to-face census gathering. The Census Bureau hired more than 600,000 temporary employees to visit homes and conduct in-person interviews of individuals who did not mail their census forms.
...
The true "Hispanics" are descendants of the Spanish conquistadors. And "Hispanic" includes people from Spain and Portugal, as well as from South America. But Spain is a European country and, as far as I know, the Spanish are ethnically not really different from the French and the Italians.
So what, exactly, is "Hispanic" and why is it a separate category from "White"? (And, by the way, what ever happened to "Caucasian"?) My wife is a Latina, and she certainly thinks of herself as "white" and "Caucasian." She is from a South American country, and she is very proud of the fact that her family traces its heritage back to the Spanish. She doesn't particularly like being lumped in with a bunch of indigenous Americans, Cubanos (whom she doesn't like much), and Puerto Ricans (whom she likes even less).