“Hispanic is not a race , it’s a culture.”
“Tell the U.S. government”
— Hispanic or Latino. A person of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin, regardless of race. The term, “Spanish origin,” can be used in addition to “Hispanic or Latino.”
http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/fedreg/1997standards.html
Sure and in “check this box” parts of SS applications and other government-related or mandated questionnaires, there is “race/ethnicity”: white, black, Hispanic, Pacific Islander, Native American, etc. Virtually none of these is really a definable category that uses the same characteristics as the others. So “white” includes a multiplicity of nationalities (many of which were described as distinct races a hundred years ago) and languages. Hispanic can refer to lots of “races” but to be believable, you’d better have a last name that is obviously “Hispanic” (If your last name is Hachett, you’re black, you grew up speaking English, and you’re from the Samana region of the Dominican Republic, good luck in being considered Hispanic, even though your ancestors have been there for over a hundred years). Pacific Islander sounds geographical but if you were merely born there to white parents who were missionaries, you really wouldn’t be a Pacific Islander in the sense that the government is thinking. The category “black” makes no distinction between American blacks, Latin American blacks, and African blacks. The term African-American ignores everyone of African origin who is not black. It’s just a mish-mash of terms that are used solely for political convenience and advantage.