The vast majority of "Hispanics" in the USA are mestizo, not European. That is European-AmerIndian admixture. An increasing percentage of immigrants from Mexico and Central America are almost pure AmerIndian, many don't even speak Spanish.
The term "Latino" seems more broadly descriptive.
“The vast majority of “Hispanics” in the USA are mestizo, not European. That is European-AmerIndian admixture. An increasing percentage of immigrants from Mexico and Central America are almost pure AmerIndian, many don’t even speak Spanish.
The term “Latino” seems more broadly descriptive.”
In some ways, it’s almost as if we were watching evolution in action (and not in slow-motion, either).
We are literally seeing the emergence of a new “sub-race” of people, who have similar physical characteristics, and (most importantly) who regard -themselves- as being a separate and distinctive “racial group” — hence, “La Raza”.
Most do not consider themselves to be “gringos” or “Anglos”. They consider themselves to be -something else-. Thus, “Hispanics” or “Latinos”. Not Indian, not black, not white. Their own, and new, group.
The “European-AmerIndian admixture” simply didn’t exist prior to the arrival of Europeans to the New World. Yet this -new- ethnic/racial group clearly exists today. It has literally “sprung up by itself” within the time frame of, say, 550 years. A drop of water in the “evolutionary ocean”, and all the more remarkable for having emerged in so short a time frame.